Posts by Dangerous Dave

Did LibCon alliance bring down O2 network?

no-2

I've had enough of O2 after over 5 years. Contract is up in August and I'll be running for the hills. I've got a Vodafone work mobile that never has any problem with data connections (I'm not saying Voda's is up 100% of the time but I've never experienced an issue, though strangely enough i use the Vodafone for data more than I do the O2). Wife is on O2 as well and experiences the same drop outs as i do, so i'm forever changing APN's to try and find something that works (changing it from mobile.o2.co.uk to wap.o2.co.uk is usually a fairly decent workaround, until that goes down and you have to switch back)

Over the last two years O2's data connection has gone to pot. Over subscription since the iPhone graced our lives? It's Jobs' fault, i'm convinced :)

Chinese store exposes iPhone 4's midriff

wow

I wonder what ground breaking features are planned for it? I'm still in shock and sheer amazement after they rocked the world with such things as 3G*, MMS*, video recording*, cut and paste* etc....ON A PHONE! Who'd have thought it? I sure didnt!

I can only hope they include such amazing features as a camera with flash**, slide out keyboard**, and hopefully, a crazy frog ringtone** - my life will then be complete

*Copyright © 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved

**Patents pending

TalkTalk steps up attack on government

i'm binning them anyway

I've had them for 2 months and after countless calls to their "support" team they cant explain to me why my talk talk service only sync's at 250-300k downstream, leaving my "service" pretty unusable - I know i live in the back of beyond (3km from the nearest exchange), and this is the reason they put my slow sync speeds down to, Very strange that on previous providers (Demon, IDNet) i'd be getting 1MBit - 1.25MBit speeds. hardly lightning, but at least i had the ability to watch stuff on youtube without having to wait 10 minutes for it download the entire thing first. They don't seem to understand how i was able to achieve working broadband before. My neighbour has BT Broadband and that sync's at around 1MBit, so how do they explain that one? Is it because they are 5 metres closer to the exchange than i am? morons, the lot of them.

The final straw came this morning was when they finally called me back and told me that the problem was with the length of line from the exchange (blah blah) and that they could send a BT engineer out to my property but i would be billed for it at whatever extortionate rate BT have plucked out of the sky.

Take your broadband and stick it.

Though there here was a funny incident after the clocks had changed, and obviously their call centre in mumbai/wherever hadnt worked this out properly. I asked them to call me at 8PM Monday night to perform some line tests etc. Mobile goes off at 7PM and i'm on my way home, "Rupert" from TalkTalk is on the other end wanting to perform these line tests for the umpteenth time. my response was "you are supposed to ring me at 8PM" his response "sorry sir, my previous appointment ran over so it made me late for this one" - WTF.... world time FAIL

Also hearing "Thankyou from your time and patience" a billion times per call to their "support" people really does nothing for my patience

Hands on with Acer's 3D laptop

the possibilities are endless....

3D porn can't be far off?

One night in Paris 3D, for obvious reasons

Sky Player hits Xbox 360

existing sky subscribers?

What if you already have the full sky package? Do i still have to pay? Obviously watching live TV on the xbox is pointless, as my xbox is sat on top my sky box, but the on demand program library would be nice. I haven't got access to sky anytime/skyplayer other than on the PC as i have not upgraded to sky+ or HD yet because as per usual, sky don't offer exisiting subscribers sod all and want to charge me for a new box, installation, and hike my monthly rental up. wazzocks, they can go swivel

has the lastFM thing appeared yet? i checked at the weekend and couldnt see anything on the "whats new" menu

black helicopters, because i don't plug my sky box into the phone socket *dons tinfoil hat*

Windows 7 - the Reg reader verdict

@ AC 04:47

"Even with correct driver (using XP video driver), still can't get full resolution on LCD screen"

If it's an Intel onboard graphics chip like i have on my work Optiplex 360, you need to manually edit the driver INF file before installation so it picks up the additional resolutions (being a part time linux user i'm used to this *sigh*). I had to do this on my XP and Win7 installs, so not a Windows problem, just Intel writing crap drivers. Intel G33/31 Express + Dell 1909W (1440x900) here.

see here: http://www.jjclements.co.uk/index.php/2007/07/19/intel-gfx-driver-resolution-fix/

Paris, because she likes the full width

doesnt need beefy hardware IME

I've got it on my mid spec desktop at home plus an aging Dell Latitude X1 lappy (Pentium M 1.1GHz ULV, 2GB RAM!) and both run fine, drivers all installed first time without a hitch

I tried Vista on the same laptop a couple of years ago (when it hit RTM) and it crippled it and had me running back to XP. Vista was installed Ok but it seemed any disk operation sent the mouse pointer into blue-spinny-circle mode and explorer would be "not responding" for 30 seconds. Looks like MS have managed to sort that at least :)

Happy with it so far, been running full 7 for a couple of months now via MSDN

Orange data users turning red as data dries up

hah!

Not just my O2 data that's up and down like a whores drawers then

Nokia launches laptop

Netbooks

Not bothered with one myself yet, as most of the ones ive seen look cheap and nasty, especially the white ones.

Perfectly happy with my Latitude X1, the pre-netbook netbook :) (Pentium M 1.1GHz, RAM max'd out at 1GB of DDR2, 12.1" Widescreen, and a 30GB 1.6" HDD)

Running Windows 7 Home Premium RTM at the moment more than adequately, which i was amazed with. Does everything i would be buying a netbook for, so i'm sticking with it until it goes pop :)

@Greg J - Windows 7

Looks like Windows 7 to me on the video, with the apple dock style icons. Though we'll wait and see if it's a "proper" Windows 7 or a cut down cheapy version

BlackBerry Curve 8520

HTML

Yeah, HTML emails have been working since device software v4.5 IIRC - got it on my work one since i updated. May also need to be on BES 4.1.6 too, as i updated that at the same time

forget all that.....

...what we really need to know is, how does brickbreaker perform using the new touchpad?

Ads watchdog bows to iPhone's might

Delusional? There's an app for that!

@ Glen 9 - Apple Fanboi at work says "Show me another phone that does cut and paste!"

Well, there's one here in my right hand, and another in my left hand, neither of which are apple

@ AC 08:35 - "It's the bomb" - anyone who uses phrases like that are not qualified to give opinions on ANYTHING

@AC 14:57

"looking at boobs, looking at nude people,"

You can do that in the web browser

O2 data network falls over again

@AC 20:40

I'm on O2 contract with the free unlimited (pssshyeah right) web bolt-on. Mine uses wap.o2.co.uk (which also keeps going down) - these are the settings that i was sent by O2 when i got my phone (non jesus) a few months back

Changing to mobile.o2.co.uk works but it's slower

they told me...

it was a fire last week that had taken the network out, then they report that it was a DHCP failure

Come on, make up your mind O2. Either way, you're a bunch of cretins who wont be getting another year out of me :)

Facebook slaps faces on ads

I've also noticed...

if you have facebook logged in on one tab and browse certain sites in another, your friends pics sometimes appear in certain banners (I think it was Pirate Bay/Isohunt where i saw it last)

Google tosses Android a Donut

@Richard 31

Windows Mobiles dont have it installed by default (well, the SPV C500 and XDA Trion's i've endured haven't)

You have to install some third party app called smartexplorer i seem to remember. iPhone doesnt do it either does it, but you can cut and paste now *snigger*

Truck drivers! Don't go texting now

eh?

people need to take their eyes off the road to send a text message?

That's another thing you CANT do on an iPhone :)

Toshiba TG01 smartphone

yawn

i wish they'd stop flogging the dead horse that is WinMo6/6.1 - it's awful. I had an XDA Trion that went back to O2 after a month, it was horrible.

3.2mp camera with no flash? what? this is 2009 FFS, i had a better camera than that on a Nokia N73 about 4 years ago!

And no, i don't have an iPhone/gPhone either :)

Cops and ISP in paedophile data mix up

so...

it's virgin media then?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/net_heroes_and_villains_recognised/

Wouldnt surprise me, it took them 4 attempts to install a phone line at my old house before i told them to forget it - and i thought BT were useless

eBay revenue shrivel hits nine month mark

waste of time nowadays

the last few times i've tried selling stuff on there i've had someone try scam me. It's like most things, it starts off great but once it becomes more popular and the idiots get hold of it, it all turns to crap.

It's still good for the odd phone charger from taiwan or wherever, but selling for me nowadays is a no no

O2 coughs to data failure

eh?

i called up yesterday to find out why the hell my 3G wasnt working and they told me there had been a fire at one of their sites and it had taken the entire data network down. They said it could be down for days at worst

something stinks and its not just O2's customer service

Wheels come off O2's data network

o2 = useless

Mine stopped working yesterday afternoon, thought nothing of it and left it. Tried again last night and still wasnt working. Tried wi-fi, that wouldnt work either. Did a factory reset on the phone (SE c905) and updated to latest firmware. Requested settings from O2, applied them and still no good.

Tried again this morning at work (other side of Leeds, also different wi-fi network), nothing again on 3G/HSDPA or Wi-Fi, though calls and texts are working. MMS isnt working either obviously. It's showing the HSDPA symbol to show as being connected but mobile internet just errors. Assuming my phone was b0rked, i called O2 and explained my situation

I was told there had been a fire at one of the sites yesterday lunchtime and there was nationwide outage on the GPRS/3G network. According to the woman in the call centre this will also be affecting my ability to connect to my wireless networks at home and work (yeah, right *sigh*) - after questioning why a national mobile network is brought to its knees by an incident at a single site, i was told to call back later as they cant do anything further until the network is restored. fair enough, but it still doesnt explain why my wi-fi is fudged as well, it was working yesterday morning and still is for my laptops etc.

And why does the guy with an iPhone at work still have a working 3G connection? how strange...

Yahoo! bites! Web! 2.0! apple! with! homepage! relaunch!

eh?

people still use yahoo?

Metallica sticksman gloats over Napster downfall

prat

Musically, I like Metallica, i really do. A lot of their stuff is great, but then again, a lot of it is complete and utter trash (St Anger, Re-Load for instance) - Then on the other hand, Hetfield and Lars are a couple of complete self-promoting whiny bitches.

If anyone wants to see the *real* metallica, watch the video/documentary "Some Kind of Monster" - great viewing (Available on all good torrent trackers...heh! sorry couldnt resist). To say it was an official documentary i can't believe it paints them as what they truly are, a bunch of whinging, green tea drinking, arguing, childish wankers. It's hilarious, it's like a modern day version of Spinal Tap

Though i'll fully admit, the latest album "Death Magnetic" is the closest thing to a return to form that i've seen in a long time from them, and i really like it .

Microsoft offers Windows 7 early and cheap to volume customers

free upgrade?

No chance! So if you bought a car that turned out to be a pile of crap, would you go back to the dealer two years later and ask for an upgrade or discount on the latest model, just because you owned the previous one?

Acer: We’re comin’ at ya, Dell

They cannot be serious

Where i work, my predecessor bought a batch of 20 or so late P4 H/T Acerpower F5 and FG's - quite simply horrible cheap tat. The onboard Marvell NIC's have a habit of dying, the fan speed controllers die so that the CPU and case fans are at 100% constantly. Driver updates are few and far between, and you cant use standard ATI catalyst drivers for the onboard VGA, you have to use Acer's 2 year old packages from the website. Performance isn't great either, running XP SP2 on a GB of RAM (plenty you'd think)

I've always preferred HP, or failing that i'd go with Dell, had no experience of Lenovo or Fujitsu....but Acer won't be getting any of my money any time soon

Windows XP crashes out of Olympics?

@ Nuno trancoso

"If people are so wanton on pointing out a flaw"

I can't be the only person who spotted the "wan ton" joke can i?

The departure/arrivals monitors in Leeds train station are showing BSOD's all the time, with the occasional "NTLDR is missing - Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart" thrown in for good measure. Always good for a geeky smirk on the way home

Microsoft chases satnav market

winCE satnav

I was unfortunate enough to own one of these said WinCE based satnavs a couple of years ago. it was a cheap locked down pocket PC that was bascially turned on its side and fitted with a suction mount with some crappy "Destinator" software thrown on the sd card.

On a trip from Leeds to Sheffield it finally found a satellite signal just south of Barnsley. Useless. Sent it back after a week and got a tomtom One G2 which i've been happy with ever since

/Paris - Cos she never needs to ask for directions

Vodafone bundles mobile data

hmm

I get 3gb/month for £7.50/month with O2 Web Max bolt-on....hardly reinventing the wheel are they?

Microsoft could go it alone without Yahoo!

huh?

People use Yahoo?

Sony to bring GTA IV PS3 bundle to Blighty

i don't remember.....

reliability problems with SNES and Mega Drive

Unlocked iPhones help drive Apple Q2

iphone

1.7 million idiots can't be wrong surely!

IMAP and POP3? Do they seriously believe that sysadmin's are going to open these ports up to the world on their exchange boxes? I'm not that's for sure. My apple luser can forward all his exchange mail to his gmail if he's really that bothered :)

Microsoft kicks out third Windows XP service pack

@b166er

Re: sidebar

What the hell is that pink pokemon clock about?!

Paris: Cos she's gotta catch em all!

@Foof

I thought that IBM invented "FUD" ?

But then microsoft became the FUD-masters and out FUD-ded IBM at their own FUD-ding game in the 3.1 v OS/2 battle?

XP Student Edition

What....the one that doesn't work and consumes vast quantities of pot noodles and snakebite?

SP3

I'm not looking forward to this whatsoever.

XP SP2 works perfectly well now (thought it did fudge a fair few machines when it first got released) - i would go as far to say that SP2 is a stable and usable OS (shock!)

Did anybody have any trouble with Win2K SP4? When that was released it wrecked a fair few customers servers and workstations. But then miraculously after a week or so, if you re-downloaded it again it was perfectly fine (though microsoft swear blind that nothing was changed...hmm)

I'll be double checking my WSUS configuration just in case SP3 manages to somehow roll itself out across my network....now that would NOT be a good day :)

Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

where is it then.....

my leased line is chomping at the bit here :(

I may.....

even give this one a go on my home machine, but seeing as it's a DIY PC rather than a branded model i'm not overly confident of it working. I've been running it on an old Dell Optiplex at work pretty faultlessly for 6 months or so now

What are my chances on my home PC?

Asus mobo with VIA KT600 chipset, NVidia 7600GS PCI-E, Abit PCI-E Wi-Fi card (thats the bit that worries me, a total deal breaker. i've tried cards and usb's from linksys etc but they struggle in my house...bah)

Microsoft's 'Vista Capable' appeal thrown out

Another thing that's bugged me...along the same lines

When they released HD LCDs and Plasma's badged as 1080i "HD Ready" and "High Definition" and people bought them in their millions

18 months down the line....well actually, those arent actually PROPER HD, you have to stump up for a 1080P now to enjoy the full hi-def experience, and still some of those dont support 24fps properly so you get a stupid judder when watching blu-ray

wazzocks!

Toshiba reveals R500 sub-notebook with 128GB SSD

i bought one of this....

series for one of our users who goes abroad a lot (having lugged an HP NX series around, on and off trains and planes myself, i understand the need for a small and light machine).

I managed to find one with XP on it too from Insight.

Nice laptop but strewth how much crap do Toshiba pre-install on their machines nowadays?! I've been strictly HP (Business notebooks, so no pavillions) for the past few years, and HP's come with a fair amount of junk installed but tosh really do take the cake. The system tray took up about a third of the taskbar! 3 system tray icons that all deal with me turning the volume up and down, is that really necessary????!!!!

After a thorough msconfig session and tidy up it now runs pretty well, though i'm not entirely sure how long it's going to last as the screen flexes when you move it, so build quality is yet to be proven

It seemed the only option as the small HP's were megabucks at the time, and even the cheapest of those only came with core solo chips. I hate Vaio's with a passion so they were not even considered.

At least it came with 3 year warranty....but when my user accidentally snaps the screen in half i doubt that will be covered

I wouldn't park there, mate - Honda adds sat nav warnings

wtf

surely people know by the sheer amount of junkies and skagheads around that they are parking in a less than savoury area

Look at Harehills in Leeds for example, i wouldn't even drive through their with my window open and risk breathing the same area as some of the human garbage that lives around there.... much less drive my new Honda anywhere near that anus of West Yorkshire

And don't even get me started on Dewsbury Moor

Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs

Wii

Maybe it's because gaming on the wii means that developers show a bit of imagination when it comes to incoroprating the control method. Rather than just releasing the ten billionth installment of the same old FIFA, Medal of Honour, Call Of Duty etc etc

p.s. - Mario Kart dicks anything that the 360 or PS3 has to offer

cue flame war!

Xbox 360 burns house down

@Shonk

IIRC There was a recall/warning about the figure-8 lead that powers the original Xbox.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/19/xbox_recall_nofix/

Microsoft... ha ha

When asked for comment, Ballmer responded:

"The XBOX 360 and associated peripherals are just a work in progress, things like this are bound to happen"

Leaked picture points to upcoming HTC phones

HTC

I've majorly fallen out with them. I got an XDA Trion on O2 runningWM6 in October and it's been absolutely fecking useless. Sitting there and waiting for it to do even the most simple of tasks, or even sometimes just for the phone to figure out that i have opened the slider so that it allows me to use the keyboard

It now resides in a drawer, unable to inflict any more misery and frustration on humankind. It's going ebay soon. Some poor sap will buy it i'm sure

D-Link touts telly as remote PC screen

or just get.....

a chipped Xbox, and stream all your media from your PC using samba :)

SanDisk warns that unsecured flash drives are coming to get you

Sandisk USB Drives

Once you've got rid of all the junk software i find Sandisk USB drives to be the best. Simple because this 2GB Micro Cruzer has been in the washing machine 3 times now and still works like a dream

My Kingston DataTraveler before that died in a watery, soapy grave on it's first trip round and round the washing machine. Obviously they are about as reliable as their RAM then :P