Charlie, you sound like a pervert

Subject: You freak

It seems like you want Blu-Ray to lose because it won't do porn. You sound like a pervert. People will always have the freedom of the internet to complain about sony (which I do, and I've written to their attention more than once) so don't act like you don't have a voice. If they are doing it for morals, then good for them. You need Jesus.

Kermitdfrogz

Subject: Everywhere Girl is "narcissistic and self-centered", says CNN

Something tells me she does'nt give a toss.

Siggir

Subject: Windows Activation

Hi All,

maybe you'd like to ask Microsoft what happens when they EOL Win-XP .... in terms of whether an old XP-CD ( original Microsoft of course ) when installed ( in 2009/2010 for example ) on a new or upgraded machine can still be activated ?

i.e. if Microsoft stop "support" at EOL, does this mean that activation won't work any more ?

Cheers
Phil

PS: If so .. then Suse or Ubuntu Linux is next on my list. i.e. Never again Microsoft Win-Anything ! ( .. and even after ALL the money I've paid to Microsoft since DOS 1.0 )

Subject: Crash while man using laptop article

Do you guys get paid based on how quickly you knock out these articles? The CBS article said the guy was a computer tutor, not a computer teacher (teacher implies that the guy worked in a school) and you describe the "Hummer" as if it's some alien technology that you've never heard of. It's a massive SUV that runs on ego and the souls of the damned, but I bet you already know that.

orb

Subject: Seamonkey

Seamonkey rocks! It is solid, fast, all in one and I love the inline spell-check in mutliple languages.

I gave up the fox just for the spell-check!!!

Cheers,
mirko

Subject: Borked

Many times I have had the pleasure of translating your prose in to some thing my Canadian and American friends can comprehend.

But Borked was a step to far so I was forced to look it up, imagine my surprise to find it relates to interfering with a public servant rather than an thing to do with a MoBo:-)

Viv

Fernando suggests: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=borked

Subject: Refurbed PCs

I am amazed they can sell old PCs. I clean up old PC's and pass them on to anyone that wants one for free, but I find very few people will settle for an old machine. Even for free.

Thanks for a well written report.

A.W.

Subject: The real reason Al Gore hasn't greened his house

I am a Canadian, and like our American Broth.... Cousins, we have a problem when it comes to energy conservation.

No, I'm not referring to the fact that we're the worst offenders on the planet, I'm referring to the underlying reason it hasn't changed!

Simply put, it's cheaper to not bother! Our local hardware/gardenware/green energy store 'Canadian Tire' has a handy utility where you can calculate out how long it takes to get return on investment from a solar setup they will be happy to sell you. In short, it would take over 20 years to make back your money in energy savings, assuming nothing breaks, and NOT adjusting for inflation! The long and short of it is, until there is a financial climate, or tax incentive that makes going green save you money, it won't be done by very many.

Aiden Morrison

Subject: Mikey geezer on BBCzer?

"The INQ's own Mike Magee was seen last night on BBC News discussing his brand spanking new solar panels."

Wheres the goo tube link? how come we don't get mike's video?

Glen

Subject: EG on CNN

This coming from the same tv station that constatnly plays there war crap 24/7 to fuel the ever on going notion that we care about this war.. that we never wanted in the first place . Cnn... is a point the finger station.. Who in there right mind.. wants to broadcast war 24/7 ... they do.. why MONEY !>> MONEY!>> MONEY>>>! And thats exactly why this war is going on... who are the selfish ones?

Pudgie

Subject: Man Using Laptop

It's time to enter the new century! Apparently, you folks in the old world don't have "cigarette lighters" in your vehicles. Here, in the New World, our cars come with convenient dashboard connectors into which we can connect cell phones, iPods, or PCs, to supply them with power.

I realize that the Land Rover was the original SUV, but the entire rest of the world knows what a "Hummer" (vehicle, that is!) is.

What I completely agree with, however, is your last paragraph.

Charter

Subject: MP3's "Pants Performance"?

I think your claim that MP3 features "pants performance" is seriously flawed.

Firstly, you can't arbitarily compare formats, you must compare specific encoders, and at similar bitrate settings.

For example, if you compare files created with a version of Xing MP3 encoder circa 1998, and the latest iTunes AAC encoder, then sure iTunes AAC wins easily. However the major reason for this is because Xing encoders from that era were deeply flawed. They really only implemented part of the MP3 spec, and none of the features that make it sound decent (joint-stereo, short blocks, tuned frequency filtering, etc)

However, you are forgetting about the open source LAME MP3 encoder that is still being developed. The current version 3.97 provides very similar quality to iTunes AAC at around 128 Kbps VBR.

Also you offer other codecs such as: "MP3Pro, MPEG, Microsoft's Windows Media format and loads of open-source, royalty-free options, such as Ogg Vorbis."

MP3Pro was only designed for low bitrate files. Similar to High Efficiency-AAC, MP3Pro artificially reconstructs high frequencies, and so isn't designed to be transperant (sound perceptually like the original source). It is simply designed to not sound annoying at bitrates below 96 Kbps. Even if it was a good format, how many hardware players support it?

I don't know what format you mean when you write "MPEG", because MP3 is an MPEG format (MPEG 1, Layer 3).

Microsoft's standard Windows Media Audio format has shown to be inferior to LAME MP3 at around 128 Kbps VBR, however WMA Pro, which is supported by the Zune, but only a few other hardware players, is a very high quality format, on par with LAME MP3 3.97 and iTunes AAC.

Lastly you propose there are "loads" of open source formats, but can only name Ogg Vorbis. The problems with Vorbis are two fold, first, it uses more CPU power on portable players than MP3, which lowers battery life. Secondly, the patent situation with Ogg Vorbis is far from clear. I lack a thorough technical understanding, but some have suggested that Vorbis uses a patented method for "switched MDCT filterbanks with overlap and add". This patent is owned by Telefunken, see here: http://tinyurl.com/2ug7yg

Whether all this really applies could only be decided by a court. Which would only happen if Ogg Vorbis gains in popularity to the extent that it would be worth the legal costs. However I think there is at least a legal cloud over vorbis that means companies wanting to integrate the format into their hardware players could place themselves at legal risk.

Take care,
Simon Howson

Subject: Seamonkey

At least its more popular than Opera (Which I use), probably a good thing as its less likely to be exploited.

chris

Subject: Sony PS3

Dear Paul I have salivated and dreamt about getting a playstation 3 for such a long time and finally it is here!. The only thing is Sony's ridiculous price of £450.00 has left a very sour taste in my mouth yet across the pond the PS3 60gb version is retailing at just £204 pounds including four games
gadgetwholesalestore.com

Rip off Britain is back and stronger than ever. Why are we paying more than double everyone else!. Surely it doesn't cost an extra £246.00 to import these machines into the U.K?. Of course not! but lets face it, the playstation 3 is in trouble!. The whole project has been riddled with component failures and manufacturing delays from the start that's why we had no ps3's in the U.K for Christmas. Secondly it is being outsold by the the Wii and the Xbox 360 in the rest of the world. playthrough.net
vgcharts.org
and so I can only believe that Sony is recouping its losses in the U.K by making us not only pay our share but also the next mans share too!

With games retailing at £50 each, Sony have created a millionaires play console that will leave poor parents and young bachelors like myself frustrated and financially challenged. (Try telling a young child he cant have one!). Thirdly the U.K version of Sony's PlayStation 3 will play fewer PlayStation 2 games than models launched earlier in Japan and America. So we are paying extra for an inferior machine.

Fourth, Sony will find that many British people bought the fantastic Wii in the playsation's absence so we are not ready to buy another console just yet and with virtually no preorders at all the big u.k retailers for the PS3, (I keep getting bombarded with emails to buy one hurry! Hurry!) my prediction is the price will have to drop very quickly for the PS3 to Float.

So for now I am boycotting the PS3 and Windows Rip off vista which is so expensive you can by a new P.C and pay a few extra pounds for Vista to come pre loaded on it. I've also signed the Vista petition being submitted to parliament

There's Strength In Numbers. If we all work together, we can make rip off Britain change.

Frustratedly yours
Tony Nuxy

Subject: Intel's 2bil Tax

Only Two Billion? So what! Look at what they just threw away on the Itanium! $25 billion or so?

Best,
Art Horn

Subject: Nero

Hello Fernando,

I suspect because I cannot prove that the makers of hard drives just might have a hand in this bloat - and bloat of everything that runs on Windows is not news. Give these relatively small corps or their principals a hundred grand or some equity, or merely let the principals innocently buy stock in HDD companies. Instant community of interest!

Adam Smith had something to say about this, yes?

Best Regards!
emerth

Subject: EWG

Don't ya just luv when the people pull "facts" outta their assess and turns out the evidence is all just smoke'n'mirrors?

Dhu

Subject: Intel tax bill

Yes Intel has been convicted at least twice before for income tax fraud in America. This most recent $2 billion tax bill is just another confirmation that Intel is an unscrupulous company that believes it is above the law.

Oli

Subject: RIAA/MPAA and colleges

It should be interesting to see what colleges do, if anything, now that BitTorrent has struck deals with the big players in the motion picture / recording industry to provide legal content for purchase online (distributed through the p2p network).

Of course there were always legal uses for p2p software like BitTorrent, but the RIAA/MPAA forced the hand of many universities to put an end to the illegal file sharing, which almost always meant the purchase of expensive packet-shaping hardware. This more or less stops p2p traffic, indiscriminately.

But now that BitTorrent has offered a compelling alternative to piracy, a decent chunk of the age group that (probably) pirates the most can't take advantage of it, unless the universities throw out their packet-shaping hardware (or modify it in some way to recognize the legitimate torrents, although that is not feasible as far as I know).

As an aside: I attend a private tech university and I can't speak for other colleges, but the massive amounts of money wasted on anti-piracy measures could have definitely been put to better use improving the social well-being of the enrolled students, by improving the network infrastructure, improving campus cyber security, anti-spam efforts, and the general online experience.

Craig