Posts by Gordon861

Firm-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's tax dodge profit shift? Totally legit

Pay Tax Here

Either companies need to pay tax in the UK on monies earned in the UK.

Or you tax UK takings at the rate these companies report profits in their home country.

If Coke or Pepsi are unhappy with this arrangement they can piss off out of the UK and leave all the available profits to their competitors.

Whilst we are at it, large companies that have a large amount of their workforce having their wages topped up by benefits will have this cost added to the tax bill on their profits. If Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda etc don't like it then they can leave.

Renault Clio IV and R-Link Android console hands-on preview

Re: Still still fail

Why not just build a new system using an existing and fairly cheap tablet at its core?

You have to supply some form of control when you sell the car, the Nexus is a good/cheap to build the system around so the initial unit would come with the Nexus.

Totally remote interfaces aren't as good or responsive, much better to have it hard wired into the system. You need to have it wired to power anyways. There would be nothing to stop you producing different front ends to fit whichever tablet you want as well though.

Still fail.

Why not develop an interface for a Nexus that could be dropped right into the a bracket in the car?

So you can use your personal Nexus as an interface to the car audio if you want. The controls for the Renault system could just be an app that you can install on any Nexus tablet.

Although I think the worry is that someone will develop a head unit replacement that will do just that and the car companies will start to lose all the nice ICE upgrade fees because all the units will be hidden and modular like they used to be with DIN and 2DIN radios.

Google rolls out new, cheaper Chromebooks 'for everyone'

What is the point of Chrome?

Just put the latest version of Android on it and problem solved.

Rumour: Asus rejects $99 Nexus 7... rumour

Re: Who do you believe?

Perhaps it's a rumour started by Apple.

If everyone thinks the Nexus 7 price is about to be reduced they will stop buying them in advance of the reduction, hurting Googles sales.

The Apple launches their 7 inch tablet and try to corner the market.

If these become available at $100/£100 I would order one tomorrow as a portable tablet when I don't want/need to carry my Asus Transformer around with me. Would also be easier to carry on the bike.

At the current price I still want one, but £100 would be a no brainer.

Lawyers: We'll pillory porn pirates who don't pay up

Blackmail

I think they will be OK publishing these names only if they actually go ahead with the cases against every person that they name on their webpages. But if they are using this threat as a way to destroy someones reputation then it was blackmail and becomes libel after the fact if the claims are unproven.

Boffins create 100,000 DPI image

Re: Stop it or you will go blind

"... what would be the point?

The point is the sharp bit at the other end.

Skype: Nearly half of adults don't install software updates

No mention yet of the famous update to Eve Online that managed to brick a lot of users machines by deleting BOOT.INI from their PCs. And they wonder why people don't trust updates.

Brits get to fondle Google Nexus 7 slab in just a fortnight

Saw them at the gadget show, not cheap yet and you cannot write to them via wifi, but this should be changing with updated firmware. I was most interested in the idea of using a wifi sdcard in a camera to auto copy the snaps to the hard drive whilst I took photos, but that's not possible yet.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/16/seagates-goflex-satellite-portable-hard-drive-streams-content-o/

Scan have them at £175

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/500gb-seagate-goflex-satellite-wireless-25-external-hdd-wifi-and-usb-30-black-ipad-iphone-android-pc

Re: better than I thought

3G/sim card slot

With a slot you need two contracts (phone and tablet), much simpler and cheaper to just teether to your phone and pull the data from there.

If I didn't already have a Transformer and a One X I would be looking at one of these, looks like a great bit of kit.

For storage there are a number of wifi/bluetooth battery powered hrd drives coming onto the market soon (or already here) which you can keep in your bag and read from whilst using the tablet.

Raspberry Pi IN THE SKY: Wallet-sized PC is disaster drone brain

Daily Mail

Just wait until the Daily Mail see this, terrorists can now get plans for a programmable guided missile for free off the internet !!!!! AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ten... Star Wars videogame classics

Re: SWG

There have already been discussions with Sony/LA about that and they truth is that as long as they are not charging for it or making money from it they will be left alone.

The server code has been all rewritten from the ground up and you need your own set of disks to install the game.

SWG

What no Star Wars Galaxies, that was actually a great game before Sony/Lucas screwed us all over?

Good timing though as the SWG Emulator Project is just launching it's Alpha phase of the code, most of the basic game is back, a few professions are still missing and balance is being tweaked. But the game is still very playable and getting 1000 people online most nights now.

Visit swgemu.com to come back to the game again.

VIA outs $49 Raspberry Pi-alike

Just the form factor of this makes it so much more useful than the Pi. All the ports on one side means that you can mount it almost any bix you like and still reach them all, with the Pi you must have a box designed for it to be able to reach the connectors.

Size?

quote "1708 x 85mm"

Is this thing really nearly 2m long?

Ten... two-bay Nas boxes

Re: D-Link doesn't sell in the UK?

They do the DNS-320 for £51.

Might not be the fastest but for backups or just streaming to a mediaplayer they do the job. I currently have 3 of them on my network all running in Raid 1.

<b>SPACE</b> the final frontier

Didn't they recently talk about making structures on the moon only using the resources found on the moon?

If so the more logical way would be to build the station from that as it's a lot closer then any asteroid and less problems lifting the parts off the surface than from the earth.

New Forum Wishlist - but read roadmap first

Get rid of the advert/profile bit on the right of the page, currently 25% of available space is wasted.

And/Or allow forum to fill whole browser instead of the fixed width bit.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

I played in the beta, enjoyed it, started playing the real game and spent 7 hrs in queues just trying to get in. Since then I've just not been able to bring myself to play for long.

It's a single player game with a few milti-player bits bolted onto it. I don't see how it'll keep you going once you reach the current level cap, it's not a persistant world with a long term goal.

Also, if you look back at the NGE 'fix' for Star Wars Galaxies back in 2005 you pretty much have the new game all planned out.

Instead I've gone back an took a look at the SWG EMU and it's actually getting there, and worth a look if you want a free MMO.

HTC Sensation XE

Updates

"That needn’t be a deal breaker, however, since HTC has said that it should get an update to the new version in 2012."

Tell that to the HTC Desire owners that have been promised updates to their phone for ages. We were also promised that the Desire would be useable on HTCSense.com to allow us to track and backup our phones but that never happened.

Also, why can they not put a decent amount of RAM in these phones so that if/when they do make updates available the phone still has space to run apps? It can't increase the price that much for just a little more RAM.

Too rude for the road: DVLA hot list of banned numberplates

Saw an DB9 on the M25 with AU55OME which I thought was good.

Ten... high-end Android tablets

The Asus Transformer should be getting an updated version released in the next couple of months with the newer faster nvidia processors.

I have one of these with the keyboard and I carry it around most of the time now, web access is done via teethering to my mobile when out, no need for built in 3G as you'd end up paying for two contracts with little gain.

Yamaha RX-V471 5.1 AV receiver

I was just about to post something similar, I bought a 509 a couple of months ago and it sounds like a much better buy due to more connections and the network link. And it's the same price as this one.

Ten... mono laser printers

Cheap Laser

I'm still running a cheap Samsung ML-1200 from years ago, and know a number of people also running these old lasers. The latest model is available for less than £50 online now.

TomTom ties up traffic with Top Gear

I've always found the standalone satnavs are better than the app based solutions.

But what most people have realised is that the roads of the UK and most of the EU don't change very much in the lifetime of the main unit so instead of buying a new one every year or so they hold onto them until they finally break and then replace them instead of upgrading the maps.

The other choice they make is to recycle their older units down the family line so their kids going off to uni or just starting to drive have dads old satnav instead of buying a new one.

Why Android houses should give Google the 'fork you'

I never claimed the phone had 'lost' memory, however the problem is that some of the core programs are getting larger each time they update. A lot of these aren't able to be moved to the SD card to run.

I also assume that the Android updates take space from the same usable 150mb, hence the fact that HTC have stated that they cannot fit an update to Android 2.3 onto the phone.

When the phone was first released 150mb seemed like a lot, now not so much.

The problem with these longer contract renewal dates is that 18 months into the contract the phones start to feel very limitted when running apps.

I got a new 24 month contract Apr'10 with a HTC Desire and I now have to pull apps off it due to the lack of useable memory.

TomTom fights falling satnav sales with iPad app

Time Running Out

TomTom really need to up their game or they will be in big trouble soon.

I don't think it'll be long before cars start appearing with a 5 inch Android based interface for the radio and other in car computer functions hardwired into the dash.

GoogleMaps already allows you to download a map area so you don't need a phone connection so it would be pretty easy to allow you to use maps downloaded on you PC ans stored on an SD card.

The same unit could also give you full access to the OBD fault codes and diagnostics on your car without needing to buy a specialised reader.

Books promo

Advertisment?

Much as the Lego Guns are of interest, surely an article on a tech site like El Reg that doesn't even bother going into any detail about how the tech works in getting these lego guns to work should be labelled as an ADVERTISEMENT?

This article was no more than a 'look at this' and 'buy this here' as opposed to an article, so much so that whoever wrote it didn't even have the bottle to stick their name to it it was so bad.

UK police warns off hacktivists

Protest

If you wish to hold a protest outside a physical property you fill out a form and the police let you get on with it for a reasonable time before telling you to clear off or unblock the streets. Happens in London all the time.

So why can you not use the same proceedure for running an online protest as well?

Ubisoft insists DRM 'a success'

Settlers 7

Did they remove the DRM from this game?

I tried the demo version that came with a magazine and even the demo required you to register on their website. So I gave up and just sent a pissed off email to Ubisoft and never looked back.

(Of course I never recieved a reply)

Contour GPS Bluetooth camcorder

Rugged

I have one of the earlier ContourHD cameras, the 720 version, they are all based on the same shell. I've used it on the side of my bike crash hat for the last year in all weathers with no problems, including being hit by a wall of water at 60mph coming from a truck driving through a massive puddle going the opposite way.

For recording a run over the moors you would probably want the adapter that converts the fitting to the old style 1/4 inch screw instead. Also fitting it higher up may provide a better video, use a nanoclamp and fit to a roof bar.

News of the World TO CLOSE

Future Costs

I assume that by closing this paper now they make it much harder for anyone to take out anymore private prosecutions against them and it'll mean that the size of any compensation is severely limited now.

T-Mobile to tout 'truly unlimited' mobile data plan

Existing Customers?

So does this mean that existing customers already on the unlimited plan have to change to this new plan to keep it?

Anonymous smites Orlando after charity arrests

Coming to London Soon

Westminster Council are currently planning a similar law for their borough.

EA: early Battlefield 3 buyers will gain no advantage

incorrect

What they are doing is doing an early unlock on one weapon, but giving 3 items to people that buy from this shop that cannot be aquired any other way.

If these items were just early unlocks I doubt there would be any outcry.

What a Mess

The way they should do the 'special' pre-order store bonuses is something like, if you buy from Game you get the first two levels of the Sniper tree unlocked at launch or buy from Play and get the two levels of medic at launch etc.

This way you would still have some advantage at launch but this would never unbalance the game or discourage people from picking up the game in the future.

EA angers fans over Battlefield 3 pre-order exclusives

Don't Only Blame EA

From EA site "All of this amazing content is available at no extra charge to gamers who pre-order the Battlefield 3 Limited Edition: Physical Warfare Pack exclusively at www.game.co.uk and www.gamestation.co.uk"

Perhaps people should be boycotting Game and GameStation as well so that they get the message to stop screwing up the games for the gamers!

Acer Iconia Tab A500 10in Android tablet

Transformer

Come on Reg, do a review of the Transformer.

Next-gen Atom CPU price halved to push netbooks

mini itx

This will hopefully also nearly half the cost of the mini itx boards as well then.

BT cheerfully admits snooping on customer LANs

Tried BT Router

I messed with the free BT Router when I first got it due to it giving me a free second phone line. Got bored with that as I don't need two landlines and a mobile so stuck a decent third party router on there instead.

Archos 70 Android 7in tablet

Price Point

Yes the price is higher, but why cannot Archos re-release this unit with Android 3 on it?

The price of the new tablets will probably drop in the next few months as more competition develops. Currently even the internet suppliers are sticking to the RRP because they know it's a sellers market, that situation won't stay like that for ever.

Too Late

The Android 3 tabs are on the market now, why bother with a 2.2 tab that won't be upgraded and will always be restricted in comparison. These should have hit the market 6-12 months ago, now their opportunity has passed.

David Davis: Jobless should dig trenches for fat UK pipes

Speed

The BT spokeswoman said: "Building a superfast broadband network is a complex business involving highly skilled staff. We're currently passing 80,000 premises a week." She added that by 2012, superfast connections in the UK would exceed those in France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

Yes but how many of the population in these countries are also still stuck at 1Mb Broadband. We need to raise the general standard of broadband all over the UK not just fast get even faster and the slow just keep the same. Although it'll go nicely with the rich getting richer in the UK right now.

David Cameron wants to push all of Blighty online

PC Specs

Just looking at the specs of the PCs.

They have 20 or 40GB hard drives, can you still buy drives that small?

And 256 or 512Mb Ram, suprised that Windows 7 and Office 2007 will even run on that. Never mind how much space will be left once you've installed the OS and Office.

Also "This Premium level PC with a fast processor is ideal for surfing the internet, downloading songs and editing photos." Are they having a laugh?

Google infringes copyright by displaying and linking to news site content

Search Engines

What the search engines should do now as a group or just Google is make sure that the Belgian newspapers that bought this case don't appear in any Google searches at all. Otherwise the next stage will be wanting Google to pay the paper everytime they show up in a search.

Motorola Xoom

Asus Transformer

Should be out soon with the keyboard for even less money.

Review Soon???