Oo
I was thinking of going with EE in order to get a Lumia 920 but if they're already going to be bought out by someone, this can't end well for punters. Or at least as far as my actual understanding of these things goes. I could be wrong.
Posts by Thomas 4
1519 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009
Page:
City sugar daddies mulling £10bn bid for EE, say sources
Antivirus update broke our interwebs, howl Win XP users
Earth-like planets abound in red dwarf systems
Could this be Google's slick new touchscreen Chromebook?
US military advisor calls for McKinnon pardon, recruitment of "master hackers"
Wednesday 6th February 2013 10:12 GMT
I forget who it was that said something this
No-one knows who the world's greatest hackers are, because you've never heard of them. They leave no abusive messages on the system, they mess with as little as possible and above all they keep their mouths shut.
Hiring someone from Anonymous or Lulzsec will be as much use to you as a chocolate kettle and considerably more noisy.
BlackBerry 10: Good news, there's still time to fix this disaster
Tick-tock, TalkTalk: Users face fourth day of titsup broadband
Samsung: Never mind Steve Jobs, let's snap off a piece of stylus biz
Surface left on shelves as world+dog slurps up small slates
Sick software nasty uses child abuse pics to extort infected victims
BlackBerry bets fans are willing to upgrade skills
Thursday 31st January 2013 09:39 GMT
Re: Pricing
Those prices are very interesting. Hitting that sort of spot makes the Lumia 920 look extremely expensive (about £70 more) and the Lumia 820, while £100 cheaper, lacks 1GB RAM and has an inferior screen.
Could we be seeing a price drop on the 920 soon? You can see the effect of the Microsoft licencing fee for Win Phone 8 at work here.
All that said, I'm looking at either the Z10 or a Win Phone 8 of some sort for my next device. Which would you lot go for?
Wii-U boat torpedoes Nintendo's '¥20bn profit' into ¥20bn loss
Wednesday 30th January 2013 13:18 GMT
Re: I really wish people would stop doing this
You make a good point about price but then you might also have to factor in a 24 month contract as well with some of the devices.
Don't get me wrong; having seen some of the gaming phones are capable of, there will be a few 3Dses and Vitas unbought as a result (Sony, why did you have to make such a f*** up of the Xperia Play? >.<) . I guess my point is that not everyone buys a smartphone purely for the gaming capabilities of it, whereas everyone buys a handheld gaming console for pretty much only that, so comparing sales figures is misleading.
Wednesday 30th January 2013 11:49 GMT
I really wish people would stop doing this
"The 3DS fared better, with Q4 sales up 11 per cent year on year, from 11.43 million to 12.71 million. But that’s still far behind 217 million smartphones that shipped in the last three months of 2012, according to market watcher Strategy Analytics."
When you can make phone calls, plan appointments & meetings, send emails, send texts and take camera-quality photos with a 3DS, then it will be a fair comparison. But as it stands now, it's like comparing a car with an iPod. Both have the capability to play music but they're for two completely different purposes.
Compare like with like, please.
Star Trek saviour JJ Abrams joins the dark side: Star Wars VII
'We are not concerned about your patents at all' - Jobs
‘That’s not art’ says Apple as it pulls nudes from AppStore
Mobes, web filth 'pornifying' our kids, warns top Labour MP
Holy classic car auction, Batman! They sold THE Batmobile!
Engineers are cold and dead inside, research shows
Oz library finds Lance Armstrong books a new home: The fiction section
why is there an Apple forum?
Sunday 20th January 2013 01:20 GMT
Re: why is there an Apple forum?
Several months ago, there was a board meeting at The Register offices, with Mr Orlowski and the sub-editors in attendance. The meeting covered opening up the comments section into a full-blown forum. They discussed the pros and cons of such an action; increased page hits, potential liabilities and so on.
At the very end, one of the sub-editors said, "This "dogged" guy, what can we do to troll this bastard as hard as humanly possible?" and bingo, an Apple sub-forum was born.
Playboy fined £100k by Blighty watchdog for FLASHING SMUT at kids
McDonalds burger app gives it to you straight from the horse's mouth
Obama calls for study into games ‘n’ guns link
US taxman joins UK politicoes on hunt for Amazon cash
NRA: Video games kill people, not guns. And here's our video game
Wednesday 16th January 2013 11:23 GMT
Re: An NRA spokespersons said...
He is quite correct though - video games *can* kill people.
I remember from my time in college someone brought in a pirated copy of Doom on CD. My friend already had it and, in a fit of boredom, turned the CD into a ninja star and almost took our lecturer's eye out with it.
Sheffield ISP: You don't need a whole IPv4 address to yourself, right?
Smooth criminals spared the clink for hacking Sony's Jacko archive
Zuck on that! Instagram loses HALF its hipsters in a month
Drop that can of sweet pop and grab a coffee - for your sanity's sake
Manning was 'illegally punished', will get 112 days lopped off any sentence
Thursday 10th January 2013 16:49 GMT 
The poor bastard has already lost
Not in the sense of the trial but in what he was trying to achieve. He sure as hell didn't leak all that information "for the lulz" as most hackers are wont to do. He leaked it to try and get the military to be more open with its mistakes.
Now however, no-one in possession of a full set of marbles will try to leak military detail in future. "See that guy we locked up without trial and subjected to inhumane conditions? That's exactly what you'll get if you try and do what he did."
All the stuff about the trial is merely paperwork. The mesage has been made loud and clear.
Baby sharks are so HARDCORE they avoid baddies like tiny ninjas
Report: RIM plans six BlackBerry 10 handsets for 2013
At last! A REAL use for NFC: Bonking butler bots and oven-puters
Hey, tech titans! Those smartmobe sales bans? Give it a rest. NOW
Wednesday 9th January 2013 13:48 GMT
And there's the problem
"Of course, while their opinions may carry some weight with judges and lawmakers, no one actually has to obey the statement as it's not legally binding."
Neither Apple or Samsung or anyone else will play nice unless they are legally forced to. "Why the hell should we when all these other bastards aren't?"
Guess who'll grab Facebook Sponsored Stories payout? (Hint: Not the victims)
Which qualifications are worthwhile?
Tuesday 8th January 2013 14:42 GMT
An update to the OP
First off, thanks for all the replies so far, including the ones doubting my sanity.
To elaborate a little on my interests - I do actually *enjoy* working with computers, especially dealing with the hardware side of things. I get a strange sense of satisfaction in watching a system I've put together or upgraded boot up and run as sweet as a nut. I also enjoy exploring things about computers that I don't know too well. Manually configuring networks, the dustier corners of Control Panel, mucking around with Linux. Learning new things and then being able to apply them in a troubleshooting context - I like stuff like that.
Of course, I do understand that a large amount of stress comes from computer problems that are not software or hardware related...but then again, I can't imagine it's too different to working with patients. Failing that, there's always the five-pound lump hammer in my IT toolbox as well.
I have done a Computer Studies A-Level in my dim and distant past but the majority of it was taken up with building a database and front end in Microsoft Access, which bored me to tears. We were also taught Pascal which was much more engaging - during the same period I also taught myself Visual Basic. The latter was not such a good idea; I wasted most of my lessons writing an almost passable game of "21" with a basic level AI opponent and forgot to work on the database.
Amusing anecdotes aside, ultimately I'd like to go into network administration, through means of support and helpdesk work (hands on if possible), looking after individual computers and building up from there. Linux support also looks very appealling but I was advised that I'd need some basic level Linux experience first before I'd be able to do the Comp TIA Linux+ course. I'm guessing books would be a good starting point, unless anyone knows of any good online resources?
Once again, I really appreciate the lengths everyone is going to to help me out here. You guys and gals rock.
Segway daddy unveils DIY weight-loss stomach pump
Microsoft burgled, only the APPLE iPADS stolen - cops confirm
John McAfee the Belize spymaster uncovers 'ricin, terrorist plots'
Nvidia takes fight to Sony, Nintendo with Android handheld console
Monday 7th January 2013 13:05 GMT
Undecided
Like many other folks, the aesthetics don't really hold much appeal for me.
That said, the ergonomics of this thing could be a very different kettle of fish. I played on a 3DS and found the controls immensely uncomfortable, having rather large hands. Even the PSP didn't get it quite right. A full size X-box control I can use comfortably for several hours of gaming. Maybe it's not something you'd play on the way to work but it'd be ideal for playing on holiday. The screen size should be larger than that of a PSP or 3DS as well.
As always the two things that are going to make or break this are the actual games available - the Xperia Play languishes in my cupboard due to a lack of decent titles - and pricing as well. If the price isn't on a par with either the 3DS XL or PS Vita, this thing will be dead in the water.
By the by, wasn't Razer working on something like this, or was it something else with a screen? Can't remember.
EDIT: Just thought of something else. The PC Streaming feature would be a very nice touch for me - playing Dark Souls & Witcher 2 while laying in bed or even in the tub (with caution ofc) sounds like a might appealing idea, especially considering how heavy my last laptop was.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
