Toshiba praised, section 44 defective and Nano plastic argument dubious

* INQ RULES for letters. We never publish people's email addresses, even when sorely tempted. And if you don't want your name published, please let us know. And if you don't want your letter published, please make that clear too. Your Letterman.

Ms Tosha C. Owens praised

Hi Mike,

It's not often that one encounters a vendor representative in a PC store who knows the product being demonstrated and doesn't knock products of a competitor.

I had the good fortune of encountering such a rep Sunday afternoon at a Houston PC store, representing Toshiba and demonstrating their Qosmio™ laptop PCs: Ms. Tosha C. Owens.

I have a friend who will be acquiring a laptop in the near future, and I'll be recommending Toshiba, thanks to Ms. Owens.

All the best,
Jerry

London cops give IT hack computers back

Hiya Mike

I got searched under s44, too, at Paddington station. Now, we haven't met yet, but I can assure you that I am a very reasonable looking guy of the middle European type.

So my bag gets searched, which is OK, but I am writing to let you know about the part that is not so OK. There were like 3 or 4 guys, one of them asking me a few questions while the others had great fun searching my bag.

The questions related to where I'd be living, what my ethnic background was, etc.

Here is the issue though: Although I was evidently a foreigner - I told them - so it can't get much more evident, I am not being asked for my passport.

Instead, they take down my details, name, (London) address, everything as I tell them, but they will never know the truth, do they.. and here comes the cool part: They hand me a copy of that questionnaire, telling me that if I should run into a section 44 search again, all I have to do is produce my copy of said questionnaire and then they will let me pass unsearched/undisturbed - how cool is that?

I could pass this paper to whomever I want to, as I, err... might have made up my personal details in the first place. Happy bomb-shopping, people... maybe I should put it up on eBay..? It doesn't say I shouldn't. Well, at least they seem to search the sheep properly, so I feel a bit safer now.

Cheers
Matt

Apple sued over iPod Nano scratching

As a plastics expert I would just like to point out a couple of things on the Nano scratch issue.

From your article.

"The filing alleges that when Apple designed the Nano, the resin used was not as thick and strong as in previous iPods."

The thickness and strength of a piece of plastic have no influence whatsoever on the scratch performance and so I see this as an extremely weak argument. The things that influence scratching are how exposed the screen is and what plastic it's made of. As the same plastics are always used for these screens (e.g. polycarbonate) I don't see a big chance of arguing that Apple made a design error. In my view consumers, especially those in the US have to get realistic in their expectations and not blame every bad decision on someone else.

Please note I have no connection whatever with Apple and say hi to Mike (we've been in touch several times).

Name supplied

Blu-ray and HD DVD

Dear Inquirer,

While competition (and an intense one at that!) is usually good news for us, consumers, unfortunately it is not the case with HD-DVD and Blue-ray.

There is just so much to loose for the developers of these technologies that whichever group seems to be slipping behind in the ding-dong battle for the status of "the format to rule them all", will just gain ground back by prostituting themselves to the usual suspects: the movie and music industry and Microsoft. After all, they need OS support and content just to get out onto the market.

Wait a minute! It could've been Toshiba I saw last night standing on the corner, at a bad part of town, waering a very skimpy little dress. I think it was... (In case this is published, a note to my partner: I don't REALLY know, I did not stop to ask.)

Cheers,
Sandor

Bluetooth for kettles, forever

Hi Nick,

I can't help but think that a Bluetooth-controlled kettle would have been better. Even a full kettle takes only a few minutes to boil, so 'blipping' the kettle via BT when walking up the road or the driveway would give adequate time, after the parched owner has deposited keys, coat etc. Unfortunately I can't see it getting network-operator marketing money 'cos there's no SMS-derived revenue!

Why not, even, a WiFi-enabled kettle with a little web-server in it? ;-)

cheers
Ben

Bill Gates is no Sir, no sirree!

Hello,

In an article of your's about Bill Gates, you kept using the word "Sir" before his name. I presume this is because of the honorary knighthood that he was given by Queen Elizabeth II.

However, as an American citizen, and hence not a country that has the Queen as their head of state, Bill Gates is not entitled to use the word "Sir" before his name. Hence such a title should not be used in the article.

Unless of course, it is all tongue in cheek...

Regards,
Matt Williams