* Posts by dotdan

30 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Aug 2012

It's official! The Register is fake news… according to .uk overlord Nominet. Just a few problems with that claim, though

dotdan

Re: Give the users a break

Nobody - you could register it yourself: https://www.nominet.uk/whois/?query=theregistrar.uk#whois-results

theregister.uk, though, redirects to the El Reg homepage and has El Reg's nameservers, so guessing that it's firmly attached to the vulture's nest.

Twitter is just randomly deleting people's lists – and no one knows why

dotdan

Well you did, enough, to read the article, then the comments, then post one.

The article said "For the past several days..." and I added a note that it has been happening for longer than that. No big deal to me, and I didn't expect you to care, but still, I'm sure you're a funny and popular guy.

dotdan

I had six private lists and two were made public over a month ago. I couldn't change the public/private status back.

dotdan

Re: Give the users a break

It's at https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/ for me, and works

Paid Wikipedia-fiddling on wheels

dotdan

Re: Wrong dialling code

Just because a new fangled device formats a particular way doesn't mean its right!

New fangled devices, BT, OFCOM, 1995's PhONEday campaign, 2000's Big Number Change campaign and Wikipedia's article as linked above are right. You're not.

Pick up any London phone, try dialling your version of a 7-digit local number: it won't work. It'll only work if you dial it correctly as an 8-digit number, or if you superfluously dial the 020 code before the 8-digit local number.

If you really think that 0207 is inner London and 0208 is outer London, could you point out on any map where 0203 is?

The 0207/0208 format has evolved for a historical reason

It has: the historical reason is because some people do not understand how the 020 format actually works. It is perpetuated because those people, even though wrong, insist that they are right without either proof or use of logic.

dotdan

Re: Wrong dialling code

@Fruit and Nutcase, @AC and @'s water music

I know WHY people get it wrong, but they get it wrong. Just because you get it wrong too, it doesn't make it right!

All the downvotes go to show that there's still work to do. It's only been the case for 15 years - you'll get there eventually! Type a London phone number into your Android or iPhone: it'll put the correct spacing onscreen for you. Ditto Leeds (yes I know it used to be 0532 xxxxxx, but those old numbers are 0113 2xx xxxx now, NOT 01132 xxxxxx).

dotdan

Wrong dialling code

I couldn't trust someone to accurately work on a Wikipedia page when they format their phone number so badly. The (0) is pointless, and London's dialling code is 20, not 207: the local number is 7205 7152 and not 205 7152.

Sage advice: Avoid the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – it knackers our accounting app

dotdan

Re: Not just Sage

Breaks Screenconnect? Not here - 180 remote PCs, about 40 of them running Windows 10. None have any problems, no matter if they have Anniversary Update or not. Using v6, self-hosted.

Submarine cable cut lops Terabits off Australia's data bridge

dotdan
Coffee/keyboard

Re: yet another reason

Tea stained monitor

Acer Chromebook 13: The best Googletop on the market?

dotdan

Re: Micro USB power/charging socket.

Yep - Chromebook 11. I have one, and love it.

Can't imagine switching to a different Chromebook unless it also supports charging by USB.

Mobiles charge quickly with the Chromebook-supplied a 3 amp charger too!

Amazon DROPS next day delivery amid Cyber Monday MADNESS

dotdan

Prime used to be next-day, then it became one-day. It used to be £49pa, then became £79pa. They used to use Parcelforce, then they adopted Yodel and "Amazon Logistics".

None of those changes were for the better, and certainly in the last 18 months if you've actually needed something the following day, Prime delivery was not reliable enough to be sure it'd be there.

I only order from companies using Parcelforce, UPS and DPD these days.

Microsoft blinks, extends Windows 8.1 Update deadline for consumers

dotdan

Windows 8.1 - the secret update

If I didn't read The Register, how should I even know that Windows 8.1 exists?

I've got a Windows 8 PC and never felt the need to use Windows Store. Windows Update tells me I'm up-to-date.

The only Windows 8.1 PCs I've seen are those that shipped with Windows 8.1.

Murdoch's BSkyB stares down Microsoft: Redmond renames SkyDrive to OneDrive

dotdan

At least Microsoft *gave* it a new name this time

It could start to get really confusing if, each time they lose a branding case, the feature/service in question went without a name from then on.

Mind you, having no name is probably not a lot more confusing from calling two different products exactly the same thing (Outlook, I'm looking at you)

LogMeIn: We're stopping our free offering from now

dotdan

Re: Would love to buy a Teamviewer License

Take a look at ScreenConnect - $300 one-off, upgrades after the first year (if you want them) are $65pa

Runs on your own machine - I run it on an old Atom based netbook plugged into the mains, and the router: open a couple of ports on your router and you're away. Excellent one-use remote connections or 'unattended' sessions ala LogMeIn.

I've got 100+ client machines running the unattended software so I can connect to them with 2 clicks, and for new or irregular clients we can do a one-off connection.

Others run it on an Amazon cloud server for $10pm but I've found it to work perfectly well on a crap Atom processor and only 2GB RAM under Windows 7.

It's true, the START MENU is coming BACK to Windows 8, hiss sources

dotdan

Have you tried Stardock's ModernMix? It's worth a look - that and Start8 available for $7.99.

Three offers free US roaming, confirms stealth 4G rollout

dotdan

Re: There is a reason why it's free...

Congratulations on finding a three year old article to try to back up your argument.

I live in London, use my Three SIM only contract indoors, in cities, and around the country for voice and data - and get exactly what I pay for - usually at between 5 and 10 Mbps, and often double that.

Expert chat: The end of Windows XP and IE6

dotdan

Re: IE 6

Have you been listening to my incoming calls?!

dotdan

Re: IE 6

If you go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Set Program Access and Defaults, you can untick "Enable access to this program" beside Internet Explorer

Just set a shortcut to Chrome on the desktop and start menu, change the icon to the blue "e" logo, and he'll never know any different.

Hollywood: How do we secure high-def 4K content? Easy. Just BRAND the pirates

dotdan

Re: Digital signature conundrum

So rather than one pirated original, someone obtains two. Compare the two versions to identify their respective watermarks, or alternate a frame from each to produce a unique third copy - add their own watermark and see how far it spreads.

dotdan

Re: No need to break the scheme to avoid jail

Isn't that what all the prepaid Mastercards available at most newsagents are for?

BSkyB seeks 100s of Geordies to deal with broadband customer growth

dotdan

Re: Bit optimistic

Never looked at the forum, but I switched the connections I'm responsible for away from BE as soon as the announcement was made.

Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8

dotdan

Re: I really don't get the problem...

Yes, you can set the taskbar to show small icons, and yes, you can move it to the side in Windows 8 as you could in Windows 7.

With Start8 installed, Windows 8 is better than Windows 7 in my opinion. The tweaks improve it, Start8 can disable to charms and hotspots nonsense. I need see the silly Start screen only once when booting up the PC, thereafter sleeping/waking/normal use does not expose the Start screen or any of the Metro crap.

I also turned off the Windows 8 "lock screen", it looked nice, but with it enabled, I found my password was rejected more than 50% of the time because it took almost a second before keystrokes were recorded.

Official: Sky to buy O2 and BE's home broadband product in £200m deal

dotdan

Good day for Zen

This has got to be a good day for Zen - all those currently with BE for the decent support, reliable service, no traffic management, and static IP addresses with custom reverse DNS.

I switched from BE to Zen a couple of years ago for a fibre connection and imagine many others will be following now, for Zen's ADSL if not FTTC connections.

BE provided a router and asked you to use it if there were problems to diagnose. Sky provide a router and require that you use it. Zen are happy for you to use whatever you like.

El Reg contemplates the ultimate cuppa

dotdan

Forget ye not your vessel

The mug or cup makes a difference. A fine bone china Dunoon Nevis mug[1] is my vessel of choice. No cheap chunky lipped mug.

Boil kettle, rinse out/warm the mug, then fill one half of some tea ball tongs[2] with Assam leaf tea. Take it as strong with as little milk as you can. Sugar is for the intellectually inferior.

[1] - http://goo.gl/9XGRw / [2] http://goo.gl/tBtfd

Review: Google Nexus 4

dotdan

Calls are a problem

The flat glass back has a small 10x2mm cutout for the speaker grille. When the phone is on a desk, the speaker's air chamber is small, and the ring is very muffled because the sound of the phone's ringing is blasted into the desk.

It's a nice smartphone but not a great phone if you want to hear it ring. It's also the first phone I've had problems with Bluetooth headsets for many years: over 6-8 feet and there's a lot of breaking up.

Grinchy Google to shut down another batch of services

dotdan

Syncing Outlook and Google calendars still possible

The gSyncIt software still works after Google's changes - it allows you to sync Outlook's calendar and contacts with those held in your Gmail / Google Apps account. It's easy and straightforward to use.

Google kills free version of Apps for business

dotdan

I don't think that they mean that there is a "free Google Apps for individuals" - the announcement at http://googleenterprise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/changes-to-google-apps-for-businesses.html says "Individuals wishing to use Google’s web apps like Gmail and Google Drive should create a free personal Google Account" which links to literally a Google Account (not Apps) creation page only.

dotdan

It's essentialy the same as that but you can log in with an email address on your own domain name instead of a gmail.com address, and for an account with multiple people an administrator can reset passwords and restrict services (like stop you using YouTube or Google+ with your work email address) etc. Obviously more to it besides the free stuff but that's what it means to the small users.

dotdan

I had a few accounts with Google Apps, the oldest has 50 free users, the recent ones 10. I Google Apps Business for my own account, worth it for the Android remote wipe alone.

I can understand clubs and organisations like residents' associations not being happy to have missed the boat if they'd not already signed up, but without any free users it's still a bargain at £2.75/mth/user.

Dropbox joins the security two-step party

dotdan

Re: Cell Phone Dead Area

I just turned on two factor authentication on my own Dropbox account and did so without a text message being necessary. I already installed the Google Authenticator on my phone and use it elsewhere, Dropbox can use that too. No need for mobile coverage to get a verification code.