Posts by Timmy B

UK.gov was warned of smart meter debacle by Cabinet Office in 2012

Re: Pull the plug then

UPS are for amateurs. I know at least a dozen ways of making natural lamps and light sources. From tallow lamps to bark torches. You can tell where the true experts are because they will just make lights when they need them ;)

Investigatory Powers Act signed into UK law by Queen

Re: I wonder.....

Already vote Lib-Dem - I live in Yeovil and until loads of people went mental and voted in the pathologically silent and useless Fysh it was the only way.

Re: Here's the full list...

Food Standards Agency!

wt absolute f!

Now I'll calm down in case the Scottish Ambulance Service Board takes me away....

I wonder.....

... if enough people run a script on boot pings a load of "select" sites and then a whole load of random ip addresses that this'll just make the law pointless? Just a thought....

HTC and OnePlus spruce up flagships for Santa's sack

Re: OnePlus pricing

I agree - I paid £309 for my oneplus 3. What you get for the extra £90 seems a bit pricey. I figure the OP3T is now a high-mid range phone now - certainly not budget even at the £309 I paid.

Three CEO confirms hack, 133,827 customers were exposed

I agree with Asylum_visitor. I queried three to find out if I am on the list but they wouldn't tell me as I am not one of the few that have been involved in the actual upgrade interception. They seem to think that having my information including name, address, telephone number, date of birth and "other non-financial" information leaked like this has no effect on me, I understand stuff like this will always happen whilst people have access to useful information at any level and am not going to make a big issue. What I don't understand is the uppity attitude of the person on the phone....... sigh..... minor rant over.

WileyFox Swift 2: A new champ of the 'for around £150' market

Re: It's all in the details

This or a G4? Neither. Get a oneplus 3T when they are out in a little bit. I like my oneplus 3 loads. A little bit more money but well worth it. If the extra money is the issue - one of these. I never was happy with my LG.

Panicked WH Smith kills website to stop sales of how-to terrorism manuals

They had one job....

I still found "A guide to improvised weaponry" on the site. And "An introduction to the technology of explosives". Sure that some "use" could be made of those.

Toblerone's Brexit trim should be applied to bloatware

Re: Windows

Outlook attachment dropdown..... I never noticed that - how handy!. Have a virtual one on me.

Fleeing Aussie burglar shot in arse with bow and arrow

Re: Bloke was lucky

You only really suffer eye injuries from the nock end when retrieving arrows from a target. As he didn't get to retrieve his arrow he was quite safe....

LASER RAT FENCE wins €1.7m European Commission funds

Roads and cars....

What happens when this shines across a field at a pigeon, misses and blinds the driver of a car and causes an accident? In fact the more I think about it the more stupid this is. Can anyone think of an actual good reason for having one other than fewer pesticides? We don't need to use pesticides - what we need is promotion of predators. More raptors means less rats - buzzards love them.

Re: Those of us old enough to remember . . .

Going to have to be a very clever laser that distinguishes rats and pests from protected species that it is illegal to interfere with. In fact that reason will likely make this illegal to use in the UK. Shine this at a natterjack toad or a barn owl and cause them to do something that injures them and you'll be heading for a fine or even prison sentence..

Soylent bars farting recall

no... no... no... no...

I'll eat proper food, thanks. This is just a horrible idea and if you're eating them it's no wonder your insides are rebelling.

PC sales sinking almost as fast as Donald Trump's poll numbers

Re: I've had the same broom for years!

I've been on holiday - for me it's Monday morning....... should avoid posting anything anywhere until fully awake I suppose.

Re: I've had the same broom for years!

"but it's the same PC I've had for at least 10 years :)"

I say that's a Theseus' paradox and just because the case is the same it's not really the same PC. You have had some bits for 10 years but could equally say it's only as old as the newest component.

Very sensible Flippo. That seems to be exactly what I see and I spend most of my time dealing with everyday folks and their PC usage. I also think you missed one thing. As net connections get faster the need for processing at the client end lessens. Why bother buying a really powerful PC if everything you want can be provided "in the cloud" on a 5 year old budget PC.

Perhaps cheap 4K screens on laptops will get a few sales?

Four reasons Pixel turns flagship Android mobe makers into roadkill

Re: Planned to buy...but didn't.

"I'm now looking at a Oneplus 3, albeit without an SD card slot, but it doesn't run Android N yet which would be a bit of a downgrade for many to go back to Marshmallow. Once it starts shipping with Nougat I feel Oneplus will have an order book that HTC can only dream of."

I have a OP3 and I think it's possibly my favourite android phone yet. And I've not come close to filling the 64 gig it ships with.

Except OnePlus are being all a bit daft with firmware updates. Not that they are poor - I'm running the community preview on my OP3 and it's a fine version of android. But it's that - a version of android - that limits the speed of updates.

I'd really like to see WP 10 resurrect as an alternative. A few changes - a bit more transparency on data use - a few tweaks here and there - some enterprise level security and they could actually make it work.

'What this video game needs is actual footage of real gruesome deaths'

Re: There Is More To Add

Had me at foxes --- lost me at badgers.

Ice to see you! Windows 10 fix for freezing PCs finally flung at folks

"React OS is actually now more stable and reliable than Windows 10" - Seriously??? I have tried it in various guises and all of them die after 5 minutes of use. What are you running it on as I'd like an install I can use to evaluate properly.

Breaking 350 million: What's next for Windows 10?

Re: Pacman & cancer

>Updates, including requirements to reboot.

>Malware.

>Anti-virus grinding away your response times.

I only update at the end of the day when I shut down.

I've never had Windows malware.

I don't notice any AV issues.

Never had experience of the last two.

Re: Pacman & cancer

"@TimmyB - broadly speaking wrong on all three counts"

Are you saying the most commonly used application software works as well on Linux as it does on Windows? Are you saying that most commonly purchased hardware suppliers create Linux drivers? Seriously? And yes - the Windows experience is better. Give me an example of day to day usage where it isn't.

Re: Pacman & cancer

"Unpinning does not..."

I didn't have to un-install and most people won't for those if they have never installed them. I just had to unpin. I simply said what I had to do.

Re: Pacman & cancer

"COMPARED TO WHAT?"

oh I dunno - perhaps any version of desktop Linux you care to mention. Good things:

1. Hardware compatibility.

2. Software compatibility / availability,

3. Established support that goes beyond "don't you know this, noob?".

ta - as they say - da...

Re: Windows 10 a hopeless muddle

Skype isn't windows. The point was made about windows.Any more?

Re: Windows 10 a hopeless muddle

"gratuitous Ads"... I keep hearing this but on 6 PCs at home and several here at the office on 10 I barely see any ads beyond the suggested app in the start menu. That's hardly gratuitous now and two clicks and that's are gone forever. Got any example of these "gratuitous Ads"?

Re: Pacman & cancer

"Here we have a PROFESSIONAL OS with Candy Crush and X-Box on the start menu. These cannot be easily removed and keep on coming back like a cancer."

Erm... I right clicked on them and selected unpin and they went and never came back. Easily removed and didn't come back. Come on now.... did you actually have this problem or are you simply regurgitating something you read elsewhere?.. be honest now...

Londoner jailed after refusing to unlock his mobile phones

Re: Hmm

"The statistics are absolutely clear that countries with few guns have a much lower rate of gun deaths (duh!)"

Nope. Honduras is highest in deaths and way down the list in ownership. Switzerland is the opposite. The statistics are not clear at all and gun deaths are more to do with the overall socioeconomic situation in countries.

Microsoft axes 2,850 more Windows Phone, sales staff – a week after Justin Timberlake sang on stage for them

Re: Also a name change-

"I've just spent what seemed the best part of a life-time setting up a Windows laptop for my granddaughter. What a pain."

I set up a Win 10 PC for my partners mother a few days ago. I basically turned it on, ran through the setup screens and let it do all the updates for me. Took longer than that to install the specialist stroke recovery software. No desktop mess here. Though the amount of stuff that was a pest to get working the last time I did a Linux install made me remember why I think it'll never be used by more than a few hobbyists. Though that's the issue with anecdotes, each person will have different stories.

Re: Also a name change-

"So its a lot more than 2% in reality, just the stats cannot log them...."

That's why I said desktop. I think that the 2% figure for general use would be about right. It certainly tallies with what I've seen in the "real world".

Re: Also a name change-

Puzzled. We have a 3% marked share by end users in Windows phone as a failure. But a 2% market share on the desktop for Linux is a success.....? (Roll on the downvotes because of the Linux fans on the reg)

White House to bung electric car industry $4.5bn in loans

We charge overnight. We can pick the time that the char starts drawing power too. Also there is no mention - I suspect people don't know about it - of the new technology where EVs will pump back unused cheap electricity during the day and reclaim the higher tariff, and then recharge at night when it's cheaper and less used.

Re: Charger hogs

We have been blocked in both Weymouth, Exeter and services on the M5 by PHEVs. The Exeter one was parked all day in the P&R whilst they went shopping. The obvious answer is to have more than 2 charging stations.

All this is moot, though, since Electric Highway have imposed the crazy pricing scheme.

Re: Electric car grants

I'd like to see where you get the statistics for each electric car using the same power as a house. You are also ignoring that the vast majority of EVs will charge over night when far fewer people are draining the grid.

Microsoft Azure doubles up to $800m a quarter – and is wiped out by dying phone sales

Re: The writing should be on the wall

"The have all but pulled the plug already"

I upvoted that but it's a sad thing. I don't want to see a market where there is just Android and Apple. Liked my Windows phone but just can't feel I can stick with a dying platform.

Rogue Somerset vulture lands at Royal Navy airbase

All fun for me.....

Yeovilton is just across a couple of fields from me and my home office points that way - been looking out for it all day. No sign.

Forget high-powered PCs, mobile is the future of VR, says Google

Good Freekin Lord!

Ok - so fighting dragons not so much - but all of the stuff in that video can (for most people) actually be done the for realz outdoors! We are turning into the people in Wall-e. <sigh>

Ok - rant over - I'll immerse myself in the calming sound of birdsong - where are my headphones?

Mads Torgersen and Dustin Campbell on the future of C#

Re: Functions returning multiple values.

"Functions returning multiple values ?!? Can somebody just kill me now?.... "

Indeed. Why not have the function return a struct or class instance. I don't get why you would want two variables out like this. I suppose if you really wanted to push it you could argue a very minor memory benefit and speed difference. But if you're going that route lets forget OOP entirely.

GM crops are good for you and the planet, reckon boffins

Did anybody read the full paper?

I simply don't have time at the moment but would be interested in doing so if it covered things such as cross-pollination, affect on local food chain, affects on pollinators.I don't care if they are just safe for people I want to know if it addressed (local would be most interesting) ecology as a whole. If it does then I'll try and make the effort to read it all.

Cheers.

Microsoft sets Feb 2017 date to kill last SHA-1 zombies

Re: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

"I think it's really cute how they keep up this pretence of security, when the entire operating system is a piece of surveillance apparatus.".....

Anybody that goes online at any time has no basis to complain about surveillance. If anyone with the staff and budget of a nation state wants to watch you then they will.

Intel has driven a dagger through Microsoft's mobile strategy

Re: Outlook RT

The 8.1 update for RT did deliver about 95% of Outlook 2013 - some of the integration features didn't work but then they didn't work with the rest of Office 2013 RT.

I loved my RT tablet. It performed well, was incredibly stable too. But no apps was what killed it. If MS unlocked it and allowed 3rd Party desktop ARM apps then it may have worked better.

Windows 10 handcuffs Cortana web search to Bing and Edge browser

I am amazed...

That everyone complains about MS gathering data through Win 10 and then happily uses chrome and google. MS are the inferior cousins to google when it comes to data slurping....

Three to chop off £3bn of its network in bid to woo EU over O2 merger

Re: That pledge on prices...

I totally agree. Three's One Plan was excellent and I swapped to a similar one a while ago. The seem to be gradually offering less and less for more and more money. As I can get a heavily discounted EE contract because I am a BT customer they are looking like a very appealing prospect when my contract runs out in a couple of months. Unless three can offer me a bargain like they did last time - though this is very unlikely as the manager of the local three shop told me they have very limited leeway on contracts.

Windows 7's grip on the enterprise desktop is loosening

"I've installed (and then removed) Windows 10 about 15 times since last July"

I have to ask.... How come? Did you accidently install it?

Elon Musk takes wraps off planet-saving Model 3 vapourmobile

Re: Interesting - Just hope the dates match up.

Bristol sell but don't service - That's according to the bloke in Cribbs anyway.

Re: Interesting - Just hope the dates match up.

"But it doesn't need service as much as a traditional car!"

It does - it still has wheels and breaks, etc. Just the same as a normal car. We still service our leaf every year.

Interesting - Just hope the dates match up.

We knew this was on the horizon a year ago and the end of 2017 date too. We timed the three year PCP on our Leaf to coincide with it. Tesla has two issues, though: 1. Their only major pro is that they have better range that other EVs. 2. They have a pitiful servicing network. I live in the South West of England and if I were to buy one I'd have to travel to London to get it serviced!! If the next generation Leaf has a 200 mile realistic range then I can see the cheapy Tesla struggling.

Microsoft adds 'non-security updates' to security patches

Re: It didn't happen to me

"Your "I'm alright Jack, so everyone else should be too, unless they're stupid" attitude is fundamentally flawed."

I see your point in some cases. In those cases I think that automatic updates are a great solution. The compromise will be that occasionally there is down time. But there is an option to delay reboots in pretty much any Windows update.

Re: It didn't happen to me

"How on earth are you supposed to run a business when some of the kit randomly goes on strike ?"

You don't. You have proper update systems in place to stop it happening. I am in an office with 18 Windows and 2 Apple PCs and this doesn't happen here. Why? Because they are all configured correctly. The issue here isn't Windows but the IT department behind that persons company,