Posts by Wolf Clostermann

Facebook gets mobile privacy

The computerless

I know plenty of people who never or very rarely use their computers to access facebook at all. They do it all from their mobile phones. This change allows them to modify their privacy settings like the rest of us.

iPad runs Windows, Nokia runs OSX

Citrix on iPad would be very useful for 2nd line support

I've often considered carrying around a netbook to allow me to RDP to my desktop (that has admin rights) to make changes to user accounts or other similar things that otherwise would have required me making a pointless and time consuming return journey to my desk, and then back to the user. However, a netbook really isn't the perfect form factor for this - a tablet like the iPad would be.

Nokia E72 smartphone

Is it as buggy as the E71 v1 firmware was?

Does the browser still randomly crash with no explanation? Is the browser still tortuously slow to render pages?

What's the reception like compared to another phone on the same network? (My E71 is a nightmare compared to the E61 - I have a feeling it has to do with the lovely metal body)

You know the feature mentioned where if you hold the centre button the screen lights up to tell you the time? Does this suffer from the same quirk as the E71, whereby if you hit any OTHER key beforehand, such as when, say, getting the phone out of your pocket or fumbling for it in the dark, then holding the centre button will do nothing?

This feature whereby turning it onto its front silences a call? Can this differentiate between you placing it face down on a table, or your phone just being in your back pocket?

Does the phone sometimes randomly stick on no signal, necessitating switching it into offline mode and then back into online mode again to get your signal back?

My E71 is certainly a looker, but MY GOD has it been a frustrating phone to own over the last year.

Owners say iPhone 3GS is a scorcher

Ze heat, ze heat

Was playing with a friend's 3G S at the weekend, and even just browsing the net using Safari made the device noticably warm. The pink rubber case it was enclosed in probably wasn't helping.

However, I'm not exactly surprised that when kept between pillow and sheets and slept on, that it would get hot enough to burn. How is the heat supposed to dissipate?

Brit firm stops anti-tank warheads with cloth

Is it just me ...

or is a simple work-around to this just to fire an incendiary round first to burn the shit out of the cloth layer, and THEN hit it with an RPG?

WD drops 4TB whopper

Raid 0? Really?

I think having what is essentially a backup device configured as Raid 0 is highly inadvisable, considering that if one disk fails, then all the data is gone, beyond any reasonable attempts at recovery. It's especially worrying considering that they then spefically make reference to the possibilty of the drives failing.

Google Wave - interwebs idealism in real-time

This is just a massively complicated excuse ...

to shoehorn a Firefly reference into a major piece of technology.

Zen and the Art of Laptop Battery Maintenance

@Ben Bradley - such a thing exists

Quoth the Bradley: "What I really want though, is the ability to hot-swap batteries without shutting down. So some sort of internal battery that gives you like 2mins. That would be cool."

Many laptops have batteries that fit in their expansion bays (I have experience both of Thinkpads and Dells that have these). Although less capacious than the primary battery, they do allow exactly the kind of hot-swapping you describe.

SiliconDust HDHomeRun

Megadodo Publications, home of the Reg Hardware reviewers ...

"but it scores over its better-known rival on two points"

Does it have the words "Don't Panic" written in large friendly letters on the cover?

And, really, would it have been that hard to test this device with MythTV and ascertain whether it does or does not work? There's every possibility that the combination of this device and MythTV could make a killer product that works even better than the payware software. Surely that would have merited at least investigation, in the name of thoroughness?

Google splits with Mozilla on 3D interwebs

Tried the plugin

On IE7/Windows XP, Nvidia Quadro NVS (hey, my Linux machines are at home). It works impressively well considering the early state it's in. The code is easily examined by viewing the page source. I for one would be pretty pleased if this were to fill the niche currently occupied by the abysmal Adobe Flash, assuming Google plays nice with the open source community.

Apparent competition

"Yet oddly, Google's O3D API isn't compatible with Mozilla's current implementation. Google choosing to do their own thing doesn't sound like a terrific way to promote a unified standard at first blush — but the company seems to think an actual standard for 3D is a few years off and common ground will be arrived at later"

Initially taking different approaches on a particular project can be beneficial. As with Compiz/XGL, apparently competing technologies can eventually come together to combine the best elements of both to create a mature product. Now, if only that could happen one day with those two, that would be nice. But the principle is sound.

Native-Linux music player Amarok gets major overhaul

hm

@Paul: then use XMMS, you berk.

Asus Eee PC 901 Linux Edition

openSUSE

@ Serrio: openSUSE installs on the 701.

Toshiba Portégé R500 slimline laptop

... vs U30011v

My Portege 7020 is dying, and to replace it I recently plumped for the U300-11v after dismissing the current Portege out of hand due to price. I'm pleased to see I made absolutely the right choice. My machine has the better processor, the same screen resolution and cost almost exactly half the price. After reading this review it appears I didn't even miss out on build quality (which is what I was worried about most) or battery life. The only thing this has over my machine is weight.

My recommendation to any potential purchasers would be to take the same route. Unless you /really/ need that PCMCIA slot (mine only has expresscard).