Posts by poopypants

Doesn't matter

Most of the features (including movie downloads) aren't available where I live. Again. Sigh.

I'm not really fussed what they end up doing

provided it is the most cost effective solution. Given my current 400GB cap, I have no need for 100Mbps, since that would cause my children to hit our monthly cap in under 9 hours of downloads.

Frankly, I have no wish to pay more for something I would rather not have.

Two more announcements to go

I shall wait patiently as the big picture* emerges, and form an opinion then.

*(sorry)

I swear

The Register is getting more like Reddit every day.

Good luck

getting the Amish online.

At least with a swipe pattern

you can be reasonably sure that a thief will not be able to guess your pattern in the three attempts permitted.

On the other hand, your iPhone is most likely covered with your fingerprints, so the probability of a successful break in is high.

I wonder what

20 year old me would have thought of all this. That was 40 years ago.

I wonder how this compares

with the Sony DSCQX10 and DSCQX100? (These are separate no-display cameras that are linked by WiFi to your Android or iOS phone - although they connect more quickly to Android by using NFC as well).

The Nokia is definitely more convenient, but on the other hand the Sony cameras don't force you to get a new phone with a different OS.

.

Heating up

The cold war between Google and Microsoft appears to be heating up. This can only be good for consumers, provided they both keep their lawyers out of it.

You are going to die

So is everyone else. Accept it, and make the best use of the short time you have.

(Hint: nobody on their deathbed ever wished they had spent more time in the office).

Probably on balance a good thing

...but not without some expected collateral damage.

Apple forgot why they are popular

People buy Apple phones because they look expensive. For some reason they have now made one that looks cheap. Phones that look cheap are only of interest to people who are trying to save money, or who are more interested in function than form. Those people are already buying Android phones, and are not going to switch.

I didn't understand a word of that

Then again, I'm 60 years old and (so others keep telling me) past it. What's your excuse?

If it makes you feel any better

It is impossible to have a billion dollars without that fact in some way helping others.

If you buy something, you boost employment.

Ditto if you invest it.

If you rake it into a huge pile of cash and set fire to it, you reduce inflation.

Feel better now?

No, me neither.

Oh, I get it

It's like a medieval knight getting a performance boost by not wearing armour.

Apple makes consumer products

They have been doing it for a long time, and they are good at it.

Microsoft is more business oriented.

They don't really "get" consumers (I'm looking at you Kin, Zune, Games for Windows Live, etc...).

Why oh why

does a mobile phone need a 64 bit processor? Someone? Anyone?

Strange tactics

Why would they start by attacking someone who obviously has more than enough money to fight back?

I think they are destined for a hiding.

Isn't it a bit rude

to charge more for something in the country where it is built?

Here's a thought

Perhaps they could be used to bring high bandwidth internet via long distance microwave connections to outback Australia. (There is already a microwave connection over 580 km between Adelaide in South Australia and Broken Hill in New South Wales, using towers.) In that scenario they would be fully automated to remain at specific latitudes and longitudes, with height maintained through the use of COSH.

Does anyone remember

Pen Island? (http://www.penisland.net/)

I have a problem with Mr Turnbull

Firstly he wanted to ditch Her Majesty, which was bad enough.

Now he wants to destroy our cherished tradition of being able to draw crude penises on our ballot papers using government supplied pencils.

The man is obviously some kind of anarchist.

This is the reason for my strange hobby

Every so often I send an email full of random numbers to a throwaway email account. I like to think that I am helping to promote the sale of supercomputers, and thereby helping to boost employment.

Interesting hypothesis: for every non-trivial collection of random numbers, there exists an erroneous key that will cause some decryption algorithm to convert it into a jpeg of a cat.

Simple test

A 2012 32GB Nexus 7 costs $299. The previous Surface Pro (before mad discounting) starts at $799.00.

If you are going to charge more than twice as much for something, it should be more than twice as useful.

For some, this will be the case. For the vast majority, it won't. Therein lies Microsoft's problem.

Interesting...

I always wondered why Apple wouldn't let you remove the battery.

When they remotely activate your microphone, and listen in on your conversations, does the data transfer go on the bill from your ISP?

This is awesome!

When driving distractions cause you to inadvertently become the latest addition to an impromptu motorway sculpture, it can relay your pulse rate and strength to an approaching ambulance.

It looks amazing

but I already have a two year old tablet that spends most of its time running the Kindle app. It's good enough, which makes it hard to justify an upgrade. If sufficient others are thinking along similar lines, then I'm guessing that tablet sales from all manufacturers will soon level off.

In any case I'd rather save for an NVIDIA GTX 790. Now that's exciting.