* Posts by /\/\j17

302 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Apr 2007

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Tories put ID cards, Contactpoint on manifesto hit list

/\/\j17

1+1=3

Let me get this right.

1) High-tech focus, pushing Science, Tech., Eng. and Math - one assumes including IT.

2) Cut most large gov. IT projects - one assumes leading to major redundancies amongst IT staff at Accenture, IMB, etc.

Not saying I disagree with either aim but hard to swallow both in one manifesto.

Nokia killed free navigation, alleges EU complaint

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Three words

"google" and "maps" and "oh-shucks-we-are-lost-and-have-no-mobile-signal-so-really-wish-we-had-something-with-saved-no-on-demand-map-data"

Vulcan kept airborne by £400k refuel

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A Vulcan wouldn't be any help to the Falklands

A single Vulcan wouldn't be any use to the Falklands as it took a spade full of luck and more or less every air-worthy (and a few less than air-worthy!) Victor AND Vulcan back in the 80's.

"Vulcan 607" by Rowland White is a very good read and gives the full story behind the Falkland's including the fact a fleet of 11 Victor tankers to get 1 bomb-carrying Vulcan from Ascension Island to it's target with a 50% chance of getting home again.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0552152293/ref=cm_rdp_product_img

Intel joins Nokia in Android attack

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Maemo was already dropped before this announcement...

...so far as the N900 was concerned.

The N900 was a Maemo 5 (Fremantle) device but internally the switch had already been made to Maemo 6 (Harmattan). As Maemo 5 uses the GTK framework and Maemo 6 uses Qt 4.6 apps. wouldn't be directly compatable anyway.

Will Nokia release a Maemo 6/MeeGo 1 firmware for the N900... Maybe, maybe not.

Street View catches Finn with his pants down

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Second view now disabled

Seems someone in the MVCF reads El Reg...

Happy Data Protection Day

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Does the ICO do irony?

"...the Information Commissioner's Office is supporting the initiative with activities to teach children, and their teachers, about the importance of privacy"

Go on. Combine it with a stall where the children can sign-up for ID cards to give away all their privacy!

Nokia posts proposal for next year's smartphone UI

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Stop

O/S != UI

Symbian is still quite good - it's the Series 60 UI that generally lets it down.

Kodak strikes at Apple in iPhone, Mac patent dispute

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re: Why do these patent cases come along so late?

If you'd read the whole article, not just the headline you might be able to work it out yourself but how about because 3 years ago Kodak's lawyers had only just finished their case with Sun and were doing the rounds of other infringers, inking those deals with Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

Said lawyers then set about the infringers that didn't say "It's a fair cop." and sign deals.

Having resolved those cases with Samsung and LG they went back to the list to see who was next and picked Apple and Lawsuits In Motion.

Give it 12 months or so and someone like Google or HTC will probably be getting a letter through the post.

Microsoft predicts Linux will fail mobile 'quality' test

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Eyes right

I love the way the right hand column of both the article and the comments page for this story contains the feature link to the Nokia N900 review.

That would be the Nokia N900 running the Maemo operating system that's based on Debian O/S that Nokia have said will replace the Symbian/S60 combination on all it's N-series phones...

Firefox 3.6: I am more than my Monkey

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I am glad they...

Didn't mess around with the UI (which is familiar and easy to use tbh), instead of changing it for the sake of changing it and making life much harder as Microsoft have with Office 2007/the Windows 7 Quick Launch Bar and System Tray changes.

Anti-paedo vetting boss warns against relying on databases

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ISA != CRB

The CRB hold details of criminal records, so in effect a list of people convicted of an offence. A CRB check would tell you if someone was a convicted paedophile for example.

The ISA database will also hold details of a convicted paedophile but will also hold details of people arrested and released without charge and people someone overheard in a pub being called a paedophile...or their neighbour...or someone with a similar name or...

US word czars unfriend shovel-ready toxic assets

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Can they stop the BBC stroking themselves all the time?

Can they ban the BBC from insisting on pronoucing URLs on-air as "A dot B stroke C" and join the rest of the planet in using "A dot B slash C"?

Lord Carlile: Police are taking the proverbial on terror

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FAIL

At least shooting themselves in the foot is better than shooting Brazillians...

Craig Mackey, speaking for the Association of Chief Police Officers on this issue, blamed lack of awareness by officers as to how best to use "complex" legislation. He said: "It goes back to the issue of briefing and training of staff and making sure they are clear around the legislation we are asking them to use."

Yea that's it, Craig. Point the finger where it should be, at the humble Bobby's bosses... Hold on, wouldn't the bosses responsible for training, etc be each forces' Chief Police Officer...

Doh!

Manchester journo gets first ID card - late

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FAIL

Umm, hold on a sec...

"I was then asked to choose five ‘password’ questions from a list of 20 which were unique to me and could subsequently prove who I was. They included name of first pet"

OK. A fixed, historic piece of information.

"best subject at school"

OK. A little subjective and people may have more than one so say a different one in 5 years when asked for it but a reasonably fixed, historic piece of information.

"favourite song"

Is it just me or is this a variable piece of information that changes with time/mood/other outside factors?

If I loose my ID and get 2/5 of my questions wrong do I cease to exist?

Yank objects to Reg cherry-popping headline

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Troll

Call me old fashioned...

OK, you're old fashioned. Now crawl back under your rock until you have developed as a nation.

Web manhunt child abuser gets 20 years

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Extra-territorial Legislation

Rather than a case of the US trying to police the world it's probably just a case of extra-territorial legislation.

Most legislation is territorial so only applies to crimes committed in a country by either nationals or visitors. A minority of legislation is extra-territorial and applies to nationals both in the country and over-seas.

I believe the UK passed an extra-territorial law around child abuse to counter exactly this sort of case. We also have extra-territorial laws around the arms trade, to prevent UK nationals selling arms indirectly that would be illegal to sell directly*.

* Though it's got more holes in it than a fishing net.

MS, US take aim at data protection laws cyber trade barriers

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Stop

Hand it all to the WTO...

...then the US can sign up and just claim they didn't really mean to sign up to the bits they didn't like so they don't apply.

Yours,

The Islands of Antigua and Barbuda

Royal Marines' semi-hovership prototype launched

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PAC SCAT

PAC SCAT - when Pacman gets dirty on Mrs Pacman?

iPhone voted UK's 'coolest brand'

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Stop

Voted by the stupid - ignore

Aston Martin and Apple are brands, so no issue there.

The iPhone and iPod however are product sold under a brand, NOT a brand in their own right. This is why they are correctly called the Apple iPod and the Apple iPhone.

When the voters don't know what they are voting on it's hard to take much head of the results.

Apple iPod Touch 3G

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FAIL

@Thomas Davie

Nice stock fanboi reaction Mr Davie.

At no point did I say the lower spec. of the DS made it better than the PSP/iPhone/iPod Touch/ball-and-cup game.

What I said was that having a faster processor/higher specs. doesn't make the iPod Touch a better games platform.

/\/\j17
Grenade

1+1=3

Having read this piece I really find it hard to match the facts to the conclusion and it's hard to think of any reason other than the current outbreak of Applelove on the Register.

Yes, the iPod Touch has a reasonably quick CPU, an accelerometer and a microphone but this seems to be given as justification for calling it "a great games machine" and buying it over a PSP/DS. I just don't see the connection.

The Nintendo DS is far and away the market leader in the hand-held games console market yet it probably has the slowest CPU of the three, the lowest res. graphics, the fewest controls and no real MP3 playback. But then having more bells and whistles doesn't make a better games console, nor does having MP3 playback. What makes a good games console is how everything hangs together and the quality of game-play that results from that.

The DS is a simple box, that does what it's designed to do and little more. The iPod touch has advantages for some games (marble games like Super Monkey Ball springs to mind). Does that make it better for all - no.

IOD: Slash UK.gov IT, save public cash

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Long Term Savings?

"Scrapping the national ID card scheme would save an estimated £55m from 2010-00 onwards."

So saving £55m between 2010 and 3000...?

German inventor gushes over portable women's weebag

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They must never have been flying then...

http://www.transair.co.uk/product4.asp?SID=2&Product_ID=1005

Slightly concerned why the 'suggested accessories' for a travel toilet are 3 different types of wheel chocks!?!?

Sky's the limit

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re: Then again

"And 300 quid is really, really not enough by a long chalk for a fairly exclusive news pic and having your name dragged across Muppet TV..

Devil Bill, cos there's no Devil Rupert"

What nonsense!

There is ONLY a Devil Rupert.

Model-slag blogger sues Google for blowing her cover

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Paris Hilton

Best laugh I've had in ages!

"I would think that a multi-billion dollar conglomerate would protect the rights of all its users."

Paris - possibly the only other person that stupid.

Nokia exec denies Symbian Maemo swap claim

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@Drem

What exactly does the use of the Symbian operating system, or the Maemo one for that matter have to do with access to Open Street Map?

The operating system handles the low level stuff. The shiny stuff is handled by the UI and in neither the Linux or Symbian worlds is this handled by the O/S.

It seems to me that what you would really like is for someone to build an application that runs on the Symbian O/S, using the Nokia Series 60 UI and provides access to Open Street Map.

By the same logic I'd be put off by a Maemo-based phone as you can't buy the Garmin satnav software for that platform, something you can do for Symbian/S60 phones.

Firefox 4.0 flashes lusty leg at Windows lovers

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Have Browsers Hit The Office Point?

Having read the other comments on here I can't help wondering if browsers have hit the Office point.

The last feature that users though was missing from Microsoft Office was probably added back in Office 97 but you have to keep shipping new versions to keep the sales up so...you just move things around, change the way a few task are performed and change the GUI. Everything looks shiny and new but all you've really done is make life harder for the user as they have to re-learn how to do tasks.

Have browsers reached the same point on the desktop?

Was the last real innovation tabbed browsing, in Opera since 2000?

Sure there have been new browsers and everyone catching up with everyone else but have we run out of new ideas and fallen in to the trap of just changing the GUI to make it look new?

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Stop

Just what IS going on a Mozilla-central?

Why do the Mozilla team currently seem to be obsessed with changing Firefox to look and feel exactly the same as IE8?

If I wanted to loose my (useful) button bar and (useful) File/etc menus I'd use IE8. I like having my button bar and I like having my File/etc menus, which is part of the reason I use Firefox and not IE8!

Sure, extend the skinning options to let people achieve this with custom skins but stop at that and focus on NEW ideas, not trying to duplicate a competitor.

Olympics bosses probe mobile tracking tech

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@ smudge

Surely that should be "Attend BNP meetings AND radical mosque"?

That's really gonna confuse someone at GCHQ :)

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FAIL

Lets hope terroists are stupid

Because if they have any sense they will love this.

Operative A goes in and lobs mobile over fence into restricted area, then walks on == security alert and lots of the thugs in blue running to the area.

Operative B hangs around on other side of site, waits till all the security run off to deal with the alert then plants bomb while everyone is destracted.

Things 1.3.8

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iPhone, Android, what no Symbian?

Why have El Reg. only just realised you can buy applications to run on mobile phones - but have so far only discovered you can do this on the iPhone and Android handsets?

I'll be over at MySymbian checking for updates to the apps. I've been adding to and using on my various Symbian handsets since 2000!

Lockheed engineer: F-22 Raptor Stealth tech is 'defective'

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Currently working on...?

So he's worked on the F-117 and F22 in the past, what's the betting he's working on the F-35 now though?

Acer Aspire Revo R3600

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Pirate

Is it really THAT hard to come up with product names?

Come on guys, put a little more effort in to naming your products.

First Netbooks and no Revos - put the 1999 Psion brochure down and step away from the desk!

Intel confirms end of Psion 'netbook' legal fight

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@Andy

So is "Coke" but try using that in a commerical contect to related to a generic cola based drink and see how long before the Coca-Cola company have you wearing the gimp mask while they ride you shouting "Who's you daddy? Who's your daddy? Say it, Say it!".

KFC know what happens and the Colonel has been so-ridden.

It's US vs Europe as world e-car plug standard race nears end

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Non-Issue?

Isn't this really a non-issue? I mean, we aren't talking about a laptop or mobile phone that one could expect to move readily between the US/rest of the world are we (assuming Canada follow the US lead as usual).

Exactly how many cars are we looking at that will actually move back and forth across the Atlantic/Pacific? France to Germany, etc - yes, but they would both use the rest-of-the-world standard.

Police, Cameras, Inaction!

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Missing Facts

"This week it emerged that Mr Tomlinson was not alone, as Nicky Fisher, according to independent film record, appears to have been struck across the face by a police sergeant, and then hit with a baton."

You've missed the fact that said officer wasn't clearly showing his shoulder identification marks - as he is required to by law...

Play unveils AspireRevo launch date

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Are Acer TRYING to upset Psion?!?

First with the Netbook and now with the Revo.

What's next - the Acer Series 5?

BBC goes live... over Wi-Fi

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Thumb Down

Fail

To launch a service and not even post a list of compatable hardware/system requirements is an out and out fail - even more so when you're talking about a beta service that won't have blanket compatibility.

Nokia E90 says no.

Touchy Google wraps protective arm around Chrome EULA

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Stop

Do slashdotters ever think before they speak?

All of which led the Slashdotter to ask: “Does this mean that Google reserves the right to filter my web browsing experience in Chrome (without my consent to boot)?”

No, it doesn't. By accepting the Chrome EULA you are consenting to the terms of that EULA, i.e. you are activly granting Google the right to filter your web browsing experience.

iPhone 3.0 adds cut-and-paste, search, new dev toys

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Stop

Wow!

The iPhone (almost) has all the standard features of every other smartphone now!

Opera chief: Microsoft's IE 8 ‘undermines’ web standards

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A warped kind of logic...

"The fundamental problem is Microsoft's decision to allow users to continue to view billions of old pages optimized for non-compliant IE 6 and 7 that would otherwise be scrambled in IE 8.

As far as von Tetzchner is concerned, that's not just bad for companies like Opera that must continue wasting time and money simply updating sites built for IE 6 and 7 to work with their browsers."

So...by offering backwards compatibility it means MORE work? Umm, no. If there was NO backwards compatibility we would have to spend shed-loads re-writing all the other websites so that they worked with (like it or not) the market leader.

I'm sorry but if websites X doesn't work in IE8 Joe Public isn't going to blaim M$ and suddenly switch to Opera. No, Joe Public is going to blaim website X and take his business to compeating website Y.

Illinois restores Pluto's planetary status

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Coat

@Jimmy Floyd

While I can see the arguments for/against Pluto's planit status I find the idea of giving it to a apanner a bit of a wrench.

iPhone surfs to mobile web domination

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Stop

People Use Free-Stuff Shocker!

More news from the office of the blindingly obvious...

The Apple iPhone has the lion share of mobile broadband usage.

Or to put it another way...

The phone will a free, all-you-can-eat mobile data plan has the lion share of mobile broadband usage.

Is it really a suprise that the guy sat next to me uses the (free, unlimited) O2 3G connection on his iPhone more than I use the (£7.50/few-hundred Mb) Vodafone 3G connection on my Nokia?!?

El Reg suffers identity crisis

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I agreed with the Daily Mail

I now feel dirty.

Chicago Bears fan hit for thirty grand for a bit of Slingbox

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Stop

@AC - I think the question

AC, you seem to be unwilling to use your brain for higher levels of thought, such as postulation - extrapolating probable answers from the available information/, or reading the source material.

1) Mr Burdick states that his usual (one assumes monthly) phone/data bill is $220 - not (just) the cost for watching each Bears game via that connection.

2) A ticket to the ground may or may not cost less than $220 but on November 2nd (the date in question) they were playing away at the Minnesota Vikings. As Mr Burdick was on a cruise ship due to sail from Miami, Florida at 4PM EST and the game was starting at 1PM EST in Minnesota, approx. 2,000 miles away this would have made a pitch-side attendence...problomatic.

3) While a shore-side bar would have been an option this would also have risked Mr Burdick massing the departure of his ship. An on-board bar is another option but may not have been showing have games/the Bears game (hardly the atmosphear the cruise line would be trying to promote).

4) Fast-forwarding through the commercial would not have cost $110 - unless the Slingbox has been upgrade to fast-forward through liev transmissions through some bending-space-time-over-IP technology.

Microsoft goes retail with own shops

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Bad timing you say?

"While potentially justified, the timing will be questioned. Setting up a retail operation is expensive and the plan comes at a time when Microsoft is trying to cut costs. The high street, meanwhile, is suffering as consumers cut spending to ride out the recession."

Alternativly the timing could be commended - you should be able to get some really good deals on retail space at the moment. It's not like people are queuing up to take it over and doing a bargin deal with an established company, keep at least SOME money coming in is going to be an attractive proposition.

Beeb borrows copyrighted Flickr image

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Close, but no banana BBC.

"I would note the website from which the image was sourced appeared to make no reference to copyright and had no facility for copyright to be enquired about or validated..."

...so we assumed it was not copyrighted and used it anyway.

Umm, no. If you don't KNOW it's copyright/royalty free then you are meant to assume the rights are reserved.

Competition regulator kyboshes Project Kangaroo

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Arse, meet elbow

OFCOM 21/JAN/09 - C4 need to partner with people, as we ain't giving them no money.

CompComm 04/FEB/09 - C4 can't partnet with people, it's anti-competitive.

Iranian rocket puts satellite into orbit

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I may be missing the point but...

...am I the only one who thinks President Ahmadinejad's trousers are pulled up a little too far. It's almost Cowell-esque.

Apple patents map mobile future

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Stop

"invention", "discovery", "prior art" and "irony"

Are the terms "invention", "discovery" and "prior art" like the term "irony" to americans - something the just don't understand?

At a rough count I can already do 3/4 of the functions Apply have "discovered" on my Nokia, with Garmin Mobile XT GPS installed on it.

Of the remaining ones I doubt I'd actually WANT to be able to do 1/2 of them (has anyone ever been THAT desperate to get a mobile phone image printed?).

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