Posts by Old Tom
93 posts • joined Tuesday 3rd March 2009 18:19 GMT
'expiration'
Please never use this abomination of a word again. El Reg is not a Toys'R'Us receipt.
Posted in Sony: Walkman, meet Android
Re: I think not.
Had a Samsung phone years ago, utter cack, then a couple of months later utterly dead cack.
Samsung are, I hear, doing rather well in phones now.
Re: Red means danger
Michelle,
Are you into Feng Shui as well? Seriously, you will avoid this range because they're branded red?
Though, I guess I wouldn't want to drink Red Bull or Watney's Red Barrel - so maybe you're right.
Re: Triple-negative?
No, it means "just because you consent to a website remembering your details once, it does not mean that in the future you may not wish to visit that site again anonymously"
Or... Even though on one visit you consent to a website remembering your details, at a later date you may want to visit the site anonymously.
e.g. Maybe I'm happy for a retailer to recognise who I am when I visit their site. But maybe one time I go there for a peek at dildos, or iProducts - on this occasion I might want to be anonymous for that visit.
Age of majority
And what's the point of the annoying confirm/pretend that you're of booze-purchasing age in the country you're in before a drink-related website will let you in?
More on-topic:
Why do these filters cut out drink-related sites? You can drink in the UK when you're 5 years old. Also, you have to get past the confirm/pretend your age page anyway!
Why do they cut out the lottery (as mentioned above)? You can do the lottery at age 16.
I can understand an optional hard pron and jihadi murder filter (if it was possible to make it work, which I doubt), but you should be able to pick which vices are included.
Posted in GM puts the brake on Volt e-car output
Monday morning brain hiccup?
Re: Danny14
Is there a litres vs [Imperial] gallons mix-up in your post? I just have my doubts that your Ford SMax and/or Focus do more than 44 miles on £1.56 worth of petrol/diesel.
Posted in Melting Arctic leads to snowy winters
Snowy winters?
We had much more snow than this when I was a boy.
Re: You carry your birth date around with you?
OK, so as someone who never carries ID around with me, I'm in a minority of ElReg commentards.
However, stats from the first 10 thumbs (1 up and 9 down) plus myself imply that - based on a sample of 11 commentards - a massive 82% carry their birthdate around in their wallet. Somewhat short of the claimed 99+%.
You carry your birth date around with you?
"over 99 per cent of customers reported that their birth date is listed somewhere in the wallet or purse where they keep their cards"
That has to be one of the most bollox statistics ever.
That won't work
Unless your rocket engine is on giant pylons that reach into space - the rocket engine will push one way, while the exhaust gasses will push the other way, leaving you with no nett effect.
Re: Daylight savings
I pray those Kentish folk who want us to permanently pretend it's an hour or two later than it is never get their way. How the hell will I feel like getting out of bed on a winter morning if it doesn't get light until half past nine?
Posted in Netflix goes live in Blighty
Sign out of Facebook
Seems that if you're logged into Facebook, then you don't see the non-facebook option.
If you're not logged in, then you do see the non-Facebook option.
yes, but...
Any driver who studies a map before driving somewhere unfamiliar will have come across situations where the road signs route you the way the council wants you to go rather than the route which is (to you) best for your journey.
Many of the coming reclassifications will be aimed at reinforcing this type of non-optimal routing of non-locals.
These efforts to manage you for their benefit may be nullified by satnavs, so the powers that be want to feed their preference for the way you go into your satnav.
(I don't care, I don't use satnav; I study the (Google) map before setting out, taking a streetview look at key nodes so I know where I'm going.)
Posted in Ice Cream Sandwich
@Kristian Walsh
Thank you for introducing "skeuomorph" to my vocabulary.
(I scanned past the original - it was embedded in a large unattractive paragraph.)
Omitted? You must have skipped that bit
"I have researched and had confirmed by a source at AT&T that they get info on app usage ..."
So you didn't read the bit where he said "We have others . . . where they get an upload once a day that will contain information about what applications you've been using."
My car is not a status symbol
"The problem is, that in the west a car is a status symbol..."
For a small minority maybe, but for me, my car is merely a practical device - it's no more a status symbol than my washing machine. I have a washing machine because it's crap for all sorts of reasons to have to go to the laundry; I have a car so I can go shopping, visit friends/relatives, go to the football, go on holiday, go to the tip, go to obscure places, take my family to the beach, get to work, etc., etc., etc.
Posted in Asda 'geekend' offers are for the birds
Do they deliver trans-Atlantic?
"Asda ... is a subsidiary of Walmart, the American monster retailer"
You just can't buy a monster over here for love nor money.
When I was a 'victim' of fraudullent card credential use
i.e. not identity theft - the actual victim was the retailer. I rang the card issuer and probably signed a form, the card issuer charged the retailer. I think that's how it usually works*.
*Other than the time my company card credentials bought something from what sounded like an S&M retailer. The bank wasn't interested, and I don't think our accountant could be arsed to chase them up about it.
Stupid Twunt
" "This is actually a really bizarre step from the Swedish court – he’s found guilty because he can’t defend himself,” Sunde told TorrentFreak. "
"can't defend himself" - you mean he's buggered off to evade the consequences of his actions; he dare not appear in court and account for himself / argue his case. Nothing bizarre at all, you can't expect the justice system to let you off because you abscond.
Posted in Dyson spouts hot air
Yes
Yes, the cold air sucked in will cool the just-heated air - and in the process becomes less cold (i.e. hotter) itself, thus raising the temperature of the air in the room.
Posted in JP Morgan has a Playmobil moment
They don't just use Euros...
...they issue euros.
Like the fiver in your pocket is an IOU from the Bank of England, an Italian Euro is an IOU from the Italian state. If the Italian state defaults, then its IOUs won't be worth what they say they are; but an Italian Euro is interchangeable with a German Euro - so if I have an Italian Euro, I'll swap it for a German Euro, then I have an IOU from the Bundesbank. See what I did there? - the other Euro states then have to pay Italian debts.
Something like that, IANAE.
The ECJ will stop them in the end...
..as they did in 2001 when Levi stopped Tesco and Costco from selling Levi jeans at fair prices. Same as when Sony stopped Lik Sang from selling PSPs to Europe.
European trademark law allows a trademark owner to prevent grey imports.
I declare it void due to poor spelling
It refers to 'compact disks' [sic] and 'writeable compact disk (CD)' [sic]. Such crass mistakes should always render such documents null and void.
Apart from that, the entire document seems to consist of incoherent waffle.
Session cookies
So I can't go <?php session_start(); ?> without asking first?
Therefore, I have to have a separate page with an 'accept cookies?' dialogue before I can send the visitor to the page they wanted. What if they type in the url of a page that uses sessions?
I see the ICO didn't do that, they created the session cookie anyway.
Quickly disabled
Too much performance hit.
No teabags; no milk; no adjuncts
Just put the loose tea/leaves in the cup, pour on boiling water. Same applies to black/green/oolong/longjing*/whatever.
*with longjing, just add more water once drunk for a second brew
PS. Kudos to your cleaner, that's all amazingly clean, no hint of spilled sugar/water/milk/tea. Even the toaster is looking polished.
Boyf?
'Boyf' wtf?
Lazy Sony poking?
But Sony appear to be heavily involved in this - the Chief Technology Officer of Sony Pictures - Mitch Singer - is also President of the DECE.
R116- you may be right about Sonicstage, but that's history; if we're including history, don't forget Sony vs Universal over Betamax.
Dazzza - "one of the many reasons Sony pushed BD so much was because it was theirs" - err, yes. don't you think that's logical?
Posted in Groundhog day: more Sony breaches
Different companies
SCE, SOE, Sony Ericsson, Sony Music are a disparate bunch of companies owned (or half-owned) by Sony Corporation. (Q. Were SCE sites ever hacked - or was the intrusion through PSN?)
I'd be amazed if their sites were remotely similar. Surely SPE or SCA would have had an intrusion by now, especially the former as they're a content provider and all content should be free?
Has nobody attacked Sony Life or Sony Bank yet? Maybe the script kiddies have never heard of them.
Posted in Sony BMG Greece hacked
Bertelsmann?
Bertelsmann sold their shares in Sony BMG a couple of years ago. There is no Sony BMG Greece.
How do I check?
If I want to repeat on a blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc something I've heard from a plausible source, then how do I find out whether there's an injunction against it? I'm not a journo or media type and the courts would have no reason to contact me when new injunctions are taken out.
Can I write to the court asking whether there's an injunction covering each particular snippet of information I may have?
Maybe it would be easier if they published a list?
Re: Uhm no...
If the Daily Mail report is right and the Attorney General has vowed to have McKinnon "held accountable for the crimes that he committed", then that would just not be acceptable in the UK.
Such a statement may even have made a trial in the UK impossible - you just can't make assertions like that. If that was said during a trial here, it would probably cause the case to collapse; the judge would order an acquittal and probably haul whoever said that into court for contempt.
Maybe you can prejudice trials like that in the US, but certainly not in the UK.
Posted in Wind power: Even worse than you thought
Where's your stats?
I'd love to see your figures on Orkney and Lewis.
Looking at figures for April '09 to March '10, the best utilisation I can find in Scotland are Thorfinn and Northfield in the Orkneys which exceed 40%, Burradale in Shetland approaches 50%, and Bruxiehill managed 50.41% in its first 2 months with its .8MW plant. The latter was the only site in the UK to exceed 50% over that period.
http://www.clowd.org.uk/Downloads/UK%20Renewable%20Energy%20Generation/2009/UK%20Renewable%20Generation%20Summary%20Compliance%20April%202009%20to%20March%202010.pdf
Ticketmaster
The RFU site directs you to Ticketmaster where you can buy tickets for, say, England XV v Barbarians:
A £40.00 ticket costs £43.20
A £25.00 ticket costs £27.25
Now, who's selling tickets above face value?
R U confusing 1995 & 2005
Who mentioned 1995? You admit there's been internet phones since 1996. This patent was filed in 2005.
Solutions, not ideas
Patents should be about solutions, not ideas.
Anyway, H-W Technology have not come up with a great idea, they've merely stated both what was already happening and what was clear to a doughnut what was in the process of happening.
Oh, and please use proper words - so u (sic) Dont (sic) loof so daft ??
Posted in Osborne promises 'Budget for growth'
Simple
Low interest rates encourage more spending. More spending can lead to inflation. Raising interest rates leads to less spending. Less spending puts pressure on prices, leading to lower inflation.
Interest rates below inflation lead to raised spending through lower savings (might as well blow your rainy-day stash, it's falling in value) and higher personal debt (might as well borrow to buy, 'I'll pay back less in real terms later on').
Lower savings - bad - personal savings reduce demand for handouts later on.
Higher personal debt - bad - this is ultimately what took the banks down.
There is interconnection...
... using back-to-back high Voltage DC (HVDC) converters maybe not enough capacity (total capacity is 1.5GW - according to Wikipedia...)
The Welsh have a Q17
It's about their language.
They left it blank for England so that the question numbers stayed in step.
Android users
Download Opera browser. Job done.
Prosecute The British Library!
I bet they've got copies of these books.
Posted in Census threatens spies' cover
They ask for much more information nowadays
The old censuses just collected Name, Relation to head of household, Marital status, Sex, Age, Occupation, Place of Birth, and whether you're one of Deaf-and-Dumb/Blind/Imbecile or Idiot/Lunatic.
Posted in BBC iPlayer iPad app out this week
This Week
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/02/bbc_iplayer_apps_coming_soon_t.html
It's just that some media are only reporting iPad and not Android. The Telegraph managed to mention both. Shame on El Reg for the omission - or maybe it was a deliberate Troll-ploy?
Glad I spent time avoiding giving them CC details this morning
Created my account by trying to download a free app from the app store - this gives you the 'none' option for payment method. Creating an account from iTunes does not give you the 'none' option.
Flash advertising
"But it's also worth pointing out that Flash is a ridiculously popular advertising technology."
Flash ads are the ones I don't see - I don't use AdBlock as I don't mind static banner ads or even animate gifs; I do use FlashBlock though as I do mind manic ads, especially ones that stream video.
Staff, not just players
Non-playing staff at Man U were instructed to remove from Facebook any photographs of them where they were wearing United kit.
