* Posts by Tom Kelsall

197 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Oct 2007

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Astronomer slams sexists trying to tear down black hole researcher's rep

Tom Kelsall
Boffin

I don't even get why we have to call out someone's gender/sexual preference/sex at all; what's wrong with "Here's Katie Bouman, the scientist who was responsible for..." or "Here's Dave Smith, the astronomer who..."

Why is it relevant to the story whether the person is male, female, gay or straight, presenting as male or female? Similarly unimportant whether the person is Sikh, Muslim, Christian or Hindu. White, brown or black. What's important to the story is their job and the role they played in the thing being reported. Astronomer. Scientist. Team Leader. Project Manager. Whatever.

Oh - except of course when we're trying to redress a ridiculous balance in favour of old white men with no redeeming features.

Sticking with one mobile provider gets you... Oh. Price rises, big exit fees, and lovely, lovely lock-in

Tom Kelsall

Data Portability

That data portability thing is a legal requirement under GDPR, so the potential €20M fine might be something of an incentive for telcos to act on it...

Microsoft menaced with GDPR mega-fines in Europe for 'large scale and covert' gathering of people's info via Office

Tom Kelsall

Re: What about Windows 10 that Office is sitting on?

The Law is a maximum 20 million Euro fine, or 20% of turnover - whichever is GREATER. Microsoft could in theory be hit very hard indeed by an unremedied breach of GDPR.

UK comms watchdog Ofcom pokes probe into Vodafone and EE over network coverage numbers

Tom Kelsall

Just goes to show...

...that the figures you get online are absolutely zero substitute for anecdotal "evidence". It has long been my experience that Vodafone's signal is rammed against the stops in cities but with zero throughput due to saturation; but almost no signal at all in non-city areas. And that EE, while not boasting such high signal levels, seems to boast good throughput pretty much wherever I go.

Also, I don't see ANYONE using coverage data to bolster or direct their purchasing decisions... I see people using bundle content and price, alongside which shiny fondle slab they get.

Internet overseer continues wall-punching legal campaign

Tom Kelsall

...but that's how EU Law works. It's vague but in certain places very clear. It defines "personal data" very clearly, and it also defines a very short list of "Lawful Bases" for processing personal data.

"Contractual Obligation" is one of them, but it doesn't trump criminal Law. GDPR also specifies very clearly when an offence has been comitted by a data processor...

When a State interprets parts of GDPR locally, it's only in those parts which are deliberately vague - they cannot change any of the stuff I mention above, except by adding to it. They can't "re-clarify" or change any Offences listed in the act - they can only add new ones which are compatible with the rest of GDPR.

I think one of the issues with ICANN is that they're trying to say "...but we have a contractual obligation to store and process this data..." when GDPR very clearly states that the way they intend to **USE** that data is a criminal offence... the Offence wins, every time.

It's been 5 years already, let's gawp at Microsoft and Nokia's bloodbath

Tom Kelsall
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Apologies if someone else said it...

...but Microsoft pulled a very similar number on HTC, too. All excited and helped HTC to produce 2 (actually very good) Windows Phones (the 8S and 8X); but once they were in production Microsoft went completely cold and walked away from marketing them, helping HTC market them, or even acknowledging them. In fact, I'm told that as soon as the phones went into production and on sale, HTC's brass couldn't even get meetings with Microsoft any more. It was utterly bizarre. I mean - things were clearly not right at Nokia for a long time before any involvement with M$ at all; but something was also rotting badly at M$ as well.

'Space gemstone' meteorite crashes at auction

Tom Kelsall

@ Nick Davey

I can't believe you beat me to that comment. First thing I thought when I saw the article.

Google Chrome: HTTPS or bust. Insecure HTTP D-Day is tomorrow, folks

Tom Kelsall

I have LetsEncrypt...and...

...and I'm happy with it. It was a piece of P*SS to install on Wordpress and my site meets Google's requirements, and makes people using my site feel all warm and fuzzy and secure.

That's all I needed from it - I don't understand much more than that?

Apple will throw forensics cops off the iPhone Lightning port every hour

Tom Kelsall

Just me who thinks that, if your investigation hinges on the evidence contained in a phone you can't unlock, then you don't have enough OTHER evidence? Surely there need to be two or more pieces of independently verifiable corroborative evidence to conclusively prove a crime "beyond reasonable doubt"? In that case, why do the FBI and/or (fukda) polis so desperately need this?

Who had ICANN suing a German registrar over GDPR and Whois? Congrats, it's happening

Tom Kelsall

"Necessary for performance of a contract"

Yes, there is that provision within GDPR. However; the data collected/published has to have a lawfully justifiable PURPOSE, and the PURPOSE has to have a LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING - in other words they are using circular logic to try to confuse and I don't think the Courts are that thick.

The contract you're trying to use as a Lawful Basis for Processing has to be a legally binding contract and when it isn't, any clauses which are not lawful are discarded as if they're not there; THAT much is written into Contract Law and backed up by relevant Case Law.

ICANN have been lazy and they ARE going to pay the price for that. If I as a layperson can understand this, so can they - and I hope their attempts at obfuscation and delay are rewarded with a robust legal response.

Yay, you've won your Fitbit lawsuit, folks. But, lawyers, about those filet mignon expenses...

Tom Kelsall

Re: 'Plenty of notices'

"Ignorance of the Law is no excuse/not a legal Defence" is an established principle in British Law (and American Law) taught in the early parts of Law Degree studies.

https://www.withersworldwide.com/en-gb/ignorance-of-the-law-is-no-defence

You might not like it, but any Lawyer would tell you the same.

Don’t fight automation software for control, just turn it off. FAST

Tom Kelsall

I know that military aircraft...

...have automatic disengage when the pilot moves the control column more than a certain amount; and also an ICO (instinctive cut-off) switch on the front of the control column to enable fast and complete disengagement.

Why this isn't a mandatory safety feature on ALL autopilots is a mystery; after all the slightest dab on the brake pedal has disengaged cruise control for years?

Mine's the one with the brown stain at the back.

Windows 10 Creators Update: Clearing the mines with livestock (that's you by the way)

Tom Kelsall

One Drive????

Wait - the author is USING One Drive?! Who DOES that?!

'Trash-80' escapes the dustbin of history with new TRS-80 emulator

Tom Kelsall

Re: Z-80

Hehehe - I went the other way around; 6502 (Commodore PET 3032 and BBC Micro Model B) to Z-80 (TRS-80 Model II). The 6502 (and 6510) were significantly simpler instruction sets and register sets than the Z-80 and therefore significantly more work to program for. The Z-80 was a positive JOY to work with after the 6502 although I will always be very nostalgic about the earlier chip.

Android Forums resets passwords after hack

Tom Kelsall

Errr, hang on...

The email telling me this and telling me to reset my PW, directed me to a site with a 5-subdomain URL which was NOTHING LIKE Android Forums, to reset my PW.

It was also spam filtered by GMail.

I can't even...

Ad men hope blocking has stalled as sites guilt users into switching off

Tom Kelsall
Thumb Up

I'll pay to see an ad-free site. If you're going to post a whiny sob-story about how you're funded by the ads, offer me an alternative way to help your funding situation. I don't want the ads, I'm NEVER going to want the ads, and I won't disable my ad blocker for anyone.

I love my ad-free internet, I hate ads of any description. If I want a product, I will seek one out.

RAF pilot sent jet into 4,000ft plummet by playing with camera, court martial hears

Tom Kelsall

To those saying that the top speed of a Typhoon is 1500mph; no. Top "speed" is Mach 2 which at 50,000' is roughly 1100 knots depending on the pressure and temperature of the day. Generally low-level flying is conducted at 450 knots or thereabouts.

Gr8, it's the new M8! Ideal for that celebrity funeral selfie

Tom Kelsall

Batteries and stuff.

I have had the M8 for a week now, and apart from the first day where I hammered the phone HARD, I haven't gone to bed with less than 50% charge yet. Last night was 64%. I am a moderate to heavy user and I'm getting (extrapolated) roughly 6 hours of screen-on time out of this phone. I get up at 7am and retire at midnight. Trust me the need for additional ergs is going to be unbelievably rare on this phone. And if the battery packs up and goes home before the first 2 years is up, HTC will replace it under warranty for free.

As to photography: photography is about emotion and moments, not f-stops and pixel counts. This camera is sweet as - its "only" four million pixels deliver fantastic image quality, colour accuracy and light accuracy - and it is more than adequate to the needs of the millions of people who will buy this phone.

Review: HTC One

Tom Kelsall

Re: No SD no sale

The One will support USBOTG - so plug in your USB Stick for the extra storage in times of need.

Tom Kelsall
FAIL

Re: No swappable battery, no sale

Why on EARTH can't you use your phone while charging? My phone works just fine while it's charging - I just make sure I'm using a 3m USB lead to charge it with so that I'm not yanking the lead all the time.

Apple iPhone 5 review

Tom Kelsall
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But... But... But...

This article is a long list of "Sure the other phones do this too, but this is an iPhone".

I (and many, many people around me) don't WANT an iPhone. We want the latest tech, the best spec, and a reasonable price. When are El Reg going to get around to publishing a review written by someone who doesn't care about one ecosystem or another, and just writes an honest, down to Earth review?

Oz regulator to Apple: Don’t call it 4G if you can’t connect

Tom Kelsall
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Re: How?

Thumbs down for asking a question?! HARSH.

Tom Kelsall
Facepalm

How?

How can we be so sure that LTE *isn't* 4G? What are the criteria for deciding if something is the next generation of comms? And if no standard has been agreed, how can we definitively say that LTE isn't it?

Google asked to bin autocomplete results for Japanese man's name

Tom Kelsall

Whole thing reminds me of...

Mister Sparkle (Homer Simpson's face)

Tom Kelsall
Stop

Re: The next step

That's unlikely as contempt of court is a criminal matter; you can't be sued for it. However as Google are not headquartered in Japan... etc etc etc.

Americans resort to padlocking their dumb meters

Tom Kelsall
Stop

Misinterpretation

Smart Meters referred to here are NOT the ones which tell you which appliances are the ones costing you money. Smart Meters are the ones that dynamically feed your usage data hour by hour to the Energy company so that you are accurately billed and your forecasted usage is more accurate too.

All these concerns about health could be removed by ensuring that the antenna used was sited on the roof with a coverage of 360 degrees in azimuth but only 190-200 degrees in elevation. That way, no antenna that was close enough to do harm would send energy in your direction. (The signal strength received falls off proportional to the square of the distance from the antenna).

Giant paper plane thunders across Arizona sky

Tom Kelsall
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Why...?

Why no more video? What are they planning to do with it now?

GiffGaff gaffe charity spaff to quell miffed riffraff

Tom Kelsall
Stop

I don't think that one major outage in the last year or more could really be considered "unreliable"...

My Wife's on GiffGaff (for nearly a year now) and has been thoroughly impressed.

41-megapixel MONSTER mobe shutters Nokia knockers

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Answers!

Then I stand corrected on startup speed... but that save rate is dire (I can understand why mind, I'm just saying). Does it have buffering so that you can quickly take multiple exposures and store them after the fact?

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Re: Re: Aren't we past this?

The HTC One series has F2.0 - I know what F-stop numbers are. It also only has 8Mpixels but takes unbelievable, outstanding, fantastic photographs (for a mobile phone).

The lens manufacture process means that the smallest possible abberation in lens curve is a fixed size - and therefore the smaller the lens, the larger the percentage of lens size those abberations are... which means the larger their effect on image quality. An f2.0 lens is 30% bigger than an f2.4 - with all the attendant benefits. In a 41Mpixel camera, for credibility alone, I would have chosen AT WORST an f2.0.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: My god there is a lot of crap written in these posts

The HTC One range has an F2.0 lens (The biggest in use in mobile phones) and the IMAGE QUALITY coming out of its 8Mpixels is better than anything this 41Mp will manage, simply for that reason.

Tom Kelsall

Re: Aren't we past this?

Not only that, but an F2.4 lens?! Low light performance is going to be DIRE, and the lens is small enough that even the tiniest abberation on the glass is going to be a huge percentage of the lens size. Great on megapixels (and therefore detail), short on QUALITY OF IMAGE.

And a 1.3GHz single core will only just be able to turn this beast of a camera on inside ten minutes...

HTC stimulates Sense with snap-happy One series

Tom Kelsall
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Fantastic phones

I am astounded by the negativity on this article's comments. Quite blown away by it. I have used the phones, seen the display, seen the camera, played music...

They are BLISTERINGLY fast. Sense 4.0 and Image Sense are unbelievable. Audio is unbeatable. The phones come with 25Gb of FREE Dropbox storage - with a bit of intelligent re-thinking, this can easily complement the onboard storage and make life VERY good. The displays on all 3 are absolutely fantastic - SLCD2 on the X, and AMOLED on the other two. The difference in quality on the displays is not noticeable at all (and having seen the SGS2 which display I HATE, I looked really hard).

We can't know the battery life until the reviews start coming in.

So - I have NO IDEA why you idiots are chucking these phones on the scrap-heap before you've even LOOKED.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Battery is non-removable

Wait until you have seen the battery life before you judge - how the hell can you decide that if the phone lasts a day and a half? No idea if it does but until we know you're daft to chuck the phone in the bin.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Screen

The X is SLCD 2. No idea where the hell you got TFT from.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Screen fail

That's SLCD *2*

Until you've seen it, withhold judgement.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Meanwhile...

LMFAO you clearly have no clue. The Nokia has a 1.3GHz single core processor. The subject of your photo MIGHT be there by the time the camera app has started... and it has an F2.4 lens. It'll need to be sunlight to capture any kind of good photograph at all... and then the lens imperfections will wreck the quality of capture anyway.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Flash Flash Flash

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about until you have taken photos with this outstanding phone. The F2.0 lens alone increases the light into the phone by 44% - and the existing flash is more than adequate, even in the dark.

I have taken pics with it, and I have seen the results.

Tom Kelsall
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RE: AC 27/2 @ 13:11

Agreed - and the feel of these phones is outstanding.

Tom Kelsall
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Re: Polycarbonate?

It DOES feel solid as a rock. I was at the HTC Elevate Meet-Up in Barcelona and got an early play with the One series while I was there. They are every inch OUTSTANDING in quality, feel, weight and performance.

Google swings new mobile unlock patent punch at Apple

Tom Kelsall
WTF?

It's already there...

HTC's Sense 3.0 interface already uses the "Drag an icon into a portion of the screen to unlock". You can drag the ring upwards for a full unlock, or you can drag an app icon into the ring to activate that icon immediately.

Not sure if Google are collaborating with HTC on this but HTC clearly "had it first".

I agree with earlier posters that wasting money on patenting Human Computer Interaction is ridiculous. The same problems will generate the same solutions when there are a limited number of ways to interact.

HP outlines schedule for full WebOS open source release

Tom Kelsall
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With the WebOS code? Very likely. Without it, less likely but still highly possible.

Tom Kelsall
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Getting them working (ish) and having the original specs to optimise the code are two completely different things.

Tom Kelsall
Go

Will the code release include that of the hardware interfaces/Drivers to current WebOS machinery? Such a release would aid the effort to bring ICS to the Touchpad immensely.

York CompSci student pleads guilty to Facebook hack

Tom Kelsall
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I hope he's also had the old heave-ho from Uni...

Why there's real hope for webOS - if HP is committed

Tom Kelsall
Unhappy

I have a touchpad, but I have one word for you:

Betamax

:-(

Vodafone coughs to Galaxy S II GPS glitches

Tom Kelsall
Devil

Hmmm...

My Sensation (Voda, 2.3.5) is also dead slow to pick up GPS of late - although far from unusable.

SSL authority stops issuing certificates following breach

Tom Kelsall
WTF?

Will someone please correct my understanding? Because it's clearly wrong.

As I was given to understand, the Root Certificate upon which all an organisation's issued certificates are based is generated on a machine which is not connected to the network; and may even be switched off until needed? If this were the case, surely breaking into the CA's connected servers will only allow you to HARVEST, and NOT to permanently compromise the creation process?

If my understanding is correct, then revoking the single root certificate would also revoke anything based on it?

So as I said - my understanding is clearly wrong... will someone put me right please?

Farewell then, Sony Ericsson

Tom Kelsall
FAIL

I started with a Nokia 6310i; and then my firm decided to try the T68. It was plasticky, nasty and the little joystick was awful to use. I went back to the 6310i as soon as I found one.

Apple gets patent for ‘unlock gesture’

Tom Kelsall
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I've said it before and I'll say it again...

Human Computer Interaction is a well understood, well documented Science within the Psychology discipline. Studying it, you find that given a particular interface to a device, and a human "user", you can only make a small number of interactions viable - the human mind persists in working exactly the way it always worked, and a touch display activated by a finger can only be manipulated in so many ways. Patenting stuff like this (and enforcing those patents in Courts) is a calculated move designed to bring in licensing revenue, NOTHING MORE OR LESS. It also pushes up the cost of devices, because of the cost of patent enforcing litigation.

SOMETHING must be done to make this sort of patenting practice unlawful; unfortunately I have no idea as to what.

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