Posts by PaulW
50 posts • joined Saturday 29th August 2009 01:18 GMT
Re: Microsoft can't do anything very well
I would tend to disagree with @Sabroni...
Metro could be very interesting on a SmartTV... think of some of those TVs with a built in DVD player. Then take that 20" Sony Tablet, scale it up, add in the Kinect as standard with the rest of the Xbox hardware, and you could have a pretty reasonable 40"+ "gaming TV" all in one. Heck add in cable card too, 3 HDMI ports (1 for PS3, 1 for WiiU and 1 for the connection to a home amplifier system), and you wouldn't need too much more I would imagine... You would need to use either some form of hand movement to control the UI (not touch screen) but that's already out there. Or reinvent the remote much like the Wii one to be directional not static, but if you took the best bits of Metro, Wii, Kinnect and added in the Netflix, Google TV and other bits, you could end up with quite an all in one system. Mind you it would be a move away from the 1" thick TVs people have now to something about 4" thick I would think, but you could end up with something pretty decent that didn't need much 3rd party add in.
(Sorry for the disjointedness, typing under the influence of a cold)
But it all looks blue to me in that pic?
.... oh wait - is that the point?
(well other than the white bits which look more like stars)
Aliens done it.
Obvious icon is obvious.
Waze
Waze is free and quite good... bit "Social" for my liking, but it does work in both the US and UK (tried it last time I was in the UK - through Papworth I believe, and works well in the SF/San Jose area). At least it knew how to be me from St. Neots to Ely...
Kinda like...
Tivo Suggestions that automatically records programs it thinks you would like?
Posted in Microsoft dumps Metro from Windows 8
Oooh got it...
Windows Curtains!
(Yay first day of 10 days vacation - brain is working again!)
Re: Bloody hell...
As my 10 year old Daughter said to me tonight (on the observation that she was born before TwitBook):
Wow, I was born before technology
**sigh**
Posted in Sony: Walkman, meet Android
Missing the point
So I have a phone and a tablet but I also have a music device (yeah yeah in this case they are all iDevices but I use the generic term in this case cuz I can).
Phone -> Makes phone calls and some apps, email, and mobile TV
Tablet -> Apps, web, and games. Sometimes video calls.
Music device -> music, supports the incar dash and has a much higher capacity than the phone. That way I have all my music in the car, and with the link up the car supports (Pioneer thingy) have playlists, album covers and the like
Now a 32Gb device like this Sony wouldnt work. I have 140Gb on the ipod. But a phone device would never come close. I could do USB into the Pioneer, but the biggest thumb drive I have isnt close (64Gb).
So yeas, despite the fact that it wouldnt work for **YOU** (or some others), there is a market segment out there that needs the devices. (Just like that long forgotten market segment that wants a phone that is well just a phone which is why you can still buy those strangely enough!).
"The material used in the layers ranges from the exotic to the prosaic"
I got all excited at first as for some reason I misread that as Prosac... then I realized it wasnt which was a bit of a downer!
So no update on the game I really want... :(
Sly 4... last seen "due at some point - we're working on it honest" after scrapping this month's release date... hurry up Sanzaru :)
Re: Statistics
I thought it was 129% of them?
Re: Watch the slide...
"Except if you have a 401k or mutual funds"
Most mutual funds - unless explicitly called out in the prospectus - wont buy into or touch IPOs as they fall outside of the type of instrument they hold (e.g. Large Cap Dividend wouldnt have bought in). You did read the 401k prospectus right? You do understand what is in your 401k/IRA/Pension Fund? Thought not.
Re: So, let me see now....
And this is where my issue in the valuation lies... PE Ration of 75ish at $32/share gives a percentage point rating of around 42c/PE point. Assume a year over year increase of 40% revenues moves that to $1.15ish - so lets be conservative and say $1. If it settles to a PE ratio of about $15 which is a little high compared to established companies that gives a price point of $15 based on aggressive forward looking estimates. So in a generours case (and yes Im rounding up all around) that points a price point of $20/share assuming that they can get the monitorization of the mobile users which even FB called out in the S1/S1(A).
Posted in Ten... eight-bit classic games
Re: Getting in on the titles-you-didn't-pick wagon...
FRAK! Oh now that was a game - and IIRC the graphics were way ahead of anything else at the time. The killer yo-yo!
(Had both a BBC-B and Speccy - much preferred the Speccy though I did go through 3 keyboards playing i-Ball!)
Posted in Ten... Satnavs to suit all budgets
What about the indash systems?
Admittedly this is (and should be) a UK centric roundup - but I live and drive by my in-dash Pioneer AVIC Z130 + NDM110T combo (well its a Z110 with software updates as the Z110 has a slightly larger screen than the stock 130). Realtime RDS Traffic in the SF/SJ/Oak Bay Area is excellent, reroutes on traffic, learns routes etc. Plus of couse since its in-dash it has all the hook ups (iDevice, USB, BlueTooth) and the like. Etc. etc. (DVDs on rear screen, rear camera, PandoraLink, Netflix, AhaRadio, AvicFeeds for upload/download of routes and driving info).
So it would be interesting to see how one of these all-in-one units matches against a dedicated GPS Nav device (other than you cant take it out and take it with you).
Kids own iPad
I know I am in the minority here - but my 9yo daughter has her own iPad linked to my iTunes account. She knows to ask to download an app - even the already purchased ones - and double checks to purchase in-app credits. She is very good on this.
**However** I know she is in the minority.
That said though - on the iPad and other iDevices, there is a parental control setting to disable in-app purchases. Settings -> Restrictions -> In-App purchases. Its pass coded. Why wasnt that enabled?
Makes me think there should be a test to have a smart device of any sort (including TVs where you can now rent movies too). If you have a device with a supported restriction - for crying out loud learn to use the restrictions!
"The Scottish government also notes, with a sniff, that the 12-year Ofcom licence could well last beyond Scotland's independence..."
I mean I know Ive been out of the UK for a while, but is this really the case? Wow I havent been paying attention to those up North.
Posted in Sony posts PlayStation firmware patch
Still tagged as a a useragent of "Mozilla/5.0 (Playstation 3 4.10) AppleWebkit/531.22.8 (KHTML, like Geko) if that helps.
HTML5 test gives 80 out of 475 points (via html5test.com - IE9 -> 141, FF10 -> 332 for reference)
Posted in Sony posts PlayStation firmware patch
Well I'm just checkin it out. Release notes "on screen"
==============
The Internet browser has been improved.
Some websites that could not be displayed, including interactive websites, are now supported, and page layouts are now displayed with better accuracy.
You can now set to obtain the correct date and time automatically when you sign in to Playstation(r) Network. If you do not need to set the correct time automatically, set [Settings] > [Date and Time Settings] > [Set time automatically] to [Off]
=============
Seems like the release notes still call it Playstation(r) Network :) Someone forgot to fix that!
Nearly 100%?
Wow! So with 1000 people, 99.99% corrolation - that means theres at least 1 of them running around - be interesting to meet them!
Posted in Nissan Leaf battery powered electric car
Yes, but...
Will it blend?
I know a couple of people who have these - my biggest complaint though is you can't hear the thing when its coming. It really is that quiet. Other than that and its range, however, its actually not that bad of a "short commute" car. If you want to do something longer it isnt going to work. (And by short commute, I mean say San Francisco to Oakland. Even in the bay area it isnt good for much further than that and back.
Posted in Mythbusters cannonball ‘myth-fires’
Unfortunately they have said that they are going to dump this whole experience on the cutting room floor. Which is a shame since its probably up there with the best things they have done.
Apple should show them!
Apple should just pull all iPad sales out of China... that would show them!
What? No? Really?
So another long protracted legal battle (and this time in a system where only the government wins (as opposed to other countries where only the lawyers win))... **yawn**
Meh!
The one UV title I've tried has monumentally failed to play off anything but the BluRay disk. I had high hopes but Im not going to hold my breath.
"A situation I suspect will continue until Facebook goes the way of all Flesh....."
Why did I read this as "the way of all Flash" :)
But Apple can take the hit...
Apple can run at or near cost on its iPads for a few reason:
- The end to end consumer experience. If you enable all the iCloud settings, everything seemlessly moves between devices. If you take a photo it appears on all iDevices and your laptop/mac. It goes the other way too (laptop->iDevice). Plus "cute" features like purchasing music/movies/TV/apps in one place moves it to all places. In households with more than 1 device this feature is seen as a big value add.
- It takes a cut of ~30% on all iTunes/App store sales. This is funneled back into making the initial cost of the device a lot more palletable to Apple. (Think about it - how many 99c/79p purchases do you make on the device? I can think Ive probably underpinned apple to an additional $75-$100 already).
With the Android model, there is no pushback to the tablet maker on app purchases. This means they have to be at a profit on each device. Only Amazon could hope to emulate the iPad model with tie-ins to purchases on the Amazon site. Any and all other apps payed for just go to google and the app developer.
And I certainly havent seen anything close to point 1 on the non-Apple tablets - although I'm happy to be corrected as people have been asking me for ideas too :)
>> "it's not the same as a full featured tablet but THAT IS NOT ITS INTENT"
Unfortunate then that Amazon are running adverts on the telly right now proclaiming that it is the intent of the product - a full featured tabled with tight integration to Amazon's online product offerings. As are the Nook people (not seen one in action so I cant judge). Good job you dont have any moles inside Amazon.
(Full disclosure - I do have a number "n" of ipad2 devices where n > 1 and n < 5 )
Hey - they have 70% of one leg done.. which must count for something? Other than perhaps a robotic supersized drumstick for Chrimbo?
Posted in BOFH: Where's my free fondleslab?
Indeed... it made me spill my Pepsi (I was once part of the new generation*), all overy my Rebok shell suit. Time for some Pizza. Party On!
*I think! Maybe? Once? Well I'll claim it anyways.
I too recall..
I too recall the possibility that neutrinos may have really small imaginary mass ("hi" or something like that). Not negative mass as mentioned above btw*.
So the question really is, and I am trying to visualize this right as its all quantum thingy, is the speed 'c' possible to be approached by an article with 'h'. And thus, if so, could a particle with equivilent imaginary mass thus exceed the speed of light by that same percentage. But then it would get hairy with particles that have even larger imaginary mass.***
*Which would lead to the interesting thought of a particle with negative mass actually working through a dimension backwards - would it be the time dimension?**
** And does Dark Matter have real positive, real negative, or imaginary mass or some form of mass that isnt actually described by those three planes/ummm number lines?
*** And yeah my QM was all done about 20 years ago so Ive forgotten most of what I learned back then - but I did get to do real MOSFET layouts and use SPICE (well p-spice) and stuff :)
So what you are saying...
Is that they can become certain of how uncertain they are (I think, maybe, perhaps, cat)
Posted in Oz parliamentary network breached
Indeed
So... as I read this article... While the US was inside the Oz network, snooping around, they noticed that someone else was in there snooping around too. And being the ever so helpful people they are they pointed out to the Aussies that the other lot were in there? Did I miss something?
What I would like to see though...
Is NetFlix not pulling movies once they are streaming online. Its bloody annoying to get half way through something (say all the Eddie Izzard standup shows) to go back to something you are watching and find that between today and yesterday they've pulled the damn thing.
Also no mention of services like CinemaNow in the article? Its up there with NetFlix (mostly).
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
Noooooo.... its "I ***COULDN"T*** CARE LESS"... I could care less implies that if people want your friggin' data they can have it which I know is not what you meant.
I couldnt care less
I couldnt care less
I couldnt care less
(I feel like Bart Simpson on this one).
Oooooh that annoys me more than any other typo/grammer error!!! Okay, sorry Sarah, I'll go back to sleep now.
" Lastly, the code-obfuscation techniques were lame."
Lame... technical term that. If you dont work in the industry it would take me a day or two to explain it to you.
Posted in Harder to read = easier to recall
Ooooh...
My how I had forgotten about those Banda machines. Just what I needed to remember this morning. Im off to sniff some boric acid or sulphur fumes to get the remembered smell out of my mind.
Posted in Harder to read = easier to recall
This doesnt bode well for ElReg
Wingdings as mentioned above... or perhaps,
10% light puce background with 90% yellow with "Old Dreadful No7 BT Regular" font (my fave for trying to make things unreadable).
Re: And the story is? (why doesnt it do this automatically?)
"Oh, and just to make it clear Twitter would respond to any request from any country as long as that request is made however that countries laws require"
I think you mean:
Oh, and just to make it clear Twitter would respond to any request from any country as long as **it has an office in that country the resquest is made in, in order to keep doing business there as it has no choice**.
I very much doubt that it would even bother to respond to a request from e.g. Australia as it has no presence there and would enjoy sticking too fingers up at the Aussies (much like we did over the Ashes ;) )
Posted in Samsung shuts out Symbian
The only issue there...
As has been said elsewhere though, the issue with going "android only" is that you have to rely on content and UI to differentiate yourself. If you come up with a new hardware feature (hey lets add a hand mixer to the phone - sorry thinking about the rather excellent toad-in-the-hole I made last night), you have to make sure that any additional chipsets etc you add to the device have drivers and UI components that fit into the linux architecture. I know this is the same to some degree if you have your own OS but often times you have your own inhouse phone OS folks who can probably throw something together. If you go andriod only you would, IMO, more likely just have an inhouse reference design and porting team which wouldnt necessarily have the same skill set.
I think part of the reason for some of the confusion here around phone OS strategy is that some of the phone companies forget that there is a segment out there that just wants a phone thats is, well a phone, and dont need camera, email, games, etc. Thats of course coming from the person who has an iPhone 4.
Posted in NFC breathes new life into tombstones
Oh dear...
so pwdb.mobi is apparently a live site... the ID numbers in the sample pics work, but so do some others... like umm say 666. Didnt get much futher than that before giving up slowly shaking my head.
Steve head as it looks more 666-ish than the Bill one in the icon size.
@Duncan
Here too... Im amazed anyone has actually managed to login to find out any of this information.
And on the 2 occasions its actually worked the site has been sooo slow that by the time I've gotten to the page I wanted I've forgotten why I logged in and moved on to doing something else.
Pardon?
[Quote] windows 7 corrupts the information stored on the batteries [/quote]
Can anyone explain this part to me? Am I really missing something?
I thought APCI was read only. I was unaware that anything could write back to an APCI device? (Maybe its done by using some funky quantum mechanics during the charge cycle to set electron spin orbits or something?)
And if I can write to the battery, how much storage can I get on a battery? Could I use it to store my collection of umm fine art images for extra portability?
DHT only?
It was evaluated using DHT only based mechanisms*? I would imagine that would skew the results quite a bit too... Actually reading the paper there are quite a few holes in the survey anyway. And as has been pointed out >1500 torrents would be lead to quite a margin of error.
All in all it looks like someone needs to go back to statistics 101, plus understand how users initiate torrent transfers - its a very narrow scope of investigation from the looks of it.
* Are legit files even available via DHT? I would think not (*BSD and Linux downloads all look tracker initiated to me at a quick glance of 4 sites - is that within a margin of error?)
Posted in Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'
Why?
So is it:
a) An IPhone with no phone or
b) A laptop with no keyboard or
c) A table with no handwriting capability (at least as far as I can see)
I suppose the 10 hour battery is interesting but my portable DVD player does 14 hours.
iPhone application scaling strikes me as a disasater - its got to have some hardware scaling mechanism or quite frankley an app or game is going to look really blocky at that resolution. Facebook on that screen really should have been the web style version not the iPhone incarnation.
I guess I just dont get it. I have an iPhone for use as a mobile device (phone/PDA/games/web) and a small laptop for use as a moble computing platform (work/remote network access/games/web). Between the two of them I can talk, play physical shiney media, write hand written notes (never underestimate this!), and a few other things that the iPad can't do.
Remind me of why I need one other than St. Steve says I need one?
Posted in Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'
Mono speaker(s)?
Just noticed from the 360 view on the apple site that it only looks like it has one speaker (bottom left corner - positioned the same place as an iPhone). Can anyone confirm/deny?
Posted in Vonage drops off the net
Man the phones!
One assumes that El Reg tried to call them for a comment? Somehow I dont think that is going to work for some reason...
How Many Games?
I have in the back of my mind that it takes around 12 or 14 (unlucky 13?) games for Sony to get their money back on a console... which sounds about right. Given that most people I know only have around 10 games (I just checked... I have 9 for a system thats about 18 months old or so) that does sort of limit Sony in support of their revenue stream.
That said my PS3 mk1 (80Gb with all the backwards compat knobs and whistles) sounds like a harrier taking off.
Finally, as I understand it, the new PS3 is PS1 compatible for PSP remote playback unless I'm mistaken (or the folks at both Frys and Best Buy were wrong - which when it comes to games systems isnt typically they case)
