* Posts by Stefing

168 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Mar 2010

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Prof Hawking to mail postage-stamp space craft to Alpha Centauri using frickin' lasers

Stefing

Some hope and excitement for the future...

“Gravity pins us to the ground but I just flew to America. I lost my voice but I can still speak thanks to my voice synthesiser. How do we transcend these limits? With our minds and our machines.

“The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars. But now we can transcend it, with light beams, light sails, and the lightest spacecraft ever built we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation. Today we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos, because we are human and our nature is to fly.”

Philae comet probe got down without harpoons

Stefing

"We landed TWICE" ;)

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/362/events/3544091

The internet is 'a gift from God' says Pope Francis

Stefing

If God invented the internet...

then Tim Berners-Lee is God!

App to manage Android app permissions

Stefing

Scareware

Basically the app performs a simple audit and tries to scare you into paying for the full version.

Super-stealth FLYING CAR prototype seen outside GOOGLE HQ

Stefing

UPWORTHY?

What utter BOLLOCKS -

It's NOT a flying car

It's NOT outside Google's HQ

Next, tell us yet again how climate change isn't real.

Android in FOUR out of 5 new smartphones. How d'ya like dem Apples?

Stefing

"Growth"

If you start from 1 and sell 2 more then you've got "amazing growth" - it's still not a good result.

RIP charging bricks: $279 HP Chromebook 11 charges via USB

Stefing

Now you'll need a PC to charge your phone, ebook reader and ... er, laptop

If only there were USB mains chargers available!

Oh, wait, - THERE ARE.

Enough of the tabloid deliberate stupidity, please.

Tech specs wreck: Details of Google's Nexus 5 smartphone leaked over internet

Stefing

Re: The sad thing is..

Mine certainly doesn't light up the room - I put it in airplane mode overnight ;)

iPhone 5S: Apple, you're BORING us to DEATH (And you too, Samsung)

Stefing

From the X Labs

The Moto X (not available in the UK, ever) is crammed with genuine innovation - and produced (mainly) in the USA - so surely there's some glimmer of hope - if only gullible Joe Brandname can be tempted away from iThings...

'NSA PRISM spies' shake down victims with bogus child-abuse vids claims

Stefing

Help me Obi Cam Kanobi you're my only hope

This is why we need the Great Firewall of Cameron - to protect us hapless brainless punters from the DANGER OF THE INTERWEBS.

It's the software, stupid: Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch bags big apps

Stefing

Re: Who cares

Remember when people said that about mobile phones?

Stefing

Re: How annoying!

My Pebble lasts a good 5 days on a charge and charges from a standard USB port - so that's not really an issue for me - but for the Samsung with that screen...

Stefing
Devil

Re: Reportedly...

I expect Apple with come up another overpriced closed ecosystem overpriced kitchen appliance.

Stefing

Reportedly...

Poor battery life and only works with two Samsung phones - I'll be sticking with my Pebble.

But seeing Apple get a good kicking will be quite satisfying.

Google's Project Glass headman answers most pressing question: 'Why?'

Stefing

Evolution

From the Post Office, to the phone box, to the phone at home and work, to the computer in your pocket, to the computer on your head - to the computer in your head? It has to happen.

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

Stefing

Better for me

My Nexus 4 now has better connectivity and far better power consumption, I initially had problems with notifications during sleep and it taking a long time to reconnect once woken but a change of build to JWR66V has fixed that for me.

Acorn’s would-be ZX Spectrum killer, the Electron, is 30

Stefing

No Master

Excellent article - but no mention of the BBC Master?

Typical! Google's wonder-dongle is a solution looking for a problem

Stefing

Review FAIL - Also!

You're in a hotel, you've got your Android device and free wifi - but you'd like to watch something from your Netflix subscription on the TV in the room without paying the hotel's inflated fees - SOLUTION!

Stefing

Oh really?

I have my tower plugged into my big TV and 5.1 system - most people don't.

Most people, when they want to watch something from an MKV or MP4 file, or from YouTube, are stuck squinting over a laptop.

This is THE SOLUTION for that.

1953: How Quatermass switched Britons from TV royalty to TV sci-fi

Stefing

Great stuff!

Quatermass and the Pit is still genuinely scary stuff - although the production values are higher than the early TV s episodes, of course.

An extra egg to make a cake for the Queen - we're still being patronised in much the same... OH LOOK! A ROYAL BABY!

Al Gore: Stop using the atmosphere as 'an open sewer

Stefing
Holmes

Let's drive a 4x4 up a mountain

And out come the Clarkson-esque climate-change denying ostriches in 3... 2... 1...

BSkyB-owned BE slams into traffic pile-up over 'unlimited' broadband lie

Stefing
Thumb Down

It's truly unlimited - for me, for now...

I'm on the cheapest package and was upgraded at no extra cost a few years ago, I'm a HUGE downloader - often maxing out for several hours day after day - and have never once been warned, admonished, choked, throttled or had any manner or virtual asphyxiation threatened by Be - another reason to be dismayed by Murdoch's Mob wiping out yet another competitor...

Review: Samsung Galaxy S4

Stefing

A Ferrari wrapped in plastic

Love the specs, hate the appearance.

I can see why they've skinned stock so heavily, to attract former fanbois and to differentiate from the Android crowd, but that home key, "Samsung" emblazoned across the top and those Apple-esque square icons - that's why I got the simple elegant Nexus 4 - at half the price.

Nokia shareholder tells CEO Elop he's going to hell

Stefing
Coat

Typo speaks truth

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7373075712/h9A34E2D8/

Master Beats: Why doesn't audio quality matter these days?

Stefing

CHK CHK CHK DUM CHK CHK CHK DUM CHK DUM CHK DUM

Most of my friends buy vinyl rather than CDs or MP3s these days, in their case it's not hipsterism, they genuinely believe that the quality is better - and there is some truth to this, although CDs are clearly technically superior, the audio itself is often hideously remastered using dynamic range compression - WHICH IS WORSE THAN HITLER.

Galaxy S4 radiant, but has black holes

Stefing

The S4 is no N4

I had the Samsung S3 - a great phone - but switch to the Nexus 4 as I prefer the pure Android experience.

The S4 will hopefully draw millions of fanbois away from their tiny iThings but I'm sticking to Nexus devices from now on - the gimmicks just don't appeal.

Review: Google Nexus 4

Stefing

Have one - love it

Storage (16GB) isn't an issue for me - I can't imagine installing so many large apps (ie games) that it's used up and I'm not about to start loading DVD-sized videos onto it.

Battery life - pretty much the same as my S3, so no surprises there - power costs.

It looks and feels like a quality device, 4.2 is gorgeous as well.

Give me a grand to spend on a phone and this is the phone that I would buy - no contest.

Which qualifications are worthwhile?

Stefing
Unhappy

Re: Don't bother....

I'm now on less money than I was 20 years ago and have the same job title I had 30 years ago - even though I have far more skills. There is a ceiling in most UK where you hear "we can't pay you any more or you'll be earning more than some managers!"

Plus the market is so bad they realise they can cut and cut, regardless of how well the company is doing.

Managers are readily available and most people could be a mediocre manager with little training - but managers run the world and don't value IT people like they used to.

Google puts Nexus 4 back on sale, sells out pronto

Stefing

Yep - people just think they'll miss an SD card because they're used to having them - IT'S 16GB FOR FECK'S SAKE - what are they going to do, store BluRays on it?

I have a Transformer Prime and the SD card has only ever been used for (as it turns out, unnecessary) backups - ditto my previous Samsung Galaxy S3.

Stefing

Re: Not 5-6 weeks for everyone

Or possibly lowering expectations so that people aren't disappointed but actually pleasantly surprised - which is something Apple certainly don't have a patent on.

</troll raised to the power troll>

Stefing

Re: Rather cynical

So, you'd rather wait than... wait?

Stefing
Happy

Not 5-6 weeks for everyone

If (like me) you got your order in in the first 10ish minutes after they appeared - at around 1700 GMT yesterday - your estimated delivery time is 1-2 weeks, after that it's 5-6 weeks, which suggests stock arriving every 4 weeks, which also seems to be the pattern in the US.

Troll sues Apple for daring to plug headphones into iPhone

Stefing
Coat

"A patent hoarding firm" - the biter, bit!

Google Nexus 7 blighted by brightness blunder

Stefing

"warmly welcomed all round..."... "one display specialist claims..."

That'll be good enough for Gizmodo then!

Anyway, it's firmware, it'll be fixed if it needs fixing.

Android 4.1 Jelly Bean review

Stefing

Re: Better put the kettle on

It took a couple of weeks to reach my Galaxy S3 - courtesy of CyanogenMod.

Bloody lovely it is too.

Sally Ride, trailblazing Shuttle astronaut, dies at 61

Stefing

Re: Men die too, you know

I believe that she was also a gay lady - or is it heterophobic to mention that?

Puny US particle punisher finds strong evidence for God particle

Stefing
Megaphone

Proof?

5-Sigma or nothing.

Chrome hits iPhone and iPad, storms to top of download chart

Stefing

Re: How about some chrome loving

"it's NOW my default Android browser."

Dur..

Stefing

Re: How about some chrome loving

It works great for me, noticeably slicker than the Beta, it's no my default Android browser.

Facebook goes offline, shares stabilise at merely disastrous level

Stefing
Devil

Meanwhile

Facebook seems to be having one of its periodic purges, removing people altogether until they meet Facebook's demand for ID - what, so Facebook is a government agency now (although I've always had my suspicions...)

Samsung snafu grounds blue Galaxy S III

Stefing
Coat

Apparently (!) 600,000 cases had to be binned, with pre-orders of over 9 million - and assuming half are for blue - that's still a hell of a lot of production and distribution to sort out in short order.

But at least they're not distributing a phone that they know to be flawed and then claiming that we're holding it wrong.

Griffin Helo TC Assault

Stefing
WTF?

IR?!

I doubt many smartphones have IR any more!

Hands on with the Huawei Ascend G300 low-cost Android phone

Stefing

The San Fran II is also £100 - you can't go wrong really!

HP offers contractors a choice: 5 per cent pay cut ... or 100 per cent

Stefing

Been there

Me and one other contractor were given a similar choice, but with a 10% cut, 2 years ago.

Luckily for me they asked him first, he tried to play hardball and he got the chop - I didn't risk it.

A couple of month's later he had to come crawling back.

Only now have they started to cut into the tumorous mass of managers that's choking the company,..

Google planning to brand and sell Android tablets

Stefing
Thumb Up

Re: Android UI issues?

Android on phones and tablets is substantially different in appearance, Gingerbread was phone only, Honeycomb tablet only, Ice Cream Sandwich converges and progresses them.

Sent from my bloody brilliant 5 core Asus Transformer Prime (which happily runs at up to 1.6 GHz without getting hot)

Female Chinese astronauts must have no scars, straight teeth

Stefing
WTF?

Maffs?

2 out of 7 is equality?

Sitting down all day is killing you

Stefing
Unhappy

I would if I could

I have Degenerative Disc Disease - so more than the slightest bit of exercise isn't really an option.

But HEY! Thanks for reminding me that not only am I in near-constant pain but that my life expectancy is also impacted.

Space: 1999 returning to TV?

Stefing

I was attempting to re-watch the originals recently but gave up after a few episodes; too much woo-woo mumbo-jumbo superstition instead of real SF stories, but yes the Eagles etc. were awesome and the title sequence is possibly the best of any TV series.

Retailer drops Eee Pad Transformer Prime, claims quality issues

Stefing
Megaphone

An "early adopter" speaks

I got mine on Day 1 of UK release (when Clove, like now, had zero stock) and have had ZERO problems. No "wifi issues". No "GPS issues".

Sounds the like "men, they're all bastards, love" syndrome of the jilted girlfriend.

Samsung 'Galaxy 4S' spied in benchmark results

Stefing
Thumb Down

No

The test allows you to modify the default model when submitting results.

Non story.

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