* Posts by JeffyPooh

1244 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Aug 2007

iPhone 4S owners love Siri, hate the battery life

JeffyPooh
Pint

Everyone has their own priorities...

Improved antenna system (I refused to buy an iPhone 4)

Wifi Hotspot (coming from iPhone 3GS that lacked the feature).

Improved camera. Two cameras.

Battery life is fine. My use pattern has it at 75% by the time I get home at night,

Siri? - useless.

Fuel taxes don't hurt the world's poor - they don't have cars

JeffyPooh
FAIL

Prof Thomas Sterner at the University of Gothenburg needs to get out more...

I mean seriously.

If one travels to a perfectly typical developing country such as The Philippines, one will find that the back alleys are completely full of various home-brewed wheeled contraptions running on - gasp - gasoline. Commercially-constructed motorcycles are another example; the Honda 50cc at 60m+ being 'The Most Popular Gasoline-powered Motor Vehicle In The Known Universe' ™. Me thinks that the good Prof doesn't get out much.

Then there's the whole layer of working blokes driving Jeepneys, taxi cabs and trucks. These people are still firmly in the lower class (good hard-working people). When the price of gasoline goes up, their income typically goes down until the income stream is eventually adjusted. It always hurts. Always.

Anyway... Look at it from the other side? Who typically benefits from rising crude oil prices? Think about it.

Fahrenheit 451 published as Bradbury finally succumbs to ebooks

JeffyPooh
Pint

New market...

Gee. I guess 'Fahrenheit 451' made-from-paper books were still flying off the shelves.

Duh...

Toshiba readies zero Watt standby mode telly

JeffyPooh
Pint

@AdamJ "...That is statistically significant..."

6.8% of which total? Certainly not 6.8% of 'The Total Problem' ™.

And yet... There are some actual double-digit % of *all* global warming gas emissions that are low hanging fruit, and yet strangely untouched...

How about we institute carbon capture *just* (nowhere else) at all concrete factories? Such factories are almost always right next to railroad tracks, so the CO2 could be carried away by rail and fed into greenhouses for food, or algae farms to make fuel, or pumped underground for long term storage. Such an approach would result in concrete production changing to a net sucker-in of atmospheric CO2 as it ages.

How about we stop burning off methane from oil wells?

How about we ask Saudi Arabia to not run a 4-foot diamete oil pipeline over to Yeman or Oman to smelt Aluminium using fossil fuel? How about we mandate all Aluminium smelting shall occur ONLY in Iceland.

How about we run some power lines from Iceland to somewhere that people actually live?

How about we fix cow farts with dietary change?

How about someone fix the smoke-belching bunker-C powered ships that emit oxides of nitrogen that are aabout 'a quadrillion' (not really) times worse than CO2?

We humans need to switch from making promises we can't keep (Kyoto) and making trivial window-dresssing greenwash changes that don't matter at all... ...to taking actual easy, simple, cheap and effective changes that could knock 20-30% off 'The Actual Total' ™ with essentially no down-sides.

JeffyPooh
FAIL

Deception of the highest order

Ah, excuse me... 'The Problem' (saving the planet, etc.) is to be found at The Big End of the spectrum. Fiddling with The Tiny End (yes, even phantom power leaks with 24 hour duty cycle) is *extremely* misleading (utter deception). Exactly and precisely ZERO coal-fired power plants will be shut-down by such means. Believing that reducing a TV set's standby power from 1w to less than 1w is an actual accomplishment with any real-world impact is a *serious* cognitive disorder. It's the equivalent of an 8-inch diameter fart-can muffler on a clapped-out $500 Honda. It's a "False Finishing Touch" ™.

Facebook, FTC settle over privacy ‘deception’

JeffyPooh
Pint

Knowing Facebork Coders' programming skills...

...They'll violate this agreement in about a minute.

Revealed: Full specs on Mars rover's nuclear laser heat ray

JeffyPooh
Pint

Blast the pesky Martian Defence Forces...

Maybe with such defensive weaponry, the craft will actually make it past the Martian Defence Forces.

Apple killer app Siri struggles with Indian regional accents

JeffyPooh
Pint

"Furry boots are comfortable?"

Humans - laugh-a-minute. Ya gotta love 'em.

TiVo subscriptions go up – for the first time in 4 years

JeffyPooh

Alternate business models...

I bought a satellite PVR many years ago for several hundred dollars (a top-of-the-line model at the time). For what it's worth, the satellite TV company in question recently sent me a brand new (free) replacement as they're changing their signal from MPEG2 to MPEG4. It's a lovely PVR, easy to use, and every bit as good as a TiVo (some pluses and some minuses).

The "PVR Service" with the satellite TV providers is a natural and completely free part of the satellite TV subscription. One does not need to pay TiVo, or anyone else, for a "PVR service" as it's really just the guide information that they send out anyway.

I'm not sure that people are quite getting this point...

WITH TIVO, YOU'RE PAYING MONEY FOR A "SERVICE" THAT IS NEXT-TO-NOTHING.

Perhaps these people would pay me a non-negligible monthly fee for a collection of links to the Interweb (a la Live365)?

JeffyPooh
Pint

TiVo...

TiVo has the same business model for TV as Live365 does for Internet radio. That is, insert an inexplicable paid (?) subscription architecture in-between content that is either free or already paid-for and the consumer.

What really makes it all come clear are the more technically savy consumers that insert a DNS redirect into their Internet router and obtain the TiVo compatible TV listings guide information from other free sources.

Paying a monthly fee for "PVR Service" (distinct from equipment rental) is only possible if one really avoids thinking too much about exactly what one is paying for.

PS: These Faultline drafted articles are really awful. The language is stilted; the grammatical equivalent of adenoids.

US Martian nuke-truck launches without a hitch, but...

JeffyPooh
Pint

The telemetry drop-outs were not significant

I watched the launch live on NASA TV and the telemetry drop-outs seemed to coincide with known-gaps in the tracking network, or hand overs, or during manourving. They should certainly look into them, but there's nothing to be alarmed about.

Suggestions to NASA's telemetry boffins: 1) double check the Doppler shift *and* its rate of change, and 2) adjust the AOS predictions to allow for the signal chain resync and latency (no need to alarm everyone each time the AOS is delayed by several seconds).

Congratulations to NASA and the USA on such a good start to a great mission.

Tablets need permanent Black Friday price slash to triumph

JeffyPooh
Pint

"...So far Apple has not budged on price..."

They on sale RIGHT NOW. Apple's Black Friday (25 Nov 2011) shows moderate but non-trivial discounts on their Apple Store websites in USA and Canada.

Amazon Kindle Fire

JeffyPooh
Pint

An alternative: RIM PlayBook

The 16GB version of the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook is on sale for $200 [same price, if you're lucky enough to find one] and it is very similar to the Kindle Fire, but better in every possible way.

Cheap-as-chips kit smashes Intel's HD video encryption

JeffyPooh

It only takes *one* guy or gal to figure this out...

...Then the Chinese start mass-producing little boxes for $150 each, and the constantly-updated *point-and-click* software is distributed around the Interweb. The net result is that *anyone* can crack it with the click of the mouse.

*Anyone*.

Rogue Russian Mars probe communicates - but in gibberish

JeffyPooh
Mushroom

@ "Why use encryption in the first place?"

So the Americans don't send up commands to disable the Russian Grunt spacecraft thereby making the USA more successful with its better-protected Curiosity project. The whole Space Politics thing that super-powers play.

Oh...

Oh my...

Oh. My. God.

JeffyPooh
Pint

Grunt's drunk...

The Ground Controllers should each have a(nother) litre of vodka, and then it would all make sense.

Spillover from 400lb man squeezed fellow flier into galley

JeffyPooh
Pint

An 8-foot tall man from India

Nice chap, very pleasant. I would have preferred to stay and chat.

But due to the intersecting spacial requirements, I relocated to an empty seat in First Class.

ISS 'nauts need not fear head-on space junk smashup

JeffyPooh
Pint

Why do they paint space gadgets?

For some items it makes sense. But there's no need to paint a satellite that will spend its life in a vacuum where nobody can see it. Must. Discourage. Paint.

It's ALIVE! Broken Russian Mars probe finally answers calls

JeffyPooh
Pint

Being Russian...

The Mars Probe was probably near-lethally drunk at launch and is only now just starting to wake up.

Stereotype? Yes, of course. True? Often...

HP firesale wafts TouchPad to top of tablet chart

JeffyPooh
Pint

RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook...

...has been on (fire)sale recently (starting price $500 -> $300 -> $200). I suspect that they've shifted hundreds of thousands of them, but that's just a guess.

It's a good little tablet for surfing the Interweb. Mostly an App-free zone, but that's supposed to change with the Android player coming some.

Facebook phone rises from the dead, again

JeffyPooh
FAIL

I agree about Facebork coders...

My iPhone 4S can only hold a couple of webpages in memory while Facebork is even loaded. If I try to open three or four Safari pages, then it drops the contents of the background pages. Each time I switch pages, it reloads from the Interweb. If I shut down Facebork, then the Safari page limit is vastly higher.

JeffyPooh
Pint

A Facebook privacy-leak phone?

Everything you do will be immediately posted to Facebook. ?

Amazon's Android-friendly Kindle Fire splutters

JeffyPooh
Pint

PlayBook is essentially in the same price class

For those shopping around in the next few days...

The RIM PlayBook is constantly on sale for $300, oh, make that $200. And its form factor is similar, but with 16GB vice 8GB (at those price points just mentioned), comes with two cameras, GPS, an inaccessible compass, and a very similar lack of apps.

You're correct about one major point. At the $200 price point, it should sell even if it had nothing but a good browser and a few other apps (assuming good battery, pretty screen, capacitive multi-touch, etc.). It doesn't need to be an iPad when it only costs 40% of an iPad.

NASA nuclear Mars tank launch delayed by one day

JeffyPooh
Pint

"...nuclear-propelled space truck, which is about the size of a small SUV..."

What could possibly go wrong with that?

I'll be in my bunker until it's left Earth orbit. :-)

Truly unlimited mobile for $19: How can it be true?

JeffyPooh
Pint

@Alex Rose

Ack. The virtual beer's on me, sir.

"...download 300MB of data on that cellular connection..."

JeffyPooh
Pint

Consumers' mindset...

...will be to park themselves in a location with zero Wifi and start watching HD videos. Consumers love to spank big companies.

Mysterious sat-pic China desert markings - EXPLAINED

JeffyPooh
Pint

Mysterious runes...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_GqLiIYV1FnA/SaGMsvKjFTI/AAAAAAAABUw/h-vc0fbtFPI/s1600-h/motivator2923756.jpg

Busted Russian Mars probe could go to Moon instead

JeffyPooh
Pint

Comms is hard...

...Not! Seriously, file under FAIL. The exact orbit can be determined by those that use radar fences to track everything in orbit. The bird should have a little backup receiver (encrypted of course) wired to a hardware interrupt to a recovery routine. This is not rocket science.

Years ago there was a wee little satellite that refused to communicate. Its antenna relay was programmed into the wrong position, making it deaf. The boffins borrowed a massive VHF antenna array owned an amateur radio operator (W5UN?*), and blasted the wee little satellite with multi-megawatts of EIRP. So much RF power it got through the RF isolation of the switch. They were able to recover it.

* Use Google Images searching the call sign to see the big antenna array.

DARPA boffins develop unfeasibly light metal fluff-structure

JeffyPooh
Pint

Eiffel it all the way down...

The Eiffel Tower is a lattice made of smaller lattices. Brilliant. But m. Eiffel gave up too soon. If the 'lattice made from smaller lattices' concept was followed through in an almost endlessly-recursive manner, then Eiffel Tower would weigh next to nothing. Obviously the recursion has to stop when the technology runs out (nanometer scale these days). Done correctly, the structural strength is retained (if not improved) while the mass tends towards zero.

The DARPA example is wonderful and fantastic, but it would be infinitely lighter if the solid tubes were made of (10:) lattice structures (GOTO 10) - all the way down.

Google opens Android music store in iTunes' face

JeffyPooh
Pint

In case some people haven't yet noticed...

The Worldwide International Music (artificial) Shortage is over. Music has officially become a ubiqitous commodity, much like atmospheric nitrogen.

You can all stop hoarding now...

Obama says his birthplace is 'in Asia'

JeffyPooh
Pint

"Here in Asia"

"Here in Asia-Pacific"

There, I fixed it for you... ...Mr. President.

Amazon's new Kindle Fire stripped naked

JeffyPooh
Pint

Double-check the current price of the RIM PlayBook

The RIM PlayBook is similar in many way to the Kindle Fire, but with several added features (cameras). Tomorrow (Friday 18 Nov) the PalyBook be on sale again, this time for $200, in stores all across Canada. And that's with 16GB of that new-fangled "Flash-RAM". ;-)

The USA is likely to see similar PlayBook pricing this coming Black Friday.

Politicians call for Modern Warfare 3 censure

JeffyPooh
Pint

"...a link between perpetrators of violent crime and violent video games users"

Playing COD MW3 does NOT make children violent.

Playing COD MW3 with Internet lag... ...THAT'S what makes children violent.

Windows 8 aims to make security updates less painful

JeffyPooh
Pint

I hope that they remember the following points...

Not everyone has high speed. Some may be stuck with dial-up. They need to allow for that condition and make design decisions that won't drive people to violence.

Even for those with high speed, it may only be 1Mbps. Updates should not barge onto the network when the user has just started the machine. Windows could even enforce this on other applications. There should almost be a Bugger Off button to stop all network access except the ones requested by the user.

Or the user may be on a non-wired access system that costs 10p per kilobyte.

All of these should be auto-detected, or listed as settings, so that the disadvantaged user can get to the darn Tornado Warnings webpage before it's too late.

PSP owners must pay to port games to PS Vita

JeffyPooh

Compare and contrast

Apple's iTunes eco-system to the others (including Sony's). To give Sony credit, I don't recall having to purchase on-line credits as we *don't* do with the XBox.

NASA: 2012 solar flares could DEVASTATE CITIES!

JeffyPooh
Pint

OMG!!

Hide the electronics? Hell no! Dig out the old 10m SSB rig and enjoy!

(27MHz CB'ers too. Just, please, stay in your band. Thanks.)

Sperm donors nicer than average, Swede study finds

JeffyPooh
Joke

"Just aim your emission into this cup." ...

... She carefully placed the little cup on an upper shelf, and left the room.

Crikey, I needed six attempts over two hours before I finally managed to hit that damn cup on the upper shelf. I was exhausted!

During the subsequent discussion, we determined that I had misinterpreted her instructions. You're apparently supposed to take the little cup down from the shelf and hold it a lot closer.

For some reason, they won't allow me back.

Now Russians can't even contact their busted Mars probe

JeffyPooh
Pint

Lyrics appropriate to the age, original singer's initials not so much...

Spacecraft keep fallin' on my head

And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed

Nothin' seems to fit

Those spacecraft are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'...

...

B.J. Thomas

Results in on why life, the universe and everything exists

JeffyPooh
Pint

It's actually quite simple...

Most of the time we're not here.

The Register Guide on how to stay anonymous (part 2)

JeffyPooh
Pint

"...I strongly advocate either the complete removal of Java, Silverlight, Flash and the disabling of JavaScript..."

Oh for gawd's sake. One might as well have the news and entertainment delivered via Morse code...

Do what I do. Surf websites that cover topics in which I have zero interest. This confuses the advertisers to no end.

Consumer Reports: iPhone 4S antenna doesn't suck

JeffyPooh
Pint

All fixed then...

So they added bits of wire to move the antennas' Hi-Z points inside? Great news. Good job.

Ah, too bad about the battery life.

Router glitch causes widespread net outages

JeffyPooh
Pint

No problem here...

Our Internet is working jus

Is the electromagnetic constant a constant?

JeffyPooh
Pint

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Fine-structure constant

It's all explained here:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GqLiIYV1FnA/TIr8eWeZgrI/AAAAAAAAB6U/RIiNR60WdvQ/s1600/HHGTTFSC.jpg

Ginormous sunspot spews solar guts towards Earth

JeffyPooh
Pint

Radio communications

The 10m ham band has been wide open recently. An active sun actually helps HF comms at the upper end of the HF bands. But solar flares do tend to make a mess of it. 73.

Alien city lights could be detected across interstellar space

JeffyPooh
Pint

BTW: It is possible to integrate AC

Trivial if you can guess the exact frequency in advance. Not that much more difficult even if you don't: sample and store, then FFT it.

It still won't work for other reasons. But signal processing is not an issue.

JeffyPooh
Pint

Assumptions...

Assumed wavelength? Please don't answer "visible light".

Also, an intelligent species would ensure that their exterior lighting is aimed down, instead of lighting up the sky. Counter-examples (i.e. idiots) are readily spotted on *this* planet. Thankfully the local government here (NS, Canada) is switching street lighting to LED - lighting that is efficiently kept out of the sky. It's fantastic! Great lighting and dark skies! :-)!!!!!!!!!!!

PlayStation Network downloads limited to two devices

JeffyPooh
Pint

Two PS3s

We have two PS3s; so I guess we won't buy another.

We have three PSPs, but it's not an issue. They're rendered completely obsolete by the two iPhones and two iPod Touches.

Yamaha RX-V471 5.1 AV receiver

JeffyPooh
Happy

I/O sources = "Content is King"

Main System: Subscription satellite TV (dual tuner + PVR) two outputs, FTA Sat TV, PS3, PS2, Wii, DVD Recorder, WD TV, Internet Radio (x2), CD changer, XM Sat Radio, tape deck (obsolete), Receiver, Sony Dash, and probably several more I've forgotten. The system has an active switch box just to accept all the audio sources.

Content is king. Boredom is dead.

The receivers with ~16 inputs are also *over-the-top* 'Top Of The Line' and cost too many thousands. Even 'The Sum of All Gadgets' doesn't add up to that.

JeffyPooh
Pint

Simply not enough I/O...

A good receiver shouldn't have that many square inches of empty panel space on the back. It should be at least 50% connectors (by area) on the back, preferrabley 75+%. I've seen some that were nearly 100%, but I can't afford them.

Adobe Reader

JeffyPooh
Pint

Hmmm...

Maybe they can slip a Flash player into the Reader App.

LOL.