Posts by Daniel Bower 134 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2007
Completely agree. Further, my device is my device with my personal phone numbers on, texts etc and I steadfastly refuse to mix my personal life with work.
Should for example my phone be confiscated by work as part of a disciplinary investigation for example they could have access to everything on it.
I've not particularly got anything to hide but I still don't want them knowing about my personal life thank you very much...
Actually I have a question for our American cousins regarding the constitution which is only ever so slightly off topic.
As far as I understand it on of the reasons guns can't just be made illegal is due to the second amendment giving you the right to bear arms.
Does this mean the original constitution was amended to give this right and if so why can't it just be amended again.
Apologies for my ignorance of such matters...
Actually, now the Playbook can sideload (and seemlessly run and multitask) Android apps, no longer requires a BB phone to actually do anything and coupled to the fact that PC World are flogging the 64gb version for £129 it makes it a viable alternative to Droid / Apple slabs.
I just bought my wife one and its a lovely piece of kit, so nice in fact I'm off tomorrow to buy me one.
Added to RIM's stance of support and software upgrades (the recent OS 2.1 release was a significant step up) meaning it will run BB10 means there's life in the old dog yet...
Whilst the post may well have been offensive to some and was clearly a pretty daft thing to post on a tribute page to a 5 year old child is it really an offence that requires jail time?
I've seen more offensive things on the net and heard equally as offensive things on TV (think Frankie Boyle's joke about Shannon Matthews and the Maddie McCann mask - no I wont't repeat it in full lest I get sent down for 3 months!).
These days, wherever there is an open forum there is a troll. Delete the post and move on...
It all seems a bit inflexible. I live in a terrace. The people in the house next door but one up the road are nice enough and the immediate neighbours over the wall are nice but the most likely guy to get our mail, the immediate neighbour whose house we need to walk passed to get to ours is a bunt (Monty Python letter C sketch). On this basis my sticker is on its way...
Buy a domain name, by some cheap wysiwyg web editor (or if your skills extend far enough buy or write your own template or use one of the free PHP scripted online photo albums), pick up a cheap hosting package and do it all yourself.
You stay in control, you've not agreed to some slightly dubious T&C's with vague policies over image ownership and if your hosting company ever closes just find another one...
The small claims court is fantastic. You won't be out of pocket much if you represent yourself - costs about £40 and the defendant can't claim their costs against you if they win (and you can't claims yours if you win other than the £40).
Also, if you represent yourself the judge doesn't expecrt you to have know all the legal ins and outs so you won't be tripped up by not following protocol (unlike say if you tried to represent yourself at a libel trial).
My guess is that as soon as you serve the small claims papers they'll drop the matter as they wouldn't want a precendent set (yes I am aware that county courts don't set legal precendent as such but it would still lead to a sh*t load of similar actions).
Its not the articles that are defamatory though. The articles are genuine but are brought up when this chap types in his names thus implicitly linking him to the said articles.
So, if a Danny B had committed rape (but not me) and I type in Danny B and the article comes up Google, under UK law at least, are potentially defaming me as they are publishing the fact that I am a rapist. Bear in mind that it is the publisher, in this case Google, who are should be brought to task.
Not saying the that laws on defamation etc are perfect but I for one would be a bit upset if I typed my name into Google and a whole load of dodgy articles came up...
I actually have a Nokia 800 and honestly, its the best phone I've ever had. I've had an N8, various android devices although by my own admission have a huge and probably somewhat baseless hatred of Apple (although my mum has every Apple device going so I have used an iPhone quite extensively).
WinPho 7.5 is a joy to use - slick, fast, intuitive and the People hub is genius. I've shown it to all my friends who have either some flavour of HTC or Samsung android device or an iPhone and they're all really impressed.
OK, if you like customising screen layouts etc you're out of luck but I don't. I just want a phone that works and works well and the 800 does just that.
Trouble is, I don't think anyone is going to take it seriously unless there's a very slick and prolonged advertising campaign to raise awareness...
When you live in a terraced house on a dual carriageway that you can't park on at night unless you have a red warning light on at night (yes, my wife did get a ticket or two for this failing)?
Further, the house is set back from the road by about 12ft and up about 6ft. So, I have to trail a cable out of the front of my hous eand over a busy pavement which no doubt someone will claim to trip over and sue me.
Added to this, across the road from my house is an estate of a less desirable postcode where I can see 'unplugging that geezers car so it ain't charged up in the morning' becoming a local sport.
Doesn't the government see that this is the sort of practical issue that rules leccy cars out as a real viable alternative for thousnads of people far more than the cost and the limited range?..
I have Virgin's 30mb line and I thinks its ace. I do get at least 30mb consistently and have topped out at 38mb.
I also have TiVO and its pretty nifty. Shame the red button is missing (I do like my F1 practice sessions - sad I know - and the F1 forum so have to go up to the bedroom for those) and the UI is a little clunky at times but with all the OD functions built in it is, in my opinion, far better featured than Sky.
Either of them though are bloody expensive by the time the sports channels etc are added!..
But I like my personal data right where it is, on my computers in my house under my control. The thought of storing in somewhere 'in the cloud' gives me the creeps. How do I know its backed up properly, what if google (or whatever cloud provider I choose) goes tits up and I can't access my data etc etc.
If I want to access my data from anywhere else I can RDP into my machine or if it becomes a regular need I'll set up a NAS box - in my house and under my control.
I also like me deciding what apps etc I need, wtf do google know about my specific computing needs. They can take their Chromebooks and stick 'em up their virtual be-hinds...
Lloyds TSB royally wind me up TBH. When I paid in an insurance cheque I got a phone call from my 'account manager', who without checking my identity gave me my name and account number and then told me how much I had just paid in.
They did it again when i got a new job with a higher salary and asked was I expecting this money to go in. Yes I bloody was and no I didn't want them calling me up and telling me with no security checks one way or the other.
If it happens again I will be having words...
According to Apple's EULA they have the right to track your location and to share this information with third parties.
That IMHO puts a slightly different slant on why perhaps this data is being stored.
I'm not a paranoid type, I know that if the cops or MI5 (I wish) or even a half decent PI wanted to track me they could but I do find it a little disturbing that EULA's have this kind of stuff written in them and the consumer has no recourse to remove or amend them - Accept or don't buy the product.
I think everyone back then (well everyone who loved Apple) said that it was the next big thing and how it would ultimately take over the world. Oh how wrong they were.
Trouble is with the iPhone is its just too big and this is the main reason why people who have a blackberry also cart around a normal phone. I for one would much rather carry around a normal (read small) handset and my trusty Zen Micro 4gb is plenty for me - its easy enough to swap music around afterall).
Apple will still be faced with the other issue that does put people off iPods and that's locking them into iTunes and making them re-convert their entire library - er, no thanks.
That beautiful x-black screen the iPhone sports will soon look pretty shabby after a 20 minutes conversation against a sweaty cheek mid-summer and I think the rest of the phone will quickly loose its shininess. Phones take more of a hammering the mp3 players.
And what of battery life. The mighty Nokia's having a hard time with the N95 because with lots of apps running the battery life is under a day. People won't put up with that from their phone.
There will be bugs, again look at the problem Nokia have had with every 1st gen release since the 6110 (do they still make those? :) ) and networks are notoriously bad at helping customers with their bug-ridden monsters (look at Orange with the 7110) - not my problem mate is the usual customer service line - no 12 month warranty on a bugged mobile I'm afraid.
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Brilliant in concept but doomed to failure I'm afraid...
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