* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7136 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Lets hope for two things

1) all these little tricks get collected together

2) MS don't play hardball and take out things like this little tip.

You never know, they might just mess it all up out of spite especially if the people involved in putting the Start Menu back are the same ones who took it all away.

SamSUNK! Korean giant's electronics biz takes punch to the smartphone profits

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Apple does not bake their own silicon

They use the likes of Samsung and TSMC to do it for them.

Other than that, it seems that the writing is on the wall. If they don't manage a specucalar turn around their high end (and thus the bigger profit margin) devices will become a liability.

At the bottom end, can they really compete with the likes of Lenovo and Xaoimi?

It appears that they can't, Then IMHO it looke like Samsung Mobiles will become a niche player much like HTC etc

Now if only the Google devices were more widely available.

Let's be clear, everyone: DON'T BLOCK Wi-Fi, DUH – FCC official ruling

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Hotels next step?

will be to start lobbying the inhabitants of Capitol Hill.

Then they'll put pressure on the FCC

Normal (WiFi blocking) service will be resumed.

Then the lawyers will get involved.

Fanbois to gamebois: Apple paperwork reveals iOS FUNPAD

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Another prior art work

From the article

The patent has been pending for six years and

Unless Logitech can show that their solution is totally different OR has a prior date to this application then there is nothing for them to gain from starting a case against Apple.

What's that, Microsoft? Yep, a Lumia and Surface SALES BOOM

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

no surprise there

given the amount that MS spent on advertising the Surface over Christmas.

The other question is (apart from are they making a profit) is how their market share is looking?

Then the thing that mayt well put this into perspective are the Apple numbers for their Q4.

How many more iPhones than Luminas did they (apple) sell?

Nexus 6 would have had a fingerprint reader, but Apple RUINED IT ALL

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Coat

Re: Court ruling

No need for a finer control

Just implement a feature where using a certain digit (or password) invokes a hard data erase.

Then the Feds etc may think twice about forcing you to allow them access.

Or be like me an not use a smartphone for personal use.

Mines the one with a Nokia 6310i in the pocket.

'Linus Torvalds is UNFIT for the WORKPLACE!' And you've given the world what, exactly?

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Compiling Kernels?

The last time I built a custom kernel was around 10 years ago.

Sure, I can still do it if I wanted but I really don't have to these days.

Personally, I still prefer the RSX-11S Sysgen Process. Now that was a custom kernel.

(ok, the RT-11 one was just as good)

Why so tax-shy, big tech firms? – Bank of England governor

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Well Duh!

Lawyers and Accountants who become Politicians ONLY pass lawys that will benefit their bretherin. viz, other Lawyers and Accountants.

When the rest of us plebs realise that we might get both a legal and political system that will serve the rest of us and not just that clique.

Doomsday Clock says 3 minutes to midnight. Again

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Look at meeeeeeee!!!!!!

How do you know? do you have some inside information on the subject?

The last time I went to a Physics Lab there were a good few babes in white coats working there.(I was fixing an errant Computer)

What was Tim Cook worth to Apple in 2014? $9 MILLION, apparently

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

how does this compare to the heads of ... say,

Oracle,

IBM,

Microsoft

HP

Google

Facebook

Twitter?

etc?

For a company this size, it does not seem to be that high.

Netadmin wanted for 'terrible, terrible, awful job nobody wants'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: That's my job!

Those MCSE drones would have to use Bing. That's why they can't find the solutions.

FIVE Things (NOT 10: these are REAL) from the WINDOWS 10 event

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Pricing

This is a perfectly good question. One that a lot of people would like to know the answer for.

Yet it gets a downvote?

Would the person who downvoted the post care to explain why they did this?

Or will they just downvote this one as well out of spite?

Microsoft just saved Windows Phone... Now stop whining

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Brilliant Comment!

Apple made iphone just happen, in parallel, and made it a business. With WP, MS are stuck on that file transfer dialog from windows 95 that keeps getting 5 minutes longer, every 5 minutes.

Those few words realy sum up the difference between the two systems.

Thank you.

Obama makes net neutrality pledge in State of the Union

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: You are taking it seriously, that is your problem

As Obama can't stand for re-election your point there is moot.

IMHO, all over the USA there are many corporate bosses going 'Over my dead body' when they hear this sort of proposal.

good luck to him getting any legislation to back this up approved by the Replublican controlled houses on Capitol Hill.

Obama is a lame duck president and most of corporate American knows it.

Sad really but that is the way US Politics is.

Hong Kong mogul mulls multi-billion pound bid for O2 – report

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Anybody...

Ok,

What about

VM?

Talk-Talk?

Sky?

AT&T?

Verizon?

etc

etc

Better the devil you know then

But as we know, BT has its eyes set on EE

BEET that then?

Future imperfect: A UK broadband retrospective

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

About time councils put their foot down

and insisted that ALL new housing developments have FTTP from the outset.

A friend of mine moved into a new development last year and could only get 2Mb ADSL. That didn't last long because they (like most of their neighbours) went totally mobile getting 4G connectivity. There was a Mast 200yds down the road so don't tell me that there was no high speed connectivity available locally.

a few councils putting this as a requirement for granting planning permission might get the whole FTTP movement kickstarted.

BMW: ADMEN have asked us for YOUR connected car DATA

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: What?

sorry, you got it wrong. Several cars I've rented in the USofA have a nagging habit of forgetting the settings. One totally lost itself because the battery had to be replaced (2month old car). Nothing worked apart from the stupid 'get me to a dealer mode'. The nearest dealer wanted $500 to re-enable the car. Thankfully the Rental Company told them what they could do with their business in the future if they charged for the service.

Just a glimpse of the future IMHO

So your post should read

My first question would be "how do I switch all that shit off SO THAT IT NEVER COMES BACK ON?"

It looks like my next car will be my last. I really don't want all this shite.

Google UK doubles London Kings X mega-office sprawl

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: (cough) Tax (cough)

I wonder how this change is where VAT is levied will pan out for the Chocolate Factory.

Now they'd have to charge UK VAT on those contracts the excuse that all the biz is done in the Emerald Isle starts to look a bit thin.

GoPro feels COLD BREATH of APPLE on back of neck

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Patent application citing other patents

This is very common.

you can patent a different way of doing something that is described in another patent OR

you can patent somthing that is an improvement on the methods described in the patent referenced in the new application.

Unless you are a patent lawyer you really can't say if the grant was justifable or not. Us laymen/laywomen can only speculate about the validity of the patents.

Big Blue's biggest mainframe yet is the size of a fridge

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Paris Hilton

and the cost of the software licenses?

About as much as one of the skyscrapers in the picure probably....

Paris because even she'd blink at thost costs.

What do UK and Iran have in common? Both want to outlaw encrypted apps

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Ahh The dereaded VPN

The app that allows you to connect securely to your company mothership using encryption.

As such it is a prime candidate for being banned.

Will gov.uk try to outlaw its use?

They can try but they will fail. The corporae sponsors of the ConDem Gov will have something to say about that with an election looming.

Mind you, Junos Pulse could do with being wiped off the face of the earth for interfering with VM private networks.

OS X search tool Spotlight runs roughshod over Mail privacy settings

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Or?

Don't use the default supplied Email Client.

I use Thunderbird. Seems to work ok.

On the subject of privacy, why does MS Office for Mac ask me after every update to allow remote access to Word/Excel etc? I said no before but you keep on trying.

Got a 4King big TV? Ready to stream lots of awesome video? Yeah, about that…

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Alien

Perhaps....

you have been watching far too much 'Babestation' then?

honest Guv, It was for research purposes only.

Windows XP beats 8.1 in December market share stats

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Support is impossible

spot on.

Circa 2009, I was having more than enough problems with my own Windows Laptop to be half arsed to do family support.

So I switched to a Macbook Pro.

Now I could tell those relatives, 'sorry, don't use windows anymore'.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: I'd consider switching from XP to 7...

Win 7 costs more than 8.1 BECAUSE Microsoft does not want you to use Win 7.

for most people, Win7 is good enough becuse they don't want those silly tiles and are not using touch screens.

Yes you can get rid of them but most punters won't have a clue about how to do it.

ergo, the lower price attracts (as well as the only thing they are letting the major OEM builders ship with it installed now)

all the bleating and wailing from us 'experts' ain't gonna change that attitude until windows 10 goes GA.

Thunderstrike shocks OS X with firmware bootkit

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Unhappy

Dupe?

Wasn't this posted before Crimble?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/24/hack_makes_bootkit_airgap_sling_from_mac_thunderbolts/

It's 2015 and ATMs don't know when a daughterboard is breaking them

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: anyone know if its possible to get banks to disable payment-by-bonk on your card?

There are RFID Blocking Wallets available you know. Otherwise wrap the card in cooking foil until you want to use it.

Samsung forks 4K with Tizen tellies

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Coat

Re: I want

apparently Apple make a nice device called the iMac Retina that might do what you want.

mines the one with a big 'downvote' target on the back.

Micron stacks its 3D NAND high in 2015

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Circle?

but we’ll be sure to keep in touch and we’ll circle with you when we have more information that we can share

does that have the same meaning at the word 'Conversation' that is going to get overused in the next few months by red tinged poilticians?

i.e. We'll tell you what you want to hear but we don't have even the foggiest idea about how or when we'll deliver it? don't even ask about cost because as with al lthings new and shiny they are sure to cost you an arm and a leg.

THREE MILLION Moonpig accounts exposed by flaw

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Lipstick on a Pig!

nothig more to be said really.

No cellphones in cells, you slag! UK.gov moots prison mobe zap law

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Solution

Or one of the aircraft Carriers just pensioned off. Lovely metal walls already in place.

Anchor it off Rockall and they'd onlt be in SatPhone range.

Double-digit tablet growth spurt is OVER, say pundits

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

good as they first thought

Tablets are good consumption devices. no so good at creation.

for a lot of people this is all they need. If they bought them with this in mind then your assumption is wrong.

My tablet is used mainly as an e-book reader. The 4:3 screen ratio is perfect. It also holds apprx 5GB of PDF documents. The widescreen nature of most mobiles is not ideally suited for that sort of use (IMHO).

Saudi Arabia hires 'ethical hackers' to silence smut slingers

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Around Mayfair?

Oh, you mean just down the road from the Saudi Embassy then.

Nvidia flops out teraflop X1 for self-aware cars

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: But

Who cares about Powerpoint?

Don't you mean Crysis?

Hey look! Microsoft's workforce isn't all white men

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Strange Minority

The problem I have with all these percentages is

For example,

How many women want to work in the Testosterone filles IT Industry?

My guess is a lot less than the percentage of women in the community.

so having quotas base upon population percentage is wrong.

Not sure what the right measure is though.

Renault Captur: Nobody who knows about cars will buy this

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Holmes

Things still made in France?

A nice Claret from Bordeaux perhaps?

Some Tomme de Savoir? (esp from the mountains)

Apple's 16GB iPhones are a big fat lie, claims iOS 8 storage hog lawsuit

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Dozens if not hundreds of Shysters

Are just salivating at the possibility of Apple losing this case

Pretty well every company who has ever sold a device that has an OS is in the frame to be sued

If Apple loses this case may well have to go to the USSC to be resolved.

Lets hope the lawyers in this case have very, very deep pockets.

This could take 5+ years before we see a resolution.

1,000mph ROCKET CAR project dogged by beancounters

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pirate

Accountants are BOF's

Their sole goa lin life is to stop anyone from having fun.

"It costs too much"

"There is no viable ROCI on that plan."

"The payback for this investment is more than three months. Anything longer is just not going to get approved."

Maybe we should add Accountants to the list of processions that will be eliminated along with Politicians and Lawyers comd the revolution?

{Only joking Mr NSA/GCHQ honest}

Brit iPad sellers feel the pain of VAT-free imports

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Caveat Emptor?

so you splash the cash for one of these.

What happens when you get it and after paying the Import duty is fails to work?

What if is is like those 8GB USB Sticks that only had a 1GB capacity

Then there is the issue of warranty

Grey Import? Apple/Nikon/Canon/etc will just laugh at you and send you on your way.

Zuckerberg asks the public to tell him where to go in 2015

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Coat

Suggestions?

Use his billions to build a rocket ship and send it to Mars with him at the helm.

Change his name on the way to Ziggy and spend the rest of his money looking for Spiders.

Mines the one with 'Keep Calm and don't use FaceBook' on the back.

30 years ago today, the first commercial UK 'mobile' phone call was made

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Memories

It also cost about a £1.00 a minute to call it, which was a lot of money in them days.

Still used by a few networks for roaming calls so with that and the crazy trend for phablets

it is pretty safe to say,

not a lot has changed.

A load of show off's still saying 'I'm on the train' in loud and obnoxious voices.

UK retailers in TABLET PRICE SLASH BONANZA

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Don't forget

The malware as well as the security holes.

Caveat Emptor and all that.

I have a cheapo noname android tablet. I use it for playing solitaire and other simple games. These were loaded the day I bought it in HK. I have read lots of reports about the malware that it was shipped with. So there is no way it is ever coming out of Airplane mode.

I got what I paid for. My issue is with the average job punter out there who really do not know what they are letting themselves in for with some of these cheapo bits of kit.

HP breaks for Xmas week - aka 'staff hols' - source

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Nothing to see here

Got rid of vacation?

Care to explain for those of us who live in places where there are laws that prevent this sort of thing.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

HP - Invent

Soon they will lay claim to have invented 'Wakes Week' or 'Trades Fortnight'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakes_week

for those who don't remember

'Apple of China' Xiaomi: Yep, we HAVE just bagged $1.1 BEELLION

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: No need for a duel

don't you mean Poundland?

Buses? PAH. Begone with your filthy peasant-wagons

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Coat

Re: toll lanes

Only if the said BSA Bantam is a D1 model. Anything later is far too comfortable.

{Passed my test on a D7 in 1971}

Mines the 1970 vintage waxed cotton Barbour Jacket with a pair of Aviator Goggles in the pocket.

Freedom of Info at 10: Tony Blair's WORST NIGHTMARE

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: pass on to the losers to help them shaft me in the future.

Badly written contracts?

Isn't that the SOP for both Local and National Governments (of all types?)

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

With Apoligies to Keith Waterhouse

Blair === B Liar (Billy Liar)

Festive post-pub noshtastic neckfiller: HEARTY HOG MAW

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Pigs Stomach

What about the stuff that Cheffy Chefs wrap around Faggots and real Haggis then?

{Ok, this casing usually comes from Sheep}

but it is much thiner and more edible than pigs stomach.

Any rate what with the season of proper Haggis to come, I don't think that the likes of McSweens will be quaking in their boots.

Strange that your recipe didn't include any parsley or other flavouring. The Hogs Maw that I have eaten in PA was always well seasoned with herbs like parsley (fresh not dried) or something like Nettle.