Posts by daveeff

Now you can use your phone instead of your wallet at the ATM, too

Hooray!

Now I can get my cash without touching the cash m/c - I mean it might have germs or (worse) be running windows. The only problem is I might mess my pants with the excitement of using my lovely lovely apple device to do something I could have done twice as easily without it but in a way that might have made me look like a pleb.

I'm so glad the banks spend their (my? your?) money on this kind of stuff rather than on paying interest on deposits or returning defrauded money to idiots they miss-sold to or (God forbid) paying staff who do real work.

Give that CIO a huge bonus - and the CEO too, this is the kind of forward "thinking" we like!

Whoops, I may have set off the sarcasm overload alarm.

Review: HP Slate 7 Android tablet

Re: 1024x600

For the thousandth time I ask why ribbons / toolbars / ... have to be at the top of a wide screen leaving the content much wider than tall when taller than wide is easier to read (why do you think all printed matter is way?).

Toolbars / ribbons (if we HAVE to have them) should float and snap to the side.

Kettle 'which looks like HITLER' brews up sturm in a teacup

Re: People are stupid as a whole.

I think that's the point, only people on a piddly 110V circuit would think about buying a 2kW kettle. Most UK kettles are 3kW.

As for why put the heat source inside - der, it's more efficient?

We use a thing called the INTERNAL combustion engine too, maybe you guys are still stoking boilers in your steam cars ;-)

In fact if you "have to unplug it" to move your kettle you prob are using a steam car, I know cordless bases (a strange name as the base HAS a cord but that appears what they are called) are around in the US.

Happy 23rd birthday, Windows 3.0

memories...

I have an old 386 laptop with WfW on, with the caldera win95 look desktop. Happy days.

I think the floppy may be duff so next time I need to re-install could be the end.

The "is windows an OS?" argument was vitriolic in the old "I just want DOS" days - a bit like Linux/Windows these days.

I still use a "DOS" prompt daily, and am upset my win7 64b won't run my old DOS apps some of which I wrote so have re-built for 64b but my trusty editor (even if I found the source) isn't likely to build with its overlayed linker!

Can you run Windows 3 in a cmd shell from Win7? (OK why? is also a question!).

Eric Schmidt: 'Google IS a capitalist country... er, company'

it's the law!

Looks like google where cheating on sales locations but in general public companies are legally obliged to make money for their shareholders, surely if they paid more tax than legally required to the board could be sued?

I do have *some* sympathy with companies, more so than with government who can't set better laws or get HMRC to chase the b*ggers harder. Cameron wants to employ investigators to ensure the disabled aren't claiming an extra £1 they aren't legally entitled to but doesn't want to spend money to ensure Google doesn't have loop holes to walk away with a few £(b?)million.

Stuff the letter of the law, companies not seen to comply with the spirit of the law should get no gov grants or public business. As for the public sector employing accountants who actively pursue aggressive tax avoidance - it seems like turkeys voting for an early christmas, except we are the turkeys.

Streaming music works for us, say US and UK indie labels

Re: Spotify’s CEO is the 10th richest man in the UK music industry

>he doesn't spend all of his profits on payola, hookers, private jets, cocaine and overseas sales conferences.

What's the point of being rich then?

Rules, shmules: Fliers leaving devices switched on in droves

Somebody tell me...

As ever people seem to be arguing about different things. I can believe a phone (or 100's of phones) sending & receiving signals is a potential danger but what I want to know is: do I need to turn my phone off or is aeroplane mode sufficient not to kill me & my fellow travellers?

I usually turn it all the way off but it takes ages, tends not to be in aeroplane mode when it powers on so while its booting it seems even more dangerous, gets confused about the time, ...

Surely airplane (US spelling to avoid those wiggly lines) mode is all that's needed? I don't turn off my watch or pacemaker.

And, why don't the airlines have detectors? Surely a wi-fi / phone / bluetooth signal can be detected? If we all had to sit there until the stewards figured out who was to blame & got them to turn it off the shaming should be enough to ensure we all turned them off to start with. And if the signal is too weak to detect what is it going to hurt?

Is this the first ever web page? If not, CERN would like to know

M$

Followed this link about 1st ever web page & the first thing I saw was an advert for Office 365, I wasn't reazlly suprised.

Space elevators, vacuum chutes: What next for big rocket tech?

Re: War helps create new technology so did the "Space Race" and "Cold War"

I'm afraid the evidence is clear - we do develop technology faster during war. Bizarely conflict promotes co-operation - we work together against a common enemy, we take risks, we pay costs that we wouldn't otherwise do.

Maybe that's why politicians are keen to talk up "War on terror", "war on drugs",

I don't think anyone is saying war itself is a good thing - except Orson Wells

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XQ2tPrBA1k about 5:25 on

and I don't think he's representing his own views

pun alert

> The glider's engine

Is that a LOXymoron?

Gartner: RIP PCs - tablets will CRUSH you this year

Re: Crush? or a light fondling.

> PCs sold in 2013 ... 315 million units

> Tablet shipments ...197 million units

And check that word "units", what about cash turn over and profit?

Twitter patents sending messages, promises not to sue everyone

At last...

.. way to make money from the web.

twitter is now worth a lost of dosh given it can sue everybody else in the world

ICO clamps down on nuisance calls, slaps £90k fine on Glasgow firm

Re: Not nearly enough

> Hands up who has had a stupid sales call when:

4) had a loved one about to die and any phone call can be "the one"

Microsoft starts to roll out Windows 8 in embedded flavors

thin clients anyone?

Who's going to want this?

Maybe people want their thin clients to have the same (metro!?!) desktop as there fat clients?

embedded isn't just coffee m/c's, I'd use arm and linux for those anyway - raspberry pi with your coffee anyone?

Nelson Mandela's island prison hell to become game

Re: Games are never realistic

> 27 years of breaking rocks (clicking the mouse) is not going to be fun.

My son seems to spend a lot of time doing just that on minecraft

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

Re: Real programmers

In my first programming job, where we wrote assembler & blew eproms, there were a few units with paper based terminals so you had to line edit (sometimes a queue), one VDU unit with a full screen editor (always a queue) and one old boy who used to type hex into some box that threw it straight onto the prom.

Colour coded syntax? Even the VDU was black & white.

Back at university you could write code in pencil and get it typed for you or you could type it yourself on the punch card machines.

And there were 150 of us living in't shoebox in't middle o' road.

Really - old

I remember entering code with edlin - 360K floppies didn't have a lot of space for a big editor and a compiler. Or a linker! You had to edit then compile the source code (on drive B:), swap floppies in A: to link it.

It was a very long time ago, we did have an XT (10M hd) m/c too but we took turns who used the floppy only m/c.

About time we had a nostalgia (old fart) icon.

Carrie Fisher dusts off THAT bikini for Star Wars VII

Re: Maybe she had to.

If I said Kenny only needed a small place would that be wrong?

Icon because it's not PC

Re: Oh dear.

> i really hope she can loose a few pounds, find a decent plastic surgeon

Yeah coz surgery and starvation and so worthwhile just to make tossers like you happy.

Next Windows 8 version can ditch bits of Metro

wes

I use wes7 on "the family" laptop, boots in a couple of seconds and if anyone installs any crap I just turn it off and on and it's all gone away (only the admin can unlock the disk for write).

I keep a memory card in for storing data but very little is actually stored - it's mostly surfing with open office on hand to open web-mail attachments.

Storage glitch sends Curiosity into safe mode

dum dum, dum dum, dum dum, dum dum

Flash memory- alive?

Someone better dispatch Ajax & Warlock to bring back the body

Mind-melded rats could herald organic BRAIN-COMPUTERS

> next step will be to move up the evolutionary ladder from rats to monkeys

I'd have thought improving on 14% above random results would be the "next step" - or were there more than two levers?

Still we could have them ru[i/n]ning the banks with that kind of success rate.

Brit firm PinPlus flogs another password 'n' PIN killer

Re: The problem is multiple PIN numbers - words easier?

As long as you can change the pin you can use a word to remember it, if you know your texting 12 key alphabet.

If you can't change it maybe you can reverse a word out of it?

3283 - DAVE

5646 - JOHN

2273 - CARD

7460 - PIN_

BBC's new bosses - the lawyers - strike out Savile probe testimony

where do I apply?

How come no one gets sacked? Can I have a job where I can screw up entirely and then be asked if I'd like to retire and have a vast pay out to do so?

The new DG gets 100's of thousands if he leaves doesn't he? I've never been offered that kind of contract!

I read that no one from Mid Staffs NHS got sacked but the whistle blower (who was a student) has not been able to finish her course or get a job -wtf?

Sorry, ranting but cross and confused (and let's face it, jealous!),

Dave

der?

That's rather the point, selecting schools allows the "best" (ie helpful to kids and school) parents to choose the "best" schools, you end up with very good and very bad schools not average schools. Pity the poor kids who have crap parents and are now guaranteed crap schools too.

Iceland thinks long and hard over extreme smut web ban law

Re: Parental Responsibility

> They are *YOUR* children. YOU brought them into this world, it is YOUR responsibility to bring them up properly, NOBODY ELSE'S!

So if the building was on fire you'd leave it to whoever lit it to put it out because it wasn't your responsibility?

It might not be your responsibility but it sure as shit is your problem.

Congratulations your stupidity & selfishness has provoked my first ever el-reg rant!

Seriously, unless we require an examination before anyone can have kids (might sound like a good idea until you ask who's going to set & mark it & how you enforce it) you cannot rely on all (any) parents to do it right (all the time).

Society is there so we can help each over out over the difficult bits, if you don't want to help go live in a cave and leave the rest of us to get on with it.

AMD: Star Trek holodecks within reach

Re: we don't need *that* much processing power

a) the holodeck lets you move about beyond the limits of the room, lets you pick up & interact with 3D objects, can smack you over the head... One of the reasons NG failed the legacy, it skipped over difficult science without even making an effort (the orig, might not have been science fact but it made an effort).

b) why have an immersive room or screens that figure out & render where you are looking when you can just wear specs?

Inside Microsoft's Surface Pro: A fiendishly difficult journey

Re: MS copying Apple construction techniques, only more so

> Let the market regulate it.

Yeah the market that is so good with sub prime loans, horse meat burgers, oil wells, ...

The market will sell something cheap now and if someone else has to pay to clean up the mess later "Not My Problem".

Trouble is it's all our problem, if I pay extra for the green option I end up paying twice when I pick up the tab to clean up your mess.

who's gonna pay for disposal?

Shouldn't there be extra tax on this kind of thing?

We pay enough "green tax" on petrol.

Anything with batteries should have replaceable batteries? Is it supposed to be waterproof??

Dave

Eyes in the sky: UK.gov's CCTV code to IGNORE MILLIONS of cameras

bobby on the beat?

What actually is the difference between having a camera and a bobby looking over your shoulder 24/7?

OK the bobby might get stuck in if there is trouble, and because of that is a better deterent to trouble but (s)he costs more than is feasible to have everywhere, all the time.

What I don't get is the "I want my privacy AND I want a plod marching up and down my street 24/7" Isn't that a contradiction?

Re: " ENGLISH citizen"?@Spanners

British CITIZEN?

Aren't we British Subjects?

Subjects of observation it seems...

Or are we becoming Citizens now BB is watching us? (Shouldn't all the posts have this pic?)

HP clamps down on student labor in Chinese factories

Doing the right thing

> all that "Uncompromising Integrity" training bull

Maybe someone is taking it seriously! I'd like to slag off HP but just maybe they are doing the right thing.

Because HP have a steadier demand (unlike "must have new phone" Apple) they can push harder for this, seasonal demands are a supposed to be a major factor in the employing of students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/business/global/hewlett-packard-joins-push-to-limit-use-of-student-labor-in-china.html?_r=0

Paper computers: Not mere pulp fiction

Re: Resin Bonded Paper

"Paper is a great for circuit boards... it's flexible.."

erm, isn't that why it's crap for circuit boards? Isn't that why it needs to be resin bonded and so not recyclable?

How much energy goes into cutting down trees, pulping etc, printing, delivering books (then collecting and recycling) compared to downloading an e-book?

Even if this article is meant as a joke it fails to reach a level of credibility to make it funny.

BBC blueprint to make EVERY programme on TV a repeat revealed

Re: Broadcast

> It's wasteful to use up all those megahertz

More than sending all the data a 30,000,000 times to individual viewers?

If only we could invent some kind of caching that sent the data people want at the same time, or organise things so people watched things at the same time...

What would save bandwidth would be caching the programs locally so people watched the SAME episode of Top Gear, Q of Sport, Emerdale, Football, ... every week. Would anyone notice? We could add a new bit of low bandwidth dialogue once in a while.

I'm sure they do this with golf already, do you think those shots of "ball in sky" are different every shot?

Introducing the Open Source Rookie of the Year... Whoa, it's Microsoft

Hear my words that I might teach you

If you link in anyway to GPL code your code must be made GPL, if you static link to LGPL code your code must be made (L)GPL, if you dynamic link (DLL / so) to LGPL you don't have to LGPL your code. That's the way I remember it anyway - and wikipedia agrees (and I didn't write the entry!).

So yes, GPL does "infect" proprietary code. If MS use some GPL code for one routine (eg from Linux kernel) in some windoze version they should publish all the source code for that OS

If you "use" GPL products to produce your code (eg compile under Linux, use git, browse with firefox, ...) no one knows or cares.

"Fools", said I, "You do not know Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you"

Help us out here: What's the POINT of Microsoft Office 2013?

Re: "The ribbon makes more features visible"

> Vertical space is at a premium anyway.

Especially when displaying a4 pages on widescreens (like 90% of the time) - why can't we move the ribbon to the side?!??

My top tip for Microsoft: Stop charging for Windows Phone 8

der?

Just because the low end users who just browse & send email (and god forbid, tweets) don't need a desktop doesn't mean the desktop is dead.Some of us actually use the umph in a real PC.

However, it does mean the market is declining as not everybody needs one.

Also, I don't quite get the revenue model of giving away your product.

Isn't this like saying because there's lots of blogs The Times needs to be free (and I mean FREE not funded by buckets of advertising) or because of all the free MP3's Pink Floyd need to give away their product?

Nice idea but how are the hacks and muso's going to eat?

Google files patent for eyewear that SHOOTS LASERS

why?

Why project a laser image when you could just use the glasses to augment reality and display the keyboard HUD like?

Unless you need someone else to to share the keyboard.

Might be useful to draw a big pyramid round you while you violin bow the guitar...

Hey HP: You may not rate Autonomy, EDS, but buyers do

> EDS was the only profit making part of HP for the first 2 years ???

HP make billions every quarter and have done for as long as I know of.

They can write down 8bn on a regular basis and still make money - if they weren't a bunch of suits from a huge multinational (US?) company maybe they wouldn't lose 8bn on a regular basis which would be nice... Still maybe some of Mike Lynch's money will stay in the UK & maybe he'll pay some tax.

BT's 'six-month free broadband' offer is a big fat FIB - ads watchdog

line rental - no just BT

Spent Sunday PM explaining to my mum why switching to virgin would still cost as all the packages are plus 14.50 / month line rental...

All adverts should have a bottom line - eg minimum of 18 months => min total payable 12*45+6*15 = 630 over 18 months

Yes, hundreds upon hundreds of websites CAN all be wrong

3/4, 6/8, 12/8 & compound time

I'm supposed to recognise 3/4 from 6/8 for music exams! I try and figure when the chords should change, if most of them change every 3 beats its 3/4, 6 then 6/8, 12 12/8 etc - but you can have split bars etc so you're looking for a lowest common factor & feel.

Often a 3/4 is a waltz, 6/8 a jig and 12/8 is a slow blues (think Gary Moore.)

AFAIK compound time is based around tuples - eg triplets

6/8 = 2/4 with all triplets (ie 3 notes over 2 beats)

12/8 = 4/4 ditto

That's what I read on the web somewhere ;-)

For 12/8 count it as 123,223,323,423; 123,223,323,423 etc

From just a melody line I can end up counting 1 2 3 4 and confusing 12/8 with 4/4 :-(

What is "right"?

I heard (!) Dave Edmunds got to play with Carl Perkins and was told his intro to Blue Suede Shoes was wrong, you're playing it like the record, I fluffed it in the studio it should go like this...

I have published sheet music that is less like the recordings than some on line tabs - although plenty of on line tabs that are v. wrong!

Dave

HP itching to flog flaccid biz units: Are Autonomy, PSG in firing line?

Re: It is tempting

>.HIS bottom line (I think you will see that amongst other things, cash flow was important to his annual buns) without considering the long term.<

Now we see the violence (problem) inherent in the system.

All the bosses of all these crap companies have bonus schemes linked to short term gains. Screw the company but make a decent bottom line for a couple of years and then move on and do it to some other poor company.

Their bonuses / pensions should be linked to long term performance.

I think Meg is on a dollar a year + bonus so hunkering down on the salary ain't gonna happen.

PGP, TrueCrypt-encrypted files CRACKED by £300 tool

what a waste of time

So when the truecrypt drive is mounted you can get the password - and do what? Mount the drive???

It's dismounted when you power off, if you suspend & restore it's re-mounted.

There could be an issue that the m/c suspends itself one with it mounted & that file then contains the key but in theory if that data is there you can restore and voila the volume is mounted again.

Next thing you'll tell me is my car might get nicked because the steering lock is disabled when I'm driving.

Dave

Apotheker: HP board was just as culpable for Autonomy buy

Re: Another example of lax copy

You need to get some "alleged"s in there - or get some good lawyers!

Nice work if you can get it.

I've just read this article after this one http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/12/17/comet_taxpayer/

We tax payers have to fork out to pay comet workers basic redundancy while Leo walked away with $25M for basically being sacked for incompetence.

http://www.istockanalyst.com/finance/story/5436429/hewlett-packard-s-hpq-leo-apotheker-takes-a-25m-severance-package-out-the-door-after-11-months-of-work

Once you blag your way onto a board of a bank, multinational, broadcasting company you seem to be given money however you f-up. Nice work if you can get it.

Copying Wikipedia's lies is not just for hacks, right Lord Leveson?

Re: Catholics for dummies?

> 3 in 1 god who was his own son.

Er, maybe that's a model? Most people who believe in (any) god by definition take the god to be bigger and more complex than they are and accept that any understanding of him/her/it will be an imperfect model.

Taking Christianity as an example, the Old Testament is big on not making images of god, the new testament is full of god is LIKE this, some parable thingy.

It is true that stupid/lazy/ill informed people confuse the model with the truth but that is true of science as well of religion.

Most of the time that works, now which button do I press to get the imp to carry this message to the magic interweb box?

Dave

Bash Street bytes: Do UK schools really need the Raspberry Pi?

round it goes

Could be that all those art grads can only get one job - teaching?

How many good engineers / scientists / mathmaticians are teachers?

So the question is how to get more engineers in schools? Maybe not as full time teachers?

Do we need a nation of coders?

Of course not!!! But we do need a nation WITH coders, every child should have the opportunity to produce s/w and the ones who are interested and good can go on to make their living at it. The idea of lunch clubs and free kit for anyone who shows enough interest & application sounds great.

At the moment we don't seem to want enable any child to go on to write code, just make sure they can use power point (presumably to go into management and do PPT's explaining why this country can't actually make anything any more).