* Posts by Bill B

287 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Jul 2009

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PARIS unveils impressive box

Bill B
Unhappy

Silent treatment

Is your son even speaking to you after you have publicly labelled him as your "glamorous assistant"?

Research links laptops to 'toasted skin syndrome'

Bill B
Pint

Simplest is best

I'm with Pete2 .. put the thing on a tray and spend the money you'd save on something sensible like beer

RIM opens its PlayBook – tablets clearly set for dominance

Bill B
Thumb Down

So .. its not out yet

I found this article annoying. It admits that RIM aren't planning to release this thing until next year, then talks about what it 'can' do. No .. it 'cannot' do it. It isn't out yet.

By the time it does come out there will be a whole raft of other tablets also out, possibly even an iPad2. THEN we can start comparing how well it matches up with the competition.

Bill B
WTF?

RTFA

I checked back with the article and yes .. it did say "perfectly capable of replacing some desktop PCs"

Not

"perfectly capable of replacing all desktop PCs including those with high end content creation and recording studio software"

So I think the article does actually agrre with your statement that "The tablet is not some all encompassing computing solution for everyone. "

You can calm down now

Amazon browserizes Kindle book samples

Bill B

Read a quarter of the book ...

but does it allow you to read the last page?

Ranting Ohio Republican scares interwebs

Bill B
Thumb Up

"Are you, or have you ever been, ...

a member of the democratic party?"

I agree about the context. I think someone has either asked him the above question or accused him of reading the Huffington Post.

Google Chrome OS tablet in repeat rumorfest

Bill B
Go

Can we have more speculation please?

I am VERY disappointed in the amount of coverage being given to the gPad.

If this had been a product from Apple, we would have a ton of articles about what's in it, who's making it, how big the screen was, what's the feature set , will it have a camera front, rear and on the side, why has manufacturer X bought 10,000 folding 10 inch screens based on super plasma led thingies technology... all about a year in advance of the actual release.

So come on guys .. up your game a bit. Why should fandroids miss out when fanbois get all the fun?

Facebook Places - why, and why not

Bill B
Thumb Down

@same ole crap

"A friend is someone who is there for you, who listens to your crap, who cares, who actually takes time to visit you and socialise with you."

So as soon as they move away from the area and go to NZ they stop being your friends?

Good God you're shallow.

Bill B
Happy

The title is *required,* and **must** contain letters and/or digits.

Depends if you want to use *italics* or just **bold**

Intel swallows McAfee: Why?

Bill B
Linux

Intel not just Hardware

One thing to remember is that Intel is not just a hardware company anymore. They also own Windriver, a Linux/RTOS supplier. Windriver's OS can be found in things like firewalls which is .. oh yes, a security device. They also provide and support a Linux based OS

Whatever you may think about McAfee's software, they *do* understand the nature of the security threat, because that's their business. Maybe an integration of Intel hardware, Linux OS and Mcafee's security knowledge might make for a more highly secure networked product?

Short passwords 'hopelessly inadequate', say boffins

Bill B
Pint

Password wallets?

Use Ilium's eWallet .. runs on Windows, OSX, iPhone and Android. Has a password generator which I use. They say they use 256 bit AES encryption. Can back up the wallet and save it in multiple places.

Of course if I forget the 12 character password to the wallet I'm stuffed. Not looking forward to the day dementia kicks in.

Beer because my brain cells need it.

3D films fall flat

Bill B

Costs to the punter of 3D

There have been a few comments about costs. Just to be specific, Cineworld Birmingham Broad Street charges the following for an adult going in the evening

Adult charge (same for 2D film) - £6.50

3D Surcharge (apparently to cover Real3D's license costs) - £2.10

Optional glasses (if you got some, don't have to buy new ones) - 80p

So it could cost £9.40 to see a 3D film, £8.60 if you have the glasses, compared with £6.50 to see a 2D film

Microsoft lines staff pockets with Windows 7 phone

Bill B
Thumb Up

Leave it in a bar

So, how many phones will be accidentally left in a bar and then found and sold to some tech mag.

And for how much?

NASA: Civilization will end in 2013 (possibly)

Bill B
FAIL

@RISC OS

I keep on meeting this sort of statement ("the Y2K was a damp squib") but I never expected it from an El-Reg commentator. Most of us in the industry are aware that it didn't happen because we put a fair amount of work making sure it didn't happen. We fixed at least two faults with our embedded controllers.

For you young 'uns .. Good luck with 2038.

Dell lands custom gaming server deal

Bill B

Available in the UK?

Although the article makes mention of a BT deal, the Onlive web site clearly states in its requirements

"Currently, the OnLive Game Service does not allow access to users outside of the contiguous United States."

Anyone know any details when the services comes to these shores?

Sam Mendes to helm new Jesus Phone ads

Bill B
Happy

Meaningless Void

"Now sit down, take deep breaths and contemplate just how you're going to fill the meaningless void between now and 7 June."

That's easy .. I'll be reading the increasing number of El-Reg articles speculating on the feature set and cost of the iPhone, commentating on the pros and cons of the iPhone and Apple, ranting on about the greatest gift God gave to man (Steve Jobs) or the Devil Incarnate (Steve Jobs) and of course the well reasoned and sound comments from your readers on all these articles.

Not sure how I'll survive after 7th June though.

Taxpayers may ship 736 iPads to Brussels

Bill B
Thumb Down

This sounds very familiar

Ah yes .. February of this year .. "Cambridgeshire City Council under fire for iPad proposal". After a lot of huffing and puffing it turns out the Council had been tasked with reducing paper and the possibility of using notebook and tablet devices was considered. Note the word 'considered'. Nowhere was the use of the iPad mentioned.

I just wonder if the background to this story is similar. Some enthusiastic UKIP member has jumped on a bandwagon and sexed up the story maybe? And there you are .. even i am speculating at this point!

Can we have an iPad icon? .. we get enough El-Reg stories to warrant it.

Steam rushes from Valve onto Macs

Bill B

Two minds about Steam

I must admit i've been burnt by subscription music services in the past so I'm wary about Steam. On the other hand, I can't remember when I last bought a music CD so I applaud the idea of being able to download games rather than going to buy them .. and having that game properly maintained.

The cost of Steam games also seems a bit high. Generally they are RRP, so you can get cheaper by going to Amazon. However, as one poster has pointed out they have sales most weekends and holidays, and then the price gets very competitive.

My approach at the moment is to buy games on sale. If Steam goes bust then I've lost a load of cheap games that i've probably only played for 3 months before moving on.

Oh and @Vladimir Plouzhnikov. 'Fraid I only ticked one of those boxes but good try at a generalisation.

SCO: jurors too busy Facebooking to rule on Unix claim

Bill B
Alien

Good God .. are they mad????

If a retrial is ordered on the basis that "the jury didn't understand the evidence" then it opens the door for ANY trial (criminal or otherwise) to be re-ordered on the same basis.

Surely even SCO don't believe that this request is going to be granted? Have their lawyers got them by some sensitive part of their anatomy, because the only winner here is the lawyers.

Aliens because I think SCO has been taken over by them.

The iPad will doom humanity to painful bog-roll horror

Bill B
Thumb Up

Author Author!

The author is billed as 'Team Register' but it has 'Lewis' written all over it (who else would coin the phrase 'bumwad'?)

I demand the real author stands up and accepts praise where it is due!

'iPhone 4G' found on floor of bar

Bill B
Thumb Down

Oh for c**p's sake

we've just got over the endless useless speculation over the iSlate/iPad/iWhatever and now we have to fill column inches over the next iThingy

I really think some people need to get a life

Google in talks to re-admit Android to Linux kernel

Bill B
Linux

@Android is a drop in the ocean of mainline Linux use

Sorry Jeff11, can you clarify?

> Android is installed on 30 smartphone MODELS

> Linux is installed on tens of millions of MACHINES

It seems that you're not comparing like with like.... did you mean Linux is installed on tens of millions of models?

Given that Linux has been around for some time and the variant called Android is still in its infancy I wouldn't dismiss it so fast. Even 7.1% of the US smartphone market is a lot of devices

iPhone 4.0: iAds, multitasking, and 98 tweaks

Bill B
Thumb Down

Pity no Multi-tasking on 3G phone

This is something I dislike about the iPhone. I don't really need multitasking (the ability to run a task in the background). What I would like is task switching (suspend an app when putting it into the background). It's a lot easier to suspend a task in the background, it doesn't use battery and the only cost is memory so I am often mystified as to why the iPhone doesn't allow this. As it is, I am constantly amazed that i have to shut down my email client when I click a link in the email

Murdoch promises WSJ on the iPad

Bill B
Pirate

Pride and Prejudice*

If you'd prefer zombies then can I suggest Seth Grahame-Smith's "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"?

Yes, I did a double take when i saw that in a bookshop as well.

Large Hadron Collider briefly back on over weekend

Bill B
Flame

The *Real* reason Dinos aren't around anymore

"mightiest particle-masher ever assembled by the human race"

Sorry Lewis ... what are you implying here? that the dinosaurs were, in fact, intelligent enough to build such a device and it was the use of the Dino LHC that resulted in their mass extinction?.

Gets my vote anyway.

Flames cause that's what we'll get when it all goes wrong.

'Fat birds get laid sooner, have more one-night stands'

Bill B
Thumb Up

Lewis Page .. 'nuff said

Read the title, checked the author and alarm bells rang .. bound to be a twist in the article somewhere.

I waz right

US judges leave definition of obscenity to Amish, Kansas

Bill B

I may be missing something but ...

The article is about publishing, not consumption. The guy was jailed because his servers were in Tampa. But if the servers had been in (say) California, why would the Tampa laws (or even the Amish) be used in prosecution?

Can States lawyers explain?

Silicone implants that generate 'leccy invented for US spooks

Bill B
Thumb Up

Playmobil

But where's the Playmobil illustration of a truck powered by silicone implants?????

Great excuse for a chat up line though "Excuse me, my batteries have run out, I wonder if you could help me ...?"

iSlate? I spy more control from Cupertino

Bill B
Pint

Over egging it a bit, mate?

I confess to owning an iPhone and I must admit, I haven't noticed Cupertino's iron control over everything I do on the thing. I've got all the music i want, suitable (and unsuitable) photos to show friends, all my email messages, calendar events, and most web pages that I would want (OK, I admit, I can't see the Flash movies on the BBC web site).

So, speaking as an owner of a consumer device which has some limitations but does most of what I want, I'd say you need to calm down a bit and have a nice cup of tea and don't get so fret up about Apple's business model.

You can always buy whatever alternative comes along. It's a free market, after all!

(Beer because maybe you need something stronger?)

Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy

Bill B
Black Helicopters

Google's Global Privacy Counsel

There is a wonderful personal blog on privacy by Google's Global Privacy Counsel (Peter Fleischer) at http://peterfleischer.blogspot.com/2009/12/on-sidewalk-in-milan.html. He emphasises that his ruminations are his, not Googles, which is just as well, since his article is in almost direct contradiction with Google's CEO.

Jobs jumps in to free private APIs

Bill B
WTF?

Private APIs

"So somewhere inside Cupertino is a list of developers who'll have to be tipped the wink if changes are made to the private APIs used"

I'm sorry, why does Apple have to tip them a wink? If someone uses private APIs they do so at their own risk. Why should Apple have to bear the cost of someone using an undocumented feature?

Palm Pre re-re-introduces iTunes synchronization

Bill B
Thumb Down

USB Vendor and device IDs

For those who are slightly confused by this .. I write software to interface through to a number of USB devices and we do check (and use) the vendor and product ID .. there's nothing wrong with this.

The main reason for doing this is that we then know what we're talking to and know how the hardware is going to respond. We don't actually use all the capabilities of the hardware, but if we needed to some time in the future we know that we could without any problems, because we 'know' what the hardware is.

Apple are unlikely to have released the hardware specs of their devices so Palm will have reverse engineered the communications. Unfortunately, all they know is what the hardware is doing at the time they did the reverse engineering. If Apple have decided to not implement a function, that non implementation is a time bomb. If Apple subsequently implement a function they expect the hardware to respond correctly. Unfortunately the Palm may not do so and what would get blamed? "I upgraded to iTunes 15 and my Palm bricked".

Apple have made no secret of the fact that their hardware is closed. In fact, it's a mainstay of their company philosophy. They control the hardware and the software (partly) with the aim of ensuring a compatibility between the bits. Palm want to bypass this. Fine. But in my opinion it is a technically unsound decision.

WriteRoom

Bill B

Cheap as Chips?

Cone of chips costs 70p here in Brum. Where do you live?

Feds break Apple's code of App Store silence

Bill B

When did apple become a monopoly?

A number of posts have based their responses on apple's iPhone having a 'monopoly' or 'near monopoly'. I must have missed something somewhere, but the last figures I saw (which admittedly were in May) gave Apple about 11% compared with RM 20% and Nokia's 41%. Yup .. apple has an app store, but 45% of smartphone users still prefer Nokia's offering, with or without an app store.

US Dems fill inboxes with 419 scams

Bill B
Pint

@g_mannings

I was rather impressed with this post. I must admit that I thought the article was about bad design, not a criticism of PHP but clearly given the length of g's post I must have been wrong.

Can we have a bucket of water icon to douse the flames? The only alternative seems to be a waste of good beer.

Reg reader captures Perseid meteor

Bill B
Happy

@EXIF data

He was probably fully clothed.

Landlord sues tenant over moldy Tweet

Bill B
FAIL

Works both ways

Hmm .. I read the press release from the company that they posted yesterday. They claim the roof had a leak in march, tenant tweeted in May, left in June with no evidence of mold in the vacated apartment (or anywhere else in the property) and sued the company. The twitter comment was turned up when they set up their defense. So, if you believe this, there wasn't any mold, they weren't stalking the tenant and the tenant was the one that took them to court in the first place. To several posters on this page .. guys .. you do actually read up the background to a story before you post, don't you?

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