* Posts by Jack Prichard

47 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Aug 2007

Samsung stakes claim to smartwatch market with Galaxy Gear

Jack Prichard

More convenient

A writs watch was more convenient than a pocket watch because it was easier to tell the time.

A smart watch is more convenient than a smart phone because ... ?

If you want a convenient way to tell the time, get a watch.

Sony Xperia Tablet Z: Our new top Android ten-incher

Jack Prichard
Facepalm

Re: using it in the bath ... probably wouldn’t figure in my usage regime

For when you are having 'an impressive lick of seed'.

Yup, that's what it says.

Nokia shareholder tells CEO Elop he's going to hell

Jack Prichard
FAIL

Re: What is vs what should be

Yep that he says:

"And it is with that that we will compete with competitors like Samsung and Android."

Really sounds like something MS would say, you know, someone who is trying to push an OS rather than handsets.

NZ plans interception law refresh

Jack Prichard

Re: I need help...

I think the way it works is this, in basic principle the GCSB is not allowed to spy on New Zealanders (including PR holders like Dotcom) but it is also required to help agencies such as the police and SIS who are allowed to 'spy' on New Zealanders.

So, if you squint really hard you can sort of say that these two things are in conflict and it is a 'grey area', maybe.

The proposed rules give the GCSB the right to spy wherever, whenever on whoever.

Wonderful, I feel safer already.

Facebook VOICE is what telco barons should fear - not a Zuckermobe

Jack Prichard

That would be...

'Like a parasite that recompenses its host in some way'

That would be a symbiote.

Watchdog halts Toyota Grand Theft Auto-esque advert

Jack Prichard
Happy

Back in the 80's, in New Zealand...

Toyota really pushed the envalope...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwTR9gphC8

Enjoy.

Better luck next time Blofeld! Five Bond plot myths busted

Jack Prichard
FAIL

Licence to FAIL

Hey, is it just me of does this, excellent, report mix up The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill?

I'm sure the plane-lassoed-by-helicopter scene is from the other Tim Dalton Bond outing, which is not half bad if memory serves.

Don't bother with Big Data – listen to customers instead

Jack Prichard

Here's the thing...

... if you need an 'expert' to tell you that you need to listen to customers you shouldn't have customers.

Of course the problem is, and has always been, that the system over rules the individual. The guy who told a grieving widower that he needed to pay a termination fee for cancelling a phone contract no doubt when through training that said: Every time someone cancels a phone they pay the fee. It almost certainly didn't include a section which said: Sometimes a cancellation fee isn't appropriate, be a grown up and use discretion.

Gee, anybody surprised?

Google brings HD sneezing pandas to UK: But why?

Jack Prichard

It's not the box...

... it's what you watch with the box that counts and YouTube just isn't compelling.

Doesn't every smart TV come with a YouTube app anyway?

Orange pulls out of women's Fiction

Jack Prichard
Joke

Orange now a darker shade of grey?

Woman's Literature?

NZ erupts over Dotcom corruption accusations

Jack Prichard

Dotcom bubble bursts, Banks fail.

Enough said

'Attitudes to robot sex will change'

Jack Prichard
Joke

The other thing Amsterdam is famous for...

Is obviously in wide use among the academics at my Alma Mater.

We didn't have that much fun in my day, grumble.

Mobile industry needs Windows, handset vendors warn

Jack Prichard
Flame

I disagree...

Firstly, the 'problem' isn't innovation. It's that the carriers are scared that with only two players they will have terms dictated to them. This has been an issue since the first iPhone when there was a shift in who 'owned' the customer relationship. The question became "Is it an iPhone?" not "Is it a Vodafone?". Less players means more chance the carriers get dictated to.

Secondly, more players do mean more innovation. Think of the crazy ideas Nokia came up with pre-iPhone, screens with insane hinges and swivels and all sorts. What we need is someone to think of new things, stuff we haven't thought of. Like a simple touch screen UI.

Thirdly, how is international cricket helped by England regularly getting a hiding from the Aussies? More importantly, the fact that the All Blacks took 24 years too win the rugby world cup a second time is probably the single best thing to happen to the international popularity of rugby. One, or two, dominant players make things boring for the mass public. Australia always wins the Rugby League World cup and nobody cares.

By the way, I'm a Kiwi who rolls with a Motorola Defy. No Apple fanboi here.

Kiwis drop the ball on government server upgrade

Jack Prichard
Unhappy

As per usual ...

We New Zealanders look like a bunch of bumbling fools.

We do rugby and hobbit movies well the rest is risky at best.

Very disappointing.

Thing is the country is that low tech very few people noticed.

Good news: A meltdown would kill fewer than we thought

Jack Prichard

The NZ perspective

As a New Zealander I am actually offended by the coverage nuclear safety gets.

At the start of this year 34 people died in a coal mine explosion here. Yeah, there were problems with the mine and the Australians say it wouldn't have been safe enough there. But NZ is still a first world country with safety standards and all that.

How many people died at Fukushima? One. And he died because something fell on the crane he was in, absolutely nothing to do with nuclear power.

Does anybody call for the end of coal mining, not to mention processing or pollution, because of safety? No.

On safety grounds I say NZ should shut the coal mines and start building reactors.

Nintendo: no DVD, BD playback for Wii U

Jack Prichard

I would say...

... the thing is that the cost of a DVD player is cheap about NZ$30 on sale so if you want one it is no trouble to buy. Nintendo probably couldn't get one in the Wii U any cheaper than that.

The margin would be in Blu-Ray as it is the 'premium' format, but then you have to pay licencing fees to Sony, big ups to that.

So... why not try to move people away from playing movies on discs? It isn't like your missing out even if it doesn't work.

Yahoo! downs! mail! servers! for! essential! and extensive! work!

Jack Prichard
FAIL

See you on Gmail

Let the migration continue.

Can the last person out of Yahoo! mail please send out a group email the the rest of us so we know the ship has finally sunk beneth the waves.

... any suggestions for what the band should play?

crackedbycracku

Telecom NZ splits in two

Jack Prichard
FAIL

A budget brand alongside XT?

So it would be cheaper than XT but provide service that is not quite 'premium' or 'super fast' service they provide to customers already.

Instead of Mobile 1 why not go with "2Cans + String".

After watching the XT slow motion train wreck followed by Paul Reynolds on a fly fishing trip telling us 'everything is OK' I am starting to think the new broadband network will not be ultra fast but ultra s... (no, not slow)

CrackedByCracku

Adam Curtis: The Rise of the Machines

Jack Prichard

From the colonies

Hi,

Just putting it out there, does anybody know the best way for someone in New Zealand to watch these films?

I am guessing iPlayer is out because I'm not in the UK blah blah. I have seen BBC content on YouTube eventually, any idea of the time-line?

Anyway, I'll keep an eye out if anybody has a bright idea.

Thanks.

Russian rumor: Microsoft to buy Nokia for $30bn

Jack Prichard

Put it this way...

... if you were a handset maker other than Nokia, how much effort would you be putting into your next Win Phone release?

In a way it is like a self fulfilling prophecy or positive feedback loop.

Everyone says handset makers are crazy to put resources into WP7 because Nokia has a 'special relationship' with MS. This means MS has no option but to further back Nokia as the 'leading' handset maker. This distances MS from everybody but Nokia and pushes them closer....

Yeah, it isn't the stupidest thing I've heard this week.

Jack

Facebook planking game claims its first victim

Jack Prichard

Darwin

I wonder who will be collecting the Darwin Award on his behalf?

Samsung prices up Chrome OS netbook for Blighty

Jack Prichard
FAIL

Not for the colonies...

Here in NZ we pay $10 for 100 MG of mobile data, the average salary if about $30,000 pa. Wired internet to your house is about $60 to $100 per month for around 10 GB.

This thing only works when connected to the internet.

Enough said.

The Register Guide to London's Silicon Roundabout Tech Startups

Jack Prichard

Actually kind of sad...

That Nokia is now pretty much a joke these days.

I'm a Kiwi and we are not going have a tech start up which goes global any time soon and Finland is pretty much as far away from NZ as you get, but there was always a little bit of an emotional "take that big boys" when you bought one of there phones.

Now... well... yeah... and WP7 even seems unable to do updates...

My next phone isn't going to be a Nokia and I think he company now deserves all the jokes it get, burning platform indeed.

But it is a bit sad.

Kogan turns consumers into working capital

Jack Prichard

Risk Vs Reward

I think you could plot the risk versus discount on a pretty simple graph.

You can go to a big 'reputable' store and buy a product. It will cost more but they will 'probably' stand behind it.

You can buy a product from a small store or market stall, they will probably be gone or fight you tooth and nail if something goes wrong.

You can buy off the intertubes, but then there may not be a product or company and all those 'user reviews' may be false.

Now you can go to Kogan. One step further along.

Consumer protection laws are an attempt to protect people 'from themselves' but the thing is companies, which have lawyers on staff or retainer or which write the contracts, are usually better at the protection racket.

Buyer be ware, as usual?

Jack

Netbooks: notebook evolved - or stunted throwback?

Jack Prichard

I would say...

... the interesting question is "Will tablets go the same way netbooks did?"

Remember the first eeePC (with friend)? It was small, light, did only basic things and ... was cheap.

It was not trying to be a 'proper' computer, it was the other thing you had.

Fast forward to now and we have what I would say is best described as a wide range of notebooks. If it has a screen and a keyboard and is not a desk-top then it is in the range, the CPU, memory etc are variable.

The market has pushed these things to be bigger and faster and ... more like real computers which they weren't originally. Particularly in terms of price because margin is a percentage and the higher the price the more profit.

Now, the question is ... will tablets get bigger and more powerful and ... more expensive.

Possibly but this started with Apple and they have kept the iPod and an iPod (yeah, apart from the Touch) so who knows.

Interesting though.

Eh?

US Army trials robot 'leccy-n-bandwidth war-mules

Jack Prichard
Grenade

Just a second...

How about building something a little bigger?

Then the soldiers could ride on it and not have to walk you could call it a Troop Rolling Utility Conveyance or TRUC for short.

This TRUC could carry anything a solder might need.

Opps, wait a second, someone might shoot at it. Better put on some armor... Oh, and maybe a gun or two for fire support.

Now if only the military had such a vehicle....

You could call it a Troop Armored Nasty Killer or ...

Cracked by Cracku

A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

Jack Prichard

Breaking the deal.

I see it like this.

The iPad is good in that it is a multi-function device with a screen big enough to read books, watch movies, whatever.

This is why it will kill book readers like the kindle, why have a device that only does one thing?

It is never going to be a primary work device for anyone. Yes, the netbook is starting to look more and more like a lap top but performance is a trade with portability and there will always be space for devices with key boards.

You can't put and iPad in your pocket and if your carrying something your probably doing for work, so iPad is a poor second choice.

So, it is something to use at home for media consumption, emailing etc and maybe on holiday, maybe.

Therefore, is $500 worth it for a device like this? Or just to smash one?

I think there is space in the market for another tablet, if there were app support.

Apple's iPad - the device for execs who create nothing

Jack Prichard

Fill the missing blank: The emperor has _ cloths

Peter Jackson, CEO of the San Francisco-based GroundWork, an outfit that offers tools for managing IT infrastructure, concurs. "At my level, I don't really create. I consume."

Now call me strange, entry level or whatever but does this sound like an exec confirming what many of us have so long suspected; the boss really is paid, vastly more than me, to do nothing!

Jesus, can't they even pretend to be working?

The best option would be for execs to need laptops or netbooks because... they actually do work. Failing this could they at least have a laptop because if everybody else dies they can do work, if they have to. If not this then can they have the laptop and pretend to do work?

If they are not working why can't they just have some paper and crayons?

From what I have seen the iPad is good for watching youtube, reading books, surfing the net and maybe some light facebook.

What next comfy chairs and some beers?

Jack

Israelis offer unmanned robo smart-missile 8-pack

Jack Prichard
Grenade

What a wonderful world

Yeah a world without war would be great, so would free beer from the tap in your house and England winning the world cup (or the All Black for that matter, I'm a kiwi).

Meanwhile in the real, I bet the US Marines are wondering if they could get something like this to the size it could be transported by an unmanned helicopter. Now that would be a battlefield revolution.

Maybe England should build factories to produce sub-standard, over priced versions for its troops just in time for the introduction of ray gun and teleportation technology.

With comments like the above I'd says you are half way there already.

Jack

Inquirer celebrates spammer murder-suicide

Jack Prichard

What kind of world?

What kind of world do we live in where the death of people can be "OK" because one of them was a spammer?

Some things are funny and El Reg sends them up sky high, such as crowd farms. Some things are not funny... such as babies being shot.

Thank you El Reg for you very factual and sober coverage of this tragic event. Thank you even more for providing an insight into just how low some people, Inq, are. To think we share a genone with such...creatures.

To anybody who thinks being a spammer is justification for getting killed; Turn off the computer, get up and go outside. There is a big world out there, maybe you will find a place in it. I could say something unkind but Lester shows us we don't have to be like that.

Jack

Hawkeye technology turns tennis into a cartoon

Jack Prichard

Places in history

Firstly, Wimbledon ROCKS. It is the only Grand Slam at which the players ware whites and that is all good. White not your sponsors favourite colour? Too bad.

Secondly, a TRUE place in history is not earned by stats, that's for geeks. It is earned by titanic struggle and for that you need a worth opponent. Remember Mohammed Ali's win-loss-KO record? Probably not. Remeber The Rubble in The Jungle? I'll bet you do. The Nadal Vs Federa forces them to be better and gives us better games. It should cement their place in history not hurt it.

Enough said

Jack

Feds working round UK gov in BAE slime case

Jack Prichard

@Those "modern weapons",

Yeah, and then they stop shipping us oil and nothing works.

Bottom line is that things like this get hushed-up because too many people in power make too much money and stay in power to rock the boat.

The only people who want to rock the boat are those in the water but those actually in the boat have oars and will do anything to stay in the boat.

Sadly this takes place at all levels of society. Think about your own work place, how many incompetent managers do you have to report to because they have influence at a higher level.

Mostly we get angry because these guys are better at corrupt politics then we are. We kick a ball with our friends in the park, they are playing in the Champions League. Of course we'er mad.

Jack

UK charity acts on YouTube bullying

Jack Prichard

Opposite, ehh, ?

"playground bullying is a no-no now but what you do online is ok. In fact the opposite is true - "

Sooo, playground bullying is OK where you can actually injury people but online bullying where to stop being bullied all you have to do is switch off your computer is bad and should be stoped, good to have that cleared up.

What the hell is this? Crap 2.0?

Jack

EU, US plan 'clear to fly' checks for visa waiver revamp

Jack Prichard

As long as we are talking 'magic beams'...

Ok, what we want to do is contect a person with their ID card/chip/whatever right?

So, we need something we can measure at a distance and compare with data on the chip. Plenty of options.

Could be a chemical sniffer, maybe a isolate some particularity in a persons heart rate that is constant even with changes induced by exercise (stress, whatever), special ink in tatoos with some element that is detectabe, or that good old fav RFID implanted in the body somewhere it is hard to dig out without injury.

Don't want to submit to chipping, tatooing or whatever? Cool, no LA holiday for you! Of course this kind of thing would never happen, and the US would never torture terror suspects. Yeah, right.

Now, don't get me wrong I think this is all a really bad idea and am glad to live in a country (New Zealand) where this kind of stuff is currently illegal but as someone famous said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance"

Jack

Citizen Kane Oscar goes under the hammer

Jack Prichard
Alien

The hell you say...

"Citizen Kane is probably the world's most famous film..."

OK. For fun, and because El Reg was to lazy to do so, I am going to take a stand and say that the above quote is wrong.

Top 3 most famous films:

1) Star Wars- Far and away the most famous film ever.

2) Gone with the Wind

3) Snow White and the Seven dwarf.

So, who's going to call me a liar first?

Jack

Facebookers abandon online privacy for virtual doo-doo

Jack Prichard

Big Brother is...

...advertising to you?

Imagine if the people who advertised to you knew everything about you and everyone you cared about, great eh?

Ahh, maybe not so much.

"Your best friend died today, why not send the family some flowers from FlowerMaxLink! We are running an extreme funeral special today only! Buy 10 roses get one free!"

Yeah, right.

The solution? Use FaceBook for what it is good for; finding people, short messages and few to few (F2F?) communication. Don't give them your personal information and for crying out loud DON'T BUY THE PRODUCTS! Maybe send an email saying:

'Object to your personalised advertising and find it offensive. I will never buy products or services from your company again unless there is no other option. My money will be going to your competition. Do not attempt to communicate with me in future. Have a nice day.'

Now if there are any FaceBook coders out there wanting to turn that into an easy to use application you have my permission to go wild.

Jack Prichard

Jack Prichard

Big Brother is...

...advertising to you?

Imagine if the people who advertised to you knew everything about you and everyone you cared about, great eh?

Ahh, maybe not so much.

"Your best friend died today, why not send the family some flowers from FlowerMaxLink! We are running an extreme funeral special today only! Buy 10 roses get one free!"

Yeah, right.

The solution? Use FaceBook for what it is good for; finding people, short messages and few to few (F2F?) communication. Don't give them your personal information and for crying out loud DON'T BUY THE PRODUCTS! Maybe send an email saying:

'Object to your personalised advertising and find it offensive. I will never buy products or services from your company again unless there is no other option. My money will be going to your competition. Do not attempt to communicate with me in future. Have a nice day.'

Now if there are any FaceBook coders out there wanting to turn that into an easy to use application you have my permission to go wild.

Jack Prichard

Three Gorges Dam an 'environmental catastrophe'

Jack Prichard

What would you expect?

People get the government, officials and in this case hydro projects they deserve. Hell, the Chinese even have a phrase for it "ruling with the mandate of heaven", i.e you can do what you want untill you make the peasent angry enough that they revolt, then run for the hills before you get stuck with a pitchfolk.

These guys [by this I mean industry controlled by the Chinese government. I have no doubt that your individual Chinese is just as capable at good manufacturing and/or cock-ups as anybody] put anit-freeze in toothpaste! Build a damm? I wouldn't trust them to make my bed!

Jack

Vanessa Hudgens net smut: your children are at risk

Jack Prichard

Can someone, ANYONE, just give us the link already?

I've NOT seen the picks.

I would like to, in the interests of making up my own mind on the significant questions of:

Is it porn or not?

Is it real 70's retro or just pretent 70's retro?

Let the people decide!

Halo 3 packaging in disk-scratch rumpus

Jack Prichard

Re: Is it just me or...

I would say that as a FPS Halo didn't add much. In fact as an expression of the genre I would say it took some stuff away in that being on a console made the controls very unresponsive for anyone who had learned to play on a PC with a mouse and keyboard.

The reason Halo is "important" (in the context of this discussion) is that by being on a console it changed FPS games from something "geeks" played into something "normal people" enjoyed as well. The much chased "cross-over" appeal. Lots of "normal people" knew what Doom was, some had even played it but few who didn't know how to change the CPU on their desk top had finished it.

Halo changed that. Not by been the greatest game ever, not by bringing any amazing new things to gaming, I would say the attempt to do Resident Evil as a combination light gun/FPS was revolutionary and it flopped. No, Halo changed things by being plug and play on a new must have console and by being backed up with enough marketing grunt to make it sell. This meant a lot of people who had not played and FPS were now buring the midnight oil to finish one.

The rest is on Wikipedia.

That's my $2.50

Jack

Political blogs escape federal scrutiny

Jack Prichard

10 Bloggers worth 1 Camel?

"political bloggers look poised to play an important role in the selection of the new commander in chief."

As we say down here, yeah right. Last Presidential election we heard this stuff, Howard Dean's campaign manager boasted that 1 blogger is worth 10 normal voters [This may be one of those great quotes the weren't like Al Gore inventing the internet so I won't put in quote marks] but even so it was widely reported at the time.

Anybody heard from Howard recently? Anybody know if Mr Dean is actually still alive come to that?

Yeah, thought so.

For shame, El Reg. I expect better than the likes of you falling for this kind of spin, you usually do better than this; a lot better.

So, how about 20 Bloggers for that Camel?

Jack

Max Vision hit with hacking charges (again)

Jack Prichard

Give the guy a job? Maybe attacking PLA?

Come on, surely this guy could be turned loose against the enermies of freedom?

Say to him: "You get to keep 1% of everything you can rip off China" ?

He's got the skills, buy the trust.

London council to use lie detectors to finger benefit cheats

Jack Prichard

Not just sheep in vac...

How about a standard of measurement that measures how much government spend to fix problems against how much these problems cost in the first place?

To use this story as an example:

If the total cost of benefit fraud for the council is (all costs in New Zealand Dollars, of course) $1,000,000 per year and the voice recognition system costs $100,000,000 to set up and $500,000 per year to maintain. Then the system can be said to have an initial cost of 100 Beneyears and half a Beneyear there after.

This could be applied to all sorts of things.

Jack

Venezuela plans crackdown on bloody silly names

Jack Prichard

Soviet Model. Rights? What rights?

An easier way would be to have a list of approved names that parents are allowed to choose from.

Move to the "Soviet Model". Under the "Western Model" you can do anything unless the law says you can't, under the "Soviet Model" you can't do anything unless the laws says you can.

Good old New Zealand is currently 'leading the world' in this direction.

Go us!

TorrentSpy shuts doors to America

Jack Prichard

Why bother appealing?

Let the Americans isolate themselves from the "evil" that is file sharing; let us isolate ourselves, from them.

Look, most of us disagree with the way America is being run at present. The RIAA and now MPAA come in for regular slaps here and the US judicial system is hardly known for standing up for the little guy.

Why fight them the American courts that can't even decide whether to give standing to someone who has "probably" had his phone tapped illegally?

Just unplug them.

Come down here to Middle Earth instead, we have crazy Mac fan boys and kids called "4real", maybe. Best of all RIAA and MPAA won't be able to find you because they will be looking for New Zealand next to New Jersey, if they get the map right way up.

Tycoon abandons £80k Maserati in London car pound

Jack Prichard

Public Service

I say they should have crushed the car.

Just for fun, after 14 days, and filmed it and put it on YouTube.

When we say "Don't Park there, We Mean it!"

NZ parents may lose battle to keep baby '4real'

Jack Prichard

How embarrising...

... not just for the kid but for the whole country. I know, I'm a New Zealander. We have spent the last 20 years trying to convince the world that we are not a bunch of backward, inbred country hicks and this couple set back the cause for everybody. Not least by actually being sincere about it all, I've seen them on the TV news here and they really mean it.

Can't we have them deported? Maybe to Australia? (Sorry Aussies, just jokes)