Posts by Cam 2

GPs slam NHS England for poor publicity of data grab plan

I can't think of a legitimate reason for there being identifiable records available for non-care purposes.

For any data mining or research purposes the first half of the postcode should be accurate enough and even that should only be released if deemed necessary.

What I have read about the scheme causes much concern, there seems lots of scope for privacy breaches. I have opted out although I understand this is a pretty feeble action to take - the records are still being uploaded and will still be accessible.

Apple granted patent for in-cell touchscreen display tech

I have tried with some success, replacing screens and digitisers as well as cases. Admittedly it's easier if these involve clips or screws and anything that is glued or bonded makes it much harder to get a good result.

For glued parts the gaskets typically come with the replacement parts, or are available. If you can't get them then repair shops sell rolls of extra narrow double-sided tape that may work.

I am skeptical about the price. I have bought replacement TFTs for tens of $ and digitisers slightly cheaper. But modern digitiser + TFT assemblies seem to run to a hundred $ plus, which is why I was wondering if this new technology would just make it more likely a damaged all-in-one display would mean a write-off.

Is it even desirable to do this? I think modern phones / tablets are thin enough and it's cool when you can repair separate glass / digitiser / TFT layers.

Of course Apple gear is already at the difficult / expensive end of the spectrum when it comes to repairs. Will a damaged screen Apple phone now automatically be beyond economic repair?

HTC handsets hit by grip of death

Re: HTC - Ridiculous suggestion

"Hands up anyone who has renewed their mobile phone contract, and the provider has sent out a new SIM card for exactly the same number ? It just doesn't happen"

In this case it's more than likely, because the One X uses a micro SIM. I upgraded and had a new SIM sent out as part of the deal. Otherwise I'd have had to take a SIM trimmer to my old SIM and there's a good chance I would have destroyed it :)

Also I know of another One X user who had similar problems (wifi signal attenuated) but they admitted sitting on the phone and squashing it. I have noticed there is some movement when the phone is squashed like this (front to back) so I have been careful not to stress it!

Researchers find backdoor in milspec silicon

Not overplayed

It might be an accidental backdoor instead of a malicious one. Nevertheless, if the spec calls for a secure device that can be programmed and then not read or tampered with, this backdoor is a critical fault.

Imagine if it protected keys that secured some DRM feature, the keys would now be theoretically unprotected and the DRM system would be open to losses.

Inside the Skynet ghost town built by bunker-based boffins

With modern accounting, pretty much anything can seem like a profitable venture, regardless of it passing any common sense test.

Personally I'm curious if anyone manages to wander in and photograph the place, I bet it has an eerie mood... or if there can be any 'stowaways'?

ISPs should get 'up to' full fee for 'up to' broadband

Re: Wispa's superficial analogy

Agreed it's a superficial analogy - it smacks of a wishlist mentality and is completely divorced from the reality of how the bits get from A to B.

If we could separate costs we would find most people paying widely varying amounts of line rental for infrastructure that is hugely varied in the speeds it supports - then paying a trivially small sum on top for the amount of data they actually manage to shift. Maybe this is 'better' in that it's closer to the reality of the costs, but I suspect more people would find issue with such a scheme.

I'd be happy though because my short line supporting high speeds would have a smaller line rental compared to the long lines supporting not much...

UK tax fraud IT project 'missed virtually every delivery date'

Which private sector companies are involved?

I always wonder how the private sector companies involved get to have such a low profile when it goes pear-shaped... or is this all public sector?

Microsoft tripped up by Blighty's techie skills gap

Re: As I suspected

Really, it warms my heart to think that not all the institutions will take the MS thinly veiled marketing input. Ideally I'd like to see teaching cover a range of skills but not focusing on one particular vendor's tools. Particularly not those that, being commercial, are subject to frequent changes and updates...

Ubuntu for Android: Penguins peck at Nokia's core problem

It makes sense to me

Chip vendors have to go somewhere and their best improvements seem to be related to multi-core.

I wondered how a phone would benefit from this but it seems that newer chips will offer better power management opportunities, that alone makes sense for phones.

But also, phone vendors have to go somewhere to continue selling and making the phone a thin client is a good way to offer users more tangible features from the phone platform. Multi core gives the platform a boost and when connected to a display, presumably there is power too and running all the cores is feasible.

Finally Ubuntu can build on the Linux part of Android and provide desktop-like functionality for little development effort. So it all makes sense.

Has Microsoft finally killed off Windows 8 Start button?

Sounds like Gnome Shell, I like it, a vocal minority hate it. I'm sure on a new version of Windows there will be plenty more to complain about, and probably shareware extensions to put back some kind of start button for luddites / button fetishists.

Robot ostrich spy outpaces world’s fastest sprinters

Exactly

I wondered why no-one had pointed this out. How difficult would it be to trip or topple a two legged device, how much engineering would have to go into making it self-righting?

Microsoft's Android patent ransom to 'total $444m' next year

Karma will get them

The amount of money is small, does anyone think this will provide a useful revenue to MS? Will it even provide enough of a disincentive to use Android such that it makes Windows phone an attractive proposition?

It looks like a fairly desperate attempt by MS, it won't achieve anything positive for them.

Ballmer reprises 'developers, developers, developers' chant

500 million machines capable

What developer would imagine that capable machines == the market for Windows 8 software?

Hardware powerful enough for Win8 will surely have a reasonably recent OS on it already. I imagine Win8 will be mostly seen on new machines, at a time when the market is pretty depressed that's not many new machines.

Windows 8 to boot in 8 seconds

Sounds like they are adding complexity at shutdown time, and whenever a real shutdown is needed, which I'm guessing will be a familiar scenario. I've seen some Windows systems take longer to shutdown than boot already...

What users would really appreciate is a system so stable it can be hibernated or suspended endlessly, apps and all, instead of being shut down. Some non-Microsoft systems already do this :)

Google does a mean spring clean

A move away from Microsoft?

I will miss Pack - I used to delight in replacing the shovelware on a typical new laptop/PC with the lesser evil pack equivalent. The updater was a joy to use compared to alternatives.

I have used Desktop before and it was OK...

I am slightly surprised Picasa wasn't on the list... given the step away from products tied to Microsoft OSs... it lives on, but for how long? :)

Cabinet Office talks to Facebook & co about new ID system

Interesting

There might be issues with how much the general public should trust Facebook, and whether it's morally right to use a private company to provide identity services like this when they would gain considerably from the privilege.

Nevertheless Facebook are in a position to provide ID services because they are so large, and because they are using the technology (OpenID). I think they do have something to bring to the table.

In an ideal world the Post Office would have made a profitable business unit from key signing, two-factor crypto and identity services starting about the same time as the relevant technologies emerged - but this hasn't happened.

Most gamers are middle-aged adults: FACT

Real age or ?

Many popular games have age restrictions which are largely ignored by the majority of players. I would expect this fact to be overlooked by the industry of course! I don't think anyone is fooled.

Sanity saver: Fedora 15 answers Ubuntu's Unity

I found some gotchas but nothing major

I've been using Gnome 3 / Fedora 15 for a while now and it's not too bad. I posted a list of gotchas on my blog, and I'm slightly concerned that there isn't a more concerted effort from official Fedora sources to help people get to grips with the new interface. There are release notes but they are a bit dry and focus too much on the negative IMO.

The gotchas: http://littlethorpe.net/wordpress/?p=334

Fedora's Lovelock Linux is beta ready

It's all good... and if it isn't,

Remember this is Linux, open source, you can tweak things.

It's relatively easy to restore minimise buttons and even a desktop full of clickable things for those who really miss them.

Search for gnome-tweak-tool

GNOME 3: Shocking changes for Linux lovers

Lots of uninformed rants...

It's easy to kick off when you see something different but spend a little time trying it instead and see how it actually works for you.

I've been using the Gnome shell preview for a while and my personal niggles have mainly been addressed in the proper version.

True Unix / Linux users will see it as a return to fast and efficient ways of working (think keyboard short cuts). Has anyone noticed that instead of the dragging the bar nonsense you can hit F11 for a fullscreen interface? It's much better than a maximised but still decorated window on Gnome 2...

I don't think it's perfect, I would still like to see some things like a CPU usage applet but maybe that will be covered in future releases...

Ubuntu - yes, Ubuntu - poised for mobile melee

Exclusivity?

I'd like a bit more analysis on the point of exclusivity. What does it mean exactly?

For a long time OSs like Fedora and Ubuntu have been at the stage where they more or less work with a little tinkering. The fact is that the tinkering can be done by individual hobbyists to get a PC bought with Microsoft's OS to run Linux... alternatively, the R&D of a PC vendor can invest a little effort in tinkering and package up their hardware with a working Linux distro.

The thing that has stopped vendors from doing this, I thought, was 'exclusivity' agreements. If they are not in place then vendors can use these free OSs to bring their prices down, which is important at the lower end of the market... let's see some ultra cheap and pre-tinkered Linux based hardware then!

Google slips $3.1bn through 'Double Irish' tax loophole

Not evil

It's really the mildest evil I can think of. Anyone in their right mind would do whatever they could to minimise their losses to 'the man'

Google are known for their engineering successes, so it shouldn't be a surprise that they have built a highly efficient large scale scheme for processing their income. And, if the governments ever figure out exactly how to thwart this, the scheme will probably be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

Spotify ports its music streamer to Linux

The Linux Spotify API has been available for some time,

languishing presumably because of the restriction of needing a premium account. I only hope that this premium-only native client doesn't give them an excuse to let the currently minor niggles of the Windows / Wine version get worse, to the point where Linux freeloaders are forced to get a premium account. Presumably the Spotify developers that are scratching their own itch are enjoying a freebie premium account...

Reverse-engineering artist busts face detection tech

to all those who say the face recognition doesn't work...

have you not tried the latest version of Picasa? It's frighteningly good at spotting faces in your pictures, and given a set of known faces it is also pretty good at identifying them in new photos.

Vodafone offers customers chance to pay for own infrastructure

win-win-win

It's not a huge drain on ISPs

End users get the promised but as yet unrealised 3G experience, in their own home

Phones 'just work' without fiddling with battery draining wi-fi

Network operators see more service usage and loyalty / retention

Hardware manufacturers could sell a lot of these boxes

The only thing unappealing is the price, I suppose I can't blame Voda for starting at the top and leaving some room to cut the price. Even if Voda can't make a go of it, I bet the other network operators will soon see the benefits. I can see this being huge.