Posts by Mike 102

Force Touch tweak: Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Re: Not enough USB ports

Mad looney... The name says it all.

Re:

Yes. Would be nice if the 'reviewer' had a clue about what they are reviewing. Is that too much to ask El Reg?

Re: Where's capitalism when you need it?

Same here

Hide your Macs, iPhones and iPads: WireLurker nasty 'heralds new era'

Re: @ Stern Fenster -- OK so let me get this straight.

in binary....

;-)

Re: OK so let me get this straight..

iOS a smaller target....cobblers...

It's big, it's expensive and it's an audiophile's dream: The Sonos Sub

Trabant to mercedes

There's lots of b*ll*x being spouted on here about this component and that component...

Take the average Joe Bloggs off the street and they won;t be able to tell the difference between most of these components. If you spend time training them to listen for specific differences then they might just about but really.... no, no they won't.

For most people adding a sub of sonos quality to a system without one is like going from a trabant to a mercedes. The author is right.

Compared to lots of similar audio quality deviceds Sonos is not cheap. But then sonos isn't just an audio device. It's a device to play sound from muliple sources to multiple speakers either in phase or separately. It does the job very well. You can walk from room to room and hear the same piece continuously in phase/synced. You can choose how to combine elements, I have an amp feeding speakers in my kitchen and separate devices in the dining room and living room.

If I had an audio room, tuned to be acoustically perfect, with a high end audio set up then maybe sonos and/or it's wouldn't be a good choice but lets face it sonos aren't aiming their devices at those people.

They aim their devices at people who want sound streamed throughout a building. Unless of course all your rooms are acoustically tuned and you sit there with the heating turned off so the vibrations don't distort your listening experience????

The author has it about right. It's an excellent set up for streaming sound around the average home with pretty easy set up and very easy controls.

I'm sure a bugatti veyron owner would tell you how much faster and more refined it is than a london route master bus but lets face it a route master will take 60 people over a mile in less time than the veyron.

Stop being silly ar$es.

Paris because even she could use it.

PANIC OVER DROOPING house prices hits MEMBER-shaped estate

Re: Obviously nothing to do with

Clearly as the the whole of the Wirral is desolate place no one would ever want to live in.... tosser

OK, so we paid a bill late, but did BT have to do this?

Re: Why?

good question.

Against my advice, my mum recently ordered BT broadband/phone-line/tv as a residential customer.

she now has a braodband connection but this was after 4 calls where each time they gave her a date it would be done by and each time when she phoned to chase as the dtae had passed she was told the order had been cancelled and they would have to expediate the new order which each time was cancelled.

She's still missing the tv box she was supposed to get.. I think she started this early august. she has had call centre people promise to ring back, hang up on her, refuse to put her through to someone who could take a compaint etc etc etc..

Lots of "i'm really sorry", "I'll take responsibility", "when you call back ask for me by name" to later be told they didn't exist, she was even told it would be fixed the next day and in the same converstion told two business days...

It took 4 calls to get a complaint reference number and they said so much that later turned out not to be true, I'm not enitrely convinced it wasn't made up.

shockingly bad service.

It's official: Apple sends out invitations for September 10 event

Pixels

Surely those are pixels on the new apple tv.

Hundreds of UK CSC staff face chop, told to train Indian replacements

Re: Redundancy?

No it isn't.

https://www.gov.uk/staff-redundant/overview

It's straight forward. Particularly if you are moving work to another location.

How City IT is under attack from politicians, diesel bugs, HR

Smalltalk

Is there anyone other than JPMorgan still jusing it?

I loved coding in Smalltalk - I miss it.

1,000 O2 staff chose redundancy over Capita

Re: No....

what is the question??

O2 brushed off outsourcing 'rumour' - but it's happening ... to THOUSANDS

Why?

whta nonsense. I recently had an unsuccessful interaction with a companies call centre to resolve an issue. I went to Twitter and Facebook, posted a short version of my pain on both and got a reposnse from both which resulted in a satisfactory resolution.

I could have spent time pushing the point and trying to raise a complaint with the call centre but social media worked miush more efficiently and effectively for me.

On what basis does that mean I should be shot?

Secondly (you can count can't you?) in what way have apple and social media made the average internet user into a moron?

The avergae cannot be "a moron" as it's conceptual not real. I can see an arguement that says the average has moved to be more moronic though I'm not entirely convinced thats either a bad thing or true.

Let's examine the argument... first internet users were quite smart people, scientists etc... This was quickly followed by pornographers and bookmakers plus their clients. Then more general retail, amazon etc, then Apple and social media may have come along... and increased the number of users... Clearly those initial uses of the internet were not moronic that coffee pot watching webcam brought real advancements in science don't forget. I'm not sure there's a correlation here...

Then lets see would this be a bad thing? Negative impact on morons invading the web and social media?? those that don't want to see it can avoid social media. no impact, those morons have exposure to lots of other morons, no change, you don't need to buy apple products... so what is the impact.. Well some of them may stray into excellent websites like this.. ah, I see your point now.. it was a self fulfilling post. A QED post, self proving.

I think you proved your point about morons.

Outsourcing does not equal offshoring

When deals like this are set up typically the company outsourcing have options over the loction of staff. Often buildings are included in the deal which tie the provider in at least for a period to a location.

If the company do not want to offshore then they can dictate this in the contract. If they do want to offshore then they may use the provider as a vehicle to facilitate it but the provider will rarely be dictating it.

This is not an argument to support the outsource, just to provide clarity on the situation. These jobs may eventually move offshore (I have no idea if they will or not) but if they do it is unlikely to be Capitas decision but O2s.

Anyone want to guess how many call centre staff Capita employ in the UK?

According to their website (http://www.capitacustomermanagement.co.uk/) "With over 11,000 employees and sixteen centres in the UK and offshore centres in India and Poland, Capita is one of the largest companies of its kind."

Doesn't say how many offshore but if anyone knows (ie actually knows, not wild assumptions and guesses) it would be interesting to compare. Though, returning to my main point, this will be driven by Capitas clients more than by Capita.

As is the decision tp outsource to Capita in the first place. The article back in April stated that capita already provide most of O2s support for contract tied customers (or something like that). I guess O2 are making an informed decision on whether it's best for them to outsource more to Capita or retain it. whether this is the right decision or not, it's O2s and not Capitas.

O2 scoffs at call-centre outsource fears, forgets to rule it out completely

Re: Race to the bottom...on your marks!

where as your argument is excellent and very well made..

Thanks.

"Let's say, just hypothetically, that there are some outsourced services which are better than in-house equivalents on all measures, including customer satisfaction, cost, knowledge of staff and flexibility"

I refer you back to "The outsourcing leading to poor service is not an argument I automatically subscribe to."

You ask what % respresented but not relevant to what I said. I was very specific. It may well be that 51% or more of the providers are rubbish but it's not relevant to what I said.

You generalise about customer service but in the article it states that the service provider already do work for the customer. If they are will to put more work to them then either they are, as you say, "idiots" or they are happy with the balance between cost, customer service, etc.. they may even have raised customer satisfaction and reduced costs who knows? I don't and I'm pretty sure, despite your clear expertise in this area, that you don't either

In summary you've made a blatent generalisation which doesn't add anything to the discussion and doesn't counter what I put. Marvellous, genius infact. You must be very proud.

Well unemployment has just hit about 27% out there so why not?

Re: Race to the bottom...on your marks!

"One swallow does not make a summer" smirk..

The outsourcing leading to poor service is not an argument I automatically subscribe to.

The could be several reasons why an outsourcer can do it better. Say a new phone comes on the market and O2 call centres are swamped, an outsourcer may be in a better position to bring in additional staff.

An outsourcer may have invested in better telephony systems, may have more expertise at managing staff in that environment.

There may be trade off in that they are not as good service wise but bring flexibility.

I like to drive my car. Sometimes I get a train, sometimes a taxi, sometimes a boat. I think I'm a good driver but for a while through work I used the company chauffeurs to get about. They were good drivers too. their vehilces broke down less frequently than my clapped out old banger.

Yes they all generally cost more but in each case it was a price worth paying. in all cases, their aim was to make money from me and mine was to get to my destination safely.

Noddy example but its simply not as simple as saying their aims are not aligned.

pirates cos they all takes ye gold

Re: Race to the bottom...on your marks!

http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2013/04/contact-centre-lands-award/

maybe their reputation needs to change.

Paris because any deal would involve a slap up meal in a nice hotel....

Feeling poor? WHO took all your money? NOT capitalist bastards?

Lots of nonsense being spouted

Hi, lots of stuff on here is clearly biased or deliberately trolling. Quite disappointing.

Things I believe to be true:

Most of us don't really understand how things would pan out with lower tax or higher tax or no tax, with goverment capital expenditure, with lower benefits, without free trade agreements or with more.

Spouting nonsense on here only gives temporary uplift in feeling

Six months under water and iPhone 4 STILL WORKS

Re: Notruf

Nearly there with the explanation.. Irrespective of the user prefered language, the iPhone will cycle through various languages when displaying the "emergency call" message. I guess it's because you can't be sure who has the phone at the time of needing to make an emergency call. The owner would be able to just put in the pin code and turn it on. So the message is only useful if you don't have/can't input the pin which possibly menas you're not the owner blah blah blah...

Apple iOS 6 review

Re: Mutual Benefit

Not on the T28 http://www.lokety.com/ericsson_t28s_manual.pdf

that was my favourite phone though. could stand up to being thrown around, dropped, super slim, long battery...

couldn't browse the internet, read email, check the weather, play any decent games, but I loved mine.

Don't think it was in the T39 either

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxlcmljc3NvbnQzOW18Z3g6NjViZGJlOWIwMjBkNDMz

LONDON iPHONE 5 MADNESS: 'You must be CRAZY to buy Apple'

or even why some people don't let facts get in the way of giving someone/something a good bashing.

These people are not harming anyone by queuing up. I dont understand why people need to be quite so mean.

Oh hold on, it's human nature..I guess like some state being guilible is human nature....

I too can make up a load of nonsense too.

Re: Ugh

I diasgree. Isn't queuing one of the things we are famous for?

Tourists follow GPS, drive into sea

Re: I've said it before, and I'll say it again ...

too true, turn of your toys... that includes speedometers, fuel guages, indicators (god help us you might get distracted by your indicators and pull out without looking), brakes, windscreen wipers, lights... oh and whilst you are at it the ignition.

numpty. it's not a toy it's a tool and, as any oter tool, if used inappropriately will not give the desited result.

RIM stands, staggers, falls again

and your email problem is?

I have 5 email accounts all accessed via my iPhone. plus a couple of goggle calendars...

Gas bill climbed £13,000 after correct online reading given

British gas the same

I had the same thing this summer wiht British Gas. Estimated it to be somehting crazy like 100K ..

Obviously this wass because it thought I'd gone round the clock. I phoned them up and they said the system had flagged it for human examination and that it would probably have been sorted out before I ever got a letter....

The iPhone 4S in depth: More than just a vestigial 'S'

3GS to 4 or 4S upgrade and iterations

Personally I got my 3GS in the sumer of 2009 on a 2 year deal. It's been a great phone.

I've been waiting to upgrade until they'd made yesterdays announcement.

I was hoping for a redesigned iPhone (5) without the glass back as I'm not much of a fan. However, apart from the external shape, this is a pretty good upgrade from the 4 hardware wise. I'm going to opt for the 4S over the 4.

I expect an iPhone 5 may come out next year and then possibly a 5S the year after. I'll see where I am then and decide whether to stick with Apples iPhones for my following upgrade or move on.

I'm quite ok with this not being an iPhone 5. The glass back is not a show stopper for me.

Faster-than-light back with surprising CERN discovery

erm...

COBOL maybe?

Jaguar hybrid supercar gets green light

I come down on the thinking it's a beauty side of the debate

i love the look of it but would like to see the bottom of the back end more clearly, that bit looks odd. The rest I thik looks excellent...

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

mine had me over 100 miles away

I checked mine out and it has me in Northern Island and the Isle of Man. I've not been to either since I got my iPhone. However, when I was recently walking in north wales my phone did lose signal and then show it had gained the signal of an Isle of man network. I was impressed as the IOM is 70 miles from where I was. Seeing Northern Island in my iphone location list which was more than 100 miles away was impressive.

I'm not worried as I have no reason to hide my location from anyone. Though I could see some people would be. I'm sure in places of higher density of cells it would be more accurate.

PARIS laid bare in intimate snaps

EPIC

nothing less than EPIC

enhorabuena!

World's first pedal-powered ornithopter takes flight in Canada

As a child...

As a child I jumped off a wall (or was pushed by a brother I don't remember the specifics) I flapped my arms as if to fly... I'm sure it took my slightly further forwards than if I hadn't flapped my arms (granted not much further)...

Can I retrospectively claim the first ornithopter record...

What a load of cobblers.... It's a well designed ultra light glider with flappy wings...

Vulture 1: Plane plans planned

Or Spanish

Actually if you look at the videos you'll see a fair amount of work appears to be 'Hecho en Espania'....

Cameron asks Obama for McKinnon compromise

that'll be the same tw@ts that gave them all your bank data

oh reminds me of the unilateral SWIFT data transfer...

it's not about whether he did the hacking...

it's about the fact that they are claiming a huge financial cost due to his hacking which then meets the criteria for the extradition.

they did not incur costs due to his hacking... they put locks on the doors that they had failed to lokc previously. the cost of his hacking was much smaller and should not come anywhere near the figure for extradition.. and then of course the whole 'agreement' is another example of why Labour had to go out of office whatever your left or right leanings, they had simply lost the plot.... tw@ts

and don't get me started on.

and don't get me started on them 'inviting' british officials to speak to one of their senate committees... maybe those senators don't realise that we are not the 53rd state of the good ole US of A.... probably don't have passports the idiots.. Cameron is in a difficult position, balancing the relationship, but if you're bent over and someones pushing you off balance from behind sometimes you just have to tell them to knob off....

IT recruiters warn over migration caps

the problem is

that there is a place for highly skilled migrants but the way the scheme has been run is cray.

The definition of highly skilled is so low I suspect it was put together by someone who left school with no qualifications.

I have worked with people who have arrived on HSM visas and they were in no way highly skilled and I knew people already in the UK who were out of work who were more skilled.

There are occasions where if we don't allow a highly skilled person into the country to do some work then we will negatively impact the country or business but these cases are less than the number of people we have given visas to.

UK polling stations turn away 'hundreds' of voters

no, it was nothing to do with being prepared..

it was apparently done largely on if you looked like a student/were of a student age.... complete abuse of process...

some people were queuing for

some people were queuing for 4 hours!! on that basis you would not have been able to vote..

it also fairly easy for people to talk nonsense.

or maybe

most of the benefit claimants with nothing to do but spend my taxes would vote labour.... ..

it's not a party political issue.

It wasn't done on polling card or not...

and even if it was it would still be incorrect. Polling cards are not mandatory. The students were all registered...

it's nonsense about not having a polling card.

I didn't take mine as the wife had been rather over zealous with the recycling and I didn't have it anymore. It took no longer to find me on the list. They asked the people with polling cards the same questions they asked me, name and address. Done.

people were queuing for over 4 hours!

which if you'd gone at 7 am would have made you late for work..

discrimination at polling station

In relation to Sheffield the Beeb are only really reporting part of the story.

The queue there was split into students and non-students.

The non-students were allowed to jump the queue ahead of the students.

Blatant discrimination.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121206334573223

iPhone and Mac boost Apple by 94%

All this in the shadow of a recession.

You have to admit that love or hate Apple and it's products, it is producing stuff people want to buy and are willing to pay for.

Good business.

Personally I think the stock is over priced and we'll have some sort of adjustment at some point soon.... But then again I'm no expert....

Way to go Apple, now can we drop the prices a touch....

McKinnon's mum stands against Straw at general election

Good on her

She has some valid points. Straw should go...

it's already

It's already an offence to photograph a police officer but it seems not if they are helping children across the road and only if they are shoving innocent members of the public over in the street....

Photographers rue Mandy's copyright landgrab

I'm sure

I'm sure all parties have at more than one w*nker.... and most of themhave their noses in the trough.

I'd still rather them at the moment than either of the other two main parties...

Will no one rid us of this man?

Will no one rid us of this man? This government is corrupt and morally bankrupt. Unfortunately I don't think the Tories who are likely to replace them are much better so my votes going to the Libdems (though to be honest I doubt they are much better either!)

Mandy accused of screwing small biz

what does he get out of it?

Probably something to do with his googlies...