Posts by Matthew 3

Review: Renault Zoe electric car

Re: Almost, but not quite.

Since my current car costs nearly £70 to fill up, the leasing cost doesn't look at all bad to me. Although I agree about it still costing you when it's not being used. That part might need some more thought. My 15 mile commute each way makes this look ideal even without a charging facility at the office.

And while I can see that cheap overnight electricity might disappear in the future I can also see the possibility of millions of plugged-in electric cars making up the shortfall for those world-cup-half-time moments when the whole country suddenly needs more power.

Another MYSTERY evacuation: Google UK empties swanky offices

Re: Those google signs LMAO

They should have used the same giant red balloon-shaped markers that you get on Google maps.

Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 internet map

"He purposefully designed it to eat the fewest cycles possible."

And therein lies the problem. S/he was using a resource that someone else has to pay for, without their consent. If I take money from you and say 'But I was only taking your smallest banknote' would you accept that as fair?

Personally I don't have an issue with what this person did - I see the value in the results and a lack of malicious intent. But others will simply see it as immoral/illegal. The law is on their side.

Paying a TV tax makes you happy - BBC

Re: Tax for owning a TV....

"Why on earth do I need a TV licence to play my SNES? "

You don't. The licence covers equipment which is capable of watching programmes at the time that they are broadcast - just don't plug in an aerial.

Non-Brits should be able to pay

The Beeb should provide a facility for anyone outside the UK to have full paid-for access to all their services. And maybe a pay-per-view Lovefilm/Netflix style interface for their back catalogue.

My relatives in the USA and Australia would happily pay at least the same amount of money us Brits do for the same service. Since Sky want £21.50 a month for their ad-encrusted basic 'Entertainment' package I think the BBC is a bargain.

Safety authorities to hold hearings into Boeing 787's battery woes

"Deplaned"?

Please ban this word.

Farewell, Reg: This hack is hanging up her Apple jacket

Ashamed

I thought - just for a moment, mind - that I would quite like to own a jacket like that.

Fortunately the moment passed.

Microsoft parts clouds over Bing Maps with massive sat pic upgrade

Curious fact

With this ever-increasing level of detail and sophistication to mapping the entire world's surface it is odd that the first thing anyone does with it is to take a look at the outside of the building they're currently sitting inside.

Wind-up bloke Baylis winds up broke, turns to UK gov for help

Tricky balancing act

I'm all for the legitimate inventors of something new gaining full legal protection for their inventions. But I'd be very cautious about giving similar protections to patents on abstract concepts: we've all seen how the big boys will sue and counter-sue to the nth degree over something like a 'rounded corner'.

BlackBerry 10: Good news, there's still time to fix this disaster

Battery life?

For many die-hard BlackBerry fans the killer feature was battery life. A week or more without a recharge was both possible and expected.

Is this another BB USP that's gone by the wayside?

Apple releases iOS 6.1, adds LTE carriers, tweaks security

Ah, the old Fiesta.

Same for me. Mine was one of the last Mark 1's, much missed now. Mine had the luxurious passenger-side door mirror to complement the (compulsory) one on the driver's side.

Have Brits fallen for Netflix, or do they still LoveFilm?

Re: Netflix Great/LoveFilm Not so good

"LoveFilm is limited to my PS3 or a PC"

Pretty sure Lovefilm works on at least as many devices as Netflix. I've used it on my smart TV, Wii and on an iPad as well as the ones you've mentioned.

Re: Netflix vs LoveFilm vs Blinkbox?

Lovefilm don't seem to have the James Bond films. Are they on Netflix or has Sky got exclusive rights for them all?

UK way behind pack on broadband speed in Europe

And what you neglected to mention:

"you want guaranteed speeds for tuppence ha'penny a month and that ain't never going to happen. If you want a good service you'll have to pay a premium price."

...and move to the centre of a big city.

iPhone hangs on in US, Japan, but EVERYONE ELSE bought an Android

Re: Maybe

"people who bought the iPhone got unlimited data where it generally wasn't available to anyone else for similar monthly rates."

It may be unfashionable to point it out but you forgot to add: "...unless they had a BlackBerry".

RIM's Heins beams: BB10 must walk the walk before we talk the talk

Kudos for the 'Heins beams' headline.

It raised a smile.

Office 2013 now available for some home users

?

Alt, F, O still works for me.

It then places a number by all of the recent documents you've edited so that you don't need the mouse (or arrow keys) to pick out the one you want.

Hyperspeed travel looks wrong: Leicester students

Re: "A Slower Speed of Light"

You get a slower speed of light if it's not passing through a vacuum. In fact it's possible to drive a car faster than light (if that light is travelling through-270 degree sodium: the light will be doing 38 miles per hour.

Link

Is this possibly the worst broadband in the world?

Re: Reg hack uses site to raise beef with BT?

I'd echo this and add that you may want to consider also disconnecting the 'bell wire' on any extension socket wiring that run from that master socket. It's unlikely that you have any phones elderly enough to have an issue with doing that. It can reduce interference enough to boost speeds a bit further (I believe that it it provided a little extra boost for ringing back when it was a real bell inside the phones).

The bell wire is normally the slot numbered 3 (orange with white trace); slots 2 (white with blue trace) and 5 (blue with white trace) are the ones that must be there to make a phone work.

If you're not happy with pulling bits of wire out plenty of places sell an adapter faceplate for the phone socket that has the same effect as disconnecting that one wire from your extensions.

Using the master socket for my ADSL router and disconnecting the bellwire tripled my speed to the heady heights of 3 meg!

First rigid airship since the Hindenburg enters trials

Re: Old idea?

That's the one! Just reading that review brought back some memories.

Thanks!

Old idea?

I remember reading a kids' book where some precocious children, apparently with access to surprising amounts of funding, used the compressor and tank idea to beat a load of adults in a balloon race. I'm sure that someone with a better memory than me may even remember the title.

Ofcom looks at contract opt-outs as users rage over price hikes

Re: Ordinarily, I'd be inclined to agree

I think many people would prefer it if their allocation of minutes/texts was flexibly altered rather than have the prices go up.

I want to know what I have to budget for but I could happily accept, say, a reduction from 1000 minutes a month to 900. The phone subsidy element is already taken care of and this would allow them to manage their costs effectively. Some people may go over their allocation (and pay more of course) but at least the rest of us would have the option of calling less to keep costs the same.

Microsoft says Google trying to undermine Windows Phone

Re: Ooooh the irony

So, it seems like the consensus here is 'an eye for an eye'?

Maybe Microsoft do deserve a bit of their own medicine but Google would earn far more of my respect if their behaviour was above reproach. In my view deliberately anti-competitive is just wrong, even if it represents a bit of karma rebalancing.

Cameron defends U-turn on web filth ban, leaves filtering to parents

Re: Is the Fail confused or am I?

Private Eye regularly note that the DM's public persona isn't reflected behind the scenes. The bikini-clad pictures are one example but the code-phrase 'all grown up' is apparently regularly used on picture captions of 16 year olds in a way that makes it synonymous with 'has reached a legal age'.

This can then be used to justify a revealing picture that might well have been illegal just a few days earlier.

Don't believe me? Try a search on their site.

There’s more to selling email than meets the eye

What am I looking for?

As someone who currently hosts an in-house solution there are a number of areas where a cloud-based solution can fall short:

- Less sophisticated (or no) access to message tracking data when troubleshooting

- No control over the rollout of new features or updates (for example an altered logon page can alarm users)

- Less control over editing custom attributes (crucial for us)

- BlackBerry Enterprise Server support

- Content migration to and from the cloud can be a bit iffy (I'm thinking of Google calendars)

- A surprising number of local servers may still be required (Office 365)

- Projected savings often assume you no longer need a datacentre

- Losing internet access means you lose email too. In-house email means you can still contact colleagues.

- Fewer options to customise - end users must accommodate the cloud's needs not the other way around.

That's not to say it's always a bad idea. But if you don't consider all the aspects it may not be as good an idea as it first sounds.

North Korea's satellite a dud, say US astroboffins

Satellite is to search for friends

...as the chap who had the idea was quite ronery.

Last moon landing was 40 years ago today

Re: Scary thing is ...

If someone pointed out that by putting Americans on Mars you'd be putting those few US citizens beyond the reach of any terrorist perhaps they'd be persuaded to re-budget. Once the place has been terraformed the whole lot could go there!

Australian Police say don't use Apple's iOS 6 Maps

Re: Australia?

"The foremost cartographers of the land have prepared this for you; it's a map of the area that you'll be traversing."

"It's blank."

"They'll be very grateful if you could just fill it in as you go along."

Windows Phone 8 must be Microsoft's priority one, two AND three

Re: It's the apps, stupid

Not entirely. I had a serious app purge after my Android phone became unstable. Up until that point I'd blithely installed every app that appealed to me. The subsequent improvement in battery life have left me needing a lot more persuading before I add another app now.

I'm prepared to consider giving WP8 a go when my contract is up. I don't dedicate my life to gaming and use my phone for mobile web and, you know, for phone calls so the number of apps in a store isn't quite so relevant for me.

But if they really want to get some serious good vibes going Microsoft and Nokia could do a lot worse than give away a few loss-leader phones to this kind of community. Getting a good quality phone with a hefty subsidy would go a long way to rose-tinting my view of the thing. Imagine that being done on a large scale to a vocal and influential crowd. You'd have to be bloody confident it was a good device but if it is you'd add a lot of evangelists.

Re: Too little, no credibility, too expensive

In 2007 people were saying that Apple were crazy for entering a market that Nokia seemed to have completely sewn up. Things can sometimes change in ways that go against the perceived wisdom.

Adobe demands 7,000 years a day from humankind

Testing the theory

Not sure if it's true but at least one firm added a clause claiming their right over your immortal soul.

Here's a link to a few other playful contract terms.

Ten badass brainy computers from science fiction

Re: Orac

I remember reading somewhere that the actress who first auditioned for Cally ended up playing Deanna Troi in Star Trek TNG. I always thought it was odd as those two characters have a lot in common.

BOFH: Cannot terminate PFY instance... ACCESS DENIED

Seen this one done too

A former boss of mine was arguing with a customer for weeks over one particular paragraph in our firm's contract. In the end he agreed that he'd cut that paragraph out to get the business. Sadly he 'forgot' to remove it from the 'edited final version' of the contract he sent them.

They signed it.

European Space Agency clears SABRE orbital engines

Name change?

Much as I like the Skylon name I'd love to see a new generation pointing up and saying 'Look! Concorde!'

How to launch people into space...

Thank <deity of choice> for the British

Having now proved the engine technology for Skylon we can all travel to space with no more G force than you'd get on an aeroplane flight.

Scoop! The inside story of the news website that saved the BBC

Reg-specific picture tags?

They don't seem to have done so many picture tags recently. They used to do lots, I reckon to see if they could get El Reg to follow up on them.

85% of Windows 8 users wield the desktop on day one

Re: Was there a survey?

"You do register the OS on the internet as part of the install procedure."

Not necessarily. I registered mine with our own internal KMS.

Gangnam Style beats Bieber Baby, becomes biggest timewaste EVER

Re: A High Court Judge writes...

"It's a piece of modern alleged music, m'lud, from a Korean chap. You may have heard a (mercifully brief) snippet played on the Today programme last month."

Glorious silicon globes could hold key to elusive PERFECT kilogram

Re: Definition of a metre

Us Brits don't piss about with glass jars, steam cleaning and government minders. We just pinned our Imperial measurements to the North wall at Trafalgar Square (with a note that itthey were accurate at 62 degrees Fahrenheit). Joe Public could check out his ruler's accuracy for himself - without the government getting involved.

Yes, I know, it's Wikipedia. But they have a nice picture.

'You can say I'm paranoid about it, but they will kill me'

Re: "We're not accusing you of being illegal, we're accusing you of being immoral"

Maybe this makes more sense if you think of it as poacher turned gamekeeper. Anyone who has played the system themselves can spot another player.

Or it could just be hypocrisy. You be the judge.

UK digital terrestrial TV turns 14 today

I was an ONDigital customer and took full advantage of their subsidy to get a decent domestic aerial installed. The rebranding exercise to ITV Digital was a joke - they even sent me a sticker to put over the old ONDigital logo on the box. And after the whole venture failed the receiver contacted me and asked for the box back - tricky as mine was integrated into my TV. My parents just ignored the request and their ONDIgital box still serves Freeview to anyone staying in their spare room.

I'm just glad that Monkey was rescued from the streets by Johnny Vegas and PG.

Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs

Re: 40 something perma techie Brit here

No, I've always thought SQL should be pronounced 'squeal' as it gives an opportunity for lots of Deliverance jokes.

Mmm, what's that smell: Coffee or sweat? How to avoid a crap IT job

Re: Free coffee

How about 'supplemented'?

James Bond doesn't do CGI: Inside 007's amazing real-world action

Re: Best Bond stunt

I just wish they hadn't put that stupid childish sound effect over the stunt.

Re: need a directors cut!

I still have very fond memories of standing in the fields behind Northolt Airport watching some of this scene being filmed. They had a Land Rover driving around with a model of the jet on its roof.

And I don't care that it's a silly idea: I also still want a convertible Range Rover.

Better luck next time Blofeld! Five Bond plot myths busted

Valves?

I recall being taught (at a very young age so I'm probably hopelessly wrong on the detail) that the Allies captured some Japanese aircraft during WW2 which had gone back to valve technology in order to avoid the EMP risk of a nuclear strike. Is this complete bollocks or was the story true?

BBC pulls plug Ceefax ahead of analogue TV's end tonight

"Not the Larry Ellison one"

I seem to recall that the teletext name 'Oracle' was a back-formed acronym for 'Optical Reception of Announcements by Coded Line Electronics'.

Don't know if it's true though.

Facebook won't pull unmarked police plates page

The obligatory XKCD reference:

'Nobody will be able to correctly record my number'

Apple loses UK 'Samsung copied us' appeal: Must publicly GROVEL

'Not as cool'

Anyone who has to tell you that they're cool isn't and won't ever be.

Swiss photographer sues Apple for pilfering her eyeball

RE: Why did this get downvoted

37th Rule of El Reg: querying downvotes encourages more of them.