* Posts by Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

74 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Oct 2007

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Petty PETA rapped by judges over monkey selfie copyright stunt

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: No Slater did not intentionally set it up.

Cameras don't set themselves up you know. Are you suggesting the monkey set the Aperture and shutter, focused it and ensured the ISO was appropriate? ;)

Britain's 4G is slower than Armenia's

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

My experience in the UK is that 3g is generally faster than 4g, mainly because I can get more than 1 (unreliable) bar signal. When you do get a good signal its usually in the city where the user levels are so much higher per cell that you also get equally poor download speeds.

Former ZX Spectrum reboot project man departs

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

You clearly neglected the chicken sacrifice part of the process required for such things to work.

Webcam sex blackmailer faces extradition to Canada to stand trial for bullied teen's suicide

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Absolutely spot on.

I spend a lot of my downtime counselling my family young and old on internet security, scams, spam etc. My 69 old Dad I am proud to say is pretty savvy after years of advice, I am not convinced my 11 year old niece and 14 year old nephew are anywhere near so clued up despite being more tech savvy.

The sad reality is naivety is not confined to the young or the old. I have began to realise that as clued up as I think I am, things are constantly evolving and I could be caught out too. As we adapt, the low life types adapt too. After all most of the damaging stuff is about social engineering not about the tech.

The law is at least starting to react strongly to these undesirable behaviours, and the sooner the message sinks in that just because its on the internet, doesn't mean it's anonymous sinks in, the better.

Back when I got my 1st 14.4k modem the apparent anonymity made some people behave differently in a way they wouldnt in life. It's not a new problem but with the internet as big as it is now, its a growing audience and seems to be getting more damaging in it's manifestations.

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Pint

Hmm, this is making me wonder if we watched the same film ;) ;)

I found more than any other this film showed that the stormtroopers were just people, like any war, normal people on the other side, earning a living and paying the price. I think the director went to great lengths to demonstrate their normality and dare I even say humanity, even with the anonymity of their armour.

I found myself feeling sorry for them at several points, hell they even showed clearly that even the Rebels did plenty they weren't proud of.

For me this did more than any other to blur the lines of right and wrong and to show that even good people can be in the wrong and that not everyone on the "bad" side is necessarily evil.

Either way we clearly both loved it, pints all round.

UK's 'superfast' broadband is still complete dog toffee, even in London

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Very true, I must admit I have 70meg broadband now (I downgraded to 35meg to save money and it double shortly after).

I can easily get 8Mbyte a second on steam for example and once had close to 9.

Their service is really good these days and support has much improved. Even returning my tivo box which I could no longer justify paying for, was utterly effortless and efficient.

They are trying to get better you have to give them that!

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: re. virgin

I agree that I probably won't leave them either in a hurry either and they are generally good. They have improved a great deal in the last few years. You just need t leave and resign every year or so to stop the price creep they are still good at.

I also think a network is only as good as its weakest point and should be measured on its peak useage hours. So if its poor at peak hours then that is how it should be measured imho because that is when most will want to use it. Virgin are notorious for over selling capacity so measuring it at its worst is good for driving them to improve. Otherwise its "economy 7" style internet we are talking about..

Docker hired private detectives to pursue woman engineer's rape, death threat trolls

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Troll mentality? - a story of abuse

Utterly wonderful! I salute you!

Apple will be grilled by Irish National Planning Board over €850m data centre plan

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I don't know why but this made me think of:

"wafer thin mint Sir?"

"There is room", is why we are slowly or some may argue rapidly, eroding away our forests away across the planet.

Monster crowdfunding total raised for Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: ooh, I dunno

I still have my Amiga 1200 with 40 meg hard drive! Dune 2 was indeed brilliant, I now fancy a go on that, but I'm afraid. ;)

I'm not sure many Speccy games had as much depth, the Amiga and Atari ST really opened gaming up for me after years with Acorns and Spectrums. I do have fond memories of Head over Heels for example but I've never been brave enough to try it again in case I regret it.

Oculus Rift review-gasm round-up: The QT on VR

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Tax.

The price includes Tax.

Skype founders planning non-drone robodelivery fleet. Repeat, not drones

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Awesome, courier surfing could very well be a thing in the near future!

£2.3m ZANO nano-drone crowdfunded project crashes and burns

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

investment with no returns...

I have so far been reluctant to back anything, I do look on KS regularly. I've seen some great ideas and products but the whole setup of KS rings alarm bells for me, especially as they use the word investment.

If you were buying shares in a startup, then you are set to benefit if they are very successful and yes potentially lose if the firm is unsuccessful. That however is with eyes wide open. With KS, the best you can hope for is the product and worst is nothing at all, your return doesn't grow with the success of the firm.

If these companies were so good wouldn't they be able to sell shares or go to individuals to get investment on the idea? However they would have to provide pretty compelling business cases to do that. Imagine if these guys went on Dragon's Den or similar.

"It's a quadcopter that follows you and takes video."

"Oh can we see it flying."

"We only have a video/It doesn't fly."

"I'm out."

Power Bar: EE was warned of safety risk BEFORE user was burned in explosion

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I've had my hand burned by a iphone cable that melted, these things happen when battery charging is involved. Electronics have risk and most of us don't educate ourselves on what they are. After the event I educated myself and changed the way I used things and more importantly never charge anything when I am not present or on or near flammable things.

1.5million batteries? One documented issue? I'm no expert but that risk is very very low based on the info available...

It's 4K-ing big right now, but it's NOT going to save TV

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: It's not just the TV...

Agree entirely, Virgin media my cable provider, can't even get iplayer in SD working properly, without stuttering, pauses and sound cutting in and out. Despite it working flawlessly on my PC via the internet. Let alone the "HD" channels that all look the same as SD ones to me. 4k infrastructure is a long long way off, so I'd rather pay the money when I actually can get content.

It's like buying a car that runs off moon dust, it may do great MPG but you sure aren't getting any fuel anytime soon.

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Eh

There is also viewing distance and the limit of the human eye to perceive the extra detail. If I can't perceive the individual pixels on my 1080p tv sat on my sofa, surely any extra ones are a complete waste of time and money?

For me 4k serves its purpose up close only (and yup it looks amazing) and thats not how most of us watch tv. It is however how we game or use computers. Good for gamers, artists maybe but thats about it.

Just tech companies trying to sell us the next thing we don't need.

Elite:Dangerous goes TITSUP

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Oook.

Thankfully I am still small fry. I arrived at a space station to unload 12t of coffee from my hauler only to find I didnt have any cargo. Confused me a bit I just assumed I had forgotten to buy any, although now I think perhaps it just vanished. Was getting kicked off a few times that day too whenever jumping.

It's a good game, but will be better when proper grouping comes in and the economy tools are a bit more useful. I am looking forward to gropuing most of all, its lacking in the social at the moment. May be realistic in that respect but still would like to pootle about with some friends.

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: I've been thinking about playing....

Yes I bounced off a Type 9 NPC who decided to just stop dead in the middle of the letterbox with no warning. Luckily the shields took it. In fact are Type9 pilots the worst of them all? ;) they always seem to be doing it, or flying head on at you.

£2k burning a hole in your pocket? Let this 'advanced' DRONE relieve you

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Awesome Toy

Although the props will auto rotate, it won't slow the descent significantly. Will fly like a brick.

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Awesome Toy

Yes that is correct, if they descend too fast, they effectively fall through their own downdraft which makes them very unstable or worst case cause them to drop a distance or even out of the sky if its relatively low. Descent can be sped up by moving forward or backwards whilst descending. A trick I do with my phantom 2 if I want to get down quicker.

MOST iPhone strokers SPURN iOS 8: iOS 7 'un-updatening' in 5...4...

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Mine was pretty poor for quite a few days, but oddly today it seems to have slowed its battery use considerably (still have 64% left today whereas yesterday at the same time it was about 15%.

Probably more to do with me using it less but does seem to have got better. I'm sure 8.01 will sort it out.

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: 4S killer

My 64gb 4S runs like a dream, sadly the battery meter can be seen moving as soon as you start using any apps. When not in use battery drain seems the same as iOS7. So good as long as I use it quickly and not for any length of time :/

The END of the FONDLESLAB KINGS? Apple and Samsung have reason to FEAR

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I bought an iPad 1, there is one simple reason I have never upgraded it. For 2 years it was fantastic but it has became more and more unusable as time has gone by as iOS evolved quicker and quicker, it got rapidly left behind. Even common apps and sites like facebook crash the device in moments and Im left with an email device I can stream movies on and view some websites. No doubt these are software issues that can be resolved but Apple have no desire to update older os theyd rather you bought a new one.

For me its just too much money for something to be obsolete in 3 years, apple no doubt intend that though, but queuing up for the latest device isn't for me and it seems not for many others now either. I will just buy a cheap one next time.

ROBOCOP statue, Minecraft film, revived Sinclair ZX Spectrum...

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

It is interesting as the two things on kickstarter I backed with my cash, got delayed and delayed and delayed so long that after several big deadline movements, I withdrew my support/got my money back.

I wonder if the figures for people backing out are included in the above, I suspect not. Kickstarter has a lot of chancers. I'd like to see how many kickstarters actually delivered what they promised.

NSA refuses to deny spying on members of Congress

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: It’s different when it’s happening to you.

So effectively you're suggesting we need National Service brought back in but instead of training in the army, you literally serve your country by representing it? It would at least be closer to actual democracy than todays democracy is.

Merry Christmas? Not for app devs: That gold rush is officially OVER

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: I hate

And dont forget forced rating requests all the time... grrrr

Virgin Media to hike broadband prices by nearly 7 per cent

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

It's still significantly less than my last Virgin price hike in February which was around 13%, this was a few months after my "free upgrade" to faster broadband.

Doctor Who to land on the BIG SCREEN and in 3D in November

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Amazon seem to disagree

Amazon seem to think there will be a 3d edition released... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Anniversary-Special-Blu-ray/dp/B00F37VHPM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1380727913&sr=8-5&keywords=Doctor+Who

NSA Prism: Why I'm boycotting US cloud tech - and you should too

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Happy

Re: "layered on top of an existing governmental structure desperate to preserve it's own power "

Wow so even then they were copy and pasting from other sources for their homework...

So, who ought to be the next Doctor Who? It's up to YOU...

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

John Hurt for me would be great, the plot seems to suggest he was the original "pre-Doctor" , would be great if he was also the last. He is supposed to be incredibly old, lets get someone who at least looks like they've seen the universe a bit. Then again the kids probably wouldn't like it so much then and its written for the kids these days...

It needs someone with presence and acting ability plus great voice. Must admit I never considered Patrict Stewart but he would be fantastic too, although I doubt he would sign up for it.

Must admit Cumberbatch has that "Tom Baker" mad haired look and would probably play him well but I he isn't my first choice by far.

YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: @Piro

It will contain similar restrictions http://techreport.com/news/24141/sony-patent-describes-rfid-infused-drm

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Stop

Re: @Piro

In fact I am pretty sure I read about Sony patenting an ability to incorporate a chip into a disc for ID and DRM purposes. Why else would they want to ID a disc if not to prevent you sharing or selling it second hand?

Quick google brings up lots of threads, so everyone saying they will just buy a PS4 will face the exact same problem there too.

Samsung vs Apple: which smartphone do Reg readers prefer?

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I like my iphone and am very accustomed to the interface. However I am still on an iphone 4 because the upgrades since I got my phone are next to non-existant.

I would personally consider the new Galaxy just because it seems to be genuinely innovative and offer some new features. My first iphone a 3g was quite exciting to me at the time, after countless rather clumsy smart phones this was a revelation. Sadly iphone stopped being an innovative leader (and by that I mean using existing tech in a new way) long ago and now just seem to play catchup with other developers.

Why would I pay 500quid (or whatever it is) to get an iphone 5 which does nothing much over my iphone 4, other than a few novelty features I would use once and then forget? It's all about value and until my iphone 4 conks out I won't worry about upgrading. Apple sells itself as a premium brand but they don't give premium value anymore.

Kobo strikes new match against Kindle: The Aura HD e-reader

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
FAIL

I've never looked at my (rather old) kindle and thought, ooh if only the screen was higher res... unless youre reading books full of photos or comics I can't see any added value in this. E-ink already looks like print, if I wanted to read books with graphical content I'd get a tablet.

Is this like the camera manufacturers "megapixel" hikes just marketing? In that they don't mean so much in usefulness but to the average consumer more if always seen as better so they waste their money on the next upgrade anyway?

Virgin Media keeps mum as punters fume at crippled web access

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I am about to drop VM, this is just one of many constant issues. I've had years of intermittant problems caused by overselling of connections beyond capacity, rubbish support as detailed above, I rarely bother to call anymore because I know it won't speed up resolution or make a diference.

They upgraded me to 60meg for "free" then 3 months later increased my bill by over 12%... All sneaky tactics to hide hefty price increases but make out they've given you something for free. Time to vote with the old wallet, especially as in the evening my 60meg performs far worse than my 20meg ever did.

The DIY spy-in-the-sky: From kites to octocopters

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Re: Bought a gopro for this very reason

Tried last last year and the wind just wasn't strong enough it and kept slowly coming down. With good strong winds its certainly achieveable.

World's 'smallest' mobe unveiled in Japan

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Facepalm

Derek Zoolander would no doubt love this phone.

Moscow's speed cameras 'knackered' by MYSTERY malware

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Pint

Re: @Fink-Nottle (was: 3.2 Million reasons to love speed cameras)

We have a similar offence if you are driving too slowly for the traffic, i.e doing 40mph on a 70mph motorway is clearly dangerous. They tend to be more motorways and dual carriageways. However American roads from my experience (and I only have driving in Michigan to go by) are all mostly very long, straight and a lot wider with no kerb stones.

Come over and drive the winding UK country lanes that the post was referring to and you will quickly understand why doing the speed limit without knowing the road, would be dangerous. Doing 60mph is something you can do safely if you know the road well and even then its not always safe to do that as you can't see around bends due to hedges, trees and stone walls. I've had friends from the USA visit they found our country roads quite intimidating, in fact they ended up wrecking the wheels on their hire car on the kerbs even around town. I took them around the same roads with me driving and they found my speed and cornering scary even though I wasn't breaking the limit. Different world here road wise, we don't have the block system, roads wind all over the shop unfortunately. Not always comparable.

Pint icon because the world is full of interesting differences.

MEGAGRAPH: 1983's UK home computer chart toppers

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
FAIL

My atari was broken

I recall getting an Atari 600 or 800 XL for Christmas some time around the mid eighties, It had a RAM problem where half its 64k was missing, 2 swapped units later we gave up and I ended up with an Acorn electron instead. Have to wonder how much the quality problems held atari back in the home computer arena.

Long-suffering Virgin Media victims see no end to vid PURGATORY

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
FAIL

Say goodbye to buffering? Should surely be "Welcome back buffering!"

I have had numerous issues with VM over the last couple of years, when it works its brilliant but when its broken it usually takes them weeks to find or resolve the issue. I even started to think they have a "improve connection" button on the helpline. Whenever I called them with an outage or fault and they did their line tests it would all magically improve as soon as they did it and then fail shortly after.

I came really close to jumping many times in the past year. Then miraculously they fixed it and all was brilliant, my 20meg broadband was fantastic.

Recently I made the mistake of taking the free upgrade to 60meg. Ever since then youtube is impossible to use unless i drop it to the lowest quality setting. Lovefilm is unusable and Netflix is ok when I use a US DNS.

They are clearly selling something they can't deliver. Say goodbye to buffering? Should surely be "Welcome back buffering!"

Apple wins second round of Samsung patent slugfest

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Unfortunately Apple go after others in court over some features that are to be honest so simple as to beg the question; should they even qualify for a patent? Ironically they then fill their iphone 5 with a lot of features from elsewhere. The panorama feature has been on my Sony compact camera for years, they make out like they invented it but its already out there (and no doubt patented). You can't throw stones for patent breach then go ripping off other ideas. Pot meet Kettle. They might have paid for them sure, but I doubt it.

I like and own apple products, I have an Imac and a Macbook pro but my out of contract iphone 4 will probably be my last iphone, at least for a long while. Like the products, not a fan of the company and how it does business at the mo. So I need to vote with my wallet which I will do, any suggestions on my next phone? ;)

Oxfordshire cops switch speed cameras back on

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

yup but

Only if they ignore the ACPO guidelines which state 10% + 2mph for speedo inaccuracy... which many do...

iPad 2? Let's be kind and call it iPad 1.5

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
Thumb Down

Ipad 1 was fine

What an empty upgrade.

I can't say in my 10 months with an Ipad 1, I've ever thought oh I wish it was a little faster, because the performance is great. I hardly ever use my laptop anymore, its just too slow comparitively. I never wished the graphics power was higher, as it does the job I need it to. I wished it had Flash plenty of times though. ;)

I do like apple but I dislike their constant replacement and upgrades of devices that havent even settled in, and in many cases dont even need upgrading. Have they even started to get the most from the current hardware before they are replacing it with another set? If Sony or Microsoft replaced their games consoles every year the market would be a mess.

I can't help feel that Apple are in some ways alienating their own customers by constantly making them feel pressured to get the next one for fear of it being obsolete. The OS then gets updated to make it slower and slower and you're expensive device gets pushed out. Apples market share will no doubt reduce because of Android but also because their constant goal post moving will just put off consumers from getting on board, and leave only the loyal fans buying.

These constant upgrades are good for Apple and not really the consumer.

iPhone crashes car stereos, Toyota warns

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

My car crashes the 4.2.1 iphone

My car has ipod/iphone integration although its not a Toyota... Since the last update, the phone crashes half way through any song you play and reboots.

Its fine with ipods and usb sticks, so i can only deduce its iOS 4.2.1

Who are the biggest electric car liars - the BBC, or Tesla Motors?

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

Japan are working on battery changers

Exactly right, there is no need to charge them in car. Japan I am sure were working on e-cars and mechanisms to change batteries at service stations.

Much more sensible solution.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

My experience of Cata

The goblins are great fun, although agree Worgen don't "feel" very alliance... they look great but their anims seem a little clumsy. I am hugely enjoying the goblins, although their technology sometimes seems a little too advanced and grates on my world view of wow. Still I can put that aside as they are quite funny.

I am enjoying the redesign of the old world, it actually made me start a new char and level again. Previously I couldn't be bothered with starting again from scratch and doing the same quests with a new char. Seemed pointless, now its fun again.

I have completed the underwater quest chains, and loved the storyline, although I must admit I was keen to get on dry land after a while. "Jewels" Verne is awesome, I hope to see his "ship" again. After a weekend of snowed in playing I am almost to 83, so the levelling is as someone said trivial.

As for still wearing tier 10, I have very few purples left and it makes me sad each time I replace something with a green or blue. Those who are still wearing all their old purples are likely just doing so out of reluctance to go from looking cool to looking pants (fashioncraft is the real game here right?).

That brings me onto another thing, why do they always make helms and such that look ridiculous/downright stupid? I only had tier 9 priest head but wow it looked good, now I look like a budget batman!

Throne of Tides we did last night for the first time, and we beat it. Although it was a challenge, it relies heavily on team work, and intitially whilst our gear is still "green" we all had to pop most of our abilities/spells to get through each boss.Good fun, and its reinvigorated my love of WoW, I was bored of the grind, and played once a week. I don't know how long it will last but for now, I am loving it. Now to finish DeepHolm.

Oh and guild rep and such seems a nice addition, shame my guild is so small.

Overall happy, but but not sure how long term the appeal will be to a small guild like ours.

Apple iPad 3G 32GB

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

uses for photographer

I opted for a wifi model and decided a mifi was a more cost effective solution. I rarely want to use it on the move, its a bit big to carry about without a specific use for it and I have my phone if I really need to browse or read email on the move.

Admittedly I purchased it for photography reasons, browsing is a bonus. Loading raw images and video live at a wedding and showing clients a slideshow. It has already paid for itself in increased sales and bookings.

2012 Olympic mascots cop a shoeing

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
FAIL

Lovechild of the crazyfrog

Looks like the lovechild of the Crazy frog and the Aliens from the Simpsons... Good to see them continuing with the Simpsons theme...

Brit consumers shun the iPad - for now

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson

I see the point I dont see the value

I would like one I must admit, mostly to display my photography work to potential clients, then as a nice web browsing and email device.

I see the point of the iPad (or as another Reg user amusingly called it the "iPod Chunky", I want one but I think its £150-£200 over what I perceive to be its value.

I did ponder that if Apple had made as much money from their app store as the figures show, they might subsidise the hardware a little more to get it into even more homes and increase that app revenue. Something thats not needed outside of the UK maybe?

So want one, but wont get one unless price really drops.

DVLA off-road system seriously off-message

Matt Bridge-Wilkinson
FAIL

SORN should be automatic

Seems kind of silly to have to register SORN, wouldnt it be much much easier to just assume that any car not taxed on its renewal date is not taxed and thus is off road. Unnecessary beaurocracy like must of modern Britain.

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