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Ah, Wordwise: I remember it well

Old timers get teary-eyed

Letters Here's a word of caution for editors: use terms like "Wordwise" in your headlines at your peril, since they are guaranteed to provoke teary-eyed nostalgia:

Wordwise, that brings back memories. I had tremendous fun during my school days producing work with my BBC B, Wordwise and a trusty Epson LX 80.

No WYSIWYG, had to type printer format codes directly into the document, shame i can't remember them now.

Thanks for the great article and the trip down memory lane.

Andrew Betts

Ah yes, those were the days...


"But much to Moir's chagrin, the BBC Acorn and virtually every other British-built computer started to disappear."

..though they still haven't disappeared entirely. I spend some 95% of my working day on an Iyonix, a direct descendant of the RISC-PC, now running on a PCI architecture with Intel XScale processor (ARM design - the one successful spinoff from Acorn)

We still have quite a number of RISC-PCs in daily use around the world. Not bad for a ten-year old computer. They have very low downtime rates and a total of maybe a dozen viruses, none of which have been seen in the wild for years.

Of course they do lag somewhat in terms of the latest features, particularly with internet tools (and that's being partly addressed with a Firefox port), but then in the restricted engineering environment they are working in I often consider that a plus. My main problem is with users who have only ever known Windows and expect everything to behave the same way.

Steve Bradbury

Indeed, pity the kids "who have only ever known Windows". It's a chilling thought.


Xara fillips! I bet our US compadres don't get it at all.

You should be shot! Gah!

Otherwise a very interesting article

Francis Fish

In case you're wondering exactly what Francis is on about, the "Xara fillips" in question was a crosshead in the aforementioned article. Witty stuff, to be sure, which has earned its author a spell on traditional Vulture Central punishment duty: toilet, bucket, brush, etc, etc...


Now, Welsh boffins have drilled the world's smallest hole - or have they?

Interesting article, but, as a loyal reader of the Reg, I should point out that this is a somewhat misleading headline. We use filters in my genetics lab that have holes drilled as small as 0.01 microns diameter. The holes are drilled in plastic (polycarbonate) rather than steel, using a particle beam. The beam leaves tracks in the plastic which are then etched out to form precise holes.

See link for more details. http://www.sterlitech.com/products/membranes/polycarbonate/PCTEMembrane.htm

Keep up the good work.

-Regards

Steve Meyn, MD, PhD, FRCPC Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics University of Toronto

Fair enough. We assume they mean in steel...


You told us the width of the smallest holes, but not the depth. How are we supposed to work out how many holes it now takes to fill the Albert Hall?

Richard Boyce

This is a good question which needs to be answered as a matter of urgency. But not by us.


More boffinry now, and the taxing question of the beer goggles effect:

I would think the number 1 factor behind beer goggles would be, when did they get some last. 1 year and 1 beer she/he is a babe/hunk. 6 months and 3 beer, 1 month and a six pack, 1 week and a twelve, where 24 hours or less would likely require an entire night of drinking. So I would think it is a matter of time, beer, and just how ugly the other person is.

c - chances of getting laid t - time - day(s) last got some b - quantity of beer u - the level of ugliness ( 10 extremely ugly, 1 not so ugly)

c = ( b / ( 1 / t ) ) / u

Shane Kent


First of all - do they want any more researchers?

But more importantly - did they take into account things like short-sightedness, desperation and whether these men had eaten before? And why is it that the research has never been done on the effect of booze on women's lustfulness? How many Bacardi Breezers does it take until women will find me attractive? So I think there has to be a formula which is something like:

Price of Breezer = x Number of Breezers rqd to get my leg-over = y

If x * y > price of prossie from a postcard from a phone box then, especially as you know that a prossie won't (usually) puke up halfway through the act, or start weeping about their ex-boyfriend, then the prossie is obviously the best option...

By the way, I've never been with a prossie...and, to be quite honest, women who drink Breezers tend to be chavs.

But I hope these comments were helpful...

Alan

Yes, really, quite illuminating.


Complete change of tack: The N-Gage...

Re - No new N-Gages until 2007

Has the person who made these comments actually USED a N-Gage QD? I have owned both the Classic and the QD and can highlight the following issues

The second generation N-Gage QD fixed those issues. But was still some way more ugly (A matter of Opinion), big in size (it is smaller from the front then the original, but yes chunkier from the side. Not much different to the 6600) and small in features than the better smartphones already out (features were no different from the 3650, obviously this person knows nothing about compatability.). Even for gaming it was still a dead loss. There were hardly any N-Gage specific games, and most were simply not very good â₠“ due to screen limitations, lack of processing power,(what is it with people and a need for battery draining processors in mobile devices) or simply bad game design. On top of that, even the best games were rendered difficult to play by the awkward keypad and overly hard-to-click direction pad (This is much better than the classic), shoulder buttons (WHERE! I want this QD, mine is sadly lacking :( ) and keys (mine are as responsive a penis in a brothel).

D Burrett

A penis in a brothel? Good Lord - you've haven't been playing the unlocked scenes from GTA: San Andreas again, have you?


The Dutch, eh? Time they sorted themselves out, reckons (the appropriately-named, given the last letter) Randy:

Time for the Dutch to get a clue on digital Piracy or get shut down.

Simple as that. You listening over there?


And finally, our worst corporate anthem poll (still running here, btw) left some readers in a state of shock and confusion:

Trying to choose between those three corporate anthems is like trying to measure the difference of a few degrees of Centigrade in different parts of the depths of hell! There's a whole world out there of which, hitherto, I was blissfully unaware... Yours, appalled

Caroline Picking


You guys either deserve medals for your actions, or to be taken out back and shot for what you have knowingly inflicted on your readers! I just can't decide. The awe of what you must have listened to, to get to these defies belief... the fact you did it is just totally and utterly insane... the fact *I* actually downloaded all 3 "tracks" AND the jungle mix AND listened despite the warnings; well I am still speechless.

You cruel, sadistic bastards! I salute you! :D

Dave Redfern


Our pleasure, as ever. More wit and wisdom on Friday. ®

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