* Posts by graeme leggett

2467 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2007

BBC: Monster cargo ship delivers '863 million tins of baked beans'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: And if you...

I thought Felixstowe was already covered by containers.....

Bill Gates: Windows Phone strategy was 'a mistake'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: wow

"Why?" you ask did MS have to move away from the Start Menu interface.

If MS stuck with mouse and keyboard and pen/touchscreen but better done under a revised Windows 7, then they would either have to

a) give up the tablet/big phone area of computing

or

b) have separate lines of O/S for those devices (as Apple have with their OS and iOS)

If a, then there's a chance that the tablet OS (Android, Linux, iOS, etc or something new) from competitors would break out of that area and invade the desktop borne on its small scale popularity. If b) you've got two lines to support which means more effort.

I don't think Win8 is the sacrifical lamb at this altar, so much that MS had to start somewhere. Perhaps they have bodged their attempt to deliver something that works for the 17 inch desktop in an office, a home cinema system, and a 10 inch tablet. To continue the OT theme, will God intervene at the last moment to save the first-born, time (as ever) will tell.

Microsoft: You want Office for Mac, fanboi? You'll pay Windows prices

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: 2013 windows bound to PC

"consumer" version - doesn't mention change for Pro version (yet?...)

Google misses privacy-policy deadline, incurs EU wrath

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: It was a request...

when a regulator writes to you saying it thinks you should do things, you read what they say and you respond.

If they mention deadlines, then by that point you should have done something or gotten them to withdraw the request, or had an extension arranged.

Because up to that point, the regulator has been playing nicely. They've pointed out where they think you are not complying. And may have suggested how to fix it.

After that, if they are not convinced you are trying to do something then they may start with legal proceedings. And given the prospect of fines and legal costs, investors may start to get doubts about next years profit forecasts.

At least they are not a licensing authority, get things wrong with them and you may find yourself unable to do business at all.

Wikipedia's Gibraltar 'moratorium' - how's it going?

graeme leggett Silver badge
Joke

Re: Gibraltar IT

Do you go write the article "Internet in Gibraltar" then. And cite your sources - they're funny about that.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Register and its part in the discussions

The Register has been given as an example of continuing media interest in the issue. Which must be nice - I suspect elements of big media world view the Register as a niche website where IT types go to goof off from work for a bit.

Mr Orlowksi has been denounced in the discussions over the Gibraltarpedia "issue" as an anti-wikipedian guaranteed to turn any innocuous statement he's been fed into a tirade against the saintly principles of wikipedia and its devoted acolytes (I might be exagerating a bit there) . Though others have pointed out that in the last article all he did was quote sections of the report.

My gauge on the matter is that there are really at most only a half dozen editors on either side of the Gib issue who are really up in arms on the matter and so long as they bicker (perhaps not the right word) back and forth on the talk pages they aren't harming anyone, the world continues to turn in its orbit and those who chose to read wikipedia (with all its attendant advantages and disadvantages) remain blissfully unaware.

Any storm in a port

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: And what about power leads?

The "Cloverleaf" (or Mickey Mouse) connector is a an earthed version of the figure of eight connector. They have lower amperage ratings than the "kettle lead" type.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Optional

SCART had two problems.

Either the socket was as loose as a loose thing (insert your own epithet) or it was so tight that you thought the plug wasn't going because it was the wrong way round - at which point you'd turn the plug around ensuring it wouldn't go in.

Secondly the cable (especially if it had all the pins connected) had a mind of its own and the strength of a full grown python and would defy any attempt to orientate with the socket.

Just remembered a third point - SCART sockets that weren't fixed to the TV/VCR case and so moved around as you forced the plug home. As a result repeated insertion causing problems with the PCB it was on. I have certain small Sony Triniton TV in mind.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Non standard orientation

The square (with bits shaved off) "B" device end of a USB cable gives you only a one-in-four chance of getting it right on first go.

So why do some printer manufacturers put the socket on their machines at 90 degrees to what you would expect?

I know the real reason is that because it's based on the orientation of the PCB that its soldered to but why should the user have to divine the position of a PCB inside an otherwise featureless case to get the cable into an out of sight recess down between the printer and the wall. (I suppose I should think myself lucky I got a laser printer for £20)

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: I'm sure I can beat 37 out of 37

I have an idea for a plug that is orientation independent, sturdy enough to not be damaged and able to carry significant current.. Unfortunately it is the 3/4 inch jack plug and as such all devices using it will have to be a minimum of an inch thick.

Still, plenty of room for bigger batteries....

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: I used to have the same problem

Yes Dell and the gap under the front of the Optiplex.

Yes it allows you to stick your USB cables in so they don't stick out of the front of the case and risk being knocked off but they are a beggar to plug things into. I took to leaving a short extension cable in so that I could plug devices in where I could see what I was doing.

Reg readers scuffle over the ultimate cuppa

graeme leggett Silver badge

Mug colour as a factor?

No matter what the colour/pattern/decoration on the outside it is difficult to get tea right if the inside of the container is anything other than a light colour - preferably white.

Unless you are actually clocking the time to brew or measurin in your milk, you are watching the colour of the contents to gauge when it is "how you like it".

graeme leggett Silver badge

tastes change with time

When i was young, milk came in one type and it appeared mysteriously on the doorstep each morning.

Then I graduated to semi-skimmed - mostly because I didn't like the full fat stuff on my cereal (warm nursery school milk is to blame for turning me off the taste of the real thing) I did try going without milk completely but it was no fun

And I used to take two or three teaspoons of sugar in my tea. Then I met the woman who became my partner and she helped me cut back to first half a teaspoon and then none - mainly by not putting any in when she made me a cup.

Inside Microsoft's Surface Pro: A fiendishly difficult journey

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: MS copying Apple construction techniques, only more so

It's not that it isn't serviceable; it's not readily serviceable by the owner. (Like most transistor radios since the 1970s?)

With the right tools - I imagine some sort of rectangular heating element that could be applied to the screen edge - the screen might (I say might) come off quite readily.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Any justification for it being this way?

If the screen is strong, it would make sense to use it as part of the structure.

'Bah, this Apple Shop is full of APPLES'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Daft name

some sources say 20 years.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Daft name

"mostly from apples" - like scumble

Tesla's Elon Musk v The New York Times, Round 2

graeme leggett Silver badge

Publish the logs and be damned

Who knows what we'll find....

Perhaps they'll back up one side or the other, or chart a course somewhere between the two.

(Hoperfully they will not show that Broder went over the speed limit)

Though there might well be propietary information in them, perhaps a subset of the data would do - time, speed, acceleration, charge remaining....

Apple: iOS 6.1 network overload caused by our Exchange SYNC OF DOOM

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: In before...

he's got a little list, they never will be missed......

BBC Vision and Audio tossed on bonfire, replaced by 'TV', 'Radio'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Missing the point

That anyone who uses the (alleged) word "nextification" should be taken outside and shot (pour encourager les autres*)

*that's your actual French.

Review finds Wikipedia UK board needs major leadership overhaul

graeme leggett Silver badge

Ignoring Wales - no surprise

Unfortunately for JImmy, he has set up an organisation which is not as beholden to him as it once was.

It has a semi (quasi? pseudo?) -democratic system empowered to carry out its core activities. Wales may be a revered figure whose views are respected (or not) but he has no more power to direct the content of a given article than any other editor. (assuming the other editor is following the rules)

Time to rid ourselves of the tech channel zombies

graeme leggett Silver badge

For more than 10 years, I have on shopping trips with my partner been the one who holds the bags and waits patiently while she disappears into the changing rooms with an armful of stuff only to come out saying she didn't like any of it. Along the way I've drunk numerous indifferent expensive cups of tea in high-street coffee shops.

And it's always been a lot more fun than making myself a cup of tea -however good - at home and passing her purse to her so can order something online.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Mix Tapes

It was attention to the effort required that marks a mix-tape out as being a personal statement of affection.

Cueing up tracks on albums and singles and pressing the play and record buttons at the same time.

I tried finding all the number one hits that coincided with my wife's birthday one year. Wikipedia open in the browser and logged into spotify. Had 30 years wrapped into a bunch of playlists in an hour. Didn't feel like I'd achieved anything.

I don't think I bother listening to music myself as much these days. Not that I don't listen, but I don't bother to finish listening. In those far distant times if you wanted to skip a track you had to get up walk over to the record deck, lift the lid....and then move the needle a half-inch on. Or hold down the FF button on the cassette deck. CDs made it easy to blip to the next track, with a media player on your laptop or tablet drag the pointer to the minute in the middle you like then on to the next track. Too easy - less fun perversely

Tesla vs Media again as Model S craps out on journo - on the highway

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Writer was intent on high risk of failure

While external environment - wet roads and headwind aside - don't affect a petrol car as much as they seem to have done for the Tesla, the With a "the distance from "low fuel" warning to "coasting to a stop" is pretty much constant " is not true.

If you floor the accelerator, it you will get from A to B much faster but you won't reach C. Cruise at a slower speed and - though it might take an hour more to get to B, reaching C is still viable.

Likewise with the energy in a battery powered car, it may be more efficient in turning those precious amp-hours into forward motion and get back some of what it lost in regeneration when slowing or going downhill but it can't defeat wind resistance - the faster you go the more effort (squared) is required.

Men's rights activists: Symantec branded us a 'hate group'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Not the only filtering offender

With one of Trend's products, I've seen

Tesco blocked because it sells cigarettes

ditto a local gastro-pub/restaurant because the website listed fine wines

blocking access to Marks and Spencer https addresses (but not http!) because of women's apparel and swimwear

a well-repsected charity classed as activism and therefore blocked

In this case of the last I submitted a request for reclassification and it was relisted as political/campaigning. But there's no human interaction so other - in my mind reasonable - reclassification requests have come back as "the computer says no".

Michelin critics to football blogger: Salaud! Unhand that URL

graeme leggett Silver badge
Happy

Chicken Tikka probably, very unlikely to be Corned beef

Big Windows updates may ship this summer – and every summer

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Still in shock*...

The issue seems to be that it doesn't display all the wifi profiles setup on the machine - only those that it might be in a position to connect to. I'll guess that they expected that mobile users would not want to be distracted by a long list of every hotel and coffee shop wifi they've every connected to.

Sounds like something that Microsoft could change - if they wanted to. Perhaps by a KB or SP to offer the option.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Rumour has it...

all cars used to be high maintenance - and user customizable.

When was the last time you were expected to apply the grease gun to your car's suspension or could add another guage or switch to your fascia?

There was could be more to British badge-engineering than cosmetics. Riley and Wolseley's would have different engines and sometimes significantly different bodies - the Hornet and Elf having only different grilles at the front but a larger boot than the Mini parent. On the other hand, it was mostly interior decor and engine size that set the Wolsely and Riley versions of the ADO 16 apart from the Morris and Austin 1100s.

Psst, wanna block nuisance calls? BT'll do it... for a price

graeme leggett Silver badge

Another way to spot the foreign call centre

They can't pronounce my name correctly. "gruh-ay-me" and "ledge-it" are probably the commonest variations.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Blame the Government

PPI lot phoned the other day. Told me that 90% of people with credit cards were mis-sold PPI. I told them that means that 1 in 10 calls they make are to people who don't have a PPI case - and I'm that one. Still took a bit more time to shake them off.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Riddle me this...

TPS will (should) only work with the companies that sign up to.

The idea is that a direct marketing company A joins the TPS so that it has access to the do-not-call lists and therefore avoids making wasted calls to people that are liable to get justifiably shirty if rung up in the middle of tea/Eastenders/bathtime and asked if they've considered installing solar panels.

If a company decides to maintain its own do-not-call lists, or can't afford to join the TPS, or is a just a couple of dodgy geezers trying to sell shares they don't own, then it won't work.

Google to splurge $82m for exclusive airport exec enclave

graeme leggett Silver badge

well it's one way

To get some of google's money back into the UK. Though I suspect Heathrow Holdings are nearly as "tax efficient" at registering companies and bank accounts in foreign climes

British games company says it owns the idea of space marines

graeme leggett Silver badge

so is this a case of see the trademarked phrase click send automated legal letter - ie a lack of actual consideration of the individual circumstances of the case.

in other words, a legal department with twitchy trigger finger?

Review: Living with Microsoft's new Surface Pro

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass

perhaps it's dead hot at dead reckoning......

Tracy brothers are back: Thunderbirds Are Go! again in 5... 4... 3...

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: I'm worried...

@Wize

Invasion of Time can be seen as two stories - the 4-part Vardan one and the 2-part Sontaran one. Doesn't make it any the better, though. But then it was written in under 3 weeks and shot around a strike at the BBC. (The story of the original run of Doctor Who is one of working on little resources and around problems.)

The 4x25 minute Who episode format could be its own straitjacket. Requiring three cliff-hangers at cerrtain points. It took a good writer/script editor combination to get the format to work without (obvious) padding.

Socket to 'em: It's the HomeGrid vs HomePlug powerline prizefight

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Your iambic pentameter is off

"Las Vegas" would have scanned but I suppose the Fa...Ve... semi-aliteration (or is it assonance? ) would have been broken up

Japan hides anti-piracy warning on P2P networks

graeme leggett Silver badge

One culture where it might work?

Shame and fear of embarrassment is effective in the Japanese culture if I recall rightly.

Witness the recent palaver over a member (Minami Minegishi, age 20) of AKB48 - public displays of abject contrition on a par with sackcloth and ashes following the exposure that she might actually nearly have done some of the things the group sing about.

All this in a group so large the members could form up as football teams and play several rounds of a knockout competition (88 members if wikipedia is to be believed).

Bring out your dead: Reg readers reveal filthy, filthy PCs...

graeme leggett Silver badge

Blow don't suck.

I used to be quite free with hoovers around the inside of PC cases, but I used the hoover on one and it killed the graphics card. Not sure why (static? hit it?, bad luck?) but since then I tend to have the hoover close by and encourage the dust/fluff (flust?) towards the nozzle.

I also recommend anything that lifts the PC off the ground/carpet and further up from the source of the dust.

I just need to go photograph the old desktop that father-in-law has installed in his workshop. He's a bit of a woodworker, so it could be educational.

Axed staffers hijack HMV Twitter account: 'We're tweeting LIVE from HR'

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: control of information

you've just reminded me of Sefton Delmer's black propaganda efforts for the British during the Second World War.

One of his fake German radio stations ("Gustav Siegfried Eins") broadcast as a ultra-patriotic Prussian type denouncing lower rank Nazis for corruption in contrast to brave soldiers freezing to death on the Eastern Front.

Sefton killed off the station and the character with the Gestapo raiding the station and shooting the broadcaster "on air".

Fascinating chap going by what I've read of him - some stuff here http://www.psywar.org/seftondelmer

graeme leggett Silver badge

control of information

Always seize control of the radio station first. (usually because you can then tell everyone the revolution has suceeded even before it has)

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on

graeme leggett Silver badge

Most telling failure of the system, IMHO

Failure to include ALL the relevant data from the tile impact tests.

Symantec: Don't blame us for New York Times hack

graeme leggett Silver badge

last line of defence

AV software is only part of a security organization.

I'm trying to think of a suitable analogies

Best I can think of for the moment is that just because you have an immune system doesn't stop you wearing gloves when you clean up dog mess.

Or blaming the manufacturer of a safe that got robbed when you hadn't put on the burglar alarm or locked the back door.

LOHAN teases with quick flash of spaceplane

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Handley Page lives!

Not quite the scimatar/crescent wing of the Victor but I see what you mean.

Back end similarities with Armstrong Whitworth A.W.52, General Aircraft GAL.56?

Frederick and George Miles would no doubt approve of a canard/tandem wing design

I watched Excel meet 1-2-3, and beat it fair and square

graeme leggett Silver badge

couldn't do what Excel could

The large company I was once a part of tried standardizing across all sites on certain office programs.

To that end, the standard was set as MS Word for documents, Lotus 1-2-3 for spreadsheets and Groupwise for mail (and also I think whatever Lotus's then presentation offering was)

As our site was engaged in research work, we liked to make lots of graphs to show off our findings. And also use Excel's analytical add-in as well. WE did try - honestly - but unless it was a bar chart or a pie chart 1-2-3 was rubbish for graphing.

Upshot was that the site more or less got a blanket exemption from the diktat and Excel remained on the desktops.

Microsoft Office 2013 vs. Office 365: Is either right for you?

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Banging on about Libre/OpenOffice wont cut it...

Just because one format is the defacto standard, it shouldn't mean others have to adopt it or fully support it unless they want to. And I've seen enough strange formatting in Word docs due to use of existing features to wonder if a simpler formatting of all documents should be enforced.

But what about Group Policy control of settings and security of these open source offerings.

Are such things supported?

Harry Potter's Filch conjures Doctor Who's dead first time-lord

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Harry Potter's <actor>

Apart from her cracking parts in Blackadder, I recall her being in The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, as was Tom Baker.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Twelve Doctors?

His Big Finish work - a fair bit of which was on Radio 4 Extra a couple of weeks ago - is quite good.

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: RIP DB? Not necessarily!

Cushing was in his early fifties at the time.

I haven't seen the films recently but I recall a grey moustache about as convincing as that of Peter Falk in The Princess Bride

Star Trek saviour JJ Abrams joins the dark side: Star Wars VII

graeme leggett Silver badge

Next trilogy, will it suffer in trying to top the previous ones

One problem with Star Wars is how each film gets "bigger" than the last.

Now part of the problem is the advances in film-making technology. It is far easier to make big sets from cgi than matte paintings and to have casts of thousands when most of them are just pixels. While absolutely needed to recreate Coruscant, it seems to be overused in other places So Phantom Menace can have some huge cavernous energy complex under the palace for no particular reason, Attack of the Clones has a huge droid factory. All three have huge armies fighting.

Of necessity the original trilogy had to be more focussed on smaller scale events. Eg although given a bigger budget than Ep 4, after the battle of Hoth, the scenes in Empire have only a few characters in each. Revenge saves it up for a massive space battle at the end and a smaller furry one on the ground but the focus is still mostly on Luke/Vader/Emperor, Lando/Millenium Falcon and Solo/Leia/the droids.

So will this next trilogy try to top the others in scale and over-reach itself in doing so, or are we to have a more intimate style where lapses in character and plot might be more noticeable?

Microsoft may be readying Outlook for ARM – or not

graeme leggett Silver badge

Re: Differentiation/confusion/separation

After perusing the net I did get the mail app to talk to an exchange server - might have been easier if the server's certificate had not been self-signed and/or the internal domain name matched the external one.

And the RT can access the corporate network - with appropiate credentials - but it doesn't show the servers and computers under "network", I had to give it a push by typing a network path to a folder.