Posts by George 8

Reg writer Richard went to the cupboard, seeking a Windows Phone...

no fanbois...

I miss my Lumia, basic things just worked better. I've recently had to abandon it and got an iphone x. FaceId is impressive but basic things just annoy me. silly things. Maps do not compare to here maps. The camera is just not as good, nor the pictures taken -- my 4yo lumia still takes better photos, although live photos are a good addition. Spell checking is just wrong on iOS. How have they got to v11 and still have this issue. Other silly things, data sense in WinPho kept a count of the data I used and reset it on the same day each month. Not available in iOS. Honestly MS did a good job, the basic features of the OS were excellent -- Family Room worked, it just did. Groups worked better than iOS style equivalents. Tiles worked. I could go on. Its just a shame. Paying the AppleTax and hoping 1 day a true saviour will arrive.

Google's new parent Alphabet owns abc.xyz – and, yup, there's already an abc.wtf

How things change...

Back in 2002, In Bill G's keynote speech, the phrase Trustworthy Computing was coined, but MS forgot to buy the domain. We laughed then at what happened when you visited TrustworthyComputing.com (try it). Its pleasing to see that its gone full circle now and abc.wtf pushes to bing.

Microsoft's magic hurts: Nadella signals 'tough choices' on the way

No phone sales because...

...the shops dont have any. A "friend" recently went in to a carphone warehouse to acquire a Lumia 930. She has previously had a 925, was due an upgrade and much preferred WinPho over the andriod and iPhones she had had in the past. She was told that they did not have any suitable WinPho handsets in stock at all and ended up walking out with an iPhone 6. She has had it a week now and laments the decision and not insisting on a WinPho.

No wonder the handsets aren't selling. If they have stock it looks like the push is for iPhone. If they dont have stock it looks like the push is for iPhone.

Samsung slams door on OLED TVs, makes QUANTUM dot LEAP

OLED is the future (or so they said in 2003)

I really want OLED to work. It fits as the next great tech. The piece has a very interesting conclusion and it very well could be the case that OLED *IS* the future of media content but as it concludes on the smaller screen.

Good piece, good interesting conclusion, at least from a discussion view point. It'll also be interesting to see if an AppleTV sporting an OLED display, if that ever happens, could awaken the OLED market again -- could this be why LG are staying in the market, they are committed to making displays for Apple and hope to piggy back off their success in the OLED display market? Hope so, would like to see the tech succeed.

Apple, Google take on Main Street in BONKING-FOR-CASH struggle

"Apple told The Register in a statement."

When did hell freeze?

You can see how important this is to Apple. Its so important they actually talked the El Reg. Wont have it, it cant be so.

Apple's new iPADS have begun the WAR that will OVERTURN the NETWORK WORLD

Newsnight Andrew?

Any chance you can get back on Newsnight and mention this Andrew? Its important.

Lumia rebrand begins: Nokia's new UK web home is Microsoft.com

Lumia 930

I ordered an iPhone 6+ within minutes of apple uk accepting orders. Its still not due to arrive until 17 Oct. In the meantime, I looked around and yesterday bought a Lumia 930. Why? Hardware wise, its difficult to see why I wouldn't, its a well made device with great specs. I visited a few phone stores over the weekend and played with a few 6+'s and my overall feeling was that it was dull, nothing new about it. I've owned an iphone since the iphone 3gs but have found iOS increasingly showing its age. Its familiar, yes but dull now. It needs new ideas and the health app is not floating my boat. WinPho works well at 8.1. I've had an eye on it since the 7.5 release. MS still have work to do, but from the comments here, I suspect very few people saying "never MS" have actually tried WinPho. It works and the people hub is still the best implementation of how to collect conversations with people on any platform. As for android, no thanks. It succeeds on price at the cost of privacy. In summary, I'm going to cancel my iPhone 6+ order. Dont want it. I've got a great phone at half the price, with better camera and better software for what I use it for.

So whither Microsoft? If Nadella knows, he is keeping it well hidden

David Moyes

Is it only me who sees the similarity between Nadella and David Moyes' promotion from a "smaller team" to Utd? Following big shoes is destined to fail...

What a whopper, LG: Feast your eyes on this 77-inch bendy TV

Any further Specs?

Did HDMI2 get released? Does this TV have HDMI2 or is it HDMI1.4? Not sure I'd consider buying it if its running HDMI 1.4.

Brawling neighbours challenge 'quiet' cul-de-sac myth

Is Lester bored?

...raises chaka demus with cat poo. They say things like this always come in 3's. The mind boggles what will be next...

The Raspberry Pi: Is it REALLY the saviour of British computing?

What do you mean the king has no clothes on?

Kris has finally hit the nail on the head with this, the RPI Reality Distortion Field has been broken. RPi is exciting for all of us who lived in the Vic20/Spectrum/BBC era. I cant see RPi doing it alone. In the school my teenage children go to, the IT classes are for the less able students -- the type of children who took wood work or metal work when I was at school. How did we get here?

I like Frank Long's suggestion. The way to solve this is to make development compulsory. The argument is that not all children are capable, but in a similar way not all children are good at maths or french or RAVE(! why is that compulsory?)

Its time to come up with a radical new approach. Frank for PM!

So, who ought to be the next Doctor Who? It's up to YOU...

John Simm

I know he was the Master but he is excellent and would make a supreme Dr,

So you want to be a contractor? Well, here's how it works

Re: No you fucking don't.

balance is restored. I can sleep tonight :-)

No Coffee?

Is this the mildest piece Dominic has ever written? Are you ok Dominic? No cursing, nothing remotely abusive... It's even supportive. Are you having a good day then, or did you not have enough coffee to give you the right edge to write a piece for ElReg this morning. :-)

I do hope there is a good reason and it is mellow. The alternative is that I am reading this with battle weary eyes, and just happen to take no offense and agree totally with the advice. Oh lord, please let this not be the case...

Mobile tech destroys the case for the HS2 £multi-beellion train set

Re: Is Tim London based?

Lucky Tim, hope the weather is nice today. Living in Portugal is defo my number 1 aim. Given you will hardly have any major road issues, unless you count Lisbon, and the toll roads, why moan about this if you're not even based in London :-)

Let us build Hs2. Build it big and only after its been running for a decade do the cost benefit to see if it was worthwhile. There can be no model anywhere that can rightly predict how much it will eventually cost and what benefits, if any, it will bring. Suck it and see. Spend the money before the bankers take it as a bonus. Dont do a half baked thing, as the temptation will be to cancel it after cost overruns. Commit to building it. Commit to building it big.

Is Tim London based?

This all seems fine if you are based in London. If you are based in the North West though HS2 offers a glimmer of a chance of not wasting your life travelling to and from London to do business. As those of us in the North know, there is little business going on outside of London and all important things can only ever be undertaken there.

Will HS2 allow London to expand out to Birmingham or beyond maybe? Is that not a benefit, being able to actually move some jobs and business outside of London.

I dont have much knowledge of history but wonder how the Victorians ever built the train network we are using today, I bet they didnt debate at the lengths we do today.

Build HS2. Build it big. Take it to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool & Cardiff to name a few cities. Lets put something in that in a few hundred years from now people can look and debate on the new transport systems they need and how the new Elizabethans (II) put in the (then) crumbling HS2 network.

China: Online predator or hapless host?

Re: soam..

Actually not a bad idea. Lets encourage BT et al to block all IPs originating from China. I cant say I've ever seen a legitimate request come from China to our servers. First thing I do on every new server is block all known Chinese IPs. How much friendlier would this be if BT etc provided a tick box on their user admin pages to say, please block these countries for me at the network level... How do we start a campaign?

Fujitsu to get oldsters out the house and thoroughly caned

genius on many levels

This is a work of genius on many levels, and yet potentially very patronising. All Alzheimer suffers need to do now is remember the stick AND how to use it...

Sir James Dyson slams gov's 'obsession' with Silicon Roundabout

I say, can we have a daily dyson rant

I remember when Edwina Currey had bad words to say about eggs (and scoucers). Everyone was outraged, but things changed.

I like what Dyson has done here. Can he do this everyday, a daily dyson rant for me...

And for what its worth, I'd like a Silicon Sefton (nice alliteration) and try to employ peopleoutside of London in our industry. Why is this place in London where rates are sooooo high and job proposects equally high.

Forgetting Microsoft: How Steve Ballmer's Surface could win

Am I the opnly one...

Who read this

"Above all, it brings all of Google services, built straight into the device."

and thought what would have happened if it had have read:

"Above all, it brings all of Microsoft services, built straight into the device."

I guess the EU/US administrators would be all over Microsoft. Lets have a fair playing field eh chaps... Why should google devices have the monoply of google only services?

Microsoft's 'official' Windows 8 Survival Guide leaks

"...Now, pressing the Windows® [Windows] key acts as a portal between two completely self-contained universes: the Metro Notro desktop..."

Andrew, you nearly pulled it off. The "Notro" reference was the give away, you are still the only person using this term. Now be a good little El Reg hack and confess in a bootnote so our cousins across the pond dont get too upset.

Internet's first 'Hall of Fame' REVEALED

hmmmm

Where would we have been without the browser?

Where is Marc Andreessen surely the daddy! Or James H. Clarke or even Eric J. Bina?

Compulsory coding in schools: The new Nerd Tourism

Surely we have to try?

AndrueC: Valid arguments, but cant see the teach the kids angle.

A little bit of knowledge does no harm - it's essential: I have to agree.

AndrewO: You are the best. Stimulating discussion on a daily basis. Well done again.

My take. I am of the Commodore Pet/ZX81 brigade. I loved it and have been a developer for decades. I still love it. I have 2 kids and some nephews. They have an interest which I am prepared to encourage and help as much as I can. I am careful not to force feed, merely to ensure they get the answers to questions or at least give them the correct questions to ask to find the answers for themselves. All sounds ok. Nah! These are bright kids. They are loosely driven by similar goals to the ones I had all those years ago. Ok, wiriting Space Invaders was all I wanted to do, and make money, but they are interested in writing games for phones and making money. Its close to the same.

There is a difference though. They are affraid of experimenting. Is this the constant story we are feeding them about viruses? Is it that they have seen the PCs crash and loose their work? They definately have fear, and this is where I hope the Raspebrry PI experiment might just help.

I dont quite agree with AndrewO on this, I think we *have* to try to engage the children. In a year of 120 children there may only be 1, 2 may be 5 kids who find the subject interesting, but in inner cities that could make a difference to a lot of families. IT teaching is school at present is worse than dull. It is also not encouraged. My eldest child wanted to take IT in his GSCE options but was discouraged because IT was where all the dim kids went. How did this happen? It was metal work in my day -- only the really clever mathematicians and scientists were able to do computing.

Something needs to change. We need to raise the profile of developing in the UK. Why not teach some python or some other OO based scripting language. Hey at a push, PHP OO, but at least try to give the kids something. Why not put the elitism back in to IT? Why is it only the dim kids that do IT? I guess thats because they teach the dim kids how to lauch Word and what the baskspace key does. (and even there I've seen instructions inidcating the backspace key yet showing a picture of the delete key!)

Raising the standards of IT education and therefore the entry criteria in the classroom can only be a good thing and I encourage the drive to do this. Make IT hard, interesting and stimulating. Hey you may end up with a class of 30 bright kids and as a country we will all benefit in one way or another...

Cameron's 'Google Review' sparked by killer quote that never was

Great stuff.

Andrew. Fantastic. Keep it up. ElReg finally biting the hand again.

Big Media drags 142,000 through UK's courts in a year

Andrew does debate...

Andrew, I have great respect for everything you do. I smiled at this piece.

I personally believe its one of the best things we do as a society. With the licence fee in place we are able to ensure we have the best quality TV, that is envied across the globe.

The radio 4 jibe is good, but in days gone by, blind people used to get a £1.25 reduction on their licence fee as the £1.25 represented the cost of radio and this was offered free to them. Radio, *all* BBC radio does not cost *that* much of the BBC fee and given the number of national and local channels I cant say I begrude this. I personally have *Never* listened to Radio 4, but do listen to Radio 1.

I dont watch much TV att all. I have SKY, but have to, to watch the football. Other than football, I only really watch BBC, Top Gear, Something for the Weekend (Channel 4 here I come...), The News, Question time and Match of the Day. Thats pretty much it. I can find nothing of interest on the 1000+ Sky channels I have and to be honest never really have -- Oh Idiot Abroad, that was excellent.

I used to work at the Post Office when TV Licences used to be issued there. We would take the complaints on the cost from people. Generally then as it is today, the cost of the TV licence is about or less than the cost of a newspaper -- 40p per day at current rates. I simply cant see how anybody would begrudge paying this small sum for the quality TV, radio and web we get from the bbc.

Compare that to the Murdoch Football Tax. Andrew, now theres an analysis I'd love to see you do.

The Gorilla in the room is doing a great job. I'd love to see it be able to compete for football, F1, golf, keep the Grand National and Derby... They are the best at this, they really are. Its an interesting concept. Bring it on. I'd pay.

What downturn? Lenovo stuffs pockets with 54% extra profit

Sony...

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was Sony. Are they big and/or bold enough to go after the ultimate inorganic growth??

Five ways Microsoft can rescue Windows Phone

Windows 9 is when the win arrives...

At this time, having hated micrsoft for the entire 90's and a good part of the noughties, I find myslef hoping, wishing this wins. I've had an Iphone since iOS2, waited for exchange support. Its the best device out there today for exchange and other features. For me, and it came as quite a surprise when I realised it, a front facing camera for video calls is a must. Facetime just works. MS must ad this.

Android is chaos. Handset makers are happy as you have to buy a new handset every now and then as they have failed to port the latest andriod version. The Android Market place is dodgy too. Android is in my book best avoided. Wife has a Galaxy and *HATES* it.

For me, MS are in this for the long haul, hopefully Nokia can stay around long enough for the win. Windows 8, when we get it will start the idea of a consistent and combined experience, across work pcs, home pcs, ultrabooks, tablets, phones and whatever other devices might arrive. Win 8 in my book is the starting point for people to realise exactly what they can have. By the time we get Windows 9, *IF* MS do it properly, we will have a game changer. By then, TVs will have to have an OS. By then XBox 720 (or whatever it will be called) will have to have an OS. MS should not miss the opportunity to put Win 9 everywhere. With an XBox 720 acting as a smart tv hub, or indeed with a TV with built in XBox capabilities and Win 9, finally BillG gets what he has desired since the 80's. 10/15 years later than he thought but the one device in the centre of the home is arriving. Now if every device runs the same OS and has interconnects, why would you buy apple or android...

Oh, may be thats why Apple and Google are looking at TV too ;-)

Kids should be making software, not just using it - Gove

At last!

I must admit to having more than a passing dislike to Mr Gove, on so many angles. This initiative leaves me feeling compromised. HOW, HOW could I agree with Mr Gove? AT LAST! is what I say. As a software engineer, the people I work with are generally 40+ blokes. Occasionally there will be a 30+ bloke and even less frequently a woman. Where are the kids? I have 2, neither interested in developing and no wonder given the IT and the support the school gives IT. Software development is a good, challenging industry, and UK developers are geenrally highly prized. Please let this continue even though most of our jobs are off shore now. One day UK PLC will wake up and realise that the stuff being developed offshore is at best poor and want to bring the said stuff back tot he UK. Who is going to develop this if we dont start to engage our children... The sooner the better.