Posts by gc73

I see your blue passport and raise you a green number plate: UK mulls rewards scheme for zero-emission vehicles

Re: Green?

Where I live all the car parking spaces are the same size. Are they different where you are?

I guess you could argue having a child means you take up more space because there are sometimes parent and child parking at supermarkets.

FBI says it can't unlock 8,000 encrypted devices, demands backdoors for America's 'public safety'

Legal channels

They’ll have thought of asking the manufacturers to provide the data from the handsets already? No? Just fishing then?

UK waves £45m cheque, charges scientists with battery tech boffinry

This reminds me of the time when...

I look forward to the financial plug being pulled just as the technology is starting to be proven and the IP being sold off elsewhere, who will later dominate the market.

Gov digitisation plans happening too slowly, say IfG policy wonks. Hear that, GDS?

How many of those 50 million are actually live accounts? When the Gov Gateway was first launched I created an account (I can't remember why, I think it was to do with car tax). Apply for a passport? Can't remember the password? You can't recover it, they'll advise creating a new one. Recently I created another (I'm not very good with passwords I hardly use), so created it through Verify, which works very well until I had to submit a tax return and sound that part of gov.uk only works with a Gov Gateway ID and you guessed I had to create another ID. (It doesn't seem possible to get the details on the account that was created through Verify).

Even the government website treats the gateway ID as a disposable item.

If they had smarts the government could begin supplying digital certs. Imagine, a government provided certificate that you can use to secure all your digital life. A lot of politicians would wet themselves at that idea!

Dyson celebrates 'shock' EU Court win over flawed energy tests

Re: Petty?

Turn the "hook" the cord loops over at the top to point down. The whole coil can then be lifted off in one.

EU ruling restricts rights to resell back-up copies of software where originals are damaged, destroyed or lost

Wide-ranging?

Since the music and video industry are busy trying to convince everyone that buying a CD or DVD is a licence purchase and the media is irrelevant, does that mean they need to provide a downloadable replacement now?

Slough isn't fit for humans now, says Amazon. We're going to Shoreditch

It's "storeys".

Pay to play: The hidden cost of software defined everything

Re: "The basis of this article is laughable"

Surely if you're shelling out for a "seriously expensive" piece of hardware you're going to make sure it does the things you expect. Or do you buy for a gov agency?

Home automation while it's hot: Winter warmth for lazy technophiles

Netatmo?

No Netatmo? They have heating controls, controllable via their website.

For those that can't see the point of these systems, for years my heating seems to have been coming on for an hour or so through the night because the night temperature wasn't set low enough. Knocking down the temp .5C easily solved.

Look inside ELON MUSK'S CAR! Tesla S wundervehicle has voom

Re: Poorly researched reporting

I think the majority of EV owners charge at home and only use public charging when they need a top up on a longer journey, so it doesn't happen that often, and they aren't taking the full 30 minute charge so you rarely have to wait.

Re: An invitation to Elon Musk...

Depending on where you live you might find your local supermarket already have non-proprietary charging point in place.

"The 125kW Superchargers work much more rapidly than the existing charging infrastructure for electric cars. While it takes seven hours to charge a Nissan Leaf or Citroën C-Zero on the three-pin plug systems they use, a Tesla S will charge from empty to full in an hour with a Supercharger. Drivers can find which chargers are available – and many of the charger bays have eight or 12 spaces – from a phone app and remotely monitor the state of charge of their charging car while waiting."

The Nissan Leaf can charge at 50kW, which charges from empty in 30 minutes. Charging a Tesla on a domestic supply takes all night. A Leaf can charge in 4 hours using a wall point.

"Musk says that Tesla is happy to open up the charging network to rival electric car manufacturers with provisos that their cars can cope with the rapid rate of charge and that they agree to the business model of charging the manufacturer a per-user fee based on usage rather than charging drivers for usage."

Tesla Superchargers are proprietary, and no other manufacturers use their connectors. The EU has also agreed a "standard" charging mechanism which manufacturers will be encouraged to use - it isn't Tesla's.

"Musk says that using superchargers will be free for Tesla owners forever. He can do this because the cost is all in the infrastructure, the actual cost of the electricity isn’t that great and it’s far better to build it into the price of the car."

Depending on which model Tesla you buy, access to the Supercharger network is included or not. The lower spec models you have to pay for.

GOV.UK push in action: Er, FEWER Brits filling out govt forms online

Convoluted registration

Many of the gov sites need a ID, which first you have to register, then receive a user ID in the post, which you confirm receipt of, then receive a temporary password - through the post. Finally, you can apply to access the service you need.. and then find the website is down for maintenance, or you must send them more details in the post to complete your request.

Rogue trader gets 2½ years for BILLION-dollar Apple share plot

Re: Only 2.5 years?

Embezzlement and fraud sound so much more civilised than theft and robbery though, don't they? I can see why these companies pay so highly to keep the brightest and best... pfftt, such "rogues".

Google deletes Maps satellite photos of 14-year-old's unsolved murder

Re: I would have thought

Maybe it's just me, but if I saw someone getting shot, that would pretty much stay in my mind.

Brit music body BPI lobbies hard for 'UK file-sharers database'

Re: The BPI are a bunch of turds...

BPI & content providers insist music is software and licensed to purchaser, regardless of physical format or delivery...

European Court declares software publishers have no right to restrict resale of licenses..

Discuss..

NSA PRISM snoop-gate: Won't someone think of the children, wails Apple

Siri?

Hold on a minute.. Apple claims data from Siri is not held, so has there been a change since this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/19/apple_siri_voice_eu/

Microsoft Office 365 on iPhone NOW: No, we're not making this up

Re: Ummm, hang on a sec

That "Buy Now" button on the last screen is a big giveaway. App cops must have been asleep the day they approved that.

Apple at WWDC: Sleek new iOS, death of the big cats, pint-sized Mac Pro

New phone mock up?

Usually they demo the new OS on a mock up iPhone on screen, but that doesn't look much like any current iPhone...

Reports: New Xbox could DOOM second-hand games market

Re: A move caused by rip-off game retailers

Since publishers are willing to re-release games on budget or "platinum" labels, that blows your argument they don't devalue out the water.

Re: Locking software to an account is nothing new...

Indeed, having left the iOS camp for Android, I now have several (relatively) high value apps that are now useless, but Apple have no method of transferring to another account as a resale (or even gift to someone else).

Similarly, purchases through the iOS VPP are locked to an Apple ID, which I'm sure many businesses will love once they try to migrate licenses among staff and find they have to repurchase.

Both seem against EU law. Anyone willing to take them on?

Re: All well and good, except...

No, you have a subscription to use the facilities. The physical token merely identifies the subscription is valid, you didn't BUY the token. I'm sure if you look in the contract you'll see the token is still the property of the gym company, required to be surrendered on demand.

You thought only Google dodges UK taxes? So do all the Brit firms

Re: Delaware

Except of course, isn't this exactly the same reason Google are being hauled in front of the PAC committee again? If the two guys in the US are setting up the sale, shouldn't the sale be attributed to the US authorities? Or have you set up some elaborate licensing agreement between the UK parent and the US subsidiary?

TREELLION DOLLAR mobe bonk-bank alliance goes for barcodes

Re: NFC == No Frigging Chance

Large numbers of credit cards already have NFC tech built in, and you don't hear about millions being silently creamed from wallets. I wonder how much of a hand Apple has in all this to create a problem for Passbook to solve.

Apple updates iOS 6, Safari

Re: The New Maps Rock

Well lucky you. Where I am, the maps are in black and white, and at awful resolution. Try looking up some famous landmarks to test out the fluff that is the 3D view, pick the suggestion the app gives you and "no results found". How can that be when it was the app that suggested it in the first place?! If you want to have public transport information, tap the icon to get some "suggestions" of other apps you could use to find what you need. Well that would be peachy if any of them actually had data on the transit systems around me.

Sky squeezes even more money from customers, gets fewer new ones

When are they going to give us..

SAT>IP.

Cool tech.

Cars, lorries stalked via GPS to create live traffic super-map

Re: From the original article...

Sounds like the ANPR data could be used for something beneficial and productive but isn't. Perhaps the powers that be have something to hide so don't want to share.

Re: Alternatively...

Or have a roll-on-roll-off rail network for HGVs. The only traffic would be from a city hub to local distribution.

Another investor pulls out of Habbo Hotel after grooming claims

Re: One more time...

Sadly these will be the people who applaud the Government for bringing in legislation to treat EVERYONE like children and log internet activity more and more.

EU gives Google till July to offer fix for search dominance

Re: I'm curious.

Allegedly fiddling search results and pushing their own services to the top of the pile?

NASA found filming August's Mars landing in California desert

Special Edition

"Look sir, droids"

Apple bashes 'gay cure' app

positive censorship

I don't think it's an insistence that everyone thinks the same, it's more a group of people fed up with being treated like second class citizens pressing for recognition of their rights.

I have no problem with people holding a different view to me, I'm sure there are plenty of things we'd disagree on. I DO have a problem with people promoting their ideas in a manner or language that attacks me (posters on lampposts, leafleting, homophobic apps).

Describing my being as a disease which requires curing does not send a positive message, and I am not surprised there are people who "struggle" with their sexuality if they are being told there is something wrong with them all the time, and that is what I would like to see change.

Cure-all

I don't think there are any apps claiming to cure the disease of unwanted heterosexuality. Perhaps someone can write an app to cure bigotry instead.