Posts by Dave Perry

Proving stuff

I once had to send a copy of my pay slip (front over only - I'd have told them to do one if they asked for the inside) to prove I worked in an education for one of their hundreds of pounds discounts, which I could live with.

The next time I bought something, a couple of years ago, I went through the online HE store using work internet which is hard to get on without being at an approved institution - a stock spec MBP arrived days later without need of further documentation.

Pay off your debt?

If you have $135m in the bank, and a loss of $6m, could you not use 6 of your banked cash to clear some of your debt so you look better to creditors? Or am I missing something?

As an occasional AV tech this is just what I wanted. Great production, shame about the host - the joke about the Adele speech being cut short was the most unfunny thing ever (and showed by distinct lack of laughs from the O2 audience). I agree with the point about using your own kit - a radio station I OB for usually uses 80% my kit as I know and trust it (leads and IT particularly - their folio mixer is about the one thing in the OB case I rate).

Bad experience

A friend was having trouble with his sky-issued netgear router a few years back, the 2nd one he'd been sent. And they wouldn't send out another. So he got a tech person on the phone who thought they were 'it' (like murdoch really), put them onto me, and I'd already done all the checks they went through before picking up the phone. My hate for anything to do with murdoch is great, so enjoyed verbally chastising said tech til they gave in. For my sins I'm stuck with KC (Hull-ite), and would far rather have a BT line with O2 broadband which no-one I know of has ever complained about.

The statement from that guy suggests..

...that essential patents can't get a ban, but Apple's behaviour is acceptable (i.e. not being marked down for widely noted bullyishness).

Erm

Whilst the statement about BYOD being a BIG change for IT is fair, I always thought CIOs did more policy than implementation. And getting the policy right and practical seems to be the big issue at the moment, so I wouldn't write them off just yet

Mac resellers helpful too

When I wanted a bigger drive in my MBP, I bought one from a Mac reseller (KRCS) who fitted the drive for free - I was told there would be a £20 charge, but I'm guessing it was waived as I did the Time Machine restore myself (which helpfully didn't need a full OS X install to run, just popping in the 10.6 DVD then attaching my USB drive).

I've not found a PC reseller that will replace a laptop hard drive for 0 labour charge (although if you don't buy the laptop from them, suppose it's fair game to charge).

On that note, can anyone recommend a PC equivalent of time machine? I use disk imaging in PCs I maintain, and hardly touch the desktop PC now but would just backup to external what I valued, but for standalone systems I think Time Machine's simplicity is superb.

A friend of mine works for Samsung

And summed up her feelings as 'Apple are just scared'. The IBM created, Compaq evolved thing seems to sum up how Apple are doing this wrong. I own a 4S and am typing this on a MacBook Pro, but prefer the South Korean judgement of 'Apple infringed some patents, Samsung infringed some, pay each other some money and be done with it'.

Killing radio

I read an opinion piece from the man who used to be head of the BBC's innovation area (I think he was the man who took iPlayer to market, can't remember exactly). Anyway, he knows his shizzle, and this is being discussed on a respected media website:

http://www.mediauk.com/article/34058/new-apple-patent-could-kill-commercial-radio

Protect users from themselves

My other half has my 3GS now, and installed something she liked the look of. Then she asks me about it, and I suspect it's doing in-app purchases. Turned that off, and lo and be feckin hold it's trying to rinse my iTunes account for 'extras'. Said app was promptly deleted. I never got round to checking if it made clear on the app store whether it would make use of the facility.

This is why

I advise nobody I deal with to trust iCloud. They've said themselves it's not fit for enterprise, it surely has no chance of credibility in that field now.

My macbook pro gets backed up weekly to an external USB drive, and regular iPhone syncs mean at worst I lose a day or two's pictures.

And I keep account linking down to a minimum, at best my gmail pulls in other POP3 accounts.

Two reasons to dislike Larry today

I thought ripping SAP off for lawyers bills was bad enough. But at least they can afford to take a hit.

Successful from being spineless is one thing, but this really is heartless (you could say that's business, but it's disgraceful business - even Alan Sugar's advisors questioned the business ethics of one of this year's Apprentice finalists' business proposal).

Expensive to be simple

Sounds like apple. Spend loads on r&d etc to make simple to use, innovative products. But charging a fortune, and not looked at what Box costs.

Icon cos it's Friday and I'm feeling cheeky

Recycling?

I appreciate there is probably some waste on there that would otherwise end up in landfill (so inceneration is fair game), but is there really so little or no recyclable waste coming from the ISS? Let alone the metal and stuff in the craft that could be recycled or the whole craft reused?!

iCloud good for personal

A friend of mine has restored apps and backups from iCloud to his iPhone several times and is happy with it. I found the what it would backup bit confusing when moving to iOS5 so have disabled it on the iPhone (so it's not backing up my photos). I sync photos to my Macbook using a USB lead and iPhoto, and am happy that my Apple ID means if I download a song from the iTunes store on one device the other gets it next time I'm on wifi (no 3G at work due to faradays cage office).

I read somewhere Apple's own advice for enterprise however, was not to trust it. I was looking at what was the best platform for syncing educational-owned iPads which is a big PITA in establishments, and we concluded Dropbox was the best bet for non-confidential data (as they are not safe harbour, even though Amazon S3 which Dropbox sits on is actually SH and so is Google).

Rayguns

Wouldn't they be more cost effective, or would the light refraction distort the beam direction too much? If I remember my physics, can't you calculate the necessary angle?

Disabled

As in I disabled it on my iPhone. Keep meaning to it on my old 3GS (it got factory resetted before I gave it to my other half, and it bugs her lots)

Mistake of how long it was 'docked' aside

It's quite impressive that a private company has got this far - fingers crossed there are no hiccups on the return journey.

I work in a library area of an FE/HE college, and support an e-resources login system (shibboleth for the techs reading this) and we did look at putting some empty dvd cases on the shelves to show people 'look we have an ebook on this topic'. Maybe with QR codes. We even link to e-book and e-book versions of books from our library catalogue.

Our books are accessed via secure DRM'd platforms.

It's very much about the personal service from (mostly trained) library staff, and technical support from them (and the team I'm on, elearning, when things get technical or not obvious fault/user error). And having a dedicated space to peruse/read these materials. Our service is highly rated by other staff, and senior management. So you can mix paper and digital if you do it right.