I thought those only broke when used as a timer for a bomb?
Posts by stucs201
1293 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Feb 2010
Even a broken watch is right twice a day: Not an un-charged Apple Watch
Tuesday 28th October 2014 12:58 GMT
A daily charge is fine IF...
...it only takes the same few seconds that winding a mechanical watch does.
Overnight charging is OK for a phone. However when I wake up I generally want to know the time (to answer the important question of "Do I need to get up or can I turn over and go back to sleep?"). I don't want to have to hunt around on the bedside table to answer that question - I can find my wrist a lot easier.
Back to the ... drawing board: 'Hoverboard' will disappoint Marty McFly wannabes
Really... an iKeyfob? Apple continues war on fanbois' pockets
Wednesday 22nd October 2014 06:46 GMT 
"Unlocking a door can require additional time that it lengthens a total commute duration"
If your journey is so short that the time to unlock the car door is at all a consideration in how long it takes then why are you using the car at all? If a second or two is significant then the journey is so short (a few metres?) that it'd be as quick to walk.
Doctor Who and the Dalek: 10-year-old tests BBC programming game
Monday 20th October 2014 13:01 GMT
Re: I wouldn't teach Java either.
Java does have one merit when it comes to teaching kids:
Kids love Minecraft.
Since that and mods for it are written in Java then Java at least has merits from the motivation side, which is also important if you want the kids to actually be interested and take any notice.
Monday 20th October 2014 12:55 GMT
re: Never got enough time with the turtle
Any would have been an improvement. I'm fairly sure the school had one, but it was one of many bits of hardware than hardly saw the light of day and spent much of their time locked away.
The turtle was hardly alone in being kept away from most (or even all) of the kids though. The ST in the music dept. was pretty much exclusively for the use of the small handful of kids who played multiple instruments (most of whom had zero interest in computers). I think I saw it once (and then only because a friend who did go on to be a professional musician let me into the closest where it was kept). The ST wasn't the worst though - as far as I'm aware the Z88 and the PPC640 were personal toys for the computer teacher and were never allowed into pupil's hands.
Bono apologises for iTunes album dump
Secret U.S. 'space warplane' set to return from spy mission
Shift up, gran! Microsoft turns living room into AR game 'space'
What’s the KEYBOARD SHORTCUT for Delete?! Look in a contextual menu, fool!
Saturday 4th October 2014 15:44 GMT
Getting harder to transition from mouse to keyboard
I find that the switch from drop-down menus to ribbons in Windows software doesn't help. With the menus you tended to have the shortcut displayed alongside the text in the menu, so common ones would eventually start to register without actively trying to learn them. Other operations I'd find myself navigating the menu via the keyboard, for example I couldn't tell you if Word has a keyboard shortcut to Insert a Picture from a File, but I know Alt+IPF will do the trick.
With the ribbon I don't find it nearly as natural to pick up shortcuts this way, I actively have to look to see what they are.
Saturday 4th October 2014 10:31 GMT
Re: Keyboard commands for select, copy, paste and find
My favourite is when a (Windows) program opens a window in the wrong place, so that it is (or at least its title bar) is off-screen. There are times I think I'm the only person who knows about Alt-Space M to move a window using the keyboard. Surprisingly Alt-Space is fundamental enough it even works for TIFKAM (though M is Maximize there, since there is no Move).
I even remember baffling people when the last remaining computer in a lab at university had a broken mouse, but was running Windows. I'd not even sat down at it when someone told me not to bother, I told them I didn't need it and got on with what I needed to do via the keyboard.
One Windows? How does that work... and WTF is a Universal App?
Thursday 2nd October 2014 11:01 GMT
Re: It depends on the app
For complex things I agree, it needs tuning to the device. For simple things it just needs to fill the entire screen on a phone and run in a small window in the corner on a desktop. I'm thinking of the sort of utility which people used to code as 'gadgets' (before MS effectively killed them).
Then there is the (admitedly niche at the moment) case of devices like the Surface Pro. These provide a case for more complex programs which can adapt themselves. It'd be nice to not have to have two versions of the same program and instead have one adapt itself depending on whether it was in tablet mode with just the touchscreen or pllugged into multiple external monitors with a mouse connected.
Microsoft WINDOWS 10: Seven ATE Nine. Or Eight did really
Ice, ice maybe: Evidence of 'Grand Canyon' glacier FOUND ON MARS
Mine Bitcoins with PENCIL and PAPER
NASA rover Curiosity drills HOLE in MARS 'GOLF COURSE'
Inateck BP2001 Bluetooth speaker: The metalhead sysadmin's choice? Not exactly
Monday 29th September 2014 13:06 GMT
Portable speakers?
Old Panasonic radio cassette player. Couple of quid for a headphone to twin phono cable to connect to iPod. Tape deck makes a reasonable 'docking space'. Runs forever on a set of D-cells when it doesn't have the tape motors to run.
I'll replace it when it breaks - that might be never given how long its lasted so far.
Microsoft on the Threshold of a new name for Windows next week
Alien gimp gag or cosmic golf ball? NASA tackles question everyone's asking
How the FLAC do I tell MP3s from lossless audio?
Apple: SO sorry for the iOS 8.0.1 UPDATE BUNGLE HORROR
Range Rover to fit trendy new SUV with FRIKKIN' LASER HUDs
Wednesday 24th September 2014 06:55 GMT
Re: And who needs a reminder of what gear they are in?
On road? Not that useful, but no harm in it.
Off road (this thing does have a Land Rover badge after all), I can see it would perhaps be useful. Its harder to judge from the sound the car is making in a non-standard situtation. Admitedly its going to be a few years before most Evoques see any real mud - they'll go through a few owners first before they reach that part of the second-hand market.
What the 4K: High-def DisplayPort vid meets reversible USB Type C
SpaceX blasts a mischief of mice, a 3D printer and a cuddly toy* into SPAAAACE
THE DEATH OF ECONOMICS: Aircraft design vs flat-lining financial models
Sunday 21st September 2014 16:39 GMT
Cartoons explain it all
The economy, especially share dealers and house owners are Wyle E Coyote. They will with regularity walk off cliffs, initially quite sucessfully - enough to get away from where they might grab back on and get back to safety, they'll get to where the only option is a massive and painful plummet.
When will they fall? When someone fills Roadrunner role (generally with a lot of help from the press) of pointing out that they're in a bad place. At this place panic will set in, breaking the illusion that there is anything under their feet, hastening the fall.
Like Wyle E Coyote they'll then do the equivalent of buying yet another gadget from ACME, despite having seen the results of every other time thats been tried.
Microsoft splurges 2½ INSTAGRAMS buying Minecraft maker Mojang
Infosec geniuses hack a Canon PRINTER and install DOOM
Monday 15th September 2014 12:59 GMT
Re: can it run Crysis?
Maybe not this one, but if things carry on the way they're going then no doubt we'll eventually get printers that can. Why can this one even run Doom? I was at university when it came out, there were about a dozen computers on the entire campus that could run it playably. Just what exactly does a printer need this much processor power for?
Even ignoring that security would be less of an issue if it couldn't do anything except print (well except perhaps for printers armed with frickin lasers), we've been warned where this path of putting more processor power than needed ends - talking AI toasters that won't accept you want something else for breakfast.
Not pro Bono: Apple's audio junk mail made spammers' lives easier
SanDisk's record-busting 512GB SD CARD will fit perfectly in your empty wallet
Slap my Imp up: Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper
Friday 12th September 2014 13:15 GMT
Re: Must be a bit too old...
I'd agree that to be properly old school a game needs to be 8-bit.
Even including PC game though this is pushing what I'd consider a boundary - the move from DOS to Windows. I seem to recall this came with versions for both (so I'll have installed the DOS version, DirectX was still very troublesome at the time).
Why Apple had to craft a pocket-busting 5.5in Plus-sized iPhone 6 (thank LG, Samsung etc)
Wednesday 10th September 2014 06:16 GMT
Surely there are two sides to the size thing?
While some won't have been buying Apple phones because they want a big screen, surely others will have been buying them because they prefer a smaller (*) device. Isn't this likely to be a case of swings and roundabouts?
((*) relatively speaking, it seemed huge compared to the tiny phones in existence when it first launched)
Apple's ONE LESS THING: the iPod Classic disappears
TV techies proudly display their MIGHTY BENDERS in Berlin
Hawking: Higgs boson in a BIG particle punisher could DESTROY UNIVERSE
Tuesday 9th September 2014 11:58 GMT
larger than Earth, and is unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate
And the size relative to the Earth or our current budgets affects more advanced dyson sphere building (*) civilisations building one how? Admitedly we can't do much about it if they do.
(*) example only, the practicalities of that is a separate discussion.
Boffins hunch over steaming cups of coffee to find HIDDEN SECRETS of caffeine
Size matters – how else could Dell squeeze 15 million pixels into this 27" 5K monitor?
Ferraris, Zondas and ... er, a bike with a 500hp V10 under the saddle
Saturday 6th September 2014 15:27 GMT
Re: fugly
They're not all ugly.
I'm sure thats an E-Type Jag in the line-up. Lovely car, I just wish I'd had longer the one time I got to play with one. First thing I was told on getting into it was that it didn't have traction control, ABS or anything else I might be used to - suits me just fine :)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
