Posts by JimmyPage

*Any* venture calling itself "Egnyte"

deserves to fail.

("Ignite" - geddit ?)

Why I love El Reg

Where else would you read the word "loquacious" in a headline ?

Just to complicate things .... radioactive decay ?

Isn't there an experiment somewhere, where a mass becomes lighter over time, as it decays ?

Criminal libel in the UK

is a very nasty charge to face (luckily only rich people can do it). Basically it's an accusation that the originator of the libel is so deliberately defaming, they need jailing. It also makes any part of the distribution chain responsible. For those interested, read up on the "Goldenballs" incident from the 1970s, where Private Eye was sued by Sir James Goldsmith. He launched a criminal libel writ, and had W H Smiths prosecuted (which is why they stopped selling Private Eye for years in the 70s and 80s).

Found myself in Comet yesterday

they were next door to the shoe shop the Mrs wanted to go to (!). Busy, but hardly queuing out the door. Had a walk round. Most stuff was still at 10% of the MRP, so still more expensive than a 5 minute google.

Given they're already over-burdened with older models, I can see a lot of stock being left in the stores when the shutters go down. And despite the Dixons/Maplin thing, I suspect very few will ever re-open in any guise. Every retail park near me has at least one empty cathedral-sized unit. And the nearest shopping centre has empty units where JJB, TJ Hughes, Peacocks, Alders, Woolworths, Clinton, Millets, Past Times were, to say nothing of the smaller units. I wonder how it works with business rates ... because looks to me like you're going to have to squeeze more from less.

On radio [4] last week

Tuesdays PM, some expert made a very shrewd point about Starbucks. He said that they claimed to HMRC they hadn't made a profit, whilst at the same time publishing shareholder accounts (in the US) showing how much profit they were taking (since shareholders like profit).

He also made the point that HMRC *already* had the powers to use such documentation in calculating tax liability.

But when Vodafone can write of billions of tax over a cosy afternoon tea with the head of the HMRC (remember the guy who tried to tell the select committee he didn't have to answer them) what's the point ?

There is absolutely zero incentive for HMRC themselves to simplify the tax system - the more complex it is the more of them you need.

Just blue-sky thinking, but why not abolish all taxes, and simply take a %age of every single transaction made with currency . Imagine the Pound as the IP of the UK government, and every time it's used they get a licensing fee.

Very disappointed

no one has mentioned Mike Hunt yet

More ways

people can be sued for libel ....

However, bear in mind, UK public policy

is rather than fix the potholes, pay for the punctures.

Ironically

having had WP7 foisted on my, by an evangelical IT department (who have now canned it, for the reasons I shall list), I have actually grown used to it. And to be fair, it pretty much does the job with a couple of glaring exceptions:

1) can't record calls (although I have since learned that iOS can't either, and it's a limitation of the OS architecture no being able to run a background app while the phone is active)

2) no bluetooth file transfer

The fact that WP7 won't be upgraded to WP8 is a massive slap in the face. It's clear that MS regard WP7 as a stopgap, like WP6.5 was to WinCE, so there is a sense of being lumbered with WP7.

However, the biggest killer, is the total lack of apps. I refer people to a lack of BBC apps for WP7 for a start. There have been a few occasions when I've notice useful business apps that aren't available for WP7. It's this app-free feature which (IMHO) is going to do for WP8.

On a rare visit to the cinema

last weekend (Skyfall with the sprog) this advert was like an oasis in a sea of mobile phone and watch adverts.

Why not ban the Guiness ads - surely all that surfing is dangerous ?

Please fix the forums first

before adding icons (unless you add a "please fix it" icon).

You *used* to be able to "view post in context" when reviewing your own posts. Click that link and it took you - amazingly - to see your post in the thread.

You took it away over a year ago - and looking in the user forums, I'm not the only one who misses it.

Please ?

Please ?

Please ?

Schadenfreude ....

that's all

Another reason (if one were needed)

to avoid proprietary formats. Or insist that the system can export to a standard. Especially given the amount of research that is going into software to scan medical images.

Given the current climate, this is easily stopped with two words:

"Jimmy Savile"

should torpaedo it

Barclaycard

Offered me an NFC sticker for my phone. It's just over 1mm thick, and I stuck it on the *inside* of the battery cover (why advertise the fact). Using it at McDonalds is a little like watching primitive tribesman worshipping a cigarette lighter ....

Hang on ...

are we serious expected to believe that the Prudential ran an automated process to merge accounts ? And that that process was allowed to complete with no oversight, no manual inspection of affected records. And that that process was allowed to touch live accounts ?