Posts by Phil O'Sophical

'Unibody' iPhone 5 said to debut in October

Re: "good job the iPhone has Siri,...........

> They don't call me 'clever dick' for nothing.

Now you've done it. Next thing we know, Apple will be patenting that, err, user interface. I wonder if that's why Mac mice only have one button?

Renault Twizy budget e-car

Re: Marketing idea.

If you get laid in that, the prize would probably need to be a week with a physiotherapist afterwards...

Re: Or I could stick with my diesel

> unless you live on the med

No way would I want to take my chances in a plastic go-kart around the boy racers in that part of the world! It would be safer to ctycle round the M25!

UK top dog for home Wi-Fi usage... almost

Japan

Given how crowded Japan is, the folks without their own wireless networks are probably just using an unsecured one from the apartment next door...

Sci Fi recomendations?

I'll second the Peter F Hamilton recommendations, I could never really get into Alistair Reynolds.

To add a few names not yet covered here, more lightweight perhaps but still entertaining, what about:

Jack McDevitt, has an interesting take on the abandoned artifacts/first contact storyline. I think he would appeal to Niven fans.

Lois McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series. Not heavy on the science, but *very* clever character writing. My wife wasn't keen on the militaristic aspects ar first, but I got her hooked after reading "A Civil Campaign" which is practically a SciFi comedy of manners. Some of her fantasy ("Chalion" series) is not bad either, although I really disliked the Sharing Knife sentimental gloop.

Re: Hmm..

I liked Heinlein's style, but I always got the feeling that he wrote half books. I'd be deep in the story, looking forward to the next chapter, turn the page - and that was it. Fin. I gave up after a few disappointments like that.

Granted, the current trend for 6-volume epics is going too far the other way, but even so, there's a happy medium.

LOHAN checks into REHAB chamber

Re: Ummm!

That's why the lid isn't fastened on, just held in place by air pressure.

Re: Lovely

Ah, "ravening". Brings back memories of the great Lensman space battles...

Freeview TV shoved aside for iPad-compatible 4G

Re: Power

> Look in the "KW" columns. Add them all up

and you will get completely the wrong answer.

TV transmitter powers are given as EIRP (Effective Isotropic Radiated Power) which takes into account the antenna gain. The actual power of the transmitter is more like 1/10th that listed in the EIRP tables. A "100kW" transmitter is pumping closer to 10kW into the antenna. For a transmitter like Crystal Palace that reaches 8m or so people, it's a tiny amount per viewer.

Compare that to the costs of powering network infrastructure with an individual feed to each home and broadcast is orders of mangiture more efficient.

Vote now for the WORST movie EVER

Re: Voted for Manos ...

I do wish you hadn't reminded me of that. Both the film *and* the GF who wanted to see it. Embarassingly, I can't remember which GF it was...

Munich's mayor claims €4m savings from Linux switch

Re: 70 to 46 support calls a month????

Using 'number of support' calls as a metric is a deeply flawed idea in any case. Based on my recent experience it may just mean that a helpdesk familiar with one OS is so incompetent at dealing with problems in another that people simply stop logging support calls.

The resulting "DIY" support solutions that involve the office 'expert' tweaking things based on something they read on the 'net often result in screwed up systems that then fail catastrophically when some otherwise minor problem arises. We'll see.

Amazon boss finds Apollo 11 engines on seabed

Re: If you really have too much money ...

> retrieving an unusable rocket. FFS

If we all took that attitude we'd still be living in caves and dying at 35.

Solar power towers overpower PV panels by 20X

Re: Moving Towers of PV? - easy

No so easy when they're plugged in. Think roots.

High school student expelled for dropping F-bomb in tweet

Re: nitrogen triiodide

Ah, I remember that! Our chemistry teacher just seemed amused that we'd learned something. He made us clear up the spill (oops!) and then told us that when he was at school they'd spread it, wet, under the centre part of the lino in the library. By the next day it was dry, class filed in around the untouched edge, and were obediently seated when trhe teacher walked in. An explosion at every footstep :)

I suppose if we'd blown someone's fingers off we'd have been in a bit of trouble...

BMW recalls 1.3m motors over fire risk

Re: Indicators

I had the same thought, but no BMW driver would ever have noticed that the indicators weren't working.

OAP sues Apple for $1m after walking into store's glass door

Re: In other news ...

Oh come on, he was clearly just doing what his SatNav told him to. Not his fault at all.

Should have gone to Specsavers

Time for some new iGlasses ?

BOFH: Dawn raid on Fort BOFH

And before I even open the box, I PREDICT I WILL FIND:

- CD of all the essential company products and policies, shrinkwrap unbroken

- three very leaky AA batteries

- a mains adaptor for that Australia trip that never came off

- a clothes peg (no, I don't know why, but there always is one)

6,000 sign e-petition to put Turing on £10 note

Re: Petition signed

As long as they pick a different photo of Brunel, instead of the one in front of the chains of the Great Eastern that gets used everywhere!

Dr Who scores new companion from Emmerdale

Re: After Russell T Davies finished writing/directing .. it went down-hill

The only good thing Russel T did was bring it back. His scripts were terrible, like Mills & Boon with Daleks.

Is private cloud the next step for the data centre?

Re: Economics...

Until the same disaster hits all the companies using it at the same time, and the DR service goes titsup under the (over)load.

There's a reason why the DR professionals manage this sort of shared backup site carefully, with geographic assignment of resources and prioritized SLAs.

Microsoft fires Bing execs after biz probe

mismanagement of company assets

They were caught using Google from the Microsoft company network?

Pirate Bay plans sky-high flying proxy servers

Re: major adverse publicity

Oh, I don't know. They'd get some great publicity in the professional arms sales circles, which are likely to be more profitable than freetard music lovers.

Robotics breakthrough blasts crud from that bit behind the lav

I'd be more impressed if they built one that you could drop down the loo, and have it come back after it had dealt with the blockage. On second thoughts, maybe a disposable one would be better. Flush & forget...

Pope Benedict in .XXX pro-Islam cybersquat drama

catholic.xxx

"catholic" just means "universal". A church might be able to do something if it were "catholicchurch.xxx" or "christian.xxx" but plain old "catholic" should be up for grabs as freely any other word.

Russell Brand 'threw small voice-enabled iPad through window'

Re: I know the feeling

> Erm, no it wasn’t. Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in the early Sixties.

True enough, thanks for the correction. Predates the Mac by even more :)

Re: I know the feeling

The "little mouse thing" was invented by Xerox more than 10 years before Apple came out with the Mac.

GiffGaff goes titsup again in 'leccy cable gaffe

realism

The first part of any BCM plan is the risk analysis. What can go wrong, how likely is it, and how much damage can it do. Everything descends from that. To take your example, I don't carry two phones because having no phone for a day would only be a minor inconvenience. I do have two computers on my desk.

If GG's basic service conditions say "if we go tits up we'll try to get it back ASAP, but it might take us a week or two" then their current model looks just fine. Most people expect a modern phone company to offer 5- or 6- nines of service, but may be willing to pay less if they don't need that. What does GG claim to offer, and do their customers ask?

Re: BCM and service delivery...

BCM costs money, it sounds like that's where GG economized to undercut their competition. As always, if something's cheap, there's a reason.

Of course, BCM is an end-to-end concept, it includes checking that all your suppliers have BCM plans that are adequate to meet your service needs. If anyone is using GG for business use, and didn't check this, they really have no cause for complaint. They saved money, and didn't ask what corners were being cut. Now they know.

Pub landlady's footie sat-TV battle moves law's goal posts

Re: When the boot is on the other foot ...

I don't really see what the necessary connection is between coding the firmware, and the business requirements for it. Outside of multiroom, the phone line has never been used to determine where the box is, even if that is obviously possible, otherwise all the people using these boxes all over Europe wouldn't have been able to do it.. Sky's message to subscribers has always been that the phone line was required to qualify for the BiB discount, even if BiB went titsup around 2001.

This dead horse is probably well flogged now!

Re: When the boot is on the other foot ...

> telling me the exact opposite of what Sky employees told me

I can't speak for what Sky /employees/ might choose to say.

I can speak to Sky's official position. Check: http://www.sky.com/shop/terms-conditions/tv/ and scan down to "Interactive Discount Contract"

---

(a) We will pay the Interactive Discount provided that you keep to the Conditions of this Contract.

(b) You agree that, at all times from installation to the end of the Minimum Term, your Box will be fully and effectively connected to a Minidish and to a fixed and operational telephone line in the Territory which is capable of making outgoing calls. If before the end of the Minimum Term, you disconnect your Box from your telephone line and fail to reconnect it after being notified by us that you need to do so, you must reimburse us for an amount equal to the Interactive Discount we paid for the free supply of your Digital Satellite System. This amount shall not exceed £25. If you become liable to pay this amount, we shall notify you in writing

Re: When the boot is on the other foot ...

> Was it you I used to drive up the A4 to meet, or one of your colleagues?

If you mean the English A4, then no. I've never lived in England...

Re: When the boot is on the other foot ...

> Remember the clause about having to have your decoder hooked up to the phone line or face extra charges? This is why...

No, actually, it's not.

The early boxes were subsidised by a company called British Interactive Broadcasting, who hoped to make money by persuading people to use interactive premium-rate services. They paid Sky the subsidy, in return for which Sky insisted that the boxes had to be plugged into a phone line.

It wasn't a commercial success, and the boxes got cheaper, so you can now officially opt out by by paying Sky £25 at install time. Or you can just unplug the box as soon as the installer has left, they only check in one specific case: multiroom.

Multiroom is a way to get additional boxes added to your subscription for much less than the cost of an extra full subscription for each one, it's £10.25/month, IIRC. Obviously Sky don't want a group of friends getting together to pay one subscription with several multiroom extras, and then taking the other boxes off to different houses, so they use the phone line to verify that all boxes on one subscription are in the same house.

Re: Does this apply to F1 as well?

> Am I breaking the law?

No. European law ("Television without borders" directive) is quite clear on that one. If you can receive a broadcast, for your personal use, without there being any question of attempting to avoid payment (i.e. using a pirate decoder) then not only are you entitled to do so, but it would be illegal for a government to prevent you.

There's no obligation to make FTA services available EU-wide, but there is an obligation not to block those which can be received, for example by jamming, or banning dishes pointed at a certain satellite.

LOHAN to straddle meaty titanium rod

alu plate/sacrificial pad?

Isn't there a risk of that diverting rocket blast/debris to places you don't want? Why not just put a clamp on the titanium rod, so that the rearmost sliding mount rests on it? Then the nozzle has a clear line of fire.

I am disappointed that there are no exploding bolts in this. I always wanted to build something with them.

Tourists follow GPS, drive into sea

Re: Now I'LL reiterate.

Familiar with the area?! If my map said "turn here", and "here" appeared to be 15km of water, I would want to see a damn great sign saying "causeway" and giving tide times before I just drove into the sea.

Most Australian hire-car documents are very clear that the car is not insured when taken off metalled roads. Maybe when these people get the bill they'll reflect on engaging their brains next time they're behind the wheel.

> Crap happens.

Note once you're past about 2 years old it doesn't, it generally requires some effort to produce.

Diablo III out on 15 May, pledges Blizzard

Blizzard?

Those f#%^ers keep spamming me on a single-use email address that they could not possibly have got through any legitimate means. Let them burn in the lowest levels of hell.

Encyclopaedia Britannica nukes print edition, goes digital-only

They'd sell more if they did the digital one properly

I bought a DVD version a few years ago, but it was hobbled in the way some video games used to be. Even if you "installed" it on a system, you had to have the DVD permanently in the drive to be able to use it. I wanted to put on on my home fileserver so I could access it from a laptop without having to go find the DVD, etc. Couldn't even "install" it conveniently on my laptop because of the nuisance DRM. It hardly got used, and I've recently resisted their offer to upgrade to a new version, even at £9.99 it's no bargain.

A pity, I'd love to have room on my bookshelves for a full printed set. I do have a very entertaining 9-volume encyclopædia from around 1921. Entries like "motor car" are fun...

Thousands of Brits bombarded in caller spoofing riddle

Re: easily remedied

One problem is that BT have a legal obligation to connect calls, they can't ignore them jiust because they think they might be spam. In most cases no telco can or will act until a formal police complaint has been made, and few people do that unless the calls really cross the line into harassment or obscenity.

As to money, if they are international calls then they may not make money from them. There's an old agreement that assumes international traffic balances out in terms of calls made/call received, so each telco just bills for calls made and keeps the total rather than trying to share out portions of calls according to which network handles which bit. That all changed with mobiles, and may well be different now for fixed lines. but I wouldn't assume that a receiving telco gets much money, if anything, out of receiving this junk.

Re: Incoming CLI from abroad should be tagged as such?

CLI is a presentation service, where the final exchange can optionally present the caller's number to the person being called. It wouldn't have mattered even if there was no CLI active, anyone with a phone can still be woken up in the small hours by a malicious caller dialling at random.

The problem here seems to be that the info in the SS7 signalling packets was invalid, and that's the responsibility of the originating telco. An ordinary customer should not be able to change the values in those packets, since that would break the whole charging model. The customer may be able to add additional packets, but whoever the originating telco was here should be in deep shit for not validating the signalling info before passing it on. Since Ofcom was able to trace the calls it seems likely that the full signalling info was present, so they should be able to take action againt the perpetrator.

Then again, it's Ofcom we're talking about.

How a tiny leap-day miscalculation trashed Microsoft Azure

Catch people out

Yes, especially the ones who expect March to end on the 31st..

Rub Facebook pals in your wealth with 'social' credit card

There are just

sooo many ways that this is going to rebound on Citibank.

Where's the "sit back and watch the fun" icon? Ah, OK, I found it.

World's Raspberry Pi supply jammed in factory blunder

Re: Not quite the £25 computer in reality

You have a blinkered idea of what a computer is.

The computer I learned to program on didn't have any of those things, and it still cost more than £250. Had to program it in 6800 assembler, as well. It still set me up for a great career in engineering.

Nuke clock incapable of losing time chimes with boffins

Re: or..

huh, I can do better than one-second-to-off when the Archers' theme music starts...

(and now I bet you all have Barwick Green going round in your head, teehee)

Solar storm has a 'sting in its tail', warn space weathermen

> When Region 1429 was *pointed directly at Earth*, it unleashed an R2 (Moderate) solar flare ... an associated coronal mass ejection now beginning its journey towards Earth.

But Surely Earth won't be there when it arrives? You need to fire in front of a moving target to hit it...

Facebook goes titsup in Europe

not so much titsup

as Faceplant?

Ford: kick your car to open the boot

Re: If you have keyless entry...

> ...how can you tell if your doors have locked?

The car is still there when you get back?

hope that's not the only way

'coz if my Ford opened like that, the hatch would smack up into my garage roof. There's also a supermarket car park near me where I have to be very careful opening the hatch to avoid the concrete beams.

Can we hope this means they've run out of ideas for any more superfluous silly gadgets?

Hello? You'll never guess where I am ... I'm under a ferry

Re: Je suis dans le train!

Third option, enforce the quiet zone rules by technology. Screen the carriage so that phones can't work, or add picocells that hijack the phone & refuse calls, or routes them to a machine that just plays back "turn your phone off, dickhead" in all appropriate languages.

CBOSS puts out operator bait: Dinner date with 'booth babe'

Re: Still none the wiser

> innovative convergent IT solutions

With the booth babes?