
Why
is a 10 inch tablet being "offered exclusively by Vodafone"? It's not like it's going to fit in your pocket, so it'll end up tied to an expensive data plan that you don't need.
I want affordable, not subsidised.
1555 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Apr 2010
I viewed this in the same way as all those "every time you forward this email, Microsoft will donate $1 to the Make A Wish Foundation" emails (that still appear to be doing the rounds) - i.e. spam.
As it's not a hoax, I'll assume that I just don't understand twitter.
I'm not sure that this is over, yet, as I can easily imagine cloud-based apps becoming dominant in the home market (less likely in business), particularly if we all start buying tablets (or netbooks) - e.g. who needs email client software at home?
As for mobile apps, I'm not sure I really understand the point of them, when my phone has a web browser. Maybe it's my age...
if you never give kids what they want (ever), then they are sure to grow into well rounded (no pun intended), confident individuals, who conform precisely to your view of the world.
The chances of them going totally of the rails, because "Mummy and Daddy don't love me," must be slim to none.
it'll pick up a small but devoted following, until Sony realise just how small this following is and abandon it.
Lynx/Game Gear vs Gameboy, again, and Nintendo will win (again).
Shame, really, as it's exactly the sort of thing that I would have lusted after, when I was 13.
the band can strut about on stage, pretending to play, and the attendees can listen to their latest album through their phones.
In fact, why not just skip the whole "going out" part, altogether?
TONIGHT, live at YOUR HOUSE: a CD you bought, yesterday.
(please provide your own mud and overpriced beer in a plastic cup)
that is bundled with the HomeHub.
I use mine with both Windows and Linux (wireless and wired), and have not installed any of BT's software, as the web-based frontend (bthomehub.home) works fine.
The bundled software is hand-holding bloat, that no one needs (my mother-in-law has it on all of here PCs/laptops, and it is slow and useless, and has never acheived anything).
Still, I wouldn't expect the BT sales droids to understand this - I've had one explaining to me that I really should go for their Infinity package (only £1.64 extra per month!), despite the fact that a) they'd need to tear a hole in my house just to replace the phone socket and b) I'm moving out (I'll probably get a much better deal when I become a new customer again).
On the rare occassion that I'm in the branch near work, I get confused looks from the staff when I ask for an extra shot of espresso (I like my latte to taste of coffee, not hot milk); even then, it's still piss weak. Kevin Day described their coffee as "homeopathic," and I'm inclined to agree with him.
Don't even think about getting an iced coffee from them, either, as that really is brown milk (but mixed with ice!) - they don't even brew a shot to put in, just pull a bottle of pre-flavoured milk from the fridge. Yuk.
but I would like to see Microsoft (and everyone else) change their practices so that you cannot make repeat purchases on a saved credit card without some further authorisation.
I had money taken off my debit card (by my own father!) after failing to realise that Amazon doesn't have a log off function. I know better, now (my debit card stay off-line, and I put nothing through his malware infested PC), but how many people know about clearing their cookies, etc.?
Standard rant about an unsupervised child having access to an online account, naturally, but can't she just send it all back for a refund?
and rarely use the On Demand service (2 films, and 1 episode of Ben 10 in the past 4 years). Series I really want to see get recorded (most are on after 9pm, and I can rarely be bothered to stay up past 10pm), but for me (and, I suspect, most 30-somethings) TV is a passive medium - i.e. I'll plonk down in front of it and let it wash over me, often whilst talking or reading, activities which will get the most of my attention, only paying attention to the TV if something interesting comes on.
My kids seem keener on watching what they want, when they want (probably because they're all under 5, and haven't discovered patience), but that's far more likely to come off YouTube (or Megaupload) than BT Vision, as I really don't see any value in paying for TV.
"ISPA’s view is that the most effective way to control children and young people’s access to content on the Internet is through parental control software."
That seems reasonable. I'm pretty sure that my DVD-player has a parental control option, but I've never needed it, as my kids don't get unmonitored access to it (or the DVD collection). Likewise, I'll let them on the PC, under my supervision. When they're older, I'll make some effort at filtering what they can access, but not be so naive as to assume that it'll be 100% foolproof - it'd be like asking boys to not look at the top shelf in the newsagents.
Parental responsibility, what a crazy notion.
"parents can be too busy, or uninterested and sometimes not even literate" - no excuse for the first two, the third is just depressing.
By my reading of it, the article makes no mention of the user having his own backups, so you'd only glean this information by clicking one of the linked articles.
My reaction to the article was along the lines of "So what, he must have backups." From the comments here (I didn't read any of the linked articles, either), I gather that the problem is not the loss of the photos, rather the structure of his blog, and the time invested in it, and the working of any links to his blog. Again, so what? If his blog was so important, maybe a free photo site wasn't the place to host it? (I may be missing something here, but I really don't care).
How about this:
If it's a real weapon, you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it could be (mis)used as a weapon, you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it could be mistaken for a real weapon (and hence utilised to make threats) you cannot bring it on the plane.
If it is obvioulsy not a real weapon, and could not be used as one, then you can bring it on.
Granted, this leaves some room for interpretation, but I'd like to imagine that those doing the security checks would have had some training (ha ha).
anyone making light of anything could be taken as offensive, both to myself and to others.
Therefore, if everyone could just shut up, break the silence only to apologise to me, then to everyone else, and then shut up again, permanently, I think we can all agree that everyone would be a lot happier.
given that DVB still does not work as promised*, and nationwide access to "superfast" broadband isn't going to happen any time soon, I'm not going to hold my breath.
A unified platform would certainly make buying a new TV a simpler process (and save faffing about with HTPCs and the like), but is there really any appetite among consumers to refresh their equipment again, straight after the digital switchover?
Still, two fingers up to Virgin and Sky is always good.
*Yes, I have more channels, but they break up when it rains, so that's hardly a massive improvement over the old analogue signal.
was that all of their (vast) revenue comes from adverts (ie. pointing you at other products), whilst the consumer products they produce are just window dressing.
Thus, Google make Chrome, which users love, not because Google wants you to have the best browser ever, but so that they can better serve up ads - the revenue for them comes from the ads, not the browser, which is given away for free, but the browser is the tangible product (from the end user perspective).
The disbelief that people actually click on the ads? I have that, too (same for facebook ads).
I rip all my music at the lowest bit-rate possible, so as to cram as much as possible onto my 4GB ZenV. I've no desire to invest in extra hard drive capacity for my home PC, either. Most of my music listening is done on the move (either through the Zen or in the car) so premium quality is a waste of time for me. I'm also not made of money.
Similarly, HD-TV strikes me as a waste of money - yes, it does look better, but not so much so that I'd feel the need to junk my telly and DVD player and re-purchase all of my films. Analogue broadcast is fine for day to day viewing, although I do appreciate the extra crispness of a well mastered DVD.
Perhaps when I retire, I'll find that I have the time to just listen to music, and the spare cash for the appropriate equipment...
where the BBC journo claimed to have built his mobile malware with no knowledge of mobile programming. That he was assisted by an "application security firm" leads me to believe that writing a virus for mobiles is not quite as simple as he would make out.