Posts by mego
109 posts • joined Sunday 7th October 2007 21:04 GMT
Posted in Review: HTC One
Re: No SD card slot, no removable battery
Yup. First thing I thought. No chance they'll be able to even be a competitor without these two things in mind....
"But both cases are symptomatic of the difficulties in controlling media in an internet age. We (almost) all agree that some level of regulation is required to control content, ensuring the protection of children and editorial independence, but the practicalities of doing that are still a work in progress"
The responsibility for controlling what our children do on the internet is solely that of the parent. Government and regulators interfering with how these systems work is simply a means of grabbing money.
Parents that complain about internet porn, or easy availability of guns, or weapons.. sicken me. They're your f-ing kids. Take responsibility for a change.
We've run Win8 through our test user environment
Not gonna happen. Windows Vista was more liked than this mess; and that was including the users who threatened to barf all over their computers before calling tech support to remove said vomit-inducing software.
Nope, Windows8 - and it's offspring Office 2013 - are not going to be invited to our network anytime soon.
Re: Yeah right...
"Even my Linux-phobic friends keep a USB stick with Linux on hand for emergencies"
So, in conclusion, businesses must be as carefree as your mates with their home computers? Whoa. I wonder if I can get the CTO right now, if I mention that your mates use USB boot on their home machines I'm bound to get this passed through!
Thanks mate!!!
Yes...
I believe I noted this was the likely case, on oh about twelve occasions between El Reg and other forums. "Never, he's scumbag criminal" "Oh no, we won the war, UZA for teh winz!!", etc etc ad nausum.
Well.. how do you like them apples?
I object to beheadings in response to minor infractions...
but you don't see me telling your country what to do. Wankers.
Bloody Merkins
So Apple can fail to license the 3G technology they conveniently stole - and it's FRAND so cheap as chips if done before a complaint has to be raised. But whoa these Android boys are up to sh*z because they use a touchscreen (invented in the 70's),
Never mind the fact that both devices are clearly different: shiz, one even says Samsung right up on the grill. Not only that, but one is clearly a rectangle while the other is almost a square.
Lastly, asking a lawyer to tell you the difference between two devices when clearly they have some bias (even if it's bias in their favour) is so stupid it beggars belief that she even pulled that rubbish.
As for the Apple Fanboi's crowing that "oh you thought she was great when Android won"... not so fast. There is no "winner" here. No matter what happens, one product will die and the other will survive. Back in "the day", stopping a product for six months might hurt a little. Might cause some ruffled feathers. Today, that's how long the device is likely to be sold over.
I vote Samsung and other Android manufacturers stop selling in the US: the network is a shambles and in typical Merkin attitude is out of spec for the rest of the world. It's more expensive to support them especially when stupidity seems to win over sensibility in this case. Take Android away from them. See how the public copes with just Apple there to "look after them". I give it a year tops before Apple unveils Master Plan One.
Spawn of Steve indeed.
I blame
the bloody americans. The whole problem started with them, it should end with them (getting blown out of existence would be nice but I'll make do with them sorting their own mess out). Christ, the "famous" americans all stole their stuff anyhow.
Just for kicks and giggles look up why the movie industry went to hollywood...
Posted in So what's the worst movie NEVER made?
More than half of the films listed..
Made profit in the $100m PLUS mark. Consider my personal bugbear: Twilight, dear god please make it stop: $392,616,625 - that's compared to a production budget of under $70m, making about 500% profit just from box office take alone (never mind merchandising, DVD sales, etc).
I agree that to the layperson making profit isn't exactly a marker for how GOOD a film is, but I wouldn't be calling them "worst" anything if people are obviously willing to part with cash for it. Interesting fact: domestically Twilight made just under $200m. A movie ticket in the US for 2008 cost an average $7. That's approximately 29m people that saw the movie, based on average cost. There are ~400m people in the US. Around 1 in 12 people saw it. Yeah I didn't bother. Yeah I'm sick of the K Stew and Rob Pats crap. But that's some scary statistics for something we call worst movie no?
Could I rather..
NOT have the playbook, and rather a good solid kick in the nads? Be more welcome.
Such flexibility is impressive, even for a lawyer
Not really. The Oracle frat-boy fight is with Google, not B&N.
Posted in BOFH: Licence to grill ... stupid users
"Mostly, I bet, that's because users are generally lazy and ignorant, and fear any change - even for the better."
Absolutely. We had the situation about eight months back where an upgrade to an inhouse database application required users to perform about 6 pages of instructions. I say six, but in reality it was about half a page of numbered steps with screenshots of everything making up the bulk of each page.
We get a support call on day one. "Uh, yeah I read step one and I'm just lost. Can someone come help?", or to translate into user-speak "I can't be arsed to try doing this, you come do it for me". Scarily enough, some of these people asking for this kind of help are senior engineers and high level accountants: people who should be at least intelligent enough to read instructions and follow them.
We have 1500 employees and 12 IT staff members. We had less than two weeks to complete the changeover or be charged exhorbitant fees by the consultants for "supporting legacy systems".
Steps 1 through 10 (yeah it was one of those apps) has things like "Open the application", "Click File -> Settings and write the informaiton in the field that says User Name", followed with gratuitous screen shots of what the user will see, circuling what information to copy, etc. Seriously, I don't know what it is about some users that once they see a keyboard and a mouse it's all baffling as hell but they can figure out just fine how to tie their shoelaces and drive a big, dangerous car around.
Cores make no difference in Android so..
Unless it's shitty design, Apple should be at least equivalent.
Posted in Steve Jobs: the Exclusive Biography
It still amazes me to no end
How every "historian" or "Apple Fan" wants to attribute Steve with inventing everything under the Apple brand.
Hot tip: he invented nothing. Not one single concept that Apple has ever or will ever sell was invented by Jobs, not was it significantly changed from it's original concepts.
The Computer? Already there.
The GUI? Already created and shown to him during a visit to PARC.
The tablet? Already created and developed into prototypes by Alan Kay.. shown to Jobs during a visit to PARC
The mouse? The desktop concept? Shown to Jobs on a visit to (you guessed it) PARC, on a working machine that was production-ready but not sold.
The iPod? Nope. MP3 players were already rusting by the time iPods came out.
What he did was envision ways to bring products to the market, and to convince people to buy them. In other words: a sales guy, or a marketing guy; hell I'll go so far as visionary. To put him in any category other than the thieving scumbag he was is an insult to those that created what he stole.
I have more respect for Bill Gates than this guy, and that's unfortunately not very much.
Yes, it even has offices in Ireland
At least at the moment...
Erm
I don't think you get the difference between extra content vs actual edge in gameplay. It's like all the early comers get a gun and unlimited bullets, all you schmucks that come late get a blunt dagger - and you're comparing that with everyone who gets it elsewhere getting a brown gun, blah boring with a super duper colorful gun of the same type that has racing stripes.
I mean seriously dude. I get your "sarcasm" but it only really works when you make sense.
Posted in Motorola Xoom
but are plainly impossible to buy
Huh? I had no issues buying my 10.1" Galaxy Tab. Nor did I have any issues getting my 7" variant some time before that was released.
As for battery complaints, I don't see any issues on my Tab. When run next to an iPad doing similar functions, the iPad runs out of juice long before the tab does in standby, and the 10.1" version lasts longer in movie play mode than the iPad too.
Just like the mythical E-Series 19hr* battery..
*19hr when EVERYTHING of any use to the user is turned off, machine logged out, all services non-critical to windows switched OFF.
In other words, as likely as the Irish government sorting out their financial mess...
Posted in Flickr thinks again about 4,000 pix loss
Actually, he did have a backup of all the photos
It's the meta content that's more crucial, and not feasible for a user to backup.
Titles suck
TSA... Testicle Spooning Alcoholic...
@So...
"Should Ford, Mercedes and BMW (to just name three) stop using proprietary fittings because people might what to fix THEIR cars that THEY own? Prat."
Um, actually; none of these have proprietary tools to get into anywhere. BMW is actually well known for needing just three commonly available tools to dismantle more than 95% of the car.
Posted in Microsoft Kinect goes gangbusters
but how many people actually use this on their phones
Um, quite a couple on smartphones actually...
Ban the Title Requirement for Replies NOW!
Actually, there are some cheap scanners out there that will do a duplex scan; and I believe the bigger ones (if you have one of the office MFD's at work) will do the work in short time. I've scanned a 300pg book in short order, duplexed properly in a couple hours. Something you can do overnight easily for sure.
Posted in Whose data is it anyway?
You'd think
it would be simple enough. If you sign a contract, understand EXACTLY what you're getting yourself into, what happens when the other party liquidates, what penalty clauses you and the other are applicable to, etc..
Just because it's got a funky name like SaaS doesn't make it any less crucial to understand the legalities of what you've agreed to.
Posted in Samsung Galaxy Player 50 Android PMP
The usual Android Henu
Ahh the elusive Henu, bane of the Android Lexicon I presume?
Posted in Garmin tells iPhone users where to go
But..
Garmin still don't get the whole "navigation as an app" thing. GMaps is free. It has turn-by-turn navigation. It is UPDATED for FREE.
Yeah, ok, so the Garmin app IS likely better than GMaps. But the thing is, I don't have to pay for updates on the GMaps. 40 bucks is fine if it were updated freely for perpetuity; no way is it worth 40 bucks - and then upgrades on top..
Not much different
From US justice. Just with more money involved, in the US if you don't have enough money to prove you're innocent you're generally fucked.
Yep
The exact reason I'll be giving this a pass. Brings back memories of famous fail sayings like "640kb should be enough for everybody!"...
Though I suspect this is more a google fail than a Samsung fail - the phone is speced to their design after all.
Posted in WTF is... up with e-book pricing?
Overdrive has this feature, but you have to buy each book
There is a library in the UK I believe that offers the service. There's one here in Ireland but they're crap - they haven't bothered updating since they launched, and they have mostly junk that's free or near free anyway (5 copies of Great Expectations, WTF!).
Personally? I would gladly pay a subscription for an all-I-can-eat service like netflicks in the US. Charge me a tenner a month and let me access up to three books at a time (and expire the book each month if I don't pay). Libraries use this expire feature already to great effect.
Any VC companies out there willing to fund a new venture??
Posted in WTF is... up with e-book pricing?
@Nigel
>>I'd love to see more innovative ideas, like the jacket for hardbacks having a unique code that entitles you to download the eBook version too, so you have both for the same price.<<
Nigel - I don't know why nobody has thought of this yet. Absolutely would go in for this idea. And if the publishing crew feel that it makes piracy too easy, one could even use that same code to activate the copy on a device, requiring you to "check it back in" if you want to move it elsewhere - I'm sure Adobe DRM could be adapted to this process. Adobe DRM allows you to activate several devices anyway as it is.
Posted in Buffy to slay her way back into cinemas
James Bond..
Yes I was disappointed too but then when you sit down and gnash your way through it; the new concept actually makes sense in a new post-cold-war scenario.
As for Batman.. the Box Office would disagree with you. Even the 1989 movie was a re imagining of the series; which pulled incredible revenue in. The 2005 re-imagining has almost made as much in 5 years as the 1989 product made over it's entire life. Opening weekend of the 1989 movie saw only a 16% gross while the 2005 re-imagining saw over 23%. Not bad for a failure..
My title is dumb
>>others who have not read the posts.. the 'radiation ' is actually less than you would get, traveling in the airplane, going for a doc's checkup, or standing next to the microwave.... so its just paranoia, you are mostly safe...<<
Right, but remember that this is highly focused radiation that is INTENDED to go through YOUR body. Those other radiation elements (except when x-rays are used) are not. Now to deal with the "except when..", how many times did you get x-rayed when seeing a doctor? Even though my wife has had several fractures and outright breaks from her career (she works in high-velocity sports), she's only ever been x-rayed four times, including dental x-rays. How many times have you flown in the last year? Me, about 12. If you don't fly often at all you have no clue how dangerous this really can be.
>>people can moan all the like, until the next big terrorism happens... and then the SAME websites/papers will be saying..<<
The problem is that if planes are targeted it WILL happen, and in the meantime all they're doing is barking around like a dog in heat
>>Oh, and refusing to go through security checks is your right, while it is their right to refuse you admission! they are NOT public places, it is their duty to protect customers and their business..<<
Obviously you did not RTFA. A person got FINED for refusing, as well as jailtime on the table.
I propose
Walking through in nothing but tight spandex. If we can get the ugliest, nastiest smelling individuals for this exercise perhaps there may be a few thoughts of change...
So if X Ray is so safe..
Why did my wife, who had pneumonia while 6 months pregnant, have to wear a lead vest TO PROTECT THE BABY?
For fun?
Posted in Google sacks Eric Schmidt memo leaker
Considering Eric's well-known attitude about privacy
Surely he could have just changed his name?
Posted in Top Ten Retro PC Games
FYI: Riven is the ..
.. follow up to Myst, arguably one of the best selling games of all time.
Posted in Top Ten Retro PC Games
Ultima
From beginning to end it spans over two decades (almost three if you count Ultima Online editions), from the first version released in 1980 to the last online client in 2007...
Posted in Microsoft cuts loose Iron languages
Hah
>>The company has handed code and project responsibility for IronRuby and IronPython to "the community,"<<
Translation: we couldn't be arsed doing it, lets give it to the sheep and let them fix it.
Um
There are over 300 laws in Australia . Those are just laws of the country, not immigration controls, etc. Must we study these too? Get real. Nobody can be expected to "know" the laws of a foreign country; especially when the newer laws are so contrary to 98% of the rest of the world; in fact some are even more tightarsed than the middle east..
Posted in iPad tethering does disappearing trick
@ Manu
Most providers add an "fair use" policy to get around this legal quagmire. When broadband came to Ireland first, it was unlimited* (and the * pointed to "fair use policy applies"). One month I had done something like 3Gb downloads and was downgraded and charged for breaking fair use policy. The thing about fair use is that it can mean anything, and most often has nothing to do with fair..
Lawyers are hired in the dozens to write those contracts specifically so that the average man cannot understand exactly why he's getting shived. I've even had lawyers complain to me about how hard to understand the terms and conditions are!
Weakness and scratch attraction
Are two very different things...
Posted in Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader
In general, we do not charge you for this use of wireless connectivity
Is what it says... further "Your Kindle may use wireless connectivity to make other services available to you for which we may charge you a fee, such as personal file download and subscriptions when you are located in another country"....indicating there will be a fee if you are roaming..
I remember a case a while back..
The cops burst into the wrong house - the one next door to the one they had a warrant for. Didn't identify themselves. Brandishing weapons. One of them got shot.
The property owner got treated like a cop killer. Which, to be fair he was - but who in hell would not fire on some group of lunatics bursting into your home at some ungodly hour brandishing weapons?
It did not turn out as serious as that other case for this motorist; but if someone pulls a gun out on an unarmed, non-confrontational person a good long while before announcing they're a cop; they should be charged as any other random person would. Five seconds sounds like nothing, but it could be an eternity to the person being threatened with their life.
Well said
Couldn't have said it any better!
<standing ovation>
Um... and I seem alone here
..but every time you select an app for installation, Android tells you precisely what the app can access (yes it's accurate) - the researchers admit this is true as well.
How about a little common sense people??
Downloading an alarm app that needs access to your phone service, internet and system? Um lets see, sound a bit suspect??
Downloading a torch app that needs access to your location, system tools, internet, your dogs rabies result? Yeah, that's gonna be canceled fast.
You have a brain and intelligence (we hope): use it.
Posted in How do you copy 60m files?
Richcopy
I use a tool called Richcopy. It can do multiple thread copying (copying a couple files at a time, supports x number of retries, and gives you a handy readout at the end on what files failed/had an issue/etc. It also has a compare feature to compare the two locations once you're done.
Posted in Ovi maps out Google competitor
Looks like a Nokia shill
is in the thread down voting all the naysayers...
Posted in Superhuman Chinese monk does a bunk
...could withstand 220 volts of electricity circulating through his body
So can everyone. Consider these marvels that any idiot can perform:
->A typical tazer delivers around 5000 volts; no healthy human has reported dying from this.
->Static electricity can reach easily over 12000 volts, didn't seem to faze any of my brothers when I was young
It's not the Vots, its the AMPS that kill you (even as low as 0.6). You'd think a journo would have some basic science knowledge or at least check the claims before repeating them..
