Posts by Peter27x

User spent 20 minutes trying to move mouse cursor, without success

As others have mentioned keyboards and mouses^h^h^h^h^hices are cheep, I suspect that replacing them annually in offices would reduce the cost of illness in offices more than enough to offset the cost.

TSB's middleware nightmare: Execs grilled on Total Sh*tshow at Bank

Re: 'The issues we’re seeing in the system are - middleware'

And what does Ulster have to do with this?

If you meant "Ulster Bank", well that is part of the Natwest/RBS group - which has it's own and separate rich history of IT failures - unrelated to TSB or Lloyds.

NUC, NUC! Who's there? Intel, warning you to kill a buggy keyboard app

Re: VNC on Linux???

It's probably safer to continue with the Intel remote keyboard that use Chrome Remote Desktop Google Slurp Tool

For some reason, you lot love 'em. So here are the many ThinkPads of 2018

Re: Crap

I tend to find corp installs of windows, with all the associated corp bloat/spy ware and the wrong driver cause lots of problems with sleep and networking etc. I managed to partition the HD on my last corp laptop and installed a personal, private install of windows (both were Win 7), and the laptop ran faster and more reliably. It was painfull to have to switch back to the corp install when work started.

Universal Service Oh... forget the Obligation. BT offers to stump up £600m for 10Mbps

Is the Broadband USO similar to the Voice USO, which brings a level of availability etc. By sidestepping the USO are BT trying to get off the hook for providing a guaranteed service level (rather than just the guaranteed bandwidth)?

Men charged with theft of free newspapers

The paper isn't really free, it's paid for by the advertising companies. The assumption is that every paper handed out will be read by at least one person, and thus the fee set for the advertising space.

If those bundles of papers are now not going to be each read by at least one person, there is a lost to the companies advertising.

Of course I'm not going to lose much sleep over that, but still would be a monetary value.

Three outsources staff to Capita

incentive

I really think the UK government needs to take a look at this, perhaps a tax on all all jobs a company outsources for more than 1 year, increased more of outsourced offshore?

Either that or change the tax laws around capex/opex, reduce corporation tax on opex below a threshold set up as a factor of staff directly employed in the UK?

Anything to try to put a curb on outsourcing and/or offshoring existing jobs

One API to rule them all: The great network switch silicon heist

Re: @Peter27x - it'll take a while and a lot of management willpower...

(Ok, it's been a while, I've just found this reply....)

Actually, err, no. Quite the opposite. I work with some fantastic people who are all very skilled at network device CLI (from small routers, all the way up to some of the largest internet class core routers in the world). The majority of them are also great at writing scripts in bash, perl, python etc to automate how they support those devices.

My point is that to scale networks we need to move beyond that approach. If we want to support networks with very large numbers of network devices, such as the LTE networks in India, China, USA etc we can't have our human operators spending large amounts of time on just one device. LTE networks have gone way beyond having humans console into node to diagnose or re-tune etc. Those devices have a level of self administration where they mesh with their neighbours to even out coverage.

Google and Facebook have commissioned custom hardware, those devices just don't have CLI. The theory is why bother with multiple interfaces, each with potential bugs and support costs.

it'll take a while and a lot of management willpower...

We've had API's to network devices for years, but most large networks I've been involved with over the past decades, typically all the devices are configured via CLI. I think the big problem is that just about all network designers are trained first and for most to use the device command line interfaces, typically only having a few devices in there lab's. So they will never design a network and roll-out plan to use anything other than hand-writen cli scripts.

We really MUST get away from training the designers via CLI, if we want API's to become dominant.

It's come to this for IBM: Watson is now a gimmick app on the iPhone

Arggggggg

It is never "Legos", English grammar doesn't allow you to randomly append an 's' like that. i.e. Kids (and adults) play with Lego, not "Legos". If you had two friends called Stephen, you would say I'm going to meet Stephens tonight would you?

Sun? In Blighty? Nah, just build that rooftop data centre, it’ll be fine

Frozen A/C, hot room

Many years ago, at a previous company, after a bit of re-furb, we got a dedicated room for our 2 racks of development kit, the room was divided in 2 with a wire-mesh. The other half had structured wiring and Ethernet switches. We had two identical, but separate A/C units fitted for redundancy, both with their own outside unit. Everything seemed to be working well...

One Monday morning we arrived and someone alerted us to the loud noise coming from the room. We unlocked the door and were met with a huge wave of heat and what turned out to be the noise of the fan blades scraping against ice that had built up in one of the units. I can't remember the details exactly, but I think it had been cycling through freeze and melt cycles all weekend. I think the two units were also working against each other, or the other one had given up.

There was water all over the place, dripping from the unit, lucky none had dripped onto our equipment.

Who wants a classic ThinkPad with whizzy new hardware? Lenovo would just love to know

vga

please DO NOT include a VGA connector

Can we please kill off that nasty connector from 1984 which was originally meant for 640x480 resolution screens and is totally incapable to driving anything more than 1024x768 with out dropping so much quality.

A lot of comments here want so many features, ports, etc on their ideal retro thinkpad... Quite frankly I don't! I've had a few X series (as well as T series) thinkpads and much prefer the smaller form factor and am very happy to have less features (that I won't use that often anyway).

I currently have a personal X200 and a work X240, it's interesting to compare the two of them. The X240 has really compromised 6 row keyboard, it's frustrating that I have a dedicated Home key, but for End I had to use a combo. So a really good 7 row keyboard is a must (and since it will have a taller 16:10 screen there should be room for a deeper keyboard).

Can we also have the battery at the front of the laptop to counterbalance the weight of the open screen (like on the t20/t21), it seems quite obvious really...

I'd love a new thinkpad, but just don't think the current ones are worth spending a serious amount of money on, I'm hopeful for a decent retro thinkpad, soon

Ha! Win 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 2 pops out of the Microsoft oven

Re: A cunning plan?

Except that Powershell has been widley ported to just about every other OS including Linux...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+powershell

fail icon.... becasue you just did

Microsoft man: Internet Explorer had to go because it's garbage

So, that means that Webkit is new new IE

We are getting rid of Trident (hopefully Spartan will be decent) so that leaves WebKit as the runt of the html rendering engines, running prominently under the runt of web browsers, Safari.

Sky sidles up to O2, whispers: 'Fancy a little FOUR-PLAY?'

Re: Past Form

"What the Sky deal almost certainly does is to make any competition review of the Three takeover of O2-UK a formality; something that could not be said if Sky were to directly approach O2-UK."

Why? Sky and O2 don't compete, so a merge of Sky and O2 would create a stronger company which will be more aggressive towards BT/EE, Talk-Talk/? Vodaphone/Virgin and other competitors. Which would be better for the consumer.

Is Windows RT not invited to the Windows 10 upgrade party?

ARM vs ATOM

When the Surface RT came out a lot of the analysts were saying that MS *had* to have a ARM tablet, Android and Apple devices, running ARM were so popular and making so much money that MS would be a dead company by tomorrow... So I'm guessing that (partly) that WinRT was a reaction to that.

Come forward a couple of years and we've seen how the smart-phone and tablet markets have matured and the mad growth has settled. Alongside that there's been a rush to the bottom from some manufactures, so there's less profit in the market now. Finally we're seeing a lot of Atom powered devices appear, and getting good reviews, compared to ARM... So I think MS is right to consider dropping RT, it missed the rapid growth period, it couldn't compete with the better "full-fat" windows and it couldn't compete with "landfill android".

Porting what-was-called-Windows Phone to the RT tablets would seem like a good move, but I'm guessing MS want to have a fresh start further down the line to re-launch Windows on sub £300 tablets. A shame.

Hong Kong mogul mulls multi-billion pound bid for O2 – report

It's Complicated

Hutchison created Rabbit, which evolved into Orange. Orange got sold off to Mannesmann, who in turn got bought by Vodaphone. At the time Vodaphone/Mannesmann where reportedly the biggest company in the world. However, Vodaphone had to sell off Orange due to EU competition law. France Telecom bought Orange...

Vodaphone used to be Racal Vodaphone, Racal Telecom, was sold to Global Crossing, which was going to be bought by... no you haven't guessed it... Hutchison Whampoa. (In the end Singapore Telecom bought GX, as the US gov blocked the sale to Hutchison Whampoa). The guy in charge of GX at the time was John Legere (http://search.theregister.co.uk/?q=John+Legere&site=&psite=0), who is now in charge of T-Mobile US.

I'm sure there are many more related connections, it is a small industry.

LICK THAT ATM: Diebold and Corning debug displays

Re: ...reducing power requirements to 24v

I can't wait to see banks being told by the EU to ditch ATMs because they aren't A-Rated and use too much energy...

OS X search tool Spotlight runs roughshod over Mail privacy settings

Apple; insecure, by default.

Apple's 16GB iPhones are a big fat lie, claims iOS 8 storage hog lawsuit

Does Moore's Law not apply to the system memory in phones/tablets?

Hasn't the price of flash memory not halved at least once for a phone/tablets minimum system memory to have increased yet? It sure has for SSD drives.

Damn phone/tablet companies greed :(

"actual formatted capacity less."

The 16GB refers to the raw storage capacity, i.e. for flash memory the number of binary bit-states the flash cells can hold. When you format the storage to be able to hold a file system (FAT, NTFS, ext3, XFS.. etc) that will take an amount of the raw storage as well.

And then the above mentioned Operating system will take an additional chuck of that storage again.

Nexus 7 fandroids tell of salty taste after sucking on Google's Lollipop

android

I'm getting quite fed up of buggy android (I've not yet updated to lollipop on my 2013 Nexus7) the damn thing crashes and hangs or loses some function on a weekly basis, resulting in the need to reboot. Does anyone else have a 2013 Nexus7 like this?

Facebook: Over half a BEELLION loyalists have SPURNED our Messenger app

arggg

I only use Facebook's awful message service because other people insist on using it to contact me. And now that reluctant usage has been counted towards the half billion users.

It's so bloody slow, and ugly both on the web and the phone apps. WhatsApp is much better.

Microsoft discovers long-lost phone division down back of sofa

One step closer

MS dropping the Nokia name is just one step closer to Nokia (the original Finish company) returning to making Phone s again [hopefully]!

(Remember, selling it's mobile phone business generated a lot of cash for Nokia)

p.s. not really connected, but the recent updates to Windows Phone have added several nice improvements, the little things that make it nicer to use.

Mobile coverage on trains really is pants

OFCOM's drive routes are partly to blame

OFCOM publishes a set of cities and 'drive routes', the main trunk roads around the country, where all mobile phone operators need to report there network availability and quality. The railways are (or seemingly were not) included, therefore there was no real reason for the Mobile Operators to provide good coverage in those areas. Remember in days gone past, the mobile phone used to be called the carphone!

Rubbish mobile data whilst travelling really is a pain, what else can we do whilst commuting on trains for hours a week?

Password manager LastPass goes titsup: Users locked out

Re: Lastpass

"They learn well enough: If the service is outsourced, then management wrath will strike far away when things do not work. It's the risk-free option"

Well the reverse is also true, i.e. we can outsource to another company and pass the risk to them. it if goes wrong we're ok, we can blame them....

Soz, BT: All EE's 4G goodies still won't give you 'seamless voice'

Wait!! A conventional mobile (voice) network is (almost) a non-starter for BT

Two important points. BT didn't buy a single 50Mhz block of spectrum, they bought

- E-UTRA FDD Band 7 (2 x 15 MHz of 2.6 GHz)

- E-UTRA TDD Band 38 (1 x 20 MHz of 2.6 GHz unpaired)

The majority of networks which intend to support voice in the world will be FDD networks (Frequency Division Duplex) which require parried chunks of frequency, one for the downlink and one for the uplink. TDD (Time Division Duplex) networks can support voice, I think there are some networks in Asia use TDD. However I'm not aware of any LTE handset sold in the UK that can support TDD networks, nor band 38 (typically a LTE handset will support about five out of the ~30 FDD bands, e.g. 1, 3, 7, 8, 20, and these will tailored to fit with the networks in each the country the phone is sold to with country specific variants). I doubt many manufactures would bring a TDD handset to the UK for effectively a network with zero customers.

So BT could only run voice services on the quite narrow Band 7. Theoretically a narrow band could be used to serve the country, but there is a trade-off. More customers using the same bandwidth would require a more dense network with smaller cells. Basically that's why none of the other main UK Mo Pho Co wanted that auction bundle and it went quite cheep.

The intention of TDD bands are primarily for data only services such as that offered by http://www.ukbroadband.com/ Which backs up BT's statement of providing 4G broadband.

Cite:

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2013/02/20/ofcom-announces-winners-of-the-4g-mobile-auction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-UTRA#Frequency_bands_and_channel_bandwidths

It's true, the START MENU is coming BACK to Windows 8, hiss sources

Start Screen vs Start Menu

Please don't bring the start menu!

Ok from Win 95 through Win2000 it was a good idea compared from what went before. Having a button in the bottom corner which was a constant and therefore could always be accessed made using a computer a lot easier, having a simple menu structure activate from that button was logical. I feel things started to go downhill when WinXP arrived with a two column start menu. In Vista is just got far too complicated, a lot of functions were cramed into a small area, it got more difficult to use and navigate, as well as slower to use.

The Start Screen could be a great interface, at the moment it just feels underdeveloped. Having the much larger area of the whole screen should give a better experience. If they improved the layout flexibility, the auto-arrange-inverted-gravity is a bit of a pain (Win Phone has a similar problem but it is a bit better).

Sinclair's FORGOTTEN Australia-only micro revealed!

it spoke!

I remember seeing an OPD at a computer club I went to every other week in Bangor (Co. Down), one of the guys worked for ICL, I think, and brought the OPD along. I remember being very impressed with it having a speech synthesiser.

I guess it was the closest thing we had to a smart-phone in the mid eighties!

The Reg undergoes a Twitter makeover: Come join the squawk

Re: Oh dear... another scorched earth moment...

It does amaze me that companies just give up on twitter accounts rather than rename them, you so often see "no longer using this account, add me here @xxxxxx".

In this case El Reg seems to have had these three accounts for a while now, all getting the same tweets, all with followers, so it's not just as easy as renaming one of them, with out abandoning lots of followers. a bit of a mess really!

Personally I don't see that @theregister has much merit over the other two @names, I suspect any search you do would get you to @regvulture if it was the only account...

Windows 8.1: Read this BEFORE updating - especially you, IT admins

MS really seem to have backtracked since Steven Sinofsky left, to the tune of 3.5GB!

Microsoft watches iPads flood into world's offices: Right, remote desktop clients. It's time

Dear Microsoft

Could you please stop flirting with those other Operating Systems long enough to spend a little time with your own Windows Phone Operating System to nurture an RDP client for it. She's never going to develop into a health and popular teenager if you don't spend some time with her.

Remember family comes first, especially as Nokia and yourself have just tied the knot, you wouldn't want to get on her bad side so soon after the honeymoon.

p.s. can you please make up your mind quickly as to who the new uncle is going to be after Uncle Balmer joins Uncle Bill in the retirement home

PEAK APP: After 2013, you'll NEVER again install as many – Gartner

hmmm

so what they are saying is that Windows Phone is actually ahead of the curve then...

(confession, I am a WP Owner)

China Labor Watch gumshoes uncover TOP SECRET PLASTIC IPHONE

supprise spot checks

I wonder how those surprise spot checks by the fruity company work, compared to the checks by China Labour Watch. Might they go like this.

10am Spot check team turn up

10:30 After waiting in the lobby of the posh offices attached to the site drinking coffee etc, they meet with the site managed/evil overseer for a detailed/lengthy* discussion about how the spot checks will be conducted

12:30 Lunch in the management restaurant

14:00 a leisurely stroll to the factory, to meet the assembly line managers

14:30 they get their clip boards out and commence the secret surprise spot checks of a random** factory production line

15:00 Clipboards are put away with lots of green ticks and the previously agreed upon two red "must try harder" crosses.

17:00 pub

* delete as appropriate.

** as chosen by the site overloads at 10:05 and cleaned up in the hours since

Paypal makes man 1000x as rich as the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE

Re: Are you telling me...

"Beer - because it goes down well while watching the cheerleaders."

Well except it's not Beer, it tends to be the nasty "Bud light", yuk

(however America does have some great beer)

Brits' HSBC bank cards, net access goes TITSUP

Legal Tender

To be honest the term Legal Tender isn't that important.

In the United Kingdom the only bank notes that are legal tender are the Bank of England notes in England (and maybe Wales, not quite sure). Notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks are not legal tender anywhere. However they all (including the Bank of England notes) have the "promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ..." and are backed up by the relevant bank, therefore people use them (the alternate would of course be to trade goods).

I guess in the context of paying a £800 council tax bill in 2p coins, yes it's not a "legal tender" payment, but its still a payment in a legal currency, and therefore there is no legal reason for it to not be accepted.

Living with a 41-megapixel 808 PureView: Symbian's heroic last stand

Re: symbian vs windows phone

@Dave 15,

Yep, true, WinPhone is based on WinCE. I guess I really meant the re-boot of Windows Mobile into Windows Phone with v 7.5 and now v8.

The typical symbian phone comes stuffed with goodies that you have to buy for iphone, android or windows.

I think the problem here is that the eco-system hasn't developed for Apps on Win Phone, there's lots of pretty poor apps out there. :(

symbian vs windows phone

I've just moved from a Symbian phone (Nokia C7) to a Lumia 920. It's quickly obvious that Windows Phone is a really young OS, compared to the feature rich and "mature" Symbian, There are so many little features that are missing from WP8.

I also really miss the Situations app, I hope the developers port it across to WP soon (I think they committed to doing so).

Nokia Drive is excellent, but the current Nokia HERE Drive+ Beta just doesn't have the features, surprising as it looked to be a cosmetic makeover.

I get the feeling that Nokia either aren't investing as much effort into putting in the features into WP, to give the Lumia phones an advantage over other WP devices, or MS are restricting them too much. A Shame.

P.s. enjoyed reading this review, thanks.

How God and übergeek Ron Crane saved 3Com's bacon

Re: Then there is the 3C501 card.

The hours I've spent trying to get the 3c509 combo cards to work... As a student I got a job on the back of admitting to have struggled and succeed in getting these cards to work. Truthfully excellent cards, it's just the PnP drivers in Windows that were the pain I suspect. I chucked my 3c509 last week in a clear out...

BT Tower is just a relic? Wrong: It relays 18,000hrs of telly daily

Re: £50 / Shard Avoidance.

A trip up Monument costs something like £3:50 at the moment, and gives a fantastic view out over London. Unfortunately there are no high speed lifts to wisk you to the top, it's 311 steps!

I believe you can visit the Bar at the top of Tower 42 (the Natwest tower) for the price of a drink, thus the pint glass icon.

Ten external battery packs

Shame you did get some of the more common battery packs

The Duracell battery packs are available in lots of high street stores, it's probably the most common pack, yet it's not included in this review, even to show how it compares to it's peers. It's a shame you couldn't include the GP and energiser battery packs also.

Was this review just preformed on the samples that had been send into the reg office over the last few months?

Duh! icon for missing out on the obvious

Prisoners cannibalise mice for mobile power

that is quite shortsighted

... smuggle in a phone, but have no means to charge it

Mozilla slings out 9th beta for Firefox 4

Tabs On Top

Firefox button --> Options [>] --> un-select "Tabs On Top"

Personally I'm not sure aero-peak works for a web browser, it would be useful to be able to toggle it quickly.

Now is there an option somewhere to disable the tab groups feature?