* Posts by Wize

1557 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Mar 2008

'Leap year' bug drives TomTom satnav users up the wall

Wize

Re: a limited number of models have been having an issue getting a GPS position.

But the fix is only available to some satnav models.

Parents shocked by priestly PowerPoint pr0n

Wize

Re: I don't want to step on toes, but

Have always found it weird.

Claim to see ghosts and get locked up as a nutter

Claim to see Jesus and you'll probably be made into a saint.

Ice Cream Sandwich gives Android mobes brainfreeze – Sony

Wize

Who needs the upgrade

"...which in turn forces Android to shut down background activities such as the home screen..."

Getting that regularly on my HTC Desire Z. Go back to the home screen and wait for it to reload. Can happen when browsing, looking at the gallery, or just about any app.

UK.gov to unveil reborn, renamed net-snoop plans in Queen's Speech

Wize

Re: Piss off Cameron!

I'm reminded of the scheme to place bugging devices in lampposts to spy on terrorists. Piss ripped out by Andy Parsons who pointed out the last place a terrorist would have his meeting would be under a brightly lit street lamp.

Bring-your-own-mobe pilot for BlackBerry-shunning council bods

Wize

Re: Can I bring my near 11 year old Nokia 5185?

"And once again, I get back to the fact that I want a telephone to be a telephone. Nothing more, nothing less."

Does that include being wired to a land line? After all, thats a 'normal phone.'

Oh, but wait, you want it to do something more. Like be portable. No you can't have that because someone else wants phones just to be wired devices.

And you can't ever be connected to the internet either. Your home and work connection is via phone lines. And phone lines are for voice only.

You want something more than a device tethered to a wire. Other people want more than being tethered to a voice only device.

No one is forcing you to surf the internet on a pocket device.

A million TVs to go dark across London

Wize

Was going to upvote...

...till I got to your sentence.

Having lived there for a while, I wouldn't call it civilised.

Wize

Re: More power != better picture

I remember when I still had analogue. The picture was much clearer than any standard def digital signal due to the compression. Things don't fade between light and dark, it has massive chunky steps. But I suppose thats one way to sell the HD by throttling the SD down to a nasty compression level.

Tuning in a TV on the move is a bit more tricky with digital. Hired a campervan and toured the UK a few years ago. Got a directional antenna and a cheep freeview box for it.

In areas where there was analogue, you tuned the TV till you got a bit of picture, moved the antenna till it got better and tuned it in a bit more. Picture might look fuzzy but you can still watch it.

Digital was a whole lot more fun, since you need a good signal to tune the box but you cant work out where the good signal is till the box is tuned. Needed to go online, find where the nearest tower was, find yourself on a map with GPS, work out compass bearing...

Wize

Re: South East News Bias ? - Nahhhhhh.......

There are a lot of Londoners (and I've met some of them) who don't care about the world outside the M25.

Bit like the Americans and their "World Series"

With this ring, I thee frag

Wize

Re: pix

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/web-mistress-hits-her-mark-as-she-games-geek-love-during-in-game-trade/story-e6freuy9-1226313747007

A real pic of the happy couple.

New Google tool lets you PROBE YOURSELF

Wize

Its opt-in?

Is that an opt-in to be tracked or an opt-in to see the info they will be tracking anyway?

100 EARTH-LIKE PLANETS orbit stars WITHIN 30 LIGHT-YEARS!

Wize

Re: Or possibly

God spreading his seed? So the universe is a giant wank-sock.

AVG nukes stalking ads at press of BIG SHINY BUTTON

Wize

Re: Ahead of forthcoming EU legislation

But what stops the companies running it via their out of EU office?

Or those weird sites you visit? (I mean the ones that you end up on while trying to fix some computer problem)

Wize
Flame

Re: Pardon me, but isn't that a bit rich?

It boils my piss having every bloody program want to install its toolbar. At least the Java update has stopped doing it.

Yes, its easy to untick, but then you have to wait for that screen to pop up rather than hitting the button to just install the main program.

And there are all the machines you have to fix for family and friends because they are surfing through a letterbox with all the sodding toolbars installed on their machine.

Give me a nice big advert with an opt-in click and I'll think about it, but I hate having to use opt-out.

Wize

Re: Ad-Block Plus

I started to block ads back when adverts started using animated gifs by a few lines in my hosts file. Then they started making them flash with sound, so I moved up to Adblock, still manually adding the ones that annoyed.

Now its adblock-plus that gets them all automatically for me. Its the ad-men's own fault.

I would have left the ads alone if they had been text/static images. but make them too annoying and people want to block them.

But it won't stop all of the tracking.

Plastic that SELF-REPAIRS using light unleashed by prof

Wize

Re: Not great for glasses..

But you don't have to use the colour change in the lens.

CD: The indestructible music format that REFUSES TO DIE

Wize

Re: The tangible object

CDs can be played anywhere. Vinyl and tape still can where people have their old equipment (and you can still get new equipment to do so). Its easy to find your original.

A trashed CD player can be made to spit out its disk if the unit dies.

Downloaded files are not so easy.

If you can read the hard disk of a dead PC, you might not be able to use the music files elsewhere because of DRM.

The other half bought some music for her Blackberry. Now she has an HTC and it won't play them due to DRM. Bit of downloading later and I have files she can play anywhere.

Computer formats also die off. Doomsday disk anyone? Getting something to read that memory stick in 100years might not be so easy. Vinyl can be heard with a pin and a bit of paper (and something to spin it)

Apple New iPad 3 Wi-Fi + 4G

Wize

But...

What if you have an Apple on Orange?

Sitting down all day is killing you

Wize

Re: The Truth About Exercise

"I'd rather see a pregnant woman standing on the bus than a fat girl sitting down crying." - Jimmy Carr

Female Chinese astronauts must have no scars, straight teeth

Wize

"Seems reasonable assuming they apply the same rules to the blokes too."

And he could have killed off the controversy with a statement like that. But only if it were true...

Americans resort to padlocking their dumb meters

Wize

RF interference

What about the effect on other wireless devices using the same frequencies? I know of one remote monitoring system that went toes up after someone installed a wireless CCTV system.

And how smart are the meters? Is it just monitoring or control? Could we have a drive by disconnection of a whole area?

Giant paper plane thunders across Arizona sky

Wize

Did they use any tape?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwaS7gkgaKM

Fragmentation bomb wounds Android in developer war

Wize

Re: so

Part of its appeal really. I want a keyboard on mine, someone wants a tiny one, someone else wants a keypad on the front. Nice big array instead of one size fits all.

It never stopped the PC market place. Various PC resolutions doesn't stop the average developer (and since the likes of Windows came out, no worries about the graphics driver either). Same can be said for various peripherals. You detect if they have something (eg a webcam) and give them extra functionality.

Something Android devs need to think of. Ok, your first app might be a bit fiddly to write to do all the detecting, but keep the frame and reuse it. Probably ones out there for free to do that basic nonsense.

The Register obtains covert snaps of Google's new London offices

Wize

What the hell are they planning to do in these offices?

Looks like its for sitting about chatting, not actually working.

Think of any poor sod trying to use their laptop for any length of time in any of those environments.

All well and good, sitting about being 'creative' (http://dilbert.com/2012-03-18/) but I expect their bosses want some sort of end product.

Facebook 'cloaking' flaw allows unexpected snooping

Wize

It needs either a minimum period between switches between active and inactive (say a week) to prevent the stealthyness, or just clear friend list with a reconnect option to re-send friend requests on activation.

Super-boffin Stephen Hawking to star in Big Bang Theory

Wize

And don't forget TV Offal

Such a great show in its day.

Tourists follow GPS, drive into sea

Wize

Re: I've said it before, and I'll say it again ...

Sat navs, when used properly, are very helpful.

Saved me quite a bit of time in Milton Keynes (and visitors to their fare non-city will probably agree) that its difficult to navigate, even after checking maps in advance and street-viewing my route, as everything looks the same.

It can also be safer. Work dumped me in the Netherlands with a motorway trip in a hire car. First time driving on the opposite side of the road, with the body of the car at the opposite side (extra concentration to line yourself up with the lane) and speeds in KPH instead of MPH to fight with, without having to deal with locations in a language you are not familiar with and trying to spot them in overhead gantries.

Using the sat nav helped free up concentrating on my location so I could use it to watch the road.

Note, that I said I was watching the road. If it did point me at a cliff edge, I would stop.

Eddie Murphy heading for worst movie ever glory

Wize

Re: Poor old Eddie

Too many 'comedies' with the likes of Adam Sandler, Vince Vaughn etc. They always seem to play the same character.

Eddie on the other hand plays lots of characters. Generally in the same film...

Wize

T3 was ok

T4 Blew goats.

They even forgot how music worked. They reused the old Terminator score, dropped all the instruments except the base hammering out a repeated phrase.

Ford: kick your car to open the boot

Wize

There is a video...

...possibly a fake though, of an old lady smacking the front of an idiot's car at a crossing and setting off his airbag.

Wize

If you have keyless entry...

...how can you tell if your doors have locked?

iOnRoad Augmented Driving

Wize

@DaveyDaveDave

I've seen lorries do this many a time. Nothing to do with how courteous you drive.

Anyone exiting the road should be over in the left in plenty of time. There are plenty of muppets in cars and vans who will carve across when they realise their exit is coming up. Forward thinking is not their strong suit.

To be courteous to them would involve knowing what they are doing before they think of it themselves.

There are many sensible lorry drivers out there, but also plenty of suicidally reckless ones who use their size to force their way out knowing you'll sharply break rather than become a bug on their bumper.

Space FIREBALL over Blighty sparks hunt for rich meteorite

Wize

Even further north than Strathclyde...

http://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/Article.aspx/2669201?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I could have cleaned up the url, but on a phone. Besides, it should screw with their stats.

Unlawful tweets could land Twitter in Blighty's dock

Wize

Surely Twitter is not an editor/publisher

Its more like the owner of a wall that gets covered in graffiti. If someone spray paints "Dave is a wanker" on the side wall of your house, should you be held responsible for the comment?

Anonymous web weapon backfires with hidden banking Trojan

Wize

Re: Sorry, no.

"Hey El Reg, you need a new print cartridge, this web page hasn't printed properly..."

On my other machine it looks like their print carriage is fine. It over prints the message below it.

Future car tech

Wize

Re: The simplest safety device

Can I have the spike sticking out the back for all the tail-gaters?

People are forgetting to take responsibility for their own actions. People currently step out in front of cars without looking. They know the driver will stop and if they don't the driver is at fault, not the moron who didn't look. Won't help the lifespan of the pedestrian when the sun is in the driver's eyes.

I suggest the front facing camera on the car. Someone steps out without looking round and its classed as suicide. No blame passed to the driver.

Android a photo-slurper too: report

Wize

Re: Permissions

"You wanna tell your friends about the app?"

If yes, then I'll tell them myself. I'd like to take those auto email/post things out everyones hands. To many auto generated messages by spammers without friends acting like some psudo spam relay.

Wize

Re: Probably for adverts.

An advert doesn't need to know my location, the nosey bastards.

I want a 'give false location info to adverts' app.

Foxconn allegedly hid underage workers from inspectors

Wize

@Minophis

Exactly right. Doesn't matter if its the old lady getting mugged or the company using under-age workers it all boils down to the same thing. By being a part of it, you are condoning it.

Same could be said about the consumers who buy the products, but most won't have a clue about it. Some of them probably struggle over the idea of fair trade coffee.

Ok, maybe Apple, HP, etc can't just drop Foxconn overnight. It will take time to get other suppliers on line. But if they start making the move today, they will have it in place eventually. They will also not be reliant on one supplier who could hold them to ransom or may suffer a failure of their own preventing shipment of their product. Never been a good idea to have all your eggs in one basket.

Wize

Re: @Wize

If all companies acted with the same ethics, it shouldn't be a problem. Everyone drops Foxconn out of concern for their end users.

There are plenty of companies who will not deal with unethical companies and pride themselves when doing so.

In my company, if we had opportunity of a nice big juicey profit on a project but the company is an iffy one, we are supposed to walk away even though someone less ethical would take it.

Wize

Re: Re: Patiently waiting..

Apple isn't going to change the legal system in China. But it does have the obligation to do ethical trading. And that includes not dealing with companies (eg Foxcon) who are proving themselves to be unethical.

Same for any other company who use Foxcon for their manufacturing needs.

iPad owners 'considerably richer than yow'

Wize

Would I be heavily downvoted for saying the phrase...

..."More money than sense"?

Global DNS takedown plotters disowned by Anonymous

Wize

Re: Resilient solution

So, if instead of killing the server, someone replaced the file on internic.net with a fake one (all the numbers changed to point to the wrong places but all the right headers/version numbers), your system will still download it and use it?

Hope you keep an archive of previous working copies.

Wize

Re: Cyberattack could cause power outages

As well as having a target and its weakness, you need to provide a name of a potential threat who could exploit it before you get funding for it.

NASA seeks cooks for Mars trip simulation

Wize

Re: More like

Maybe we can stick both in there and fire it at Mars.

Rovio launches Angry Birds into space

Wize

Any chance of some still images...

...for those of us stuck at work behind youtube blocking firewalls?

Brit student locked up for Facebook source code hack

Wize

Re: Re: Proxies

Or, better still, don't use your own connection at all.

So many unlocked wifi points out there to choose from.

70 London 999 calls lost due to clock-change IT glitch

Wize

No need for daylight savings these days

Lots of people have flexi time. If they want to get up earlier so they can go home earlier, they can.

If schools want to change their start and finish times to match up with local lighting, then let them.

Why not stick to GMT all year round?

We will have to educate the muppets who think that going to Summer Time gives more sunlight in a 24hour period though.

Feds to carmakers: 'Rein in high-tech dashboards'

Wize

@Sean Timarco Baggaley

"Why didn't you prepare for your journey first by reading a bloody map and looking at the location on, say, Google Maps or Bing Maps BEFORE you leave? Make a couple of notes if you need to—perhaps jot down the names of any local towns or villages on a Post-IT note and stick it to the back of your sun visor. That way, you'll know what to look for on the signposts. It's not that hard."

I've gone round the one way system a few times in various towns because of poor sign-age. Try driving north up the east coast and you might find one of them. You get exit signs from the town telling you the name of two towns. Unless you are local or have memorised the names and order of every town on a London to Aberdeen drive, you can get stuck in these places. A helpful voice saying "Turn left" at the right time would have saved me hours many years ago.

Wize

Re: but my Sat-Nat told me to go this way

Its always the bad apples that get noticed.

Just like I'm sure the majority of motorcycle riders aren't cunts who carve you up because they can.

Many of us can use a sat-nav the right way. Its an aid to driving but shouldn't be left to drive the car.

Wize

"...a 2010 study determined that car accidents actually increased a bit after handheld mobile phone talking and texting bans..."

"...drivers have responded to the law ... by hiding their phones from view"

Also, more mobile phones have touchscreens.

I used to be able to type a whole message without looking on my N95 because it had keys. These days you have to look.