Posts by VinceH

Re: aw man

Try naming the file 'pictureofanakedlady.jpeg' - that way you'll thwart a lot of potential breaches simply because some people will be using systems behind filters to block out naughty things. Top tip.

Re: Gold standard available

"That's silly. There is no company in the world which is capable of that. Not even Google."

Huh?

You appear to be saying that there is no company in the world - not even Google - which is capable of raising " use of IFL to the level it was in [Google's] first years as compliance metric."

So Google aren't capable of making "I'm Feeling Lucky" as good as Google once made it?

Re: Something missing in this article

I suspect there's a little more to it than that. From the linked article:

"Mr Buckworth said a neighbouring passenger told a flight attendant: "Look what he's writing." "I turned to him and said, 'Yes, look what I'm writing. Read the whole sentence. I'm just writing some notes.' "

What's not explained is the tone of that retort - it may have come across as snappy, or angry - or if there was any further exchange (and there almost certainly will have been) between that point, and the point where he was being escorted off the plane, of which the guy explained:

""My concern is what it looked like to the rest of the people on the plane. I did tell them as I was leaving, 'I'm not a criminal. This man simply took something out of context that I was writing in my book. Just so you know and this whole fear thing isn't instilled even further.'"

So, yeah, I think he was probably removed from the flight for what happened and/or was said after the other passenger remarked to the flight attendant about what he was writing - details of which he has chosen not to share - rather than for what he'd written.

Re: Really? - @daldred

Indeed. Thanks for seeking out that - more meaninful - information, daldred.

Re: Oh, do report back on the experience

"[Only one downvote so far for coming out on el Reg as a day 1 iPhone purchaser? Whatever are things coming to....?]"

You may be a day one iPhone purchaser, and you may have openly admitted to being a sucker for the Apple hype - but in spite of all that, you still took a more reasoned and sensible approach to buying the product, rather than quamp* to get the new shiny. I suspect that may be a big factor in the lack of downvotes.

^{* Quamp. I just made that up as a portmanteau word to mean to queue and camp, which is what the real suckers do. Quamping for the new iToy.}

Re: All well and good...

"Meaning that if the Government have the phone, Apple can't get the data off... But if the phone is still in the possession of the owner, then it is - presumably - completely technically feasible to slurp anything off it by pushing something to the phone and have it run once unlocked."

You're overthinking it. The answer is more likely just as Lost all faith said. In all likelihood the statement specifically refers to devices in their possession because the same data in Apple's iCloud can be provided if a warrant requests it. Which, as you rightly point out, isn't the same as having access to the servers, so they can deny that as well.

Therefore, Apple are saying to fanbois everywhere, "Take off those tinfoil hats. They don't look trendy, hip, cool or, least of all, beautiful, and we'd rather not have our phones seen in public with people wearing such garments." Or something.

Re: >a plot to pull a random citizen from the streets, murder them by beheading

"an android^H^H^H^H^Harrow."

an anarrow ?

Re: Fill up yer memory

> "Fill up yer memory"

"That's hardly a practical idea now is it?"

Okay, try holding it wrong.

Re: He Got Too Much

The problem is that there are people who do actually say "of" instead of "have" or "'ve" - I hear it often. And they are definitely saying "of" - it's not me mishearing them. I suspect the origins lie further up the line where they've heard people saying "should've" etc, and actually thought they were saying "should of" etc, and that then gets repeated and offspring/other family members pick up on it and perpetuate it further.

So when someone writes "should of" instead of "should've" - it might not be that they can't spell, instead it might be that they actually think it should be "should of", and actually say it that way.

Re: Predictable authentication codes?

Yes, I think I've noticed that with the devices issued by HSBC. (I have three for three distinct account set ups).

The three devices don't all generate the same code at the same time, though, so there is some other element involved - but I'm pretty sure I've seen the same code repeated on the same one when accessing the accounts at the same time on different days.

+1 for the documentary.

Released on DVD or Blu-Ray, it'd be something else we can purchase to put money in El Reg's piggy bank, so we can watch at our leisure.

@Vince

"Oh god. Not the start menu back again. I hope I can choose to keep the modern interface."

Comments like yours scare me.

Because I see your name and worry that people will think it's me making the comment.

Re: I know where there's one you can buy

"Gone in a blitz!"

Nice. It's a shame, though, that you weren't replying to someone called Craig - because then you could have said:

"See? Gone in a blitz, Craig."

Re: Rough translation

Close.

What I expect Apple is planning are pretty much TV-sized iPads - essentially TVs, but which run iOS (and can therefore run iOS apps, etc).

Re: My Genius solution: You read it here first (Hands off Apple!)

Unfortunately, Apple are already ahead of you on that one - their patent application seems to be for using the forward facing camera (which would only work if the phone is held at a suitable angle), but other than that, they've thought of it.

Sick of walking into things while gawping at your iPhone? Apple has a patent app. for that

Re: Security?

"So the first thing a thief does is find your router and unplug it."

By the time the thief has found my router and unplugged it, images from the cameras of the thief will have already been sent; hopefully they'll include his face unless he's sensible enough to wear a mask.

And if he does wear a mask, all I can say is that no security is perfect. The only way I can improve on that is to replace the cameras with automated sentries that will open fire when they detect a scene change. But I believe that would be slightly illegal.

"Some local recording is surely required as a back up."

And he could unplug that just as easily as he could unplug my router. In both cases, some images will have been captured prior to that - the difference is that with the local storage, those images are stored locally, on a device that the burglar could steal and I might therefore never see and therefore be able to hand over to plod. With the emailed images, they end up where ever I am when I receive those emails - and I do get to see them and hand them over to plod.

Re: I'm not in opposition to Apple's fee.

Everybody who accepts plastic payment MUST pay a high % of the sale to the processor and the credit company.

If given the freedom to pay in cash without penalty, I would ditch plastic and go to cash to save a few %...

Don't kid yourself that paying in cash doesn't also involve paying a fee. A lot of the cash a business receives will get banked and, here in the UK at least (and I'd imagine elsewhere), most banks charge a small percentage on business accounts for paying in cash. It may not be as much as the fees charged for handling plastic, but it's still a fee nonetheless.

Re: DARPA has a budget problem: How to spend it fast enough

"And when they are not using it, which is the other 99.9% of the time, they will be further bogged down with yet another piece of heavy kit."

Quite.

And, although it's still at an early stage, the time saving versus the extra weight etc is currently not particularly inspiring.

Just concentrate on developing a personal site to site teleport.

Re: Chuck

I would require an immediate supply of mind bleach.

You didn't need to bother with the quote. This would have sufficed:

"Stealth Books - http://stealthbooks.wordpress.com

Nuf said"

My criticism isn't that they are using WordPress - it's that they're using a subdomain of wordpress.com, which means a free WordPress website. That does not say "professional" to me.

Re: Morbid.

"The photo is clever but it's a little mean to mock someone for keeping a memento of a late friend and colleague, isn't it?"

Most people would consider a memento to be a small keepsake, perhaps something to put on a desk, a wall, or in a cabinet.

An office, kept as it was, is not a memento. It's a shrine.

I can understand, say, parents keeping a late child's room as it was - but keeping a shrine to a late friend or colleage could be seen as a little weird. Given Jobs' history with the company, though, in this case it's probably less so.

However, it's the move to the new Fruit Loop building that will, IMO, reveal on which side of the line it truly fits - whether it's understandable, or whether it's definitely in the weird camp. It depends whether they recreate the shrine in the new building, describing it as his office, when it quite blatantly wasn't, since it didn't exist when he was alive.

Re: I have 47 "albums" on my device

I applaud your taste in music*.

Though, if Apple has put U2 on your device, I'm considerably less impressed by your taste in technology :p

^{* However, I do also like - and my collection includes - modern(-ish) stuff as well as classical. I suspect I may be the recipient of some scorn for saying this, but that does include some U2 material.}

No, no, no.

What you don't do on your CV is draw attention to the fact that you'll be able to read potentially confidential material that the boss may sometimes have on his desk.

Well, not unless you're using psychic paper for the CV and can update it on the fly...

"One of my abilities is to read mirrored, upside down or rotated text. Which is how I know that text message you've just glanced at before leaving your phone on your desk is from your mistress, making interesting suggestions about your rendezvous tonight - but rest assured that your wife will never find out if you give me the job..."

Re: Just like opinions

"Stupid name for a company, let alone a building."

It always strikes me as stupid when I see a company name and address where the first line of the address after the company name includes the company name. Presumably companies habitually name their buildings after themselves because they think it makes them look bigger, and more flashy than they are.

I just think it makes them look like cocks.

(An exception has to be made for cases where the company has named themselves after where they're based - but even that can be silly if they subsequently move!)

Re: Simple solution

Why?

It can't be because of how difficult it would be to make a device that has been powered up for 'x' amount of time without a connection to automatically connect to an open network within range - because that wouldn't be difficult at all.

A lot of stuff I see as Internet of Pointless Things gadgetry could be a lot less pointless from the point of view of those who could be collecting the data these things would be able to send 'home' - think back to the LG TVs, for example, which IIRC were found to be phoning home to report on customer viewing habits.

If a company is capable of perceiving a use for such data - and aren't above collecting that data without properly informing the end user (let alone seeking their permission) - then it's only a small, and fairly trivial step to go to the above lengths to get it.

Re: NFC woes to come

"You're comparing an always-on tap-to-pay card with no security except physical, to a phone that requires your fingerprint to authorise payment."

Yeah, because the iPhone 5's finger print scanner definitely wasn't defeated within a few days of the phone going on sale, was it?

Re: Internet of toilets

Logging on?

I think it's more about logging out.

Re: Miss the bloke, not the (Bond) films

Clifton James... someone else who's character, while not being (per the article) "Bond, his good-guy team and Ernst Stavro Blofeld" appeared in more than one Bond film. Robbie Coltrane was another who immediately springs to mind. There may be more, but I can't think of any offhand.

The bridge jump.

But whatever, RIP Richard Kiel.