* Posts by theblackhand

924 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Oct 2009

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Ten reasons why you shouldn't buy an iPhone 5

theblackhand

While I'm sure you will get many upset responses....

That's a pretty fair list.

I'm fortunate to have test Android devices and iPhones at work and the Galaxy SII may have it's faults but it is a very nice phone when compared to the lump that is an iPhone. So far, everyone who has "tested" an iPhone and an Andorid phone for a fee weeks has opted for an Android although the userbase tends to be slightly more technical where no SD expansion or additional battery or iTunes is a deal breaker.

And if you're paying for a contract phone yourself, free on a cheap contract beats paying for a phone and an expensive contract...

Lewd voicemail hack on MP prompts probe

theblackhand
Happy

Superb tagline1

Story is about dull, but worth it just for the tag line.

Tuesday is a little less dull now.

Flattening Ethernet

theblackhand

Re: Not sure what the article is trying to tell us

My understanding of the article is that switch fabrics will replace spanning-tree.

The current model (whether two or three layers) requires inefficient designs to provide redundancy due to spanning-tree blocking any loops in a layer-2 Ethernet network. The switch fabric allows the loops to be removed via smarter switches.

Why is this important?

In a virtualised environment, a server moving from one physical host in rack A to another physical host in rack B would cause either capacity or cost issues with the typical north-south network. Being able to connect east-west in addition to north-south allows for server transitions (whether due to hardware failures, server load or administration) to be handled gracefully.

Cloud startup's business model defies laws of physics

theblackhand
Devil

It's simple really....

Take 10 punters with DIFFERENT powerpoint presentations. Hopefully the encryption will turn them into the same bit stream that can then be de-duplicated and only one copy stored.

Either that or everything is sent to /dev/null and is able to be retrieved as locg as it is cached on your hard drive....

MPs blast dole-office-online plans

theblackhand
Mushroom

Maybe...

...they could give smart phones to those on Jobseeker's Allowance to help them reach their target?

It would also provide a way of keeping in touch with prospective employer's

There really is no downside is there?

Other than the taxpayer paying for it.....

Adobe patches critical bugs in Flash and Reader

theblackhand
Flame

Re: WOW just wow.

"At least Adobe are on the case and have a decent update mechanism in place."

Really? Are you serious or is there a hidden joke in this?

Take a store-brought laptop that comes pre-installed with an older version of Acrobat Reader and attempt to update it to a version that has all recommended security patches applied. Two of the last three I have tried have failed and Acrobat has been replaced by FoxIt.

The advantage of FoxIt is (or at least was) that it provided PDF viewing capabilities without any of the scripting capabilities (or at least FoxIt makes these easy to disable) which is where Acrobat and Flash seem to experience the security problems.

And that's not even including the special software download pages that Adobe provides that will probably add additional software with your Flash/Acrobat/Shockwave install if you don't wait for the whole page to load.

I'm glad you only stock shelves in a supermarket....

Apple bars WinXP users from iCloud

theblackhand

eh?

It installs fine on Win7 64-bit, but does require you to read the downloads page - check the Windows software requirements.

Calling all readers: Want some new icons?

theblackhand

Someone redecorating a wall in a lovely shade of brain

For all the Apple/Android/MS "discussions" where defending your purchasing decision is more important than facts or listening to alternative views.

Intel needs to rethink security to profit from McAfee buy

theblackhand
Grenade

The questions that need to be answered are...

- Why McAfee and not one of the other AV vendors

- Why so much money? Is McAfee with annual revenues of ~US1.6bn really woth more than Sun with annual revenue of ~US$11bn? (I realise this is simplified...)

- Even with hardware integration of any of the existing features, I don't see this as something that would boost CPU revenues are allow them into the phone/low power CPU markets. A closed OS that is locked down seems to be a cheaper approach.

- Will this go the way of the majority of Intels non-x86 related purchases and be sold off in 2-5 years after being sucked of all useful IP?

Short of McAfee being on the verge of announcing the greatest security product ever that stops all viruses and spyware, can entertain the in-laws while you're having a pint at the pub with your mates and fixes the leaking kitchen tap, something doesn't seem right....

Viacom vs YouTube spat slathered in F-words

theblackhand
Grenade

Such a sweet story...

Once upon a time there were two large media compaines that were enemies.

And the lawyers made lots of money and lived happily ever after.

Gov beats BOFHs to snatch worst-for-service crown

theblackhand

In my experience...

...a phone in an unoccupied, locked room is answered more frequently than a call to HM Revenue & Customs.

Lord of the Rings man made a Knight

theblackhand
FAIL

What about Bad Taste?

- a sheep being blown up by a rocket launcher? Check

- how to use a belt to stop your brains falling out after being shot in the head? Check

- spent less than NZ$25,000 making the file? Check

If that doesn't get you knighted, maybe a knighthood just isn't worth having

Broadband tax scrapped in 'wash-up'

theblackhand
Grenade

Why was the tax needed?

Why pay another tax?

Sure £6/year isn' t much, but surely this could be funded by the broadcasting fee to provide areas without broadband based on what BBC spokespeople have said about iPlayer and the £3.75 billion they currently receive from UK taxpayers as licence fees and subsidies.

As far as I was aware, the additional money would not be used to fund higher speed broadband in areas that already had broadband access - the market was already supposed to address this requirement.

Register.com argues it can't be sued for negligence

theblackhand
Alert

Re:Huh?...

[QUOTE]

If a bank failed to verify me properly and moved all my money to another account, wouldn't that be gross negligence?

[/QUOTE]

Based on my experience with a bank doing a similar thing with a cheque (cheque made out for "party X" - "party Y" crosses out the payee details and fills in their own in a different colour, bank accepts cheque) an employee making a mistake isn't classed as anything more than a routine mistake.

Intel: Just 3,000 employees run Windows 7

theblackhand
WTF?

0.375% of what?

Or was it a typo of (3000/80000)*100%=3.75%

Considering the relative "newness" of Windows 7, that's a fairly high penetration for a large corporate. Would be interesting to see many they have deployed after the usually SP1 watershed.

Google (finally) nabs On2 video codecs

theblackhand
Grenade

Re: If Google Open Source this codec....

Fantastic if they release the codec as fully open source with no conditions.

What I expect them to do is release it under a free for x many years licence at which point the contents all there but you need Google to access it.

Paranoid? Me?

MS update gives some XP boxes the Blue Screen

theblackhand

Assuming this is caused by a rootkit...

I wonder if anyone who has already posted wants to update their post?

NotW reporter accused of hacking over 100 mobiles

theblackhand

Re: Yeah, but...

The police looked into the matter, they were able to prove a crime had been committed and those responsible were punished.

I would guess the police chose to only prosecute with a handful of cases because the punishment wouldn't differ between 5 cases and 100 but would provide the defence with a potential loophole if problems were found with some of the investigations in all 100 cases or would have caused the case to take longer at a higher cost to tax payers.

Andy Coulson may have instructed the reporters to access the voicemail ("tapping" implies listening in on a conversation and "interception" implies that you prevent the intended recipient recieving the message), but proving it would be impraticial if no witnesses or evidence is available to the police.

theblackhand
Thumb Down

The question is...

...how is the Guardian getting the information from the mobile phone companies? Is it by legal means? Or are they campaigning for compensation for the victims?

The NotW reporters are supposed to have accessed mobile phone voicemail using default or guessed passwords and ended up in jail for a few months. What does the Guardian want? For the reporters to be executed for crimes against those who didn't know any better?

Ahh - here's the answer, it's an attempt to smear the tories in the run up to an election:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/01/now-phone-hacking-scandal

"And it puts new pressure on David Cameron's media adviser, Andy Coulson, who edited the paper at the time of the illegal activity and who has said repeatedly that he does not recall any of his journalists being involved in hacking anyone's voicemail messages."

French mock British G-spot probe

theblackhand
Joke

I wonder...

Maybe the probe wasn't large enough?

Taser offers obsessive parents total mobe intrusion package

theblackhand
Go

It's a start, but leads to more questions

While this lets me monitor my childs mobile phone, I still can't monitor their thoughts? Does Taser have anything for this?

I'm handy with a power drill if I need to install anything.

Also, once finding out that my child dislikes me due to this intrusive monitoring, do Taser have anything that I can use to "re-train" my child to think as I require?

Yours sincerely

Loving parent of London

Blu-ray capacity to increase by a third

theblackhand
Thumb Down

RE: sucessfull sony formats

So, of the successful formats, the following are the ones that were successful for consumers and not co-developed (multiple manufacturers provides some price competition):

- Walkman

- MiniDisc (at least in Japan)

- PS1/PS2

- maybe PS3 as a combined BluRay/games console

The fundemental problem with BluRay and it's constant updates is that their is still really no mainstream uptake of BluRay. Sure, some people are buying it and upgrading their TV's to HD ready units is helping, but the improved content comes at a step cost (IMHO) and that is holding back demand.

99% of the consumers watching movies don't care if their movie is slightly poorer quality on a 4.7GB DVD than on a 25/33/whateverGB BluRay disk if the DVD is half the price.

And if a pirated DVD is half the price and half the quality again from a dodgy bloke in a pub, they'll take that...

UK.gov hoovers up data on five-year-olds

theblackhand
WTF?

Cue mock outrage

If only one child's life is saved, it will be worhwhile...

The reality is that the information will be used to keep tabs on the little ones before being copied to a USB stick and left on a train.

Hands off our boffins!

theblackhand
Grenade

RE: I didn't realise...

The next UK government will be looking to balance a budget with an estimated deficit of £175 billion (per annum based on 2009 budget)..

The two big spenders (health at £120 billion and welfare at ~£220 billion) are unlikely to be able to provide the necessary savings before an election.

Education is likely to be hit hard because everyone knows students are spongers that never do any work plus they recieve the next biggest share of the taxpayer pie.

As for science getting more money other than "an increase in-line with inflation" - not likely...

P..s for completeness, buying the banks only contributed to a small chunk of the deficit - the main cause of the deficit was the sudden loss of tax that the government was taking from the banks and housing market during the boom.

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