Posts by Steve Davies 3

ISPs 'blindsided' by UK.gov's 'emergency' data retention and investigation powers law

Re: There is no precedent .... other than the making up of things on the fly

Shhhh. Don't shout that too loudly or the men in black might come calling around dawn and give you a one way ticket to an envlave on a large Island in the Carribean.

There is precident

Remember that US law already rules everywhere on the planet. It make little different what the [redacted] in Westminster say or do. so gripping their coat tails is (to them ) logical and makes our laws apply everywhere except the US.

Sadly 'les Frogs' will just say 'Non' to this like they do to everything else imposed on them from outside France. This will, I am sure be repeated in all sane nations.

Phab-u-less: Huge MONSTER iPhone 6 not due until 2015 – claim

To sum it up

A possible new device which has not been announced might have some production problems therefore delaying the possible announcement and possible availability of a possibly mythical product that may not even exist.

This is news?

I have a Yellow Unicorn for sale. Offers please?

El Reg nips down IKEA's 'I've Got A Screw Loose Street'

Re: But the demanding public need to know...

Ikea went downhill in my estimation when they stopped selling Reindeer Salami.

Microsoft wants to lure biz users with fondleable Windows 8.1 'Apportals'

Reminds me of putting Lipstick on a pig

Underneath it is still a Pig.

Beer in SPAAAACE! London Pride soars to 28,000m

Waste of a good pint if you ask me

They could have sent some Budwiser a.k.a. gnats pee up aloft to see if the freezing improved its taste.

Doubt it though.

They can have one on me (as long as it it drunk and not sent skywards)

LG unfurls flexible SEE-THROUGH 18-inch display

What are the odds...

Quote

Besides flexbility, transparency is set to be a major selling point

That if this type of device were to take off then they'd spend most of their time pinned up against a black background and shown the same sort of crap that current devices do?

The final score: Gramophones 1 – Glassholes 0

Hmmm

Quote

"Paranoid I may be, but I doubt the months of digital video held in NSA vaults of me picking my nose are going to get me rendered on a top-secret Ryanair flight from Stansted to a five-year waterboarding holiday at Guantanamo."

Are you really, really, really sure about that? wisest not to temp fate methinks.

Time to pop me coat on and head out into my Spy Camera Free area and down the Pub for a quick one. No cameras there either. Plus, if I know the landlord, any idiot daft enough to poke their head round the door wearing a 'google Glass' type device will be quickly dispatched into the adjacent Duck Pond complete with glass device. do the locals have anything to hide? Shhhh better not to ask, Nudge-Nudge, wink-wink.

Get ready for LAYOFFS: Nadella's coma-inducing memo, with subtitles

MS are Floundering

around like a fish out of water (well that's how it seems to me).

They are trying to be all things to everyone and sadly faiing at most of them.

I doubt that Mr Nadella can change the direction of the MS Microsoft before it hits an iceberg thus paving the way from Bill to come riding over the hill and save the day for what is left of his once great baby.

The sad thing that MS seems unable to understand (other once great tech companies suffered from this as well) that their key markets are changing and changing rapidly.

It is no use dropping support for Operating Systems in an attempt to force users onto their latest POS, users will either move to something else or just say, 'meh, it works so why should I change?'.

Pissing users off by moving to a subscription model is also IMHO a dead duck. Yeah, the idea of that monthy income stream gives your FD wet dreams but.... for the average man/women in the street it is something they can do without in their already stressful lives.

etc

etc

etc

Metro? Lets hope the people who persuaded Mr Balmer that this was a good idea for all systems get their Pink slips ASAP.

In conclusion, MS are approcahing a tipping point. The wrong decision made in the next few months could see the company implode. (queue much cheering from the Anti MS Brigade)

This would hit business all over the world very hard so lets hope that his changes can bring about a soft landing and not a Nokia style pileup.

Google's lounge room invasion advances with Chromecast upgrade

Wasting time watching TV

There are still a few things worth watching at the time they were first broadcast.

Watching Germany stuff Brazil was well worth it.

Pretty well everything else gets recorded by my PVR and if there are adverts then the 'skip' function soon gets past them.

Do I hear the Advertisers gnashing their teeth????

Well, I (and probably a good percentage of El-Reg readers) are simply not your target markets.

Us Grumpy old geezers are not the demographics you guys target (mostly) so I wouldn't get all hot and bothered over it.

Apple OS X Yosemite 4 TIMES more popular than Mavericks

Re: Mavericks TTL

IMHO, you should allocate more than a weekend to testing Linux especially, if you choose something like Ubuntu. If it is a rapid release distro such as Ubuntu, Fedora then you need to cover the period over a new release. If you choose something more stable like Debian, RHEL/CentOS then a month or two should do it.

Things that you take for granted just aren't there in Linux or if they are, they either have to be installed and confiured and may be considerably less polished/easier to use than what you are used to with OSX.

If you aren't a Linux sort of person, you will soon find that many of the features that works almost OOTB on OSX takes considerably more time and effort to get working on Linux. Something like Time Machine would IMHO be a great example.

As I have to use both Windows and Linux/Unix in my day job, I find OSX perfect for my use at home. I have to say, it just works for me. YMMV

The Windows 8 dilemma: Win 8 or wait for 9?

Re: Microsoft halts Windows7 support, no more hotfixes...

would you please care to post a link to the announcement?

Bloodied Samsung's profits down 25% as it clings to mobe crown

Being squeezed from both ends

The Beeb reported this morning that Samsung were being squeezed at the bottom end of the market by the rise of the Chinese makers like Huawei etc. At the top end, even the soon to be replaced iPhone 5s is holding its market share pretty well against the newly released S5. Now google seem to want to take control of Android back thus limiting the opportunities for Samsung to make their offering different from the rest.

The Analysists in places like Singapore were concerned that Samsung were relying far too much on their Mobile business for its profits.

Things might not be so rosy in the Samsung Garden. Perhaps they have some whizzo products up their sleeve that will shock the market and make them a lot of dosh?

There are a lot of people around the world waiting with interest for Samsung to do something dramatic.

But WE want to rule the Internet of STUFF – Intel, Dell, Samsung & chums

don't forget the silent partners

firstly, the Security Services making sure there are huge gaping back doors through which they can improve their spying on you 24/7.

then there are the malware people. If you think that the STUXNET malware attack was bad, then just think what fun they will have with all sorts of kit around your home all nicely wired up to the internet?

Going 'off grid' seems make more and more sense every day.

Don't panic! Mega cloud biz group says NSA just one among many threats

Re: If you're US you're under THE PATRIOT Act and f**ked anyway, For the rest of us...

We are also f**ked ...

If your data is held on a Server owned by a company that has a US presence of any kind then YOUR data is subject to the Patriot Act.

I'd even go so far as to say that even if you OWN your own servers but have them hosted by a company with an American presence the Feds are not going to let a little thing like Server ownership matter for even 1 nano second.

They really don't like just about anyone in the rest of the world. There are more than a few Amerikans who'd like to see the middle east (apart from Israel), North Africa and a good deal of Europe laid to waste so they they could say 'Job Done'.

Alabama quadchopper hits THREE THOUSAND FEET next to AIRPORT

Re: UAV's : bigger threat to planes than carry-on kit?

What about Bird Strikes?

I've seen one take down a Jet. At Dunsfold in Nov 1975 a Hawker P125 took off at dusk and ran into a flock. Both engines flames out and the plane bellyflopped over the peri-fence, over the A281 and ended up in the field beyond.

http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/history-from-police-archives/RB1/Pt3/pt3HS125crash75.html

A UAV being sucked into an engine just as the plane rotates is not something I'd want to happen.

Royal Navy parks 470 double-decker buses on Queen Elizabeth

Re: Bust-up

There you are waiting for a bus into town and suddenly 470 of them appear at once.

Is that a record for the number of busses appearing at once?

You 'posted' a 'letter' with Outlook... No, NO, that's the MONITOR

Telephone calls

I'd just finished a long (3hrs) remote session removing a whole load of 'lets try this, it might fix the problem' changes to a Windows Server setup in India when the phone rang.

"This is The Computer Support department of Microsoft" said an Indian Voice.

My rant down the phone that lasted more than a minute made me feel a lot better.

The sad thing was that the caller was still on line. As soon as I'd finished, the poor man said,

"We have identified a problem on your windows computer"

Early beer o'clock for me today.

Windows users: You get a patch! And you get a patch! And you get a patch! Everybody gets...

You must be new here

IE is bound tightly to the underlying OS. Some of the DLL's it uses are also used by other key utilities such as Windows Explorer.

IMHO the real truth is that MS really don't have a clue when it comes to patching.

If you update Office for Mac, it complains if Firefox, Sudoku, Photoshop and other non Apple supplied Apps are running. WTF has Firefox or Sudoku being open got to do with an Office Update?

None so that really just don't have a clue.

don't even try to get me started on the seemingly endless update/reboot cycle you have to go through for .Net (when applied to a non WSUS System). My last could was 11 reboots for .Net 3.5 and 4.

UK mobile sales in the toilet: Down by FIVE MILLION this year

Re: From the Page household ..

Well Jimmy, I hope you can play the phone shopping biz as well as your namesake.

What happens when you are given a P-45? Or the company decide to charge you more per month for their phone than the £10 deal from GifGaf that Mrs Page is on? This happened to me in a previous job. I returned the phone saying that as I would no longer be paying for their phone, I would no longer be 'on-Call' at any time. The went bust a few months after I left.

Company phones are IMHO for company biz FULL STOP. I have an iPhone. It goes into Airplane mode (or switched) off as soon as I leave work. It goes on again when I get to work. No one at work has my personal mobile number.

Get a life, turn off that company phone and don't answer Emails at weekends unless you get paid for it.

Now off down the pub. Phone is off? Yep.

We need to talk about SPEAKERS: Sorry, 'audiophiles', only IT will break the sound barrier

Re: todays encoding sucks

Youtube has sound engineers? Well wonders will never cease.

Lords try shoehorning law against revenge porn into justice bill

It is not only the images that are the problem

It is the often very lewd comments that go alongside it.

all sorts of claims like 'they suck in Bed', 'her t**s are false', 'his p***s is tiny' etc are made in order to embarrass the person in the picture.

Added together this is not nice at all especially if you happen to be on the receiving end.

The sad thing is that any court case will give the whole episode a lot more publicity that the original posting would have gotten. The Streisand Effect at work here.

I'd like for the subject of the posting to be able to remain anonymous like the victims in Rape cases.

As for pictures of boobs on a topless beach then that is in effect a public place and there can be no expectation of privacy whereas pictures of the ex in her dominatrix outfit might be very detrimental to their career esp if they were a teacher of under 16's.

Context is all important.

Are those a pair of chinook's I hear approaching?

Redmond's EMET defense tool disabled by exploit torpedo

Re: EMET needs to be downloaded and activated for each application?

The word 'activated' is enough to send the Black Hats into orgasm mode.

for them 'activated' means 'bypass this stupidity ASAP'.

Power BI: Office 365 just got more intelligent

Spot on

you start using this then suddenly it stops. MS responds by saying,

Oh Sorry, our bad. To access your data in future, you must uses SQLServer, BizTalk and .... Products. That will be $500 a month per CAL please.

What MS giveth with one hand that more than take away with the other.

Who gives a F about privacy? New scorecard rates US pols on spying

Re: New law coming?

They'd have to tell everyone where each and every NSA Facility was so that people would know where not to fly otherwise the courts would have a hard time convicting anyone.

That is probably not on the cards. The spooks really want to keep a lot of their locations a secret.

Walmart in iPhone 5s, 5c price slash – gotta make room for that 'iPhone 6', right?

Yes, Wallyworld's wages are crap

but if you are referring to the manufacture of Apple Products using slave labor, then I have to ask where all your 'electronic kit' is made? Perhaps it is made by the same companies that Apple use? Do you know for sure that your supplier is not paying less in wages to get their 'stuff' made?

Today in IT news: iPad Fleshlight a reality

It might be but a fanbois wet dream

I am sure that the Samsung copiers will be working overtime this weekend.

After all Appme can't be seen to be innovating now can they

{tongue in cheek comment}

Mines a pint of T.E.A.

Microsoft compliance police to NHS: We want your money

MS must be scared

That the NHS won't renew their purchasing agreement. This is IMHO a great way to scare them into buying more licenses 'just in case'.

time someone called their bluff.

LG drops G3 quad HD Android mobe with FRIGGIN' LASER camera

nice review

Have once of these for including a 'fart' app instead of a 'cat video' -->>

I/O NOOOOO!!! We sat through Google's bum numbing 3-hour keynote so you didn't have to

Re: AKA Apples WWDC of 2018

Well, because of the Patent madness in the USA who knows for sure that Google have not infringed on a patent that has been granted to Apple, IBM, Microsoft or any one of a thousand other companies?

We (as laymen/women) don't and simply can't know.

Patents aside, there are more than a few devices hitting the market in anticipation of what (if anything) Apple might start selling. Some are clearly rushed out simply to say, 'We were first'. That might be the case but I suspect that as has been proven before, if apple release a wearable device then they will probably implement it in a better way than the competition.

Then the Lawyers of the competition will be busy filing lawsuits against Apple.

Nothing is clearcut in the Tech World these days. There is always a huge amount of FUD and Lies and underhand dealings.

REVEALED: Reg trails claw along Apple's 'austerity' 21.5-inch iMac

Re: All Macs have obsolescence built-in

Nowt to stop you from running Windows or Linux on them then now is there?

BOOM BOOM: Dixons fires the human cannon

DSG? Are they still in Business?

Wonders will never cease.

I thought they'd fired everyone and died a quiet death. Well, my local store was always deathly quiet with hardly anything to sell. Those huge gaps between stuff didn't fool anyone you know.

DISPLAY DESTRUCTION D'OH! Teardown cracks Surface Pro 3 screen

Re: Slide-in batteries and SSD?

does it make Tea as well?

does it run Linux?

Can it play Crysis?

Nah, thought not.

Only joking. My D800 can't do that either. Takes great piccies though.

Longer flights burning more fuel can cut planes' climate impact

Jet Stream

Can impact flights to and from the US/Canada. The position of the Jet Stream is also important for the Weather people.

A recent flight from London to Denver was 45 mins shorter on the return than the outbound leg.

It's a Doddle: Amazon inks train station parcel deal with Network Rail

And for us country bumpkins

1) Deliver to unmanned rural station

2) Thieves smash their way into said lockers and make off with the items

OR

2) Thieves wait for the infrequent trains and for the odd passenger to get off and remove items from lockers. Then the relieve the unfortunate person of thei goods and diasppear into the night.

Fail, mega fail.

Nice idea but really.... Did anyone think this through?

AMD details aggressive power-efficiency goal: 25X boost by 2020

Nice but...

you forgot the Worcester Sauce taste attenuator. Makes using cheapo cheese possible.

Microsoft hopes for FONDLESLAB FRENZY as Surface Pro 3 debuts

3rd Time Lucky for MS?

I think not.

More like, flogging a dead horse.

Sure there will be people who will buy one of these but there are vastly better alternatives often a lot chaper to choose from. Why buy MS then? What is the compelling reason to say yes?

For the life of me, I cant think of one. Perhaps some MS fans can shed the light here?

9 Dark Social Truths That Will Totally Blow Your Bowels!

You forgot ...

all those headlines from checkout rags like 'National Enquirer', 'The Globe' etc.

and naturally 'Freddie Starr ate my Hamster'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Starr#.22Freddie_Starr_ate_my_hamster.22

Pure Storage buys HUNDREDS of patents from IBM in lawfare protection deal

Re: yeah...

The Patent lawyers decaying bodies (when consigned to the ocea) will have to sit on top of those of the 'Lawyers who become Politicians'. After all it is the Politicians who make the laws that are ironically only for the benefit of their Lawyer Bretheren.

If I were PM/President, I'd put a percentage cap on the number of Lawyers who could be elected to office. That way I'd hope that some semblance of common sence might return to law making. I'd also limit those who did things like Politics and Economics at Uni and then became a researcher for an MP before standing themselves. These people need to get a life and a job in the real world for a few years. Just as bad as the lawyers IMHO.

Yeah, I know this is the impossible dream but you have to dream a bit don't you?

Apple's October iWatch beefy, 'arched' – report

Apple expects to ship 50 million devices

Shouldn't that be....

A few self promoting analysists predict that Apple may ship as much as 50 million devices. any estimate like this has to be taken with a big pinch of salt and a close examination of the stock portfolio of those analysists just in case they are trying to 'embiggen' (crap word really) their holdings by hyping the stock.

It does not matter if you loathe or love Apple, you can't deny that they are very good at not releasing estimates on the numbers of devices they will sell. Apple do report the numbers of devices they have sold not shiped. A few other companies might like to do the same.

Adobe all smiles as beret bods spaff cash on non-cloud Creative Suite

Next Quarter

will find a 500% rise in Pirated copies flying around the internet.

Sorry Adobe, I'm not buying Photoshop anymore. You have lost my dosh forever on that product.

Lightroom does everything I need these days and is a lot cheaper.

If you go subscription for it then I'll ditch your software altogther

You might be milking it now but for how long then eh?

Hate phone games that make you buy in-app gumble? Congrats, you're a niche player

As a niche device owner....

Any App on any device that I have that suddenly starts offering In-App purchases get removed straight away.

This especially applies to apps that I have actually paid for in the first place. Suddenly your 5.99 purchase become 15.99 or more.

May those App developers go and rot in hell.

Internet of Things fridges? Pfft. So how does my milk carton know when it's empty?

At the risk of being a fuddy-duddy

If I ever let my Fridge/Larder be connected like this (as well as wear white sneakers+ Beige Trousers/Top, go on a holiday where I have to wear a nametag all-day everyday) then the first person to see me has my permission to kill me there and then because obviously my life isn't worth living any longer.

Anything that demands the use of NFC has No Frigging Chance with me either.

Yeah, I am already a Grumpy old Git but there is still some life in me yet.

WORLD CUP SHOCK: England declared winner in 2-1 defeat to Italy

Reminds me of an SF Story

Where the results were decided by pitched battles between the supporters.

Would be far more entertaining a spectacle than 'soccer' or those comparing who use Twatter IMHO

Facebook didn't infringe Dutch inventor's patents: Jury

Hmmmm

Wasn't it the people suing Apple/MS/Google etc who filed suit in East Texas not the other way round?

Bloke squeezes Apple's boules, predicts millions of iPhone 6s, iWatches

Re: Invalid Conclusion

quote

They made plenty of 5Cs... still collecting dust.

Citation please? I'd love to know where the fire sale might be....

British boffin tells Obama's science advisor: You're wrong on climate change

Boffins disagreeing with each other?

Who'd a thought it....

Slide-rules at Dawn then chaps?

Podule-lodged Brit nears two weeks atop ocean peak Rockall

no one watching?

There is the odd Russian Submarine, Chinese Factory ship passing by but....

Don't for get the spy overhead. The NSA will be watching closely in case he takes a pee that they can see. Then a big black submarine flying the Stars and Stripes will appear and remove him to Gitmo because he is clearly a danger to the civilised world.

AT&T has Amazon 3D smartphone on lockdown – report

Re: The joy of the walled garden

IMHO most users don't care about 'walled gardens'. All they care about is, does the device work and easily plus as long as their 'must have' apps are available, then they are happy punters.

My kindle HD was ok as far as it went. IMHO even more walled off than the apple ecosystem but it did its primary job very well. I wish there have been a way to store the different ebooks by topic, but it worked and whilst not in the same league as a paperwhite in terms of battery life, it performed pretty well. Then some sod nicked it thinking it was an iPad.

I tried a Galaxy Note and a couple of other Android tablets. Whilst the walled garden wasn't really there I just didn't get on with them.

Now I have an iPad Mini. Sure it has some frustratons but after a couple of weeks they don't get in the way any longer and it does the job I wanted it for. Battery if ok as long as I don't play any games.

By OK, I mean capable of lasting through an 11hour flight plus the inevitable idle time waiting to get on a plane. Not every airline's cattle class seating has a USB connection yet.

So walled garden or not, the iPad works for me. I'm not sure what I'd get from jailbreaking it. Like my dumb Nokia (x2) phones that I now use instead of Samsung or HTC Android phones, they do the job I need of them. nowt more needed really.

Do I really care about the Apple Walled Garden? Not really because the device works for me. I know that I am not alone amongst mainstream smartphone/tablet users. They simply don't care one iota.

Apple, Cisco line up to protect offshore data

Re: Couldn't they get around it?

Exactly

Any company with a formal presence in the US has to comply with ALL US Laws no matter how stupid they are wherever on this PLANET it does any form of business. AND Those laws will supercede all local laws.

All that export compliance training eventually started to sink in.