* Posts by Andy Moreton

24 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Jun 2009

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds: They're good – though for close to £300, they really should be

Andy Moreton

Re: almost as much as a pair of Sony WH-1000XM3

I think you are getting confused, the Sony WH-1000XM3 are full-sized over-ear 'phones, not earbuds.

Son of Hudl: Tesco flogs new Atom-powered 8.3-inch Android tablet

Andy Moreton

Amazon instant/prime video working perfectly on older Nexus 7 and Sony Xperia Tablet Z, neither of which is listed on that Amazon devices page.

If you've bought DRM'd film files from Acetrax, here's the bad news

Andy Moreton

Re: The boot is on the other foot....

If you downloaded it through iTunes then it was not Ultraviolet.

Global action takes down tech support scam

Andy Moreton

Re: What exactly is the crime?

So is it a crime to charge for free software? I don't think it is. Not defending these people just interested to know what the charges would be.

Barnes & Noble Nooks bound for Blighty

Andy Moreton

Re: The problem isn't...

Books purchased from the nook bookstore can only be read on a nook, so they are no better than kindles in that respect.

Hackers may be able to 'outwit' online banking security devices

Andy Moreton

The HSBC system works in a similar way. When adding a new payment recipient into HSBC IB you have to enter your PIN and part of the recipients account number into the security device. It then generates a 6 digit security code which you enter on to the website. I had to do this a couple of days ago. It may do a similar thing for large payments, I wouldn't know since I haven't made any recently.

Flash drive meltdown fingered in Swedish IT blackout

Andy Moreton
Thumb Down

Test your DRP

" inadequate disaster recovery plan involving Networker tape backup files which could not be read"

If you haven't tested your disaster recovery plan, you don't have a disaster recovery plan.

Lovefilm buys right to stream Sony Pictures content

Andy Moreton

Stream via a Blu Ray player or smart TV, you get higher quality streams that way.

Sony Bravia KDL-55HX923 55in LED 3D TV

Andy Moreton

Projector?

Once you have seen a decent HD projector you won't want a large TV. Picture quality is in a whole different league, so long as you can watch in reduced light.

Don't bother with that degree, say IT pros

Andy Moreton

A degree is not always required to do the job, but good luck trying getting an interview at any large employer without a degree.

Cello C42T71DVB-3D 42in passive 3D TV

Andy Moreton
Thumb Up

Yep, and CCFL usually gives a wider colour gamut than white LED backlights.

BBC bigs up iPlayer for TVs and consoles

Andy Moreton

TV licence

Plus if the PS3 could show live TV you would have to have a TV licence to use it legally.

Philips 221TE2L 21.5in monitor and Freeview TV combo

Andy Moreton

Because...

"It supports full HD 1080p resolution – not normally required on a TV of this size, but great for PC use"

Andy Moreton

Setting up HDMI is a pain

Turn off overscan in the TV; set scaling on the PC graphics driver to 100%; change pixel output format on PC graphics driver from YCrCb to RGB; finally play around with sharpening on the TV.

Eurofighter Typhoon: It's EVEN WORSE than we thought

Andy Moreton

Noooo....

What would we do with the 80,000 people who currently work in MoD procurement? it's not like they are good for much else.

UK probes ebook pricing

Andy Moreton
Stop

Missing the point

The investigation is not about the price of ebooks, it is about ebook pricing, there is a subtle difference. Publishers have been forcing retailers into accepting the agency pricing model, this allows the publisher to dictate the retail price of the book. The retailer is not allowed to discount the price of the book. Publishers have a monopoly in the publication of a title, they are now abusing this monopoly to fix the retail price, that is what the investigation is about.

Researcher cracks Wi-Fi passwords with Amazon cloud

Andy Moreton

Not that hard

Most computer-readable file formats have a sequence of ID bytes near the start of the file that the associated application uses to verify that the file is of the correct type. You just get a list of the ID strings used by all the likely file formats and use these as your cribs.

For plain ascii text just check for a long sequence of bytes which have the highest order bit set to zero, or check against a dictionary.

Youth jailed for not handing over encryption password

Andy Moreton

He was arrested 17 months ago

May 2009, so the police have already had 17 months to break the password. It looks like it must have been a good one.

BT ad banned for 'misleading' customers over broadband speeds

Andy Moreton

Daft ad.

I always thought the BT ad. was stupid. It shows some guys waiting for a webpage to load because it was peak time, which suggests the problem was either congestion or an overloaded web server. Neither of these would be fixed by moving to a faster broadband connection.

Google mocks Steve Jobs with Chrome-Flash merger

Andy Moreton

The real reason Jobs hates flash

is that it enables people to play games without paying money to Apple for an App.

Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?

Andy Moreton
WTF?

ID cards are the answer ...

now, what was the question?

Firefox 3.5 patch coming soon as Mozilla cranks up downloads

Andy Moreton

re: re: Typical headline grabbing shite....

"Thats why I stopped using Firefox, the almost weekly security releases. It's worse that IE"

hmmm... perhaps Mozilla should only release updates once-a-month (on a Tuesday, for example) to make it appear Firefox has fewer security holes.

Seriously, why is fixing security issues quickly a problem?

Pocket DV cam packs pico projector

Andy Moreton

Not a DV camcorder - agreed

@AC in the world of computers DV may mean digital video, but in the world of camcorders it relates to the media on which the video is recorded. You can get DV tapes and mini DV tapes. If you tell a camcorder enthusiast that a device is a DV camcorder they will expect it to take tapes. In any case 'Digital Video' is meaningless these days - when did you last see an analogue camcorder, or a camcorder that did not record video?

Judge backs Halifax in Chip and PIN clone case

Andy Moreton
Stop

Simple theory

Conspiracy theories are always good fun, but I think there is a much simpler explanation in this case. From the judgment:

"Before he went to bed he took the card from his wallet and hid it under a griddle drum in the garden, retrieving it the next morning" - Sounds like he was hiding the card from someone in the house.

"In the succeeding days he was sent another card. As the bank were prepared to accept, he did not receive it, and withdrawals made with it were refunded" - So bank sent card & pin to his house, he didn't get them, but someone else made some withdrawals.

I don't think you need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened.