Posts by D@v3

Like the Death Star on Endor, JEDI created a ton of fallout and stormy weather in cloud market

Re: Microsoft will provide artificial intelligence-based....

Isn't that the plot for the new terminator movie...?

Remember the 1980s? Oversized shoulder pads, Metal Mickey and... sticky keyboards?

Custardy

To cover something in custard (i need to custardy my blackberry crumble)

or is it cuss today, as in, what i will do if i have to deal with any more idiot users.

Re: ties

Which is exactly why, very early on, before my 'career' had even started, a wise old fool told me, 'if you are ever required to wear a tie for a job, make sure its a clip on'

I see your blue passport and raise you a green number plate: UK mulls rewards scheme for zero-emission vehicles

Re: (electric) taxis

@E7P

Was going to say similar. Was in the 'dam a couple of years back and was impressed / surprised to see the vast majority of taxis being Teslas.

Creepy AI Clips cam, Daydream VR headset, 1st-gen Pixel Buds join Google Reader, Allo, Plus in digital heaven

Re: Also a big shame...

The sad thing is, that statement also no doubt applies to a number of 'innovations' that have not even been released / developed / imagined yet

I wouldn't be at all surprised if in 20 years, any Stadia hardware is good for nothing other than gathering dust.

Welcome to the World Of Tomorrow, where fridges suffer certificate errors. Just like everything else

Re: shopping list

We just have a shared note on our phones that any of us can add to when we think of / notice something. Means we don't forget the list if we just pop in for something on the way home.

carrots

While in theory i agree with this, in practice, when we put most of our fruit and veg in the cupboard, some of it goes 'funny' a lot quicker than if we put some of it (mostly carrots) in the fridge. (all separated, different shelves and little tubs)

Conspiracy loons claim victory in Brighton and Hove as council rejects plans to build 5G masts

Re: Well

Gotta love the BED

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose

Not a death spiral, I'm trapped in a closed loop of customer experience

Re: This requirement for paper bills/statements...

much like it seems everyone else around here, i moved house in August. Mostly without too much hassle. There have been a couple of 'prove your address' situations, most memorably, signing up to a new GP, who wouldn't accept my newly updated driving license as proof of address because 'lots of people don't bother to update them'. Fortunately, the nice people in local government are pretty quick to get council tax sorted out, and most places will accept one of their letters as a proof of address.

The thing that really irked me was during the purchase, solicitors asking for 'original copies' of bank statements, which i haven't received for years. And don't get me started on 'certified' ID.....

Edge, Internet Explorer users Czech their settings after MSN 'forgot' their language

Czech your information

We had a number of users yesterday reporting that their computers had 'gone Polish'. After a brief investigation it turned out they were all Czech. I wonder how many of the reported 'Arabic, Polish and Russian' examples were just poorly identified by end users that were paranoid that the foreigns had come to take their jobs.

Consumer campaign to keep receiving printed till receipts looks like a good move – on paper

@iron

That sounds eerily familiar.

Charity (check)

Dozens of new email accounts for people that never go near computers (small charity, check)

No additional IT resources / support (check)

First water world exoplanet spotted – and thankfully no sign of Kevin Costner, rejoice!

Super earth.

How small can a planet be before it is no longer a 'super earth'? if "a type of planet that’s less than ten times the mass of the Earth"?

The Earth is less than 10x the mass of the Earth, right?

Re: "by studying the star’s spectrum with algorithms"

Finding a needle in a haystack is easy, all you need is a match and a good magnet.

Finding a specific needle in a stack of needles.. now there's a challenge...

Apple cracks, straps on free repair service for defective Watches

@David

+1 for the Pebble Steel. Mine lasted longer than the company, which is a shame.

Pokémon Red and Blue-era trading cards just made their owner a load of green: Complete set sells at auction for $107k

my maths is rusty

but if there were 151 Pokemon in the original game(s) how can a "complete" set of cards be only 103 did they just decide that there were a couple of dozen not worth including?

Ohm my God: If you let anyone other than Apple replace your recent iPhone's battery, expect to be nagged by iOS

I'm not saying that I agree with Apple on this, but my tuppence worth is...

If the issue being reported is effecting XR, XS and XS max phones, these have been on the market less than a year. If i had a phone (of any make) that was less than a year old that needed the battery replacing, i would be straight the manufacturer / retailer and politely 'requesting' a new one, as there is obviously something wrong with it.

(also, I'm not saying this doesn't happen on older phones, only that the article is referring specifically to new phones)

NASA trumpets Orion completion as India heads to the Moon

Re: Glen 1

A purge?

Bad news: Earth is not going to be walloped by asteroid 2006 QV89. Good news: Boffins have lost sight of it, so all hope is not yet lost

Re: Uh-oh

just to be sure, I'm off down the pub for a couple of lunch time pints and a packet of nuts.

UK's Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station takes an eye off the sky to strike out into data centre biz

Re: Nice area

I remember going as a kid, maybe 20 years ago, and being able to look round the visitor center.

Went back a few years ago, probably around 2014/15 and it was all closed down, you could wander round the site but there wasn't (or didn't appear to be) much going on. There was an off road segway tour, but that was closed in the off season.

Was actually back there a few weeks ago, hoping for another walk around the site, but that was all closed off, now i know why. Glad to see it is getting another go of things.

Oz watchdog claims Samsung's leak-proof phones ad campaign doesn't hold water

waterproof camera

I had a camera, an off brand GoPro type thing. Advertised on the box with pictures of surfers, and 'suggested uses' including snorkeling. Took it swimming once, for about 10 minutes, popping back up above the water frequently. Died. Completely. Tried to contact the manufacturer, but they had disappeared.

Could an AI android live forever? What, like your other IT devices?

+1 for HDD coasters

Want a good Android smartphone without the $1,000+ price tag? Then buy Google's Pixel 3a

Re: As an iPhone user @Andy

Keep in mind that if you are planning on buying SIM free, if you go to Apple, (with your presumably iPhone) you can trade it in towards the price of a new one. I got £150 for a 6s off the price of an Xs. £850 was admittedly still a lot, but slightly easier to swallow. (obviously, if you have been able to keep hold of, say a 4, or 5s for example, you would get considerably less)

Aussies, Yanks may think they're big drinkers – but Brits easily booze them under the table

Re: really interesting names

Nothing to be guilty of.

Some time ago, i decided that with the wealth of brews available in the UK (seems every pub i go into has something i have not seen before) the best thing to do is, for my first pint of the afternoon / evening, pick something new with either a good name or label.

Not every one is a winner, and if it isn't then grab something good to wash it down with, and if it is good, enjoy another.

What happens when security devices are insecure? Choose the nuclear option

Re: Blofeld's cat

It's so that when the radiation turns you into a zombie, you can't get up and walk away

Hipster whines at tech mag for using his pic to imply hipsters look the same, discovers pic was of an entirely different hipster

infinity

I have a hotel you might be interested in, it has an infinite number of rooms, and as it happens, each room has an infinite number of monkeys in it.

Ah! here comes the delivery of an infinite number of typewriters, I hope we have enough.

U wot, m8? OMG SMS is back from dead

Re: craft a text from any source you like

That might explain why I recently got an SMS from someone claiming to be a bank i have never had any dealings with, about the status of my account.

Re: usage charges for SMS

Not so much in the UK, at least not these days.

On the 4 main players, all their 'lowest cost' pay monthly deals come with unlimited texts, and most of them are unlimited calls as well.

Back in my younger days, it was common to be 10p per text, some would do free to same network. Until recently you would get bundled messages, say 250 a month often up to 1000 a month, but these days, it is uncommon to get anything other than 'unlimited' unless you are on PAYG.

Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams

Re: SonicStage

Was bloody awful, wasn't it. I had a Sony laptop with a swap-able drive, one of which was a mini disc drive, which was great and in theory made making new discs a lot easier, but the software was atrocious.

Looking back, maybe that's why I seem to be one of the only people that thinks iTunes isn't that bad.

Also, yes to data storage on mini disc, I thought for years that would have been a great idea, but of course we have usb sticks these days, i guess everything gets supplanted eventually.

Google: All your leaked passwords are belong to us – here's a Chrome extension to find them

Re: What app for the iPhone would anyone recommend?

KeePass works well enough for me.

It's a little bit of a pain as you can't create / add new passwords to it in iOS, you need to do that on the desktop version and sync them across, but for managing your existing passwords, i find it to be pretty good.

Free, locally stored encrypted database (i keep mine in dropbox so i can access it from multiple devices without having to constantly update various local copies).

Oh cool, the Bluetooth 5.1 specification is out. Nice. *control-F* master-slave... 2,000 results

Re: battery state

Already there, at least in come cases. My watch, and at least one pair of blue tooth headphones display their charge on my phone.

Worried about Brexit food shortages? North Korean haute couture has just the thing

Re: Shelter

I have read this many times, and wondered on just such occasions about the whole 'shelter' thing.

As my fellow commentards have already noted, I'm sure many of us regularly spend more than 3 hours, out and about, with no ill effects. Even in more extreme situations, I remember this one time, when i was doing some backpacking, arriving in Nice a bit late in the day, all the hostels were either full or not taking any more in for the night, so we slept on the beach, no sleeping bags, just jumpers as covers and bags as pillows. Uncomfortable due to it being a pebble beach, but i survived. (at least, i think i did)

I used to be a dull John Doe. Thanks to Huawei, I'm now James Bond!

Re: WTF is it with Faceboob insisting on preinstalling their slurpware

Its pre-installed on the Honor 9 Lite that we have started issuing as company phones. (other than that, they are very nice)

Peak Apple: This time it's SERIOUS, Tim

Re: sell for $600

Can you? If so, I've got a 6s that I'd like to sell you.

Best price I've been able to find is around £200, which while not bad for a 4 generation old phone, doesn't reduce the cost of a non-essential update enough, which is why I've still got it.

It's 2019, the year Blade Runner takes place: I can has flying cars?

Re: CSI

I'm guilty of watching a fair few of these over the years, mostly as just mindless entertainment to kill an hour of an evening when i don't have the enthusiasm to do anything else.

CSI (vegas) was once good,mainly through being original, but lost its way. Miami was never more than a joke, thanks mainly to David (puts on sunglasses) Caruso, New York seemed to mostly be OK, but CSI:Cyber. oh good god that was awful.

London's Gatwick airport suspends all flights after 'multiple' reports of drones

Re: The internet

I really hope that was the sound of a joke wooshing over my head and not another drone.

Something tells me, since operating a drone within the immediate area of an airport is illegal, that being 'double illegal' by flying 'eyes off' wouldn't really be much of a concern.

Oxford startup magics up metamaterials for next-gen charging

Re: Niche use case

Niche indeed.

The only real benefit that i can think of from wireless charging is that now that most* phones don't have a headphone socket, but give you a nice usb - headphone dongle, then you can plug your headphones / speakers/whatever in, and still charge.

Good for in a car, you can have wireless pad (plugged in by a wire into the cars USB socket) and the phone plugged into the stereo

Do not adjust your set: Hats off to Apple, you struggle to shift iPhones 'cos you're oddly ethical

Re: Headphone jack

i've been mostly using bluetooth headphones and speakers for a few years and generally have very few issues with them, but there are still times when being able to plug in a pair of headphones, or speakers, or connect into a stereo / hi-fi that is very useful, and i'd rather not have to carry around an adapter, just in case.

Also, if say, i am in the car with my phone connected to the Aux with the lightning adapter, how am i supposed to charge it?

Three become six as new 'nauts arrive for a visit to the ISS

Re: Alister. If that's a disk...

then where's the turtle?

(i would say elephants, but you wouldn't be able to see them at that angle)

Apple heading for Supreme Court showdown over iOS App Store 'monopoly' gripe

Re: Minority of market

While iOS may have a minority of the Mobile OS market, I would expect that of the actual hardware market that Apple are doing quite well (very well indeed before Huawei started being such a big deal).

While anecdotal of course, i see many more people with a single model of iOS phone, than i do within an entire brand of Android phones.(for example, lots and lots of iPhone SE's, but relatively few Samsung phones)

What is also worth remembering is, Apple hold 100% of the iOS market. At least with Android if you decide that you don't like the way Samsung (for example) are doing something, there are alternatives.

(i had a point, but i think it got away from me)

Shocker: UK smart meter rollout is crap, late and £500m over budget

Re: How are these supposed to save energy

I like the idea that you are supposed to save money on your electricity bill, by spending lots of money on more energy efficient items.

A 5G day may come when the courage of cable and DSL fails ... but it is not this day

Cost

While the article may say

"It's much cheaper and easier to deploy and that's a saving that can be passed on to a household almost immediately. For example, there's no need for £240-a-year line rental"

I personally just read that as,

"it costs us less to deploy, but because it is 'faster' we can charge even more for it, so double profit for us. yay."

Busy week for ISS as Russia resumes flights and vies for parking spaces with NASA

On the subject of spacecraft

https://xkcd.com/2074/

Which scientist should be on the new £50 note? El Reg weighs in – and you should vote, too

Bernard Lovell

Surprised to see only one other mention.

Gave his name to the telescope which was the largest steerable dish radio telescope in the world when it was built (in 1957), even now it is the third-largest (or 2nd, depending on how you look at it, 1st and 2nd are the same size).

Lots of work, research and developments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lovell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovell_Telescope

Powerful forces, bodily fluids – it's all in a day's work

Re: RWB issues

I have a similar problem at the moment.

I have a monitor, (and it is definitely not; the cable, the video card, the drivers. As it happens where ever you plug the monitor in. White (or actually a shade of grey, which Windows likes to use in its system shadings) is decidedly green. Factory re-sets on the monitor, nothing. Playing with the colour balance on the display almost fixes it, but then throws out other colours.

Return to manufacturer, gets "tested" and returned to us with no fault, we then plug it back in to a random PC with a new cable, same fault. (Ba*ds)

Does Google make hardware just so nobody buys it?

Re: But muh headphone jack!

Also, with Bluetooth, you can only use one pair of headphones at a time.

How do you, for example, on a long flight or train journey with a friend, connect two sets of headphones to be able to watch a film together.

Re: ecarlseen

I mostly agree, i have a number of bluetooth headphones and they are great, but i have one question.

Without a headphone jack, how do i plug my phone into my cars aux port, and charge it at the same time? (oldish car, no bluetooth on stereo)

Re: Tigra

Except, while you may need more battery to power both screens, you have more space for battery.

Watch Series 4: What price 'freedom'? About as much as you'd expect from an Apple product

Re: in response

1) It is, but i have got used to it. Round is nice for a clock face, square(ish) works well for everything else.

2) as the article said, that is generally enough to get you somewhere into day two. I generally find my use goes somewhere along the lines of. Get to work on day 1, watch off to charge for an hour or so, while i get a coffee and catch up with what has happened over night. Fine through day 2, day three is then day 1 again. That includes trips to the gym on both days.

3)it is, but that's Apple.

4) see above

5) there are many, many, reasonably priced, alternatives, of varying quality available from many people on line. But yes, the 'official Apple straps are laughably expensive'

Where can I hide this mic? I know, shove it down my urethra

USB storage capacity

I remember when i was at college and the idea of storing things on something you could plug into a USB was becoming a 'thing'. (mice, keyboards, printers had been around a while).

To avoid all the nonsense that my classmates had to put up with using floppies, myself and a couple of chums had invested in USB card readers, and what were at the time, almost exclusively digital camera memory cards. I had a 16mb compact flash card, and a single format card reader, was the best thing ever.

Was a bit of a pain needing to carry around the mini-CD with the drivers on it.

China's going to make a mobile OS and everyone will love it, predict ball-gazing analysts

Re: who would you trust...

If I'm being honest

Apple, as it stands, they don't "seem" to have much interest in mined data, (or maybe i have just been successfully brainwashed)

Then, surprisingly, Google. We all know they are at it, but their main goal "seems" to be to make money and 'improve' their 'services'.

And actually, then PRC, as they are at least keen on 'improving' their country, even if it means shitting on the proles in the process.

But Facebook? Nah, they can take a long walk off a tall building.