Posts by John Bailey

"And China doesn't exercise that kind of control over it's own populace? <rolls eyes> Ok.. sure..."

And Apple is a country? <rolls eyes> Ok.. sure...

Re: I'm not worried

<quote>I can't afford an Apple box.</quote>

Have you tried asking the people in the supermarket produce section very nicely? They are usually happy to give away the empty ones for free.

Re: Noise

"Well that all sounds (sic) rather scientific. Except you forgot to mention from how far away these measurements were made. 'As loud as a jet engine' is often used by 'the media' but it's not that loud if the jet is 50,000 feet away."

I would imagine, approximately one string length away.

How far away do you think they would be measured from? Normal use distance!

It would be kind of pointless to measure the fan noise form the other end of a runway would it not?

So assume indoors in the same room with soft furnishings present.

And the decibels were probably measured by an app on someone's phone, not a professional grade recently calibrated meter in an anechoic chamber.

"Ah yet another idiot who perjurers themself by posting on social media."

Or incriminated even..

"There is a case for those who want to receive notifications from their phone, but felt that wearing google glass showed you were obviously a twat."

Whereas this makes it less obvious?

But considering Ebay is full of smart watches from China that will do that on pretty much any phone for under £30.. The price premium better allow something waaaay better than just notifications and a glorified fitbit.

Re: Resale Value - not a lot

"Pretty obvious that you didn't keep your original Apple-II for its resale value nowadays."

Pretty obvious you don't understand the difference between price and value.

Re: ha

"Do the backdoors in iPhones have rounded corners ?"

Not sure.. they do slide to unlock though.

Re: Good things come to those who wait...

"It's a pretty interesting idea actually. 3D printing as a service, essentially - means you can get access to a far more capable printer than you could (sensibly) afford."

Yes.

If only someone would offer the service.. Perhaps an online service, where one sends a model, or picks one submitted by someone else, and they print it along with many others to make it more economical, in a variety of materials..

They could call the company Shapeways..

Oh look.. Somebody did already.

BLOODY YEARS AGO.

http://www.shapeways.com/

Re: One answer...

Ahh... I see the problem here.

You're looking at the one on the left aren't you.

Re: iWon't

"Yeah, I'm kind of interested how the 18ct gold version will fair, when the owners go to hand that down to their heirs in 30 or 40 years..."

Umm.. I think you mean months.

"However I do hope vacuous will not be the trait most sought after by voters with at least some boffins and useful folk making the cut."

Of course not..

Bubbly , hunky, slutty, and a willingness to get em out on camera are also highly sought after traits.

Re: And when you are drinking distilled rice alcohol, the results could be deadly.

"Somebody care to explain the down votes???"

Sinophobia.

"Ideally one of the guilty??"

Not very likely,.

"I have one question about this."

Only one?

"Where is the authenticated image of you fingerprint stored?"

Where ever the system stores it. Probably on the server of the website, account you are trying to get into. Linked to your customer records in plain text.

"Some "secure" database that will never, ever be hacked?"

Yep. And it's powered with Davinci's perpetual motion machine.. And the UPS is a potato with two strips of metal stuck in it.

"What happens if (when) your unique fingerprint is stolen."

Use another one. You usually have ten to start out with.

"How do you then verify your identity?"

Who says you can. You become the nameless one, and wander from town to town fighting crime, dispatching the bad guys with a Samurai sword disguised as a walking stick.

"It's a bit hard to change your fingerprints."

Oh that isn't the half of it.

Pick pineapples. No fingerprints.

Work on a building site. No finger prints.

Lose hands in an accident. No fingerprints.

Burn fingers. No finger prints.

Millions of people have no, faint, obscured or unreadable fingerprints. And that is without even trying to mask their identity.

Re: Great Idea but.....

"My parents first microwave had the sensor. I don't know why they went out of fashion, it'd make a micro so much better at cooking/reheating food."

Because after a while, people stop worrying, and estimate the time and power.

If you want, get a kitchen thermometer. I had one. Didn't bother replacing it when it broke.

"I can't help thinking that she would still have given birth without the smartphone. Even without the paramedics to help her. Women have been doing it for a least a million years."

Indeed they have. And at one time, I believe it was even the most common cause of death in women.

They don't always just pop out with no fuss.

Re: That reminds me..

"Wouldn't a tune about their police using battery cables against various parts of dissidents bodies be more Chinesy."

Yeah,, but America called dibs.

Re: Been nice knowing the RasPi

"Embrace has begun, we all know what stages come next."

Yep.

Exaggerate.. the importance of the product.

Extinguish.. the project when they finally face the fact that the latest big thing, ain't really that big.

10 years ago.. perhaps. When MS was able to command the internet, before it got it's teeth pulled. Microsoft was an entity to be feared.

Now days.. Not so much.

Just about every household name in consumer electronics contributes actively and openly to Linux. Because they benefit.

They stayed away in droves from surface. They offered alternatives to Vista, which is where the rot finally surfaced.. And 8 ha seen many old players bow out of the PC market.

The primary portable os is not Windows based.

Tablets owe little to project Origami.

Even government departments are moving away from MS lockin file formats, despite them buying the ISO certification.

The EEE strategy of yesterday is long long gone.

But never mind sweetie.. I'm sure this will be the year of Windows 8 on the desktop..

Re: It's got Seth Rogen in it

"Hmm... Seth Rogen, Adam Sandler, and Will Ferrell... Put them together and it's movie magic."

Ohh.. Does it turn into a pumpkin then?

"Why can't we find a reason to deport him?"

Because then we would have nowhere to film Doctor Who.

Re: Hardly surprising

"Ok. For the last fucking time. MARKET SHARE MEANS DICK YOU FUCKING MORONS."

So..

Apple users = small dicks.

Android users = big dicks.

Crackberry users = castrati.

Yes?

Re: Looks like a POP Station.

Ohh.. that would be too delicious.. Pound shop tat having prior art on the fruitarian new gizmo that nobody wanted until now.

Re: Optical stylus

"So they mean rework an optical mouse into the shape of a pen. Got it."

So did Genius it seems..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2pfkJQ1vgU

And many others are no doubt also copying Apple.

Re: Great article but ...

"you mean cows come from eggs?

Who else knew this?"

Pretty much everybody familiar with the process of reproduction..

Re: "A pint of goat urine would be more pleasant to consume"

"I have to ask how you might know this?"

Most of us have tried American Beer.

For the fresh goat urine mouth feel, allow it to reach body temprature.

Re: I'll bite

"Why now rather than when the deals were made?"

Probably because companies do not have to register the terms of all deals with a central authority in advance, and such deals are not made public.

So how would they have known if anything was wrong when the deals were made?

These things usually happen in answer to a complaint by an interested party.

Could be a different manufacturer annoyed by the special deals Apple are getting.

Could be a phone company annoyed that the competition is getting a special deal with Apple.

Could be that a phone company is trying to renegotiate their special deal with Apple.

Could be a phone company trying to get out of their special deal with Apple.

An impartial organisation is looking at a deal made between two companies, and despite the cries of victimisation and free market interference that will no doubt be howled by the faithful.. If the contracts are legit, and follow the already made and freely available rules.. No problem.

If they are iContracts.. Problem.

Re: Gottalottaballs here...

"Then what exactly have the EUC and various European courts been doing demanding that Google (a US based company) do this or that to "forget" a particular search that a person or company would like removed from Google's search index as a result of an order from a European Court?"

The opposite of what is being discussed.

""Muižnieks said there “should be limits on the extraterritorial exercise of national jurisdiction in relation to transnational cybercrimes”. In other words, the US shouldn’t be able to access your private data in Europe just because it wants to.""

Correct.

And Saudi Arabia should not be allowed to access what ever it wants in Columbia, and China should not be allowed to access what ever it wants in Russia.

But specifically..

Courts should not be allowed to break through jurisdiction limits by ordering companies registered within their jurisdiction to hand over information on their servers in entirely different jurisdictions. Asking a company to break local laws is a bit of a nono.

"To paraphrase "In other words, the EUC (or any other entity) shouldn’t be able to access your private data in (wherever) just because it wants to."

Correct.

"Could you people please make up your minds and figure out what you want?"

We have.

Your inability to understand it however is out of our jurisdiction.

Might I suggest acquiring some Sesame Street episodes. I believe they had a song about telling things apart that you might find instructive. They use puppets and bright colours, so I'm sure the idea will eventually sink in.

Re: Surprise!

"Because it gets headlines, and clickbait and makes people like you, that believe in sky fairies also believe that it only Microsoft products that have exploits."

And of course.. it usually only works on Windows.

Re: Almost all of this is buying presents no?

"So who gives a rat's arse if it doesn't arrive next day, as long as it's in the next few days?"

Nobody.

But it doesn't sound nearly as apocalyptic if you say it like that.

Realistically.. Anybody who waits until December to get stuff delivered for Christmas is asking for trouble.

Re: Shouldn't there be

No.. Usually just a tube

Re: Launched way too early

"protip: put your phone in your pocket before this happens"

You mean.. not look at it for more than a second..

Nah.. never work.

Re: Legislation may not be required

But education certainly will be, a £6 or even £20 screwdriver is bound to attract nefarious users of all kinds. There are a whole raft of laws out there you can break with a screwdriver, just not a specific one that says screwdriver. Perhaps the reg should ask their chums at Outlaw to comment, but at a guess personal screwdrivers are covered by concealed weapon legislation, privacy legislation, public nuisance and a lot of other stuff, so no peeking in bedroom windows for a start. I'd also wonder what happens if you hit someone with one, or fly it into a car. Commercial uses must be a bit of a nightmare on that front.

"If Vans can't have their version of the word Vans with a line then surely Coca-Cola can't have their comic sans logo? There are plenty of other similar word based logos that would also fail."

It appears they can.. Stylised text, how ever dull, is fine.

They can not however, have a contrasting line going from heel to toe, roughly following the contour of the top of the shoe, as it looks too much like a little bit of cosmetic greebling, and not in fact.. A logo.

In other words.. A rare showing of common sense.

It isn't the company name that is at issue here.. Or the use of the company name with a line.. It is in fact, a stripe on a shoe.

A logo so minimal even Jonny Ive would have missed it if it had been put on a Braun product.

Giving them the exclusive rights to this would be similar to granting a single car company sole use of go faster stripes.

Re: Easy workaround

"Japanese carriers only need to "customize" the phone like US carriers so that they can not work with other phone providers. Surely Soft Bank can pick up this trick from Sprint."

At which point, Japanese consumer law kicks in and tells them to un"customise" it.. And probably slaps them with a hefty fine.

12 year olds arguing to stay up a few more minutes on a school night sneer derisively at your strategy.

Re: @AC "and others are critical of Apple's changes."

"How does holding up another privacy invading business model justify another?

I can't say that I approve of your logic but each to their own."

But it's iLogic.

If something is good. Nobody does it as well as Apple.

OMG.. Apple's new iPhones are sooo thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn!!! squee..

If something is bad, everybody does the same.

But any phone will bend if you put enough force on it..

Re: The store check-out experience

"Don't be silly. Americans don't have Chip & PIN."

And it seems.. no pay by bendy bonk either.

Re: A load of brick doo-doo...

"Novel approach: Brick hardware via MS updates. Who would know?"

Well considering the story you are commenting on.. quite a few people..

"I suspect updates with a load of brick doo-doo will be common now that the idea is out.

Management response: "We are so sorry, terribly sorry, we are really, really, really sorry. We are so very, very, very concerned about this. Really we are...concerned and sorry.

Now go away.""

Or..

Get a bollocking from MS for going too far, and stop bricking hardware.... On pain of driver blacklisting on Windows. At which point.. ALL FTDI chips would fail.

Imagine the scenario.. You do an update, and Windows defender flags the FTDI driver as malware..

No.. There is unlikely to be a hardware bricking party. Because it's hard enough to get people to update already. And FTDI's actions have not made them very popular outside the usual trolling fraternity.

Please note.. FTDI have been commanded to pack it in, and do what should have been the maximum extent of their actions in the first place.. Refusal to support non brand chips.

Mine's the one that will have a new Arduino without a FTDI chip in it next week. Supplied FOC by the company I bought the one with the fake chip from.

"A flying platform cannot generate enough energy to propel itself by deploying a wind turbine - if it could, that would make it a perpetual motion machine..."

No it wouldn't.

To qualify as a perpetual motion machine, the device has to have zero external energy input.

Wind is external energy input.

So to qualify, the flying wind turbine would need to produce the wind as well as harvesting it. Which is not being proposed. So a turbine carried aloft by a fleet of quadcopters beaming power via some kind of wireless transfer, is fanciful, but is not perpetual motion. Just highly unlikely to work.

A solar cell in a light proof box powering a bulb it harvests enough energy to power would qualify. But it would have to be more than 100% efficient to perform this act.

A water wheel would not.

Re: which is great

No.. It's ok.

Apple hardware problems are always limited to a few isolated cases, and are always the result of tampering. And courts that demand recalls are obviously infiltrated by haters.

According to what I read here......

"I think it was Sir John Harvey Jones who said that if a job can be done cheaper and better by a robot than a person it's probably not going to be a very fulfilling job."

And how often did Sir John Harvey Jones have to skip a few meals to make the rent that week I wonder.

Re: Your Fridge has shut down unexpectantly, please reboot ...

"Except it hasn't happened. Why?"

Well.. possibly because fridges are not in fact ON ALL THE BLOODY TIME!!

I really hope this is a troll..

Re: Correction...

"A bell end who can design , where as everyone else can only copy!"

Yep.. Jonny's work with Braun is quite impressive..

Lift lid.

Insert design.

Close lid.

Press button.

Re: Compliment

"Does anyone have a recommendation for a Braun inspired mini-itx case for my Hackintosh build?"

An old Mac case perhaps?