Posts by A. Nervosa

UK govt sneaks citizen database aka 'request filters' into proposed internet super-spy law

Re: How long

@ChrisG - Two words: traffic shaping.

I'm on O2 and it's very obvious indeed that they're throttling the Apple Music download speeds to my phone over cellular. Streaming is fine but any attempt to download the tracks so I can listen to them on the Underground and the download speeds are barely any faster than streaming. 30-40 minutes to download an album for offline listening is a complete piss take.

Of course when I connect to my VPN and O2 can't see what I'm doing, blam, those tunes beam through the airwaves at the very limits of my 4G connection speed.

Unless of course you consider getting the service that you actually f--king pay for as 'wrong'.

UK cyber-spy law takes Snowden's revelations of mass surveillance – and sets them in stone

Re: Getting it both ways

That could not have been put better.

The cloud that goes puff: Seagate Central home NAS woes

Re: Server or backup?

Yeah? Well my NAS has two PSU's, two bonded NIC pairs, two RAID 6 arrays which are then mirrored to an identical offsite unit which is then backed up to tape at a third site and vaulted, which is also where I keep my bigger penis than yours.

Then again it's probably easier to stop comparing enterprise level backup and disaster recovery strategies to a domestic home NAS drive that costs a few hundred quid.

Well done for patting yourself on the back, though.

Apple prepping 4K resolution 12.9-inch MaxiPad – report

Re: @Lallabalalla

Favourite = Offline.

New iPhones: C certainly DOESN'T stand for 'Cheap'

Re: 5C? Move along folks. Nothing to see here.

I don't think you're being cynical at all. That's exactly what it is.

Brits are so outraged by Amazon, they voted it TOP for shopping

Re: The basic fallacy

Right, so by that argument either the corporations put their prices up and pay the tax, or the lost revenue is taxed directly to the the population via VAT or some such means to compensate. Prices or tax. Rip off Britain or a bloodthirsty HMRC.

We're going to be paying it one way or another no matter what terminology you dress it up in.

Android seven-inchers swipe rug from under Apple

Re: Finally..

You could also buy, fuel, service and in many cases insure a fully functional car for what you are paying for a) a decent audio system b) an engagement ring for your fiancé c) that two week holiday you've worked your arse off for and d) just about anything else in life that brings you pleasure that you'll probably be missing out on because you're such a complete money orientated tight-arse.

Why do Smart TV UIs suck?

It's almost depressing...

... that a large bunch of people can all agree that the firmware and usability of the current crop of smart TVs is remarkably poor. Then, when Apple inevitably release their own integrated TV set with a fluid, responsive, intuitive and easy to use interface, they will no doubt be instantly derided for dumbing things down and charging a premium for it.

You know what I mean. It's the point that all the Apple haters will flood the forums with claims that their 2008 Sony Bravia had features and facilities long before the Apple TV came along (including a replaceable battery and a micro SD slot) whilst conveniently forgetting that actually operating one was like having their bollocks slowly squeezed in a vice.

'No cutting off people's internet based on secret evidence'

Punishment

Arguably cutting off someone's Internet is no more of a violation of human rights than sending them to prison, cutting them out of society and removing their right to vote.

In the case of Untended consequences to the family, sending the father to prison for his crime and denying his children access to their own father is exactly the kind of thing criminals should be contemplating BEFORE they do the crime. Providing the consequences of crimes are clearly understood by all, those willing to commit the crimes should and do take full responsibility for their actions and the effects it has on those around them, including their own family.

'Mapsgate' fails to dislocate iPhone 5 demand

Re: Proof indeed

What a deliciously innovative and original opinion you've expressed. Well done.

Now, while the rest of the world are happily going about their business quite happily using their appliance of choice, why not pat yourself on the back once again and congratulate yourself for being the only true messiah of technological justice the Internet has ever seen. Go on, post another banal, predictable comment slagging off other people's personal choice of handset whilst you sit there happily sucking on the scaly phallus of whatever corporation you happen to approve of. You're simply amazing. You're worth it. You're the BEST.

Hello Miracast vid-beaming: ANOTHER thing the iPhone 5 hasn't got

Re: @Ralph5

What works fine with your LG TV exactly? XBMC? Serviio? TVMobili? PS3? Every single one of the multitude of DLNA servers out there?

I don't mean to be rude but you're talking shit, mate. Do some research, look around on some forums after searching for "DLNA", "Sony", "LG", "Toshiba" and "Samsung" and you'll soon realise that DLNA is an absolute world of pain.

I mean thumbs up for them at least trying to put the spec together but don't kid yourself for one second that it's all peaches and cream.

Apple iOS 6 review

Standards

Notice, though, that this didn't stop The Register writing a 'review' of iOS 6 used on a device that isn't even capable of demonstrating many of the features that said iOS delivers?

Seriously, Reg, what kind of shit article is this? If you're going to try objectively report on iOS 6, put your hands in your pockets and buy your staff a phone capable of running it. Either that or spin this god awful excuse for a 'review' into a massive slag off piece about why Apple chose not to implement half the features on the iPhone 4.

Grow some teeth, pick a side and run with it but stop putting up these useless reviews.

Android Jelly Bean won't get Flash Player

Because...

1-0 to Steve Jobs and Apple doesn't mean iOS is "better". It means that Steve Jobs correctly saw the way that Flash was going and arguably accelerated its demise by refusing to support it.

That's a victory in my book.

ISPs should get 'up to' full fee for 'up to' broadband

I endorse this.

170m people 'upgrade' to Google+, but how many stick around?

Re: Social networks

I find a small Linux server and an installation of ZenPhoto accomplishes that quite nicely. You control your own content and if people don't like the fact that their comments aren't publicised to everyone they know then they can suck it down or f *ck off back to Facebook.

DLNA blesses HomePlug Ethernet-over-mains tech

Re: I just don't get DLNA, what does it actually verify

Funnily enough I've just finished setting up my own DLNA server in exactly this manner. In my office I have a Synology DiskStation NAS and an old laptop running CentOS w/ Serviio, Subsonic and Air Video. It's not lightning fast but it's low power, quiet and powerful enough for real-time transcoding. This all goes through a cheap TP-Link gigabit switch connected to 200Mbps TP-Link power line plugs. Elsewhere in the house i have one power line plug next to my router and another next to my Sony Bravia.

I was very surprised at how well it all worked, to be honest, given the DLNA horror stories I'd read. Admittedly I did quite a lot of research before picking Serviio because I'd heard about how fussy Bravias are with DLNA profiles, but the power line plugs are simply fantastic when cable isn't a practical option and you need fast, reliable connectivity. I haven't tried lobbing HD at it yet but so far the setup hasn't dropped a single frame.

iPad 3 'first tablet' with Bluetooth 4.0

80kbps?

Please give my regards to the '90s.

Reptile boffins spot world's smallest chameleon

David Attenborough

Wasn't this minuscule reptile filmed extensively a good half year ago for David Attenborough's Madagascar documentary?

Android users more likely to put out

So...

Android users are cheap, in more ways than one.

No news there, then.

Microsoft to offer dual upgrade path for Windows 8

Comedy

"The real question is what did / does Vista or 7 bring us that we hadn't already got with XP?"

Is that question seriously being asked with a straight face? If it is, you might want to use that Ubuntu desktop of yours to do a little more research before making yourself look completely ignorant.

Apple's iPad not so shiny once you get it home

Yup

Everyone I know who has one, including myself, can't put the damn thing down.

You've got to wonder, though, what kind of demographic was targeted by "MyVoucherCodes" when they did this survey and the validity of these findings. We're presumably talking about the kind of person that spends their time trawling a website looking to see what they can get on the cheap. The sort of person that buys something they probably don't really need but can't afford to pass up simply because they got 10% off? The kind of person that would, for example, buy themselves an iPad to massage their spending compulsion only to discover they didn't REALLY need it that much?

£63 billion national credit card balance?

Just a thought.

HTC's iPhone, iPad ban bid derailed by US judge

Dietary Requirements

A nice big bowl of spelling would probably be a good start followed by grammar on toast.

iOS update woes prompt gnashing of teeth for Apple fans

Yes they absolutely should use BitTorrent.

After being told by iTunes that it was going to take 3+ hours to download on my 20Mb connection I immediately cancelled it and Googled for a torrent of the golden master instead. Didn't take long to find. 2000+ seeds, 6 minutes, a CTRL + Restore button push later and I was good to go.

Still took about 7 restore attempts to finally get Apple to verify the image, though.

Samsung offers Apple TOP-SECRET peace deal in Australia

@AC

"I got an iPad a year and 2 months ago..."

Your product was out of warranty, it wasn't replaced, and this is no different to the reaction you'd get from 99% of all other companies.

It's worth noting, however, that I've have had an iPhone replaced out of warranty for nothing, and an idiot friend of mine who dropped and cracked his iPad 2 a month after buying it got the unit replaced for nothing. Equally a woman was next to me in the Apple store describing how she took regular, hot showers with her iPhone which had subsequently gone wrong. She explained this, the moisture sensors were off the hook and they told her to piss off. Some get lucky, others don't. You didn't.

"As a locked system, all my purchased apps are now useless."

As a gadget geek you should have known that when you were buying each and every one of your apps. Would you throw a shit-fit at Adobe if your Dell PC exploded 2 months out of warranty and your copy of Photoshop wouldn't work because Dell refused to replace it?

Your problem isn't with Apple, my friend.

Samsung shifts 10 millionth Galaxy SII

Serious?

Amazingly, I've actually seen one of these phones in action, presented to me be someone who bought it a) cos it was cheap and b) openly admitted to the fact that it was crap compared to an iphone.

I examined it as well, and he was absolutely right. Yup, cheap, affordable alternatives are always good but please, don't even try to convince yourself that this is anything than another super-specced also-ran with no hope in hell of denting the iphone's dominance in anything other than mass-market sales.

There's a reason Ferraris make Ferraris and Ford make Fords. Like it or loathe it, please just shut the f*ck up and let people choose what they want to pay for without making endless competetive comparisons. Sometimes there are no comparisons to be made.

Let the downvotes begin!

Samsung may try to block next iPhone in Europe too

I have to agree

Just recently I've been regularly walking past a poster advertising the Samsung Galaxy S II. From anything over a couple of feet away... sorry, it's looks absolutely identical to an iPhone which is exactly what I think it is every time I glance at it. Practically the only differentiating feature you can make out from a distance is the word 'Samsung' written underneath the ear-piece.

I don't ever recall getting confused between Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola and Blackberry phones in the past. They all had their own distinctive and recognisable designs.

Google rolls out offline Gmail (for Chrome only)

ActiveX

Quite surprised this article and all comments so far have failed to mention a disturbing similarity here to IE and ActiveX plug-ins.

OK, so apparently Google hope these standards are introduced in other browsers at a later date, not something I'm aware that Microsoft proposed, but whichever way you looking at it they're bolting in their own additional, non-standard mechanisms into their browser and then expecting everyone else to follow suit.

With the immense popularity of GMail and the increasing popularity of Chrome, isn't this exactly the kind of insidious use of market share that Microsoft were derided for?

Whilst I appreciate that sometimes the industry does need a good kick up the arse from time to time, I'd still rather see all these standards ironed out before having to put up with yet another wave of browser fragmentation.

Schmaltz-powered Chrome overtakes morally superior Firefox

Hmm

I see that over the last twelve months it's been the very same 68 people still using Opera....

Nintendo cuts cost of 3DS by a third

It's not the console price that needs to change.

I've been consistently amazed that people have been prepared to shell out £25-30 on such technically limited games on minuscule cartridges for a while now.

Sure, there are some blinders that are possibly worth it but otherwise you're looking at a console saturated with SNES / N64 ports, weak movie tie-ins and otherwise absolute shit. Only now in 3D.

Thankfully platforms like the iPhone have come along providing quality gaming in the 69p-£5.99 region that offer proper value proportional to the size and limitations of the device. I still have my NDS knocking around somewhere and can honestly say I've not turned it on once since I got my 3GS.

I mean, Christ, a full blown multi-million dollar budget PC game is £30.

Apple top of the tablet totem pole through 2015

*snore*

I love these authoritative predictions. They're like Martin Brundle commentating on the 35th lap of a Grand Prix.

"Well if Hamilton keeps this pace up he'll be overtaking Vettel by lap 50."

He never does, though, does he?

Apple kills MacBook, soups up MacBook Air

MacBook Ground

802.11n wireless is crap, why anyone would include that instead of gigabit ethernet is beyond me. I've spent waaaay to much time trying to join networks than it ever should require. The time it takes could have been spent transferring the data via crossover Cat-5 cables.

Think you might be missing the point of the "Air" bit.

Only jailbroken iPhones, iPads can be safe from latest vuln

So...

In that last paragraph you manage to suggest that Apple's walled garden approach is a security risk and then completely contradict yourself by referencing a real-world trend that proves the complete opposite?

So what do we infer from this? A walled garden is risky, a fenced garden is riskier and the only true solution is to have no garden at all? How very insightful. You should go into politics.

Mole maintains iPad 3, iPhone 5 out this year

Why?

What benefit would a 16:9 screen bring? It's already 16:12. They're not going to make the iPad any longer so all you'd be doing is reducing the vertical resolution of the display to get rid of the black borders, removing the option to zoom if you're not bothered about widescreen and shrinking the playback area of 4:3 media.

DRM-free music dream haunts Apple's app-store lock-in

A few points.

"today's app stores prevent us from having a direct relationship with the app developer"

Have you tried walking into Heinz HQ recently and buying a tin of baked beans? You can't, and it's because there's this thing called a 'channel' and has these things called 'resellers' and it applies to a hell of a lot more than just apps. Some have one, some have many, but there's nothing new going on here.

"Once an app store vendor bills you for a set of apps, it's hard to justify purchasing them again on another platform." and "I'm married with four kids: I can't afford too much app divergence."

You can't have your cake and eat it, mate. You allude to taking advantage of the fact that you can install a single purchase iOS app on multiple devices simultaneously, and then you bemoan the fact that this isn't cross-platform as well?

Nobody buys an Xbox expecting to be able to get their games exchanged if they replace it with a PS3. Nobody buys spare parts for a Ford and expects them to fit on their new Fiat. Nobody has four bloody kids and expects to get all their clothes ugraded to larger sizes when they grow out of them.

You choose your platform, you buy for it and you make your investment like you do for almost anything else... until it's time to change the lot. It's preposterous to expect the entire software industry to go out of its way to cater to your principles on portability because you're a bit of a tight arse trying to save yourself 59p. You'd be better off giving Heinz HQ a ring and using condoms.

A peek inside Apple's iCloud data center

Not DL180s

I think those servers on the right hand side of the last picture are 1U ProLiant DL360 G7s...

Fedora 15: More than just a pretty interface

Yum Proxy

Take a look at mrepo in the DAG Wieers repository. It will let you set up a centralised yum/apt proxy containing mirrors of just about everything you want.

El Reg iPhone app rated a flaccid 12+

Agreed

I've long since noticed that the comments sections tend to provide more accurate and relevant information than the actual articles, not to mention the occasional slanging match.

Please build comments into the app.

Spotify's new desktop client cuts off iTunes

Hype

So, really, the only tangible benefit this enormously over-hyped update gives is to allow non-premium users to wirelessly sync their own MP3s to their iPod instead of having to use iTunes and a cable. You still have to do it on your own LAN, only now at likely half the speed that was achievable over USB as I strongly suspect their desktop application can't sync using Apple's proprietary interface.

If you're a heavy Spotify user the chances are you're already premium and using the mobile app. If you're not, there's little incentive to import all of your music into Spotify as you'll still have to use iTunes to sync apps / photos / calendars regardless.

Not only that, you still have the adverts / limits only now you're using the Spotify app more often as a media player for your own music and conveniently turning your internet connection into a distribution node for Spotify's P2P network. They benefit from your bandwidth, you have no more access to their music library than you did before.

And if wireless syncing is that important to you, why not just install Subsonic server instead of Spotify. Install the iSub iOS app and you can synch / cache your music wirelessly, locally and over the internet as well as getting full 3G streaming on the go.

Bullshit.

360 Browser

Nice

I'll definitely check this out, although I'm already a strong advocate of iCab Mobile which has an equally impressive feature list without the slightly garish interface.

Android, Steve Jobs, and Apple's '90%' tablet share

Well

Arguably you're both possibly missing the point, summarised quite simply with the expression "jack of all trades, master of none".

Apple never claimed the iPhone could do absolutely everything there was to do on a mobile device, and just a cursory glance at their keynote speeches, not to mention their sales figures, shows that Apple have been quite open in saying that their intention was to get a smaller numbers things right the first time around rather than packing in all the functionality they could just for the sake of it.

5 years ahead of its time applies to more than just a bleedin' SD slot. It was 5 years ahead of its competitors in producing a device that wasn't a royal pain in the balls to use for anyone other than pedantic, chin-stroking techies who value specification sheets over ease of use.

I'm not saying it's for everyone. What I am saying is that if you disagree that you're indirectly benefiting from the iPhone's success then you've got your head buried in the ground.

*sigh*

"After all, despite a similar keynote with nearly identical slideware trumpeting the iPhone's dominance just a year earlier, the iPhone no longer dominates. Android does."

This is like comparing a VW Golf's dominance to "hatchbacks". But let's ignore this for the moment.

Apple stated very specifically when they announced the iPhone that it was 5 years ahead of anything else on the market. That was in 2007 and it's now 2011, the tipping point that Android's giveaway saturation is only now starting to make in impact. In every respect Apple were exactly right, and whether you love them or loathe them, that's an astonishing achievement that has pushed the whole industry forward for us all in ways very few are capable of.

Looking at comments like NoneSuch and Mathelli above, it does repeatedly amaze me just how much vitriol and bile is aimed at the iPhone when it's more or less singlehandedly responsibly for driving an industry that's taken 5 years to get its shit together and come up with something remotely comparable.

Air Video 2.4.6

@Paw

I strongly recommend looking at Subsonic if you want to stream your music (and video) from a home server. Fantastic web interface and Android / iPhone apps that allow you to stream and cache music directly to your phone (arguably removing the need for iTunes completely).

Dell, HP badmouth Apple's iPad

OK, I'll bite.

That's funny. My corporation has rolled out hundreds of them using JAMF's management suite called Casper.

And I'll tell you one thing, we get almost no supports calls about them other than trivial "how do I" questions compared to the near endless stream of people walking in with knackered Windows laptops.

Lay off the caps lock, son, and stop talking out of your arse. They're not perfect, admittedly, but to say that they're useless overall and of no value to the enterprise is uninformed and frankly ignorant.

Early demand knocks back UK iPad 2 delivery dates

What's it for?

Trust me, you'll never get a meaningful answer to that question until you use one for more than an hour.

Steve Jobs vindicated: Google Android is not open

Damn!

You beat me to it!

O2 ups 3G speeds by 30%

HALT

I feel for you mate but for the love of everything that's holy do not switch to Vodafone.

Their coverage is like a scattering of hotspots all over London. If you ever find an area with decent coverage you do get impressive speeds, but that's f--k all use when 80% of the time you're stuck on GPRS in the middle of a dead zone as I always seem to be.

Moving to Windows 7: Is it worth it?

Haha

Yeah, and there's absolutely nothing long-winded, overly complicated and utterly unnecessary about that setup that might stop you doing a company wide-deployment of it.

If you took that to the board as a realistic proposal two things would happen. The first is that they'd look at their calendars to make sure it wasn't April 1st and the second would be you getting laughed out of the building.

Jon Bon Jovi accuses Steve Jobs of murdering music biz

Prince

Back in 1988 he released his Lovesexy album. This was designed from the ground up to be listened to as a full album in one, continuous sitting. Just to make this point the original CD was deliberately cut to have only 1 track on it that was three quarters of an hour long. Interestingly this made the DJ versions meant for radio, cut with 9 tracks, very expensive collectors items.

Point being, if artists are so horrified at the concept of individual tracks being downloaded and degrading the experience of the album as a whole, I'm assuming there's nothing to stop them putting their album on iTunes as a single mp3 that costs £11.99.

Google teaches Microsoft's IE9 to love open video codec

So...

One set of browsers ship with codec 1 and a plug-in for codec 2, and the other set of browsers ship with codec 2 and a plug-in for codec 1. Net result, bugger all.

Wake me up when one of the browser manufacturers actively blocks the codec they don't want.