* Posts by Michael Vasey

22 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Sep 2007

The rumor that just won't die: Apple to keep Intel at Arm's length in 2021 with launch of 'A14-powered laptops'

Michael Vasey

Re: AMD consistency

These things aren't put together the week before they're launched. If your suppliers don't live up to their promises, you're stuck having to bodge around things like the laptop running hotter than expected and not supporting low-power memory in large enough sizes. Apple did that like everyone else did, but I can't imagine they're happy about having to do so. Is it really that difficult to believe that they would feel burned by Intel shipping basically the same chips as they were in 2013 but at higher clock speeds with greater power consumption for so long?

I'd be very surprised in Intel's failures didn't play a major role in the 12" MacBook being ditched, because it correlates with Intel failing to deliver improvements in that power envelope.

Michael Vasey

Re: No surprise then

AMD are doing good stuff now, but from about 2006 to 2018 they were shipping utter shite and they never really had good laptop chips until the last year or so. They also have a history of not being able to deliver their chips in sufficient volume, though that's less relevant now they're using TSMC. I can see why Apple might be less than keen on them as an option with their track record. It just doesn't inspire much confidence in their ability to keep delivering consistently.

Go away, kid, you bother me: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla kick W3C nerds to the curb

Michael Vasey

Has W3C's management of HTML ever not been a farce? Maybe now no-one's listening to them on that they can go back down the XML rabbit hole and leave the rest of us alone.

Badass alert: 1 in 5 Brits don't give a damn about webpage crypto-miners

Michael Vasey

Re: Considering what the "legal" Javascript malware does...

The one time I ran into this stuff it rammed my CPU up to 100% and set my laptop's fans to running like a jet engine. That doesn't strike me as something I want to have happen too regularly if I want the laptop to stay functional. I'll pass on that deal.

Happy birthday, Amiga: The 'other' home computer turns 30

Michael Vasey

Commodore bought revolutionary tech and drove it straight into the ground. I loved my Amiga but it was basically the same machine in the 90s as it had been in the 80s unless you bought the super-expensive versions. The A1200 changed that but it was far too late.

Dev preview of Ubuntu for phones touching down February 21

Michael Vasey

So I can take the shoddy OSX knock-off I have on my secondary boot drive and have it on my phone. Happy days are here!

Or maybe not.

But I can apparently have a command-line if I do. Killer feature right there. I know that's what I've always wanted in my phone.

Microsoft may be readying Outlook for ARM – or not

Michael Vasey

Microsoft would have to be crazy not to release Outlook for Windows RT if they can. It's the corporate standard client and that makes it one of the few killer features they have the ability to offer over iOS and Android. I loathe the damn thing, personally, but it really is The One as far as business e-mail clients go.

Why Java would still stink even if it weren't security swiss cheese

Michael Vasey

I hate Java because it inspired a generation of developers to believe that nothing's complete without a framework that uses at least three hundred levels of inheritance and produces stack traces that are incomprehensible to any sane mortal. Why write a function when you can write fifteen classes to do the same thing, eh?

Oracle: Google impurifying media's precious bodily fluids

Michael Vasey

Re: At least Florian is outed now

You'd be so lucky. He outed himself months ago and he's still a regular Internet authority.

Metro breakdown! Windows 8 UI is little gain for lots of pain

Michael Vasey

It really is horrible on a large monitor. Full-screen web-browsing on a 24" monitor is for people who like having either huge columns of empty space or endless lines that are horrible to read. it's also pretty much mandatory for Metro IE.

Multiple monitors is fun, too. Metro on primary. Desktop on secondary. That really is a beauty of a kludge. You can't, of course, have Metro apps on both screens to get around the ridiculous restrictions on window management. No more viewing two apps side by side for you unless that tiny little sliver at the side is enough or you drop back to the desktop - in which case why bother with Windows 8?

I had a right old hassle connecting the mail client to my gmail, too, after I got my password wrong the first time. Is there an option to create a new account in the account pane? Is there hell! You have to wave your mouse around until the charms bar appears and then select settings to create a new account. Very intuitive. I haven't got a clue how to make it poll for updates either. I seem to have to manually sync my mail.

So, yeah. Metro is a horrible, intrusive, clunky start menu replacement on the desktop unless you enjoy having your PC turned into a glorified mobile phone.

Apple Mac Mini 2011

Michael Vasey

Er

What would the point be in using the ridiculously expensive but also ridiculously fast interface for a bloody DVD player? I've got doubts about there being much point in that.

Bonkers MacBook Air shipment route revealed

Michael Vasey

Yeah

Koeln, Germany 28/07/2011 1:21 Import Scan

Koeln, Germany 27/07/2011 23:40 Arrival Scan

Warsaw, Poland 27/07/2011 22:05 Departure Scan

27/07/2011 18:00 Arrival Scan

Koeln, Germany 27/07/2011 17:55 Package data processed by brokerage Waiting for clearance / Released by clearing agency Now in-transit for delivery

Almaty, Kazakhstan 27/07/2011 16:47 Departure Scan

27/07/2011 14:32 Arrival Scan

Incheon, Korea, Republic of 27/07/2011 12:42 Departure Scan

Warsaw, Poland 27/07/2011 4:30 Arrival Scan

Incheon, Korea, Republic of 27/07/2011 10:56 Departure Scan

27/07/2011 9:42 Arrival Scan

Shanghai, China 27/07/2011 6:25 Departure Scan

Shanghai, China 26/07/2011 16:39 Export Scan

Koeln, Germany 26/07/2011 10:27 Package data processed by brokerage Waiting for clearance

Shanghai, China 25/07/2011 21:30 Departure Scan

25/07/2011 16:34 Origin Scan

China 25/07/2011 2:51 Order Processed: Ready for UPS

I've been wondering what the game is with that. While there's some amusement value in seeing which timezone my new laptop's appeared in this time I think I'd rather have the damned thing to actually use instead.

Nokia ‘giving away phones at cost’

Michael Vasey

Well, it's kind of inevitable

Symbian is a dead platform. They've announced as much with the Windows Mobile move. Why would you buy into it now? The answer is, as we're seeing, that you wouldn't. You might as well buy an Amiga for your general computing needs as buy a Symbian phone now. It'll work but there's no future in it and there are options which are so very obviously better out there.

It really was a terrible, terrible idea to go whole-hog on Windows, announcing the death of their existing platform by implication, with such a long lead time between the announcement and an actual end product.

Of course, none of this matters when it comes to the basic phone range where phone calls, text messages, and an address book are all you really need or care about. The OS there matters about as much as the OS in your microwave or fridge.

Microsoft kills Windows Vista SP1 support

Michael Vasey

Well

It's not like MS just discontinue OS support on a whim. It happens according to a published schedule. Presumably any business using Vista would have been aware of the SP1 version going out of support and had plans in place for the upgrade in advance of that point. If they weren't keeping track, that's their own fault and entirely their problem.

Kindle beats Apple's closed book on choice

Michael Vasey

Yeah

Pretty much. Just plain browsing the Kindle store is a hopeless job. I have to search for specific titles, authors, or topics to get anything useful. They really need to work on that because it's the one thing about the Kindle experience (well, other than the ridiculous pricing of some titles, but that's outside their control as I understand things) which is obviously sub-par.

Michael Vasey

No

It's not just you. The Kindle shop is terrible and their categorisation system is just plain broken. Wrestling books in the boxing section. Makes perfect sense to someone, I'm sure. I do like my Kindle but the store is dire.

Microsoft's IE9: Don't believe the hype

Michael Vasey

Well

The Mozilla guys are managing several new versions for every IE version that gets released and that's despite their issues with meeting release schedules (when was the last time they got a Firefox release out in anything like the expected time?) so I think the sentiment's right even if the illustration that went with it was a bit dodgy. And Chrome makes them both look like snails on the release front for better or worse.

Stay at home and watch telly, trade bodies urge Brits

Michael Vasey

Smug?

I don't see much to be smug about in spending a fortune on a TV you never use.

The myth of Britain's manufacturing decline

Michael Vasey

Humbug

"If we can manufacture using fewer people then there are more people to go off and do other things: write Grand Theft Auto, wipe babies' bottoms, whatever. Thus we can have, as a result of this rising productivity, more things to enjoy: video games and clean and smiling babies."

Sit on the dole in formerly industrial towns that no longer offer any meaningful employment opportunities. What's the economic and social cost of having a few million permanently out of work in structural unemployment, whether it be dole or invalidity, I wonder?

Revolting postmen force early Windows 7 launch

Michael Vasey
Gates Halo

Yup

Mine was waiting for me when I got home from work today. All installed and running nicely now after a spot of drama getting it to run at the proper resolution on my external monitor. Seems quite spiffy so far.

Come celebrate the web...

Michael Vasey

Hmm

Haven't felt this disgusted with the people of my old hometown in, oh, at least six months. What a wonderful place Hartlepool is.