* Posts by James Pickett

1321 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2007

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Hi! Up here! I'm your Amazon drone. Do you mind if I land now?

James Pickett

Re: Propellors.

"wouldn't it be much easier to use loudspeakers?"

And for the messages, surely?

US govt says it has cracked killer's iPhone, legs it from Apple fight

James Pickett

Re: Why is it not a good outcome for Apple?

"declaring they can break the iPhone so that the department saves face."

That seems very plausible. They didn't want the matter debated anywhere that might result in a legal precedent, and they can re-think their strategy for next time. If I was the magistrate, I would ask to see the alleged phone data.

Who hit you, HP Inc? 'Windows 10! It's all Windows 10's fault'

James Pickett

Re: "Windows 10 is a tremendous operating system platform"

I thought that. A bit like government ministers receiving the PM's "full confidence", which announces their forthcoming doom...

James Pickett

Re: Hope and Pray

"Do HP even offer such a choice?"

Have they even considered it? Sales of lightly used PC's with Win 7 on seem very buoyant ATM (s/h values are surprisingly high) which you'd think they might have noticed, but then it is HP.

I'm so old I remember when those initials meant something.

Donald Trump wants Bill Gates to 'close the Internet', Jeff Bezos to pay tax

James Pickett

Come on 45RPM - off that fence with you!

Cyber-terror: How real is the threat? Squirrels are more of a danger

James Pickett

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

H. L. Mencken

We suck? No, James Dyson. It is you who suck – Bosch and Siemens

James Pickett

I've always thought that the only reason Dyson cleaners didn't 'lose suction' was because they never had much to begin with. We bought a cheap 'bagged' cleaner a while ago and find that having the rubbish all bagged up ready to go in the bin when it's full a real advantage (it doesn't fill the kitchen with dust, for a start). Also, the new bag is also a new filter and thoroughly affordable at 50p a pop. I'd suggest a patent, but I gather it's rather an old idea...

Dysons are style over substance.

Chipzilla has its knockers … and now they’re cool in this venting sports bra

James Pickett

You'd think a digital mirror would provide the perfect opportunity to show an image that wasn't laterally inverted, so the user could see themselves as everyone else sees them. No?

Vanished global warming may not return – UK Met Office

James Pickett

Re: Just asking....

The Grauniad would not use the word 'sexism' as that is itself sexist, in their well-intentioned-but-loony* view of the world. I notice that they do use 'brocialism', however, which probably tells you all you need to know.

*WIBL :-)

The most tragic thing about the Ashley Madison hack? It was really 1% actual women

James Pickett

Would it be fair to say that AM will shortly be going tits-up..?

Red-stained Opera wants someone to hug it and whisper: 'No more pain, no more tears'

James Pickett

Re: Wow, all 4 presto fans in one place

All 5, actually. I'm still on 12.17, too - I think it's even given up telling me I need a new version...

CAUGHT: Lenovo crams unremovable crapware into Windows laptops – by hiding it in the BIOS

James Pickett

Re: Belkin/Pinto

Never bought a Ford since. Not that that was a particular hardship.. :-)

James Pickett

Re: Windows only though

"Lenovo's S&M dept"

They have one of those, too? Wow.

(Having read down, I see I'm not the first to spot this. Must stay in more..)

It's 2015, and someone can pwn Windows PCs by inserting a USB stick

James Pickett

"targeted attacks against customers"

as opposed to..?

Huge hack attack: UK data cops to probe Carphone Warehouse breach

James Pickett

Re: Why I did not buy from carphone warehouse

"company policy to insist on the information"

I wonder if it still is..?

HP insists 'we don't have a global dress code' – while deleting one from its website

James Pickett

I'm not sure that someone who thinks it's OK to wear a plaid baseball cap should be giving advice about anything.

Let's all binge on Blake’s 7 and help save the BBC ... from itself

James Pickett

It's surely a nettle that the Beeb will never grasp while it's got such a vast income from the licence, whose payers won't exactly welcome top-up fees.

Microsoft nixes A-V updates for XP, exposes 180 MEEELLION luddites

James Pickett

I have a pet called Win2k. It lives in an old laptop that accompanies me to the theatre, where it helps with lighting and sound cues. I expect it to last as long as the laptop, which on current form will be until at least 2020. I'd have a penguin, but they don't understand the lingo.

Natural geothermal heat under Antarctic ice: 'Surprisingly high'

James Pickett

Re: It puzzles me too

Pete H

"lots of CO2"

How much do you think is there already? 0.04% isn't really 'lots', and the oceans are still alkaline, you know.

Smart Meter biz case still there, insists tragically optimistic UK govt

James Pickett

Re: I had a smart meter fitted last week

Still, at least Mrs Cowherder will take her jumper off.. :-)

James Pickett

Re: I had a smart meter fitted last week

I heard Roger Witcombe, too, and of course no-one on the Today programme had the wit (or knowledge) to tell him that smart meters were, in fact, a hindrance to switching suppliers - the exact reverse of what he had just stated. But then, anything remotely Green is given a free pass by the Beeb, who only believe what they read in the Grauniad, anyway!

Microsoft's magic hurts: Nadella signals 'tough choices' on the way

James Pickett

Re: WinPho not doing better than before?

"the betamax of smartphones"

Although Betamax was technically superior.. :-)

BT: Let us scrap ordinary phone lines. You've all got great internet, right?

James Pickett

"...government policies on power generation..."

I think he means the EU directives on CO2 production (still mythically linked with global warming) that require early closure of fossil-fuel power stations and the erroneous belief that they can be replaced by wind turbines and PV panels, aka 'unreliables'. Hence the increasing likelihood of power cuts.

Flushed with success: No bog standard Canadian goldfish these

James Pickett

"a memory-span of at least three months"

In which case, they're probably still pretty annoyed about being flushed into the sewer. Mutant Ninja Carp, anyone..?

Wake up, sheeple! If you ask Siri about 9/11 it will rat you out to the police!

James Pickett

Jet fuel can melt steel, but only when first put through a working jet engine. Go figure, as our transatlantic cousins like to say...

Denon delivers low-cost DTS:X AV kit. Finally Dolby Atmos gets some competition

James Pickett

Golden age then. At least it's not just me...

James Pickett

"people who can afford these are often too old to fully enjoy their performance."

But people who are young enough don't have the musical experience... :-)

I like that 1975 amp, though. A golden era.

Jurassic World: All the meaty ingredients for a summer blockbuster

James Pickett

Have Apple sued over i-Rex yet?

Microsoft says its latest, dodgy Windows 10 build is good for (almost) everyone

James Pickett

"my car makes a really terrible boat..."

Strange analogy. This is an OS trying to be an OS, shirley?

We stand on the brink of global cyber war, warns encryption guru

James Pickett

"Schneier, CTO of Resilient Systems.."

Company slogan: "Things are worse than you thought".

World of the strange: There will be NINE KINDS of Windows 10

James Pickett

"ongoing innovation"

Spare us!

Not so fast on FM switch-off: DAB not so hot say small broadcasters

James Pickett

Re: It's almost like Government wanted to control the media

Ain't it just? I have long wondered where the 50% uptake figure came from, and why that implies that the other 50% can then be ignored. IIRC, the digital TV switch required >90% of users to have necessary receivers, and I suspect that most households have more radios than TV's. I should also like to know how many DAB radio owners are classified as users when they operate it in FM...

So where's all these digital services GDS promised us?

James Pickett

More on GDS and HMRC here, who needed an FOI request to supply some fairly basic information...

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/article/hmrc-overruns-budget-govuk-transition-project/574500

James Pickett

"Doubts over whether cost savings will ever become reality"

No doubts whatsoever, IMO. Cost savings are just mooted to ensure a project goes ahead - they never really happen.

James Pickett

"no explanation from GDS about the lessons learned from the RPA system has been forthcoming"

That's because they haven't learned anything. They never do.

The coming of DAB+: Stereo eluded the radio star

James Pickett

"still no DAB sets here..."

Likewise. We have 8 radios in our household, including a £10 Lloytron 'tranny' that runs on D-cells. These last 2-3 years in a set that is used daily. Given that most DAB sets also have FM tuners, are there stats for their usage in that mode? I suspect not.

Life, the interview and everything: A chat with Douglas Adams

James Pickett

Re: Never a day...

"If you're up there looking down on us, I know you'll be bloody annoyed.."

If he was, I'm pretty sure he'd have found a way of communicating the fact by now, assuming he'd got over the initial shock.

Hated smart meters likely to be 'a costly failure' – MPs

James Pickett

Re: In the news over the weekend...

" the overwhelming demand from the consumer"

Or possibly the overwhelming demand from a consumer.

£280k Kickstarter camera trigger campaign crashes and burns

James Pickett

Trigger Trap

Perhaps the clue's in the name...

Apple's Mr Havisham: Tim Cook says dead Steve Jobs' office has remained untouched

James Pickett

"I literally think about him every day."

I think he means that he thinks about him every day. Unless there's a way of thinking figuratively that doesn't involve actual thinking.

Why IP telephony is about more than just saving money

James Pickett

Re: STOP!

"sounding like Darlek's"

Sounding like Darlek's what..?

Prawn cocktail offers hot new way to make solar cells

James Pickett

"some form of degradation"

Not to mention the fishy smell...

BBC: SOD the scientific consensus! Look OUT! MEGA TSUNAMI is coming

James Pickett

"expected Godzilla to make a guest appearance, or at very least Al Gore"

Not much difference, really. Except Godzilla probably didn't come on to a masseuse...

Chinese food safety officials drank so much during working lunch that one of them DIED

James Pickett

There's always one who spoils it for everyone else...

Death knell for Windows with Bing, licences carved up

James Pickett

Windows with Bing

Isn't that the worst of all possible worlds..?

Microsoft eyes slice of Raspberry Pi with free Windows 10 sprinkled on top

James Pickett

I'm pleased to see that the old Pi will still be available. They could probably charge more for it...

Breaking news: BBC FINALLY spots millions of mugshots on cop database

James Pickett

If the police make an arrest, they can tick a box and add 1 to their totaliser.

If it's the wrong person, those actions are not reversed.

The PND is about as reliable as the BBC.

Eye laser surgery campaigner burned by Facebook takedown

James Pickett

Anyone who wants their cornea 're-profiled' by a laser is welcome to take the risk. I'll stick with my glasses, which I can have fine-tuned to suit my current prescription, or variation thereof (for close work, driving, etc). The last ones I bought (on line), with photochromic lenses, cost £30.

Tesla bumps up Model S P85D acceleration – with software update

James Pickett

Re: @Wyrdness

"would it still beat the Tesla if it was carrying five adults and two ankle biters?"

I rather doubt that the Tesla itself can post those figures when fully loaded. They probably have a test driver who used to be a jockey...

A Bombe Called Christopher, or A Very Poor Imitation

James Pickett

Re: Oh, dear

What about the lovely Ms Stob, I wonder? Or does beauty x brains still equal a constant..? :-(

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