Posts by Soruk 556 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Aug 2007
vKontakte is the Russian answer to Facebook (and if rumours are believed, a large source of less-than-legit MP3s).
WeChat is a text, image, voice and video messaging system from Tencent (the same people who brought you QQ).
Facetime is Apple's high-bandwidth and platform-locked answer to to Skype.
Not just an idea, it was a kingdom in its own right!
While we're at it, we can no longer teach our youngsters how navigation was carried out pre-GPS using a sextant.
Use of the RCA 1802 microprocessor can't be taught because it contains the opcode SEX (Set EXecution register).
Panasonic's parent company cannot be mentioned - Matsushita - along with many names in Japan.
Musicians will be unable to play sextets.
... and never forget Belgium.
My home VM server has a Seagate ST1500DM003 1.5TB disc as its OS and VM-shared data drive, a Samsung HD154UI 1.5TB disc for my NFS/SMB file server and a 6TB RAID5 array across 3x WD30ERFX 3TB discs (that Backblaze highlighted as the type they wished they had a lot more of).
Needless to say, it's the OS and VM-shared disc I'm most worried about...
Similarly, my Echostar T101FTA Freeview box was bricked by an OTA update.
Unlike Garmin's response, and despite the thing being way out of warranty, Echostar reflashed it (and upgraded it to the T101FTA+ firmware) for just the cost of me posting it to them - they paid the return postage.
> YES is the simple answer. If only because giving an IP/cell number makes you look untrustworthy.
Where you are, do VoIP numbers look different to landline numbers? In the UK, most VoIP numbers are allocated in the landline number range. Of course it'll look odd if you live in London and present an Aberdeen number (or vice versa), but if your VoIP number is in your local area, then only the anally curious (or typical El Reg reader) will look up the phone company that allocated the number.
And, conversely, Stateside, mobile numbers are allocated from the area code blocks, so again, if your number has the right area code, it shouldn't look untoward.
> "What you can't afford a phone?"
Sure I can, but I *choose* not to be ripped off by the likes of BT.
There are some really useful satnav apps (e.g. Waze) that can dynamically route you around traffic problems - but for this to work they need a data (and therefore mobile) connection.
No more dangerous than using a regular satnav, indeed probably less so as you're less stressed from suddenly finding yourself in 6 miles of stationary traffic because some @rse has decided to drive their lorry into a motorbike and cause the M20 to be closed for a couple of hours.
How long before someone (4chan? looking at you) comes up with hentai images making malware-tans having their way with IE-tan....
Of course, Rule 34 being Rule 34, if someone has thought about the possibility, it means someone else already has and if the images don't already exist, they're well on their way to existing.
The big negative for internet 3G/4G streaming of radio is the cost of the mobile data, the monthly fee and/or the per-MB cost. At home on a near-unlimited broadband connection this isn't so much of a concern.
(and yes, I did listen to LBC 97.3 by wifi + VPN while visiting the in-laws in Guangdong.)
Earlier this month I rented a car with a built-in DAB receiver. Yes, I'm a boring fart who likes listening to Radio 4 and LBC97.3, but decided to give DAB a try. In the space of 10 minutes I was annoyed enough with the DAB drop-outs that I left the thing on FM, where the signal degrades much more gracefully.
> Hands up anyone who's managed to get anywhere near the offical mpg figures for a car?
I've exceeded them on occasion. 80mpg in my 2009 Grand Modus.
On one journey in my previous car (2004 Scenic) I once got 90mpg between Basingstoke and Canterbury, something I have never managed to repeat since.
> Also, older USB controllers has this stupid requirement that requires the device to establish communication before it would provide more juice to the port.
I got around this, when using a dumb USB car charger, by plugging a pound-shop USB hub into the charger, then connecting the device into that.
In what way could apps in 2008 be considered revolutionary? J2ME had apps running on mobiles (alright, they couldn't multitask, but the point of apps were allowing third-party programs to run on your phone, using the keyboard, screen and cellular connection) several years previously - even my not-the-top-of-the-range Motorola V500 in 2004 was capable of this.
The Nokia 6310i (which I had in 2003) was capable but severely restricted in that apps could only weigh in at <32K however this still indicated the capability of third-party apps running on a phone - TEN YEARS ago, and five years before Apple "invented" it.
There are already some tariffs (mainly PAYG) here in Blighty where outgoing calls in the EU are cheaper than calls made at home, and, excluding the availability of bundles, it's almost guaranteed that texts sent abroad will be cheaper than those at home. These people would actually find their prices RISE after roaming fees are removed!
A big fat NO to onboard flash. The beauty of the thing is that it's practically impossible to brick it from software. If you corrupt the card, take it out and reflash it on another machine, and voila, unbricked.
Can't do that with onboard flash, unless you can make it check if the external SD is bootable and boot from that, before attempting to boot from the onboard flash (still leaving onboard visible as a block device to the external-booted OS)
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