Creative uses for streetview...

Our broadband was failing badly when it rained. Engineer booked after persuading BT I did know what a cable looked like and, really, honestly, there's nothing else connected to the master socket apart from the router, and the damn thing keeps dropping when the front of the house gets wet.

I work from home, and have developed a finely tuned ear for a transit van. I can open the house door before they get out of the van, normally. No show at all on the day of the visit. I was in all day, and watching for them. I even recently changed the doorbell and there's 3 sounders in the house now. Even toilet stops were conducted with extreme expedience. They simply never called.

upon phoning at 5pm, BT had the temerity to tell me that they put a card through the letter box of a "brown wooden door". Yes, we have a brown wooden door. no, we have no card. Neither does my neighbour who also has a brown wooden door. The engineer simply never turned up.

Callout booked for saturday. Never turns up. This time the excuse was that the agent hadn't booked it correctly.

Two weeks later, an engineer turns up, does a professional job and leaves. Two weeks later...

I shall be happy to see the back of them, and as soon as my contract is up then I'm off.

Aha - some empirical measurements!

Forgive me, but I am unconvinced. I'd like to be convinced, though!

"the Colorfly undoubtedly delivers a fuller and more complete sound than the same tracks played on cheaper PMPs"

That's something measurable in the signal then. How about some proper facts and figures to back it up? Or even a single graph of response? Or should we just accept that the heavy, weighty MP3 player, with a natural wood finish, that's costing 550 quid, really did just sound 'fuller'.

Or are you just describing how you felt listening to an expensive player?

Well done on not using the words 'richer', or 'deeper' or 'heavier' or even 'more natural' or 'harking back to analogue days', given that's what the whole packaging is aiming for with the wood, sliders, etc.... You lose points for 'glorious' and 'intimate' though after noting that the wood gives an 'air of reliability and class'.

after being fooled myself by psychoacoustics (heavier cables give deeper bass, silver cables give a brighter sound), I'd like to see some proper testing.

You know what you're doing reviewing other stuff, so it's not an unreasonable expectation for you to do a proper job. How about a proper double blind test with something running rockbox with some interested readers?

I'm posting from mine

I've had my Lumia (a word not in the phone's dictionary!) for 3 weeks now. It has replaced my original iPhone.

Good points? The os is great. Really. The hub approach is really very smart, and the level of integration of social stuff throughout the phone is great. So far everyone who has seen and played with my phone has been impressed, particularly with people hub, pictures, grouping etc

But not enough to want one instead of an iPhone 4s...

The phone never feels less than responsive. It zips

The soft keyboard is good: better than iPhone. This post was typed on the Lumia...

The hardware is good too. Mostly.

Bad points

no vpn. Inexcusable for the demographic aimed at.

Battery... Charge every day.

That flap covering the micro usb port is not long for this world

camera white balance is, bluntly, exceptionally poor

Quality of pictures is only just acceptable

It's a great bit of kit that I am evangelising, but it needs some polishing.

Benchmarks, please?

"at low and medium speeds the Leaf is one of the most comfortable cars you can buy."

Go on, I'll nibble on that. What are you comparing it to? Superminis for between a third and half its price? Very well spec'd family cars? Second hand luxobarges? For £25k (or 30k if you exclude the rebate) then you've got a good pick of cars to select from. Is this really one of the most comfortable?

Fair play if it is, but it'd be useful to know what background the reviewer has to be able to give quite such a hugely marketable quote. If you're going on years of car reviewing experience, please say so.

News?

I presume firebox are somehow sponsoring this news?

I ask because my son has had the new Super Mario Bros stickers on his wall for over a year now, thanks to the lovely people at Supernice.co.uk. (No affiliation, just happy with the service they provided).

Other son is wanting the Donkey Kong set on his wall. Top lad!

34,700m^2?

I think you mean 1670 nanoWales, or slightly over eight and a half football pitches.

For shame, El Reg. For shame. I may cancel my subscription.

Eddies in the space time continuum?

Where's his sofa?

(My only excuse is that it is Friday afternoon)

Why the hate on the forum?

I know this article is a positive review for a Microsoft product, which will be seen as heresy by many techies just on basic principles, but... Those who are wading in, have you actually tried WP7?

My next phone will be running it, and not iOS which my current phone uses. Why? It takes Apple's approach of getting things done and refines it, and also allows better business integration. It has been designed based on what situations people actually want to use a mobile device for.

I like how Andrew has come in for flak by saying what non-techies want: people want stuff that works without an instruction manual, without messing around, and something that occasionally surprises and delights. WP7 Mango does that in spades, without dumbing down.

I'd wholeheartedly agree that WP7 offers a better proposition and experience to average punters than Android. MS fanboi? No.

Does it have the flexibility of Android? No. Does the populous in general need the flexibility of android? I'd argue no...

Handheld PCs...

You're looking for something useful as a decent business tool primarily, rather than a shiny gadget. Unfortunately, the last pieces of kit that focused on the particular sort of work loads you're wanting rather than looking pretty are about a decade old in my view. What did for these things was the insistence that colour screens were a necessity: they're not.

I've got, and still use, a Psion 3mx, 5mx and HP 200LX. Yes, I actually still take notes on these things because they work, they run on 2 AA batteries, and they are usable and will exchange data with my PC. I am still slightly amazed that the 200lx does what it does so well, and that they keyboard - which should be useless - is to my fingers better than the 5mx! The Psion 5mx is just brilliant: the OS allows embedding of word processor documents in calendar entries, meaning it's simple to take meeting notes and know what meeting they relate to. The keyboard isn't great, but it's not half bad.

I actually took notes last week on my 200lx in a meeting in Sweden. People were amused, bemused and slightly pitying as they stabbed ineffectually at their fondleslabs, but it just works.

The other device I use is a Sigmarion 3, which is great but suffers from battery life issues. And a Japanese OS. And it has just died. But other than that it's not bad. Speaking of Japanese OS, I also tried the Zaurus range - twice - but ended up going away from them as the damn things kept crashing. (But we know linux never crashes...)

The Viliv n5 will be on my christmas list. The battery life somewhat worries me, but it's worth a try.

Yes, I know I need to get out more, but I collect these things... From the Psion 1 and Agenda Microwriter (kudos to first post!) to the Libretto u100 so far. Tried an OQO, sold it.

Keep the handheld faith!

Same internals?

710 has 8GB, 800 has 16GB. Is that not an internal?

Camera is quite different on the 710 - 5mp vs 8mb, no dual LED flash...

Different screen.

But other than that, I suppose same processor = same internals?

It also seems that lots of manufacturers are dropping MicroSD support for mango. Anecdotally, it seems to have caused quite a lot of trouble as the MicroSD card needs to run at the same speed as internal memory to work without issues. Rather than explain that to the mass market, it seems manufacturers have removed the facility. HTC Radar, HTC titan are missing them... Shame.

Brand loyalty? Try another brand

I'll never buy LaCie again, after the saga of them refusing to replace a faulty power supply on one of their external disks. The PSU has a design fault, meaning when the PSU is unloaded the 12v rail floats at 19v, which rather fries the capacitors that are only rated for 16v IIRC. Opening up the PSU shows that the caps have vented and are useless, which is a better option than exploding...

See http://www.fixya.com/support/t1782491-power_cord_buzzes_macpro_not_recognize and many youtube videos of hissing lacie power supplies.

LaCie refuse to replace this out of warranty, despite the fact it has been designed incorrectly, and despite the fact I have 2 other LaCie drives and a rather nice LaCie monitor.

So... Balls to 'em. Fixed it myself and vowed never to give them another penny for their overpriced, beautifully designed but badly engineered and atrociously supported junk.

My logitech harmony one developed a clump of bad pixels a few days after, and logitech couriered me a replacement after I emailed them a photo of the problem.

Guess who wins my loyalty?

Incidentally, you can buy Belkin Home Base wireless USB and print servers from ebay for under 30 quid delivered...

Man bites dog... ?

Apple to release new iPhone: No! Say it ain't so! Stop the press!

Given their propensity for doing this every year, how is this in any way, shape or form news?

I am looking forward already to the latest new scoop which will undoubtedly be 'ipad 3 confirmed as coming sometime'.

Sweet mercy El Reg, please stop pushing this sort of non-event as news. It isn't. Fanbois will already know about it and be priapic over the potential specs (with added Unicorn, undoubtedly), everyone else will realise it is just a question of time before this hits the shelves.

DO NOT INSTALL if you run HandsOff from Metakine

I've just spend a fun morning recovering from this... The Kernel Extension used by HandsOff (a firewall from Metakine) causes a kernel panic with 10.6.8. Safe mode won't let you bypass it either.

Simple solution: upgrade HandsOff before installing 10.6.8

Fix a mess solution: boot from OSX install DVD, go to terminal

cd /Volumes/yourharddrive/System/Library/Extensions

mv HandsOff.kext /

reboot

Enjoy a once again booting mac, then run Hands Off and update the app...

At best, delusional...

"users should have an absolute right to reclaim their data from anyone they have handed it over to"...

Indeed, if there's one thing we've learned, it's how easy it is to remove digital data from marketing databases. Those 'click to unsubscribe' things really do work, and it's easy to stop people tracking what you're doing on the web. Trivial, in fact.

What worries me is that someone might listen to this person. I suspect they will.

I suspect a few years ago if you'd have asked the El Reg readership if they'd believe that a successful TV programme could be based on just watching the daily routine of social misfits put in a house together, the answer would have been a resounding "no"...

engine weight - how much?

This sort of thing is definitely the near future of motoring: it has to be. Much better suited to short town journeys than any diesel, too... (My wife has a golf TDI with a DPF, and it needs an occasional longer drive at motorway speed to empty the crud from the dpf)

definitely worth checking out.

Saying that, how come a 2 cylinder, 875cc engine weighs 85kg? What's it made out of? The BMW N52 3 litre 6 cylinder engine weighs 161kg... Three times the size, three times the number of cylinders, three times the power - but under twice the weight & co2 emissions. If they'd taken the same approach it could have been down to just over 50kg? I guess there's a turbo, multiair cleverness etc but I'm surprised a 2 cylinder engine would weigh that much: it doesn't strike me as particularly light.

TPoG wuz robbed!

well, with the predilection I have for the user name 'chiark', I had to go for the player of games... If you liked Use of Weapons, you'll definitely like Surface Detail which is Banks back on tip top form. Great to see so many Banks supporters coming out of the woodwork, but it makes me wonder if the vote was somehow coordinated?

I must admit I have no idea how well any Banks book would translate to film: I have quite a clear picture in my head of various bits... Although seeing what a film maker delivers for Azad would be fascinating!

It's great to see this list, as it makes me realise there's a lot of (non Banks) Sci Fi that I should read. Thank you El Reg.

Did it really set them back anything?

Can these points be converted back to real dollars?

They do not have intrinsic value, it's just that Microsoft has chosen to allocate a value to them... So they've lost a potential $1.2M in revenue, but it certainly hasn't cost them $1.2M! I wouldn't expect a liability of $1.2M to suddenly appear on MIcrosoft's ledger for this.

I'd argue that it's cost them nothing. Mind you, I'm reading Cory Doctorow's For The Win at the moment, so that might explain this point of view!

iPhone 2g...

Yep, I'm still using an iPhone 2g. It makes calls and accesses data, and does what I want. Apple really should be kicked quite hard for dropping support for devices quite so quickly...

UK Fair use...

Well, according to UK law, 'Producing a back up copy for personal use of a computer program', is considered fair dealing. http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

So making a backup of a valuable (and easy to lose) cartridge is allowed, but Nintendo give no way of making such a backup. Hence the third party solutions: flash carts.

As my son has a DS, I have bought a flash cart and I'd recommend them to any parent who has been through the joy of "have you seen my xyz game cartridge" repeatedly... We only put stuff on there that we've bought ourselves: same with the Wii with HBC and USB loader. He knows what's right and what's wrong on that front. The flash cart stays in, with all his (paid for) games on it, and the games sit on a shelf gathering dust but, most importantly, not being lost!

Given that Nintendo is family friendly in its gaming approach, I'd be surprised if they pull this stunt. They must realise that this is what geek parents do?

And it's not like a retailer would find it in their interest to misinform on this, is it? "What happens if you lose the cartridge? Buy another one... No way of backing them up, after all... That'll be another 30 quid for what you've already licensed to use, please."

I sympathise with the piracy aspect, but the people who I know with flash carts use them responsibly. This would be daft, and is the perfect reason to tell my son that a 3DS isn't a good idea - thank for that!

Customise WP7 - yes...

"will Nokia be able to "customize everything" on Windows Phone 7 in order to differentiate itself?" "Yes!"

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/11/nokia-will-be-able-to-customize-everything-in-windows-phone-7/

I'm in Helsinki today, and there is only one topic of conversation I hear everywhere - from hotel to taxi to office to bus to airport... Some are positive comments, most are in shock.

I personally think they needed to do something radical, and I can understand the logic here. I seem to be in the minority.

Information Revolution...

Perhaps every generation thinks they're living in the most important one - in fact it would be odd if any generation didn't - but I feel hugely fortunate to have had my formative years aligned with the home computer revolution.

The appeal of the 64 - or in fact any of the machines mentioned above - was that they positively encouraged you to tinker. Sure, you can play games... Or you could try entering that program in the magazine or book to see what it does. And then ask yourself why does 'poke 53280,0' turn the screen black anyhow? Then find out... And carry on digging...

And, before you know it, you've got to the very basics of what computers do and how they work.

Anyone who had an Amiga in the 80s had Deluxe Paint with it, and will have tinkered. A sizeable proportion might have used SoundTracker or similar to mess around with sound... Computers were tools to create and consume (games), but I was more interested in creating and I suspect a majority were, too. That seems to have shifted massively in the last decade. I heard that the games industry is now bigger than hollywood in terms of revenue...

I have 2 sons, and they're showing an interest in this stuff. What's more surprising is that they are both intrigued by the old stuff that I hoard, restore, and tinker with. Perhaps it's more accessible because it is simpler, I dont know... Perhaps my kids will, in 30 years time, be reminiscing about the Wii, custom IOSs, boot2 and whatever :).

For anyone with similar nostalgia pangs, I recommend Commodore: A company on the edge by Brian Bagnall, now 2nd edition. Throws any historical revisionism by certain companies into sharp relief, and does illuminate how small the teams behind the 64 and Amiga were! After reading that, I defy anyone not to have a deep admiration for the characters, particularly Chuck Peddle.

(full disclosure: I have, stacked next to me, an Amiga 1000, 3000, 4000 and a Commodore 128D that all work and get regular use. I need to get out more, I know)

Beautiful!

Top marks, nicely done. Nothing says Christmas like a little halon.