Posts by censored

Music biz unites to save 6Music

Which is it...?

Is it a service that encroaches on ground that should be open for the commercial sector, or is it a unique, niche station whose output isn't matched anywhere else?

Can't be both....

Microsoft finally debuts Euro-choose-a-browser screen

I'd go further...

In fact, those users who have the automatic updates patching without them doing anything are the ones who left it on by default. They're the ones who won't know, care or understand what other browsers are for. This is a shitty system, just as they've got used to a new Windows along comes this dialog and messes it up for them.

I hope it re-pins their choice back to the taskbar and imports all their bookmarks and set their homepage WITHOUT PROMPTING, else it's going to cause a lot of problems for low-end users. Most will just want to go back to what they know - and finding it 5th on the list is going to be another confusion. They might end up with Opera, which is a totally different experience to the one they've had.

Hell, even my dad - a retired electronics expert with 40 years work behind him - doesn't know what a browser is. He phoned me last week trying to get a neighbours machine to work. "The internet won't load up". He meant Internet Explorer. When I suggested he put Firefox on, he said that "They use Sky as their internet and that's on Internet Explorer". He meant Sky.com was their default homepage.

I like the idea, but the execution stinks. And it should only be rolled out to new installations.

Airport scanners face double exposure

The problem with profiling...

That my friend Mohammed is just as likely as your average caucasian granny to commit mass murder on an aircraft (i.e. not at all likely).

So why should he be singled out at the airport when my grandmother isn't?

I have no wish to see the Pervscanners rolled out

But there's a simple way to ensure it's not discriminatory, and one which is used for customs searches around the world.

Each passenger pushes a button, which gives a green light to proceed through the standard arch or a red light to have their genitals laughed at by a sweaty man in a uniform. The machine is programmed to give a chance 50/50 or 20/80 or whatever you want.

Twitter 'airport bomb hoax twit' charged

Is this *really* good use of public time and money?

And more importantly, would I be charged for making the same joke in the pub?

Only Apple can get away with App Stores

For once, Orlowski is probably right...

But he also failed to mention another aspect: not everyone WANTS apps. Ok, we're all tech junkies. We've had email on our phones since it was tediously cumbersome.

But my dad has a phone that can do it, but no data plan. He's never really considered it and doesn't have much interest in the mobile web. Same with my mum, who hasn't so much as used the camera on her (my old) N95.

I discovered yesterday that my gadget-loving father-in-law has had an iPhone for a year, but never got around to setting up email on it.

These people simply don't WANT apps. They might learn the benefits of mobile web or email, just about, but they won't bother changing their phones from whatever the default setup is. The smartphone explosion is leaking out of the tech-loving geeksphere and going mainstream to these people. And there's far more of them than there are of us....

Holy Father turns on to Dad Rock

"All your dreams are made, when you're chained to a mirror and a razor blade"

Vatican-endorsed cocaine lifestyle. Interesting.

Where does Mozilla go when the monopoly witch is dead?

The identity thing is interesting...

I have both Google and Wordpress (and probably other) OpenIDs. It would be interesting if Firefox could have built-in authentication for any site that required sign-in, with one username if you wanted it, linked to several email addresses or account but just one person: ME.

Foreign objects in orifices a bigger killer than laptops

109 exploding batteries....

How many incidents of liquids being deliberately made to explode? None, I believe.

Yet I can take my laptop on-board but not my water. Strange world.

Intel says warranties evaporate when kit resold

That's got to be illegal...

Surely?

Besides, how can they prove the items was resold and not simply bought on behalf of someone else or given as a gift?

Google Buzz - Gmail mod for the Tweetbook set

FriendFeed Killer??

FriendFeed is pretty excellent at aggregating your various social feed, which can then be pushed out in a single RSS to wherever you like. It even has the commenting facility that Buzz has. That's clearly the inspiration, not Facebook or Twitter.

Buzz could be a FriendFeed killer, except for one thing: it's behind a Gmail account. Only Gmail users get it. Are people going to sign up for Gmail just to get Buzz? Nope.... if it was available in a standalone app as well or instead, then it might just work.

Even as a Google user, I can't use Buzz. I have two accounts, a gmail for Picasa/Reader and a hosted domain for mail, calendar and contacts. Since I spend all of my Gmail time in hosted window and where Buzz isn't available (yet), this Google and Nexus One user can't even access it....

Gmail to get realtime with Web2.0rhea makeover?

What's the point?

Social sites are, by definition, walled gardens. The equivalent of the local pub - you have to pop in to see what people are up to. The whole point of email is talking to anyone else with email, regardless of the provider. Sharing a status on Gmail and only on Gmail assumes that all your contacts use Gmail.

Gmail sends email. That's what it's (extremely) good at, but a large proportion (IMAP, mobile users) don't see the interface anyway and a larger proportion of the people you use it to contact don't use Gmail at all.

Airport scanners go live today, kids included

Quite right...

and it's interesting that the only vaguely successful terrorist acts in Europe for the past decade have been...

On tubes, buses and trains.

Seems to me our airport security has been working pretty well for a long time. And the terrorists are free to blow up Bluewater on a busy Saturday afternoon....

If a pat-down goes too far....

You can complain. As, in fact, I did when he put his hands inside my trousers without asking, whilst the inside of my wife's bra was being groped.

The pat downs are already too intrusive. But if something dodgy happens, you know there and then and can do something about it. If someone takes a snap of your naked body whilst sitting in the remote location, you'd never know.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it. People would not submit to a physical strip-search, why submit to an electronic one?

The logic of profiling...

My friend Mohammed who I went to uni with, is just as likely as me to blow up a plane (i.e. not at all likely).

So why should he get stopped at security just because he's called Mohammed and has dark skin and a beard?

I'm pretty sure...

that airlines don't have to refund people who fail security screening. And even if they did, under these circumstances they'd say it was your choice to not walk through the machine and get on the plane.

That's it, then...

I've taken my last flight out of Heathrow.

Compulsory perv scanners upset everyone

I won't fly out of Heathrow, then...

And presumably neither will someone who wants to blow up a plane, choosing to board an inbound flight from elsewhere. They can't be trusted, you know?!

Apple's Tablet won't save Big Dumb Media

Micropayments?

It seems to be that if there was an easy way of reading a site whereby each article was a nominal fee (1p?) most people would be happy to pay it, with say a maximum of 25p a day. If it's worth 10 minutes of your time, it's probably worth a penny. But most people don't think a subscription isn't worth it and there hasn't been a way to collect and administer pay as you go content. Hell, most people don't think the 50p cover price of a physical paper is worth it, but I'll bet they'd pay 1p to read the front page.

There mustn't be complex and annoying sign-ups, different logins across different sites and a a multitude of "are you sure?" dialogs, if it's annoying to use people won't use it. But maybe, just maybe, this is what Apple have cracked. The device WILL be tied to an iTunes account. They could aggregate the payments for everything you read until it's worth charging your card for it (say, once you reach £3, the payment goes through).

Tons of people have proved they're willing to chuck away 50p on a fart app for a giggle. Provided the cost per article is low enough, tons of people might just be willing to read quality media content too.

The downside is having Apple as gatekeeper and no doubt keeping a big chunk of that payment for doing bugger all. But if it works, maybe this IS the future of digital reading? All it would need is OpenID logins across all media outlets, tied to a payment account.

Airport scanner staff object to vetting

I've said it before...

But if you're not happy to do a strip-search to get on a flight, then why would you be happy with these scanners?

Cadbury flakes in face of Kraft bid - cuts expected

The Americans know NOTHING about chocolate

Have you tasted their travesty of Hershey's which yanks go mad over? Horrid stuff. As are their beloved Oreos.

Discrimination warning over airport body scanners

I will stop flying....

...from UK airports if these come in. I'd rather at 2 hours and £60 to go to Paris.

If you would object to a strip search, you should object to these scanners. Simple as that.

BBC looks to grab internet TV market

Enlighten me...

where in the UK can I find a comprehensive internet TV service?

Critics aim to sink Titanic ice cubes

So long as there's a drink-related pun...

"How long will it be before this firm makes ice cubes of the Twin Towers to commemorate 9/11?"

Not too long, I hope. And I'd buy them.

Brown launches 'Zip it, Block it, Flag it' net code for children

To be fair...

It's a subject that does need to be taught in social education at school, just to make sure kids are aware of the risks of, for example, sending their boyfriend a rude photo. Teenagers pretend to be worldly wise, but how many of them have really thought through the possibly pitfalls of telling someone online what school they go to? Teens take risks, always have, always will, but as responsibly parents and teachers we should discuss the problems and dangers of the real world with them.

The problem is that most teachers haven't a clue. I was in a school assembly about it a couple of weeks ago, and while the general content was ok, the teacher was clearly speaking from notes without any real idea of what her own words meant

Pig plague alert: Avoid missionary position

If you're worried about catching a disease...

perhaps you shouldn't rub your wet bits against theirs.

I've had pig plague, and I really didn't fancy sex at the time anyway.

Apple cult leader emails outside world

If it's not that big a deal...

Then why are they suing?

Yes, it's an infringement but it's not that big a deal.

Glenn Beck loses and wins domain name case

Yes, but....

...has he commented on the very serious allegation that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990?

I don't believe he has. And until he goes on record to officially deny that he did so, how on earth can we trust him?

Palm Pre smartphone

HTC Hero??

Surely the Hero is in the running too...?

Amazon tosses gelded Kindle at UK readers

It all comes down to content...

You can have the best ereader, with the crispest display, the best price and the fastest and easiest delivery network ever created. But if you can't buy any books for it, what's the point?

I logged onto the Sony Reader and Cool-er stores to find the six or seven books on my list to buy and read. They didn't have any.

Amazon's Kindle had them all, including a couple of course textbooks and an relatively obscure memoir of a North Korean defector.

O2 could impose out-of-contract iPhone lock-in

Rules and Unlocking

You'd have thought that after the subsidy it's yours to do as you please. But Ofcom disagree. They decided to revoke the mandatory unlock at the end of the contract. They said it was 'better for competition'. No-one other than Ofcom can quite understand how being unable to move your handset to another provided is good for competition.

What's interesting about O2, is that none of their other handsets are locked at all, even within the contract. That makes sense, because even if you did sign up and go elsewhere, you're still stuck with a contract you'd have to pay. So in a sense it doesn't matter if you use the O2 SIM or not as they get their monthly amount anyway and don't have to provide a service for it if you go elsewhere!

Specifically for iPhones, Apple keep a central database of which serial numbers are with which carriers, and the unlock is done via iTunes against this database. So Vodaphone would be unable to provide the unlock for an O2 handset, because the database would know it wasn't theirs to unlock.

On the other hand, every iPhone owner signed up knowing that it was permanently locked to O2...

Flickr!: Now! with! added! Yahoo!

Mistake in the Grammar

Clearly the brand name is: Yahoo!

with the ! as part of the brand identity and Yahoo! device.

So, if you wish to end the sentence with an exclamation mark, the only correct way to do this would be:

We made Flickr! Not Yahoo!!

iPhone and Windows Mobile get the (Gmail) Push

For when you just can't wait for that mail...

Or alternatively (like me) for when you don't want to be bothered checking only to find you haven't got any messages, so you only need bother picking up your phone when you DO have a message and can get on with your life the rest of the time...

LG GD910 Watch Phone

Yeah, but forget all that....

This is the future we were promised! It's here! A wristwatch-video-communicator!

Show this to someone from 1965 and their head would explode out of sheer awesomeness, because this is EXACTLY what they're waiting for yet not really expecting.

Now, where's my personal jetpack?!

Pull the plug on Pandas, declares BBC man

He's right...

Where human activity has caused the loss of an animal, there's an argument to say we have a moral duty to try and reverse that. And there is also an argument to say that we are the guardians of the planet and that maintaining a healthy and diverse biosphere is a good thing to do.

But, when it comes down to it, what does it ACTUALLY matter if a particular species is lost? In the grand scheme, it doesn't really.

Pandas are dying out despite anything we do. And we have enough video, art and data on them for it to make no real difference if they live or die.

Samsung Android phone finally hits O2

Wow

That's iPhone 3GS prices, which were already the highest for years.

Have we seen the end of highly-subsidised smartphones?

UK media: 'Met Office computer will destroy the world'

Straw Men

Of course, it's easy to point at any single source and condemn it. But what you have to look at is, USEFUL energy and energy waste.

No-one is going to complain that a life-support unit of a hospital produces a tonne of CO2. But they would complain if the administrative wing produced it.

If the met office computer wasn't doing anything overnight but was left on anyway, I'd suggest that it was worth mentioning. Otherwise, while it's doing useful (and some might say essential) computing, without wasting too much energy, then it's fine.

Forget solar panels, it's time for rooftop slime-tanks

Some reasonable principles there...

Why don't all our roof spaces have gardens on them? It'd be great for biodiversity as well as CO2 and pollution levels.

No reason why we can't think about stuff like the algae too - I once read about a new road surface material that had reagents that broke down pollutants. These are the ideas we need.

What I don't understand is: if the algae are in sealed containers, how do they get the CO2 out of the air?!

Sony takes on the Kindle

@Alastair 7

There are plenty of ebook readers that you side-load. In fact until this annoucement, only the Kindle had wireless.

UK.gov revives net cut-off threat for illegal downloaders

In the meantime...

Every street market in South America, Russia and Asia is awash with the latest CDs and movies, none of which are legal, whilst there isn't a single record shop or movie rental place to be found.

Unlike in Europe and the US, that's piracy for profit not personal use. And there are far, far more people in Asia.

So, I assume a hardline stance is being taken right across the world, especially in places where it's consumed instead of rather than as well as paid-for content?

Microsoft's Windows 7 pretzel takes fresh twist

Funny isn't it?

At £80 I'd probably have bought it. At £150 there's no chance, so

if I need it I'll get a cracked copy.

Apple blogger legally unlocks iPhone

Why is this news?

You can get one legally unlocked in France after the contract period too. And in Italy they're sold unlocked.

"Carries have different unlock policies" is not a news story.

The only problem is that in the UK, Ofcom used their infinite wisdom to decide against the rule that all operators must unlock at the end of the contract. In the name of 'competition', your handset can remain tied to a network forever.

Sony sparks digi book fireworks with ePub move

One place where DRM is understandable

Is books. Literature and knowledge is still a prized commodity, unlike music where every pub in the land has bands making a decent stab of it.

But for ebooks to take off, they must be £1 or £2 per book, not £6 upwards. Books more than CDs have huge costs in printing, storage and transportation and the saving must be passed on. Part of the problem with music is record companies not realising a download album is worth a lot less

than a physical one. A low price would also pretty much kill the grumble of being unable to pass the book on.

Much as I am against closed formats, Kindle is by far the better system at the moment. The wireless features are superb and I would love to subscribe to a newspaper and have it waiting for me on the device every morning and not have to do a thing.

The Kindle-style 'ecosystem' could well save newspapers as well as taking ebooks mass market. But Amazon need to open it so everyone from your library to your quirky local bookstore can publish, sell and manage books on the device.

GGF plans to steer The Pirate Bay freeloaders straight

Think about pricing...

Because I simply dont value a movie I'll watch once as being worth £10. I've downloaded the whole of The Wire, again I'll watch it once. It has ZERO monetary value for me since I could just have hit series link on my PVR.

Same for any TV show or movie I've missed. That are tansient to me and as such are worthless as commercial purchases.

Conversely, I tend to pay for music since I'll enjoy it many times over many years and as such it has a value to me.

Japan torture flick sickens UK film censor

I just keep asking myself...

Is the world a better place with this movie (or Saw or Hostel or any of the others) in it? The only answer is, well, no. The world is probably a better place without it - as people wouldn't be getting 'entertained' by stuff that they really shouldn't be.

The same goes for Transformers and anything with Adam Sandler in it, too.

Tr.im calls in Web 2.0 doctors, gets stomach pumped

A title

I'm not sure how this kind of service could ever make money. But why do we need more than one of them anyway

Blogger silences Google ads with death and destruction

Of course....

This doesn't stop Google *reading* your email. It just makes Google think that it would be kind of inappropriate to sell you a funeral plan or something, in case you're talking about the loss of a loved one.

So Adblock Plus will accomplish the same task much more simply. Ads? I see no ads?!

PayPal moves to embed self in everything

Beware Of False Security

PayPal claim to be secure because you don't give your details to all and sundry. However, outside of eBay they offer little protection.

I used them to order from a website I'd never heard of, figuring it would be safer than my credit card. The items didn't turn up.

It turns out, paypal will only refund you if the seller has funds in their account. If they take your money, move it straight to their bank, then don't bother giving you what you paid for, you're screwed.

Oh, and a different website refunded me for returned items. PayPal extracted their usual percentage from the refund, this leaving me down a few quid for nothing.

I will no longer use them.

Apple ends Palm Pre's iTunes charade

@AdamT Errrr....? What....?

"Palm don't understand what makes the iPhone a success. It's not the compass, or the touch screen, or pinch-to-zoom. It's content availability and management"

So people buy iPhones coz of iTunes, do they? When it came out, there were cries of "Finally! A phone that syncs to iTunes!" ???

Microsoft store crumples as Win7 promo kicks off

I'll wait until December

and torrent it