* Posts by HMB

638 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Oct 2010

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iPhone 5: UK pay-monthly tariffs compared

HMB

Re: Just amazing

No back then...

1) Mobiles were much more expensive than today in total cost of ownership for talk time received.

2) Landlines rentals (don't have a landline) and friends and family discounts still made for expensive monthly phone bills.

3) People paid the best part of a £1,000 for a computer that would be obsolete in 2 years.

It wasn't better.

EE screams UK iPhone 4G exclusive, rest of pack sobs quietly

HMB

Re: Dear EE

Clearly at least 7 people can't work it out :P

I'll give you a tiny hint (I did say I wouldn't tell you).

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few (or the one).

I don't mind old tech at all. There's no sense in getting rid of something that works well just for the sake of it. That is not the case with 2G though.

HMB

Re: HUGE NEWS!!!!

It pains me to jump to the defence of an Apple product, but not only IS the phone GOING to work in the UK on EE with LTE, but like the article said (if you read all of it), other phones and manufacturers are having exactly the same problem which has been brought about by the messy way LTE bands have been defined.

Of course we could just turn this into an Apple Bash.

Yeah, stupid Apple, trying to make 4G LTE devices, duh!! That's sooooo stupid.

Whatever.

HMB

SDR

And when you can solve the problems of a software defined Ariel you'll have a winner there too!

HMB

Re: Dear EE

Your 2G is going to go offline, and if you can't figure out why and why that matters, I'm not going to bother telling you.

Frankly it would be pointless.

Intel's Windows 8 tablet Atom chip yields up its secrets

HMB

If it runs Windows 8 smoothly...

So long as it runs smoothly, then what's the big difference between this and the ARM chip? With ARM it's all hardware video encode / decode. There really such a gap?

And you get to run x86 windows software on a tablet.

BT wins £33m Surrey council superfast broadband deal

HMB

I'm a good person because...

I never murder anyone close to 100% of the time.

Everything Everywhere's 4G: Why I'm sitting this one out

HMB

Re: Speed?

Have you never tried loading a webpage on GPRS ever? You can't have, you simply can't have. It's almost not worth trying.

The latency comment just shows how little you know about LTE, which has been designed from the ground up to give the lowest latency they could reasonably manage. Go to youtube and look up speedtests. Latency is on a par with fixed line.

HMB

Re: Why were EE allowed to get a head start on 4G?

Because Ofcom kept trying to arrange auctions, then the mobile companies who weren't getting what they wanted kept threatening to take Ofcom to court. This caused Ofcom to keep running off and crying until finally the government sat up (after realising the UK was quickly becoming last in the race) and told Ofcom to stop being such a pussy and give EE the ok to use it's existing spectrrum.

The network operators have no one to blame but themselves. I have no sympathy at all.

HMB

Crap Customer Service

Isn't this standard in the UK?

Sorry, I know it sounds very stereotypical to bitch about such a thing, but I've heard bad stories from every mobile provider.

HMB

Re: It'd be nice if 2.5g and 3g worked reliably

Who is going to invest more in 3G now that 4G is in town?

"It takes me 3 days to cross the Atlantic by boat, I hope they manage to do something to improve that before they start spending all that money on aeroplanes."

It would be more sensible to hope that 4G gets better coverage than 3G got.

Personally I stream Spotify over Three's 3G network while I'm driving along the motorways and I rarely get a blackout.

HMB

Yes, but no, but yes and don't forget rural ADSL

I'm not keen on 4G LTE being "poo-pooed" as I think we need to embrace this new technology with enthusiasm, but it's hard to argue with a well written and persuasive article like this.

However I'm going to agree and disagree simultaneously.

In normal use my phone wont be guzzling loads more data. The data is requests will simply get there faster.

Where I really crave LTE is for tethering, in that scenario my phone is often on charge anyway. It makes LTE super compelling.

Sure the technology wont launch at it's best and efficiencies and better coverage will take time, but I've had to wait so long that I AM excited about LTE.

Also, if you're stuck on a lame ass BT (or BT wholesale) ADSL connection, the prospect of LTE changing the game for you with a dongle or router is quite an exciting one.

Microsoft preparing for diskless Windows 8 PCs

HMB

Re: Can't be partitioned...?

I know, I mostly use Windows, but if I want to partition an USB flash drive I need to pop into Ubuntu, WTF Microsoft?

HMB

Apple Perfects, Never Invents

You know I'm not aware of Apple inventing ANYTHING.

It is a leader at taking something done rough, and smoothing the edges into a sublime shape, whether it be UI, human machine interfaces etc...

But invent? GUI - Stole, Multitouch - Stole and pretended they did it themselves.. same with pinch to zoom.

They are shit hot at implementing an old idea in a fantastic, highly developed, slick way and I give them all the credit for that, but invent? I'm struggling, genuinely struggling.

Windows 8? Nah: Win Phone 8 should give Apple the fear

HMB

Re: Nothing to fear

I wish my Samsung Galaxy Nexus with vanilla Android Jelly Bean could do custom text message sounds.

HMB

Re: Self-installer Android phones/tablets?

End users sometimes have trouble installing Office, let alone installing an OS.

HMB
Happy

Don't Panic!

Having iOS, Android & WinPho 8 being strong in the market is the best deal for end users.

Apple may throw things at Android, but damn are Android phone manufacturers hitting back at Apple. When they get this nonsense all settled, hopefully they'll learn that excessive litigation is a bad idea.

Competition drives innovation. Apparently it also drives whiny fanboi-ism too, but you can't have everything ;)

I'd like to see everyone do well and fight for more customers, it will make all the platforms better.

Google's stats show few Android tablets in use

HMB

Re: silly article (Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics)

You too noticed that the stats were being abused, I salute you! Well done Sir.

No... don't analyse the market for tablets by comparing like for like (market share and sales for tablets). Instead, take the market for *another product* and talk about how little tablets they sell compared to phones THEN chalk it up to a failure of their tablets.

Can I put this jumper on you?

What next? Are we going to look at Microsoft and say, well, they license a lot more PCs than phones, that means people want laptop / desktop computers instead of mobile phones.

"HELLO!? I can't talk on my laptop at the moment... YEAH... I'm on a train..."

I'm stunned how many people have got all worked up about this without noticing the glaring problem with the article.

Investors toss $5m to UK firm: Just keep making that White Space kit

HMB

Re: "White Space has massive potential,"

Well I guess we shouldn't have dug the channel tunnel because it's doomed to leak and we'll get immigrants through it huh?

White space is an untapped natural resource, wasted space that could help boost the economy. You want to deny people better connectivity because you think the policing will be ineffective?

So if you were leader would no one be able to buy knives?

Let's go further, let's shift everyone on to IP TV and free to air satellite over the next 15 years then sell off all the old fashioned terrestrial radio broadcasting to get the best connectivity we can.

Digital TV over the air is a frivolous waste of resources. It can easily be cheaply replaced by satellite anywhere in the country. Satellite latency doesn't affect TV, it cripples networking though.

HMB

Ofcom

Setting the benchmark in bureaucratic ineffectiveness.

Of course it's one redeeming event of the last few years has to be giving EE the go ahead for LTE. It's not perfect, but it's a start and will hopefully ensure the auction definitely does happen next year, instead of being put off till 2022 because Orange stole Vodafone's toys and made it cry.

Come on Ofcom! Maybe you can do two bits of good work in a year!! Who knows!?

New deals for Virgin Sim punters

HMB

Re: Still doesn't match Three's One plan.

I find Three's signal better than Vodafone.

I asked at the Three shop "so this Unlimited Internet, what's the limit on it?"... I was told that there was none and as an example, they knew of one customer who used 81Gb on his phone in a month and wasn't charged any extra.

I've used my phone for Internet when moving into a place over WiFi tether and watched iPlayer daily and never had a problem from Three. I must have used at least 10Gb that month.

Bitcoin exchange shuts after heist

HMB

Re: Good way to shut down an "underground unregulated" currency

"Good way to shut down an "underground unregulated" currency"

Is it? Have you done this before then?

You have a hypothesis, nothing more.

There are plenty of things off with Bitcoin, having unsigned demon software and installers is one of the big things in my book, but whatever your personal feelings, keep in mind that Bitcoin is a speculative market and kind of difficult to predict.

It's been "dead" before, it keeps coming back.

Bitcoin is a zombie currency ;)

The dead reanimates as HP ships Open webOS beta

HMB

Re: I'm reading this on an HP Pre 3

Well, I put android on my touchpad, though the ACME installer doesn't wipe off WebOS. It goes multi boot.

Tut... tut... sloppy reg.

Sharp's slim screen factory 'flogged to death' by Apple

HMB

Re: "Cupertino idiot-tax giant"

Sadly I think I have to agree with you.

It's probably just rose tinted glasses, but the Reg seems to be getting worse for this.

The other day they were going on about a Samsung Cameraphone that wasn't even a phone. I sent a correction (assuming innocent mistake) but got no reply.

You can only sell your name off once. Once your rep has gone, it's so hard to get back.

I fear that one day I will stop reading the Reg, start reading the Sun and realise that I've gone up a notch in intellectual maturity.

HMB

Re: "Cupertino idiot-tax giant"

I own a Galaxy Nexus because I think it's better than an iPhone 4S and I'm offended by that line too.

I've never even bought Apple gear and I'm offended.

I guess it comes down to how you want to treat people for having different priorities than yourself.

O2 looses legal torpedo at Everything Everywhere 4G monopoly

HMB

Re: Spend wisely

I don't get this, you want your network to spend more money on obsolete services? You don't work for them do you? :P

My parents live out in the sticks, when I visit them I get a great HSDPA connection regardless of their remoteness.

Why not dream a little higher?

HMB

Re: What Ofcom should be doing

Because that's worked so well so far?

HMB

Re: Agree with Ofcom for once

Interesting analysis.

It certainly sounds like legal wrangling between the companies has done a lot of harm in pushing the auction back further and further.

Would have been neat if they could have been made to hand over that spectrum they had to flog now. Then it could have been less of a monopoly with 3 being able to do 4G too.

We all should have had 4G earlier.

HMB

Re: Oh look...

I've had a great HSDPA connection (3) for around a year now. I even had little trouble streaming from Spotify when I'm driving down the M1 & M6 in my car from Birmingham to Leeds and from Birmingham to the Lake District.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but I've got good 3.5G experiences in many places all over.

Safer conjugal rights via electronic skin

HMB

Re: I especially liked....

Well hello Mr Jumping, can I offer you some conclusions? :P

Did you not consider the possibility that they might want to keep the marital bed free from increased radioactivity?

Disable Java NOW, users told, as 0-day exploit hits web

HMB

Wow

I really wasn't expecting to upset anyone! You guys are sensitive!

I haven't installed Java for the web for over 7 years.

I grant you that in a corporate environment it may well be required and an asset for maybe one or two apps, but in a domestic setting or a business environment where there is an alternative support method I just haven't seen a useful Java app for web. Clunky old IRC clients and Rich Text Editors don't count.

HMB

You can at least make a case for Adobe Flash on a computer, but Java? Only the most annoying websites want you to have Java installed.

Samsung fights to stay on US shelves as Apple calls for ban

HMB

Re: That verdict was bloody brilliant

It was indeed considering that the focus of the lawsuit was Samsung's Touchwiz modifications...

Oh wait. What was your point again?

HMB

Legal Quagmire

Giggity - Giggity :P

HMB
Alert

Re: Talk about counting chickens before they are hatched...

"If Apple won this case because 12 hicks in East Texas voted for a Merikan company over gooks - then there is quickly going to be another case where a patriotic Korean jury decides to ban all Apple products, and probably Microsoft and Google aswell, in Korea."

Say what?

I expect the South Koreans to be intelligent and measured about how they respond to things. Google & Microsoft are partners of a metric %*$-tonne of Samsung's work. No one in their right mind in South Korea is going to start banning them.

2/10 - Poor effort, you can do better!

HMB

Re: I'd like

"In your world, you seem to want a range of Apple products and a range of cheap, inferior copies of Apple products."

I must express my distaste at your distorted perspective here. I happily bought a Galaxy Nexus instead of an iPhone 4S, WOW, imagine that. No coercion or anything.

You know what! I even LIKE the iPhone 4S. It's attractive, beautifully, slickly animated and erm... very shiny.

I wanted:

* Good call quality

* A big colourful 4.65" hi res display

* A wifi tether that didn't run to the operator to report usage

* Bluetooth file transfers

* Bluetooth audio with previous and next track control via AVRCP (or have they finally added that?)

I also found the large buttonless front of the Galaxy Nexus very stylish and... shiny :D

The Super AMOLED display is so... black and high contrast. It really fits into the aesthetics of the front really well.

Court confirms $675,000 fine for sharing 30 songs

HMB

Tough on File Sharing, Soft on Homicide

Can you imagine if this kind of logic applied to homicide?

Kill someone and the state will execute you, your parents, your friends, spouse and children.

For $22,500 for a $4 song, doesn't that seem to fit?

Password hints easily snaffled from Windows PCs

HMB

Coffee Easily Snaffled from Coffee Machine

In reply... No, it doesn't matter.

New nuclear fuel source would power human race until 5000AD

HMB

Re: Errr wrong.

"Many plant workers have surpassed the maximum reasonable radiation levels. By far!!

Therefore, many will die."

You're just asserting this as the truth? Do you mean they exceeded the 100mSv?

Do you know what the risk factors are from that?

HMB

Re: Thorium rocks

I got so excited by the possibilities of thorium and LFTRs that I nearly changed career, but nuclear research is almost non-existent in the western world at the moment and that kind of stopped me.

China however, they are going for it:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/01/china_thorium_bet/

It's important to keep in mind that LFTRs are not a mature technology yet and will require R&D to make work.

There's also a notion that LFTRs don't produce weapons grade material. Sadly, this is not true, I know this from talking with a Nuclear Research Professor at a seminar I went to. The claim is that the hard gamma emitters in the interim stage U233 screw too much with electronics, this is not true.

I still dream of energy getting far cheaper and the way that will change the world for the better.

Professor Hans Rossling who has a few talks on TED makes a compelling and powerful case that the poor need so much more energy to develop.

HMB

Re: Don't steal our natural radiation

No need to worry. There'll be plenty left from radium in Ramsar, Iran:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramsar,_Mazandaran#Radioactivity

All the people there have superpowers.

HMB

Re: we know that nuclear power is safe

Here we go. Chernobyl again. I mean we could have said something sensible and measured like "I'm not sure I trust cost cutting soviets to design, build and man a nuclear power station properly", but sadly, we just sink to the level of debate that makes George Bush Junior look smart.

The CEGB reviewed the RBMK reactor when it came out, they concluded it was dangerous. It's in the national archives.

Incidentally the soviets weren't stupid, they just compromised safety for a reactor that could be refuelled on-line and run on unrefined uranium ore.

HMB

The Usual Silliness

Nuclear power is bad because it sounds like nuclear bombs, or something like that.

Radiation is dangerous and super hazardous, except in hospitals, smoke alarms and small amounts in bananas.

We shouldn't research nuclear power because it's old and 1950s-ish. Wind turbines are so much sexier and now. It's like wind turbines ate a Zeitgeist or something.

We don't need cheap, abundant energy anyway, who cares about getting the developing world out of Poverty?

Everything Everywhere flogs 4G hand-me-downs to Three

HMB

Re: Three

I take it you're not on Three now then?

I've had better reception / speed off Three than any other operator and I've tried them all bar O2.

They had issues a few years ago, but that no longer seems to be the case. I don't get drop outs on Three, I did on Vodafone, go figure.

Their data network does seem to be substantially superior to any other network I've tried.

HMB

Re: Sharing

You're honestly suggesting deliberately imposing a monopoly layer on a working mobile telecoms market??

Go away and read a GCSE economics text book, if that doesn't put you off, go chat to nurses/support staff in the NHS about their middle managers.

I'm honestly concerned that there are people who genuinely think this is a good idea in reality.

SHOCK: Brainwave readers work as advertised

HMB

It's not worth it!

You'll start crashing and running very slowly.

Everything Everywhere bags 4G monopoly in UK - for now

HMB

Re: Sack Everyone at OfCom - Auctions Must Happen Fast

Don't sack everyone, just the ones with anything to do with management. Then re-allocate them to road cleaning duties around the UK. Their familiarity with rubbish should make them ideal candidates and it will give them the opportunity to finally clear something up.

HMB

Three

I second this Three malarkey.

The only time I've had any reason to be annoyed with Three is in Scotland. Everywhere else I've had a great experience. High speeds, no FUP nonsense, 2,000 minutes a month (which has saved me hundreds on the odd heavy month) and I'm paying £25 a month for 1 month SIM only.

I started on BT Cellnet, then Orange, then T-Mobile, then Vodafone and now Three. Three is the first network I've been on where I feel like I'm really getting something exciting and good. I talk without worrying about bills, I use high speed internet wherever I am and when Virgin do something stupid, I use Wifi tethering for backup internet. It all works.

If you think you can handle a SIM without needing tech support, I couldn't suggest better than Three (except in Scotland).

I am however glad that LTE is finally getting the go ahead. I don't see EE doing major back haul improvements to support it, so let the eager jump on EE's network. Let the demand build up, let the phones come out and I'll wait till the truly unlimited package pops out on Three. Getting LTE out there isn't going to make things worse for me.

HMB

Vodafone Tax Dodgers

Isn't there something here about David Cameron declaring how immoral and unjust David Cameron is or something?

Government is supposed to pour scorn on Jimmy Carr and Google, but not do anything about the loopholes. Yes, that was it.

I'm sure the HMRC boss who gave Vodafone £6 billion off paid for it out of his wages, so it's all cool.

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