Posts by Chris

Tom Tom flags down 'live traffic' XL satnav

Where's the 'Advertising Feature' tag?

It seems to be missing.

Sockpuppeting British politico resigns from Wikisupremecourt

" Wikiobsessed shadow site"

Perhaps El Reg needs a black pot-and-kettle icon?

Greece grounds Google's Street View fleet

We had a spate of burglaries...

... down out street in East London last year.

But we haven't had any in the last six months. Well done Google.

... or something.

Go, Brown, go!

Can we just clear this up?

Has El Reg officially thrown its support behind Cameron for the next general election? Will it be turning its banner blue?

Just wanted to check what is going on.

Apple iPhoto gets in your face

Re: Bad

Stewart,

To look at the files and directories inside the iPhoto library, right-click on it and select "show package contents". Job done.

I have to say, I've had a quite a bit of fun with iPhoto '09 and Faces seems very useful. They could do with some work on the workflow/usability though. There are a few omissions and usability mistakes.

1. Impossible to get a list of all pictures that iPhoto thinks has a face, but which you haven't identified yet... I'd like to easily go through and clean these up, but there isn't a way to find them.

2. Button labels /workflow. If you double-click on a Face, to show all the picture containing that face, you are presented with 'confirmed' pictures and 'the person might also be in...' pictures.

There is a 'Confirm name' button at the bottom.

I immediately tried to select the pictures to be confirmed and click the confirm button, but it doesn't work that way. You have to click the button first, which switches you to 'confirm mode'. This lets you confirm/reject names.

Google AdWords: 11 herbs and spices revealed

Re: So what?

@A J Stiles writes "Nobody likes advertisements, after all"

Actually, I much prefer the type of Web where decent content is funded by adverts. I don't find adverts on Web pages particularly annoying in the main, and have no problem with the sites I use trying to make a decent living.

... and no, I don't run an ad-funded site, just in case you were wondering.

Safari enjoys 'unusually residential' December boost

Safari != Mac, necessarily

From your report it looks as if the study is conflating Safari and Mac use. Putting aside Safari for Windows, isn't it likely that the Safari upswing is partly/largely due to Safari on iPhones and iPod Touches?

In the ditch with DAB radio

"The wheels fell off"...?

Really? I've got two DAB radios in the house and they are both fine. My 80 year old parenrts have a couple too (no, I had nothing to do with the purchase).

OK, so I don't rely on batteries, but I much prefer DAB to FM.

Apple's Snow Leopard set to exploit GPU power

What about the MacBook Pro dual GPU?

One area that hasn't been touched on is the MacBook Pro's dual-GPU architecture. It will be interesting to see whether Apple arranges things so that that the GPU 'not in use' gets used for OpenCL programming

Apple unleashes not-crap iPhone iPod earbuds

Thanks for all the advice

especially @Philip Harvey.

I use Senheisers at the moment, but I might look at JBL headphones. Thanks!

Does it really matter how good the headphones are...

... When the iPod Touch itself (1st Gen, anyway) is as hissy as hell. I've sent several back for replacement and eventually given up. Plugging in a decent pair of buds produces hiss - even when the player is paused. It is/was clearly a problem in the amp since taking the volume righht down to zero cuts the hiss, while any other setting produces the same level.

Annoyingly my old iPod Mini is hiss-free. Anyone know if the second gen iPod Touch is any better?

Apple tells Mac users: Get anti-virus

Not the first time, surely...

Just be a pendant, but I'm sure this isn't the first time Apple has recommended the use of virus scanners. Back in the early 90's System 6 and 7 Macs were plagued by floppy-born viruses.

Back the we all used John Norstad's excellent and free Disinfectant. http://homepage.mac.com/j.norstad/disinfectant-retire.txt

Mine's the anorak.

Iowa: How the vote was won

Facinating, and well written but....

I don't think it's really fair to characterise the guy sent from the Republicans to watch you as necessarily "an agent of the GOP's voter suppression army".

Arguably the were doing just what you were - assiduously applying the rules and ensuring that noting was going amiss. They spotted unusual activity, they went to investigate. They didn't try to intimidate you, did they?

Report: Obama, McCain campaigns hit with 'sophisticated' cyberattack

RE: Enter the pedant...

I expect you get "less" and "fewer" mixed up too, don't you Paul?

America's second largest ethanol producer goes titsup

Corn?

As a Brit, let me ask: We're talking about maize here, right? not Wheat?

iPhone apps hit the racks at the iTunes store

Huh?

"Very few of the applications genuinely need to be native, though in some cases producing a native version is easier - a to-do list can be done through a website, but it's easier for the publisher to manage a stand-alone version."

Who wants a to-do list that is only available when you are online?

Apple takes the operator's shilling

Bluetooth

Was actually one of two must-haves for me (along with quad-band). I find being able to my entire address book to the phone too useful too miss.

Researchers out Apple over unpatched iCal bugs

No particular problems with iCal here.

I suppose I should say I'm a bit surprised at all the problems people are having with iCal on Leopard here, I haven't had a crash and I don't find usability too shoddy.

Good for Core on publicising this vulnerability though.

Local council uses snooping laws to spy on three-year-old

Go for it.

I'm anti ID card, I don't have loyalty cards, I don't use a registered Oyster Card. etc. etc.

And yet. What do we actually have here? A council checking that someone is actually living where they say and not defrauding the system at the expense of (possibly less well off) local parents.

I'm afraid I'm with the council with this one. Whether or not the surveillance was a misuse of the investigatory powers, the surveillance itself was a reasonable idea.

Mac OS X Tiger out, Leopard back in

Puzzled by the Office incompatibilty comments.

I'm still using Office v.X and it appears to work just fine on Leopard.

Brits can't distinguish history from the TV listings

Lies, Polls, Statistics

I seem to recall from other coverage that this was a poll of the under 20s. Now 47% of respondents reckon Eleanor Rigby really? How many do you think have heard the name? Actually I suspect that what actually happened was that the suckers were presented with a list of names and a column marked real and a column marked fictious.

None of the respondents had heard the name so there was a rough 50-50 split.

Apple tells iPhone vendors not to reveal sales figures

iPod Touch anti-halo

I suspect that any poor figures may well have to do with the fact that the iPod Touch got here before the iPhone.

Indignant reader defends Idiot 2.0™

Pot, Kettle

It seemed to me that both the original blog entry, and El Reg's rejoinder were equally self righteous. Anyway. Merry Christmas, all.

About that TV service, Mr Branson...

£11 off?

I phoned up the other week to alter my package. I too realised that the channels I was watching were equivalent to FreeView, I phoned to change my TV to the small (S) package.

Before I could get a word out beyond 'I want to alter my package' they were offering me an £11 discount. They must be losing customers fairly rapidly on the back of the Sky debacle.