* Posts by jai

2310 publicly visible posts • joined 8 May 2007

PEAK APPLE: Mystery upstart to hurl iLord from its throne 'by 2020'

jai

the clue is in his title

"Venture capitalist"

So presumably he has just, or is just about to, plunged a lot of money (probably not his own) into some cloud-based startup that needs a lot of hype.

And of course, Apple have no need of VC money, so that's probably why he doesn't see any relevance to them.

Google, on the otherhand, make a lot of noise about future technologies they've dreamed up, but haven't fully brought to market, and no one knows if anyone is really going to buy any of their products - so that's exactly the kind of company that this guy understands.

Chinese iWatchers: Apple's WRISTPUTERS ALREADY in production

jai

Re: You will need

@Big_Ted

2 Bluetooth will eat the "Small" battery this thing will be able to hold in a very short time if its more than an interface for your ithingy.

really? the batteries in my bt earphones (considerably smaller and probably cheaper than the battery apple would put inside an iDevice for the wrist) last 3 days easy.

@JDK

Can you get BT earphones rather than headphones, with sensible battery life?

yes, mine last at least 3 days, could be longer but i'm in the routine of charging them on wednesdays and over the weekend. which isn't a problem as i'm already in the routing of charging my phone every night.

Also even if you're right, BT earphones would be the reason they cost £150 so he's half right.

No, bt earphones for £150 is so 2008! you could have just-f'ing-amazon'd-it to check your prices before you typed, but i've done it for you:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bleutooth%20earphones

On just the first page, showing 16 results, there are 9 items that i would consider "earphones" and of those, only two cost over £35.

Adding up the number of people who left reviews (good or bad) comes to 635 people. Even if you take the unlikely view that I'm the only person who bought a pair and didn't leave a review, that's still quite a lot of people for a product that "nobody wants" as you put it.

jai

Re: You will need

you know they invented a thing called Bluetooth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth) a few years ago, you get it in loads of things, including earphones. Best thing about it, it would have saved you having to type all those words if you'd known about it beforehand.

Boffins pen 'Guide to better spamming'

jai

But...

other researchers will take the insights provided in our paper and develop tools to win the battle against spamming

did it not occur to him that perhaps spammers will take the insights provided in their paper to improve their tools and botnets and allow them to win the battle against the anti-spam systems?

Or is the assumption that spammers are too lazy to read a research paper - that would seem a little like the security-through-obscurity view

Today's bugs have BRANDS? Be still my bleeding heart [logo]

jai

A new Stob article? oh joy!

This is officially my favourite Thursday of the month so far :)

Apple's strong iPhone sales crush Wall Street moneymen's tepid expectations

jai

Re: Silly article

some interesting ideas on the ipad slow growth from last weekend:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/04/21/gassee-ipad

http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/04/20/the-ipad-is-a-tease/

Posit: slow iPad sales are worse news for the PC market: implies phones can take the greater share of PC use cases.

Och aye! It's the Loch Ness Monster – but only Apple fanbois can see it

jai

There are no 20-metre-long catfish. There are no whale sharks in Loch Ness

Maybe not, but maybe there is a 20-meter-long dinonsaur-descended Nessie?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family-Ness

UFO, cosmic ray or flasher? NASA rules on Curiosity curiosity

jai
Alien

incandescent gas

As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas, chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly and violently squirted out of the planet, "as flaming gases rushed out of a gun."

A singularly appropriate phrase it proved. Yet the next day there was nothing of this in the papers except a little note in the Daily Telegraph, and the world went in ignorance of one of the gravest dangers that ever threatened the human race.

Wookiee! CHEWIE'S BACK in Star Wars Ep VII – blab Hollywood 'sources'

jai

Let the Wookie win!

Internet is a tool of Satan that destroys belief, study claims

jai

Stewart Lee..

..said it best when he compared having religious beliefs with having a mental illness.

The IT Crowd tops BAFTA nominations with four nods

jai

Re: re: tnetennba

I can't recall the last time I had so much fun watching a tv programme...

it was probably while watching The IT Crowd :)

jai

But...

...Could you use it in a sentence for us?

jai

Re: Disappointing

Really? The Countdown epidsode was brilliant.

And the whole bomb disposal scene was hilarious!

Bomb Disposal: [referring to the bomb disposal robot] I'm just having a couple of problems with it.

Moss: What kind of operating system does it use?

Bomb Disposal: It's er... Vista.

Moss: We're going to die!

Rumour: Next Apple iThing to feature 65-inch screen. Four-limb multitouch, anyone?

jai

Re: Apple iTV...

Apple stopped calling it an iTV years ago, before they actually released the AppleTV. I doubt they'd have gone back to using iTV.

Siri set to rival Windows beauty Cortana after Apple eats Novauris

jai
Headmaster

However?

I'm pretty sure that "however" is not the right word for that second sentence. "However" suggests that what follows is in contradiction to the previous sentence, when instead, it seems the second sentence is confirming that it is "high time to cut the umbilical cord" by removing the need for internet access.

Titanfall pits man against machine, Kiefer Sutherland Snakes into Metal Gear Solid V

jai

So, the big question is, is it worth £30 or closer to £20 if you shop around?

well i got a good 3 or 4 hours of play out of it. And now the side missions are unlocked, i'll probably get at least that again out of it.

so on a pounds-per-hour-of-entertainment basis, i've spent considerably more in the pub some friday nights. So the game is good value for money in my eyes. AND i don't wake up the following morning with a pounding headache and the room spinning round and round

Driver drama delays deep desert XP upgrade

jai

200 miles from Alice at midnight

Sounds like the title of a post-rave ambient chill out track... :)

El Reg's Deep Outback XP upgrade almost foiled by KILLER ARACHNIDS

jai

Re: Just to be pedantic @hplasm

regardless of the pedantry, poisonous or venomous, they all need to be killed with fire

or better yet, take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

BlackBerry revenue slips below $1bn as users shun BB10

jai

loss was eight cents a share, but analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a loss of 55 cents a share

Analysts! Even when the news is bad, they haven't got a clue!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Friday is Pi Day

jai

Re: Like so many other web stories, this only applies to America.

When do they celebrate in Indiana? (where pi = 3)

OMG you're right - that's crazymaddness!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill

Apple pedometer patent filing cranks up the iWatch rumor mill

jai

you missed one prior art example

Apple's own iPod Nano that can be worn on a wrist strap and counts the number of steps you take in the Nike app.

Bugger the jetpack, where's my 21st-century Psion?

jai

i hate it when El Reg does a Psion article.

i get very nostalgic and depressed

both the Series 3c and the Series 5 were fantastic. I bought the Series 5 with my first proper paycheck.

Series 3 smelled nicer than the 5 though... is it weird to remember that?

Millions of unloved iPhone 5Cs gather dust in warehouses – report

jai

But....

but YOU (being the IT-related new media in general, not just El Reg) were telling us last year how a plastic iPhone was the only thing that could save Apple's future and if they didn't make one they'd be doomed.

how come you told us this, and yet, no one wants one? surely ALL of the IT-related news media couldn't ALL have been wrong about this could they?

Phisherman's friend: Confused hacktivists deface FAKE BANK SITE

jai

"some of which rely on exploiting confusing about a bank's genuine online location" (sic)

Just saying, you can't put in a sic erat scriptum on the hackers imperfect English and then type bad English yourself.

Apple to grieving sons: NO, you cannot have access to your dead mum's iPad

jai

Re: Isn't the iPad (and code) part of the deceased's property?

i think that's it

otherwise, anyone could steal an iPad or Mcabook or iMac, then go to Apple can claim that their <insert imaginary relative> has just died and they need access to their Apple account

Anti-snoop Blackphone hits shelves in June: NOW we'll see how much you value privacy

jai

It will also interoperate securely with any other phone running the Silent Circle apps on either Android or iOS, which means there are already vast numbers of handsets out in the world able to participate safely in the ecosystem

And so we need to buy a Blackphone why again?

Why not just use a Silent Circle app on our current, cheaper phones?

Massive new AIRSHIP to enter commercial service at British dirigible base

jai

No ticket!

Celebrities? On an airship?

Don't forget your ticket, otherwise Harrison Ford will dump you out the window!!!

PayPal row heats up as eBay chair calls Icahn claims 'false and misleading'

jai

Re: Can we stop calling him an activist investor?

"That twat Icahn" will do in its place.

if i could, i would upvote your post for the rest of the afternoon, but sadly El Reg are limiting me to just a single upvote. but it's a single upvote with a lot of passion behind it.

someone needs to build one of those plug-ins that will go through the text on all the websites i read and replace "activist investor" with "that twat"

Booze and bacon sarnies: A recipe for immortality?

jai

@I ain't Spartacus Re: Test subject

Crisp sandwhiches (prawn cocktail Walkers) didn't work

you're doing it wrong

using cheese&onion or beef crisps. also add Heniz Sandwich Spread to the sandwich.

tastes like mana from heaven

It's a BLOCKBUSTER: Minecraft heads to the silver screen

jai

The Lego movie is awesome...

...but i'm not sure there's the scope to do much with this game.

they'll need to shoehorn in some kind of plotline for the movie that's totally going to fail to mesh with the game.

Or they'll just re-use the plot from the Lego movie, but won't have Batman...

Official FACT: Gadgets are giving YOU a wrinkly 'Tech Neck'

jai

Re: Now I feel sullied

El Reg's prime source for tech news has been revealed! Oh how far the once mighty have fallen...

Fukushima radioactivity a complete non-issue on West Coast: Also for Fukushima locals, in fact

jai
Coat

IF nuclear power is so safe...

...then how do you explain Godzilla then, eh? eh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc

MtGox boss vows to keep going despite $429m Bitcoin 'theft'

jai

Re: dum di-di dum dum

well the system is designed to almost anonymise the transactions. i imagine that makes it rather difficult to reconcile, and even worse to audit after the fact.

but yes, you're right, they should have built the system to guard against this possibility. if they'd set it up correctly to start with, then they probably wouldn't have lost these amounts over the time. But to go in now and fix it is likely going to be a massive pain in the neck. glad it's not my job

Cable thieves hang up on BT, cause MAJOR outage

jai

measures in place

to help it quickly report cable theft to police

is that so they can claim the £1000 reward themselves? :)

Google kills copycat TfL congestion charge payment ads

jai

And if the scam sites are sponsored, then surely Google can trace them back to whoever owns them, and pass the information on to whoever is investigating such fraud? just taking an advert/site offline just means whoever is behind it is inconvenienced for a few minutes while they have to set it up again under a different name.

Amazon fuses LoveFilm, subs service, calls it Prime Instant Video

jai

Re: Meh

I keep considering signing up for one of these services

I think all of them offer a free period at the start. Like 2 weeks for free or something. So you could easily sign up and try it for a weekend. You'll be able to see everything they have to offer. Just remember to cancel it at the end of the weekend if you decide it's not for you. Then the next weekend, try the other one and see if they have a better selection.

We nearly MISSED OUT on iOS7 redesign: But someone snatched Jony Ive from the jaws of quit

jai

Reliant Robin?

Not sure i'd have the guts to admit to being the designer of the Reliant Robin even to myself in private, let alone in a public interview!

http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/clarkson-tips-over-reliant-robin

Magnets to stick stuff to tablets: Yup, there's an Apple patent application for that

jai

Re: Confused

@wowfood

I always liked the idea of having it so your GPS would link to your cars speedometer, and then feedback whether you're going above the speed limit

I had a GPS app on my phone for navigation, and it would do exactly that.

it's SO annoying - constantly pinging, especially on the motorway when I was in fast moving traffic that every 5 minutes would be changing from going 65mph then up to 85mph, then down to 75mph then up to 80mph then up to 90mph, then down to 50mph etc etc

so in the end i switched off the speed limit alert. i'm not sure that was the intended end result when they implemented that feature

Actor who played Rogue Two in Star Wars dies aged 67

jai

bgi bucket of win

he shall be missed

Apple Mac Pro: It's a death star, not a nappy bin, OK?

jai

Re: Oooo, the shiny!

The rather ungainly equivalent spec, but vastly cheaper, boxes from HP and Dell

Care to elaborate? As previously described, the equivalent spec from Dell costs at least 250 quid more than the MacPro.

On the HP UKStore website, the equivalent product with the same processor is the HP Z420

The cheapest of these is £1322 inc vat

The be equivalent, you'll need to get a SSD to replace the SATA hard drive. The Crucial website doesn't list any compatible SSDs with this HP, but lets assume the one they recommended for the Dell above will work. So that's 400 quid you need to spend.

It doesn't come with any graphics cards. They do include a NVIDIA Quadro K2000 with the really expensive model, so we'll assume that is equivalent to the AMD FirePros that the MacPro comes with. So you'll need to buy two of those. All the non-ebay prices i found were over 400 each, so to be equivalent spec you'll need two: £800+

So you're "equivalent spec, but vastly cheaper" solution from HP will be £1322 + 400 for disk + 800 for graphics cards = £2522

So you are absolutely correct sir, for a value of "vastly cheaper" = "spend £23 more"

jai

Re: Will be getting one - probably

me too!

just as long as I win tonight's EuroMillions...

jai

Re: Oooo, the shiny!

Really? cos i'm looking at the Dell.co.uk website right now, and there's only three options with the same processor, and only the £1600 takes the same speed memory.

But it also only comes with one graphics card. I can't find a uk price for the AMD FirePros that come with the MacPro, but lets assume you'll get equivalent performance from the card Dell supplies. So you'll need to buy a second one. Scan.co.uk are selling those for £750.

And a SATA hard drive, not a SSD.

There's no option to swap the HD for a SSD, so to get the "equivalent spec" you'll need to buy a 3rd party one and then swap it over yourself. Crucial sell one for this Dell Precision for 400 quid.

Plus Dell insist on giving you a pointless optical drive - and it's not configured horizontally so you can't even use it as a coffee cup stand!

So that's the 1600 you said, plus 750 for a 2nd graphics card, plus 400 for the SSD, and THEN you get close to the "equivalent spec" that you stated.

I believe that totals to £2750, which is £250 MORE than the "equivalent spec" MacPro.

yep, gotta hate that Apple Tax that gives money back to you

(oh, and i forgot about the six Thunderbolt 2 ports. So you'll need to add a six-port PCI-e card I guess? I google'd and found one for £350, but there was also a refubished one on ebay for only 200 notes)

No, pesky lawyers, particle colliders WON'T destroy the Earth

jai

Some really strange things have occurred

I think a lot them work in my office!

Elitist approach still paying off for Apple in mobile market

jai

A problem Apple faces is maintaining the share price

Is this a problem that Apple faces, or a problem that people who have bought Apple shares face?

If Apple's share price remains the same or drops a bit, but they are still making the most profit (http://news.investors.com/technology-click/021114-689654-2014-mobile-phone-market-to-see-little-or-no-growth.htm) then is it really a problem for the company itself (sure, the upper management will be disappointed as part of their pay is in shares/options isn't it?) but the company isn't going to be unable to function because the share price drops. It's not even as if they need a high share price / rating to allow them to borrow more money - they just dip into the huge cash reserves.

Apple pushes back release date for 'dustbin chic' Mac Pro

jai

Is this for new orders only? or are existing orders having their estimated shipping dates changed?

Not like people are lining up for these things

If it is just that if you place a new order now, it won't ship to April (which is how I understood it when the news first broke yesterday) then it would seem that people are, in fact, lining up for them faster than Apple can build them.

Random car shutdowns force Toyota to recall Prius hybrids - AGAIN

jai

Re: Toyota Update?

can you jailbreak your Prius and install a Ferrari instead?

Someone's snatched my yummy Brit COTTAGE PIE – Viv Reding

jai

Re: Showcase?

+1 for Borough Market recommendation

I used to work on the opposite side of the River and we'd go there for Friday lunch some weeks. Fresh cooked burgers at the butchers and then a pint or two in the pub before heading back to the office to avoid doing any work until hometime.

oh those were the days....

Rotten to the core: Apple’s 10 greatest FAILS

jai

Re: Apple //c was not bad

Yep my dad had a //c and I got his old ][e in my bedroom to learn programming Logo on.

But I much preferred to mess around on the //c. As you say, keyboard was much nicer, and it was portable enough to move it from his office to the dinning table from time to time.