Posts by Bill

Millions opted into UK mobile phone directory

Relocation

Love it .. Entered 'Birmingham' and the response was 'Is this Birmingham, Warwickshire'?

I've heard of redrawing county boundaries but this is ridiculous.

Apple adds 'S' to iPhone 3G

Wait n See

I must admit i was a bit suprised by O2's pricing but doesn't affect me as my contract doesn't end until next year. Reasonably happy with my iPhone 3G (only complaint is the battery life) and the 3GS doesn't really offer me anything I want (I used to have a Sony Ericsson with an 8Mp camera .. bought a camera with a decent lens instead). I'll live with the speed and next year will see what the market throws up. I certainly think O2's marketing is getting shoddy and I feel no loyalty to them any more (big problems upgrading last time), so maybe it'll be the Goggle Android next year (a year of mobile phone development should make a difference) .. or maybe the iPhone will not be tied to a single supplier.

Lies, damned lies and inflation statistics

It's an index, not a percent

One of the things that confuses people is that although the RPI is an index (Retail Price Index, dead giveaway) it is usually quoted as a percent change over the year. This in itself is misleading. In fact, the RPI rose this month from an index of 210.4 to 211.4. Part of the reason the % rate is dropping is that this time last year oil prices were beginning to rise sharply.

In fact, your 'basket of goods' (the index) could remain static for the rest of the year and the % figure will go negative, since the RPI continued to rise throughout the year and hit a peak of 218.4 in September 2008

Oh .. and for those who say that their dog food has gone up by x% so the figures must be lying .. remember that your shopping basket isn't the only measure .. in fact, a big influence is probably housing costs, which *has* gone down.

iPhone 3.0 gossip lassos MMS, tethering, cut-and-paste...

@Multi-tasking

Ah yes, The iPhone does this as well. The player runs in the background whilst you do other things. What it can't do is run (say) a GPS tracker in the background whilst you browse the web in the foreground.

I suspect the iPhone OS is capable of this but that it is a deliberate policy by Apple to reduce drainage on the battery.

Can't remember the cut/paste on the K800i .. obviously never needed it!

Just bought one of these things

Wouldn't say i was a fanboi but I did start out with an iPod nano and sort of moved on from there. Recently ditched my K850i for an iPhone.

I do a lot of commuting by rail (which means waiting in stations a lot) so i wanted something I could use whilst waiting for the next [delayed/cancelled/OMG its the wrong kind of rain] train.

My thoughts ..

I don't miss the camera. I think any phone camera is going to be limited by the lens .. my old 3MP camera took better 'dull day'/'party time' shots than my 8 MP phone, so I've now bought myself a small compact camera with a good lens.

I agree about the cut and paste .. every so often I want to pick something out of a web page or email and dump it into a notebook or calendar and end up doing this on my main computer.

MMS .. again, tend to agree this would be useful .. many of my friends don't have a phone that can receive email and I don't have their email address anyway. However, as time goes on I suspect that this will be less of a problem, but i'm thinking years rather than months so can I have MMS now please.

Background apps .. yup, be good to open safari without closing down the GPS tracker but other than that the apps switching is good.

Battery life .. if I use it as a music machine battery life is OK. If I use it as a phone still seems to be OK. If I use it as a phone, music machine, GPS tracker, Web browser and book then I need a bigger battery, but isn't this the case with any of the smartphone set?

The thing is big but it's pretty skinny, so fits comfortably into a trouser/jeans pocket. Just have to make sure I don't put my house keys in there as well

I think the thing can be improved. It looks like apple are doing that so so far (looks round for a piece of wood) I'm happy.

Haven't got a coat .. weather's warming up.

Brit nuke subs exposed on Google Earth

@Bullseye

"Oh, and Bill - the circles to the north of Faslane are oil storage tanks."

Our alien overlords drink oil?? My God, things are worse than I thought!!

.. off to check what the SAS aliens drink

@crop circle = compass?

Er .. there are 14 (?16?) circles N of Faslane, and no, aortic, they're not the compass. Mind you, they're not crop circles either, they're flat topped mounds, so maybe they're residences for our alien overlords?

Either way, We Should Be Told and i'm going to be reading the Sun every day from now on until we are.

Who reads The Register?

You missed a bit

I'm with wiser mouse ... I read it for the Paris Hilton stories

Brits decline to 'think outside the box'

'Grow your business'

This gets me into a bit of a froth. In days gone by it used to be 'expand your business'. Where the f... did 'Grow' come from? I always think that it's because the attitude of many managers is that if you talk enough bullsh*t then things will happen