* Posts by Old Tom

226 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Mar 2009

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Turn-by-turn directions coming to Ordnance Survey Maps

Old Tom

"when you're walking, you're lucky to get 2G speeds, let alone 3G or LTE speeds"

When I'm out walking, I'd be amazed to get any signal at all for more that a quarter of the walk.

Intel left a fascinating security flaw in its chips for 16 years – here's how to exploit it

Old Tom

Re: Genuine question!

We hit a bug in early versions of the 80186, if an interrupt came in while my dma transfer was going on, the interrupt controller set the ack pin during the transfer of the last byte. Thus the last byte was regularly corrupt - but to a consistent value, which turned out to be the relevant interrupt number.

Sony Xperia Z4 4G Android tablet – gift of sound and vision

Old Tom

Re: "Just slide the tablet along the docking channel by half an inch."

Cripes, you must have very wide linguine!

UK.gov wants to stop teenagers looking at tits online. No, really

Old Tom
Pint

Like booze

Will it be like brewery web sites where you have to enter a random birthdate that makes you more than 18?

(Does anybody know the point of those annoying web site gates?)

HP slaps dress code on R&D geeks: Bin that T-shirt, put on this tie

Old Tom

Re: My brain hurts

That quote was clearly sarcasm from a staff member, not the HP line.

Apart from that, I totally agree.

Old Tom

Bare feet don't usually smell. At least not after the initial evaporation.

Not good for going near the urinals though #otherblokesdrips

Did speeding American manhole cover beat Sputnik into space? Top boffin speaks to El Reg

Old Tom
Boffin

Orbit?

If the object exceeded escape velocity, it would not enter any shape of orbit around Earth, it would just carry on until it hit something or got captured into orbiting another body (thinking about it, it probably would orbit the sun).

Giant FLYING SPACE ROCKS could KILL US ALL, warns Brian May

Old Tom

Re: Welcome to the 19th century

If astrophysicists are using SI properly, why were Rosetta and Comet 67P quoted by ESA as being 303 million km from Earth last week, and not 303 Gm?

Paper driving licence death day: DVLA website is still TITSUP

Old Tom

Re: I just love government projects

"First day launch on the day that people absolutely needed it ?"

No, the system was already up and running when I renewed my licence a couple of months ago. I dipped-in just for a look - admittedly not to get a code - and it was fine.

The problem is the PR department got all the media to report it at the same time, resulting in the servers taking an atypical big hit for a day or so while lots of people came along for a quick look.

2.8 million victims squared up by malicious Minecraft apps

Old Tom

It's lazy to blame 'lazy' developers.

You might find that many developers hate asking for those permissions, but are forced to by the ad networks they link to to try and earn a crust.

I do agree that making permissions optional would be a good idea, though apps would of course reserve the right to fail gracefully if necessary permissions are not granted or are revoked.

Boffins bothered by EU prez's proposed science funding cut

Old Tom

Where do I vote?

In what election, and when, do we get to vote out/for Mr Junker?

BBC bins pricey Windows Media, Audio Factory goes live

Old Tom
Boffin

Re: "facing significant cuts in its funding"

The licence fee has not gone up for 5 years. That's a significant real-terms cut.

Old Tom

Re: Squezebox

My Squeezebox Duet hit this problem yesterday, but I was set up to listen to BBC stations using the iPlayer plugin. Using the radio search for e.g. BBC Radio 4 got me connected back up and streaming via TuneIn.

Also, it now gives me a customised-to-the-show icon and the show's name.

BAN email footers – they WASTE my INK, wails Ctrl+P MP

Old Tom

Please consider the environment before printing

I do wonder how many gigabytes of "Please consider the environment before printing this email" flash around the world every day; how many petabytes of it are replicated on power consuming servers all over the place; how many extra sheets of paper pop out of printers simply containing that message.

Cray-cray Met Office spaffs £97m on very average HPC box

Old Tom

Re: @ MAPINGUARI

VAT?

Old Tom

Re: 16TFlops for £97m???

"16,000 trillion calculations per second" according to their press release. Looks like El Reg needs another round of coffee this morning.

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2014/new-hpc

It's even GRIMMER up North after MEGA SKY BROADBAND OUTAGE

Old Tom

Cheedle Hulme

You mean 'Cheadle Hulme' - or is it 'Cheadle, Hulme' ?

I always loved that double meaning that was probably lost on folk unfamiliar with the 3[i] places involved.

[i] 4 if you include Cheadle, Staffs

Old Tom
Boffin

Eccles cakes from Eccles?

The most widely available Eccles Cakes - 'Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes ® - are made in Ardwick, Manchester. Only 6 miles away, but not in Eccles.

Aboard the GOOD SHIP LOLLIPOP, there's a Mobe and a Slab and a TELLYBOX

Old Tom
Stop

'the damn thing doesn't access local content'

If there isn't something already installed, simply go to Google Play and install an app that accesses local content.

Son of Hudl: Tesco flogs new Atom-powered 8.3-inch Android tablet

Old Tom

Re: cheap, but...

As Intel Android devices get more common - and they rapidly are - you'll find that 'most stuff' will quickly get closer to 'everything'.

I've just added Intel support to a natively coded game with no problem at all and it took very little effort. We only didn't bother before because we didn't have a device to test it on and the market was small.

Bruges Booze tubes to pump LOVELY BEER underneath city

Old Tom
Pint

Ieper

(PS why do the British insist on calling towns and cities in Flanders by their (hated) French names)

The insistence referring to Ieper as Ypres - often in a silly French accent - is my bête noire.

Although with sans-serif fonts, it's easy to misread.

Apple 'Genius': iPhone 6? We've had NO COMPLAINTS about our BENDY iThing

Old Tom

Drop Dead Drop

I've always been a back pocketer - never had an issue until the Drop Dead Drop Ride at the London Dungeon. My screen shattered an hour or so later in some weird delayed-action consequence.

Brit telcos warn Scots that voting Yes could lead to hefty bills

Old Tom
Stop

Re: Glostermeteor If they say yes...

"I was pondering the fact that England might be able to stick with BST all year around, perhaps with double summertime?"

But I don't want to do that. If you want 'more daylight', simply go to bed and get up earlier.

Twitter: La la la, we haven't heard of NUDE JLaw, Upton SELFIES

Old Tom
WTF?

Re: What's a jlaw?

What are the Hunger Games?

Greenpeace rejoices after getting huge renewable powerplant cancelled

Old Tom

Re: And who will not be happy

"Look at the debacle with the oil rigs in the North Sea where GP campaigned to not have them sunk but rather dismantled at shore. Turns out that GP lied and that it would not have been a problem to sink the oil rig. In fact it would have created a nice reef for the fishes."

I emailed Greenpeace at the time suggesting the rig(s) would make a nice reef. They never bothered to reply.

Freeview's rumoured '£100m YouView killer' is real – and it's yet another digital TV thing

Old Tom
Happy

Sounds sensible to me

Freesat gives us access to on-demand services, but because Freeview preceded these services, it hasn't hitherto. Aren't they just plugging that gap in service?

Urinating teen polluted 57 Olympic-sized swimming pools - cops

Old Tom
Boffin

Shallow pools

Based on Wikipedia's Olympic-sized swimming pool facts....

The 57 Olympic-sized swimming pools in question will be an average of 2.02 m deep - just the minimum depth required, 3.0 m is recommended. You'd only fill 38 recommended Olympic-sized swimming pools with this water.

Windows 8.1, which you probably haven't upgraded to yet, Already obsolete

Old Tom

Re: No

Why not?

When my old machine died, it was with a little resignation and trepidation that I had to take on Windows 8.1. Turns out I've had no problem with it at all.

No start menu? I don't give a toss, it took seconds to create my own toolbar (which I called 'Start') containing shortcuts to all my utilities. BONUS- it only contains the ones I want!

Shitty touch-centric UI - never see it, it boots straight to desktop.

It even wakes in a couple of seconds from hibernation. Oh, and I like the charm bar.

The only problem I've encountered so far is that I had to lie to it about the model of my ancient parallel printer that's connected to my NAS via a magic parallel/usb cable.

Amazon stuffs games into Fire TV box: Soz, rivals... WE don't need to make cash on hardware

Old Tom

Re: Don't need this

Believe it or not - most people don't have a roku or games console, and don't want to watch streamed TV on a phone or pc.

Let Google's tentacles fondle your mobile's web downloads and Chrome will put the data on a diet

Old Tom
Childcatcher

Cameron filters

But the internet filters will be bypassed. Won't somebody think of the children.

Five UK banks sign up to hook up customers' ACCOUNTS to their MOBILE DEVICES

Old Tom

Re: £50

I don't recall ever having a £50 note, but gimme 3 £20 notes over one £50 note any day.

In fact, I'll get some £50 notes just to swap them with you for your batches of 3 £20 notes.

DON'T PANIC: No FM Death Date next month, minister confirms

Old Tom

BBC Local Radio

I listen to BBC Radio Lancashire, but I live outside its coverage area.

I can mostly receive on FM at home and in my car. At home - though not during live football coverage - I can listen over t'internet, getting better results. At no time can I receive the DAB signal; BBC Local radio is not transmitted on Freeview or Freesat.

However, during live football coverage, the internet feed is cut, and FM is the only way I can listen to that station. I understand the licensing reasons for cutting the feed at these times, but that doesn't help me at all. They're also rather tardy at switching it back on afterwards, so you don't get the half-time and post-match discussion either.

If FM was cut, I could only listen to the station when at home, and only while live football is not being covered.

On top of that, with their multiple FM frequencies (covering different parts of the county), they are able to cover more than one match simultaneously - this excellent service would be ended by an FM switch-off.

Oh, and listening on my phone while leaving the football ground - great now on FM, but I'm not holding my breath for DAB support on my phone.

Streaming you say? No, they haven't restarted the stream at that time, and in any case mobile data is choked when you've got many thousands of people all converged in a small area.

BAN THIS SICK FILCH: Which? demands end to £1.50-per-min 'help' lines

Old Tom
Boffin

Re: Rare though it be...

(I rarely call from a mobile)

From my landline, calling a geographic number costs me nothing. Calling 0845 Costs me money - a lot.

I can see no legitimate reason for 0845. You're telling me that geographic numbers can't be re-routed?

Opera rewrite comes to Android

Old Tom
Boffin

Re: Erm

Yes.

Bob Dylan's new album is 'Copyright Extension Collection'

Old Tom
Stop

'expiration'

Please never use this abomination of a word again. El Reg is not a Toys'R'Us receipt.

Sony: Walkman, meet Android

Old Tom

Re: I think not.

Had a Samsung phone years ago, utter cack, then a couple of months later utterly dead cack.

Samsung are, I hear, doing rather well in phones now.

WD sees red, flogs NAS niche drives to SOHO punters

Old Tom
Facepalm

Re: Red means danger

Michelle,

Are you into Feng Shui as well? Seriously, you will avoid this range because they're branded red?

Though, I guess I wouldn't want to drink Red Bull or Watney's Red Barrel - so maybe you're right.

You can break EU cookie rules ... if your site breaks without cookies

Old Tom

Re: Triple-negative?

No, it means "just because you consent to a website remembering your details once, it does not mean that in the future you may not wish to visit that site again anonymously"

Or... Even though on one visit you consent to a website remembering your details, at a later date you may want to visit the site anonymously.

e.g. Maybe I'm happy for a retailer to recognise who I am when I visit their site. But maybe one time I go there for a peek at dildos, or iProducts - on this occasion I might want to be anonymous for that visit.

Mobile net filters block legit content too – campaign group

Old Tom
Pint

Age of majority

And what's the point of the annoying confirm/pretend that you're of booze-purchasing age in the country you're in before a drink-related website will let you in?

More on-topic:

Why do these filters cut out drink-related sites? You can drink in the UK when you're 5 years old. Also, you have to get past the confirm/pretend your age page anyway!

Why do they cut out the lottery (as mentioned above)? You can do the lottery at age 16.

I can understand an optional hard pron and jihadi murder filter (if it was possible to make it work, which I doubt), but you should be able to pick which vices are included.

GM puts the brake on Volt e-car output

Old Tom
Facepalm

Monday morning brain hiccup?

Re: Danny14

Is there a litres vs [Imperial] gallons mix-up in your post? I just have my doubts that your Ford SMax and/or Focus do more than 44 miles on £1.56 worth of petrol/diesel.

Melting Arctic leads to snowy winters

Old Tom
WTF?

Snowy winters?

We had much more snow than this when I was a boy.

Crap PINs give wallet thieves 1-in-11 jackpot shot

Old Tom
Mushroom

Re: You carry your birth date around with you?

OK, so as someone who never carries ID around with me, I'm in a minority of ElReg commentards.

However, stats from the first 10 thumbs (1 up and 9 down) plus myself imply that - based on a sample of 11 commentards - a massive 82% carry their birthdate around in their wallet. Somewhat short of the claimed 99+%.

Old Tom
Stop

You carry your birth date around with you?

"over 99 per cent of customers reported that their birth date is listed somewhere in the wallet or purse where they keep their cards"

That has to be one of the most bollox statistics ever.

Boffins quarrel over ridding world of leap seconds

Old Tom
Headmaster

That won't work

Unless your rocket engine is on giant pylons that reach into space - the rocket engine will push one way, while the exhaust gasses will push the other way, leaving you with no nett effect.

Old Tom
Unhappy

Re: Daylight savings

I pray those Kentish folk who want us to permanently pretend it's an hour or two later than it is never get their way. How the hell will I feel like getting out of bed on a winter morning if it doesn't get light until half past nine?

Netflix goes live in Blighty

Old Tom
WTF?

Sign out of Facebook

Seems that if you're logged into Facebook, then you don't see the non-facebook option.

If you're not logged in, then you do see the non-Facebook option.

Satnav mishap misery cure promised at confab

Old Tom
Big Brother

yes, but...

Any driver who studies a map before driving somewhere unfamiliar will have come across situations where the road signs route you the way the council wants you to go rather than the route which is (to you) best for your journey.

Many of the coming reclassifications will be aimed at reinforcing this type of non-optimal routing of non-locals.

These efforts to manage you for their benefit may be nullified by satnavs, so the powers that be want to feed their preference for the way you go into your satnav.

(I don't care, I don't use satnav; I study the (Google) map before setting out, taking a streetview look at key nodes so I know where I'm going.)

Ice Cream Sandwich

Old Tom
Happy

@Kristian Walsh

Thank you for introducing "skeuomorph" to my vocabulary.

(I scanned past the original - it was embedded in a large unattractive paragraph.)

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