* Posts by Steve Evans

2772 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Apr 2007

Apple files patent for 'polished meteorite' keyboard

Steve Evans

"Scissor-switch keys provide fine feedback, but are so 20th-century chubby"

Then long levers must be 19th century, if not 18th.

Feds apply for DNSChanger safety net extension

Steve Evans

So...

Turning off the replacement DNS servers will prevent the infected (and unprotected) machines from resolving any URLs... Therefore protecting them from hurting themselves further, or sending more spam.

Sounds like a win win for the rest of the intarweb. Pull the plug!

GPS jamming rife, could PARALYSE Blighty, say usual suspects

Steve Evans

@RayG

We did indeed, and IIRC the outcome was that it was trivially easy to block (simple RF interference would do it), but more complicated to spoof.

60 block/spoofs in 6 months isn't much. That could almost be due to accidental interference, or depending on the locations of these listeners, be down to the spooks and their anti tracking measures.

If the 6 months happened to included a visit from Mr Obama, I'd put money on the latter.

For those thinking Private Cloud

Steve Evans
Headmaster

See me after school...

"They’re remit is ‘be helpful’ "

*shudder*

Dell Latitude E6220 12.5in Core i7 notebook

Steve Evans

"when it comes to rolling up your sleeves and updating various websites, using content management systems and working on long documents, you need a proper keyboard"

And more than a 768 pixel high screen!

Sounds like a bit of a premium netbook to me. You could treat yourself to a Sony SE series lappy with a full HD screen and an i7 for less £££...

Man surfs slopes at night in LED suit

Steve Evans

He's not the stig...

... but he is the Stig's radioactive cousin!

Satnav blunders blamed for £200m damages

Steve Evans

Re: Its a Tool FFS

Exactly my thoughts Captain.

Before I set off I make sure I at least have a rough idea where I'm going, and what direction it is in.

This ancient technique came in handy on Malta recently, no sat nav, and they don't believe in signs before roundabouts telling you where each exit goes. If you are lucky they will have each exit labelled on the roundabout itself, but don't count on it. Luckily 'tis a small island, and keeping an eye on the sun keeps you going in roughly the right compass direction... I guess the satnav zombie would be all over the road purely so they can keep the sun in sight if they tried this technique!

Bung a tenner to a mate's mobile number with new Barclays app

Steve Evans

Re: Tried it on my phone

Confirmed...

I didn't have any interest in this gimmick until you said this, but now I try it I see the same problem.

Lame.

I might have a play about later and see if I can stop it detecting the root.

Pope's PR says Vatican in grip of WikiLeaks-style scandal

Steve Evans

It also has more than a passing resemblance to Terry Pratchett's Unseen University where promotion is via "Dead man's shoes".

China clamps down on foreign telly on its channels

Steve Evans

Where? WHERE? Tell me!

I wanna emigrate!

Space: 1999 returning to TV?

Steve Evans

I thought one of the other critical parts of a planet classification was the ability to retain an atmosphere?

Steve Evans

a-hem...

"It told the story of boffins working on Moonbase Alpha who were propelled into fantastic adventures beyond imagination after a massive nuclear explosion on the moon on 13 September 1999 sent our little satellite planet into deep space."

Our little satellite planet? No. The Moon orbits planet Earth, so it is a moon. Planets orbit the sun. Moons orbit planets. Once it was blown out of earth orbit and shot out across space it still wasn't orbiting the sun, so I guess it became a sodding great asteroid.

Still not a planet.

Germany stalls over ACTA treaty ratification

Steve Evans

Bit of a difference between UKIP and the BNP. (Can't comment on the SNP, although they do look amusing on the TV). UKIP are for the UK's interests and against the EU bureaucratic steam roller.

Given the way national governments go round implementing pretty much anything which comes out of Brussels you would be forgiven for wondering why we both to pay for all their second homes and duck houses.

Steve Evans

Actually...

I think that was the original posters point, most countries have a "no using the mobile phone whilst driving" law, despite them all having a "driving without undue care and attention" catch-all law on the statute books already which allows the cops to prosecute anyone for anything which they think is dangerous from eating a sandwich to receiving oral pleasure.

Unfortunately they don't seem to ever apply it to parents with screaming kids on the back seat, possibly the most distracted and dangerous drivers I see.

Iran draws veil over secure internet access

Steve Evans

My thoughts exactly... We can't read it, so it must be bad.

Someone need to throw a big roll of cat5 over the border into a neighbouring stable country... Oh, yes, sorry, I see the problem now.

Revealed: Apple's plea for fairness in mobile patent war

Steve Evans
Gimp

Wow!

29 up and 0 down.

Not a single down vote to a post which takes a dig at Apple and the US patent office?

Don't tell me the fanboys have actually started to see the light!

IT guy answers daughter's Facebook rant by shooting her laptop

Steve Evans

Hmmm...

Come America, solving every problem with a gun? It's getting boring now, be a bit more inventive.

Personally I like thermite. Unfortunately that's getting a little popular too.

How about covering it in blood and going shark fishing?

IT crowd sorts out the Mars Science Lab

Steve Evans

Seriously impressive remote maintenance.

Then again, the standard expenses mileage allowance would have bankrupted them if they had had to send out an engineer.

Met thumbed through Oyster card data up to 22,000 times in 4 years

Steve Evans

@Thomas 4

Gonna be a lot of that when the Olympics arrives.

Steve Evans

I hate to be the one defending the met...

...but... that's not many requests given the number of little twerps we have kicking about in London. Can't wait for them to all centre on Stratford for the Olympics.

Plus the information could be used to defend yourself from prosecution...

Cop: You have been identified by a witness as the person that stabbed Mr Bloggs on Friday night

Me: Can't be, I was 25 miles away.

Cop: Can you prove it?

Me: Check with my Oyster and the CCTV of the same time. See, I was 25 miles away just 5 minutes before he was stabbed.

Cop: Thank you Sir, you can go.

(We're still keeping that DNA sample though).

Ofcom: Make it easier for punters to switch ISPs

Steve Evans

It gets worse...

I'm getting an engineer visit to install a Type B Home Hub 3 to replace the type A one I currently have (which has 101 bugs).

I've tried telling them I don't need an engineer to install a silly little router, and that I program Cisco routers and firewalls for "fun" in the office, but no, I need to wait for their approved replacer of boxes (Kelly Communications) to come and do it for me.

Which means I have to sit in all morning or afternoon and hope he turns up... Unlike the one who was supposed to to the initial install last year.

Olympus goes retro with µFT snapper

Steve Evans

Blimee..

You could buy a "real" camera for that money... And from a manufacturer who will still be trading in two years time...

Parliament ponders £400,000 iPads-for-MPs plan

Steve Evans

Upgraded within 5 years? I'll be amazed if 50% haven't been left in the back of taxis within 6 months.

Toshiba releases 'world's thinnest' Android tablet

Steve Evans

Not required, I'm sure their legal department have already climbed from their coffins and are just waiting for the sun to drop below the horizon.

Mac OS X ARM port by Apple work experience kid revealed

Steve Evans

Respect...

Porting an OS to an completely different chip in 12 weeks is no mean feat.

No surprise they offered him a job!

NASA: Solar system may have alien origin

Steve Evans

Sleeping with the light on would be a mistake. You'll only be helping it photosynthesise!

Steve Evans

@FredScummer

I would say essential!

Seagate slam-dunks flood-hit rivals with triple-profit Q2

Steve Evans

"notched up a brilliant second 2012 quarter"

More impressively, the seem to have nailed time travel!

The rest of us have only just got into February 2012!

OFFICIAL: Smart meters won't be compulsory

Steve Evans

Who wants to bet...

It won't be compulsory, but those that install them get a discounted tariff... Sorry, I mean those that don't install them suddenly find there tariff rate increases, and the new cheaper one (the original tariff price) is only available to those that say yes to the meter.

I might say yes, just to see their reaction when they discover the mobile signal in the cupboard under my stairs... I have to put my mobile on a window ledge to get a signal, and even then it's hit and miss.

Even if it does get a signal, a remote switch off can be easily prevented by some strategic use of tinfoil (no not on your head you nut!).

Mozilla releases Firefox 10, adds developer tools

Steve Evans

"According to Mozilla, most add-ons will now work by default"

Curiously I was offered this upgrade about an hour ago... It told me the FDM (free download manager) integration wasn't compatible, and it would be disabled.

So I declined it's offer for the time being.

iPads propel Apple to PC market top slot

Steve Evans

Dubious...

Some dubious categorisation going on here. An iPad isn't really a PC in the same way that a G-Wizz isn't really a car!

Sure it can do many of the things a PC can do, play videos, go onto facebook, and maybe it fits the words "personal computer" better than a real desktop does, but it's still a device primarily designed for data consumption, not production. Sure, you *could* type your entire life story on an iPad, and I'm sure Mr Fry is doing just that as I type, but you'll end up with blunted fingers and probably some kind of compression fracture in all of your fingers from banging on that sheet of glass.

It's horses for courses. Most people don't really need a real desktop PC for what they do. I know my sister-in-law certainly doesn't. She can post up her inane facebook drivel (with humourous auto corrections) just as well from her phone than she can from a desktop of laptop machine.

It just goes to show that many desktop/laptop users didn't really need that full computer experience, so with any luck we'll shift them onto tablet, and the volume of spam email their infected desktop machines were spewing to all and sundry will plummet!

Steerable bullet aims for mass army deployment

Steve Evans

@AC

There is a difference between showing yourself and *showing* yourself. Sure the guy with the pointer will need line of site to the target, but that doesn't necessarily reveal him. There will be no muzzle flash from the pointer, the bullet will come from elsewhere. As soon as they start coming in I doubt any of the targets will give any thought to the unarmed man one of their team thought he saw 5 minutes ago wandering about at 45 degrees to them.

Many of the "smart" bombs in Iraq were guided in by laser. Sometimes painted from other aircraft, but often painted by forces on the ground.

Steve Evans

Re: modulation

Sounds like a perfect defence is to stand behind a mirror. The dot won't be scattered back to the bullet, but reflected onto a nearby wall or the ground.

Angry Birds boss: Piracy helps us 'get more business'

Steve Evans

I believe Chris is referring to patents, were you have to defend them or risk losing them.

Paris Metro brings a bit of style to NFC

Steve Evans

A bit of style?

That'll be the first on the Paris Metro then... It's like being driven round in an old tin can from the 1920s!

'Space Monkey' craze: Texan students 'get high' by choking each other

Steve Evans

@Matthew

That sounds alarming like a boys boarding school activity to me!

Dizzy: the Ultimate Cartoon Adventure Part Deux

Steve Evans

Others are from the spectrum version, you can tell from the horrible colour attribute bleeding and simplified border to try to avoid it. The CPC's video chip was the far more capable 6845 which it shared with the BBC Micro.

Women pick the family's mobile tech - and pay for it too

Steve Evans
Trollface

Ahhhh...

That explains it. No wonder I could never understand the iThings sale figures ;-)

HP hawks huge 132in 'tablet'

Steve Evans

Pah...

$125,000? I think I'll wait until they abandon the project and then pick up the old stock for 25% list price.

Woz praises Android, blasts iPhone limitations

Steve Evans

Hey, move over, there must be more space behind the sofa, stop hogging it all!

McDonald's punters offered sex in exchange for Chicken McNuggets

Steve Evans

I would...

I would say "Picture or it didn't happen", but anyone that desperate for chicken nuggets is not going to be a pretty sight.

Tiny frog claimed as smallest vertebrate ever

Steve Evans

@Brent

Depends, does it generally look shifty and do a lot of shrugging?

Stratfor slaps website back online after Anon mega-hack

Steve Evans

Tut tut...

Storing credit card details in an unencrypted form is against the merchant card program rules. It certainly is in Europe. Failure to abide by the rules (especially a failure such as this where data was stolen) can result in withdrawal of your card processing facility.

As for the CEO resigning, I guess he is just taking the behaviour of our leaders as an example. Nobody in any lofty position carries any responsibility. On the rare occasions that one is forced out by massive public protest (RBS for example), they still walk away with a "jolly well done" handshake measured in the millions.

ICANN snubs critics, opens domain extension floodgates

Steve Evans

Lucky none of us trust any banks these days!

Steve Evans

Maybe they could be encouraged to get their own TLD, .con?

Steve Evans

.idiots

The post is required, and must contain letters.

Samsung: 'We'll nick Nokia's global mobe crown this year'

Steve Evans

They might both make WinPhones, but those aren't the big sellers. For Nokia the big sellers are the cheap not very smart phones based on their older OS(s), and for Samsung it's Android.

HTC also started as WinPhone manufacturer, and nobody had heard of them. You've heard of them now, but that's not due to their success of windows mobile handsets.

Facebook VERY SLOWLY rolls out Timeline

Steve Evans

Shorely....

What he really needs is a way to check on those that have proactively *not* opted into it, like myself... Really not looking forward to it. On the profiles I have seen it so far it looks like a dog's dinner.

Microsoft's master stroke: Pay store staff per WinPhone sold

Steve Evans

@hplasm

That seems to fit well too :-)