Posts by MrXavia

Driverless cars deal death to Detroit, says Barclays

Re: Hype

A normal taxi costs £50+ round trip to my nearest town (and that is only 20 miles away).

If I do that only twice a week and its already £5000/year.

Taxis are only cost efficient if your in a town and travel rarely.

Next-gen Freeview telly won't be another disruptive 4Ker

So, Freeview Play, will Samsung upgrade their TV's with it? considering one of the selling points of the TV I brought this year was the fact it could be upgraded....

Answer? Unlikely.. (although I have to admit they have been pretty good at pushing out updates for my 3 year old phone)

4K refresh sees Blu-ray climb to 100GB, again

Re: Total waste of time

Why?

1) Because you own the media, and your right to watch can't be revoked.

2) No internet required to watch, so I can watch anywhere.

3) No minimum internet speed or juddering because of BT Issues

4) Quality.. Streaming is no where near the quality of a Blu-Ray

5) The physical boxes look nice & make it easy for kids to watch

The first 4 matter to me, but all could be fixed by providing easy DRM Free downloads..

the last one is less of a concern, my kids an easily navigate to my NAS where I store all my recorded TV.

Self-STOPPING cars are A Good Thing, say motor safety bods

Re: I hope this is programmed right ...

I have something like this, but its not designed to stop the car totally, just reduce the impact speed when a collision is guaranteed...

What IS great is the forward alert, if the car predicts a collision, it will alert me in plenty of time, and I can brake myself, it has saved me from a potential accident when I was in heavy traffic and the guy in front braked while I was checking mirrors/blind spots for a gap to merge into the left lane...

So all in, if done right, I.E. an alert plus emergency braking, then it will reduce accidents...

Swedish Supreme Court keeps Assange^TM in Little Ecuador

I assume we'll send the bill to the Sweeds?

It is them after all that have asked for him,so they should cover the cost right?

Ding-dong, the cloud calling: The Ring Video Doorbell

Re: Interesting...

Doorbird seems better, if a little less pretty, reading the 'ring' specs, looks like it can't even open doors!

One question How secure it is?

(physical AND network security? That is what I would like to know..

This seems perfect to replace my expensive but pretty basic Daitem Gate Intercom....

Theresa May: Right, THIS time we're getting the Snoopers' Charter in

Re: Good - Forces me to get off my arse and encrypt everything

I really hope that this snoopers charter is blocked again by the lords....

But its still not as bad as Cameroons idiotic suggestion that no communication should not be readable by the government...

Facebook echo chamber: Or, the British media and the election

Re: let king Chuck the first rule by Royal Decree?

Maybe not king Chuck... but King William? why not!

he'd probably do a better job than the idiots in power now....

Why? because he is born to it, expected to do the right thing ALL the time...

politicians are not born to power, they choose power, and as everyone knows, anyone who chooses power shouldn't have power..

That is why I like the idea of a non-elected house of lords, those who are selected should not be there because they want to be, but because its their duty... maybe have it like jury duty, every parliament people are selected from the populace at random and granted a Lordship for those 5 years....

Have a decent wage(£200k/year) plus expenses to ensure there is less of a reason to try and wiggle out of it like there is with Jury Duty..

iPhone case uses phone's OWN SIGNAL to charge it (forever, presumably)

Re: Morons.

Actually the smart road has some merit, your only capturing existing vibrations and converting to electricity, the vibrations themselves have no purpose...

Although a better idea is to have roads made from some form of solar/thermal energy capture, since they are exposed to sunlight for much of the time...

The iPhone signal harvesting is like driving a car on a treadmill..

Italian ISS trekkie sips first zero-G cup of espresso in SPAAAACE

Re: And I thought that in space nobody could hear...

Finding a good cup of coffee is very very hard, its all about the beans, and no offence intended, but Lavazza is not a name I associate with the best coffee...

UK exam board wants kids to be able to Google answers

Apart from the times tables, I agree, there is a purpose to knowing your times tables by rote, makes mental multiplication easier, and that is a useful tool...

Definitely no, but then again Exams are poor metrics

I always thought exams are a bad metric when grading a person, the best idea is to use coursework and constant monitoring, sure you need exams, just ensure the exam paper itself has all the information required....asking someone to remember an equation is not that important, but being able to use an equation when given is...

E-voting and the UK election: Pick a lizard, any lizard

Re: Not an election

Nothing wrong with private education... Most people who are privately educated don't end up politicians, but even Private Schools have their failures...

Re: It could be done

Mobile Phone Voting, get sent a code in the post,

have it say...

Text this number with your code + party of your choice to win a prize!

Each code can only be used once....

Every body has a mobile, or NEARLY everyone...

Re: It's not broken don't fix it

"if you can't find a candidate worth voting for, why not go to the voting booth anyway and write in None Of The Above."

None Of The Above would certainly get a massive vote if we did that...

Trying to find a party worth voting for is impossible...

Even finding the best of a bad bunch is hard...

Hawking hologram comforts One Direction fans with Zayny parallel universe claim

Re: And on the flip side

Even better, there will be universes where no one has heard of Justine Bieber!

Yay, we're all European (Irish) now on Twitter (except Americans)

"An Eu based employee can't be ordered to break eu law - but a US employee at head office can be ordered to remote in and copy the data."

And then I expect the US would honour extradition treaties for one of their citizens that broke EU laws...

And I can almost say that with a straight face...

Booking.com smacked by EU competition bods. Yeah, yeah, yeah

Re: All very odd

I've turned up at a hotel booked through booking.com, and they are full, farming us off on another hotel!

not the most pleasant experience after a long day at a theme park with Children......

America was founded on a dislike of taxes, so how did it get the IRS?

Re: Council Tax

Yes, But if you can't pay, i.e. are unemployed, only students live there, generally you don't pay it, there are plenty of exceptions to the rule.. in theory that pays for all the council services, Fire/police/bins etc..

in theory road tax pays to fix the roads (yeah when do they ever do that?)

NSA: 'Back doors are a bad idea, give us a FRONT door key'

Re: I get it, but

You mean you Trust politicians MORE than people working at GCHQ?

They are both un-trustworthy, but surely politicians are worst, since it is their fault that people at GCHQ do what they do.... And if Theresa May & Dave had their way, nothing would be secret....

I never said I trusted them very much....

Re: I get it, but

I agree they need scrutiny by an independent organisation, but I trust the people working in these agencies more than I trust the politicians in charge..

People working in GCHQ are after terrorists and real bad guys.. .

Politicians are after votes no matter how dumb their ideas are....

Dev gives HBO free math tips to nail Game of Thrones pirate leakers

Watermarking like this is a much better idea than DRM..

With this kind of system, you can allow DRM free downloads, but track down the source of any breach...

Well in theory anyway, assuming the digital watermarking is done in a way that cannot be hidden easily...

HOT HOVERSHIP-ON-HOVERSHIP ACTION: SpaceX ready for barge boing

Re: SpaceX is seriously cool

not really, if I remember what I read correctly, it was the fault of the military, they wanted cross range so that forced the shuttle design on NASA if they wanted the funding..

It is a shame really, the latest ideas from NASA seem to be a natural progression from Apollo...

Microsoft's top legal eagle: US cannot ignore foreign privacy laws

Microsoft in the right?

Ok What universe is this??

Please someone send me back to my home universe because this is mad, I am supporting Microsoft in something other than buying their ergonomic Keyboards... (seriously best keyboards you can buy IMHO)

Daddy Dyson keeps it in the family and hoovers up son’s energy biz

Re: The emperor's new hoover

I find the opposite, the handheld I have is great for cleaning up small messes, the upright is great for main cleaning, and when something does break, Dyson just sends replacement parts out! YES they support the customers! I know its shocking, the Dyson is repairable!!!!

I am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for a robo hoover, my LG is pretty damned good, the only robot vacuum on the market that actually vacuums rather than sweeps! (well it was when I brought it!)

Cloudy McCloud Cloud HP just said public cloud 'makes no sense for us'

Re: I wander stable as a cloud...

3) Cloud can be a great offsize backup location, if you only ever upload encrypted data, and keep your keys safe...

if your running a web service and need elasticity, cloud is also great, there is no more risk of spying than on any other web host in the hosting country of your choice...

So cloud has usages, many usages, but being your primary location to store things is not it...

Your home automation things are a security nightmare

Home automation is STILL in its infancy, products are created that are then installed by others for people who have more money than sense.. security is a low consideration it seems.. I am waiting for wifi enabled devices that I can have full control over!

Until I can buy myself WiFi enabled devices that use encryption end to end with my own server that I have full control over, I will stick to walking to the wall to turn off lights...

Turkey PM bans Twitter, YouTube as 'tools of terrorist propaganda'

Re: Google video ads

I wonder if Turkey would approve 100 lashes to anyone that creates auto-play video adverts..

Council of Europe: Don't spy on your staff, you naughty employers

Re: Just a little point.

Ban usage of work email for private communication?

Who does use their work email for private communications?

SPY FRY: Smart meters EXPLODE in Californian power surge

"a government-mandated rollout of smart meters is expected to commence in April 2016, "

Not in my house its not, I tried once to get one installed in the theory that it would stop the stupid bills i get when their estimates are off by £££'s or their meter reader messes up the readings!

In practice, cant get a mobile signal in my house, so no chance of a smart meter...

Sony tells hacked gamer to pay for crooks' abuse of PlayStation account

Re: PR own goal

Yup,

that has pretty much guaranteed I will not be buying a playstation now...

Also blocking access to legally paid for material has to be breach of trading standards?

One of the reasons I don't make any DRM laden purchases in my house..

Nuclear waste spill: How a pro-organic push sparked $240m blunder

Re: Why organic kitty litter?? Why do we have kitty litter?

If your a city dweller then don't have a cat..... maybe get a dog instead? they are a much more city friendly pet... well assuming you don't mind picking up dog poop..

Why organic kitty litter?? Why do we have kitty litter?

Cats are outdoor creatures, keeping them inside is cruel,

My parents have a cat, it roams outside, its got into fights and its got chunks out of its ears.. does it use kitty litter? no it goes in nature like it should...

Boris Johnson backs trade union campaign to ungag civil servants

Re: Facts not opinions

When you take the time to think about the power ministers have with NO understanding of it, it is scary...

Just look how many dumb comments about Encryption that Cameroon has made, or the foolishness that Theresa May tried to introduce with monitoring...

These are subjects where they should get expert advice of the VERY independent kind, i.e. people who are paid no matter who is in power....

Ding Dong, ALIENS CALLING

Re: A baseball can do 30 megatons of damage?

Some combination of electromagnetic, electrostatic & plasma shields needed I suspect to capture/deflect the particles, plus probably a massive container full of water to absorb that gamma radiation.

Its all just extreme engineering for near light speed travel...

It's the FALKLANDS SYNDROME! Fukushima MELTDOWN to cause '10,000 Chernobyls' in South Atlantic

Didn't you know?

Someone in the MOD watched Dr Who and thought it was a documentary, so now the plans are for flying double decker buses why else would they sell off our harrier fleet before the F35's are even ready?

Belgium to the rescue as UK consumers freeze after BST blunder

Re: Not on your life!

In America you still use Feet & Inches....

About the only thing I want to keep imperial is the pint, why? because 1 Pint is bigger than 500ml

Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge in Vulture's claws: we find looks AND brains

was mentioned, BUT I agree, that is one of the reasons I choose a Samsung phone, the MicroSD and removable battery

Now with neither they loose the two things that kept me buying Samsung phones over the rest..

Forum chat is like Clarkson punching you repeatedly in the face

Re: Service? Industry?

Why would a decent hotel not have kitchen staff in 24/7 for room service????

If I went to a hotel and found I couldn't order a hot meal at 1am I'd get fed up! sure I don't expect anything fancy, but a steak and chips or a burger maybe...

Actually if I was hungry I'd ask to USE the kitchen to cook my own or just order take away..

Bye bye, booth babes. IT security catwalk RSA nixes sexy outfits

Re: About friggin' time.

I agree with you that the tech should sell itself, but I don't agree with a ban... Why should we have to cover up the human body? why can't they have employees wearing nothing if they want? the human body is natural no need to be ashamed because of a bit of cleavage!

I am not advocating booth babes, and unless they are in a costume for a game/movie/anime whatever product they are advertising, then I can't personally see the point in hiring models to stand around doing nothing in ugly clothes..

But if a company wants to waste money giving a model a job, why not?

think about the person out of a job because of a few prudish idiots.

Document Foundation pledges Office 365 and Google Docs challenger

If its open source, which it sounds like it will be, I'll just host my own server, I already have one for files, DLNA plus numerous other things.

That is why I like open source cloud products, I can run my own service behind my own firewall, and grant access to people in my family who will connect via a VPN.

Taylor Swift snaps up EVEN MORE pr0n domain names

I've always been against these new TLD's I don't like them or see the point really...

they are just a money grab...

because all you will have instead is things like

taylorswift.donkey.porn

is taylorswift.porn any worse?

Woman caught on CCTV performing drunken BJ blew right to privacy

Re: Good

who cares if they were having sex? who cares if they got butt naked!

The problem is the pissing on the floor!

If she did it in the street over a drain, next to a tree, or on a patch of earth then who cares, its not hurting anyone...

But in a lift! that is filthy...

Hello? Police? Yes, I'm a car and my idiot driver's crashed me

Re: Exactly what problem does this solve?

Why can't it be retrofitted by software?

My car already has hands free calling,

it already has an on board computer...

it already knows if the airbags have been deployed...

hell it KNOWS when I am about to hit something and screams at me to break, and if I don't it applies them itself to reduce the impact speed... (when someone brakes in front of you this can be a car-saver if you are checking your mirrors before changing lanes...)

LOHAN unleashes 'waiting for the FAA' collector mug

Re: Gitmo

Oh I am sure there are plenty of people out there who would enjoy it....

Flying cars will take to the skies in 2017, if government allows

Re: Jet ski + Motorcycle

no you want this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIzOcJwQ7WA

Aged 18-24? Don't care about voting? Got a phone? Oh dear...

UKIP are not that bad, sure they are full of racist bigots, but so are Conservatives and Labour..

To me Theresa May is probably the worst one out there, she wants to return all students back to their own country after they finish studying without giving them a chance to work here...

We have some of the best universities in the world, if someone spends £50K+ to come study here they should be able to get a good job here as is the current system.

They contribute to our economy more than the EU immigrants do...

Before you get critical of a party, read its policies... Sure UKIP have a few bad ones, but on average their policies are more sensible than Tory or Labour.

Leaving the EU is probably a bad idea, but other means can be used to curb immigration, i.e. severe limitations on benefits & controls on 'work gangs'

What they need to do, is create a voting app, and have the party leaders locked in a house together for 8 weeks, each week the public vote off the one they like the least.