Posts by rpawsey

Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed

Pedant Alert

IIRC SIG stood for Spectrum Is Green and came from Captain Scarlet

Screwdrivers: is there anything they can't do badly? Maybe not

Re: Royal navy sayings

Very brave man. No blowtorch is going anywhere near my nuts.

The Reg builds official Lego Artemis and Milky Way sets

Playmobil

Glad to see I am not the only person who remembers the Playmobil re-enactments on here.

Did something ne take their toys with them when they left?

Hello, tech support? Yes, I've run out of desk... Yes, DESK... space

Another early mouse example

I remember rolling win 3.x pcs out and having to run classes in how to use the interface.

It was common to see people put the poise up to the curser on the screen the first time they tried to navigate.

Bitcoin bloodbath as China shutters all trading sites

Re: Money for nothing

sorry - but goods & services do NOT underwrite FIAT currencies.

Yes you can buy goods and services with crypto currencies - it's just not as common as most traditional, paper-based, alternatives.

It is all just a trust excercise & when trust in a currency breaks down it suddenly isn't worth anything. Take the Zimbabwean dollar for example, or for those with even longer memories the Yugoslav dinar, when trust broke down then hyper inflation kicked in which made that currency worthless.

Crypto currencies are just another form of currency, iwith no more or less real value than any other currency that is not tied to a physical commodity like gold. Each currency will ultimately succeed, or fail, only on trust and popularity.

Re: Money for nothing

How is that any different from modern currencies?

FIAT Process:

- Draw some pretty pictures

- Print them onto paper or stamp them onto mettalic dics with no/limited practical applicability

?

- Money

Android and Apple OS shares show mountain MS must climb

Re: From my weblogs...

The trouble with weblogs is that they record what the browser is telling them.

Since the screen on my phone is a good resolution & I mainly do my surfing on wi-fi I request the desktop site, which makes the browser tell the webserver that it is a desktop browser. I would therefore not count in the stats for mobile browsing.

I am sure I am not alone.

Vodafone loses access to punters' records in IT cock-up

Sympton of Deeper Problems.

I am aware that technical problems have been going on at Vodafone for over 2 weeks. We were told that a software upgrade had taken place and was causing issues back on the 19th July, and according to this report there are still on-going issues. The standard response from Vodafone throughout has been 'Call back in a couple of hours' with the sub-text of 'It'll be the end of my shift by then'.

Concerns over plan to boost pharma by releasing NHS data

Who is going to manage this?

My bet is that it will be managed in the same way as the DVLA data, anyone who fills in a form & pays the fee can access it. Anyone who claims to have a connection with a car park can now get all the registration details, including registered keeper, just by typing in a registration number.

Are you happy that these people really have your privacy as a priority?

iPhone 4S is for failures who work in coffee shops - Samsung

Nothing New To See Here

This advert is just first class trolling. It gives all the fanbois (both Apple & Adroid) a call to arms and gets everyone (including El Reg) to provide both sides with free publicity. In the old days it was Apple taking potshots at the bigger Microsoft - now the wheel has turned and it is Samsung taking potshots at the bigger Apple. Nothing really changes. Both brands 'win' and the blood pressure of some entrenched fans goes up a few points. Still it is entertaining to watch.

Belkin Conserve

Nothing New

B&Q have been selling a range of similar products (HomeEasy) for years & I'm sure they are not the only one. About £20 gets you 3 remote controlled sockets with a remote control. They can be controlled individually or as a group. Smaller, cheaper, more flexible.

Apple to Oz court: ‘Our products are lame, really’

Title

Surely the converse will also apply to some extent. Any iPad purchaser may be lost as a potential future Android purchaser.

I am sure that Apple don't expect to 'win' these cases in the long term. They just want to delay the introduction of any real competition long enough to lock anyone they can into the 'fruit machine'.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo bow to Apple sales edict

Suggestion

As Apple have backed down on the edict to price fix why don't these companies just explicitly add a 42.8% Apple Tax (This is how much they would have to add to get the same ammount after 30% is taken by Apple) to their prices? People are given the whole picture & can decide if they are happy to pay for the 'ease of use'

Huawei outs 'first' Android 3.2 7in tablet

Insert Title Here

I guess price & carrier uptake will determine the success of this device. By a few calculations the screen resolution can be estimated at somewhere around 1200 x 900 which is pretty decent for a display this size.