* Posts by David Ward 1

115 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2010

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Mae Microsoft yn addysgu Swyddfa, Bing, siarad Cymraeg*

David Ward 1

Re: Who is actually going to benefit from this?

"who is actually going to benefit from this" : People who want the interface of the program in the language that they are working in, for example first language welsh students, there are quite a lot of them around and presumably at least some of them become first language Welsh graduates would would appreciate the ability to coninue working in their first language.

Apple asks judge to axe ebook price-fixing watchdog

David Ward 1

Re: Apple are not being unreasonable.

"Amazon may have offered you an app on your Apple device. You're neither forced to use that app nor that device."

Except that the whole point of the cartel was that they (the publishers) would not enable the book to be sold elsewhere for less either, so if you buy from the kindle app on an apple device you pay the same price or less than from the kindle store on a kindle.

Does the RSPCA have your gun licence or car registration? NOBODY knows

David Ward 1

Re: Data protection act?

did you miss this part of the article? "An individual suspecting that the RSPCA had files on him or her could make a subject access request under the Data Protection Act - but organisations are exempt from compliance with this process if data is held for the purpose of "the capture or prosecution of offenders". ACPO claims that the RSPCA only gets access to police data when it intends to prosecute someone, so this exemption would no doubt be generally claimed."

Microsoft caves to Google, pulls YouTube app from WinPhone Store

David Ward 1

perhaps Microsoft should enable ad-blocking by default for all google products on windows, users would be happier, google would rapidly reposition, everyone wins.

Hunt: I'll barcode sick Brits and rip up NHS's paper prescriptions

David Ward 1

Re: information interchange

except this story is about hospitals and primary care not GP's

Canadian TV station wails: NFC bonking... it's not SAFE

David Ward 1
FAIL

Re: The acid test

firstly your laziness in checking for fraud on your card statement is rather immaterial. The fact is that credit cards numbers are not secret and people who rely on them being so are misguided. The problem of database insecurity and atm's being infected is that they do contain the secrets required to make the transactions by virtue of them making the transactions in the first place, hence the data being worth something. I am not saying the system is ideal but the point is that you have to have the private data (PIN or CVV or authentication secret etc) to actually make the transaction which is not transmitted by NFC.

Cook: iPad is a gateway drug which leads to harder Mac addiction

David Ward 1

"We're going to continue to innovate in it." - Apple stopped innovating in the mac division a long time ago didn't they? I thought the hardware division was made a high end generic hardware producer to all intents and purposes.

Card skimmers targeting more than ATMs, says EU

David Ward 1

Re: What no solutions?

"Banks certainly don't seem to regard it as their job to prove it was you and from the people I know who have experienced this, tend to ask you to prove it wasn't you!!"

And there are plenty of people who don't experience this, guess it depends on the bank.

Who's riddling Windows PCs with gaping holes? It's your crApps

David Ward 1

Re: 9 out of 10 ???

its English you should be worried about, not maths.

Retailer challenges Visa penalty fees in data security dust-up

David Ward 1

thirteen million seems quite reasonable considering the number of transactions that the company must be processing through its shops and online business. It is absolutely essential to punish companies for data breaches, its the only want to force them to take data security seriously.

Tesco dials 999 after Clubcard vouchers are 'nicked' online

David Ward 1

It is a phishing scam that has been in operation since the latest vouchers were released, not a data breach or hack and I don't think they should get refunded to be honest as its not Tesco's fault.

BT copper-cable choppers cop 16 months in the cooler

David Ward 1

If the council official took the offenders photo and had the van registration number, I wonder why they were still free to commit the same crime three weeks later? It seems the police only arrested them when they were subsequently dropped into their laps by BT. A bit disappointing.

Men's rights activists: Symantec branded us a 'hate group'

David Ward 1

I don't agree with everything this group goes on about but, someone was recently turned down for post-doctoral funding immediately on application, because the funding body are apparently making up for the fact that there have historically been more opportunities for men than women, and as such that they are no longer accepting applications from men at all even though they were giving more than 50% of the awards to women already. It sounds like some promotion of actual equality is sensible, so called positive discrimination is just discrimination.

Samsung laptops can be NUKED by ANY OS – even Windows: new claim

David Ward 1

Hopefully he tested his concept code on a machine that he can recover by manually re-flashing the UEFI firmware from a console or something similar and isn't distributing it to the uninformed.

iOS 6.1 KNACKERED our mobile phone networks, claim Vodafone, Three

David Ward 1

Re: Fanbois possibly responsible for sat nav failure ?

Mr C Hill, how do you know that it was the servers and not the data connection that were the problem?

Boeing 787 fleet grounded indefinitely as investigators stumped

David Ward 1
Boffin

iirc alkali metal fires can get hot enough to convert co2 into oxygen and carbon, which is presumably what you mean by "produce oxygen" and you can put them out with salt or sand or a class d fire extinguisher.

Here we go again: New NHS patient database plan sets off alarm bells

David Ward 1

Re: Its official patients are to be denied access to care

"unless you agree to your data being used on these databases you are denied access to GP services" - It does not say that at all, the article is about preventative care which is entirely separate and in most ways a very good thing.

David Ward 1

Not my experience

I can share information between all of the hospitals in the region and probably the UK electronically and with all of the GP;s in wales and probably the UK independent of their software, most use EMIS GV or web but some use other solutions and it works perfectly. We are currently in a trial for digital signatures on prescriptions but only one chemist chain are willing to purchase the hardware at present so the others need paper prescriptions. To be honest it isn't much hassle either as a doctor or patient so not that urgent. The doctors have been using digital record for years and they DO interoperate very well thanks, it is the hospitals that have been slow to catch up and the blame lies largely with consults who do not like their actions being traceable and prefer the power of their paper notes and prescription pads and therefore refuse to use any of the systems.

Bite us, Apple: Samsung hauled in $8.3bn in Q4

David Ward 1

Re: red herring

While good on paper for you, I am missing how that increases Samsung’s profits

Review: Dell XPS 12 Windows 8 tablet-cum-Ultrabook

David Ward 1

Re: The lack of Ethernet is a killer

"You're in a habit of dragging your laptop around without a case?" for the last 2 years for my 10" baby laptop at least, yes. RJ45 and HDMI are tiny compared to this chassis, as is a clip to hold a removable battery, all could be integrated into this footprint. Agree the optical drive is not an option without compromising the design though.

Oi, Apple, stick to phones, forget about TV - Time Warner CEO

David Ward 1

Re: Just trying to protect their balliwick

You are aware of course that it was Apple and the publishers that did this to e-books and it was Amazon that reported them to the competition authorities in the US and Europe, and Amazon that are issuing e-book customers with refunds from the payments they have received from the publishers that settled?

Barclays Bank buys 8,500 Apple iPads in one go

David Ward 1

Re: HP late again...

you know what, I thik we get when your point, there wan't a need to post it 4 times (and counting) in the comments of the one article! or is one of the commandments to preach?

German city dumping OpenOffice for Microsoft

David Ward 1

Re: Can anyone think of anything?

since the article says they are using OpenOffice 3.2.1, and office 2000 doesn't support docx, that could be an issue for them. Typical that their support has them stuck on an old version of open/libre office though.

Automatic Facebook couple pages: Nauseating sign of desperation

David Ward 1

perhaps friends and family who are not close by would would like to filter the pictures of you as a couple from the ones of you out with your mates?

Subjects bestow Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 on Queen

David Ward 1

Re: 'By Royal Appointment' ?

presumably a peoples republic

Google, Amazon, Starbucks are 'immoral' and 'ridiculous' over UK tax

David Ward 1

Who has apple paid off to not be in there? There have been several reports of late about how little tax they pay in the UK but they seem to have been missed in this grouping.. sureley they are a worse offender than Google or Amazon in terms of tax paid vs revenue?

British car parks start reading number plates

David Ward 1
Stop

Re: Pay or park somewhere else...

I seriously hope you are not implying that paying road tax should entitle you to park on any bit of "public highway" you take fancy to?

David Ward 1
Thumb Down

Poor attitude!

" My time is worth far more to fill the trolley than that of the supermarket droids" - Doesn't that attitude optimise one of the major causes of discontent in this country.

O2 flogs logs of mobe locations to anyone with a wallet

David Ward 1

Re: Should be fudged

worse than that the data in question is triangulated form cell masts and nothing to do with GPS or wi-fi locations, and roughly knows where you are ALL of the time that you are in cell range. You are confusing the information the telco collects by law and the information you 'willingly' signed up to provide to the app/OS makers you use. I can't think of an easy way to fudge cell location information..

Just how good is Nokia's PureView 41Mp camera tech?

David Ward 1
Thumb Up

Re: instagram?!

couldn't agree more, have an upvote good sir

Hackers leak 120,000 student records in raid on world's top unis

David Ward 1

Re: a protest against tuition fees that doesnt work

You would be surprised at how easy it is to walk into most lectures in Cambridge "FOR FREE", it is more of a struggle getting people to come to lectures than keeping them out. If you want to get personal tuition, lab classes, exams and a degree certificate, that is another story. Since the costs of things other than lectures scale with the number of people involved and someone has to pay for it.

David Ward 1

looked at the Cambridge "leak" and... how dull. 3 user id's from an old job advert, I wonder how hard they tried in this case? All security breaches should be taken seriously but if this is the sum total of what could be got I am appeased and very surprised.

iPhone 5: the fab slab to grab

David Ward 1

@JDX "Surely there is no excuse for GPS not getting your position to within 1m these days?" if you understand how GPS works then yes there is the age old exuse of physical possibility.

Apple 'offered Samsung $30-per-mobe' patent licence truce

David Ward 1

Re: What?!

"how many CAPACITIVE MULTI-TOUCH screen phones were there before the iPhone launched in 2007? Zero." In early 2005 one become part of a scanner interface for operating theatres, it also had an optional capacitive Z-mode allowing it to work without actually touching it. Apple "acquired" the technology from the two companies involved and did what they do best and marketed it to the ignorant masses in a shiny package.

Russian tech baron shocks physicists with £3m cash wad

David Ward 1

would have been better if he had put the money towards funding some actual reasearch, especially in the UK where the government has decided everything needs a 3 year plan to create a new business or it isn't worth doing!

UK's tax-funded boffinry to be published FREE for all

David Ward 1

Re: OK, but

Quality content needs editing and more importantly reviewing and ranking, that is what is valued in a journal not the printing press or the hosting, and it isn't cheap.

iPhone 5 poised to trounce Android, devastate BlackBerry?

David Ward 1

"We're talking about transfers between platforms, not transfers between devices on the same platform. The latter is trivial in all cases, even the iPhone" you might be making that point but we are not! We are talking about transferring your content between the device you have now and the device you might need in the future, if you put your eggs in apple's basket you are fixed to their (limited) vision of your future, which maximizes their profit margins, however if you put them in the android basket there is a better chance that a provider will produce something that fits into your future and in that case you can transfer your things with no penalties.

your point about kindle would be ok if kindle didn't provide an app for all of the major platforms or apple provided an ebook app to enable you to read your books on other platforms.

and of course the last defence of the cult "they're not the only ones doing it" i.e. its ok that we behave badly because everyone else does too.. I disappear!

Ultimately if you join a cult you have to be prepared to pay the exit fee.

Apple fails to block stolen iOS in-app content

David Ward 1

Re: Anal aperture

don't like it? pull the app from ios. no big deal.

Sky launches movie, sports on demand service

David Ward 1

What tech will this be using on PC? Please don't let the answer be silverlight...

Sleek new Macs violate fanbois' Retinas with display garbage

David Ward 1

Re: Why didn't they wait?

"I really wish Apple would consider using both Intel and AMD processors."

and how would that help a graphics card driver issue?

Burnt Samsung Galaxy S III singed by external source, probe reveals

David Ward 1

Charged for the investigative work?

Seeing as this person was essentially trying to pull a fast one. Looking at the forum, he was trying to claim for a phone and damage to his car; shouldn't he have to pay for the investigation (which involved reproducing the fault by destroying other test units) and pay some compensation to Samsung for the damage done to their reputation? I feel he should be punished more than a bit of web ridicule.

David Ward 1

Re: Back in my student days

were they metal socks? I have witnessed a couple of emergency drying's in the microwave with no apparent damage..

David Ward 1
FAIL

Re: Rule 2

So as long as the breakdown resistance of you to earth is sufficiently large no current will flow as there will be no potential difference, therefore it is irrelevant if the current is AC or DC.

War On Standby: Do the figures actually stack up?

David Ward 1
FAIL

Re: Remember that these switches are themselves in standby!

From my experimental evidence, the timer switch I got from china (via a popular tat bazaar..) for a fiver seems to use between 0.08W and 0.12W over the course of a week. Why would a higher voltage imply higher power usage in standby? The device I have doesn't use solid state relays based on the mechanical clicks it makes when it switches, but presumably you are talking about leakage currents from solid state relays? if so what damage do you think this will do to your device? I would imagine surges would be more of a problem, but these are less of a problem with SSR's as they switch more reliably and quickly?

Wealthy Kensington & Chelsea residents reject BT fibre cabinets

David Ward 1

Re: Creativity

If that is the case the residents should pay for it, not BT and by extension their customers..

LG shows off 'first' full HD LCD for smartphones

David Ward 1

I'm not so sure about that; the bezel on my phone has protected the edges of the screen from quite a few bumps that I suspect would have cracked the display.

Ex-Nokia Siemens engineer admits eBaying nicked routers

David Ward 1

So he took equipment destined for the skip and recycled it, hope the Judge has a warm feeling of justice being done in this one.

Aga cooks up phone-controlled 'iOven'

David Ward 1

or what a great way to keep informed that your house is burning down!

Instagram-owner Facebook emits in-house camera app

David Ward 1

Isn't thiis already on android?

I might be wrong but I think I have had this app on android for the last month, it got installed at the last facebook app update?

Spy under your car bonnet 'worth billions by 2016'

David Ward 1
FAIL

Re: @annodomini2 Before anyone says "here comes big brother"...

"1) Available time to take evasive action (like braking) for a bad situation goes down as speed goes up, linear relationship.

2) Destructive energy goes up as the square of the speed, square law relationship."

I call shenanigans.

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