Posts by Chris Haynes

BT admits misleading customers over Phorm experiments

At what point...

...is a technology not going to be used to make a profit at the expense of those who require that technology?

The internet is meant to be a global network of computers that allows everyone to connect to everyone (within reason, of course). At what point does the very fact that you are connected mean you automatically have to be a source of revenue for your broadband provider? They already get our money each month. If that's not enough, they shouldn't sell access at that price. If they want more money, they most certainly should not be simply taking our data and pimping it to anyone who'll pay for it.

I look forward to the day when the internet is "just there" - ubiquitous, and left alone to help people, not stiff them for every penny they can get.

Three questions for the Jesus SDK

AIM doesn't disconnect you...

...unless the IM app sends their server a disconnect message or their server cannot contact your app within a certain timeout, thus you can be using the IM app and when a phone call is received, the app should store the current status, then restore it when you launch the IM app again.

Your messages will still be there, the only thing is you won't receive any notification that someone is trying to talk to you - and why would you if you're using the phone? But then, if you look at how you use the iPhone.

If I were chatting away and received a phone call, the first thing I'd do after ending the call is to re-launch the IM app and carry on where I left off. The app would retrieve any messages you missed.

If you didn't re-launch the IM app after the call, that's just you being rude to your chat buddies.

w00t voted 'Word of the Year'

'Facebook' this!

If someone 'facebooks' me, I shall put a book in their face.

Nintendo confirms Wii DVD support coming

Great idea!

If Nintendo whack DVD functionality into the Wii (and hopefully as a firmware upgrade 'cos I'm not going to buy another Wii), will Gordon Brown give me some money back for getting rid of my existing DVD player? After all, that DVD player must be using some sort of energy while it's sitting there doing nothing most of the time?

Chuck the DVD player, save the world.

Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine

To whoever posted about not experiencing slow file copying in Vista...

I had a 221MB zip file of about 250MB. It was on the C: drive of my friend's Vista laptop.

WinZip was not installed.

I expanded the zip file (compressed folders method) and tried to copy one of the folders from there onto the Desktop on the SAME laptop. This isn't even copying between computers or over any sort of network - this is from the harddrive to somewhere else on the same harddrive.

Vista said it would take 4 days and 6 hours to complete. It started copying the data at 55 bytes/sec and never got above 68 bytes/sec.

In the end, I had to put the zip on my Mac and activate file sharing on the Vista laptop, so I could copy them at a reasonable speed (in the Mb/sec range).

I've experienced the slow file copying in VIsta, and let me tell you, it f**king aches.

Leopard data loss glitch uncovered

Only just causing problems?

If this bug has been around since OS X 10.3 Panther, then it can't be as serious as some people are making out, since in those 4 years or so only the original person who discovered the bug and this Mr. Karpik have experienced it.

I usually move lots of my files around and I've never had suffered data loss.

L1NUX number plate roars onto eBay

Why isn't...

...SH1T isn't the same price as V1STA? Both are, after all, equal.

Apple iPod Touch

Not entirely true...

"Not so the Touch, which you have to bring out in full view of all and sundry, disable the screen lock then adjust the volume slider. For those of us living in metropolitan environments, that's just not discreet enough."

You can double-click the Home button and it displays controls that you can use to adjust the volume, skip tracks etc. But yes, you still need to take it out of your pocket in order to use the controls.

PS: Where's the picture of Steve Jobs with a halo atop his bonce?

So, what's the first rule of Reg Club?

The First Rule of Reg Club is...

No smoking.

Flaming is okay.

Sony poo-poos £299 PS3 claims

What would benefit Sony the most?

Ten people buying the current version of the PS3 for £299, or no one buying the current version for £425?

They should just drop the price to a more reasonable level and watch as people actually start to buy it.

Until the price drops to such a level, I'll be keeping my money firmly in my wallet.

American-style casino opens in Iraq

Iraqasino?

Amazing that a Russian has managed to open the first "Iraqasino" in a war-torn country where people kill each other over whose imaginary friend is better.

Next up: McDonalds. "Would you like Christian evangelism with that halal burger?"

Then what? A Niketown on every corner? AT&T flogging the Apple iRaq?

Apple coughs up G4 refunds to dissatisfied Danes

Nothing wrong with AppleCare

At least in the UK. My Power Mac G5 is being collected today to have the hard drive sorted out (it's futzed).

This is the first problem I've had with any Mac computer (including my friends' Macs) in the last 8 years, and it's only a hard drive.

Fancy an invisible dog that dances on stilts?

Shame...

If it were a Ninja technique, I might've been interested. Ninja. Cool.

iPhone sparks counter measures from Verizon, RealNetworks and MTV

Samsung, Samshmung

My housemate just got a Samsung Blah 700i or something like that. She couldn't get it to use an MP3 track as a ringtone. It would only use some naff MMF files or whatever. She dispatched that tat within a few hours.

Going by the fact they don't do what almost every other mobile phone on the planet does, I doubt this new service will get anywhere.

Paper calls for local ID cards

Anyone for tattoos?

There's a shop down the street doing a special deal on barcode tattoos for your arms and forehead (for those who have no arms). Simply pay your £100 and you too can be a part of this one glorious ideology.

Praise Labour. Praise the democracy *cough* we now live in.

All your DNA are belong to us.

Chinese couple give birth to @ symbol

Erm...

Tw@.

Jordan names sprog 'Princess Tiaamii'

Why not...

"Goingtogettheshitkickedoutofmeatschool", as in:

"Hi, who are you?"

"I am Goingtogettheshitkickedoutofmeatschool."

"Yes. Yes you are."

Nintendo yanks Mario Party 8 - offensive language to blame?

All your base are belong to...

...sp****cs.

Seriously, games companies, STOP using non-English people to translate your games into English.

Fossil, Sony restyle Bluetooth watch line for the mainstream

Just because it's technologically possible...

...it doesn't mean you should do it.

What is the point of these watches? Whoopee, you can see what music's playing on your phone - obviously because just listening to it isn't enough...

Half of black Britain on track for DNA database

Refuse participation in any scheme

Innocent until proven guilty is another of our rights that Labour have eroded over the past ten years. That's a great legacy for you to leave, Mr. B.Liar.

Pay-as-you-drive roads coming to the UK

Governments always ignore the electorate

1.8 million drivers said no. The government ignored them. That's UK democracy in action, folks! Enjoy!

It's a shame that more people vote on TV shows than they do for the people who run the country.

Sony announces 80GB PS3

Okay, we're being ripped off again

I sometimes wonder why companies like Sony don't just open a manufacturing plant in the UK and start to sell things at the true price, rather than shipping them from the other side of the world (think of all the carbon...). Oh wait, it's because they want to protect their incomes by forcing the price up much higher than the actual cost.

Feck.

Well, I'll still not buy one until it's less than the Japanese or US launch price. £390 is still too much.

Feck.

Gloves come off in George Bush buttplug rumpus

About time...

I've always wanted to tell Dubya to eat sh!t.

Scientology tries to discredit BBC documentary

A psychedelic menagerie of intergalactic bobbins...

What a load of tosh. Xenu? Thetans? Bobbins, the whole lot.

How can people seriously believe this crud? Where's the proof? A (bad) SCIENCE-FICTION WRITER invented it all, and the nonces actually believe it's true?

To quote that English guy from Buffy, "The Earth is doomed".

'Cops help kill 32 Students', claims furious blogger

Americans won't learn

No matter how many people die in these tragedies, Americans will only ever respond with the usual line, "this proves we need guns to protect ourselves". It's in the Constitution - that unchangeable, set in stone document written many, many years ago - so it has to be relevant, right? Wrong.

Take the guns out of the hands of these people and the shootings cannot happen.

The gunman went to the campus with a gun because he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him. He had the intention of using the gun. If he didn't have the gun, the most that would've happened is the other guy would've got beaten up. But the gunman certainly wouldn't have been able to beat up 30 other people two hours later.