* Posts by advocate

22 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Dec 2010

GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search

advocate

if you add anything to the end of the URL you get a message saying you are on the right lines. for example:

www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/winner

I haven't tried actually cracking any code but I am doubtful there is one to crack, given the relatively low pay and recent publicity for the need of cybercrime specialists perhaps they just want people that can find back doors in websites.

HTC Radar WinPho 7.5 smartphone

advocate
Meh

Bizarre that it is an option on the newer handsets, especially as there doesn't appear to be any real hardware differences. Perhaps an email to MS is required about this, they are usually quite nice if you ask the right person....

advocate

Omnia 7

Got the Mango on Friday, not much has changed really and the three big things I want updated have not been done:

1. Timer function for the clock - I don't care that you can download an app every other phone I have owned since the late '90s has had this function and I miss it.

2. Flash support - iPlayer in the car please

3. Tethering - 3 is happy for me to tether and yet there is no way to do it (I have tried the "hack" but the phone doesn't get seen as a modem by the computer so it doesn't work) - I would really have to say this is my number one bugbear with the winpho.

The winpho os is actually quite nice and the games, whilst overpriced, are actually quite good (really enjoying tentacles) but the above three points I believe make it not as good as either Android or IOS. Still, another year on my contract before I make a decision to change or not.

HTC outs 'Mango' WinPho 7 smartphones

advocate

@ tirk

Not sure what you mean about not syncing with Outlook properly. I have my phone hooked up to two exchange servers and outlook works brilliantly.

advocate
Gimp

@ Spearchucker Jones .... To assume....

"Advocate, contacts appear split because you have entries for one person from many places (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live and Exchange). You can link them to make them appear as a single entry. This is by design, and IMO an awesome feature"

I know all about this and for the majority of my contacts this is true however I have one friend in particular who has the same entry being displayed no less the 36 times in my phone book. Whilst he is present on FB, Twitter, G+, Live & Linkedin he does not have that many accounts. This is irksome and weird behaviour.

In addition, there is a limit to how many accounts you can link and you cannot link a live account to a live account.

I look forward to Mango, mainly for the IE9 improvements but I am no longer a developer and haven't been privvy/bothered looking too closely at what else mango brings.

Re timers - yes there are 3rd party apps for that but why isn't it part of the standard build?

Also, forgotten in my previous post - I hate bing, it is a rubbish search tool. Purely subjective but there you go.

advocate
Meh

Yup

I have the Omnia 7 - overall not a bad phone but it does feel very much like a first go, which considering Windows has a fairly long (if rubbish) history with "smart" phones isn't really a good thing.

I find it to be buggy with the way it handles contacts, creating multiple entries for the same contact for no apparent reason and denying the ability to delete one of those entries without loosing the whole lot - and heaven forbid that you try to remove a contact who has details pulled in from either windows live or facebook!

Other issues I have include the lack of a timer function on the clock meaning you have to set alarms for a specific time rather than letting a countdown run. Also lack of official tethering, and in my case lack of unofficial tethering as well as I can't get the bloody thing to appear as a modem once I have followed the "hack".

The browser is fairly buggy as well, refusing to show many pages due to crap java support and lack of flash/html5 and not handling events like pop up windows properly. I have not yet been able to find an alternative browser for it.

Looking in my friends pockets, I am the only person to have a winpho who doesn't work for MS and of those that work for MS (and therefore get them free) all of them have either an android or an iPhone in their pocket as well.

All that said, it isn't a bad phone but it has a lot of issues in my opinion. Hopefully mango will fix these issues but if any of the mentioned issues are deal breakers for you, skip it for now.

Giant iPhone 4 brings Mac OS X to the table

advocate

Runs OSX?

Unless Apple have agreed to it being run on this hardware I smell another injunction coming

Will the looters 'loose' their benefits?

advocate
Trollface

Australia

I say stick em all on an island with deadly things everywhere and let them fend for themselves....

BOFH: CSI Haxploitation Cube Farm Apocalypse

advocate
Pint

Ahhhh

Happy fridays

LucasArts Day of the Tentacle

advocate

Ah those were the days

games like Day of the Tentacle and Normality were so much better than DN Forver and they cost less. Sigh.... maybe I should create my own chron-o-john and go back a few weeks to stop myself clicking pre-order on steam...

Duke Nukem Forever

advocate
Meh

Completely agree

This was one of my worst pre-order purchases ever. Unfortunately as I bought on Steam I can't even sell it on

MS announces Windows Phone 7.1

advocate

only partly correct

you can tell it to not sync people from FB who aren't in contacts (thanks for that, just did it and got rid of some of the Yankees) but it won't let you edit any of the details that it pulls from elsewhere and it wont let you link live accounts to each other (I have some friends who have a few different live accounts for whatever reason) = messy people page.

on the dev blog: http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/05/24/developer-news-beta-mango-tools-available-today.aspx

it does say that silverlight 4 is being bundled with the update, hopefully that will meant that the IE9 browser with the bundle will also get silverlight.

advocate

agree mostly

Re - Facebook, alright lets take the lazy friends out of the equation. integration is provided by the winpho software and it doesn't allow for any alteration of contacts. I personally have under 70 people on my "friends" list, some of them live in America and I don't ever call them on their phones, why won't microsoft let me delete their entry from my contacts list?

RE - Flash/Shockwave - I meant to write silverlight not shockwave.... silverlight is very much a microsoft thingy no?

Re Turn by turn navigation - You reminded me of another bugbear of mine, Bing maps. It just plain sucks - in fact bing everything on the phone sucks - I realise this will come down to a 3rd party app and the hardware/homepage integration will never be allowed but damn I would love the silly search button to link to google and the maps software to be google maps instead.

advocate
Pint

features on my wish list

- tethering, either remote or by usb but please unlock it!

- ability to remove facebook contact details (some of my friends have old phone numbers in their profiles etc and it gets confusing)

- flash

- shockwave

If you can get me those I will be very happy.

Pint for the developers that tick all the boxes.

Steve Ballmer window-dresses Windows 8

advocate

surface

I would love it if microsoft actually managed to release something as awesome as surface for tablets but at a much more reasonable price.

3D fad fades for Yanks

advocate
Boffin

Saw this in Vue at the weekend

Not a bad film but it didn't really feel like a proper "pirates" film, wasn't funny enough.

The 3D stuff was mostly painful, the action was too fast for the 3D to be effective and it just made the scenes blurry for the most part. The only stuff that really worked well in 3D was the static text at the start of the film. Thank god it was a short film because the headache coming out of the cinema was not nice.

I will not be paying for a 3d ticket in the future, lesson learnt.

(glasses for obvious reasons)

Lock up your lungs, here comes Grimsvotn

advocate
Badgers

A plague of ash upon both your houses....

And to think you said the rapture didn't happen!

Microsoft calls time on Zune media player hardware

advocate

winpho

it is all about the winpho now - the zune served its purpose and has helped to produce the winpho software (which I think is quite good, not flawless, but good).

All thats missing really is a small mp3 player for those gym monkeys like the ipod shuffle/nano...

Pothole-spotter app aims to stop arse ache

advocate
Gates Halo

App for Win Pho 7 Plox

As per title....

Middlesbrough cabbie relieves lad of iPhone

advocate

ummm £500 ??

In the pic he is holding a 3GS box.... no way that was £500 this christmas....

In fact looking at the UK apple store online the only 3GS they sell is £428 - this is after the VAT increase as well..

I call shenanigans. Muppet lost it while drunk and is seeking to blame a cabbie.

Burglars snort dead dad's ashes

advocate

Urban myth

Surely the druggies would have taste tested the ashes first and realised their mistake?

This wouldn't surprise me if it was just another "Fox Exclusive" as in they have no real news so recycle urban myths...

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/cannibal/cocaine.asp

Stephen Fry security whoopsie leads to prank fart book order

advocate

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

One would assume that is a screen shot from the hack that wrote the article rather than from Mr Fry's computer - little bit o research from the all knowing Wiki for El Reg?