Posts by James 51

Troll jailed for 5 years after swatting of Twitter handle owner ends in death

Re: Sentence should have been far longer

I agree five years isn't long enough for what he has done but we need to move past joking/not joking about rape as a form of punishment.

Restoring your privacy costs money, which makes it a marker of class

Re: When did you write this article?

I've tried the mail beta. It does work well though it's not suitable for landscape views. It's almost unuseable on my Gemini which forces landscape viewing but is fine on my S9.

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

Re: eh

The anger seems to be mostly from people who thought they could force a hard border between Northern Ireland and RoI and it back fired quite badly for them.

Unihertz Titan Pocket: Like asking Mum for a BlackBerry and she tells you 'but we've got a BlackBerry at home'

An edge case to be sure but when I have having chemotherapy all touch screen devices stopped registering my touch. Something in my skin had been changed, different texture and everything and it took several months to go back to normal. Thankfully I had a Q10 so keyboard shortcuts could do everything I needed.

Re: Cheap, but I won't be getting it

The first priv got a shorter than expected support period because one of the chipset manufacturers pulled their support and Blackbettery/TCL couldn't get them to change their mind. The Key 2 is still getting updates now.

Re: physical keyboard

I had the Blackberry Q10 and have the Gemini. The Gemini is a mini work horse. Clearly first gen but impressibe all the same. You need somewhere to set it down to use it though. Think of it effectively as a mini Android laptop with a 4G modem. It's not suitable to be used as your primary phone (particularly as on the software side it has been largely abandoned and a replacement battery is £100 from planet computers), you can't use it on the go the way you could with a Blackberry. The Q10 was one of the best phones I've had and I am comparing it to my S9 and fairphone 3. It was robust and had a replaceable battery. I got about four or five years out of it and would never have gotten my S9 if my son hadn't used it for a teething ring and it was impossible to get a resonably priced replacement. If Blackberry announced a new version of the Q10 with BB10, Android App support and a usb-c port (keeping the user changable battery of course) I'd have it on pre-order.

5-year-old Fairphone 2 is about to receive a major update to Android 9

Re: "an upgrade to Android 9 feels marginal at best and outdated at worst"

I have a fairphone 3 and a Gemini. They are both good phones in their way. Both have replaceable batteries but my Gemini is three years old now. Contacted Planet Computers about a replacement as you can't buy official batteries anywhere and was quoted £100 to replace the battery and I would have to send it back to them. I need it for work so can't be without it for even a day. Think that's the old builder's trick of not wanting to say no to work so giving quotes that will never be accepted. Could risk Chinese knockoffs that say they are compatible, hell they might even come from the same factory but not that desperate just yet. I would like it to get an upgrade to Android 9 but it seems like the software side of the operation is pretty weak compared to the hardware. If sailfish had android app support for the Gemini I'd happily jump ship but there are apps that I need to be on it.

There are quite a few e-readers based on Android 8 so hoping Google keep supporting it for a while yet.

Missile systems software dev leaker has sentence almost doubled after UK.gov says 4½ years was too soft

Re: It's all about the presentation

You might want to look at the history of indefinite detention and the problems it's still causing.

Re: "The sentence for refusing to hand over his password was increased to 2½ years"

If you think that you need to look at how the police used seven day detention in Northern Ireland or investigated familes like Stephen Lawrence's for dirt when they are trying to coverup their own failings. The fact of the matter is this power (five years for not handing over passwords) is ripe for abuse and we'll never hear about when it was used to threaten someone and it worked.

AMD performance plummets when relying on battery power, says Intel. Let's take a closer look at those stats

I have a thinkpad A285. It's a great little machine but Lenovo have throttled the CPU. The TDP is as low as it can go and the intel chip in the X280 is allowed to consume more power. Can't find the reference but remember reading there was only one heat pipe on the AMD chip v two on the Intel. Other laptops have feature like single channel RAM which hits AMD CPUs harder. It would not be difficult to find a laptop that sips power for AMD and gives Intel every advantage in the performance stakes so I'd take Intel's stats with an ocean's worthof salt.

Best buds? Apple must be fuming: Samsung's wireless earphones boast 11 hours of listening on a single charge

Creative have ear buds that last 14 hrs and are cheaper.

Facebook iOS app silently turns on your phone camera. Ah, relax – it's just a bug, lol!?

The obvious solution for Facebook getting access to transaction records is the same as Google getting access to health records, buy access to the data through a business venture and pinky promise to not merge data sets (until you do).

Boeing comes clean on parachute borkage as the ISS crew is set to shrink

On the moon by 2024? Sorry to say I'll believe that when I see it. Too many agendas pulling NASA in too many directions without enough funding to fulfill them. Hope to be proved wrong though.

Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket

Re: Would someone explain

Turning normally involves slowing down so it takes longer to cover the same distance. If I am reading the article correctly, you could go through a green light turning right and have it be red by the time you've finished the turn so you've gone through a red light, even if it wasn't red when you started your turn. Doesn't help that in some US states it's legal to drive through red lights as long as you're turning right, pedestrians have the right of way though as this situation often applies to zebra crossings/crosswalks (why yes I have almost been killed by drivers in this exact scenario who decided to just plough on regardless).

Good news – America's nuke arsenal to swap eight-inch floppy disks for solid-state drives

Re: Nostalgia

You don't seem to be so afraid of the NK and Chinese nukes as you are of other countries. The leaders of NK have got to top the list of crazies who might pull the trigger. If Iran got them, I suspect they'd use a cats paw to denoate it somewhere rather than being seen to lauch a rocket with a nuke on it and risk WW3.

Any finger will do? Samsung Galaxy S10 with a screen protector reportedly easy to fool

Never enabled biometric security features on any of my equipment. They are usernames, not passwords and if you can fool the system to give you the username you want there's no password to stop you.

This fall, Ubuntu 19.10 stars as Eoan Ermine in... Dawn of the Stoats

Maybe this version will work nicer with my 2400G. It's so frustrating, the demo dvd works but once I install I get an error message and a prompt. Just haven't had the time to sort it out.

Blood money is fine with us, says GitLab: Vetting non-evil customers is 'time consuming, potentially distracting'

Re: "This is a very confused post"

Employee’s are risking disciplinary action and their own finical status by telling their employers not to take on certain customers so they are risking everything you are talking about.

Re: "remember BMW used slave labour in the 1940's?"

This is a very confused post. It starts off with one point of view and then seems to double back on itself mid-way through. Your arguement seems to be because you can't do everything you should do nothing. Rather, pick your battles and focus your efforts on what you can change while keeping your eye on what you could move onto next.

HP to hike upfront price of printer hardware as ink biz growth runs dry

They are far from prefect but I'm on my second Espon eco-tank, saved an absolute fortune (easily three or four times the cost of the printers) over the last six years or so.

Boris Brexit bluff binds .eu domains to time-bending itinerary

Re: GFA?

Actually, they pay lip service to keeping it going but given BoJo's cat in a box approach to reailty, it's possible they're going to try to do both.

Re: GFA?

You'd hope that as long as the application is received by a cut off date, it would still be processed fairly even if it ends up being awarded after a cut off date. The Irish government could still honour their side of the GFA re passports unilaterally after Brexit is completed.

Re: GFA?

Actually, they are. People born in the Northern Ireland have rights under the GFA that people born in the rest of the UK do not automatically get i.e. the right to an Irish passport.

edit:Because the post I responded to was edited this doesn't make sense anymore. Orginally, it was about rights not being determined by brithright/location.

It makes as much sense as Brexit means Brexit.

Tetraplegic patient can now move his four limbs with the help of a badass neuroprosthetic suit

Re: Truly Amazing

Probably not that much longer than we currently do. After all, the rise in late life neurological disorders should give pause to transhumanists who think we can be made immortal in the form we currently inhabit.

What is this, 2016? A rummage around in 7th-gen iPad innards shows repurposed tech within

I wonder if there's any chance of a fairtablet.

Astroboffins baffled after spotting solar system with great gas giant that shouldn't exist

Sounds like the title for a glam rock album.

@ChrisG that was my thought when I read the article.

US immigration uses Google Translate to scan people's social media for bad posts – Er, don't do that, says everyone else

So, make all your posts in high elvish then?

'a common sense stupidity measure to strengthen our vetting procedures paranoia,'

ftft

Gagarin's Start now Soyuz-FG's End as shutters pulled on historic launchpad

In fairness, that wouldn't be hard. From all the documentaries I've seen about the Space Shuttle it seems to have been a pig with lipstick/brick hybrid designed by committee. Which is not to say it wasn't used to do great things, the Hubble repair springs to mind. It was just designed to do everything, which is to say nothing.

Re: The days of Gagarin and Apollo are truly over

Sad, yes. Inevitable, no. Just too many polictos who are too busy examining a survey taken yesterday to think about tomorrow.

Now Uncle Sam would like a word with Brit teen TalkTalk hacker about a huge crypto-coin heist

Or a multi-nation corporation or a politician with a base that has lost contact with reality.

Are you a Nim-by? C-ish language, gentler than Go, friendlier than Rust, reaches version 1.0

Re: I see not a few pascalisms...

Beat me to it. Had a flashback when I saw the screenshot.

Gearheads get their spudgers into an iPhone 11 Pro Max: Bi-lateral charging, anyone?

Nothing beats old Nokias for sheer drop resilience. The only way I’ve managed to kill one is full immersion in water and even then it limped on for a month before dying.

Those furious gun-toting Aussies were just a glitch. Let's try US drone deliveries, says Wing

Re: This should be good

Given the number of stories there has been over the years on el reg of people shooting down drones in the US it doesn't strike me as being a terribly reliable way to deliver stuff, unless of course the drones are allowed to shoot back. If the drones get the initals H.K. ...

Robot Rin Tin Tin can rescue you from that collapsed mine shaft

Surprised Boston Dynamics didn't give it a go.

IBM looks to boost sales the same way it has for 65 years – yes, it's a new mainframe: The z15

But, the Cloud!!!

The results are in… and California’s GDPR-ish digital privacy law has survived onslaught by Google and friends

Re: Thank goodness

I thought this was amanfrommars1 on a bad LSD trip until I looked at the name. Bob, at least have the honesty to admit it's the companies doing the corrupting and the duplicity of officials is a symptom of a deeper problem.

Fairphone 3 stripped to the modular essentials: Glue? What glue?

Re: At the risk of making myself unpopular

Non-replaceable batteries mean there's a very finite lifespan and new sale in waiting.

The micro-usb on the N900 was notoriously prone to coming loose. Never had that problem myself but the space bar key broke in two :(

Re: A commendable effort

Fiarphone have commited to five years of support from launch.

Hong Kong ISPs beg Chinese govt not to impose Great Firewall on them

Re: "increasingly violent Chinese security forces"

The Chinese Communist Party would happily do a Tibet and send in the army to capture it if it wouldn't risk a US conter-strike (and fighitng all the US sold weaponary). It doesn't care about sweet talking them back into the fold. Sometimes it seems like they'd prefer the force option.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson moves to shut Parliament

Re: So, to sum up. . .

That petition has less than 250 signatures. The remain version has alomost 340,000.

Back to school with El Reg - how about a chunky Lenovo for the student in your life?

Buy a refurbished x260 or x270 for half the price.

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

Re: Updates?

If you read the article, the comments section or went to fairphone's webpage, five years offically. If you install Sailfish or LinageOS, probably a few years more.

Google touts managed Linux, gets cosy with Dell in Chromebook Enterprise push

Not sure why if you're running linux applications, you wouldn't be running linux (I know Chromebooks are probably easier to lock down but would anyone want to use one?).

Trump attacks and appeals 'fundamentally misconceived' Twitter block decision

@TheMeerkat - If you read the article, no they can't. Other courts have consistently ruled that they can't.

Audible hasn't even launched its AI-powered book subtitles and publishers have already fired off a sueball

Re: Have I got this right?

If you're hard of hearing it can help you to follow what is being said (and for all the people commenting, why are you listening to an audio book then, sometimes it is the only format available (see David Eddings books currently) and sometimes narrators like Stephen Fry can elevate the source material through their narration (see the stupendous expensive Harry Potter audio books, available from your library on line (at least in the UK)). It is also useful for learning other languages.

Fraught 'naut who sought consort's report says: I was up to naught, I will thwart fault tort

Re: Jurisdiction?

Now I know why there were stories on the BBC about space law over the last few days (they didn't make any mention of this story in them). As a US citizen, it falls under US jurisdiction. Beyond that, not a clue (federal, criminal, civil etc etc).