I take it you don't bank in Cyprus.
Posts by Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face
473 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
EU privacy A-Team tells Google: Get a grip and obey OUR laws
The EU is nothing but a bunch of unelectable power hungry kleptomaniacs who like to bribe us with our own money. Good for nothing but submitting dodgy accounts, re-running referendums when they don't get the desired result, deposing elected leaders of sovereign states, and hounding honest market traders to an early grave.
The best thing Google could do at this point is to refer them to the reply given in the case of Arkell vs. Pressdram.
Former Azzurri project manager who stole £1.3m ordered to pay back £146k
eBay faces multiple probes into mega-breach
So you reckon Nokia-wielding Microsoft can't beat off Apple?
Hacktivists hijack BNP Twitter account, crayon over leader Griffin's too
Re: Poor guy.
Some good points, but the "trade" argument seems weak on two fronts. Firstly, who is to say that leaving the EU would affect our trade with the EU? Other countries (Norway, for example) manage quite well. Secondly, and more importantly, this argument would suggest that in the event of a tradeoff between international commerce and representative democracy, it is democracy which must be sacrificed. The only elected body in the EU is the European Parliament, but their job is to provide a fig leaf of democracy, while rubber stamping the plans of the unelected Commission.
If you look back through the history of the EU, democracy, and therefore freedom, is sadly lacking. Case in point is the "second" Lisbon treaty referendum - held as the people did not vote the "right" way the first time. Or you could look at the spectacle of the men from the European Central Bank parachuted into the highest offices of State in Ireland or Italy following their bailouts.
The stated agenda of the EU is an "ever closer union". Great for roaming phone charges, not so good for democracy.
Ads bandog berates Virgin Media in BSkyB broadband bumf bust-up
Re: ASA
I caught 5 minutes of police interceptors the other week. They found a cannabis farm and a bypassed electric meter at someone's house, the CPS obviously didn't catch the episode as there was "insufficient evidence to prosecute". (Probably too busy with celebrities who'd touched someone's bum in the 70s).
Handbags at 20 Paces
Another week passes, another ASA story...
Just moved house, took my cable service with me. Gave VM 2 days notice - they switched me off on the right day, connected the new place the next morning. Small hitch was that the cables from the street had been cut, so the engineer ran a cable from next door as a temporary fix, and ordered a re-pull the next week. Left me his card (and his pliers) with a note to say that if I phoned the switchboard I'd be put through to his mobile.
Aside from the text messages confirming appointments (had to stop answering them as the wife was getting suspicious) an all round excellent service.
Windows Phone 8.1: Like WinPho 8, but BETTER
EE...K: Why can't I uninstall carrier's sticky 'Free Games' app?
Re: Because there is nothing on my Lumia...
hehe, touched a raw nerve there did I?
Get back to me when the file explorer app can actually explore the file system, or the eBay app can actually relist an item, define a new postage type, or let you scroll to the end of your description in edit mode. How about when the tide tables app actually has details of more than just a handful of surfing beaches, or there's a decent web browser, or a free putty type client that actually supports use of the CTRL key, or when the app in question doesn't pop up with a little message saying "We try reely hard to make nice app. Love you longtime, plz rate us in the Windows stor".
Queue Managment
"The technology appeals to the retail sector on the basis that it helps manage queues..."
Can't have reached my local ASDA, where the approach to managing queues is a loud woman in a green tabard waving a large foam pointing finger on a stick, while shouting at the customers to "move down please" whenever there's a free checkout.
Blighty goes retro with 12-sided pound coin
Netflix needling you? BBC pimps up iPlayer ahead of BBC3 move
Reports pump fuel into iCar gossip: Apple in 'talks' with Tesla
Will they have apple trained mechanics?
Hi Marvin,
Good day to you and thank you for bringing your iCar in to the iGarage. This is <insert made up name here> from the iCar Support team and I'll be happy to assist you today.
I understand that your car just spontaneously combusted. I realize why you're bringing this to our concern and I know how eager you are to have this issue resolved. Don't worry, I'll do my best to fix this for you.
I am pleased to inform you that your issue has now been resolved, and we have reclassified your fire as a "feature" - you vehicle has a super warm heater! A software update will be applied. Please note you may not be able to drive 2 years while we update its software remotely. It is very important that you wait the full 2 years before attempting to drive your iCar again. Please let me know if you are still unable to drive your iCar after 2 years and I'll do my best to assist you with this issue again.
Please let me know if this resolves your concern. If you have other questions about this issue, please don't hesitate to tell me and I would be more than happy to address them for you.
Thank you very much for being part of the iCar family and I hope you have a great day.
Sincerely [sic]
<made up name>
Facebook adds 50+ gender options: Stalking your 'Friends' just got more LGBT-friendly
ReferenceError: invalid assignment left-hand side
I see a problem on the left-hand side of the equals sign. The definition of the entity to which all of these politically correct attributes are being assigned should be "sex" rather than "gender". The former relates to the characteristics of the whole person, the latter pertains to the physical characteristics of objects. (At least this used to be the case, but since we all started giggling and writing "three times a night" when official forms asked us our sex, the two words have started to be used more interchangeably).
Rand Paul launches class-action lawsuit to end NSA phone spying
Nokia to launch low-cost Android phone this month – report
Re: Straw Poll
I've had mine six days, so I'll hold off from voting, but I will say this:
- Toggling WiFi, Bluetooth or Data, on Android it takes 1 swipe + 1 press. On WP8 it takes about 4 clicks including trawling through a long menu.
- There doesn't seem to be a way to switch your lock screen off while plugged in. So you're driving down the road listening to music and you want to skip a track. It goes something like this - Press power button while phone is in cradle, look up at road, glance down just in time to see preview screen vanish, press power button again, swipe to unlock, find and press "skip" button, crash car into a ditch.
- Create a local contact? Oh no, you have to create a Microsoft account first.
- Choose not to sync all your contacts to the cloud? Sorry, not an option.
- App store is pretty limited. A lot of the apps. are very amateurish.
- Can't browse the filesystem properly.
- A personal opinion, but the OS seems very noddy and not very well featured. At the same time some social media/gaming menu options are built in, so if that's not your thing, you tend to spend time swiping past menus you're never going to use.
There are workarounds for most of these things, and I might yet learn to like it, but a good OS should be flexible enough to enable you to do what you want to do. With WP8 I sometimes feel that relationship is reversed.
As I say, it's early days yet...
How bad WAS the parking situation in Middelfart* in 2013?
The internet is 'a gift from God' says Pope Francis
When ZOMBIES go shopping: 40m Target customer breach? That's NOTHING!
Plusnet is working on a network-level filter to block pirate sites
NSA: It's TRUE, we grab 200 MILLION of your text messages A DAY globally
Even 'Your computer has a virus' cold-call gits are migrating off XP
Army spaffed millions up the wall on flawed Capita online recruiting system - report
Use strong passwords and install antivirus, mmkay? UK.gov pushes awareness campaign
Ex-Oracle manager claims he was fired for asking to give Indian staff equal pay
Thought sales were in the toilet before? Behold the agony: 2013 was a PC market BLOODBATH
Linksys's über-hackable WRT wireless router REBORN with 802.11ac
Re: DD-WRT 0-day in the wild?
Mine was doing the same (with Tomato) a while ago also leaving it horribly exposed. It turned out to be crashing following cable outages. I learned to back up the config - but it's not happened for a while. I also found that leaving the thing switched off for a couple of hours helped when flashing it's memory.
Dell confirms Chromebook for Blighty
... a 16GB SSD for those of your files that your really don’t want in the cloud...
That would be ALL OF THEM.
Two new laptops and one new mobile phone in my house for Christmas. Avoiding sending half of my data around the world to a company I don't trust to be rifled through by all and sundry was something of a Yuletide sport.
OMG, like, TOTES AMAZEBALLS: Facebook made me fall into SHARK INFESTED SEAS
Go on, buy Bitcoin. But DON'T say we didn't WARN YOU
Two Brits face criminal trial for sending 'menacing' tweets
No anon pr0n for you: BT's network-level 'smut' filters will catch proxy servers too
I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but I really don't accept that there is any evidence for the idea that this is some massive government conspiracy to control what you see on the internet. Web filtering is already the default on mobile phones. I found out about 18 months into my 2 year contract while trying to check on the finer points of Texas Hold 'Em during a rainy day on a camping trip. I really wasn't outraged enough to pen a letter to my MP.
There's really no point sitting here discussing ways to circumvent this awful "censorship". It's a service that you can switch on or off. Personally, I'd probably switch it off as I already use OpenDNS. It's not a replacement for good parenting, but one tool in the toolkit.
Maybe it's time to give the paranoia a rest, huh?
Analogue radio will CONTINUE in Blighty as Minister of Fun dodges D-Day death sentence
Striking Amazonians warn: Don't rely on us for Christmas pressies
You gotta fight for your copyright ... Beastie Boys sue toymaker over TV ad
Boffins devise world's HARDEST tongue-twister
ASA slaps down BT over 'misleading' broadband claims
Chester Cathedral smites net in Wi-Fi SMUT OUTRAGE
Asus Transformer Book T100: Xbox One? PS4? Nah, get a cute convertible for Christmas
Interesting...
Since my youngest decided to throw a glass of juice over my ageing laptop I've been looking for something cheap, small, HDDiskless, with a long battery life. The only thing putting me off this at the moment would be the fact that I'd be paying extra for Office (which I already have a license for) and the pointless tablet "feature".
Tempting, though.