Posts by davtom

Hitler's wife's lovely lilac knickers fetch £2,900 at auction

WTF?

That is all.

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Re: Once upon a time detector vans existed

@bazza: I have also been a juror and I absolutely, wholeheartedly concur with what you say. I can't say anything about what I know, other than that I would not want to be tried by twelve of my "peers."

Ever wondered what the worst TV show in the world would be? Apple just commissioned it

Re: apple wants to video about computer stuff ?

I've read The Cuckoo's Egg but I didn't know about The Newtonian Casino. Looks like a good read! Thanks for commenting about it.

It's now on my list to buy and read.

Microsoft to OneDrive users: We're sorry, click the magic link to keep your free storage

Re: Waving ByeBye

@Jack of Shadows What other sort of haematoma is there?

NEW ERA for HUMANITY? NASA says something 'major' FOUND ON MARS

Maybe they'll talk about Monday's lunar eclipse.

For just $400 you can have this Raspberry Pi – and mine bitcoin

It's time for the goldrush!

"It's time for the goldrush! Come and get your shovels here and YOU could be the next millionaire!"

In other news, a shovel seller was reported as becoming a millionaire recently...

'To read this page, please turn off your ad blocker...'

It's about time accurate use is made of the word theft.

If I plug my mobile phone charger into a power point in a hospital or something like that when it is not authorised to do so, I'm guilty of theft. Similarly if I steal somebody's wallet, or pick up a £20 note on the street without handing it over to the police to see if they can trace the owner.

If I download an MP3 of an artist singing without paying anything to do so, that may be a violation of copyright but it is NOT theft.

Similarly, if I visit a website with my ad-blocker turned on, it is NOT theft. It is my response to the invasive, distracting, flashing ads that have been served up over the years.

Xiaomi aims to knock Apple off its branch with move into computers

Re: Drivers ?

@Yet Another Anonymous coward

I don't know why you're getting down-votes because it's absolutely true. I've had to throw away perfectly good hardware because the drivers were not updated beyond Windows XP too.

At least Windows 7 is good enough that we don't have to bother with Windows 10 until we need to replace our machines - and maybe not even then; Linux is a more than viable alternative.

Bloke cuffed for blowing low-flying camera drone to bits with shotgun

I don't know all the details of this, but:

(1) The drone operators probably were breaking some laws when they commanded their drone to fly over somebody else's property, especially if the drone was not in sight of the operators at the time; but

(2) Discharging a firearm to disable the drone would seem to be an act that has ample potential to be dangerous. The flight path of the drone after being shot could not possibly be controlled and it could easily cause damage to property and/or injury.

Also, it would seem that the gun owner threatened the operators with shooting them. In Britain, that would rightly get you locked up. I don't understand why or how that's acceptable in America.

Both parties were in the wrong IMO.

Robo-car wars: Delphi's near crash, prang, wallop with Google DENIED!

Re: Umm...

You really think indicating first gives you leave to complete your manoeuvre by moving from lane 3 to lane 2 and you would not abort it because somebody else decides to move from lane 1 to lane 2?

See you on the news someday when your use of the horn isn't heard by a deaf driver who wanders into your lane by mistake.

Meanwhile, the robot driver that is performing DEFENSIVE driving will be happily cruising on its way.

Hey devs. Forget Siri – Amazon's Alexa will show you a $100m good time

"Amazon isn't clear on how Alexa would figure out which service to use if, say, there are six different weather apps, or ten different booksellers."

If a book was requested, I'm guessing that Alexa would choose the Amazon bookseller.

I just have this feeling for no explainable reason...

Android M's Now on Tap cyber-secretary is like Clippy on Class A drugs

Re: The ongoing fragmentation headache

Having the latest and greatest is a double-edged sword. I have an old Nexus 7, a newer Nexus 7 and a Nexus 4. The newer Nexus 7 and Nexus 4 were OK when upgraded to Lollipop, but the old Nexus 7 started performing like a dog. Many people had that same experience.

The Nexus 4 started going wrong after two years, so at that point, it was time to buy a new phone. I'd had enough of being one of Google's unofficial beta-testers, looked at the rest of the market, and settled on a Sony Xperia Z3 Compact.

Kia Soul EV: Nifty Korean 'leccy hatchback has heart and Seoul

You need to check the figures for 0-60 and top speed for the Nissan Leaf. You have your information wrong.

Linux kernel devs adopt Bill and Ted's excellent code of conduct

Is this the end of the rants?

Linus Torvalds has not been great in the past. There is no way I would ever consider working on Linux while he has his rants and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

If, however, he changed, and stopped using "colourful metaphors", one-finger salutes and suchlike, perhaps more developers might contribute, and that could extend to open source in general which does tend to get tarred with the same brush to an extent.

If he holds to what has been said there then this has got to be a good thing for open source software. Hence the icon. Cheers!

‘Get off of my Cloud’ Verizon tells users ahead of 48-hour maintenance outage

Ah, it's clearly Verizon Cloudless at work here...

Euro judges: Copyright has NOT changed, you WON'T get sued for browsing the web

I wonder if it's legal to write "Hello, McFly!" or if it's a breach of copyright of the Back to the Future script.

Your kids' chances of becoming programmers? ZERO

Re: So fix it!

In the old days...

"I want to learn programming! Ah, I see. BASIC is the language. There's also this thing called machine language that I might look at. Let's get stuck in."

In the new days...

"I want to learn programming! Ah... OK, what do I use? There's Basic, C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, Python, Go, Dalvik, Objective C, Lisp... How do I choose?"

Apple's new iPhones dope-slap Samsung in US

Re: 5S and 5C impressive for different reasons

Fingerprint readers have been used for authentication on mobile devices since at least the Microsoft PocketPC devices from years ago, and probably even before that. How is it not obvious that they can be used in this way?

Google cursed its own phones with wacked Wi-Fi, say Nexus users

Re: The Skype android client

You forgot to add that it takes about an hour to start up.

Mint 15 freshens Ubuntu's bad bits

Alternative to Windows?

If you want to try abandoning the Windows world (and who wouldn't, especially with Windows 8 in the world), I recommend Mint. I use Mint at home on my main desktop PC and my laptop, and I am productive using it. Only my laptop now has a variant of Windows on it, and I rarely boot into it.

Of course, whether you can or not depends on what you do and what software is available to support it.

Windows 8.1 start button appears as Microsoft's Blue wave breaks

Re: Windows 8.1 start button appears

@AC 08:43: Microsoft are of course able to develop, and Windows is stagnating because of it. I would argue that that's as a result of the decisions they've made, and especially the one about the Start button. Reintroducing it is not the solution; it needs to work in pretty much the same way it did on Windows 7.

Why should people be forced to change the way they work if it works for them?

Apple reveals payouts for parents of in-app purchase nippers

Pure greed

I can understand a purchase of one or two pounds for something that a developer invested time and money making, but the excessive amounts being charged are obviously targeted at non-financially savvy, usually young people who don't know any better.

It's pure greed, and Apple are complicit in that by allowing it to happen and by providing a 15-minute window by default after initial password entry in which the password is not required to be entered again for further purchases. Apple shouldn't be allowing anything like this in the first place, especially as they ostensibly review every app on their marketplace before releasing it.

To all those who are making money using this underhanded approach, I hope you don't sleep well at night. You're practically stealing from hard-working families.

We want to put a KILL SWITCH into your PHONE, say Feds

Re: KISS

"-Expensive sneakers and clothes are not allowed to show distinct 'brand features' that would identify them to robbers."

Actually, I support that one. I refuse to buy any clothes where you pay extra for the brand name AND for the privilege of advertising it for them.

The next stage is to ban advertising of these brands aimed at children.

I don't like the idea of the kill switch, though.

1-in-10 e-tomes 'are self-published'... most are 'rubbish' says book ed

Wait a minute. The managing director of a publishing company says people who have chosen to self-publish, and therefore not go through his company, are unutterable rubbish?

I don't know about you, but I'm convinced.

Waving an Eye-of-Sauron pulsating mock cock? Stop immediately

Re: Mordor

Extremely tenuous...

Bill Gates offends Koreans after sticking hand down trousers

Re: could have been worse

If someone had their other hand in their pants when they were shaking my hand, I certainly wouldn't like it.

Other hand in trouser pockets, on the other hand, would present me with no concerns.

Well, seeing as this is a UK site...

TalkTalk ads banned by watchdog over 'misleading' YouView offer

Re: All bark

And they're not even very good at that.

The one that visited my mother got her to buy two unnecessary Homeplugs because "the existing telephone extension socket is not suitable to take the broadband signal." The problem is that the Homeplugs are meant to be plugged directly into wall sockets, NOT extension leads.

In any case, they weren't necessary, and the homeplugs themselves were not working very reliably. The original (non-Talktalk) wifi hub was working fine off the telephone extension. So did the new hub when I plugged it in after figuring out that the socket WASN'T too far from the TV for the wires to reach. (With about 1m of slack, I might add.)

In addition, all they did was to plug in the aerial lead into the Youview box. They did NOT connect the loop-through cable to the TV which resulted in my mother wondering why her normal TV channels weren't working.

The box itself? Many software problems. She's not 100% happy with it; she prefers the way her Humax box worked. On demand content doesn't stream very well. One box stopped working about two months after installation and had to be replaced.

So I ended up feeling very bad over recommending the deal, which on the fact of it looked good. Definitely facepalm.

Ban drones taking snaps of homes, rages Google boss... That's HIS job, right?

Solution is simple. Just use your Android phone to take control of the drone!

Wales slams Amazon over lack of Kindle support

Re: The welsh lobby

Amazon don't do any proofreading.

Android FOUND ON TABLETS inscribed with WORD OF GOD

Re: RE: Atheism isn't a faith

An atheist believes... grr. Why can't I edit my post to correct grammar?

Read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins if you don't believe the above. Of course, he might be wrong, but it's not likely!

Re: RE: Atheism isn't a faith

Technically, Atheism is a faith, because an atheist believe there is no god.

Agnosticism is the absence of faith. You do not know whether there are zero, one or many gods. Neither do I.

I personally believe it is unlikely that any "god" or supreme being exists or has ever existed, because the lack of evidence for such an entity speaks volumes to me. However, I do concede that one might, although if it does, I certainly don't believe it is even remotely close to that described by any religion. Therefore I am not a true atheist. The fact that I am prepared to admit that I am wrong is what differentiates me from being an atheist or a religious person, but I think many people would consider themselves atheists even though they would be prepared to admit that they may be wrong. It is purely a technicality.

I think the humanists had it right when they said something like "There's probably no god. Stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Library ebooks must SELF-DESTRUCT if scribes want dosh - review

It's a daft idea. I understand that deterioration of physical books can lead to an increase in revenue (if books are repurchased), but of course this does not apply to digital media.

Why not increase the borrowing royalty slightly to compensate precisely for this "loss"? Then there is no need for this waste of time.

Major blow for Apple: 'Bounce back' patent bounced back by USPTO

Apple haven't invented the modern mobile phone or the modern tablet computer. There are plenty of predecessors.

They did release a product that was at one time pretty good with the iphone, then they did it again with the ipad. Now they're lagging behind the curve.

GCHQ attempts to downplay amazing plaintext password blunder

You use it to weed out humans then?

First sale doctrine survives US Supreme Court

Re: Other way round

Unfortunately, no. What they really mean is they would be *unwilling* to supply cheap books to developing countries.

Freeview suddenly UNWATCHABLE dross? It may just be a 4G test

Re: Why do it anyway?

"Most people are expected to be interference free."

If OFCOM were any bloody good, ALL people would be expected to be interference-free.

First Samsung Galaxy S4 review leak: Stop FONDLING, start FINGERING

Anti-freeze is a BAD idea to put into a washer reservoir! De-icing fluid is a better idea.

Keep the anti-freeze for the radiator.

Re: Quadruple fail

They're = They are

They'er = spelling mistake

AdBlock Plus BLOCKED from Google Play

Re: Dammit

Just install it from their website. This really is NOT a big deal.

Elon Musk: 'Fudged' NYT article cost Tesla $100m

Re: Who cares?

Let's think for a minute, shall we?

I would imagine the New York Times gets a lot of revenue from competing car manufacturers by way of advertising.

Although the reviewer is "independent," in accordance with the strict definition of the word, that is not true. The reviewer is paid for his article by the New York Times. They in turn are paid to produce their paper, partly by advertisers. There may be a degree of separation between editorial content and the commercial arm of the paper, but they will not want to piss off their main advertisers.

Of course, the manufacturer of the Tesla cars will be biased, but so will the reviewer.

Woman nails 'cheating boyf' on Russian 'Street View'

IANAL but my understanding of the law is...

Under UK law, you can't do it without permission of the people whose likenesses are shown if you're exploiting the pictures commercially, as Google are doing.

It is only permissible if the image of the person is not recognisable, or there is a crowd of such people there so that one person doesn't stand out.

Ubuntu? Fedora? Mint? Debian? We'll find you the right Linux to swallow

Re: For the novices the answer is clear

Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. With Ubuntu it is far too difficult to find all the programs that are installed.

Mint is what should be recommended to all newcomers IMHO. It is most similar to what they are already familiar with.

In fact, it's not just for the newbie. I've used Linux for well over a decade, and these days I just stick to Mint. It works, gets out of the way, and lets me get on with what I want to do.

The only question is what variant of Mint. I would say that if you have a computer older than about 5 years, use Mint with MATE, otherwise use Mint with Cinnamon.

Google Play privacy SNAFU sends app buyers' details to devs

So?

If I sell something through PayPal, physical or intangible, I get details of the buyer, e.g. the email address and name. How exactly is this different?

The Register Android App

Or you could, you know, just use the web browser...

Instagram back-pedals in face of user outrage

Re: "Door in the Face" technique

Shouldn't that be "book in the face" technique?

END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH: TalkTalk no longer worst ISP in UK

@Chris

However, one should expect the service to work, no matter how much (or how little) you pay for it.

Littlest pirate’s Winnie-the-Pooh laptop on the way home

Re: Just goes to show

And what is the age of criminal responsibility in Finland?

15 if my research is correct.

That's presupposing that she actually committed a crime. It isn't stated whether she was sharing songs or just downloading them.

Samsung Google Nexus 10 tablet review

Re: Why the downvotes?

The thing is, IOS doesn't just work. It's a pain in the neck to do anything simple with it that doesn't involve Itunes. Want to transfer a file to your iPad? You can't just hook the device up and transfer it as you would to a USB stick with IOS; you've got to go through Itunes. With Android devices, it's easy; you plug it in and then select "Mount file system" on the device. And it isn't just techies that can plug in a USB stick and expect it to work.

I don't have experience of this tablet, but my wife has an iPad 3, and I've found that the keyboard on it wasn't amazingly responsive; it was sluggish. Not as sluggish as that on my Orange San Francisco (which cost me about £100 two years ago), but it was still sluggish. What was I doing? Something processor-intensive? Well, yes, if you consider entering a search term on the Safari browser to be intensive.

Somehow, I expected more.

I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's FAR from all good. If this had been around at the time my wife got the iPad, I think she would have got this instead.

Apple removes apology-hiding JavaScript from UK website

I'm not keen on Apple products, but I have purchased two in the past for my wife.

Apple won't be seeing any more of my money after all this.

Ay caramba, Ubuntu 12.10: Get it right on Amazon!

Re: A PR failure?

What if you're not particularly switched on about affiliate marketing, but you've clicked through Nectar's website to get cookied for some Nectar points when you buy Amazon stuff, then you go through this lens without being aware that the affiliate commission that pays for your Nectar points will be redirected to Canonical Ltd?

But it's not just that. You're not asked whether you want to do it in the first place. That's the first thing that's really bad about this.

The second issue is more serious. Heretofore, whatever you enter into that search box never leaves your local machine. Now, it will. If you enter something that's supposed to remain private into it to search your local machine for stuff, it will be sent to Amazon's servers, so you lose your privacy.

You can remove this feature as others have pointed out, but it really shouldn't be there in the first place. At least, not without an opt-in.

Now Canonical are getting more secretive about future releases, if the press are to be believed. Do you know what's going on? They're NOT LISTENING to the people who use their version of Linux, and they don't even WANT to. This has now happened enough times for me to finally make the decision to move away from them. It's not like there's no choice...