* Posts by Steve Evans

2772 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Apr 2007

Sex Party's down-under struggles with dominant Catholic priests

Steve Evans

So...

The don't like posters from the sex party, but it's okay to have a 16 foot sculpture of a man nailed to a cross?

Niiiiiiice.

HTC Desire S Android smartphone

Steve Evans

Re: DLNA

I believe the DLNA playback is called "connected media".. That's what it is called on my Desire Z, Froyo 2.2.1, but as I don't own any DLNA equipment I can't say I've tried it!

Steve Evans

Re: Meh! Soft buttons

I can't say I've tried hard buttons as my Desire Z has soft ones too which I don't find a problem, but to who started it, I think you'll have to take your argument up with the fruit themed company

Wanted: Nude female web coders

Steve Evans

Re: porn photo studio not software company

I think you'll find that's a softbox.

No, I'm not going to get my coat, that really is a softbox!

Grrr, some people!

Steve Evans
Happy

Re: re: re: Netscape Navigator Gold

You don't have to get your coat, I think there are several people here willing to hand it to you!

Steve Evans

Actually...

Having just commented about the CRT monitor, I have looked at their website, which can only be described as having been designed with Netscape Navigator Gold... So I believe they are possibly trapped in a time warp...

Which might explain how the naturists they show appear to actually look vaguely attractive, when all the ones I have ever seen before are the kind of people you'd prefer to keep their clothes on!

Steve Evans

Re: health and dafety

Surely you mean...

CRT monitor - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Open source .NET mimic lands on Android

Steve Evans

Curious...

Sounds interesting, but the problem with cross platform applications is that different platforms have a different look and feel, not to mention different hardware features. There are already plenty of applications showing up on Android which are a straight ports of the older iphone apps and they're generally horrible. The user interfaces look like they are sponsored by Crayola and standard Android behaviour such as pressing "menu" inside an application to access settings are replaced by a sodding great "settings" button on the main screen.

The new killer app is … MMS

Steve Evans

Re: How much?!

Agreed 100%

MMS is only a killer app in the UK from the network's point of view. The price per byte of sending that little picture makes international roaming charges seem reasonable!

I've sent less than 5 of them in my entire life, and one of those was an accident when I hit reply to a received MMS and the s*dding phone decided that "thanks" should be sent back via the same messaging route... Grrrr!

I can only assume that all these happy MMS users on the Asian subcontinent have far more competitive mobile networks than our 4.5 old school friends.

Ofcom Radio pokes at potential pirates

Steve Evans

Re: You were lucky

One man's hobby? I know FM radio is a bit old school, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who listens to it!

Nokia floats out a collection of cool concepts

Steve Evans

LOL!

The folding phone... errrr, well it looks like a great way to show off flexible and transparent electronic components if they are ever invented, but that's about it...

The weeble phone on the other hand looks kind of fun. Pity it's bound to be crippled with an MS operating system which means it will slowly raise off the desk when a call comes in then topple over and land flat on its face!

Spanish cops rush to cuff 'webcam killer'

Steve Evans

Re: Linguistic considerations

Indeed, Romanian, Spanish and Italian are all very closely related.

I have a Romanian friend who used to live in Italy. He said he could understand pretty much everything they said, and they could understand him (when he wanted them to!).

Now if it was the Hungarian Police speaking to Spain, now that would be interesting!

Steve Evans

Re: "Hmmm..." ???

Nope, old enough and with good enough recall to remember the iron curtain rusted away over a decade ago.

Steve Evans

Hmmmm...

Well for 2 phone calls and a quick drive from the cop shop you'd think they might be able to do better than 45 minutes when there is a life at stake!

However, it's better than some of the times you hear for the UK cops and certainly far better than trying to get assistance from an out of hours doctors.

Wannabe baby-kisser lies on political honesty phone-in

Steve Evans

Re: When will they learn?

A lying politician? NEVER!

Steve Evans

Ummm...

"I don't think it was deceit and lies"...

So pretending to be someone else is not deceit, and then answering the phone and denying it was Ashley pretending to be Paul wasn't lying?

I must get a copy of this politicians dictionary because my OED seems to be totally out of step.

It's the oldest working Seagate drive in the UK

Steve Evans

Oooh...

I had an old ST drive somewhere I used to use as a door stop, I wonder if I can find it... More importantly, I wonder if I can find an ST interface card (and drivers) to test it out!

Dig deep! Radio asks taxpayers for blank cheque

Steve Evans

Re: No political bias then?

I think you'll be hard pushed to describe it as anything else!

Steve Evans

DAB?

Ah yes, DAB, the all singing, all dancing radio technology that doesn't work in cars very well...

Hmmm, so it is best suited to stationary use... Like at home, where you've got a PC which can stream a zillion internet radio stations with no reception issues...

Oh dear.

Mozilla ditches Messaging wing, eyes social webby sweetshop

Steve Evans

Hmmm...

I hope they don't dump Thunderbird, I like it... I have multiple accounts set up, including IMAP and the spam filter works great. I guess those that have spam filter problems didn't RTFM... You've got to mark good ones as "not spam" as well as bad ones as "spam", then it's spot on, at least it is for the junk that I get.

Hacks arrested in phone hacking probe

Steve Evans

Grrrr!

I really wish they would stop calling this hacking... By the same measure I would be classed as a master cat burgler if I stole your TV when you left the front door wide open!

Oxfordshire cops switch speed cameras back on

Steve Evans

Re: Whining anti-camera supporters

I am a "Whining anti-camera supporter", and can I just say right from the outset that I have a completely clean licence, and have never been caught by a Gatso. I know where they are, I can see them, and as a back up my GPS warns me...

My problem with them is they are used to replace real policing on our roads with their letter of the law instant judgement. The quality of driving I see on the roads these days is definitely on the way down. Only this morning I saw someone in a car nigh on flying over the speed humps round the corner from my house. Well over 40mph, but with no cameras about to judge his stupidity (had trade plates on, so he didn't care about the suspension) and no cops to tell him off. However if a kid had run out in the road he wouldn't have been able to stop, his wheels were barely on the ground!

Speed does not kill. Inappropriate speed may contribute. There are so many other factors, road conditions (rain, snow, oil, ice), tyre condition, driver alertness, skill, experience etc. Unfortunately none of these can be judged instantly by a remote box on a pole. As I said before, which is safer, 29mph in the rain, 3:30pm with kids on the pavement joking about or 35 mph at 3am on a dry summer night with nobody about?

The magic box will judge 35mph at 3am to be more dangerous and worthy of a photograph, when anyone with any sense will know the 29mph driver in the rain is the more likely to squash someone.

Steve Evans

I wouldn't mind but....

I wouldn't mind the cameras if they actually did punish bad drivers, unfortunately they are letter of the law devices, not spirit of the law. They don't know when it is raining, snowing, or there are kids walking on the pavement, they only know that the car with the bald tyres which drove through did so at 29mph, so is obviously safe. It doesn't matter if the driver is drunk, on the phone or shouting abuse at his/her kids in the back, as long as he/she was doing 29mph, they're safe.

Another car on a nice dry summer night at 3am goes through at 35mph and *bang* fine.

If that's not bad enough, these yellow boxes seem to have replaced police patrols, you hardly see them about these days. I can't remember the last police car I saw that didn't have the flashing lights going already.

Now if someone could come up with a camera which would punish people who don't indicate at junctions (usually taxis and private hire in my experience), and those that insist on doing 10 mph under the limit when ever they are in a 40 or 50 zone, then yes, those I would welcome. Hell I'd help them install them!

Pacific island in royal wedding philatelic outrage

Steve Evans

LMAO!

For once her is a bit of Wills and Kate news I'm quite happy to hear... The rest of it is boring me stupid!

Oh well, it'll all be over soon, pity the same can't be said for the bl**dy olympics!

Stock-trading teen hacker jailed again over 2nd scam

Steve Evans

Re: D'oh!

Indeed. The guy obviously has some degree of skill at this for managing it twice, but his knowledge when it comes to covering his tracks is pitiful!

There are plenty of open/unmanaged wireless access points about.

April Fools Day's Finest

Steve Evans

Fave...

Hmmm, well there has been quite a good selection, including a good double bluff with the wank-o-meter app, that really exists (almost caught me with that, but I checked the QR before calling it out as a fool).

Fave... Well I'm quite taken with the Marmite Vaseline lip balm... They really should make that!

http://www.new-magazine.co.uk/latestnews/view/29350/Marmite-Vaseline-gross-or-lush-/

Then again, they do make marmite chocolate, so maybe that's real too!

Deleting 'innocent' DNA will cost £5m

Steve Evans

Re: can we assume

So they have to remove 1 million records? So paying minimum wage to someone manually deleting entries would actually work out cheaper than this quote, assuming they can handle the neck breaking speed of 2 an hour?

Steve Evans

And...

We should get Blunkett and pals to pay for it, personally! For having the nerve to think keeping profiles for ever would be acceptable.

Maybe they should have a word with someone who knows some SQL, I'm sure they could do a few joins and delete the offending records.

London Olympics get pay-by-wave

Steve Evans

Hehe...

"it will be handed out free to athletes attending the Olympic and Paralympics games and on sale to everyone else."

£5 says there are "second hand" models available in the little phone shops down the Mile End Road before the opening ceremony has even finished!

W**k-O-Meter

Steve Evans

re: Good one Reg

Errrr... maybe you should test some of the links out... It's real!

Steve Evans

Re: Had a little chuckle

I know! I scanned it too! Imagine my surprise to find there really is an app on the Android market, with comments going back a few days, so it's either genuine or someone has committed the sin of starting an April fool early, which is a no-no...

I just noticed they now give the Android and Amazon market links at the top of the review, but only the Android market one works.

If you really want a laugh visit the authors website, they have a real time update scrolling down! lmao!

Steve Evans

re: iFans

Indeed... I heard the iPhone5 will even have a 2cm diameter hole in the middle for improved hands free operation!

The X-Factor goes virtually mobile, expands voting

Steve Evans

Okay... I'll call this one!

April fool!

Although I have no doubt Nokia would be stupid enough to make such a hideous thing, I can't believe for a minute that they're organised enough to make it with only a couple of years to prepare.

I wish it was true though. It would give us an easy way to identify X-factor zombies... I assume killing them would only carry a short sentence given that they are only a twitch away from brain death already?

Carrier-sold iPad 2 Sim locks snag unwary buyers

Steve Evans

Phones4U

That's a bit odd, I thought Phones4U always supplied unlocked phones, they certainly have with the two mobiles I bought from them (on Orange contract upgrades), and it's one of the things I checked the other month when enquiring about my latest upgrade.

Guess you can't take anything for granted these days, and should ask... And if he did and the Phones4U salesman did say it was unlocked, and it isn't, then Ryan has some pretty good come back in the shape of the extensive UK sales of good act... assuming he can overcome his fruity addiction enough to hand it back.

HTC Incredible S Android smartphone

Steve Evans

Re: Product range

Yup, that sounds about right!

My take on it is:

HTC Desire - First one

HTC Desire Z - First one with some new chips and a keyboard

HTC Desire HD - First one with some new chips and a bigger screen

HTC Incredible S - The HD with a slightly smaller screen

That's about as far as I have managed to work it out... Another difference which has had a mention in some circles is the Incredible S is a complete bugger to get permanent root on, HTC have included ROM signing on it's loader, which is a pity.

Steve Evans

Re: Its about pushing limits

How about we push the limit of battery design and low power consumption a bit more first before we start adding things that suck up even more juice. A phone that can last 24hrs is about as low as is really practical.

It's a pity we lost that leaping from tree to tree skill.

Steve Evans

Re: Dual Core

Agreed... With one hand they're screaming "We want dual core, deduct point for not having it" and with the other hand they would be screaming (yes, hands screaming, just go with it) "Battery life only 12 hours!!!!", or maybe "The 3000mAh battery makes the handset to heavy at 350grams".

The Desire Z, which I have, only has an 800Mhz single core, but is quite capable of 720 video recording and movie play back. In fact it feels snappier to use than the 1Ghz DHD, even with all the crap I've cluttered it up with! (Does it have a better video chipset?)

McAfee site crawling with scripting bugs say researchers

Steve Evans

Hardly a shock...

The only machines I've seen with McAfee running on them are ones that were purchased with the infection already installed!

RSA won't talk? Assume SecurID is broken

Steve Evans

@Paul 172

Twas a joke!

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/joke

Steve Evans

RBS.....

Well RBS is owned by the UK government these days, and we all know how much the UK govt knows about IT!

Firefox 4 for Android shuns ARMv6 phones

Steve Evans

Well...

Pity about the Arm6 devices, but this is bound to happen with an open hardware platform... The failed devices seem to be those with the smaller screen too, so how much they are used for mobile browsing is debatable.

Works great on my Desire Z though... And it has Adblock! YAY!

So now if I really want to see flash I'll just use the built in browser, but for when I want webpages up quick with no adds and stupid animations eating my bandwidth, FF4 4 Android should be hard to beat!

Mozilla debuts Firefox 4 for Android

Steve Evans

It's in the market, just search for Firefox...

And you failed to mention the most important thing....

ADBLOCK! YAY! \o/

Steve Evans

Re: Where is it??

It might be down to your region, give it a day or two. I'm in the UK and the mozilla.com/m link just redirects me to the market.

Searching for Firefox in the market also finds it.

MySQL.com hacked via... SQL injection vuln

Steve Evans

expired cert...

Oh that's good timing for them, I believe there is a lad in Iran who can do them a good deal on a new one right now.

Apple iPad 2

Steve Evans

It's not just you!

I've been perplexed by them too, which is why I always refer to tablets as animated tea trays.

If I want to check email, look at a website, or as I did this morning, laze in bed and watch the F1 qualifying on iplayer, I just reach for my smartphone.

If I want to do something more serious, I reach for my laptop (old, antiquated, but 250gig of storage goodness and 1400x1050 resolution - widescreen laptops really annoy me, would love to upgrade, but don't want something the size of a small car!).

So where does a tablet fit in? If there is one thing I wish I could do from my phone instead of my laptop it's upload photographs from my DSLR. So maybe I do have a use for a tablet, except tablets don't have much more storage than my phone, and it couldn't be a fruity one as we're not trusted with USB connections by the head orchard wrangler so there's no way to read the CF card, or connect the camera.

Nokia launches new corporate font

Steve Evans

re: Wordsearch

Yes, I just saw that too...

Nasty!

Steve Evans

Oh ffs!

Honestly Nokia, that's going to make so much difference isn't it! Surely you have better things to focus on?

Guess it will look nice on the corporate grave stone.

Sensitive data easily swiped from eBayed mobiles

Steve Evans

Re: Its not just phones

Errrr, in England laptops aren't stolen on principle. You just have to wait for your local authority to donate one to you.

This is normally done in a subtle way (to avoid the embarrassment of being identified as "on support") by them leaving said laptop on a bus, train or taxi seat.

Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 debut

Steve Evans

Goodo

Chucked both mobile and mini onto my Desire Z, mobile feels quick compared to V10, both appear to work very well indeed.

I'm very fond of mini, especially on a data capped mobile contract.

MeeGo or MS? Nokia ponders tablet OS

Steve Evans

So...

After a shocking attack of decisiveness the other month, Nokia have quickly returned to their usual "ummm" "errrr" as more boats sail off into the sunset?

Bangs head against wall.

To those that says Nokia did not miss the boat, they did. The boat isn't just about the product, it's about the promotion and public perception. It's a sales boat (not a sail boat - sorry). You can't have a world beating or dominating device if the world doesn't know about it!

With the N800 et al, they built 95% of the boat, then launched it, in secret, at night, without telling anyone and then bobbed off out of port listing slightly to one side.

It's only now when they had to call for the MS life boat to rescue them from yet another 95% complete boat, which had been left drifting with a skeleton crew, that people are going "Ooooh, Nokia made a boat?!"

(I suspect the MS lifeboat may be made out of Papier-mâché)