Posts by Rampant Spaniel

Tibetan and Uyghur activists targeted with Android malware

Gee I wonder which Chinese speaking country could possibly want to spy on Tibetans. Not that our countries are perfect (and wouldn't do this is a second if they thought they could get away with it, and don't already spy on us anyway) but China is just so blatant, you have to wonder how long that kind of regime will last.

Google improves Chrom’s spel checkr

To be fair its spelling and grammar are probably far better than mine :)

Oz shop slaps browsers with $5 just looking fee

Re: @Rampant Spaniel

Mine was they aren't doing it right or at least aren't trying hard enough :) What she is doing is tantamount to giving up. Seriously, run a cooking demo that only requires say $15 of ingredients, give everyone a taste then sell them the 'basket' of goods, maybe throw in a 10% discount for buying the entire basket or something, at least try something rather than throwing a hissy fit. Sure I could be wrong, she could suddenly make a fortune in $5 consultation fees :) It just seems to me like she picked the wrong way to do this.

Also if she is cheaper or the same price as online, get a whiteboard, take 10 items and list her price against the online stores and show people she is cheaper. Just update it each day. Our local organic farmers market & attached store is actually cheaper than buying online which shocked me but I go back there more and more. They also have a deli where they post their recipes and freely and happily give advice, but then again they seem to enjoy their jobs. If I walked in their and they were rude I probably wouldn't go back irrespective of price which given the comments above seems a far more likely reason.

Re: @Rampant Spaniel

I think I did cover both those points :) I did say that previously salesfolsk in places like say Jessops were actually excellent and did know their stuff and would sell you what you actually needed irrespective of the price, they were then replaced with plebs who got kicked out of double glazing sales school for not having enough morals and we know how that ended up. The current sales experience is not indicative of what is possible.

As for adding value, not everyone shops by the exact same criteria. There is plenty of things they could do, like I mentioned having a membership club that would encourage people to do all of their shopping there in return for a reduced price. If my local store had sane pricing they would get 40k a year in camera bodies, lenses, lights and servicing, as it is they get zero. A few percent higher plus tax is fine, blatantly screwing customers is not. I did illustrate several different ways they could add value both in a camera shop and in the specialist food shop.

Bottom line is if people are coming into the store for advice, make that a selling point. It's obvious that not everyone is doing all their research online if they are coming into the store to ask so why not use that rather than dig yourself a deeper hole by alienating people.

Re: Better to...

Or just make the advice a feature that people actually come specifically for, run workshops, cooking classes etc, print leaflets. Try and control when people get that advice to some degree and remember some people are just twats who will come for free advice, but they might tell other people about the store. Not everybody has to buy for it to be worthwhile.

Plus if her pricing is good, get selling online and beat them at their own game. Have a forum on the site where people can exchange advice. Her solution is somewhat amusing but seems to be very counterproductive and indicative of a rather less than consumer friendly attitude.

Exactly, and they all seem to do the same thing when the going gets tough, rather than find a way to add more value to a transaction, they take away the one of the main strengths they have, staff on hand with knowledge and replace them with salesplebs who only know % commissions. The other main strength being having things in stock immediately, however quite a few other companies will rush you a lens or camera body damn quick. Phasmiya also has an insanely good aftersales service that tends to have loaners in your hands inside of 24 hours which makes local stock less of an issue.

They could run a club where you pay a yearly fee and get a % of sales back, also maybe a free sensor clean or two etc maybe offer lens calibration. Something that would bring some volume in return for losing a little bit of money per transaction. As it is they have had to fall back on selling memory cards to tourists at silly prices. rather than differentiate themselves they screw themselves over. I don't buy local organic food just because it is local, I buy it because it's fresher and better quality than supermarket junk, if you want us to pay more, offer better.

It is very common but some local stores really do make it hard for themselves.

I try and use a local camera shop but they make it insanely hard price wise. Quite often their price will be full msrp+tax whereas buying from a reputable online store will be msrp-5-10%-rebates with no tax.

So local store for a 5dmIII is $3499+tax (plus amusingly enough, if they don't have it in stock they charge you for delivery)

amazon is $2949 (free delivery, tax sometimes).

Amazon \ Adorama \ B&H all also honor canons rebates which can take a decent chunk off (usually a few hundred dollars, more for multiple purchases) so it wouldn't be unrealistic to see another $1-200 off the amazon price, the local store refuses or cannot honor those rebates. Honestly I like supporting local but when you are 15-20% more expensive and not on cheap items, people will look elsewhere.

I can however understand her being pissed off a being used for free information, thats just wrong and how long will that free info be there if noone buys the products?. Plus she is probably close to the mark on price as more of her items will have postage as a higher % of their value than cameras.

Facebook to filter angry comments in site tweak

I bet Virgin Media were beta testers for this!

I did wonder how Sea Shepherd were doing their filtering as they mentioned recently that any derogatory terms for the Japanese would be immediately deleted. That does seem like a more sensible use, but I don't believe for a second that companies won't use it to filter out valid negative comments.

Ellison aims his first Oracle 'mainframe' at Big Blue

Re: Fastest?

It could be, there is not always a direct relationship between mhz and core count when comparing different 'breeds' of processors.

I would be interested to see the power consumption comparison here as well. A single benchmark figure is a little suggestive of there being more to the situation than we can see right now.

Want faster fibre? Get rid of the glass

This may be a silly question, but wouldn't they need to relay cables to take advantage of this? Thats a pretty expensive affair.

T-Mobile US announces 'no BS' rate plans, iPhones, LTE

Re: Will the iPhones be unlocked?

I was on tmob last year (ended up hating the poor coverage and loss of signal in larger buildings) and all our handsets were unlocked (to use them abroad) after a simple call to custard services. This was after a few months with them so still in contract, so no issues about that, if they are locked they should unlock them for you :)

One issue I noticed with tmob (although it could have been our phones) was that whenever you left their service area (and there were lots of gaps) it wouldn't register on at&t for roaming (it would see their network and get bars, just not register) and would require a full power off\on to get it to reregister on tmobs network. This was across 4 phones only 2 of which were the same model. Custard services weren't interested, they just said "oh it's probably that none of your phones support registering on at&t).

We do but it changes market to market exactly how simple the calculation is. The maths is simple but comparing the service often isn't. You have to start looking at

-do I get roaming

-can I get the same phone (quite a few payg month to month providers have a restricted range of phones and don't allow byod)

-do I start to have to pay to phone customer services

-do I end up paying more for data

-do they offer handset protection

-do I get 4g or am I stuck on 3g

I agree it's always worth looking at the sums, but it is also important to look at if there are any feature changes between contract and non contract plans. There may not be, but there often are.

I'm getting quite close to the point where I just buy a hotspot with a decent battery life and just use a tablet \ phablet and skype for the rare times I actually need a phone to be a phone.

Wireless charging on the Galaxy S4: Samsung goes VHS not Betamax

Re: Alliance for Wireless Power ??!!

no they meet here on tuesdays.

Re: @Rampant Spaniel

@ledswinger

thanks, I had a feeling it might be something like that.

I may be being a bit thick here but what is the benefit of wireless charging? Instead of plugging in a usb charger cable you have to sit the phone on a mat? So you still have a wire (from the socket to the mat) and you have a mat that you didn't have before, to save on having to plug it in and unplug it?

I suppose it could charge more than one device at one (but so can 2 chargers) but it doesn't seem to be groundbreaking. However I'm probably just being old lol.

Florida fisherman bags two-headed MUTANT SHARK

@thomas 4

ah, thank you for the schooling :-) sorry, couldn't resist, but genuinely thanks for the info.

Re: Yeah the next thing ya'know

Either has to be better than 69p lasagne or the random fish from Vietnam or China we seem to get these days :-) I think we are wayyyy to picky about what species we eat and not picky enough about the quality of what we do eat. Squirty cheese can be stuffed full of chemicals but god forbid your carrot is too long or the wrong shape, then it's only good for horse food. iirc some of the supermarkets did sell 'novelty' veg that 'wasn't for consumption' at halloween one year, all perfectly decent stuff, just the wrong shape \ size. Mad.

Re: Why do they throw back the rest?

@Andy, I know, hence my second post. I understand why, I just think it's crazy.

Re: Rebrand it with a different name, say it's chock full of "male enhancing" minerals

@Tim

haha thank for the advice :-) I'm not actually vegetarian but I do eat less meat these days, mostly due to quality concerns rather than bunny cuddling concerns. I have noticed that some folks do decide they aren't going to eat something if it's labelled as veggie but will quite happily eat something like an egg mcmuffin or a cheese omlette etc. It's just branding.

I think comparing shark meat to horse meat is spot on. Both are\can be very high quality products (I guess like anything they can also be poor quality) but aren't recognised due to social prejudices. If you ever get chance, try shark, it's good food! I do understand it's financially better to stuff a boat with shark fin rather than shark meat, but I also think it's freaking crazy we throw away potentially great quality meat when we have junk at home and there are people starving elsewhere in the world. As I said, one Jamie Oliver recipe and shark would be in every supermarket by the end of the week. If you create a market maybe it will be financially viable to land sharks, they'd fill their boats quicker.

Re: Rebrand it with a different name, say it's chock full of "male enhancing" minerals

Very true it's all in the marketing, just like the angry anti veggie crowd who have no issues eating cheese on toast.

Shark n bake it awesome, if we move towards ensuring shark fishers sell their entire catch it could help with overfishing of other stocks. Plus you could easily use it in stuff like fish fingers \ fish pies \ fish burgers without much resistance.

A major reason I hate celeb chefs is they take a cheap food (rhubarb, cod cheeks, pollock etc) and feature it and all of a sudden it costs a sodding fortune to make a rhubarb crumble. England does focus too much on cod. I like it, but theres a lot of very tasty fishies out there and if we were more tolerant of other fish we could eat a lot better for a lot less.

Re: Thanks BP!

Was the fluke bit on porpoise?

I've never understood why they throw back the rest of the shark, especially when they come from a country with food shortages. Shark tastes nice, quite a few countries do eat shark. It's crazy theres no market for it.

All we need is Jaimie Oliver to do a recipe and Tesco's will be full of it.

CERN re-opens 'Animal Shelter for Computer Mice'

Re: Good one...

Exactly, no purchase order = no payment.

I've never had an issue with people sending me free toner, that would be quite useful I do get lots of calls asking to speak to the office manager, I just say he died last week and that tends to end the call. Theres also lots of fax spam for small business loans, because of course I would use a company that is so successful it has to resort to fax spam.

Re: cute

Actually I would have said beer and sex and chips and gravy were far more effective at stopping work at universities :-)

Furious Stephen Fry blasts 'evil' Reg and 'TW*T' Orlowski

Re: The lady doth protest too much.

Sorry, perhaps impractical would have been a better word :-) Basically, you would need a multichanel transmitter which would probably need some minimal aiming, a significant amount of computer power on the birds and also quite a bit of transmission capability between the birds. You would also have an extra margin of error in there because the data would have done an extra trip from space back down, not an issue if you are stationary but for satnav it might be an extra m or 3 out unless you factor in interial compensation, at least I think so, I don't have an Eng lit degree so I'm no expert ;-)

All rather complicated compared to a relatively simple passive system

Re: Ah, bless

but that is what Andrew (and Mr Dabb's) are paid to do. Write in a style which results in 4 pages of comments. If el reg simply dropped Mr Fry a polite email pointing out his error I doubt it would generate as many page views or ad clicks.

Don't forget Fry puts himself in public view as an expert on everything. I don't dislike the guy, I just think if you set yourself up as a font of knowledge on all subjects (and to be fair, modest he is not on that front) expect people who do know to pull you up on it, don't expect them all to be all that polite. Let's be honest, many of us spent years in higher education and collected many beer glasses and the occasional letter before and after our name. We then worked for years , gaining experience and certifications. Mr Fry has a decent degree from a very good university in English Lit. A decent achivement after a rocky childhood but do expect us to not be entirely courteous to someone erroneously purporting to know our field because he read up on it on wikipedia and he has too many mobile phones. If you stand on a box and yell very loudly, you need to be correct.

Nobody is taking potshots at his personal life or publishing pictures of his playing the sausage game with tinky winky, that would be uncalled for, but we are having a bit of fun at someone who is a self confessed hexpurt on everything getting things wrong.

Re: He's not too bad

Yes but Fry is officially 'very smart' and unlike you and I, mere mortals, we cannot elevate a passing understanding of a subject into an authoritive position. Think about the comments on el reg, for most of us, when we step outside our comfort zone (the zone where we have a masters degree and years of experience) we often qualify our comments with a statement like 'i think' or 'iirc' and are open to (and welcome) suggestions we are wrong.

We do not go on TV and Radio and act like because we own a few phones and laptops we are an authority on everything tech related. You may be able to pull this off in a 'soft subject' such as English or art history but in the sciences you are liable to make a glaring error and look a fool. I think a lot of the ridicule is because Fry puts himself forward as the last word on everything and sadly this results in many people believing him and therefore in incorrect answers.

Re: BoJo

The only popular one no? Boris is a legend and an excellent actor although the two are strongly linked. If only he could remember to park his bike in the right shed more often.

Re: "a stupid person's idea of an intelligent person"

Don't let Adria see that! She'll post a picture of it on twitter and then you'll be in trouble!

Re: Thank God it's (not) Fryday

Does that break Vorderman's record?

Re: Jimmies rustled - Mission accomplished

To be fair AO's articles, especially on a Friday are very clearly written in a manner designed to incite us to argue and drive up page views \ ad clicks over the weekend. He seems to do it rather well :-)

Re: The lady doth protest too much.

It's ok it was South Bank University and it was in Software Management iirc. Thats dangerously close to basket weaving.

As for Fry, I can't remember who said it but there was a quote along the lines of "he's a stupid person's idea of an intelligent person". It's not that he isn't smart, he's probably very good at english lit, but owning an iphone and using twatter does not make you a technical expert as noted by his comments about gps (which if he stopped to think about it would be ridiculously hard to implement, gps is fairly simple as a concept) etc. You have to love someone saying they aren't upset that many times. How old is he?

Wind farms make you sick … with worry and envy

Re: Intelligence fail?

@AC I didn't downvote and no I don't stop them. It's their right to rant. What I don't do is accept their comments as gospel, if people are convinced a windfarm gives them the clap then good for them, but as for actually taking action, lets see an actual study first. One not paid for by the energy industry or the fashionably lesbian tractor owners of chelsea and their three legged dog society of the furtherment of being outraged about slightly unpopular things because they haven't had much to do since resigning from the oxfam bookshop.

Turn around what you said :-) When you see somebody wandering around town screaming the end of the world is coming on tuesday can I have 20p for the bus home, do you cash out your pension and blow it in hookers and nose candy or do you carry on. There may be something there with windfarms, there may not (I don't think so but I'm happy to see if there is, the ravers aren't ok with a study because they KNOW they are right!!), but we won't have an answer by asking people their opinion. Look at the LHC, science needs proof, opinion is just that. They built a huge expensive toy (and maybe blew it up) to prove a theory. They didn't go, oh well a few people agree so it must be right.

Re: Now if 1 in 100 fags exploded

Fair enough, and the warnings on packets seem sensible but I really don't think that people start smoking because the packets are pretty. It just seems like a measure introduced by someone who wanted to either piss off the tobacco companies or just been seen to have achieved something. They already can't advertise, their packets carry pretty graphic warnings, tv is full of adverts of smokers about to die (all of which I'm ok with) but are less kids starting smoking? Are these things actually working?

I remember my friends smoked because you weren't allowed to (not that I would advocate allowing kids to smoke but its an interesting concept), because it was 'cool' and because their parents did. Mainly, the reality was some of them had little else to do and had crap parents. It's a tough one, I'm not even sure governments want to as smokers are a good revenue source for them, but they do want to be seen to do something. You can't price them out of use as folks will just grow their own or vote you out. I guess you just educate people, let them make their own choice and help them when they want to quit. Honestly I'd rather see fag companies subsidise patches etc then redo a packet design.

Inside Adastral: BT's Belgium-sized broadband boffinry base

Re: back in the day...

Let's hope he got a patent for the whole computer on the wrist thing, he could have some fun with apple, samsung and lg :-)

Google turns South African schools into White Spaces

Re: Google would be more successful here...

I thought it was an unfortunate turn of phrase! Reminded me of that comedy sketch about the SA (possibly zim?) customs and immigration dept which had a sign on the door saying enter here and turn white.

What kind of bandwidth are they getting out of white space transmissions? I realise anything is better than nothing, but 16mbps rings a bell, with contention that may be pretty tight between several schools if they want to do stuff like video conf etc. Good to see a trial though.

Dongle smut Twitstorm claims second scalp

Re: Sacked. ..

Whist is true according to the Chelsea Tractor Sets Laws of Social Injustice.

Only white people can be racist

Only men can be sexist

Only the young can be ageist

etc etc.

In western society sexism and racism are rare, I have seen photography go from a male dominated industry to a female dominated industry in under 10 years. My local market is in the region of 75% female (I wonder if Adria would be as upset about the jokes that lot come out with at a meetup) at least amongst the middle and top tier shooters. There are still plenty of sexist jokes fly about, not because any of us are but because we are comfortable enough with each other to belittle sexism and a lot of it is genuinely funny.

There probably are a few pockets of sexism left in some industries and some people will always harbour illogical prejudices but the widespread, cultural sexism and racism is thankfully on the way out and we are all the better for it. The only problem is it leaves people like Adria without a cause and no talent to fall back on.

Fair call :-) Thank you for the explanation.

oh and for the sake of sexual equality :) If a guy had done that at the table I am sure someone would have remarked at the need to turn up the heating.

ok Rather than whack downvote I'll respond because I think that is fairer to you. I respect where you are coming from and you are right going to an official is preferable to tweeting to the world however, I have found the absolute best way to deal with something like that is to belittle it. I know there is sexism and racism out there, that for some demented reason some people actually do think your genitals or skin colour make you better than someone else.

If you take the 'go to teacher' route then you embitter them and validate their prejudice. If you simple dismiss it then you'll notice it stops. One particularly loud female manager spend an post meeting drinking sesh into a pretty obnoxious anti men fest, which was fine, jokes we can handle with good grace. I missed one particular comment but she followed it up by removing her top and another colleague leaned over and said "jeez, that must have really hurt your knees" and from that point on things were a lot more civilized. She wanted attention and was acting up to get it, when she realised it wasn't forthcoming she toned it down.

When people actually express pretty screwed up sentiments (and I don't include pretty tame jokes in that) they are doing it for validation from those around them, just deprive them of that validation and it goes away. I know it's unpopular to allow any kind of risqué joke these days but some people do need a thicker skin as well.

Re: Quite a pickle

You said DARK!!! thats like racism that is!! I bet you're all ageist as well and everything! I'm going to tell twitter about you.

You nailed it though (am I allowed to say nailed? without offended Adria? it could be considered a cryptosexist remark to assert my maleness or some other such twaddle), she got her attention alright and it's ended her career. Such a shame she didn't have any real talents to fall back on.

Re: You should be a photographer sometime

damnit, never try and type too fast when tired lol. should be rz67 :)

Re: You should be a photographer sometime

Being a pro is no better :) You get that and a horde of people asking why you aren't using X camera and Y lens and if your rx67 pro is a video camera or why you aren't using a fong dong or why you are using a flash in daylight or how their dentist camera is clearly better as it does 1 fps more etc etc. And then you have to fight for position because every SMWAC who knows the bride and asked if she minded if she got a shot is now the official photographer in their minds and is trying to pad their 'portfolio'.

As for the popo and rent a popo, generally I've found being polite to work really well. Just a hello, show credentials (we need basic credentials for shooting in public parks \ beaches so I just carry it all the time) and show them what I'm shooting and all is good. I understand why people get upset at being asked as they essentially aren't doing anything wrong, but being standoffish tends to create an atmosphere of suspicion and tension where the popo will do everything in their power to find something wrong, and they usually can invent something. Easier to play it nice.

Outright racism is rare and tends to come from foreign clients where 'isms' are possibly more deep rooted in their society. I've only had a couple of clients, one groom in particular spent his entire day berating me as his sony camera had more megapixels than mine (didn't have the heart to tell him I was shooting film at his brides request) and generally making every anti white joke I've ever heard. Some of them were quite funny tbh. You just get on with your job and refuse any further work from that client. Although by Adria's rules he couldn't have been racist as he wasn't white.

Watch the skies: SPACE HEDGEHOG plunges to Earth in Oxfordshire

She's probably shacked up somewhere with a badger.

Brussels 'mulling probe' into brutal Apple negotiations with networks

Re: @LarsG

True, but the GE else acts as a proxy as most folks will vote for the same party for their mep as their mp.

The point I was basically making was that companies lobby, they do so because it works. They also don't make donations because they like the colour ribbon a party has. They expect their monies worth, I don't think I'm being too cynical with that :-) You only have to look at the USDA and how it is loaded with ex execs from large food processing companies and then look at the decisions they make like huge subsidies for corn farmers, flavoured milk in schools, pizza sauce as a veg etc. Companies make campaign donations and somehow, completely randomly their ex execs are appointed and decisions are made that favour those companies products. I am aware I am venturing close to tinfoil hat territory, but not that close :-)

Re: @LarsG

Spending for the 3 main parties was circa 5million. Not huge but not pocket change. Where did that come from (is the tooth fairy with the Brussels route that generous? :-))? Thats also just for the 3 main parties in the UK alone.

Japan's rare earth discovery bad news for China's monopoly plans

Re: China only has a monopoly on willingness to pollute

Given the importance they will place on a supply independant from China the pollution should be less of an issue. They will likely just find another country nearby (in shipping terms) that would trade the jobs and infrastructure investment for turning a blind eye to the pollution. Not really ethical but I could see this being what happens.

MasterCard stings PayPal with payment fee hike

Re: Coming to a wallet near you...

1- Forbes did a study and 42% of US cardholders had experienced fraud, 34% in the UK.

2- The awesome US 'old' system uses PIN's for debit transactions although most debits cards can do signed for credit transactions.

3- If you steal someones credit card and go get gas you only need to know their zip code to pay for it. Secure :-)

4- Whilst credit transaction require a signature my experience if pretty much nobody checks the signature (this could vary state to state). I believe we actually have to show ID for transactions over a certain value but again this isn't something I've experienced often.

The chip in chip and pin is supposed to make the cards harder to clone and improve the security as the card doesn't leave your hands at any point and the chips are supposed to be harder to clone than duplicating a mag strip. Statistics show it to be true (that its working) but it isn't a perfect system and no doubt fraud levels will rise over time as crooks adapt. I must admit I thought it odd that you couldn't have it as an option on cards here as it is a royal pita not being able to use your plastic in Europe apart from at a few limited places.