* Posts by Andy Nugent

138 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jul 2008

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Airline software super-bug: Flight loads miscalculated because women using 'Miss' were treated as children

Andy Nugent

If only you had to supply your date of birth when booking a flight.

Garmin staggers back to its feet: Aviation systems seem to be lagging, though. Here's why

Andy Nugent

Affected more than online services

"Additionally, the functionality of Garmin products was not affected, other than the ability to access online services"

That's not strictly true, as at least with my 735 watch, sync between watch and phone doesn't work without a connection to Garmin.

Why they've intertwined syncing between phone & watch with the uploading to Garmin Connect is beyond me.

New Google rules mandate Android 'Poundland' Edition, Go, for sub-2GB RAM phones once Android 11 is out

Andy Nugent

Re: Can I have it on a big phone?

By default apps aren't installable on external storage unless they specify it (https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/install-location), and I think lots of apps don't bother as even the fastest SD card is still considerably slower than the built in storage on the phones, and they don't want their software to look bad. Not sure if rooting your phone allows you to ignore that, but don't think it's an Android Go specific thing.

Utilitarian, long-bodied Nokia 5.3 has budget basic specs - but it does cost £150

Andy Nugent

Re: Resolution

I love that 720x1600 on a 6.55" screen is now considered "chunky pixels".

The equivelent ppi laptop would be a 13.1" 3200x1440 screen.

Andy Nugent

I would guess you've installed an NFC reader app which is then looking for NFC tags to read.

The normal use case is the payment terminal is constantly looking for tags to read and the NFC on the phone acts as a tag.

Latest battery bruiser Android from budget Moto G range appears ahead of MWC after an Amazon whoopsie

Andy Nugent

Re: Battery life is an illusion

In that case, why bother buying a smartphone?

Where's our data, Google? Chrome 79 update 'a catastrophe' for Android devs with WebView apps

Andy Nugent

would a web app have permission to just write to any file? A question, but I'm suspecting the answer is no, and they're writing to the sandboxed file area that they do have permission to use (which due to this issue now just appears empty).

Finally, an AI that can reliably catch and undo Photoshop airbrushing. Who made it? Er, Photoshop maker Adobe

Andy Nugent

Re: Fake photos and magazines

I had similar for an advert and it turned out the "models" were CGI (perhaps from a Final Fantasy game?), but it wasn't immediately obvious because all the other ads were so heavily photoshopped.

(It was for Louis Vuitton https://uk.louisvuitton.com/eng-gb/articles/series-4-lightning-a-virtual-heroine)

Talk about beating heads against brick walls... Hard disk drive unit shipments slowly spinning down

Andy Nugent

Re: Or drop in system sales?

Think he's referring to the eMMC drives in really cheap kit.

All through the house, not a creature was stirring... especially Samsung smartwatches: Batteries empty at 3AM

Andy Nugent

Re: Please try <painful solution that is worse than bug>

The last Samsung phone I had was an S5, but that had an option to download using both 4G and WiFi connections simultaneously to boost speed. Might be worth checking if this is still a feature and if it's enabled.

Edit: seems that the S9 does have the feature. See https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-216765/

Oh my Tosh, it's only a 100TB small form-factor SSD, SK?

Andy Nugent

Re: The price

Yeah, a tech site definitely shouldn't report on any advances until they're finished products available to buy. I think you'd be better off browsing Amazon.

It's a phone with a peel, but you'll have to wait a bit more for retro Nokia

Andy Nugent

"and never twice the same power connector even between similar phone models"

Nokia had 3 power connectors in the entire time they were making phones (original, smaller one and MicroUSB).

Seagate's Barracuda SSD bares its teeth at PC, laptop upgraders

Andy Nugent

Re: @Siberian Hamster

or just use 365.25 * 5?

Google leaps on the platform formerly known as Firefox with $22m splurge for KaiOS

Andy Nugent

Re: More money equals more good

Not sure what you mean by horribly expensive, but I pay £20 / month to Three for unlimited data plus 20GB (might be 30GB, not 100% sure) tethering on a 1 month rolling contract. Been on it for a few years, so perhaps no longer offered, but might be worth raising with them.

Samsung Galaxy S9: Still the Lord of All Droids

Andy Nugent

Re: Hmmm

I also smashed the screen on my OnePlus 3T, which resulted in having to send the phone back to OnePlus, an above £100 bill and no phone for the best part of two weeks.

I would have been able to get an iPhone or Galaxy fixed in my lunch hour at a local shop for half the price.

Something I'd consider when buying my next phone.

Facebook admits: Apps were given users' permission to go into their inboxes

Andy Nugent

Re: Facebook account closed! So what happens in 2 weeks?

why should *you* deleting your account delete messages from *my* inbox?

Would you expect the same with email, SMS, any other IM service?

Sci-tech wants skilled worker cap on PhD and shortage jobs scrapped

Andy Nugent

Re: shortage

That link only says that someone on pay band 9 would earn over £100k. It doesn't say how many nurses (if any) are actually earning that pay band.

PC not dead, Apple single-handedly propping up mobe market, says Gartner

Andy Nugent

isn't this flattening sales completely to be expected as the tech matures and the incremental increases become less pronounced. I'm currently working on a 3 year old laptop (Intel i7 4th gen, 16GB RAM, SSD, GeForce 850, blah, blah). The speed increase on a new one is so minor that it's not worth considering (to me). 20 years ago the difference between a 3 year old PC and a new one was huge. Would the same not be happening with mobiles by now had the manufacturers not built in obsolescence with fixed batteries (plus the fact you're more likely to drop/break a mobile than a laptop)?

British snoops at GCHQ knew FBI was going to arrest Marcus Hutchins

Andy Nugent

Re: It looks like they were quite desparate to pin something on him, judging by the last paragraph:

@kain preacher: So I tried Google and couldn't find an answer. What happens in the US if someone who legally owns one or more guns in charged with a crime and released on bail? Do they have to hand over their gun(s) to the police?

Mark Zuckerberg and the $3bn cash fling: He's not your father's tech kingpin

Andy Nugent

@James 51

They probably shouldn't bother then.

Andy Nugent

Check the figures?

"assets of $36bn and income of $53bn" - impressive returns of 147%.

"Gates, the richest person in tech with a net worth of $81m" - Million?

"Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and wife Lynne, meanwhile, have put $128bn" - eigth of a trillion dollars?

Fujitsu picks 64-bit ARM for Japan's monster 1,000-PFLOPS super

Andy Nugent

Re: This is why AMD and NVidia are making ARM chips

"Too many of Microsoft products have builtin dependencies on X86 architecture" - is that the case? I thought Win RT failed in part due to the fact that people expected to be able to run the Windows software that they've always used, that was x86 and that Microsoft had no control over.

British Airways slaps 'at risk' sticker on nearly half its app delivery dept

Andy Nugent

Re: I've used the BA boarding pass app

If you're getting 8-12 days from a smartphone I guess you're not using it for very much; no 4G / WiFi / BT / GPS switched on, no apps downloading in the background, screen brightness on minimum, minimal usage?

Which raises the question why you spent money on a smartphone?

Google asks Unicode to look over 13 new emoji showing professional women

Andy Nugent

Re: Too Much Time

You can always sell your shares in Alphabet if you think their work is no-longer valid.

Windows 10 build 14342: No more friendly Wi-Fi sharing

Andy Nugent

Re: Good

I never really got much use out of it as I don't really know that many people with Windows Phones, but you could imagine a more widespread (Android / iOS / cross platform) variant being quite useful. e.g., had a friend visited at the weekend from abroad, and he asked in a couple of bars / cafes we were in for the WiFi password, information already stored on my phone that I couldn't pass on to him. Close friends could have my home WiFi, everyone else just gets the public WiFi I've saved.

Alphabetti spaghetti: SanDisk adds SLC cache to TLC SSD

Andy Nugent

endurance has also been extended?

"The product's endurance has also been extended.In terms of terabytes written (TBW) during its warranted life the Z400 numbers were 20 TBW (32GB), 40 TBW (64GB), 72 TBW (128 and 256GB). The Z410's equivalent numbers are 40 TBW (120GB), 80 TBW (240GB) and 120 TBW (480GB)."

so the 128GB drive used to have an endurance of 72 TBW, and now the 120GB drive has an endurance of 40TBW.

Isn't that a drop in endurance?

'Boss, I've got a bug fix: Nuke the whole thing from orbit, rewrite it all'

Andy Nugent

I've had interviews for contracts in a couple of places that didn't actually use any source control systems (I never actually took the work out of fear for my sanity; they were never looking to do things properly, just wanting someone to add in a couple of more features ASAP). Usually engineering firms where it started out as a simple bit of code that the (non-software) engineer wrote and it just grew and grew. Not quite as bad as this, but going down the same road.

$17 smartwatch sends something to random Chinese IP address

Andy Nugent

Re: Optional

I think he's suggesting that smart watches are fragmented, not Android based smart watches.

We have an Android app that users have asked for smart watch support, and we've not done it as there isn't enough demand to justify implementing it on Tizen, Android, Pebble, etc. and there isn't a clear leader in that pack that we'd pick over the others. I don't imagine we're alone in thinking that among Android app developers.

Ofcom's head is dead against Three and O2's merger

Andy Nugent

You're assuming that Three will still offer those unlimited data / low cost / rolling monthly contracts if they're the biggest network. I doubt very much they will.

Samsung's first Tizen smartphone is HERE ... by which we mean India

Andy Nugent

Re: Tizen's dead...

There's a remaining BB demographic?

Europe: Go on. Ask us to probe the £130m 'sweetheart' deal HMRC made with Google

Andy Nugent

Re: Lean the Tax Process

You could increase VAT, and allow companies to offset the extra VAT levied against profits / corporation tax (so that smaller businesses who aren't big enough to offshore their profits can compete on a level(er) playing field against big corporations).

So say if you have a 10% profit margin, of which small businesses would previously pay 20-28% corporation tax, and big businesses offshore it and pay nothing, you'd then have a 7-8% profit margin of which small businesses would be no worse off (as they'd pay no corporation tax), and large businesses who offshore their profits would be (or they'd raise their prices, and be less competitive against smaller / local firms). Whether there's enough smaller / local firms to keep them from just passing on the price rise would be the big unknown.

Andy Nugent

Re: Tax Law Suck

And where the mouse always has years to find the loop holes from when the tax laws are set and the first set of accounts are due to be filed. I doubt governments are ever going to be able to outmaneuver large corporations, even if the political will was there.

EE plans to block annoying ads on mobile network

Andy Nugent

How long...

...before EE start a program that allows certain companies ads through for a small admin fee?

'I posted winning race ticket in Facebook selfie ... and someone stole it!'

Andy Nugent

+1 as I assume you're joking.

Facebook's UK wing paid just £4k in corporation tax last year

Andy Nugent

Re: Companies don't pay tax

paying dividends doesn't lower your profit. Dividends come from your profits.

Google Chromecast 2015: Puck-on-a-string fun ... why not, for £30?

Andy Nugent

Re: Ugly

How cables look hanging behind my TV is a real concern for me as well.

Windows 10 grabbed about five per cent market share in August

Andy Nugent

The fact there's a list of desktop Linux adopters says it all really.

Oh no, startup Massive Analytic unleashes 'artificial precognition'

Andy Nugent

This was a sponsored post, right?

Moto fires BROADSIDE into the flagship phone's waterline with X Play and Style

Andy Nugent

Re: Interesting..

was that a SIM free device or is the network not releasing the update? I thought the whole point of Motorola effectively releasing stock Android devices was that they could release updates without huge amounts of effort on their part.

OnePlus 2: The smartie that's trying to outsmart Google's Android

Andy Nugent

Re: But what about people who don't want huge great phones?

I got a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact for that reason. Great phone. Although you need to buy a case, as some genius thought putting a shiny / slippery glass back on it was a good idea; my first one slipped off a quite rough wooden garden table and cracked, luckily while still covered by my credit card purchase protection.

Farewell then, Mr Elop: It wasn't actually your fault

Andy Nugent

Re: Don't burn the platform you're standing on

Wasn't it sent to everyone in the company? If he couldn't work out that it'd leak...

Vodafone hikes prices to 37.5p/min – and lets angry customers flee

Andy Nugent

Re: Whooooosh!

"Interestingly, when my SO got a new phone (from O2) not long ago, the phone itself was on a completely separate finance agreement. So it looks like the operators are wising up to this one." << does that not mean they can't advertise the phone as being **FREE** ?

Entertaining prospect: Amazon Fire TV Stick

Andy Nugent

Re: Its all about the SP Factor (Shiny and Pointless)

A niche product?

I think you've got it the wrong way around. Lots of people find a £30-40 simple to install stick that gives access to Netflix, iPlayer, YouTube, etc. useful.

"a box that will allow you to stream from a local NAS or streaming server" is a niche product (and yes, I have a streaming server, I just accept the fact that the majority of people have no desire to set up a home server & rip their DVD collection)

BlackBerry ponders putting Android on future mobes

Andy Nugent

Given the number of negative comments we got when we released an Android Runtime app in the BlackBerry store, from people who genuinely couldn't understand why we wouldn't take the time to write a native BB10 app, this is going to go down wonderfully with their their existing users.

2016 might just be the year of Linux on the (virtual) desktop

Andy Nugent

Re: Non-product

http://www.netmarketshare.com/report.aspx?qprid=11&qpaf=&qpcustom=Linux&qpcustomb=0

Based on usage (not sales) it's about 1.5%.

The fact you recommend a variant, and someone else would probably recommend a different variant, plus the fact your recommendation is "for a first time user" suggesting you'll soon grow out of Mint and look at installing something else, is potentially some reasons why the figure is that low despite being free.

'Use 1 capital' password prompts make them too predictable – study

Andy Nugent

Password generators

I've also had trouble using a random password generator on various sites because it was:

(a) too long

(b) didn't match their rules (despite being 16 random characters of lower/upper/numbers).

(c) the website blocked the ability to copy 'n' paste into the text box, forcing me to use a password I could be bothered to type out twice.

It's almost like the developers don't understand the maths and think creating rules makes it harder to crack (tip, a 20 character phrase all in lower case is harder to crack and easier for humans to remember than a 6 character password with uppercase/lowercase/numbers/symbols).

Facebook fiddles with News Feed algo. Brace yourself for CONTENTGEDDON

Andy Nugent

Re: You want traffic on your site ?

Is that what Facebook said?

"Overall, pages should continue to post things that people find meaningful and consider these best practices for driving referral traffic."

I read that as if you post quantity over quality, then you'll find your page's posts disappearing from people's timelines. If you post stuff that your followers are actually interested in, that they like / share / comment on, then it's more likely to appear.

The BBC wants to slap a TAX on EVERYONE in BLIGHTY

Andy Nugent

Re: Charge the ex-pats

BBC Worldwide is already the commercial arm of the BBC, for selling & merchandising shows abroad (Sherlock / Dr Who on US TV for example).

I think there'd be issues with what you're proposing, as you'd be conflicting with those licenses (selling a show to channel ABC in the USA, and also charging people in the USA to view it via iPlayer).

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