Posts by Archivist

Haswell micro: Intel’s Next Unit of Computing desktop PC

Re: If only

I agree. That's the failing of the Mac mini too. Seems like none of the small computer solutions can beat a cheap media player for smooth video playback at 24 and 25 frames per second.

Digital radio may replace FM altogether - even though nobody wants it

Re: DAB Bashing

And why do you think DAB gets bashed? It's not that there are FM and DAB fanboys competing, it's just that DAB has failed on most counts:

Coverage - poorer

Power consumption - poorer

Audio quality - mostly poorer, much through use of low bit-rates on inefficient codecs and even mono.

Selection - It wins!

The really annoying thing is that it could have been so much better. The adoption of an early and non-upradeable codec means things will never get better for DAB, all we can hope is that manufacturers will be pressed to make DAB+ inclusion as mandatory, with a view to changing the standard in future.

It comes as no surprise that 2018-2013=5 years - the accepted life of domestic kit nowadays, suggesting to me that they will switch systems in 5 years, making much of the current DAB stuff obsolete.

Re: FM radio has all the channels I want - DAB does not

@Tom 7

"And there isnt a singe radio what isnt designed by some attention seeking idiot designer"

Love it! how true...

Re: DAB struggles to play

Not necessarily stronger. Within one multiples the broadcaster can choose the error resilience (ruggedness) of individual streams.

Why Bletchley Park could never happen today

Jr ner abg nyybjrq cevinpl nal zber,

I particularly agree with your last sentence .... or was it the cat's?

Pop OS X Mavericks on your Mac for FREE while you have LUNCH

Good news for "Save as" fans..

Snow Leopard's TextEdit and Applescript Editor apps work on Mavericks. So make a copy of them before you upgrade.

Hackintosh community

I can't imagine they are interested in killing it off, at least the non-commercial ones. It's a breeding ground for the "Mac curious" enthusiasts. Once these peeps are hooked on the OS, a proportion of them will go on to buy properly supported hardware.

Xcode?

I don't think the average punter will be downloading Xcode, do you?

MacBook Air fanbois! Your flash drive may be a data-nuking TIME BOMB

You can't be serious...

"Actually the drives Apple uses in the MacBook are are almost the definition of premium. Conventional drives didn't meet Apple's requirements (probably due to physical size) so they ordered bespoke drives. I think it's awesome that there's a computer manufacturer that would do something like that."

I've upgraded several MacBooks and Macbook pros over the last few years using generic drives. All have fitted and worked fine. Perhaps you were trying to squeeze in 3.5" drives - those really don't fit ;-)

Snowden: 'I have data on EVERY NSA operation against China'

Time is running out

Something nasty will happen to him before long, and as his public popularity wanes, few will care.

At least he brought some facts out in the open that should have been there all along. Making our security services accountable can hardly be a bad thing.

LIVE, my beauty, LIVE! Nokia revives dead phone with LIGHTNING powered Frankencharger

Re: real lightning is DC

It's DC but no AC component, just fluctuations. Alternating component implies a current polarity reversal.

I think the concept you are trying to describe is that DC has bandwidth, owing to the fact that it was switched on, and at some time will be switched off.

Of course the demo is pure b0ll0cks. Any sensible filtering arrangement will smooth the current fluctuations. What's nice is that the phone isn't destroyed by the RF field. Perhaps that makes the point for metal cases.

Bloke in shed starts own DAB radio station - with Ofcom's blessing

Pedant alert!

" three-segment aerial"

I presume you meant to say "three element Yagi".

Apple's shock treatment: An authentic charger-spotting guide

A shock in either case

iGenuine_Charger: cost

iFake_Charger: electric current

I still think there's more to this story than meets the eye. It'll come out eventually.

News Corp prez threatens to pull Fox TV off the air

Rearrange

Pram; Toys; Throw; Out of

Apple: iOS 6.1 network overload caused by our Exchange SYNC OF DOOM

Re: Not the only problem

"the phone drops the signal and doesn't pick it up until the phone's rebooted."

Interesting... mine has exactly the same problem.

My experience with iPhones has been downhill:

iPhone 3GS - perfect - best phone I've ever owned

iPhone 4 - minor issues

iPhone 5 - major issues

I almost bought a Sammy; wish I had now.

BT ordered to pay £95m to rivals it overcharged for FIVE years

Re: Repayment is not enough

Agreed. The settlement gives no incentive to be better. Only the risk of punitive damages can improve the situation.

Archaeologists uncover 'Unicorn's lair'

Beer?

The inscriptions mention mythical beasts, just as ours speak of dragons. This mythical beast was known over China, Korea and Japan from the tales of travellers. It is thought that it referred to the giraffe and in Japanese they share the same name -kirin..... as well as for a beer!

http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/kirin.beer_.jpg

Apple ships 'completely redesigned' iTunes 11

Get over it

It's free for goodness sake, take it or leave it. Anyone would think it's important.

Lawyer sues Microsoft rather than slot an SD card into his Surface

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

A lawyer who didn't read the small print.

Apple removes apology-hiding JavaScript from UK website

Apple are behaving like twats

I personally believe the judgement should have gone the other way, but their behaviour is appalling and has lowered my opinion of them as a company. I wish I'd bought a Galaxy now..

BBC in secret trial to see if you care about thing you plainly don't

An alternative to DAB at home

I listen to national radio stations using a cheap Freeview receiver as the bit-rate is better than DAB and it sounds quite reasonable - certainly on a par with FM. You could also use a Freesat receiver for the same.

BridgeSTOR: They called us mad, but we've put deduped data on TAPE!

Perhaps I've missed something...

Can someone please explain to me how this is better than using the built-in hardware's "compress on the fly when possible" that LTO-5 LTFS hardware already uses. Thank you.

Dyson alleges spy stole 'leccy motor secrets for Bosch

Up your's Bosch

11 years ago I had a Bosch fridge-freezer which failed expensively (uneconomical to repair) just outside warranty. As I'd heard of several similar failures, I decided to investigate the problem myself, and came to the same conclusion as their service engineer - that the controller PCB had failed.

However on closer inspection and with little more than schoolboy maths it was obvious that the PCB copper area that they'd allowed for sinking heat from the voltage regulator was insufficient. This had led to catastrophic failure of the processor - along with it's embedded program.

An email to the European CEO with the calculations and explanation got a new fridge-freezer delivered by Bosch themselves a few days later.

In case you're wondering, I did check the new fridge-freezer's controller PCB and they'd redesigned it, so obviously they'd known all along.

Company's can be bastards - or they can be fair. Bosch only did the right thing only when pushed, so I've steered clear of them (where possible) since. I know they make some good stuff but they've lost my custom.

Tape vendors thrust LTFS tool at punters: Go on, you know you want our tape

Energy is the key

One day in the not too distant future there will be extra tax on unnecessary energy use. Data centres full of spinning disks that might not been accessed for years will be fighting for a place in the queue to buy the latest tape solution.

Customers dumping Samsung phones in wake of Apple suit

Scarcity lowers value?

I think not and smell BS.

I will seriously consider a Samsung phone when my iPhone contract ends. After all it's a "copy", and maybe the Koreans are now doing what the Japanese did so successfully: - copy but make it better!

Apple pounces on Samsung doc as proof of 'slavish copy' claims

Re: @ Pascal Monett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Mistook_His_Wife_for_a_Hat

Judge rejects Apple's calls for Samsung censure

Common sense

I used to work for a TV manufacturer. We would always buy our competitor's models to compare. Any designer who ignores the rest of the market won't last long. But here's the rub, if we'd actually copied features, we'd have been a year behind. It was more a matter of trending.

Climate change behind extreme weather, says NASA

NASA and statistics and agenda

I'm not a climate change doubter, but I am a NASA statistics doubter.

After the Challenger disaster, NASA needed to bring in Richard Feynman to show them that the the odds of catastrophic failure of a Shuttle flight was closer to 100:1 than the 100,000:1 NASA calculated.

That's a major disparity. You have to ask were/are they incompetent? I don't think so, there must be another reason....

Airline leaves customer on hold for 15 hours

Re: Premium rate numbers

"If Company X does NOT use an expensive line for support, how do they fund these very expensive call centres,.."

If company X needs to give that much support it suggests the product is shite, inadequately described, or not fit for purpose.

I produce some products. They're hardware, but run by software, and they "just work". Perhaps they're not clever enough....

Microsoft dumps Metro from Windows 8

Playschool

For those who remember the SQUARE window.

Beak explodes at Samsung's evidence leak in Apple patent spat

Re: Fangurl

Now let's see.. Apple=USA, Samung=S.Korea.

Trial being held in a US court. I wonder how different the perceived bias would be in a S.Korean court...

British Gas bets you'll pay £150 for heating remote control

Re: Hmmm..

@AC: and how would that be useful when you're at work?

I guess you work fixed hours and leave at the set time no matter what... Many of us have unpredictable hours - things fail and have to be fixed, whatever. Arriving home to a warm house without wasting heat would be a blessing.

I did look into a DIY system earlier in the year that would have cost about £140 plus the ddns fee. It's that which made me look around at free ddns solutions, to work with my existing kit but I got distracted.

So if anyone has a free ddns solution that'll work with a Draytek 2920, please let me know as I'd rather not leave a computer on.

Google Maps takes shelter from the British summer

Re: starting from 1

@dotdavid "But "platform nothing" isn't exactly traditional or expected in a station, IMHO."

You mean like floor 0 (Ground floor) in almost every UK building ;-)

Viviane Reding says imitate US and form FEDERAL EUROPE

Federalization of the EU

It's the least worst option.. but it might already be too late.

Microsoft to open UK retail store early next year

Bring on the greatest show on earth

If Surface doesn't surface, what can they show?

Perhaps they'll make something out of 5 keyboards and 2 mice..

Microsoft ejects DVD playback from Windows 8

Hell's freezing over!

I think this is a sensible move. Other platforms are going optical disc-less, so why include the licence cost for playback from a device that might not be fitted to your hardware? Don't imagine the coming Ultrabooks are going to have room for optical drives.

Heck, I never thought I'd agree with MS about anything!

Redmond man unmasked: UK.gov open standards stalled

Crooks

Yes, that's what I said.

Windows 8 diet exposes Microsoft's weak ARM

Win-RT

Strange that they're going after the consumer market, which is already saturated with suppliers, rather than for enterprise which is in need of compatible lightweight portable devices.

I can only think that they are waiting for sufficiently low power Intel chips to make a tablet that will run legacy apps. How long will that take?

I do feel sympathy for Windows developers who at this time see their market shrinking. No doubt many will jump ship rather than wait and see.

10x power boost for Freeview as London analogue signal cut

Re: Turn up the wick!

@Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward:

Good points on the power comparisons.

Actually it was usually the high power analogue carriers that caused the overload, and they're gone!

Nordic region, Ireland adopt new 'connected telly' standard

Re: UK - the European Unions Odd Man Out

Right and wrong: The UK fused plug is a result of using ring main wiring rather than star. It saved a lot of copper at it's concept, and still does. Star wiring requires more fuses in larger distribution boards.

Where is this mythical country where 80% of the people are protected by a single fuse? I think your ranting has better of your logic, unless you are comparing the UK with the 3rd world.

Globalisation means that manufacturer's turf wars are almost over, but many of us would like to protect our culture from being swamped by outside media. Unfortunately this might be a losing battle due to the internet.

The UK is an enormous market, so having differing standards will only cause a minute difference in product cost, but perhaps a little less product choice.

Big Four US carriers vow to switch off stolen smartphones

That'll make the muggers quake in their boots...

""For the database to work, it would also become a federal crime to tamper with the unique identifiers on a phone.""

Apple's App Store parades surprise new Catalog model

US centric or what?

(in some places spelled "Catalogues" presumably for Brits)

I suspect that more people than Brits use the proper spelling.

Warner Bros boss moots 'disc-to-digital' scheme

This one's another fail

To virtually eliminate lost market due to piracy, they need to deliver the product to market:

In a timely fashion - simultaneous region release

At an affordable price - perhaps according to region

Of sufficient quality - without criminal warnings and ads

Adaptable media - playable on many devices

Impossible? I don't think so. The only obstacle is obstinacy.

Apple: We never said Siri would actually work in the UK

Weasel words

It's entirely reasonable to expect that a device should be fully functional in the market in which it's sold. In cases where this is not possible, there should be a specific disclaimer.

I'm very disappointed in Apple, they are the new Microsoft.

Sinofsky shows off Windows 8 on ARM and Office15

Good news all round

Some green credentials

Competition for Apple

Competition for Intel

Methinks its time to top up the ARM Holdings PLC shares...

UK gov rejects call to posthumously pardon Alan Turing

Let's move on

Turing was a great and admirable genius but he committed and got caught for a crime. The fact that most of us judge the law to have been wrong is irrelevant. There are lots of current laws that are stupid but if I choose break one, I face the consequences or do my best not to be found out.

It makes little difference whether a pardon is granted or not, the wrong has been done. Better to concentrate on making todays laws fairer.

iOS 5 'crashes more apps' than Android

Another sample of 1

The only crashes I've experienced are with the Guardian app. and it's happened less on IOS5. Mind you, I don't play games or connect to Exchange servers (same thing really ;-)

I've plenty to criticise Apple for, but this isn't one of them.

Ex-Apple engineer emits Zevo ZFS for Mac OS

Sucking eggs

Hard to believe we're being told about 2's compliment...

Judges probe minister's role in McKinnon extradition saga

Wrong issue

To me the issue isn't whether he'll kill himself in the USA, but why the hell we are even considering extradition to a country that condones torture. The one-sided "agreement" we have with the bully across the pond is ludicrous.

I wouldn't mind betting that a greater than average percentage of Reg readers have some degree of autism. Maybe some even classifiable as Asperger's. It's a degree of obsessionalism that makes us achieve what the general populous can't.

Nissan Leaf battery powered electric car

Drivel

@AC "The electric company would at the very least have to run a cable from the nearest 3-phase substation to you."

Unless you really live out in the sticks, 3-phase passes your house; each house in a street taking alternate phase taps.

Are there any non 3-phase substations? I think not, unless you count pig-poles.