The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

* Posts by Chris 35

22 posts • joined Wednesday 5th August 2009 21:10 GMT

Posted in Russian rumor: Microsoft to buy Nokia for $30bn
Chris 35
Reply Icon

Customers...

The frightening thing is that your second point is actually true in most cases. There are more heavily advertised products that succeed than there are heavily advertised products that fail regardless of how good they actually are.

Posted in Diary of a Not-spot: One man's heroic struggle for broadband
Chris 35
Pint

Kudos to you sir!

That has got to be the most entertaining and well-written story that I've read in ages.

I take my hat off to you!

Posted in iPhone users get more sex than Android fans
Chris 35
Thumb Up
Reply Icon

RE: Where to start?

I was going to say exactly the same thing that you did in point 3.

How can they correlate it with owning an iPhone unless they travelled back in time and started handing them out in 1996?

Posted in Feds admit storing pervscanner pics
Chris 35
Reply Icon

Flying piggy! .....

with handcuffs :D

Posted in Solar plasma aurora storm to hit Earth tomorrow today!
Chris 35
Coffee/keyboard
Reply Icon

title

classic

Posted in Yorks cops charge Segway rider under 1835 road law
Chris 35

Cycling on the pavement

I frequently cycle on the pavements on my daily commute of 3(ish) miles as some of the roads are too dangerous for a cyclist averaging 15mph - in fact, some of the cycle paths have been removed from the roads and placed onto the pavements.

I have seen plenty of coppers and the most they've ever done is raise a hand to wave good morning/evening to me.

I think the main reason why they've never said anything is that I have reflectors and lights on my bike and I am wearing a high-visiblity coat and cycle helmet.

I think that this goes a bit further into the territory of antisocial behaviour than the article suggests.

Posted in Gulf spill to annihilate all earthlings, says seer
Chris 35
Boffin

@heyrick

Classic Pratchett.

There were 4 in Good Omens (Death, War, Famine and Pollution - Pestilence had wandered off somewhere in 1936 muttering something about penicillin). However, if you read Thief of Time, you'll find that there was originally five - Kaos (now rebranded Chaos).

In the post though, it is mentioned that the fourth is apparently on holiday at the mo.

Posted in Apple denies iPhone 4 antenna glitch, blames inaccurate signal bars
Chris 35
Reply Icon

3G outside London

I live in Ipswich and a friend of mine lives in deepest Northamptonshire. We're both on O2 and the 3G reception is very good in both areas.

Posted in Secret ancient code, basis of all modern civilisation, cracked
Chris 35
Reply Icon

@AC

The biggest problem that you are referring to isn't the reconciliation of religion and science, it's the ability of people who take the bible as literal truth rather than a foundation set of morals by which they should live their lives to grasp anything which involves a bit of thought and reasoning.

The end argument that solves everything is this:

The bible was wriiten by a man. Man is inherently flawed.

To cover all bases, believe everything that has been scientifically proven and put it in the box that holds everything that is in His grand plan.

I.e. Evolution: He created the concept and set it in motion. Man was just too primitive to understand this so created stories to give his own existance meaning and substance.

Before you start the downvotes, I am, have always been, and probably always will be an atheist. I am just smart enough to see that the two sides of the coin aren't really facing in different directions.

Posted in Southpaws up in arms over iPhone 4
Chris 35
FAIL
Reply Icon

You've missed the point...

Holding a knife and fork "the right-handed way" means holding your knife in your right hand. A left-handed person will have greater dexterity in their left hand hence the inclusion in his post.

The rest seems to be less about you missing the point and more about you just wanting to shout.

Good luck with that.

Posted in Venus home to lost cities left by long-dead aliens, says ESA
Chris 35
Reply Icon

Copyright?

I'm sure I've read a couple of short sci-fi stories that follow that plot almost to the letter.

Posted in Google vanishes Android apps from citizen phones
Chris 35
Thumb Up
Reply Icon

Re: Arguably...

That was going to be what I researched before commenting. Is the vetting process with Android as strict and scrutinising as it is with Apple?

I completely agree with you.

Posted in iPhone 4 fever takes hold. Again
Chris 35
FAIL
Reply Icon

If you looked through his previous posts...

You'd see that he doesn't just slate Apple

Posted in Lone workers will like being tracked, says Orange
Chris 35
Reply Icon

mobile security =

No, it's not anything like cash and valuables in transit, it's more like, drive to a site, do a patrol, write a report, drive to another site and repeat etc... We also have to do alarm response which means going to sites that can be in the middle of nowhere, finding out what caused the alarm, phoning the police if necessary, phoning the alarm company, fixing the alarm and resetting it etc...

If someone were to nick the car then yeah, the company would be able to track it and they would have a lot of keys to a lot of sites in there with them but none of them are named so they probably wouldn't know where any of them were in the first place let alone being able to get in.

No panic buttons. They're of a mind that if you're in trouble, i.e. getting battered senseless, you can ring them with the company mobile phone... Um... Yeah, about that. More often than not, we're in signal dead zones and you'd still have to rely on the thugs allowing you the time and space (and arms) to phone up your controller. Also panic buttons for the drivers equals a greater outspend and it still surprises me after three years just how tight companies can be.

Posted in Lone workers will like being tracked, says Orange
Chris 35
Megaphone

GPS is good...

as long as someone is actively monitoring it or a system is in place that can recognise unusual behaviour and automatically notify someone.

My employer has GPS installed in all of our vehicles (mobile security) and they claim that it is for our own safety. It's really so that they can tell their clients that "Yes, our driver was definitely on your site at 0600 hours on this or that day and LOOK! We have proof!" Oh, it also means that they tell us off if we break any speed limits too much.

The biggest joke is this: The system isn't monitored, doesn't have any automatics, and only gets glanced at once or twice a week unless something goes wrong.

It's also crap: I went past a speed camera (30mph zone) at 28mph about 18-20 months ago. The camera flashed me (still don't know why to this day) and I got worried that I was going to get a ticket. I asked my boss for a 10 second report of the exact time and date that it happened and was told that "The system isn't that accurate. You should have been more careful." I later asked someone a bit more helpful and they confirmed this to the point of showing me just how detailed it is - start point, end point, distance travelled, max speed, average speed, time spent idling and time spent moving. Oh yeah, we're at the cutting edge here!

Posted in iPad queues worldwide
Chris 35
Reply Icon

The sad truth...

...is that I don't manage to look through the comments as often as I would like but I do understand what it is like (my comment was intended more as an ironic statement to see how many downvotes in 24 hours I could get). It is pathetic that people won't open their eyes and try to see the other side of things but there always will be a fair majority that believe all of the propaganda that is thrown at them.

(The downvote wasn't me by the way...)

Posted in iPad queues worldwide
Chris 35
FAIL

How many of the downvotes

have been the same Apple fanboi with a grudge against anybody with differing views?

Was listening to BBC Radio1 at about 5 this morning and the DJ called everyone who was in a queue for one of these "a nerd."

Hmm... Out of all of the people who are going to buy one of these (whether they were in the all-night-queues or not) would be actual nerds?

I for one will stick with my linux-running laptop thanks.

Posted in BOFH: On the couch
Chris 35
Pint

Hmmm... Honesty?

Right next to the security office? I'm wondering when the whole building will "mysteriously" collapse, silencing everyone inside. Cue the relevant lawsuits from Simon and the PFY, insurance claims etc...

Posted in Adobe man to Apple: 'Go screw yourself'
Chris 35
Coat

Time will tell.

No comments here about Adobe or Apple products.

Only this:

The products that people believe are the most important (and it could be a hung parliament on this) are the ones that will profit.

The silly thing is that the two companies aren't really in direct competition and to lose support on a tiny, plastic, metal and glass "toy what also does phoning people" isn't really that big a deal. Is it? Apple certainly don't seem to think so.

Mine's the one with the "I'm bored of people arguing" design on the back.

Posted in Firefox-based attack wreaks havoc on IRC users
Chris 35
WTF?
Reply Icon

@jake

QUOTE

Uh ... John, telnet is a different protocol to IRC.

telnet, ostensibly port 23, is a machine connection protocol. See RFC 854, née RFC 15.

IRC, originally port 194, now usually found around port 6667, is a human (ASCII text) communications protocol. See RFC 1459 (and/or RFC 2810 et alia, for you new-agers).

/QUOTE

Uh... Jake, have you tried connecting to a non-telnet port using telnet? It's dead easy! You can also reply with expected IRC(X) commands and parameters to an IRC(X) server!

It's all well and good you spouting RFCs at people but if you actually look at what they're typing rather than trying to be clever you might just see the point that they're trying to make and instead of calling them dumb you can ADD to their knowledge and information with your OPINION as that is what all of this is... Opinion.

Posted in MoD pays quadruple in money + blood for Afghan helicopters
Chris 35
FAIL

Sorry Mr. Brown

You're not going to be around to make a headline grab for saving us from this government-engineered crisis.

Posted in X-51 ordinary-fuel scramjet to fly in December
Chris 35

@Ian

I agree but you've got to look at the other side of the coin: Russia has announced plans to land people on Mars (a little while yet to go but they have plans). This could just be the opening gambit for another space race.