* Posts by Shades

910 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Mar 2008

Reg readers rise to Vulture 2 paintjob challenge

Shades

"Shades at the ready as we reveal your startling liveries"

Wait, what am I doing now? Nobody told me about this, let me put some pants on!

Turkish TV presenter canned for flashing too much cleavage

Shades

Re: Ah - Turkey

AC Wrote:

"in public, all women are their sisters if you (as a foreigner) happen to date any one of them ,and will be ready to attack you for doing so, or being lucky enough!"
You mean like this: Middlesbrough's Dwayne Ward, 17, stabbed in Marmaris?

Samsung touching up ROUNDED, CURVY plastic enhanced MODEL

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Thumb Up

Re: Once upon a time......

Thats probably one of the best comments I've seen on El Reg for quite a while. I'd upvote it more if I could! Bravo!

Universal's High Fidelity Pure Audio trickles onto Blighty’s Blu-Ray hi-fis

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Stuart Castle wrote:

"99% of the music buying public actually don't seem to care what quality their music is"
Thats exactly what I was thinking. There's an entire generation of kids, and some young adults, that think listening to MTV through their crappy TV speakers is acceptable; that use YouTube as a jukebox on their laptops; convert YouTube videos to MP3's and listen to them on their phones or, in the case of young adults, in cars (with fairly decent sounds systems!); that listen to their MP3 players/phones with the crappy earphones that came with the devices and when they break replace them with just as crappy earphones.

Most people, in my experience, just don't care about the quality of the music, they just want to listen to it.

APPLE is the new COCA-COLA: Bubble-beverage globocorp beaten by Foxconn rebrander

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Interbrand advert made by Interbrand

So the people who made the list, Interbrand, and make the secret sauce for their "valuation" of global brands, are also a brand management company who can count, in one way or another, 24 brands in the list (or at least the brand owners) as their clients. Whats the betting that Interbrand has more clients in that list than any other brand management company (or companies, for those that may manage their own brands). I highly suspect that the "Best Global Brands" list is nothing more than an advert for Interbrand... "Hey, look at us. We've got 24 brands in the top 100, thats more than anyone else!"

Apple tackles iPhone lock-up cockup with iOS 7.0.2

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Stop

Re: White background

AC wrote:

"Well if you design an interface where EVERY app has a white background on an LCD panel then of course the battery will take a hit."

I'm no Apple fan, not by a long chalk, but if you're going to knock them at least try to be accurate.

What you are saying would be true if the iPhone had an AMOLED screen, but it doesn't. It uses an LED backlit screen which, I believe, consumes roughly the same amount of power regardless of the colours being displayed. In other words an LED backlit screen will consume the same amount of power whether it is displaying white, black, red, green, blue or any combination thereof. However, since the iPhone 4, Apple have used an IPS LED backlit screen which, it is claimed, can potentially consume 50% less power than an equivalent sized AMOLED screen when displaying white. So, theoretically at least, Apple have actually made the smart choice by sticking with an IPS LED Backlit screen and choosing a dominantly white colour scheme (whether this was a concious choice or purely coincidental is a different matter).

Conversely this is why Google have gone for a darker colour scheme, as there is an awful lot of Android devices, including (and especially) their own branded ones, that use AMOLED screens.

If older devices consume more power overall, with the latest OS update, than previously, then I'd hazard a guess its because of extra or more intensive processes, not as a result of the choice of colour scheme. Of course, there's also the "Oooh, shiny new stuff!" effect which results in the device being played with a lot more which, in turn, can have an initially huge impact on perceived battery life until the "Oooh, shiny new stuff!" effect wears off and the usage pattern returns to normal.

Anyway, I feel a little bit faint after saying something which could be interpreted as being complimentary to Apple... I'm off for a little lie down! :D

Rare gold iPhone 5s goes up against 50 caliber high precision rifle

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Trollface

Re: Quote: "There has got to be something wrong..."

Voland's Right Hand wrote:

1. Think that this rifle is any good to you to defend against your evil government. Hint - government, has tanks, missiles and drones. Going against that armed with a rifle - give me a break.
If it came to that then I think I'd prefer that rifle to a cricket bat!

EasyJet wanted to fling me off flight for diss tweet, warns cyber-law buff

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Samsung's new image sensor promises better snaps in smaller devices

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Paris Hilton

What About Software?

Its all well and good improving the sensors if the processing software behind them is poor. Case in point would be my HTC HD2. While it still had Windows Mobile on it, no matter what settings were fiddled with, the shutter speed could be measured in seconds, resulting in every image being blurred unless you managed to stand completely and utterly still, massive over exposure and an awful blue tint to practically every shot. Low light performace? Don't even go there! To say I was a little disappointed with the performance of the camera in what was a very high end device (when it was first released) would be a massive understatement.

Naturally, I thought this was down to the hardware - HTC never had a good reputation for the sensors in their devices. That was until I ditched WinMo, after HTC decided to drop support for it and even pulled patches from their website, and installed CyanogenMod on it. The first time I used the camera app my jaw dropped to the floor... the quality of the images, compared to those taken under WinMo, was nothing short of staggering! The shutter speed was damn near as makes no difference to being instant, images were correctly exposed, white balance detection had improved and the blue tint had gone. All with exactly the same sensor as under WinMo. I've since taken some beautiful and colourful shots (for a 5MP camera phone) that I would never, ever have been able to capture prior to the installation of CyanogenMod.

So, I can't help but wonder if, in the MegaPixel race, that the quality of the processing software is being overlooked? Or maybe its just the that I have a warped impression of the quality of certain software thanks to the blantantly p*ss-poor coding ability at Microsoft

Microsoft reissues September patches after user complaints

Shades

Can I update now?

Purely coincidentally I kept dismissing the update notification because I was always busy doing something and didn't just update like I normally would have, so is it safe to update now?

NASA: Humanity has finally reached into INTERSTELLAR SPACE

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Thumb Up

Re: They just don't build 'em like they used to.

btk_ wrote:

"Kind of strange to think that it launched the year I was born. Every moment of my life that ship has been speeding into space..."
It was launched a few months before I was born, is now 12 billion miles from earth and is still more useful than me! :D

Have you tried turning it off and on again - oh, you did: IT Crowd RETURNS

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How many?

"featuring four downtrodden and socially inept IT workers in the basement of Reynholm Industries"
So thats Roy, Moss, Jen and ... ??

(Although Richmond was (kept) in the basement, he wasn't an IT worker)

Brazilian TV show accuses NSA of spying on oil firm based on leaked docs

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Trollface

Re: Oh not to worry Brazil...

AC wrote:

"Next: free anal probing for EVERYONE!"
What kind of threat is that? You seem to be assuming everyone would find that unpleasant! :D

David Attenborough warns that humans have stopped evolving

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Have You Seen The Breeders?

Thorne wrote:

"Have you seen the breeders?"
Funnily enough, yes... The Jeremy Kyle Show is on the telly as I type this! :D

Pair of complete tits sorry for pervy app

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Trollface

Re: Good old feminist outrage. .

nsld wrote:

"as Ms Gritpants points out, it swings both ways."
I would have thought that depends on how tight the trousers/pants are.

BING! Microsoft plants Xbox Music flagpoles in Android and iOS

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Re: But Xbox is games.

Never seen a students usage of a console have you...

Shades

"Xbox Music will also gobble web pages, such as festival sites or band home pages, and attempt to turn them into a matching Playlist"
Better not tell Ministry of Sound, they're pretty protective of their "List of things available elsewhere but arranged into a particular order".

New! Yahoo! logo! shows! Marissa! Meyer's! personal! touch!

Shades

Pedant Alert!

From the first image in the article, with regards to the exclamation mark:

"Tilted 9° using centre of dot as a fulcrum"
Do I need to say any more?

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active: The mobe for CHUCK NORRIS TYPES

Shades

Could this really be?

Hmm, a serious contender to replace my trusty, but ageing, HTC HD2 (with Android ROM)? Tough, well manufactured, big screen, physical buttons, replaceable battery and MicroSD slot to name but a few things I've desired in a device.

LOHAN cops a faceful of smutronyms

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PEARSHAPED - Primary Emergency Abort (and) Release System (of) High Altitude Project Experiencing Deviation

BOLLOCKS - Bloody Orbital LOHAN Lifter Off Course Kill Switch

Ministry of Sound sues Spotify over user playlists

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Re: Rename it!

Mounds of Sniff

Microsoft buys Nokia's mobile business

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Facepalm

Re: Oh, great!

"So now we know why Elop was infiltrated into Nokia."

Now? Where have you been? This was on the cards since Elops name was first associated with Nokia.

Dopey dope-growing dope smoked out by own dope dope-growing vid

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Re: "manufacturing a controlled drug".

"I could smoke 10-15 joints in 1-2 hours"

LOL. Dealer saw you coming a mile off!

Sponsored Stories ruck: Zuck chucks 15 bucks at ad photo suck schmucks

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The Cost of "Business"?

Facebook will dish out $15 to lucky users in a court-approved $20m settlement over "sponsored stories" - the little ads that surprised netizens by using their names and photos. [...] The social network, which bagged $234m from sponsored stories between January 2011 and August 2012, said in a statement it was "pleased" with the ruling.

$234m - $20m = This (or this)

Guardian teams up with New York Times for future Snowden GCHQ coverage

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Re: re: Brilliant!

Frumious Bandersnatch wrote:

Also, not sure about that editor. When he says "The Independent was not leaked or ‘duped’ into publishing today's front page story by the Government" you'd think that he'd be able to construct a sentence better. The "by the Government" part could be glommed into the sentence to mean either "today's front page story by the Government" or "The Independent was not [leaked or] ‘duped’ by the Government". Just sloppiness (as engendered, no doubt, by it being a twitter post) or something else? Probably the former, but it's still one of those "things that make you go hmmm".
I'm glad I'm not the only one to have thought exactly the same thing. Although I'm inclined to believe he's actually telling the truth; The story wasn't leaked and they weren't duped because it actually came from government and they know it. What he didn't say is that they weren't threatened to publish it perhaps by a visit from the same guys that paid the Guardian a little "friendly" visit. This is complete conjecture of course but nothing about this whole affair would surprise me any more!

Top 10 Steve Ballmer quotes: '%#&@!!' and so much more

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Alert

Re: Larry Crapbeans "I have done it before, and I will do it again....."

What the...?? Matt, I find it unsettling that I agree with something you've said. Please don't do it again! ;)

BILLION DOLLAR BALLMER: Microsoft chief makes $1bn simply by quitting

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Stop

Re: How about...

Just great... thanks for putting the theme tune to Malcolm in the Middle in my head!

Firefox takes top marks in browser stability tests

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Re: Firefox

23.0.1? Latest? Pfft, I'm on 24.0*... probably 25 by the time I've finished typing this! ;-)

* Admittedly, the Beta channel release.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak disses Ashton Kutcher's Steve Jobs

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Re: Who cares.....really!!!!

"really who cares."

Americans*, just like the Americans that made the movie. Its aspirational. Its the American dream. Behave like an arse, develop an ego the size of a planet, make money at others expense.

*Some, not all.

Starwing: Nintendo, Argonaut's Brit boffinry and the Super FX chip

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Re: Eh?

"In 1993 [...] the Amiga was nearing the end of it's lifespan"

Really? I must be imagining this then!

OWN GOAL! 100s of websites blocked after UK Premier League drops ball

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Re: 192.168.0.1

I don't want to over-geek a light-hearted comment, but ISPs can't block anything downstream from their connection. Although they could block 192.168.0.1 if you have an ISP supplied self-updating router (ahem BT Home Hub).

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

BRUCE WILLIS (ad) DIES HARD (in Sky broadband telly fib ban)

Shades

"when was the last time BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, etc mentioned that you NEED their phone rental at £xx per month - in the body of the advert?"

Need? Virgin would probably argue that they don't need to include line rental costs in the body of the advert as they generally only advertise their cable services on TV, which doesn't need a rented line and thus doesn't incur the additional cost. But don't let facts get in the way of a good rant! ;)

Shades
Facepalm

Re: I wondered why the ads had changed

"but why does she say that, in such a provocative manner, to an aging pensioner"

Ageing pensioner? He's only 58. Say that around my mother, who's just a couple of years young than Walter, and you'll get swift kick in the gentleman sausage! Its no great mystery that some young women find older men sexually attractive (hence the looks on her face throughout the entire ad and the provocative line), especially ones that are famous, loaded and, in Walters case for his age, still has a rugged good look about him... Plus he's John McLain! Hell, I've had my fair share of younger attractive women and I look like I've been chasing parked buses!

Shades
Joke

Die Casual?

On the plus side this sounds like it could be the plot of a new film for Brucie.

Retired police office McLain doesn't take too kindly to the ASA banning his advert so they, fearing the worst, hole up in the upper floors of their building. An hour or so later McLain, after establishing phone contact with a friendly black policeman, storms the building, killing everyone who decided his advert should be banned in an orgy of anti-ad banning violence. All while in his dressing gown.

And it would still be better than the last Die Hard film!

Shades

Re: I wondered why the ads had changed

best facial expression on telly ever

If you're on about the bit at the end, when the young lady* turns around while she's walking out with Brucie, then that bit always makes me laugh. I happen to think that she's quite pleasing to the eye, so if she said to me, as she does Brucie "...It's totally unlimited, as am I", then I'd be telling her to come on too!

*Jessica Ransom, just in case any of you were interested! :D

Do you think spinning rust eats flash's dust? Join the hard drive daddies club

Shades

I've said it before...

...and I'll say it again:

If spinny drive manufacturers made a 2.5" Hybrid that had say 64Gb of Flash, and say a 500Gb spinny drive, that appeared to the system as two separate drives (like any harddisk thats been partitioned, Flash for the OS, HDD for data) then I'd buy it in an instant. However, if the flash portion of the drive could be reduced in size (of the users choice) and the remainder gets used as a cache for the spinny bit, giving the best of all worlds, then I'd rip their bloody arms off!!

Are you listening HDD manufacturers??

Think your smutty Snapchats can't be saved by dorks? Think again

Shades

Apps that save SnapChat images have been out almost as long as SnapChat has... on Android. Why the "sudden" mention of this now its on the worlds second most popular phone?

Study finds online commentards easily duped, manipulated

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Happy

Indeed you do... As of the time of this post everything has an equal amount of upvotes and downvotes. Admittedly I've just contributed a few to even it out completely. Sometimes I fucking love El Reg commentards!!

Web ad giant (Google) pops Adwords into Maps for iOS and Android

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Stop

Ads? Solution: Don't Update.

As it stands, before this update, Maps probably does everything 99% of people need: Find places, give directions, show traffic, bookmarks locations, street view, and integrates with Navigation. Unless Google have found some unbelievably awesome killer feature to add, to encourage updating the app, then I can't see the point of most people, myself included, in updating it... Well, that is until Google start slyly and slowly disable functionality for, or nagging to death, those without the right app version number. So, simple solution, if you don't want to see the ads then don't update.

Facebook to get IN YOUR FACE with video ads

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GreaseMonkey...

...to the rescue!

Infosec analysts back away from 'Feds attacked Tor' theory

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You have proof that they didnt? No, thought not.

Obama cancels meeting Putin in Russia, says Snowden 'a factor'

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Re: Colbert wieghs in

For anyone, outside of the US, who wishes to watch this clip click here and download the clip (via the Comedy Central mobile site).

Ye Bug List

Shades

Re: Invisible comments?

Okay, if I log out I can see it, log back in and its gone again.

Shades

Re: Invisible comments?

Thats even stranger then as I still can't see it, either on my computer or, as I've just found out, on my phone! Will have to try logging out to see if I can see it...

Shades

Invisible comments?

In the comments to WAR ON PORN: UK flicks switch on 'I am a pervert' web filters I posted a reply to this comment, however now my reply appears to have become a bit shy! Checking in my "My Posts" section the comment still appears to be live (there is no "widthdrawn" associated with the comment), and indeed there is no "Comment removed by moderator/author" notification below the comment I replied to... but my post still isn't there. In case you can't check the actual contents of my comment, it was a Futurama reference too (like the comment I replied to) so I can't imagine it being it being removed for any legal reasons.

Oh, and another thing, I realise that comment nesting is something thats probably being worked on as I type but it appears to be a little borked, nesting is all over the place!

Hooker in Dudley man's car 'just helping to buy tomatoes'

Shades

As far as I'm aware, unless the law has recently been changed, the law doesn't give a shit about what consenting adults do in private. Prostitution is legal in ones own home as long as it isn't advertised.

The problem is that this kind of arrangement (especially in the £20 range) is often not in private, far from it in fact.

100-metre asteroid 2013 NE19 zipped past Earth today

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Mushroom

Not a good sign...

"Please stand by...

We're experiencing technical difficulties"

Hopefully the technical difficulty is not someone has got their measurements wrong!

WAR ON PORN: UK flicks switch on 'I am a pervert' web filters

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Thumb Up

In fact, forget the internet and the blackjack!

Websites stagger to feet, Network Solutions wears off DDoS hangover

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Re: The fun has just begun

You're still here then I see, Morris! You really should learn some new phrases!