* Posts by Paw Bokenfohr

336 publicly visible posts • joined 11 May 2009

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British ISPs throw in the towel, give up sending out toothless copyright infringement warnings

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: In the real world

I received a couple. I'm on Virgin Media. I torrent a lot, but it was only for torrents downloaded from one particular semi-private tracker. I just switched to downloading all of those torrents over a VPN and stopped getting letters.

This move by Dropbox will reduce users' files to tiers: Rarely, regularly accessed data now kept separate

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Just Drop[ped]Box. new three device syncing limit is unworkable/pathetic, 5 minimum needed.

Jottacloud is one option.

watchOS 5 hints at new Apple wearables and life beyond the Watch

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: "yes, they still make Teasmades"

"Dissolved oxygen in the water is crucial for tea - that's why it's recommended to pour cold water into a kettle and then boil it"

This isn't true. It's a well known and believed idea, and yes, there is less DO (dissolved oxygen) in *boiling* water (or water at any higher temperature than another sample of water) but the moment the temperature of the water starts to drop, the amount of DO increases.

So water at (for example) 21° from a tap contains the same amount of DO as water that was boiled and has cooled to 21°. Yes, water at 5° has more DO than water at 21°, but as you boil that 5° water, its temperature goes up and the DO goes down so as it gets to 21°, it has the same DO as the once-boiled water at 21° has.

In short, a myth - no matter how you slice, it, any like-for-like sample of water at a particular temperature has the same DO whether it started cold, warm, or has been boiled 5 times already.

Pains us to run an Apple article without the words 'fined', 'guilty' or 'on fire' in it, but here we are

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Adapter

Apple don't tend to put up the price of adapters, and they're only £9 for now.

For me, I was ready to not buy a 7 because of the headphone jack issue, but at £9 for an adapter, I'll buy a few (one for each of my sets of UE headphones which I use regularly) and leave them attached to the headphones rather than to the iPhone. An additional £27 on top of the almost £1k for the damned phone isn't that much after all.

EU commish: We smacked down O2/Three but we didn't take it 'lightly'

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: What about T-Mobile and Orange?

There were 5 providers, and the merger of those two made it 4.

As there are now 4, this latest merger (if it had been allowed) would have left only 3, and we'd have lost the (arguably) most price competitive one of the 4. The commission probably also saw the lessons to be learned from other EU countries with only 3 providers (higher costs, even worse service).

Romania suffers Eurovision premature ejection

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Lost the Plot

Wogan stayed way too long. If he hated the competition so much, he should have stepped aside and let someone commentate on it who could come at it with the British humour view of the competition from a place of fondness at least rather than the bitterness which Wogan gave to his commentary.

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Euraustralia??

The Eurovision Song Contest isn't anything to do with the EU or Europe (see: Israel, Turkey, Morocco, Russia etc) but instead is a song contest organised by the EBU of which you need to be a member of some sort to send an entry to (notably, it's the broadcasting organisation which sends the entry rather than the country as such - in the UKs case, the BBC).

So, you could just as easily see countries such as Algeria, Cuba, Canada, and the USA sending over entries in the future, as all of those have broadcasters based in them who have membership or associate membership of the EBU.

Is iOS 9.3 Apple's worst ever update? First it bricks iThings, now Safari is busted

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: apple fans

Your intent was pretty clear from the comment. Apple = bad ∴ gay people must use it because gay people are bad and all gay people use Grindr. That's homophobia. And while some people may find it funny, those people are mistaken.

Amazon kills fondleslab file encryption with latest Fire OS update

Paw Bokenfohr

Unfortunately, it won't, much as we might wish it would.

I think that your average tablet user doesn't really know anything about encryption and I'd further hazard a guess that those who own Fire tablets know less than the average tablet user over all (excluding those already using third party OSs on them).

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Pretty bad choice

@DougS: Or the third option: Sell the tablet, and buy one from an vendor which does support encryption in the way required, which is just about any other tablet.

Confused as to WTF is happening with Apple, the FBI and a killer's iPhone? Let's fix that

Paw Bokenfohr

Does anyone believe that the next FBI request / court order wouldn't be...

...to do the same again, but with a different serial number iPhone (after all, it's trivial now the code is available).

And then the one after that would be to provide the software build to the FBI with a tool so they can change the target serial themselves.

And then the next one would be to provide a new build which added in the functionality that it automatically did the brute-force attack itself (after all, why not?)

And then, the next one would be to build this all in to general iOS releases with some (bullshit) security measure so only they could use it etc.

I don't usually subscribe to slippery slope arguments, but with this one, it's obvious (from what they have previously said and explicitly asked for) that this is where they want to go.

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Paw Bokenfohr

You're only missing what the article misses. The Reg mentions that the regenerative braking recaptures around half of the energy on this vehicle, but what they missed telling you is that the same idea when implemented on the Prius only manages to recapture around 10% of the energy (because the Prius is putting it in to batteries whereas the Resa uses supercapacitors which can take the charge more efficiently).

EE Power Bar recall: Telco will waive £5 fee for laggards

Paw Bokenfohr

Good alternative. Originally a kickstarter.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zendure-2nd-Portable-Charger-10000mAh/dp/B014RBEAQC/

Doctor Who: Even the TARDIS key can't unpick the chronolock in Face the Raven

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Whither Torchwood?

@ Anonymous Cow Herder:

"I think you'll find Captain Jack camping* it up on some vet program"

That was probably John Barrowman, the actor, rather than Captain Jack Harkness, the Dr. Who character, who was in that program (camping it up or not, something he's definitely capable of) but he's excellent in Arrow, and was excellent in Dr. Who and Torchwood too (yes, not Shakespearean, but these are superhero / sci-fi/fantasy shows) so I think it'd be good to have him back for a while.

'iOS 9 ate my mobile broadband plan'

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Why would I want this

I think you've misunderstood the feature. This feature is not WiFi calling. This is a feature that watches the "quality" of your WiFi signal and switches you over to "Cellular" when it thinks that WiFi isn't cutting it, just like your phone already does now, when it goes out of range of your WiFi, just that now, it'll make that decision earlier - when the signal strength or data throughput of your WiFi connection drops below a real-world-usable threshold.

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus: Harder, faster and they'll give you a buzz

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: So, almost 4 years waiting for a good haptic "click"

@ScissorHands: "given the writer's misgiving"

Try it yourself in an Apple Store. I did, and I don't have any of the misgivings about it that the reviewer did; it seemed responsive and to do just what I expected. As it's your finger that is pressing in to the screen, the tap feels like it's under that finger. In combination with the blurring / zooming effect when you push, it all works just fine.

Enjoy vaping while you still can, warns Public Health England

Paw Bokenfohr

Middle way is of course, as always, the right way.

Of course there's no reason to ban these things, but equally, why should I be forced to breathe the stuff in just by virtue of being in a pub or restaurant or shopping mall where someone decides that because it's legal for them to vape there that they can and will. So, treat them like cigarettes and use them in the same places, and then everyone should be happy.

Except those that believe that their rights extend past the point where they infringe mine. Which they don't.

Apple Watch is such a flop it's the world's top-selling wearable

Paw Bokenfohr

"Congratulations to Apple on becoming the market leader in a market nobody cares about. :)"

You mean that you don't care about.

"Seriously though, I do not see any point to smart watches."

Seriously, don't buy one.

"At the level of simple functionality there are plenty of devices that tell the time and are a hell of a lot cheaper."

Of course. But this is a completely false comparison as you know*.

"As a piece of jewellery or a status symbol a mechanical Swiss timepiece from Rolex or Omega has a lot more credibility."

If by credibility you are meaning cost, then yes. But again, a completely false comparison*.

"All you've got left as a unique selling point is that it can work as a remote control for your smart phone, and that's just not worth the kind of price the smartwatch manufacturers are asking."

Well, that's the only USP you see. But even if we assume you're correct, you mean it's not worth it to you. And again, false comparison* / assumption.

* Because it's not any one of these things, it's all of them, depending on who's buying it and why.

"I guess Apple were hoping to rule the market by doing for smartwatches what they did for smartphones with the iPhone, but the sad fact they just haven't."

You guess that, do you? I guess that Apple never had any such hopes, and just wanted to make a watch that was nicer than all the other brands and build an initially small but loyal fanbase for it and grow slowly from there. With all the money in the world they can wait and see, and design something they love.

"Their watch may be much better than the competition but just doing the same thing better than everybody else isn't enough in this case."

Why not? Seems likely to me that if you have the best product in a category (which for the iPhone is after all just the Apple Watch and the Pebble) then you're most likely to be the more successful.

"You need a killer app, something that demonstrates the worth of smartwatches as a product category as a whole, otherwise they'll remain expensive geek toys with one day battery lives."

No you don't, and no they won't.

Android Wear 5.1: A more enduring wristjob for your pleasure

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: So it's a front end to my phone with a TINY screen?

@ Yugguy: "It's a TINY-screened version of my phone with even shitter battery life."

If you're using it that way, you're using it wrong, and you certainly won't be satisfied with it. It's (whether we're talking Android Wear or Apple Watch or Pebble) a completely different use-case than your phone, they just happen to need a phone* to work right now.

* usually (some don't, and they're even worse)

Ex-Apple bods suing Apple for bag searches get class-action upgrade

Paw Bokenfohr

@ silent_count: "If it's as quick as all that then what's the problem with doing these searches during the time the employees are paid to be there?"

Absolutely true.

But, also, still outrageous. If Apple can't trust any of their employees not to steal their stock, then they either (a) need to get better employees or (b) take a long hard look at themselves and work through their paranoia issues.

In either case, no need for constant bag checks. Sure, if stock goes missing at a particular store, investigate, but this is way over the line.

iPod dead? Nope, says Apple: New Touch has iPhone 6 brains

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: where's the click wheel?

Play/pause/skip/volume are all on most peoples headphone cords.

If you don't have that, you can get ones that do have it, both cheap (http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MD827ZM/B/apple-earpods-with-remote-and-mic?fnode=75) and decent (http://pro.ultimateears.com/products/custom-monitors/for-audiophiles/ue-900s), or of course bluetooth ones have them on-board.

Apple Pay's Brit biz bashed by banks planning to Zapp it out

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Pay by bonk?

Apple Pay does require that authorisation from you, either in the form of you holding the Touch ID sensor while holding the iPhone to the payment terminal, or, by double-clicking the button on the Apple Watch (which has be pre-authorised when you put it on your wrist, and hasn't been off your wrist since) and holding it next to the payment terminal.

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Sorry don't see the point

@ John Brown (no body): "That's fscking big investment for a seconds worth of convenience though."

Please see my other responses for longer form - I'm not being dismissive here, just already typed it out a couple times, but basically you don't need the watch, it's still better than the current situation without it it's just even better with the watch, and it's really not the convenience that is the big selling point, it's the additional security that's the important thing for me at least.

I agree, nobody is going to buy the watch or an iPhone to get this. Just as nobody would buy an Android phone to get Google Now or GooglePay, but if you already have the hardware, it's an nice additional feature which could save you a lot of hassle in avoiding your card getting cloned.

And what's the alternative anyway? Leave payment systems unchanged forever? Never add any additional features to any phones because some people won't find a use for them or won't like them? Never develop or release new hardware like wearables because some people don't want to buy them / don't have a use for them?

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Sorry don't see the point

@ AC: "So it only works well if I spend another several hundred pounds, at least I'd get a free watch."

I suspect you're deliberately misunderstanding and being sarcastic, but, no it works very well without the Apple Watch too. Without the watch, though, you have to reach in to your pocket to get your iPhone out, so it's best with the watch.

But I'd argue this is still quicker or at least as quick as getting your wallet out and getting the card out of it to pay with, and as quick as if you happen to only have one card and happen to keep that loose in your pocket, but you don't get any of the additional benefits that Apple Pay brings.

For me it's mostly about the tokenisation as every place you use it at makes your card being cloned less likely as it's not possible to clone your card from the details a merchant's system has when you use Apple Pay. I'm less bothered about the <10 seconds per transaction it'll save me (considering I do <1 transaction per day).

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: "it's still faster"

@ Lamont Cranston:

Yes, you can just pay without taking the card out of the wallet, if you only have card and your wallet doesn't block the signal.

However, with multiple NFC cards in my wallet (my credit card, a debit card for my account, a debit card for our joint account, an Oyster card) that doesn't work for me, obviously. It also doesn't work for my other half who only has one NFC card; even his leather wallet seems to be enough to block the signal.

And yes, you could put one card in your phone case or something, or use bPay. For me, that's inferior in many ways; no way to chose between accounts (joint account / my own), limited by the £20 contactless limit (which will be lifted for Apple Pay later in the year), or for me the most important which is that it adds no tokenisation security which for me at least is the big advantage (having had my card numbers cloned / whatever twice in the past and it's a pain in the arse).

YMMV as always - this isn't for everyone - nobody's going to buy an iPhone to get it - not everyone will get any utility out of it - some people will be confused by it - but over all this looks to be a good service for me so I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Sorry don't see the point

I'm assuming you're trolling, but I'll bite.

With the Apple Watch, Apple Pay really comes in to its own, as you don't need to even reach in to your pocket / handbag to get anything out to make a quick payment for a sandwich and bottle of water for example.

Without the Watch, it's still faster (fewer steps, unless you keep loose credit cards in your pocket rather than in a wallet or purse) but there are also advantages such as when perhaps you want to pop out and grab a coffee, and leave your wallet behind at the office. Yes, you may forget your phone too, but then, I can't help you.

There are several ways in which Apple Pay is more secure than an NFC card, so if you're concerned with security, you'd do better to use Apple Pay than the card - not only is the iPhone or Apple Watch useless for payments if it's stolen (unlike a credit card) but you also don't even need to get your cards cancelled or replaced if it IS stolen for some reason because of the tokenisation.

And because of the tokenisation, the next time a businesses database gets hacked like so many have been you also won't be in any danger of being a victim.

Not all of this is unique to Apple Pay. I'm sure that Google Wallet and maybe Zapp will incorporate some of these things too. But it's obvious that there are advantages, if you're willing to give it an honest look.

Whether they matter to you are a personal choice as always.

Vectone Mobile gone for the week, don't know when it'll be back

Paw Bokenfohr

Well, they do offer some good deals to call international destinations, but they do also have a £10 a month unlimited calls, texts, and data plan for the UK. Which has got to be tempting if you're on a tight budget and need a mobile.

Apple Music: First three months for free? We lasted less than 3 hours

Paw Bokenfohr

I'm a little torn.

I don't like streaming services generally, I prefer to own the music or video or whatever than pay an ongoing subscription and also prefer to have it all on device rather than paying for bandwidth (when it's even available).

However, I do like to have full albums on my iPhone - for example, I have all of the remastered Ultravox albums on there - but rarely listen to them long form in full, and more often listen to playlists of my favourites from an artist or genre. So for me, having access to the full albums on the rare occasion I want to, by streaming, but still to have the music I listen to on balance far more often on the device itself might be a great solution.

Plus, it would mean that I don't need to buy devices with ever bigger storage capacities, which will offset a proportion of the cost of the subscription - the difference between a 64GB and 128GB iPhone 6+ is £90 and whether that is excessive in your view or not, that's the difference, which I can save.

Just need to get over the idea of subscribing to music rather than owning it. I mean, loads of people do it with Rdio and Spotify so there must be something to it.

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: How do you un-subscribe?

It's easy to do once you know where it is, and actually in a pretty logical place. In Music, tap the account button (the one that looks like a person in a circle at the top left) and select View Apple ID. Click Manage in subscriptions and slide the slider to off.

What I want to know is, if you have a balance in your iTunes / Apple account thingy, does the subscription come out of that, or does it charge your card each month.

Apple announces 'Home' iOS 9 app to run the Internet of Stuff

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: No interested

+1 for Moon reference.

Apple patches FREAK-ed out Watch

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Troll template - draft version

Awesome.

Apple Watch is like an invasive weed says Gartner

Paw Bokenfohr
Holmes

Analysis frim analyses Apple.

Finds that they are doing well, and should continue to do well, because they release and have released products and services which people like, and will buy.

News at 11.

Apple MacBook 2015: Twelve inches of slim and shiny fanboi joy

Paw Bokenfohr

I think the idea..

..is that you don't actually need to charge it through the day; it has (ballpark) the same "real world" run time as an iPad so I think that Apple's use case is that the only people who will buy this will be light users - web surfing, doc editing, email (no Final Cut, no Photoshop etc) - and so all they will need to do is to charge it overnight and then use it on battery the whole day.

But I agree, not for me (or us, on this site, even if you're not an Apple hater) because it's just too limited. But it wouldn't be for my parents. Or my sister. Or probably even "most" people (as in more than 50% of the population). So long as you don't consider the cost.

Facebook serves up shaved, pierced, tattooed 'butterfly' as CAPTCHA

Paw Bokenfohr

But shouldn't a human actually look at the pictures, just once at least?

Obviously so that they're not using computer recognition to test against computer recognition, effectively.

But also, just to protect against this type of issue?

Can't wait to bonk with Apple? Then try an Android phone

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Late to the party

At least with Apple Pay you get the one-time token so you're protected against the theft of credit card numbers from the retailer (which as we have seen, is way more of a threat than Apple could be) as well as having the convenience of not having to take your wallet out of your pocket. Not that much of a hassle in most scenarios, but better if you're somewhere you don't know isn't unsafe, or if you've lost or forgotten it. And since the payment system isn't always-on, you don't have to keep the watch and phone in RFID protective cases like the cards you already have!

Pre-order consumergasm will leave Apple Watches out of stock for months

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Just goes to show...

Why would anyone mug you for this watch? It's useless once it's taken off. When you put it back on you have to unlock it, so it's as secure as your iPhone really (which as we know from articles on here are less and less of a target for snatches because you can't use them) which is to say one heck of a lot more secure than any other watch out there.

Daniel Radcliffe to feature in GTA biopic flick. Well, it's work at least

Paw Bokenfohr

Horns was surprisingly acceptable too, which was in large part down to Radcliffe's decent acting. He's not awful, which is nice.

And the buggiest OS provider award goes to ... APPLE?

Paw Bokenfohr

I don't understand reporting these stats...

...as that Linux or OSX has more vulnerabilities than Windows when you then go on to say that 80% of the flaws are with third party software.

For pity's sake, you fool! DON'T UPGRADE it will make it worse

Paw Bokenfohr

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...and so on. You can even use the Windows key as a part of the macro if you want:

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Paw Bokenfohr

Use http://www.autohotkey.com/ - it's trivial to set up a macro (eg: Crtl-e to make é, Alt-e to make è etc etc) - it's what I do. Can send you my macro if you can't cope ;-)

Something Coming Through – aliens, LA noir, techno-thriller, dystopia ALL in the mix

Paw Bokenfohr

Purchased - it's the right price for an ebook.

+1 purchase for the ebook version - at £2 it's the right price that I'm willing to give it a go without any personal recommendations, which I usually need if I'm actually buying books (rather than using the library) because books are so expensive, even ebooks normally.

Hacker catches Apple's Lightning in a jailbroken bottle

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: There's one TEENSY problem…

There are dozens if not hundreds of cable manufacturers who have MFI certified Lightning cables. Friendly Swede, Anker, Belkin (as you mention), TekNet, Syncwire, and Amazon Basics are just the ones off the first couple of pages on Amazon. Even BelayCords are MFI certified and they're a Kickstarter and have reversible USB plugs too.

Elon Musk's Tesla set to unveil home storage battery

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Off the top of my head

Could conceivably be Liquid Metal Battery, or perhaps a true Lithium Polymer battery, or maybe he's just punting really cheap current tech through economies of scale?

Now not even muggers want your iPhone

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: Well that's all fine and dandy

That's not really how it works, at least with iPhones (I don't know about Windows Phone or the Galaxy).

There's a remote wipe option (along with "find my iPhone") which yes, killing you would prevent you using, but the activation lock is enabled all the time and prevents you from resetting the iPhone (or iPad) to defaults (thus removing passcodes etc) without inputting the Apple account password of the owner.

Drinking games: Tapper 1983, this Bud's for you...

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: I had the C64 version

+1 for Paradroid.

Google gets my data, I get search and email and that. Help help, I'm being REPRESSED!

Paw Bokenfohr

"people don't seem to value that data, that information, about who they are, where they are or what they do"

I think you miss the point - it's not that people don't value it, it's that they have no way to value it. It's the equivalent of the old granny turning up on the Antiques Roadshow with a missing Turner or Picasso. She had no idea of its worth, just as she doesn't have any idea of the worth of her data.

Possibly she would make the same calculation and conclusion as you did, that she gets value for money for the services she receives, but what sticks in many people's throats is that Facebook, Google, et al go out of their way to obscure how much privacy and data you're sacrificing (how much you're "paying" in this analogy) and also go out of their way to ensure that they are under no obligation to provide anything for any amount of time in any way (T&Cs) in exchange for this cost.

EE squashes Orange UK: France Telecom's been 'destroying it for years'

Paw Bokenfohr

I think using Cellnet would be a good idea.

It's recognisable to most people still (not the yoof of today of course, but anyone 35+ at the very least) and we know it's BT, and it says what is it - a cell network. And costs £0 to research.

NHS refused to pull 'unfit for purpose' Care.data leaflet

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: A shame to lose this

"As always huge debate is raised by a minority when the majority doesn't give a toss."

Yes, but that's because the minority here understands what can happen with this if it's badly managed and unprotected - those of us that work in IT - but the majority don't understand what "big data" is capable of, they don't understand how awful this scheme was.

So, the minority has to educate them. We did. They listened. The government and the NHS were forced to back track.

Democracy (and an educated populace) wins!

Huzzah!

Sound and battery: 20 portable Bluetooth speakers

Paw Bokenfohr

Re: TL:DR....

The UE Boom is stereo.

Apple v BBC: Fruity firm hits back over Panorama drama

Paw Bokenfohr

Surely it would have made sense for the show...

...to compare and contrast what happens in these factories for people building Apple equipment with Samsung equipment, and HTC equipment, and Xiaomi equipment?

That way, we'd be able to judge better whether the Apple policies were making things "better" (a value judgement) for those workers assigned to Apple production compared to those assigned to other vendors.

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