Posts by The New Turtle

Digital pregnancy testing sticks turn out to have very analogue internals when it comes to getting results

This device is far less unreasonable than it seems.

LFDs (lateral flow devices - the paper strip used in this test) are simple in theory, but get a human being involved and what *should* be simple and clear becomes variable, vague and uncertain. In most cases where there's a pregnancy then a nice clear line will develop, but sometimes it can be faint, or sometimes people will see a positive reaction where there isn't one. Attaching a simple detector with a pre-determined threshold (possibly matched to the batch of components used to create the LFD) will remove the uncontrolled human factor and will provide a more reliable result.

FWIW I've had a little input into developing LFDs for other uses, and they can be a challenge for everyone to read. Lab coat obviously, because who'd risk spilling someone else's wee on their clothes?

That amazing Microsoft software quality, part 97: Windows Phone update kills Outlook, Calendar

It's a damn shame, what happen with winpho & Nokia. We migrated earlier this year to Android because various things simply stopped working, so I guess this isn't really a surprise so much as just discovering where the lightening was due to strike next.

'He must be stopped': Missouri candidate's children tell voters he's basically an asshat

Worth noting that Philip Larkin doted on his mother: sometimes you need to recognise that BS sells stuff.

The healing hands of customer support get an acronym: Do YOU have 'tallah-toe-big'?

I'm astonished that no-one has yet mentioned Larry Niven's TANSTAAFL, which seems entirely appropriate to the idea of things fixing themselves when one walks over to investgate. Remember, their ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

Terry Pratchett's unfinished works flattened by steamroller

Re: When there's no more magic left it's time to stop.

To me, if that's the case then he sold his discworld legacy cheaply to make a political point, although his books had been increasingly formulaic (disaster looms, hero/ine has some special ability, they or nearby character falls in love, tension peaks, everything is OK in the end). Not that I didn't enjoy them, but as western tech was increasingly used to prop up stories so they became decreasingly interesting.

I read quite a bit of his output, including the truckers series, dark side of the sun and the carpet people. Each had their own flavour and each bore his style. Perhaps discworld became his vehicle for protest because he thought he'd affect more people that way, and was too far gone to create a new world instead.

When there's no more magic left it's time to stop.

I've been grinding my way through 'Raising Steam' recently, wondering what happened to the magic in the early works - and nothing to do with thaumaturgy. TBH I'm grateful 'Terry' wont' be writing any more books from the grave.

Photobucket says photo-f**k-it, starts off-site image shakedown

I wonder if this was always the plan?

About 3 years ago, having been with 'free' PB for a long time, I used up the 'free' bandwidth and paid for another 10GB. Entirely fine.

At the same time I enquired about using photobucket as a proper hosting site for my image galleries, but the only paid account option they had still showed adverts to visitors - there was no 'pro' gallery option to showcase customer's work. On that basis I continued using them to host images on other sites, but there was no future for them as a pro gallery, so I looked elsewhere.

When I have had the misfortune to visit using a browser without ad blocking, the experience has not been pleasant. When visiting as I have been, with decreasing frequency recently, there have been nagging popups asking that I consider paying extra for the bandwidth I'm using, and I very nearly succumbed, except that I barely use them now.

I'm grateful for the years of free image hosting, but can only consider that they have just decided that they don't want to continue running the site any more.

Those online ads driving you bonkers are virtually 'worthless for brands'

OTOH maybe we should be grateful to the morons for continuing to fund our viewing of t'internet - and the poor suckers who unwittingly give up their bandwidth to view the trash.

I too run a couple of different blockers, but even before I did, generally speaking advertising on web sites would make me avoid brands, rather than consider them positively.

WileyFox Swift 2: A new champ of the 'for around £150' market

I know of just a couple of people who had the earlier Wileyfox phones. General conclusion was they were badly made, unreliable, much slower than expected from the spec and Wf were horrendous to deal with over warranty issues. This might be a lot better, but as pointed out above, the G4 & G4 plus are very close in price and known-good performers, so if I wanted an android at this price point, that's where I'd go.

Spain's iPhone killer actually a rebranded Xiaomi – new claim

Website not functional just now.

The Internet of things is great until it blows up your house

Business opportunity

I can see a great business opportunity for someone offering a stripping service for connected appliances, removing the connectivity & replacing it with a simple on-off switch or a knob with temperature control. I love tech, but some things I want to remain under the control of the bio-mechanical interface that comes as standard on a human being - hands.

Elementary, my dear penguin: It's the second beta of Freya

Is that a foot? Pass my gun.

Having given this a little more thought, I seriously wonder if they've not shot themselves in the foot. One would download the distro of choice FOC, evaluate it, and if it worked for you then you could contribute, either in time or money, to the project. Distro doesn't work for you? Move on quickly and try another. Things are far less 'pot luck' with mianstream now than they were 10 years ago, but still need evaluation, particularly if testing minor versions like this.

Now trying to decide whether to become another leech for beta 2 or just simply ignore this distro in future.

Re: Elephant in the room

Elementary looks like a shameless rip of Pear Linux, which was a rip of OSX (though better in many ways) but without Pears' refinements and slick operation. Unfortunately Pear was pulled when the original designer (David Tavares) was hired to work in a related area and was not allowed to continue the project.

I have eOS on a 'testing' drive, but although I like some aspects, TBH I'd rather continue with Mint Cinnamon for the time being.

'If you see a stylus, they BLEW it' – Steve Jobs. REMEMBER, Apple?

Stable door & bolted horse. There was a chap in Geneva airport on Saturday happily working away on his iPad with a stylus, or maybe he didn't get the memo?

Now, where did I leave my pen?

The Glorious Resolution: Feast your eyes on 5 HiDPI laptops

16:9 vs 16:10 and high res.

Back in the spring I moved from my 5+ YO 13" unibody Macbook to a Dell XPS15 with the same QHD screen as the Dell laptop in the article. Based on experience, 16:9 is terrible on a 13" laptop, and I shudder to think how horrid it is if you've got to work with it.

However.

16:9 on a 15" QHD screen feels significantly less cramped than working on a 1200:800 13" screen. There, I said it. 16:9 is OK on a 15"+ laptop with decent resolution. It's no substitute for a reasonable 24" 1920:1200 screen (there are more important things than pixel pitch) but it's certainly a much nicer option to live with than many.

Origins of SEXUAL INTERCOURSE fished out of SCOTTISH LAKE

So when did reproduction spawn?

"It was previously thought that reproduction spawned externally in water, and much later down the track in the history of vertebrate evolution."

Because clearly nothing ever reproduced before these fish. Wait.... wut?

Son of Hudl: Tesco flogs new Atom-powered 8.3-inch Android tablet

Re: A NEW HUDL2 HAS ONLY 9.25 GB AVAILABLE TO USE NOT THE 16GB TESCO CLAIM??

Maybe a little product research on your part might help you understand the apparent difference?

Re: A NEW HUDL2 HAS ONLY 9.25 GB AVAILABLE TO USE NOT THE 16GB TESCO CLAIM??

Losing some storage to OS etc has always been a feature of this kind of device - no news, nor grounds for returning the device - here.

OH SNAP: Getty Images sues Microsoft over Bing pics widget

Re: "will consider the suit seriously"

One has the impression that, in the US, one shoots first and asks questions later.

Apple takes blade to 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display

And windows can't rescale effectively for QHD?

"The Mac operating system also handles scaling of text and graphics more effectively than Windows – just try running Photoshop on some of the "quad-HD" Windows laptops that are currently available"

I have. It works fine. As does pretty much everything else under windows that I've tried.

Factoids. :p

Fiat Panda Cross: 'Interesting-looking' Multipla spawn hits UK

Could be just what we need.

We live in rural Oxfordshire, and with reasonable hills in every direction from here, getting snowed in is not at all unusual. A typical 4X4 is OTT for what we need, but something like this with a decent boot and reasonable economy would be ideal.

We had a Fiat 500L pseudo SUV as a rental car in Canada for 2 weeks and nearly 3000km, and it was great. I imagine this to be similar but with true 4WD.

Mozilla keeps its Beard, hopes anti-gay marriage troubles are now over

And I went back to Firefox

........having left in protest at Eich's firing.

As AlexV said, FF is simply better than the other options, even when Chromatised. I'm no fan of the retrograde interface and the new version every 30s approach, but it's simply the most effective browser for me.

Lack of principles? I emailed my protest, though though I doubt that counted.

Huawei Ascend P7: We review the PANORAMIC SELFIE smartphone

Android updates - does anyone but google ever roll them out? I've had HTC nd Motorola phones, and there's typically one minor update in the first 6 months of life and that's all. Basically I expect to continue with whatever comes on the phone until it's replacement time or it gets rooted. That's not a problem if one buys a phone that does everything you need in the first place, of course.

YOSEMITE GLAM: Apple unveils gussied up OS X

Please stop rearranging the deck chairs on your Titanic.

You're a hardware company, but you've painted your users into a corner with portable hardware that can't be upgraded. And re-hashing the pretty bits of your GUI to make it look more like a phone will only make for a worse computer, even if it fools the masses into thinking new=better. But by making your laptops non-upgradable you have shortened their effective working life, and that makes them bad value, rather than the fair value they used to be.

As for the earlier comment about syncing with everything, that would be great. I've just returned to Windows, not because I especially want to, but because equivalent hardware costs around 50% more and has that non-upgradability brick wall. It would have been nice to be able to sync everything across my Macbook, windows and linux workstation, but I guess that would make it too easy for people to leave.

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

OK, time to abandon Mozilla - which browser company supports its employees?

Windows 8 BREAKS ITSELF after system restores

So you've never driven a car with tiptronic box, environmental control or electric handbrake? Probably a good thing.

MH370 airliner MYSTERY: The El Reg Pub/Dinner-party Guide

This is a job for......

Where's Daniel Craig when you need him?

Ghosts of Christmas Past: Ten tech treats from yesteryear

Never mind Big Trak

I had a Computacar in about 1970, authentically programmed with a punched card, just like a 'real' computer. Took it apart as a teen to understand how it worked, and was disappointed to realise it was entirely mechanical.

http://thumbsnap.com/s/dyjF4e2A.jpg

I also had a Sharp PC1500, probably in '86 or '87 that I programmed to calculate radioactive content of the tracer I was using at the time (Chromium 51) for some assay work. It is probably the only time I've ever really bothered to program anything remotely useful.

OpenSUSE 13.1: Oh look, a Linux with YOU in mind (and 64-bit ARMs)

I was quite looking forward to trying 13.1, but there's a bug where menus and windows aren't drawn correctly, and show up temporarily when you mouse over, then disappear again. There were a few others reporting the same thing on the openSUSE forum, but the fixes given there didn't work. Possibly it's down to having an Nvidia card (7900GS) and might be fixed with a driver install, but I've not had time yet to try.

12.3 is still working OK so there's no hurry to upgrade.

DEATH-PROOF your old XP netbook: 5 OSes to bring it back to life

Back in the spring I needed a cheap 'disposable' computer to take to Africa, and acquired a 7 year old Philips/Twinhead H12Y 12" laptop with 1.6GHz core 2 duo and 1Gb ram. Performance on the original Vista was laughable (10min to a ready desktop) but both Pear Linux and LinuxLiteOS gave entirely acceptable performance, LLOS being similarly responsive to my unibody Macbook with 4Gb and SSD running OSX 10.8. And LLOS is Steam ready.

Since the lad likes the idea of a Mac, something like Pear might have quite appealed - shame the battery died.

'Daddy, can I use the BLACK iPAD?': Life with the Surface Pro 2

Interesting review.

Although the iPad isn't really more than a consumer device, people liked them so much they tried to find ways of bringing them to work, thereby fooling Microsoft into believing in a market that doesn't really exist. And the other area of fail is that screen - working professionals do not like 16:9 as a screen ratio, as laptop reviews here have shown over and over again. The right size for a business laptop is about 14" with a 16:10 ratio. Giving this a 10" screen that's long and narrow is automatic failure for this market.

It's a shame that Microsoft's marketing dept has completely overlooked market research basics (or someone higher up the slippery pole refused to be told) and the result is a product that's potentially good, failing. By approaching marketing differently and fixing the screen ratio, even if they couldn't make it larger, this could have seen much more success. By making the new user experience as pleasant as that with a new Apple device they could have seen more still.

Microsoft has always been like this - I wonder if they'll change or disappear? Labcoat because they're still looking for the answer.

GIMP flees SourceForge over dodgy ads and installer

Ads have become a REAL problem, and are no longer an innocent way of funding bandwidth etc. Sourceforge has been like this quite a while, and as suggested, other 'legitimate' companies are now bundling crapware along with the stuff you want (Adobe - looking at you).

There's a forum I use regularly (harmonycentral.com) that runs syndicated ads, and recently there was one that a) spawned a new page within seconds of arriving b) started playing audio automatically and c) spawned a new page every 30sec with the audio out of sync with the first. Within a few minutes the site became unusable without ad blockers working.

I always took the view that ads funded the 'free' sites many of us enjoyed, but this was madness. I mentioned it to the forum admins, but they were not aware of the ads being run (syndicated out, choices made elsewhere). There have been problems on other sites with flash-based ads too, although none as severe as this. So now I just run with ad blockers on all the time. It's not good, because I'm sure it's denying a revenue stream, but it's either that or stop browsing many otherwise useful parts of the net.

I can see the golden goose laying in the corner, throat cut.

Lenovo stands up rinky-dinky new Yoga tablet

It *looks* like a really good design let down by budget internals. Pity really. I'm loth to spend several hundred quid on a powerful mobile computing device when I already have several in varying sizes around the home, but if this had a spec that was competitive with the latest Nexus then I'd have been seriously tempted. Shame really, though probably a good thing for my bank balance.

Double-click? Oh how conventional of you, darling!

The obvious parallel between the car and the software is like someone who has only used Android phones trying to write a document in Appleworks on a ][e. When it was run of the mill stuff, many of us happily produced documents and spreadsheets in this particular package, and back in the 70s and 80s we happily drove Citroen GSs without the least difficulty (until the cams wore badly, in which case it would get unbearably slow). The analogy breaks down because, unlike the Appleworks interface, those in the GS and CX were actually very nice to use, even though unconventional by Ford standards.

Nice to be reminded of how stylish cars looked once upon a time.

OpenSUSE uncorks a fine Ruby-red Bottle: Beta 13.1 didn't give me a hangover

I've been using openSUSE for a few years now, on and off: on with it being an excellent place to move from windows, the off being that it used to break with increasing numbers of updates and that encouraged experimenting with other distros. Having been mostly off for a while using Sabayon first (that would also break with updates, due to kernel/graphics driver incompatibility) and then Pear linux (getting too Mac-like) I returned to openSUSE 12.3 this spring.

It's been great. I love to tools baked into KDE, updates have been pretty much problem-free, and everything has kept working quickly and reliably. Looking forward to this next update and continuing with the OS into the future.

Shopping list for Tesco: Eggs, milk, bread, tablets (the £60 7in Android kind)

Galling the darn thing isn't available yet though. We have plenty of clubcard vouchers, and this would be so much better than a typical £60 tablet.

Nasty BOFHses. It burns us! It burns...

Excellent and unexpected twist at the end - thank you.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 2013: All’s well that Haswell

Quite. 1366 X 768 on a 13" screen is shoddy these days, although I'd be happy with the MBAs 1440 X 900. 16X10 and a decent vertical resolution are so much better for work. One of the things that puts me off upgrading my current 2008 macbook (1200 X 800) is the lower vertical resolution that so many otherwise good non-apple machines have.

Fedora back on track with Schrödinger's cat

So is the state of release rather like a certain feline presence, and it is only there if you know it's there?

"I find your lack of faith disturbing".

Pussy galore: Bubble-bath webcam spy outrage

Not quote up to BOFH standards, but entertaining as a Friday afternoon read.

Ecuador: All right, Julian, you CAN stay on our sofa - it's your human right

There's something terribly Arthur Dent-like about this situation.

"Could we, for a moment, assume that my client is still securely locked in the embassy, so that it won't make any difference to you if we nip across to the pub for a pint and a quick fumble with the barmaid".

BOFH: Go on, beancounter, type DROP TABLE asset;

Excellent - there was a sense of eager anticipation from the moment the word 'delete' was first used.

Sherlock Holmes, because he'll be called in to find the missing backup.

Review: Pure Jongo S3 multiroom speakers

It may be portable, but £170 will be an insurmountable hurdle. From the description of the sound quality and issues with the app I was expecting £40-£50. Maybe that's unreasonable, but I can't imagine there being much take up at that price.

MYSTERY Nokia Lumia with gazillion-pixel camera 'spotted'

I was very tempted by the 808 back at the beginning of the year when I replaced my phone. What killed it for me was the poor screen res and sheer bulk of the thing - a smartphone is more than just a camera that can be used to make calls. The new top-end Nokias are too bulky and too expensive to compete (interesting at £320, not at £520) again regardless of how good the camera might be.

NORKS says USA attack took it offline ... as if anyone could tell

Much more likely it's Hollywood going after The Piratebay.

Now Spanish sperm takes a kick to the cojones

People have been noticing this kind of thing for quite some time. In the late 90s there were studies performed at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen (Skakkabaek and Andersson - I'm too lazy to look up the references) showing that sperm levels in healthy males had fallen over the last 50 years.

Always wear a lab coat when handling clinical samples.

Review: Google Nexus 4

Thanks for that - a serious and useful reply!

I've also found the Razr i for £40 down and £15.50 a month, though having just closed my O2 contract iI'm a little reluctant to start a new one with them.

Interesting comments - I'm looking for a new phone right now to replace my 'vintage' Desire. I've tried quite a few phones and current fave is the Razr i that the reviewer kept mentioning: great battery life, small enough to fit a pocket despite a 4.3" screen and it feels really well made.

But at the same time I'm really tempted by a WinPho8 device. The interface just seems so much cleaner, more intuitive, obvious and most importantly, easy to use. It seems like an interface designed for a touch screen, rather than a desktop system ported to a phone.

Review: HTC 8X Windows Phone 8 handset

"MTP's big disadvantage is Mac OSX doesn't support it, which is slightly annoying but then probably a minority of users."

My contract is up tomorrow, and I'm on the verge of selecting a new phone. Presently a Mac user, though for how long is not certain, but I think this has just killed this phone for me.

BOFH: The Great Patch Mismatch

Foot note should not be included in an otherwise excellent article. I've never worked in IT like that and yet it was still immediately obvious what the halon was for.