Posts by Matthew Johns

Hacking the Apple TV

Geeks vs Public

If the iplayer downloader could run on appleTV; grab the files and store them for future watching using nothing but the remote control then it'd be worthwhile. Otherwise this is still too tech for most people. You might as well use a computer and stream...

Online payment standards fall on deaf websites

@Solomon Grundy

Not quite, the PCI rules are enforced by Mastercard and Visa and apply to their transactions. Paypal isnt included as once it has taken your 'Visa money' all of your transactions are then in 'Paypay money'. All money has to be issued by someone and Paypal's is as valid as Visa's or even Airmiles.

If someone's not playing by Visa and Mastercard rules then they take it very seriously and will refuse to let those people take their cards. Report these guys to the Visa compliance team and you should get a response.

Gordon Brown claims a Brit invented the iPod

Racoon hats

AFAIK native americans don't wear racoon hats. That means they must have been invented by early settlers, who would have descibed themselves as British, . I think that classifies them as a British invention. Or maybe French.

Mine's the one with the Bowie knife in the pocket. I use it to cull the laughing gnomes...

Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax dies

Roll for surprise!

Thirty years ago EGG sold me the tools that helped me to where I am today...sitting in a 10'x10' room with some troglodytes trying to get them to understand the problems they face and work out a solution.

The debt that the world owes him is vast, his legacy is all around us and will continue long after he is forgotten.

Clash of the compacts: Eee vs Air

Air does have Ethernet

It has an adaptor that plugs into the USB port.

But you can buy five Eees for the price of an MacBook Air. No contest.

Oddly enough I think the Time Capsule was the most revolutionary thing yesterday. I does what many laptop owners have wanted, simply.

Most home routers 'vulnerable to remote take-over'

It's me being a bit thick

But in order to set up the forwarding described I have to manually log in to my router with an ID and password. Does the UPnP not require the same authentication when done through this Flash exploit?

Watchdogs probe Sky dominance on pay-TV

divorced from the reality of the current conditions of competition

I.e. We paid good money for this monopoly and its ours I tell you, ours!

PS3 demand booms in Japan

Total sales

Per that graph there are about 18 million Wii's in Japan and 6.5 million PS3's. WHich one will a developer go for do you think?

Running queries on the HMRC database fiasco

Simple equation

Surely the cost of deleting the relevant data fields must be less that the cost of a train ticket to Newcastle and a day's time for a NAO junior auditor. Otherwise they would have sent someone down to do the sample selection on site. Therefore, pretty cheap. But the cost to the government? Maybe five years in power...

I've seen this set up before a few times. It is usually someone junior who's fouled up but this is invariably caused by the leader not caring about proper control systems (e.g. Chancellors who care more about results than how you got there...)

Apple TV goes to the movies

Apple TV is just an iPod

You could have an ipod or Zen and a pile of cables and adaptors to do this job. However the Apple TV does it and has a load of outputs.

It's simply an ipod for people with a static screen and is therefore useful for this moviemaker, or for attaching to an in-car screen. It's just a hobby for apple.

There's little chance of it becoming a mainstream thing unless a miracle occurs and they add a DVD Rip programme to itunes or PVR functionality to the AppleTV.