Posts by Bod

Spend more

The higher priced Samsungs have dual core and quad core is coming (and available to some models as a plug in upgrade).

Got a dual core in mine and it's reasonable speed for what it is. Remote entry for text is still a pain, but that's not what Smart TV is for. It's select and click (or gestures on the fancy ones).

Quite happy with mine, and I'm surprised I'm getting regular updates. That the app updates only occur when you launch them is a little niggle but happy they have them (apart from Red Bull TV which still doesn't have a fix to the annoying audio stutter on their live TV feed). Also happy that there are newer apps coming along.

UI on the latest is relatively clean if annoyingly populated with "social" guff in parts.

The really rubbish bit however is the DLNA interface. It finds the servers okay but then it's a clunky interface of folders and cryptic names. Then again it's arguably the DLNA server at fault. Hence the likes of Plex to make them more informative, but then they've also gone and made an app for Smart TV anyway (not available on all Samsung models yet).

Re: An inspiration

Wow. Used to mess about with GAC loads on the BBC. Wrote some truly rubbish games and even thought at 14 my game may have been cool enough for Level 9 so sent it to them. They did reply but just said thanks for the effort but they couldn't load the thing. Probably a good thing!

Did write a game with it for a school project though. No one actually played it but got top marks for the effort.

Re: Android fragmentation is logarithmic

That's 350 Miiiiiiillion dollars, mwa! ha! ha! ha!

Devs

Usually you're under pressure to "just get it done" no matter what.

Not that a dev is a lawyer or has the time to plough through patent databases before writing each line of code. I was never taught to look at patents in my entire career as a software developer. Though it's an obvious thing to consider as part of the project as a whole it was also originally the case that patents were just for crazy haired inventors building something physical and solid in their shed and needed to protect their idea.

Re: One small issue...

Orange app I think is tied to BT Openzone, but I refuse to install it on Android as the reviews are terrible. Again seems to mess up your existing network settings, has problems when dropping out of range and getting back onto 3G etc.

I just use their login pages if I really want to leak all my private data to an open public hotspot, though 9 times out of 10 I find public hotspots suck. Can log in but pages are slow to load or time out often.

3G is easier and in some cases quicker and finding a 3G signal is far easier than trying to find the one genuine BT Openzone hotspot in town as all the other BT ones are those stupid FON things.

Re: "Micro$oft"

Appl€, Micro$osft, $amsung... all not true these days. It's Lawyer$ and U$PTO.

Re: Less stuff for idiots to f$%k up

Have to say when it comes to dealing with friends/family who've messed up their PCs, I welcome a restricted box for them where they can do no damage but are given enough to do what they want.

Linux is not the option for them, still easy to get into a mess or they want to install something and it's a nightmare of scripts and command lines (or got forbid recompiling the kernel!). Yeah they have app store kind of things now but they're generally rubbish and don't contain the apps they want, and the Freetard nature of some distributions prevents them easily installing a proprietary or commercial package without a million lines of instructions, installing dependent components that don't exist on their distribution.

Android on the desktop only really exists in tablet form and many want a proper and more beefy desktop for their purposes.

Apple stuff... too expensive for them.

If Microsoft offer the Apple approach at a fraction of the price, walled garden and all, then I'd be recommending them. Likewise for a phone I'd recommend a Windows Phone to someone who can't deal with a phone that let's them get into a right mess (Android). Myself I'd still buy Android to mess about with (wish Symbian still had a life though).

Re: No such thing as UV DVD

"Why bother with the hassle of creating accounts and drm when I can easily rip the film onto my media centre pc or just download it from a less than reputable place if I'm feeling extra lazy. Then I've got a easy to use front-end to all my media without having to dig through a bunch of dvd/bluray boxes."

Because this is the step towards not shipping physical optical discs at all so you'll have nothing to rip, and the less reputable sources are being steadily killed off or at least there are more means to finding you and sending you a bill for using them.

I'm all for ripping my own content and storing on my NAS as I often do rather than download, but there will come a time when it's all download, and it's sooner rather than later. Even sadly at the cost of quality. We've seen it with music. Broadband speeds are on average high enough, even in rural zones, to download a movie at least overnight quicker than the speed of an Amazon delivery, and in many cases far quicker.

So by providing the option with the shiny disc you buy more will accept the innevitable.

Re: @SuccessCase "a perfectly acceptable trade-off to get such a good camera on a phone.."

"You're not supposed to do that; not with a phone, nor with a professional camera. You need to either shield the lens (the pro camera has gadgets for this, but your hand will do) or not have a light source in that position"

You can if you want the light source in the frame, perhaps even with a lens flare. There are millions of such photos - professional.

What is going on with the iPhone 5 is not lens flare, is sensor blooming. Flare would be okay and is sometimes artistic. Bright purple blooming is the sensor being over saturated and overloaded, resulting in a blooming effect on surrounding sensor cells. Common to all sensors but most cameras these days, even small ones, have some compensation for it, usually including coating on the lens that filters out unwanted light frequencies that can cause these effects on sensors. Some cheap cameras have a similar effect that the iPhone 5 shows but they are the £20 kind.

Frankly, "to be expected" is a lame excuse from Apple as they are supposed to be striving for perfection and this is not perfection. Like Maps I wouldn't have though Steve would accept this. He'd rather stick with the previous generation of camera until they get it right. In the case of Maps and the war on Google, he'd even go as far as remove Maps entirely than have a crap Maps or Google's Maps.

Re: Grace Jones

Admirable but scary woman, both on film and seemingly in real life. I think she put in a decent enough job for a Bond film though and made a nice difference from the usual Bond henchmen & women.

There were various things in here that were dragging Bond finally out of the 60s & 70s, and some cracking dramatic scenes and score (the fire at the city hall and susequent fire truck chase, well shot and complete with orchestral Duran Duran theme!).

Also features an early snowboarding sequence that has been argued to have kickstarted the whole sport.

Add in last appearence from Lois Maxwell and Patrick Macnee, and it's a nice if a little sentimental final flick for Moore.

Re: How did he end up being a candidate for the jury?

Usually if you're a CTO/CEO/Managing Director or whatever you like to call yourself, you generally can get a good excuse to get out of Jury service in the UK.

Few actually relish the opportunity to do it, unless they have a motive of their own.

Re: As punishment

"Exactly right but you missed the part where for the first 2 days you've taken off work, the engineer doesn't even show up"

And where they turn up outside the stated time, several days in a row and then the old classic of turning up on the wrong day and blaming you for not being in!!!

I miss the old NTL days where we had nthellworld. There was a very good reason why it existed.

The company keeps adopting the name of those it buys (CabelTel->NTL->Virgin), but the service is the same old.

Much of the technical problems are still down to the antiquated hybrid fibre coax system used by cable companies that has had digital tv & broadband shoehorned into something designed for analogue cable. HFC at the neighbourhood end is like old thin Ethernet. Remember why that was crap? Well that's why there are so many problems usually down to a connection somewhere else in the neighbourhood (unterminated connections for one!).

Re: Mercenary

Exactly, and while there are a lot of very dedicated permies there are also a lot who see their job status as a guarantee of employement and pay for a reasonable amount of time (the time it takes to go through a lengthy process to prove they are no good and kick them out, or the next round of redundancies - i.e. years, and then you have unfair dismissals, unions and the like to get in the way). The result is they can kick back and do a half arsed effort a lot of the time knowing their mortgage will be paid for a good few years yet.

The downside is they also have to deal with being treated like crap or be looking at a long process to find a better job.

The contractor is an easy hire and easy fire (though if they're good but treat them like crap they'll just be out the door next day anyway and pick up another contract somewhere better).

Re: Why does everybody not just get stuff delivered to work?

I've worked in companies where they dislike people getting stuff delivered to work, and one which had intense security on their goods-in which made it near impossible to get something delivered without a serious amount of hassle. Others the package goes into the system at work and takes a week to get it into your hands or gets given to the wrong person.

Also a lot of orders these days come with no definite delivery day (even if you order next day, it can be unknown if they'll actually ship it out the door that day). Get it delivered to work but you're planning some days off, and no idea when the parcel will arrive. It could end up at work and you're at home those days, but you can't be sure.

If you're temporary staff, part time or freelance, etc. You may not be sure if you'll be in or out of the office.

Just give us an option when ordering things to pick 'deliver to depot' or a handy collection point. Postie/courier doesn't have to attempt a first delivery wasting time and money, we pick up the parcels at our leisure. Just staff a collection point out of office hours.

But currently they won't do this, they'll insist they have to attempt a delivery first, which wastes everyone's time.

Re: New anti trust case please

"use opensource alternatives to Microsoft products throughout the EU - therefore saving costs (and getting a more reliable service in the long run)"

A common held belief by many corporates and the public sector looking to reduce costs, and many of those who try end up with the same or higher costs. Especially if it's one of the many failed or hideously overspent government IT projects that attempted to migrate to "cheaper" open source platforms.

Reliability is highly implementation and support quality dependent. Just being MS software or not is not the key (and it's unfounded anyway), no matter what the subjective opinion on "Micro$oft". There are plenty of unreliable services implemented whatever the platform.

Still, if we're talking anti-trust, then perhaps the money should be spent kitting everyone with Apple products. After all they don't force their browser on you do they?... oh wait ;)

2nd cars

The world's environment isn't going to be saved by rich folk buying EVs as second cars.

And as reported elsewhere recently, those are exactly the people buying such cars, and given taxpayer's money to do so.

Wealthy middle class liberals feel smug and happy that they're doing their bit for the environment (though I bet their carbon footprint is high in many other areas of their lives), but other than that, EVs are doing absolutely nothing else.

I'm not anti-eco, and would welcome EVs when it's going to work and be practical for everyone, but at present buying one doesn't do the job of boosting the take up of EVs and decreasing the use of poluting cars, but would simply do the job of emptying my bank account (though they are utterly impractical for where I live anyway).

idea patents

"Aren't patents supposed to be limted to the implementation of ideas rather than ideas themselves?"

You'd think so, but then Apple doesn't nor do a lot of patent trolls.