* Posts by Anthony Hulse

136 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jul 2007

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Sorry friends, I'm afraid I just can't quite afford the Bitcoin to stop that vid from leaking everywhere

Anthony Hulse

Several this week

Hah! Shame that this is a scam!! I was quite looking forward to finding out how my contacts would react to some of the "interest sites" I visit :D :D

Computer forensics defuses FBI's Clinton email 'bombshell'

Anthony Hulse

Guilty until proven innocent

The GOP machine decided long ago that Hillary was guilty. They've spent the past 20 years or so trying to find a crime in order to justify the label, but in their eyes she's guilty anyway. Always was, always will be.

That isn't rational behaviour, but hey, their own candidate is possibly a child molesting serial con artist who also dodges his taxes. Rational people would spot which candidate should be "locked up" within seconds.

(Hint for the utterly blinkered - it isn't Hillary)

Steve Ballmer: Get the Facts. I 'love' SQL Server on Linux

Anthony Hulse

Worst. Tech. CEO. Ever.

Spanish village mounts Playmobil extravaganza

Anthony Hulse

Nadal, not Natal

It's Catalan, not Portuguese

ALIEN EARTH: Red sun's habitable world spotted 470 light years away

Anthony Hulse

Kneel before Zod!!

n/m

PEAK APPLE: iOS 8 is least popular Cupertino mobile OS in all of HUMAN HISTORY

Anthony Hulse

Fix the wifi issue, then we'll talk

My iPad Air frequently just drops off wifi when I'm using it. Never used to happen on iOS7. Until I hear that one is fixed I'll wait on upgrading the iPhone.

OSX Yosemite can sod off until version 10.10.2 too.

EE TV brings French broadband price war to the UK

Anthony Hulse

Vodafone España

Just because it gets a mention here, if anyone ever has reason to order any services in Spain stay well away from Vodafone there. They took my broadband and phone line, gave it to another customer whilst still charging me, then outright lied to me repeatedly down the telephone when I raised a support case. "48 hours maximum" to resolve became 72 then 96 hours, then they just cancelled my support ticket and opened a new one in order to reset their clock when the problem still wasn't fixed. At which point I blew a fuse and told them to cancel the contract. Their response? They charged me a disconnect fee! For a line that wasn't by then even connected!

Nice eh?

(On the plus side this did coincide with Telefonica bringing FTTP to my town, so I now have 100Mbps download speeds.)

Nintendo says sorry, but there will be NO gay marriage in Tomodachi Life ... EVER

Anthony Hulse

Aren't we talking about Miis?

As they used to say on vBulletin....:confused:

Surely a transgendered Mii would just have a different sex to the birth gender of the player who created it, right? In this way the game already includes transgendered options.

Tim Cook: Apple's 'closer than it's ever been' to releasing new product range

Anthony Hulse

Re: The Facts..........

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly how it worked.....after the release of the iPod. I remember it being a little more complicated prior to that though.

You see, "simple minded Apple owners" often had Creative MP3 players back in the day. Some "simple minded Apple owners" also used to use Windows, or even still do.

I know, amazing concept eh?

Anthony Hulse

Technically correct

Every day is technically "closer than ever" to a product release than the day before.

Unless of course this time they're releasing iTime iTravel. That's just a little bit unlikely though.

Anthony Hulse

Re: The Facts..........

One thing about the iPod was very new. You put a CD into iTunes, it ripped into your library, and the moment your iPod was plugged in the music transferred to it. Compared to the abysmal way the Creative players et al handled getting music onto their devices at the time and that alone was worth paying the extra for.

As for the iPhone, you can't seriously argue that it wasn't a game changer. Google certainly thought so. They threw out their Blackberry-like Android phone GUI and completely reworked it after the iPhone was demoed. Android wouldn't be a patch on what it is now had the iPhone not been invented.

Apple aren't the only player in town by a long way, but credit where credit's due. They've moved the field forward where others simply haven't had the bottle.

Russian gay dating app dev: We've been BLOCKED just DAYS before Winter Olympics

Anthony Hulse

Section 28?

Mentioning Section 28 misses the point. Russia hasn't just put in a law designed to prevent local authorities giving services to LGBT people, it's being used to completely erase any sign of LGBT people from Russian life. It's either get back in the closet and shut up, or we both beat the crap out of you then arrest you for being a victim. You have to go back further than Thatcher for an equivalent situation in the UK.

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

Anthony Hulse
Unhappy

Does this mean my boiler will now target me with ads?

Apple asks judge to axe ebook price-fixing watchdog

Anthony Hulse

Nepotism

Indeed. He basically got the gig because he's friends with the judge. If you read Apple's complaints he's even trying to charge them for the training he needs in order to fulfil the mandate his friend has appointed him to do, because he doesn't actually know what he's supposed to be doing.

The judge in favouring her mates over appointing somebody competent has given Apple the perfect get out clause. In their position I'd be complaining too. They'd be mad not to.

Parents can hide abortion, contraception advice from kids, thanks to BT's SEX-ED web block

Anthony Hulse

Legality

I would have thought the blanket exclusion of LGBT sites would immediately fall foul of the Provision of Services parts of the Equalities Act 2010 and therefore leave BT, TalkTalk et. al open to prosecution. Any lawyers want to help us out here?

World+dog: Network level filters block LEGIT sex ed sites. Ofcom: Meh

Anthony Hulse

Possibly exactly what they're hoping for...

...another way to bash the EU and blame the Human Rights Act for everything. Plays right into their scummy little agenda with their anti-EU narrative and allows them to further promote the aims of the already privileged over the plebs.

I'm a genuinely tolerant and easy-going guy, yet I am beginning to actually despise this government. Repulsive, the lot of them.

Tube be or not tube be: Apple’s CYLINDRICAL Mac Pro is out tomorrow

Anthony Hulse

Re: I thought I'd seen it all...

It doesn't go in the racks mate. It goes in the edit suites with the guy or girl using it to create content. Apple have made a big deal in the premarketing bat how quiet the new Mac Pro is, how it can sit in the studio etc. without being noticeable. Which means BOFH gains some space back to cram more RAID arrays into the SAN ready for all that 4k editing his users will be doing come the end of next year. Win win.

Apple snubs discounts, sprays Black Friday zombies with gift cards

Anthony Hulse

And yet here in the UK

It was discounts as usual. £80 off a Mac, up to £60 off an iPad. Makes you wonder who should be celebrating Thanksgiving all in all ;-)

Apple, for one, welcomes its ROBOT factory OVERLORDS

Anthony Hulse
Trollface

Wonder how long it'll be before the robots start jumping off the factory roof...

'Tablet' no longer means 'iPad': Apple share PLUMMETS below 30%

Anthony Hulse

Totally unsurprising

Even my pensioner mother has known since August that there's a new iPad coming so not to buy one now. There will be a surge in iPad sales when the new models hit the shops, probably enough to put another 10-15% on those market share figures, especially if the speed increases being touted by the likes of Anandtech really are noticeable when using them.

As for the ridiculous Blackberry comparison, they fell because they were completely blindsided by something completely new (the gesture based touchscreen phone) and didn't react to it fast enough. They didn't fall because other people doing the same thing they were doing were releasing competing but similar devices, as Amazon, Nokia, Samsung etc. are doing with the iPad.. Until the next tech shift appears, the device obvious to everyone as the thing that will replace tablets, then Apple will continue to ride the market share ups and downs as their and other company's models get updates.

So, in short, no real news here. Move along.

OS X Mavericks mail client spews INFINITE SPAM

Anthony Hulse

Gmail problems? Not here...

Using Mail with IMAP4 to Gmail on an iMac I took from Mountain Lion to Mavericks last week. Not seen any issues with performance nor stability. Am I just lucky or is there a common link between the Macs seeing problems that excludes mine, i.e are they all MacBooks or something?

CEO of Brit fashion bods Burberry lands Apple job for retail, online sales

Anthony Hulse

Re: Fashion company to fashion company... duh..

Dixons guy was crap not through any techie knowledge but because he decided to focus on maximising profit at the retail end regardless of customer satisfaction. Apple Stores are showrooms first and foremost. Running them like PC World was always going to fail, because unlike Apple PC World has no way to guarantee milk from the customer once they've made that first "aspirational" purchase.

Burberry woman understands that brand perception is far more important than squeezing every penny out of the customers in the shops, although for different reasons. She's a much better fit than Browett could ever be.

Deep inside the iPhone 5s lurk a few surprises

Anthony Hulse

Why is it that any article on an iPhone immediately draws in comments from people whose only contribution is "I prefer Samsung"? Seriously, this crap has been going on since the Spectrum and Commodore 64. If other people want to spend their cash on stuff that doesn't appeal to you does it really invalidate your own purchasing decisions?

Fanbois shun 'crappy plastic' iPhone 5C

Anthony Hulse

Re: Of course those people don't want the 5c

"Techies" doesn't necessarily have to mean IT workers.

Anthony Hulse

Of course those people don't want the 5c

It's aimed at being a Christmas present for all those teens and other halves moving up from an iPod Touch. Anyone stupid enough to camp out on product launch day (for anything, not just Apple products) is going to want the latest and greatest, not last year's model rebadged.

BTW, the 5c will sell by the bucketload. Not amongst techies of course, but in its millions nonetheless.

PEAK iPAD: Slab looking a bit peaky, needs big biz to take more tablets

Anthony Hulse

Lack of innovation yes, but Office?

Who cares about Office these days really? Apart from Microsoft and analysts obsessed with the idea of a Microsoft comeback of course.

Samsung overtakes Apple as most profitable global handset maker

Anthony Hulse

Erm....flawed maths I'm afraid.

The report this article quotes makes a basic error. It assumes a % of Apple's profits that are down to the iPhone, and takes that figure forward into a comparison. Since the actual % value is unknown we have no way of knowing whether Samsung have overtaken Apple now, whether Samsung overtook Apple some time ago, or whether Apple's phone division is actually far more profitable than Samsung's is.

Hence this isn't really news. It's just some analyst out to make a name for himself by peddling faulty information.

Mosaic turns 20: Let's fire up the old girl, show her the web today

Anthony Hulse

Takes me back

Back to the Comp Sci lab at uni, running Mosaic off an HP-UX machine from a Mac LC. I seem to recall the Web was just university pages and Star Trek fans sites back then.

Happy days :-)

Apple iWatch: Coming soon, runs iOS, to earn mucho mazuma

Anthony Hulse

Avon to Liberator, two to teleport

Do we get to talk into our wrists then?

Tito's Mars mission to use HUMAN WASTE as radiation shield

Anthony Hulse

Great idea

When one of them inevitably flips out and kills the other they can also use this method to store all the dismembered body parts.

SimCity Classic

Anthony Hulse

Funny how you remember this sort of stuff...

My donuts used to be on a 5 blocks high by 4 across layout. Each donut would be made up of either all industrial or a mix of commercial and residential blocks and have either a police or fire station in the middle surrounded by those little park squares. Three squares distance would separate each donut, with the centre square of the three holding a railway which only touched each block once to connect it. A gap would be left somewhere in the donut to connect the fire or police station. Lots of gardens in the rest of the space if it wasn't forest already, to keep the property prices up.

No roads, which meant no traffic problems and low maintenance costs, allowing the city to grow quickly. Worked really well. The river/coastline bit gave you the space to put your airport, stadium etc. without interrupting the repeating pattern.

Very addictive game that. Once I even stayed up all night playing it, then fell asleep on the bus on the way into town a couple of hours later :-)

Amazon: We have great cash flow - it flows straight out of our hands

Anthony Hulse
Pirate

Anyone smell a bubble?

The analysts are pumping this stock way beyond its actual value, at which point the traders will dump it in one session. Only a fool would compete in that game. Stay well away.

Pope: Catholics, go forth and multiply... your Twitter followers

Anthony Hulse
Happy

140? I can reply to the Pope in eight characters

Four letters, a space, and three letters more.

Populous

Anthony Hulse

Preferred the sequel myself

Tidal waves and volcanoes in that were much cooler, and nothing beat the feeling of giving your opponent masses of trees only to torch the lot (along with half his cities) with one firestorm attack :-)

Eric Schmidt: Ha ha, NO Google maps app for iPhone 5

Anthony Hulse

Re: maps.google.co.uk

iOS Safari even allows you to make a Web app out of that link once you're there. I'm sure that one day Apple Maps will be a decent alternative, but in the meantime it's not that hard to make a Google one.

NASA working on faster-than-light drive capable of WARP TEN

Anthony Hulse

Re: And what if...

Flow around I suppose. The ship inside the bubble is outside of normal spacetime.

I wouldn't want to be on the asteroid when they test that theory though.

Jury awards Apple $1bn damages in Samsung patent case

Anthony Hulse

@Turtle: The right verdict

Apple offered Samsung a $30/handset price to license all patents in October 2010. Samsung refused the price, refused a reduced offer of $24/handset which included some patent cross-licensing, then used the ideas covered by the Apple patents anyway. That was presented as evidence in the trial.

Anthony Hulse

Re: I find it very odd that...

As I understand it that patent is related to a part that is manufactured by Intel, and because Intel have licensed the patent from Samsung the jury decided that Apple had already paid to use it by using Intel's parts.

Which probably means Intel will be jacking up the price they charge Apple on the next contract negotiation, and who can blame them eh? :-)

Anthony Hulse

Re: 'tis

If that happens it would be a good thing. Tech companies leapfrogging over each other and making competitors products obsolete is exactly what drives the whole user experience forward. Why copy a market leader when you should be concentrating on bringing out the product that kills the market they dominate?

Anthony Hulse

Re: The right verdict

This was really about the method of working, the interface, and the look and feel, not the actual physical device (although that part has been very convenient for Apple....stupid stupid Samsung for making their case so easy). Samsung completely ripped off the iOS GUI and stuck it as a skin on top of Android, that's why they got targeted and the likes of HTC didn't. Had Samsung developed the same physical handset but the software had looked dramatically different Apple wouldn't have had anywhere near as strong a case.

Looking past Samsung other Android manufacturers will now end up paying Apple license fees, all because Samsung's copying was too damn obvious and a legal precedent has now been set. Including most likely the aforementioned Sony, who won't be particularly happy about Samsung's stupidity.

You can hardly blame Apple if another company effectively gifts them bags of cash by being so blatant.

Anthony Hulse

The right verdict

Android fans might not like it, but Samsung did blatantly copy the iPhone. They ought to have just paid the offered license fee per handset. They happily paid out to Microsoft for their patents, so why not Apple?

As to those that think Motorola's patents should now be used against Apple in retaliation, it would be quite stupid of Google to use Motorola's stuff in any way other than to defend itself. Even the Motorola acquisition doesn't give Google the war chest they would need to start that fight.

Apple axes loyal store staff in Essex, Milton Keynes

Anthony Hulse
Devil

Re: 110 employees a store??

I don't think Apple have got to the stage of insisting their retail employees work 24/7.

They save that for the factory workers.

Anthony Hulse

The Dixons Effect

This is what you get when you let a DSG guy run the retail side of things. I give it a year before Apple Stores have stacks of printer boxes piled up at the end of each workbench too, with SALE signs all over the place.

My guess is Steve Jobs is beginning to slowly rotate in his grave...

Rupert Murdoch legs it from British newspaper boards

Anthony Hulse

Transparent

No, Jeremy Hunt, this does NOT mean the Sky bid can now go ahead!!

Larry Ellison buys island 1000x bigger than Branson's

Anthony Hulse

I've seen this show...

Do you think he'll bring in polar bears and creepy science guys?

YouView: You're delayed - Sugar

Anthony Hulse
Facepalm

Another nail in the coffin of Homechoice

TalkTalk TV, the rebranded Homechoice service, has been tied to this dying attempt at mass market IPTV for the past two years, whilst the userbase has drifted away thanks to lack of ADSL 2+ support, HD channels, Red Button services and all sorts of other bits and pieces that Sky, Virgin and even BT Vision users have taken for granted for years. The best IPTV service the UK had is now all but dead thanks to YouView, since TalkTalk themselves have closed the service to new users until YouView appears. Now this deadline is passing it's time to just close the doors.

Great planning TalkTalk guys. Seriously. Everyone give yourselves a big pat on the back.

Idiots.

Blackpool ICT boss: BYOD doesn't save money

Anthony Hulse

Sigh

BYOD does increase costs to IT, but the idea is these get more than compensated by increased productivity amongst the rest of the departments in the organisation.

I'm not surprised this pronouncement comes from the public sector, where IT departments still see themselves as separate entities to the people they support. 10 years behind the curve....again.

Amazon Kindle Touch touches down early

Anthony Hulse
Happy

Re: Touch easier?

Not everyone is going to use a Kindle the same way. For the way I need to use an ereader touch is a far better interface than the traditional button based approach. As I posted above I like to read in landscape rather than portrait format, meaning the forward/back buttons would be in awkward positions. I also add a lot of notes and bookmarks as I go. So the touch interface does make things easier for how I use it.

If, however, you would rather stick to the traditional way of doing things there's the Kindle 4. Aren't Amazon great for offering everyone an option to suit them? ;-)

**cue moaning from the ePub-only crowd**

Anthony Hulse
Thumb Up

Re: Amazon Kindle Touch touches down 2 years late

Touch most definitely makes an eReader easier to use, especially when in landscape format. Also a lot quicker to do many functions, such as zooming in on pics, using the Kindle Store, adding notes or moving quickly from book to book. I'm chuffed to bits that I waited until the Touch was available. It's a big improvement over the standard Kindle.

Don't care much about the Fire though. There's only one tablet worth buying at the moment IMO, and it isn't made by Amazon.

Internet Explorer nibbles browser rivals, swells by 1%

Anthony Hulse

Re: Tablet effect?

Oh I don't mean tech-savvy as in fluent in C++. I just mean those that know enough to consider changing their desktop browser from the default option.

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