Posts by jonathanb
1247 posts • joined Friday 14th August 2009 18:08 GMT
Re: They can explain why a slinky does its thing...
It is only used by people with expense accounts who aren't spending their own money. There they can get away with charging pretty much any number that comes into their head, so they do.
Re: Is this 'signal propoagation' stuff...
It would go across the rod at the speed of sound rather than the speed of light. I don't know what the speed of sound in the metal rod would be, as it depends on the type of metal, but probably somewhere in the order of 6000 m/s rather than 299 792 458 m/s for light.
Re: Source?
Mine works out about the same as you. £15 per month for "unlimited" data on my phone. £30 per month for broadband and home phone. That is one of the more expensive plans available, I could get the broadband cheaper elsewhere, but I prefer to pay more for a better service.
Works fine on my iPod touch. No iPad version though.
Re: I have an idea
You want to have a bus with loads of them travel through some of the not so nice parts of London? And wait while people count them at some of the busier stops?
Re: Vaporware
Maybe you could cut the networks out of the loop altogether?
News and sporting events benefit from being live, and I suppose things like The X-Factor benefit from being live as well, at least after the audition and judges house stages. For everything else, you probably want to watch a program rather than a channel, so maybe you could subscribe to a vodcast for the likes of Eastenders.
Of course it is worth bearing in mind that lots of people have tried to make money out of broadcasting English premier league football, and only Rupert Murdoch has succeeded, but still, I definitely don't think current smart TVs reach anything like their full potential.
Re: 1600x900
You might have problems with Windows with a resolution that high. Windows itself will be fine, but not some of the programs written for it.
Re: Source: Google StreetView
Yes, and that is what Apple will need to do if they are to match Google for accuracy of their maps.
Re: What could Apple bring to the table?
To take one example: Channel up/down works in the live TV section. It doesn't generally let you switch between BBC 1 and BBC 2 in the iPlayer app. For that, you have a different set of buttons to press.
Re: Well gosh
I would say the light is gravity powered. The unit has a store of gravitational potential energy which it converts to light. Yes, the unit is "charged up" using muscle power, but that is no more sensible than saying that my wireless mouse is steam powered because the batteries in it where charged up using electricity from Didcot Power Station.
Re: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics
I suggest you study sampling theory. If you double the number of people you survey, it doesn't increase the accuracy of the results by much. That sample size is sufficient to give you a 3% margin of error, provided the sample was selected properly. Short of asking absolutely everyone, you aren't going to get much more accurate results than that.
Re: If all they do is improve Smart TV UI's...
The UI isn't just about what input device you use.
If you are looking in the Live TV section, you have a particular screen layout and buttons to press if you want to do something.
Go to the iPlayer app, and you will find that the screen layout, and the buttons to press to perform similar tasks is completely different.
Go to the place where you find live TV shows that you recorded earlier, and everything is different again.
If your TV has ITV Player that is probably a completely different interface again.
Youview integrates the Live and On-Demand TV services. Maybe that is an improvement. I haven't seen one in action yet, so I can't pass judgement.
Re: What could Apple bring to the table?
If I knew what Apple could bring to the table, my bank account would have a much larger balance in it than it does.
What I can do is outline some of the problems with TVs at the moment that need to be solved.
The main problem is the vast collection of remote controls and their associated buttons that you need to control the TV and all the other stuff attached to it. Apple would definitely sort that out by reducing the number of buttons you have to chose between to get the thing to do what you want.
The second big problem is the confusing array of different user interfaces you have to deal with, depending on where you are. Apple would make that much more consistent.
In terms of features, I would expect an Apple TV to have fewer features than other TVs, but this may not be a bad thing if you can actually use the features it does have.
Re: Install Linux and let 'em come
Yes, you can save Excel files on Samba shares. As far as Excel is concerned, it is just another drive letter it can save to, and it doesn't care what software brings that drive letter into existence.
Re: I believe RIM is toast
Blackberries were able to do messaging before they were able to do voice calls. Back then you would have a Blackberry for messaging, and a separate breeze block sized luggable for making phone calls.
Re: Good alternative
Blackberry is for kids who want to be able to send unlimited texts to their friends for a fixed sum of money per month, while ensuring that people who aren't their friends aren't able to send an unlimited number of messages to them.
I would have thought that very few if any kids are on contracts. They mostly have pay as you go phones.
£30 to file paperwork?
It doesn't cost anything to file the accounts with Companies House.
The Annual Return costs £40 to file if you do it on paper or £13 if you do it online. It used to be £30 or £14. Tweetdeck filed their annual return on 15th February 2012 and the next one is due on 4th March 2013. It is the accounts that are overdue.
When I was last in Edinburgh, I installed the bus app before going out, then when I was at the bus stop, I found it quicker to type in the numerical code than try and focus on the qr code and get the phone to recognise it.
Re: States!
Imagine if European companies had to cater for the whims of France, but not Portugal. Of course complying with the EU privacy directive should be good enough for both countries, and in that way, the EU is probably more centralised than the USA, but most people wouldn't have a problem with the idea that different countries in the EU = different laws.
Re: wait a minute ...
I've never used the Delta app, but I guess they could use location information to show you the airports nearest to where you are. Those are the ones you are most likely to want to depart from, so they can be shown at the top of the list when booking.
Re: "Before making this backup, first run a virus scan"
Mac Hard drives are just as likely to fail as PC hard drives, as they are the same hard drives. I don't know what the SSD drives are like.
Being able to go back in time to recover a file you have accidentally deleted or changed is very useful, and you can do that with out having to call your IT guru for help.
Re: @JDX
Well the 8TB hard drive I would like to have in my computer in a couple of years time hasn't been invented yet. Why should I have to buy a brand new computer when the only problem is that my .mkv collection won't fit in it?
Re: Much as I love...
There are 51 articles on the front page of El Reg. Of them, 7 are about Apple, and another 4 mention Apple or iDevices either in passing, or alongside competing devices.
The top of the range iMac is $1999, which is £1237.03 at 19.54 GMT 7/12/12 exchange rates. Add 20% VAT and you get £1484.44. Apple charge £1699 in the UK.
Re: Yet I can't help wonder...
Well Oracle own the bulk of the proprietary rights to MariaDB. MariaDB, like anyone else, can only use the GPL licenced code under the GPL licence. They also own outright any improvements they make to it, but those improvements are useless on their own.
Re: Erm
Better send the cops to those paediatricians at the National Gallery. Didn't take me very long at all to find this
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/guercino-the-samian-sibyl-with-a-putto and there is plenty more like it
Re: The sky is falling! the sky is falling!
The thing is that not every image is an act of abuse.
Certainly actual photographs of children can be an act of abuse. But here are some examples of other things that have been held to be child porn images:
A story written in text form describing a child being abused - distasteful, not the sort of thing I would want to read, but not an actual act of abuse
Cartoon drawings of children in inappropriate poses - again not the sort of thing I would want to look at, but not an actual act of abuse
A photo of a fully clothed child, with another photo of a naked over 18's waist area taped on top of the child's waist area
Posted in McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala
Re: North Korea? Really?
I think the idea was that the decoy would be arrested and the authorities would think the real McAffee was in custody allowing him to escape across the border while they were looking the other way.
If it was the girl who was found in Bordeaux, I thought her name was public knowledge, mainly because the police and all the media published it so people could help find her?
Posted in John McAfee 'captured'
Apple maps has a gap in the border at the North Western corner of the country. Maybe he tried to cross there?
Re: From my own experience...
Well I got it a lot when I was about 15-17. They were probably nearer 14 than 11 though.
Re: what Is Wrong With You People
Kiddie fiddling is actually very rare in this country, and rarer than it has ever been in the past, and that is mostly down to the amount of attention it receives.
Re: This is unlikely to pass
If, as you point out, the alternative to employing loads of Chinese people in the USA is employing loads of Chinese people in China, then isn't it better to have them move the USA and spend their wages in the American economy?
In his biography, Steve Jobs says that Apple indirectly employs around 100,000 production engineers in China. They don't have to be particularly brilliant engineers, just have a good high school education and a bog standard production engineering degree, but nevertheless, you just can't find engineers in those sorts of numbers in the USA.
Mine ends on 3:14:08 UTC 19th January 2038, so we still have plenty of time
Re: Is the only difference between the models the storage amount?
Adobe used to be the worst for that, though looking at them now, the UK is actually slightly cheaper.
Adobe CS Master Collection is $2599 in the US. Last time I looked, it was something like £3500 in the UK, which would tend to suggest they multiplied the exchange rate rather than divided it. To be fair, it is now £1794.57 including VAT, whereas on the market exchange rate it should be £1942.80
Re: Only use odd numbered versions of Windows NT
Windows 7 is actually NT 6.1, and Windows 8 is actually NT 6.2.
Re: Apple TV is not really necessary
There were smartphones before the iPhone was invented, and in terms of the feature tick-list, the iPhone hasn't really introduced anything new. The problem was that before the iPhone, people didn't use most of the features of their phone because the interface was too confusing, and it was too much of an effort to actually get at the features. Apple showed everyone else how it should be done.
People typically have 2 or 3 different remote controls for the TV itself, Sky/Freesat/Freeview box, Hard disk recorder, Playstation and so on, each with their own different interface. There is definitely scope to simplify this.
Re: I imagine...
I already handed over the decryption key, it was on the disk, and I don't have any other copies.
Well he would be allowed to attend the hospital and complete his treatment, however the police would be waiting outside the hospital to enter and arrest him as soon as he is discharged.
Re: Windows. Open them.
He can't lean out because then he would enter UK territory and could be arrested, presumably with the aid of a cherry picker truck or black helicopter.
Re: I am sure
Never mind that, even the iPhone had plug in headsets like that before it was "invented".
iPhone was released in 2007, and would have been in development for some time before that. This patent was granted in 2008.
Re: Precious metals...
A pea sized amount of gold is worth about $500, so I would say it is definitely worth recovering.
My workings - 1 cm diameter sphere = 0.53 cm^3
at 19.3 g/cm^c, that works out at about 10 g or 0.33 troy ounces
At $1725.23 per ounce, that is $569.32
Re: Computer says No!
Human interaction? You mean telling the Comet sales droid that you aren't interested in a £35 extended warranty for a £25 toaster.
Posted in Ten weird Chinese mobile phones
Re: Lapland phone
Look at the Goopad Mini, and particularly the adverts for it if you want to see the ultimate in barefaced copying.
The problem is that a lot of these fake gucci handbags are being sold for about 90% of the retail price - enough to think you are getting a bargain, but not enough for you to think it is too good to be true.
Re: RIP act?
and a paediatrician. Well all these people who use encryption must be downloading dodgy photos, mustn't they?
Re: @JSmith: Taxing revenue instead of profits ...
"Second, we're only talking about corporation tax here, which is a tax on the company profits. To extract real money from the company, shareholders must take dividends, and tax is paid on the dividends at the normal rates."
Unless you are Philip Green's wife, the clothing entrepreneur, who lives in tax exile in Monaco, while her husband slugs it out on minimum wage in the UK as the tea boy.
Re: Reading their guide..
It is about £2.50 to £4 per person per year. Put that way, it doesn't sound like it is worth the effort.
It's actually very difficult. Certainly in the UK, there's something like 10,000 pages of legislation to try to stop it.
They are entitled to set up shop in any EU country they wish for any reason or for no reason. Therefore it is all down to whether the transfer pricing payments are reasonable for what they get in return, and the various tax authorities around the world will always argue for a bigger slice of the cake.
Re: So...
You need Exchange anyway, so what useful function does Blackberry Enterprise Server provide?
