Posts by Jonny F

Want gmail? Use gamil.com

I love my Kindle Fire. When I want to use gmail I use gmail.com. The fire has a great full-web-page browser.

The kindle fire does everything it claims to do.

If a gmail app is a deal breaker for you, great, don;t use it.

Then, please, stop moaning and complaining about it.

Some device doesn't do what *you* want it to. Too bad.

As to why, developers get to choose how their apps are distributed. Ask google if they distribute them in the amazon app store. Complain to the developer.

ps - Now my android phone does have a gmail app, but man i hate my android phone for so many reasons.

small % realise they would need to buy a NEW iphone to switch

One type of question not asked ..

Do you plan to take your iphone to Verizon?

Would you spend $200 to switch to Verizon?

Would you buy a new Verizon iphone to switch networks?

at&t is GSM, Vesizon is not. a lot of US cell phone users do not realise they can not take their current at&t iphone with them.

Fun, but who is for what and who is against what?

I enjoyed the item and the images, but i left not understanding who is for what and who is against what, and what what is.

I do not live in the greatest place on Earth and/so have not heard of clause 43 before. Clause 43 of what? I do not live in the UK either :-)

Anything except send spam email- on Android

The good android folks won't let you send e-mail without the user's explicit consent - pressing send on a message you can see on the screen.

There is (almost) no way in Android for a developer to send e-mail through the user's e-mail or gmail accounts, or any other standard mail server. All Java and android api's related to sending e-mail are diabled., You can code with them and either Eclipse will blow up and refuse to compile the app, or the app compiles and it blows up (FC's in android speak) when you run it on the device.

(need a chocolate factory icon)

Win7 doubled by HP laptop/tablet battery life

Funny, when anyone asks me why i like Windows 7 i reply that the battery life on my laptop is at least doubled from Vista!

HP swivel screen laptop/tablet. Never going back to Vista to test it, but i recon i get 3X the battery life much of the time.

From Danger's Web Site

I can imagine the Danger defense now: "I sent you an e-mail saying we MUST make a backup. Just check my e-mail? I sent it from my phone weeks ago."

From the Danger web site:

* 4,680 messages / month / user. (reportedly 1M users)

* Danger is now a part of Microsoft's new Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) team

(the Premium team, really?)

* mobile handsets connected to powerful hosted back-end services

(powerful hosted? Or powerful services, unpowerfully-hosted?)

I had a Sidekick II for 4 years and loved it. The service would go some times, t-mob gave a month/week free for one very bad internet outage. The keyboard was better than my Android G1's. Very good build quality, made by Sharp i think. Again, v superior to my HTC Android G1.

No back-up's? Ever? That's as sensible as lending money for a very expensive house to someone who doesn't earn enough to pay you back. Oh.

Not in Rapex Yet

The BEEB also says France alerted the EU using Rapex, but there's nothing there yet. Updates each Friday apparently

http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/dyna/rapex/rapex_archives_en.cfm

Lots of apples, toy apples, etc. Phone chargers and toy phones. No iphone.

We are an Android G1 and iphone 3gs household. Both phones can do the same things, conceptually and technically. But doing them on the 3gs is so much more enjoyable. Guess which phone is mine :-(

But where does the electric come from?

>I still can't get my head round the 'electric' car arguement. If you have to burn 'stuff' (coal, oil etc) to create electricity to fill up the cars where is the saving?

a)

With a (us) gas(oline) car, you have little choice but to burn fossil fuel. For a while everyone was excited about burning corn, but that proved to had bad consequences for peoples of the world who ate corn.

With an electric car, initially, the electric might come from fiossil fuels too. But at least there are options for the electric to come from numerous sources: fossil fuels, wind, sea, Dr Strangelove, etc.

b)

Some people want cars to "go green".

But some have completely *different* aims, such as reducing the USA's need for foreign oil. If you take this driving force, then replacing foreign fissil fuen with domestic is still a big win.

Some people use both arguments to push the electric car forward for their own ends. etc.

Add in jobs, IP, and other economic issues.

Hay, it's basically a free market economy. If you don't want one, don't buy one. But all the complainers out there - get over it. What does it matter if there's gasoline and electric and hybrid cars for sale? Use the one you want.

As for the EPA's fuel numbers, they are a lot stricturer at testing and test protocls than you may first think. They are not the BSA though :-)

NB - My VW Bug is officially rated at a combined 22 mpg, but from a full 5 years of logs, i see a combined 28mpg (us).

BACK STORY - She was already sue'ing the landlord

Steady on chaps. The back story, as i understand it, is that she was already sue'ing the landlord after some water damage. The landlord did a web search on the person who was sue'ing them.

The USA is a very litigious place compared to blighty :-(

Language! Falling standards at El Reg again

Don't like Wolfram Alpha? Then don't use it.

Got something interesting to say, some insight on this, then say it.

Need to use potty mouth? Put it on your blog.

El Reg, where's the quality control?

As Homer Simpson said: Dounuts, is there anything they can't do?

I know what i'm doing this weekend :-)

As Douglas Adams put it, " he fed that value into the finite improbability generator, gave it a really hot cup of tea, and managed to generate the infinite improbability generator out of thin air"

As Homer Simpson said: Dounuts, is there anything they can't do?

The BMI "overweight" threshold has changed over time.

BMI is not that bad.

The accepted thresholds for being BMI normal and overweight, etc have changed. The thresholds 10 years ago were different to the values accepted today.

And BMI is not designed to tell you if you will have lots of health complications later. It doesn't make that claim, even if others might.

It does correlate very well, in the general global population, with body fat, and as such is a useful tool.

Does it work for everyone? No, not much does. But stop all the whining. And stop the excuses. It doesn't work for you if you are very fit or very very unfit. That's probably not you.

Another one? Dolcote Management

I live in Pittsburgh. A friend in the UK said their father was contacted by http://dolcotemanagement.com/relatedarticles.html based in Pittsburgh, and would i take a look.

They have a mergers and aqc web page, plus investments. All basic web template stuff.

This address would be a bad physical place to set up a criminal activity, it is about one block away from the FBI office :-)

Developers can install and buy their own apps

Developers can install their own apps on their own phones - as a normal part o the development process. That's why the developers bought a phone, to test on a real device *before* launching the app in the Market

Developers can get their app from the Market, if they choose to not have copy protection. When you launch an app in the Market there's a radio button. Copy protection / no copy protection.

Developers can change any of the Marlet App options, including the copy protection. So they could launch v 1.0.0 with no copy protection, go buy it themselves, then turn copy protection on. At the very least turn it on with an identical build marked v1.0.1

You would think if they were smart enough to write the code and deploy the app they could work this out and stop whining. Apparently not for the vocal few.

Much more interesting (and complicated?) is the fact that the Google leaves the responsibility of collecting sales tax (applicable on canned software) to each developer.

El Reg Journalism Quality Control Fails!

Was it stolen? Did the legendary El Reg Quality Control server fail?

Did the intern press a button they shouldn't have?

That was terrible journalism.

I come here for infotainment, and got neither.

My Local Rolla-Coaster Park Made Me Take Off My Bandanna

Tied about my neck, kept the sun off. They said i could only come in the park if i took it off. House rules. Seems blue bandannas are a bad choice round here (Pittsburgh PA, USA). Next time i will go for a pastel, no self respecting gang will use a pastel.

I dislike all the stupid rules states don't need. And yet, I quite like the idea that if you're [childish/stupid/tough] enough to be in a gang (with associated anti social behavior and rules) then the state has [childish/stupid/tough] laws it can apply (like not allowing you to wear your gang "uniform").

Every has these terms

A browser like Chrome may not need or want this language, but i see thousands of web sites with forums, bulletin boards, and user generated content, that all have this language. It is common.

As examples from big brand names on either side of the Atlantic, check the Nike and BBC T&C's regarding user generated content.

Oh, and lets check Apple

http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa

License to Use Submission. By sending a Submission to the Site you agree to grant Apple a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive worldwide right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, make available to the public, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to the Submission. If you do not want to grant to Apple the rights set out above, do not send your Submission to the Site.

And Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.mspx#E3D

However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting ("Posting") your Submission you are granting Microsoft, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses (including, without limitation, all Microsoft Services), including, without limitation, the license rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; to publish your name in connection with your Submission; and the right to sublicense such rights to any supplier of the Services.

If you don't like it then don't post.

Belgium Man, Belgium!

But in a good way.

I too see trees of green and skies of blue.

The US Amazon reviews are great!

I mean, when a game copy-pastes levels, sounds, graphics, UI, and designs from a crapload of other good games, such as Thief 3, UT2004, Morrowind, Oblivion, WoW, Vampire: Bloodlines (one of my all time favs), Crysis, + more, it must be super awesome, right? It's like the combined awesomeness of all those games in one affordable title

"The Cliff Notes of gaming" etc.

The amazon reviews are just great.

http://www.amazon.com/Tri-Synergy-8-11002E-11-Limbo/dp/B0017XEGOK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1213882990&sr=8-1

If only my El Reg comments were that good.

Flt Lt Chris Ball, we salute you.

Makes you proud to be British.

Fly right, Lt Ball.

Average IQ *can* increase over time

Average IQ can increase or decrease over time.

In year N you have the average test score, and define that test score as IQ 100.

In year n+1, you can find the average test score is higher. You define the average test score that year to have an IQ of 100, AND the average IQ went up.

What IQ or belief system do you need to understand that?

What if you have a photographic memory?

Might as well hand your self in now - if you're lucky enough to have seen the legal acts first hand.

8.9inch screen = root(L + W) + edges.

25.6 centimeter = 10.1 inch

16.5 centimeter = 6.5 inch

Diagonal = root(102 + 42) = 12.0 inch

so an 8.9 inch screen seems right, with an inch and a half at either end for the case.

Normally i'd post an interesting comment. At least to me. Can't help it, see some numbers and an unanswered question, had to do it. Now where's my coat?

imprimatur - word of the day August 19, 2004

Just like the author, now that i know it, i too can not wait to find an excuse to use it :-)

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2004/08/19.html

to the person with the apadravya (+best TSA joke)

You could have warned me. Google immediately show you three examples in pictures without the need to hit the "images" button. OOOwwwww.

Oh, and as the greatest (Boyden?) joke goes ...

One person puts a bomb in his shoe and now we all have to take our shoes off at the airport.

Where's the bra-bomber at?

No one has the right to not be offended

Agree with (some of) his views or not - He has a right to express them.

No one has the right to not be offended.

The stronger (direct & physical) negative reactions his stand and film have brought speak directly to his point.

I don't blame the web host that was worried for it's staff. But governments should stand and support free speech, not object to it because the people who may be offended can turn into an angry mob.

The cartoons showed there is a disconnect in cultural understanding. Yet personally being on this side of the disconnect, i can fathom giving up freedom of expression in a tolerant society because of another culture's intolerance and restrictions on expression.

Signals the death of narative Internet. Turn it off!

news.bb.co.uk ran a twitter-fan item this week (by you know who, i was disappointed), and news.google ran a big piece yesterday about the winner is twitter, best thing since last years winner - twitter. Because they used it to get to cool parties at SXSW. Wot??

My wife's experience of Twitter on the other hand, was setting it up at home one morning, and two hours later calling me frantically to go to the web site and de-activate it. Her secure work place internet wouldn't let her get to the site, and she was being in-un-dated with the mindless thoughts of the Twitter sphere, while for the following week all her friends were mailing her and asking her to take them off her Twitter invitation, that they didn't want to be part of anything that inane, or that they didn't have a clue what it was and could she explain why they were receiving these invitations from her. "It was a mistake" she would reply :-)

Thumbs-down. Though i suspect the kid's will like it, because they don't know any better.

Google Gmail login didn't work yesterday either. Coincidence?

All day yesterday for me (in the USA) the gmail login didn't work, just put you back at the log in. Log in wrong and it told you, log in right and you got the log in screen again. Clicking on the mail icon in googletalk opened up gmail fine,but a log out and re-login continued to fail. Works today.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

Starbucks, getting a OLPC out of USA, etc

Reporting on OLPA - great. Being clever and ironic - fine, what El Reg is known for. But it seems there's something very British about simply being rude to all and sundry, particularly when it's foreign. If you lived in the USA you would know that Starbucks has an excellent reputation for coffee, etc. You might know somewhere that's better locally, and the UK reputation may be different, but the hot spots are offered in the USA only (as it says clearly), where it is possible to enjoy an excellent coffee or tea.

As for getting one to Blighty .... i might be able to help someone out here, if i knew how to get in touch with you and you know you want to do it. No idea if you can claim it as a tax free charitable donation in the UK, that kind of things is well understood in the USA annual tax returns.

Buyer knows who received the money, FBI informed, etc

There is a mondo thread at ebay with people supporting this buyer. Helping her clean the PC up (though she has bought a new one to replace it completely), and supporting her in her legal remedy.

The buyer tracked down the person who received the money - acting as a home business that received bank-bank transfers, took out cash, and did western union out of the country. In this case Greece. "seller" had bank account in maiden name, sent money out of country in amounts just under limit so no ID required, etc.

Interesting read.. particularly that the US person who transfered the money over seas makes about a 20% cut.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000578265&start=360

"authorities examined and made a copy of my hard drive. It seemed that they had an idea of what they were looking for ...... I still have received an final it was this..." " but they thought it was the trojan bayrob or very similar last I heard.

As far as the kvet... That is very interesting I would be curious to know more about this. I know the "mule" in my situation wired it to Greece- I don't know that she new where it was going after that - Anyone know the time difference between Czech and here? Remember I said the time on my computer had been set ahead for my email since this happened?? "