Posts by The Bit Wrangler 54 publicly visible posts • joined 24 May 2010
Surely it's time for the UK to have a Mobile "Transco/Network Rail" that owns all the infrastructure and data and the "carriers" could just be billing agents? As well as sorting this load of old b*ll*cks it'd mean that we'd have consistent carriage over networks and could plan future enhancements in a meaningful way.
I've installed the Ofcom Research app recently which is gathering data of my connectivity in the background. It's Android-only (because background iOS apps can't access the network apparently) and you kinda have to trust that they won't misuse the data but I do hope they'll get a good load of feedback and hold the operators to task if they can show their connectivity isn't up to muster.
I've been an Opera devotee for a long time (version 2 ish I think) but since the Chrome conversion I'm not completely sold on it any more. Vivaldi looks good. Acid3 (natch) and HTML5 tests look great and it's really quick, I'll be switching very shortly unless it throws up something hideous in my further playing.
Nice job chaps!
Gavin and (to a degree) Jennifer. I think PC _can_ be a great doctor but someone has to make an effort with the scripts. The first one was just terrible with Capaldi and Coleman trying far too hard to make a genuinely awful script the series reboot it should have been. They've got slowly better, I'd like to see one where they don't refer to Clara's life on earth and just go on a whacky adventure - you know, like Dr Who!
I disagree almost entirely with Brid-Aine, but I can see the point-of-view. To me the relationship between Doctor and side-kick is very-much unimportant - it never used to be an issue pre-Billy Piper - can't we just go back to exploring the multiverse?
I've got a dash-mounted mobile phone that's nowhere near the swept-area. The clue is the name "dash-mount" rather than windscreen-mount. It's next to the stereo below the line of the top of the dash.
The number of pillocks I see on the roads with windscreen mounts IN FRONT OF THEIR FACE scares the crap out of me.
I'm pretty sure there was a court ruling allowing mounted phone-based GPS, it would be madness to say that GPS units were ok but phones weren't. I wouldn't want to be without Waze, the amount of sitting in jams it's saved me over the years...
Laudable, but just to be clear... "Organic" farmers don't stop using pesticides, they use really old-fashioned ones that don't do the job particularly well. Which means they mostly end-up using more of them to get some kind of yield. How that affects your "low impact" view, is your own business.
I used to use my work email for EVERYTHING but, when they made me redundant (unexpectedly redundant too...) the monumental PIA that was switching everything across to another email address gave me pause for thought. I then bought a domain and run on whichever ISP-given (or other) email account I feel comfortable with pointed to from my shiny domain.
This means I can switch ISPs without a big hassle (just point the domain at the new account). It also means I can use individual usernames for each individual company I deal with and, therefore, know when some scumbag has sold my details on to spam providers. Very satisfying :-) you can not only whine at them for doing such you can also block the emails by forwarding that user to oblivion.
Work email address is now just for work, which is actually a nice separation of work/home. I don't really consider it "mine".
Use a decent editor, of course, and when you close the brace it matches it visually with the corresponding open. If the opening brace is off the page Emacs will show the matching line in the message-line. If you put the opening brace on a line of its own THAT COMPLETELY F*CKS IT!
I've always been hoping someone would write a code-styler that we could hook-into revision control so the in-repo copy has no spacing at all (thereby saving all those "extra bytes") but when you take your copy it re-formats the files to your favourite format.
New York Times eh ? I think I'll wait for Hello! to pitch-in...
Indeed, I always liked Waze but found that even in the South East of England there weren't enough users to give an absolutely useful speed prediction (this may have improved it's been over a year since the App would run on my ancient original HTC Desire). I always thought if Google could get hold of it and thus increase the data sampled it would be great!
My other problem with Waze, though, was that they didn't seem to use the traffic speed they clearly knew about in real-time route planning. I often hit traffic only to find that Waze knew full-well that it was there and had done for some time... but it didn't even try to re-route me.
More users giving data and a bit of tweaking and this could make Maps/Waze a truly brilliant app.
So, Anna has found a problem from 200 million samples. You haven't from... 1.Which is statistically significant?
I would suggest that there are some people with the problem suggests it exists whereas your sample size is probably a little small to be useful.
I'd imagine if the problem was more wide-spread Apple might be working harder to fix it (see Antennagate) doesn't mean it's not an issue, though.
...the main reason for this is that iPhone owners (amazingly, still) sit on the tube and walk about with their phone on display. Even when they're not using them I've seen so many iPhone owners simply brandishing them. I've got news, guys, the only people that do care are the ones who've made this stat a reality.
" it is more than what you get on your fandroid equivalent where you need to press 5,000,000 option buttons to turn the damn thing to silent"
Really ? It's on the lock-screen on mine (o.k. I'm running Gingerbread I've no idea about later versions but I'd be surprised if they moved it particularly deep).
What, precisely, did Apple patent? They appear to be claiming ownership of Processors (every phone has had one for a very long time), Graphical User Interface (I'm not sure there's been a phone that didn't have one, again, for a long time), Graphics (oh, f*** off), Apps (not seen any Symbian phones then?), Touch (no, there were no touch screens before the iPhone... <that was sarcasm in case you missed it>), Music (again, every phone I've owned since the 80's), Video (see Graphics), Gaming (see Apps).
The problem here is that it's in a US court and it's a US company vs a (fairly evil, let's face it) Korean company so it's likely to get a favourable hearing. If this gets through it will make any other phones very difficult to market in the US (since Apple will just wave their "we own computing" judgment and sue competitors off their patch).
I'm not surprised Samsung refused to pay the "licence", I'm surprised they didn't report Apple for racketeering!
"Errmm - no it doesn't. In the UK only, it may set a precedent for a judge to consider, but each case will be judged on its own merits."
But in any other country Samsung's lawyer is simply going to point to their own UK website and say "Why does this say that Samsung aren't copying you ?". Sure they can say "because the UK court is wrong" but it doesn't take away from the fact that their own site has a statement opposing their other law-suits.
Of course, I expect Apple to wriggle a hell of a lot before they'll actually do this. Would they actually pull-out of the UK market before complying with this?
"who buys milk in pints?"
We all do - those 1,2 and 4 containers are 1, 2, and 4 (plus 1/2 and 6) PINTS. Check out Tesco/Asda/whoever's websites.
I agree with your first point, though. It doesn't matter how it's measured it's the convenient (and traditional) amount that's the issue. Half a litre isn't very satisfying (despite being only 68ml less than a pint.
You say "compellingly demonstrate that CC is occurring that mankind has significantly contributed to it and some likely scenarios for what will happen", I say "proof". I think mine is snappier and yours is more factually correct. I've seen neither.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen all sorts of reports that make headway (for both arguments) but none that has enough weight to warrant or proclude the wholesale change to the way people live their lives. I suggest this is the problem.
The Lung Cancer/Smoking analogy is nearly good except there are physical and psychological addictions in addition to the simple habit and reluctance to change. The science of the connection between lung cancer and smoking is, of course, complicated and offers sources of deniability (Japan paradox for example) but the case has been made to the point that people do smoke less these days (and the majority of the population support removal of smoking in public places).
Evolution, similarly, offers deniability in that the mechanisms aren't completely understood but the massive weight of evidence in support that there haven't been this range of species on Earth for the lifetime of the planet points toward evolution being closer to the answer than creationism. People whose faith is shaken by the idea will use the deniability to justify their faith but the consensus is fairly easy to follow.
None of this is the case for CC, we're told there's scientific consensus but the reasons for that consensus are a lot less obvious, there's also a lot of evidence that supports the negative case. (For example the Vostock ice-core data clearly debunks the idea that CO2 lags temperature but it also debunks the idea that the reverse is universally true). Until the evidence clearly leans one-way or the other you cannot possibly suggest fixes, even more so if those fixes negatively impact peoples' lives). Why can't they get on with the science and suggest fixes when it's actually more understood ? Why do we have to act NOW when there's not enough evidence to suggest that acting will have a positive effect?
Sure, an asteroid might be heading towards Earth but do we know for certain that it's going to hit or is getting Bruce Willis to dust off his vest and go drilling actually going to divert it towards us ?
The "treatment" is easy. Simply show the world the overwhelming evidence that actually proves the case rather that a couple of studies that imply it. Asking people to make huge, negative changes to their lifestyles is always going to be a difficult task but backing up the need to do so with some actual evidence would start the consensus required rather than simply telling people "but it's true".
I'm climate agnostic, I can believe the climate is changing (in fact I'd be astonished if it wasn't, that's what climates do) but if we're affecting that change in any way or if we can actually do anything to prevent catastrophic change I just don't know. I simply haven't seen enough evidence one way or the other, certainly not to push the stop button on the industrial world. I hear that the scientific community has reached this consensus but they've unilaterally failed to convey the evidence to the public. Until they do that massive change will be impossible.
Fortunately my car has a feature to prevent such SatNav mishaps. It's a clear, covered opening in front of the driver. I call it the "windscreen". By looking through it I can usually detect ditches, cliffs, rivers and level-crossings in time to avoid driving into, off, through and over such hazards.
I have noticed that a number of other cars on the road appear to have the same feature, indeed most do, although some drivers do seem to have mistaken theirs for a SatNav mount point in order to place their gadget in their eye-line while driving...
...just use the pay my employer gives me to do the same and not have to face stoopid questions from marketing-types (who already think I'm the sort of moron that would want an iPad) and endless spam and calls from same.
You appear to be equating "entering a draw for" with "getting". You may suffer some disappointment in life.
Really? Unfair? No, I'm afraid not Gearbox. DNF is a prescient acronym since I could not be bothered to finish what was a truly terrible game. Waiting forever for restarts and scene-changes to load is so 90s. Games have moved on. The graphics are also dated a the gameplay itself is awful. The humour is superb (if you're a big child like me) but, sadly, can't detract from the fact that this is a very old game dressed up as something new.
To quote Good Morning Vietnam the Duke "sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls".
To be fair this is true of any phone-based GPS - it was true on the N95 (yeah, sorry Apple, iPhone wasn't anywhere near cutting-edge here, surprise!) and it's true on all the Android handsets. Keeping track of live GPS tracking and routing information just takes a lot of processing power and that takes battery. I installed a N95 charger when I used that, now I have a Desire dock in my car to make it usable.
Most GPS units have MUCH bigger batteries than phones (and the vast majority are cabled-in to the charger too).
I've seen this running on an N8 and it is STAGGERINGLY good. Elop must've seen this before he made his dumb call, what was he thinking ? Admittedly it's a long-time too late but it could've been the start of a fight-back for Nokia - they built a lot of good-will and I reckon a lot of people would keep with them without Windows but with it.
I completely agree that Nokia's mess was started way pre-Elop, they needed a strategy for the smart-phone market that would compete with iOs and Android and they needed it two/three years ago (a decent UI on-top of Symbian would've made a difference even though Symbian was - and still is - flawed).
The thing is they now do have a strategy but it's arguably worse than simply doing nothing. Windows has never been a viable smart-phone OS. They've had two full goes at making something that will compete and both have failed to make any ground (despite the massive M$ marketing machine behind them).
Also, they're bringing it to market on the back of a platform that is, traditionally, anti-M$. Existing Nokia buyers aren't going to want to touch a Windows phone and the very few Windows devotees are going to be highly dubious of Nokia.
If I were Nokia I'd stay in the brace position for a little while yet, bottom is a long way away but acceleration will get them there soon.
Yup, that's the figure that leaps-out for me too. Apple's smart-phone share increase of nearly 100% in a year... impressive. Unless you compare it to the Android increase of 1439%
If you want an Apple-based headline how about "Apple doubles Smart-phone sales (but loses market share)"?
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