Posts by Lamont Cranston
736 posts • joined Tuesday 27th April 2010 11:33 GMT
Really?
On the rare occassion that I'm in the branch near work, I get confused looks from the staff when I ask for an extra shot of espresso (I like my latte to taste of coffee, not hot milk); even then, it's still piss weak. Kevin Day described their coffee as "homeopathic," and I'm inclined to agree with him.
Don't even think about getting an iced coffee from them, either, as that really is brown milk (but mixed with ice!) - they don't even brew a shot to put in, just pull a bottle of pre-flavoured milk from the fridge. Yuk.
I don't think she should get her money back,
but I would like to see Microsoft (and everyone else) change their practices so that you cannot make repeat purchases on a saved credit card without some further authorisation.
I had money taken off my debit card (by my own father!) after failing to realise that Amazon doesn't have a log off function. I know better, now (my debit card stay off-line, and I put nothing through his malware infested PC), but how many people know about clearing their cookies, etc.?
Standard rant about an unsupervised child having access to an online account, naturally, but can't she just send it all back for a refund?
Posted in Punters 'pooh-pooh video on demand'
I have BT Vision
and rarely use the On Demand service (2 films, and 1 episode of Ben 10 in the past 4 years). Series I really want to see get recorded (most are on after 9pm, and I can rarely be bothered to stay up past 10pm), but for me (and, I suspect, most 30-somethings) TV is a passive medium - i.e. I'll plonk down in front of it and let it wash over me, often whilst talking or reading, activities which will get the most of my attention, only paying attention to the TV if something interesting comes on.
My kids seem keener on watching what they want, when they want (probably because they're all under 5, and haven't discovered patience), but that's far more likely to come off YouTube (or Megaupload) than BT Vision, as I really don't see any value in paying for TV.
Ugh.
"ISPA’s view is that the most effective way to control children and young people’s access to content on the Internet is through parental control software."
That seems reasonable. I'm pretty sure that my DVD-player has a parental control option, but I've never needed it, as my kids don't get unmonitored access to it (or the DVD collection). Likewise, I'll let them on the PC, under my supervision. When they're older, I'll make some effort at filtering what they can access, but not be so naive as to assume that it'll be 100% foolproof - it'd be like asking boys to not look at the top shelf in the newsagents.
Parental responsibility, what a crazy notion.
"parents can be too busy, or uninterested and sometimes not even literate" - no excuse for the first two, the third is just depressing.
To everyone getting angry:
By my reading of it, the article makes no mention of the user having his own backups, so you'd only glean this information by clicking one of the linked articles.
My reaction to the article was along the lines of "So what, he must have backups." From the comments here (I didn't read any of the linked articles, either), I gather that the problem is not the loss of the photos, rather the structure of his blog, and the time invested in it, and the working of any links to his blog. Again, so what? If his blog was so important, maybe a free photo site wasn't the place to host it? (I may be missing something here, but I really don't care).
Given that
the management appear to be standing behind the decision, the conclusion that low IQs are widespread would seem to be the correct one.
Draw the line?
How about this:
If it's a real weapon, you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it could be (mis)used as a weapon, you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it could be mistaken for a real weapon (and hence utilised to make threats) you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it is obvioulsy not a real weapon, and could not be used as one, then you can bring it on.
Granted, this leaves some room for interpretation, but I'd like to imagine that those doing the security checks would have had some training (ha ha).
"you have to prove that your kid had a legitimate right to have it"
Really? Being a child isn't a legitmate reason to be in possession of a toy?
I'm glad I never travel anywhere, it hardly seems worth the hassle.
As a human being, living in a world where suffering exists,
anyone making light of anything could be taken as offensive, both to myself and to others.
Therefore, if everyone could just shut up, break the silence only to apologise to me, then to everyone else, and then shut up again, permanently, I think we can all agree that everyone would be a lot happier.
Posted in IPTV UK: failure to launch?
IPTV may well be the future but,
given that DVB still does not work as promised*, and nationwide access to "superfast" broadband isn't going to happen any time soon, I'm not going to hold my breath.
A unified platform would certainly make buying a new TV a simpler process (and save faffing about with HTPCs and the like), but is there really any appetite among consumers to refresh their equipment again, straight after the digital switchover?
Still, two fingers up to Virgin and Sky is always good.
*Yes, I have more channels, but they break up when it rains, so that's hardly a massive improvement over the old analogue signal.
I suppose that the point being made
was that all of their (vast) revenue comes from adverts (ie. pointing you at other products), whilst the consumer products they produce are just window dressing.
Thus, Google make Chrome, which users love, not because Google wants you to have the best browser ever, but so that they can better serve up ads - the revenue for them comes from the ads, not the browser, which is given away for free, but the browser is the tangible product (from the end user perspective).
The disbelief that people actually click on the ads? I have that, too (same for facebook ads).
I don't suppose children have access to that sort of money
if daddy isn't willing to fund their gaming beyond the initial outlay. On the other hand, many children are quite PC-literate, therefore "borrowing" someone else's server is an obvious solution (albeit illegal, immoral, etc.).
"Income taxes are a way of punishing citizens for earning a living."
No. No, they aren't.
Can I assume that you keep a gun about your person at all times, just in case the Commies invade?
"put corporate systems administrators out of work"
Having. A. Laugh.
Centralising IT support is a fool's game.
Are Google going to build the world's biggest ever call centre?
Re: That old chestnut...
Good arguement, but MP3 players are much cheaper, and you can put your existing music collection on them. Had much luck ripping your old books?
"most of the time its intimidating toothless chavs"
No, it isn't. Do you really do buy in to the whole "children are evil and must be feared" bollocks? 'Cos that's what's undermining community cohesion, not trick-or-treat.
Posted in Top Ten Retro PC Games
I'd consider most of these games to be relatively recent.
I'm old, aren't I?
Posted in Samsung E60 e-book reader
I'd quite like an e-reader
as I no longer have space for books/bookshelves. But, at these prices, I'm better off just givng my books to charity shops once I've read them.
These things will only take off once they (or, at the very least, their downloads) are cheaper than old fashioned books.
What an unfortunate use of the phrase
"trickle down".
"Your honour,
"I downloaded all of that kiddie smut, but I didn't enjoy it."
Yeah, I'm glad that didn't wash.
Given that you can't take nail scissors through an airport,
how did he think he'd get away with this? Aren't shuriken illegal pretty much everywhere?
Posted in Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones
Eh,
I rip all my music at the lowest bit-rate possible, so as to cram as much as possible onto my 4GB ZenV. I've no desire to invest in extra hard drive capacity for my home PC, either. Most of my music listening is done on the move (either through the Zen or in the car) so premium quality is a waste of time for me. I'm also not made of money.
Similarly, HD-TV strikes me as a waste of money - yes, it does look better, but not so much so that I'd feel the need to junk my telly and DVD player and re-purchase all of my films. Analogue broadcast is fine for day to day viewing, although I do appreciate the extra crispness of a well mastered DVD.
Perhaps when I retire, I'll find that I have the time to just listen to music, and the spare cash for the appropriate equipment...
Producing with "willpower alone" isn't that hard,
provided that your still allowed to use your hands. But, if it's a fertility clinic, surely its clients are couples trying to conceive, so why make it a solo endeavour?
Supposing you got mugged in the street,
would that be your own fault for not having a full time bodyguard?
More informative than the snippet I caught on the radio this morning,
where the BBC journo claimed to have built his mobile malware with no knowledge of mobile programming. That he was assisted by an "application security firm" leads me to believe that writing a virus for mobiles is not quite as simple as he would make out.
Posted in Air steward resigns via emergency chute
"reckless endangerment and criminal mischief"
Was there someone at the other end of the emergency chute? Pah, leave the guy alone.
As for criminal mischief, that always puts me in mind of the Mr Men!
Really, what a nob.
But a fine example of why free speech is not without responsibilities.
Seriously, Amnesty offered to discuss the matter with him, and he releases a statement that accuses them of doing nothing (to clear up the mess he has made)?
Fuck the mentally infirm, eh?
May as well drown them at birth.
Posted in Nokia C3
I find the triangulation is usually sufficient,
even if it puts me in a different street to the one that I know I'm on - blindly following directions into fast moving traffic is not a mistake that I'm likely to make!
Posted in UK set for eBook pricing showdown
When I used to read a lot,
I would browse bookshops, looking for something to take my fancy, so price would not have been the driving factor (although I'd avoid hardbacks, on price grounds).
Now that I have less time for both reading and browsing in bookshops, I tend to go into the shop knowing which book I am going to buy, so it is then a matter of who is selling the book I want at the lowest price.
In either case, I would generally be happiest in a large bookstore, likely belonging to one of the big chains (is it just Waterstones, now?) - although independants were preferred when money was short and I wanted to pick up something 2nd hand, a role which charity shops fulfil nicely.
In short, yes, independant bookshops are dead.
Posted in UK set for eBook pricing showdown
£4 to £6 for an ebook, then (not including the reader)?
Unless ebooks are going to be cheaper than their paper counterparts, what's the point?
I like the ebook idea, but if I were going to shell out £100+ on a reader, I'd expect the books to be cheaper than the printed versions (publishers are saving on print, storagee and transport costs, and retailers' overheads would be down, too).
Perhaps the hardware cost will reduce once manufacturers realise that there's little point in "added value" features, such as annotation, music playback and web-browsing?
Nevermind, I'm mostly reading graphic novels at the moment, and I've yet to see an e-reader that could show something like Watchmen in a readable form.
"I flipped my legs over my head and turned off my alarm clock,"
whilst bound to the bed by her wrists?
I'll bet she's popular.
Posted in Nokia C3
I got an E63 from 3,
which is like an E71 without the GPS, and it's no great loss - I've got Google Maps working as a pedestrian navigation aid, and triangulation of location using mobile transmitters has done the job for me so far.
I'd say this looks like a decent little handset, probably would have tempted me if it had been £30 cheaper.
Posted in Sony Bravia KDL-32NX503 32in LCD TV
Hear, hear!
Glad I'm not the only person who still views a 32" set as large.
Utterly distinct:
Mobile instructions: dial access number, dial phone number
iPhone instruction: dial access number, lose signal, adjust grip, (repeat as necessary), dial phone number
So, Firefox is turning into Opera?
I've been using Opera for the past few weeks, in an effort to like it, but everything still feels slightly alien (and it crashes a lot).
One of my favourite things about Firefox, was that I could make it near identical to IE. I don't think I ever had a good reason for switching from IE, other than some nagging worries about security (that, and the piece of mind gained by using a different browser from the rest of the family!).
Will they be installing a key logger, too?
Ass bags.
So, you're conditions of employment are shit,
therefore everyone elses' should be too?
I bet the Tories love you.
Posted in Apple sued over hot iPad shutdowns
The more sensible solution, I assume,
would be to obtain a refund from the vendor, then report Apple to whatever the US equivalent of the ASA is?
Suing is obviously the default position for the US consumer - good luck to them!
No, no, no, no, no.
The BBC's independance, from both government and commercial sponsors, it what makes it worth having.
OK, so most (if not all) of the TV output is utter dross, but if I had to put up with commercial breaks in the middle of the Today Programme, well, it doesn't bear thinking about, really.
I like this idea,
as it's very much taking payments from those who can afford it (particularly if it were levied at a % based on your level of income). Then again, perhaps it is those who cannot afford it (non-taxpayers) who consume the most content (not that that should matter, of course)?
So, customers cannot opt out of being tracked,
but shouldn't worry, as the anti-malware software being developed is "really exciting"?
Come on, everyone, let's get excited!
Posted in NHS spunks £7.5k on porn room
If the trust "shared the costs" of
IT (£4,625), a telly (£2,225) and some DVDs (£500), and managed to spend £7,500, is this a euphemism for "subsidising a private facility"? Or are the Sun and the TPA just bad at adding up numbers?
Also, closing one's eyes is basically free, if you ignore the initial setup costs (which are met by the service user, not the provider).
Posted in UK.gov may cut BBC licence fee in 2012
By a similar principle,
childless adults do not get a reduction in tax to save them paying for schools that they are not using, and an equal portion of your council tax gets spent on policing, regardless of whether you called 999 last year.
Follow your reasoning, and we'd have to have a variable rate license fee, based on which bits of the corporation's output that you chose to consume* - can I have a discount for only using Radio 4?
*I believe that this is how Sky <spit> is paid for.
Posted in The Register comment guidelines 2010
Shouldn't that be
"and try to rein in your pedantry"?
Posted in YouTube, iPlayer on a TV? Simples
I suppose the idea would be
that this gets added to the Freeview+ standard, and so appears in all new Freeview boxes, and would be cheaper (and simpler, for most people) than buying an HTPC?
Should have been done sooner, really. I'll probably be ditching my BT Vision box soon, and an HTPC still seems like the preferable replacement (or not, as my old, CRT shows no signs of packing up anytime soon, so I may just feed it with a replacement Freeview box).
