* Posts by Tom 35

3040 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

LightSquared to magic away GPS interference in 2 weeks

Tom 35

So they have a magic filter

Now every GPS unit has to be replaced with a new one with magic filters. Extra fun for units built into cars and not just stuck on the windshild.

All so Lightsquared can setup a new cell network that will need new phones.

Mobile operators: US quake proves we need more spectrum

Tom 35

The bankers all got free handouts

The phone company want theirs now.

HP's WebOS mess: When smartphone assets go toxic

Tom 35
FAIL

$99 for a touchpad at bestbuy / futureshop

toast

BOFH: Beer, shinies, death by fire, rats IN THAT ORDER

Tom 35

They had to spray the beancounters with pepper spray...

Or they would be to bland to interest the rats. Personalty I'd have added a big bucket of katsup with a small explosive charge into the centre of the room. There is a limit to what a rat can swallow but katsup always helps....

Ridley Scott confirmed for Blade Runner pre/sequel

Tom 35

the greatest Sci-fi movie of all time, I'll be crossing my fingers

When it starts so high, it has so far to fall.

Free Ride: Disney, Fela Kuti and Google's war on copyright

Tom 35
FAIL

I presumed the OP is in the USA.

Well I'm not...

Spotify in Canada

It looks like you're accessing Spotify from outside our launch territiories. In order to buy Spotify premium, you will need a payment card that has been issued in one of our launch territories (i.e. Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom or United States). As a Spotify Premium user you will have be able to use Spotify when you travel for an unlimited time period.

So they will only take my money if I somehow find my self with a US payment card. Maybe something like buying a Japanese iTunes gift card online so you can buy from iTunes Japan... yes a quick google shows market in spotify gift cards.

Tom 35

Ask the wrong question

"Levine: A lot of people say DRM was huge problem. But when EMI eliminated it, it didn't create a huge boost in sales."

That's the wrong question. You should ask when you add DRM did it create a huge boost in sales?

If the answer is no then DRM is not working, and you are paying for something that people hate.

Even if it was stopping people from copying your stuff (ha!), it's not making them buy it so you are just pissing into the wind.

Fort Knox military cops disgusted with solar patrol carts

Tom 35

Mint Police

\what no Chocolate cops?

Piles of unshiftable HP fondle-slabs choke Best Buy

Tom 35

Don't forget

The big bonus for the top exec.

Range Rover Evoque Si4

Tom 35

LandRover - they are incredible 4x4 vehicles

Once long ago when they sold them to farmers and such. Now that they sell them to twats with too much money, highway ride, and a nice radio are more important.

Adobe automates website design for arty Luddites

Tom 35
Holmes

They don't want it to be protable

They want to keep you paying the monthly subscription fee,

Apple pictures iOS on your wall

Tom 35

Given a phone with a working projector

and a battery life of more then 5 minutes.

Just about anyone could come up with the rest, and more I'm sure.

Create a projector that will fit in a phone and run for a useful amount of time on the battery and they can have a patent.

For the crap they are trying? Maybe they should try for a job writing a script for a sci-fi TV show.

Who'd buy a fake battery?

Tom 35

Strangely, fake batteries continue to be popular

Strange? Just look at the price of Digital Camera batteries and it's not hard to see why they are popular. They must have about %10,000 markup!

Dunkin' Donuts waitress offers additional dunkin'

Tom 35

six week investigation...

They spent 6 weeks investigating this?

So a J walker would take them about 3 weeks, and a armed robber about 9 years. How pathetic can you get?

Sorry we don't have enough manpower to investigate your house getting broken into, wait did you say there is a donut shop across the street? Maybe we can give it a month or two.

Hackers breach chocolate recipe on Hershey website

Tom 35

Hi Tony!

It's me Elvis!

99% of the time I use Feb 29 of a non-leap year for the birthday.

Tom 35

lard?

No it's chalk and floor wax.

Who needs a million NFC tags?

Tom 35

First hit...

"Theoretical working distance with compact standard antennas: up to 20 cm (practical working distance of about 4 centimetres)"

Note: "compact standard antennas". So that is still not an answer to the question can they be read from a distance with the right gear (larger non-standard antenna) like RFID?

Assuming that your first hit is the same as my first hit - Wikipedia (not a great assumption I think, and not the most trusted source).

Ubisoft revisits Internet-at-all-times DRM

Tom 35
FAIL

a bid to keep piracy subdued

Dream on idiots.

It will be cracked in short order and people will be playing without needing any internet connection at all. If they are lucky a few people might buy a copy, put it on the self, and play the cracked version. But most people will just spend their money on something else.

Canon crossbreeds mouse with adder

Tom 35

Next?

crossbreed mongoose with adder?

Note to Apple: Be more like Microsoft

Tom 35

Maybe

Or it could be like my last job.

Boss: spec some laptops for sales.

Done.

Boss: there was an HP in todays newspaper flyer that had bigger numbers then the one you came up with and cost $50 less! I ordered a bunch of them and handed them out already just pop around and set everyone up when you have a second.

Yes, crap home units with one year depot warranty (I just love doing the Dead Parrot Skit with HP support), and loads of shit-ware.

Tom 35

until apple notice it for sale.

Just one of a few...

"Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Media Solutions Holdings, a company that has allegedly been producing and distributing knockoff MagSafe power adapters. The Apple patent, No. D478,310, was initially issued in 2003. The defendant sells the AC adapters, ..."

http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/11/25/knockoffs.selling.for.almost.half.of.apples.price

MacBook batteries susceptible to hack attacks

Tom 35

When?

They have been doing it for some time. But to tax 3rd party products. You need to buy a chip from Apple to make your iPhone/Pod add on work.

Boxing boomers bounced building in Seoul

Tom 35
WTF?

Sounds like resonance to me.

"self-induced energy"

What? What a load of crap!

The energy came from the wind. Without resonance the motion could not have reached destructive levels.

TalkTalk watchdog smackdown after ad complaint

Tom 35

smackdown?

Hardly. Not even a slap with a wet noodle.

AMD says Xbox 720 graphics to be good as Avatar

Tom 35

bury it in a volcano

No the Volcanos are full scientology aliens, you will have to fire it into the sun.

Blighty's top cop quits over phone-hacking scandal

Tom 35

'nothing to see here - move along' policy.

Followed by what evidence 'fingers in ears... la la la la...'

It only came to light because there were "important" people affected. Unlike Phorm where only normal people who can be safely ignored were upset.

Wikileaks loses briefly-open Icelandic payment channel

Tom 35

At the same time

They don't seem to be able (or care about) fake AV and bogus pills using their payment system to rip off people.

Entering a storage jail

Tom 35

Still has control freaks

I live in Canada so no Amazon MP3s for me. I can buy a CD from Amazon.com and they will ship it to me, but I can't buy an MP3.

Tom 35

I avoid HD versions of old classics

A 35mm film that was shown wide screen in theatres is intended to be viewed pan and scan on 4:3 SD?

Made for TV stuff sure, don't upsample SD material and try and charge me extra for it. But I don't have a problem with a proper HD version of a classic theatrical movie.

Just don't put copy protection crap on them so I have to upgrade the software of my player ever few months just to play them ($#&@! Fox).

UK will obey Euro unisex-insurance rules from 2013

Tom 35

Add as much margin as you can get away with

When the company I've used for 15 years jacked up my rate 10% (no claims...) I got a much lower price and switched. When I cancelled the old policy they called me up, and offered me a rate a little better then the new policy (magic) even though they said they could not do anything before I switched. Told then they had had their chance and to piss off. They see a loyal customer as a sucker to be ripped off, not someone who should be getting the best deal.

Tom 35

passed their test via the accompanied driving scheme

Who said anything about that? If someone passed their test via the accompanied driving scheme they get a discount, male or female. If the female didn't take the extra training, and the male did then the male would pay less. Don't accuse others of using a straw man argument and turn around and do it yourself.

EU cloud data can be secretly accessed by US authorities

Tom 35

wholly owned subsidiary

Is still US owned. They would have to outsource to a EU owned company.

Fox News tweets hacked to show Obama death stories

Tom 35

Hack?

Sounds more like someone at Fox just posted their wet dream.

If it had been a hack I expect it would be more like...

Sarah Palin died after choking on a weiner.

The freakonomics of smut: Does it actually cause rape?

Tom 35

Link means Link

You talk about links, but why are the links there? During prohibition in the US there was a link between gangsters and booze. Booze has it's problems but gangsters are far worse. There is a link between drug gangs and prostitution as I'm sure you would agree. There is no natural link, between any of these things other then money.

If you try and ban something the people who are willing to break the law, or who are already breaking other laws will take over if there is money to be made. As the US found with prohibition it's better to regulate and try and reduce problems then to ban stuff.

Tom 35

There MUST be a link

Some years ago there was an anti porn group handing out "information" that was saying that violent criminals in jail use more porn then the general population, proof that porn caused violent crime.

Thanks to a story in that days paper I pointed out that smoking in prison (before they banned it) was much higher then the general population, around 2.5 times greater then the difference they were reporting for porn use. So by their logic smoking must be causing all the violent crime...

But that was just silly, no one thinks smoking causes violent crime... but it's obvious that porn is bad.

Oracle: 'Google owes $2.6bn in damages'

Tom 35

Google owes $2.6bn damages

Don't forget the pony while your making wishes.

Blow to the head makes people feel good about religion

Tom 35

They were on to something

They also had the line of guys whacking themselves in the head with boards.

Visa pushes NFC operator bypass on French

Tom 35

Do not want chip on an SD

"but not using microSD – which is a shame as it is probably the additional case/antenna that put them off, rather than the cards themselves."

Or they bought a phone with an SD slot so they could use it for storage, not a Visa chip.

Apple, Google, Microsoft seek gargantuan tax break

Tom 35

BS

"Providing American businesses with incentives to invest at home"

No it will provide MORE incentive to invest outside so you can get more tax free profit.

Tom 35

The video didn't work...

But it's on youtube... http://youtu.be/7itFRiTk0Y0

Bloke pissing in reservoir prompts 8m gallon flush

Tom 35

"Do you want to drink pee?" he asked bluntly.

I'll take a bit of pee over dead bird tea.

US air passenger cuffed over low-flying pants

Tom 35

Cowboy?

More like a duck. Watching one try to run to catch a bus is always good for a laugh.

Apple iOS 5 gets web 3D...for ads only

Tom 35

They need this

So they can compete with Flash ads on other systems...

Microsoft warns on support scams

Tom 35

I'm calling from Microsoft network support...

me- Why are you telling me about your dick?

them- What? Long silence followed by click.

LTE vs broadcasters: let the spectrum wars begin

Tom 35

So they took away the Analog TV

Setup new digital TV, then give mobile phones spectrum that will interfere with it.

Is there any one at the wheel?

European Council: Creating hacking tools should be criminal across EU

Tom 35

Danger ahead

The term "hacking tools" needs to be well defined (it will not be I expect). You would not want to ban hammers or baseball bats just because they can and have been used as weapons. The same can be said of some computer tools, they can be used by both white and black hats.

iCloud Communications sues Apple for 'irreparable injury' to trademark

Tom 35

For a start

The same people Apple thought would be confused by the iPood shovel.

Apple iCloud: Same old cage, new height

Tom 35

Except

"Physical goods have the problem of portability and distributability"

If your talking about "content" there is an artificial problem created by the content companies. I can buy a book, CD or DVD from amazon Japan and they will ship it to me in Canada (and I have). But I can't buy an MP3 from Amazon US. I'm sure the icloud is the same, it would only sync stuff that's available from itunes Canada. I'd be SOL for most of the import CDs I own (if I had a newer idevice then my 2G ipod touch).

Facebook: 'We should've been more clear' on face-scanning tech

Tom 35

add tags of their friends in photos: something that'sndone more than 100 million times a day

And about 99 million of them are people tagging their "friends" names to "other" things like the back end of a horse for example.

Canadian Conservative Party website defaced

Tom 35

Fooled the news

It was reported on the radio Tuesday morning, followed by a retraction a few hours later.