Posts by davtom

McKinnon will not be extradited to the US, says Home Secretary

Finally...

Theresa May makes a good decision.

I never thought I'd see the day.

Final decision by Home Sec on McKinnon extradition due today

Re: let me be the first to say

And, hopefully, the last.

Lancashire man JAILED over April Jones Facebook posts

Re: There is no way...

I don't agree that nobody should ever be jailed for speech and opining, but I do think this has gone a bit extreme.

I think people should be jailed for things like incitement to riot and terrorism.

However, what was done here was in exceptionally poor taste, and my thoughts are with April's family at this time.

Sleep easy, Tim Cook: Surface, Win8 tablet shipments looking poor

A long way to go

Windows has a long way to go to catch up with Android, and do people seriously want to use office applications on a tablet?

I've used Google Docs on my phone when I've had to, but it's a pain and I wouldn't miss it if it were not there. There's no way I would buy a tablet to use an office suite, unless I could use a proper keyboard with it, which negates the whole portable thing; so we're back to a straightforward laptop.

Of course, most people have no need to upgrade their PC if they are just using applications like Office; I don't think they're gonna want a tablet for that, in general. That of course is just my opinion.

UK electric car funding - another subsidy for the rich say MPs

Re: Think!

And that £1500 is tax free!

Viewsonic 22in Android 'tablet' hands-on review

Excellent sleeping tablet

For my four-year-old daughter. If I give her one of these tablets, I'll finally be able to sleep!

Google's Nexus 7 tabs 'can't perform' if flash RAM crammed

Re: Maxing out the device

I would think it's safe to say that most WILL max out their capacities given enough time - just like used to be the case with hard disks.

No Apple TV this year: Media moguls still won't cough up content

Re: shame

XBMC is nice and easy to set up, and has loads of on-demand content available for it.

MythTV is a nightmare to set up, BUT once you have it set up, you have incredible PVR capabilities that you will never see on the open market.

It's time to burn the schedules and seize control of OUR TVs

"If I had the choice, I'd dump broadcast TV in an instant (and the licence fee that goes with it)."

You do, actually. You could use on-demand services, as long as you do not watch anything live. You'd have to detune your television receiver equipment and unplug all aerials and satellite dishes to be safe from prosecution.

The only thing is, if you're into sports, you'll probably want to watch those live. Even though you have to pay a provider for the privilege, since these are live broadcasts, you still need the TV licence. You could choose just to watch those when they are streamed by on-demand services instead.

Sony pushes patent for interactive TV ads

I already interact with ads...

I push the fast-forward button when I see them. Or even better, the skip 2 minutes button, twice, usually does the trick.

Scrunched Street View spymobile spied in India

"Hello... You got the data? Excellent. Let's go home."

"Waddaya mean we left the driver behind?"

Mine's the one with the dodgy GPS receiver in the pocket...

Dell readies Linux Ultrabook for autumn release

Re: "rebuilding your Linux OS to try to get wifi working, or sound, or getting your video driver .."

My HP printer installs much more easily on Ubuntu than Windows. You plug in the USB, wait a few moments, and it's ready. Getting it to work on Windows 7 is a pain in the neck.

Rebuild your Linux OS? If you're a huge techie, fine. Otherwise that's the type of thing I was doing about 15 years ago. No need to do it today. But at least you CAN do it. You can't do it with Windows because you don't have the source code.

Both operating systems have their pluses and minuses, but Linux isn't bad at all; it's not as bad as people make out.

US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet

Re: Yuk

Under GPL, you only have to release the source code to a product if you also release the object code to that product, so that basically means that if they sold their munitions to a third party, then they would have to release the source code, otherwise they don't.

Only global poverty can save the planet, insists WWF - and the ESA!

@bob's hamster

What's wrong with it is that it doesn't provide any reasonable solutions acceptable to a normal person motivated by materialistic pursuits rather than the desire to grab a club and head for the nearest cave to spend the rest of their life.

Surely you didn't need me to tell you that.

Google's self-driving car snags first-ever license in Nevada

Autopilots

It's interesting that a number of people have made comparison to autopilots here.

From an air transport point of view, autopilots are simply taking load off the pilot(s) who do not have to maintain control over the aeroplane to execute the six manoeuvres that occur in normal flight: straight-and-level flight, level turns, climbing straight, climbing turns, descending straight and descending turns.

There are other systems that are still available. Of course, there are the pilots, who can (usually) override the autopilot and fly manually if required for any reason. There are air traffic control who modify flight plans, e.g. by passing vectors and altitudes to the pilots, who are then either responsible for flying those vectors or to set the autopilot to fly them.

What the autopilot is doing is reducing the workload of the pilot.

There are similar systems for cars that already exist, one of which is of course cruise control, which attempts to maintain a constant speed by varying the throttle position automatically. This is just a very advanced form of the system.

In the aircraft situation, the pilot is ultimately responsible for the safety of the flight, and I can't see it being any different for a car situation: the driver will be ultimately responsible for the safety of the trip.

Autopilots do increase safety (certain procedures can be flown by autopilots that are not allowed by pilots alone) and I have no doubt that this car "autopilot" will also increase safety.

Indiana cops arrest violent 6-year-old

What's the age of criminal responsibility in Indiana? -9 months?

Apple sued for every touchscreen device by Flatworld prof

Re: @Oliver Mayes Can I...

I can't imagine it's going to be hard to prior art for people moving a finger over a surface to cause something to happen...

A million TVs to go dark across London

A million TVs go dark...

... actually means the quality of the programming has improved...

Braben sticks knife into secondhand games market

Re: Car dealerships

Warranty terms for cars can't say that an authorized dealership must service the car now; that was legislated against, probably because it was anticompetitive.

Windows 8: Thrown into a multi-tasking mosh pit

Re: Itt's been bugging me...

Nah. Metro because it needs to be hidden underground. :-)

Re: There are alternatives...

It's funny you should say that.

On my most powerful PC at home, I am using Linux Mint, and only that.

I don't like the way Ubuntu is going, and I don't like the way Windows is going.

My experiences with Mint? Some things work well, and some don't. Some things are better than in Windows 7 and some things are worse. I'm doing real stuff with it and not just playing around. I have Windows 7 on my laptop.

On the whole, the people behind Mint seem to be the only people left who are making an operating system that is truly usable without trying to make it look flashy but extremely limited. It's only fair to say that I do not have experience or knowledge of MacOS, though. But it's time to wean myself off the drug.

GiffGaff boots freetards off mobile network

The obvious way forward is to move away from the incorrect use of the word unlimited. Provide a limit and stop drawing customers, especially those ultra-consuming ones who are not desired, with fake promises of unlimited. Anything that says "subject to fair use" ought to be banned in the context of saying something is unlimited. What is reasonable is subjective. So remove unlimited and apply a reasonable limit that would cause customers in the top 1% to have to pay more. It would then be possible to allow tethering with no penalty. Simples.

Google promises 0.001 of revenue to free the slaves

And how much...

has El Reg given to charity from its turnover in its time?

Does it compete with 0.001 of Google's revenue?

Vodafone Android app babysits lazy parents' kids

How was it possible for your child to develop any sort of confidence at all in their abilities to handle life solo with such draconian supervision?

"Oh, right, now you're 18 years old. You can now go outside the front door without me holding your hand."

Ten... small screen HD TVs

It says 1920x1200 on the icon third from the left in the top row of the specifications on the manufacturer's site.

Beeb measures Blighty in doormats

A billion billion is a trillion?

Nope...

European (generally excluding Britain now) usage: a billion = 10^12. A billion billions are 10^24 which is a quadrillion.

USA (generally including Britain, unfortunately) usage: a billion = 10^9. A billion billions are 10^18 which is a quintillion.

Facebook flashplodder to appeal against 4-yr cooler stint

What if...

What if they haven't got any?

Amazon paints the Kindle cloudy

How?

I suppose Apple could get rid of their web browser on their platform... that might work.

I guess it would leave a lot of unhappy people behind, though.

Vodafone Smart Android smartphone

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Orange San Francisco is easy to SIM unlock and root, and you can install Froyo on it (I have). I use it on the 3 network. You can get plenty of custom ROMs from the modaco forum for it.

It can run Angry Birds, although it stutters a bit.

By the looks of it, it's definitely worth more than this Vodafone phone. I'm not saying the Vodafone isn't good; it sounds OK; but the OSF is clearly better.

What phone is better for around £100?

Thanks for telling me it's £77 if you can quote a current PAYG Orange number though; that gives me an idea for a birthday gift for my mother!

Ads watchdog bites Virgin Media over 'con' claims

Speeds...

I was on Virgin's 10Mbit/s package, which usually gave me a transfer rate of about 300-400kbytes per second for general file downloads.

Now I'm on BT's Total Broadband which is quite slow (for my line), at 8Mbit/s. I'm now getting a transfer rate of about 600-700kbytes per second for general file downloads.

Ubuntu board rejects slippery Flash installs

The right decision?

The problem is that most people just want things to work. Funnily enough, that issue also applies to Windows these days since many legacy drivers don't work in the latest versions of the operating system.

I agree that in a utopian world, we shouldn't have to worry about things like H.264 patents and all the rest of them, which probably don't apply to many parts of the world in fact - US and Japan, I believe. But we don't live in a utopian world. If you restrict yourself to open source, that's a lot of stuff, but it's still quite a big restriction. After all, if software is closed source, that does not inherently make it bad.

I fear that many people find out that MP3s, DVDs etc don't play nice out of the box, and if they are not tinkerers and don't know how to fix it, they are lost to Linux. As you point out, they think "This is utter crap," but they fail to move beyond that point.

Even for tinkerers, the fact that it takes some time to install all the necessary bits can be a pain in the neck.

This is the differentiating point of Mint, and I think that's why it has got to be the second most widely-used distribution of Linux. To quote from their about page on their website bullet point 1:

"It works out of the box, with full multimedia support and is extremely easy to use."

Personally, I think that's the way it should be. Just my opinion...

Euro court slaps down insurers over gender risks

Sheila's Wheels...

do in fact insure men.

I never held car insurance with them, but I did in fact have home insurance with them at one time, simply because they were the cheapest supplier.

I felt a bit daft doing it, and I'm sure I would have felt even dafter if I had to claim... but I did it. Before I lose my manhood, I'd like to add that the quote was found by a comparison service.

I believe it would be illegal for them to REFUSE to quote because you are male. Note that that's different from them applying a premium because you are male.

Apple 'greed' tax spreads beyond music, movies, magazines

Ahh, the iPhone...

There was an app for that<TM>

NO-SH*T CURE FOR BALDNESS discovered by accident

Baldness

Or, of course, the sign of a confident individual.

Google illegally divulges user searches, suit claims

Here we go again...

This is the electronic version of seeing which direction your customers have come from when they enter your shop.

It's the browser that does it, and it has nothing to do with Google. Some browsers can be stopped from doing it, if it concerns you. Just google "block referer header" to find out how to do it with Firefox and Chrome. (Use that spelling.)

By the way, Yahoo does it too. A Yahoo search URL will have ?p=search+string in it.

Oh, and Bing? Yes, you'll see exactly the same thing there, too.

Google's one is ?q=search+string.

Hidden Windows 7 costs worry upgraders

@Bill

Why should a hardware vendor have to update a perfectly-working driver because Microsoft removes support for it in a future OS?

@Brian 6

I'm not interested in beta-testing Microsoft's software for them, so no, I'm not going to try any of their release candidates.

I'm not running Delphi 7, but that YouTube vid might be helpful, thanks.

re: Windows 7 and legacy drivers

Well, fairly obviously, no. My main complaint about it is that Microsoft changed the API for hardware drivers after XP and broke compatibility with existing code.

There are also programs that work under Vista that won't work under Windows 7, such as legacy versions of Delphi.

I don't mind upgrading my operating system, but I don't like it when as a result of upgrading it breaks things that used to work.

I mention the backup thing because Vista Premium did allow back-up to NAS drives. Admittedly it's possible that I could have become aware of that fact having done more research, but Microsoft don't make it easy for you to find that out until you've actually purchased the upgrade and find it doesn't work.

It's just another program that used to work and now doesn't. And my idea of progress doesn't involve breaking things.

Windows 7 and legacy drivers

I was really disappointed with Windows 7 when I installed it on my two laptops and found that I couldn't use my trusty, old Olivetti Job Jet P200 workhorse. It's an old printer but perfectly serviceable. It runs fine with XP, but Windows 7 doesn't like the drivers.

Also, Windows 7 Home Premium doesn't allow back up to a network-attached server. Many homes now have these, and I think it should have been an essential feature that I actually used on Vista when I had it.

The fact that Microsoft have sacrificed compatibility with XP means that I have to seriously consider what's going to happen when there is a Windows 8. Will that break Windows 7 applications and drivers? Resolving these problems takes time, and I don't have the resources to run an IT department to sort them out for me.

Ubuntu is now so advanced as an operating system that I actually consider it viable that the next move I make will be away from Windows. I will also be steering my family down this route. It's simply going to be cheaper for me, in terms of time.

So sorry to disagree with the article, but I believe many people will be thinking like me and voting with their feet in the future.

Google calls time on Blogger FTP

Goodbye Blogger, hello WordPress

Time to test out the Wordpress migration tool!

Virgin coughs up digital tech support for clueless users

What about working links?

I've been to their website, and some of the links on one of their pages - not far from the home page - simply don't work in Firefox.

I wonder if they're going to ask themselves how to get them working?

Mozilla man sends Firefoxers to Microsoft Bing

Just a rant

That's all it is. Just a rant. But it's a big rant, and I think it represents feelings of the public at large - at least those who are in the know.

Got something to hide? What about Google's ranking algorithm? Maybe they shouldn't be doing that. Or otherwise, how about publishing it, Google?

Google are one of the worst copyright offenders out there. In addition to scraping content from websites and using that content next to adverts, they publish orphaned books illegally, using money to support lawyers so they don't get done for it. People are slowly becoming wise to it, and are fed up with it, especially content providers.

Flying car & roboplane-worthy air traffic digi-net go for 2025

Learn to fly = problem?

Why would it be troublesome to learn to fly in order to use a personal air vehicle? After all, one is required to learn to drive before using a personal ground vehicle.