Posts by Velv 2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010
@LarsG
Actually, no, it's not simply a case of reading the small print.
If the small print is unfair, then the law is on the side of the person who didn't write the contract. You cannot put in just anything, it must be fair and reasonable.
I'll concede it might be "stressful" to take on the network, hence why the regulator has a complaints procedure that everyone affected should follow.
You might THINK you can do it from home, but the wife will have other ideas - if you're not barging past people to get to the goods first then its not sport.
And she knows how much you hate being dragged around the supermarket when you could be watching the football or down in the pub.
Someone's got to keep an eye on the kids while they run around generally causing havoc and dropping goods into other peoples trolleys (although I guess the QR code supermarket doesn't have this problem)
She's got you where she can see you and knows you can't get up to anything.
She also gets to be chauffeured in the car while texting her friends and bitching about the DIY jobs that need done (which are also not getting done because you are at the bloody supermarket!!!)
"If there's no account then the driver is given a little time to pay by other means (paythru can take registrations though a .mobi site) but eventually a fine will be issued which can be served via the DVLA details linked to the plate."
Define "a little time"? 10 minutes? An hour? Until you leave the car park? A week?
Not everyone has access to mobile internet, and possibly not even access to a mobile phone, so how else are they offering to accept? Remember that cash must always be an option - legal tender as payment for services.
As a side note, legislation needs to be introduced to ensure these car park clearly display an ANPR sign BEFORE entering so that people have the option to opt out of parking there.
@sabroni "It's a guess. That's not science"
Some of Science is a guess. In fact MOST of Science is just our current best guess.
But what makes Science different is repeatability. Science creates a theory to which other people can review the experiments, can analyse the data, and can repeat those experiments for themselves. Through repeatability you have proof that the theory holds true.
So our best guess is actually based on proper risk analysis and statistical likelihood.
There is ZERO proof in religion. What makes this dangerous is that some religious standings make guesses that have only a "leap of faith" to their conclusion. Stand on a motorway and see how long it takes for a car to hit you - Statistics and science tell you you'll die, but a leap of faith will save you.
I don't particularly want to get rid of religion, however if religion can't accept empirical evidence then perhaps we are better off without religion. "getting rid of religion won't make people behave any better to each other" - actually it probably would - most of the worlds conflicts, wars and troubles have a sound footing in differences of religious opinion.
"The tipping issue also impacts NFC, where paying with a bonk of a card (or phone) leaves little time to calculate a tip"
Little time? Really? Poor excuse!!!
OK, so I know there are some people who do have difficulty with numbers, but the vast majority of us can divide the amount by 10 (i.e. 10%), and since Contacless should be less than £10, the tip will never be more than a £1. Some may consider 10% "a cheapskate", but then you could round the tip up to the nearest 10p or even 50p.
The REAL problem comes from the whole point of Contactless - you don't have to carry around change.
Perhaps the answer is to have TWO contactless terminals - one for the goods and one for the tip...
What happens with things like Facebook, twitter, blogs?
Does that mean REALLY mean you need to sanitise every posting you make in case someone under 16 reads it? You may have set up your security, but Facebook change their security that often that can you really be sure it will not be read in the future by someone under 16?
What about using a phone in a public place? Does that mean there are words you cannot use in case someone under 16 hears them?
What about "suck, squeeze, bang, blow"? My physics teacher taught that to the class when we were 12 (and for those who don't know, it is the four phases of a four stroke combustion engine (induction, compression,ignition, exhaust)).
Really, what is the world coming to? (and can I use the word coming?)
The new Apple Maps are an iOS6 feature and are not limited to iPhone5, and the actual application is remarkably similar (oops, copyright?)
What is lacking from Apple is the back end data - the "satellite" images are of a substantially lower quality (they might even be satellite) and the cartography has places in, well, the wrong place. I've used the Google Maps app on the old IOS quite happily - was the blue dot always EXACTLY where I was - no. But the quality of the image was sufficient to figure out where I was. Under Apple, I could hardly tell the buildings from the roads for my neighbourhood.
Hopefully Apple will invest some of their HUGE fortune in some better data.
There's already a service out there (OverDrive) that is used by Edinburgh City Libraries (and others).
Biggest issue is getting the publishers to buy into the concept of lending books which most public libraries do for free.
OverDrive handles the number of copies the library has for lending to residents.
It's not just their Customer Service who are bad, their Sales Monkeys are utterly despicable.
Sunday morning and there's a knock at the door. "Good Morning, do you pay for broadband" says the suited thing.
"Yes"
"Ah so you didn't get my pack through your door, I'll come in and write down for you how you can get it for free".
THREE TIMES he tried to come in. And as a middle aged 20 stoner I'm no pushover like some more vulnerable people might be. And not just "can I come in", but actually trying to walk past me saying "I'll write this down for you"
Complaint letter is in the post to TalkTalk.
Define "Countryside"
Money is being made available to improve connectivity in rural COMMUNITIES. I approve of that.
A Universal Service Obligation requires the service to be provided to every cottage, bothy, croft and henhouse in the UK. That is not financially viable for the country to support. It is a fact of life that isolated properties do not receive the same services as communities.
Next you'll be expecting the government to introduce a Universal Service Obligation for there being a superstore over a certain size within walking distance of every property? No, didn't think so somehow!
Didn't God invent the Apple? Isn't it just about one of the first things like, ever!
I wonder when the Vatican is going to take legal action? I guess they've failed to enforce protection on the apple (or maybe they haven't ! )
OR, perhaps it was truly given to the Son
(Down vote in, 3,2,1...)
Looks like a lot of clocks I've seen was my initial thought.
But if SBB have the Trademark, I do hope they take Apple to court. Sause for the goose and all that. The Apple/Samsung lookylikey battle was stupid and this would highlight Apples ridiculous stance. (The Samsung looked like most other tablets I'd seen, and I'm writing this on my iPad so I'm not totally antiApple)
I'm just shocked and stunned by the fact this article was published over two hours ago and a fanbois troll fight hasn't broken out in the comments section:
"ha ha ha, look at those muppets who've been hit by an update to software X - we're all fine over here because we use software Y which is immune to such problems"
"ah but software Y is useless, and costs a fortune and you're just showing off how much money you've spent - , my software Z was free and is crowd sourced and open source and used by loads of people"
repeat (until you get more down votes than up votes)
So there are a few teething problems. Someone didn't fully test and document the requirements and some of the early upgrades didn't work quite as expected. It all got fixed in the end.
Which is OK for consumer tech devices that have little consequence around an outage
But would you trust Apple to be your cash, your credit card or your Bank???
Or any other amateur IT operation for that matter - if the "experienced" Banks can screw it up, God help us when the inexperienced start running our finances.
A long time ago in a data centre far away the hardware made up 90% of the cost of IT.
Now it's typically only 10%.
Consumer device are different, but still there is more to pay for than just the hardware.
And remember that while Apple (et al) may set a retail price, the shop still has to make a margin so the shop won't be buying them from Apple at that price - probably nearer half the price.
It was the Insurance companies that drove the manufacturers to fit coded immobilisers due to the volume of theft.
When this type of theft becomes a serious source of loss for the Insurers then once again they will force the manufacturers to fix it.
I'm not saying I agree with the process or the outcomes, but that's how risk analysis works. And at least with it being higher end cars it should occur more quickly than if it were Ford Fiestas.
I thought it was an interesting point of view.
So, really, why is there such a delay. Assuming the phones are not already in the UK that means there is already a container transiting the Suez Canal, another container just crossing the Indian ocean, and a third being loaded in China as we speak - ooo, think of the Piracy opportunities. (and there must be at least one already unloaded in the UK to have them in the shops and on the doorsteps by Friday).
Or are they flying them in - no wonder they're so expensive. And if they are already in the UK, again, why the delay. I think the unnamed El Reg team may well have found some truth.
Ironic that by taking asylum in Ecuador to avoid extradition to avoid being put in jail, he broke bail, for which he will be charged and sentenced and will end up in jail. And I'd still lay money on it being easier for the Merkins to extradite from the UK than from Sweden.
Assange has made a ridicule of Wikileaks and should be banished back to Australia just for that.
Long live freedom of speech. Down with self serving publicity seeking twats. (and he was, even before these allegations)
So I wouldn't go as far as say I actually agree with the article (there isn't really any opinion to agree or disagree with) - I just couldn't find anything fundamentally wrong with the article.
(beer icon - Orlowski can pay for good comments with "beer" - mines a Cider, and I'll be in the Haymarket Bar, Edinburgh from about 5:30)
I hope the EU levy a fine on them.
Apple signed up to the European agreement (and it was an Asian agreement first) that all phones would come with the same USB charging port.
An adapter that you need to carry around is even less compliant than a bunch of different incompatible chargers. While some will argue it meets the letter of the EU directive, it is the SPIRIT of the directive that is important, and that's where Apple have failed.
(and before the fanbois down vote me, I'll probably upgrade my 3Gs to a 5 later in the year when the fuss settles down (although now I'll get voted down by the fandroidbois))
If it was a GOVERNMENT agency that was wanting business to track users activity then the businesses would be up in arms alongside the Civil Liberties people.
But no, it is business that "wants to understand its customers" so that justifies the use of cookies.
STOP BEING LAZY AND FIND A BETTER SOLUTION - there's a fortune to be made by anyone who can patent, sorry, build a solution that works.
Further we need to STOP the media and marketing bods from using the term 4G.
4G is a loose set of capabilities, it is NOT A STANDARD. As was demonstrated in Australia with the iPhad 3, the claims of 4G were proven to be irrelevant as there was no compatible network with the technology standard to which the iPhad complied.
EE is rolling out LTE, it should be clearly stated it is LTE and not 4G.
The ITU has a lot of problems to fix!!!!
@AC "70% marketshare is behind?"
err, FAIL. Apple has ZERO PERCENT of the 7" market. Apple may have 70% of the total tablet market, but the 7" form factor is on target to be around 20% of the total market in 2012, and is expected to be nearer 33% of it in 2013.
So Apple are very much behind!
It would be nice for the hackers to publish a website where you could look up a UDID and see if it's on the list. They don't need to publish any further details, just a "you're on the list"or "you.re not on the list"
Funny how there are lists you want to be on and lists you don't want to be on...
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