Posts by Philolai

Bogus gov online test tells people on dole they're just SO employable

Is this The Register...

...or The Daily Mail? The Behavioural Insights Team seems to do good work - see, for example, the work they did on changing Council Tax demands to increase the response rate. I don't see what's wrong in trying different things to see what works in getting people back into work and then implementing those things which are shown to have a positive effect. As long as it's cost-effective I don't care if they propose taking every benefit recipient on a day trip to the zoo.

We must be lead by evidence, and not be put off things because they sound a bit silly.

When GiffGaff falls over, is it even news any more?

I want to know what's going on with them

Because I'm planning on signing up to them on the Nexus 4. If their network (their bit and O2's) regularly breaks down I will reconsider that, but I will need to know soon otherwise the temptation of their low prices may be too much.

They buy it

Because it's cheaper than the alternatives. Unlimited data, in particular, is hard to come by at the level of about £12.50 a month (including a couple of hundred minutes and unlimited texts).

Apple loses UK 'Samsung copied us' appeal: Must publicly GROVEL

Re: Colour

Unlimited fines, hauling their UK execs in front of the court, ultimately banning Apple products from being sold in the European Union....

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 hands-on review

I think you're wrong about the panel.

The new panel seems to be a significant improvement: moving from nasty PenTile where each of those 1280*800 pixels shared subpixels to a situation where each pixel has R, G and B subpixels of its own is surely a good thing. See http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_note_ii_n7100-review-806p2.php and http://i-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/65956-thumb/note-II-one-x-pixels.jpg. Looks pretty good to me, though I'm looking forward to the full reviews.

I'd be happy if it was still 1280*800 too, but if losing 10% of the height made it easier for them to increase the screen size without increasing the phone width, I'm willing to live with it.

Steve Jobs' death clears way for rumoured 4in 'iPhone 5' screen

Thanks

Saved me having to type that out. Weird how often it's referred to as the iPhone 5.

Samsung Galaxy Note

Battery life for web browsing is worrying

GSM Arena (http://blog.gsmarena.com/samsung-galaxy-note-battery-life-test-over-matches-the-nokia-n9/) found that it could only last 3h 35m of web browsing (on wifi, it seems) compared to 6h 56m on the iPhone 4S. I hope that can be substantially increased by turning down the screen brightness.

GCHQ code-breaking challenge cracked by Google search

Guess they're not after Sun readers then.

Swearing fine quashed as teens have heard it all before

That's not how our legal system works

Over time the idea of what is likely to cause offence, alarm or distress has changed, and could encompass a range of things. Not all that long ago showing a woman showing a bare ankle or bare arms in public might have caused alarm, offence or distress (and still would in some places abroad), so would it make sense to prosecute this as an offensive when a typical, reasonable person would not be offended by it?

It is the job of judges to apply the law to the circumstances they find before them taking into account the context; if Parliament had specific things in mind that it wanted to punish it was free to specify them in the Act. It didn't, so the judge uses his or her, er, judgment. Oh, and please don't call judges morons because you disagree with a half-arsed piece of reporting of what they decided and why they decided it.

Britain's Harrier jump-jets reprieved to fly and fight again

He didn't say it was

The issue is that the Argentinians know exactly where the airfield is on the Falkland Islands and in the event of a large scale invasion 4 Eurofighters and accompanying garrison may not be sufficient to stop it, and we have no means to bring other aircraft to bear. We couldn't even land troops without the air support which we cannot now provide.

Steve Jobs' last words: 'OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.'

This really is a new low for The Register. They ought to delete this article, pretend this never happened and never do it again.

Schoolkids learn coding at GCSE level in curriculum trial

Disagree; everyone needs to have a taste of CS

GCSEs (or equivalent) are compulsory, A-levels aren't, and A-level choices are informed by what GCSEs the kid liked doing. If they've had no exposure to computer science, they're only going to choose it as an A-level if they already had an interest.

FWIW, I'm interested in computing but wasn't going to drop two A-level slots on double-award A-level Computing.

Parliament has no time for 100,000+ signature e-petitions

That's not what they're saying

They're saying that the one day a fortnight that the Backbench Business Committee has to deal with *any* issues it wants to raise is not sufficient to also take on a bunch of other issues. If the Government wants to get credit for instituting an e-petitions system, it should either provide the Backbench Business Committee more time or allow the e-petitions to be discussed in Government time.

I seem to recall that one of the most popular No. 10 Downing Street e-petitions was Jeremy Clarkson for PM, so let's not pretend that this is going to be a great way of making public policy, at least in the short term.

*rolls eyes*

For most people democracy = representative democracy. We don't need Athenian-style direct democracy (for free, land-owning men only) for the voice of the people to be heard.

It would help if the Government provided some of its Parliamentary time for the e-petitions that came through the system that they instituted to be debated, rather than taking a chunk out of the little time the Backbench Business Committee has to play with. I'm sure some enterprising MPs will adopt the measures that have been proposed but it is the Government that deserves the blame for not thinking this one through.

Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy Note

But it's not a Streak...

The Note is 42g (20%) lighter than the Dell Streak 5, and only 41g (30%) heavier than the iPhone 4.

I'll want to play with one before I buy, but (if you'll forgive the capitalist product-lust) I'm just as as if not more enthusiastic about this than the iPhone 4. I don't find tablets that appealing - they're too big, and too expensive given that I also need a new phone - whereas a larger phone that is more usable for tablet-like activities can do the job of both. If Samsung can get this thing a bit of coverage I think they might be on to a winner.

'New laws not needed' to block / censor Twitter et al

Scaremongering rubbish

No UK government in the foreseeable future is going to resort to using the Civil Contingencies Act to close down channels of communication in order to inhibit a little rioting.

- It would prompt absolute bloody uproar amongst MPs and Lords on all sides for the Government to circumvent Parliamentary authority outside of a real emergency with a large scale threat to life

- The courts would probably have something to say about the use of the Civil Contingencies Act for such a purpose given that the government 1. would only have any need to use such a power if the police refused to use their own 2. has had time to introduce legislation to make this power available to the Home Secretary had it deemed it that important.

Paris, because appreciate the show-and-tell (of the Police Act) but the discussion is out of touch with reality.

Speck ToughSkin iPhone 4 case

Is this a review or an advertisement?

Worst. Review. Ever.

Yanks officially recognise the word 'boffin'

What're you on about?

I've always thought 'boffin' was a term that denoted 'smart person who is doing things beyond our understanding' and therefore was implicitly flattering.

You are old

I'm 24, and I knew what pukka meant but the only person I can remember using it is my (mid-50s) dad.

(skull because of how old that is)

ESA: British Skylon spaceplane seems perfectly possible

Write to the government/your MP

I'm quite tempted to write David Willets MP, who has ministerial responsibility for space, to encourage him to ensure that everything is done to support the project and keep it in the UK. One letter isn't going to make much difference but if he started getting letters from people and MPs all over the country about this it might help.