Posts by hi_robb

Android phone auto reverts jailbreaks

I have

I've got a HTC Hero which I bought on Orange when it first hit the market. It seemed Ok but as it was Android 1.5 or 1.6 (can't remember which) it did have issues, nothing major just little niggles. Those niggles were fixed with the HTC release of Android 2.1 for the Hero, but Orange dragged their heels over releasing it for months.

I got so fed up of waiting that in the end, I rooted and installed the worldwide one.

I then started playing around with some of the custom roms and realised that actually, while HTC Sense had some decent ideas and features, that it was actually a bit bloaty and was slowing my user experience on the phone down. So I tried some of the custom roms. I could do this because I had root access.

I've never seen Sense since :-)

I use a 2.2 Froyo Rom now, something HTC say they will never release on the Hero. It's fast (much faster than the stock htc rom), it gives me access to better apps in the market, far better newer features and because it's rooted it allows me to customise it to how I like.

Any apps I don't need which were part of the base 2.2 rom (FroydVillian) I've removed, I can overclock the phone and do making it faster to. Oh and I've learnt a bit of Android so I can fix the ickle niggles like facebook always going to the mobile site rather than touch site. On my phone it goes to the touch site, changed by a bit of digging around in Android using ADB etc.

I've no intention of upgrading my phone for quite a long time due to being able to root and put custom roms on. I've a phone which is exactly tailored to e so why would I want to?

I think this chip HTC have put in their new phones which stop you doing things what I've done, is probably just a way of trying to generate a guaranteed cash flow per customer for both them and the networks . After all people always want the latest and greatest features and if the only way to get them is by upgrading your phone for a new one, then most people will be sheep and do just that.

Hopefully some of the talented people over at XDA and such sites will find a way round this chip. HTC will simply then not bother putting it in future phones. If no way is found, then it sets a dangerous precedence. Operators doing an iPhone and taking the tethering feature out of Android, and not allowing 3rd party apps to be installed anyone?

Rob

Segway philanthropist found dead

New statement

Segway - There's no flys on us

IE9 strips to win Chrome fans

How long before

Someone little oik discovers a security vulnerability in the feature to pin shortcuts which can be updated to the start menu.

I really don't like the sound of that feature one bit from a security point of view.

Rob

Front End / Client Side Web Developer

Hmmm shouldn't it be

"We rely heavily on Git(s)"

Or in Scotland Gets

D

Virgin Media to warn malware-infected customers

Over 30s??

Over 30s, you cheeky little whippersnapper.

Some of us over 30s were making pc's do things you can only dream about getting them to do, before you were even swimming out of your daddies nuts.

And breathe,

Rob

Sony Walkman NWZ-A845 media player

Err you're wrong I'm afriad

You do not need to buy tracks from Apple to get Gapless playback on a IPlod. I've been ripping my own substantial CD collection using ITunes for years and get gapless playback on the cd's which are continued mixes like DJ mixes, Pink Floyd albums and the like.

Rob

Waterfall Niagara speakers

They look nice but...

Don't really sound all that great. I've heard previous incarnations of these speakers when hifi shopping and wasn't all that impressed by them. Fairly plodding, slow one note bass, and screatchy treble. That could have been down to the room, setup etc but I don't think it was.

The new ones look very similar so probably sound similar.

Far better getting a pair of these for 5k which sound fecking fantastic. They really do disappear once the music starts playing, leaving you just a pin point soundstage both height and depth wise. Johnny Cash smoking a fag while playing? You'll hear the spiralling waft the smoke takes as he blows it out never mind him smoking it. As for bass, my kids are genuinely frightened when I turn the volume up.

http://www.wilson-benesch.com/discovery/discovery.html

You'll still need the source, pre and power amps though :-)

Rob

Hack forces Flash onto iPad

Altogether now

"Flash ahh ah saviour of the universe"

Beeb reinstates teaboy in Pestogate scandal

Why!!!

When I goto the very article on the BBC and hover my pointer over the pic does it show a link back to el reg?

This is using Chrome.

Am I missing something here, or perhaps just being thick?

D

Low-priced home digital media connections promised

Not another...

Stupid, useless fecking connection standard

This is nowt more than some big players trying to get licensing rights on something so they make more money. They get this in then everyone else has to start paying them a license fee to put the new ports on the back of their products and we'll all need to go out and buy new tv's, blu-ray players, consoles etc as our old uns will be incompatible.

Then, just as we get used to the new standard, having spent a fortune getting the new kit some other consortium will come up with something else and the process will start again.

Cnuts

Rob

Airline passenger videos Atlanta maggot horror

Err

The maggots were only trying to fly

Gets coat and exits --------------->

D

Garlands folds: 1000 call-centre jobs axed in Northeast

No they didn't.

Garlands had one of the highest staff turnovers of any company I've ever worked for. They paid low, and didn't seem to care very much for their staffs welfare, gripes etc. They would employ just about anyone, even staff who had been sacked for fraud from other companies!

I worked there for a couple of years, taking a job in their Orange call centre when I was desperate for work and there were no IT jobs in the area to which I'd just moved to be with the significant other. Out of the 30 people who started the same day I did, only 3 survived to the end of the 4 week training course. Every time a bunch of new starters came in, it was the same thing. Out of 20 starting, 1 or 2 actually stuck it out.

I went in to the job knowing that the minute something else came up doing what I normally done, I'd be out of there. As it happened,within 3 days of completing my training on how to answer a phone, a job came up in their IT department and I got it and moved there. They did treat their backend staff better than the agents to be fair, but the agents were like cattle to them.

In the end I left after over two years there having been what I felt was constructively dismissed as I was effectively sidelined so the boss could get his best mates in to do the job I was doing. This was after the guy who was boss when I started left due to the same sort of treatment.

He did warn me before he went that I was likely to be next.

However, to be fair while that guy was there he put me through some certs, and got me into telephony, IVR'S etc. Due to that my career progressed quite nicely after a I left. So while I left with a lot of grievances towards the company, they very quickly subsided and I was thankful to my old boss for furthering my career. Kind of 2 steps back to go ten steps forward.

The one thing that used to irk me badly though was that they employed anyone. Some of those employees customer services mannerisms were terrible and must have gave the mother company their contracts were offered to a very bad reputation. A lot of the agents just thought they were there because they had to be and it was their god given right to be as rude to their customers as possible.

That IMHO does not make for a good company reputation.

However at the end of the day, it's a shame they have gone as no one likes to see lots of people being made redundant and there was some very good people working there.

D

Samsung NaviBot robot cleaner

I must say...

That if I ever visit your house, I mustn't forget to wipe my feet on the way OUT...

Robb

BT could face criminal case over Phorm trials

If the Phuckers go to jail

They'll do a roaring business with all the free phone cards they take in with them.

D

Tricorder/Aliens-motion-tracker handscanner kit gets $6m

May I be the 29th person to

Welcome our new motion detecting overlords.

And the obligatory Aliens quote

"they're coming out the walls man"

Echelon computers can't cope with bad lines

Re : Crazy Frog

I think Bin Laden wokolauld rather the spooks knew what he was doing than listen to that crap.

din din din nananana nana na na nana nana ring ding.

Greenock pensioners cuffed for Tesco 'sex romp'

I wonder...

If tesco actually had a code to alert staff to the fact that people were fornicating in the aisle.

As in code 67 isle 2

Sun squeals over 'UK's first iPhone baby'

iWoman only on iPhone

Hmm looks like I'll have to get a iPhone(tm) now.

This program that the couple used (we shall call it iWoman) will be very handy for letting me know when it's safe to go to the pub after work, or that it's her time of month and I risk a bollox by doing so.

iPhone has just truly became a mans best friend. Stuff the dog.

The beer for obvious reasons.

Peppa Pig told to belt up

Cartoons do not influence kids

Lots of people played pacman as kids and didn't end up moving about in darkened rooms munching on pills.

Err hang on...

Legal highs now illegal

I'll never understand these legal highs

When the illegal ones are far better. I tried spice and was it better than good old mary jane?

No!

Not even close. It smelt like canned fish, tasted like custard socks and gave me a feeling that was similar to how you feel when you've been awake 24 hours.

If that's the general quality of the high you get from these so called legal ones compared to the real thing, then I don't see why people bother. Even more so when you consider that some of the alternate chemical substances are probably much worse for your health.

D

Firms fuse high-tech sensors into concept phone

|If this becomes a new iphone at some point in future...

Someone will come up with a app called Phalic Phone

"Or if you're just a bored and lonley housewise looking to turn your mobile into a tactile virtual cock for discreate pleasure - There's an App for that"

Walking With Dinosaurs star goes walkabout

May I be the first

To welcome our dinosaur weidling mexican overlords

MPs to go clubbing in cocaine inquiry

I wonder how many mp's remember

The iconic phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out"

In their case it's more likely to be turn up, clock in, drop to the pub on tax payers expenses"

Samsung YP-R1 16GB PMP

Gapless?

Good review, but does it support gapless playback?

The masses need to know!

D

Boffins 'write directly to memory' of living brains

May I be the first

To welcome our new mind controlling overlords

Swedish military bras burst, melt during 'rigorous exercise'

Pictures Please

And the address for the Swedish Army recruitment offices to while your're at it

Extra large condoms hit UK supermarket shelves

Well I won't be buying them...

As I used to think I had a pubic hair until I pissed out of it

Man blames cat for child porn downloads

Well...

I've a feline he want be getting out anytime soon

/Gets coats and exits stage left

Phorm phading phast

Lets run a book

How many days before Phorm goes down the tube in the UK.

Everyone puts a fiver in and the person or people who get it right win the pot.

The Reg staff can run it.

I'm saying 30 days.

p.s share price now 242p down 15% today

BT abandons Phorm

And now the FTSE news

"And now the Financial news;

Phorm stock is sliding dramatically and is currently 192p, that's a 40% drop.

hahahaha, die you turd die.

End of news"

hahahahahaha

haha

I can see a Ex Phorm CEO going down the job centre very soon.

Glasgow unbans Life of Brian

Welease Bwian

Officials had to have bigus dickus to welease bwian

HSBC online banking hits another wall

Huge Shower Bloody Clowns

Or HSBC for short

Controversial mobile directory fails on launch

I wonder if it was me...

who tipped the register off about this. I sent em an email today after not seeing anything about it on here.

<--- checks sent items.

Err no it wasn't, my email was sent just after this article appeared.

boo hoo.

Bristol crim caught with mobile up jacksie

RE: This is not uncommon

What, you have a friend who make a living by using his arse to smuggle mobile phones in to prison?

Does it pay well?

Rob

Nurse Lovelace gives hardened lag 55-hour stiffy

That was a

Bit of hard time for him then.

Paris because she loves hard time

Sony X-Series Walkman

I almost bought ones of these until...

I found that it doesn't do gapless playback.

So if you have any DJ mixes or seamless music like DSOTM, if you rip as seperate tracks, when you play back you'll get gaps between the tracks which completely spoils the flow of the music.

The only way to get aorund it is to rip as one big long track, but then you can't skip between songs, you have to hold the fast forward button and slowly search through until you get to the bit you like.

A right PITA.

BT names first 29 exchanges for fibre rollout

They can keep it

Will include free WEBWISE aka Phorm. Profiling your web browsing habbits under the pretence of being a more secure way to be online.

Shove it up yer shit chutes.

Rob

Police drop investigation into 'rent-a-Lords'

Disgusted (not of Tunbridge Wells)

Those who pass the laws appear to be above it.

If this was you or me, we would be in the clink as quick as we could say bribary. It's about time we got shot of these smarmy, inflated expense claiming, corrupt gentlemen.

Get in to politics - Don't care about your country needs, care about yourself and business friends needs.

Dave

XSS bug crawls all over PayPal page

You're being optimistic aren't you?

You expect it to be fixed next week?

Try more like next year.

/slinks off

BOFH: A safe bet

To all the whingers saying it's crap

Well I enjoyed it and am very glad it's back again, I was wondering where BOFH had vanished off to.

But for those whinging gits who are saying it's crap here's your reason.

The writers PC was affected by electromagnetic interference from nylon under pants which caused his PC to die. He then had to completely re-write the episode in 1 hour to get it in for todays deadline.

/slinks off to wire a PC someones keyboard u pto the mains.

Norfolk children get £310,000 of free laptops

Errr just one problem

I have no problems with this scheme however I can see a potential problem. These laptops are probably going to be given to the sort of kids who's parents will just flog it on for the price of 24 can of special brew. Saying that some of the kids might do it themselves

As for the travelers, well they'll just sell it in the pub and upshot and move area (potentially, not all travellers should be tarnished with the same brush - errr).

The article states that the laptops will go to the kids who play truent most. So surely a much better option is to target the parents with harsh sentences (stop their giro's, make em do community serivce like clean up litter etc) so that they start making their sporgs go to school as the kids should be.

Letting them have access to the net is going to do very little for their education me-thinks and the fact they are not going to school means we end up with another generation of pretty much useless - dole scrounging - leeches on society.

/picks Paris because at least her kids would go to skoool

Royal Navy completes Windows for Submarines™ rollout

The BIG BLUE screen of death

I wonder if their version has a new crash dump screen?

I'll get my coat.

D

Shure SE102 sound-isolating earphones

Re: Diminishing returns

I'm one of those audiophiles as I spet 200odd quid on on my Etymotic ER4 headphones when I bought them.

Why?

Simple, I love music, and want to hear it how it was intended warts n all. I have 20k's worth of stereo at home to listen to music (2 speakers, 1 cd player, 1 pre amp, 1 power amp + assorted cables). Listening to music on that is almost as good as listening live.

I wanted that sort of experience on a portable for when I was out and about, and the Ety's were the best in ear phones at the time that I tried. I rip lossless as I can tell hear the difference when lossy. The sound I get out and about is fantastic and I'm happy with it.

200 quid is a small price to pay as far as I'm concerned for something I get so much enjoyment out of.

as for the Etymotics, they are brilliant and way above other portable headphones I've tried and I tried a few. They don't emphasise any part of the frequency range, sound stage brilliantly, and are very well made. they block almost all outside noise, so music can be listened to quieter.

Their bad points though is that the cable is pretty microphonic (something all headphones of this type suffer from), so you can't go jogging in them. Getting them correctly fitted into your ears takes a lot of practice and getting used to, as does the feeling of them being in there. And they are useless if you have sore ears due to cold or something as they do irritate if you try to wear them then.

Oh and unless you get them correctly seated in your ears, they do not sound all that special.

for the days I have a flu / cold etc, I have Koss Porta Pros which have a fantastic build quality, great sound quality (though nowhere near as good as the Ety's, but still vvery good), no noise cancellation though but they were cheap as chips.

Some of us like to listen to music properly, and listen to proper music. Not this compressed, volume recorded so bloody loud so it sounds good on iPod, but crap on anything half decent chart crap.

Paris cause she would sound decent on anything.

Ofcom: No premium numbers for previous offenders

That's ITV, C4 and the BBC knackered then

As they have taken part i scams in the past they are buggered

BOFH: Remote access malarkey

Ah remote access

Another great BOFH and so true. The number of times in the past I've had users switch off their PC's when I jokingly remark about seeing everything they have been up to, when I've done a bit of servicedesk stuff :-)

Stupid idiots do not realise that this just makes us all be really interested in having a damned good poke around.

Mines the one with the MSTSC in the back pocket

Apple is Fisher-Price of sound quality, says Neil Young

In some ways Mr Young is right.

While his attack on Apple in particular is probably wrong (he should be attacking the recording Industry in general), the gist of what he's saying is right.

Nowadays, most music is mixed down with no dynamic range (i.e quiet bits and loud bits) because it sounds better when played back through a Ipod. Unfortunately, the process of doing this kills the actual performance within the music, and also kills things like soundstaging etc.

If you take a modern CD say the Artic Monkeys for example and listen to it, you'll notice that the volume of the instruments, and the singers do not chage, they are constant. It just sounds like a bit of music. Now listen to something like DSOTM by Pink floyd and you'll hear the difference. There's peaks and troughs to the music, quiet bits then swells to cresendos and on a good stereo it becomes a performance, you sit there in the studio / gig listening to the band playing.

Then on top of the lifeless constant volume of the music, you convert to a mp3. this sucks out loads of sub bass, and top end from the music. they claim you can't heard it but believe me, it's those frequencies which you can't hear which give the space between the band members, and the ambience of the studio etc, though to be honest, on modern music due to the mixing down being hot, you don't get that in the first place.

I've like most people have got a Ipod. I use very expensive (£250) earphones with it, and only rip any cd's I want on it as lossless. Even at 320kbp, I can tell the diffrence between lossless and the lossy format. The dac in the Ipod isn't brilliant either, no matter what people say.

I've also got a 7.5k hifi in my front room. If I plug my iPod in to it, and play a lossless track, then play the same track on my CD player, the difference is staggering, so much more musical and coherant on the CD player. In truth though, I'd expect it to be the iPod was £300 and the CD player £1500. Try playing a lossy track through the hifi and it's laughable, it really is like listening to an out of tune am radio.

Yes, Mr young does have a point. I'm a music lover and old enough to remember what the old black discs sounded like. Unfortunately, the convience generation who have been brought up on iPod sound have for the most part killed the life in music. Which is probably why I don't buy much modern music any more, it just sounds shit and lifeless.

D

British Columbia stray foot tally hits six

And I thought

That sole were actually overfished, there seems plenty of them over in BC.

Unmanned Aerial Manhood outrage at Kasparov rally

They should name this one

Either

A helicockter

or nimrod

/exits stage left

How ComScore can track your mouse clicks

RE : *deep sigh*

I also read this with a sense of dread.

I thought Phorm was bad but this is something else.

Something I also picked up on was the Experian buying data about you from your ISP?

Hmmm.

Mines the skull because privacy is dead