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* Posts by Eponymous Cowherd

1596 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Nov 2007

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Firefox 4 for Android shuns ARMv6 phones

Eponymous Cowherd

What's the 'arm in that?

ARMv6 processors aren't just limited to older Android devices, they are almost universally used in low to middle range phones as well. The popular Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade) has a v6 processor, and that has an 800x480 screen, which is quite suitable for mobile browsing.

The problem for the average punter is that it isn't obvious which phone has which processor. The San Francisco has a Qualcomm MSM7227 processor. It *is* an ARMv6 based device, but you have to dig a bit to discover that. Try wandering into a local mobile phone emporium, picking an Android phone and asking the sales person if it has an ARMv7 processor because you want to run Firefox (and Flash, BBC iPlayer, etc).

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Online world maps rub jubs against todgers

Eponymous Cowherd
Coat

Missed opportunity....

for a jub/todger ratio map.

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Motorstorm Apocalypse

Eponymous Cowherd

Carmageddon

by any other name?

But do you get a cunning stunt bonus?

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Osborne promises 'Budget for growth'

Eponymous Cowherd
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Big, fat, hairy deal...

***"Osborne is also expected to do something to alleviate fuel prices – possibly by delaying the planned rise in fuel duty due next month."***

Oh, joy. He's not going to add one more penny to a litre of petrol that is currently going up by several pence a month.

For a litre of unleaded costing £1.32, we already pay £0.59 fuel tax and £0.22 VAT. Varying that by 1p either way is going to make bugger all difference to the average motorist (about 50p to a £65 fill up).

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Assange ambushes Australian Prime Minister on live TV

Eponymous Cowherd
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Talk cock?

Is that slightly higher than talking bollocks?

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Intel opens kimono on Sandy Bridge Xeon E3

Eponymous Cowherd
Flame

No, No, No, No, NO!

***"Intel opens kimono on Sandy Bridge Xeon E3"***

I *hate* that expression (kimono opening). It is the worst kind of middle management buzzword bollocks and anyone who uses it should suffer a horrible and painful fate.

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Building Windows 7 skills - will we need another 10 years?

Eponymous Cowherd
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I'm sure it is.....

But I ain't allowed it!

Anyway, we are getting into strawman territory here. My original point was that Virtual XP mode isn't terribly useful, not whether there were any better 3rd party solutions.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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VS2003 IS a leagcy application

How would you suggest I maintain a VS2003 project tied to MSDE on a Win 7 box *without* XP mode?

Yes, of course I can import the project into VS2005,8,10 and port to SQL Express. In fact this has been done for new releases, but the old versions still need to be maintained.

So, while it may be "stupid" to develop in XP mode, when the boss calls me in the field and says "fix it", telling him to fuck off because JC_ thinks its "stupid" isn't, actually, an option.

While it may be "stupid" to develop in XP mode, for the number of times I *have* to do this, it is the lesser of two evils compared to lugging another laptop around.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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Virtual XP mode

A bit crap, really.

We have to maintain some old VS2003 applications and VS2003 won't run in Windows 7, so its installed as a virtual XP app. In order to launch it I have to shut down everything else on my PC or Windows 7 complains of insufficient memory (it has 4GB). It also doesn't play nice with multiple monitors. The "virtual XP" windows hop from screen to screen by themselves and sometimes appear on both screens at the same time.

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Spaniards bemoan 'joke' speed limit cut

Eponymous Cowherd
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Official reason

The limit was introduced in 1965, purportedly because of a number of accidents in fog, though rumours still abound that it was because AC Cars were using the M1 as a test track at up to 180mph.

IIRC, it had nothing to do with a fuel crisis.

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CBI demands action from Osborne

Eponymous Cowherd

Fuel prices

***"The group called for action on fuel prices - an area in which Osborne has already hinted he may show mercy."***

By "mercy" you mean not adding another 1p to the £1.40/l we will probably be paying next month?

When I bought my car 5 years ago it cost £35 to fill up. It now costs £53. An average fill up is around 40-45 litres. Frankly whether Osborne adds 40p - 45p to that, or not, is going to make bugger all difference to how I feel about fuel prices.

When I shove 40 litres of fuel into my car, the actual fuel only costs around £20. The rest is tax (approx: £8.80 VAT, £23.60 fuel tax). Adding another 40p to the tax I already pay is a drop in the ocean.

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Cobalt-barrel machine guns could fire full auto Hollywood style

Eponymous Cowherd
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Coat

Tempt it out with a banana

I'll get my coat.............

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iPlayer Global iPad app price announced

Eponymous Cowherd
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Android Flash

Mark:

Yes, there is a problem with Flash on Android. BBC iPlayer for Android requires Flash 10.1, Flash lite (as supplied with many Android 2.1 handsets) won't suffice.

The requirements for Flash 10.1 and, therefore, iPlayer are Android 2.2 running on an ArmV7 processor. Most older and/or cheaper Android phones use ArmV6 processors and cannot run Flash 10.1 or iPlayer.

My gripe with the BBC is that they killed off an excellent 3rd party application (BeebPlayer) that would work on any Android phone and replaced it with one that would only work on newer and high-end phones and actually has fewer features (BeebPlayer worked over 3G and would play radio in the background, the "official" iPlayer will do neither).

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Eponymous Cowherd
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What about sorting out the UK first

So the BBC puts effort into developing an iPad app for use outside of the UK because it hopes it can fleece users of $120 a year while here in the UK they not only fail to provide a workable iPlayer app for Android (the Flash effort is truly awful and only works on top-end phones) but spend licence payers money (in legal fees) to kill off two 3rd party apps that did the job admirably on *all* Android devices.

And all the while, unless we want to forgo all broadcast TV, we have no choice but to pay the sodding BBC the equivalent of $237 (£145.50) whether we use their services or not.

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Europe confirms raids on ebook publishers

Eponymous Cowherd
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Also see reviews

Quite a few reviewers of this book are giving it one star and commenting that its part of the price fixing "scam".

So while publishers can fix prices, they are probably going to have to accept poor reader reviews on Kindle. The knock-on effect is that prospective readers see price £stupid, rating (*) and go and look for something better.

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Ex-PM blocked Steve Jobs knighthood

Eponymous Cowherd
Gates Horns

You'd think......

that a pair of totalitarian control freaks like Gordon and Steve would get on like a house on fire......

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Android phone to replace shop till

Eponymous Cowherd

On Screen Barcodes

***"Existing mobile payment systems, such as the bar codes being deployed by Masabi on the UK train networks, can't be read by another handset as phone cameras aren't good enough to read a code displayed on-screen ... at least not yet."***

That certainly isn't my experience, though it can be rather hit and miss, which wouldn't be much use at a busy ticket barrier.

However, there are plenty of Bluetooth "ring" scanners (1D and 2D) that can be coupled to the phone. These cost about £500 each, but still pretty cheap compared to a full POS terminal.

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Nokia DC-14 bike charger

Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

Awful idea

It uses a bottle dynamo. Instant fail.

OK for short runs, but then what's the point as you won't add much to your phone's charge. Certainly wouldn't want to cycle any distance with a bottle dynamo dragging on my front wheel.

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BT Home Hub 3 ADSL Wi-Fi router

Eponymous Cowherd
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FAIL

A poor "review" indeed

Port forwarding?

IPv6 support?

Dynamic DNS support?

DMZ?

Firewall features?

Request filtering?

Apart from being easy to set up and looking pretty, what does the thing actually *DO*

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Firefox 4 squeezes onto phones

Eponymous Cowherd
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Only top end phones

The "official" version will only run on devices equipped with ARMv7 processors, which are generally top-end devices. Budget and older phones with ARMv6 processors (Orange San Francisco, Wildfire, etc) cannot run it despite having Android 2.0+

There is a "experimental" ARMv6 version, but it is truly shocking (at least on my elderly Android 2.2 equipped HTC Magic)

The official system requirements are here:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Platforms/Android#System_Requirements

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Intel boss searches planet for post-Nokia MeeGo spouse

Eponymous Cowherd
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Attack of the Clones

The strictures that Microsoft put on Phone 7 implementations mean that a Nokia Phone 7 device will look almost identical, from a UI point of view, to offerings from HTC (possibly their biggest rival at the moment) and others. There is also very little room for manoeuvre on the hardware front, as well, Microsoft stipulate the buttons and the rest of the front is taken up by the screen.

With Android they could, at least, put their own stamp on the UI (like HTC's Sense, Motorola's Blur, etc), but with MS they are stuck with a phone that looks the same as everyone else's.

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'Race against time' to find LOST TREES from the MOON

Eponymous Cowherd
Joke

Balls

***"Shephard claimed his balls went "miles and miles and miles""***

About 478,000

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BBC iPlayer iPad app out this week

Eponymous Cowherd
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Utter bollocks!

***"All the takedowns the BBC have issued over iPlayer apps have been down to the apps not supporting the DRM requirements of the iPlayer spec."***

The first app the BBC took down (BeebPlayer) merely used the 3GP streams initially intended for Nokia devices. These streams didn't have any DRM component.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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Here's why.....

***"God, Android fanboys are a bunch of whiners aren't they? Why can't your marvelous and 'open' platform just use the Web version of iPlayer?"***

Because the web version on iPlayer relies on the closed source and proprietary Flash player (10.1) which only a subset of newer and top-end Android devices support.

*All* Android devices are capable of playing the 3GP iPlayer streams provided by the BBC for Nokia phones, but the BBC is deliberately blocking access to them from the web interface and has killed off two 3rd party apps that circumvented this artificial restriction.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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No it doesn't

***"Given that it already works just fine on all shipping iOS and Android devices, why bother with an iPlayer app for anyone?"***

No it doesn't.

To use iPlayer on Android you need the following:

Android 2.2 or higher

An ArmV7 processor

Plenty of "shipping" Android devices (e.g the HTC Wildfire) have ARMv6 processors and will never run Flash 10 ( and therefore iPlayer), and plenty more have Android 2.1 or lower and may never get an update.

Then, when you consider that *all" Android devices could get acceptable iPlayer service from the apps that the BBC killed and the iPad has acceptable iPlayer service *without* this new app, you have to wonder WTF the BBC is playing at.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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Irony, but so near the truth

@The BigYin

The sad thing about that post is that, despite the intended irony, it is a fair representation of the sort of double-speak bollocks that you get from the Beeb when they are trying to explain some of their more absurd management decisions.

It is *seriously* taking the piss that they can kill of two perfectly serviceable Android iPlayer clients (not to mention XBMC), refuse to create their own native Android client, then proceed to develop for a device (the iPad) that has a fraction of the penetration of Android and *already* has a perfectly serviceable method of accessing iPlayer anyway.

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Britain takes delivery of first Nissan e-cars

Eponymous Cowherd
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But that's just it.....

***"But for the two million or so people / households for whom the above caveats are not an issue the Leaf may not be a bad option, purchase price notwithstanding."***

But the price *is* withstanding. You can buy a new conventional car in a similar size class for around £10k less than this (even if you include the subsidy). Even if fuel prices *double*, that still buys you a lot of miles.

At 8 years old, the Leaf's battery warranty runs out. A new battery will cost around £6k. An 8 year old conventional car of similar size is probably worth £2k -£4k. How much would you pay for an 8 year old Leaf knowing it is likely to cost you £6k to keep it on the road fairly soon? I'd hazard a guess that, at that age, the car would be just about unsaleable and, hence, worthless.

What about when its 4 years old. How much would you pay for a car that may be worthless in another 4?

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Eponymous Cowherd
Unhappy

Valid point

The people who can afford to pay £24k on a toy like this could likely afford the full £29k anyway.

So why are those of us who can only afford 10-year-old sheds subsidising rich-kids toys?

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iPad propels Apple into top-three PC vendor placement

Eponymous Cowherd
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Actually.....

A Galaxy Tab has more right to be called a PC than the iPad. For me, the term "PC" implies a general purpose computing device. You can write and/or run arbitrary programs on a Tab (or any other Android device) without having to ask permission from Samsung or Google.

You can only run applications sanctioned by Apple on an iPad, so it is *not* a general purpose computer and, therefore, *not* a PC.

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Reg Hardware Reader Awards 2010 Winners

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

Huh?

***"Home Product of the Year

Gold Award Winner: BBC iPlayer "***

Seriously?

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The Last Airbender up for nine Razzies

Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

"She's a Bender"

Actually watched "Airbender at the weekend (at the behest of the kids, I might add). Absolutely shocking. Probably the worst film I have seen in the last 10 years. Its 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is richly deserved.

Wooden acting, awful, muddled, plot, those ridiculous choreographed tai chi-esque "fight" sequences that would look more at home in a music video, the absurd casting and stupid dialogue.

When one of the bad guys exclaimed (something like) "Watch out, she's a bender" I nearly spat out the sandwich I was currently eating.

Some movies are so bad they are actually good, in a comic sort of way. Airbender is just unmitigated dirge.

Apparently is the first of a trilogy. Here's to hoping the studio sees sense and cancels the remaining episodes.

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BBC iPlayer boss quits for job with Intel

Eponymous Cowherd
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Unhappy

I assume so....

I also assume that he was the person responsible for the execution of a couple of Android apps that let non-Flash Android devices view iPlayer.

Consider yourself lucky. At least you still have access to iPlayer.

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BBC Trust says no to kit-specific iPlayer apps

Eponymous Cowherd
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To be fair

Cellen Jones doesn't just talk about iThings.

He spends almost as much time blathering on about social networking.

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Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

Typical BBC Bullshit

***"The Trust has been pondering how the BBC should syndicate its content and it today stated that it believes iPlayer should be made available only in "standard formats" which service providers and telly manufacturers can readily adopt."***

So the BBC is going to stop providing Apple proprietary streams, then? Streams that only iThings can use, and stop blocking access to non-device specific formats (e.g. 3GP) as they do with Android (All Android phones are quite capable of playing the 3GP streams intended for Nokia phones, but the BBC actively prevent access from the web interface, and send in the lawyers against 3rd party developers who have the audacity to circumvent these restrictions).

Another flypast by the Porcine Air Force......

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Mitsubishi commuter e-car goes on sale

Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

£24K Fail

For £20K you can buy a new Passat Bluemotion. You get a decent sized family car with excellent "Green" credentials (1.5K miles on a tank of diesel) instead of an oversized roller-skate.

To make e-cars worthwhile to the average punter they have to provide an overall saving compared to a similar sized conventional car over its lifetime.

Paying £24K for a vehicle which would cost well under £10K if it had a petrol engine is a non-starter.

Then there's the issue of battery replacement. How much will that cost? Suppose you decide to sell this thing on at, say, 4 years old with its batteries almost at the end of their life? How much could you get for it? Would anyone buy it knowing they will have to fork out several £K for a new batteries?

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BT confirms broadband upgrades for rotten boroughs

Eponymous Cowherd
Joke

Plant food

Haven't those people in the Infinity ad ever seen/read Day of the Triffids?

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Ford cars get draconian parental controls

Eponymous Cowherd
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Yes, but.....

We aren't talking about some twatty boy racer chipping his own 1.2 Corsa to get an extra 5 bhp out of it.

We are talking about some twatty boy racer borrowing, and thrashing, someone else's wheels. While it is quite likely that the little fuckwit could get "a friend of a friend" to disable the limits, there's a good chance the owner (i.e. Mum or Dad) will find out about it sooner or later and Young Master Snotty will find himself having to buy his own car.

There is also a fair chance that the "friend of a friend" will completely fuck up his attempts at tampering, resulting in an extremely expensive trip to the Ford dealer, which Snotty will be required to pay for,

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Windows 7 really was some girl's idea, rules ASA

Eponymous Cowherd
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Well, they couldn't say "life without fences"

'Cos if you don't have fences, you don't need Gates.

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Eponymous Cowherd
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Comedic

Well, the comedy in the "secret browser guy" ad certainly wasn't lost on me......

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Eponymous Cowherd
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Broadly Available?

***"It added that Windows 7 was the only broadly available platform which supported both DVB-T and DVB-S without additional software."***

DVB-T and DVB-S support has been built into the Linux kernel for some time. Certainly before Windows 7 (or even Vista) hit the streets.

The last time I checked, Linux was "Broadly available" to anyone who can be arsed to choose a distro, download and install it.

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Geeks Guide2 Christmas 2010 - Part IV

Eponymous Cowherd
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Real geeks don't use iPhones

You can't do anything "geeky" with an iPhone, all you can do is use it as Apple intend. Nothing wrong with that in itself as it makes the device, essentially, bomb-proof, which is great for most users.

But unless you can mod it to hell and back, it ain't a Geek Gadget.

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Ad networks owned by Google, Microsoft serve malware

Eponymous Cowherd

Of bears and great detectives....

We need a defecating ursid / non-defecating fictional Victorian detective icon.

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Crazed reindeer stalks, attacks Scottish woman with antlers

Eponymous Cowherd
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Mmmmm, Reindeer

From first hand experience (business trip to Norway), reindeer is damn tasty.

Little Miss Cowherd has never forgiven me for feasting on Rudolph. It was him. At first I thought it was a bloody big cranberry at the side of the plate, I now realise it was his nose......

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Android out-runs Windows Phone 7 on price comparison site

Eponymous Cowherd

Chicken counting

I don't particularly like the look of Phone 7 and wouldn't even consider one as an option for my next phone, but isn't it a bit early to be writing it off.

Wait until the middle of next year, if its still being trounced by the opposition then we can all laugh and point fingers with confidence.

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iPads improve image of IT industry

Eponymous Cowherd
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Reality bites

Us sleep deprived trolls tell it like it is.

And, for most working in IT, the reality is keeping a decrepit pile of crap online and trying to explain to the IT illiterate IT "manager" why the bloody thing keeps going down.

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Eponymous Cowherd
Unhappy

Poor deluded bastards

If only they knew.........

Just because the end product is shiny shiny and the bosses earn shitloads of wonga doesn't mean working for them is a good thing.

Diamonds are nice and shiny too, but I wouldn't want to work down a mine in Botswana.

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Samsung UE55C9000 55in LCD 3D TV

Eponymous Cowherd
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Very nice...........

then I think of all of the other things I could spend £5 grand on.......

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Angry Birds struggle to take on Androids

Eponymous Cowherd
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Unhappy

The BBC didn't pull the feeds

They threw a "Cease and Desist" order at Skynet (the myPlayer developer) forcing them to remove their iPlayer client. They did the same thing to BeebPlayer earlier in the year.

The "feeds" are still there, and all Android phones (from 1.6) are capable of playing them, but the BBC has killed both applications capable of accessing them.

You have to ask why the BBC feel it is necessary to spend licence money on lawyers to kill two applications that were doing them no harm and, indeed, were actually giving them some positive exposure. I'd love to know the thought processes involved as the decision seems rather bizarre.

The BBC are sticking to the "iPlayer *is* available on Android" line, irrespective of how many people try to explain that its only available on Flash 10 enabled devices, and that only devices with Android 2.2 AND Arm v7 processors (i.e only top end phones) can run Flash 10.

You just get the impression of iPlayer execs with their fingers in their ears going "la-la-la-la, I'm not listening"

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Vodafone warns investors of rival spoilers

Eponymous Cowherd
Unhappy

Follow the Bandwidth

Modern phones are bandwidth hungry beasts. There is no point in offering a smartphone and tying it to a data dribble.

While some will be quite happy to pay premium prices for premium data rates, most won't. If they can get higher bandwidth for lower cost from another provider, then they will move shop.

People are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the "free" phone contract model that ties the customer to an outdated phone for 2 years for £35 PCM, while allowing the service provider to shaft them with changes to T's & C's regarding their bandwidth allowance.

My next phone will be bought outright. I will sign up to a rolling 1 month contract with whoever offers the best value data package and move if a better offer comes along.

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Hasbro unleashes 'Spastic' Transformer

Eponymous Cowherd
Joke

Next up....

Wankatron with Kleenex...........

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