Posts by Mark 179

Police back ends must be slimmed, says Home Sec

Easy..

They just need to slim down the management. The constabulary I worked at had 4 levels of management before you got to anyone remotely technical, all of them were staff rather than officers. They were all constantly building their own little empires to justify their self importance.

Predictably most of them were useless and on £50k+ a year minimum.

The officers/staff on the policing side (basically our customer) were more than capable of overseeing the teams directly. they could probably get rid of 75% of IT management and not even notice.

Can't wait for some of them to get the inevitable chop :)

iOS 4.2 multi-tasking comes to the iPad

@bazza

My HTC Desire already lasts two days, no problems.

|I don't think any smartphone stands out with regard to battery life, they all need to improve.

First data fines on the way, says ICO

ACS Law

I wonder if they are in the first batch ?

Flash video comes to iPhone, iPad (kinda)

Ironic

Is it just me that finds it ironic that "Ralph 5" is concerned about Adobe controlling "teh internets" but is presumably happy for Steve the messiah to totally control his (doubtlessly numerous) Apple devices ?

Multi-network iPhone SIM rumours at Apple

@Nick22

"Removes the reason to jailbreak"

Disagree, people jailbreak them to get the functionality and personalisation features that Apple don't want you to have, certainly thats the main reason that I hear/see cited for doing so.

I agree on the fact this is a software configurable SIM though.

I don't think the average punter would want such a feature. Ok so if you switch networks you press a few buttons, rather than swapping a sim card, big deal, its not like its something you do every day is it. So, it must be easier for the carriers then, i.e. no benefit to the punter at all.

Apple aren't doing this for fun, they are doing this to make money, assuming that the carriers are not losing out that means the punter is going to end up paying more.

Probably charging you to "re-program" the SIM to switch networks, which of course there will be a charge.

Sounds like Steve is a) money grabbing and b) trying to control the punters even more.

Google Android chief smacks Steve Jobs with Linux speak

Why do you need iTunes?

Whats with all the "you need an iTunes equivalent" ?

Have you people never heard of drag and drop ?

Android rebellion: How to tame your stupid smartphone

Ball Hooks

I don't think Android devices suffer any more or less issues than other devices.

Case in point one of the F1 drivers on my twitter feed was having trouble with his IPhone and emails, just refused to download even though it had been working fine, deleted the account and set it up again and it started working.

A friend lost all their contacts on an IPhone a week or two ago.

This is all quite apart from getting that godforsaken iTunes to actually do what you want.

Strangely I haven't had any issues with my Android device, nor have colleagues/friends with them. Maybe we are just the lucky few then eh ?

Your moaning and rants about google checkout are about the software the phone is using/connecting to, nothing about the actual device or O/S itself.

Vodafone won't act on customers' HTC Desires

Not a U Turn...

nooo siree, not at all..

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/vodafone-htc-desire-update-expected-in-7-10-days-708953

At least they listened, now we only have to have their crud if we ask for it...

Best Buy trumpets UK store openings

Odd bunch..

The store in Southampton has been built for months, but just sat there all lit up but closed. Meanwhile the currys / pc world just round the corner has gone through a total overhaul and re-opened as one of their mega store type places.

Why best buy didn't open up then I don't know - would of been a good time as currys had limited stock and even shut totally for 2 weeks.

Still not going to open for another few weeks yet..

Whitehall coughs £250k for Bletchley Park pothole repairs

@ Mark7 & Yet Another

@Mark7 - Not quite as simple as that, the poles were able ot decrypt some messages from a commercial enigma - the numerous military versions wre quite different. The efforts by the Polish Cipher Bureau are well documented and there is even a monument to Zygalski, Rejewski and Rozycski at Bletchley.

Reccomend reading "Enigma - The Battle For The Code" by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

@Yet Another..

Seems you went there and did a route march around the place and left in 10 minutes. There is a massive amount of information at Bletchley - you obviously missed the reconstructed bombe, the Y Station equipment, the numerous different enigma machines, the immense Churchill collection, the exhibits of a wartime home and D-Day invasion and probably some other stuff as well.

Moving everything to the Science museum is a stupid idea - they wouldn't have anything like enough space and would not be able to do the story justice, quite apart from the fact that Bletchley are busy restoring the original huts - the whole site is part of the story, what possible reason is there to move it all ? All you'd end up with is a watered down story with a few exhibits that are unexplained in the corner of the science museum.

You can go and see all of it at Bletchley as many times as you like for £10 a year, given that they have all sorts of events on through the year I reckon its a bit of a bargain.

Campaign for official Turing apology gathers steam

Don't single him out

Agreed he deserves recognition, but then so do Dilly Knox, High Alexander, Gordon Welchman and of course Rozycki, Zygalski and Ciezki (apologies for non accented characters) along with many, many others from the listening stations to the seaman who risked (and sometimes lost) life and limb by boarding sinking enemy ships to grab code books / machines.

Essential reading : "Enigmia - The Battle For The Code" by Hugh Sebag Montefiore and if you haven't yet been to Bletchley get over there! They have started a flickr group, worth checking out.