* Posts by jason 7

3181 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009

Poor, poor mobile networks. UK's comms watchdog plans to stop 'em selling locked-down handsets

jason 7

Re: A new landscape

Wow that will be amazing won't it! It almost sounds too good to be true!

jason 7

Re: A new landscape

Yes Johnson says "We no longer need Ofcom, the market can regulate itself!"

Then run that phrase for a dozen other Govt regulators/watchdogs in the coming months/years.

jason 7

Re: See the light

If you only have £20 in the bank you have far bigger problems than what smartphone to buy.

jason 7

Re: See the light

Yeah I think I dumped the contract route many many years ago.

Phone contracts are a mugs game.

My current Mate 10 Pro that I picked up in September last year cost me £360 new from Amazon. That was about 9 months after launch. I wouldn't have bought it if my 3 year old LG G4 had not given in suddenly to bootloop...

Also happy to report after just over a year the battery health is at 93%. I took note of the YouTube vids and stopped leaving it charging over night or at 100%. I now just charge it to 90% and then unplug.

Seems to work.

Bad news: KeyWe Smart Lock is easily bypassed and can't be fixed

jason 7

Re: So did this happen...

GenX'er actually. I'm the gen that despairs of both that came before and after.

jason 7

So did this happen...

...due to it being the baby of some late 20 something that won't allow their 'great concept' to be pros & conned because they would get upset if some 40/50 something said "yeah...hang on...but..."

US and China wave white flags, hit pause button on trade war

jason 7

Yep it's stupid but the impeachment won't amount to anything.

Just paperwork and money for lawyers.

The thing is Democrats don't care if they win or lose. The just want the money to keep rolling in.

They are super wealthy. It's just a hobby. This just gets them on TV.

jason 7

The problem is...99.99999% of the US public doesn't really care.

How much cheese does one person need to grate? Mac Pro pricing unveiled

jason 7

Re: Use

That's why you buy up old Dell/HP Xeon workstations. Easy pickings on Ebay.

jason 7

Re: Use

Already done with Ryzen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXg9sMuGxB0

Elon Musk gets thumbs up from jury for use of 'pedo guy' in cave diver defamation lawsuit

jason 7

Re: courts and justice in the US, it's a (medieval) joke *spilling hot coffee*

Yeah this was served too hot. They had been warned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAzMMKIspPQ

Plenty of other stuff on this.

Basically this case is twisted by corporations to try to push for tighter tort reform so ordinary folks cannot take any corporation to court for anything.

jason 7

Re: courts and justice in the US, it's a (medieval) joke *spilling hot coffee*

Apparently it was far hotter than that. Plus it had been reported a few times that the coffee machine was faulty and serving it way hotter than was safe.

Motorola's mid-range One Hyper packs 64MP cam, huge screen and – ooo – 'Quad Pixel' tech

jason 7

Mistake or a little bit drunk at the time? ;-)

jason 7

Re: What's the quality like?

Then after that gnats chuff aperture you have a teeny tiny sensor.

Whilst pics from phones have improved massively anyone who is used to DSLR pixel-peeping will laugh big-time when smartphone pics are put under close scrutiny.

jason 7

Quad pixel...

I think Sigma were using that 15+ years ago in their DSLR and compact cameras. Foveon?

Also iirc HTC did a 16MP to 4MP final cam on one of their smartphones 10 years ago. Ahhh HTC...those were the days.

The Outer Worlds: Ever wished Fallout 4 was more like New Vegas? Here ya go... in spaaace

jason 7

Hey...

...I loved the crafting and settlement building in Fallout 4! It added so much to the game for me anyway.

I'd love a Fallout settlements game.

AMD sees Ryzen PCs sold with its CPUs in Europe as Intel shortages persist

jason 7

Re: AMD laptops

Usually AMD laptops have been hamstrung (mainly by HP for some reason) with single channel RAM, 500GB HDDs and 13x7 screens for as long as I can remember.

Hobbling the dual channel RAM was a good way of keep the performance down compared to competing machines.

However, AMD shot themselves in the foot once or twice...(E1 CPUs cough cough) without anyone else's help.

Good to see them pushing a competitive range again.

Minigame: Celebrate Firefox 70's release by finding a website with 70+ trackers blocked

jason 7

Look the Eastern Evening news

How people look at that without blocking etc. I have no idea. Not that the journalism is anything to write home about. Strictly work experience level.

UK culture sec hints at replacing TV licence fee, defends encryption ban proposals and her boss in Hacker House inquiry

jason 7

Re: Yes please...

This is what I fear. If any other company did this it would be a huge scandal. This is just another reason I have little concern over the BBC's future.

Any organisation that works partly through intimidation should be brought to heel.

jason 7

Yes please...

...I would love to dump my license fee. I no longer watch broadcast TV or iPlayer but I pay the tax so I don't get the continuous harassment. Quite frankly it's a disgusting situation.

Her Majesty opens UK Parliament with fantastic tales of gigabit-capable broadband for everyone

jason 7

Re: Academics

Exactly.

If (more likely when) Brexit is cancelled the FTSE will go through the roof. If all those with money have been buying low (the past 18 months) then they are set to make a killing.

They can then display faux outrage and put out a book but still walk away a few hundred million richer.

Mission accomplished.

jason 7

Re: Dont give the contract to...

You know...I wouldn't bother. Fun idea but it might be a while before anyone technically able would notice.

The rest won't get the joke.

jason 7

Dont give the contract to...

...Openreach. They have had enough money delivering half hearted efforts the past 20 years.

YouTube thinkfluencer Siraj Raval admits he plagiarized boffins' neural qubit papers – as ESA axes his workshop

jason 7

Withdrawn! I did go off on one there. One of those days. Sorry.

jason 7

Yes I do apologise. Amazing how the world has got so wound up really.

RIP: First space-walk badass Alexei Leonov, who made it to 85 despite best efforts of Soviet machine

jason 7

The movie...

...is well worth a watch. I watched it on Prime a few weeks ago. The watched the Salyut 7 one too. Good fun.

From Libra to leave-ya: eBay, Visa, Stripe, PayPal, others flee Facebook's crypto-coin

jason 7

There are some that would argue against the moving away from gold to just unregulated wealth through debt.

Margin mugs: A bank paid how much for a 2m Ethernet cable? WTF!

jason 7

Very large Insurance Company

I worked there and I can remember we used to pay a fortune for all our IT. We were a FTSE 100 firm and yet for some reason got the worst deal imaginable for our IT. Our buying power was massive but didn't seem to count for anything.

If we wanted 64MB of ram we would be charged say £100 for it with 4 weeks delivery when Crucial could do it for £20 with free next day delivery.

I went and challenged this several times to the IT procurement folks and got the brush off. I felt something wasn't right. I then challenged the head guy about it and he blew his top, especially when I mentioned if brown envelopes/kick backs were involved. "Shut the fuck up!" I remember.

I guess they were.

UK.gov's smart meter cost-benefit analysis for 2019 goes big on cost, easy on the benefits

jason 7

Same here. I don't even call them up to give them my own meter readings.

Some guy comes round and has to do it. I told him last time "You can thank me for keeping you in a job!"

Pushing Verify in Brexit plans more about saving troubled project

jason 7

Re: @Doctor Syntax

Cameron should be taken to court over all this. He got scared, caved in to the likes of Paper tiger Farage and a few bitchy Tories and in doing so split a nation in two and led it on a path of irreparable damage and social upheaval.

It was massively stupid and irresponsible. Once Brexit has been dropped there needs to be a full criminal inquiry. However, I can imagine a lot of folks flying out to non-extradition countries with their hidden off-shore accounts once Article 50 is cancelled.

I've asked a lot of folks that voted Leave why they did it. 7 times out of 10 the response is -

"Well I'm not bothered about the EU or all that. I just wanted to give Cameron and the Govt a punch on the nose. Didn't expect Leave to win!"

jason 7

Re: @Doctor Syntax

Yeah the delusion is so strong in the Pro Brexit camp. I said to a very pro Brexit person I know "Oh Brexit won't happen by the 31st!"

He turned and said most assuredly "Oh it HAS to happen by the 31st! No question!"

I said "Okay £10 I say it won't happen on the 31st! There will be another extension. Easy £10 for you!"

He looked concerned, his eye twitched and wouldn't take the bet.

They know damn well deep down it's all a crock. It's only some stupid miss-placed pride that keeps this shit show aloft.

I even texted him a week ago to up it to £20. Still won't take it.

Holding all the cards eh?

jason 7

Re: The elephant in the room has finally been addressed over the weekend by the Lib Dems

Well when the alternatives on the menu are -

Dog Shit

Cat Shit

Monkey Shit

I'll take an order of Lib Dem thanks. Cancel Brexit (and see the biggest surge to the UK economy in decades, so the likes of Rees Moog/Banks etc. will still make a pile of cash as was their plan all along) and then worry about where we go from there. At least we won't be carrying on our current course for the plughole.

jason 7

So...

...who will walk away with £30 million in the bank, a knighthood for a failed project behind them?

Apple blinks on iPhone repairs, touts parts program for independent tech mechanics... sort of

jason 7

My heart always sinks when i get called in to fix a customers computer and it's an AIO.

Horrid things.

Dixons hits back at McAfee's £30m antivirus sueball: Your AV didn't work on Windows 10S

jason 7

Re: Windows 10S...as useful as a chocolate teapot

Yeah I get this from customers. They ask I spend time coming up with the best bang for the buck and tell them.

Then one of two things happen -

They buy some other random piece of shit cos it 'was in pink'.

or

"We lost the list you sent us!"

F*ck off!

Want an ethical smartphone? Fairphone 3 is on the way – but tiny market share suggests few care

jason 7

Do you not have hands like other humans?

'Not productive for our business'... Michael Dell urges end to US-China tariff tit-for-tat spat

jason 7

Re: Trade wars leads to real wars. Our planet is at stake for both.

Bully China?

Not looked much into the USA's history of 'making friends and influencing people' around the world for the past 40 years?

I'd say the 'poor old' USA has killed more innocent people and children on foreign soil than China in that time. The USA is a far bigger bully to others and bullys don't like it when a bigger bully appears.

You (and China) are not the good guys in all this. Just two idiots the rest of the world is sitting back waiting for the chairs to really start flying.

How does that stack up? But from the wording of your post...deep thought isn't a thing.

Unless I missed the sarcasm?

jason 7

Yeah, it's amazing how many people think the US Chamber of Commerce is part of the Govt.

It ain't.

jason 7

Well the US made this situation by taking Wall St's mandate of "Cut costs! Increase profit!" every single day for the past 50 years.

So tough.

And so stupid.

The irony is the corporations' desire to pander to Wall St. will ultimately be its complete downfall.

If the 99% have no more money, who buys the product? Does Jeff Bezos buy that many Ford F-150s?

When did you last see Warren Buffett in a pair of slim fit 501s?

The US got greedy and now there is a bigger boy in the playground.

jason 7

Re: Little Emporer

If you read his Tweets and imagine them being spoken by a 7 year old boy they make so much more sense.

jason 7

Well the Ginger Gibbon in Chief does, cos it's great distraction from his money grabbing etc.

Buying a Chromebook? Don't forget to check that best-before date

jason 7

Not so fast.

Just powered up my little 11" Samsung I bought in 2012.

Still getting updates.

I would point out it cost £200! Sweated that asset.

My MacBook Woe: I got up close and personal with city's snatch'n'dash crooks (aka some bastard stole my laptop)

jason 7

Re: That's horrible.

Yeah luckily it all turned out fine. Gf reminded me after that I had got maple syrup in my hair at the all you can eat breakfast that morning.

Pure bear bait!

jason 7

Re: That's horrible.

It was actually in a near urban environment in Whistler. Been out in the woods, smelt bear. Didn't see any.

Get back to the village, we walk round a corner, with bushes etc. and there 30 feet away is a bear. Okay it's a black one (if it was a grizzly...I wouldn't be typing this) but it's a large adult. It's out looking for scraps.

It sees me and the Gf. We see it.."Shittttt BEAR!!!!" we both say together.

I straight away stand still, tell my Gf to get behind me and walk back calmly to the cycle hire place across the bridge. She does so and I look at the bear and it looks at me.

Bear starts walking towards me. I start backing up. I go a little faster...it goes a little faster. I keep looking over my shoulder to see where GF is and she is getting away. I get to the bridge and by now the bear is ambling after me quite fast, I don't think it's enraged but curious. Still I don't want to make friends. It keeps on after me more and more enthusiastically. I'm not scared, just fascinated how it will turn out. I might get a sexy scar? Who knows?

Anyway bear is now quite fast, my heart is pounding..."What a great holiday!" I'm thinking.

I get across the bridge and shout to the guy at the cycle hire "BEARRRRR!!!"

He just gets his phone out and uses the 'Nuisance Bear' app and then a little old lady turns up with her little yappy dog. It sees the bear, it goes nuts at the bear and the bear just runs like crazy into the woods. Awwww!

Gf and I just stand there laughing, knowing we have a great story to tell folks back home.

At the end of the day, when shit like that happens, there are no rules or wise moves, especially if it's a grizzly. You either get lucky or you don't. So yeah I'd still take Grizzly Adam's advice with a pinch of salt.

But you know...make a noise like a yappy dog might work. At least I've been able to test some of the advice in a way.

jason 7

Re: That's horrible.

I still reckon 85% of Macbook users could switch to a Chromebook very easily and they will be able to but more than one coffee a day!

jason 7

Re: That's horrible.

Speaking as someone who has in fact been chased by a bear, I can say it's an exhilarating experience.

Plus now when I go to such places as the wilds of Canada etc. and some bearded Grizzly Adams type starts to tell 'us tourists' about what to do if a bear attacks I quickly tell them and brush it off. You should see their faces!

Microsoft blocked TSO Host's email IPs from Hotmail, Outlook inboxes and no one seems to care

jason 7

I just mentioned this...

...to my other half that does web development.

She just laughed. She said that it didn't surprise her and that TSO were always going to get burnt by having a bulk email facility openly available.

Long time coming apparently. Plus she says they are really crap as hosts.

They all start out good and then just get packed and don't bother to upgrade.

Alexa, can you tell me how many Chinese kids were forced into working nights to build this unit?

jason 7

Re: Chinese kids sure have it easy

Probably didn't have your entire family's health insurance tied to it too.

"You quit and little Johnny dies from no insulin!"

Brit couch potatoes increasingly switching off telly boxes in favour of YouTube and Netflix

jason 7

Re: Smart speakers?

Well years ago I was almost part of the sick puppy brigade. Spending a huge chunk of my salary on Meridian gear and CDs back in the 90's.

I used to be on a lot of the hi-fi forums and so often I'd see some poor guy who was so proud to declare he's bought a new NAIM CD player or amp only to be beaten into submission by 'NAIM fanboys' telling him it wouldn't sound good/right till he added the optional power supply etc. etc. Yeah not so much NAIM but the fanboys.

It was behaviour like that (plus the start of stock computer/PC products starting to be used in hi-fi and having the hi-fi voodoo BS and price tag applied to them) that made me move away from all that and get a life basically.

Remember no female has ever said "Oh god you are so sexy talking about your Hi-Fi!"