Is this a problem

Maybe they are trying to hire someone who can do the job, rather than the normal muppets government agencies always seem to find.

Or maybe not...

Nice to see

that screwing things up the first time around has been tried out in England first. Makes for a pleasant change.

removal of wires

How exactly? You still need the wired back haul to the room. Personally I'd rather the hospital paid for a nice reliable cable if they need network access so that the receiver/transmitter doesn't get block for any reason.

Or you know, use maybe a tube to focus the light beams to a specific point in the room....

cause of death

"People who spend excessive amounts of time in front of a screen - primarily watching TV - are more likely to die of any cause and suffer heart-related problems.

more likely to die of any cause? So someone who spends all day watching TV is more like to be killed in an avalanche whilst skiing than anyone else? Amazing bit of research that, probably the avalanche will be a result of the heart disease....

Anyway, I'm off for a mars bar supper and to catch up on some TV.

real measurements

I don't have one of the phones Jobs' mentions, however, here are some real numbers for the HTC hero.

Lying on desk signal strength -95dBm

holding single handed (left or right) signal strength -101dBm

completely shielded with both hands I eventually managed to drop it to -109 dBm.

Is this unacceptable or unexpected. Not really, there isn't much that can be done if you have an antenna internal to the phone and someone picks it up. Fortunately, I rarely use my phone with both hands wrapped completely around it to answer/make calls.

The iPhone 4 I tried at the weekend immediately dropped ~22dBm when I placed one finger over the link between the antenna. Add that to the problem of shielding and signal reception degrades beyond use very quickly. Other smart phones share the problem of shielding, some are better at coping with this than others. The iPhone is the one that is incompetently designed because it looks better. Style over substance as per usual.

how thick

do you need to be to waste £1200 on hoopla?

I can agree that the stall being set up such that the items were wider than the rings is wrong. But surely people aren't that stupid to spend so much money on hoopla. Go buy the bottle of champagne.

Muppets.

no RAID?

why? I like the idea, but I would need to have RAID support.

Wikipeadia?

The day that teachers accepted that it was a trusted source of information was the day that education died.

El Reg next

When are the register going to supply a panic button to refer people to the music and film industry for clearly being pirates!

This is unacceptable behaviour!

Sorry but the whole idea of the panic button is pointless. Lets be completely honest, if you don't want your kids chatting and meeting with stranger don't let them use the computer unsupervised.

If the police want to justify the formation of incompetent groups of specialists do it based on evidence of the group being effective. Don't blame industry to distract people from your own inadequacies of lossing track of people.

The police should stop trying to be politicians and get on with their job.

pish

Sorry, but this is complete and utter pish.

The sooner software patents are banned the better. The whole patent system needs re-thought and the bloody obvious ones should stop getting granted. The whole point of the system was to provide access to new innovations and enable inventors to be re-numerated for sharing their knowledge rather than keep it secret. This in turn should enable further innovation.

Wide ranging non-specific patents should not be allowed in almost all cases.

seriously?

title says it all.

Why would anyone take that seriously?

retention?

So, let me get this straight. The database has been running for around eight years and they haven't yet got a data retention policy?

child at 19

sorry but they really are taking the piss. A child is up to 16. I can sometimes accept the up to 18 as you can't vote or drink I can see the justification on the grounds that you aren't treated by law like an adult in these situations. But 19? I was at Uni had a job and busily getting completely pissed every pay day at 17.

How about just making it possible for people to be able to afford these things for themselves. Having a shiny new computer and broadband access at home isn't much use if you can't afford to turn them on.

tinfoil hat anyone?

Maybe we can advise him and his fellows to wear blue tinfoil hats thus making them easier to round up....

Although anyone wanting to blame apple for everything can't be all bad....

don't give them a phone

Simple solution.

Same goes for computer use. Keep it in an area open to all the family and it is easy to monitor.

The real problem here is bad parenting. Not technology.

obvious

Patenting the obvious again, a headset to listen to music. What will they think of next?

@ Anonymous Coward Posted Thursday 27th August 02:05 GMT

Nice to see that music industry arseholes in the US do actually keep an eye on the Register. Maybe they are aware that most of the world think their tactics are ridiculous.

Pish

I've been waiting to try out this and the new HTC phone. However, the contracts on O2 tend to be rubbish if you aren't getting an iPhone.

trust me...

"If you use any flavor of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you should immediately hit this link and click on the Fix it icon to enable a workaround"

Brilliant. trust us, just click here and all your problems will be solved. Isn't that how half of the problems start in windows?

incompetent

Just shows how incompetent politicians can be. They can't even hire someone to explain to them which company is involved.

Why not America firms? Simple, that would reduce revenue for American firms who aren't competitive on a global scale. Same protectionist shite that America constantly tries to utilise to maximise profits at home whilst making others open their markets to American firms.

Lets be sensible about this. The technology that was shipped is complying to international standards. Are the Americans now suggesting one mobile network for them and a different one for everyone else? Oh wait.....

pratical?

Umm, are there many basestations in range in locations which get as low as -70 degrees? Admittedly the GPS might be useful...