* Posts by ratbert

16 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Mar 2009

Apple land-grabs iThingy feature management patent

ratbert

Re: Already been done?

I use Llama, cos it's free. It's based on phone masts, rather than Wifi, but works a treat, putting my phone on silent when i get to work, disabling wifi when i'm not in range of a known hotspot, etc.

Shame the Apple patent was filed back to 2008 - it probably means that Llama (and Tasker) are now in violation and will get sued off the market. The patent, though, seems only to refer to WLAN, GPS and bluetooth as location methods - surely most people disable these to conserve power anyway, which would make the whole idea a bit unworkable?

HTC phones held up at US ports after Apple patent ban

ratbert
FAIL

"HTC's first quarter profits dropped 70 per cent this year as its phones failed to drag worshippers away from the Apple and Android altars."

HTC trying to drag people away from Android? That would be an odd move for them.... Methinks the writer was thinking of Samsung.

Amazon intros $199 movie Kindle

ratbert
Coffee/keyboard

A giant fuck-off web proxy?

I love the technical terminology...

Oxford adds woot! to dictionary

ratbert
Headmaster

tsk indeed

sh, ch, by, my, hymn, pry, dry, fry, rhythm... need i go on?

Will the looters 'loose' their benefits?

ratbert
Headmaster

Pedantry alert

The phrase "loose all benefits" contains valid words, and thus wouldn't be picked up by a spell-checker. Even a grammar check would allow it, though I'm unsure as to why rioters might have tight benefits...

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

ratbert
FAIL

a minor point...

" there's less real estate on screen than the iPad" ....

iPad resolution = 1024 x 768 = 786k pixels

GTab 10.1 resolution = 1280 x 752 = 962k pixels

Since when is a 22% increase in pixel count a reduction in real estate?

Samsung to refresh 7in Galaxy Tab this September

ratbert
FAIL

Gingerbread? Really?

Why oh why would they release a tablet running Gingerbread? It might not be a 10" screen, but the hardware would clearly be up to it, and the Tab is a tablet, not a phone...

I've got the current Tab, and am following the home-brew development of a Honeycomb ROM with great anticipation - from what's been demoed so far it looks to run HC quite happily (though a small bit of OCing is recommended ;)

MP headshot sex rating site: Gentlemen prefer Tories

ratbert
FAIL

Gender problems?

Got to feel sorry for Nia Griffith - currently #393 in the male section...

At the sharp end

ratbert

Bad interpretation

IMHO, the major problem sounds like it was the initial solution design, not the software itself. The company supplying the CRM system clearly rushed it in place without making sure that the customer had really understood what they were buying into. I've seen too many cases where the top level decision makers don't involve the rest of the business (who will be the ones who actually have to use the system) in the planning/design process. The users get presented with a system they don't understand and doesn't fit their needs. While proper planning, consultation and preparation for a major CRM (or ERP) system implementation can seem like a long-winded and expensive process, it avoids this sort of thing from happening.

Software suppliers not ready for HMRC online tax filing system

ratbert
FAIL

Sage prepared for change?

I'd suspect this will be unlikely - their top-tier system is still based on migrated SCO Openserver binaries from the early nineties, and they contantly have issues updating them for anything vaguely new...

Skinning the DV cat

ratbert

Mr

I agree - this just seems to be a pro-MS fluff piece, explaining how W2k8 can satisfy all of a company's virtualisation needs. An opportunity missed to compare features/costs against VMWare, Citrix, and various other options.

Who are the biggest electric car liars - the BBC, or Tesla Motors?

ratbert

Charging time

If only the e-car makers could agree on a standard battery location/dimensions/connectors, then you could just exchange a flat battery for a full one. Stick the battery underneath, then you could just drive on to a 'swapstop' where your flat battery would be automatically removed, and stored for charge, and a fully charged one stuck back into your car.

OFC, that would presuppose a level of cooperation between businesses that is highly unlikely to ever come to fruition.

Novell fannies about with Open Enterprise Server 2

ratbert
Happy

Got to love the related stories...

Novell = filth. I never knew they were that racy..

Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook

ratbert
FAIL

Battery life

I liked the look of this review - i'm tempted to get one for my g/f - until i got to the battery life comparisons. The 10v has a battery pack upgrade while all of the other netbooks compared in the graph have standard batteries.

Update the graph to level the playing field or get rid of it.

Data watchdog clears mobile phone directory

ratbert
Happy

Old marketing data

They've got me at an address from about 5 years ago, so i doubt anyone would find me anyway :)

Text 'E' to 118800 - pretty easy to opt out, though they should still cross-reference TPS and remove all of those numbers from their DB...

David Blaine tw*tdangles into Urban Dictionary

ratbert
Stop

shurely an oversight

how can any story about blaine, especially referring to him as a gitwizard, not give kudos to marcus brigstocke whose scathing rants about the egocentric pseudo-magic nutbag repeatedly brought me to the verge of wetting myself.

i'd even go so far as to put a quid or two on marcus having calling the fool-in-a-box stunt a twatdangle in the first place....