* Posts by Julian C

18 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2010

Tape never died, it was just resting

Julian C

Long lasting

I seem to recall some recent 'research' which revealed that the longest lasting media - allowing for electronic pulses/magnetic interference/degredation is good old plastic ticker-tape with holes in it!

South Carolina couple cop cuffing for shed shag

Julian C

Confusion?

Maybe they got confused by some of the advertising... there's a drive by Shed company near me (on Portsmouth Road near Ripley, Surrey) which for many years had a big sign out front announcing "FREE ERECTION"...

Just checked StreetView and unfortunately it's been removed ;-(

Police probe IDIOTIC Twitter bomb threats slung at journalists

Julian C

Losing meaning

@ Anonymous coward ... (ironic default moniker under the circumstances)

While I agree with you over the loss of meaning caused by overloading a perfectly good term with additional meaning that's what happens when the 'uneducated' press jump on a bandwagon.

I say that as an experienced hacker ... yes a 'hacker', not a 'cracker'. Someone who breaks into systems used to be called a cracker, whereas someone who could dive into a malfunctioning system at source code level. find and fix errors or add temporary fixes to treat symptoms was a hacker. Lost that battle eons ago though.

Back on topic - I'm concerned about the balance here. Whereas I deplore these types of tweets and hope these 'extreme trolls' suffer all the consequences they truly deserve in this nice, western, free-speech, human rights compliant country.

My concern however would be for citizens of countries who expose wrong-doings over twitter etc. and deserve anonymity but who may be traced using such mechanisms.

Raspberry Pi DUMBS DOWN to target world+dog

Julian C
WTF?

What nonsense! Why any betrayal?

Just who has defined the specific purposes of the Pi to the extent that any particular solution or part solution is a betrayal. The Pi is what it is ... an open, multi-purpose platform with a wide range of uses in the world of education, skills etc. There are alternatives out there, but who wants to fry a £200 assembly of components while 'playing', 'experimenting', 'investigating', 'prototyping', 'exploring', 'educating', 'learning' and even simply 'applying'.

If I were to set off to investigate an unmapped area of rain-forest in South America would I be betraying my principles if I used maps, public transport, airlines etc. to get there in the first place or do I have to hike and camp all the way?

Apple fanbois' accidental bonking ruled too obvious by watchdog

Julian C
Coat

'Obvious' is an interesting term

Without reading the fine detail just what is obvious?

That there is a problem to be solved?... obviously!

That there's a way of solving it?... well there are several ways of solving any problem and Motorola clearly came up with a way that was approved as a patent originally but shouldn't have if that solution was... obvious!

So either the system screwed up when the patent was granted or it screwed up now!

I can't help but stating that a screen device such as a tablet being carried around a lot might be best with rounded corners... or is that not obvious enough?

Gov report: Actually, evil City traders DIDN'T cause the banking crash

Julian C
Paris Hilton

Confused?

Sorry... confused:

"HBOS didn't have an investment bank of any size, and the losses it did make didn't come from the tiny one that it did have."

Did HBoS have an investment bank of any size or not? (as confused as Paris would be)

Modder hacks SimCity for unlimited offline play

Julian C
FAIL

Re: It's also a bit shit ...

Oh - this game has Zombies already... and a trash eating monster. In fact this game has lots of 'features'.

Unfortunately it lacks any resemblance to reality therefore is not a simulation.

It doesn't allow you to model a city... only a town.

The much touted 'individual Sims' are simply temporary message packets that are generated from one node with a primary task to which it finds the shortest route (even my mother can route better... and she's dead!) and when they arrive they're consumed (that is a nutshell is the much touted 'Glassbox' model); same goes for power, water, fire-engines, s#!t, etc.

Unless in Sandbox mode you're unable to turn off random zombie/monster/meteor disasters...

Where's my old SimCity 4 or 2000?

PayPal privates exposed after breach on SECURITY shop

Julian C
Black Helicopters

Just as Paypal decide to share our personal information to more 3rd parties!

Check out all the 3rd parties that PayPal want to 'share' our info too in the latest round of T&C updates...

https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/upcoming_policies_full

Time to close my account! Will slip by most who simply accept these things without reading them!

PayPal enters 21st Century with developer tools refresh

Julian C
Black Helicopters

Watch out for deluge of 3rd party spam/calls courtesy of Paypal's new agreement

Paypal are introducing a new Privacy agreement to which they've added a significant number of third parties, some of which are valid for monel-laundering monitoring and audit, but a significant number are marketing driven.

https://cms.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/upcoming_policies_full

My concern is that combined with an opening up of the APIs this is a privacy nightmare?

This is out of hand now: Apple attempts to trademark the LEAF

Julian C
Big Brother

Let's get the Fanbois in a lather...

But what could this be a trademarked logo for?

1. A device that, effectively in terms of fashion, turns brown and withers in Autumn/Fall and needs renewing every year? (like the iPhone, the one before that and the one before that etc...)

2. A thin surface created from wood pulp upon which marks can be made using deposit leaving instruments?(note to my patent and trademark lawyers, register iPen, iPencil, iCrayon etc asap... what I'm too late?)

3. A new concept of a trait inherited or adopted from ancestor or mentor, especially with regards to old books?

4. A fanboi credit card by Apple - so they get interest as well as the rest of the fanboi's money.

(why the icon? you had to be there in 1984...)

Lawrence 'Empire Strikes Back' Kasdan to pen future Star Wars script

Julian C
Facepalm

Annoying bear thingies

Hang on though, that''t the bloke who brought Ewoks into existence. Abandon hope!

Euro bigwig turns heat on 'unacceptable' Apple warranties

Julian C

But what's covered?

EU regs only apply to defects present when the customer takes delivery. The law says that retailers must sell goods that are 'as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality'. If a defect is detected when, or in a reasonable period of time after, the sale is made, then buyers can demand a full refund. However, the rules get fuzzier when faults develop over time and a buyer has to return goods after possessing them for a longer period. That's what they offer you the extra cover for!

Julian C
Meh

Try looking!

Not a fanboi at all, but it took me all of 30 seconds to find the following page (http://www.apple.com/uk/legal/statutory-warranty/) that clarifies what the customer gets from the standard 2 year EU regulations, what Apple offer free for a year and what you can pay to extend to 2 or 3 years.

Whether this is clarified in store when a fanboi is forking out their hard-earned for their fondleslab or iThingie and pressured by the salesperson to take out the extra AppleCare I can;t comment on.

Google offers tool to bridge Android and iOS app dev

Julian C
Holmes

Won't last long?

Is my memory faulty or do I recall Apple closing off apps developed using cross-platform tools from the apps store a few years back? Must be some fingerprint in code generated this way that they'll spot and close off too.

TBH I'd be more impressed if developers for the minority platform got such a tool rather than the other way round... ;-)

Mobile scaremongers want warning stickers on EVERYTHING

Julian C
Holmes

Not just drivers...

The article finishes with "the biggest danger from a mobile is being hit by the car within which it's being used". Almost as prejudiced as the bunch you're writing about...

Just as likely to be the mobile the pedestrian's holding to their ear when they step out into the path of the vehicle without looking, while removing the chewing gum from their mouth with one hand as they're attempting to also light a cigarette with the other hand while distractedly hailing a taxi passing the other way with their remaining hand...

"I deduce dear Watson that the victim was suffering from too many hands, probably a birth defect caused by mobile phones while in the womb!"

Sid Meier's Civilization

Julian C
Thumb Up

That's gameplay for you

What this 20 year long franchise proves is that you can;t beat good gameplay, and I still remember the first week I lost to this game on my Commodore Amiga.

Yes the latest version has fancy 3d animated scenery and units, but at the heart of it is the same basic, addictive, one-more-turn, play it in many different styles, as big or as small as you want it... gameplay.

You can take all your first-person shooters, Real Time Strategy (I still grate my teeth at the contradiction in that phrase) and waving your hands around in the air modern stuff - just give me another 20 years of Civilisation with carefully evolved tweaks to gameplay and I'll happily pop my mortal coil then!

Amazon randomly censoring incest books

Julian C
Grenade

Start with this book...

I expect to hear that Amazon have applied their censorship in an even handed way and removed other titles which throw incest about as though it were a normal state of affairs, that would surely please the "Moral Pejority" (TM Me 2010)... starting with the Old Testament!

Jobs: iPhone sales spank Android

Julian C
Paris Hilton

Reading between the lines...

"Forty per cent of iPhone owners have incomes of over $100,000 per year; only 28 per cent of Android-phone owners are that comfortable." means, iPhone owners have more money than sense!

"When they get their next smartphone, twice as many Android-phone owners want to switch operating systems than do iPhone owners (14 per cent versus 7 per cent)." means Android owners can't wait to get a phone that supports Android 2.x (majority of Android phones are 1.x)

(Paris as she doesn't want a phone smarter than her, unless it's got a really good video camera ;-)