* Posts by flipper

14 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Aug 2009

Insecure AVG search tool shoved down users' throats, says US CERT

flipper

Foxit

Foxit was installing more than just the Ask toolbar recently - and to make it worse, it added the extra software (Open Candy - no idea what it is, but AVG alerted during the installation) as part of the update process.

That lead to an immediate removal of Foxit for me, which is a shame as I've championed it over Adobe Reader for years.

Tesla, Nissan, BMW mull all-for-plug, plug-for-all electrocar charger plan

flipper

Re: Industry not thinking things through - whatever next? @raphael

"If the batteries have any charge left in them, it would probably be a good idea for the facility to do a discharge first as batteries still don't like constantly being charged from partly empty."

Not true. Lithium Ion batteries are much happier with regular top ups, and actually don't like being fully discharged (they're not keen on being topped up to 100% if they've only been used lightly - say from 90% to 100%). I think you're thinking of the old NiMH or NiCd batteries.

How practical is an electric car in London?

flipper

Re: Electric cars work fine for me @Joe 35

Do I top up at work? No, there's no facility to do that.

There are rapid chargers near by if I'm desperate, but I won't need those on more than very rare occasions.

A fifty mile drive is no problem, nor is 100 miles really - with Rapid Chargers at almost all Motorway services stations you could top up to 80% while having a coffee/toilet break. Yes, it's not as convenient, but it's definitely do-able.

I agree, though, once the range increases it'll be a different ball-game. I actually thing the sweet spot is likely to be 150 *real* range, which shouldn't be too far off being a reality.

flipper

Re: Electric cars work fine for me @James Pickett

"Will it manage that on a cold winter day in a year or two, when the battery is no longer new, and you need the heater, lights and all ancillaries?"

There's no reason to believe it won't.

The heater in the latest generation cars uses almost no additional energy (it takes about 1 mile overall from the range) and neither do the lights etc.

I *might* have to drive slightly more carefully to get home in the very depths of winter, but evidence of other Leaf owners isn't showing that much degradation of the battery yet, even after 50000+ miles, so it's unlikely to be a major issue.

flipper

Re: Electric cars work fine for me @James Hughes 1

Yes, that's UK.

I did get an especially good deal, but there are plenty of deals not too far from what I paid.

flipper

Re: Electric cars work fine for me

Rubbish.

My previous car cost £224/month, and I spend £180 on petrol for it.

My Leaf costs me £255/month, and I use about £40 of electricity (in reality, even less as I have Solar Panels too).

(And, before you ask, no, I didn't have to put down a huge deposit. About £800 in total, in fact).

There's no additional battery lease cost.

So yes, saving money is a reason - for me. Oh, and I do 18000 miles/year - my daily commut is about 70 miles round trip, so it's not just a car for very short journeys. I'd be paying much less than £255/month if my mileage was lower.

flipper

Borough boundary confusion

I drove into London in my Leaf on Saturday. It was surprisingly painless and I found a space, with charging, relatively easy (just off The Strand).

I'd planned ahead, and discovered that in the City Of Westminster, parking is free and I could stay for 4 hours, which fit my plans perfectly.

I plugged in and went for lunch.

While eating I decided to check the ParkRight app (City Of Westminster's app) and it told me the street I'd parked in was not in their zone, which meant I was no longer certain I could park for free.

I ended up running back to my car, mid meal, to move it. Bizarrely, the street I was in *was* classed as City Of Westminster - but only on one side, the side without a charger. So I moved my car, but lost the ability to charge...

So, though pretty painless, the 4 hour limit is a bit mean at weekends, and the lack of clear signage on the other side of the street (Holborn side) meaning I wasn't sure if parking was free, was confusing.

I'll definitely do it again (but only at weekends).

Scientists warn of FOUR-FOOT sea level rise from GLACIER melt

flipper

Re: New record set for Antarctic Ice today.

"In other news, Antarctica land mass is at its minimum since recording began, and sea level rise is at 3.6mm per year (that's 3.6m in 100 years, assuming the rate doesn't increase any further). Eg. http://climate.nasa.gov/key_indicators/"

Are you sure about that?

I'm pretty sure that 3.6mm * 100 = 360mm = 36cm not 3.6m

Never mind the jetpack, where's my 21st-century Psion?

flipper

Still got my Series 5. Dug it out the other week, the kids were transfixed by it - as they were by my old Palm Pilot.

Both got played with for an hour or so, then the Palm Pilot got put to one side as "novel but not very interesting".

The Psion, though, has been claimed by my 15 year old as her own.

Fantastic piece of kit.

Samsung flings sueball at Dyson for 'intolerable' IP copycat claim

flipper

Re: Something else I won't be buying from Samsung

Don't do it! Vax are rubbish. The belt driving the one I had was so weak that the second anything got caught, it would break, no matter how quickly you switched it off.

I was averaging 2 new belts a month at one point.

Vax even have "Don't take me back to the shop" written on their boxes and on the cleaners themselves. Speaks volumes about their confidence in the products, I thought.

Random car shutdowns force Toyota to recall Prius hybrids - AGAIN

flipper

Re: To use or not to use computers, that is the question

You've seen the crash test of the 59 Chevy Bel Air compared to a 2009 Malibu I assume?

All that real metal really doesn't help very much.

flipper

Re: To use or not to use computers, that is the question

I had a big old Peugeot 607 which woudl cut out randomly - no power at all, though the engine kept running.

Did it once at 70mph in the outside lane of a dual carriageway. Luckily the road was quiet so no nasties.

As far as I can tell, it was a fault in the cruise control. Seemed ok after the battery was disconnected (a hard reboot I suppose).

But yes, that got sold pretty quickly after that.

TomTom update breaks satnav live links

flipper
FAIL

No surprise

I bought a Go 520 "With Music" - which hyped up the iPod connection.

Without warning, the last update (over a year ago) broke the music function - not completely, but it never updates the currently playing track name. TomTom promised a fix "soon", I chased, no update. I guess it'll never happen.

On top of that, GPRS connectivity was flaky - they said it was Orange's fault, Orange blamed TomTom.

I gave up and now have SatNav (not TomTom) on my iPhone.

VMware goes into hyper-drive with vSphere 4.0

flipper

Hyper-V isn't Enterprise ready yet

Hyper-V is better than I expected it to be, but it's not a real competitor yet. Maybe R2 will change that.

The previous version of XenServer was 5.0, not 5.1