ConDem

New ElReg name for the coalition, suggestion #1

Whories

New ElReg name for the coalition, suggestion #2

Happening already

I bought an Acer netbook from the UK and had it shipped to Australia in June last year. I contacted both the vendor and Acer Australia when the hdd died recently, and Acer agreed to repair it - even paying for shipping. They claimed to be unable to reinstall the original linux os install; I should get the machine back next week.

So, it seems that the new policy may already have been unofficially implemented already - I had been fearing that I might need to pay for return shipping to the UK.

Tethering

How does this compare to tethering your wifi (or bluetooth) enabled device to a suitable 3G phone?

Surely everything the mifi offers can equally well be achieved though tethering (assuming the 3G phone is unlocked). Such a 3G phone offers the added advantage of being able to make and receive phonecalls.

Is this the first Android phone supporting WCDMA 850?

I've noticed that these reviews never include the supported WCDMA frequencies - OK all phones are now quad-band GSM - but if one is interested in using a phone on a particular network (Telstra NextG / WCDMA 850 in Australia in my case) it is useful to know which frequencies are supported.

In this case, a bit of looking around suggests that this one is WCDMA: 850/900/2100 (Tri-Band) - does this make it the first Android handset supporting 850 WCDMA?

Please add supported frequencies in reviews in future.

6+ month old story

The date of the Jamaica Star story is 9 October 2008 - why are we getting such old news?

It's all very well ...

... but there aren't really any credible incentives to be green - like who gives a shit?

Which OS

Is this linux or MS?

Acer Aspire One

For all those who have moaned previously about el Reg not having reviewed the Acer Aspire One, here's the link:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/03/acer_launches_one/

Personally I'm quite please with the eee PC 4G I picked up from eBay for around GBP120 last week.

Let's see what Dell offers.

The link

Of course is apoteket.se

If your Swedish isn't so good, try the link there entitled "Gör det sköna skönare!"

@12GB for XP, 20GB for Linux?

Maybe the XP Licence costs the same as the difference in cost between a 20Gb and 12Gb SSD.

Looking at the data

is probably the only way that you can try to return the flash drive to it's rightful owner.

How sad

to even think of making a topiary in the first place.

Oh well, I guess they can just wait for it to grow up a bit then trim it into shape - or maybe attempt to graft a bit on.

Flames, because this would have been worse.

I looked at (home) NAS boxes recently ...

... and came to the conclusion that it's cheaper / better to build a PC based on a mobo with 4 sata ports, particularly if, like me, you have old PC cases with power supplies hanging around.

Mine came in at under 100 quid (excluding disks) with a low-end Core 2 processor and 2Gb Ram.

RON

Can anyone enlighten me as to who or what RON is in the context of elections?

Price?

Does seem a bit of a bargain in terms of govt. spending - 102 slots for under a mill. Or is it missing a couple of zeroes?

Mine's the blood spattered one with the scalpel in the pocket.

Last year

... they "upgraded" residential lines to 12 month minimum contracts (from 3). I got caught out by this but luckily managed to persuade them to let me off.

Paris, because she has no minimum contract.

Dual band HSDPA

The E51 does both 850Mhz and 2100MHz HSDPA, which was the seller for me - this is the first phone I've come across which does both. This means it'll work on the NextG network in Australia and most European / Asian HSDPA networks.

@£2.90 a pint?!

"a bottle (355 ml) of Guinness costs the equivalet of £1,45? that makes a pint less than £2!"

I think you'll find that a pint is around 565ml, and 1.45*565/355 = £2.31

Mac Mini

"Customers do have to buy a display, mouse and keyboard if they don’t have spare ones already though” says the article.

I interpret this with the following caveat: "However, if they do NOT have a display, mouse OR keyboard (AND they can prove it (terms and conditions apply)) they are exempted from this compulsion to purchase.

All

Your Files Are Belong To Us

@Ashlee's book

What we really want to know is whether it's available as a DRM infested download from anywhere to purchase.

Otherwise ...

@Boot Cap

Maybe you could use the spare 'r' out of crontrab then it'd become Boot Crap.

Profitability

I realise that these are just UK ad figures, but how do the figures stack up as a whole (ITV vs Google)?

Also, how much more growth is available to Google - i.e. if one assumes that the (global) budget available to be spent on advertising is a slowly growing amount, how much longer can the revenue growth previously seen by Google continue?