* Posts by Dominic Tristram

25 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

Tories may cut Met Office funding

Dominic Tristram

@Onionman

Hmm... well, you may think our 'opinions' are 'just as likely, but thankfully I have the weight of actual facts, peer-reviewed research, and the beliefs of all but insane climate-change deniers on my side. I don't claim that I'm absolutely certainly correct, but I'd say I'm several hundred times more likely to be correct than the 'other viewpoint'.

By the way, the Earth is round, electricity isn't magic and the world wasn't created in seven days.

Dominic Tristram
FAIL

Private funding?

Am I the only one who can see a problem with private industry funding global warming research? I'd hazard a guess that there are very few industries that would benefit from anything other than trying to hush it all up.

What a ridiculous 'cost saving' measure. What about saving money by doing something that is unambiguously good such as, say, scrapping ID cards or Trident?

Tories would scrap 50p broadband tax

Dominic Tristram
FAIL

No impact on the rich = Tories don't care

This 'tax' is so small for most of us and yet so important for those in rural areas, but of course those in rural areas that can afford it already have broadband (via satellite, etc), so the Tories aren't interested. The concept of universal service isn't exactly dear to the heart of Conservatives, as has been demonstrated rather admirably by their past actions. Not that the current lot are much better of course, but at least their hearts are closer to the right place, rather than being black with capitalist greed.

No doubt the Tories will eventually implement some mad PFI deal which will end-up costing the tax payer far more, yet line the pockets of industry chums quite nicely.

Feds break Apple's code of App Store silence

Dominic Tristram
Megaphone

Same as consoles

You all seem to be missing something. Sure, the iPhone is pretty much a general purpose computing device, but so is a games console these days. Can I write applications for an XBox 360 or a PS3 and distribute them without the approval of Microsoft or Sony? Of course not. Worse, I even have to pay them for doing it! How is this any different to the iPhone? In comparison with consoles, it's pretty easy to get an iPhone app out there to the public.

Mandy promises end to illegal staff blacklists

Dominic Tristram
IT Angle

@Ted Treen

Actually, you can't be in *any* political party if you're in the police. This is right and proper - those that enforce the law should be blind to political affiliation.

Broadband tax of £6 per year to fund rural fibre rollout

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Up

Yet more tight-arse comments

The comments on Reg articles often amaze me in their selfishness, and this is yet another example. How can people begrudge so little money to give people a benefit that we all take for granted? No, people in rural areas aren't all rich, and of course it costs more money to connect them up. Without a nationalised provider giving a fixed-price universal service (as we had in the good old days rolling-out telephones), these people are never going to get connected.

What else do you object to? Should people who live in the countryside pay more to get their post delivered? Or what about their electricity? Maybe the council shouldn't bother building any roads for them until they pay ten times the road tax? Sheesh... what is it about living in London that makes you all into selfish twunts who value nothing but money?

Another 0.03% of Blighty goes wind powered

Dominic Tristram
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Good

Electricity (and energy in general) needs to be a lot more expensive. Only then will the selfish environment-deniers change their ways. All they understand is money and self interest, so hitting that is what it will take to change them.

We can get around problems of the poor dying of cold etc. by issuing vouchers that can only be redeemed against energy bills with a value of about as much as it costs to heat a home - there's always a solution to such problems and it's never a reason not to act.

People might complain about having to pay more for their Sky boxes, PCs, and whatever running all day, but really, how much electricity do we actually need? If it cost a lot and usage was therefore was a factor in the appliances people buy, manufacturers would do something about it. Until then nothing will change and energy demands will just keep increasing.

Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition S8300

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Down

@Danny

Yes, I use WiFi on my iPhone all the time. Not so much when I'm out and about, but at home or at friends houses where I want to Google something, check train times, etc etc. Much quicker over Wifi. I wouldn't buy a phone without it... well, not a smart phone anyway. Any such device is crippled.

Beeb tech boss seeks to expand TV licence online

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Up

Good

Damn the moaners and their whining - the whole point of a public service is that you pay for it even if you don't use it. If the funding for the BBC had come out of (specially ringfenced) taxation in the first place rather than the licence fee then we'd have none of this fuss now.

"Waa waaa! I don't watch the BBC! I have Sky, so why should I pay for quality television when I have as much Murdoch-produced prole-crack as I need?". Well, shut-up. You may be an idiot happy to watch American sit-com re-runs, 'Ibiza gone wild' and dumbed-down documentaries on Discovery, but thankfully at the moment you pay towards some quality television. You might not like this, but so what? Ridiculous things such as Trident cost us far more, with no positive gain. The BBC is a great thing, and once selfish twunts like you get rid of it, it will be gone for ever.

The anti-BBC ranting is tiresome on here. Go and get a life, whiners.

Norwegians swallow iTunes threat

Dominic Tristram
Jobs Halo

'Freedom' my arse

Nonsense. Say I buy an XBox360 game - can I 'demand' that it works on my PS3? No. If I buy an eBook on the Sony Reader thing, can I 'demand' that it works on my Kindle (or whatever)? No. Simiarly, if I buy a track from the iTunes store I can't really demand that it can be played on anything but iTunes.

Don't get me wrong - I am no fan of DRM, but it's stupid to use the law against this sort of thing. People know the deal when they make the purchase. Leave it to the market to decide. In reality, Apple have (had?) about the least restrictive DRM of any of them.

Sky hints at 3D TV launch

Dominic Tristram

3D

@JonB - you are joking, right? Name one single innovation that Sky has come up with, other than convincing idiots to pay for three hundred channels of crap.

Didn't Sharp release a 3D monitor that didn't need glasses a few years back? It required you to sit in a very well defined area, but it looked cool. Not seen one in the wild though...

Blighty's nuke-power push stalled as EDF buy falls through

Dominic Tristram
Go

Short-term thinking

Ok, let's think of the long game. Encourage far more graduates in nuclear physics, engineering, or whatever we need by awarding huge grants to the best and brightest, and they'll be qualified before the power stations themselves are even half built. Hire key nuclear workers from France if need be, then just do it all in-house (i.e. the state builds them). What's the fixation with the free market? The state will almost certainly have to pay for the cleanup and storage costs anyway, so they may as well make what profit there is.

World+Dog lines up for iPhones

Dominic Tristram
Paris Hilton

Camping tents?

I don't think I've ever heard the phrase 'camping tents' before - is that 'London-speak'? Are they a bit like 'eating spoons' and 'wearing socks'?

Also, no more of these 'Apple fans are sheep' comments, people! Grow-up, for Gods sake - if you don't use or want an iPhone then fine, but don't pretend that your Windows Mobile or Symbian phone is oh-so-unique.

Mayor Boris to cover Porsche costs in CO2 tax brouhaha

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Down

Shows how green the 'new Tories' really are

Although I expected this, it's still disappointing. While it's no surprise that any Tory is pro-environment as long as it doesn't cost the rich anything, I was hoping that Ken would have put some sort of contract in place which had already put the wheels in motion.

So, no surprise from Boris. What does surprise me, however, is the large percentage of selfish, arrogant people who have commented. Like him or not, Ken was right - there is no need to drive these cars through central London. In fact let's be honest, anyone who buys one is making a selfish 'screw you all!' to the rest of the world, so I say 'no, screw *you*'... burning-up our resources so you can drive your pasty, flabby arse around town in your manhood-extension mobile. Grow up, you selfish, arrogant arseholes. I breate-in the crap your oversized ego-car puts out, you're far more likely to hit cyclists and pedestrians, and you're almost universally knobs. Celebrating this? Yeah... celebrate while you can - we'll all be walking once you burn all our oil.

British workaholics win EU opt out deal

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Down

Bad news

Why is everyone so keen on working more than 48 hours? Why should we all suffer because of a few selfish people with a stupid work/life balance? Anything that makes it easier for an employer to force us to work more hours for the same money (who actually gets paid overtime?) should be resisted with every fibre of our being, right?

I'm hoping that we have to sign something to waive our rights, and that it is illegal for companies to treat us in any way negatively for not signing...

Oh, and all this anti-EU ill-informed rubbish.. what is this, the Daily Mail?

French FNARRista speed-cam bomber scores own goal

Dominic Tristram
Stop

@Steve

"limits are coming down to below reasonable levels" eh? And what's reasonable?

Let's face it, the law compels us not to drive above a defined limit. Some choose to break that law, and are therefore properly caught by cameras. Good thing too - far better than these reckless idiots pay their 'revenue generating' fines than the government having to find that money by raising my non-optional taxes. The more 'revenue generating' from criminals, the better.

Irregular heart rhythm? Try a Taser

Dominic Tristram

Atrial fibrillation

No great surprise here - one of the main treatments for atrial fibrillation is an electric shock from a defibrillator. It's a lower setting than we'd use for resuscitation after cardiac arrest, but the effect is probably very similar to being shot by a Taser.

Note that Tony Blair suffers from lone atrial fibrillation, as broadly advertised in the news a year or two back. Perhaps a good Tasering would be a more amusing way to treat it next time...

Lenovo ThinkPad X300 sub-notebook

Dominic Tristram

Where's the Air?

After mentioning the Macbook Air in the blurb, why isn't it included in the comparison graphs? The two are competitors in the 'thin laptop' market after all, so not comparing the specs is a bit mad...

GTA IV PS3 fights off resolution woes in the UK

Dominic Tristram

Even if true, who can tell?

We have run the XBox and PS3 version here. The consensus is that there is no perceptible difference in resolution. Maybe there is, but if you can't tell on a 50" plasma, who cares?

@Anonymously Deflowered - if you don't have any games for either, I'd go with the PS3. Fanboyism aside (I tested both before deciding and the resolution is the same to my eyes), the network play is free, GTA has less 'popping in' and load times are faster, and your console won't sound like a jet engine when it's running. And wifi included, BluRay, etc etc...

DAB: A very British failure

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Down

Rubbish

Obviously most of us only have evidence from our everyday lives, but pretty much everyone I know owns or listens to DAB radios. The reception, here in Bath at least (where we can't even get Channel 5) is much better than FM, as is the choice.

I must admit that I don't care about commercial radio as it's almost universally awful, and while things like Radio 4 are indeed on FM, reception on DAB is so much better... plus I can see what's on thanks to the display. DAB sets are also just as cheap as FM ones (a quick check on Dixons' site just now found one at 25 quid). We don't all want Freeview, Sky or whatever, especially in every room in the house.

People do like to moan. DAB is here to stay - can you imagine the fuss if they stopped broadcasting it? This whole 'debate' is pointless.

Porsche to challenge London CO2 penalty in court

Dominic Tristram
Thumb Down

Pah

If you can not only afford a Porsche but also drive it into central London every day, 25 quid is nothing to you. I hope this gets laughed out of court. I have misgivings about people forcing their pollution upon us as it is, but they could at least have the decency of paying up.

LaCie Golden Disk 500GB external hard drive

Dominic Tristram

Noise?

I always wish reviews of external disks mentioned how loud they are - this is pretty much my main consideration when I buy them. I'd much rather have a reviewer say he can hardly hear it than some measurement in dB on the manufacturers site...

Apple TV 160GB media player

Dominic Tristram

Xbox? No thanks.

I wish people would stop going on about using the XBox 360 for this purpose. The jet-engined level noise of the thing is bad enough when playing games, let alone for watching films with the volume anywhere less than 'loud'.

As for supported formats, which legally purchased films do people have as DivX anyway? If you have the DVD, just rip in H.264. If you get your films for free from torrents... well, why should my money go to Apple to support people like you with their products?

Kingston: nobody else wants to provide broadband round here

Dominic Tristram

Shortsighted

So, the council decides to sell, and a company that was the envy of the rest of the UK when run by the people turns rubbish when run for the benefit of private shareholders. Why should we be surprised? The people were robbed when it was sold off, just as the rest of us were when BT went.

Green taxes are a rip off says low tax lobby group

Dominic Tristram

The Tax Payers Alliance

One of the three people running the 'Tax Payers Alliance' works for an oil company (http://tpa.typepad.com/about/2007/08/florence-heath.html)

Call me cynical, but I don't think this is completely irrelevant to their 'findings'.