Posts by Charlie Clark
1688 posts • joined Monday 16th April 2007 14:57 GMT
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Re: The Beginning of the End for Flash (Rejoice)
I think you're right on streaming, although the protocols are in place for that. You can still encrypt h264 streams and the smart way to do it would be using a hardware device such as a CAM or a SIM. Like, webcams and Geo location this will require an API to allow the browser to talk to the OS. You can just guess who is best placed to offer this in its browser, technically for all platforms but practically limited to two.
The arguments from Mozilla and Opera about video have never been about encryption of the stream but about the codecs - the customer should be able to choose their player.
Re: 2 platforms I own
Apple dropped support for PowerPC first and made multiarchitecture builds very difficult by dropping carbon. I don't know what version of Android is on your phone but that is certainly part of the problem. Product liability allows you to hold you vendor, admittedly tricky in your case (shop, Huawei, Google, Adobe) accountable for a defective or dangerous product.
Slashdot karma, seriously? I think this one is yours.
Re: Another advantage
Not particularly fan of Firefox but one really sees how closed source has no chance compared to open source and standards.
Yeah, Mac OS 10.4 is a really huge opportunity being missed.
FWIW Closed-source Opera dropped support for 10.4 later than Firefox did.
Re: You say it like its normal
No, I still say it like I said it: it's no longer news and, therefore, disingenuous to portray it like it is. As others have noted Adobe still providing security updates to Flash players, even on mobile.
Disingenuous
Adobe's double fault: too snazzy and doesn't work on Apple kit
Adobe itself has said that it is dropping updates for Flash on mobile devices and is busy developing tools like Adobe Proto, which is well worth a look, for generating straight HTML. So the sub-headline isn't really news. You can get the eye-candy with HTML 5 & CSS but support across browsers isn't guaranteed.
And if IBM is in the business of selling SPSS then it helps to be able to do this without having to bundle or rely on other runtimes.
Re: Free Sottware
Is that Free Sottware™ or what?
USB 3 instead of ethernet?
I can see both USB and Ethernet ports being dropped in favour of Thunderbolt but if either is to be dropped then it should be USB and all hail the new breakout boxes also known as docking stations. USB 3 adds additional electronic and mechanical complexity to the build. Gigabit Ethernet is already an extremely commodified component which provides universal connectivity at a minimal price.
Posted in Vote now for the worst movie NEVER made
Re: Casting error
Exactly, except I think we'd better stop now. But I can't: Paris Hilton to play Lady Di?
Re: I wonder if the mole has a financial stake in the success of the IPO?
Don't look now because you might see your bank and pension fund in the queue desperate to hand over *your* money on this *sure* thing.
Posted in Vote now for the worst movie NEVER made
Casting error
For me it's got to be Diana in 3D but it looks like someone made an error in the casting: Gary Oldman would be struggle in the role of the Duke of Edinburgh. Surely the role made in heaven for Tommy Weisau?
Re: intel builds a mean fab
Fabless is a great division both of labour and reward: licensees know that while ARM has a good margin it is delivering a good product at a fair price and gives them the chance to make chips for customers at a profit as opposed to Intel's winner takes all model, as PC makers know only too well. Should point out that AMD is no longer a chip maker - it outsourced that to Global Foundries and you missed TSMC from your list.
Nevertheless, at the same time as the commodification of chip design has significantly reduced the prices for such chips, the prices for the new processes and equipment sill continue to rise and there are fewer and fewer companies able to produce the kit (lithography, etc.) necessary to build the fantastically complex designs. It is a paradox that Intel's prowess in this area is driving up costs at the same time as chip costs are falling. Intel has made great progress even with the Atom. Reports suggest that the new phone chip really does come close to the TDP of comparable ARM designs and it has more oomph. But it costs a lot more to make and to put in a phone.
Come on Apple
And stop fucking hiding my folders if I have chosen to display them!
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
Re: During 3 full days in France this weekend...
1) Nobody was forced to bid
2) Damage was limited as the costs incurred could and were offset against tax
No wonder they have problems with the routing
The Recyclebank website has geolocated me to America! I guess it's only the other side of the atlantic so and easy mistake to make.
Re: Google Calling the Kettle Black
Opera Mobile is my default but Maxthon is surprisingly good.
Re: This is entirely different
It's one hell of a precedent and it applies to the Windows operating system, Microsoft would have the burden of proof to demonstrate otherwise. This move has preliminary injunction written all over it if they really go ahead with it. However, I think it's probably just a strawman from MS.
Posted in WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo
Re: No Ethernet or USB 3 ???
Several manufacturers including Western Digital produce Mac-specific versions of their products usually with a distinctive appearance and bundled software and the favoured interface and charge a premium for them. I have one with a FW-800 and USB 2 connection and while the bundled software is toss, it works great with Time Machine: high transfer rates and little impact on the CPU.
Re: Sounds Like...
Should be, but isn't it's just plain ".gov". I do hope they can adopt ".usa" to make up for this. ".us" is the TLD but "USA" is what the citizens are used to shouting.
Re: will this mean
You should check up on your internet history before spouting such shit. DARPA paid for the development of the internet and, as such, got first dibs on the DNS when it was developed: .edu, .gov, .mil, and .com were reserved for US use when they were developed with everyone else supposed to use their country's TLD. Only ICANN and its precursors saw the financial advantage in selling to everyone on a first come, first served basis and the .us domain was effectively "surplus to requirements". Personally, I reckon that ".usa" would get the Yanks back on track.
Posted in Jolly rogered
Bring back Brian Redhead
and the time when the Today programme used to be worth listening to it because researchers had been paid to prepare topics. Now it's just sham nowtrage. Pity for John Humphrys who has elsewhere demonstrated that he is a reasonable journalist. When I am in England I find the only news programme I can bear is Channel 4 News which is now almost anachronistic in its attention to detail and attempts to let people speak.
Back to the whole kids and sexuality and I'm reminded by this misguided resurgence of Victorian mores by something J.K. Rowling said about a letter she received about one of the later Harry Potter books from an older woman concerned by the children going through puberty as they get older. The woman was quite obviously projecting a mythical "water baby" image of children who are supposed magically transform from being little darlings into responsible adults with families. Really quite sad if you think about it: Miss Havisham writ large.
It is precisely this repression of sexuality which causes confusion in children and adolescents whose bodies are being bombarded with hormones. Needless to say Ms Rowling didn't take the woman's advice and continued to make piles of money by playing, admittedly timidly, to the imaginations of her readership. Pity we never got to read the graffiti on the walls of the toilets!
Posted in Jolly rogered
Re: "Dick recognition software, perhaps?"
Really? That's my weekend sorted then. Just off to the chemists for some hand cream.
Posted in Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy S III
Re: Apple aren't a manufacturer and rely heavily on Samsung
Samsung and others, notably Foxconn. And, while Sony is still struggling in many departments I think you have a point that Apple's "asset-light" strategy carries its own risks. Apple designs, commissions and oversees the production of fantastic hardware and develops great software for it. But it is also dependent upon the market producing sufficient volume of tweaked commodity items (CPU, memory, screens, etc.). While that volume gives it pricing power - it has been able to produce phones for the same cost as other manufacturers but sell them at a higher margin - it can create resentment in the suppliers, though it would false be and disingenuous to think of Apple simply as a premium vendor of other people's kit.
Samsung, while seemingly happy enough for the last few years to make Apple's CPU and memory chips, it has at the same time been beefing up not only its production capacity but also R&D. Apple has so far managed to be there or thereabouts with technology: the GPUs in the I-phones are significantly better than the compettion, leading to smoother transitions, a slicker and "better" user experience. Suddenly Samsung appears with technology that Apple cannot currently match - quad-core CPUs and enormous OLED screens. Seeing as the G series SII actually contains CPUs from Texas Instruments it's reasonable to speculate that all Samsung's capacity has been given over to the new I-phone and more importantly the new Exynos. While Apple has been very good at convincing the market that the high resolution LCD screen is something special, good AMOLED screens are simply jaw-droppers because of the eye's preference for contrast and colour gamut over resolution.
Beyond the hardware I think the UX advances are possibly even more notable. They show the same kind of thoughtfulness and attention to detail that has so long been a hallmark of Apple's products. And being first to market in these litigious times gives it a considerable advantage,
re: Depending on battery life...
It's a chuffing huge battery. And the new ARM cores are more efficient than the old ones. Obviously running full-screen videos on it will still drain it. As that's not something I do a lot it should suit me fine.
It's my new precious.
Re: Well done...
If they can cut users down to tech-savvy geeks rather than the mainstream, that's a huge achievement for their purposes.
No, that would involve poisoning DNS and/or packet routing and would be a major step towards censorship and the end of the internet or do we all live in China now?
re. Euro xfer rate
Your post doesn't make sense.
FWIW transfer charges within the SEPA (Single European Payment Area) are the same for cross-border as they are for domestic.
Re: It doesn't fix the basic problem..
They make more money selling credit-card insurance than they do through fraud.
Recently. in America I noticed a few people had written "ask for id" on the signature strip. Staff never blinked so I assume they're used to it. I thought it was a pragmatic approach to the problem.
Re: I have a better idea
Does sound a lot like Solaris' resource management, doesn't it?
Posted in America, China go ape for tablets
Getting the numbers right
Europe has more than double the population of the US
I think that comes as quite a shock to statisticians around the globe. 150 %, if you use EFTA + the Balkans as a base, maybe but certainly not at purchasing power parity.
From the horse's mouth
The story's a couple of weeks old:
http://www.tz-online.de/aktuelles/muenchen/sex-sklave-dieter-fuenf-stunden-gefangen-2277597.html (in Jorman of course but includes the name of the pub where she picked the guy up).
What do you do in such a situation? In general, men are able to overpower women but lamp her if you attempt to escape...
Re: Sadly, Wirth's Law will keep on going
It seems to have escaped your notice how much work has been done on compilers in the last few years which do an increasingly good job of removing many of the inefficiencies. That and the ability to shift tasks to hardware implementations (encryption, signal processing, video compression and decompression).
Re: They are already working on Silicon replacements
Yes, the materials and production processes will probably change. The economics of chip development have changed significantly in the last ten years due to the cost of making the machines that make the chips. There are fewer suppliers of the lithography machines than there were ten years ago which is driving up the cost of each new generation. At the same time even Intel's margins are starting to come under pressure as it's designer hardware struggles to differentiate itself from the commodity ARM clones.
The number of companies entering the nano-technology and additive manufacturing to address some of the same problems is increasing following the. If they can get it right printed OLED screens may be the first children of this revolution.
Worth noting that IBM and Samsung may well be right in not having an asset-light strategy in this area.
Re: If IBM acquired Sun instead of Oracle....
IBM likes showdowns as much as the next but it has become extremely adept at that which Oracle is aiming for: leveraging hardware, software and services of each other. That it has a long history of co-operation with open source from releasing its own software as open source (Apache, Postfix, etc.) to contributing actively to existing projects (most notably Linux and Java and OpenOffice), shouldn't distract from the fact that if IBM seems a $ 6 billion opportunity it will go for it. However, such lawsuits can adversely affect customer relationships. It may have been in weighing up the two - costs and benefits of litigation versus affect on sales - that decided IBM against the purchase of another hardware division with uncertain software licensing business attached.
Re: so if APIs are copyrightable...
Google is not attempting interoperability or a "workable implementation" of existing Java platforms
But does the use of the API necessitate that interoperability? The problem, of course, is that Java is both a language and a platform. If the language comes with no strings attached but the platform is encumbered then this is very much like having your cake and trying to eat it. I seem to remember similar discussions years ago when Sun was forced to open the development of the platform as IBM and others threatened to bless a clean room implementation and, thus, deny Sun any future say in matters.
Re: so if APIs are copyrightable...
I'm still not sure what the consequence of that copyright would be. On the face of it, it is legitimate to want to be able to assert the authorship of the API which is just a specification, i.e. no one else can claim to have come up with it. This puts them up there with technical specifications like the HTTP protocol. As only implementations can be patented, it is, er, patently obvious that you cannot patent the specification. Copyright would allow for licensing of the specification for derived works but this might be considered to apply only to extensions of the specification itself rather than implementations of it. As is noted elsewhere, the point of APIs is to guarantee interoperability.
Re: "internet TV" button
From the department of the bleeding obvious:
At approx 1Gb per hour watching BBC iplayer HD content it is very hungry and can cost if you are not on an unlimted deal
You don't say! I guess there will be those unable to join the dots: don't do online video without a real flatrate.
Forget the apps
TVs with network connections should not become e-mail clients and terminals. But they can be quite nice VoD clients* or film rental devices**. That such clients are written to use some form of HTML can be regarded as coincidental.
* avoid the need to have to program or even own a recorder for your favourite programs
** hope to have a decent selection of films in HD to watch and avoid having go the video shop. Lucky here that MaxDome has a good selection in HD and with English soundtracks. Probably only a matter of time until they scrap that luxury and forcefeed dreadful dubbing on us.
Re: Needs more input
Many of the TVs, at least from Philips, can use USB or Bluetooth keyboards. Though, to be honest I don't think keyboards are the right kind of interface for tellies. Be interesting to see what they come up with gesture control. Although that is likely to be another patent minefield: on asking Philips why I am no longer able to hide channels or remove useless "apps" they told me that this was a licensing issue and they had had to remove the function. I guess we're only months away from being automatically logged into one of the identity traders as soon as we switch the machine on, so that "our friends" know exactly what we're watching without us needing to press any buttons.
I've got other problems with DLNA, or more specifically with WiFi - apparently my DLNA server occasionally closes the connection because the telly fails to acknowledge an ICMP request. Yay, streaming over until connection is reinitialised. Philips is aware of the issue but doesn't seem to think it's their problem.
+1 on that
Take my mum. Please, take her. She puts the "Ludd" back into "Luddite" but is probably the world's digi-video-recorder champion!
Posted in Wind farms create local warming
Nothing to see here
So, a power generation plant has an affect on the local micro-climate. How does 0.72° C compare with the temperature increase of around any plant that requires cooling? I'll note in passing that France regularly has to grant exceptions on water temperature limits in order not to have shut down many nuclear plants in the summer and heating water 0.7° C takes a fuck of a lot more energy than heating air because of the density (and, as long as we're willy-waving our knowledge of physics, specific heat capacity). Planting a few trees should neutralise any effects.
Re: Not just Pete Shelley
Yes, but I seem to remember that Pete Shelley actually wrote his own computer program. Buzzcocks rule!
But Alastair, recording from vinyl using a microphone in 1984. Seriously? That's far more embarrassing than your admission to buying the latest shiny shiny toy from Apple.
Time to call RCJ?
Surely someone with Mr Schwartz's vision is exactly what the Magic Roundabout needs to launch Shoreditch into orbit? If so, can I be the one to light the touch paper?
Posted in MIT boffins play BUILDING-SIZED Tetris
re. Performance
Of course, if you wanted to wring the absolute highest level of performance out of it, you’d probably go 10 GbE over copper
This is a very strange assertion as it seems to be prioritising network data speeds over the physical medium, which given the scale of the game might be considered relevant. It's a fact that radio waves travel through air than electrons along a copper wire: the difference is probably measurable at the higher windows. Assuming lights are either on or off you've got a minimal amount of data to send but if you are worried about data speeds and perhaps latency then you need fibre for this kind of stunt. Don't want windows flickering out of sync.
A more impressive but significantly more extravagant display:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sS6FbTDDuo
Re: No dont take Unite Away
Unite is still part of 12 just disabled by default. Opera Dev currently has an article about porting from Unite to Extensions so I suspect that any Unite apps you were using will be reborn as Extensions. However, if you are talking about sync then you may be thinking of Opera Link which is not going away.
Re: A pity
but they can't seem to get Opera Mobile working reliably on Android of late...it's been almost unusable since early March.
I found the first build of Opera 12 mobile to be a bit ropey but the recent releases have improved it a lot.
Nearly right
The more extensions you have the slower your browser is likely to run. And as things stand you don't need many extensions in Opera: content blocking is built-in, as is a great mail-client and perfectly serviceable IRC client and RSS reader. I have just two extensions: NotScripts and YouTube WebM Plus.
Opera's line on extensions, as with so many other things, was to work with a standard to ensure interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in. Extensions, written in HTML and Javascript, are pretty portable between the Webkit crowd and Opera.
Slight quibble
Out of the box Unite allowed you to share music and photos very easily with other Opera users
As it was browser-based other people didn't need Opera to share and it was data protection heaven. Of course, it was dependent on being connected to the net and your uplink speed.
As extensions of the browser never really made sense - but the widget runtime for standalone widgets lives on.
Re: Having followed the line of reasoning in this article as carefully as I can.........
Ofcom has been singularly poor at promoting competition in the industries it regulates. Ownership of BSkyB is of less interest than the failure to break up the rights monopoly on, say, Premier League matches after the collapse of Setanta.
Posted in Twelve... classic 1980s 8-bit micros
Lessons to be learned
We had a ZX81 and using it was such a trauma that it nearly put me off computers for life. I guess it was less the membrane keyboard itself and more the multiple keys for various characters. Still, the price appealed to many wishing to get their offspring interested in computing and generated enough cash for the much improved Spectrum: enough memory to do something without having to drop into assembler and a usable keyboard; colour was the icing on the cake.
Unfortunately, we never upgraded. Indeed, while all around us were playing fun games in colour, one bright spark at school even wrote a game for the Spectrum, we didn't get a colour system until the end of the decade and then only CGA. Sigh, just to goes to show how important some degree of "shiny shiny" and immediate gratification is for getting kids interesting in programming.
Re: Does this guy know anything about Cook?
Cook is the principle reason that Apple is a moneymaking machine today. There is nobody in the industry better at production control and supply chain management...Jobs was a product guy..
Much as I agree that the comments should be treated sceptically I think you inadvertently make the same point: Jobs was responsible for dreaming up new, desirable products and Cook and others for their execution. Of course, that is exactly the kind of dramatic oversimplification that the media loves to speculate upon. Despite his many qualities Steve Jobs was part of a team of dedicated and competent people who were all needed to make the products a success.
Nokia used to be king of the supply chain and look at it now.
Mr Baggaley's problem is that he's a hopeless Utopian; he is as "bien pensant" in his own way as Mr Cellan-Jones. Programming from first principles? No, thanks. One size doesn't fit all; the education system is an inalienable part of the system of division of labour: some people will write rocket guidance systems and others will write the marketing brochures for the rockets.
Within the narrow scope of the web there is merit in an interdisciplinary approach and demystification of the arcane arts of programming. As such I broadly support the idea of people diving into programming without them later becoming master programmers. However, I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Orlowski's condemnation of Mr Cellan-Jones attending an opportunistic one day workshop: it's a car-crash waiting to happen.
Regarding the general principle of getting kids interesting in programming I was lucky enough to attend Vern Ceder's presentation of the work he did with a group of schoolchildren over a whole term. It's about Python but the language is secondary to the approach.
http://blip.tv/pycon-us-videos-2009-2010-2011/pycon-2011-python-and-robots-teaching-programming-in-high-school-4898767
