* Posts by Tapeador

417 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Dec 2011

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Coupon-spaffer Groupon starts to sniff actual profits

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A reality check here

Now my individual experience two weeks ago is obviously anecdotal, but, mine was a shocking experience of Groupon, which made them look seriously incompetent, to me.

Having paid for two Odeon vouchers ("cinema tickets for £6") from them, which, the offer's terms claimed, would be emailed within two working days of placing the order (see bottom*), they still hadn't arrived come the time they were needed, despite it being more than two working days.

Additionally, I had initially been issued with a receipt for only one, despite two payments being taken from my account; I had had to write initially and confirm two were due; and after the weekend came and went and still no tickets, they didn't believe I hadn't received or used it. It finally arrived after they agreed a refund, something I am still waiting for some time later.

*"After you click 'Submit order' and purchase your Groupon, the voucher will be redeemed instantly by Groupon Shop Limited. Since the Groupon is redeemed instantly, you will not receive the standard Groupon voucher the next day. Instead, Groupon Shop Limited will email you within 2 working days with your own voucher for admission to ODEON."

Spy under your car bonnet 'worth billions by 2016'

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Stop

@ Matthew 3 - Re: "Speed doesn't inherently kill"

What are you talking about? It's an infantile implicit fallacy, said by him tongue-in-cheek: of course speed kills - one chooses speed, and expends energy to manifest that choice, but non-movement is the default state of objects under gravity. Not moving is something which occurs in the absence of choice: whether the not-moving is dangerous or not depends completely on the speed one has chosen to go beforehand.

Ergo it is the speed, not the being-stationary, which kills. Clarkson knew this when he uttered the sarcastic comment and you were dumb enough not to think it through for yourself.

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Devil

@NomNomNom Re: @annodomini2 Before anyone says "here comes big brother"...

You've just made the greatest case for driving at 23-29mph in 30 zones I can think of - to wind up infantile psychopaths such as yourself

Enormous British PC mountain finally shovelled out onto markets

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Re: Medion? Aldi?

This might just be me speaking as a litigious bastard, but I think the culture of retail in the UK is such that refunds aren't something you're given, but something you have to take.

Teufel Audio iTeufel Air

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Coat

The devil's speakers!

"Zamiel... Zamiel!!!"

That was a German devil joke. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Samsung shows 'designed for humans' handset

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Stop

Re: Re: Too big

Well I FOR ONE certainly don't employ a smartphone as a prosthetic. How would you clean the thing??!

Boy wrecks £22k worth of MacBooks by weeing on them

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Coat

Aaaaahh

Piss on ya!

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Re: liquids - the one big Mac killer

Interesting point re resistance of various laptops to fluids: I spilled a bunch of water on my relatively new Toshiba, and it turned out the (no longer typing properly) keyboard was a sealed component, itself with what seemed a de facto seal around its edges, which more or less prevented any water seeping further into the machine. I replaced the keyboard unit at a cost of £10, and the whole getup works just fine.

Panasonic touts monster 8k by 4k 'flickerless' plasma

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Re: Real Journo

Presumably when one writes on matters in the world, in a skilled capacity, on commission from an independent news organisation, as one's main occupation.

Megaupload case near collapse: report

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Re: The New Justice[tm]

@ Jim 40

"Parasites"? We're not talking about people putting a price on oxygen, or engineering a price-spike in other essentials are we? We're simply talking about people charging reasonable sums for entertainment, to enrich people's lives, and which people only ever partake of completely voluntarily.

And before you tell me you shouldn't have to pay for your CD licences again where the CD corroded, I agree that's a problem and don't have an answer to it, but don't think it legitimises all of the theft which people say it does.

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Re: The New Justice[tm]

@ Mad Mike

"You can take as many dotcoms out of business as you like, but copyright violation will happen just as much, maybe more. The answer is to adapt your model and make it irrelevant."

Adapt one's model how? Stop making things to sell them? Sell them for as near zero that downloader thieves feel almost no difference paying for them than stealing them? "Go on the road"? Please don't just make that hollow proposition without properly fleshing it out and providing what you think should be the model - as as it stands it is just a figleaf for theft.

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Mushroom

Re: The New Justice[tm]

I see, so any company producing film and music, or acting on behalf of those doing so, which has employees in sufficient number to need an 'exec', or a 'boss', deserves to have its business destroyed, by thieves?

These are not "trumped-up charges", we are talking about the destruction of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and the destruction of the music and film economies, and with them the destruction of the opportunity for new and old artists alike, to be paid to master their art. All because a lot of angry children - such as yourself - won't tolerate policy measures which apply and strengthen existing and good law, such as protects property.

You write of Megaupload's "business" being destroyed - yet the last time I checked, stealing the fruits of others' labour, and helping others do so, was not a business, but a malenterprise, by any measure whatever.

You write "special rates on request", yet, it is entirely legitimate that individuals' and companies' livelihoods, and their shareholders' interests (who are often pension funds of low-paid workers) are protected by law. Theft is an evil - markets must be protected from petulant, insanely selfish child-minds such as your own.

LG 3D phone revamp hits Europe

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Is it

3d-er?

Analyst: 'revolutionary, compelling' iPhone 5 out in October

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Meh

Re: and for the last time?

I disagree. They can just make their old phones gradually obsolete: one option open to Apple is to release novel 'must-have' software or digital functions (marketed with whatever bollocks transcendental narrative is to hand, and rather than solely novel hardware additions as you suggest), and compulsory iOS upgrades, the former being incompatible with earlier iPhones, and the latter slowing them down to a crawl. Isn't that the current strategy?

I gather Apple are trying to develop a new sim, which itself, if it ever became dominant, would make obsolete most of the phones in the world, including their own, QED.

Apple screws UK disties, punts just 13,000 iPads to channel

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Re: If we're talking about 'rebranders'...

"..we could ask TheRegister which of the many unattributed web sites they glean most of their stories."

Reg adds good prose and analysis.

Five charged after fanboi sells kidney for iPad and iPhone

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FAIL

Re: well

If you think the latter two even vaguely equivalent, I suggest you ask that your brain be re-implanted.

Ten... ADF-based inkjet all-in-one printers

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Pint

Re: Would have liked a "does it scan without ink cartridges" option

I have a 4500 series, and I have to say I never run out of ink because it's been the easiest to refill of any of the printers I've owned. I acknowledge what you write about *some* HP models - my mother's 7200 series will only photocopy using all the colours! HP told me "it's so the black is more black" (tosh). But the 4500 does copy (slowly) using just the black, thank god.

The starter cartridge doesn't refill properly but £16 for an extra capacity new black does. I would, however, advise when buying a refill kit to buy one with a 'primer' made specifically for the 901 cartridges (a £2 part which merely holds a rubber seal onto the bottom of the cartridge) enabling gentle vacuum extraction using a syringe, of a drop of ink from the cartridge, to get it started - such kits can be found on ebay. You'll also need a syringe with a needle to inject the ink into the sponge (lift the top left corner of the label off to reveal the hole). And some rubber gloves. Do it over your kitchen sink - and in crap clothes, as some day you will get sprayed.

That and sellotape the top to hold the label back down; and when it runs out initially, and later on again, *immediately* place in 3mm of warm water, and refill *straightaway, particularly on the first refill, as HP formulated their ink to turn to jelly if it ever is left to dry. Also note that specifying your refill ink as 'pigment' rather than 'dye' for this model, makes your text print the proper dark black colour.

It will tend not to recognise the cartridge at first - just remove from the machine, wipe the electronic contacts on the cartridge, switch off the machine for 30 seconds (removing cable at back?) and repeat until it does recognise - usually in 2 or 3 goes for myself. I've refilled the same cartridge 10 or 12 times now and probably saved £200.

So much for black and white - for colour I haven't a clue, sorry.

UK government says no to turbo e-bike

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Re: Top speed assistance?

@ Marvin

I agreed with you until I realised the argument had a flaw - if it's easy to limit the speed, it's easy to circumvent the limitation.

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Re: Govt can't keep the pace?

I'm not so sure. At least with current bikes, the sheer effort of propelling one should in the overwhelming majority of cases get between the rider, and the number and seriousness of any potential accidents they could be involved in - because speed truly is the killer, and the multiplier of opportunities to be killed or injured. This bike would remove that vital obstacle.

By way of extending the argument, the cost will fall on the public purse, of maintaining those not killed by their accidents - including paraplegic ex-cyclists AND the pedestrians hit by the dozier else more psychopathic/supremacist among the lycra-clad. This is small-c conservatism and nanny-statism in action preventing something dangerous which the rest of us must pick up the cost of - and I agree with it.

Nokia threatens to elbow Apple's rival nano-SIM off a cliff

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Re: an absolutely terrible idea

"Remove the SIM and you give network operators and rotten fruit companies opportunities to screw-over customers."

For me the issue you raise goes to the heart of the problem as far as I'm concerned with the idea of a NEW micro-sim.

Given the original SIM worked beautifully, and the need for a NEW micro-SIM standard has not been explained, and it will unnecessarily make all preceding generations of phones effectively unusable, it is tempting to view it as a measure to assist operators in forcing consumers to buy new phones. It seems no mistake all the operators are in favour of it.

Judge orders O2 to name suspected smut burglars

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Stop

I think you misunderstand.

The letters to each subscriber as proposed by the claimant Golden Eye, seek settlement so as to avoid legal action.

If you have been injured by someone, you are not *allowed* to take them to court for damages unless you first, and at every further possible stage, seek settlement out of court. Anything less is indeed an abuse of the court system and looked on very unfavourably by the judiciary.

Admittedly this case is complicated by the fact that ending up in court could be unthinkably humiliating for each defendant - a fact acknowledged by the judge.

OAP sues Apple for $1m after walking into store's glass door

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Flame

Re: Being an American...

"I'm tired of the entitlement attitude in this country. I hope she gets beaten in court like a red-headed stepchild."

Surely it's likely this woman had to pay for her nose being fixed, via her savings? Health insurance is very expensive and hard to come by if you're in your 80s, surely? And surely the most egregious sense of entitlement in the US is that displayed by a healthcare industry which charges insane fees for any work whatever?

I realise, part of those fees, represent the need to recoup the costs of paying out for lawsuits against practitioners - but surely the greater part is those practitioners' excessive profit? In any event, surely we should apply the same principle to this woman: in attempting to recoup her medical fees she is simply seeking from Apple precisely that which their negligence directly cost her. Begrudge her that - as you seem to do - and I say you're a goddamn heel.

High Court asked to keep 'cheap DVD' VAT loophole open

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FAIL

@ Destroy All Monsters

"this means State will hoover up £110m a year (best case, as said), which won't be in the private economy anymore"

You know the curve which demonstrates marginal propensity to consume domestically, you know, the one which basically says poor people spend all their dosh, and rich people save it?

Well the UK Gov is one of those paupers, I'm afraid! At the moment it's all-hands-to-the-pump, spewing bond-debt-financed cash into the economy!

The ridiculously distorting Jersey loophole undermines legitimate businesses in the UK which might otherwise hire people - among other undesirable effects - so I don't think your knee-jerk half-dimensional libertarian analysis really cuts it. If you're going to do the whole "tax is bad for the economy" thing, do it properly.

STUNNING NEW APPLE DEVICES that will follow the iPad 3 HD!

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Pint

Re: And it will completely fail in 12 months and be impossible to dismantle to clean out.

And in the UK, assuming it costs £50, the above failure will render the retailer unavoidably liable for repair, replacement, or refund, via the implicit key contract condition formed by the Sale of Goods Act's 'reasonable durability' requirement, for up to as long a time as the price makes it reasonable the item should have lasted - which can be up to six years, but in the above example would probably be three.

Remember, the manufacturer warranty is a gratuitous third party promise and does not exclude the major obligations created by the retailer to you, when purchase is made, which are formed by SOGA, and which cannot be excluded, thanks to the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (which I gather codify existing doctrine in any case).

If it costs over £100, buy it on a credit card - because S75 of the Consumer Credit Act requires your credit card provider to assume the above obligations of the retailer if they cannot or will not fulfil them.

Raising my glass to the English Legal System.

Motorola Defy Mini rugged Android smartphone

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FAIL

No iPlayer (600mhz cpu)

therefore fail :-(

New forum Wishlist

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An icon

denigrating freetards

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Pint

A means of accurately distinguishing

exactly *which* original post a given reply is responding to...

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The ability to view/expand, in one's comment record page, *full* threads which one has posted on

Something which Disqus doesn't quite do - it only allows a truncated 'view context' expansion of threads

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The ability to view one's comments in one's own private comment page, *and* view replies to self

as per Disqus

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Pint

The ability to order comments by newest/oldest

As per the Daily Dacre

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The ability to order comments by most/least popular

Like in the majestic Daily Fail!

Signed An Englishman, England As Once Was, EUSSR

P.S. Broken Britain - Thanks ZanuLiebore

Samsung warms up smartphone operated oven

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the link

is all written in facking foreign!

MP allegedly cuffed after scrap in Commons bar

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FAIL

Re: Debatable?

I think, then, you're referring to your imagination, which must be practically nonexistent. I say this because not only is downloading music, film, games without paying the asking price for them theft, it is an appallingly destructive form, which destroys vast numbers of jobs, and whole industries - often those which have traditionally enabled those without expensive educations to make a great success of their lives. Not only have you the imagination of a beansprout, you have the empathy of a brass button.

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FAIL

Re: Posting in an epic thread

But what else other than copyright comprises the property in art, such that those who give their lives to making it can be paid, and others who would make it, are able to? How can taking without paying for the only part of such art which can be sold, be other than theft?

Footnote - you misunderstand and misuse the term 'ad hominem'. It's ad hominem if I say you've got no argument because you have a big nose. It's not ad hominem if I tell you you're in the grip of an infantile, delusional, self-interested, fallacious belief that people should be able to take the fruits of others' labour without paying for them.

Epic fail, and no messing.

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Stop

Re: On conflation

In many realms of live we can observe shades of grey; absolutes, yielding black-and-white choices, are rare. But I'm afraid you've stumbled across one. Copyright on art is property, for among other reasons, one very good one, which ought to incur the sympathy of policymakers and the public alike: copyright is the only form of property in music composition and movie creation, the fruit of its makers' professional lives. If you don't pay, they won't get paid, and there won't be art, and their lives will also be shit. Copyright violation in the form of downloading without paying the asking price, is therefore not only theft, but deplorable, disgusting, an evil.

Ten... sub-£100 mono laser printers

Tapeador

Re: Electricity Consumption - a Real Cost

Good post.

To which I'd add - toner AND replacement drum cartridges - the latter being separately replaceable on most makes. Many OEM toner cartridges for the above brands cost MORE than the printer itself!

Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone

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Re: Seems Nokia is back to basics.

Made from fucking girders, those 3310s. My 6-year-old E61 still outshines anything going in terms of call quality and robustness.

Panasonic outs dual-core Euro-centric Android phone

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Re: MY

Mine melted its door after three months; the magnetron blew after twelve (and no I hadn't been cooking lightbulbs!). I took John Lewis pretty much to the cleaners over that one. This was in 2009.

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Meh

I hope it's better built

than their microwave ovens.

Mine melted its door after three months, then blew up after twelve. Much the same story for other purchasers, reading on Amazon.

T-Mobile clams up over Full Monty 'speed-cap' claims

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Re: Carry on asking questions

Aha, but is it 1.0127449781Mb/s, fluctuating between that and another number/series of numbers?

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Their language

leaves open the possibility the cap is 997Kb/s or 1.01Mb/s, or fluctuates between similar numbers.

Judges retire to consider Assange’s last chance on extradition

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re: correction

that's pretty damn naive. nothing with more institutional integrity than a british high court judge, so far as I know.

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re: EAW?

Or one of the famous cockerney opening lines from My Fair Lady/Pygmalion?

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FAIL

@ scorchio

You're either too young to remember how much worse things were under the Tories, or you're one of them, waiting for your chance to piss blue poison over the rest of us once again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html

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