Posts by Len Mackin

Virgin Media's latest throttling rules

VM are playing games!

I've been with VM for over 10 years now. Their service is generally very good but what is not very good is the fact that they don't seem to care about their customers and are quite happy to take on as many as possible and totally max out their systems. That's before I even get onto the frustration of pricing and offers, many of which seem to not exist when you talk to customer services.

Since moving to 50mb service I rarely get much about 25mb speed (I used to be on 20Mb service which was rock solid with speed), downloads from newsgroups cut back during the day to 5mb and that is until midnight but often the full speed is not achieved until after 1am! VM advertises what you can do with their fast download speeds but in reality you are given speeds that are hard to achieve in real world situations.

Now we are all getting upgrades - i'll soon be on 100mb but most of the time it won't reach that speed and I could be cut back. It's all smoke and bloody mirrors with virgin!!

UK tech retailers are rubbish

You could have lots of fun.....

Why don't you just go into to a PCWorld /Curry's and have some fun on a dull day. Just walk up to the sales counter and state that you would like to buy a computer. When they ask what kind point to the cash register and say "one like that would be great. Does it have plenty of coloured flashing lights and a warranty?" If you wish to push it further an appear extra 'wind-up' clueless, open the disk tray on a computer and remark to the assistant how brilliant it is that they have included a tray for your tea/coffee/beer mug!

Endless hours of fun, then just walk out saying it's all too complicated.

Single complaint sparks police raid and total ban on rental movie

What is really worrying here...

Is the fact that a single complaint can have this effect. I know that similar has happened in art galleries. So all that you have to do is complain to the police that you are offended by something, police head down to take a look because they are 'obliged' to (mind if it is a burglary or a real crime you might get nowhere). Police investige, decide that they are not sure (what to do) gallery/distributer panics and pull the item just to be sure. This could lead to a lot of fun?

Another example of the police being seen to act. In Birmingham on sunny afternoon about three years ago there were a lot of schoolkids sitting on the benches and the lawn of the cathedral square. Not causing any bother. Police moved them on (about 50 kids). I asked the police woman why - she said there was a complaint from a member of the public who felt threatened by the group of kids so they felt that they had 'to respond'. Tough on the kids though. Seems to me that this 'being seen to do something' is a cancer eating away at common sense in British society.

Android phone auto reverts jailbreaks

I regularly flash my desire...

The misleading title of the my post aside, I am on Orange and the first thing I do is get rid of their dreadful colour scheme and rubish software. It makes for a better user experience in my opinion. When I recieved my Desire in April from Orange, the first problem i noticed was that the storage space for apps was very poor. This was made even worst because Orange had decided to install demo games and other software that COULD NOT BE REMOVED!.

In the last few months I have rooted my desire and seen a huge performance boost as a result, my application storage space has gone from 22mb to 80 (even after installing a shed load of stuff from the Android Market). Oh,,, and I also flashed my phone to Froyo 2.2 and gained even more benefits months before Orange bothered to pass this to their users.

I update my rom once per month and I can do this without having to reinstall any settings or apps, If I hate the latest ROM i can revert back and go with a different model.

Sky turns 3D on Oct 1

Just seen on in the Sony shop

Very good indeed, but the specs alone cost £100 and I would need at least 4!! The American football and Toy Story 3D demo was certainly much better than a 'layered effect'. But nope, I shan't be getting one for several years if at all - reason... price and crap content!

Lara Croft, the Way in Derby

God it...

Looks grim there!

Google Nexus One spends dying days as dev phone

I have a Desire

Which is more or less identical to the N1. It's on Orange. First thing I did was go the XDA and get the know how to wipe off the Orange crud then rooted the phone and now i can use whatever Android Rom i want. Most are based now on the N1 v.2.2 software and I can have vanilla flavour or HTC sense. I can change on a daily basis if I wish. Best phone I have ever owned.

Child protection campaigners claim hollow victory over Facebook

following on from my earlier post

I forgot to say - I hope the useage statistics for the button, including how many actually install it, are released to the press in six months time!

Utter nonesense

Father of two girls here both now grown up but had full access to the internet since 1996. They used to tell me if any perves tried to chat to them they just 'banned them'. This was the days long before we had CEOPs etc.

Let the kids manage themselves, they can do this very well from what I hear. This is yet another job creation measure and isnt useful at all to anyone.

CEOPs have to look like they are doing something, the police must look like they are doing something (usually standing in the street with big guns and Oakley sunglasses trying desperately to look cool), everyone has to look as if they are doing something.

pathetic really.

nuff said

Android slurps market share from Apple, RIM, Microsoft

I love my Android Desire

Compared to my previous winmobile phone (laggy and buggy) my current phone is excellent. I have already got the latest 2.2 firmware on it and a couple of development roms so I can play around with what the nerds are producing, can change between roms in a matter of a minute.

Winblows is out the door forever and I wouldn't touch Apple as they are two expensive and locked down.

Freeview HD launches, gets Channel 4

Freeview says I can't get its services yet

.... But I have been getting the full service since January 2007!

I see Sony have a range tv's that have the Freeview HD tuner onboard but same probalem as MJI - how do you record the programmes?

Reg readers in the dark over extreme porn

I think we should...

flood the IWF with thousands of images so that they are completely overloaded and their computers go down.

Again we have an example of how this Government is trying to bring in populist laws that are ill thought out, unclear and worse still, can be used indiscriminately to place citizens under arrest, destroy their lives, etc as a result.

It always seemed to me that the law was reasonably clear and worked well untl now. There is so much stuff that it not allowed anymore 'just in case' that we are back in the times of the witchhunters.

Brown pledges annual commons debate on surveillance

You just can't make this up!!

Honestly - the vacuus thinking by our illustrious Government is beyond belief. So let's get this right - because some people are able to use fingerprint scanning to access their laptops we are all OK with this now? hmmm, there is a big difference between me using my fingerprints to lock a laptop and the state demanding them.

And to even consider that doing all of this, having ID cards, being watched and checked is reassuring and gives us back our liberty. So they have taken it then?

Just absolutely dire

Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

Start of a slippery slope

I think what really gets me about all this is the very underhand methods of ISP's. They advertise the earth, saying that we will get superfast downloads and of course unlimited. For most people these speeds are never consistent and in many cases they are really bad, not reaching a quarter of what they should be. Now we have TRAFFIC SHAPING. It started off as a 4pm - 10pm thing, now we see it extended into the day. Before long it will be 24/7. What they are effectively saying is that your daily download limit on x speed is xxxGb. After that you walk home!

Does this happen in other countries or once again is it another 'shit happens in Britain' rip off?

UK.gov demands 999 ads on social networking sites

It's all so desperately depressing

I agree with the two comments above. This is just another example of the Government trying to desperately look on top of things and pander to those who haven't a clue. Utterly hopeless.