Posts by EddieD

Techie stages 'strip down' protest at TSA 'harassment'

Re: Don't look Ethel !!

My word, that dates you.

Okay, us.

PLANET-SWAP shock: Stars grabbed dirtballs from other clusters

Re: Artist's impression

Nor me - astro or otherwise, but it never seems to stop me pontificating...

It appears also to have clouds, and frozen polar caps...

It must be near a star, or some source of heat...

Ten... smartphone survival accessories

I want the biolite stove thingy

I go camping a lot, and this looks like it could be useful - having looked at the website it's bigger than I thought, but I'll still be able to sling it in the car for those Highland holidays.

Okay, I'm not going to get mobile reception, but at least I'll still be able to use my GPS

Or even use play Angry Birds, given the weather I normally encounter up nort..

Cellco execs lay into Nokia's Lumia

I can't disagree

I've got a Lumia 800, and, yes, I can do tonnes of things with it, and it does make adequate calls, but the battery life sucks, the app range is limited, it's expensive, there's no control in how far the social integration goes, making that aspect, supposedly its killer feature, worthless - it's either all or nothing, and most folk want something in between. The marketing has been non-existent - I see occasional adverts on More4, but other than that, zip, zero, squat - any one of the big Android players has more airtime, and compared to Apple it's negligible.

I did specifically ask for it - and had to put up with the pushy shop assistant in the O2 store desparately trying to get me to have and Android or iOS device - but it was the only smartphone range that would allow me to use an existing identity (my ancient Hotmail account) to access it's app store - there's enough data on me floating around, without giving Apple/Google a new account to play with.

I've got 12 months on my contract, and I'll persevere - it is actually a very pleasant user experience, it's snappy in use, the display is excellent, and the call quality fine

Nordic region, Ireland adopt new 'connected telly' standard

So what's new?

For years now in analogue broadcasting we've had competing standards - the UK used PAL, the French used SECAM, the USofA used NTSC...

No doubt the seasoned wireheads will say that digital is different, but, you know, as long as it works...

Personally, I'm with Derk at the top - I don't need or want 3000000 channels of shit, give me back 3 (or maybe 4) channels of good content.

And maybe a few dedicated sports channels so I can ignore them.

I cancelled my cable subscription 4 years ago, I don't have an aerial or a dish - I make do with a relatively slow broadband connection, and I don't think I'm missing anything.

Ten... Bedroom Gadget Treats

Re: Missing item...

I've got one.

I love it to death, and use it all the time - normally with tea bags, but on those days where I must be up and running fast, a coffee bag (Lyons).

Explaining it to the younger folk though can be an uphill struggle.

As one other poster has pointed out -the buzzer is superfluous, the noise it makes can be heard all over my (admittedly small) appartment...

Any radio with an auto off feature can be used as a sleep aid -just tune in to Radio4 (or world service) set the volume low, and let the comforting burbling of the Beeb send you off to the land of nod...

Samsung S III to enter Galaxy next month

This side of the pond?

As far as I am aware only the USAsians use MDY as the date format...oh sorry, and Belize (according to wikipedia)

Most folk are sensible and use either DMY or ISO 8601 (YMD) -- nicely heirarchical.

Just as a btw, I comemmorate 9/11 as the day the Berlin Wall fell.

550,000-strong army of Mac zombies spreads across world

Bloody, bloody java...

I'm currently vulnerable to this, as my main install of Java is a bit out of date, but updating it on Windows, when you run as an user, is a pain - even if you authenticate as admin, it fails with a folder creation error, so you have to log out, login as Admin...yeah, I'm lazy.

But not only that - a lot of programs that rely on Java (e.g. SPSS/PASW) use their own JVM to ensure that it is compatible, and these never get updated, which is a bit of a security hole...

It's a shame it's useful, otherwise I'd just get rid of it.

Virgin Media's latest throttling rules

Ummm

I'm (currently) on one of the 10Mb packages - Ive been shaped about 3 times this year.

What bugs me is not that I'm being shaped - but the way they seem to implement the shaping; 2.5Mb should give me an acceptable performance on most websites,especially with flashblock, adblock, noscript, but the way VM do it, it doesn't.

Oh yes, and the dishonesty. Mr Orwell would be proud of the newspeak interpretation of "unlimited". It's doubleplusgood.

LOHAN demonstrates impressive sucking skills

Re: Pressure is one of the MOST confusing units of measurement

"Mercury allowed measurement of very high and low pressures in a compact device that was only 3 foot long"

And also led* to the development of florescent tubes when someone saw what happened when you polished one with a silk cloth and got a static charge through the torricelli vacuum at the top of his shiny new manometer.

*According to James Burke's Connections (first series) and if that's not an authority, then I don't know what is...

Vote now for the WORST movie EVER

I had a limited choice....

Because I hadn't seen most of the movies on the list.

Horses for courses though - a couple of the ones that you had are in my vid collection for the same reason Plan 9 is - they're so bad they have to be watched at the tail end of a boozy evening...talking of which, just 4 hours till Pub O'clock....

Tick tock...

Cameron's attempt to cram a robot arm wearing a Rolex into his pristine bottom

Well, you know, my speedo goes to 150mph, the car can only go about 115mph, and the limit is 70mph.

Aye, it probably is a pose, do any of us need more than a Casio rated to about 20m - okay, Lewis is a special case, but, sometimes, if you've got it, flaunt it.

Just don't say you need it.

Nokia, Microsoft bung student mobe devs £7.5m to 'ideate'

Ideate

Is listed as a correct word in my 3 copies of Chambers dictionary here, it's not in the Concise Oxford, but it is in the full.

Obscure, but apparently correct.

Revealed: Google's SECRET London office

That's better...

When I saw the first article, I assumed playmobile, and then I thought "strewth - the sets have got better"...

This is far more like Google - shiny and plasticy

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine set to sail in 4K by 2K

Excellent.

That may well be worth getting - it was always my favourite of the Beatles' films, probably because it had the least to do with the Beatles...

Man FLIES with Android-powered homemade bird wings

Bloody Dutchies...

...always smoking something...

Seriously impressive though, even with augmentation.

Free apps suck your power: researchers

I don't normally do biblical quotes, but...

Matthew ch7, v3*

Microsoft would be far better to look at the battery drain issues of their "flagship" product, the Lumia 800 than the minor issues of trial apps. I doubt that they could have used a Lumia for these tests - if the battery drain is increased beyond the level the basic O/S causes, I doubt they'd have enough time to launch any apps, let alone measure the increased power drain.

I know that there are allegedly fixes for this, but no ETA, and having to charge my phone (it having dropped to about 20% after being unplugged before leaving for work) before I go home from work causes my colleagues no end of amusement.

Other than that I like it, but it is a tad annoying.

*And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Portal 2 prevails at Bafta game awards

Worthy winner.

I got Portal 2, and even though I'm not a gamer of any note, I had a complete blast - good plot, good execution.

Good to see BAFTA recognising talent.

iPad bludgeons to death two UK Apple reseller shops

Re: Like that was a surprise...

http://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/top-stories/budget-chain-moves-in-near-one-of-scotland-s-top-hotels-1-1935194

Late october, last year...

"With Apple also expected to create a flagship unit in the block, business leaders say new life is finally being breathed into the street."

As you say though, don't hold your breath

Like that was a surprise...

Apple are opening an official Apple Store on Princes Street in Edinburgh (on the site of an old Burger King, iirc), so it was certain that the Cancom shop would shut.

It's very ironic that the taking over company is called Trams, as the building of the trams in Edinburgh have been responsible for shuttering quite a few properties recently.

Going to be a bit of a hiatus in getting support for your iThings now, as you'll have to travel to Glasgow.

Busty blogger bursts Bulgarian airbag in mud-wrestle blunder

Seriously...

I don't think you ever need to justify stories about boobs.

Mobile app privacy: You get what you pay for

One small change..

That would make a lot of difference is if the apps had to say precisely why they need access to certain services, rather than just listing what services you blindly have to let them get access to - I was think of getting a spirit level app for my phone (so I can level my dSLR for landscapes) - it wanted access to identity, data and location services.

WTF? Why the hell would it need that?

I look at the supplied functions on my old (and still working) 6610i, alarms, reminders, stopwatches, timers - all of these functioned quite happily with out any other services - why, all of a sudden, do similar programs on "smart" phones, need your life history, where you are, who you know???

TuneIn Radio Pro

(turns up collar and shuffles into the shadows)

The free version is really nice on Win Phone too...

I now have Andy's 80s and Venice Classic on the go, which is nice.

(coat, mine, thanks...)

Microsoft 'yanked optical drive from Xbox 720'

Is this really unexpected?

Or even a problem?

I've not bought a physical copy of a game since I got the second expansion of World of Warcraft - everything else has been a download via Steam or similar, or, gosh, XBox Live.

Services like NetFlix and LoveFilm are moving away from physical copies too, it's called progress, apparently, and, oddly for me, I'm in favour of it.

Facebook goes titsup in Europe

Happened to me

Along with other oddities - I got and ABE exception from NoScript, and I've certainly not changed anything - it was unpingable, but m.facebook.com was fine. Hey-ho, I left 10 minutes earlier this morning.

iOnRoad Augmented Driving

Alternatively.

PEOPLE COULD LEARN TO *&$^ING DRIVE!

Nurse - my pills....

Microsoft demos 3D desktop with transparent OLED

I want one.

Now.

All the best,

Fat margins squeeze Apple against Android

Re: Re: Casus belli

erm, you forgot "...this time..." and/or "...so far"...

Cineworld flaunts '4D' movies

How long till Feel-Around?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCq_nzlou0Q for those who haven't seen The Kentucky Fried Movie.

I get motion sickness, and 3D goggles don't work for me. I think I'll give this a body swerve.

LOHAN's fantastical flying truss cleared for lift-off

Okay, this won't work.

Fit a small but fast gyroscope, horizontally on the boom. A tendency for the boom to move off its axis would be reduced, or removed by the gyroscope.

Given the lift of the mighty orbs though, a gyroscope sufficient to keep the boom stable would probably be a tad too weighty.

It's Friday - don't expect me to come up with plausible suggestions. My other idea was to have a tilt switch move a weight along the boom to balance the stucture...okay, I know - very complex, lots of moving parts, prone to icing at altitude...I'll get my coat....

Report: Most council workers granted access to Facebook, Twitter

You can't stop it any more.

If folk want access, they can always use their phones, which would probably be more distracting than allowing it via their desktop. Besides, blanket bans breed resentment, which can lead to all manner of workplace issues, it's far more sensible to treat people as adults, and just keep a light check on how much they use such sites, and provided it's kept to a sensible level, ignore it.

Daniel Craig like Connery, Skyfall helmsman suggests

Re: Perfectly plausible

Ah...which Casino Royale?

David Niven as an aging Bond was entertaining in the first version from the 60s - which was hammy, unrealistic and over the top - i.e. a classic Bond film

GPS jamming rife, could PARALYSE Blighty, say usual suspects

That depends on which viewpoint is trying to be proven.

LOHAN's flying truss: One orb or two?

Simple solution

LOHAN is an amazon warrior, so wondrous globe would be appropriate.

Squirrelled away: seeds survive 30,000-year winter

Re: Aging nuts admired by scientists ...

I'm surprised no-one tried "Jurassic Bark" as a possibility too...

Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone

A few other features

You forgot the FM radio, which is a must have for me...

Not a huge fan of qwerty phones, I have to say, but if I was looking for a replacement dumb phone (which technically I am, my 6610i is now held together with insulating tape*), this would be high on the list.

*Gaffa tape is too wide, so I had to improvise

21st Century Sex: the shape of things to come

Re: Re: Ambisextrous

There's a somewhat more painful variant -

on the forty-fourth stroke

the bloody thing broke

and whipped his balls to a cream

I still carry my old Nokia 5185.

I agree with jake...

Except it's a 6610i for me...I think it's 7 years old, and the case it a little tatty, but it still works fine, holds its charge for 5 days, and gets reception in most places modern toyphones don't.

One day it's going to disintegrate finally, and then I'm going to be toiling

Sun hacks cuffed after being DOBBED IN by News Corp

You have been warned...

Remember to be really nice to Mr Orlowski from now on :)

LOHAN lifts skirt on 3D printed parts

Only if you, yourself, are sane

"and in our case the speed of the process will save us a considerable number of construction hours we can usefully dedicate to other aspects of the project."

Hopefully discussing it down the pub, and reporting here.

You may be madder than a treeful of monkeys, but El Reg's space ambitions are truly incredible.

Pentax Q compact system camera

Good to see.

As a long, long term Pentax user (the lenses for my old ME Super now grace my k-5), I'm loving seeing Pentax come out with such a wide variety of new cameras, and fitting them into the niches they made 30+ years ago (my dad had the Auto110 at my recommendation and still mourns it's passing).

OTOH, it means that I might not have the distinctive name on my camera - Nikons and Canons are now so standard I get asked if Pentax are a new company when I'm being a tourist - a bit of a change from my youth when only grown ups and pros had either, and there were far more Pentax, Minolta, Practika, Ricoh, Zenith, Cosina SLRs on show.

Olympus goes retro with µFT snapper

Not so evil...

I like that, but then, I'm getting on a bit...

It's pricey, but, what isn't?

Russians drill into buried 20 million-year-old Antarctic lake

"C'thulhu fhtagn"

Blighty's PC market fell to its knees in Q4

ps...

If you get a chance, read "The Shockwave Rider" by John Brunner in '75 - not his best work, but he did predict network worms, the 'net and its social side - Facebook (or it's equivalent), and ubiquitous use of mobile phones to keep your online persona updated - and the paranoia theoretically unlimited access to data can engender.

A friend of mine in the 80s used chunks of the Shockwave Rider to annotate his PhD thesis "A pathology of Computer viruses", so it can't have been that bad :)

Down, down, deeper and down..

I don't think domestic sales are ever going to return - almost no-one I know is even thinking of upgrading their current machine, citing their smartphone as being more than sufficient - it has a browser, they can watch youtube, they can do facebook, angry birds, and if necessary, connect it to the big screen to watch media on a large screen (a bit of a return to the 80s when we all commandeered the telly to "learn about computers" aka play games...)

Most businesses are going from 3 to 5 year replacement cycles - I have an eight year old machine I use at work that is still productive, so why change?

I think, and I'm notoriously incaccurate with futurology, that smartphones and consoles will converge further, and they're probably at the same stage of take off as PCs in the mid 90s - expect shipments of the these to grow almost inversely with the death of the desktop/laptop/netbook/ultrabook.

Second 'Blue Marble' NASA sat pic apes Apollo 17's stunner

Wow.

Just love the faint "ring of life" haze round the edge.

Keep 'em coming NASA...

Facebook IPO: Boom or bubble?

Similar here - my 13 and 18 year old nieces have practically abandonded Facebook in favour of BBM - which might explain the Q4 surge in blackberry shipments in the UK

Erm...

does it allow for the dweebs like me who open facebook tab when they log in at work (yeah, okay...I'm weak), and leave it like that all day?

I maybe interact with it for 5 mins, but it would appear that I'm logged in for 540 mins..

Five ways Microsoft can rescue Windows Phone

You missed one

Get them into stock in the shops.

In large quantities.

Every time I go into 02, CarphoneWarehouse, Phones4U is see racks of seemingly identical iPhones, Samsungs, HTCs, a few odds and sods of LG SE etc, but no Lumia Phones.

"No demand mate" was the comment in the 02 shop on Princes Street.