Posts by Dr Wadd
16 posts • joined Wednesday 26th January 2011 12:08 GMT
Re: Not going to happen
I've just changed ISP to Plusnet, with them there is a single one-off charge of a fiver to get a fixed IP, I was actually surprised at just how reasonable that was.
"Click" on BBC News were covering the latest TV developments in Japan a few weeks ago where they interviewed a chap from NHK. He stated that they weren't going to be investing at all in 4k technology and were instead going to wait and jump straight to 8k. While I appreciate things may have changed in the interim, I wouldn't be so sure that it would be NHK handling these broadcasts.
I too am somewhat puzzled how this console "ban" operates in China, the Chinese specific version of the N64, the iQue Player, was released in China in 2003, apparently 3 years after the ban came in to force.
There was someone from the ICO on BBC News this morning and he was asked why the fine was so relatively low. He attempted to argue that there were mitigating factors, one of which was the loss of revenue that Sony had suffered as a result of a lack of customer trust. In effect, he was claiming that the lost business was tantamount to a fine. I find that to be an absolutely ludicrous argument and it certainly wouldn't be applied to other sectors. I'm sure sales of Gary Glitter records dropped drastically following his arrest and conviction which have an impact on his earnings, I don't think anybody would even start to argue that his punishment should be more lenient because he had suffered financially as a result of his actions.
Re: Music via radio.
The flip side of that was being shown once how touching a screwdriver to the right point on a BBC B's motherboard caused it to play a particular radio station from the speaker. I wish I could remember how to pull of that particular trick.
Re: Ethics Morality and Law
Somewhat ironically, when attempting to click through for the PDF detailing Starbucks' ethical stance the file can't be found.
Re: the repurposing of an airliner...
I was rather amused by an interview I saw with Tom Clancy not long after 9/11 where he described an attack with a passenger jet as "unimaginable". I thought somewhat odd given that he had been able to imagine it perfectly well just a few years earlier.
After reading this article I tried Apex Launcher, which stayed on my tablet for less than 5 minutes. It seems very flakey on the Nexus 7 with icons being incorrectly positioned and the dock disappearing every time I rotate the tablet.
From my experience of Reading Borough Council I fully expect this app to increase unemployment in the area.
I'd probably be "distressed" too if the someone was if someone was publishing a blog with photographs proving my work wasn't up to snuff. That doesn't mean that the blog is in the wrong though.
As for the charge of misrepresentation, if there were two choices each day, unless one was something she absolutely hated then it would seem reasonable that she chose the better of the two options. Therefore, the photos potentially show the school dinners in an overly flattering light as they don't factor in the less palatable option. I suppose technically that is misrepresentation, but surely one that if anything is in the school's favour.
Posted in Ten... eight-bit classic games
Manic Miner, Jetpac and Sabre Wulf were all available for the BBC B as well, and I'd argue they were superior versions compared to the Spectrum.
Posted in Virgin Media's latest throttling rules
Re: A few things on this
Where have you got this notion that they block devices that aren't running Windows or OSX. My Ubuntu box has no trouble connecting to the net via their services, neither does my Android phone. Is this a misunderstanding on your part, or something they are rolling out incrementally that has yet to effect me?
Tron 2.0 : Killer App
Released for the XBox in 2004, suggests that back in 2004 the publishers felt that the term "app" was sufficiently widespread to allow customers to understand the title.
Posted in Card surcharges face super-complaint
There's a simple solution to this
According to the BBC's coverage of this story, the card issues are supporting Which, not the retailers. There's a very simple solution to this, the card issuers could make it part of their T&Cs with retailers that they do not charge excessive surcharges. It's not as though they don't already impose a raft of rules and regulations, so one more isn't going to make much of a difference. This appears to be pure hypocrisy on the part of the card issuer's simply so they can look like the good guys.
AFAIK, in the US the card issuers can revoke a retailer's use of the service if they demand ID when making a purchase. A similar rule here for excessive surcharges would be the obvious solution.
Better than National Geographic
The National Geographic website only needs your subscription number in order to access your account settings. This would be the account number that is printed on the shipping label of every issue I receive. Granted, the scope for mischief is somewhat smaller, but it would appear that you can do things like change the delivery address this way.
I contacted their customer support to express my concerns only to receive a rather generic response that they would take the comments in to consideration. In comparison Ryanair's security methods seem positively robust.
Posted in UK tech retailers are rubbish
Comet's Diamond in the Rough
While I normally find this sort of retailer absolutely terrible, I did have a good experience buying a HD television from Comet a couple of years ago. I went in with a stack of questions that the sales assistant couldn't actually answer, but rather than risk losing a sale he actually got on the phone to Samsung to find out the answers. It was quite a revelation, but sadly it has only happened the once.
As for televisions configured to present them in an unfavourable light, when I was visiting various shops looking for that television I checked to see what sort of connections the demo model was using. If the set wasn't being displayed using appropriate connections I asked them to connect something up to it using HDMI. Some shops would help, some didn't want to know. The latter would lose the sale there and then. If they aren't prepared to help the customer then the simple answer is they don't get my money.
