Posts by Rob Moir
194 posts • joined Saturday 9th February 2008 19:19 GMT
Re: Love it
I'm sure he'll be along as soon as he's worked out that Sinclair sold the spectrum without open-sourcing the rom contents.
Re: Skipping a version
@anonymous coward
In Peter48's defence he was replying to someone who had specifically mentioned skipping every other version.
Something I personally would have checked for before racing to call him not very bright, because y'know, now you don't look very bright.
Posted in British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'
Re: What sort of cretin buys a Amazon Swindle anyway?
THEN they discover they've bought into proprietary DRM-saturated Hell.
Oh no, my device is working exactly as described. What kind of hell is this I find myself in.
-- said by no one, ever.
I can't help thinking that the majority of people who buy into a [closed / walled garden / DRM-saturated hell] type device will be perfectly happy with it. It's only us techies who expect to root our devices who might be unhappy, or those who are miss-sold devices on a false basis who will be unhappy.
Posted in British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'
Re: What sort of cretin buys a Amazon Swindle anyway?
What sort of cretin buys a Amazon Swindle anyway?
Oh I see what you did there. How... clever... of you.
I've got a Kindle and I'm perfectly comfortable with the decision to purchase it, thank you. I'm considering trading up to a 'paperwhite' or Fire HD model too. Much like the iDevice (yep, own them too), I'm far too busy enjoying the fact that it works very well for its intended purpose to even notice the spluttering about "lock in" from people like yourself.
You and I are both happy with our choices, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, your need to characterise people who disagree with you as having "devolved" in some way says a lot more about you than it does about 'us'...
Re: "...the watchdog believes punters will expect "moderate restrictions"..."
Exactly. I've got no problems with services that are 'limited' or 'restricted' but I think that products should be described accurately. This is further proof that the ASA don't know their ass from their elbow.
Not to be harsh or anything but welcome to the real world.
Companies exist to further their interests, and those of their owners and shareholders. Not yours as a customer. Not mine as a customer. Their own. Always have. **We're their customers, not their friends**.
With free products like those from Google, where do you stand? Are those freebies the sprat to catch a mackeral, essentially a loss leader? Are they a way of gathering users and turning data on those users into something that can be sold to other businesses? Where do products like reader stand in this?
This is why I've always been so suspicious of the Google "Don't be evil" thing, because sooner or later that was always going to be overtaken by "sorry, but there's profit to be had".
People sneer at Apple and Microsoft, but at least they've always been relatively honest and up front about the relationship. If we give them money, they'll give us hardware and software and services. At least with those guys you always knew where you stood.
"Disney Research – yes, such a thing exists – has been working on a project called Revel that sends an electric current through your body to your fingertips"
I'm pretty sure another el reg columnist has had working prototypes of this for some time now. Paging Mr Travaglia to the Mickey-Mouse shaped courtesy phone!
Posted in Amazon yanks SimCity download from store
hmm
"Unless of course their live chat staff are completely inconsistent in the way they handle customer requests."
You're saying that the live chat staff don't know what they're doing. As they work for EA what do you think the chances are? I'll take that bet.
Re: ..verry funny article...
The point is that if you *have* to spend five minutes on google to figure out how to do basic tasks because the interface is so user-hostile, then that's a problem.
Re: Windows RT has not exactly been a resounding success...
The domain thing surprised the heck out of me. Microsoft are playing catch-up and by throwing away domain membership and the manageability that comes with it, they're throwing away one of the areas where they hold an advantage with business and education customers. This product was designed to fail.
Re: despite Microsoft offering customers deep discounts on Windows 8 upgrades
Yes, this is clearly the first time in the history of computing that a TLA has been recycled so it's perfectly reasonable to jump into the stance you've picked with both feet </sarcasm>
Re: How is PC world still in business?
They're better than Maplins, but then that's like winning an award for being more truthful than a politician.
Some say he really is that daft
Others, that his brand of rhetoric is part of a carefully crafted image to keep people talking about him.
All I know is, he's in the headlines again.
Re: Time to think beyond Desktop OS
I can't hear your claim of "subscription doesn't work" over the noise of the millions of people yelling "Shut up and take my money" at Apple.
OK they don't call it a "subscription" and it doesn't "expire" if you stop paying, but look at Mac OSX and its pattern of yearly updates at minimal cost. Apple have the majority of their users upgrading to the latest versions of their new releases very quickly after it comes out.
Re: hmmm
Open "sauce" eh? *not sure if trolling or just demented*
Equally, what's the "betting" that there's an open source project *somewhere* that contains code taken from Microsoft, if you want to look hard enough? Or from another Open Source project, but without proper attributation or respect for the licence attatched to the original code? It's easy - and rather pointless -to just throw gossip around without actually identifying anything, isn't it.
Re: surprised at the use of iPhones.
Why wouldn't they? If the iPhone does what they need then why not standardise on it?
There's a certain benefit from standardising on *anything* that does the job, and it may be they got a good deal on the iphone for buying in bulk, or that certain apps they needed were available / easier to develop in house for the iphone, or they did a study and determined that training costs would be less for that platform than others they looked at.
It's painfully obvious you've never managed a large fleet of devices of any kind if you think this was down to a "fanboi in the purchasing department".
Windows 8
I've had my doubts, but this sounds like a good application of it.
I think that at least 50% of the benefits mentioned are simply from getting up to date kit of /any/ sort into the hands of the field engineers though, but as someone who does a bit of scrabbling around in network cabinets I can certainly agree that a tablet form factor for an on-screen checklist, diagram or whatever is A Good Thing.
Posted in Belkin buys Linksys from Cisco
Linksys were never good
I do like the idea of this "strategic entanglement" though. Someone obviously heard the old adage about how you don't make an eagle by stapling two turkeys together and obviously thought: "OK. So what about 3 turkeys"
Microsoft need to look inside themselves for this one
The OEMs are far from blameless in the way some of them build crap hardware that does no favours to the people trying to use it, but Windows 8 has plenty of problems of its own. It doesn't need help from the OEMs to suck - it already sucks enough to pull a bowling ball through a small straw by itself.
There's some very good "under-the-bonnet" work that's gone into windows 8 but it's all overshadowed by some frankly bizarre interface decisions. Even if you like metro (I'm sure someone must, somewhere) then you must still be frustrated by the inconsistent mess that's resulted by crashing that interface into the windows 7 one.
There's nothing wrong with change, even radical change, but the change needs to be a marked improvement on what it is replacing... and that's simply not the case here. I'll respect even a failed attempt at change for the better because at least it's an attempt and improving something, but Windows 8 feels a lot like change for the sake of change.
Re: How bad can it be?
I suppose we're supposed to be impressed but surely all this means is that their privacy policy is so byzantine that even their own systems struggle to support it, and it should therefore be simplified.
Re: Is it just my imagination
I dunno, for me Skype has always seemed like sucky software since day one, so if you want to tell me it's awful, I won't argue with you at all, but I'd be hard pressed to say it's degraded. when it scraped the bottom of the barrel on day one.
Posted in Far Cry 3 game review
Re: dubious
Considering they actually mention the hunting thing that you claim they don't talk about, perhaps we should ask if you read the articles on the register before 'reviewing' them in the comments.
I think one simple rule works well
Whatever side of the interview table you're sitting on, remember that an interview should be a two way process. The candidate is interviewing the employer as well as the employer interviewing the candidate.
I think that's a good rule... if an employer resents you "interviewing" them then walk away if you can... you're just trying to figure out if you and they will be a good fit, which is beneficial to you both, and if they resent that then it's never going to be a good place to work. If you're the interviewer and a candidate shows no interest in the job then either they didn't want to be there in the first place or you've already failed their interview... and either way it's probably not worth doing anything other than ending the interview as gracefully as possible for both parties.
Re: A PR failure?
There's at least two issues here
Firstly consent - things like this simply should be opt in.
Then there's what you're opting in to - the Amazon search Lens gives poor results because they don't share *enough* information with Amazon to get decent recommendations back for the user.
So what they've ended up with is the worst of both worlds. Even if the only issue you think is important is "helping Ubuntu via Amazon's donations" then the fact is that they've cocked that up.
Re: Uhm...
You're kidding right?
While I don't agree with everything they've done by a long way, I'd much rather be "associated" with Anonymous that Wikileaks. "An honest villain is a cut above one who smiles and smiles" and all that, after all.
Re: Not surprsing
Nope. Not to excuse Microsoft's responsibility now that they've been stupid enough to buy it, but Skype has always been a buggy bag of shite.
Re: How devious
This isn't about technology, it's about the number of break points at which someone might stop to consider "hey, would my ex-gf from 6 years ago who I forgot to delete off this, and my boss who I thought was on vacation this week anyway and who has the computer literacy of a potato, actually both be sending me an archived executable that was a picture of me along with "Lolz is this ur profile" out of the blue.
Yes people do make mistakes. And Yes any of us who work in IT should be trying harder to make those mistakes less of a problem. But people have to start thinking a bit more about their actions too.
Re: Responsability
"Your are not there to serve your interests but those of business and the users."
No. Both myself and the users are employed to serve the needs of the business.
If you create more value for the company using a BozoPad on your FanPhone, then you should be challenging the business as a whole, not just IT or HR or whatever to make it happen. Because just as its ignorant for people to ignore the potential benefits of BYOD, its equally ignorant to ignore all the potential costs.
Re: money laundering and tax avoidance
Notice how the emphasis on banking regulation has gradually shifted from protecting the customer against banking rackets to policing the customer?
It's not a binary thing. It's possible - and I'd suggest desirable - to police both sides of a banking transaction is it not? If we expect our bank's dealings with us to be honest, and want that "policed", then they have to expect the same from us customers.
Posted in Famous thesps tread boards on smart TVs
The Bard's play
Well yes, but I imagine the writers consider their articles part of their performance, after all didn't someone once claim that "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"?
Posted in Famous thesps tread boards on smart TVs
the scottish play
... worried that your comments section might be cursed with witches instead of trolls?
"Hipstamatic was founded as a lifestyle and culture brand that happened to make software."
I don't find anything funny in people losing their jobs but I have to highlight this quote - it's everything that's wrong with this and many other recent web2.0/app businesses in a nutshell... if these people can't take their business seriously then why should anyone else?
While failure to disclose a potential conflict of interest is a serious matter in itself, I've not seen anything that suggests he wasn't playing with a straight bat on this issue.
Re: Pot / Kettle / Black?
"Software. Patents. Are. Bad. Simples."
Whenever I see someone end a statement with "simples", it nearly always means they've just said something that shows a total lack of understanding of what's being discussed. Why is that?
Re: Zynga
"There's a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism and I suspect Zynga have crossed it."
Indeed. A good rule of thumb is that if amoral leeches like EA are able to claim the moral high ground against you then you've *really* fucked up.
Re: Disappointed?
Free crap is still crap.
"The tone and severity of criticism against Tesco would be justified had its systems had actually been hacked and the passwords exposed - as has happened to other and still more prominent organisations in recent times - but this doesn't appear to be the case"
-- so what's wrong with people trying to persuade Tesco that prevention is better than cure?
If you're doing something stupid and dangerous, the fact that you've not hurt someone else *yet* doesn't make what you're doing any less stupid or dangerous. It just means that at least you're lucky as well. And any sensible organisation would realise how lucky they'd been and fix things up instead of defending the indefensible.
Re: Sounds like an opportunity
So instead of the store you'd distribute it via a website and domain name?
What a good job that people who think their patents are being disturbed wouldn't be able to go after a normal website or domain name registration too.
Oh wait...
Is it just me? I can honestly say the first time I've heard of this "Yammer" was when Microsoft acquired them. Am I that out of the loop or are they about as much good at marketing as OS/2 or Vista was at being useful?
well
Ellison's transformation into a real life version of a James Bond bad guy continues.
Re: Software Company
"Microsoft doesn't care about best serving its customers, it is solely concerned with best serving its own ruthless goals... Occasionally these two aims line up, but often not."
This applies to any corporation, not just Microsoft, not just Apple, not just Google, etc. While it is wise to remember that these corporations are not our special friends, at the same time that is no reason not to take advantage of the times when their aims and ours *do* line up.
Re: Could it be?
Franklin - of course you're right, but I see no reason why that makes their decision a bad thing for their customers. Something about gift horses and mouths.
Posted in You only want me for my BYOD
Re: BYOD - for the lucky few
I don't mind the job not being easy.
What *I* don't like are your childish cries of "empire building" and passive aggressive "If anyone downvotes me..." when people disagree with you. For someone that claims not to be bothered by this stuff you sure do complain a lot.
A successful discussion on the benefits and risks of schemes like BYOD require an open mind on both sides.
(And FYI, I work in education, where we *do* support BYOD in the sense that staff and students can connect their own devices to our network as an enhancement to, not a replacement of, the systems we offer)
hype
All this talk of "cloud" is marketing nonsense. Essentially its just a way to outsource the provision of certain apps to a managed services provider, along with a few tweaks that make that more attractive. And lets be honest, it *can* work very well for some situations.
Like anything else, there are times when this will make a lot of sense and there are times when it will not. And attaching buzzwords to the process and pretending those buzzwords are somehow meaningful in their own right won't change things.
1. ReRoute appears to suck
2. To hell with the olympics. The sooner this nonsense is over and done with, the better.
Re: This
The likes of Apple and Microsoft are what I would term "Honest Bastards". They're not hypocritical enough to run around shouting "Don't be evil" while engaging in practices that would have Mr Burns shaking his head in combined disgust and admiration.
Re: This is news?
If by "platform specific" you mean "computers or mobile devices, rather than on packets of cornflakes" then I suppose you have a point. If you meant something else then its nice to see someone who doesn't let the facts get in the way of their opinion.
Re: No Problem
"In two years time Linux based system(s) will be a fine replacement for my XP."
Ahh the fabled "year of the Linux desktop". It's like Charlie Brown believing that this time Lucy really will let him kick the ball, honest.
Posted in Apple has 7.85in 'iPad Mini' in its labs
"In the lab"
Companies have all kinds of things in "the lab". Any company that produces any product, any hardware or software, will have several prototypes on the go at once.
Doesn't mean they'll all become actual shipping products. Doesn't mean they won't either. But the idea that Apple have prototype iPads "in the lab" isn't really news, is it? Next you'll run an article on how Microsoft have "pre-beta" versions of "Windows 9" in their labs or that Apple have iOS 6 or a version of OSX after Mountain Lion in R&D.
Re: erm, docking stations??
What's interesting is that pundits have been predicting the end of the desktop. I think there's a chance the desktop could still remain important (albeit polarised into high end workstations and possibly lower end "all in one" machines) and the laptop could be the device most under threat from a more capable tablet.
A good office product (whoever makes it!) on your tablet might not stop you needing a desktop machine (or 17" semi-portable "lap"top) at home for some specialised tasks or other but it might very well stop you carrying a laptop around with you.
