* Posts by Mike Perrin

17 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Sep 2008

Apple's design 'drives up support costs, makes gadgets harder to use'

Mike Perrin

Re: @ El Reg

Seconded!!!!

System 7 for the win, although System 8 wasn't too bad. I've always thought Jobs' return was the beginning of the end for sensible, easy to use Apple computer software. Do you remember whether it was Quark or Photoshop, all the system dialogues looked the same and worked the same way? Compare with Lightroom today!!

Today I use Linux Mint/Mate. But I still miss System 7 and Susan Kare's icons!

http://www.kare.com/portfolio/03_apple_macicons.html

Guy puts 1990s MacOS 7 on an Apple Watch – without jailbreaking it

Mike Perrin
Pint

Re: I miss System 7

It's NEVER too late to say that!

(System 7.1 for me. Anything with MacOs in the title is just not the same...)

Raspberry Pi guys want you to go topless in the heat

Mike Perrin
Meh

Sorry, but...

... not in that colour. Yes, I know, but no.

Just no.

This isn't a sci-fi movie: It's a human-made probe snapping a comet selfie

Mike Perrin
Thumb Up

Re: Brilliant photo -

Seconded - amazing achievement and just what I need to brighten my day!

Sway: Microsoft's new Office app doesn't have an Undo function

Mike Perrin
Facepalm

HyperCard anyone?

Bill Atkinson rang, said welcome to 1994:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard#Design

Vinyl-fetish hipsters might just have a point

Mike Perrin
Boffin

Re: Vinyl vs CD

You cannot 'sample' an LP, it is played with an analogue transducer (the cartridge) producing an analogue low level signal which needs to be amplified and equalised (inverse RIAA) before it reaches the same line level signal that the CD player output produces. All that and feedback too, how close to the LP are you?

But you are right about mastering - original records were mastered from analogue tapes, these days modern (+ reissue) records are produced from PCM masters several generations away from their predecessors 25+ years ago. The original Beatles master tapes have gone for good - the recent re-issues are from PCM copies. You can play a modern LP, you are still hearing digital...

Mike Perrin
Meh

Re: RE ChrisJC but it's not hi-fi.

Quad were bought out in 1995, and are currently owned by the IAG group, along with other famous names in British Hifi. All their production comes from China, and has been for many years.

http://www.internationalaudiogroup.com/

EE dismisses DATA-BURNING glitch with Orange Mail app

Mike Perrin
Happy

This sounds strangely familiar...

I had (still have) an Orange San Francisco, originally on an Orange PAYG contract. I like the phone, but was amazed at how easily the top up was consumed when I used any mobile data - I think the original allocation was about 100 megs a month, after that it swallowed your credit. I exhausted a top-up in ten minutes by using GPS and Google Maps! I didn't have the phone turned on all the time either. My previous non-Android lasted for months on £10!

After two years of annoyance, I realised that £20 per month (easily) was contract money. But I liked the phone, so managed to get a t-mobile contract SIM with 500 megs data, 100 mins etc. for £8 per month, direct debit. It's all I need - and much cheaper than PAYG!

I put Cyanogen Mod 7 on the San Francisco after the guarantee expired. Reading this article, I'm *so glad* I did!

Didn't get a Nook for Xmas? That's OK, hardly anyone else did, either

Mike Perrin
Happy

They have a wonderful product - and they messed it up

I saw the June announcement they were getting out of the tablet market, but I missed the followup:

"On August 20, 2013 CNET reports B&N reversing the decision to eliminate the Color Nook devices:[14]

"The bookseller will continue to design and make Nook color devices, with at least one new Nook set for the holiday season, as its chairman shelves a bid to buy the retail side. (Wikipedia)"

I didn't know that, and I'm an HD+ owner, so perhaps the general public are the same?

Joining in the chorus: HD+ is an Retina iPad for £130 (16gb, from Sainsburys online) with one extra feature - AN SD CARD SLOT SO YOU CAN ADD STORAGE. Shout it from the rooftops, for gawds sake. A 32gb card holds lots of music, and the HD+ plays FLAC.

Remember to get ES File Explorer from the Google Play store to make the defective built-in bluetooth work properly and give complete command over the file system. HD+ FTW!

What a plot of nonsense: Ten Master master plan FAILS

Mike Perrin
Stop

Roger Delgado IS The Master

I'm sorry, but who are these impostors trying vaguely to carry off his look (and failing)?

Roger Delgado was a fine actor over many years (e.g Quatermass II) and I am sure that the reason he was re-used in so many stories in the Pertwee era was because he made a good (evil) foil for Jon Pertwee's decent chap. Delgado had great screen presence, and was a favourite with the fans at the time, as I recall. "You will obey me.." I still remember it forty years on.

It's like original Davros versus the subsequent diluted versions; the original is the best. RIP Mr Delgado, I still miss you.

Sky falling: 119,000 Brits flee O2, Be after Murdoch broadband gobble

Mike Perrin
Coat

Another BEunlimited fugitive

I am one of the hundred thousand too.

When I took out BEunlimited (as a replacement for Nildram) they were leading edge with ADSL2. I went from 512k to 6megs for my £18 per month, with no download limit. I never had to worry, the connection just worked. I was a very happy customer.

Six years on, I was paying the same amount for what was a fairly normal connection, now available for much less from other providers, and no fibre upgrade in sight. The Sky takeover provided the simple impetus to change to something better - and I bet I'm not the only one.

I'm now with Plus.net, on a FTTC connection, and getting 36megs - for the same money as I was paying BE. I think of Sky as a cable TV company with internet on the side; I don't own a TV so why bother?

I will always remember BE with affection, but when it's time to move, it's time to move, as Sky have found out.

Coat, because I took it and walked.

Reg hack uncovers perfect antidote to internet

Mike Perrin
Black Helicopters

Re: Where can I get a job like this?

http://www.sarahbee.co.uk/index.html

Hasselblad H4D-40 Stainless Steel 40Mp camera

Mike Perrin
Stop

Zeiss, not Contax

The lenses were actually Zeiss lenses, Contax is a camera brand owned by Zeiss and licensed to Yashica, who made the Contax RTS 35mm cameras (and Zeiss lens designs under licence...)

http://www.flickr.com/groups/751672@N21/

has some nice photos made with the lens in question.

Hasselblad. Still gorgeous after all these years...

NASA 'naut falls off bike, misses shuttle launch

Mike Perrin
Stop

Memory fail?

Just to point out that Collins *was* on Apollo 11 but didn't *land* on the moon; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did the blasty landy bit, whilst Mr Collins stayed aloft throughout.

Yes I do remember he went there. God bless them all and 'mankind's greatest adventure'.

Logitech Squeezebox Radio

Mike Perrin

Cheaper alternatives still available

Logitech = premium product, hence the relatively high price.

The Freecom Musicpal is still available, ethernet + wifi net radio plus streaming off a server, with external line outputs to plug into a conventional hifi:

www.freecom.com/objects/00011377.pdf

Shop around and you can still obtain one for less than £100. Last Christmas Eve, Pissy World sold theirs off for half price, so I got mine for £30. It works well, and is well made with a style not dissimilar to Logitech's products.

Toys are so much nicer when they're cheap!

LG KF300 budget clamshell phone

Mike Perrin
Thumb Up

Not everyone needs a leading edge phone

Me for instance!

I have the KF300s predecessor with Orange, the F2250, for nearly 3 years now.

http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_f2250-pictures-1336.php

I phone friends and text them and that's about it. I like the bigger size of a clamshell, it's easier to hold and bigger keys make it easier for adult hands :-) It charges up well, and gives good clear calls.

And you say this new one has all this, plus a camera? And a radio? and it plays mp3s? and your reviewer says its just as stylish and well made as the old one?

Straightforward inexpensive phone that lots of people will enjoy, from the sound of it!

Did the width move for you, darling?

Mike Perrin
Jobs Halo

It's the amateurish touches that grate

... for instance, the fact that every comment icon has to be enclosed in a little teensy weensy grey border.

Which means each icon is smaller, less legible etc because it has to have a border... AND a line of white space inside so you can see the border! Which detracts from the icon itself, especially if the icon is round, whereupon the border just GRATES.

Are you scared that the icons will be eaten by marauding text? Or that freed, they will go on the rampage and crawl up to the masthead, batting at passing planes?

And as previously remarked upon by others, why are you taking crapulous bit-map art from the nineties and then ANTI-ALIASING it? You should be BURNING this trash.

If you notice design, there is probably something wrong with it. So do us all a favour, go to www.kare.com, have a good look round at the GOOD stuff and then (metaphorically speaking) grow a pair and do something better. An icon is not a picture, it's a symbol, remember?

" The main problem with Microsoft? They have... no taste" (steve jobs in interview)

Steve Jobs, because he got Susan Kare to do the good stuff