Posts by Dan 55

BBC surrenders 'linear' exclusivity to compete with binge-watch Netflix

Why?

UK channels broadcast as well as stream, so they will probably never have as many catch-up/on demand users in the UK as a streaming-only service.

People are still creatures of habit and have to fit TV around other things, most are probably not going to binge an entire series in a weekend as they probably won't have the time.

Things like news or soaps that run all year like East-bloody-Enders can't be dumped onto iPlayer.

Does this include Christmas specials? Will we be watching them in October?

If you dump everything onto iPlayer, when do you take it off? Or is this a way of turning the BBC into a subscription service?

Can I think of any more questions?

How Apple exploded Europe's crony capitalism

Re: It's all about the data stupid

Micro and Nano SIMs were pushed through as a standard by Apple.

Mobile money

Not that I particularly like any corporation using my electronic wallet as an interest free loan or a way for them to make money from commissions from the payment services chain, but I'd like Apple and Google using it the least.

And m-pesa works, it's not just a card wallet for buying frapuchinos.

New Windows 10 privacy controls: Just a little snooping – or the max

Re: Rule Number 1 if you're using Windows 10...

The only winning move is not to play.

Re: Let me guess...

What do you think?

Yes, it's full.

It's getting a bit warm in this water

So Basic is the old Enhanced, Enhanced is gone, and control of privacy settings is taken out of the OS and put into MS's cloud which appears to have access to everything but if you flip a few switches will promise it won't look.

It's good that those who updated last year knew what they were getting in to. I'm sure it's buried somewhere in the 45 page privacy policy.

No more will I tailor Swift: Code lang project lead leaving Apple

Oh good

Anyone left who can program at Apple or do they just want to push out new themes every couple of years?

Anti-smut law dubs PCs, phones 'pornographic vendor machines', demands internet filters

Re: Move along, there's nothing to see.....

If there's a crackpot at the top, it has a very good chance of passing.

Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death dead in latest Windows 10 preview

Shia LaBeouf's response to the "Get Windows 10" dialog (it was ignored and he got Windows 10 installed anyway).

Shia LaBeouf Live... just because.

Re: Alternative OS? Tried the Live USB of Fedora 25

We all know Windows exists too, but look, here we are.

Always good to know which Linux distros currently offer the best user experience and as well as which Windows versions (7).

Re: Microsoft creators a Bloater Edition?

Just wondering, how can MS drop support for hardware if they're pushing the continual upgrade treadmill that is the last ever version of Windows?

"Your Windows 10 computer is now not secure, please buy a new Windows 10 computer" would go down like a lead balloon.

There are a lot more developer-specific tweaks in the new build and it's clear Microsoft is preparing for something major with the Creators Edition. Let's hope it causes fewer crashes than the Anniversary Update.

I am so glad I am not part of this continual beta test for the Enterprise edition.

EU tosses Europe's cookies... popups

Re: woo hoo

Jobserve was one of those who did manage to do it right. You get no cookies at all and can't log in until you OK a banner.

The ICO didn't do it right.

Re: woo hoo

It does require consent to be given for nonessential cookies, supposedly before they are set, so that's either a popup or a banner.

Snapchat chooses London for international headquarters

Is this a U-turn on the Silicon Roundabout?

The move has been seen as a further vote of confidence in London’s tech and media sector, "despite" the UK’s decision to leave the European Union

I can't say I ever read much, if any, cheerleading for the Silicon Roundabout from Andrew before Brexit. What event has occurred to make it worthy of pompoms and confetti?

Renault goes open source with next-gen electric buggy you might generously call 'a car'

French cars + electrics

What could possibly go wrong?

Too much landfill, too little purpose: CES 2017

"Clearing away the trash"

A Wall-E future awaits us.

You have the right to be informed: Write to UK.gov, save El Reg

Mosley and Meritocracy

Mutually exclusive I'd have thought.

What are his qualifications apart from snorting [redacted] off of a [redacted] [redacted]?

Censored because the media is probably liable for comments too.

Re: Question

Articles two weeks before, one week before, and the day before and pinning them near the top of the front page would have been better.

As it is this was published on the last working day. It's a big ask.

Fake History Alert: Sorry BBC, but Apple really did invent the iPhone

Re: Optional

I can only find one instance of "Google" which is in the quoted letter.

Re: I thought I invented it.

they had to implement the camera in such a way that the phone would take a picture about 0.25 seconds in advance of the user pressing the camera capture button

So they had to invent a time machine?

Re: Uhhhh

There wasn't even a great app store at the beginning. It was more of a feature phone with something new (a touch screen).

The wait is over ... Nokia's BACK!

Re: They still have a couple of loyal customers here and there

Nokia was huge in China. Nokia made China specific models like the 801T and put Symbian on them when Lumias were being sold (or, failing to sell) everywhere else because that's what China Mobile wanted.

FM now stands for 'fleeting mortality' in Norway

Re: $28m a year?

The car conversion kits in Norway cost the equivalent of £140. Not free.

That'll teach me to believe what I read on the Internet.

Re: $28m a year?

Receivers are capable of DAB and DAB+, radio stations will probably fully switch to DAB+ this year. The bandwidth given to each station is higher than the UK's swampy efforts. Government also hands out free* car conversion kits.

* well yes, financed from taxes.

Why the UK is unlikely to get an adequacy determination post Brexit

Didn't they take a very long time to dig up something in the 1984 Telecoms Act which retrospectively lets them off the hook (sorry, pun not intended), but they were doing it anyway?

"(b) in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom in relation to the actions or intentions of persons outside the British Islands"

Perhaps that should be removed or rephrased to say that they CANNOT collect bulk datasets in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom, otherwise that'll be the death of selling UK-based software/cloud services abroad.

But given her latest non-interview it seems Cruela De Vil is not bothered about economic interests, only regressing back to the 16th century, just before Crop Rotation was discovered because it's also mentioned in an EU directive and that's a problem.

D-Link sucks so much at Internet of Suckage security – US watchdog

Re: AC without AC icon.

When a user is deleted they become an AC. He or she wasn't an AC before.

Re: Sympathy for the Devil

"I work with D-Link products everyday and there products..."

If there's one thing worse than an astroturfer, it's one who can't even get the grammar right.

That's the way the Cook, he stumbles: Apple CEO pay cut as sales tank

Re: 5 years down and running on fumes

Stuff started going wrong when Jobs was still around with Final Cut and OS X Lion where you couldn't Save As... but afterwards any pretence at repairability, upgradability, or server stuff (even if it was just the Mac Mini) went out the window.

Nowadays Jony just phones home something 1mm thinner with fewer ports and with more glue in every year while Macbook Air hardware is labelled as Pro and OS X is stagnating apart from getting features from iOS ported across.

Slim pickings by the Biggest Loser: A year of fitness wearables

Re: Sorry for your loss Alistair.

I'm not sure if adding a Me Too or upvoting are appropriate or if one is more appropriate than the other so I have done both, which could also be most inappropriate thing to do.

It's worse than that. Figuratively now means literally, literally now means actually, and actual/ly is now redundant.

Also due to the continuing decline in education standards, technically has become basically and basically is also redundant.

Kids, eh?

Icon is literally a grumpy old man.

Microsoft goes retro with Vista, Zune-style Windows Neon makeover

Re: Still not as good as it used to be...

And it's only a theme. Why can't they make them choosable again? If people want to make it look like 2000 or Fisher Price or 7 instead of Flatland why shouldn't they?

Re: At least they're trying!

The only thing I can see them trying to do is copying OS X and making it look worse. Not that OS X has been perfect since Jony Ive took over the asylum, but MS just made a more imperfect copy.

Why are window title bars now a good fraction of the window's vertical space, only with no title? What's that about?

BOOST! LEGO's computing future and its ground-breaking past

Re: One of the world's great companies

cough...Compatible bricks from Wilko, fraction of the price.

The bricks don't fit together as well as Lego and the things you build from them aren't particularly well designed either (either the basic idea or structurally - there's always a weak point in the helicopter or spaceship or whatever it is which makes it break into two).

I'm not one for saying my Cornflakes have to be Kellogs or my washing powder has to be Ariel, but when it comes to building bricks they have to be Lego. I just take the relatively high price as part and parcel of a western company which actually designs and manufacturers in the west too.

Ex-soldier pleads guilty to terror crime after not revealing iPhone PIN

A successful conviction under the Terrorism act!

Can't wait for this to be become a part of 2017's tractor factory^W^Wterrorism stats.

Don't believe the 5G hype! £700m could make UK's 4G better than Albania's

No. The telecos needs to catch up, the government needs to stop dropping what it's doing and running off on to the next shiny thing just to make a headline. The government will end up subsidising 5G to the detriment of 4G and telecos will stop rolling out 4G and start on 5G as that's where the money is. That's part of the reason why there isn't a full 4G or even 3G network rolled out across the UK.

Which is part of the ac standard, not some special BT thing which is apparently the UK's most powerful Wi-Fi signal.

It's actually "the UK's most powerful Wi-Fi signal"... Meaning their router transmits at more than the broadcast signal strength limit set by the standard? Ofcom should fine them for that.

Before I write my code, can that be trusted to be the case in the future? They might move onto helium.

Dotdot. Who's there? Yet another IoT app layer

Re: :/ :/ :/

Well it'll save shouting "Siri/Alexa, open the front door" through the window to the iPad/Echo.

That's the march of progress.

Re: -.-- --- ..- / ..-. ..- -.-. -.- .. -. --. / -. . .-. -.. / ---... -....- -.--.-

The post is required, and must contain letters.

Ransomware scum: 'I believe I'm a good fit. See attachments'

Re: "one threat actor leveraging the German CV campaign"

He's synergising a known pro-active solution that has been proven in the field to gain result-driven wins.

Florida Man sues Verizon for $72m – for letting him commit identity theft

Re: Nice to see...

So far everything appears to be propped up with QE and consumer credit (in the news yesterday) while the government seems to be thrashing round looking for a plan (also in the news yesterday). This is six months later. Doesn't inspire too much confidence.

Internet of Sh*t has an early 2017 winner – a 'smart' Wi-Fi hairbrush

Re: $200 for all that tech?

LG's 4K soundbars for 4K tellys are the new gold-plated audio cables.

My fortnight eating Blighty's own human fart-powder

Re: Where's the meat

Didn't you read the article? The cat delivered it.

Joe Public likes drones and regulations, finds UK.gov 'public dialogue'

The fortunate 118 first went to workshops to learn more about drones then answered the survey. Their concerns and the survey answers are what the government wanted in the first place.

From the report's introduction:

At the start of the dialogue, participants on the whole had low awareness and knowledge of drones, with military drones and high street toys being the main (and sometimes only) types participants had heard of. Participants often had little or no knowledge of commercial applications. High level associations with drones tended to be somewhat negative, linked to concerns about privacy and surveillance, safety and mis-use, and fear of the ‘unknown’. Many acknowledged that these views were driven by the portrayal of drones in the media, and that they didn’t feel they heard or knew that much about the subject. However, by the end of the first workshop, participants were highly engaged with the issues and were eager to learn more.

Hackers could turn your smart meter into a bomb and blow your family to smithereens – new claim

Re: Alarmist nonsense?

Smart meters do not have the ability to turn of the current they just monitor the current (the clue is in the name) so talk of blackout etc is rubbish.

The ones in Spain a) can cut off the current remotely under the control of the electricity company and b) are hackable (search for 'contador inteligente hackear' or similar).

Apple sued by parents of girl killed by driver 'distracted by FaceTime'

Can't use if moving...

That'd be good on a bus, train, plane, boat...