Posts by Mark Baker

Videogames caused riots says plod

of course it did

Because remember how we never had any riots before videogames or the internet?

Exactly.

UK gov unleashes biometric IDs

Save some money, UKgov

and just scrap the whole ID scheme - that's billions saved that you can use to bail out more companies or, god forbid, actually reduce taxes on 'luxury' items such as heating and clothing.

BT to be freed from service obligations

BT's phone service != the physical lines

I don't mind relaxing the USO a little if BT can relax its grip on the intrastructure.

I'll pay BT Openreach (or whoever actually owns the line) rental on the line, but I do object to being forced to pay for a phone service I don't want or use.

Or even better, get the ISP to pay the line rental as part of my bill. Or is that just too sane?

Group Test: Universal Remote Controls

Harmony Remotes & Macs

... do work! I'm very happy to say. I have a Harmony 895 and it has worked very well with a couple of different Macs I've used to program it.

The "Select" button did fall off at point, but Logitech happily replaced the entire remote, so I can't complain too much.

PayPal glitch freezes sellers' cash for weeks

" Payment is released automatically after positive feedback is left"

Except it doesn't appear to be, for one of my transactions. Even after complaining to pay pal and receiving a response saying the transaction will be un-frozen, it's still stuck there. Just as well that I'm not desperate for the cash.

Things like this don't exactly improve my confidence in PayPal - I'm not sure who I'm more at risk of losing money from, them or the scammers.

Apple revamps MacBook as 13in MacBook Pro

Hooray, a small MBP!

Personally I'm glad to see a small MacBook Pro -- I'd previously had a 12 inch Powerbook and really appreciated its small size but still realtively high spec. I'm very happy to see a smaller laptop from Apple that's still got the same bus speed and mostly same spec as the larger laptops.

Interesting how there is no 17 inch yet, too...

Personally I'll be waiting for the cost of SSDs to come down so that I can fit one - not for speed/power consumption but just because I find that HDDs are what break on all the laptops I've owned. (I assume because they are very often moved whilst it is turned on).

As for people pointing out that its expensive... well, yes. It's made by Apple. They don't really do 'cheap' in case you haven't noticed. Arguably there is a good psychological reason for this, many people do equate price with quality so a higher price = higher quality. Apple differentiate themselves from other laptop/PC manufacturers by offering a higher quality alternative. That has pretty much always been their whole strategy from day 1. So don't expect it to change now.

Tiscali sues BT for 'defamation and falsehood'

Tiscali = hopeless

I don't know how else to describe a company that's been sending me a bill telling me I'm £12 in credit for the past six months, despite repeated phone calls where they promised to shut the account and finally admitted that there was 'nothing they could do' and that it would "sort itself out eventually".

Muppets.