Posts by confused and dazed

Jeff Bezos bungs $10bn at climate change after chump change for Oz bush fires

Re: Great news for the environment

I think the sour grapes are because of the way he has made his money. There is no doubt that Amazon provide a fine service. It would also appear that their workers are employed to local legal minimum standards.

However, this guys wealth has been made off the backs of his employees. Their fulfilment centres appear to be horrific places to work and are staffed by people with little other choice. Perhaps making their lives slightly more pleasant and only being worth 50 Billion would encourage people to see this generous gesture in a better light

Don't Flip out or anything, but the 'flexible glass display' on Samsung's latest pholdable doesn't behave like glass

Re: "The South Korean firm is also also offering some customers free screen protectors"

Maybe they look crap ?

An equivalent question is why Apple doesn't ship their phones in cases and with screen protectors ... they'd certainly be more robust ....

iFixit surgeons dissect Apple's pricey Mac Pro: Industry standard sockets? Repair diagrams? Who are you and what have you done to Apple?

Re: How much did apple have to do with it?

I'm sure they'll make money on it. The volumes will be relatively low, but their margins are high when you look at the price they're charging for the base machine, and how much more they charge for upgrades.

On top of that they offer a much needed sop, to their "pro" customers

256GB SSD?

You pay £5K and get a 256G SSD ... seems somewhat on the mean side of things

I know value for money isn't this things selling point, but even so ....

HPEeeeeek! Our sales have been decimated by worldwide slowdown, trade wars, say execs

Re: Bingo

nope - I didn't see blockchain or autonomous

Complete with keyboard and actual, literal, 'physical' escape key: Apple emits new 16" $2.4k+ MacBook Pro

Re: Horses for arses

People with a lot of money may need those specs or may not. It could be that they just like their Apple devices and are prepared to pay for that. It's strange to me that nobody seems to bat an eyelid at someone who spends a lot on a car when a Dacia Duster or equivalent would also just get you there .... I spend more time on computers (PC's, Macs, Linux) than I do in the car ...

my 2p

Stupid ... Moron .. etc etc

What is it with the IT community that there is a tendency to consider anyone who disagrees with you to be an idiot.

Could they not just have different priorities to you ?? .... don't want to seem like a big jessie , but all this Apple bashing gets on my wick.

Google forks out $2.1bn for Fitbit – and promises not to exploit all that delicious health data to sling ads (honest)

Re: Why are these devices not isolated by design?

Agreed, but not enough people seem to care. I bought an OMRON blood pressure monitor - offering graphing functions. When I got it, it became clear the functions were only on their site. why would they not let me export a .csv ? I can guess. Returned it, but I feel people on this forum do not represent the wider population who many, happily have a voice activated "friend" in their homes ....

Xiaomi the way to go phone: That would be with a 108MP camera by the looks of things

Re: Android ?

Thanks !

Android ?

Just hope nobody does a Huawei on this ....

Scott McNealy gets touchy feely with Trump: Sun cofounder hosts hush-hush reelection fundraiser for President

A little dissapointed

I worked for Sun for a long time. Scott's leadership was often inspirational. As others have said, the company under him did share far more down the ranks thank other merican corps I've known. I know he liked to be controversial, but this is a step too far ....

Back to school with El Reg - how about a chunky Lenovo for the student in your life?

Really ?

Other than being robust (like a brick) - this really seems like a poor value choice for any student in the UK or otherwise ....

Who's for another trade war? Japan hits South Korea, Seoul survivor promises to retaliate

resistors are futile

he products affected by controls included "fluorinated polyimides, used to make organic light-emitting diode displays; resistors used in semiconductor production; and hydrogen fluoride, used as an etching gas in chipmaking," according to the Nikkei Asian Review.

I thibk they mean "resists" not resistors - as in photo-resists used in lithography of chips ....

Prez Trump's trade war reshapes electronics supply chains as China production slows

Re: I'm not so sure

Nope ... Korea

Surprising absolutely no one at all, Samsung's folding-screen phones knackered within days

Re: Extremely poor

Samsung spend that R&D money on a bunch of industries 7 markets. They are world leader in many things. Mobiles are just the visible tip.

I've visited their Korean Semiconductor facilities many times and they are a truly impressive company. I wouldn't bet against them - even if it looks like they cocked this up.

We'll help you get your next fix... maybe, we'll think about it, says FTC: 'Right to repair' mulled

Re: Why is voiding of warranty a problem?

Having repaired a few iPhones recently, I'm starting to think they're not that bad. Once you get the screen off, it's all nicely done, and relatively easy to replace stuff, and you're right the extending tapes are a good innovation and preferable to glue.

What I object to though is the design for obsolescence of ultra-books. Want to extend the life-time of a laptop ? - upgrade the DRAM or the SSD. - hard to do when soldered down. I'm not convinced that this is down to space limitations.

Carphone Warehouse fined £29m for mis-selling mobile insurance to punters who didn't need it

is this a surprise ?

But surely this has been going on since the first high street shop started selling mobiles. It's the tech equivalent of buying a can of shoe spray after you've bought your new flip flops. I was offered a warranty on batteries at a well know catalogue shop recently..... folk need to take some responsibility for their behaviour and just avoid theses sellers.

Granddaddy of the DIY repair generation John Haynes has loosened his last nut

Wheeler dealers version of reality

The Haynes manual must have been the inspiration for "wheeler dealers". The fantasy that un-doing a 30 year old Alfa Romeo bolt by hand with a drop of easing oil is very attractive ..... but it is just that, pure fantasy ....

RIP

A Haynes manual was always the first purchase (along with a cassette deck) for any "new" car. You could barely read the pages in the one of my dad's Maxi 1750 for all the oily thumb-prints.

But the most exasperating statement was always "now re-assembly in reverse order"

Happy Thursday! 770 MEEELLLION email addresses and passwords found in yuge data breach

A large post-it

Since we need ever more complex and differing passwords, and we don't trust password managers ...... how about a piece of paper and maybe a pencil ?

and maybe hope not to get burgled .....

Most munificent Apple killed itself with kindness. Oh. Really?

Re: Look it's really quite simple.

The signs aren't good so far ....

IBM insists it's not deliberately axing older staff. Internal secret docs state otherwise...

Re: Just to play devil's advocate here

two buzzwords does not equate to experience

Peak Apple: This time it's SERIOUS, Tim

Health ?

Health seems like a big bet to me. Perhaps it's just me, (and sometimes I worry that it is), but why would anyone want Apple, (or anyone else for that matter) have access to their personal data ? I don't want my blood pressure or pulse rate to be "monetized" thank-you very much

Reg Standards Bureau introduces the Devon fatberg as coastal town menaced by oily blob

I think I'd be more concerned about this summer's clotted cream sales .... jam first ... or condom ?

Taiwan's UMC winds down DRAM project after Micron IP tussle

did they miss the boat ?

Perhaps it's time to pause on DRAM investments .... after the big party things might be about to get ugly .....

Nobody in China wants Apple's eye-wateringly priced iPhones, sighs CEO Tim Cook

Re: It is a miracle they sell anything at all

At least from the data I can find, this varies quiote a bit by country :

UK 2018, ios 52%, Andoid 47%

Germany 2018 ios 31%, Android 68%

US 2018 ios 57%, Android 43%

Re: Choice

Is that true though ? Genuine question. My impression (perhaps simplistically) was that Android's primary purpose was to share information with Google ?

Choice

While I must admit to enjoying the apparent "come-uppance" at Apple, I do regret this overall trend. I don't want to use Andoid. I don't want Google to know more about my life, but when my ageing iphone6 dies, I'll have to switch to Android. I sincerely hope Apple reverse their price gouging. As others have said, I'm well paid, but just will not pay their silly prices - even to avoid Android.

Blighty: We spent £1bn on Galileo and all we got was this lousy T-shirt

Re: What a bunch of whiny spineless remoaners

"remoaner" - I see what you did there .... very clever ... ho ho

ZX Spectrum reboot scandal firm's original directors rejoin

off topic

Anyone remember that plastic lens thing you had to bluetac to the TV so that you could unlock Elite ?

Samsung 'reveals' what looks like a tablet that folds into a phone, but otherwise we're quite literally left in the dark

I'd go for one

I think a bigger screen could be useful & I'm sure they've bent enough to not be caught out by that. Thinking they just had to announce something after Royole stole their thunder ...

Mourning Apple's war against sockets? The 2018 Mac mini should be your first port of call

some of these comments get on my wick

Can we stop all the Apple basing .... it's tedious.

All this willy waving about it not being powerful enough for your use case is just juvenile bollocks. Well done, you can find a higher spec machine for less money - you must be hung like a blue whale - happy now ?

If people knowingly want to spend more on a Mac - let them. Some folk waste money on flash cars or fancy meals ....

Bloodhound Super-Sonic-Car lacks Super-Sonic-Cashflow

The thing is a rolling billboard as it is .... hoping someone with more cash than me can step up ..... we need inspirational stuff like this !

By gum: Supermicro's Samsung storage ruler server uses secret SSD

sorry, but this is half a story

Without cost information these articles really just willy waving by the hardware vendors

South China waters are red, Brit warships are blue, HMS Sutherland's sailing there

Re: Cake and eat it

I don't .....

Apple's HomePod beams you up into new audio dimensions

Pending landfill

Ease of recycling seems to be on the decline. This stuff will be obsolete in 2-3 years and then not economic to recycle - it's not just Apple - but despite their "green credentials" - they lead the pack in sealed in / glued in slab-tronics

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

nob

I like the convenience of apple pay, but feel a little bit of a nob using it. Touch ID at least allows me to be discrete, while talking to the cashier. Staring at a phone just in front of my face instead .... no thanks

Apple Cook's half-baked defense of the Mac Mini: This kit ain't a leftover

One trick pony ?

Bit worried about Apple. The success of the iphone seems to have allowed them to become arrogant enough to feel they can ignore their (old) core business - pro type users. If the iphone stops being groovy (as it's beginning to look) they could fall fast .... hope not

The Google Home Mini: Great, right up until you want to smash it in fury

Selling your soul ?

I guess peoples' polarised opinions depend on how much one objects to Google (or anyone else) having even more access to your privacy. For me I want a physical switch and it'll stay off until these things can do something really useful, and even then I would choose the vendor carefully .....

Oracle staff report big layoffs across Solaris, SPARC teams

Re: RIP SPARC

I had a tadpole SPARC laptop - used to burn my knees !

WD gets court order: Toshiba can't block access to shared database

Gulp

16 layer TSV .... that's going to be cheap !

AI and robots? Will someone think of the jobs, says HPE CEO Whitman

Forgetting the hypocrisy fro a moment. She is correct - we need paying jobs for people to do ....

Samsung to Galaxy Note 7 users: Turn it off. Now

Re: On Star Trek -

I propose a spring based "fast-dump" option that would eject any smoking battery super quick. You could even aim the burning cell at smirking by-standers

2016 in mobile: Visit a components mall in China... 30 min later, you're a manufacturer

Need to sort out privacy first

I got a fitbit as a gift - within an hour I got an email praising my "work-out".

If I "work out", I don't want some teenager in California sending me inane congratulatory badges

it's in a drawer .....

US military readies drone submarine hunter

Re: WTF, ok i may be a little late to the party but !!!

still seems hellish high,

say the boat costs a billion - over 20 years, officers ~100K a year, crew 40K a year ....

my super military grade calculator still comes nowhere near ..... they must eat a lot ..

Big Data, empty bellies: How supermarkets tweak prices just for the sake of YOUR LOVE

Aldi Convert

I shifted to Aldi for a few reasons :

1. They're cheaper (a lot)

2. I think overall their quality is superior (the Chicken doesn't appear to have been soaked in water for 3 months to boost it's weight) & they've shown (at least to me) that brands are not always better.

3. I got tired of the buy 6 punnets for the price of a 1 or yo-yo wine price "offers" that made me wish I'd brought a calculator on each shop

All this lost my trust

I just hope our UK grocers take this kicking on board and fix things

You'll go APE for our new Gorilla Glass 4, Corning reckons

1M ?

Who drops a phone just 1m ?

are there leagues of very short phone users out there ?

Samsung, Apple soap opera drama: Korean giant WILL churn out chips for iPhones, iPads

the difference between 16 and 14nm ...

Marketing ....

NO SALE: IBM won't cash in its chips with GlobalFoundries after all

Re: Who knows best?

300mm has been the standard for years - irrespective of process node.

Intel still uses 300mm for volume, although people are now evaluating 450mm