* Posts by Charles Pearmain

17 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jul 2007

Bloke hurls sueball over Google's 'is it off yet?' location data slurping

Charles Pearmain

Re: Question

And if you turn off Location Saving and tracking in your Google account there are inconvenient side effects - like any linked Google Home devices suddenly becoming completely dumb until you re-enable the 'optional' settings.

The gloves are coming off Google's steel claws

Charles Pearmain

Re: Android user here

Yeah, "Don't be evil" quietly disappeared earlier this year: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-dont-be-evil-code-conduct-removed-alphabet-a8361276.html

Going to Mars may give you cancer, warns doc

Charles Pearmain

Re: I suspect that ...

Oh I dunno, if they ALL went...

Early indications show UK favouring 'hard Brexit', says expert

Charles Pearmain

Re: I have said it before, I will say it again

Indeed. Especially as the ECHR was created by the Council of Europe - of which Britain was a founding member and took much of the responsibility for draughting the Convention.

How things have changed.

Microsoft won't back down from Windows 10 nagware 'trick'

Charles Pearmain

Re: so Desperation

Well, their marketing geniuses talked them into screwing everyone's desktops up with a GUI designed to drive phones. Then MS were surprised to discover that pretty much everyone hated the phones so much that they're now pulling out of the market.

I'd say yes, they must be getting even more bloody desperate than after the Windows 8 debacle.

Adam Afriyie MP: Smart meters are NOT so smart

Charles Pearmain

....and the energy companies are dumber still.

The EON smart meter installer turned up to fit my meter yesterday. He was here for about 7 minutes.

"There's no O2 mobile coverage here so the meter won't be able to transmit the data back to us."

"I could have told you that if you'd asked before coming out. So what's the alternative?"

"Umm.... there isn't one"

"You can't use another cell provider, or transmit the data cleverly down the distribution network?"

"Umm.....no."

"OK, bye. At least you've had a day out in the Cotswolds"

"Yeah, nice here innit?"

FAA shoots down delivery by drone plans

Charles Pearmain

Is there a season for drones?

Spoilsports; let's hope the CAA doesn't follow suit.

I for one was looking forward to a stream of autonomous drones, each bearing tech delights, just ready to be plucked from the air by some judicious sniping.

It would certainly save on pheasants.

Google RIPS aside curtain, exposes Nexus 5 phone, KitKat Android 4.4 coupling

Charles Pearmain

Re: Nice

Indeed. Those of us who travel outside the cosy conurbations know that mobile Cloud access is usually only viable within any given ring road so the only way to be sure we can always get at our stuff is to carry it with us.

Love in the time of the internet: A personal memoir

Charles Pearmain
Childcatcher

Re: Ahhh... CiX

A new lease of life perhaps, but I reckon the average age of those of us still using CIX must be around 55-60.

Expect the next CIXen wedding to feature the bride and groom being wheeled though an arch of Zimmer frames held aloft by inmates and their carers :o(

World's biggest distie Ingram admits it can't keep up growth in UK

Charles Pearmain

Re: Money is waiting

OK, as a Reseller, let me carry the torch of rage.

Ingram have proved to us time and time again that they have little regard for their customers, are happy to treat 'Next Day delivery' as an entirely abstract concept and to give not the tiniest speck of faeces about how this affects their clients' businesses. I mean they use PARCELFORCE - the company whose drivers can't find their arses with both hands let alone an address outside the M25 - for their deliveries FFS.

After a relationship stretching back over a decade they have gone from our biggest supplier to the Distie of absolute last resort. Occasionally an urgent requirement tempts us to use them but 50% of those orders they manage to deliver late or cock it up somehow.

No wonder this flaccid outfit can't keep it up. The growth I mean.

Samsung says Apple lifted iPad from Kubrick's 2001

Charles Pearmain
FAIL

2011 - Resurrection

Yeah, right.

And the author of "Resurrection" is suing him for coming back from the dead to do so?

Hackers pose as senator in email fraud bid

Charles Pearmain

Not just Senators

This scam seems widespread and is hitting more people than just US senators. We've seen two very similar attacks on UK-based users of Yahoo's mail accounts over the past 10 days.

AVG goes toe to toe with MS in consumer security fight

Charles Pearmain
WTF?

Neatly packaged....

....in a low-bandwidth friendly 103Mb download.

WTF are they stuffing in there now since they added the kitchen sink and the stack of redundant cardboard boxes in V8.5?

Ivan O'Toole? That's nothing, snorts Hugh Jass

Charles Pearmain
Jobs Halo

@Hugh Janus

Ok, its a quiet morning, VERY quiet. But I admit to a snigger when I saw where the following url carried me to:

http://www.hughjanus.co.uk/

BT admits misleading customers over Phorm experiments

Charles Pearmain

Add Eclipse Internet to the list

After much wriggling and many weasel words pointing me towards their "Privacy Policy" Eclipse Internet finally admitted that "We've had some preliminary discussions with Phorm but have not committed to anything at this stage."

We've got more than 130 punters signed up with Eclipse who will be reaching for the MAC code [Request] button should enlightened self-interest not prevail there.

MI5, EPA clean up dirty bomb dirt

Charles Pearmain
Flame

7 million quid?

Cheaper to pack the stuff into jiffy bags and get TNT to transfer it to the HMRC. Or does that only work one way?

Europe's floods and fires snapped from space

Charles Pearmain

Flood plain fiasco?

The primary reason houses are built on flood plains in the southern half of England is simple - the pressure to house people wanting to live there rather than in the north.

Speaking from bitter experience though, the recent (and indeed current) flooding in the west - Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Upton and many other smaller Cotswold towns - is largely of properties that are hundreds of years old rather than new buildings.

The issue here is not that homes have been badly situated or that flood defences and preparations were inadequate, but that the sheer scale of the event would have overwhelmed any reasonable preparations. Reasonable up until now that is; many established 'facts' about flooding risks to the infrastructure are going to have to be reconsidered, and reconsidered with the possibility in mind that things could well get far worsel.