Posts by auburnman
514 posts • joined Thursday 28th July 2011 21:58 GMT
Accenture working on bug fixes
Has it been made ABSOLUTELY CLEAR to them that by 'fixing bugs', it is meant that the bugs should be corrected so that they do not occur, as opposed to improving the bugs so that they do more?
but that's less convenient as it's bringing your payments forward. Much better to have that extra £30 in my bank account than O2's, until you need the topup. Most networks would love it if you bought your topup sooner -I don't know if it's still on the go but there used to be extra sweeteners available for topping up £50 or more in one go.
Re: If you must deal with paypal
Sounds like you had a lucky escape with the collectors. I cancelled a mobile data contract with 3 during the 'cooloff' period (the coverage was dire in the city centre, significantly poorer quality than expected) only for them to keep demanding payment. Only every time I disputed the debt and asked for proof, they said they'd look into it, and promptly bounced it onto a different collections agency. Presumably in the hope I'd get sick of fighting and cave in.
(Never discuss the 'debt' with these people - it is always the 'alleged debt' unless they have sent cast iron proof.)
Re: Thats funny
With you on the bit about PayPal being useless overcharging gits, but I thought a judge or someone else important had decreed that they were a de facto bank and as such had to register as one and be regulated?
Wait a minute...
When did we privatise regulation? Because for-profit and what's best for the sector mix so well. Are they TRYING to wreck the whole Kingdom?
If by the public sector you mean our poor overworked squaddies and police officers from all over the country. Given the choice between being shot at in a desert hellhole and trying to keep order in London during one of the biggest knees-up in recent history, I'd have to have a good long think before answering.
Beer for the poor buggers who have to work while everyone else is enjoying themselves.
Re: No room for 3rd ecosystem.
That ignores the fact that Nokia probably won't survive making another switch. They lost a load of goodwill and talent and took a pasting on the shares when they made the switch to MS, another U-Turn is probably not something they can pull off. Also I seem to recall el Reg reporting Nokia got a hefty bung from Microsoft ($1Bn?) when the switch announcement was made - that more than likely came with some nasty contractual obligations that tie them to Windows phones for a while. I seem to recall using the phrase "handcuffed to the deck of the Titanic" last time this was discussed.
The only hope for Nokia might have been to cut its losses and go with Android, but I think that time is long since past.
Hopefully Sea Fox will be deployed as a 'last line of defence' option, i.e. only deployed after less sacrificial mineclearing methods (like shooting them from a helicopter as mentioned above.) For my money, my first choice would be converting a couple hundred crappy dinghies into remotes and deploy them in pairs dragging a net between them.
Who decided to call them the Clovis? They sound like a brand of butter.
Queue a new method of harassment
Watch out for your online persona being poisoned. Fly to the US often? Better hope no-one with a bit of photshop-fu has uploaded a photo tagged "Me and my best mate Osama, LOL"
Hell, what about Argos? Their entire business is storing things securely in a warehouse until people come pick it up, and they do open 'til 6/late night shopping already. I'm sure they'd love a bit of extra footfall, they could have their latest 'deals' showing by the collection desk.
Other options for the Post Office include opening outwith office hours as others have mentioned, but here's an idea: Sort that abomination of a website so that you can use it to inform the depot where your parcel is stored that you will be coming to collect it on day X; given enough notice surely they could have it handy for collection on the day you arrive. From here you automate the authorisation process so you don't have to pull out your passport and a blood sample to pick it up - surely it would be child's play for them to rig up secure login on the net that punters could log in to and print out a bit of paper that says "The bearer of this slip is entitled to collect parcel 123, as per my secure online authorisation." Slap a barcode on it as well so the clerk doesn't even have to spend time typing on their system. That way the collection process could boil down to: Rock up, have the barcode on your slip scanned, collect parcel, piss off. bye bye queues.
Re: What......
Wouldn't Apple be hit just the same as the rest of them, or are they waging war with a different kind of patent?
Looks to be another solution looking for a problem. Unless they can somehow make the smart packaging as cheap as the regular kind, I can see companies and people voting with their wallets.
Posted in Google Nexus 7 Android tablet
I'm sorely tempted, but I want a slot for a storage card and I'm not sure if I'd like it being smaller than the 'normal' tablet size. I do notice that the US price for the high end version ($249) currently converts to £160 (UK price for the cheap version) on fx.com. Might be worth trying to import depending on the hassle involved.
I think I will continue to umm and aah until it's actually out.
Apple's reps are being awfully incautious with their language, aren't they? From what they seem to be saying in the article, they aren't saying "We believe Samsung copied the iPad," but flatly asserting "Samsung have copied the iPad." Are they allowed to do that before the judge has ruled in their favour? Assuming it goes Samsung's way after all the appeals and cruft, could they countersue for corporate slander or somesuch?
Re: Back in my student days
No idea. I could theorize the flame came from Nylon static sparks, frayed cotton, Or just having the Micro up at max, but end result was still the same - I still had to get up and check he wasn't going to burn the flat down.
Re: All very well...
"You are not in a position to judge my life"
Then what puts you in a position to judge Nightfox as homophobic? I am sorry to hear that you've had trouble with homophobes, but the Reg is a fairly live and let live site and a little double entendre - not directed at anyone or badmouthing any group - is worlds away from homophobic abuse.
"Patent 101010101: A Technique and Method for Allowing and supporting nonstandard interfaces such as Male-Male connections by repurposing system cavities as connection sockets."
Back in my student days
My flatmate burst into my room in the morning complaining that his socks weren't dry yet; he needed them for work that day and sought my advice. Me still being in my pit and trying to catch some Z's (typical student) I resented the intrusion, so I sarcastically told him to 'Microwave them dry', rolled over and went back to sleep. Only to be woken moments later by cries of 'Fire! Fire!'
Re: Bonk?
Yeah it has multiple meanings. It can mean bump, but it can also mean bump uglies. Also you may have gotten some stares for combining British slang with an American accent - it sounds subtly wrong in a way that draws attention. Or is it just me that thinks they don't mix well?
Re: I had a bet with myself...
Yes, but it was the side I had backed to win.
I had a bet with myself...
...when I read the headline. I bet that when I read the article, the 'confession' quote from Apple would be missing an apology.
Turns out I won.
Re: Can you still get Spangles?
They did make a brief comeback some years ago - I still remember an excited Gaby Roslin sharing the news on the Big Breakfast, which probably gives you an idea of how long ago. Wouldn't give them to a baby though - choking hazard and all.
Not us, guv'nor
Us? We like a good fireworks display as much as anyone else. We also like to laugh at someone else'e ballsup a little more than we should probably admit, but it's not as much fun if you deliberately cause them to eff up.
On the subject of the "must be a virus" guy, I have a fair bit of sympathy for him as he suddenly became the centrepiece for a highly public SNAFU on a major holiday event. If it happened to me I'd be probably dropping all the FUD and chaff in my verbal arsenal to buy time for a retreat and regroup.
Re: Steam/Origin?
Interesting question; I suspect Valve & EA will make no changes and ignore the issue unless the mainstream media decide to make a meal of it or a politician snaps it up for some 'standing up to corporations for the common man' style cheap heat.
It would be nice if
Companies could be banned from lobbying, and/or it was illegal to be paid to lobby; you shouldn't get better access to politicians simply by way of having more money. Unfortunately not something I believe would be reasonably enforceable.
Isn't part of the Patent Office job keeping a record of owners of patents? How effing hard is it to look the patent up in their register and check the current owner?
Re: Drivers
Cheers for the replies all. I did try getting them an HP but it liked to behave erratic at best - maybe I just got a dud.
How hard/pricey is it
to invalidate a patent? I am genuinely astonished we haven't heard of HTC/Samsung/whoever going hell for leather at Apple's patents with a "burn the crops and salt the earth" mentality.
Re: Drivers
I usually don't have driver issues on Linux, but I'm having an absolute arseache finding a cheap desktop printer that "just works" on Ubuntu. Can anyone recommend one that is just plug 'n' play? It's for the parents so it really needs to be plug in, switch on and go with near-zero faffing about.
Are Twitter making any money yet? Surprised they're still here.
As a lighter aside to the impending Big Brother state, I theorize that if more young un's looked at internet porn, we'd have a lot less teenage pregnancy than we currently do. Seeing some of the greasy, hairy, tattooed proto-humans rutting away on the web can put you off the idea of sex for days. And the men are almost as bad (boom boom!)
In my day, just before the internet got properly on it's feet, getting your porn was a rite of passage: you had to go into the corner shop, wander around the crisp aisle until there were no other customers, snag-a-mag and look the old lady on the counter straight in the space just to the left of her eyes as you paid and make (what you thought was) a dignified exit at a steady pace (but was in fact a nervous near-run.)
Re: It is actually the most UNpopular browser
If you're going to try to discount installs that aren't wanted or are there by default, Microsoft will have to assemble a crack team of statisticians/marketers to discredit you when their market share snaps in half.
Wonder what kind of hardware they are shipping ChromeOS on? Depending on price it might be worth picking one up and slapping some real Linux version on it -way round the MS tax on new PC's anyone?
Speaking of 'real' linux, I seem to recall there are versions out there that are cut down and streamlined enough to run in RAM. Why couldn't Google build something between ChromeOS and Android that works like this - light footprint, quick to boot? I'm sure they'd get a load more takeup than with the current 'crippled without a connection' approach.
Re: It's a farce anyway
I particularly liked
"10 A) A system in which some internet content (for example, pornography) is automatically blocked for you by your internet service provider or by the smartphone or other device you use to access the internet and you can later ask them to remove the filters if you want to access the blocked websites. Yes / No"
YOU HAVEN'T ASKED A F**KING QUESTION. WHAT THE HELL AM I MEANT TO DO WITH YES OR BLOODY NO?
Re: PC
You must have missed the stories about the Oz authorities fining Apple for claiming their phones are 4G.
What's a MAC?
Migration Authorisation Code; what BT are dragging their heels in providing now that I've finally bothered my arse to switch my parent's broadband.
Intentionally Weak passwords
Hear hear. Whenever I sign up for some semi-useless cack I don't care about being linked to me, I sign up as Tony Hawk with password popopo00. I reuse passwords on low priority sites so I don't have seven hundred strong passwords swimming through my head when I'm trying to remember my banking login or my Steam account pw or somesuch.
Re: Crap game
No guns had lights unless you had the mod. Doom 3 was terribly formulaic, I seem to recall the lights went out almost every single time there was an encounter. Even when there was lighting it flickered on and off all the time so you just wound up with a headache. The whole fighting in the dark thing was so overused that it never had a chance to be scary, or anything other than irritating.
Posted in Tomb Raider dev denies Croft rape scene
I think it's the mixing of genres
that is putting people off: I expect and indeed welcome high drama and emotional scenes when I am playing a game of that ilk such as Heavy Rain. If I am playing whizz bang shooty fun puzzle platformer for a bit of escapism I would not appreciate suddenly having the evils of society suddenly dumped on my mind.
I personally am not keen on entertainment that crosses a certain line in exploring personal trauma (like the film about the guy who had to cut his arm off or die in the desert.)
With high end graphics and improving writing, games have evolved to a point where good developers can really make you feel like you are in the game, or at least have a high level of empathy with your character. So throwing the threat of violation of 'you' or a 'person' you care about into the mix is something I can understand people shying away from.
Re: Utter Disgrace...
Being offered on the menu is not that common, but knowing someone who works in a chippy helps. Couple of pro tips: Battered Creme Egg GOOD, Battered Aero EXPLOSIVE.
Re: Layers of scorn
Roy and Moss dated plenty of women in the IT Crowd. The Big Bang Theory seemed to indicate at the start it would be based around dateless nerd geniuses, but Leonard bounces from Hot blonde neighbour to hot Indian chick to hot particle physicist and Howard ends up with stunning blonde biologist. Raj and Sheldon don't do too bad either. The comedy comes from the characters wrecking their chances when they overthink things.
Re: sought for questioning?
Not again. We went down this road not too long ago - innocent unless proven guilty. Personally I think the guy is a git but I have no idea one way or the other about his guilt. I do seem to recall he is a paranoiac, this could just as easily explain his actions.
Re: What about...
I don't think I've ever read anything on el Reg like the comments you say come up whenever a woman is discussed . And while bandwidth/storage articles may inevitably attract one or two porn jokes, I'm not sure how that is sexist? Did you think porn is only ever made for heterosexual men? Don't be embarrassed if you did, I thought the same thing 'til I was about 12.
That strikes me as potentially failing to comply with the DMCA - if you can still get to the link through a Google search, then it could be argued they have obfuscated it instead of taking it down. (Even though the link is now hosted by another organisation, this is with the admitted help of Google.)
On a related slightly pedantic note, who holds the copyright on a (theoretical) DMCA form I have filled out? Could I send another DMCA notice to Google to stop them linking to my DMCA notice?
Posted in Japan still in love with the fax
Yes
and it was "PC Load letter? what the f*** does that mean?" Load A4 would have been too helpful an error message.
Re: ISPs and the BBC
Don't forget they already get paid to deliver internet content to our desktops - by us. If you also count the network costs for the BBC (which I hadn't thought of initially) then really they're trying to triple dip. Greedy Shakespeare Kebabs indeed.
Posted in HTC locked out of Windows 8 tablet party
The desire was a bloody good handset with a few flaws, notably low internal memory. I recently traded up to the Sensation, stuck with HTC because I was mainly chuffed with the desire (which now sits around the house being used as a tiny tablet during the ad breaks.) I wish they'd stop moving the power button though - it takes stupidly long to undo the muscle memory for the old location.
Pedantic self correcting update with link: The motion on the robot glider is actually wave powered - the solar cells run equipment on the drone.
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/wave-glider-crosses-pacific/all/1
Re: I wonder how many of the engineers developing this tech have actually spent time on the water
There's already an anti-crap coating you can paint on seabound stuff. Search on Wired.com for the solar powered drone that's trying to cross an ocean (and doing a fair job of it.)
