Posts by Lord Elpuss
295 posts • joined Monday 17th August 2009 18:42 GMT
Reminds me of the old joke
Two big game hunters become lost and separated from their vehicle whilst hunting in the veldt. On seeing a large and ferocious looking lion, the hunters take refuge behind a clump of bushes - but the lion sees them and starts to run towards them. One hunter panics, but the other calmly sits down, takes off his hunting boots and starts to put on a pair of sneakers.
The other hunter looks at him in amazement; "What the hell are you doing? You can't outrun a lion!"
The first hunter replies; "I don't need to; I just need to outrun you."
Re: Good idea
I suspect they might be assuming you don't have a touchtone phone[1], rather than disabled...
[1] More recent than you might think; I bought a mobile back in 2008 (an HTC Diamond, if I remember correctly although I could be wrong) that had no option to send DTMF tones during a call. I got rid of the phone very quickly as without DTMF I couldn't listen to voicemails, call the office, get in touch with the bank, etc etc etc. A disastrous design decision.
Despite all their talk of bailiffs and court action they had to admit that their terms and conditions did not actually cover on-line, and asked me not to share this info with other car parkers.
So go on then, share away - let's all have some fun with these chaps; who, where, which parking company?
Re: Appeals process a sham, sherlock
They want to engage you in communication in the hope that you'll say something incriminating (at which point they have a much stronger case than simply pointing the finger).
In their ideal world, you'll reply to their demand for payment with something like:
"Dear whoever,
Although I admit I was in the carpark you mention on the date you mention, it was not my intention to overstay. I simply went into the supermarket and bought my stuff. I went back later in the day to pick up some more stuff.
I don't believe I overstayed and will not pay your stupid fine."
As soon as you've sent that you've given them the missing pieces of the puzzle they need to actually make a case; namely that you were there, you were driving and you accept that their case has merit (even if you're denying it). This seriously weakens your case in court, although even then it's unlikely they'll actually pursue it to court.
By simply ignoring the letters, it's a case of one (private) company against one (private) individual, with no basis in law for one being able to 'fine' the other.
Seconding James's point.
Twat indeed.
Re: Shall we chalk that one up to another Windows security FAIL?
@Eadon and Fatman:
I'm not arguing with the point you make: Windows is quite possibly a horrible disease-riddled mess (I don't use it myself so can't comment with authority on this) but it's not the point of the article; which is about government misspending, idiocy and (possible) corruption because they binned a bunch of new PCs where they could have taken care of the problem much more efficiently.
And Eadon, you say your point is salient; it's only salient in the sense that the word Windows appeared in the article. Aside from that, it has precisely zero relevance. Read the article, then respond.
Re: Shall we chalk that one up to another Windows security FAIL?
Yes by all means blame a story about government misspending and possible corruption on an operating system.
GERMAN GOV'T FAIL?
IDIOTIC, CORRUPT IT TECH SVCS FAIL?
EADON FAIL?
All of the above true. WINDOWS SEC FAIL? Possibly, but massively, hugely beside the point here.
"The iPhone was similarly revolutionary; existing technology packaged in an appealing way by a big corporation. However, it owes a good deal of its success to mobile operators who subsidised the hardware and financed the advertising..."
Uh, no; the iPhone owes a good deal of it's success to the fact that it was a damn good phone. Subsidies may have helped shift the first few thousand units, but after that it was simple market forces (read: knocking the competition out of the park) that assured success for Apple.
In fact it would be more accurate to argue that the iPhone succeeded despite the operator subsidy - which invariably meant locking it to a carrier. John Hodulik from UBS even said as much right before the iPhone launch; and he was speaking on behalf of AT&T.
Posted in Review: BlackBerry Q10
Re: Ooh...
...and replaced it with a touchscreen.
I don't see the problem.
Re: The scum fleecing the dumb
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Fail.
So $600m is already agreed?
So if I read this correctly, the $600m stands, and this new trial is about the other $450m.
So Sammy still gets to bend over and pick up the soap, it's just about whether they let another 450 prisoners into the washroom to join the 600 already there. Or am I misunderstanding something?
Re: telnet
Patronising much?
Re: Under Construction.
No, most people vote you down because usually you're being a dick.
Here, you seem to be quite normal; hence people treat you normally.
Re: smoke and mirror
@Lin78.
Cockroaches? In which building? Please tell me so I can report it to facilities management. Would be a little odd though; I was in 061 week before last (education center, generally regarded as the worst building in RTP) and although it's a little old now, the facilities were clean and well maintained with not a cockroach in sight. Although I spent the majority of the week in and around Hatteras, Roanoke and Chimney Rock, I did have the opportunity to tour most of the facility including 001, 002, 062, 500 and 205 whilst holding breakout sessions. Not a cockroach to be seen, and everybody there seemed to be pretty clean.
There were also stationery cupboards scattered around the place at various intervals; well stocked with all the items you just mentioned. If your building is short a few marker pens or white board markers, I suggest heading over to 061 from 002 (go indoors rather than across the quadrangle), and keep an eye out for the (open) stationery cupboards from which you can borrow if you ask nicely.
Still and all; cockroaches. Wow. In a country with more lawyers (and lawsuits) per capita than any other country in the world, and you haven't thought about filing one regarding your hovel-like work conditions? You must be pretty wealthy, because if there actually WERE cockroaches, you'd make a fortune.
But of course they're the special, shy kind which only come out when nobody's looking.
Re: smoke and mirror
@ samgib
Hmmm... exactly the same complaint as the original poster, a complaint which (a) nobody else has ever heard of, and (b) would be utterly incomprehensible if true (why the hell would any company not give you a monitor if it were *necessary* to do your work? If you just WANT a monitor, and IBM gives you a perfectly good ThinkPad, then that is a different question...)
Oh and then I have a look at your post history, and surprise surprise you've made just this one post, and joined on 25th April 2013.
samgib = Anonymous Coward #69, and I claim my $5.
Re: smoke and mirror
I know many many IBMers from Europe, Asia and the US, and have spent a great deal of time over the last year in IBM locations in Raleigh, NY, Atlanta, San Francisco and Boulder, and have never seen or heard of employees having to buy their own stationery. And given the amount of bitching some of these folks do about everything from the canteen to the color of the walls, if they were forced to buy their own stationery they would have mentioned it.
Also a 'quick search' on IBM union as you mention shows absolutely nothing of the sort.
I call utter bollocks on your post.
And while I'm at it you can BE stationary, but you can't BUY it.
Corrections
Jasper,
A slight correction in your article. "The Cupertino idiot-tax operation..." should read "The Cupertino operation", or preferably just "Apple".
It's a small but important correction, and has the immediate added effect of not making the writer sound like a 12 year old. Unless you are actually 12, in which case good luck; puberty's gonna be a bitch.
"NSA's Information Assurance Directorate"
Love the word 'Directorate'. It sounds so.... KGB.
обеспечения безопасности информации дирекции.
Re: Meh...
Hazarding a guess that the downvote is from the OP :-)
One thing that research critics frequently miss is that whilst a laboratory development may well miss the original objective, it is rarely wasted. It becomes a solution ready and waiting for the right problem to present itself.
Two examples that spring to mind: the accidental development of the post-it note (3M research scientist looking to develop an ultra-strong glue missed the project goal but accidentally invented the post-it), and laser eye surgery (scientist invents ultraviolet laser that appeared to do nothing except cut skin, considered worthless at the time until it was realised that it could be used to reshape corneas with no thermal damage to the surrounding tissue).
Research is never pointless.
Re: So..
Care to explain the downvotes? Not that it's important in the scheme of things, just curious how anybody could find this worth logging in to downvote!!
Re: So..
Classic vicious circle. Without investment it may well never make it to the prototype stage, without a working prototype investment may be hard to come by. If the tech has genuine promise that would be a shame.
Of course now the paper has been published we could just sit back and wait until the Chinese manufacture it...
Re: Meh...
Thank heavens for negativity like yours; I mean without that we might actually be making progress in the world...
Posted in Review: Kobo Arc Android tablet
Re: Pricing clarification
Next time try the Send Corrections link under the article. I just mailed Chris via that link, and he fixed it within 10mins.
4 years
To port Pong to a 20x20 matrix controller??
What did he do with the other 3 years 362 days?
Great article
I'm not a sysadmin, or involved in any way with designing storage (apart from selling it back in my salesman days) - and from a technology standpoint this stuff is way over my head.
Remarkable then that I find this fascinating; Trevor, you have that rare ability to combine technical expertise with an informative writing style. So much so that I now read every article you write, regardless of the topic, on the basis that it will almost certainly be very interesting.
Re: I bought them
Normally I'd agree with you - have 10 smug points. Couple of things which make it a little less simple than you point out though;
1) Most consumer electronics devices these days operate on 100-250vac so there are no compatibility issues. In fact the Hue hub worked fine over here, it's just the lightbulbs that didn't.
2) Where there's likely to be voltage incompatibility, there are typically physical barriers to stop you doing dumb things. Different electrical sockets, different connectors etc. The Philips Hue bulbs are E27 fittings, which fit just fine; so it's a pretty easy mistake to make.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it's a pretty niche problem (how many people transport lightbulbs back and forth between countries?) then I would suggest they do something about the ES lightbulb standard. Make the US screw fittings 5mm shorter than the European ones so that European ones work in the US (albeit half-brightness), but the US ones won't blow up when screwed into a European socket? Easy and effective.
I bought them
...in the USA, because they're a lot cheaper there. Got them back home to Holland, screwed them in, turned on the bridge, turned on the light, and heard only three despairing little peeps followed by absolutely nothing. Ever again.
Checked the wiring, checked the bridge, checked the light sockets (several times) with other lights, checked the app, then finally as a last resort checked the specs to see if I was doing anything wrong.
Voltage range 100-130 volts
Moral of the story; sometimes buying stuff in the States can work out incredibly expensive if you don't read the specs first (and apply a little common sense).
Re: "Jennifer Lopez gets you more Facebook friends than Iron Maiden"
Wow, rocking out. The 80's just called - they want their catchphrase back...
Re: Parrot?
I suspect predictable range is the problem with the AR Drone. You're controlling it with WiFi, so assuming absolutely no interference then 100m max. In an urban environment, using an iPhone to drive it will give you a range more like 30m.
I've had 2 AR drones. The first one was going great then I took off the altitude limiter; it disappeared into the clouds and came back down a couple of minutes later completely out of control. Shouldn't have happened according to Parrot (it's supposed to hang around if it loses the WiFi signal) but in any case it was wrecked.
The second one was fine, and I took some great aerial photos of my house with it, but was far too nervous after losing the first one to let it get more than about 20m from me including vertical.
Did learn something interesting about Parrot's guarantee though; when the first one was destroyed Parrot refused to honour the warranty as it was crash damaged. My argument was that it crashed BECAUSE it lost control and was therefore broken under warranty - but this carried no weight with them. Given that 99% of AR Drones will have been crash damaged at some time in their lives, I wonder if Parrot have ever had to pay out on a warranty claim??
These days when I buy a helicopter or quad I tend to assume it has no warranty the minute I fly it for the first time. Ultimately gives me less heartburn.
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-03-31/
We used to have a Thanks program where you could reward colleagues up to twice a year. The colleague in question got to choose a small gift from an online catalogue. It wasn't the material value of the rewards that counted, but I still remember fondly receiving Thanks awards.
Then they ditched it and replaced it with a 'Send an e-Card to reward your colleague' program. Wasn't even a proper e-card - just an email with Thanks! in the title.
After HR sent the mail saying that Thanks was being discontinued, employee morale took an absolute nosedive. Totally out of proportion to the monetary value of the program - people interpreted it (correctly) as a huge smack in the face and a statement from the company of how much they truly valued the hard work that you did.
I have never sent a Thanks email, nor will I ever. Everybody in my team would see it as a complete insult. If one of my team does a great job, I go down to the liquor store at lunchtime and buy them a bottle of wine - costs $10, and the result is a team that would die for you.
Was tempted to post this anon, but then I realised there's nothing in this post that I wouldn't quite happily say to anybody in company management, face to face, right up to the chairman themselves. One of the most idiotic, counterproductive, shortsighted decisions I've ever seen.
Re: Well About Time
There = their
Re: ha
I on the contrary AM a huge Apple fan. I'd love Apple to come up with a new, innovative iPhone (or iPad) and I'd be the first standing in line to give them my cash.
But the incremental business model they currently have depresses me no end. I was ready to buy the iPhone 5 back in 2011, then it turned out to be the 4S. Meh, no pennies from me Apple. Then I was ready to buy the iPhone 5 again in 2012, drooling with anticipation, then I saw it and thought meh. Again, no pennies from me.
I upgraded to the iPad 2 because of Retina, suffered through all the initial teething problems (returned the first 3(!) due to WiFi/3G problems) but am happy with the one I now have. Then came the iPad 3, meh. Then the iPad 4, meh again PLUS a feeling of thank f*ck I didn't get the iPad 3 because after 6 months it would be out of date already.
So as a true, genuine Apple fan I count 2 innovative, worthwhile products in the last 5 years, plus 3 waste-of-money incremental upgrades and a WTF for the iPad 4 launch.
Apple, my fan-fu is weakening.
Re: "The shallow indentation on the right was part of its preparations, NASA says."
Pissed myself at that, can't believe you only got 1 upvote!!!
BBM vs iMessage
Just out of interest (never had a BlackBerry); what's the difference between BBM and iMessage, or even between BBM and WhatsApp? Does BBM still count as a differentiator in the non-SMS chat market?
Not a poke, just wondering...
Samsung+Android own the Smartphone market?
"Windows Phone and Blackberry need to crack a market owned by Samsung and Android, which are selling the most because they are popular"
I think Apple could give you a few hundred million reasons why the smartphone market is NOT owned by Samsung & Android. Should surely read "...market owned by Apple & Android"?
Re: Since Oracle has, HP will likely seek something more in the realm of $500m.
I can't see anybody describing Itanic as a 'thriving business' with a straight face.
@Pookietoo Re: if the OS is *that* destructive
It IS the OS, which is triggering the problem; there wouldn't be a problem with the firmware if the user didn't try to boot Linux. Not trying to excuse the problem (which is inexcusable), but just saying, you know, RTFA before commenting.
Well actually
the article quite clearly mentions this is a problem caused when Samsung laptop users try to boot into Linux. So no, it's not unrelated to the OS.
What do you put in all those gigabytes?
Deca-gigabytes on a mobile device invariably get filled by vast quantities of music, videos and ever-more-bloated games. If you don't have these, then you really don't need more than a few gig.
So now look at it from Apple's perspective. They really want you to buy stuff from the iTunes store; music, movies and games. All of this stuff is stored online, and is easily accessible from any WiFi hotspot; effectively giving the iPad unlimited storage as long as all your stuff is from iTunes (or iTunes Match).
Giving the iPad an SD slot is giving users a reason not to buy stuff from iTunes.
Rant about it all you like, but the decision not to include an SD card has nothing to do with component cost, nothing to do with aesthetics, and nothing to do with not understanding the user base. It has everything to do with
Apple's iTunes business model.
Call me an iSheep if you will, but I bought into this philosophy a while ago. I'm lucky enough that money isn't my primary concern, opting instead for convenience. I have about 250 movies on iTunes, plus a hundred or so albums (about 50% ripped and uploaded to iTunes Match). I typically have 12 or so movies on my iPad at any given time, plus the music I want, and when I want to watch or listen to something else on the road, a WiFi hotspot is never far away. For home, I have three Gen2 AppleTVs, which gives me full access to my movie library plus my music when and where I want, with no need to sync.
Re: How much?????
"Three friends of mine all dropped Apple devices for Android or Windows machines..."
Everybody I ever knew, plus all the people in the pub at the moment, AND their friends, all spontaneously dropped their Android devices this afternoon and went out to buy iPads. See, this is conclusive proof that Android is shit, Apple rule the orchard and 94.7% of commentard statistics are made up on the spot.
Re: @bazza
"I've never heard of a mainstream car with purely electric steering. However, there are many with electric power assisted steering. (There are some specialist vehicles with pure fly-by-wire electric steering, but I can't find any cars of that sort - and it strikes me as unwise)."
Unwise, definitely; but SAAB did produce a car with purely electric steering. Can't remember it's name but it was a resolute failure in any case.
http://www.saabsunited.com/upload/images2009/11/the_saab_9000_drive-by-wire_joystick_project/SaabJoystick1.jpg
FFS
"The deal is to compensate the fanbois for the Apple tax - the expensiveness of buying, owning or running Apple products - an expense, many argue, out of proportion to the service provided."
Good grief Anna. Restaurants compensating fanbois out of their own pockets? Really? Are you sure they aren't simply trying to promote their restaurant, rather than being good iSamaritans?
Oh and the 'expensiveness' (sic) of owning Apple products is a complete myth; as I'm sure you know. But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good Leach rant?
Reg, can you please put author names under the article titles on the homepage? Then I'll be able to filter out Anna Leach's anti-Apple drivel before getting all hot under the collar and feeling a burning need to respond. While I'm at it, I'll also be able to filter out John Leyden's catastrophically misspelled, grammatically butchered writings as well. Although he at least has interesting points to make.
Respect
Respect to the lead researcher for actually going out of his way to name the student who made the breakthrough in 2009 - too many lead researchers these days simply claim the credit for themselves and add the name of the student as a 4-point footnote on page 2047 of their research paper.
Cheaper way
1. Buy a share in Facebook
2. Exercise your shareholder rights to mail the CEO.
Unlike the other biz model, this way will get cheaper and cheaper too, the way FB shares are going.
Re: Cheap at..
I'm thinking more of $25 per letter.
Re: Who gives a crap anymore about the iPad's 264ppi?
So?
Re: Why would anyone in China want an Apple ...
"when, for USD$60, I can get a 4-SIM smartphone, unlocked, with numerous features that Apple will undoubtedly copy in the future"
Because it will be shit. You can buy a 7" tablet for $60 as well, doesn't mean it can go head to head with a Nexus 7.
Posted in The best smartphones for Christmas
Re: got to order
"I am paying £36/month for a deal that is £25/month sim only"
For a top-end phone I doubt very much the difference is only £11 per month relative to sim-only. When new a Galaxy SIII here in the Netherlands cost 41.65 euros (e35 ex VAT) per month over 2 years on 'unlimited' (2GB) plus text & data, the equivalent SIM-only contract cost 17.85 (e15 ex VAT) euros.
They'll suck you in on the 'free phone' advertising, then bleed you dry over 2 years until you end up paying far more for the phone than if you bought it sim-free. Of course £500 is a lot to pony up in one go for most people - hence the success of 'free on contract'.
After that last post Peter Durfee will forever be known as...
Durf Vader
Badum tish. Mine's the floor-length black one with matching helmet
Huh?
"Where it becomes interesting is how Einstein draws out Schrödinger’s work: it left only the possibilities that the cosmological constant was a fixed number, or variable."
A variable constant? That's revolutionary maths right there!!
