Posts by Guildencrantz

Chromebook sales train derails as market reaches saturation

Zoom

No proper chrome zoom app is the dealbreaker for me. Yes it runs a lite version but I can't crop my wide angle webcam on it so I'm like a little dot on the screen. Can't run original sound for music lessons.

Braking point: Tesla has had quite enough of Trump's 'unlawful' tariffs on Chinese-made parts, sues Uncle Sam

Tariff-free sauce for the state-subsidised Chinese parts goose

...may well be tariff-freedom for the state-subsidised Chinese finished car gander.

In the unlikely event Tesla wins its case, it may regret doing so.

Xiaomi's Poco F2 Pro flagship lands in the UK with considerably gentler price tag

Re: bands

Pretty sure all the UK networks are just doing n78 3500mhz atm, which a UK-marketed 5G mobe will have to have. It's the cheapo stuff off Kimovil etc that lacks this band.

https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/uk-network-frequency-bands#Three_Coverage_Bands

Huawei's latest smartphone for the UK market costs £1,299. And yes, that's without Google apps

Privacy

Quite surprised people on this forum arguing their data is safer, with a de facto branch of the Chinese government which carries out regular military interoperability exercises with Russia, than it is with, say, Google.

Re: more competition

It's very typical that Chinese firms produce and export below actual cost, the latter being artificially distorted by among other things state-backed credit at unrealistically low interest rates and without collateral or even firm repayment demands of the kinds we see in the UK.

This represents an attack on market competition, rather than favouring it.

Fragging hell: Qualcomm rolls out mid-tier 5G gaming chipset

Right now there are quite a few £215-£230 5G phones on sale in China from e.g. Xaiomi, Vivo, Huawei, and while they have the right 5G band, none of them have 4G/LTE Band 20 800mhz capability required to be really useful in Europe. Very annoying indeed - can only assume they've looked at the present European crop of overpriced 5G phones and seen pound signs, and put the brake on putting out phones selling for less than they can get away with. Annoying. At some soon point one of the manufacturers will break rank, one hopes.

Surprise! That £339 world's first 'anti-5G' protection device is just a £5 USB drive with a nice sticker on it

You're just poo-pooing it because of the (((5G mind control))).

I on the other hand am able to think for myself having bought my 5G-shielding underpants:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SYB-Boxer-Briefs-Anti-Radiation-Protection/dp/B077QWLKJM

Energizer Hard Case H280S: A KaiOS-powered blower that can withstand a few knocks

Re: Nokia's already there with an almost identical device

I got my Alcatel 3088x KaiOS phone from Argos locked to EE for £20 (no topup required oddly). India's KaiOS Jiophone is £7!

Re: How about a usability review?

My problems (with another KaiOS phone) have been VoLTE hampered by tinny sound; Google Assistant has been great; Google Maps is reassuring to have; apparently there's a big problem with WhatsApp in that while the version in principle supports recorded voice messages (and not WhatsApp calls as such), pressing the mic button to record calls up Google Assistant and shuts down WhatsApp.... it's causing a lot of users to tear their hair out. The App Store makes the Symbian app store look good by comparison - although there's a nice internet radio app (not many stations though the maker charmingly invites you to email in your requests to add your favourite).

Lenovo intros choose-your-own-adventure Yoga Slim 7: Ryzen spend $360 less on shiny or take a dip in Intel's Ice Lake?

I've just bought Lenovo's 'military grade' education/enterprise 1080p 14" chromebook 14e which is £250 before discounts and it's OK. Correction, it's gloriously well built and boring and, crucially, is designed to drain liquid through the chassis if you spill a mugful on the keyboard. £1500 is crackers though.

Samsung leads 5G early birds after shipping 6.7m phones to snatch over half of the market

Cancer woo woo

My ex and my mum both believe in this wireless makes you ill moonshine, but it's something they won't shake, it's the judgement of huge numbers of people who won't be disabused of it. I feel for them. Some very bright people are like this. I won't hear it said they're stupid. So they don't reason like you or I, but you and I have a certain conception of risk and trust and so forth too, that's not all pure reasoning. The whole Better Call Saul subplot about Chuck McGill is a painful illustration of such tormenting and incorrect beliefs that are in practice unshakeable.

UK Supreme Court considers whether spy court should be immune to legal probes

Re: Any chance

The law and judgment of peers which Magna Carta refers to as a prerequisite for eg deprivation of freedoms and property doesn't cover all situations. Consider an armed police officer apprehending an armed suspect with a hostage. The perp is about to execute them. Does the officer convene a jury before pulling the trigger? He has powers to act in the defence of life. The Crown prerogatives of national defence operate similarly. Yes so there appear to be rule of law issues there but how do you avoid them and have a functioning executive branch?

Re: The NSA's Ugly Uncle

I think you're jumping some way between domestic non-judicial-reviewability of key prerogative powers (as is the norm for the Crown prerogatives or at least some of them, including executive powers of defence) and your claim that those exercising them can't claim to be doing so in the service of the public. I think the latter in no way follows from the former.

Apple tipped to revive forgotten Macbook Air and Mac mini – report

The Mac Mini was the best Mac because not a vulgar wasteful Veblen good unlike the rest of Apple's lineup.

Indiegogo to ailing ZX Spectrum reboot firm: End of May... or we call the debt collector

Re: QUICK - SEND MORE POPCORN

Mate a contract in the common law world needn't be in writing, it just needs offer, acceptance, consideration, economic subject-matter, and mutual intention to create legal relations (well and a few little bits). A judge can and will deem these to exist in a range of circumstances, after looking at the entirety of the context.

One more credit insurer abandons Maplin Electronics

All they need to do is sell one of their USB cables and the margin should put them in the black.

OK, we admit it. Under the hood, the iPhone X is a feat of engineering

Re: "writing puff pieces for...the copyright industry"

Don't you think there are substantive arguments for the existence of copyright in many media; and that it's possible AO writes what he actually thinks is true, and worth hearing, and for people whose intellectual property should be strongly defended because it's in all of our interests? Even if you disagree with those substantive points, do you think it's possible AO sincerely believes in them, passionately, even? I might not agree with you but I don't impugn your integrity. I think it's a failure of your imagination and that of those upvoting you that you don't impute integrity to others where it's deserved, perhaps in part because they disagree with you.

Incidentally, copyright isn't just an industry, it's the legal concept of the property institution central to the operation of huge swathes of many countries' real economies. Remove it and you destroy the private benefit required for there to be private investment in invention.

Nokia's retro revival 3310 goes on sale and disappears immediately

Re: 2G only?

"losses caused by the action (or lack of action) of a third party."

However the fact the phone will last 6 months in the country in which it's been sold, rather than the 2 years which a £50 2g phone ought, and the retailer knows, and the customer doesn't, is precisely a latent defect, of the category which good faith requires the retailer to disclose. SOGA stipulates durability and (which is the same thing) fitness for purpose over the expected lifetime indicated for the pricetag. Of course it's UK not Irish law, however unquestionably Ireland has its equivalent.

£50 generally, and specifically for a £10 phone, is well outside the category of 'trifles' which the common law won't deal with. The fact you earn enough not to worry about it doesn't bear upon the legal position.

And so we enter day seven of King's College London major IT outage

Contractual issues re: It's bad.

Wouldn't it be good if there were some organisation paid to represent students' interests in recovering from the college for breaches of contract? Oh wait - the students union is paid to do that. Will it? As if.

Edward Snowden's 40 days in a Russian airport – by the woman who helped him escape

Snowden revealing methods security services use to covertly intercept terrorist communications

Isn't the above just an eeny weeny bit appalling for all of us?

Friends with benefits: A taxing problem for Ireland in a post-Brexit world

@Simon Hobson

Re your comment about the Euro - yes that's all correct but what on earth does that have to do with the UK's EU membership? We're not part of any compulsory bailout mechanisms, so the mis-structuring of the Euro is simply no reason whatever to leave. Even our EU membership fees are what they are because we're doing bloody well. The sort of totally tax and domestic spending we get from the city of London's privileged status of being the world's largest Euro forex trading centre and being the world's financial capital (thanks to EU membership) frankly, far outweighs what we pay in EU membership fees, no question.

"The government can't really get away with ignoring the result"

I'm not so sure, it's accountable to Parliament which in turn is accountable to voters, and many of those voting for Brexit are like man-children voluntarily making themselves unemployed. I'm not sure they should be listened to. But yeah ok I take your point.

Surface Book: Microsoft to turn unsuccessful tab into unsuccessful laptop

Take that, o fruity one!

Bwahahahahaha

Ford to save you from BIKE FITNESS HORROR

Re: Electric bike prices do seem rather high.

I dunno, you can get a conversion kit with a superb Bafang BPM hillclimber motor, and a Samsung battery which will do 80km for about £500. Wooshbikes are pretty much the leaders for high-quality low-cost serious ebikes in the UK, they're the ebike geek's choice for cyclists on a budget, you can get a superb bike from them for £600-800 (although £600 would be 'good', and an £800 bike like the Big Bear would be 'superb')

'America radicalised me!' cries Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

UN Charter

says "[n]o one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks."

Yup - ARBITRARY interference. Arbitrary means, among other things, without justification.

Art 29 (2): "In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society."

General welfare includes averting mass murder.

Mac fans: You don't need Windows to get ripped off in tech support scams

Every newbie silver surfer should be bought a copy of

"Delete This at Your Peril: The Bob Servant Emails"

to show them what a viper's nest the whole online world is before it gets unleashed on them. I did that for my dad when buying him a laptop and it's stood him in good stead.

Krzanich: NO new Intel 14nm Broadwell chip for YOU, world, until 2014

Re: re: [no] laptops with Haswell (22nm) processors available to buy

I agree with the OP, Haswell only hit mobile computing in June, and minimally - and the first tablets based on it are barely out yet.

Ten weird Chinese mobile phones

Re: Quad SIM mobile

Unfortunately it seems (per the website) to just take GSM SIMs, rather than 3G, so I'd worry it wouldn't be compatible with ANY current UK SIM cards :-(

Still interesting though.

Samsung targets pockets with latest Galaxy blower

Re: WHY?

I think you've accidentally explained "Y":

The specs of this phone match the Galaxy Y - which stands for "Young". Yet da yoot likely want Blackberries, iPhones or the ilk, imho, and yet those who might want such a phone - those migrating from a non-smartphone, are alienated by the marketing. Just a guess.

Viewsonic risks Apple backlash with Android Phone 4S

re: Greetings

My sweet sweet child, I would so dearly like to help, and the charitable foundation which my late great-great-uncle began with a bequest of 100,000,000 dollars US, is looking for exactly the kinds of enterprising people such as yourselves whose projects we may support. The only problem is that for tax reasons, the foundation is based in Liechtenstein, and each time we access funds, we are obliged to fly our Swiss lawyer in to authorise funds, and pay the bank an access fee, which amounts to 10% of any amount withdrawn. Therefore in order that we may remit to you the 100,000 dollars US which you need, we ask that you wire us first 10,000 dollars US to Western Union, Belize City branch, for the attention of Esteban Gutierrez.

We look forward to making your glorious project the success it deserves to be.

Yours in peace,

Bishop Ignacio Loyola de Sancha, Holy Primate of the Order of the Sacred Virgin

New driver-snooping satnav could push down UK insurance premiums

@ Velv 16:41

What's dangerous, Velv, is telling fast drivers they're not always dangerous. It has the effect of making them even more incautious than they already are - and egging on those thinking of driving that way, who aren't already.