* Posts by Christopher

16 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

El Reg lobs iPhone at Genius Bar

Christopher

@ Jason Clery

(yawn)

""MS still charges an enormous amount to apply its OS to any of these '£10 Hong Kong junkers'" and Apple doesnt change an enourmous amount for its OS and hardware?"

Well considering this is extremely off-topic at this point, I will close by saying that Vista OS variants (£179.99-£294.97) are going to be more expensive (retail box versions) than OS X (£89.00). Even more so in the case of Linux. Of course you know this, but you just want to p!ss around with your little numbers game. Suit yourself. As far as Apple hardware pricing is concerned, much of their product line is inline with the major NAME-BRAND manufacturers. And of course we know that Apple's OS X hardware can run Vista, XP, Linux -- you name it -- so just what would be a better value buy again? Let me see: One piece of homemade crapware box that runs an overpriced piece of Windows bloatware, or: one well designed piece of equipment running Unix and just about any other OS you may also like to use. I'll take the 3-in-1 over the 1 out of 3. You know this too, but choose to ignore it.

Jason, the rest of your rebuttal is pure shite.

/(yawn)

Christopher

@ Jason Clery RE: Christopher

"Unlike apple, you can stick MS on a £10 Hong Kong junker and it will pretty much work. You are not completely locked down to proprietry hardware. You can stick 3rd party components in the box, etc. Try stick mac-os on non apple hardware and prepare for the lawyers. They may do Intel now, buts appleIntel not your free choice of hardware supplier."

Which simply proves my point. MS has had NOTHING to do with bringing cheap computing to the masses. The 'cloning' of the PC did. MS still charges an enormous amount to apply its OS to any of these '£10 Hong Kong junkers'. Same holds true for the Frankenstein computers people cobble together in dark grubby shops. Recently, the addition of a myriad of flavours of Linux has also started to shift the cost of cheap computing. (See: OLPC) As far as Apple is concerned, nobody in their right mind would associate Apple and cheap computing as a legacy statement, so that is a non-starter.

Re: Wheel. Read your comments again:

"I would never buy an ipod (I hate the proprietry itunes). I have bought a Creative Zen Vision M. As much as I hate Apple, the wheel is probably a better control for an MP3 play."

Now that sounds like you have ACCEPTED the use of the wheel as a better control device -- in spite of the fact Apple uses it it in all of it's iPods. Fact is, we've had the wheel as a control device (in one form or another) for decades. The first example I can think of is the radio tuning dial -- there may have been others. I have also seen the wheel being used in electronics to control a vast amount of actions on amps, pre-amps, receivers, and various other audio devices for decades. Yes it is a better solution -- and you don't have to cut your nose off to spite your face and hate Apple for it.

I'm still ROTFLMAO!

Christopher

Re: Apple

"MS from Win98 onwards has done wonders for bringing (cheap) computing to the masses. XP is a pretty good product. Its easy to use and is pretty stable."

Are you on drugs? MS has done zip to bring cheap computing to the masses. MS creates substandard software, then charges a butt-load for it. Try reading a book before making idiotic statements like that.

"As much as I hate Apple, the wheel is probably a better control for an MP3 play."

So you are now just TOLERATING the wheel now? (ROTFLMAO -- ho f*ck!!!)

Burned by a MacBook

Christopher

Lessons to be learned the hard way?

As one who works from home in his own biz, I often find myself under various forms of deadlines. Of course, like the author (and many others here?), I too, use a computer to make my living. But here is the difference. I don't rely on just ONE laptop. I have a 'clone' on each platform. An exact spare of both my Mac PowerBook and my IBM ThinkPad. And I have to agree with the anon poster ('Ouch') who recommends the IBM biz solution. Yes! (I had occasion to use it on a small issue and the IBM/Lenovo people were great!)

Now we are in biz, that's true, and I don't expect we all have the finances of 'the Donald' (I don't!), so how do we AFFORD 2 identical laptops? Easy. Apple has an ace refurbish program that helps you get a second. (So does IBM for that matter) You should NOT be getting a lemon this way. If you do -- man, you got REALLY bad luck! In the end, it becomes a Capitol Investment and you finance it accordingly. Some prefer to lease for tax reasons.

Another note: Apple does offer for $99 per year biz support that streamlines the repair process. Consider it. It's a frickin' business write-off. Put it on your Visa.

Regrettably, it is hard for me to get broken up about this story, because as a so-called business person -- on her own -- with no form of backup -- I find it hard to believe she allowed herself to be left out in the cold and had to cancel work.

I'm not rich, but I'm working everyday -- and I can count on it, because I am prepared. Think about it, Emily.

Boeing rolls out 787 Dreamliner

Christopher

Um . . . re: carbon fibre & lightening . . .

This isn't the first aircraft to have this sort of composite construction. It is new for a civil aviation airliner, but at the end of the day this technology isn't entirely new to aviation. Where has it been used before? Over 20 years now with the USAF for openers. Bombers, fighters, missile bodies, you name it. I suspect lightening strikes have been worked out of the equation by now.

(B2 pilot to base): "Sorry -- we can't make it the rest of the way to Iraq and finish our bombing mission, as we got hit by lightening and our ass is melted off!

(Base): Roger that.

iPhone hack bypasses AT&T

Christopher

RE: You still don't get it, Christopher

@A J Stiles:

"No, Jon has EVERY right to reverse-engineer the iPhone. He bought it, with his own money; by sole virtue of which, he is privy to any secret which may be embodied in it. That is just part of his common-law property rights."

He can jerk around with it all he wants, but when he starts making his 'discoveries' public, well, I'd be surprised if he DOESN'T get contacted by Apple (or AT&T).

Now AJ Stiles -- I am bored with this and will respond no more. Meanwhile I suggest you do some reading on the subject. Start at a legal library.

Christopher

RE: reverse engineering should not be illegal.

@William:

I dare you to stand in a court room full of Apple's finest legal minds and try to use that argument. They will vaporize you. Home spun half-baked analogies won't save you there.

The agreements that you 'accept' or 'decline' are legal and binding. Be my guest -- play around at your own risk. The same goes for that tit.

/rant

Christopher

WHAT -- Robin Hood for the 21st Century!??!

Now who is smoking what! DVD Jon has reverse engineered another product that he does not have legal right to do. Period. It doesn't matter if his efforts enable him to raise Mother Theresa from the dead -- or make an iPhone work -- it is still frikkin' illegal, and he is still a tit.

iPhone autopsies conducted

Christopher

Title

@Jim:

"Why do people care about watching video/listening to music on a phone? I want a phone to work when needed - as a phone. If I want a media player then I will carry one as well."

It appears that the marketing departments of these various hardware manufacturers haven't considered you and I. I too couldn't give a cr@p about all this convergence stuff either, but that isn't going to stop this insanity -- or the world from moving forward. Simple fact is, the more 'junk' sucking power, the less you have for the phone part when you need it. Period. I hear this thing gets quite hot in use as well which suggests to me that there could be some serious power draw.

Regardless, I also won't be buying one as well, for these and overall outrageous usage costs.

Apple's first handheld: the Newton MessagePad

Christopher

Yes, there were PDAs before Newton, alright . . .

@Ben

Yes, there were. I know -- I still have a couple of the ones I had stuffed in a drawer somewhere. I do also have my MP2000 which I use everyday in my business and a brand new 2100 waiting in the wings for the 2000 to die. I'm not sure if you actually used some of these early PDAs by Sharpe and Casio, but the ones I started with and ditched were unbelievably awful. The Psion was closer to acceptable, but in the end it was really a scaled down laptop, much akin to the Windows CE efforts, albeit much better than WinCE.

The Newton, on the other hand was an integrated device that was created with pen computing in mind at every turn. A real treat to use (as I still do). It's funny to think how those awful early PDA interfaces drove the folks at Apple to come up with something more intuitive -- that is the same drive behind the iPhone. Boom? or Bust? Only time will tell -- meanwhile -- everyday my MP2000 soldiers on!

Celebrating the iPhone's Newtonian past

Christopher

RE: Marketing

@Tim Porter:

Well I'm not too sure if it was the lack of marketing. I saw the video you speak of and I'm not sure if you are aware that it was a 'concept' video of which the Newton only represented a very small beginning step on the path to arriving at that stage shown in the video. In the early days, I honestly still believe the concept was misunderstood by the market and somewhat over priced -- even for the exec crowd -- and grossly misrepresented. as to its capabilities. That is what happens when ground breaking products get rushed to market. We shouldn't forget that, near the end in late '97 and early '98, the MP2100 was really starting to gain ground and start taking off until it got 'steved'. That model is still highly sought out and coveted by Newton devotees (such as myself!).

Honestly, I think Apple was the Newton's own worst enemy, as they couldn't even market their core business, let alone a side venture, so maybe you have a point.

Christopher

RE: Newton! Really!

@ Paul:

I echo your sentiments exactly. Not only did I have a 120 (with OS 2.0), but I also had the 130. Then, the 2000 (which I still use everyday in my business) and finally, a brand-new 2100 that is waiting in the wings for my 2000 to die. Indeed the battery power was sophisticated -- using common garden variety AAs available anywhere in the world (I'm still using some of my rechargeables). Since I 'print', the handwriting recognition is 95-100% accurate. Pretty good for a piece of 10-year old technology. The build-factor is next to perfect. I've travelled all over the world with this thing and it has never let me down over all this time. My MP2000 fits comfortably in the corner of my attaché case. No dangling lanyard for me! Somehow, I doubt the iPhone will ever achieve that kind of loyalty through reliability & usability. The iPhone does look quite flash, though.

It would, though, be nice if Apple updated the Newton, but I'm afraid they'd just go and do something stupid like seal the battery in or something. (Duh!)

Apple's Safari 3: a crashing experience for non-US users

Christopher

I'm good with this . . .

I've used Safari 2.x on the Mac since 2005 and really like it. It is minimal and doesn't get in the way of the content. The same I find for Safari for Windows. I do find it has crashed a few times, the fonts are a wee bit bit fuzzy and the browser chrome is a touch dark, but other than that -- for a beta -- a fine start as far as I am concerned. Oh yes -- this WILL become my browser of choice on XP-Pro.

Downing St ambivalent on open standards

Christopher

Oh how naïve . . .

"The petition author, John Imrie, wrote: Government documents must be available for tens if not hundreds of years."

Computers as we know them won't be around HUNDREDS of years from now. Maybe a somewhat working example somewhere, but now you would need the software.

No. What I find frustrating with this disposable digital IP world is that I doubt the photo CDs or DVDs I make will be playable 20 years from now, never mind hundreds(!) yet the images in my parents 60 year old photo album still look crisp and well defined PLUS we can look at them anytime -- no special equipment required. So far the digital world hasn't been able to live up to ensured longevity.

Canada announces monster solar plant

Christopher

ehhh. . .

Tony -- we don't have anymore animals in Canada. We've been very successful in eliminating them(!)

Christopher

Well, for openers . . .

"I would like to be able to see numbers comparing how efficient are solar panels converting sunlight directly vs. using sunlight for growing crops and chemistry for turning that into fuel."

growing corn is one thing, harvesting it for processing is another. That whole idea falls apart with the fossil fuels required by the machinery and trucks to do the harvest. (Ooops!)