* Posts by Lamont Cranston

1555 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Apr 2010

Writers' alliance throws the book at Apple 'piracy'

Lamont Cranston

Copyright theft?

Apple? China? This is pure troll-bait!

Met plod will use 1980s software to police Olympics

Lamont Cranston

Tsk.

Last summer's riots were coordinated with Twitter and BBM. The police could move to either with minimal financial outlay. Why, just thinking about this makes me feel safer.

New iPad: The only review roundup you'll ever need

Lamont Cranston
Joke

"We'll keep refining it, it's plainly not working yet."

Enough about Android, what about the iPad?

High Court confirms 'cheap DVD' tax loophole will close

Lamont Cranston
Facepalm

Yes, George,

consumers will happily pay more for their entertainment media, happy in the knowledge that this will help swell the government coffers, letting you pay off that massive deficit that we all caused.

There's simply no way that people will switch to illegal downloads, and HMV will be saved!

Comet and Walmart battle for Game

Lamont Cranston
Joke

Re: CeX

There's something very off-putting about visiting the Sex Change shop. Not that going on the Game is much of an improvement.

PhD pimp's mobe lock screen outwits Feds - Google told to help

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Sounds about right.

Shows the inherent danger with touchscreen interfaces, too - when my LG Cookie packed up, there was no way to get anything off the damn thing, which is why I now make a point of buying phones with keyboards (and making regular backups, obviously).

Still, I'm slightly upset that law enforcement don't really have that cable that they use on CSI - you know, the one that fits any phone and gives instant access to everything on it? You'll be telling me that they can't really enhance 2 pixels of CCTV footage into a high-res picture of someone's face, next.

Cambridge student wins 'Hack Idol'

Lamont Cranston

Hack Idol?

I prefer Britian's Got Telnet.

Game Group shares slide under a penny

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

I have to come out in their defence.

There's both a Game and a Gamestation, in the town where I work (heaven knows why), and I've found the staff in both the be very helpful. There's also a new branch of Gamestation, near where I live, and likewise, it's always been a pleasant experience.

Then again, I don't game much, anymore, and what I do buy is invariably pre-owned, so I'm probably not the sort of consumer that they can base a business around.

So long, Game.

Archos touts Android tablets for toddlers

Lamont Cranston

In my limited experience*,

kids don't really need a dumbed down interface. My 5 year old can find and double-click the Firefox icon on my Vista desktop, without it needing to be anymore Fisher-Price than it already is. Not to mention, piss about with the widgets.

I think I'd rather he learnt on a "proper computer" now, lest he find them all terribly confusing when he grows up**.

*Alt: "Speaking as a parent (so feel free to ignore me)"

**Alt: "becomes an Apple customer" (sorry, couldn't resist)

Facebook blamed for getting Thai teens up the duff

Lamont Cranston

Re: Football, eh?

Nothing like a game of 5-a-side. Mrs Palm's girls have been on fine form, this season.

Ten... PlayStation Vita launch games

Lamont Cranston

Back in the day,

most magazines used to print a key to their % scores, so there wasn't any whining about so many games getting 80%+. El Reg ought to put out something like that, if only for the mobile phone reviews.

Daniel Craig like Connery, Skyfall helmsman suggests

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Oh, please!

Like we need any more of Bill Nighy on telly.

SMS compo firms fined £200k for typosquatting, misleading punters

Lamont Cranston

That was my first thought, too.

Fingers crossed that the organisations spoofed do sue the hell out of them.

British Medical Association calls for long, slow rollout of NHS 111

Lamont Cranston

Given that NHD Direct is already a massive waste

of time and money, 111 looks to be nothing more than something to wave about when the government shuts down more Walk-in Centres and A&Es.

Bah!

SexInfo 101

Lamont Cranston

"drill down"

Bravo!

Nokia Asha 201 Qwerty phone

Lamont Cranston

Shame this wasn't out when my better half was in the market for a new phone.

Her Xperia Mini Pro is more phone than she really needs. Still, kudos to Nokia for continuing to make this sort of thing.

Boy died after satnav fault delays ambulance

Lamont Cranston
Thumb Down

Re: On the positive side...

You're right. What kind of society is this, where we don't seek to punish children for the heinous crime of being born to poor parents?

Anyone claiming that state benefits are "overly generous" should be forced to live on them for a year. Preferably on some shitty sink estate.

21st Century Sex: the shape of things to come

Lamont Cranston

Re: Re: Reverting to Form (@KevinR)

I know what you mean, but the technology discussed here has the potential to allow people to connect in different ways, in addition to just tossing oneself off.

Let people make of it what they will. We've had our right hands and imaginations since forever, and society hasn't completely collapsed, yet.

Ten... digital adult toys

Lamont Cranston

Nothing for the guys?

What's your hand for, then?

MySpace no longer crying a river with 1 MILLION new punters

Lamont Cranston

Good for them.

Leaving Google and Facebook to fight over the social networking crown, whilst carving out a useful niche for themselves.

NASA plans manned Deep Space Moon outpost

Lamont Cranston

Has the news of the relaunch of Space:1999

been timed to garner public support for this project?

Muscle pants give girls that skin-stripped look

Lamont Cranston

Leggings

should be made illegal on grown-ups. All women, regardless of body shape, look ridiculous wearing them.

Cool designs, though.

Fondle my slab, baby: Inside the tactile world of Apple-fan iDating

Lamont Cranston
Devil

Coldplay?

Bwahahaha!

Tesla X e-SUV to sport monster touchscreen on the dash

Lamont Cranston

It looks like any modern Jag/BMW.

ie. fugly. Shame, really, as gull wing doors are awesome. Make it look like Matt Tracker's Thunderhawk , and I will start saving, just so I can drive around with the doors open (flight, optional).

Ten... Valentine's Day gifts for her

Lamont Cranston

@jack

Your whole post reads as one big euphemism. "Bread oven" I understand, "turkey soup" I don't want to think about.

Google pushes your buttons in its top strip bar - AGAIN

Lamont Cranston

No shopping search,

and a less functional video search?

Does someone want to remind Google that search is what bought them all their users?

ViewSonic V350 dual Sim Android smartphone

Lamont Cranston
Joke

You forgot about the moon.

On a stick.

Gun controlled lamp hits the spotlight

Lamont Cranston
Unhappy

Toy gun bad,

real gun good?

Dead gamer sat unnoticed for nine hours in net cafe

Lamont Cranston

"discovered lifeless by his computer"?

Mine never bothers to check on my condition.

Demand for safety kitemark on software stepped up

Lamont Cranston
Thumb Up

Quite.

First time I got the Verified By Visa window, I assumed it was a scam, as I'd been unaware of it until then.

Drink diet pop all the time? Look forward to VASCULAR DEATH

Lamont Cranston

re: not to mention

On the rare occassion that I will drink something fizzy, I'll normally choose Diet Coke/Pepsi over regular, as they taste sweeter, and thus are more enjoyable. At least to me, anyway. But it's a rare thing, like if I'm at the cinema, or have taken the kids to MacDonalds.

If anyone's interested, I do indeed have the body of the diet coke window cleaner.

Google 'chooses' not to censor Mosley content, MP says

Lamont Cranston
FAIL

Dear Max,

The best way to get everyone to forget about the "Nazi sex orgy" that never happened, would be to shut up about it. Pursuing Google through the courts because you can use it to find websites that make mention of it, is just drawing attention to it, and reminds everyone that a) you pay for sex and b) your dad was a fascist.

Give it up, and go away.

Sony PlayStation Vita offered for 80 quid

Lamont Cranston

In defense of Gamestation,

there is something quite nice about being able to walk into a shop, choose a game, buy it and take it home to play, all on the same day. Particularly if you have kids.

That said, I don't want a PSVita, so carry on (and, if I did, I doubt I'd get much discount from my PS2).

Airbrushed Rachel Weisz gets watchdog hot under the collar

Lamont Cranston

When I was young,

I learned that, as people age, so their appearance changes - hair goes gray, skin wrinkles, height is lost, and so on. I also learnt that this is totally normal, and not something to worry about.

Eurocom Panther 2.0 Core i7, SLI notebook

Lamont Cranston

Probably for the benefit of US customers.

Afterall, Mexico is part of Europe.

iPhone 5 rumoured to be packed with pay-by-bonk tech

Lamont Cranston

If memory serves,

a "bonk" is a large marble. What on earth were you thinking of? ;-)

Pope praises Twitter and your 'profound' tweets

Lamont Cranston

I'm pretty sure

that this is a myth, of the "Q. I this a question? A. If this is an answer." variety.

Starship Voyager dumped into skip

Lamont Cranston

@Norfolk 'n' Goode

All well and good, but it's not his house.

There's a difference between living the life you choose (nothing wrong with clinging to the passions of youth, imho), and acting like mummy is still looking after you.

Sadly, this guy is firmly in the latter camp.

Lego readies kit for Minecraft lovers

Lamont Cranston

@bluesxman

Until recently, I would have agreed with you. Having got back in to Lego, via my son, I now see that all the custom parts are just as useful as the regular bricks, and merely expand your building range.

It's as true as it's ever been that, as far as Lego is concerned, the only limit is your imagination (actually, this might be the slogan from something else). Have a look in The Lego Ideas Book, if you think Lego has gone stale.

Kiwis collar Megaupload kingpin, Anonymous exacts revenge

Lamont Cranston

"pay for it or go without."

All well and good, but the only material I've ever taken from sites like MU was stuff that I couldn't pay for, even if I wanted to, because the owners were not willing to distribute it.

To echo the sentiments issued previously in this thread, if the big media companies were offering the service that people wanted, piracy would go down considerably (I'm not going to claim that it'd be eliminated).

How can family sysadmins make a safe internet playground for kids?

Lamont Cranston

Maybe it's because your a grown-up

and have some idea of what you're doing?

Lamont Cranston

This maybe sad but true,

but it's still no reason not to enforce the best practice you can within the environment for which you are responsible.

Do what you can, and hope for the best, I suppose.

Lamont Cranston

Oh, dear.

My five year old can read, and is quite capable of firing up firefox when he feels like it (or clearing all the icons from my desktop, mucking up my widgets, or whatever), and gets a lot out of sites like CBeebies, Sesame Street, and You Tube. He can't load the sites for himself (yet) but he can successfully navigate them without assistance.

My three year olds aren't at that level, but they can both play the games on the CBeebies site, without any assistance.

I don't know what world it is where 6 year olds cannot read, but in this one, pre-schoolers learn basic mouse skills.

I can look back and laugh at my father's inability to use the family VCR, but I really do worry about my ability to effectively regulate my own offspring's internet experience.

'Why would I make any more Star Wars movies?'

Lamont Cranston

He does appear to have confused his constant tinkering with the existing films,

with the act of making new ones.

Wikipedia to shut down Wednesday in SOPA protest

Lamont Cranston

Will be a good day

to get some work done, then.

Footie club sacks striker for homophobic tweet

Lamont Cranston

@Chris W

Get thee to a divorce court, pronto! And don't forget to tweet me the details.

Lamont Cranston

@Chris W

I'll agree that persecuting someone, based on their views is wrong, and so I won't be firing up a burning brand and chasing anyone out of town, any time soon.

However, if you are going to express hateful views, then it surely must be expected that those around you will disassociate themselves from you, much as the football club has done in this case (the sacking probably the result of a contractual obligation to not bring the club into disrepute, or somesuch).

Pure Highway 300Di in-car digital radio kit

Lamont Cranston
Joke

Driving along

with a laptop on the dash, are you?

Lamont Cranston
Go

You're not a fan of DAB, then, Grease Monkey?

I had the previous version of the Highway, and I rather liked it. With just regular radio, I tended to build up a massive pile of CDs in the car, but DAB offered choice beyond just irritating pop crap and Radio 4. Planet Rock, mostly, if I'm honest.

Don't use it any more though, as all the trailing wiring was a bit of a nightmare, it was a bugger to retune whilst driving, and a bit of a pain to plug in each time I got in the car. Didn't help that the windscreen mount melted in the sun, and I lost the aerial when I sold the car. All in, this new version looks like a good improvement (not that I'd want some spotty oik from Halfords, tinkering around in my car).

India threatens to block Google, Facebook and chums

Lamont Cranston
Facepalm

"India's minister of information technology, denied that the demand amounted to censorship"

In other news, I have a house-trained bear, and the Pope is a Hindu.