
Re: The clear and present danger.
Wouldn't it be supreme irony for those decrying the technology to be the primary users of it, while complaining and wanting it banned?
73 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Aug 2008
"Fast radio bursts are bizarre. They appear as bright blips of radio light that last less than a few milliseconds before disappearing, only to occasionally pop again unpredictably. Some have only been spotted once, and a few are known to flare up randomly now and again. Their erratic nature makes them difficult to study and scientists still don’t know what they are really caused by."
Obviously this is the exhaust trail of alien hyperdrive technology.
I thought USB-C was in answer to Apple's Lightning? It matched the nice "plug-in-either-way-up", but not as small or elegantly?
TBH, I hate micro-USB and USB-C. micro-USB was a horrible cheap, nasty, poor quality and too easy to break interface that demanded a superior replacement. USB-C is not that connector, as it still feels very fragile and big to me.
USB consortium should have standardised on the superior Lightning plug IMHO.
Power differences in charger aside, I've got to say that I have been annoyed with USB for a long time. Why did we need USB (A) and USB (B) {the square one on printers and scanners}, then get USB-mini, then micro-USB, and now USB-C?
Apple lightning has been with us since 2012 and IMHO is a much more elegant solution for connecting devices. Physically, I much prefer it to the user experience of USB-C (even though USB-C is street ahead of mini and micro USB). Apple need their head's looking at for not licensing the tech to the USB forum and it being standardised as the USB-C connector for all devices.
Last weekend, I happened to notice several new screens hanging from the ceiling inside the entrance of my local city-centre superstore branch of Boots the Chemist.
Several door "lane" video cameras had been pointed at the entrance and a live feed was being displayed on the screens. Every person entering the shop was highlighted with a nice shiny coloured recentangle graphic around their head!
I don't recall seeing any notice outside the shop warning of this invasion of privacy, or how long the video / frame captures would be kept for. Certainly didn't sign anything agreeing to the storage of said images...
Having recently returned from a week around Rock and Padstein, I can confirm that council funding is a joke and they should be more focused on providing litter collections, free toilets with baby changing facilities near beaches, and automated anti-seagull guns near all pasty shops.
@sed gawk - I used to run my home broadband like this from a Samsung S4mini, but with the data usage I had while working from home and the phone being plugged in to charger all the time, I went through one battery every nine months! They expanded to the point of near explosion (hence icon) and popped the back of the phone casing off!
Also, range was pants. In the study it was fine, but more than one room away and there was no WiFi. I had Netgear 13-amp plug range extenders, but so many problems.
The speed was great on Three 3G (8.5 mbps down, 1.6 mbps up) when the village was on pre-FTTC ADSL (at dial-up speeds) until end of 2016. Since FTTC, it's been a no-brainer to go to a "proper" home broadband package and internal WiFi coverage is rock solid.
In UK, the original Analogue cellular networks from the 80's were backronymed to 1G when Digital GSM was introduced as 2G in around 1992/3. GSM was digital duplex voice-only.
GPRS was added to that around 99/2000 to include data, but throughput was very variable maxing out at around 9KB/s in real world .
EDGE (EGPRS) was 2.5G (a data speed improvement over GPRS which boosted data to around 24-30KB/s) before the 3G (UMTS) explosion in 2003 through Orange and Three.
While I broadly agree that carriers need to provide full coverage with a basic service, 1G, 2G and 2.5G all need to be killed off. It must be possible to provide full 3G coverage for both voice and data everywhere now?
In the UK, on Three on my personal phone, when I have a signal it is 3G and the voice quality is great, when I don't I have no service (that happens too often). On my work phone (O2), it frequently "drops back" to horrible quality on 2.5G or 2G in an attempt to keep connected.
1 dropped call in 50 is acceptable? Hmm...
Given that mobile voice and data are so heavily relied on by the public and business these days, Isn't it about time that government and OFCOM got some teeth and forced a mandate for all mobile operators to meet specific and publicly visible standards for signal coverage for voice and data, voice call quality, minimum acceptable data speeds (per G type), number of dropped calls, and maximum acceptable outages? (amongst others). Especially for out-of-city locations.
"As a standard out-of-the-box" feature in the Window manager so all apps have it by default. Like the Move, Size, Close options that have been there since Windows 3.0 (or before).
Sure, I guessed there would be more apps out there which use the feature (I forgot about VLC for instance). However, AFAIK, the fact that none of Microsoft's own included-with-the-OS software and its flagship Office applications do not use it is a joke (IMHO!)
Strange that both VLC and Notepad++ are available for multiple OSes and both use the allways on top feature... ;)
Why, oh why, oh why is there still not a standard, built-in out-of-the-box "Allways on Top" feature available in M$ Windoze? I just want to be able to keep a Word doc in the foreground while having other apps and docs behind it. More things that Linux has been able to do for years.
The only app I use that does this on it's own is Notepad++.
And WHY hasn't M$ upgraded it's standard notepad to have more of the features of Notepad++? Or just BUY Notepad++.
@Simon - I'm not on any BT-based product out of a matter of principle. They could only offer an estimated up to 2.5 mbps download, but more realistic was around 512 kbps over ADSL max.
I now get a much more acceptible service with around 7 mbps download and 3 mbps upload out of a Three 3G connection through a mobile phone set up as a Wi Fi Hotspot. Yes, the slow ping lag is annoying at times, but it works well enough until a better wired alternative is available in my area.
Who is suppying your 10Mbit upload?
@AC - You might be able to get 20 Mbps on FTTC upload, but as I said; I currently only have the option of ADSL Max. Infinity doesn't exist in my neck of the woods as Openreach are a bunch of T055erz.
I'm just lamenting the loss of the lovely 60 Meg cable that I used to enjoy 5 miles away nearer the center of Nottingham... :(
LOL @ AC! BT's pathetic 448 Kbps upstream on consumer ADSL max (50:1 contention) and 832 Kbps on business ADSL max is NOT faster than Virgin's 3 Mbps up (25:1 contention). We're not all on Infinity2 FTTP you know!
I'd still take the Virgin connection over an Infinity connection unless I was had a desperate need to upload tonnes of data.
@feanor - I couldn't agree more!
Where were Alcatel-Lucent when it came to the bidding for BDUK? Probably off looking for something more profitable abroad...
What-was-Virgin Media can't be bothered to expand their network.
Fujitsu gave up after realising the joke about the government and BT love-in.
Which left BT to wade in, suck up all the contracts and then sit on their fat backside and blame people who don't live in a city for wanting a better service, even if they are prepared and able to pay more for it.
I moved house from a cabled area to a non-cabled area and cancelled my subscription. I used to love my old 60 meg service. It was rock solid dependable and properly "super-fast", I never had a problem in the last 3 years.
I still want fast cable interwebs at my new house, but VM are not interested in selling it to me! They apparently "have no plans to expand their existing network for the foreseeable future", even though they have cable in the next town, less than three quarters of a mile away.
I would LMAO at the ineptitude of local government, housing developers, BT and VM to get the act together with the roll out of rural broadband... But as I'm suffering from it, I can't. :(
#EPICFAIL
Same in outer-suburban areas of Nottinghamshire too!
I ordered a BT (I had no option) phone line and broadband as a new connection in my new build house (no previous line) on 19 Nov, earliest delivery date of 16 Dec due to Openreach being too busy. Subcontractor turns up on 16 Dec, has a go at installation, then tells me he can't do anything as the local exchange is full! Not even the street cab, THE FRICKIN' EXCHANGE!!! I can't even get a phone line, never mind superfast broadband!
The exchange, btw, is less than two miles away across open fields and already services over 700 properties in two villages. That exchange is not in Openreach's current plans (according to their own website) for the next 3 years and can only provide an ADSL+ connection estimated at less than 2.5 mbps downstream, but more likely less than 500 kbps.
Engineer is booked to return on Friday when I'm sure he'll be able to resolve the problem and connect me... rrrriiiiiigght. I'm am less than 5 miles (as the crow flies) outside the city of Nottingham. BDUK is a joke.
The idea might be aimed at Apple, but RIM are just as much at fault! Not that it's likely to be a problem for people in the future, but...
My wife previously had a Bold 9700 (mini-USB) and now has the Bold 9900 (micro-USB). Each phone's USB socket appeared normal for its type and came with a normal USB to mi__-USB cable which worked perfectly for data and charging from a PC. However, try to charge either of those phones with a non-Blackberry mains or in-car charger and the phone would refuse to charge!
It's not just the socket format, it's the power levels that the device requires which also needs to be standardised.
While they're at it, why don't they do laptop chargers too?
WHAT!?
"Nah, we don't need to do it like that" - do what like what?
"uninformed and selfish pieces of excrement like you" - Niiiice! I bet you're a lovely person in real life! What a pity that your cowardice in posting as AC means I'll never have a chance to get to know you better.
"we pay the same tax even though salaries are way less" - Not possible as tax you pay is directly related to the amount you earn. Earn less = pay less. And if you're talking about Council Tax, I seriously doubt that you pay more than most people in a town do for the same type and size of house.
"we don't get that nice London weighting on salaries" - I don't live in London either. I am a country boy from the East Midlands, exiled to a medium sized East Midlands city as I couldn't afford to live where I grew up.
"why should WE get the same sort of service as all you poor own townfolk" - If I understand your attempt at sarcasm, you seem to have missed my point and you are actually agreeing with me. I'm not happy about losing the speed and quality of service when I move back to the country. But I still want it, and I'm prepared to pay for it. I just can't have it because BT and Virgin won't supply it.
You should seriously read and understand a post if you're going to try to rip it apart. Otherwise you make yourself look like an idiot.
Soon, I'm planning to move from my near-a-city-centre tiny flat with (effectively) FTTP Virgin Media cable to a nice new house in a new village development out in the countryside. My current BB is supplied from a private "street" cab within the flat complex (15 flats). It has a nice big fat fibre coming in to it, then via about 20 meters of high quality co-ax directly to my Superhub. I pay a lot for 60m/s and actually get about 48m/s down and 2.7m/s up. Downstream is fine and I am fairly happy as I don't have multiple simulations video streams all going on at the same time. I AM, however, unhappy with the p!55-poor upstream which should already realistically be in the region of 6-10. There is no technical reason why it couldn't be 20m/s or even 30 m/s up, but I wouldn't ever use that, so I don't see the point.
When/If I move, I will be stuck with a poxy old BT ADSL service from an exchange about 2.5 miles away, which isn't unbundled or 21CN or Infinity upgraded. Best estimate for speed is <7m/s down and God-only-know what upstream. Am I pleased about that? No.
However, I'm moving for the greater good of a (hopefully) peaceful life in a larger house. I do not have a choice of which provider takes my money for BT providing a crap service. But I am certain that I SHOULD have choice and that the service SHOULD provide an acceptable modern level of performance. Afterall, I will be paying the same money as an end customer in the country as someone who is getting the "package" in a city. It shouldn't cost BT any more to put in a fast FTTC connection in the countryside than it does in a city. In fact, it should be CHEAPER, as they don't have to dig up so many roads, jump through so many council hoops and cause as much disruption.
However, population density means that any connection in a city will automatically return more income from the same investment, so the bean counters are always going to push for the cities first. Just once, I would like to see some of that profit being ploughed back in to providing an acceptable service to the rest of the country.
As with increasingly stratospherically high screen and camera resolutions, the public needs to get over this "more is better" mentality and realise the other factors also affect the quality of the product and the satisfaction is gives!
@Zibob - I did wonder the same thing myself! Is it an opportunity for Google to more closely integrate their ads AND stop AdBlockers from working...? I hope not. And its alleged that Blink will be Open Source, so surely someone will spot if they do try to do this in Chome.
Now, where did I put my tinfoil hat?
My wife works in PR and Communications and EVERY job spec released in the last 12 months has made a big point of mentioning 'social media' as a major avenue that they need to explore and exploit. You can't ignore it: Facebook and Twitter are being heavily targeted just like any other way of advertising your company, big or small.
Yey! 2MB/s upload on my 20MB/s connection? Sweet! About time too! Better to me working from home sending emails and using Skype video conference and VOIP.
Bandwidth hogging P2P users to be throttled and most likely to leave to another network? There's no bad here. Let them go. Just means lower peer-contention for those that stay. Win, win.
So the LHC cost how many hundreds of millions of euros?
"[...]such that each stream has as much energy in it as a normal car going at 1000mph. Secondly, the beams are arranged in such fashion that the two streams swerve through one another occasionally, which naturally results in huge numbers of incredibly violent head-on collisions.[...]"
Why not just buy a couple of Citroen C4's and accelerate them towards each other? Must be cheaper and easier than LHC. If nothing else, we'd be rid of two more piles of subsidised Franco-autocrap!
And ignoring the opening a dimensional portal concerns, what about the possibility of creating our own big-bang and suddenly being on the outside of a rapidly expanding universe of our own making?
Questions that need answers, methinks!
all transmitters are being switched off by a single engineer and he only has a push-bike for transportation between them in these environmentally-conscious times.
Meanwhile the quango behind the switch are billing the country for a workforce of 300, each with company cars and full benefits, plus consultancy and call out fees.
Nothing to see here, just another botched attempt for Britain to catch up with our continental neighbours.
</rant>
would love to see a real competitor to the iPhone from BlackBerry. Storm 1 was flawed. A mate of mine has one of these (works for RIM) and says it's infinitely better than the first gen and has fixed all the problems. Gonna change my phone in the new year and currently leaning towards iPhone. Hope this will be good enough to make me reconsider...
I would doubt that - for these reasons :
a) The novel of FlashForward is currently not available in and has never yet been published in UK - at least according the might of the Waterstones computer system. They (pivately) recommended trying Amazon!
b) It's on Channel 5.
Afganistan is hilly and I'm not sure that Amazon deliver there...
Our postie used to delivery before I went out to do my morning paper round. Now, I'm lucky if post is delivered before 11:00. Also only post collection is at 16:30, not the first post, the only one! And if I'm not in they don't re-deliver the next day, I have to go and collect from a depot!
New, improved, streamlined, lean, efficient service just ain't what it used to be!
Plus I've never understood unions - the only action they seem to have is to strike. IT and office workers would be sacked if we tried that to get a pay rise! (I haven't had one for 2 years).
</rant>
I'm awaiting the outcome of scrap/media frenzy of which networks will be selling the iPhone 3GS alongside O2, in the hope of being able to upgrade to one later this year. I'm currently on O2 with a Nokia N73 and noticed that call quality, call volume, signal strength and coverage is definitely getting worse - especially over the last couple of months!
I regularly get disconnected mid-conversation, seemingly at random. It can happen at any time, whether I'm at home (full 3G in Nottingham), walking around city centres (again full 3G) driving on the M1 to and from work (junctions 26-33 using a car kit) or at work (half 3G signal). As soon as I get disconnected I look at the phone (not in the car, obviously, officer), and I've got full signal strength! What's going on?
Surely it's about time the phone companies moved to an intelligent, nearest mast auto-reconnection technology instead of desperately trying to hold on to the last mast you're connected to for as long as possible?
I used to be on Orange and got 1 minute of credited talk time automatically if I was every disconnected. Ironically, I moved to O2 back in 2005 because their coverage was better than Orange's. I've complained to O2 about being disconnected, and was told that it's basically tough, that they don't offer any guarantee of connectivity, and won't be re-compensing me! WTF!?
O2 is crap and I'm sick of paying through the nose for their poor coverage!