* Posts by Andres

43 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Apr 2008

Bah humbug. It's Andrew's Phones of the Year

Andres

Re: LG G4...

Just FYI - Vodaphone have it on PAYG for £230! A spectacular deal which I will be buying tomorrow. All I need now is a Vodaphone unlocker..

Andres

Flagships are sinking

I don't think I will ever pay more than £300 for a phone again when you can get so much for less. Having said that, Vodaphone have the LG G4 for £240 on PAYG!! So I am off to buy one before they sell out.

Google hits TurboFan button on Chrome's JavaScript engine

Andres

Re: What for?

I remember when Chrome was actually stunningly fast in comparison to other browsers. But now, it has become a middle-aged slob, no faster than other browsers and more memory-hungry.

I keep meaning to switch to another browser. Which one to chose...

Hello Barbie: Hang on, this Wi-Fi doll records your child's voice?

Andres
Devil

Re: A chill just went up and down my spine at this....

If I saw my friends children playing with one of these, I would find it very difficult to not say a few choice words/phrases into the toy in the hope the parents would get them in their weekly email.

F1? No, it's Formula E as electric racing cars hit the track

Andres

Re: Our friends electric

The part I really liked was the fact that the cars will be identical, for the first year anyway. I would much rather watch the drivers battle it out using driving skill rather than some also having the benefit of a faster car.

Microsoft asks pals to help KILL UK gov's Open Document Format dream

Andres
Facepalm

Re: Cant we just bring back EDI?

You're doing it wrong then. EDI standards are large and rarely fully implemented. Deciding to use a previously unused part of a document is not creating a new standard. Properly implemented EDI is highly efficient.

I do agree with your last comment though. To paraphrase Groucho, here is my standard, and if you don't like it, I have others!

Is it all up for LANDFILL ANDROID? BEHOLD, the Moto G

Andres

Re: Onwards to upwards towards 2bn Android phones.

"MS doesn't care - they just keep learning (slowly) and coming after you."

I think you mean they keep bankrolling failed products with Office/server money until they get it right. Throw enough money at any problem and you will get it right eventually. Money is a powerful tool that MS are very comfortable using.

Thousands rally behind teen girl cuffed, expelled in harmless 'explosion'

Andres
FAIL

Values

So, it's ok to own a gun (even a childrens gun, in pink) but you can't experiment with the mildest of chemical reactions. Maybe because there is no money in pandering to chemists whereas the NRA...

What a messed up State.

Review: Google Nexus 4

Andres
Thumb Down

Missed chance

Google lost another sale here with their amateur logistics (or planning). Have been waiting for the chance to buy one but having seen the new phones from CES, will now wait a couple of month and get the Sony Experia ZL (import). LTE, microSD, 5" screen in a case just very slightly larger than the N4 - suddenly the only real selling point of the Nexus is the cost.

Time has already run out for smart watches

Andres
FAIL

As Cartman said

Screw You! I have pre-ordered my Pebble which actually looks good as well as having some functionality.

Where were the bullet holes on OS/2's corpse? Its head ... or foot?

Andres

Still in use

Last seen on a broken Croydon Tramlink ticket machine. I stood and stared at it in shock for a few minutes before moving on. I was one of the foolish bleeding edger's who bought a copy of Warp for my personal machine. It could have been a contender...

Reader input required: review our reviews

Andres
Thumb Up

Fix the scoring

Do you never review bad items? What is the point of percentage points if nothing scores below 50%? In fact I reckon 80% of stuff come ins between 70% and 90%. Just have 5 stars and be done with.

Apart from that, the comparisons are always good to read and you could do with a few more, and the other reviews are a good balance.

Google stiffs Samsung on price, now wireless charging too

Andres

No SD card - not much of a problem

There is software on the Play market and leads from all leading electrical retailers which together allow you to connect any USB storage to your droid phone. So for the sake of about £5, you can take a small lead and e.g. a USB microSD card reader and carry TBs of video with you on holiday.

So the missing SD issue is only fairly major, not very major.

Tesco helps high flyers avoid actual shops

Andres
FAIL

No thanks

Not sure I want everyone in Departures seeing which brand of toilet paper or fungal cream I want to order, or wondering why I need 8 cans of squirty cream, 2 large cucumbers and a head scarf.

Booth babes banned by Chinese gaming expo

Andres
Alert

Out of control!

"miniskirts and hot pants must worn below the hip, and pants are a must"

They even went without pants?!! That really is taking it too far. Or is this American English...?

The Dragon 32 is 30

Andres
Happy

You always remember your first...

I persuaded my parents to buy one to help with computer studies at school. And then, like probably most other kids, spent 80% of the time playing games with some coding in-between.

Ofcom: The Office of Screwing Over Murdoch?

Andres

Re: Interesting article...

The reason for their power, amongst other things, is the threat of having your private life sieved by a team of hacks and investigators. Any public figure with anything resembling a past (96%) would run a mile from being dragged through the scandal sheets.

This threat has since been confirmed in the ongoing enquiry.

Brazilians unveil Microsoft SkyDrive's secret – revealing pics

Andres
Pint

Can't compare etc.

Skydrive is of no use to us oldie worldie Win XP users (gotta love corporate laptops) and even if I could use it, the 50mb maximum file size is a showstopper. So, as you say David, oranges & lemons (spot which one is the lemon).

Apple offers cash for old kit

Andres

How far back does this go?

I have a couple of Apple Newtons in a cupboard in the garage that could be put towards something a little more up to date.

Asus Zenbook UX31E

Andres

Just curious. Do The Reg keep stats on the hardware review scores? It seems that 95% of stuff reviewed is within 70-90%, with stuff having to be exceptionally good/bad to go beyond. Even this, clearly a very good item, falls in this bracket.

How about you just use 1-5 stars? Saves the planet all those wasted %'s.

HP CEO to reveal fate of WebOS in two weeks

Andres
Facepalm

Crying shame

I was lucky enough to get a Touchpad and frankly, WebOS just walks all over IOS and Android. It is an elegant, intuitive system which I just hope and wish will carry on life with HP or whoever takes it over.

Samsung predicts galactic profits

Andres
Pint

Awful

I don't normally post but that was bad on so many levels. I'm going to need a beer to recover.

Samsung shifts 10 millionth Galaxy SII

Andres
Thumb Up

Top top phone

It is simply a fabulous phone. I bought one on Friday for its own merits, not for make, reputation or OS. It looks stunning in white and it is easy to see why it is selling so well.

Apple may not be overly worried about this individual phone but the quality of recent Androids and market share trends must have them looking pensively into their skinny lattes.

Sony to can MiniDisc Walkman

Andres
Facepalm

Agreed

Jason 7, you hit the nail on the head. Sony had the market open to themselves when 3.5 disks were becoming restrictive and before CDRs etc became affordable. There was no other rewritable tech close to it for speed, convenience and size. I was so desperate I bought a ZIP drive but always wondered why Sony didn't capture the market by replacing 3.5 disks with minidisks. A(nother) big missed opportunity for them.

BenQ W1200 HD DLP projector

Andres
WTF?

Shockingly good

A product as good as rivals costing three times more. And therefore a score of...80%?

What is it with Reg reviews that everything comes in between 60-90%, with the majority at 70 or 80? Just get rid of the %'s and use stars out of five.

Dear Dell and Microsoft: You're not Apple

Andres
Thumb Down

Huh..?

"And why is a company that has in the past built a truly great browsing experience allowed its internet expertise to languish?"

I was already sceptical about this article but this just made me stop and give up. I think it was referring to Microsoft.

Can Windows Phone 7 help Microsoft come from behind?

Andres
Stop

History

You will notice that the "wins" were all in the days when MS had the clout of a PC monopoly behind it. They could pretty much mandate anything as they controlled the desktop.

Since then, they have managed to enter and stay in new markets only by throwing buckets of money behind their efforts. Money from the desktop underpins all they do and allows them the comfort of making mistake after mistake without risk to the company.

Windows 7 may succeed, but it will not be down to technical excellence. It will be down to the desktop money hose that can continue to spray marketing spiel longer than anyone else.

Ditch the malware magnet

Andres
Thumb Up

More please

Nice tip, well explained. Seems obvious now but I thought Foxit would have been safer. I'll be removing Adobe and Foxit pronto.

OOXML and open clouds: Microsoft's lessons learned

Andres
Gates Horns

Leopards, spots etc...

Of course Microsoft have a soft touchy-feely approach to open standards regarding cloud data. That's because it doesn't have anything to defend, so it can act the consciencious citizen.

But when Microsoft already have control of a market, they will do whatever it takes to keep control and to hell with standards. They are quite happy to throw their weight around - see OOXML as just one example.

Classic bully boy behaviour - quiet when there is no advantage, but aggresive when they have the advantage. Sorry, but Microsoft have a long way to go to prove they are in it for the commong good.

How can UK.gov spend £35m on a website?

Andres
FAIL

So obvious

"Free & Open Source Software won't matter when a Consultancy or Outsourcing company loads up a contract with tasks requiring many person weeks of expensive billable time."

I am both filled with real anger at the way our naive gov depts are so easily plucked by wily consultancies, and real jealousy at not having the opportunity to indulge in such easy practise myself. It is so easy to imagine the hapless civil servants being fired lots of powerpoints and buzzwords, and not having a budget to manage on pain of redundancy, signing open-ended contracts for work that would take an average coder a weekend to complete.

Ballmer, black turtlenecks, and Microsoft's next big idea

Andres

Vision?

"To answer Apple's surge, Microsoft must recapture its old vision and then execute to grow significantly in new areas."

You could at least remind us of that 'old vision'. Microsoft has only won big by either buying in ideas e..g spreadsheets or by repackaging the ideas of others e.g. Windows.

Dell Inspiron Zino HD

Andres

Like a Golf

reminds me of the adverts currently running for the VW Golf. Why have a computer that's like a Mac Mini? This is slighlty bigger, slightly cheaper but in the whole not as good as the Mac Mini.

Sony plots death of Amazon Kindle

Andres
Alert

Pardon?

"Exclusive and proprietary, that is a concern," he says, alluding to Amazon."

I had to re-read the article 12 times to confirm that this was a quote by a Sony president. Then I remembered that the latest Sony ebooks use MemorySticks and everything returned to normal.

Google Chrome web protocol seeks 2x download speeds

Andres
Thumb Up

Still relaxed

I really don't know why but I still don't feel concerned about Google getting into every crevice of the internet. I guess part of it is that they do generally do it with open standards and that it is very much in their interest to make it accessible (and not evil). I seem to have a cynicism blindspot for them.

Philips Cinema 21:9 56in LCD TV

Andres
Thumb Up

miserable nit-picking knuckle-scrapers

Once again, the joyless pedants and pessimists get to proclaim all that is wrong with life, the universe and the next big TV.

Because you wear sackcloth shirts (why wear silk? doesn't last as long, shows up stains too much), you really believe everyone else has the same weary view of the world?

To be replaced by 3D TV? ROTFLOL - maybe you do have a sense of humour.

All the good stuff happening in the middle? Not sure where to even start dismantling this miserablist view of the art of film making. Why bother even watching films at the cinema then? Or at all? Stupid directors, think of all the money they could save by filming in 4:3. What were they thinking?

This is a great TV for watching films, Corrie is secondary. End of discussion. I would get one in a heartbeat if I had the cash.

Google's vanity OS is Microsoft's dream

Andres

Missed the point somewhat

Where does it say they are aiming for a full-blown OS to sit on desktop PC's / servers? No wonder IT people get such negative press. You make it seem as if we are obsessed with raw power and functionality and to hell with the interface and the actual user requirements.

A majority of users would be happy with a cheap netbook that was quick and easy to use and maintain for mail, web and a few apps. Simple really. You don't need to be able to edit video in real-time while creating 3D animations in the background - that is not the requirement and therefore not the aim of the OS.

No-one has nailed it yet and Google are having a pop at it. Why not sit back and see what happens? Apple achieved something similar with the iPhone, not the most powerful phone on the market but the one that most closely met the need. Google may actually create something good but either way, competition for the other OS' is good.

Google polishes Chrome into netbook OS

Andres
Thumb Up

Too many guru's

So much negativity here because it won't multitask 64bit SPARC binaries with 2009WTF technologies..*sigh*..I guess that whats you get from an IT site.

The basic fact is that if (yes if) it achieves most of its aims, the unwashed non-tech majority of users will have a decent, cheap experience available. What's to worry about? The rest of you can carry on writing your i64 compilers in assembler.

The other very important fact is that MS will suddenly find it a lot harder to push XP/7 onto netbooks. So they will have to adapt their pricing and so everyone wins anyway.

Competition is good. Relax.

Royalties deal lets internet radio play on

Andres
Thumb Up

Don't care about the others,

just get Pandora over here. Seem's like a good compromise deal (shocker!).

What's the best NAS configuration?

Andres

>1Gb

Errr..I of course meant 2X1Tb, not a massive 2x1Gb drives.

Andres
Thumb Up

DNS-323

Does all of the above. I have had mine a year now without a squeak. It also has a built-in bittorrent client (if that is for you..) and it's price has come down a lot. I loaded mine with 2X1Gb Samsung drives for 1Gb of RAIDed safe storage.

See http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/review/2006/11/20/D-Link-DNS-323/p1

MacBooks set to join hardware giveaway

Andres

Old news - already there

Check ebuyer.com. They have a macbooks available on a 2 year orange contract for only £25/m. Quite unbelievable and I am on the edge of getting one myself. Cheaper than buying the laptop over 2 years and getting 600mins phone on top.

Sony rallies chums round proprietary standard

Andres

Not Proprietary. LOL

The bottom line for most people is - can I use my Sony product with other non-Sony products? More and more it is yes, but it usually wasn't the case in the past. So you were restricted to using Sony products which always cost more than equivalents in the open market. Which is why Memory Stick, Betamax, UMD, Minidisc, ATRAC, DAT, SACD never dominated their marketplaces despite being generally better than the alternatives. Because they all simply cost more than the inferior but functional alternatives. The mass market won't pay more just because it is Sony.

Blue Ray is their only significant win recently and that is only because of the PS3, otherwise it would still be undecided. Better technology does not equal market winner.

I don't hate Sony - they have their own reasons for doing this - but I know I will not buy a Sony product (phones and cameras) restricted to overpriced MemorySticks.

BAE aims to keep all-u-can-eat ticket at MoD pie-shop

Andres
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No surprises

Having had the misfortune to experience the MOD/BAe procurement process, I am not at all surprised. I could not believe the sheer effort in getting any proposals past the 7 layers of management/committee hell. By the time it nearly reached approval, the original proposal was out of date and need re-scoping and re-submission.

The $500 spanner is quite understandable when you have been though this.