Posts by Dexter Berlekey

Dragons' Den badboy's Expansys burns sales, profits up in smoke

Re: Majority?

Erm, Majority is defined as having more than the reset combined, i.e. greater than 50%

Netflix tempts binge viewers with House of Cards pilot freebie

Business Model

Does this business model work? Just some back of a fag packet calculations, but if they have 33 million subscribers, paying roughly $100 a year (For the US pricing 7.99 * 12 comes to less but I'm being generous), that comes to 3.3 billion, which leaves 1.7 million short on rights alone (at 5 billion*) without the acquisition cost and the cost of running the service. I would imagine that the rights cost will scale with subscriber base to some degree.

From my perspective this is great, the service works and costs peanuts, but doesn't seem all that sustainable to me.

* Of course if that 5 billion is what was spent on multi-year deals negotiated last year that all of the above is wrong.

Apple iPhone turns five this Friday

Re: Likewise WiFi?

Didn't they also effectively pioneer providing consumers with data and a sensible cost? I know that now everyone has a cap, but at the time they forced the networks to provide unlimited data, so you didn't need to worry. Aside from the interface I see this as the biggest innovation they introduced into the market. Not a hardware one for sure, but a game changer for the handheld market from that point.

iPhone denies existence of Gibraltar, other bits of British empire

Not just the Cook Islands

Cuba, which uses the Cuban Convertible Paso for tourists has a 3 CUC note.

Visa shows off data centre 'moat'

Re: Airlifted off site ?

Didn't make sense to me either, imagine the conversation:

Manager: Can you airlift that box please?

Pilot: What's in it?

Manager: A parcel with a bomb.

Pilot: NO!

World's Raspberry Pi supply jammed in factory blunder

Also, I thought 14th March had a different name, at least that is what I told the missus.

IT'S OFFICIAL: AT&T, T-Mobile deal is dead

Worst business decision of 2012

Is this a suggestion that AT&T, Netflix and RIM are forward dating their poor decisions in some finacially advantagous way?

Apple staff in UK told to cancel holiday in early October

I suspect that the message has got bit twisted anyway, I can see that they can decided no one can request leave during this period, i.e. make a new holiday request from now, but if it's booked then you can take it.

12% of UK don't carry cash

Am I now completely old fashioned?

Am I now behind the times in still quite liking cash? It's quick, I can give it to someone when it's my round so I can take a slash and beers can be got in at the same time. It's doesn't crash on a Sunday afternoon and stop my buying anything at all and works in all taxis.

People say it's a hassle getting cash out, but I just get a ton or 2 at a time and then only go a couple of times a month.

Don't get me wrong, cards a great at the station, supermarket etc. but anything less than a tenner or so is a cash item in my book.

LONG LIVE CASH.

Mr Bean prangs £650k McLaren

It looks fixable to me

I think there have been 6 write-offs of McLaren F1 chassis in total, and only 4 of those were proper road going versions, and then fairly serious accidents to boot. Even if it cost 100K to fix on a car worth 2.5 mil I think it counts a 'polishing out'

Apple to release Mac OS X Lion on Wednesday

Saw it live about 20 mins ago

I checked just after 2 UK and it was up, downloading now

VMware lets Apple fondleslabs tickle Windows VDI

Don't need to take iPad out at the airport?

This used to be the case, but recent trips thought Terminals 1 and 3 at Heathrow, this seems to have changed and they now need to be take out, which is a pain.

Indonesian pop star jailed over sex videos

Playmobie reconstruction or it didn't happen

As above

The year's best... console games

New Vegas

No mention of Fallout: New Vegas, it was the only game I made time to actually finish this year. Proved to be richer and more involved than Fallout 3. I loved it and can't wait for the DLC.

iPad spends 20% of time in bed

Makes a lot of sense

I think that the iPad use cases fit a quite specific set of people. I travel a lot on the train and get a fair few flights and find mine awesome, it is lighter than a single hardback or a couple of paperbacks, and allows me to read/watch what I like during these activities while also get a bit of work done (Getting my 15" lappy out in economy is pretty much a non starter). I guess those folks bought early and are enjoying it, those who bought later didn't see the burning advantages and so aren't as happy

App steers cyclists away from traffic, upward inclines

confident cyclis

What you say makes a lot of sense, but I understand the public perception.

I have only started cycling again in the past couple of months after a 12 or so year break, basically since I was a child/adolescent. I don't jump red light at the moment as I know I don't fully appreciate all the factors I need to consider when doing so, my current background is in 1500KGs of steel after all. I mention this as I see on the road cyclists who jump lights in a sensible manner, looking and being considerate and those who just 'go for it', it's the latter group who give all of us a bad name and don't help anyone.

Let's face it, some light touch regulation would be a little inconvenient for the proper cyclists in the short term but I think has the potential, if worked correctly to have some long term benefits in terms of road user attitude and cyclist behavior.

(untitled)

Funny you should mention this. The first route I asked of it was from home to my office, it chose a route which is lighter on traffic than the one I take, but does include a 20% incline to a height which I can happily avoid by taking the main(ish) road.

I'm not trying to be critical, this is a welcome addition to my cyclist tool kit, especially as a relative novice, but it's not perfect and no substitute for reading a proper map.

Paris Hilton exits missionary position to save Universe

Paris Picks Universe, Mainly Empty Inside

Prefers locations similar to personality

So what's in a URL? The Reg URL?

Drop the .com

Seriously, why do you want to drop the British identity, I can't help thinking that there is the possibility of losing the sarcasm if you switch to .com. Plus there is the risk of the language changing to novo Americana.

Dexter