Posts by Gavin Chester

My work 2016 T450 keyboard is quite nice, only think missing the "new thinkpad smell" that they used to have...

Re: Dear Microsoft - Windows 10 Phone

I would assume the requirement for Wifi to download comes back the fact the beeb got a lot of flack in the past for letting downloads happen on 3/4G.

There were reports of holidaymakers who were downloading TV over hotel wifi (I guess regional restrictions were not in place back then) when the wifi died and the phone switched to a data signal. That resulted in a huge bill.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1988399/Lawyers-4900-bill-for-watching-The-Apprentice-on-mobile-while-abroad.html

Hmmm

If you get the right service, you can even do things like have it forward emails to BOTH a GMail and a POP3/IMAP account so you can be sure to never lose an email while also using your favourite service.

I do and no-one has been told my Gmail address, I never delete anything on Gmail as they keep adding storage, so can search my old received emails anywhere I have connectivity, regardless if they've been pulled down to the local PC client in my web domains software.

Re: Get the basics right first.

"His point was that they are set targets for delivery by the bean-counters who manage the funding, and they want to see new connections, not improved connections for existing customers"

I wasn't just looking to point the finger at BT but they have history here...

I absolutely understand that for the accountants the potential returns are the key, which is why the government needs to mandate a minimum speed or bean counters won't do the work.

Mum's estate was built in the 1960's when Ally was cheap and copper expensive, Ally is fine for voice so they used that through the estate, but its bad for data. Add in to that years of wiring fixes, cuts and re-soldering joints, and general age and weather degradation, and the only real means to fix is it to re-wire the estate. That's a large outlay but unless there is some legislation to force the issue (sort of like the post office has to deliver letters to everyone in the country) it won't happen.

4/5G may be an answer, but at the moment Mum has no change of fast broadband and FTT(anything) is just a dream for her.

Re: C'mon

I'd have thought self interest may have played a part.

Planes can glide to some extent, Heli's don't, and the next contact may be with the police copter....

Re: We need:

Same thing applies.

Law abiding fliers will do so. The people who do this probably realised they are already breaking the laws they just won't bother.

And much of the cheap Chinese clones makers won't care as long as they can keep selling things

Re: I suppose...

More Likely to cover the drop in profits as EU roaming charges have been capped by the EU.

Think of it as a balloon, Squish a balloon in your fist, and it pops out elsewhere. So force prices down in one place, so they have to increase elsewhere.

Problem at big indoor events

I've no problem with people vaping as such, where I have a minor issue is when its done indoors at busy event. The plume of smoke / vape appears and its a royal PITA to find them and see if its a e-cig (or whatever kind) or a real cig.

We took the same route as many pubs, its another hassle for the staff to deal with, so easier to ask people to go outside, and be stopped allowing vaping indoors at our events (beer festivals). And on more than on occasion one slightly sozzled person has seen the "smoke", and then started to light up a real cig thinking its OK.

Re: ISP Email

They did, but brought it back in house late last year, (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/21/google_ends_isp_email_support/) but frankly its still not working that well.

I only now use it as a disposable address to send signups to and moved to my domain providers package that works far better.

You still cannot use a standard POP3 mail client to delete mails on the web servers so they are just building up in my and my wifes mail accounts and VM can store them forever as far as I'm concerned...

And I bet despite another service going (Usenet seems to be either dying or closed) my bill won't come down at all.

Re: Somebody say something nice about them

They are like Maplins, If you really need something there and then they probably have it in stock, and if you ring and reserve / click and collect you get a reasonable price, otherwise they are expensive.

They are OK for white and handheld goods, especially if you want to see it in person or feel the weight of something, but of the three PCWorld/Currys stores near home and work they seem to have such a haphazard layout, with shelves that show something out of stock, and even if the computer says its in stock the woefully inaccurate stock locating abilities sometimes its easier not to bother.

A few times I've ordered something only to be stuck in store 10 to 20 minutes as they can't find the item in the myriad of cupboards they may have hid the stock in, or even worse they haven't reserved it and you have to hope no-one else has bought it before you get there.

I understand that...

but for a major ISP to implement such a major change without any warning or guidance for its customers is simply lousy service.

It came in when they changed the mail servers, and yes its a good idea in theory, but there is very little evidence they ran it in any sort of soft fail or "learn" mode before turning it on and then said the customer was at fault.

Not the dredded Holiday special

That Lucas has reportedly said he would like to see vaporised out of existence...

Oi. Leave Ferrets alone. They are useful critters.

Hmmm

There were, some newer Microsoft products (certainly Office 2013 editions) only store a subset of the key. Lets you know what licence was used for example I have 2 office one for me, one for my wife and I can then tell them apart for re-install but does not give you all the details.

Re: It's a good start

At launch yes Beta only had an hour whereas VHS has two hours. Beta soon caught up.

It was reported to be twofold, first JVC licenced VHS to anyone, for relatively small fees, whereas Sony were more picky on their partners and charged more.

Secondly VHS was the first with 4 hour tapes, the length of a typical US football match.

It then became about sales, VHS was cheaper and the more players on any format meant the more rental shops stocked that format, and before long Beta fell away..

Don't mention V2000 :)

Re: Ferrets

To be fair they are no worse than other pets, they soon learn that human skin isn't as tough as ferret skin, so it's more a kin to play fighting, ours generally don't play bite hard enough to break our skin, but could do harm if really scared.

Do they smell, sort of, leave any animal in its mess for a while and it gets bad, ours are cleaned out twice a day and its fine on all but the hottest days, but like any animal (cat/dog) you will generally notice the smell if you go into a house with animals if its not your own pet.

Every phone I've had from my first Panasonic POS has a pin and SIM lock option.

The user wanting to use it and reading the manual to set it up is another matter.

Re: 2Mbps - I Wish...

Like it no.

But given BT is a private company I don't see how it will happen otherwise, besides UK Gvmt has already given BT a boatload of cash to do some of the job, they just need to be forced to finish the job.

https://www.gov.uk/broadband-delivery-uk

Quote - The Government is investing over £1 billion in improving broadband and mobile infrastructure to:

Provide superfast broadband coverage to 90% of the UK by 2016

Provide basic broadband (2Mbps) for all by 2016

Provide superfast broadband to 95% of the UK by 2017

Explore options to get near universal superfast broadband coverage across the UK by 2018

Create 22 ‘SuperConnected Cities’ across the UK by 2015

Improve mobile coverage in remote areas by 2016

Re: Legislation may not be required

Sort of covered, See http://www.bmfa.org/Multi-Rotors/tabid/1425/Default.aspx

Need to be below a set weight, to be classed as a model, and your subject to the Air Navigation laws. (so are prohibited from acting like a loon and endangering anyone or anything) and filming for commercial use is prohibited without a license.

In terms of flying over people, looking in houses etc then existing laws say you cannot fly within 150m of a congested areas (but does not define what congested means), closer than 50m to vehicle , vessel or structure, or 30m of a person who is not involved with that flight (with the exception of the pilot at take off / landing time) and you always have to be in line of sight to the drone.

That said while us modellers may follow the rules others won't, the drones are cheap enough to be bought on a whim (my wife won't agree) and you need no training or insurance to fly one.

And yes I'd like one, but can't justify it at home....

Flash you warranty away..

Unfortunately (and this is from experience) replacing the ROM blows away the warranty the networks and manufacturer will not be interested in repairs even if the fault is not down to the software but a physical fault.

I can understand not supporting the software ,I disagree that changing the ROM affects or causes hardware faults but that's what happened to me

Re: interesting

The UK does have plans that are unlimited, and international and premium numbers can be locked out on request, although it's an opt in system. Did you opt in to the code system or was it automatically done for you? That may be where we differ.

However people tend to think they "may" need these services so don't request a bar.

Once you report a device stolen you are not liable, the problem is also many many people don't even bother with a simple PIN lock on their devices (becasue 4 numbers slows them down too much). Calling UK numbers would (like you) come out of the plan minutes, its only where people have not PIN locked the phone, and have internatinoal calling enabled that it's an issue,and I suspect that may be the case in the USA for some people too.

Re: Baffled

I used to be a member of Fon, one thing repeatedly asked was how they would to any filtering or detection or dubious content. They used to do 30 mins free access for watching a video and leaving an email address. All you needed to sign up was an email address, even a disposable GMail or Hotmail one.

Fon always said they would co operate fully but never said how they would.