Posts by Gary F

Nevermind, there's always Galileo

Americans are welcome to use Europe's more accurate Galileo GPS system when it's in operation. It's only fair since we've been using theirs for a long time.

Or just switch off your data connection

Useful to know, thank you Register.

My apps eat bandwidth all the time, even if I've told them not to (where possible). The result is going way over my data bundle allowance and enduring costly data charges. Together with the idea of some apps reporting on my location and other personal info I simply switch off my data connection - or APN to be precise. I activate it when i need to go online. The result is going from 3GB of data per month down to a reasonable 500MB.

I'm right not to have trusted them

I've used Dropbox for a few years and love the free service, but I have never trusted them enough to put my most private and important files into my dropbox. It's tempting to use it as an off-site backup of critical files (in case you house burns down or a burglar steals your PC and backup DVDs) but I don't totally trust the competence of these services where encryption is not done at the client and the customer doesn't exclusively hold the key.

Communication is critical if there's a problem. Failing to talk to customers quickly enough always ends with angry customers. Yeah, I know it's a free service for most people. Glad I didn't upgrade.

On the plus side, at least we'd get the results quicker!

I hope the data doesn't contain actual addresses and names, that would be a blow to every person in the UK. The data would be marketing companies dream come true. Imagine all the crappy marketing calls and letters we'd receive. It's bad enough as it is now.

About bloomin' time too!

How long has it taken them? Feels like months. It's shambolic that they couldn't restore services sooner given the number of cutting edge specialists they can afford to hire and the firewalls etc they can put in place. If it were a small company then I'd understand why it would take them so long to get back on their feet (lack of resources and finance) so Sony need to grovel hard. My Xbox 360 has had lots of use in the last month and my 4 year old seems to have found more child and family friendly games on the Xbox.

I've only bought 2 Android apps

I bought Robo Defence after playing the free version for a week. It was so addictive that it was worth paying for extra levels and the author really deserved my two quid. (Wow, reading that back I sound so tight!)

The other purchase was PDANet. Bought out of necessity because stupid Android doesn't natively allow a tethered laptop to use its 3G Internet connection. Maybe Android versions later than 2.1 support it, but this app was well worth paying for to plug a hole - something my old Windows 6 phone had done out of the box for years.

Back to the argument, I think more iPhone users have money to burn than Android users. My pay-as-you-go Android cost £99. It's crazy to spend any more money on a phone that goes out of season in 12 months.

5 years away?

Good, but sounds like it's 5 years away from producing SSD alternative products piled high on shop shelves. I like boffins. Well done.

As if they were going to find anything interesting

I don't think aliens more intelligent than us would be using normal radio waves. They'd probably use something better like sub-space (if that weren't made up by Star Trek) so those 3 employees were really wasting their time.

The $5m would be better spent kick starting a new series of Star Trek or continueing Stargate Universe. Science-fiction is a lot more lively than science-fact and doesn't take 1000's of years to reach us! ;-)

ACME delivery for Wile E Coyote

This is the sort of massively disapointing result from something the Coyote tries to do to the Roadrunner.

I think a sailor with an assault rifle or sniper could inflict more damage in a fraction of the time.

Why do we need Windows 8 anyway?

Windows 7 is okay, just keep fixing the bugs and release minor new features in service packs, as per SP1. What could they possibly put in Win8 that would make people upgrade (again)? Certainly NOT a ribbon.

I actually prefer Windows Explorer in XP than in Vistra or Win7.

Worst film, worst viewing technology

By far the worst of the double trilogy, but now they will probably emphasise the worst bits in 3D. When I saw 3D I mean two 2D planes (foreground and a background) with some fuzziness around the edges.

Pleeeeease can they stop making horrible 3D versions. I won't go and see a film now unless there's a 2D-only version. A well written, directed and acted film can pull you in using artistic talent, it doesn't need anything else. And if there is it's just a gimmicky distraction.

Population data is very important

I work with population data and for every year between each census I rely on the mid-year estimate produced by the ONS. I don't know how they calculate it but I imagine that each year it becomes a little less accurate as migration and birth rates change, especially at local levels. So after 9 years it won't be as accurate as the first few years after a census is done. So the 2011 census will allow the ONS and people who use this data to get back on target, or at least to verify that estimates used in more recent years was reasonably accurate.

Other data that I and many 1000's of people use are things like average head count per household, average number of children per household, etc. Most consumers of the data couldn't care less about participants names or phone/email info (not that this is even collected or published), it's the statistical value of the yes/no and quantities that allow local and central Government to plan for the future and make decisions about things based on this reality check.

The people who said data can't be used from other existing databases to form a census are correct. The DPA doesn't allow data to be used for other unconsented purposes and the quality of other database and the ability to merge accurately is just too unreliable.

Census data is harmless and ultimately is good for the country. Millions of our ancestors were happy to participate and that has also helped us to keep an accurate picture of our country's past.

This is a first!

The first time a Lexmark printer has cost more than a set of new ink cartridges! ;-)

I had no idea Lexmark were capable of such innovation and I aplaud them for that. Maybe other manufacterers will try to emulate this design but do so with a smaller price tag. If Epson or Canon produced something that looks like this for half the price I'd buy one.

Let me get this right...

They take a £500 phone and put an OS on it that you can run on a £100 phone. Why? Is their end game to allow people to run Android on iphone? Then those people should buy a cheaper Android phone and save themselves a load of money. It's not as if the best apps are Android-only and iphone users need to swtich from iOS to Android.

Or buy a £99 Android device WITH 3G

Don't forget you can buy the Orange San Francisco Android phone for just £99 on PAYG. Why would anyone pay £50 more for a something that's so close to being a smartphone but isn't? I know it can take 4GB microSD cards for sure. I haven't tried it with anything bigger.

Infinity?

Fibre is good but it doesn't provide infinite bandwidth. They should just upgrade every exchange and provide a timetable for this nationwide. Stop this competition nonsense. Of course everyone wants their connection to be faster and clearly the more populous the town or village the greater the demand.

Tough world wide regulations

It's not easy for any company to comply with varied regulations in 100+ countries. The problem these days with being on the web is that every country thinks it has the right to regulate you. Maybe they do, or maybe they don't. At least for most website owners you need to be big enough to get onto the radar of regulators before they take notice of you.

How is upstream data sent?

Do you still need a dial-up modem for upstream data? Presumably the 66cm satellite dish isn't capable of transmitting up to the satellite.

Android is blimmin good though

I've had many makes of smartphone for the last decade but I was seriously impressed with my new Android phone. It's so intuitive that I found my 4 year old had picked it up, worked out how to unlock it (she can't read yet) and load and play various games.

It looks like Android will go from strength to strength as it appears on cheaper phones. You no longer need to pay £500 to own an iphone when a Android phone can do pretty much all that from £99 upwards. iVery iSmart iPhones iThat iAren't iActually iPhones(TM)

Acer 1825

I have the convertable tablet version of the Acer 1810 and I really love it. The battery really does last for 8 hours under a power saving profile with wifi enabled. The tablet mode gives me everything the ipad has and more (including more weight to carry!) and flipping it to laptop mode lets me be more productive for emails, word processing, etc.

The 11" screen size is perfect for packing in an overnight bag to take away or taking on a train as it's almost half the weight of some 15.6" laptops. As for the aspect ratio not being idea for web browsing, well, since the resolution is so high you can make the browser window more narrow. i.e. don't maximise it, so you'll get your 4:3 aspect ratio at 1080x768 which leaves some real estate to have RSS widgets, IM client (or whatever you like) within view for enhanced productivity.

Version 7 already?

Why does Google feel it has to catch up with IE and Opera in the version numbers? Going from version x.0 to x+1.0 suggests a major release, but this has never been the case with Chrome. At least with O/S/FF/IE browsers you know that such a big number change will bring a big bag of interesting goodies.