Probably worth pointing out that, as of yet, there is no untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. That's to say it needs to be hooked up to your computer to switch on.
Posts by nickrw
94 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Sep 2009
Another reason to jail-break your iPhone 4: You can get Siri
Verity's secret shame revealed
99% of Android phones leak secret account credentials
Monday 16th May 2011 22:45 GMT
On the wifi point
I personally make sure to 'forget' networks that I don't personally have any control over.
I would also note that my phone* will actually not remember networks with common names (seen this happen with an AP named 'NETGEAR') to prevent you accidentally trying to connect to any old AP.
* Not android.
Rackspace backtracks over toff-proof sign-up process
Apple under siege: Antitrust probes and product delays ...
Friday 25th February 2011 13:34 GMT
Wait, what?
> Responding to complaints by email, Jobs wrote: "Our philosophy is simple: when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 per cent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 per cent and Apple earns nothing.
That sounds reasonable-- I thought the furore was because apple was demanding that *only* apple-subscribed content could be shown?
E.G. I can't sell a subscription and direct the user to the app from outside the store, only direct them to the app and have them subscribe via apple. Thirty percent is still too much, either way.
Microsoft discovers disposable email
Friday 4th February 2011 15:12 GMT
Re: Google has been offering that exact same option for years
I find two problems with managing spam this way:
1) A hell of a lot of websites will reject addresses with a + in them, because RFC2822 / 822 mean bugger all to most these days.
2) If I were a spammer, what's the first thing I'd do? This: s/(\+[^@]+)(?=@)//
Of course, one way around this is to use a +suffix'd address as your primary and can anything to the address without the suffix.
Friday 4th February 2011 11:00 GMT
Doable with gmail
While gmail doesn't offer exactly this feature, I've found it can be made to with google apps. Designate one 'catchall' account (not your main account, set one up dedicated for this purpose) and have it auto-forward everything to your everyday account. You can then set up a filter to check for the X-Forwarded headers - I route everything into a 'Catchall' label.
As far as I can tell it isn't possible without the catchall account and redirect because Google, in its wisdom, has decided not to make it obvious in the headers when this has happened. You can set up a rule to say 'When mail was not sent to X, do Y' but this will match anything not sent directly to you (cc'd, mailing lists etc).
Best option? Run your own mail server.
Wrinkle-faced smartphoners demand 'BlackBerry Botox'
Scotland bans smut. What smut? Won't say
Harder to read = easier to recall
Friday 14th January 2011 14:44 GMT
Legibility
The major selling point for an e-ink device is the fact that they are not LCD. LCD devices can be just a legible - but cause eye strain due to the backlight.
Eye strain due to backlight != a less legible font. Given that an e-book on my kindle looks the same as a paper copy I guess I should just give up on reading altogether.
Facebook facing fall-down issues
Verizon Wi-Fi hotspot tool coming to all iPhones?
Facebook riddled by 'my first ever status message' scam app
Friday 7th January 2011 22:43 GMT
Re: Really?
Your average facebook user is entrenched into the belief that giving facebook their identity is the done thing.
Given that your average user is also unlikely to understand how facebook apps work in any great detail, and the fact that facebook does not make it overt that you are talking to a 3rd party, I would be unsurprised if many thought it was just 'part of facebook'.
Google Apps battle spam with auto email signing
Thursday 6th January 2011 21:05 GMT
Compromised accounts
> Remarkably, even the Google-owned Postini filter has trouble determining that email sent over Google Apps is legitimate. The ability to cryptographically prove email came from the service ought to help
The major source of spam from the likes of gmail / hotmail / yahoo is actually from accounts that have been broken into (keyloggers / weak passwords / same password across multiple sites etc). While DKIM is a Good Thing it doesn't solve this problem as google will still sign your outgoing message.
The likes of SPF and DKIM, if widely adopted, do prevent others from spoofing your domain and therefore make it more likely that messages your domain sends out are not spam but they certainly are not a be-all-and-end-all 'spam killer'.
David Attenborough dino doc shows limits of 3D TV
Wednesday 15th December 2010 14:54 GMT
Re: 3D - the new DAB (In terms of FAIL)?
The only film I've seen in 3D recently was 3Dized in post-processing, so I don't know if my problem with 3D this is something that affects properly 3D films, or just 'upscaled' ones:
The camera focuses on the subject, blurring the background, or vice-versa. My eyes, clever beasts that they are, know that normally they can adjust themselves to focus on whatever they are looking at. Then then get confused and sore from constantly trying to focus on something that they cannot.
I've never personally seen or heard anyone else complain about that specifically. I'd be interested to know if everything in the 3D image was in focus if the number of reports of eye strain etc. go down.
Boffins crack walnut-shaped Iapetus moon mystery
Minister 'C*nt' promises £50m to get fabtastic fibre for all
Virgin unwraps three-tuner über set-top
Wednesday 1st December 2010 15:01 GMT
Re: 3 tuners?
I've also got a V+ HD box and can't see myself wanting one of these. You missed out one other benefit the new tivo box has over the V+ box though; it's nowhere near as ugly.
I wonder if the the three-tuner tivo model has the same annoying bug where recording two back-to-back programs on the same channel means it will refuse to record something that overlaps on a second channel.
BURNING LUST for SEXY BUSTY BLONDES - Science explains
iOS 4.2: An 'ace' for iPad, a 'meh' for iPhone
Tuesday 23rd November 2010 11:09 GMT
Re: Repeating Alarms Fixed?
As far as I was aware this stopped being an issue if you reset the alarms - they only get upset at the actual point of DST change. They've got plenty of time to fix it before the next one (but then, they knew about it from New Zealand with plenty of time before it hit Europe or the US).
Virgin opens kimono, flashes box
Co-op cashier's breasts overcharged for fruit and veg
Tuesday 9th November 2010 16:41 GMT
Re: The Stupid... It hurts!!!!
If the scales are anything like the ones at the co-op down our way the 'scales' are part of the counter and have an edge round them which would support the rhubarb, thus reducing the pressure on the scales.
Like you though, I did a double take when I first read it.
John Lewis pitches 80-quid colour e-book reader
Caravan-swiping suspect spotted on Street View
Oz journo pokes PARIS
Strange, blobaceous 'alien pod' lifeform found in Virginian lake
Tuesday 2nd November 2010 13:18 GMT
Re: forgive my irrelevant post
My boss has brought his dog in to work before, I've got a picture of it chewing on my chair somewhere. Colleagues took it out for walks in order to use it (as a puppy) as a 'babe magnet'*, so... perhaps she was out cruising by the lake?
* Disclaimer: puppies are indiscriminate and will attract a wide cross-section of the general public regardless of attractiveness or sexual preference.
Dolphin speaks: Ditch the iPad, give me the Toughbook!
iPhone alarm bug: now it's the UK's turn
Monday 1st November 2010 13:20 GMT 
Hmph
Alarm set for 7, woke up at 20 past, thinking I must have just zombie'd my alarm into submission earlier. Went off in my hand at 8, got cross, still in work 10 minutes early.
I don't know why I don't have a proper alarm clock, I've learned not to trust iPhones as alarms when my 3G had the intermittent locking-up bug that 3.1(?) introduced a year or so ago. If it locked up during the night (which it did) you were screwed.
Great Scot! Wi-Fi on the Glasgow Subway
Tuesday 26th October 2010 22:23 GMT
Fail
Tried to use it on my phone on the way home from work. Gave me an IP address, but didn't get any further than that, no hotspot auth or internet.
Shame you don't get any 3G signal down th... oh wait. I somehow coped without wifi access for the 2 minutes I was waiting for my train. Others were almost in tears though.
KeyCase iPad Folio Deluxe
Yahoo! goes head-to-head with FaceTime!
Tuesday 12th October 2010 15:57 GMT 
Yahoo(excalamation mark)
I downloaded the yahoo IM client to give this a spin with my iPhone 4, then got cross at Yahoo(excalamation mark) for all the sneakware they try and install.
It asked me if I wanted to install a number of crap applications along with the one I actually wanted, but I got suspicious because the yahoo toolbar wasn't mentioned. Sure enough, if you click 'Advanced options' (which isn't in as obvious a position as it is on most installers) it is listed and checked by default.
Poor show, Yahoo(exclamation mark).
Spam blacklist snafu prompts global gnashing of teeth
Voice-routing call fingerprint system fights 'vishing'
Terry Pratchett computer sniper-scope deal inked
Tweety profs offer political smear-meme 'truthiness' ratings
Google shocks world with unthreaded Gmail
Wednesday 29th September 2010 19:51 GMT
Re: Does that mean
Yes!
I love threading, it's the only thing that keeps me sane at work. As a kmail user I have a decent amount of options when it comes to how things get threaded, but I usually have to leave it in subject-based mode or people using crappy clients don't insert the relevant headers. This does lead to messages in threads they don't belong to (I believe one of users' biggest complaints about gmail).
I have yet to find any mail client where you can say "remove this message from a thread", or even disband a particular thread.
(On a related note, who else hates "(no subject)"?)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
