Posts by John Pollard

Oh snap – AWS daddy disses IT's 'old guard': You're so 2000-and-late

Re: private clouds offered the same benefits as AWS

I switched our servers to AWS several years ago and would never look back to the dark days of having to manage our own server hardware. The cost has more than halved and price reductions keep coming. Performance and reliability have been very good for us. The customer support has been excellent. As a small IT business, I can not praise the AWS cloud enough.

Apple cops to defective MacBook drives

Always a catch

I thought I was in luck as my MacBook fits the spec and I had to replace the hard drive a few months ago. However....I paid an Apple repair centre a diagnostics fee but refused to pay them their inflated quote for sliding out the old drive and sliding in a new one (£130 I think), so I bought a Seagate drive myself off the internet (£45) and fitted it. Now because I didn't go through with the full repair at the Apple repair centre, no refund for me!

They are sending an Apple Store discount coupon to butter me up, but still disappointing. I will post here again if they reverse their decision, as Apple are normally so good on looking after their customers in my experience.

Next-gen iPhone to gain FM transmitter tech

Bluetooth SatNav

My iphone links up nicely with my Garmin satnav via bluetooth for making in-car calls, so not just headsets.

How useful would it be to transmit FM to a nearby radio? When driving around in a car, FM transmitters suffer from bad interference depending on the combination of where you are and what radio frequencies are being broadcast in that area; so it might be working at home, but 50 miles away it can be drowned out by a local radio station on the same frequency.

Apple plays catch-up with new iPhone features

Try one

It is easy to list off features and say what is missing and that X phone has already done this for Y years, but it doesn't result in a measured review or fair comparison. I recommend you try owning an iphone for a few months and then write again.

The good book: How to bet better online

it can be done

Nathan has got some very good points there, he sounds like a man who has been there and done that. Spread betting is a great arena for arbitrage betting, but you'll need another article to explain the mechanics and the potentially much higher risks.

However, it can be done. I have turned profits of a 6 figure number (just!) in one year, though not just on arbitrage. But the points about bookies only wanting mugs is the big problem. I have had accounts closed and bets restricted. The biggest problem was that Spreadfair closed, the spread betting exchange (equivalent of Betfair) and now there is no spread betting exchange and punters are left to the mercy of the main players again (SI/IG/Spreadex).

Microsoft racks up best quarter since 1999

In your face ads

I can't read articles when ads appear over the top. This is a horrible trend and The Register should know better.

If whales can communicate by telepathy, why can't humans?

Reg readers are telepathic

It is great to see that on reading this article, all Reg readers communicated the same thought to each other at the same time and then wrote in. What a relief that you lot our out there. I was wondering if it might be 1st April already when I read this article.