* Posts by Blackbird74

40 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Jun 2011

Neuroscientist used brainhack. It's super effective! Oh, and disturbingly easy

Blackbird74

Re: Facebook with brain hacking capability ? Run for the hills.

Facebook? I think you need to look to the future, when they re-brand as Mindbook!

Japan's Robo-Bartenders point to a golden future

Blackbird74

Optional

There used to be one in a bar under London Bridge that did cocktails:

http://www.cynbar.co.uk/images/Cynthia%20pouring.jpg

http://www.cynbar.co.uk/Photos.htm

Huawei P10 Plus: The bigger brother is the real contender

Blackbird74

Re: Request for spec checklist

There are already other specialist sites around that give detail specs (where available). E.g:

http://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_p10_plus-8515.php

Interesting that some P10s may have slower storage;

http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/43447-not-all-p10s-are-equal

LOST IN SPAAAAAACE! SpaceX aborts Space Station podule berthing

Blackbird74

Podule

So HAL though it was a bad idea to open the podule bay doors?

ZTE Axon 7: A surprise flagship contender

Blackbird74

Optional

GSMArena spec says it has some:

http://www.gsmarena.com/zte_axon_7-8067.php

Stopped buying Oracle's kit? You've literally decimated its profit

Blackbird74

Re: "If you didn't buy Oracle kit..."

They are not committed to on-prem.

Moving to cloud allows them to lock-in customers and gauge later (and up-front)! Couple that with increasing lack of transparency around their data models for SaaS software and customers are pushed more and more to their consulting services as external consultants are gradually frozen out.

Existing on-prem customers will be encouraged with one hand to move to cloud, and pushed with the other hand by exorbitant increases in licence fees for on-prem.

Plenty of PHBs will buy-in to the benefits of cloud (and there are some) while the sales droids avoid/deny/ignore the disadvantages of cloud (and there are some).

Oz town suffers hairy panic attack

Blackbird74
IT Angle

Re: IT

Shirley tumbleweed must have some role to play in DevOps?? More soon on El DevOps!

Get out of mi casa, Picasa: Google photo site to join Wave, Code, Reader in silicon hell

Blackbird74

Re: My Tracks too

I've found www.ighome.com a very adequate replacement for iGoogle in case you haven't found it.

Shoebox-sized satellite enters orbit packing 3Mbps radio

Blackbird74
Devil

Re: What is it for?

Dunno, but these cubesats always make me think of the Zelda's cubes in Terrahawks, so I assume they have a sinister purpose:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1929-P7mAfY

The pachyderm punch: El Reg takes just-over-a-ton Elephone P8000 to tusk

Blackbird74

Optional

A more detailed specs list seems to suggest it does have GPS:

http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/model/3a353426

The Breakfast (Table) of Champions: Micro Machines

Blackbird74
Thumb Up

+1 - loved this since Mega Drive. Much flatmate banter caused by this.

The PS version also had a "cheat" where you could change to 3D rear-view mode in single-player instead of top-down. Not for multiplayer as it would mess with the edge-screen tracking.

Firefox 36 swats bugs, adds HTTP2 and gets certifiably serious

Blackbird74

Re: Have they stopped

Only thing I found for that is to install the extension "New Add-on Bar". Just wish they hadn't "improved" out of existence it in the first place.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/new-add-on-bar/?src=api

Sky sidles up to O2, whispers: 'Fancy a little FOUR-PLAY?'

Blackbird74
Megaphone

Re: Rising numbers...?

Up to eleven of course

It's a Doddle: Amazon inks train station parcel deal with Network Rail

Blackbird74

Re: Sounds brilliant.

The Amazon Locker service already provides most of this convenience, especially in cities. The question will be the cost. For a while, delivery to Lockers was free, but that was removed in April.

Most likely "FREE for only £79 / year Amazon Prime membership", so really just another attempt to lock users in to a regular revenue stream.

DANGER MOUSE is back ... and he isn't half a GLASSHOLE

Blackbird74

Re: Apologies for Cynicism

Fear not! DM will be getting an interesting back-story:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/dangermouse-to-get-gritty-origin-story-2014061887740

London commuter hell will soon include 'one card to rule them all'

Blackbird74

Re: Are oyster cards identifiable ?

I think the ones you can buy in a shop without any registration process are "Visitor Oyster Cards", which whilst useful for the purposes you outline, they have limitations. Primarily, they can not be loaded with weekly, monthly or annual tickets, which most people who travel regularly in London will use for convenience and price.

This compares to Travelcards (showing old paper type, but similar for Oyster)

http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/help-centre/ticket-comparison.html

There are other benefits such as being able to transfer credit online if you lose a registered card, which I have, and it even refunds the £5 deposit need for the new card.

The Visitor cards are useful for spook-dodging as you described, but as I said, there are limitations.

(TRT beat me to it, but as he/she said, you can also add auto-Top Up etc.) So again, a big trade-of between privacy and convenience.

Tech talk bloke compares girlfriend to irritating Java tool – did he deserve flames?

Blackbird74

Re: IT has a problem with fair treatment of women

"And the industry has a history of making women feel uncomfortable.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/this-is-why-there-arent-enough-women-in-tech-1221929631"

And valleywag has a history of spouting absolute drivel

AOL Mail locks down email servers to deal with spam tsunami

Blackbird74

Re: AOL is better than Google

"America On Line does not track you and sell your information to all kind of wierdos like Gurgle does."

Yes they do. They have used behavioural targeting (including predicitive analytics) through internal systems and external third-parties for many years. No better than any of the others.

(Edit: typo)

Crashed NORKS drones discovered by South Korea

Blackbird74

Additional closer pic here (and cropped version of the one linked in the article)

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/04/02/2014040201064.html

Magnets to stick stuff to tablets: Yup, there's an Apple patent application for that

Blackbird74

Re: Huh?

Nah. They know there is more money to be made in patenting the incoming fuel source for that....Air.

MemSQL bods develop new transaction: $35m now in-pocket

Blackbird74

Competition from the big boys

As noted, there are several start-ups like these around, but in-memory has already been integrated or is being integrated into the established players. It will be difficult for these one-trick ponies to get a foothold over tools with much wider capabilities such as MS SQL 2012 etc.

Google gobbles Wi-Fi thermostat maker Nest for $3.2 BEEELLION IN CASH

Blackbird74

Re: And you couldn't save energy before the Google purchase...

""[W]hat can it possibly give Google that's worth that much?"

Tony Fadell."

The ability to easily not pay tax on $3.2 billion, and absorb a [future] competitor in home-automation.

Faster, more private, easier to read: My 2014 browser wishlist

Blackbird74

Re: "Universal sync tools"

Well, apart from the Opera sync which is a small percent of the market, Xmarks (free) already syncs bookmarks and open tabs across FF, IE, Chrome/Iron, Safari:

http://download.xmarks.com/download/all

Also includes possibility for different profiles with standard ones for Home, Work and mobile.

(For mobile, it works with the FF mobile browser, but not Android browser).

Undercover BBC man exposes Amazon worker drone's daily 11-mile trek

Blackbird74
Joke

Re: ^ This.

Indeed. = this:

http://demotivators.despair.com/demotivational/motivationdemotivator.jpg

No wonder those Amazon prices are so high when I have to pay for PEOPLE to do the picking. Come on Amazon - sort it out! (Partially j/k)

Google Earth SHOCK: ZERO point ZERO ZERO SIX of world forests disappear each year

Blackbird74
Joke

I know....

Quick energy companies: raise prices to fix it!

Chinese hotel guests find data spaffed all over the internet

Blackbird74

Re: Travel - it's like that...

Really? It was quite easy for me to find bars in Beijing and other cities that have free Wi-fi that do not require any details. The needed even less than the "free wi-fi" common in the West which require registration.

Still, quite a few of those details they are asking for will be required for our hotel reservation (and visa) in the first place, so the hotels I used needed you to register, but simple enough for any agency to link your hotel room number to reservation details and then visa. That's why I stayed clear of those.

US red-tape will drain boffins' brains into China, says crypto-guru Shamir

Blackbird74

Re: Driven to China

That's strange.

I found them to be very welcoming and friendly in both cities I visited (Beijing and Guangzhou). The toilets were similar to Western standards.

Guess I was just lucky.

Dragons' Den star's biz Outsourcery sends yet more millions up in smoke

Blackbird74

I think most have figured out by now that the best option 3 (for themselves) is:

3. Sell stuff in 1. to third parties (especially advertisers)

Works for FacePalm etc. (sorta).

Of course, what is good for them is not necessarily good for those putting the stuff in 1. into the cloud in the first place Particularly personal details and behaviour.

Ministry of Sound sues Spotify over user playlists

Blackbird74

Re: Do they mix?

Most MOS (other than singles of course) are mixed:

http://www.discogs.com/label/Ministry%20Of%20Sound?sort=date%2Casc

Not sure how they can claim that is the same as a Spotify playlist that is obviously not mixed. They may be going for some legal grounds such as "near enough to be damaging" so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Top execs off as Zynga's new CEO shaves 'layer' off senior ranks

Blackbird74

Re: Chief People Officer

Yeah, it is a standard Merkin title for Head of Human Remains.

Amazon faces its third strike in Germany

Blackbird74
Joke

For France, change 1) to Wine and for 2) also add having another public holiday on Tuesday so you have "gap days" on Friday and Monday. Awesome. Plus, August = le grand vacance

HP knew Autonomy was a duff buy, claim HP shareholders in $1bn suit

Blackbird74

Classic

Hope this goes the same way as that other classic case of $bn round-tripping:

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2008-05-19/news/30696837_1_steven-rindner-mark-wovsaniker-joseph-ripp

http://news.cnet.com/Time-Warner-settles-fraud-charges-over-online-ads/2100-1030_3-5628271.html

Plusnet's 'Everyone's a winner' claim is a plus-sized whopper

Blackbird74

Re: Tail Wagging The Dog

"What kind of nitpicking petty minded tosspots make these complaints?"

Probably some nitpicking petty minded tosspot who just happens to work for a competitor.

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

Blackbird74

Re: Blindfold firmly secured? Let's go!

@Peter2: Stop making sense; this is supposed to be El Reg!

I would also add that in my own case, the potential upgrades to desktop innards over the last 2-3 years have not been sufficient to tempt be, except for a boot SSD. Most other evolutionary advances (CPUs, GPUs) have not been advanced enough to warrant the expense. (CPU changes usually resulting in new motherboard + CPU + RAM)

Apple patents shopping lists

Blackbird74
Stop

Samsungs did it!

Samsungs did it!

The truth about Apple's mind-boggling low tax rate

Blackbird74

Re: A thought strikes me.....

The big ISPs have been doing that for years. When you sign up online, the registration server is in Luxembourg, though you would never know unless you check the IP.

Nothing new here (but not saying it is entirely ethical either).

American search team fails to find women's G-spot

Blackbird74
Coat

Apple already patented the original - the iSpot - and will soon be suing the manufacturers of these blatant clones!

Union enraged by secret driverless Tube plan

Blackbird74

plus guaranteed pay rise until 2015 (at least)

And don't forget the 5%+ pay rise they are guaranteed each year until 2015:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15149806

Protecting the jobs and pay for the workers is the primary concern for any union, but milk it too much (especially from public funds) and they'll go they same route as the dockers and miners.

iPad maker to replace 1 million staff with robots

Blackbird74
Coat

Adapt this title

"The bad news is robots can do your job now. The good news is we're now hiring robot repair technicians. The worse news is we're working on robot-fixing robots- and we do not anticipate any further good news."

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/demotivators/adaptationdemotivationalposter.jpg

Apple 'spaceship' awaits landing clearance in Cupertino

Blackbird74

Nice curves....

Curved glass all the way round? Hank Scorpio would be proud...