Posts by Rocco

Google's email goes titsup (again)

Credit crunch, swine flu, now this???

I can hear Four Horsemen fiddling with their spurs...

Seriously, what a load of nonsense. An email provider had a wobbler, so what.

Actually, maybe such wee outages should be mandated weekly, after all who amongst us absolutely 100% must have that penile enlargement email right now? Might do us all good to unlpug for a bit every day.

Cue the "Don't you know I'm an important businessman with a BlackBerry" types to insist that their connectivity is what binds the universe together...

Google name 'worth $100 billion,' says Strategy Boutique

Hello, Mr Editor?

Article about branding.

Vodaphone.

'Nuff said.

Apple intoxicated with ex-Vista chief's musical stylings

Editions

You forgot "Derogatory Third World Mono 8-bit 11kHz Edition"

Paris, 'cos she's gotta be lovin' some of the Allchin.

The long road to Reader and Flash security Nirvana

A chance for Stevie B to be a shining knight?

Yes, these things should be easily managed with an agreed format (XML schema?) that defines manufacturer, product, version, executable path, update check URI, update type and update check frequency. A simple low-overhead system process then looks after the notification of updates to the user, or automatically installs them, depending on the chosen settings for that product.

Homogenisation of user dialogs is always A Good Thing™, so if the updates always come from the same place and in the same style, then Joe User isn't going to be as afraid of them and we're more likely to see the updates applied in a timely fashion.

Microsoft already has much of this in place in Windows Update (poosibly excepting the low overhead bit!) and it will take Redmond to make this happen, so why not open WU up?

Court rules airline secret security list is stupid

Will I get my son's toy drill back now?

Last year, after visiting some relatives, we were handed a toy Bosch drill as a birthday present for our toddler when leaving for the airport. Not having space in our hold luggage, we threw it in a carry-on bag and thought no more of it.

On going through security we were told that this was obviously an instrument of Bin Laden and could not be permitted on board. I asked to see the list of prohibited items so I could check it for "lightweight toy drill/drivers (green)". No list was forthcoming - "It's up the discretion of the security manager, sir" - a security manager who was to cowardly to come out and explain this to us in person.

Even with the inevitable futility of pursuing the matter in mind, I tried to reason with the obviously embarrassed security staff who, having made their decision, were not going to back down now. A crowd of disbelieving onlookers watched as they chucked the brand new toy in the bin. They even refused our request that the toy be sent to a local kids home.

Best part? In their rigorous search they singularly missed the half-empty Innocent smoothy in the changing bag - something that is definitely prohibited by these ridiculous rules we are expected to endure.

Stand up, Bristol Airport security staff - you are a credit to faceless jobsworth "I'm only following orders, sir"-ness, no doubt you'll be honoured sometime by our caring Govt.

UK kids presenter gets online support

Missing the point (pun not intended)

This Cerrie and the new bloke would still be wooden and unengaging, regardless of how many arms they had between them.

Plus, has anyone noticed the end of her arm looks a bit like a.... Fruity!

Mine's the one with "Going straight to hell" on the back.

Mobile phones to get universal charger

@David Bell

@David Bell

"As phones get more functionality"? Well, the USB port on my PC manages to support just about any device that you could conceivably hang off a mobile. Even reasonable resolution display devices can be driven via USB. What device do you think wouldn't be able to be connected by USB?

The 'S' in USB means we shouldn't need any more than 4 pins: 2 data, 2 power...assuming the serial link is fast enough that is, which it should be for whatever you can think of using USB on a phone for. As there is backward compatibility for the mechanical connector, a move to the even higher data rates of USB 3.0 would not obsolete the millions of compatible chargers either.

@AC

Soz, too much time spent looking at US .mil stuff. Robust would have been a better choice :)

Sony Ericsson chargers

@hatter

My wife had a 2003 SE handset that has a different multipin port than my current one. SE & Nokia might use a specific connector for longer cycles than other manufacturers (stand up, LG), but they could have decided tomorrow to change to yet another connector.

What this agreement means is that they can no longer do this. For many reasons, this has to be a Good Thing. With R&D focussed on one connector, best practice and ruggedised ports will become the norm and phones should be all-round better for it.

I seem to recall that, in a rare move planet-friendly move, China was the first to mandate this move to a microUSB connector and this decision by the world's largest mobile market has no doubt spurred the industry along. Well played there, Beijing.

BT Granite slimline DECT cordless phone

Looks familiar

From the looks of the screen and basestation voicemail indicator, this appears to be made by the same OEM who knocks out the iDECT series of not-actually-bad-DECT-phones.

Still, the feeble clone power/line in situation does hark back to a BT DECT system I had a few years ago - atrocious product design.

Dell launches perfume ad teaser site for Macbook Air rival

Ooooh!

Handbags at dawn, defensive Apple fanboys ahoy!

MSI mobo ditches Bios for EFI

It may be prettier...

..but what exactly was wrong with the way BIOS worked? It was not aimed at your nan or typical PC World punter, it just did what it had to with minimal bells & whistles and little chance of getting itself all in a twist. And I doubt a mouse could get me round an Award BIOS quicker than I already can with keyboard.

Add a 'tasteful' GUI, localisations and a few thousand extra lines of code and what have you got? Something that hopefully does *exactly* the same as before, but is more likely to break...or be broken.

And anyway, in these 2.0 days of nannyish wizards, GPU-accelerated animated cursors and alpha-blending on everything, mucking about in the BIOS is one of the few ways we can still feel like real men, dammit!