Posts by Rob 44

CES 2017 roundup: The good, the bad, and the frankly bonkers

Re: "tech bros telling women how to manage their feeding"

What are you on about? No one's telling anyone anything. It's a good idea that a lot of women are interested in. Take your faux offence to tumblr.

Kids' Hour of Code turns into a giant corporate infomercial for kids

Re: Minecraft as a way to force Win 10 in education

Minecraft isn't as low spec as you seem to think.

It actually uses a hell of a lot of resources. Using optifine and a few other choice plugins I saw it make a friends very expensive gaming rig crawl on its knees.

Twitter rolls out troll controls

Re: Sure..

One question. What does oppression have to do with women getting special treatment?

Are you trying to imply women in the western world (you know the most privileged group of women in history) are oppressed?

What's next? Are you going to tell me women are never violent and black people are never racist?

I stopped using twitter because of morons like you. Don't bring that crap here and ruin this site too.

Re: Sure..

They get a lot more special treatment than you seem to be aware of.

Has the originator or anyone using the #killallmen hashtag been banned yet? Nope of course they haven't.

Watch what happens to you if you start a #killallwomen hash tag.

Only 26%

Of women have been harassed on Twitter?

I'd be willing to be 100% of men have.

Self-driving cars doomed to be bullied by pedestrians

Re: Simple.

Or, for persistent offenders give them automated shoes that can't be taken off that prevent them walking in roads.

Simple.

Add a cow catching type device that scoops up all the idiots and keeps them in some kind of keep net. Driver arrives at their chosen destination. Then the car drives off and dumps the idiots either over a cliff or at the nearest police station to be handed an asbo.

Apple, Facebook and Coinbase coughed data to finger alleged pirate king

Re: Interesting part about a Bitcoin exchange giving up transaction details

Bitcoin is anonymous.

Coinbase however, is not.

Android Mew-ware, I choose you: Code nasty poses as Pokemon GO

Re: Puzzled..

Admittedly it is only proof of concept. But the will need more than just permissions to show that as proof of concepts because as I say all of those permissions are in the legitimate app for legitimate reasons.

Re: Puzzled..

Nope didn't misread it. They are talking about malware infected copies of the APk floating about.

The problem is the permission issue they say is an indicator that the APK is infected doesn't add up. Because all of those permissions are actually needed by the game.

Re: Puzzled..

Go ahead.

Puzzled..

This claim makes no sense.

The game will need WiFi access to find out where pokemon are based on what the servers tell them. If theres no mobile signal a WiFi connection will be used. Also in the future there will be the ability to trade pokemon over bluetooth, so that's that explained.

As for webtracking thats probably because you can sign into the game with your trainer club login.

This to me at the moment smacks of some paid for fear mongering. The reason being with games like ingress there was a mass of people using mods and hacks to cheat at the game and rig the GPS settings making it possible to travel the world to hack towers without leaving your living room.

This game will be a big money maker once all the paid features are added. They will lose out if the games are hacked. (lucky patcher anyone?)

So, sorry i'm personally just not buying it. Even pc-advisor, macworld and numerous other sites are linking to reputable apk repositories for those of us that just can't wait. I've downloaded an APK and I can guarantee it's safe.

This local council paid HOW MUCH for an SD card?!

Sad thing is it probably would work. Tell them I need one too haha.

Yes. Exactly this. I personally saw tens of thousands wasted in the NHS as they had to use an approved supplier. Everything from pencils to printer's are all purchased from the same catalogue at a ridiculous mark up from store prices.

One in particular always sticks with me. We needed a simple tool set to maintain some patient trolleys. We could purchase the one we needed from Halford for £20. Only to be told, no. It has to be from the catalogue. The equivalent was just under £200.

I can't for the life of me work out how no one can see this collosal waste of money for what it is. It must cost the NHS hundreds of thousands every hour.

Boffins raise five-week-old fetal human brain in the lab for experimentation

Re: This is just wrong

Actually yes there is.

Believe it or not, there is a man walking around today with a lab grown bladder.

Its not much but its a start. The group that produced it are apparently now focusing on creating hearts. Imagine that, a perfect clone of your own ticker if you eat one or two many bacon sarnies.

VR rift OPENS UP: Total Recall Technologies hurls lawsuit at Facebook's Oculus

Re: "...Rift VR headset is expected to ship in the first quarter of 2016."

You couldn't be any more incorrect. The gaming community alone is crying for this to get onto the market as quickly as possible.

I myself have been waiting since the 90s for this to become a thing I can buy. VR is going to be huge.

Otherwise Valve/HTC wouldn't be developing their own system and neither would Sony.

Vodafone: Can't make calls on our network? Use Wi-Fi

Its a shop, not a phone mast.

Panicked teen hanged himself after receiving ransomware scam email

Re: How to spoil a good comment.

Its not an exaggeration: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/woman-pensioner-jailed-for-not-paying-tv-licence-ridiculous-cost-of-jailing-fine-dodgers-in-northern-ireland-29221028.html

'If you see a stylus, they BLEW it' – Steve Jobs. REMEMBER, Apple?

Hmm.

I got the note 3 for a couple of reasons.

1 Large screen good for gaming.

2 A stylus.

The weird thing is, in the time I've owned it I've barely used the stylus. Handwriting is tedious AMD I can't type much faster than I can write. So far the only use I've found for the stylus is letting my 3 year old play props pigs paint pot.

I guess if you're a graphic designer or illustrator it would be useful. I would say this is definitely a niche product that will only appeal to certain people.

What does bother me however is that no doubt apple will sound the trumpets and somehow claim they developed and made the worlds first stylus. Just like they did with multi touch sensitive screens.

DON'T PANIC! Latest Anonymous data dump looks old hat

Sigh.

This ladies and gentlemen is why journalism now sucks.

We all know the official/ish accounts of anonymous. If they don't talk about it then assume it's just some idiot operating under the anonymous banner and not an official operation.

Think I'll start doing silly shit and add anonymous to my twitter name to see if I get some headlines.

Titsup Twitter: We've swatted the bug that caused the outage

Sigh.

I'm slowly giving up of twitter anyway. Hailed as a place for freedom of speech it is quickly becoming as censor happy as all other social platforms

Social justice warriors organise and report tweeters they don't like that confront them with facts and figures that dispute their half truths and lies. Next thing you know another account has been banned.

It's getting ridiculous the way twitter pander to these idiots.

I enjoy watching the tumblr feminazi groups fighting with the MRA groups. But now the feminazis employ this report and ban tactic against anyone that dares to prove them wrong. It's gotten tragic to watch the censorship all over the place.

Furious GTA V gamers seek similar ban on violent, misogynistic title: the Holy Bible

Re: GTA V is a blast

You should try Neo Scavenger. Still in beta but already a very very good game.

Sinclair is back with the Spectrum Vega ... just as rubbish as the ZX

What!

If it doesn't screech horribly for at least ten minutes before a game fails to load, then I don't want one.

Also it needs cassettes so I can remove them and bend them a little to see if that increases the chance of them loading.

Tenacious Twitter tries to topple terrible trolls

Re: this is all very well, but...

Never happen. They love spam accounts. It bulks up the user numbers.

I'M SO SORRY, sobs Rosetta Brit boffin in 'sexist' sexy shirt storm

Irony.

Isn't it strange that the very people who complain about being judged for what they wear, are judging someone for what he wears?

Just don't blame Bono! Apple iTunes music sales PLUMMET

Re: saturation...

I think there's more to it.

One thing is the complete lack of decent music. Its all bubbly teen pop shite or some mass produced bands or other junk.

The market is saturated with mediocre disposable music and I think people are finally getting bored with it.

There are those of us who love our music and will hunt what we are looking for and a lot of it you just wont find in iTunes (one of the reasons I gave up on it very quickly).

People have the catalogue of music they want already, its mostly just background noise to the average consumer so they don't feel the need to buy even more music.

America's super-secret X-37B plane returns to Earth after nearly TWO YEARS aloft

Re: NO CHANCE OF WINNING a nuclear exchange ...

I love that game.

MasterCard adds fingerprint scanner to credit cards for spending sans the PIN

Re: What happens when....

This is what I've never understood either.

Are we going to have to have fingers or eyes replaced once the data is compromised?

This is such a bad idea on so many levels.

Its the same with facial recognition too. Wasn't there a slew of bearded men being arrested for looking like bin Laden?

Biometrics just isn't a good idea. I don't have a solution, but I know it isn't this.

Facebook's Zuckerberg in EBOLA VIRUS FIGHT: Billionaire battles bug

Heh..

Guess the old saying still stands true: "A little bit of charity hides a multitude of sins".

White LED lies: It's great, but Nobel physics prize-winning great?

Re: Let there be light!

You also have to account for the fact that street lighting saves lives. Literally.

Well lit street areas have lower crime rates. You're less likely to be the victim of violent crime in a well lit area. So street lighting isn't just about looking nice.

Here's your chance to buy an ancient, working APPLE ONE

Nostalgia moment. I remember the Matrox Mystique. Voodoo cards too.

Had a 500gig Quantum Fireball HDD too. But my mist favourite bit of kit was a Yamaha DB50 XG daughter board for my sound blaster. Improved midi music no end hahaha.

Tesla's Elon Musk shows the world his D ... and it's a monster

I dont get it.

I don't get electric cars.

If we all start driving electric, aren't we then placing more stress on power plants, therefore creating more pollution, which is kind of what the electric car is supposed to be reducing?

Or did I miss something?

Behind the Facebook DRAG QUEEN CRACKDOWN: 'Anonymity soon!'

Hmm..

Most people use the same nicknames on different sites. I expect they will use a crawler to locate you and what sites you visit. So even if you use a fake name they will know where you are and what you're doing.

Nice try Facebook, nice try.

iPhone 6: The final straw for Android makers eaten alive by the data parasite?

Re: lets look at this in another way..

Its not better though. To claim it is shows a total lack of knowledge on the subject. Apples products aren't sold because they are good, they are sold because they are desirable. They are nothing more than a status symbol.

BBC Trust candidate defends licence fee, says evaders are CRIMINALS

Stuff the License.

I don't watch a single second of TV. My other half may watch maybe an hour a month. And they want us to pay 150 for that? They can get stuffed.

Its not just the crap they peddle that puts me off. Its also the fact that I'm funding things I can't watch or listen to. BBC Asian radio? I can't speak Punjab or Bengali. BBC America? Why are we funding a channel you can only watch in the states?

There are plenty of other reasons too, terrible programming, biased news reports etc etc. The BBC has become nothing more than a machine for spitting out propaganda.

They love harping on about how terrible the health service is and agreeing with the Tory line that it should be sold off and privatised. But no opposing reasons for why it shouldn't be. No exposes showing how the current government is purposely messing it up to make themselves and their friends in the private health sector a nice fat easy profit. No mention of the tens of thousands who regularly protests against the destruction of the NHS.

What about their lack of impartiality with other things too. How come its OK to have guests who will sit and criticise Hamas and validate Israels wholesale murder of innocents, bit anyone defending the innocent people in Palestine is immediately told to shut up and stop talking. Tony Ben for example, was stopped live on air when he tried to publicise a charity that can help he people of Palestine. Or the rapper they censored and blanked out him saying "free Palestine".

There's nothing honest or unbiased or even good about the BBC anymore. Its just another gravy train for fat cats to bump up their CV and make a nice bit of easy cash in the process. Its also nothing more than a government mouthpiece.

Time to shut it down and remove it.

Hmm..

Do we get a cut of the merchandising sales of books, magazines, DVD's, toys etc etc etc?

Oh no, they are a non commercial organisation. They couldn't possibly be profiting from the service WE pay for.

Why Apple had to craft a pocket-busting 5.5in Plus-sized iPhone 6 (thank LG, Samsung etc)

Re: NFC? . . . .

Fingerprint?

(Tinfoil hat mode) There's no way on earth I would ever let any corporation to store a copy of my fingerprint. Not gonna happen.

Re: Apple DOES NOT benefit the mobile payments space

You really think they won't be watching what you buy?

So naive.

CNN 'tech analyst' on NAKED CELEBS: WHO IS this mystery '4chan' PERSON?

Re: Passpattern

Piece of cake. But then I am using a note 3 with a rather large keyboard.

Passpattern

Am I the only person that does this?

Allow me to explain. I don't use any names or words of any kind at all. Ever.

Instead I use patterns on the keyboard. Each site has a different pattern and combination of uppercase and lowercase lettering and a few numbers thrown in for good measure. So for example (purely and example) if it was twitter I would use 12QWasZXweSDZX simple pattern, easier to remember a pattern too.

Australia deflates Valve with Steam sueball

Re: Must agree

I've just thought about it and think I have a solution that might work.

Make all games free, but give them a time limit of say 6 hours. If you clock up 6 hours and want to carry on playing then you trump up the cash or uninstall it.

That should fix all the problems with refunds etc.

Must agree

Steams no refunds under any circumstances is a bit harsh whatever way you look at it.

Take the play store for android. If I purchase an app and within 15 minutes find out its not suitable for purpose or is of no actual value to me, I can uninstall the app and get a refund. I think this should be the case with Steam too. Although admittedly you'd need a larger amount of time to assess a game properly.

Some people say "get the demo first then". That's great if the game makers provide a demo, but very few do.

Also I notice someone mentioned you can't play the games without steam being online. This is and isn't true. Some games require it some don't. This is mainly because of features such as achievements etc, or workshop updates and suchlike. However, its entirely possible to patch a game and play it without even having steam installed at all.

Also at least 20 of the 72 games I have in my list can be played without steam or being online. Its simply not as black and white as that. If a game requires steam to be present and online, that's the developers choice and not steams. Just as its not compulsory to have achievements for a game.

Most zero day pirated games are released with no steam patches. So its a great resource for pirates.

End of buttons? Apple looks to patent animating iPhone sidewalls

Everyones saying..

But you won't be able to feel the buttons.

Didn't apple recently patent a system for making screens emulate the feeling of textures and shapes?

I don't recall the tech wizardry behind it. But couple that with a side screen, I think it could actually work. Although it would be far from perfect. I guess instead of a press, once your finger has located the "button" you want you'd have to hold your finger there for a second or two before the phone accepts it as a press and not just a finger fumble.

Messy, but not entirely impossible.

Think crypto hides you from spooks on Facebook? THINK AGAIN

Tor isn't useless. If utilised properly. As part of a range of measures rather than the only measure it's actually quite effective.

Premier League wants to PURGE ALL FOOTIE GIFs from social media

Big deal.

Football is a massive snooze fest for me to be honest. So the less of it polluting my twitter time line the better as far as I'm concerned.

Robot cars to hit Blighty in 2015

Re: Here's a thought.

I can feel a movie plot coming.

Re: Here's a thought.

That's true. But any good criminal will realise this countries terrible record for security and will have already backdoored the system or paid someone off for a Ahem mistake to happen at just then right time.

Here's a thought.

Now, I'm going to assume that these driver less cars will have safety measures. So let's say for example someone comes flying head on into one or up the arse of one in a regular car, it will make evasive maneuvers.

So let's fast forward a few years when (if they succeed) to when the majority of cars will be driverless. Say I'm a getaway driver for a bank job. This is going to make my life loads easier. Because I could just floor it and watch all the surrounding traffic part like the red sea as I make a flying escape. Handy!