Posts by AndrueC

Re: Physical key

Some of my fellow Corolla owners got caught out because of the lock downs. Hybrid Corollas have a smaller 12v battery than conventional vehicles because it doesn't have to start the ICE. It only needs to power accessories and keep the alarm/door system ticking over.

But if you don't move the car for several weeks that 12v battery could go flat. The higher spec Corollas (and lower spec models now) have keyless entry. But that doesn't work if the 12v battery is flat. The good news that the key fobs (needed anyway to get in) have a mechanical key inside them. The bad news is that the head of the key is very small. It's a semi circle with a diameter of 10mm so fiddly to use. Plus because a lot of people with keyless entry have never used the mechanical key the lock is stiff.

That left some people locked out of their cars.

Thankfully I'd already invested in a trickle charger and anyway keep my car inside a locked garage so don't lock the doors. It's a pity Toyota couldn't have designed the car so that the main battery periodically gave the 12v battery a top-up but I suppose that would have added more costs and most of the time it isn't needed. The car will sit unused for a couple of weeks without a problem apparently. I know I parked mine at an airport for nine days it was fine.

Re: Was web trust ever really alive in the first place?

And banking itself. When you deposit money the bank isn't 'looking after it for you'. You are actually giving the bank your money. You hope/assume that they will honour their side of the contract which is to give you some of their money when you ask for it.

Re: Why is Google not liable for damages?

There's far too much software and devices out there configured by default to auto-update and even set so can't refuse updates without taking action many users wouldn't know how to and it's obvious that after decades of buggy software and firmware and brickings, destruction of peoples data, removing functions the user paid for, that it's time "something must be done" to protect users from the negligence and cavalier attitudes of the manufactures. It's time their contracts and Ts&Cs were properly challenged in a court of law and not "settled out of court", allowing them to continue their poor and shoddy practices.

It's a nice idea and I'd love that to happen. However I think we also have to consider the impact that would have on the price of stuff and also the pace of innovation. There is a shortage of software developers - always has been, always will be - so making consumer kit more reliable and longer lasting is going to increase development life cycles significantly.

Can you really see a sweat shop upping their game when working on the software for the next bit of consumer tat to appear? You might end up in a situation where there is an almost niche market of expensive quality kit that evolves only slowly and the rest is in a innovation race to the bottom.

Re: I wish...

That is a common misconception. When someone like Musk sits on shares of Tesla, those funds are NOT circulating in the economy - they're tied up in Tesla, which is just his own baby.

I agree. Just to be clear I was quoting two separate examples there. Mr Musk is one example where most of his wealth is tied up in a company. The other example is a more general observation about wealthy people and how most of their wealth /is/ circulating in the economy.

There might be better things that could be done with that money but who gets to decide? Some of their wealth is being used to fund FTTP roll-outs in the UK at the moment. And what happens to all the people that Ferrari employ (directly and indirectly through related services and suppliers) if it's determined that people shouldn't be allowed to squander money on expensive sports cars?

We live in a complicated and interconnected world and you shouldn't separate out one group of people and act like they have no connection to the rest.

No I think I was working for Williamson Technical Services

It was a long time ago but there is a company based in North Wales of that name so I'm probably right. They too appear to have grown which is nice to know. Think I was there around 1989.

Re: Can you opt out of the data collection on smart TVs?

If it's logging anything about me it's 'Always watches HDMI 1' :D

Now Sky probably has a sizeable dossier on me but if it means they and their partners keep churning out stuff I like I don't care. I never watch live TV so I don't care if they target adverts - I never see them anyway :)

Re: Perspective

Yup we even get our own staff reporting errors to us by sending us a screenshot of the dialog box. Every single freakin' time our first reply is 'Can you send us the log files please?

Re: Why?

..and the only router you can use is the one they give you.

I am just old enough - at 54 - to remember what the UK telephone network was like under government ownership. There were some clever people at the PO producing some clever kit but the government was unable/unwilling to provide the funds to exploit it.

As a result the network was an unreliable and expensive mess.

Re: Wishful thinking

In the UK we still haven't been able to dislodge BT from it's uncompetative pole position in the ISP market, all carriers except Virgin must use the BT hardware equipment.

Not true. Anyone with deep enough pockets can install their own equipment. And the costs can be significantly reduced by things like PIA which mean you (probably) don't have to dig your own trenches or install your own poles. If you need rack space in an exchange BT are obliged to accommodate you if at all possible. In addition Ofcom does a pretty good job of keeping prices down on the various wholesale services that BT make available to third parties.

The only reason you don't see a huge amount of that going on(*) is because it costs money to wire over 25 million properties up and frankly it's not worth the bother. The best place to differentiate yourself is in the actual service and the UK has a thriving ISP market with more choice than you can shake a router at.

(*)Although LLU is still quite popular once the DSLAMs moved out of exchanges into neighbourhoods most CPs lost interest so instead paid BT for an ethernet point in the exchange where they could install their own backhaul.

And you might be surprised at how many backhaul providers have equipment in BT exchanges and their own national network. BT is still the biggest because it's everywhere but BT is not the only game in town.

Re: Management Idiocy in full effect

With the fibre network (FTTP and cabinets) the exchange buildings are largely redundant now. Might as well sell them off and save the maintenance costs etc.

BT sold their exchanges off twenty years ago.

Re: Do I want Win 11?

I was surprised to find that my three year old HP 17-Y002NA laptop was compatible. I bought the laptop on the basis of price and screen size so it's hardly a roaring power house.

But I'm in no hurry to upgrade. I only use it for browsing and email. I'll wait until if/when Windows Update pushes it to me.

Re: A reminder Apple is late to services

I believe one of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition was along the lines of “If a thing is worth selling, it is worth selling twice”

You do know that there the Ferengi are a fictional species, right?

I hope they present the information using bullet points. I wouldn't want to shell out for the full report.

Re: "progressing along a trend line to 1 trillion transistors per device by 2030"

75 transistors ought to be enough for anybody.

Re: It becomes emabarrassing

And, ironically, UWP is probably still more widely used than Linux desktop :)

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

a suburb means of informing of current events

Yes I'm glad they didn't go to town on it.

It may be of superior sound quality

Except that it isn't. The technology could offer higher quality (although the protocol used was a bit long in the tooth when it was chosen) but instead broadcasters prefer to compress the whatsit out of the audio stream in order cram in as many different stations as possible.

Rumour has it that the industry might be more interested in revenue than quality. Amazing.