Posts by auburnman

Re: Why Zombies

The big problem in the game industry is bandwagoning. Zombies are here at the minute because x years ago one of the zombie games came out and at the time it was fresh and new. All the game companies pounced on it and now even though lots of people are sick of zombies the industry hasn't really got the message yet. It will eventually die off when the new bandwagon comes along, like the WW2 shooter glut from years ago died when Modern Warfare became the new hit thing.

Re: There must be more to this than we're being told

There's what you are legally allowed to do, and what Microsoft will allow you to do without dragging you through the courts for years. Whether it's legal or not, MS wouldn't risk that precedent being established. The confidential settlement amount was probably £100, infinitely preferable to being bled dry with legal bills over years.

Re: I see some difficulty

It's not unheard of for the government(s) to accidentally or deliberately fight itself.

Re: Plus ca change...

I'm pretty sure your ISP is locked in at the network level nowadays, you need a MAC code before your current provider will let go of your connection.

Re: "heroic codebreakers of Bletchley Park"

Given they were seen as draft-dodgers and spat on in the street, not allowed to tell anyone they were a vital part of the war effort, although their lives weren't on the line I would say heroic is a borderline acceptable descriptor.

Re: The Internet's full of numbers

Releasing the album through the Daily Mirror was just bending the rules so he could make a comeback at the #1 spot, PR and spin rather than huffinesss. (As I understood it)

Re: new products

With the exception of Dick Tracy, who is still looking forward to strapping a shit phone to their wrist? That's the only new-ish product I can think of that could be in Apple's pipeline; unless they somehow have yet another market-changing product up their sleeve, Cook is just paying lipservice to the nutjobs who believe in unlimited growth.

Re: Clarification

I did recall AT&T had a dreadful reputation across the pond. If they slurped my provider the alarm klaxons would be going at full pelt and I'd be looking at alternatives.

Re: Ok, you've lost me

The unspoken implication is that you are walking into a war on two fronts if you attempt to sue either of them. I could see Google finding something to sue Apple over & Samsung dragging Microsoft to Court if those two don't start playing nice. They could well attract additional partners with the strength of their alliance, If another big name company with a war chest of dollars and patents were to join them I'd be very surprised if the lawsuits didn't start waning.

Re: Not the best choice

Amazon says the MOJO is £220? I could get a PS3 and at least 4-5 (older) AAA titles for that.

Re: Conspiracy Time

Last time I accidentally clicked on the Facebook app in the Play store it wanted permission to call phone numbers. Unfortunately I can't uninstall it without rooting.

Re: The beginning of the end

OR... US government selling bitcoins gives implicit signal that they are legal to own, and anyone buying bitcoins from the government would have good standing to sue if they were restricted or outlawed in future. Price spikes. The end of the beginning.

"Ninty could still end up smelling of roses by treating the U as a stop gap and releasing something rather more potent in 2 or 3 years."

I could be wrong on the details, but I believe abandoning a console because it didn't sell well and bringing a new one out quickly was one of the big nails in the coffin of SEGA. Gamers felt betrayed and changed brands, if Nintendo tried something similar I don't know how the casual market would react.

I dropped Orange after the second time they massively overcharged for data, I think that was probably shortly after they had melded with EE as well.

Re: Running out of time?

Being first to market is a very important edge, but there's a hell of a lot else to consider. They have to make sure the rift is comfortable and adaptable to a wide range of head sizes and glass wearers, is affordable to a sufficient number of people, and makes the absolute bare minimum of people want to puke.

They don't want to bomb like 3DTV, and considering the technical challenges involved anyone else jumping into the market will have a lot to learn very quickly if they want to overtake.

Not that I don't feel your pain though, I wish I had an Oculus to play with right now...

Wouldn't be that much hassle, just adapt the TV licence to come with an iPlayer login and allow that to work abroad (which some people have been - rightly - screaming for for years.) Given the Beeb have a budget of around £3Bn I think they could manage it; One less character on Eastenders would probably pay for it.

It's a bit redundant now but with all the technology in cars now it's no great stretch of the imagination to picture an 'always on' automobile'. Imagine if the new Audi Doody* came with a built in mobile that activated the immobiliser and set off the alarm every time it lost connection to the company servers. Would you factor that in to your review?

*Credit to Lee Mack

Re: Basically the fault of the mobile providers

I thought the assertion that apple was being 'targeted' was a bit sketchy as well. Obviously iPhones do have better resale value, but looking at "the targeting of Apple rose from just 25 cases in 2002 to more than 8,000 last year" they are comparing now to a decade ago. How many iDevices were readily available to snatch on the streets in 2002? Didn't iTunes launch in 2003?

Re: @Connor

Depends on how incorrect the procedure was. A single missing signature could break the chain of evidence that asserts breathalyser results X were taken from subject Y. The date on a blood sample says 2013 when accused was arrested in 2014? Can you be certain that's a paperwork boo-boo? Certain enough to potentially send someone to prison?

Re: Confusing

My last two phones have been HTC, and while the hardware is pretty decent I've found the Sense UI pretty slow at times, and just 'meh' the rest of the time. I actually saw a fair speed improvement from installing a new launcher from t' store.

Re: Change the incentives of the patent office

That relies on the patent actually being tested in court, which doesn't address the issue with the legalised extortion scamsters who will just drop their suit instead of going to court.

I think the patent office shouldn't be biased, but should act a little like a biased entity and actively trying to invalidate applications by searching for prior art. That way they could clear their backlog by punting patents on existing things, and the patents that did get through would have already stood up to rigorous testing. "Slide to Lock" wouldn't have had a chance.

The inquest gave a verdict of suicide. There's a little bit of factual history for you. Perhaps it was wrong, as some now claim, but that hardly makes it "gay propanganda."

Re: the end of common sense....

"The problem is the spying was a bit of a shock, but not a real surprise. The attempt to weaken the security of all devices, is much scarier. The fact that *we* are paying for this abuse, is probably the worst of all worlds"

Agree with that wholeheartedly. I think most of us suspected that the spy agencies overstepped their written remits and broke the law, but we assumed this would be the occasional risk taken to catch someone almost certainly involved in espionage or terrorism. To wake up to the fact that they are doing it all the time to pretty much everyone, and the various governments and courts haven't just accepted this but legalised it, is chilling.

Re: Wow! Very Fail! Such undesirable!

Or having a screengrab app up and running in the background ready for the second viewing.

You can't know they're less likely to go after the extreme stuff if it's harder to get. It could just as well become a badge of honour to have access to the proper filth. Given humanity's usual trait of wanting what we're told we can't have all the more, the extreme porn could easily become MORE popular after the crackdown.

"An analogous concept would be the idea allowing children to drink wine with meals and supervision from 12 years, allow them to buy beer at 16, but not allow them to buy spirits until they are 18."

I would say a better analogy with the filter enforcement would be making it mandatory to produce ID to buy alcohol regardless of age. It's overkill and it's demeaning to responsible adults and (totally coincidentally I'm sure) has the potential for mission creep leading to more government control of our lives.

Re: obvious question

Less risky for the attacker to do it in their own room, or whoever had physical access to the room didn't have the technical nous. Also if you're taking the risk of hacking someone's laptop for info, you probably want to make sure it's transmitting the ill gotten gains before leaving, which likely means you need your own 'puter nearby.

The only ballsup was not returning it before it was spotted missing.

Re: Quite agree

I would have gone with "Bad kid poured cold pulled cod." That way it kind of makes sense, and the single 'b' could be expected to trip folk up on multiple repetitions. But I'm not a Wordologist at MIT so what do I know.