Posts by tomjol

Google flings another £1m at online child sex abuse vid CRACKDOWN

Re: ^ Very much this.

Does Maria Miller strike anyone as the type of person who understands how the Internet works?

iPhone 5 Lightning cables sticking in USB ports

Re: the white plastic surrounding the USB end slides right of revealing the medal connectors

"Looks the same on the iPad / iPod / iPhone but you can't use the same devices with them. Even amongst the same product line (e.g. the iPod) they vary the spec."

What does this mean? That you can't plug an iPod into an iPhone?

Can't say I've ever had any trouble with any 30-pin cable on any device but that said I haven't owned many for a long time...

Apple's new Safari snubs older Macs, drops Windows version

Re: @LarsG

On the connect instead of search thing, in Chrome at least, stick a forward slash on the end.

ALL NHS patient records online by 2015

How long before they're hacked, stolen and widely distributed?

I give it about five minutes.

Oh no wait, maybe eight. Yeah, eight sounds about right.

What a fucking joke.

Force Google to black out searches in new privacy law - MPs

"If someone is in a position that grants them fame, then things that happen around them are in the public interest to know. This should outweigh their privacy concerns"

Why? So what if they're famous? I might get on board with power but not fame.

Having sex parties with whips and chains and women dressed as Nazis isn't illegal. You might not find it a very pleasant concept, but it's his life, much as I detest him, he should be able to live it as he wants.

BT hires another battalion of troops to speed fibre rollout

I realise this might be extremely wishful thinking but, have you actually contacted someone to complain? If my connection suddenly deteriorated to the point of being unusable, I wouldn't be writing comments on El Reg, I'd be demanding they sort it out...

Apple pulls 'intifada' app

You don't even need the dev kit...

1) Settings > Applications > check Unknown Sources

2) Download and open .apk file

3) There is no step 3

Twitter forced to hand over user details to English council

Let's turn that around...

What the fuck gives YOU the right to decide what other people can discuss?

I might be inclined to agree with the first bit of your post, if it wasn't all being paid for with taxpayers' cash.

Android's Gingerbread finagled onto iPhone

Except that...

...the article is talking about the iPhone 3G, which isn't anywhere near the performance of the current crop of Android phones or the iPhone 4.

Get back under YOUR bridge!

Apple iPhone 4 vs... the rest

Er...

So, you're complaining because you actually had the opportunity to replace the SMS or Email apps on the Android device, as opposed to the iPhone where any app which replicates the functionality of an official Apple one is banned?

Samsung Galaxy Apollo Android smartphone

You mean like that 'Data enabled' setting...

...in Settings > Wireless and networks > Mobile networks?

'Larry and Sergey's HTML5 balls drained my resources'

Yeah, er, it's 2010...

...and that's a pretty puny spec for anything made in the last few years. Additionally, it's not an animated GIF, it's interactive - and it's using Javascript to do the physics. Of course it'll use CPU time.

Jobs takes swing at Google over Android activations

Stole the words right out of my mouth

Or should that be fingers? Either way, totally agree.

It'll never be a success as long as they insist you use iTunes content.

'Minimalist, whimsical' Google search given Bing-like overhaul

@The Bloke

There aren't any settings, you just get it when you get it. Plenty of people (myself included) have been using it for several weeks - in some cases months.

Ofcom wades into UK 'Net Neutrality' row

Definition of "output"

It seems likely that the Beeb is referring to the actual content it spits out, not how much outgoing traffic there is from their web servers. A page with no demand is still a page which has to be written.

Too fat to fly: Kevin Smith and OpenOffice

That's nice...

...some people have different needs and expectations to you. You suffer on with your pound and a half (or, realistically, slightly more), the rest of us will buy the right product for the job - whatever that may be.

Seriously, way to fit the Mac-user stereotype. Thanks for that, really helps the rest of us.

Microsoft made a phone, and I hate it already

I'm perplexed...

...all this talk of 'mobile computing' and 'bluetooth keyboards' and 'RedFly'...

Why not just get a netbook?

You'd get much better battery life, you'd get desktop applications and, most of all, you wouldn't be stuck with an OS designed for a phone-size screen rather than one designed for a computer.

It seems that the author is merely being stubborn...sure, I can see your problem, but it's not REALLY a problem. It's more that you're just being awkward - are you really surprised that Microsoft have developed a finger-friendly UI rather than one friendly to some nerd who carries a netbook-size unit around to hook up to their smartphone?

Oh, and FYI:

"Unlike an iPhone, the Omnia II has the ability to multitask, but it chooses not to."

Fail. That's exactly what the iPhone does.

Hackers free Snow Leopard from Jobsian cage

@David 146

I doubt it. It's more likely that those acquistions will be used for producing chips for mobile devices (read: iPhone etc) - Apple's success since going x86 has been enormous.

Legendary McLaren F1 designer talks up e-car plan

Half the width...

Does anyone want to drive something half as wide as their current car? Really? Do you fancy getting two adults in the back in something half as wide as your current car?

Mozilla aborted IE in Firefox clothing

Pointless concept...

@asdf: Disagree. Up until 3.5 rolled around, yes, it was going that way - but from 3.5 onwards it has the lowest memory usage of any major browser (yes, ANY). Check the statistics for yourself if you don't believe me, they're very easy to find.

In terms of the topic...Chrome Frame is downright stupid. People who care enough to install it will just use another browser, and those who don't probably won't notice the difference anyway. The only use for it I can see is to install it domain-wide...but let's face it, how many sysadmins do you know who actively want to install plugins for IE?

Nationwide Freeview tune-up takes place today

'Gadget Show fans'

Really? People are fans of that absolute pile of tripe?

Have they not heard of, you know, teh internets?

Snow Leopard arrives with meow, not a roar

But if *I* experienced X, then X must be true!

Give me a break, people. Some of you will think Vista is the best thing since sliced bread, because for you it's worked flawlessly. For the majority, there were at least some problems with it. The same goes for any OS you care to mention, including OS X - and yes, I'm writing this from Snow Leopard. Does that make me a fanboy? I don't think so...I spend my working life on a Windows desktop writing code on mainly HPUX and AIX boxes, and when I come home I like to use a Mac for my browsing, listening to music, watching videos, tweeting, and spending endless hours on Facebook pretending I'm still a student.

Every OS has its merits, every OS has its downfalls. The sooner some of you people realise that, the sooner you can actually open your eyes and choose the best tool for both you and the job.

Retailers prepped for Windows 7 family pack

@Oliver 10

Seriously, I would love to think OO is great and up to standard, but it just isn't. Every MS equivalent is miles ahead in just about every area...I recently wrote an undergrad dissertation, never mind a doctoral one, and Word made it so, so much easier than Writer.

Ten of the best... iPhone beaters

@AC "Dude, 5 years gives you time to do things like bug fixing."

That's true, and there's no denying that the platform has come a hell of a long way in the past five years. It's still flawed though - updates are all...er...what's the phrase "polishing a turd", rather than built from scratch to have a nice user experience as iPhone OS, Android and webOS were. WinMo wasn't designed for touchscreen devices and, while you can use it with touchscreen devices easily enough, it's clearly designed for a stylus. HTC in particular have made some improvements, but it still lags behind its competitors.

Of course, none of that matters to the hardcore group of WinMo users who refuse to consider any other option and spend their time bleating on about how all iPhone owners are sheep and know nothing about smartphones. Fair enough, if that's how they want to play it, that's up to them I suppose...yes, I'm referring to the AC with the title "Why are people dumb?". Having gone through his list of things that the iPhone supposedly can't do, it seems he's the dumb one (the only thing listed that the iPhone can't do is install codecs...oh no! Disaster!).

The Storm? Really?

I'm yet to meet anyone who bought a Storm and actually likes it. The screen was a complete disaster, and yet in your summary you just branded it "innovative". Not that I'm surprised by a somewhat...different...review by El Reg.

As an iPhone 3G owner (and straight iPhone before that) with a contract running out in a month or so, I'm in something of a quandry as to what to do next. The 3GS is nice, sure, but it really is getting ridiculously expensive, and the price plans are completely out of date - 600 minutes and 500 texts for £35/month?! Vodafone will give me unlimited texts for the same money, and the Magic would be free while the iPhone would start at over £85. Additionally, I'd like to be able to just throw together a Java app in a few minutes and run it on my phone, not have to pay for developer access, wait for Apple's approval, and be unable to do voice dialling on either 3G or 3GS via Bluetooth (and not at all on the 3G).

But the Magic has no 3.5mm jack (yeah, OK, adapters...but let's face it, adapters suck) and the upcoming Hero has this stupid non-official-Android stuff going on which forces owners to rely on HTC, rather than Android, for software updates. Fragmenting the software just ain't smart, and I can see the whole platform going the way of desktop Linux (disorganised, any number of different platforms, a complete nightmare in the phone world).

So I'm screwed, basically, and realistically I'm going to drop down to one of O2's SIM-only tariffs once my contract expires. There's no ideal phone for me, and I'm not interested in shelling out hundreds of pounds for a compromise. I can only hope that the next Android-sporting model to come out will have a 3.5mm jack...and official Google branding.

Oh, and don't even suggest Windows Mobile. That thing was fundamentally flawed five years ago, never mind with all the competition it has now.

Safety wonks condemn digital TV satnav

@The BigYin

Totally agree. Having spent longer than usual prowling the motorways of the North recently, the sheer level of ignorance when it comes to good driving practice is astonishing. Admittedly, motorways aren't in the driving test, neither can learners visit them, but this needs to change - so many people don't seem to understand basic concepts such as moving over when they're doing 65 in the outside lane and everyone behind them would otherwise be doing 80. The same goes for traffic flow - the number of people who just pull out into a faster lane and make no attempt to speed up is enormous.

Tube Deluxe 3.1

@AC "This is indeed a superb app..."

Absolutely spot-on. This is exactly what smartphones are all about - sensible, useful applications, built well, and at a low price. Kudos to the dev, this almost makes me want to deal with the Tube every day just to get to use it.