* Posts by Xpositor

86 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Aug 2007

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If you're ever lost on the Moon, Ordnance Survey now has you covered for Apollo 11 anniversary

Xpositor

Nice, but at what point does a labelled photo become a map? Personally, I would have liked to have seen a topographic map with contours. Mind you, a geopolitical map might be quite interesting as well...

'Software delivered to Boeing' now blamed for 737 Max warning fiasco

Xpositor

Re: does this affect more aircraft than the ill fated 737 max?

Rather worrying that for what looks like a parked aircraft the Grob's attitude indicators are showing different results...

Samsung pulls sheets off costly phone-cum-fondleslab Galaxy Fold – and a hefty 5G monster

Xpositor

Re: re: The cheaper model has the fingerprint reader mounted on the side of the phone

"Which will obviously be the wrong side for a good percentage of the population."

You are able to register multiple digits, and they don't have to be a thumb (although I've not yet tested registering my big toe).

All that dust on Mars is coming from one weird giant alien structure

Xpositor

Would a "vacuum" cleaner even work on Mars?

Astronaut took camera on spacewalk, but forgot SD memory card

Xpositor

There are three possible reasons for this:

1. The camera had no SD card - Doh!

2. The camera had an SD card, but the GoPro failed in the freezing vacuum - the story does not confirm whether the SD card was actually present or not.

3. The camera recorded everything, but there were things present that NASA don't want us to know about...

VMS will be ready to run on x86 in 2019!

Xpositor
Happy

Say goodbye to vi

EDT to make a comeback (or my personal preference, EDT/TPU).

Motorola splashes £817m buying out police comms biz Airwave

Xpositor
Stop

Officer in distress - no signal.

TETRA...is said to cover 99 per cent of Great Britain’s landmass v EE 4G network, per their own coverage map, looks to cover about 25% of the UK's landmass with indoor coverage, 50% with outdoor coverage.

Something you would absolutely want in the emergency services is a guarantee that your comms device is going to be able transmit/receive. EE are nowhere near this target, with a focus on population coverage and not landmass coverage.

Now VW air-pollution cheatware 'found in Audis and Porsches'

Xpositor

Re: Not exactly as reported

" Many plan to never have their cars updated."

Lots of my friends who own affected cars have been talking in this way. Alas, the UK government is talking about making the recall mandatory, being policed via the MOT (i.e. your call will not pass its MOT if its not had the recall applied).

Well, what d'you know: Raising e-book prices doesn't raise sales

Xpositor

Auto Rip

This is what I'd like to see Amazon offer, the equivalent service they offer for [most] physical CD's: buy the CD and get, gratis, the MP3 version. So, buy the book, get the ebook free.

Vodafone splashes €2 BEEELLLION to kick German TV sideways

Xpositor

Geographic "bleed"

Perhaps not so much of an issue for the UK, being an island, but when flogging off spectrum like this, how does the government / operators ensure there is no bleed beyond the borders of the country where the spectrum has been sold - or is it simply a case of don't expect a signal near a border?

First production car powered by Android Auto rolls out – and it's a Hyundai

Xpositor

Re: Powered By?

What's that - you want your indicators to work? Please follow these instructions to side-load indicators.apk on to your car. This will need the following permissions - location, contact list, current call details etc etc

Xpositor

Powered By?

Really, the car is "powered by" Android Auto? So no proprietary ECU then, it's all done by Android? Or, as I suspect, the infotainment system is now Android based.

Who thinks Microsoft Edge sucks? Erm, Microsoft

Xpositor

Edge Logo

Does anyone have an idea why the new logo for Edge is a shower head over a wash basin? For reference: http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Microsoft_Edge

DTS announces DTS:X – sparks object-based audio war with Dolby

Xpositor

So for films, does that mean each dialogue element could be referenced independently? So we could watch a film where we could choose the dub, e.g. Harry could be talking in English, but Hermione in Swedish?

Dev gives HBO free math tips to nail Game of Thrones pirate leakers

Xpositor

Physical Copies

All of the other issues aside, are they still releasing physical copies for review/translation etc?

UK Scouts database 'flaws' raise concerns

Xpositor

Scout's Motto?

I always thought the Scouting movement's motto was "Be Prepared"?

'F*** you', exclaims Google Translate app, politely

Xpositor

Re: Paris will become a quieter place in the summer

or even "Parlay voo AY MAYOR EE CAN", said very loudly, with no reference to English at all...

UK flights CRIPPLED by system outage that shut ALL London airspace

Xpositor

Quite a few years ago when I worked for a bank that was subsequently taken over by a Spanish bank, we had a UPS test one weekend. Everything worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, mid-way through the day on the Monday, all power in the building failed, knocking out the mainframes. Some herbert had forgotten to switch back over to mains power, and the generator duly ran out of diesel.

Are there sounds on Mars? NASA launches audio athenaeum

Xpositor

Favourite

My favourite audio quote is the one from when the Mars Climate Orbiter was on final approach: "****, ****, **** - what do you mean they were using metric?"

Range Rover to fit trendy new SUV with FRIKKIN' LASER HUDs

Xpositor

Re: Call me sceptical

Perhaps its showing what the speed limit is, rather than a snapshot of the sign it last read...? I've never seen a speed limit road sign with "mph" on either, yet that is on the HUD.

It's Google HQ - the British one: Reg man snaps covert shots INSIDE London offices

Xpositor

Re: Sigh......

Well, if you must work from home...

SAP commits to mobile marriage with Xamarin: All for one, and one for Android, iOS, Windows

Xpositor

Sybase 365?

I presume SAP have decided that all of the tooling that Sybase had when they bought them is not fit for purpose, or at least fit for this purpose?

Torygraph and Currant Bun stand by to repel freeloaders

Xpositor

Private Eye References

For all those confused by Private Eye references, their glossary in each issue can be found on page 94.

BSkyB to flick switch on network-level smut-'n'-violence filters

Xpositor

OpenDNS

As a first step, how about Sky allowing its customers to change the default DNS providers on their routers, so OpenDNS can be specified (rather than the roundabout way you have to do this currently, which families that just want a service out of the box are unlikely to be able to configure - i.e. an independent DHCP service running on a different machine in the house).

Sony PS3 extends lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a cool million

Xpositor

Wait and see?

"Sony...can afford to wait and see what its arch-rival will come up with"

Right, because it takes no time at all to develop a new console?

Pocket Wi-Fi hotspots paralyse Chinese metro lines

Xpositor

The Other Side of The MiFi

I'm assuming that the 3G part of the MiFi isn't interfering with the signal, but the WiFi side of it is?

Big labels try for ISP blocking on 3 more 'pirate' sites

Xpositor

Re: Really?

7Digital?

Beck's open-source challenge to freetards: play it yourself!

Xpositor

Re: Won't be selling many of these...

"All that's needed is some kind of OCR that can convert scanned sheet music into a midi file..." - what, like SharpEye?

Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Universal Remote Control review

Xpositor

Re: Eeek!

That's the best chuckle I've had in ages

Microsoft: It's not Metro, it's Windows 8

Xpositor

Re: Making a version number part of the name...

That spoke to you, as well. I remember using one as a pool car - very advanced for its day, even if somewhat gimmicky. Who would have thought that people would like to have "digital" dashboards and be able to have the car communicate with you?

Apple boss Cook may have stumped up $60m IPAD pay-out

Xpositor

If it were true...

...I'd love to see the expenses claim!

Report: SAP exec charged with $1,000 LEGO bar-code caper

Xpositor

Re: SAP ... name rings a bell

Oh, you mean the Personnel Manager?

NASA found filming August's Mars landing in California desert

Xpositor

Metric vs Imperial

Let's hope that NASA have remembered the difference between metric and imperial measurements this time, and that everyone is working on the same basis.

Siri subtly shifts smartphone allegiance

Xpositor

I'm assuming that the Nokia still comes out as top phone for inmates? What about for the rest of us, that want a mobile phone, rather than a cell phone?

US, Euro e-car makers back 'standard' AC/DC jack

Xpositor

What was wrong...

...with micro USB?

Star Wars set to expand into Disneyland

Xpositor

They certainly need to do something at Disneyland Paris. It's all a bit tired now, or is that just me as I'm getting older?

Computer nostalgia is 10 PRINT 'BOLLOCKS'

Xpositor

Crash!

...and I remember having a letter printed in Crash magazine - I was so proud. For some true nostalgia remind yourselves of the covers by Oliver Frey: http://www.oliverfreyart.com and Crash magazine itself: http://www.crashonline.org.uk

Xpositor

More memories

Many years ago, when I had a Saturday job in Dixons, I remember selling most of what is listed here: http://www.amstrad.com/products/archive/index.html

Ten... eight-bit classic games

Xpositor

...with the RSI inducing "cheat" of using a table-tennis ball when doing the 100 metres!

No, iPhone location tracking isn't harmless and here's why

Xpositor

Take a look yourself

Instructions on how to dump your log in to Google Earth (if you're on Windows) can be found here: http://bit.ly/hZKaMu

A fifth of Europeans can't work out how much a TV costs

Xpositor
FAIL

Total price, all in

...some reviews of products don't help - for example 3DTV's where you don't get any bundled glasses, and yet this doesn't feature in the headline price or perhaps get taken in to account in the final review score.

You wouldn't know of any reviews that fail on that test, would you El Reg?

LightSquared squares off against GPS worriers

Xpositor

The Terrorists Solution...?

Fantastic, now terrorists can deploy their own base-stations, which they can use to make calls on AND block GPS. Great, no risk of incoming missiles whilst planning something on the phone. Perhaps Afghanistan will see the first wide-ranging deployment of this?

Amazon Kindles cash from Wikileaks

Xpositor
Stop

Not quite...

Quote:

Please note:

This book contains commentary and analysis regarding recent WikiLeaks disclosures, not the original material disclosed via the WikiLeaks website.

BBC One HD launch date revealed

Xpositor

EPG

Great - can we now be given the option to update our EPG's so that where a channel simulcasts, we can see the HD channel by default (e.g. I want to see ITV HD listed where ITV SD currently is within the EPG), rather than having to skip about the EPG finding the HD channels.

London Transport plans Oyster bypass

Xpositor
Stop

Just as worrying...

They may operate it much like any other company that takes your card info before you have used their service, and reserves/blocks an amount that _they_ consider sufficient to cover your likely spend (think hotels). Once you've finished using the service, they then apply the actual charge and [are supposed to] release the reservation/block on your funds. Problem is, these companies reserve/block far too high an amount, and it never seems to clear at the point you actually pay them. So whilst you think you've got x amount of available credit/balance on your account, your bank/credit card won't actually let you use it (because of the hidden blocks).

ITV preps pay TV service

Xpositor
FAIL

How appealing...

No matter how high the definition of a picture of a turd, it is still a picture of a turd. Exciting though, because now there will be more opportunities to watch a wider variety of turds in higher definition - although no doubt trying to use the same amount of bandwidth as the pixelated turd channels.

What's that you say, they want to charge you _extra_ for it?

Turds.

Amazon takes Kindle to the UK

Xpositor
Unhappy

The best eReader and store launching...

...er, just after summer - so for all of you that might have been seriously interested at this price point to take your summer reading away with you, sorry.

Skype to start charging for iPhone VoIP

Xpositor
FAIL

Because a VOIP call using 3G whilst roaming would be cheaper...?

This is a misnomer - when do you actually use Skype for voice? For me, it's when I'm travelling and want to make cheap calls home, rather than paying exorbitant roaming fees; I make those calls either from my hotel or a local café, to make use of free wi-fi - it would be even more expensive to make a VOIP call over data when roaming than it would be to make a standard voice call. The only other time I would be sat in front of my laptop anyway, and could make the call that way (looking handsome in a headset - at least its in private). Skype to Skype calls would be the same, and I'm not expecting to completely replace all of my telephony requirements with a single iPhone app anyway.

However, _if_ you didn't pay for the data usage, and only paid the call cost, and _if_ that was at the same rate that Skype charges for calls to phones (landlines or mobiles) then yes, I would use that whilst travelling - as it would be a lot cheaper than making the mobile call (and often quality is better as well). However, I don't see Skype having a relationship with every MNO to enable a revenue share arrangement, and if they did it's unlikely to be at their standard pricing levels.

Feel.me up for grabs in dot-me domain auction

Xpositor
Stop

Thank-you for this insightful and useful article.

I feel that you've really broadened our horizons.

Workers scared to befriend bosses on Facebook

Xpositor

Personal v Business

Facebook = personal

LinkedIn = business

We need to educate both ourselves and our children about what 'public domain' means.

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