* Posts by Tim Spence

319 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Apr 2007

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HP dumps Apotheker for Whitman

Tim Spence
Facepalm

"as the CEO of eBay, she was required to purchase large amounts of hardware"

I've read about lots of hardware, does that make me qualified?

Dyson spouts hot air

Tim Spence
Thumb Up

Haha, you've may have a point - the description fits the typical fruity fanbois too.

Tim Spence
Coat

Expensive, excessive, largely pointless, but I love all things Dyson. Just wish I was rich enough to buy something other than the vacuums!

UK, US ink boffinry pact on laser fusion 'star power'

Tim Spence
Alien

Meh, we're all fooked eventually anyway - the universe will reach thermodynamic equilibrium eventually. It'll be damn cold, but I bet a man-made fusion plant still wouldn't have been achieved by then...

Outbound space probe looks back at tiny Earth and Moon

Tim Spence
Joke

Release forms

I hope they got the appropriate completed model release forms for everyone in shot.

Apple snuffs iPhone privacy complaint with Korean peanuts

Tim Spence
Joke

Won / One

How about won billion?

History's first papal tweet launches Vatican website

Tim Spence
Joke

Stop mentioning 'papal'...

...I keep reading the headline and wondering what the hell the Vatican has to do with an online payment system.

Apple to support reps: Don't confirm Mac infections

Tim Spence

Rapture

Is this like the rapture, but very specifically for Apple users?

Fiat 500 TwinAir

Tim Spence

Absolutely

Interesting read here: http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/green-motoring/2011-02/500-twinair-economy/

Apparently the manufacturer's quoted MPG values were likely derived in Eco mode, which is a bit naughty without clarifying that next to the figures.

IT grad claims £5m for crap degree

Tim Spence

Sarcasm

It was a loaded with sarcasm, but you're making assumptions that the opposite of "old hardware" automatically equals the "latest and greatest processor".

I maybe should have qualified my comment with 'obsolete', but old hardware could mean teaching students on BBC Micros, when the rest of the world is a decade on from those. Yes, basic computing principles often remain the same, but if you're on a semi-vocational course, then surely it's better to learn the principles on something you're likely to see once you get a job.

As for an old vs new lecturer, experienced is almost always way better, but not when they lack charisma, and still use teaching methods from the 19th century.

FYI, I'm not entirely disagreeing with you, but if you're paying big bucks, you start to expect the best in *every* area.

Tim Spence
Headmaster

Sign of things to come?

Of course, with students liable for vastly increased fees in the future, is this a sign of things to come as students look to get maximum value from their money?

I was the last year of students to get my degree for free, so even if I felt it was the University's fault I only got a 2:2 (and not my own for spending all day and night playing pool in the pub), I paid nowt, so can't complain too much. However, if I was spending up to £9k per year on it, I'd be looking for... no, *expecting*... top class facilities, top class lecturers, etc, rather than old hardware, rickety buildings, geriatric lecturers, etc, which I actually got.

First reports on XM-25 Judge Dredd smartgun in A'Stan

Tim Spence
Go

Dogfights

I wonder if the next article which talks about Eurofighters and MIGs dogfighting, our friend will pop in and ask what planes have to do with dogs...

EC parades common phone charger

Tim Spence

Already support the standard

If I'm not mistaken, HTC already use Micro-USB across their range, so why do they need to join - and presumably pay - into this love-in?

Passenger cleared after TSA checkpoint stare-down

Tim Spence

@Anomalous Cowturd

I'm speaking with great authority here (avid watcher of Airport, Airline, etc), and legally I believe you are correct, but I think the issue comes with what the individual airline's rules are - some may allow you on with just a drivers license, for example, but some may require a passport.

You may argue that the law says you only need official photo-ID, but the fact is it's their airline, and if their rules require a passport, you won't be granted permission to fly on their airline.

Wow, can't believe I just stuck up for the corporation. Okay, scrap that, f$&k the airlines!

Russia wins World Cup bid in parrot-sickening travesty

Tim Spence
Flame

Flames welcome

You can't request flamage, without giving your name!

Virgin demands ISPs end broadband speed 'con'

Tim Spence
FAIL

And they obviously don't like criticism on this point

They're obviously not willing to listen to criticism on this point either - the contact form on the stop the broadband con site appears to be borked!

Google streaming search in 'Instant revenue boost'

Tim Spence
FAIL

It's dreadful

Anecdotal maybe, but everyone I've spoken to hates it, and are very pleased when I tell them how it can be switched off.

Maybe it's useful if you're a slow typist, when I guess there's enough time between each keypress to let it load the "instant" results and check to see if it's found what you're looking for, before looking back down at the keys and fumbling for the next letter. For the rest of us, we just splurge the query out in one go, hit search, and then check the results.

BT blasts hundreds of would-be customers' data into Infinity

Tim Spence
WTF?

No logic failure

The article is highly damning of BT, and all through it accuses it directly of cocking up. It's only once you get to the last paragraph that it apologetically says along the lines of, "actually, ignore all that we said up there, in fairness it's not directly BT's fault like we implied ALL THROUGH THE STORY"

You want it clearer...?

Quote 1: "As one of Britain's largest and most venerable technology firms, you might expect BT to have grasped the basics of email by now."

Well, as it makes clear at the end, it wasn't BT or any BT employee sending it, so that statement is nullified.

Quote 2: "It yesterday emailed about 500 members of the public who volunteered to drum up interest in the wheeze in their area."

Uhh, no, it didn't, it's (incompetent, in hindsight) PR company did on it's behalf.

Quote 3: "But BT failed to use BCC to hide the would-be campaigners' email addresses and identities from each other"

See point above.

I could go on.

Basically, the article says "BT did x, y, and z, how terrible and stupid they are for doing that?!" and then finishes with "actually, in fairness, it wasn't BT who did it, it was some incompetent company they hired on their behalf."

All BT are guilty of here, is of not having physic powers to have predicted what company was going to cock up on their behalf.

Agreed that using a PR company to manage something as simple as this is stupid though, however, perhaps in the weird world of economics, it's cheaper to pay someone else than their own staff...

Tim Spence
Thumb Down

BT or not BT

"In fairness to BT, the direct blame for this latest embarrassment belongs to Porter Novelli, the public relations boutique running the Race to Infinity"

Right, so you slag off and blame BT for this tremendous cockup, and how they should be tech-savvy given they're a technology company, and how this further displays how shite they are, and then at the very bottom admit that it's actually not their fault, and it's probably some spotty non-techy work experience admin at a PR company BT has contracted to handle the work.

Lettuce head e-fit draws a blank

Tim Spence
Thumb Up

Subtle

That might be a touch too subtle for the "vegetables? Is that what's on pizza?" brigade on here!!

ISS spacewalkers tackle failed cooling pump

Tim Spence

Robotic arm

From what little I've seen, most of these space "walks" are actually done securely attached to the safety of the ISS's robotic arm.

Apple denies iPhone 4 antenna glitch, blames inaccurate signal bars

Tim Spence
Thumb Down

Pffffff... what bollocks

See title.

Jobs tells iPhone users to get a grip

Tim Spence

Easy design mod/solution

So the band around the outside is metal, the antenna, sure, but I'm sure they could find a way to put a tiny amount of clear lacquer or something on it, which still lets near 100% of signal through and looks the same, but crucially breaks the contact between skin and metal?

I'm going to patent that, quick!!

Video calling impresses Brits, if it's Apple video calling

Tim Spence
Thumb Down

Didn't care back then, don't care now

I got my first video-call capable phone around 2004 (SonyEricsson V800, if you're interested), and even had free minutes thrown at me each month, but in the 7 years since then, I've made a grand total of one call, for about 30 seconds.

It worked well enough, but what's the point? I don't want to be looking up someone's nose as they hold the phone in front of them as they're walking down the street, or see them in their "comfortable" slacks when relaxing at home. Voice is fine for me, thanks.

V-22 Osprey downblast scatters spectators like skittles

Tim Spence

Weaponised V-22 eh?

So it's designed to fly over insurgents and blow them off their feet?

UK jobs site suffers hack attack

Tim Spence
Paris Hilton

Which is it?

Sub headline: "3.5 million CVs exposed"

Quoted within the story: "no CVs or other personal information was accessed."

Paris, because it's got a question mark in it.

Followers vanish as Twitter tw*ts tweet bug

Tim Spence

Bug?

Quite - this sounds less like a bug to me, and more of a long-forgotten feature, or early development debug tool. Wonder how many more there are....

'iPhone 4G' found on floor of bar

Tim Spence

Deliberate leak?

If this was a deliberate leak, it's achieved the opposite of the expected intention with me - on seeing these and believing them to be real, I see no point in waiting for the 4G, and just ditched my 3G and ordered an HTC Desire... I bought the original iPhone when it first came out, at £280, so no one can accuse me of not being dedicated, but this doesn't look revolutionary, barely evolutionary.

The iPhone is a tired dog and has lost it's way, unfortunately. Long live the iPhone.

New ISS machine makes water from waste CO2

Tim Spence

Pricey water

By my calculations, assuming it works as expected, it'll cost NASA $16,250 per litre of water. My God, that's even more expensive than petrol in the UK at the moment!

Panasonic Viera TX-P46G20 46in plasma TV

Tim Spence

Sky vs Freesat

It's interesting that the comparisons between BBC HD on Sky HD and Freesat indicate that Sky HD has a better picture quality... given that Freesat is using the exact same signal as Sky.

Microsoft slams nails in Windows Vista, XP SP2, 2000

Tim Spence
Stop

Pain and hassle

There is no pain and hassle to install Windows, it's one thing which Microsoft have got right over virtually everyone else - even a monkey with very basic computer skills can do it.

Are you saying you're less capable than a monkey with basic computer skills?

Think Aussie election rules are draconian? Look at the UK's

Tim Spence
Joke

Fowl

What's an election got to do with chickens?

Legendary McLaren F1 designer talks up e-car plan

Tim Spence

Source

But we still need to sort out where this leccy is actually coming from!

Reg readers take mobile makers to task

Tim Spence

First graph

From the first graph in the story, we can deduce that there is a small set of phone users/owners who use hardly use their phones for anything.

Anti-filesharing laws revive crypto fears for spooks

Tim Spence

RE: Really?

You mean terrorists don't tweet or set their status to "Osama is off 2 mt Abdul 2 plan bmbings!!1 Lollz!"

Historian slams 'absolutely crazy' UK time zone

Tim Spence
Stop

0°00′00″E

The UK is ON the bloody prime meridian - Greenwich in London is at 0°00′00″E. This line also runs through the west of France and the east of Spain, so we're right, and it's them that's wrong.

Boffins 'write directly to memory' of living brains

Tim Spence
Thumb Up

Rosetta Stone

So the Rosetta Stone of the 22nd century will come with a USB4 cerebral-cortex attachment? That'll make learning French a whole lot easier.

Apple plans turbocharged Mac Pro speedster

Tim Spence
Grenade

OSX

"It'll delete all your user files up to 8 times faster than on older hardware!"

Child porn threat to airport's 'virtual strip search' scanners

Tim Spence

Doesn't constitute an image?

You're shining electromagnetic radiation at an object, and picking up the reflected radiation using a sensor (camera) to produce a human readable image on a screen.

Doesn't matter what type or frequency that initial radiation is, whether it's microwave, infrared, human visible wavelengths, X-rays, etc, you're still producing an image on a screen.

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