* Posts by Andrew Herron

16 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Apr 2007

Ex-BT boffin Cochrane blasts telco's 'wholly inadequate' broadband vision

Andrew Herron

I really don't think your argument makes any sense at all. The fact that a quirk of history leaves us with creaking and outdated broadband infrastructure does not mean we are insulated from those countries in Asia and Scandinavia that don't. It's like football team only comparing its performance to teams in the bottom to middle of the league table instead of the top 5 teams. Its a distortion of reality.

The stats you mention are again shifting very quickly. Unless we move to more than barely incremental infrastructure updates we will inevitably slide downwards irrespective of what stats we choose to measure ourselves against. The other effect of incremental infrastructure upgrades are that they make it ever more costly and unlikely that we will ever catchup or overtake the broadband speed leaders of the world.

The world is one big market even more than it has ever been and we compete as a country with countries in Asia just as much as those in Europe. We need world class broadband speeds otherwise we will increasingly not be able to compete with other countries in any of the new digital industries or even in the old ones.

Samsung unveils Android 2.1 smartphone

Andrew Herron
Happy

Layar is an Augmented Reality browser

...Layar is not Samsung's own app...its an Augmented Reality browser app available from http://layar.com/

Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Andrew Herron
Thumb Up

Well it worked fine for me...

I've upgraded a number of machines now from 9.04 to 9.10 with very different hardware specs...and they have all gone completely smoothly.

Hmmm...but hang on...that does not make a vey good 'news' story does it ;-)

Google strips Pirate Bay homepage from search results

Andrew Herron
Pirate

PirateBay...still googlable

The Pirate Bay still seems to be found in searches I have just made...

Gmail in massive web outage

Andrew Herron
Happy

GMAIL Outage

As of 10:15pm Tues GMAIL seems to be back and working normally...

iPhone 3.0 gossip lassos MMS, tethering, cut-and-paste...

Andrew Herron
Unhappy

Multi-tasking....

My K800i is no 'smart phone' but it manages to run several apps at the same time... I can play mp3 files or listen to the inbuilt FM radio and tap out a text message and drop into a game or browse a web page (crap screen compared to the iPhone I have to admit though). I use this all the time... its hard to understand that iPhone with its 'sophisticated' OS sitting underneath all it does cannot do this... and thats not to mention that the K800i supports cut/paste, has hassle free BlueTooth, a 3.2Mp camera with a Flash etc etc.

I am not an Apple basher or iPhone hater at all... it just amazes me that a product that in most other ways is so advanced has such a big whole in its functionality.

BBC's iPlayer launches Christmas Day

Andrew Herron
Happy

Take the 'Live' out of 'Live TV ;-)

Hmmmm... so let me see if I watch TV using 'live pause' and lets say 30 secs behind the live broadcast... then I am clearly not watching 'live' TV... I am watching a recording. Therefore No TV license required ;-)

Also... my recording is free of DRM and ... it does not get auto-removed from my HD... and its also at full quality... now thats what i call a value for money service!

TV heavyweights build on-demand supersite

Andrew Herron
Thumb Down

Lower quality & time expired...

Hmmm... as i have said a couple time before about all of the TV download services...

Why would I want to download a low quality TV program, that time expires and in some cases needs to be paid for when I can record full quality programs of air, with no DRM and watch them as often as i like... I don't get the compelling proposition here at all?

Ubuntu's latest OS not so Gutsy

Andrew Herron
Thumb Up

Gutsy is all Gibbon...

No problems at all here with Network connections or DNS

Next generation BBC iPlayer gets MS man on board

Andrew Herron

Freeview broadcasts are not DRM'd...

So the content owners demand DRM... Hmmm but they are happy for the BBC to broadcast un DRM'd programming at full broadcast quality... so all you have to do is add a DVB-T card/usb dongle to your PC and you can record the program... and keep it forever! Strange world isn't it...

Joost everywhere, embedded in hardware

Andrew Herron

Joost a moment

The problem is allowing people to download a piece of software for a PC they already own that has a broadband connection right next to it that enables them to try the Joost 'service' is easy. Getting a company to manufacture a device, with no proven market, that needs to be connected to your living room TV and to your broadband and have a customer pay for it... is very very different indeed!

Looks like a very tough old hill to climb to me... and then there is the problem of bandwidth and cost. The vast majority of people are on so called 'unlimited' broadband from their provider... the problem is they are in reality very much 'limited'! ...and lastly there is nothing worth watching on Joost... bit of a problem that!

Skype worm leaps onto MSN

Andrew Herron

Worms gonna turn...

Hmmmm... wonder if this little bugger can infect Kubuntu? No it can't... another good moment to leave the clutches of Redmond I think ;-)

Apple invents novel back-to-front iPod control

Andrew Herron

Back to front but not reversed...

Hmmm... i think this invention would work differently than you described in fact. You would want your finger on the reverse 'touch sensitive' side of the iPhone to move in the same, not the reverse direction (as you look at the front side display that is) as the displayed UI elements on the front of the device. This is a really very clever idea indeed... just try to imagine it on your existing pda or mobile and it so obviously would work really very well indeed!

DRM pinches Motorola's stream

Andrew Herron

Hard nut to crack

Well as much as i love the iPhone's UI and its design I am not at all sure that it will be the raging success that the iPod was/and is. The mobile market is a very different animal with a completely different set of rules both in terms of the buying decision and also usability. Commercially today contract mobile customers do not 'buy' handsets... they given new ones to ether remain with their current network or when they move to a new one. Handsets have incredibly short product life-cycles at the 'I must have one' phase of their lives. So even if Apple manage to get the 'subsidy' right for iPhone the moment when its 'a must have' will be gone in a blink of an eye.

Then there is the issue of 'usability'... for better or for worse mobile punters out there have got used to the way mobile phone UI's work and also to the physical issues of the devices. Multi-touch touch sensitivity may not be all that well received when it becomes obvious an hour after getting your shine new iPhone that all you've learnt about one handed mobile use goes out the window... nothing tactile to allow you to know whether your fingers are pressing a button or not etc etc. It's a little like cars in my opinion... we have a steering wheel, some pedals and so far no one has un-seated that UI! I expect the 'learnt' behaviour of 1 billion + mobile users around the world will be a tough nut to change!

Downing Street rejects Vista petition

Andrew Herron

Hmmm... just dont buy Vista then

If Vista is too expensive... just vote with you wallet and dont buy it!

Ubuntu launch marred by website woes

Andrew Herron

Its back now...

Well as of 4pm they seem to have managed to get the site back again... hope the outage was not due to them upgrading there servers to 7.04 ;-)