Posts by JimmyPage
892 posts • joined Friday 5th March 2010 16:20 GMT
It was resting on top of
A stack of Des O'Connor LPs*
*Under 35s, ask your parents.
I would have thought the main reason
would have been to prevent the rest of us getting bored.
Why a separate duress password
I know ADT alarm systems will trigger a panic mode if you enter the PIN backwards.
Or maybe they just haven't tried hard enough
Idea:
person chooses 3 famous people from a list of thousands.
person is challenged by system which shows a grid with (say) 100 photos of people in
person has to pick 2
almost, but not entirely secure - and much easier to remember.
It did say
"former" .....
So what you're saying
is that the customer should change their network to accomodate Virgins borked hardware ?
Is it just me, or could there be a revolution in the offing ..
Haven't been following this story too closely, till now ... but seeing the spec and price of this beastie makes me wonder how many uses there are out there, which we haven't even throught of yet. The ability to plug a fully-specced *programmable* computer into anything is going to change a lot of things. With local-level processing now available to any peripheral, how much bandwidth can be saved, and networks improved ?
Slightly OT
but anyone running a team, would do a lot worse than having a pizza & beer night for your guys, with a showing of "Apollo 13"
Now THAT is teamwork.
Here's another one ...
how come you can't bluetooth a contact to another phone, in WP7 ?
Anyone care to defend that ?
Posted in Netflix goes live in Blighty
nail - head !!!!
*I* wouldn't pay for it
*You* wouldn't pay for it
which means the film companies have (YET AGAIN) driven people towards "other sources"
Which I find ironic, given the story last week, in El Reg
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2012/01/04/study_piracy_legal_alternative/
It will probably be
more a case of a shit routing algorithm, which bases it's calculations on simply using the roads posted speed limit, rather than a more real-life database. Which explains why my Garmin directs me along a myriad of country lanes to get from my house to the motorway, despite the fact I can do it on 2 main roads - because it *thinks* I can do 60mph on them, which makes them "faster" than the 40mph (but 1mile longer) route I do take.
Last year, I had to drive from London, N11, to Birmingham. Sat Nav told me quickest route was 2 1/2 hours along the A1/M1/M25->M40->M42. I did it, without speeding in 2 hours by going A40-M40->M42 because I know that's the best route at 10:30pm on a Sunday .....
Posted in Netflix goes live in Blighty
To those complaining about selection ...
I suspect you'll find it's not Netflix fault, it's the film companies restricting what's available - probably to try and maximise revenue from the sales of physical media. Old dog, new tricks etc ....
Posted in Netflix goes live in Blighty
Remember the discussion about Windows Phone ?
Here's what I mean :
"The company said it has playback client for Android and iOS phones ...."
Er
I have had the phone over a year now - hardly a "newcomer" in IT terms.
And notice, I have no grumble with WP7 per se (in actual fact, I quite like it). But when I can't get an Amazon, Chiltern Railways, Lloyds TSB, iPlayer app for it, whilst android and iOS users can, then it sucks. And it seems other people where I work agree too. I notice the next batch of smartphones being trialled are all android - with the MD himself signing off any extra cost.
That said, I *did* just load up the TiVoRemote app to play with at home, so there might be a chance !
Doomed to failure
I suspect the slow uptake of WP7 has nothing to do with it not being marketed or pushed by retailers properly.
It's the fact that 10 times in the past 30 days, I have been told by various websites they have an app available, only to discover they don't have a WP app. Which means the HTC Trophy I *have* to use for work (their security policy) is starting to look like a fancy paperweight.
I would not be surprised if Microsofts strategists are all so young, they don't recall what did for Betamax ......
And once again, I am going to bewail the lack of a call-recording app. Especially when an acquaintance in t'pub showed me there are at least 6 available on his android phone. So please, no mindless downvoters, wittering on about "the law" .....
ROTFLMAO !
I was going to point out that a reverse feature - using continued low speeds as a sign the user is *not* in a car - might cause problems in the UK in rush hour. But then I thought "nobody would be THAT stupid".
I own a Garmin too !
However
surely, it would be trivial to include a bit of code which checks the motion of the Sat Nav corresponds with a walking pace, and either warns the user, or simply changes mode to "Car" ?
Sorry epic fail
the great and good can pontificate all they like, but since the only way anything will change is when the old data gets replaced by the new, nothing is going to happen anytime soon.
Just as I never bought a new road atlas every year, I don't buy map updates every year (especially when they cost as much as Garmin charge). And neither, do I suspect, do 80% of sat-navvers out there.
During the week, I would say that at least 20 cars drive down my cul-de-sac and have to turn round, and leave, because the postcode centroid for the university the other side of the garden happens to be outside my house. I even had someone ring my bell once, asking where the University was, and calling me a liar when I said it was "over there", insisting their sat nav must be right.
Highly amused
that, in the 21st century, people seem to think you actually need to *be* somewhere. Maybe that's part of the problem ?
Fascinating debate ...
which slightly (to me) misses the point.
Content providers (previously known as record comanies, and film studios) were well aware of the nature, and demand for digital content well over 10 years ago. Their customers told them of it, and requested it, and were basically told to **** off. By failing to engage with the market, and therefore shape it to *consumers* wishes, they have effectively been bitchslapped. We have seen wave after wave of laws, and regulations, and dodgy civil, and criminal suits for what ?
Wasn't there an initiative a while back
to sedate rhinos, and replace the horn (which is actually matted hair) with big shiny metal prosthesis - thus frustrating the poachers ?
Does anyone recall when Flasheart crashed in on Blackadder ?
"Excuse me, there's a bucket I have to be sick into" ("Private Plane", Blackadder goes Forth)
we need a "heave" icon.
ISTR
the reason the NoTW outsourced the dirty work (apart from obvious fact of plausible deniability) is some tech-heads ran the op ... didn't they use proxied VOIP calls to access the voicemail. This allowed them to spoof CLI (and thus trick the service into going into voicemail) ....
and then
he can get a 25K/year job at GCHQ.
Epic fail
in 99% of the time, you'll snap the innocent patsy who *bought* the stolen phone.
Sorry MS
Chrome rocks. I really can't find anything to dislike about it.
Don't blame Amazon
shortly after getting my Kindle, I was gobsmacked to see certain eBooks were actually more expensive than the dead-tree version, even after taking the VAT into account.
A quick email complaint later get the reply that minimum prices are set by the PUBLISHER and Amazon is obliged to honour those. It concluded by inviting me to complain to the publishers ...
Indeed
I liked this quote:
"Meanwhile, French president Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday commissioned former culture minister Jacques Toubon to lobby France’s 26 European Union partners, the European Commission and Parliament to introduce a reduced VAT rate for all electronic cultural goods and services sold across the EU."
Somehow I can guess which way the UK will vote.
Careful thinking there's a reasoning to VAT
because you will end looking like a prize prat when you insist that only "essential" items are zero-rated, and then find the French managed to wangle *cake* to be essential.
Proof (it it were needed)
That there's nothing wrong with the environment.
Remember kids ... ignore what people say, and watch what they do.
Working urgently on a fix ?
Why not just tell the 5 people who use Windows Phone, and be done with it.
Two words (for those old enough)
Manhattan Cable
Doesn't really matter
The nub of the matter, irrespective of NoTWs deliberate deleting of voicemails, or unintentional (by accessing them, and tripping the 3 day auto-deletion) is the NoTW were *surreptitiously* accessing the account. This meant valuable police time and expertise was engaged in following up apparent phone activity, which might have been better deployed searching for known sex offenders in the area. Who knows, they may have been able to knock on Bellfields door a *second* time, and caught him then.
The sheer arrogance and brass balls of the NoTW cannot be overstated. Who the fuck did they think they were that they could patently (and ILLEGALLY) interfere in a life-or-death police investigation. And here's more thought-fodder ... you don't get an attitude like that overnight. You get it because you have done similar in the past, and got away with it. So how many serious criminal investigations did the NoTW similarly queer ? The only way to find out would be to ask them.
What's that you say ? They've closed down ? I bet the shredders worked overtime in the last 48 hours. I wonder if it was like the film "Downfall" ?
RIM announce huge surge in sales ....
Posted in Beeb rescues old Who episodes
ISTR reading
this wasn't your bog standard 4-for-a-tenner VHS cassette-type VT. It was *very* expensive reel-to-reel type stuff. They simply could not afford not to re-use it.
Eisenhower also said ....
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron
Er ......
THC content has stuff all to do with it. It is an offence to cultivate any plant of the Genus Cannabis, without a home office licence.
Great to hear
they are finally making it a criminal offence to request a CRB check for a job which doesn't need it.
Oh, hang on, actually it looks like they've done fuck all about that. Who'd have thunk it ?
Yes I have to admit
I thought that too. But sometime we are not in danger of being too cynical ?
The real test is whether the government/NHS can manage to develop a system to produce pure stat-worthy data. I can see why they would need sex, and age. But no need for location data. Instead the requesting company just needs to say "within 30 miles of London", or "at least 10 miles from the nearest connurbation", and the query produces the appropriate records without supplying the location.
I would also expect the system to generate unique IDs for each dataset - although IDs may need to be consistent if you are requesting time-sequenced data, so you know patient X in 2001 is the same patient X in 2011. I don't see why birthdates should be supplied, unless there is weird seasonal-type study going on.
I think most people miss the point of how this data can be used ... statistical analysis of medical data can sometimes reveal incredibly significant, but hitherto unseen links[1]. It is also costly, and therefore not done very often. If by opening up massive tranches of anonymised data to interested companies, we might - just might - push ourselves into the forefront of analysing (and therefore understanding and treating) diseases.
For my own personal situation, MrsJP has multiple sclerosis, and I have long been convinced that when enough data is analysed and cross referenced (in the mother of all Venn diagrams) we will see the "aha !" which will point to a cause - and a cure,
[1]If it were not for an enterprising doctor (Snow) who did this with Insurance company data, in 1854. He overlaid Cholera deaths onto a contour map of London, and was able to tell the government that is was not poverty that carried Cholera (as was thought) - it was water from the Thames. Result ? 30 years before we even knew what Cholera was, London had a world-class sewage system (thanks Bazalgette) and no Cholera.
Posted in GCHQ spooks' code-breaking puzzle solved
Why should the job be anywhere ?
Hello ? This is the 19th century calling. You know, millworkers and tied cottages.
Having had some run ins with civil service types over the years, it's hard to imagine a less progressive and staid outfit. The only reason the civil service works at all, is sheer weight of numbers - someone in that morass must be semi-competent.
As long as the civil service apply their Oxbridge criteria to the role, then that's all they'll get - Oxbridge types. Where actually being able to do the job is an added bonus.
Many years ago, I aced the CCTA (as 'twas) aptitude test, screening and interview. When they offered me the job (at £4,500) I asked why it wasnt' the £4,995 they had advertised. "Well", they said, "you're 21, that salary is for a 22 year old". Goodbye.
I got a job in the private sector, at £6,500 instead.
Posted in 2011's Best... E-book Readers
Slightly different meaning of "tied-in" ...
Slightly disingenous of El Reg here ... it's true that only the Amazon store will suppy eBooks for the Kindle. However, the Kindle itself is quite capable of displaying .MOBI eBooks, that you can get from elsewhere. And it will handle .DOC and .PDFs too.
So IMHO the Kindle is the best of both worlds ... yes, you can buy books from Amazon (and they do a fair selection of freebies too) or you can get a book elsewhere, and sent it to your Kindle via Whispernet, using Calibre - a fantastic free too for managing eLibraries.
So my subcription to Linux Journal is easily sent to my Kindle.
VAT on eBooks ?
Any chance they'll factor that into their deliberations ?
Hemp ?
Fantastic wonder crop for so many reasons. Unfortunately it's actually cannabis, so move on, please.
Posted in China gets 64 quid Android 4.0 tablet
Well the review did say
it was a *capacitive* screen ...
AIUI it will all be anonymised ?
Assuming they can get that right - and it's trustworthy - I can't see a problem with this initiative. At the end of the day, the NHS has paid a lot of money to collect this data ... seems bonkers to sit on it if it can earn some money.
That said, I bet the way it works is the NHS will not see a penny, while a few private companies - that might just have certain ministers as non-exec directors - rake it in.
Seems to me ..
Groupon is in the same league as eBay and Paypal ... businesses that are more than happy to take other peoples money, and then disappear when anything goes wrong ....
Seems world+dog has it in for them atm ... with news the OFT have started digging too ....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16000648
Be kind, rewind
you mean you're gonna Swede it ?
