Posts by Lamont Cranston

Basic income after automation? That’s not how capitalism works

Some excellent comments,

so maybe the terrible article was worth it, after all?

My Nest smoke alarm was great … right up to the point it went nuts

Re: "ripped the lot out to get some sleep"

Very much this. Our smoke alarms run off the mains. with battery backup but, if one battery fails, they all start beeping. As they're on the mains, pulling the battery doesn't stop the beep, so they've all been turned off at the fuse.

Super safe! Not helped by the fact that there's supposed to be a key to open the battery compartments, but the previous owner lost that, so we had to force them open with a screwdriver, breaking the battery caddy in some cases. Total crap.

Ordinary punters will get squat from smart meters, reckons report

Re: "We were assured that consumers will own their data and be able to decide who can access it."

I must be into my fourth year with smart meters. During that time, they've been read once by the energy supplier that had it fitted (as I was leaving them), and subsequent suppliers have been reliant on me taking the readings from the display on the meters (the portable display that came with the meters can't do even this simple task, so I've long since disconnected it).

If nefarious third parties are pilfering my data, perhaps they'd like to offer their services to the energy companies?

WTF ... makes mobile phone batteries explode?

Re: stick to the chargers provided with their mobile phones

Mobile phones don't tend to come bundled with chargers, these days, just the relevant USB cable.

Apple seeks patent for paper bag - you read that right, a paper bag

Re: full of shit

I came here to say that Apple is full of "post-consumer content," but you've beaten me to it.

'Oi! El Reg! Stop pretending Microsoft has a BSOD monopoly!'

Re: BSOD = Bloody Stupid/silly Operational Display

All the ATMs that I've seen go wrong end up with a Windows XP dialogue box displayed.

Milk IN the teapot: Innovation or abomination?

Anyone who puts the milk in tea whilst the bag is still in the cup

might as well just get their tea from a Klix machine.

ZTE Axon 7: A surprise flagship contender

Probably because the camera is a big deal for many buyers.

You can take it as given that any modern smartphone will make calls and browse the web adequately, and whether or not it can eliminate the need to carry a camera is next on the list for a lot of buyers.

Drones, weed and prison: Bloke pleads guilty over plan

People already moan that prisons are too soft.

I'm sure this plan will be an easy sell to the electorate!

Chinese demand end to canine carvery festival

Re: Think about cats, rats, monkeys and cute bugs as well as dogs!

You left out the part where you saved all the children from the Thuggee cult of Kali.

Sophos U-turns on lack of .bat file blocking after El Reg intervenes

Probably safe to assume that no one involved in this product is over the age of 30,

and thus have never heard of .bat.

Toyota not shybot about whybot it will trybot the iBot

re: scissor jack

But that won't get you up the stairs, will it?

Android Pay may, er, pay... providing it gets over security hurdle

Re: Excellent news

I use cash as little as possible (car parks seem to be a perennial problem), so I've upvoted, as I would like to see cash die out. I do have to wonder, though: what will the toothfairy leave under the pillow when cash is dead?

Forget high-powered PCs, mobile is the future of VR, says Google

Re: Don't need a high-end PC...

Extra batteries round the back of the headset, to offset the weight of the contraption covering your eyes?

Most people find 3D to be too much effort, and that's just a pair of plastic specs. I can't see VR taking off in a big way.

Android Pay debuts in UK

Re: No NO NO NO NO

To be fair, he froths with enthusiasm about every new development of anything, ever.

Much as I've said I don't want contactless payments on my phone, if it's just a case of waving the phone with no need to unlock, then it's likely as convenient as current contactless cards, and so the idea is appealing, at least. Security concerns loom large, however (not sure I want all my eggs in one phone, so to speak).

Cloudy desktops are as mature as cloudy servers … from 2008!

Re: During the meanwhile ...

A ZX80 ought to be enough for anyone.

Work begins on Russian rival to Android

Re: "'wipe drive and zero the firmware' update and send it via the auto-update mechanism"

As if Android handsets are going to receive updates!

IBM's Internet of Things brainbox foresees 'clean clothes as a service'

"“clean clothes” as a service, charging consumers by the wash"

Nice try, but I'm pretty sure I could find some prior art for the concept of the laundrette.

Wi-Fi network named 'mobile detonation device' grounds plane

I found "Pretty Fly For A WiFi" when scanning at a friends house.

It was swiftly eclipsed by "It Hurts When IP".

Ex-Apple gurus' elusive Android phone coming to UK next month

Good for them.

More competition in the "relatively low cost, not shit" sector, please.

Docker hired private detectives to pursue woman engineer's rape, death threat trolls

Re: How endemic is it? (@werdsmith)

You're right, this is nothing new. That doesn't mean that it's acceptable.

UK authorities probe 'drone hitting plane at Heathrow'

Re: Play "chicken"

I'd heard they use frozen chickens (or turkeys) for birdstrike tests. If a plane can withstand that, I can't see a quadcopter causing it much trouble.

Still, flying a drone around an airport is monumentally stupid.

Apple assumes you'll toss the Watch after three years

Re: Truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth

My old man was a road sweeper, and he used the same broom for 20 years. 17 new heads and 14 new handles, it had.

Hands on with the BBC's Micro:Bit computer. You know, for kids

Re: Except you need a Windows PC

Are there any schools without some sort of IT hardware available for the kids to use? Mine are only in years 3 and 4, and they do Scratch programming on a semi-regular basis (using Windows PCs that they acquired on a highly unfavourable IT contract that damn near bankrupted the school).

Re: "Coder"

The world has moved on. When we were kids, if you were introduced to a computer, you'd probably have had no choice but to use the command line. These days, a child's first experience of computing is probably a parent's iPhone - going from that to a blank screen with a flashing cursor that won't do sh!t until you learn some arcane language, probably isn't going to seem particularly encouraging.

Flying Scotsman attacked by drone

He'll surely have

loose bowels at the thought of all that.

LG builds a DAB+ digital radio radio into a smartmobe

Each to their own.

I have a DAB in my car, as well as streaming on my phone, and generally prefer to have the DAB on. I'll switch back to FM, if I'm in a poor reception area, but that only works for Radio 4, everything else that interests me is not available on FM.

Currently converting all my CDs to play through the radio's USB socket, but it's much less faff to just switch between the radio stations that interest me. I doubt you're the only one not interested, but plenty of people are able to find something on the radio that fits with their interests.

Knackered Euro server turns Panasonic smart TVs into dumb TVs

Re: I -literally- threw my TV set out the door years ago

Bet it looks lovely in the front garden, complementing the stained mattress and rusty washing machine.

Donald Trump promises 'such trouble' for Jeff Bezos and Amazon

Re: The Issue

Most don't pay because most reporting these days is a copy/paste from elsewhere and "investigative journalism" is a joke because most news outlets don't want to rock the boat in case the government stops throwing stories their way they don't have to.

I really don't think it's any more complicated than that.

Samsung now pushing Marshmallows into the Galaxy S6, Edge

Better aesthetics?

Most phones are a rectangle with rounded corners.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. That's how much Netflix uses its own data centres now

I rely on Netflix recommending things that I might like to watch.

Once if runs out of recommendations, I expect I'll ditch it. Both it and Amazon Prime are rubbish for films, anyway, thanks to Sky having the market stitched up.

Fake Flash update malware targets gullible Apple users

Don't pretend that this is unique to users of one particular operating system.

You know it isn't.

Pebble punts out new firmware to watch you as you sleep

10,000 arm movements?

What were you doing?

Leak – UN says Assange detention 'unlawful'

"UK already has verdict but not JA, public. So UK used BBC to 'scoop' UN, JA"

Is that Wikileaks getting upset about people leaking information to the press?

Uber rebrands to the sound of whalesong confusion

Re: Call a spade a shovel

I've actualised a lot of blue sky synergies from your comment, AC.

Brit censors endure 10-hour Paint Drying movie epic

Re: @Lamont Cranston - Yes, clearly the BBFC fees are prohibitively expensive.

Is that what this is about? 'Cos it looks more like an effort to piss money up the wall.

Seriously, though, if this is about films being refused classification on the grounds that they're "obscene", then that's a legitimate grievance, although it's the government that determines what is obscene, not the BBFC.

Yes, clearly the BBFC fees are prohibitively expensive.

Or rather, bored people have money to burn.

Terrible infections, bad practices, unclean kit – welcome to hospital IT

"it was impossible to run the MRI software on a newer operating system"

Can you please link back to this article whenever you run one about how the NHS has swathes of computers running XP and IE6? Thanks.

US rapper slams Earth is Round conspiracy in Twitter marathon

there's wind on the moon ?

have u been to the moon ? or is that what your science book told you

How to save Wikipedia: Start paying editors ... or write for machines

Start charging for Wikipedia,

and people would quickly stop using it, and it would be replaced by another freebie. People aren't paying for on-line encyclopaedias, and they won't pay for online encyclopaedias. Authoritative reference sources still exist, and Wikipedia won't put them out of business, so long as people still need them - Wikipedia is just a convenient resource that can be dipped into to get a quick primer on a given subject, or get a bit of trivia.

Yes, it's a monopoly, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over someone having a monopoly over trivia. It's only a problem if you believe Wikipedia is as important as Jimmy Wales seems to think it is.

Samsung sued over 'lackadaisical' Android security updates

Re: disgrunted owner of an original Nexus 7

f2fs (thanks, Samsung!) and Cyanogen - you'll be glad you did. If you're not keen on hacking your device, the Nexus Root Toolkit will do most of the work for you.

My Nexus7 is damn near as wizzy as the day I unboxed it, now. The latest Cyanogen available when I nuked it was KitKat, although I think Lollipop is available now (something to do at the weekend).

Crummy Samsung gear no one wants, now no one can get – well done, Apple

Patent lawyers...

... too much money and a bad attitude.

Apple backs down from barring widow her dead husband's passwords

Re: Acces to email?

ISP email? Is it 1996 again?

Surely you can factory reset an iPad without needing to know the previous owner's password?

Or are you supposed to be buried with it?

Legitimate concerns if all your family photos are stored in "the cloud", however.

Sorry, kids. Microsoft is turning Minecraft into an 'educational tool'

Re: I wouldn't be here today...

I know we love to blame Microsoft for all of the world's ills, but I think they're probably not to blame for the bombing of your nana's street.

Re: Give Microsoft a break

I won't downvote this comment, as it's true that Minecraft could make for some very engaging classroom projects (if you can disguise learning as a game, that's a massive win), but the idea that Microsoft are doing this for anything resembling altruistic reasons is laughable.

Microsoft have form when it comes to shovelling shit into schools and getting them to pay for it. Mind you, that's generally true of all school IT suppliers.

Re: I'll do it on the Pi thank you

Hasn't Minecraft on the Pi somewhat stalled? Last time I checked, it was lagging way behind the Pocket Edition, and that's already the red-headed step-child of the Minecraft family.

I'd be happy to be told otherwise.

Trump's new thought bubble: Make Apple manufacture in the USA

Re: "Why not just hand out moneys to people for doing nothing"

Isn't this the current Labour proposal for the Trident submarines?

Group rattles tin in bid to snatch TfL licence from Uber's paw

Isn't that exactly the sort of thing that Uber should be doing

as part of a properly regulated market?

You've heard of Rollercoaster Tycoon – but we can't wait for Server Tycoon

"recent M&S games"

This isn't just a data centre simulation, this is an Marks and Spencer data centre simulation.