Posts by Don Constance

W3C's bright idea turned your battery into a SNITCH for websites

Re: Seriously?

None of which is necessary in the modern world now that you can use http://foaas.com/ :-)

What sort of tit builds non-bird bird boxes? Vodafone

Blend in?

If they really wanted to make it blend in to the rural landscape they could just put it in a bright red burglar alarm box ;-)

Women-only town seeks men

"But first they need to agree to do what we say and live according to our rules."

You will of course never be allowed to know what those rules are until after you have been judged to have contravened them ;-)

Thousands rally behind teen girl cuffed, expelled in harmless 'explosion'

Re: Good grief I must be on their most wanted list...

French bangers on Scout trip to Jersey, inside steel tent pole, great fun for all - well apart from Dave who got shot in the knackers by the plastic plug ejected from the other end of the tent pole :-)

Yes, done the beans one too.

Wish we had put the aerosol can inside a metal bin, good job we had quick reactions back then!

So: 6,500 Win 8 laptops later, how are BT's field engineers coping?

Re: surprised at the use of iPhones.

They like the locked-down aspect of iOS, the Openreach iphones (originally referred to as Ophones) are even more locked down than normal. No way to install other apps and attempting to do anything unauthorised is a sacking offence. Same with the laptops.

Microsoft's anti-Android Twitter campaign draws ire, irony

Re: What is it with Microsoft?

>any other organisation suffering such a severe and persistent case of foot-and-mouth disease.

Well apart from our major political parties obviously.

NASA: THE TRUTH about the END OF THE WORLD on 21 Dec

Re: Apparently there's a 'safe place' somewhere in France...

"It's gonna be 1980's Top Of The Pops all over again with frantic producers herding small groups of "victims" around in front of the cameras to make the crowd seem bigger than it really is."

But without Jimmy Saville herding any of them into his dressing room.

Wealthy Kensington & Chelsea residents reject BT fibre cabinets

Re: What happened to miniaturization, micro-electronics, etc?

"Or maybe it is a huge solidly-packed mass of throbbing solid-state circuitry, because of all the MI5 / MI6 / GCHQ tap technology that has to be included?"

That's not in the cabinets thats i... [muffled thud] [silence]

Re: Street sited?

It would certainly be impractical to site them underground. Apart from the access issues the kit inside those cabinets generates a LOT of heat and have to be actively ventilated. Fully equipped when you open the door to the active side it's like opening an oven. They also contain mains voltage which means they have to be sealed against water ingress. Difficult to ventilate a hole in the ground and stop the rain getting in!

Under the streets of most large cities is already more congested than the surface and I expect this borough would be a prime example.

The cabinets need to be within 100m of the existing copper cross-connexion cabinet which, along with routing the tie cables between them does limit the location. As someone who works on FTTC I'm well aware that this can lead to some awkwardly sited cabinets! Often though this is done to maintain a minimum width of footway (when closed) to allow the passage of pushchairs/wheelchairs etc.

I've often wondered whether some could be sited inside adjacent properties but that's almost certainly a logistical, financial, and legal minefield :-(

BT slurps from first govt broadband cash pot in Lancs deal

Re: Huh?

As far as the physical stuff, fibre, DSLAM cabinets etc. goes it is, for "BT" read "Openreach".

Met plod will use 1980s software to police Olympics

Re: Could be worse. Indeed, they could be intending to use 1980s hardware........

"Raymondo, fire up the Quattro"

Ten... Androids to outshine the iPhone 4S

Dictionary.

Do any of these phones come with a dictionary? If so you might want to use it to look up "enormity". A little more attention to grammar required, perhaps at the expense of taking the piss out of other peoples choice of toys.

BT's fibre-to-the-premises trials hit duct roadblock

Wonder no more Dazza,

They're not.

Three bumps up mobile broadband contract charge

No more contract phones for me

not since O2 decided that a 520% (no I haven't mis-typed that, five hundred and twenty) increase in line rental and around 100% was a reasonable change. 4 months of broken promises (well lies really) on the phone and ignored letters later I finally got the email address of someone near the top of the food chain who agreed that yes, I should have been given the option to terminate within contract period rather than being told "tough shit".

Then we come to 3, delightful bunch of Scots shysters that they are continued to hound my SO with bills and threatening letters for 2 years AFTER the end of her contract period, Hotel California stylee.

FWIW my broadband is on PAYG rolling 1 month contract too although since the original provider Metronet were swallowed up by Plusnet with a marked drop on customer service I predict trouble when I decide to move on from them too.

Ubuntu 'Maverick Meerkat' erects own App Store

What exactly is the problem here?

"They" don't need to "learn" to bloat out Ubuntu with support for non-Linux programs which a minority of /Ubuntu/ users need.

If you want to or have to use Windows programs, there's already a suitable operating system, it's called Microsoft Windows.

Otherwise use a Linux.

Simples.

BT settles pay row with union

"BT Profits"

Yes it does (well sometimes). This may come as a complete surprise to you but as a commercial entity that's what it's supposed do do. If you wanted a public service telecoms provider you shouldn't have allowed Thatcher to sell it.

Pre-election budget targets politics, not policy

First time buyers

Few 1st time buyers houses cost 250000 but that's the point of raising it to that level, lots of first properties will be in excess of 125000 in most parts of the uk, grim-oop-north excepted of course where you can still buy a house for the price of a packet of fags ;-)

Japanese whalers lash protesters to mast

Never mind tying them to the mast...

They're going to be really upset on Friday when they find out it's their turn in the barrel ;-)