Posts by Big Bear

At least it was for something decent

Our paramount leader Gordo Broon only got involved to have a wee chat with Subo or something like that!

Now, if we can get fecking Fox to let us watch the playoffs on a non Sky channel in this country...

A matter of perspective

The difference between a phone and a personal computer is that the unwashed masses install nothing onto their phones, using them as they arrive in the box, whereas in personal computing, people expect to have the option to add software as they see fit, even if it down to the classic "You need a newer version of flash player. Click Yes to install it" type of prompts. The iPhone has changed this model to the point that everyone is jumping into the appstore world, but then again, the scope of activies possible on a tablet is far, far greater than on a phone. Will big corporate systems restrict themselves to godawful browser based versions for use on these machines, or will iTunes suddenly start selling SAP Tablet v1.0 for £10k per license?!

If this is the way Apple do take it, I can foresee the iSlate being hailed as the greatest thing since toast, then the other hardware manufacturers will launch their versions running Windows or Linux and those will the ones that companies buy up in the thousands.

Interesting random thought: if these things support multitouch, how will the screen fare in terms of greasy finger marks? I had reason to use both a Fujitsu tablet and a touchscreen laptop back in 2002, and the smearing across the screen was the most annoying thing, especially as compared to a phone screen, you look far more closely and intently at a computer screen. Back then, both machines came with a stylus, but for multitouch a stylus is not practical so greasy dirty fingers will be the tool of choice...

@Publisher's viewpoint @A friggin' fridge magnet

In David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series of space opera (yes, a copy of Forester's "Horatio Hornblower" but set in space), the hardback copies of each book come with a CD with the complete series in ebook format, and several chapters of all of the books are available to read on the website of the publsher, Baen. This gives an incentive to spend the significantly larger amount of money for buying the hardback book as compared to the paperback, and I actually enjoy the series so much that I have paper copies of all of them, as well as ebook copies...

@Darren Lovell

Any plethora of patent squatters would and seem to do!

Forgive my lack of knowledge...

But WTF is this facial recognition software meant to be used for? If I'm chatting to someone I don't want to see only their face, be it for the "other" kind of chat or not. If I'm chatting to my mate across the world, then his wife and kid will be somewhere in frame so does it sweep between the three of them? Is this another case of shiny and clever, yet pointless, tech?

Pointless machine

Have to agree that this seems to be a pointless, stupidly overpriced netbook with a gilded finish. Your review compares it to the Macbook Air, whereas I'd compare it to the Vaio TT, with dual core, built in optical drive and every possible gizmo in the world, all in a netbook size.

I also agree with Craig 12 that the complaint about the screen needs to be clarified - the SZ comes with a carbon fibre lid (I think... might be magnesium), and I have picked up a bad habit of carrying mine by the top corner of the screen... which lead to my chunky plastic work HP's screen developing lots of green and blue vertical lines after a year, whereas the Sony screen is still perfect after 3 years. Speaking of screens, the Macbook Air may well have a 1280x800, but that's exactly the same rez as my 10.6 inch Vaio TR from 2004, though it comes with built in DVD burner as well... My last contract at some big telco what sells netbooks saw many folk impressed at the screen the old girl had compared to the shiny new netbooks we were pedalling to the masses!

Cull them all!

I use various ad-block, noscript and block advertisers like doubleclick on all my browsers at home, and on my portable virtual desktop that I take into work (megamonolithiccorp doesn't want me to shove 50 gig of my music onto the work laptop for some reason!), and so I've gotten used to seeing websites as I like them, with only the information I am looking for and as little as possible extra cack. Then I recently had cause to use the work browser, IE6 in all of its glory no less, to do some surfing at *ahem* lunchtime and I was simply shocked at how much advertising some sites have... with El Reg being one of them. For example, some places have a fecking huge banner ad that means to see any meaningful content you need to scroll down a little on every fecking page you go to! That's something that just pisses off any sane user...

DAMN YOU WOODS!!!

Now when I search for Tiger Woods PGA Golf for Playstation as a xmas present, not only will I break this high court injunction and I will be sent to Gitmo to do time beside the Pentagon Hacker and those crazy militant Icelandic volcanic bathing pools of terror fundies, but I will also break numerous extreme pr0n laws that inundate this country, plus probably even bringing back the links will land me with the three strikes rule and my pathetic broadband connection will be cut out from under me, despite the guv'normint wanting broadband to be in every house in the country like electricity and whatnot...

Is that why...?

When you see Sea Harriers landing on the Invincibles they tend to bump down then roll forward a little? Is that to get out from over the recently heated bit of deck?

Anyone check if...

The lawyer/cowboys were working on US time? Maybe they read the article and t'was still the day afore the launch in the US. Notsure how clued up our cousins across the pond are about such things as time differences and whatnot... especially the pondscum that is the law fraternity!

RE: Big Victory for Microsoft

Not sure how you can say Nokia and Sony are Microsoft competitors!

MS = OS

Nokia = handsets, lots of handsets of every make, lots of mobile tech and innovation, tiny bit of OS specialised into phones.

Sony = every electronic thing under the sun, from tellys to robots to laptops, with a spinoff combined with Ericcson to make phones a la Nokia.

Not that much competition there that I can see!!

@John 181 - the 11" 1280x768 display as currently made by Sharp sells for £200 alone! The reason the netbooks are at that ridiculous 1024 rez is as they can use existing, cheap stock of 10" displays shared with other devices. Believe me, I'm in the hunt for a 10" 1280 to fix one of my existing machines and they are not cheap!

It's a notebook

12in notebooks are an existing form factor, and nothing new - the only difference is that it used to be the size that execs would use and it would fit into their swanky leather satchels and that their PA's could carry without breaking an expensive stilletto heel, whereas the rest of us would get a 15in monster. The new thing is that this machine is priced low, whereas the 12in machines of days gone used to be expensive, but then again, the whole notebook pricing scheme has reduced mightily since the advent of the netbook.

@bex

Unfortunately it won't be the geeks buying this, but the sheeple who get ihypnotised by shiny alumnium and white plastic... so it'll be £500x(gullible fools) Q1 next year with the massive rush for the new tablet, then another £700x(rich gullible fools) for the upgraded version Q4 next year...

As a business model I really can't fault Apple! Snake oil still sells!

@asdf

Maybe they did elect Burlesque-coni twice, but we put NuLabour in THREE times! We have no leg to stand on with that kind of comment!

I assume that asdf is from the UK, of course, as any Yank wouldn't get involved about a certain leader getting voted in twice...

@coldfumonkeh

Dude… you need to lay off the caffeine!

And maybe scope the project a bit better rather than giving such a short delivery timescale for what can only seem to be “critical” dev work in the early hours over a weekend!!

Why oh why????

Vaios come with lovely, clear, crisp screens, that will be marred by greasy, dirty finger marks!! I remember using touchscreen ruggidised laptops 8 years ago and they came with big, thick screens and low resolution that still managed to get annoyingly filthy with repeated use... and the touchscreen was only a bit of gimmick as it led to moving your hands off touch typing stance, and my arm got tired, not to mention the control was not fine enough for most tasks. Especially compared to the handy little mousepad under your thumbs!

I can see Sony using this gimmick to add a few £$£$ to the cost of the already expensive machines...

That has me thunking...

Has Nessie turned up on Google Earth? Or even better, a pixellated face of Nessie of LochView?

@Adam T

The iPod bundling comment was a joke – which in retrospect is a bit of a topical comment...

In answer to your first post, though I accept your arguments about the market driven business and exclusivity, this is part of what I mean when saying that iTunes in conjunction with the iPod, which it is undeniably linked to as per your own argument, forms the de facto monopoly! What you say about the free DVD is irrelevant as neither the Daily Mail nor The Independent have that 70% market share that iTunes has. In terms of a free market, all is well until you have a commanding position, then the authorities come in and stamp on you for your success, with anti-competition laws and that kind of stuff, which behaviour like this from Apple will only accelerate – I think maybe they should have quietly asked Palm to cease and desist, and offered them a slice of the action for a price, rather than arbitrarily cutting off the access.

And no, I do not think Palm are in the right here, far from it, but I do think Apple’s actions could have been better managed to portray less of the bullying monopolist using dominant market share and position to force rivals out. That’s the kind of behaviour that got MS in all kinds of poo…

RE: About time

Agreed– the standard 1024x600 is just too piddly to be useful, but I can see this new directive from the Wintel overlords to be another excuse for the manufacturers to pump the price up a bit. The standard netbook screen is relatively cheap, but from personal experience, a 1280x800 10” screen is over £200…

I wonder how much business the Celeron (rebranded as Pentium?) machines have lost out to Atom powered machines… that would be an interesting statistic. If such a thing can actually exist.

@James Goddard

I believe that HMS Ocean was so cheap due to her design being based upon commercial, not military, standards, which led to some compromises like her top speed of 18 knots, painfully slow for a warship. Also, she lacks the ability to operate Harriers like the Invincibles can, being limited to helicopters, as she was designed for that role. That having been said, a few more of her class would be useful as she suits her role superbly, but if she had to operate in hostiles seas, she'd definitely need some proper carriers to cover her!

@Jolyon Smith

Ahhh... my first virus... I still remember it well: rainbow coloured writing bouncing across the screen, pronouncing that "Something wonderful has happened... Your Amiga is alive!".

Reminded me of Wizball for some reason!

@Ted Treen

I find it generally livens my day up, as without a little panic I am usually on the verge of sleep for most of the afternoon in the office. A quick spillage really gets the adrenaline pumping as the muscles kick into action in a bullet-time-esque sequence of tearing laptop off its docking station and the fumbling around the release latch, while ignoring scalding hot tea streaming off the keyboard, and the laughter of the so-called team mates I am sat with.

Ahhh... to be back in the halcyon days of using that old waterproof Itronix Go-Book which was up to milspec...

RE: TV Screen

AC, would you happen to have the part number of this screen available? I’ve busted a 10.6 inch Vaio subnotebook screen and can’t be bothered spanking £250 for a replacement, and would be happy to downgrade from the 1280x768 part to one with lower resolution to get the thing up and running… even with gaffer tape around the screen for the 0.5 inch drop in size…

@Joe Ragosta

In related news, heroin users have the highest drug satisfaction and reliability of ANY drug users out there as well...

Not a swipe at Apple per se (though I have no love of the company and my mate's week old Macbook Pro is a lovely paperweight pending a visit to the genius bar), but rather the company I work for, who troop out this line all the time. All it shows is that you can create enough branding and cult status that you can delude your users into loving you!

Vs Korean Navy

It’s a bit worse than that I’m afraid – ROKS Sejong The Great has greater VLS capacity than the Burkes, as well as the Japanese Kongo class (128 vs 96), has 16 Harpoons as well as Goalkeeper CIWS and RAM missiles, with which the US Navy are replacing Phalanx with. She was launched in 2007 and commissioned into service in 2008, passing her weapons testing phase ahead of time! Basically, South Korea built her to the Burke template in a local yard using local skills but using readily available, existing components, mostly from the US (including the BAE gun!). Unlike the UK, the Korean government had a role and a capability gap they wanted to fill and did something about it, all at the cost of about $923 million apiece!

What I don’t understand is the fascination with being independent of the US, when at the same time the Royal Navy retired the Sea Harrier citing that they would be operating under the protection of friendly airpower – neglecting the point that if an Invincible class carrier is needed in an operation, then surely land based aircraft are unavailable (otherwise why need a carrier?) so there must be a US carrier handy and indeed working with the UK (I’m discounting the Indian, Spanish and other carrier-operating countries as they each only have one Invincible sized “sea control ship”).

It seems that everyone in government has forgotten the Falklands campaign, when those nice allies forgot to lend us a supercarrier…

RE: The thing is (AC 16/06/09 08:58)

I think the real turning point will be when people can run Penguin equivalent applications instead of their Windows applications natively, rather than needing an emulator like Wine. By this I mean they need to be as diverse and feature rich as the established Windows applications, with a wide choice that is easy to get to and to install and run, all of which goes back to education of the masses, not the geeky percentage of users represented by the readers here.

One way would be the Apple way, where they supply the rich applications for you, but they have the advantage of providing a single example of an OS, rather than the dozens of distros out there, which could and do change rapidly year after year in their point releases, but then the likes of Canonical need to upskill into those areas or partner with development firms in those areas, all of which costs. The other way is the Windows way where other firms create these applications for the user, but to entice them into it, they will need to charge money for the applications, which the user then balks at (human nature being what it is) as the OS was free and has an application that does a fair-to-poor job at working like that application, which then diminishes the value of the OS in the user’s mind.

@all the Elsie bashers

Fair comment from Elsie I think – don’t really get the point of this app! It’s only useful to people in and around the south-east who really, really care about things like this. For the rest of us, you do the usual check on the website for the estimated maximum journey time, add half an hour as we know the website lies, then go to the station and wait the 2 minutes for the next train, which magically transforms into 5 minutes. This is assuming the line is running on that particular day, and the staff have decided they are coming to work rather than taking an unanticipated “wildcat” strike.

My daily commute is 24 minutes according to TFL… It took 15 this morning, but can take 45 or more, and that is with no reported delays on the lines, just because the train stops at every place for an extra couple of minutes, and maybe stops outside a few stations for a minute or two, or they need to “even out the times between trains”. I dislike being late for work, but it’s a sign of general acceptance that I can rock up an hour late and mutter about tube problems and the boss just grins at my misfortune and doesn’t say anything!!

The manufacturers are in on it too

Remember that they make better money from the more expensive machines they sell, so I find it hard to believe that they don't have the same goal as MS in pushing the price up so they get a bigger profit per machine, or people just go "Fsck it" and spend the extra 200 on getting a proper laptop with a proper processor and proper screen and proper outputs.

The difference is MS is already the big bad wolf stealing money due to their superior market position, so the manufacturers out there can point fingers and get away with it. I find it humourous that people are whinging about MS's role in inflating prices when it is the manufacturers who are building bigger and bigger machines costing more and more, whereas the fscking MS tax remains a constant rather than a variable markup addition to the price.

That's capitalism that is...

@Bad Beaver

“Now looking at this issue with the realist's goggles on — who will be really affected by this?”

I prefer to take the battery out when opening up the machine to give it a clean – y’know, blow the dust out and stuff like that. I also like to take it out when doing stuff like swapping RAM out and I hit the brown note the last time I forgot to remove the battery pack and sparks and smoke appeared when I accidentally shorted across something. More recently, I popped the batteries out of both machines when my colleague knocked his cup of tea over and it tsunami’d over my laptop and phone…

@AC

F*** me rigid - you are right and I owe you, along with Hewlett-Packard, an apology!

The Pavilion does take a Memory Stick/Pro, which I hadn't noticed before... of course I didn't have any Sony removeable media until much more recently so it wasn't a problem, just a little more troublesome that my Vaio didn't have a native slot for the SD from my camera.

Of course, someone may well point out that my blind spot missed one on the TR5 as well!!

@AC ;-)

Bloody took one of you long enough to notice that one!

I don't use my real name because my client happens to be one that appears on these pages rather a lot, though not in this story, and I'd rather not express opinions about the client in the clear as it were, as I like getting my obviously ridiculously overpaid ££££ a month.

Why shit on your own doorstep?