Posts by Tim Almond

Re: FFS

"Henry Ford's name is still trotted out on occasion; the Kelloggs also had a full-on Hollywood bio-pic made about them. (And those two really didn't get on!) This isn't new."

Yes, but when was the last time that you called into a Ford dealership and they stuck a video in your way to watch before you could talk to a salesman?

Correction

Google never built the iOS maps app. They just supplied the back-end services for an App that Apple built.

Re: Hmmm...

Do you think anyone comes up with these justifications for the Olympics after detailed analysis and planning?

The detailed analysis of the Olympics, carried out by economists repeatedly reports that it's not worth hosting them. The only benefit is that the nation gets a 3 week party and that's a pretty damned expensive party, especially as it's full of sports that people normally couldn't give a toss about.

Re: Tablet+Desktop+TV?

"Ultrabook=Tablet with a screen? - but tablets can do that already"

But the tablet is only a subset of the ultrabook features, while the ultrabook does everything a tablet does. And of course, everything's controlled in a way that PC's just aren't. And the tablets are so crippled and controlled that you'll probably want a PC anyway.

Save your money and spend it on a bullworker so you can lift that heavy laptop.

Fragmentation

If fragmentation is such an issue, where's the evidence so far?

Eh?

How does the mobile banking app have a "domino effect"? How is it anything but a thin UI that talks to web services to get or put data? How does it stop transactions from an overnight run from BACS getting through?

Re: Solution still looking for a problem

I wouldn't mind contactless payments for the bus or for parking, but other than that, not really. And even parking now can be done with an SMS in many places.

Swindon had a "cash card" pilot in the late 90s called Mondex and it sank. OK, you couldn't just "bonk" it, but it wasn't much slower. You just inserted the card and the money was taken (i.e. no PIN).

Media progression

"In 2-5 years we will probably look back and see CD/DVDs in the same way we would video VHS now."

If you're saying that we'll all be on Blu-Ray, possibly. I'm still seriously doubting that streaming is going to take over, though.

The movie companies are way too protective with DRM and also offering few financial incentives to do it. It costs less for me to buy the Die Hard box set from Amazon than the first movie from iTunes. I can't lend an iTunes movie to my neighbours, resell it on eBay. I've also got to make sure I've got the media device for each TV. Apple TV is £99, a DVD player is about £25. A lot of people are still on sets without HDMI, which means that most streaming devices don't work, while a £25 DVD player will.

Most cinephiles won't buy iTunes movies because the quality isn't as good as Blu-Ray.

Re: Oracle bought sleepycat software, remember?

XML isn't hype. If you're using it for storage, you're probably doing the wrong thing (although it's quite good for config settings), but as a way to move data from system to system, there's nothing better.

Re: On journalists

It's hardly "ironic" considering that Michael Crichton wrote fiction.

That said, I'd sooner put a bet on "scientists recreate dinosaurs from amber" than "homeopathy works", despite the fact that homeopaths have been given space in newspapers.

Data duplication

"Is the public sector that bad with data?"

Well, as they have to type it in more than once, clearly, yes. Email addresses are so easy to get wrong, which is why most systems capture them once and if you need to email a customer, you select a customer and then their email. You then have visual confirmation. It's not perfect, but it's going to get rid of most errors.

Re: Who wants to use a Walled Garden?

Precisely. I'd rather put the extra "smart" part towards building a Media Center PC. 2 years after you buy your TV, what's the odds that Samsung or Sony will add services to existing sets, vs adding them just to new ones?

I've been researching different ways to get services like Lovefilm, Netflix, iTunes movies and so forth the conclusion is that the only thing that really works is a PC. It might cost a bit more, but it is guaranteed to work for just about everything and will continue to do so, regardless of what comes around the corner for many years.

Which just shows how stupid this is

If you've got £220 + travel + official food and drink money, spend a day of your time and are prepared to take them on tubes that will be rammed and through airport-style security to see something you don't care about then you're a fool who deserves to be parted from his money.

I bid for one event that we wanted to see. Didn't get tickets, so we're going to spend the same money on something else for the family.

I suspect what's driving a lot of sales is that people just want to tell their non-friends that they went.

It just seems wrong. Q for me was part of the furniture of MI5, a solid, dependable, somewhat boring type.

I can't get into this bond. I want a villain with an audacious plot, Bond wise-cracking after killing off a henchman with a gimmick and a few gadgets (but don't go OTT). I'm there to be entertained. If I want an exploration of the human spirit I'll go and buy some Bergman movies.

Obvious Impementation

"Why should it not be patentable? It fulfils the non-obvious part of the patent requirement that most of the patents out there currently for trolling seem to lack"

Apple have implemented the real-world sliding lock... on a computer. It's like saying that you could patent a shopping list... on a computer, or an accounts ledger... on a computer. It's just an implementation of something real world... on a computer, and that counts as obvious.

Recursion is a necessary evil

"Another story I like is the guy who handed in an iterative solution where the assignment explicitly stated: "implement a recursive method to compute ....." He argued this was more efficient, we said that was true, but that the assignment was to learn recursion. He said but my implementation is more efficient, we said that was true."

The guy has the right attitude: simplicity and effectiveness. Programming is all about solving the problem, and if the problem can be solved in a way that's simpler and more effective then it's a better solution, and forcing someone to take an approach that's not that way goes against good programming.

I suggest that what you do is to find a problem that can't be done without recursion. The classic one is a product/part explosion where product A is made up of products B and C, B is made up of D and E, C is made of F and G and so forth. Then get someone to provide a list of parts and a total cost (or something like that). You can't solve that without recursion.

And please teach people about trapping situations where the database gets in a mess and A is made up of B and C, and C is made up of A and D. I've seen that a few times in the real world and the program just sits there constructing parts until a stack overflow occurs.

TA

Nearly always overlooked. The cool thing about TA was that the music that was played was appropriate to the level of action. If you were just building things, you got some ambient music playing, as forces approached, you'd get the epic "March Unto Death".

Private Industry

<i>Its just double standards with private industry, they virtualise and provide staff with tablets and its forward thinking and enabling, a council does it and they are just wasting money!</i>

What businesses? I've worked for 4 clients in the past 12 months, and amongst them (total of 700-odd staff) there was 1 iPad and that was because that client sold stuff through the app store, so needed to build and test their app.

Other than a few hipster design agencies, no-one is buying iPads. They're expensive, locked-down, inflexible and impractical. Businesses are still running Windows, Outlook, Active Directory, Exchange, Office and all that stuff.

Media Consumption

<i>Sure, tablets are great for consuming media</i>

If I'm watching a movie on a TV, it's 32" in size, widescreen and in stereo. I can sit back, open a beer and enjoy it. With a laptop, it's 15" in size, I can put it on a desk, adjust the screen and watch it. Not quite so comfortable, but it's OK. With an iPad, it's 10" in size, and I've got to either hold it, or use a stand.

I keep being told it's a great media consumption device, but I don't understand how a tablet is the best of those options. What am I not understanding?

Half the Races?

The thing about F1 (unlike most sports) is that it's not about the race, but the season. Losing half the races means that I'll probably lose track of what's going on and give up with it.

And as I've just ditched my Sky+ box, I'm not paying £32/month just for F1.

Transportable skills

"Yes, tens of thousands would benefit from this barebones device, as opposed to the millions who will need office skills for office work. Current high school teaching doesn't let much (or: any?) time for specialist work for the general pupil."

The problem is that office skills aren't education, they're training. And one problem with training over education is that it narrows the mind. If all you give kids about computers is Powerpoint, a lot of them aren't going to grasp the full potential, or be able to adapt to when we drop Powerpoint for something else.

It's like teaching kids French by giving them a phrase book, or giving a ready-filled iPod and calling it a music lesson.

Completely Different

Yes, Google charges 10% to use One Pass. The difference is that if you don't like One Pass, you don't have to use it to be in their store, nor does it affect pricing elsewhere. It's up to you. Likewise, you can use AdMob in your applications, or you can choose someone else's.

No-one is objecting to Apple offering a subscription system. For a lot of small developers, it's great because it's cheaper than what it would cost to build their own. But where Google is offering a service and making money, Apple is acting like a protection racket.

Personally, I hope that a lot of companies quit iOS over this and Apple are left with a phone with a ropey store full of fart applications. I like the idea that companies that try to treat people well survive, and strongarm bullies go to the wall.