Posts by nickrw

Another reason to jail-break your iPhone 4: You can get Siri

Probably worth pointing out that, as of yet, there is no untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. That's to say it needs to be hooked up to your computer to switch on.

Verity's secret shame revealed

Re: Slashes in URLs

Why even have one? It's not functional as I'm aware.

1) http://theregister.co.uk/blah

2) http:/theregister.co.uk/blah

3) http:theregister.co.uk/blah

Three looks best in my opinion.

99% of Android phones leak secret account credentials

On the wifi point

I personally make sure to 'forget' networks that I don't personally have any control over.

I would also note that my phone* will actually not remember networks with common names (seen this happen with an AP named 'NETGEAR') to prevent you accidentally trying to connect to any old AP.

* Not android.

Rackspace backtracks over toff-proof sign-up process

Numbers?

We're not all nobs you know. Some of us are just bastards.

Apple under siege: Antitrust probes and product delays ...

Wait, what?

> Responding to complaints by email, Jobs wrote: "Our philosophy is simple: when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 per cent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 per cent and Apple earns nothing.

That sounds reasonable-- I thought the furore was because apple was demanding that *only* apple-subscribed content could be shown?

E.G. I can't sell a subscription and direct the user to the app from outside the store, only direct them to the app and have them subscribe via apple. Thirty percent is still too much, either way.

Microsoft discovers disposable email

Re: Google has been offering that exact same option for years

I find two problems with managing spam this way:

1) A hell of a lot of websites will reject addresses with a + in them, because RFC2822 / 822 mean bugger all to most these days.

2) If I were a spammer, what's the first thing I'd do? This: s/(\+[^@]+)(?=@)//

Of course, one way around this is to use a +suffix'd address as your primary and can anything to the address without the suffix.

Doable with gmail

While gmail doesn't offer exactly this feature, I've found it can be made to with google apps. Designate one 'catchall' account (not your main account, set one up dedicated for this purpose) and have it auto-forward everything to your everyday account. You can then set up a filter to check for the X-Forwarded headers - I route everything into a 'Catchall' label.

As far as I can tell it isn't possible without the catchall account and redirect because Google, in its wisdom, has decided not to make it obvious in the headers when this has happened. You can set up a rule to say 'When mail was not sent to X, do Y' but this will match anything not sent directly to you (cc'd, mailing lists etc).

Best option? Run your own mail server.

Wrinkle-faced smartphoners demand 'BlackBerry Botox'

Squinting?

Having to squint? Definitely the wrinkles that you need to worry about, not seeing an optician.

Scotland bans smut. What smut? Won't say

An important issue

While I agree this is an important issue I fear that I must, ashamedly, draw your attention to the following extract:

"discussion of homosexuality far beyond its original mandate"

That is all.

Harder to read = easier to recall

Legibility

The major selling point for an e-ink device is the fact that they are not LCD. LCD devices can be just a legible - but cause eye strain due to the backlight.

Eye strain due to backlight != a less legible font. Given that an e-book on my kindle looks the same as a paper copy I guess I should just give up on reading altogether.

Facebook facing fall-down issues

Additional email addresses

Multiple attack vectors, no? I'll keep my single unique-to-facebook email address kthx.

Verizon Wi-Fi hotspot tool coming to all iPhones?

Short lived rumour

I just installed the beta 4.3 on my iP4 on O2, personal hotspot works nicely. Looks like it phones home and checks to see if you have the tethering bolt on on your data plan first though.

Facebook riddled by 'my first ever status message' scam app

Re: Really?

Your average facebook user is entrenched into the belief that giving facebook their identity is the done thing.

Given that your average user is also unlikely to understand how facebook apps work in any great detail, and the fact that facebook does not make it overt that you are talking to a 3rd party, I would be unsurprised if many thought it was just 'part of facebook'.

Google Apps battle spam with auto email signing

Compromised accounts

> Remarkably, even the Google-owned Postini filter has trouble determining that email sent over Google Apps is legitimate. The ability to cryptographically prove email came from the service ought to help

The major source of spam from the likes of gmail / hotmail / yahoo is actually from accounts that have been broken into (keyloggers / weak passwords / same password across multiple sites etc). While DKIM is a Good Thing it doesn't solve this problem as google will still sign your outgoing message.

The likes of SPF and DKIM, if widely adopted, do prevent others from spoofing your domain and therefore make it more likely that messages your domain sends out are not spam but they certainly are not a be-all-and-end-all 'spam killer'.

David Attenborough dino doc shows limits of 3D TV

Re: 3D - the new DAB (In terms of FAIL)?

The only film I've seen in 3D recently was 3Dized in post-processing, so I don't know if my problem with 3D this is something that affects properly 3D films, or just 'upscaled' ones:

The camera focuses on the subject, blurring the background, or vice-versa. My eyes, clever beasts that they are, know that normally they can adjust themselves to focus on whatever they are looking at. Then then get confused and sore from constantly trying to focus on something that they cannot.

I've never personally seen or heard anyone else complain about that specifically. I'd be interested to know if everything in the 3D image was in focus if the number of reports of eye strain etc. go down.

Boffins crack walnut-shaped Iapetus moon mystery

Let me be the first to say...

... that's no moon.

Minister 'C*nt' promises £50m to get fabtastic fibre for all

Re: I heard it

I fail to see the spoonerism though, that'd be "Heremy Junt" surely? What Jim did was more of a saysitlikeiseesitism.

Virgin unwraps three-tuner über set-top

Re: Crap Looks

You've clearly never seen the clunky V+ HD boxes...

(I think there are several different versions, mine is one of the ugly ones though)

Re: 3 tuners?

I've also got a V+ HD box and can't see myself wanting one of these. You missed out one other benefit the new tivo box has over the V+ box though; it's nowhere near as ugly.

I wonder if the the three-tuner tivo model has the same annoying bug where recording two back-to-back programs on the same channel means it will refuse to record something that overlaps on a second channel.

BURNING LUST for SEXY BUSTY BLONDES - Science explains

Glass houses?

" ... has successfully manipulated the more malleable and shameless news outlets into excitedly regurgitating the provocative theories contained in his book ... "

iOS 4.2: An 'ace' for iPad, a 'meh' for iPhone

Re: Repeating Alarms Fixed?

As far as I was aware this stopped being an issue if you reset the alarms - they only get upset at the actual point of DST change. They've got plenty of time to fix it before the next one (but then, they knew about it from New Zealand with plenty of time before it hit Europe or the US).

Re: Assignable SMS tones

But *still* no custom SMS tones.

Also, I've been after per-account email signatures for ages, but alas.

Virgin opens kimono, flashes box

So..

It's a black box with at least two lights on the front.

How exciting.

Co-op cashier's breasts overcharged for fruit and veg

Re: The Stupid... It hurts!!!!

If the scales are anything like the ones at the co-op down our way the 'scales' are part of the counter and have an edge round them which would support the rhubarb, thus reducing the pressure on the scales.

Like you though, I did a double take when I first read it.

John Lewis pitches 80-quid colour e-book reader

No video?

Oh no! I'll have to tell my video-capable photo frame that "u cant play video".

It'll be devastated!

Caravan-swiping suspect spotted on Street View

Why is it...

...that the general public will often mistakenly call it "Google Earth" instead of "Google Streetview"?

</petannoyance>

Oz journo pokes PARIS

Acronym

Low-Orbit Hack-Achieved Nearly?

Needs more work, maybe...

Strange, blobaceous 'alien pod' lifeform found in Virginian lake

Re: forgive my irrelevant post

My boss has brought his dog in to work before, I've got a picture of it chewing on my chair somewhere. Colleagues took it out for walks in order to use it (as a puppy) as a 'babe magnet'*, so... perhaps she was out cruising by the lake?

* Disclaimer: puppies are indiscriminate and will attract a wide cross-section of the general public regardless of attractiveness or sexual preference.

Dolphin speaks: Ditch the iPad, give me the Toughbook!

Re: cool

I for one would be most surprised if dolphins had a word for 'flowerpot'. Unless, lit. 'Coral barrier'.

iPhone alarm bug: now it's the UK's turn

Hmph

Alarm set for 7, woke up at 20 past, thinking I must have just zombie'd my alarm into submission earlier. Went off in my hand at 8, got cross, still in work 10 minutes early.

I don't know why I don't have a proper alarm clock, I've learned not to trust iPhones as alarms when my 3G had the intermittent locking-up bug that 3.1(?) introduced a year or so ago. If it locked up during the night (which it did) you were screwed.

Great Scot! Wi-Fi on the Glasgow Subway

Fail

Tried to use it on my phone on the way home from work. Gave me an IP address, but didn't get any further than that, no hotspot auth or internet.

Shame you don't get any 3G signal down th... oh wait. I somehow coped without wifi access for the 2 minutes I was waiting for my train. Others were almost in tears though.

KeyCase iPad Folio Deluxe

Re: Write your own apps and install them...

"But yes, you do have to cough up to become a registered developer."

Not forgetting that you also have to cough up for a mac as well.

Yahoo! goes head-to-head with FaceTime!

Yahoo(excalamation mark)

I downloaded the yahoo IM client to give this a spin with my iPhone 4, then got cross at Yahoo(excalamation mark) for all the sneakware they try and install.

It asked me if I wanted to install a number of crap applications along with the one I actually wanted, but I got suspicious because the yahoo toolbar wasn't mentioned. Sure enough, if you click 'Advanced options' (which isn't in as obvious a position as it is on most installers) it is listed and checked by default.

Poor show, Yahoo(exclamation mark).

Spam blacklist snafu prompts global gnashing of teeth

Re: SORBS extortion

"They dont seem to appreciate that response."

Not surprised really, it's not terribly nice of you.

Re: You've gotta love BT

Dunno about how it works in BT's mind and call me old fashioned, but I like my DNS servers handing reverse dns requests.

A pint, for having to deal with the engineer in question.

Voice-routing call fingerprint system fights 'vishing'

"PinDr0p"

What's wrong with the letter O?

Terry Pratchett computer sniper-scope deal inked

Re: Pratchett angle necessary?

I just re-read 'Guards! Guards!' so I found it especially amusing.

Tweety profs offer political smear-meme 'truthiness' ratings

So...

....snopes?

Google shocks world with unthreaded Gmail

Re: Does that mean

Yes!

I love threading, it's the only thing that keeps me sane at work. As a kmail user I have a decent amount of options when it comes to how things get threaded, but I usually have to leave it in subject-based mode or people using crappy clients don't insert the relevant headers. This does lead to messages in threads they don't belong to (I believe one of users' biggest complaints about gmail).

I have yet to find any mail client where you can say "remove this message from a thread", or even disband a particular thread.

(On a related note, who else hates "(no subject)"?)

Star Wars set for 3D rehash

Re: Oh God, no

A prequel-prequel!

Yoda's childhood pod-racing, maybe?

Zuckerberg leapfrogs Jobs on Americans' rich list

In other news...

...a single throwing star was found embedded in Zuckerberg's front door this morning.

Firefox wraps its gums around the iPhone

Yay

More importantly:

"Advanced users can now set up Firefox Home to connect to their own custom Firefox Sync servers"

Something I missed with the last iteration.

Google pulls trigger on 'Instant' search engine

Does nobody...

Two people already saying "But what if you type in <naughty word> as part of another word or phrase?!"

It searches based on *suggestions* not on just every character you type. So it's less crappy than the rumors suggested, but I can still see it getting annoying quickly.

Punters still puzzled by broadband ads

Re: ....aging...

Don't know about anyone else, but I'd consider that absolutely fair.

British Airways sorry for 'landing on water' nonsense

Re: They could at least have done it on an Airbus

Right...

"This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency watering"

Once-in-a-lifetime gag tops Fringe quip list

Re: Not chuffed

@AC 15:57 Terrible sarcasm detection by you! (Or maybe you know that and I'm falling for your dead-pan sarcasm? Insert infinite loop here.)

I dunno...

"A chuffed Vine (pictured) said ... "

I'd say he looks more quizzical than chuffed in that picture. Terrible journalism!

Google aims Goggles at Apple's iPhone

Re; Simpsons

A common mis-quote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFZh92MUOY

Gmail pushes onto the iPhone

Re: Huh

You could have multiple mail accounts, but only one exchange account configured at a time.