Posts by b166er

Microsoft 'surprised' by Google Gmail 'winter cleaning'

Re: i have to use outlook.com

Oops!

Bet you feel silly now :D

Have another whisky, it's Xmas!

Search engines we have known ... before Google crushed them

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Blip

Bleeeeeee BleeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeZZNNGGNNPP

That was my USR Sportster connecting anyway. Always made an odd ZZNNGGNN noise at the end and I always wanted to know why! :D Other modems didn't. I liked to believe it was the extra few K I seemed to be able to get over others in Quake2.

This article reminded me of a few I had completely forgotten, so cheers for that.

If only AltaVista had known how things could turn out.

It's official: Mac users are morally superior to Windows users

Re: The joke icon...

Was just trying to keep my observation light-hearted!

I personally regard Bill Gates as a modern day Robin Hood and an example to all millionaires+ everywhere.

Now if I can just go make my first million, I can join the club helping others less fortunate than myself :)

This probably won't be popular.

Windows users have been the most generous indirectly of course, thanks to the generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates. Apple users have some way to go yet if they're trying to even the odds.

C'mon, buy Windows for Christmas and make sure your hard earned dollars go to a good cause :D

END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH: TalkTalk no longer worst ISP in UK

+1 for Zen Internet, pretty much the cream of the crop.

I must add that Freeola have also been excellent and a little cheaper than Zen.

Also, get yourself a proper faceplate and a decent router. (I have found Draytek's to be excellent under most conditions). This alone can make a real difference to latency, throughput and reliability.

thinkbroadband.com has some good comparison material available too.

As someone else said, you REALLY DO get what you pay for.

Samsung mobes pwned by ANY APP, thanks to chip code hole

That's as bad as the eMMC bug that affects the MMC controller silicon and permanently bricks some devices, even using official firmware!

Thankfully, there is a vigilant bunch of devs over at XDA that uncover these issues for the rest of us. It's one of the many reasons I'm still using an Android based phone.

Samba 4 arrives with full Active Directory support

Now that's really good news.

OMG: RIM adds VoIP to its stealth social network

That's the good thing about being down on your luck, it encourages you to innovate. As opposed to patents, but I digress.

Presumably the grand plan is to sell BBM on other platforms, otherwise this really won't work out as RIM hope. No-one (what market share does RIM currently have?) will want a voice platform that isn't OS agnostic.

Review: Samsung Series 9 super slim notebook

Who's that clip clopping over Andrew's bridge?

'The entire Ultrabook concept took its inspiration from the Apple MacBook Air' "of, course"

The latest tech firm to be accused of tax dodging: Microsoft

This is hardly news now, is it?

Basically, any global corporation with offices in Ireland, Lichtenstein, Bermuda etc are tax-dodgers.

I reckon there should be a Border Tax rate mechanism, that taxes any money crossing any border.

RIM is really in trouble when even Windows Phone 8 looks great

Re: I believe RIM is toast

Except that BES, for a small company at least, is a bloated pain in the arse, on a par with iTunes and Hewlett Packard printer drivers.

I understand there is (going to be?) a decent management suite coming as part of Office365 for BlackBerry stalwarts. Of course, you have to be on a paid O365 plan, but that seems somewhat like the future for MS corporate productivity apps and Exchange.

BlackBerry are also canning the BlackBerry Management Centre at the end of January, which WAS serving as a lighter footprint alternative to BES(X) for some of my customers :/

This alone has encouraged me further to suggest they move platform.

BB10 better be a whole lot of good.

Google kills free version of Apps for business

Thanks, the article could have been clearer.

While the downvotes are no doubt helpful (on another planet), I really fail to (on this planet) understand why.

I simply want clarification as to whether there is a free equivalent to Google Apps for individuals.

I wasn't aware of such a thing and have used the Google Apps for Business version until now for my private domains. If there is a free version for individuals then perhaps that is what I can use from now on.

An explanation of either would interest me, kthx.

'individuals can still sign up for free accounts'

Can I have some clarification as to what that means?

Explosion of DANGEROUS IT GEAR injures and CRIPPLES MEDICS

Perhaps a good use for Kinect?

Good gesture and speech recognition could make some of these problems disappear.

Voyager 1 arrives on ‘magnetic highway for charged particles’

Re: Awesome

Wonder how long it'll be before we catch up with it, do a battery swap and leave it to continue on it's journey?

Lovefilm does a Wii after rival gets loaded on new Nintendo

Re: navigate through its inevitably clunky menu system

Erm, since when?

The XBox UI is very accessible using the standard XBox controller. I find it more ergonomic than using the Wiimote. I do love the Wii though

Antivirus biz's founder unmasked as noted Chinese hacker

Is it open source?

Data cop slap for Brit text pests

shortcode 7726, a bit like putting junk mail back in the postbox then :D

Not that I would do that of course, or suggest everyone did that so the delivery service have a rethink about putting dead trees through our letterboxes.

Badges for Commentards

A pendant for chief pedant?

BlackBerry 10: AWESOME. If the hardware matches it, RIM jobs are safe

Re: Did you ever really paid attention to the playbook?

You've obviously not had the calendar app die on you then.

I mean die as in completely dead, as in 'security wipe' the PlayBook to resurrect.

As in NOT something that would happen on Android,

Asus VivoBook S200 11.6in touchscreen notebook review

Kind of agree, but if there's not much penalty (power/weight), then why not?

I also think they could replace the touchpad and it's mouse buttons, with a 4" touchscreen that mimics the main screen as the input device.

How does the wall of tiles get in the way? Does your wall of desktop icons get in the way too?

Apple's profits fetish could spell its DOOM

Unfortunately for Apple, it was always going to be so. They are blind to their arrogance.

@CCCP, without knowing what sort of e-commerce site it is, your statistics mean absolutely nothing. You could be selling iPad accessories for all I know.

Oprah Winfrey too late to save Microsoft's Windows 8

Windows 8 = Windows 7 + vastly improved GUI for the majority of users.

(somewhat sorry if this upsets all you techies, but as one myself, I prefer to also be a realist (I also don't miss the start button, didn't use it much anyway))

I guess people have other things to spend their money on at the moment (food, rent etc). I hear sales of most things are disappointing and below expectations.

Author of '80s classic The Hobbit didn't know game was a hit

Time passes - Thorin cleaves your head with an axe.

Reader input required: review our reviews

Summarize the review so it appears brief, but have expandable sections (like the comment forums) for those that want to read the full review (me).

Before doing a round-up (ie best 10 whatevers), do a poll to see, out of say 20 items (include an 'other' field), which 10 we want reviewed :p

Humax HDR-1000S Freesat+ recorder with FreeTime

I'm just pointing out, that it would cost buttons to add a DVB-T tuner (or two), because they'd only really need to add the silicon, the rest is already done. So why not? I'd certainly pay, say an extra £20 for the additional tuner(s)

Would be nice if it had a DVB-T tuner too. I suppose Humax want me to buy a whole new box for that?

Fart-buster underpants selling well among Japanese salarymen

Re: Somebody step on a duck?

I agree, no holding back. You then run the risk of releasing a teaspoon full of juice.

My personal preference is to let one go in a full lift, pause and then look with an accusatory glance at a chosen victim :D

Can the trump sequestering wunderpants be temporarily disabled, if, for instance, one is in an elevator?

I'd like to see version 2 using the methane in a phone charging fuel cell, although I'm not sure how the collection interface might work. Presumably it would have to conform to standard skid-mark dimensions.

Hold it! Don't back up to a cloud until you've eyed up these figures

I saw a briefing once, where a local CDP unit did dedupe and cloud sync to an identical CDP unit.

In the event of a catastrophe, the firm would send the remote CDP unit (after taking a complete image onto a new CDP unit, and then courier you the CDP unit.

Can't remember the name of the firm, but I thought at the time it was the best possible solution if you want your data off-site in a cloud.

Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs

`

I'm all for an homage to peanut butter, but in this case it's GIF, hard g as in Graphics, for me.

I'm off to Paree to see the Eyefull Tower

Intel plans Core i7 bare bones mini-PCs

For less than that, I could buy a Zotac Zbox.

When GiffGaff falls over, is it even news any more?

I think you should investigate forthwith, the effect GiffGaff has had on the parent's profit margins and whether therefore the 'outages' are the result of malice and sabotage.

Medical scan record that the NHS says will cost £2k to retrieve: Detail

Why is the old data not migrated to new storage/format at the time of retiring the old kit?

Edible iPhone case goes on sale in Japan

Survival? You'd be better off with an apple.

Apple tries to add Galaxy Note, Jelly Bean to patent slapfest

AC@19.29 ah yes, but you can cross reference past postings from the handle b166er to determine if I have some sort of unholy anti(insert favourite technology) bent and am therefore trolling, whereas you hiding behind the Anonymous Coward handle gets your individuality hidden amongst the sea of refuse that belongs to the rest of the Anonymous Cowards.

Surrey Cowards, eh? You didn't go to Magna Carta did you?

I realise the irony of responding to 2 AC's

I know Anonymous Coward was implemented to help people either at work, or closely connected to a given subject, to be able to contribute without fear of retribution. But it would seem far more apt these days, if the moniker was Anonymous Troll.

I now summarily disregard any comment by an AC.

President Obama declares VICTORY over JUSTIN BIEBER

OK, I'll say it: I'm glad Obama won.

I'm British, living in Scotland BTW.

Thank you citizens of the United States of America for choosing the sane option. Your country still has an enormous effect on the rest of the planet and I'm glad Obama is steering your ship, rather than Mitt Romney.

Peace

Microsoft mulls 'Xbox Surface' slate for games

I've wished for a long time that Microsoft would do a portable gaming machine.

Not sure if this is it though. They'll need to get the controls spot on.

Not sure how best to do that on a tablet. Probably a somewhat smaller version of the current XBox controller.

RISC OS comes to Raspberry Pi

call!-4

Classic game 'Elite' returns … on Kickstarter

wow, when I checked that Kickstarter page this morning, it was at £45,000

Now, because of this article and presumably the one on /. it's up at £250,000.

Not bad for a days work!

Credit card-sized mobile simplified for oldies

Re: Patronising crap

perhaps it's not aimed at you.

My father in laws mother was 98 when she died and for the last years of her life she simply couldn't be bothered to learn a new technology. Bear in mind, she grew up without even cars or telephones, let alone other technology that we take for granted.

It was a trouble for them to find a phone she could use (thanks to the inevitable decay of her dexterity) to keep in contact with family members.

Maybe she's the last of her kind, but it's not all about you sprightly (almost) septuagenarians you know :D

Another could have been.

Needs a SIM slot and to be network unlocked and needs software for a more technically oriented family member to be able to reprogram the buttons. None of which would have been difficult.

Army patents neural chip design for quantum internet

Hi, my name's Eddie, Eddie Lipschitz

LOL

(from The Whoopee Boys)

Mobile operators have another go at killing IM and Skype

Does it work on other networks? Does it work on any device?

Can't see it myself. The carriers won't want it working over WiMax for example, as that will be a competing infrastructure.

Perhaps they won't fear broadband for now over POTS/Fibre, because it's not a competing technology, but unless it's going to work over any network and on any device, it's a non starter .

Singapore gov think tank plots SSD takedown

I don't get this. Tablets and smartphones store up to @32GB, yet it's oh so important for our other portable devices to be able to store 1TB?

Give me solid state in my portables, please.

Nationwide to perform IT equivalent of 'replacing jet engine mid-flight'

My £3 will never be going to Starbucks.