"Large crowds of like-minded people suddenly appearing at the local park are at the very least quite intimidating"
Oh tell me about it, I hate it when people pikachu when I'm going about my business in the park.
1505 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Apr 2011
There's no fair or honest about it. It's disgusting that regimes like this still exist in this modern world. Unfortunately the more we do business with them and the more they buy up our industry and we in the west become more dependent upon the Chinese for jobs, their tentacles are going to spread further. Take a look at the BBC article on the new Silk Road and tell me when you read it in this context it doesn't send a chill down your spine.
"1) Name something that the BBC still does well."
I don't need to as you answered your own question at the end of the comment. Plus what people think is done well is subjective.
"2) No, they are not 'making in-roads to slimming down', that is unless 'slimming down' means increasing their management spending while not addressing waste and unused resources."
Citation needed. Although I don't have one to hand for my assertion that they are slimming down I can say at least visibly they've moved in to modern easier to maintain buildings in Manchester that would have otherwise stayed in an expensive London property to produce a large part of their output.
"3) In this age of record and watch later, adverts are something that can be bypassed or easily skipped."
Yes but that's not going to last as the ads pay for the content whether we like that or not. On demand players already stop you skipping ads so what is to stop them implementing that technology on a PVR to used to record a broadcast?
"No it won't the technology is already there in freeview receivers, virgin media boxes and satellite boxes. What scares the BBC is that very few would actively subscribe."
I don't recall seeing a conditional access module in every receiver or TV I've come across and there isn't one in my Freesat box either. If the technology was there in the boxes to go cardless then why do Sky bother sending them out?
No because the BBC still do things well and are making in-roads to slimming down, no commercials is also not to be sniffed at. Once the licence fee is gone and the BBC carry adverts it is more than likely gone for good and the BBC will be no better than any broadcaster which could then cause its complete demise. Not a light or easy decision to make.
There is an argument for the BBC to encrypt and only licence fee payers can access the TV content. This would take years for the filter through of the new capable hardware to reach people unless they went all out and forced people to change their hardware. Can you imagine that?!.
"But with the addresses worth increasing amounts of money as companies try to expand, but resist efforts to shift over to IPv6, that approach has become untenable and the RIRs effectively turn a blind eye to the auctions."
Well they really shouldn't, they should enforce the rules, otherwise what is the point of them existing as a body. It's only untenable to profit mongers who want to make money out of a community asset.
"I suggest you look at the election result for this borough at last election carefully. Take a very long careful look. Think. Careful look again. Think. Add/subtract some numbers. Think. Ask no more questions."
I knew someone had to come out with that sick theory. Took its time.
"On the one hand, Reg commentards hate Google."
Don't speak for me thanks, I don't hate Google.
I don't think this is censorship either, this is just making sure a powerful company in a powerful position to help make or break the reputation of people (or indeed companies) has links to facts that are correct. If information is blatantly factually wrong then it's wrong and needs to be removed, that's not censorship it's called being responsible.
Thank you for this, I have been seriously wondering recently how my photos of my family will ever survive me as they're mostly on hard drives and cloud storage. It's a serious thought as to how my partner would ever get easy access to my data if something happened to me and the bill wasn't paid for Onedrive.
I was thinking this only yesterday, showing your appreciation (or not) for an article would be cool. I think however that certain Reg hacks who get a tough time of it already would have it even tougher. Can't really moderate dislikes!
I also think it's a bit too Facebook and simplistic for a place like this and us commentards are a bit more highbrow than that.
And that link has what to do with May exactly?
"But the events of the next 48 hours ensured that the SFO would not be allowed to collect those files. Instead came a sudden harsh lesson in the realities of power and politics in Blairite Britain."
Plus it's the Guardian, which granted is usually a Labour rag but still...
Who remembers a toolbar that launched in the 90's called AllAdvantage? I remember it taking up quite a hefty portion of the top of my screen to show me ads whilst online and they sent you a cheque when you'd reached a certain amount. It was reasonably generous too and even better when coupled with the 0800 dial in numbers that sprang up back then. Didn't last unfortunately. So what Microsoft is doing is nothing new. I'm surprised no-one to my knowledge has tried to make AllAdvantage work again to get guaranteed eyeballs on ads and be upfront with the kind of people who'd be happy to do it and just pay them a decent amount to get on with it. People want more for their loyalty these days and I can't be bothered with what they are offering.
Who cares, I'd be utterly gobsmacked if anyone bought the S8 on the strength of Bixby anyway. I didn't. I just know when they do finally release it there's going to be some nagging to turn it on before I hopefully am able to silence it. If I can't silence it then I'm going to think again before I buy another Samsung.
"To give you an analogy: if you notice someone's bag is open with a visible wallet inside, it's OK to tell them that they left the bag open and that you advise them to close it. But it's not OK to take the wallet yourself just to prove the point."
Ooh that explains what I've been doing wrong...
I think you have bigger problems if she's moved on to "fucking Lovejoy" Mr Dabbs.
Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same problem with remotes at home and the other half is not very tolerant. Worse still trying to get a new Samsung TV to talk to a a Sony amp and Blu Ray player a Humax box and Xbox One is not a joyful experience. Quite often the devices randomly turn themselves on for no apparent reason and take over the screen from what you are actually trying to watch (the Blu Ray being the worst culprit). Unfortunately turning off the HDMI control between them just exasperates things so that you end up hunting for all of the separate remotes to turn each device on separately. It's the opposite of convenience and entertainment. Maybe it is my fault for not having the same brand of device for everything.
Maybe I'm just getting old and less geeky about this stuff but I just want the damn stuff to work without having to do my day job of tech support when I get home! Life used to be so much easier, time for my pills now anyway.
(oh and PS: Quite often I use the cat curled up on me as an excuse to get out of many different reasons and countless times the Mrs insists I get out of my seat, I recommend a cat to anyone)
I do see your point but it stops the censorship issue falling on Facebook then and the users are responsible for the content they wish to see. They're already asking for people to report content so what is to stop the content disappearing temporarily after a certain trigger of reports whilst someone reviews it?
Is it possible they could have some proper crowd sourced moderation and users vote out content that people do not think is ok to be online? Bias would have to be handled carefully as getting a whole group of people to take things down would perhaps be too easy, but then you could have reputation scores for moderators. A lot of communities turn to their users for help with this kind of thing and I don't understand why Facebook should be any different and expect all abuse to be reported to them.
Something they may not have thought of. I've often switched to new customer deals from the same network via a different party, try getting your number changed to your new plan then! (And no they've never matched the deals I gave up trying) I've had to port from EE to GiffGaff then port from GiffGaff back to EE. Utterly farcial. Luckily GiffGaff allow you to request a PAC via their site and it appears instantly. Unfortunately for them I think they probably get used that way quite a lot but it's a means to an end in a ridiculous system.
AMP is ridiculous and nowhere near the convenience they must think it is. Trying to escape the page to get to the actual article itself to say perhaps get to the comments or their related content is a pain in the ass. I've ended up having to go back to find the link to the article on the actual mobile site of the news provider. They need to kill it with fire now.