* Posts by Shagbag

832 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Mar 2008

Review: Livin' in the cloud with Google's new Chromebook Pixel

Shagbag

Can it mount NAS

Can a personal NAS be used with this?

Flexy 'iWatch' glass said to be three years away

Shagbag

It's been said before in jest, but it now appears to be a real possibility - a redesigned and revolutionary way to dispose of human waste.

I can hear the words now....Ladies and Gentlemen, Apple give you: the iShit

(**cue raptuous applause from mass media fanbois***)

Euro watchdog bares teeth at Microsoft over browser gaffe

Shagbag
Thumb Up

Re: Who cares

I do.

"Microsoft claimed it failed to spot that it was no longer including the browser choice screen for 17 months: the vendor has described the apparent mishap as a "technical error" rather than a deliberate action to push Internet Explorer."

They've admited to it. Strict Liability crime - purported lack of Intention is irrelevant except to the determination of the fine. No intention but a clear admission of Recklessness. MSFT have form. Expect a massive fine. Too right.

BlackBerry juices Z10 handset with OTA software update

Shagbag

Buy one in minutes

If they cut the price to below £300, I'd buy one in minutes.

First, servers were deep-fried... now, engineers bring you wet ones

Shagbag

Re: Plumbing

I believe, set up correctly, a flourescent tube doubles as an affordable light sabre.

Shagbag

CustomPC

3 - when MSFT has a product that uses it.

That Firefox OS mobe: The sorta phone left behind after a mugging

Shagbag
Coat

Re: Graph with *3* lines on it

"because the network operators fear Google so much, they’re backing every conceivable alternative, except the one that can succeed, which is Windows Phone."

'jaw dropped at that one. 'Gave up reading and came straight here.

Nexus 1 put in orbit to prove 'in space, no one can hear you scream'

Shagbag

I believe there are 6 men on the International Space Station at the moment, so if consider their 'junk' to be too much, then you could be correct. Maybe ask John Tyner.

Shagbag

Re: Scream

Are you saying that if I find two astronauts and put their 'helmets' together, we will be able to hear the Screams from the Nexus 1?

This new learning amazes me...

HP shareholders bay for blood in $19 BEELLION writedown aftermath

Shagbag
Mushroom

Holy Crap

EDS

Palm

Autonomy

Touchpad

WebOS

...the company is slowly disappearing down the shitter.

(Nuke because there isn't an avatar for something imploding).

Not so fast, BlackBerry. Now Samsung wants your tasty biz mobe pie

Shagbag

BOOM! Shot across the bow, baby!

How d'ya like them Apples, Tim Cock?

Hands-on with Ubuntu's rudimentary phone and tablet OS

Shagbag

Not for everyone

It's not going to be for everyone. There will always be people who don't like it and people who do.

Blackberry Z10 sales fail to impress analysts

Shagbag
Holmes

Blame the Marketing Dept

I can get a Nexus 4 for £280. Why would I pay £500 for a Z10?

It's that simple.

Council IT bod in the dock for flogging scrap work PC parts

Shagbag

Theft Act 1968

Section 5(3):

Where a person receives property from or on account of another, and is under an obligation to the other to retain and deal with that property or its proceeds in a particular way, the property or proceeds shall be regarded (as against him) as belonging to the other.

I believe this is what Recorder Michael Stevens was refering to with the words "if the employer says ‘put it in landfill and leave it to rot’, it is for them to decide. It is not for you to harvest the parts, sell them and provide an income"

Additionally, as already pointed out by others, his employer had not actually disposed of them - they were just marked for disposal. No wonder Holwell admitted to theft.

Brit robot programmers banged up for £500,000 tax evasion

Shagbag

Re: Meanwhile...

"Smith and Howarth stole from UK taxpayers, using the money that should have paid for public services to fund luxury lifestyles filled with prestige cars and expensive holidays," HMRC assistant director of criminal investigation Mike Preston said in a statement

"Stole" ??????

They didn't take anything. They just didn't give it. Yes, they broke the law and they have been justly sentenced. However, it's unfortunate that HMRC has chosen to use this emotive language as it makes them look like the tax collectors of medieval times. I pay my taxes but I do not hold the view that the state has an unalienable right to any part of my property and it pisses me off when people like Mike Preston think it does.

Microsoft exec: No 'Plan B' despite mobile stumbles

Shagbag
Thumb Up

Re: I see a lot of fantasy posted. Let's dispose of some.

Excellent analysis, but I couldn't decide which quote was the best:

"being granted MORE shares even as he sells the ones he already has"

lol. too true. Or:

"the people who bait these hooks are the master baiters of all time."

rofl. I take it you had to pause and remember to spell 'bait' and not 'bate'?

thumbs up, due. :D

Nokia's Elopocalypse two years on: Has Microsoft kept its side of the bargain?

Shagbag

Life Support Payments

"Any move to platform agnosticism will likely result in Microsoft withdrawing their regular support payments."

If MSFT did that, NOKIA would be dead. MSFT is turning NOKIA into a heroin addict where the heroin is MSFT subsidies. The more this goes on, the more "going cold turkey" is no longer an option. At that point, NOKIA will have no choice but to become an operating division of MSFT.

Fashionably slate

Shagbag

Staring them in the face

The answer is staring them in the face: video calls.

Plug your TV into your phone line and ethernet and make and answer calls on your TV.

Dumb this down to the level of the iCrowd and charge a fortune for it.

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro range

Shagbag

Re: Please stop moaning about transat differences

What a load of bullshit. Cost of living has nothing to do with it and to think otherwise is an indication of a feeble mind.

The 1950's "Cost-Plus" pricing paradigm bares little resemblence to the current retail model. Retailers set their prices on what they think a consumer will be prepared to pay, not how much it costs the retailer to buy. The only 'cost-plus' in today's retail framework is price + VAT.

You need to remove VAT and any other sales taxes from the headline prices BEFORE applying exchange rates to see which market sector provides the retailer with greater (profit) margin.

Vertu-alised Android revealed at an all-too-real €7,900

Shagbag

$10,600 = 53 x $200

That's 53 seperate instances of the horse trampling on your phone before the thing breaks even.

Pun intended.

Seriously, for someone that accident-prone, they're better off spending the $10,600 on phone insurance.

Alternatively, even at $800 per phone, $10,600 is an upgrade* plan to last next decade.

*excluding iPhones, of course, as that would be a 'downgrade' given their current plan of bringing to market old tech at new tech prices, like the i5.

Apple CEO Cook: 'Bizarre' shareholder lawsuit a 'silly sideshow'

Shagbag
Megaphone

Tax Holiday?????? WTF?

"Tax Holiday"?????

US corporations are not repatriating their offshore cash because of the huge US tax bill they would otherrwise face. No tax is currently being paid and no tax will ever be paid. The money will remain offshore. Ad infinitum. To label a change in law as a 'tax holiday' is nothing but bizarre. What tax is being avoided? The tax that will never get paid anyway? How can non-payment of tax that will never be paid be called a 'tax holiday'?

Pope resigns months after launching social networking effort

Shagbag

Thank God!

Finally, he's going. My only hope is that he will be charged and stand trial for the crimes he has allegedly committed while in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. If he is innocent then he will finally have cleared his name over his alleged involvement in the harbouring of paedophiles. If not, he will be sent down and, upon his death, may he burn in hell. Either way, his continued occupation of the post has brought nothing but disgrace to the Catholic Church and undermined the good work done by those beneath it.

Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus phones to arrive in February

Shagbag
Thumb Up

Agreed

This is the future, IMHO.

A phonePC with:

- local and cloud storage

- thin client capability for those intensive CPU/'desktop' apps.

- fat wireless bandwidth

I can't wait to see that.

Microsoft 'touches 16k shop workers' to flog Windows 8 hard

Shagbag
Facepalm

ManagementSpeak overload

"evangelising"

"touched"

"experiential"

There you have it.

Anything other than "we tried to sell something people don't want".

BIS, bash, bosh: El Reg solves BlackBerry 10 email bafflement

Shagbag
FAIL

"consumers will lose the end-to-end encrypted push email offered by BIS servers"

Oh great. Consumers will no longer be getting RIMmed - they'll be getting REAMED OUT thinking they've bought Blackberry's USP only to discover somebody's tinkered with their anus.

US diplomat: If EU allows 'right to be forgotten' ... it might spark TRADE WAR

Shagbag
Megaphone

Fuck 'em

The US Government wants to dictate our privacy laws? Tell 'em to go get fucked.

Plunging BT sales hit every branch of the biz on way down

Shagbag

"The continued impact of regulatory price changes reduced revenue"

...in other words:

"consumers were paying too much, we didn't want to lower our prices, but the regulator forced us to."

We're not making this up: Apple trademarks the SHOP

Shagbag

Re: Shamsung stores

US patents and trademarks aren't enforceable outside of the US.

India's most trusted brand Nokia hit with £1.5bn tax bill

Shagbag

Agreed

Transfer Pricing is a highly judgemental element of tax law where neither party (Tax Payer or Tax Authority) can be 100% sure of its position until the matter is settled either in or out of court.

'Fraud' requires dishonest intention. A defendent can be found to have committed the act (eg. transfered goods between related parties at unacceptable prices) but without proof of dishonest intention there is no fraud.

Nokia tries its luck with a sub-£150 Win Phone 8: The Lumia 620

Shagbag

No one is buying them

If O2 is knocking them out at £149.99 then they can't be moving off their shelves. I'd better wait some more - it's like PriceDropTV :-D

Apple still top for slab-fondlers despite FLOOD of Xmas tablets

Shagbag

Bring back the O2 Joggler

Remember that piece of shit?

How to destroy a brand-new Samsung laptop: Boot Linux on it

Shagbag

One swallow doesn't make a summer

The allegation could be levelled at all hardware manufacturers.

BlackBerry bets fans are willing to upgrade skills

Shagbag
Pint

24-month lock in

Why would I want to pay an extra £4pcm for an inferior phone? More is less? Besides, contracts are for people who can't afford to pay up-front.

I churn my handset about every 6-9 months and I use PAYG averaging £5pcm. The cheapest Pay Monthly offer at CPWH is 24mo at £36pcm which, at £480 upfront, equates to £16pcm for voice + data. Of c ourse Vodafone, et. al. don't pay retail to BB. They pay wholesale, so the 'free' phone you get with contract means their voice+data tarrif is actually >£16pcm.

£16+pcm is an issue for me. I don't like being ripped off and I'd prefer to spend the £16+ every month on getting pissed at my local boozer while I pull really fit birds with my new phone every 6-9 months.

Shagbag

Nexus 4

CarphoneWarehouse:

£380 :-D

1280x720@320ppi.

I'm not sure the Z10's extra 36ppi is worth a £100 premium.

Shagbag

Pricing

I've just checked on CarphoneWarehouse:

SIII = £410 :-)

Z10 = £480 :-s

i5 = £510 :-O

£30 cheaper than the i5? 'Says more about the i5's price than the Z10.

£70 more expensive than the SII? I think I'll wait for the Z10 to come down in price.

Shagbag

Too little too late?

"Why buy into a platform with 1/10th the apps" because, chances are, there is an app in there that does what you want. I found that with my old WinPho7. (WinPho is shit, btw).

"suspect most businesses with BES already have users wanting (other) smartphones" wanting and receiving are two different things. Our firm's Blackberrys are locked down to the point that you can make calls and receive (work) emails. Blackberry Balance has the potential to change all of that.

"Too little and too late" I think it's too early to say. The Z10 handset is aesthetically attractive. The screen res (1280x768@356ppi) is better than the SIII (1280x720@306ppi) and the i5 (1136x640@326ppi) . That coupled with the fact you can play games, music, watch videos, email AND MAKE CALLS makes the Z10 a very attractive proposition. Pricing will be the deciding factor for me.

RIM blows on the dice, gets ready for its FINAL THROW

Shagbag

New Phones

I don't care much for the Q10 but the black Z10 looks cool. I don't like the white version, though. It looks feminine.

Greedy Apple told it can't triple Samsung's $1bn patent payout

Shagbag

Pyrrhic victory for Apple

Apple may have one the battle but they've lost the war. And when Samsung's appeal is heard it's going to be glorious. Apple are going to be smacked down and bitch-slapped like nothing before. It will be the Mother of All Bitch Slaps. ALLAH U AKBAR!

Is your Surface Pro a bit full? Slot in an SD card, it's not from Apple

Shagbag

Irrelevance

Surface is a deperate attempt to stay relevant in the consumer mobile computing space.

Surface Pro is a joke.

jeez I can't even believe I bothered to post on this topic. It's over. And MSFT has lost. Come to terms with your grief Windoze fanbois.

Big biz, expensive beancounters write UK tax law, says senior MP

Shagbag
Facepalm

Same shit different day...

...the legislators STILL refusing to accept that only they can (and actually) write, initiate and pass the tax laws.

"it's not our fault, it's theirs".

Chinese Apple pirate Kuaiyong sets sail for rest of WORLD

Shagbag

This story highlights the fundamental impediment to a lot of peole buying Apple devices: iTunes.

I had my Dad over from Australia recently and he was enthusastically praising his iPad. Not having one, I had no idea what he was talking about. When I tried to copy a (legitimately purchased) movie across to his iPad I was astounded to find out I couldn't do it without going through a convoluted process of copying to his PC (the one he has synced his iPad with previously), him adding it to his iTunes library and then him syncing his library with his iPad. Given that his PC was thousands of miles away this made it practically impossible.

I showed him how I did it on my Android tablet: drag-and-drop. He didn't like that.

The whole story brought home to me just how fallacious the whole 'Apple's more intuitive' thing is - it's nothing more than a Jedi mind trick. My sister received a MacBook Pro from her husband for Crimbo and proceeded to get very frustrated with OSX because she'd grown up on Windows. She constantly lamented that OSX did not seem any 'more intuitive' than than any other foreign device she'd tried.

Some people love their Apple devices, and that's great for them, but I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

Shagbag

"it can’t be long before Cupertino aims its legal cannons in the direction of Kuaiyong"

Good luck with that.

Microsoft may be readying Outlook for ARM – or not

Shagbag

Intel's Bitch

When it comes to a non-x86 platform, I firmly believe MSFT is Intel's bitch. Intel don't want RT to succeed and I believe there are some tensions there between MSFT and Intel. I suspect MSFT produced (the knee-capped) RT out of desperation to stay relevant but, at the same time, appease Intel by removing functionality.

This Outlook on RT is just more of MSFT hedgeing its bets. Until Intel can produce a viable x86 competitor, MSFT will always toy around with ARM. As soon as Intel does, MSFT will drop ARM like a lead weight.

No UK date, no biz disties: Will Microsoft cock-up the Surface Pro too?

Shagbag

Re: Curious to know

HD pr0n.

Shagbag

Re: I am going to University in sept this year.

"it would be great for a portable compact dev machine"

lol. It's a piece of shit.

Shagbag
Thumb Up

Re: It is the price, stupid!

Agreed.

With big business buying in bulk, they're not going to give their employees expensive, shiny Win8Pro tablets.

No, they're going to give them the cheapest desktop PC shit they can - like they've always done.

Microsoft blasts PC makers: It's YOUR fault Windows 8 crash landed

Shagbag

IT's what happens when you don't listen to your customers

I have to laugh. After all the negative reviews of Windows 8 and people saying consumers don't want it, they're now blaming the OEMs.

MSFT just don't get it.

Inspur's K1 marks China's high-end server debut

Shagbag
Pint

Maybe they can now host that 'Make me Asian' app the Google Play can't.

UK way behind pack on broadband speed in Europe

Shagbag
Thumb Up

Who gives a fuck?

'just as long as I can stream pr0n with no dropped frames (but lots of dropped knickers) then I'm happy.

Sorry, Apple-haters, but Cupertinian doom not on the horizon

Shagbag
FAIL

Re: Mac sales decline is the problem

"Even the most rock-ribbed Apple-hater must grudgingly agree with Cook that those numbers are indeed impressive...Wall Street has clearly characterized as disappointing financial results..."

By the author's logic everyone on Wall Street must be an Apple-lover.