* Posts by Lamont Cranston

1555 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Apr 2010

NORKS' own smartmobe pegged as Chinese landfill Android

Lamont Cranston
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Jelly Bean with no TouchWiz-style overlay?

I'd buy that for a Won!

Wookiee! CHEWIE'S BACK in Star Wars Ep VII – blab Hollywood 'sources'

Lamont Cranston

Help me, Mr Farrage,

you're my only hope.

Lamont Cranston

Re: Cherchez les geeks

I made sure to inflict Star Wars upon my spawn at an early age (mainly through Lego videogames, they're not all that bothered about the films). Any child who can pick up a long stick and not immediately start making "zumm... wumm" noises, well, that's not childhood at all, in my opinion.

Lamont Cranston

"one ... will be the offspring of original stars Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker"

You can keep your slashfic, thanks.

Google kills fake anti-virus app that hit No. 1 on Play charts

Lamont Cranston

Re: Nerdy tweaks etc... Mostly have a place

Upvote for Fix Broken Power Button - lifesaver when my Desire S had this problem. Turned out to be a "known issue", and the fix was to upgrade from Gingerbread to ICS. I like HTC handsets, but that was a bit of a glaring flaw.

Puking! protester! forces! Yahoo! 'techie! scum!' to! ride! vile! bile! barf! bus! to! work!

Lamont Cranston

Re: "simply market forces in action"

I'd agree that it's the landlords who are to blame, for upping their rents, but I don't see the "trickle down" argument.

If you're living in rented accomodation, and earning minimum wage from Starbucks, when the rent goes up, you'll be out on your ear. Starbucks might do very well out of selling lattes to the incoming "techie scum", but I doubt that they'll be "trickling down" the profits to you.

Maybe the protesters are picking on the big corps, because the big corps have the resources necessary to behave in a socially responsible fashion? They could picket the landlords, but I doubt they'll give them back their houses.

Three daddy Hutch has no interest in O2

Lamont Cranston

Can I take issue with the notion that Three are "well run"?

All their customer facing staff appear to be a bunch of cowboys.

BlackBerry sucker-punches TV star Ryan Seacrest in patent brawl

Lamont Cranston

Given that BBM is available on non-BB handsets,

maybe BB are about to release their own keyboard add-on for other manufacturers' handsets?

Even if that is the case, this "we own the concept of QWERTY keyboards for mobiles" smacks somewhat of sour grapes.

OkCupid falls out of love with 'anti-gay' Firefox, tells people to see other browsers

Lamont Cranston

Re: Product != CEO

@Hollerith 1

I'd really like to upvote this more than once.

Candy Crush King sees IPO go sour as stock price heads south

Lamont Cranston

Re: $7Bn? Really?

I don't think anyone would be surprised to learn that the stock market is rigged.

Life support turned off: NHS Direct dies silent, undignified death

Lamont Cranston

Re: Fitting.

It was a nice idea, but would almost invariably advise the user to contact a health professional, as it had to err on the side of caution. Told me I was having a heart attack, once (I had cold).

No Notch niche: Minecraft man in rift with Oculus after Facebook gobble

Lamont Cranston

Re: Thanks Notch

I remember playing some VR game at the Trocadero, towards the end of the 90's. Looked like crap and gave me a headache, much like 3D gaming did when I tried it out on an Xbox360.

Bah, and indeed, humbug.

Ancient telly, check. Sonos sound system, check. OMG WOAH

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

I'd like to upgrade from the speakers in my TV.

I've owned a couple of Philips Home Cinema (DVD player + 5.1) set-ps, each of which has died an ignominious death (and frustrated me with the cabling). Pretty sure a £600 soundbar, that needs extra hardware to actually get hold of the audio, isn't the answer I was looking for!

Nice to see I'm not the only curmudgeon, with a wallet full of moths, on the forum today.

Improbable: YOU gave model Lily Cole £200k for her Impossible.com whimsy-site

Lamont Cranston

Re: In a nutshell

Celebrities can be very useful, if they ally themselves with a charity or a cause - they're most likely invaluable when it comes to raising the profile of said cause, and encouraging the masses to donate/get involved.

But then we make the mistake of assuming that they know what they're talking about, and they seldom do.

Matt Damon was interviewed on the radio, recently, in his capacity as the token celebrity for a water charity, and he was refreshingly honest about his involvement, deferring to the charity head on the details, and admitting that he's baiscally just there to put a pretty face on it all.

Android update process gives malware a leg-up to evil: Indiana U

Lamont Cranston

Re: theoretical non-event

My Desire S went from Gingerbread to ICS, but this wasn't over the air, and it wiped the phone in the process. My wife's Xperia Mini never got off of Gingerbread.

I won't claim that these two phones are representative, but they do balance out your examples.

My Nexus 7 gets all the updates, and I slightly regret letting KitKat on.

Move over Microsoft: RealNetworks has a GOOGLE problem

Lamont Cranston

Re: Wow, RealPlayer.

Quite. I assumed that consumer stopped using RealPlayer because it was awful, and likewise content providers stopped using RealNetworks' proprietary formats because consumers didn't want to use RealPlayer (because it was awful).

Virtual reality? Two can play THAT GAME, says Sony: New headset revealed for the PS4

Lamont Cranston

@Vector

Yup, something like the Matrix might work, as it removes all that "wearing silly headgear and flailing about" business. Still not convinced that a move to totally immersive gaming is actually desireable, though.

Lamont Cranston

Re: A few problems with these things

I'd hope Sony would know better than to promise that which isn't technically acheiveable (remember the hype around the PS2 promising "movie quality visuals"?), but I think the biggest problem with the whole VR-helmet idea is that nobody want one.

Cue flood of comments explaining that they do, in fact, want one. Just remember, if you're wearing a VR-helmet, you'll look like a helmet.

Whitehall and Microsoft thrashing out 1-year NHS WinXP lifeline

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: "such a project would cost and take decades"

And there we have it. No government is going to spend all that cash now, only for a completely different government to reap the benefits (or have the whole thing crash and burn, again), unless they're sufficiently ideologically invested, I suppose (the Tories aren't, and Labour won't want a repear of last time - *cough cough* NPfiT *cough cough*).

Lamont Cranston

@JurassicPark

Just because NPfiT was a massive cock-up (let's throw more money at Accenture, et al.!), doesn't mean that it had to be.

Whilst I was quite glad to see the back of it, I don't think that it was a bad idea in principle, just very poorly handled.

As for green screens and UNIX-based PAS systems, they went out of fashion at the turn of the century (see, it's cutting edge in the NHS!).

Xenon: Bitmap Brothers' (mega)blast from the past

Lamont Cranston

Re: Namco Xevious

Thank you - I know I played Zenon (or at least watched it on the telly!), but I never owned it. Thank you for reminding me what I did have a copy of!

MPs urge UK.gov to use 1950s obscenity law to stifle online stiffies

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

As one of the few people on this forum

who was broadly in favour of the "default filtering" proposal (which still hasn't been enabled on my BT broadband - I really must find the password and find out how to turn it on for myself), even I think our MPs are getting a bit carried away, now.

Whilst I appreciate the availability of universal filtering (even if it is a bit crap/easily bypassed/not actually switched on), that's enough - I've no desire to devolve all responsibility for my children's wellbeing to the state. Boys will be boys, so they're going to get to the porn eventually, but I'd rather they weren't encouraged to half-inch my credit card at the same time.

Think drone delivery is hot air? A BREWERY just proved you wrong

Lamont Cranston
Pint

Winter lager?

I don't think I want to know what that is.

Can we have a proper beer icon, please?

NZ bloke's drunken poker bet ends in 99-letter name

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: Worra laff

Lovely. My middle name (and that of my first born) are taken from my paternal grandfather. Your son gets his from his mother's birth canal.

Takeaway order spewer Just Eat plans to raise £100m in IPO

Lamont Cranston
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On the small number of occassions that I've used them,

I've found it to be a handy service. I do worry that they're just leaching money away from independant businesses, but I do appreciate the convenience of not having to try to make myself understood over the phone (I've not the greatest diction, so getting the wrong order is not unknow).

Lamont Cranston

Re: No British food

Hard luck - there's a place in Luton that'll deliver roast dinners (and no, it's not Meals on Wheels).

Europe approves common charger standard for mobe-makers

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

I'm sure this was relevant when the EU started debating it,

but pretty much everything has Micro-USB, now. Just my luck that most of my devices date from a few years previous, and have Mini-USB.

Satisfy my scroll: El Reg gets claws on Windows 8.1 spring update

Lamont Cranston
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Re: As if this will make people happy!

Thanks for telling me how I should have been using my PC.

I actually do use the start-menu-type-what-I'm-looking-for approach on my Mint desktop, but that's only because I've never gotten around to organising the menu properly (and thus can never find anything). I'd rather not flick my hand back and forth between keyboard and mouse, thank you very much, which was why my Vista (shut up) Start menu was organised so that everything I used regularly was accessible with a minimum of clicks.

Lamont Cranston

Having used every desktop version of Windows since 3.11,

8 has been the only version where I couldn't sit down in front of it and find what I wanted straight away.

I don't oppose change, but MS has made a huge mistake by not giving people what they want. Technically, my phone, tablet, and desktop all run Linux, but it doesn't take a genius to see why Android is not installed on my desktop.

Take the hint, MS, and make whatever-you're-not-calling-Metro go away on desktops - no more half-measures.

Plusnet shunts blame for dodgy DNS traffic onto customers' routers

Lamont Cranston
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Re: http://www.opendns.com/

If PlusNet are anything like their BT masters, then their routers won't allow you to change the DNS server settings, rendering OpenDNS worthless.

Blurred lines: Android e-ink mobe claims TWO-WEEK battery life

Lamont Cranston

More of this sort of thing, please!

Even if I don't actually want one.

Distro diaspora: Four flavours of Ubuntu unpacked

Lamont Cranston
Happy

Re: Minty

Another upvote for Mint, here. Was dual-booting with Vista but, since I upgraded my hardware, Vista almost never gets booted, anymore. As of Mint 15, I didn't even have to faff about to get my Broadcom Wifi working, either.

Does everything I want, bar playing nicely with the household printer, for some reason.

Fee fie Firefox: Mozilla's lawyers probe Dell over browser install charge

Lamont Cranston

£16?

I normally do that sort of work for a cup of tea, maybe a biscuit. I think I see why I'm still not worth £millions.

Why can’t I walk past Maplin without buying stuff I don’t need?

Lamont Cranston
Thumb Up

Very amusing.

I tend to find that I go in Maplin a lot, but leave empty handed as, if I pop in for a browse, I've enough self-control to avoid picking up armloads of crap, but if I pop in for something specific, they either haven't got it, or have it at too high a price.

Lamont Cranston

Having exhausted the entertainment potential of my work town,

I just pop in some earphones, and take a walk. It does you good to get away from your desk, rest your eyes, and take in some fresh air.

Good grief, that sounded smug - maybe I should take up jogging!

Blimey! ANOTHER Bitcoin bleed brouhaha

Lamont Cranston

Probably a silly question, as I know next to nothing about BitCoin,

but is it possible to invalidate the stolen BitCoins? I would have thought that they carried some sort of unique ID and, being virtual, it's the unique ID that gets stolen?

I'm probably wrong, as usual.

Your 'funny' cat pics are weighing down the web, so here's a better JPEG encoder from Mozilla

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: Question is, why isn't Firefox adding WebP/WebM?

You can't go around recommending Opera, anymore. Not since it became just another Chrome clone.

Insecure hipsters with BEARD ENVY spur facial hair transplant craze

Lamont Cranston
Thumb Up

As someone who has grown out his beard, in spite of it being somewhat patchy,

I'd just like to voice my approval of the tone of this article.

Two in five Brits cough up for CryptoLocker ransomware's demands

Lamont Cranston
Joke

More than 1 quarter of users have no antivirus running?

Who says Linux hasn't acheived critical mass yet?

Official FACT: Gadgets are giving YOU a wrinkly 'Tech Neck'

Lamont Cranston

They all laughed at me for wearing an ascot.

Well, who's laughing now?

Birds Eye releases 'mashtags' social spud snacks

Lamont Cranston

Re: Mashtags....

I assume that the smiley is actually #innocentface ?

Wii got it WRONG: How do you solve a problem like Nintendo?

Lamont Cranston

Re: Wii Component cable

I bought one of those, hoping for an improvement in the graphics. Granted, things got a little less blurry, but it still looks like arse on an HD Ready TV (just about passable on the kids 23" telly, unbrearable on the larger telly in the living room - and that's only 32"), and some of the games purchased through the online store refuse to work with it!

Our Wii is due to be replaced soon (2nd hand, knocking on a bit, and not seeing the latest releases) - tempted to get a U so that we can finish off any old Wii games, but a cheap PS3 is more appealing. Think I agree with everything in the article.

BBC, ITV gang up on YouView with 'FreeView Connect'

Lamont Cranston

Re: Red Button

Sounds reasonable, I suppose. My current box can display freeview channels that are delivered through the ethernet port, so I can't see that it would be a big stretch to have the Red Button point to one of those channels, rather than a "regular" freeview one.

Of course, this then borks the Red Button for anyone without an internet-connected freeview box!

Lamont Cranston

Maybe the BBC et al. should work on the marketing of YouView,

rather than throwing out what appears to be a perfectly workable platform? Having seen YouView running on my inlaws' BTVision, it'd be something I'd look for when replacing my current PVR. I can't see any benefit to them developing another, identical service.

You’re NOT fired: The story of Amstrad’s amazing CPC 464

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Re: History often comes with rose-tinted specs

I hate to agree with this, but articles like this one lead me to believe that Sugar does indeed know what he's doing (some of the time, at least).

Gamers in a flap as Vietnamese dev pulls Flappy Bird

Lamont Cranston

I don't have any friends.

Anyone want to sponsor me to the tune of £000s a week to prove that money doesn't have to make you miserable?

Facebook will LOSE 80% of its users by 2017 – epidemiological study

Lamont Cranston

Re: join the club...

In defence of various people's wives, letting Google find the page you want might well be a safer option than typing in what you think the URL might be - probably quite a high chance of landing on some impostor site, otherwise (pretty sure that "facebok.com" lands you somewhere unsavoury, for example).. Google's naggy little spell checker ("did you mean...?") has its uses!

Angry anti-NSA hackers pwn Angry Birds site after GCHQ data slurp

Lamont Cranston
Joke

Angry Birds lets the NSA know my sexual preferences?

I suppose it's no secret that I like birds, but not of the avian variety.

Volunteers slam plans to turn Bletchley Park into 'geeky Disneyland'

Lamont Cranston

Very sensible comment.

No museum is going to survive solely on middle-aged patrons. Still, sacking the tour guides is probably not the answer (I caught the piece on Radio 4, where the guide was sacked after taking his group round the computer museum - utterly heartbreaking).

Lamont Cranston

I don't think this is true.

Not all history on the beeb is in "docu-drama" format - there's plenty of person-who-knows-what-they're-talking-about-presenting-to-camera, too (Lucy Worsley's recent series comes to mind, particularly as her passion for the subject really comes through).