Posts by ukbabz

Reading plays host to live ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

Rather tempted by this one.. Should be a good laugh with a group of folk to run around shooting zombies all day..

Although their knowledge of Zombies does worry me a little, don't shoot them in the head?!

(taken from the Q+A)

Q: Will the zombies be given eye protection? Is it safe to shoot them in the head?

A: Hi Ben,

Thanks for your question! The zombies have eye protection but shooting them in the head is not encouraged. Good torso shots are the most effective way to take down the zombies, we've heard :)

Many thanks,

Laura

Met Office wants better supercomputer to predict extreme weather

Beyond 24 hours, its voodoo

I try and keep an eye on what the forecast for the upcoming days are via the met website (not the sites that simply use the data given to them by the met). I look at the nearest weather station and the forecast for the next 24-48hours. More often than not its accurate enough (e.g. Wind picking up around 3pm, heavy rain around 6pm) to get by.

If we want to predict things further in the future, with greater accuracy we need to ramp up the processing power to deal with this. No point taking 3 weeks to process a forecast for next weekend after all..

Pope's PR says Vatican in grip of WikiLeaks-style scandal

Murky banking deals

Bit father ted isnt it? "The money was just resting in my account" excuse comes to mind..

Survey: Most TV viewers surf while they watch

about right..

I can only think of a handful of TV shows I'll watch completely. The more interuptions from adverts, the less engrossed I am so during the show I'm likely to have my mind wander.

I'd say the only things which get my full attention are stuff on the beeb and things that are sky plussed (with the ads fast forwarded)..

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: Blu-ray extended edition

Books

Not in the books.. The ending of the films spoiled it for me, the lack of the scouring of the shire was scouring of the triology..

iPhone plunges 13,500 ft from skydiver's pocket - and lives

USA

As far as I know its perfectly legal in the US to jump out with objects you intend to drop (such as rafts, inflatable animals, bicycles..)

If it does hit someone then you may be in trouble, or at least sued.

Cameras are durable

Check out the go-pro... there's a few bits of footage of them getting knocked off and recording til impact and after..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6mXMRJmQas

(This one looks like it was knocked off the canopy opens so will have fallen around 3,000ft..)

US plan to hold EU passenger data for 15 yrs 'unlawful'

Good idea, but utterly pointless

Whilst I applaud the EU for standing up for the 'privacy' of travellers, I do question how effective it is going to be.

I wonder how popular it will be for passengers from the EU handing over this information manually after a transatlantic flight, the queues for US customs is bad enough without re-iterating the PNR data to a surly TSA employee.

You want in to the US, then you have to hand over the rules and store it by their rules..

Lulz warns NHS of sick security

Title needed

Good bit of PR for LulzSec, hit the bad guys for crap security yet be nice and warn the NHS of their short comings...

Not a suprise that there are so many holes in NHS 'secuirty' though..

Beer Icon as its friday...

O2 boots up boobies blocker

Website

My content lock is off, always has been with T-Mob contract.. However I logged in to the web portal and it enables me to toggle it there..

T-Mobile backtracks on retrospective mobe data caps

Usual Lies

I called to get my PAC, as I'm due a renewal soon anyway. Guy on the phone told me that a renewal doesnt constitute a new sale, so the new FUP caps do not apply. Something which stinks of BS to me..

Does anyone at T-mob know what they are talking about?

Windows 7 Phone glitch spews phantom data

Data usage

I use an app called PhoneUsage to monitor my daily usages, and provides some nice graphs. It has a free and a paid for version. The free version just gives the numbers, I believe the paid lets you put caps and alarms for when your going over (including minutes and SMS).

Google pinpoints bugs that send texts to wrong people

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

Theres a similar bug when flicking through the HTC message widget, if you just click on the message when the widget loads, then it often loads an older message instead. If you dont look at who you are sending too, it may be the wrong person.

However, If you click new message it doesnt cause an issue. Bit of a faff but if your sending messages with content only for your significant other, you'd be a bit dense not to check its them its going too..

Russia wins World Cup bid in parrot-sickening travesty

Shock?

Media slams FIFA for the corrupt organisation they are... FIFA respond by giving the WC to one of the more corrupt nations in the world...

We probe the Google anti-trust probe. Vigorously

So what?

I really don't get the big deal with this. If you dont want to be offered Google Services don't go to Google for your search needs. If you take the same guff to other areas it seems stupid:

Ford make cars, and have dealers which sell only Ford cars and Ford only parts. Also have insurance and finance plans through the Ford dealer. How is this not the same as what they are critising google.

If a person / company develop a good product that is widely used, why should this prevent them from expanding the product to improve user experience. I don't beleive it squeezes out competitors, just means they need to work harder to break into the market.

As for integration, I would like google to do a bit more, like allow direction strings straight from normal search to return a little map with the directions.

Google sued for scanning emails of non-Gmail users

Frivolous lawsuit..

More pointless, money grabbing lawsuits from some idiot. If you send an email to my work account, the spam filter will check for spam and send me it if it deems your email is legit. Did I give you notification that this was going to happen? Of course not, but its 'viewed'.

In the real world example, If I had an assistant who's job involved opening my mail, sorting them to the most relevant and making notes on my behalf, would I have to send a mail out to everyone who could possibly write to me as I've given this person permission.

I hope the judge uses common sense here, and bans this muppet from using the internet.