Posts by BB

As you stare at the dead British Airways website, remember the hundreds of tech staff it laid off

Re: Those who forget the past...

Absolutely incredible. How are the managers responsible still in a job...? Looks like teflon politics have spread from the banks to the airline industry.

BlackBerry boss mulls mid-range Androids

To be fair, the Classic was priced well as a mid-range. I've been using one for the past year and a bit, it's a fantastic handset, although a bit slow these days.

Much like everyone else I've also come to the realisation that I will need to move OS later this year. Hopefully the iPhone 7 is a zinger, although I will miss being able to press "t" to jump to the top of any scrolling list and "c" to compose an email. The Samsung S7 looks tempting, but I can't bring myself to trust Android's privacy with all the Google apps phoning home constantly.

On-screen keyboards are fine for the odd text message but to bang out a desktop-length email to a client without having to check each word, nothing beats a physical keyboard.

New Relic goes old school, wooing enterprises, partners at FutureStack

And it's the headline article for some reason.

Why is that idiot Osbo continuing with austerity when we know it doesn't work?

What the...?

What is this trashy diatribe doing on The Reg? I thought this was a tech publication. This piece belongs in the Guardian or New Statesman.

Message to Worstall: England voted and chose steady hands and smart minds over vacuous left-wing ideas.

Chrome devs hatch plan to mark all HTTP traffic insecure

Bit premature

With IE on XP not supporting SNI, we would still need an IP per website to migrate them all to HTTPS. Not really feasible with today's IPV4 scarcity.

Really peeved with Microsoft for not adding SNI to a service pack. Almost every large corp still uses IE8 on XP so they have single-handedly hobbled a secure web.

Good grief! Have you seen BlackBerry's square smartphone?

Re: Hope it gets an honest chance

They are releasing that one in November - called the "Classic".

OwnCloud: Fiddly but secure host-from-home sync 'n' share

AeroFS

I've been using AeroFS for the past year and have found it to be a great replacement for Dropbox. It has the same near-real time syncing with Windows and Mac clients, although it does use Java which chews up the CPU cycles. Your files are synced directly between your devices and the encryption keys are never shared outside them making it quite secure. They have a bit of a silly pricing policy but it's free unless you want to add many users for sharing, etc.

America's hot and cold spots for broadband revealed in new map

Re: Hungary

I'm guessing you're in Budapest? I'd be surprised if you could get 30Mbps in Nyiregyhaza! It's the same here in London, everyone can get 24Mbps+, but most of the country is stuck on 6Mbps due to BT's combination of monopoly and incompetence.

If some of the slowest states in the US average 7Mbps, it's not great, but it's a fair bit better than most English counties.

Dubai to get huge climate-controlled domed city and giga-mall

The future

As the human population grows, it's not so far-fetched to think that our descendants will need to turn to artificial environments once nature can't provide enough to support us all.

If the Sheik's dome in Dubai interests you, I'd recommend reading Steel Beach by John Varley. It's a fun piece of fiction, and everyone in the novel is living in domes on the moon. Any Earth-based natural environment is non-existent, although various biomes have been replicated in city-sized domed "Disneylands".

Did Google's Waze gobble run rivals off the road? UK watchdog starts probe

Re: Not relevant

Not really, both are hosted outside Britain and the British just choose to use them. What will the OFT do, ban the services being used inside the UK?

Not relevant

An American company buys an Israeli company - the position of Britain's OFT is irrelevant.

RIM's Heins beams: BB10 must walk the walk before we talk the talk

App support

I reluctantly ditched my Bold 9900 a year ago for an iPhone in order to be able to use apps like Hailo (a must in London). I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the release of the BB10 handset with the hardware keyboard.

I will however wait a year before switching back, during which time I really hope companies like Hailo and Pocket Informant end up supporting the platform with their apps. Being able to quickly type out an email without having to correct every second miskeyed word might just save my sanity. Add to that custom ring profiles, the flashing LED and being able to run background applications without chewing up the battery!

Ten... Mi-Fi HSPA 3G wireless mini-routers

MF60 for us

We used an unlocked Three E586 for years whilst travelling, but in Australia Telstra's "Next-G" network uses an unsupported frequency so we picked up a rebranded MF60. In comparison:

- MF60 is more reliable (the E586 drops out and needs a reboot every few hours)

- MF60 feels more solid, is thinner and has better battery life

- the web interface of the E586 is better than the MF60, but we really only use it to change APNs when swapping SIMs

- the Telstra interface of the MF60 doesn't support sending and receiving SMSs but the unbranded ZTE interface does

- both types can be unlocked for a few £s online

Picking up a cheap data SIM (e.g. €10 for 1GB-1mth in Austria) and connecting all the iPads, Blackberries, laptops to it when travelling saves a bundle on hotel internet and roaming fees.

If our Telstra MF60 gives up its life, we will definitely look at getting an unbranded one to replace it, hopefully an LTE MF90 will be out by then!

Femtocells at tipping point: Don't want to become also-RANs

Unsuresignal

We have a SureSignal from Vodafone and what they don't tell you before purchasing is that it only supports one data connection at a time. Two or more Blackberries connected via BIS to the network? Only one will have a data connection. Same for iPhones and Android... rendering the unit next to useless beyond voice calls for today's smartphones.

Sony Ericsson slashes US presence

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

History repeating itself in the fashion of Motorola in Europe. One must wonder whether teaming up with Sony was a good move for Ericsson. Like Motorola, they haven't released a handset of note for years - no amount of teen-focussed advertising can change that.

Ericsson: divorce from Sony, go back to your Swedish roots and start creating the minimalist handsets for which you were famed. I still hold my old T28 as the pinnacle of mobile design!

Queen's Speech slammed by small biz

Eats, shoots and leaves

"Megabite broadband"? Ladies and gentlemen, the state of Britain today - where even the boss of the Chamber of Commerce can't spell.