Posts by Mage

Re: NFC Cards are vunerable to 'contactless' slurping of their account details.

Possibly even in a bus or train using a POS terminal bought in Argos. Though I've not tried and you'd want a backend system more opaque than Sage.

Note that most of the metal pouches sold to shield NFC / Contactless Debit & Credit cards don't make a proper Faraday cage as the join is an insulator.

Re: Unless you need milk. Then you really need a cow.

Fermented milk products are better for adults (Cheese, Yogurt etc) as the Lactose is converted. Outside of European background people, most people become Lactose intolerant as they grow up. However the cow dairy industry isn't very caring, especially to calves. Even worse for male calves.

Re: It's already mature

So also is secure interbank transfer to pay people. You can safely put your IBAN number on your ebay page. German sellers prefer it to PayPal, as in Eurozone there are no fees.

Curiously though mostly USA doesn't use it, Amazon USA can pay European sellers via IBAN. It's crazy though that people outside USA have to fill in a USA tax declaration to sell outside the USA via a USA company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number

Re: Unless you need milk. Then you really need a cow.

Only babies absolutely need milk. Most human mothers can provide it. That's what those two bumps on the chest are for.

Re: "handheld wireless POS"

Not only that, ANYONE can buy one. They handle Chip & PIN as well as Contactless cards. Argos seem to sell one.

Sage will flog you the back end service.

As well as WiFi based, you can also get a 3G based rechargeable portable POS terminal.

Re: The way I read this

Facebook got *all* the the contacts on any phone with Whatsapp when they bought it. So privacy ship long gone.

Re: What platform next?

"advise to avoid Skype as well"

Apart from the fact it's now practically broken.

Re: I only want to know one thing

"How do I turn it all off."

Use the Start Menu to end it. Select Shut Down.

Then go to BIOS at next power on and make sure USB boot enabled, and possibly UEFI only.

Then install Windows 7 or Linux Mint with Mate Desktop and TraditionalOK theme (or maybe "Hackintosh" if outside USA jurisdiction and you've bought a retail OS X).

Re: "Keep clicking, Windows-lovers! It's bound to come along soon."

Yes! Absolutely! Can't! Upvote! Enough!

~

It also sounds Meh.

* Peer to Peer Windows Updates on LAN already existed.

* Voice dictation with a key press combo possible since at least 2002 on Windows.

* Who really wants Win 10s?

I bet it doesn't fix ANY of the things really needing fixed.

Re: Will our Descendants Feel the Same Way?

A lot of interesting SF has been written about Generation Ships, which are still the only known workable concept for Interstellar travel.

Technologically just about possible since nuclear subs were deployed.

Re: Superb article!

Alistair used to work for actual printed magazines. The ones with writing between the ads rather than the few left with pictures of supposedly famous people.

Re: RCA

RCA 1986, not 1976, sorry!

TV

Baird didn't invent TV. He was an entrepreneur promoting an updated mechanical system proposed by Nipkow. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gottlieb_Nipkow Electronic TV was proposed in 1906 and working versions developed by others, though Baird's nearly instant film to electronic transmission was used in satellites to have high resolution and low data rate. From the beginning the problem was how to make the camera target. The CRT already existed and was the obvious thing to use as part of a camera, not just the display.

Farnsworth didn't invent TV either. His system was technological dead end. The big problem was viable electronic camera. EMI/RCA collaboration based on Vladimir Kosma Zworykin's work started at Westinghouse in 1929.

http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_story_brewster.html

Re: TFT patent?

They were not a large USA Corporation. Or Maybe German, Finnish or Asian.

Ironic that RCA was gone by 1976. The dregs bought by French Thomson. Now name may be owned by Nokia.

UK from 1850s to 1970s was brilliant at innovation. More rarely at comercialising. By 1960s most of the original UK Electronics had either been morphed to MOD contracts or run by bean counters with no vision. Acorn's ARM was really the only one that escaped the curse and only by giving up making, but licensing.

Thorn went downhill after Jules Thorn retired (and died not long after, he had a long reign).

Mullard was Philips by 1928. EMI (HMV etc) lost their way in 1970s. Ferranti, Plessey, GEC, Inmos, ICL, Ever Ready, Burndept, Vidor, Rank Radio (Bush / Murphy). Sinclair was a serial disaster, certainly a show man. Alan Sugar /Amstrad. The other UK companies in Telecoms & Computers.

Most Edison & RCA patents were bought in, intimidation, ignoring prior art, simply invalid etc. To and extent Bell Labs/AT&T (The UNIX land grab of work done by the Universities) Though all did innovate too.

The USPTO especially needs reformed.

list of everything you've added to Windows since Windows 7

Or everything since Server 2003. Or maybe NT4 (drivers for things like USB don't count. There were actually preview NT4.0 USB drivers, but they killed SP7 and upgrades worried about impact on windows 2000 sales).

Though putting GDI into kernel was daft. NT3.51 with Explorer shell preview never crashed the way NT4.0 /Win2K/XP/Server did when a doggy print or graphics driver was added.