Posts by Charlie Clark

Sorry, you seem to have completely misunderstood my point. I was talking about what might become mandated as a minimal free service. Having had such a service for a couple of years I know how limited it is, but also how useful. But more importantly, I know that it's doable for the networks. Might end up being 2 GB on 4G, but the principle is the same. As for autostart videos: there are browsers that stop them.

Re: Rosetta

With Rosetta users will be at Apple's mercy. Sure, initially there will be lots of reasons to make it very good but in a couple of years from now there will be lots of pressure to support an ARM-only world.

Besides, whilst most software developers will probably make the shift to ARM fairly quickly – here Apple has done a lot of work in making cross-compiling easy and fast – it's often the less interesting bits but equally important bits of software that won't be updated. For example, switching off 32-bit x86 put paid to quite a few things like my printer controller and I'm routinely being warned that thinks like my Cisco AnyConnect (from last year) soon won't work either. The way Apple has handled these changes smacks of arrogance and doesn't bode well for future changes.

Re: The Robin Reliant of mobes!

Apart from the spectacular ability to capsize and other notable brainfarts, in many ways the Robin was ahead of its time. Because it was so light, it could use a much smaller engine and required thus much less fuel. But it really should never have left the "concept" stage.

Re: Stock?

The Fed, along with most central banks, has had excessively loose monetary policy for over ten years now. Yes, it's got even looser this year, but tech companies have been taking advantage of it for years.

Softbank has been in a hole since a couple of its big bets: Uber and WeWork didn't go as well as planned. nVidia is just one of the many companies taking advantage of Softbank's fire sale and cheap debt. So, it was Softbank's own failings that have forced it to sell ARM.

It was shown years ago that people who watch Fox News are generally less well informed than people who watch no news. They've had quacks on there for years. But on the other side of the street you've got well-educated middle class dweebs in California up in arms about vaccination in general: spikes in measles infections have nothing to do with the Orange Idiot in Chief. Or, for that matter, the Federal Reserve.

Re: I'm actually a little surprised

The big problem for resellers that the change in refresh rates removed their main source of revenue: commission. They used to get paid up front for selling customers new contracts on the back of a new phone.

Unfortunately, at some point customers realised that this wasn't necessarily in their best interests and started increasingly to treat phone and contract as a separate items: keep phone, renegotiate cheaper tariff directly with the network; no middleman required. For many of us, phones have become just another piece of consumer electronics equipment.

China already has the best facial recognition software. Yes, it isn't perfect: it can be fooled by many of the usual techniques ("kitten, not kitten") and there have been some highly publicised SNAFUs. But it is also validated by its near ubiquitous use every day throughout China. You don't need advanced silicon for this kind of thing, just suffiicient training data and time.

Re: Android compatibility would be a mistake

If they do that, no one would ever develop any Harmony apps.

And where would be the harm in that? The big challenge will be providing drop-in replacements for the GMS stuff, but that should be doable.

Hydrogen is just odd and largely defies classification along with the other elements. It's an electron captured by a proton so it doesn't even have a proper nucleus except it has two isotopes that do. But it's metallic behaviour has been absorbed in many ways, not just because it's such an effective reduction agent but also because it can be adsorbed.

Cool H and He enough and they get odder.

Re: Looking for signs of McDonald's on other planets?

It's called the anthropic principle: even though it's all chance. Combine this with rectlinear perspective, which is as ideological as it is aesthetic and humanity must be considered the most advanced life form. We consider our situation special, even though it's just unlikely.

Re: Old Phones

Feel free to contact the manufacturer.

Re: SMIC might be a "law abiding citizen"....

"Reports of the death of the Dollar have been much exaggerated".

The Renminbi is currently not suitable to replace the Dollar. But I guess we can expect to see more money as hedging moving into it, the Euro, the Swiss Franc and a couple of other currencies. More important for the near term, however, will be payment systems that don't rely on SWIFT

I'm afraid that's wishful thinking as things like SSL have shown. Unless you're actually looking for bugs you're unlikely to find any. And, many exploits are not necessarily bugs. Or they would previously never have been considered bugs before someone worked out how to exploit the code.

This is why security testing should be done by a separate team.

Re: @wolfetone

None, a transition period was always part of the agreement.

Re: There won't be laptops with 25 hour battery life...

One of the main advantages with ARM-based chips is that they tend to have more specific hardware acceleration so it's possible that the rendering at least would get a boost, though compiling as a generally single-core process might take longer. Either way these new devices are unlikely to be suitable replacements for your current workstation, which is basically what you're using your notebook for.

Re: Nice but...

My Kobos have all are great to read in virtually any kind of lighting condition: ghosting hasn't been a problem for years. Full refresh is now generally one a chapter and some of these can be pretty long and never a problem. Full control of text size, margins, etc. and indirect lighting are a win, win, win.

Re: Predictions are useful

The impact depends a lot on the geography and the usual rainfall patterns. Flat areas can absorb a lot of water by flooding extensively, but then take much longer to drain, especially if they are flood plains, and thus below the level of local rivers. In much of the western UK rain is so common (300 days per year) that it's difficult to get that much extra – though flash floods over the last few years have shown it is possible – and local systems can normally cope quite well with a reasonable excesses. But it's also just so much smaller than the US.

In the US hurricane alley you have flood plains combining with subsidence due to drainage, and rising and warming sea levels, which is why the Army Corps of Engineers has already had to revise down the viability of the post-Katrina works. At some point, some of those coastal settlements and flood plains will need to be abandoned.