Posts by Vince

Sonos burns its Bridges: Our home-grown Wi-Fi mesh will do

Re: No, not quite

Glad you clarified that, because I was about to do the same. I never saw any purpose for the bridge to be honest. Might be because CAT5e is everywhere in my world :-)

Apple 'fesses up: Rejected from the App Store, dev? THIS is why

A rule for you, doesn't apply to us...

"Apple and our customers place a high value on simple, refined, creative, well thought-through interfaces. They take more work but are worth it. Apple sets a high bar. If your user interface is complex or less than very good, it may be rejected."

Seriously? I assume the more recent iOS updates weren't subject to that "high bar" because word is the user interface is "less than very good" and certainly has many failings under "refined" and "well thought-through".

Boiling point: Tech and the perfect cuppa

Re: Tea in the US South

Yes, the "Tea Maker by Sage" ... see my other comment. Own it, love it.

Tea tastes rank most of the time because people over-brew it, either too high a temperature, too low a temperature or for too long (the latter being most common).

This thing has pre-sets for all the usual stuff, but I can tell you, my Irish Breakfast tea tastes perfect with 5m of brew time at just shy of 100, while the Nagiri Bop tastes better brewed longer. Meanwhile a bit of Whittard's Afternoon blend is best for 4 minutes, but Tinners needs just 3.

The reason most people think tea is rank because they have nasty tea bags brewed for the wrong time, at the wrong temperature, or worse, they experience those sodding vending machines.

In our household, even the most resistant party who thought £200 of tea maker was ridiculous now moans if they get given anything else.

Mines the one with the magnetic lowering basket in the pocket

What you should have reviewed is the Sage Tea Maker - £170 now (was £199).

If you're having the perfect brew, it should be from loose leaf, and this thing makes the best tea imaginable. Perfectly brewed every time.

Is it expensive... of course. Does it make excellent tea.... yes.

I also own the smart Toaster (perfect, evenly cooked toast, bagels or whatever, and it really does get it right), and the smart microwave ... no longer is it "how long" but "what is it" - and it sorts the rest. Importantly includes: "Popcorn" and "Reheat Pizza" (how many slices?) functionality. The IT person's friend.

EE accused of silencing customer gripes on social media pages

Re: One as bad as another

Given that it's been in the terms as long as I can remember, it seems reasonable enough to me. You broke the terms. you got away with it for ages.

It's OK, they're introducing a 50p charge for queue jumping to get the half-baked customer service now anyhow. I suspect for £1 you can have them respond on soclal media too.

Will It Blend? Maybe. BlackBerry’s secret comeback weapon

Maybe the reason the reason we don't do it is because nobody lets us?

I'd *love* to have Blend for my Blackberry Z10. I love my Blackberry Z10, it is by far and away the smartest messaging and communications device (that's what my phone is for after all) out there. It does facebook and twitter too if you want to waste your entire life doing that.

It does most of the other rubbish everyone wants too - some not so I admit, but I couldn't care less because I value being able to reliably communicate and do my job over some ability to potentially check the latest bill I got from $randomvendor via an otherwise featureless app. Especially when said vendor has a web site that works just fine on my phones browser.

The same integrated any device approach Apple are developing is the only thing I actually like about what apple are doing - I still wouldn't buy the products they churn out though. I'm actually amazed Microsoft haven't long since done this - they could have integrated all of this in minutes across it's devices and platforms, but as usual they're too busy napping.

Loss of unencrypted back-up disk costs UK prisons ministry £180K

So once again the real cost is met by the taxpayer. And if the fines they all get are too great, more taxes for us.

If instead it became "loss of jobs" and "criminal charges", I bet these problems would disappear.

Until then, it'll just keep costing us all money, and losing data.

Déjà vu: Virgin Media jacks up broadband prices

Re: I'm not surprised they are increasing their prices

Actually I think you'll find the plusnet deal is...

£15.95 for the phone line

£2.50 for 12 months

then £9.99

....still cheaper than virgin, but somehow even worse than Virgin.

Avoid both.

You have to love Virgin Media (NOT).

We're the only operator you can have broadband without a phone line.

Sure, but you're also the only operator who doesn't need It for any technical reason that charges more not to have a phone line you literally don't need making the pricing basically the same.

Microsoft: We plan to CLEAN UP this here Windows Store town

Re: Is MS staffed by muppets ?

Indeed - I'm actually quite impressed with Barclays approach to mobile technology - it's not perfect, but they're certainly one of the first out of the gate it seems.

Glad I had already moved to them from the utterly laughable Santander.

Is it an iPad? Is it a MacBook Air? No, it's a Surface Pro 3

I own a Surface 2 Pro

I also own a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2

The Surface Pro 2 is better for consumption, light work and it's good having full windows and all my actual real world needed apps if I have to do the odd bit of work.

The Yoga Pro 2 is the device I use whenever I have "work" to do

The reason? Actually it's because the keyboard is solid, built in and fixed (well that and screen res of the Yoga Pro 2 being insanely high and thus good for me), whereas where I do most of my out and about work I'll be sitting on a sofa or something - and there's just no way to have a surface steady and usable in that way with the keyboard.

Touch is all well and good, but for most of my purposes anything other than a keyboard would suck.

If there was a solid (doesn't even have to double as a cover) option for Surface, mine would be used more - I'd basically have a touch screen laptop. Or my Yoga Pro 2....

Surface does fit in an awkward scenario and the keyboard is both the biggest strength and the biggest weakness.

Munich considers dumping Linux for ... GULP ... Windows!

Re: Lack of integrated email/contacts/calendar?

"Quite. And even if there really isn't anything suitable, paying someone to write software, or tweak existing software would be far cheaper than paying for MS licenses, and the hardware upgrades the monster would require."

Really? How did you calculate that?

It's cheaper to build something from scratch to support many different devices and whatnot, and then support it over a reasonable lifetime than to just pay someone who has already been there, done that?

Microsoft: Azure isn't ready for biz-critical apps … yet

I think what Microsoft are actually saying (with what seems like a very clear strategy to me if you spend 30 seconds looking at it) is that they believe in Cloud and Traditional On-Premises - using the best choice for each thing. I don't see anything wrong with that at all.

Microsoft cries UNINSTALL in the wake of Blue Screens of Death™

Blah Blah Blah. Do you know how rare it really is that this happens?

Do you know how many billions of hardware/software combinations windows works with?

Do you have any idea just how many builds/systems/setups MS already tests against?

Do you have any idea just how many bits of software do things they're not supposed to and are often responsible for this kind of issue (might not be in this case, haven't looked, but i'm talking about the issue in general).

It's actually quite impressive how rarely things go wrong considering the scale.

Now compare to say, Apple... they break systems on the hardware they supply which is much more rigid and controlled than in the Windows world... if you're going to call someone out, perhaps ask why the vendor with the most controlled environment out there has issues.

Linux updates of various types don't always go smoothly either.

However, that's the price we pay for the incredibly diverse tasks, roles and services, hardware software, firmware and so on we can all choose and run.

Lenovo posts an INCREASE in desktop PC and notebook sales

I don't think it's Windows 7. We've bought ~80 odd and they've ALL been running Windows 8. Because there is no good reason not to use 8.

Dragons' Den man and co-CEO to work for FREE at loss-making Outsourcery

Surely before you pay yourself those sorts of salaries & bonuses to start with, you have to actually be making plenty of profit? Otherwise what you're really doing is strangling your own business (and your creditors).

Why is this even still legal?

The internet just BROKE under its own weight – we explain how

Re: Please refrain from NAT66

Just a quick point:

"2) The router advertisement daemon never to fail"

Is different to "the $150 NAT based load balancer failing how?

I see no change in risk from that bit.

EE network whacked by 'PDP authentication failure' blunder

Re: Thought this was the problem that started a couple of weeks ago

"Mind you, seeing a friends O2 giving G and E often when I have 3G, H+ etc. tends to suggest that they really do have better actual coverage."

...No that sounds exactly like o2. They're not big on that Internet thing. They certainly don't do data. However, EE might give you the basic 3G (or "better") network, but it's not good so arguably no worse than o2 - at least they don't even pretend to have invested in the network.

Where's the fault exactly? I see no fault...

Sorry, but what exactly is wrong?

Everything the article describes & comments suggest sound like "business as usual" with EE. I believe if something is in a certain way the majority of the time (4 letters starts with p, ends with s and has an is in the middle, poor) it's no longer a failure, but "standard operation".

EE data is as pathetic as the customer "service" team that tried to make me believe my handset fault (which happened under warranty) was someone else's issue other than the EE store. Or as pathetic as being unable to get your roaming agreement charges correct in any month, ever, instead issuing invoices for £5K upwards when the bill should have been £60-£80

...or any of another zillion bad experiences with them.

It's very simple.

For 2G coverage, basic voice/text, o2 all the way (but really, forget data)

For that Internet thing, there's only 3.

For expensive and limited allowances and 3G in big areas, and 4G in a couple of them, Vodafone.

For not much of anything, go with nothing anywhere

Now even Internet Explorer will throw lousy old Java into the abyss

Um, certainly my IE has been doing this for a few weeks or so at least now - at least on my Windows 8.1 computers...

AVG stung as search revenue from freebie scanners dries up

I'd like AVG more if they stopped trying (very very aggressively) to push "cloud care" when actually I don't want that, at all. Never. Ever.

Apple winks at parents: C'mon, get your kid a tweaked Macbook Pro

Re: Still too expensive

"microshaft, still don't get that. I couldn't believe when I got a windows 8 laptop last year*, that it still couldn't open a .mov file from my camera with mediaplayer."

...maybe because .mov is Apple Quicktime format. Worst trolling ever. Back you go...

Microsoft's Brit kid Cortana lands on UK WinPhone 8.1, but China's is the real cutie

Re: Which WinPhones will get 8.1?

The update hasn't been fully released yet on all devices or in all countries, so no, you probably haven't got the update, yet.

But you should I believe - I'm looking forward to it for my Lumia 1020 - I actually quite like Windows Phone 8 and the improvement/additions list for 8.1 sound good to me.

Microsoft says 'weird things' can happen during Windows Server 2003 migrations

Several years ago? Why, were you running an operating system in a time machine sometime in the future, since 2012 R2 hasn't been out for "years".

Or do you mean 2008 R2 in which case your entire comment is invalid since the article is talking about a specific version.

Indie ISP to Netflix: Give it a rest about 'net neutrality' – and get your checkbook out

Doesn't sound like he knows what he is talking about to me...

"Netflix generates huge amounts of wasteful, redundant traffic and then refuses to allow ISPs to correct this inefficiency via caching"

So this doesn't exist then: https://www.netflix.com/openconnect

...for example.

BT: Hey guys, we've developed NEW MOBE TECH! It’s called... 2G

4G smugness

Can't help but feel smug, he said, writing this tethered by 4G in his office, in the basement.

My phone spends about 40% of it's life on 4G (thanks three) and the rest on 3G. I don't have 2G enabled on my phones at all...

It should be this way for everyone though, I agree. Call quality on 2G sucks, never mind data.

Apple orders huge MOUNTAIN of 80 MILLION 'Air' iPhone 6s

Re: As a Moto G user

Yes they do indeed update it more often, however:

(A) On Android most of the stuff is an App and not in the OS itself, so the functionality itself gets regular updates.

(B) Most of what Apple adds is stuff Android has had for several versions at least now, so it's not such a benefit getting what everyone else already had.

Barclays Bank counter staff to become iPad-toting 'community bankers'

"That brings back memories from a long time ago. Is it still a large, round underground chamber? Always made me think of a dungeon when I was a sprog :)"

Sorry no - they've redeveloped the whole area - in fact they're re-re-developing the branch again now - which is why for a couple of weeks I haven't been able to pay money in etc.

"Barclays Bank is following the lead of London Underground and replacing counter staff with machines and people loitering around to show customers how to use them."

They've been doing that in the Exeter branch for ages and it's seriously annoying because as soon as you walk in there they pounce on you, so every time you have to explain you're clueful enough to use the machines on your own, and then the second they hear a noise from the machine they're over - assuming you're unable to cope rather than simply still feeding the paying in machine a few notes at a time.

And just **** off with iPads everywhere. God the totally un-necessary and utterly pointless use of them is really grinding my gears. Go into certain stores and they now have them in horrid mounts in an effort to find any excuse for them to be used - as if having them somehow makes it better. So instead of the nice big easy touchscreens we used to have, we now have overpriced small screen ipads in ridiculous anti-theft cases. Yes, much better and a real improvement in usability. Said nobody, ever.

Microsoft's Lumia 930... a real HANDFUL

Re: Is this the review of a camera or a phone?

Sync = mandatory? Weird because I can choose.

Plain SMTP Auth works just fine to my MTA - maybe yours is broken.

Skype - I'm logged in with my "old" credentials

"Interminable menus" - give me an example?

SatNav - what are you using? Here maps is very goodf.

BlackBerry claims ugly duckling Passport mobe is a swan in the offing

Re: It could be their best chance for a solid return...

I'm not sure what I think of the Passport per-se but the Blackberry 10 OS is actually really very good.

It's a shame that they've not got the "app" support that everyone cares about all of a sudden, because in reality, as a phone, an organiser, e-mail and messaging device I'm absolutely happy with my Z10 and it blows everything else by everyone else out of the water by miles.

It is pretty credible at everything else too in my experience - and a colleague has the Z30 and seems pretty happy with it. The "app gap" is an issue, purely because the world is obsessed with it now and sadly mobile web sites are often now wrapped in a special "app" but offer more. That's the single biggest issue Blackberry have from a "once you've bought it, keep them happy" angle.

The biggest issue before that though is that people generally think Blackberry means the out-dated, slow devices they USED to be - and still sell. I've lost count of how many people didn't even consider a Blackberry device because they thought it would be the slow and old device of the past, OR thought it would be really heavily locked down (which is more a function of corporate controls and security than capability itself).

It is a shame because BB 10 OS is unbelievably quick and slick. Yes you have to learn the gestures, but there are demos and videos & they do make sense - but I don't think any of that is enough on its own. They need to really push the "getting apps" angle.

Start packing your bags for a Windows Server 2003 migration

Re: Since 2003

You did an amazing job then considering there is no SBS 2010 ... presumably you meant SBS 2011. The smarter move would have been moving away from the EOL SBS product entirely.

Backup bods Acronis extend disk-imaging support to Macs at last

Re: Time Machine

...tell that to my customer who thought this only to find out that wasn't at all the experience. It was also responsible for several of the connectivity glitches she had with it's insistence on controlling your Internet connection by default.

'Heartbleed-based BYOD hack' pwns insurance giant Aviva's iPhones

Re: Good to know

Of course, this does explain why Insurers always find it incredible that you do sustain losses when you make claims, if they think 1000's of devices being reset had no cost.

Given they've got a bunch of iwhatever though, I'm not surprised. Surely everyone knows they're really just company paid for so everyone can have shiny toys to use at home?

DOCX disaster recovery: How I rescued my wife from XM-HELL

"What do you do when a critical Word document won’t open?"

Restore from the backup. Job done.

Although given your more-effort-than-needed approach to the anti-spam setup recently, I'm sure you've used the worst possible concept of a backup too.

If "restore from the backup" is not a valid option I suggest you should retire.

Security stock slinger Symantec speeds up with latest Backup Exec

Re: Fast?

What he said! Backup Exec is a steaming pile of arse.

See also:

http://backupexec-hell.blogspot.co.uk/

...older posts are Backup Exec before we switched to DPM (where our backups have worked ever since - and importantly our restores too!)

Could a 'Zunewatch' be Microsoft's next hardware foray?

Re: Zuney Bin

Microsoft haven't announced it, or even a name, what has happened there is el reg is (as usual) cheekily swiping at Microsoft there. Only you seem to have spent less time reading the article than MS did analysing how big a deal "the internet" would be.

Windows XP fixes flaws for free if you turn PCs into CASH REGISTERS

Re: And so the countdown begins

"the majority"

Care to back that figure up with anything meaningful, like facts?

It's Microsoft's product, they specify you have a perpetual use license, they don't specify you'll receive perpetual updates, many of which address issues that weren't even likely to be an issue or even known about in any real sense over a decade ago.

Presumably Apple should also still be providing updates for OS 9? Are they?

Are they even providing updates for older than 10.6 in any meaningful way? Nope...

Spotify boasts 10 million paying subscribers ... Um, is that all?

Stopify

Well they did have more subscribers, but I binned mine because the shambolic new UI for the windows app smacks, and the windows phone app didn't have half the functionality of the one on other systems (and although I had the premium option, was still miffed that unlike android/ios you couldn't use it with a free subscription at all).

Microsoft may launch several new Surfaces on May 20 – report

other Lumia options...

"Can someone tell me what the differences are between Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT in terms of apps?"

Yes, the applications available are different, many will be available on both - and more commonly as time goes by as the active push to get one framework for all is gaining momentum.

For a bigger screen than the 920, try also:

- Lumia 1520 - 6" screen, windows phone setup - what you know, but bigger

- Lumia 1320 - 6" screen,. windows phone setup - what you know, but bigger

- Lumia 2520 - 10.1" screen, windows rt 8.1 setup - alternative to surface

Re: "4.4 per cent of the market"

You can't have been looking very hard then, because they're increasingly appearing - I can think of quite a few people with Windows Phones - all Lumia variants (not sure anyone else really actively makes them in a stocked-and-can-buy way...

Stone the crows, Bouncer! BT defends TV recorder upgrade DELETION snafu

Re: I'm no Murdoch fan but...

Yes - "no instances, ever" - I've just had the new UI on HD, and apart from being surprised it's so different, I've got all the 2TB of recordings (or whatever it is you're actually allowed to use of the storage these days) I had before the upgrade.

Same goes for every time in the past decade...

Only BT could still be considered "leading" by the majority and still get the lion's share of the business in so many areas and still be so utterly shoddy.

BSkyB broadband growth chopped in HALF

Re: Smart consumers

"They realised quickly what total shite Sky 'Broadband' is. Other consumers take note."

Actually as it happens, my experience of Sky Broadband is entirely positive - quite the opposite of what I expected, it's fast, reliable and doesn't have any limits or shaping rubbish.

...and lately that Static IP thing has been heard of... only rDNS and such to go...

Go ahead and un-install .Net, but you'll CRIPPLE Windows Server 2012

How desperate are you guys for news now? Scraping the barrel on your MS bashing efforts I feel.

I'm not aware of .net "using ram" or "cpu" when nothing is using it, so I'm not sure what that cobblers is about.

Microsoft: The MORE Surfaces it sells, the MORE money it loses

Before the usual "ipad is better, surface is shi*" debate starts, I should point out that many people *want* a Surface, or indeed a Surface Pro.

Getting hold of them is significantly more difficult - especially if you want them for business and not buying them one at a time from John Lewis etc. I've got customers who want them, and I've had to go to John Lewis more than once to get it because the distributors rarely have stock.

MS could sell a boatload more if they were actually able to get hold of them...

Everyone I know with a Surface (and it is a growing number) likes them - I like my Pro 2, but while I like the lighter/thinner form of the RT, it's not good enough as I want full Windows... either way, no good if you can't get them.

Dell charges £5 to switch on power-saving for new PCs (it takes 5 clicks)

...and sadly Dell continue to be used by people. I have no idea why.

The kit is shoddy and often unreliable, the prices inflated, the performance is poor (when compared to the same base components chosen elsewhere - I have real world experience of this) and they generally suck.

Yet all too often I still see room full upon room full of Dell kit turning up.

Windows 8.1, which you probably haven't upgraded to yet, Already obsolete

Interesting. I would have upgraded to 8.1 and by definition 8.1 update 1 except we have discovered it leaves remote app support broken, causing apps to just keep stealing focus all the time. The problem is a major ordeal.

I wouldn't mind except I am running server 2012 for our server side, so you'd think it would have been detected and fixed since we're not talking about ancient releases now are we?????

Fix that MS and we'll update!

Lycamobile launches 'unlimited' 4G for £12 a month. Great. Now where can I get a signal?

"Three’s definition of “unlimited” is 25GB, buried in the terms and conditions PDF. I guess that’s the “Display Department”."

Sorry? Where is this? The document I have on my OnePlan states "1000GB"