* Posts by JEDIDIAH

2525 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jan 2009

Ellison: 'There'll be nothing left of IBM once I'm done'

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Huh?

It you don't think that everyone and the barber's cat haven't taken every opportunity to mention how much of a jerk Ellison is, you simply haven't been paying attention. Even longtime Oracle users will happily jump on the pile.

No. Ellison has always been an asshole.

Recognizing this is by no means new or "trendy".

Bank of America website disrupted for 4th day in a row

JEDIDIAH
Linux

No one left to fix things...

Perhaps they just fired, laid off, or out sourced too many people in their IT department.

Boffins invent miracle pill that counteracts effects of booze

JEDIDIAH
Linux

It is poison you know...

> Has there ever been one? I often enjoy a drink, but I've never enjoyed being drunk.

Yes, there is a very important reason to "be drunk".

It lets you know that if you don't let up then you will get alchohol poisoning and DIE.

Having some sort of adverse reaction ingesting a poison is not a bad thing really.

Electric plane-flinger for US and Royal navies doing well

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Splitting hairs...

Don't worry so much. On this side of the pond, a ship that can only launch harriers and helicopters would not be considered an aircraft carrier either. We tend to call something like that an "amphibious assault ship".

If you don't have a little give there then you would end up banning stuff like (real) cruisers and frigates.

New York drops $400m to lure next-gen wafer bakers

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Seasons...

You forgot the rainy season.

Some of us in the flyover states have actually been to California or lived there for awhile.

It's a real hoot seeing Angelinos panic over not-quite-freezing temperatures.

Android outsells Apple 2:1

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Android eating Apple's Lunch

You can start counting with me. I dumped my iPhone for Android over basic phone features. The improved storage and media handling features were merely a nice bonus.

After seeing my Android the wife became interested in dumping her iPhone. After seeing auntie's Thrive, she's interested in dumping her iPad. For now, sunk costs will allow the inertia of the situation to keep the status quo going. Although anything's possible now when it's time to upgrade those devices.

Plenty of people could probably "take or leave" either "big brand". I suspect most people are like that in fact.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Poor fanboys...

This is EXACTLY what the "haters" said would happen. Android on smart phones would be just like MS-DOS on PCs. An open platform with multiple vendors and diverse price points sold on the carrier of your choice would blunt the iJuggernaut.

Now that this has come to pass, the fanboys want to make weasely excuses to distract from the fact that the "haters" were right.

I don't care about "the hardware". I care about what it does. I have no more loyalty to Samsung than I do to Zotac. That's the nice thing about open platforms. I can dump my current hardware in a heartbeat should I have reason to do so. I can do so without hesitation or remorse.

The entire platform is what matters.

Mac malware uses Windows-style PDF camouflage ruse

JEDIDIAH
Linux

How are they going to know

> how are they going to know

I dunno. Mebbe they use that mouse pointer thing to poke around the system and try to see if there's anything useful they can find.

If you aren't going to expect the users to discover and learn things on their really isn't any point to shiny happy user interfaces at all.

JEDIDIAH
Devil

Scary Nonsense

> So, a little while later, the wife calls

> me downstairs, all flustered, asking

> me "What's this 'X10' thing that starts

> up every time I go to use Gimp?" After

> a moment's pondering,

...you say something kind of stupid.

Some suggested alternatives:

1) Don't worry about it dear.

2) Gimp needs it to run

3) This is one of those "Unix" things. MacOS is a Unix remember?

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Oh the humanity.

The idea that clicking on a checkbox is such a horrible burden for the poor user is why Windows became such a mess.

Hopefully MacOS is less stupid about this sort of thing.

MS denies secure boot will exclude Linux

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Frothing and whatnot

Your OEM is Microsoft's house boy and has been for decades.

They will do whatever Microsoft tells them to do and say please and thank you during.

They simply cannot afford to get on Microsoft's bad side. Their Windows discounts might get revoked. So they will go along with whatever Microsoft wants.

Perhaps you missed the big trial where this all came to light?

Memo to open source moralists: Put a sock in it

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Incompetent Shills

A bad argument is a bad argument regardless of whether or not you agree with it or not.

I have stated better arguments for running Windows myself.

Plus the criticism wasn't even accurate.

On the one hand, the other guys remarks were a genuine troll. They were genuine nonsense. Outdated perhaps but that's how real trolls operate. They argue against an outdated vision of the opponent. In the end it was useful because it was educational. You see, because of the nature of Free Software anyone can test out claims if they like.

That's exactly what I did. I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu and set it up with a RAID boot disk.

The process was not a thing like what that other guy was blithering about.

There is nothing "grown up" about accepting falsehoods and bad reasoning.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Incompetent Shill

If you are going to shill for Microsoft you might want to get beyond fairly trivial things like RAID setup. There's usually a bit more to deciding what operating system you are going to use for any task than just the initial setup bits. Also, while those bits might be better or worse, they are a one time cost rather than an ongoing one.

Although I suspect that either RHEL or SLES or either of their gratisware versions would completely render your rant moot anyways.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Follow your own advice

You really jumped the shark when you tried to elevate Bill gates above Mother Theresa.

RMS may be annoying at times but he's ultimately why there's any Android to begin with.

Netflix: How to completely screw up

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Bogus options...

> Wireless and satelite #

>

> are options. You're just not willing to pay for them.

Who cares about "cost"? Neither of those work nearly well enough.

They simply can't compete against a good wired Internet service.

Doesn't matter what the price is when the product is total crap.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Esoteric Things

The local rental store was never good for esoterica. That was one of the early strengths of Netflix. Since it serviced a wider audience, it was able to provide all of those old and oddball things that you would never find in your local Blockbuster.

Most of that esoterica is still not available for streaming.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

THIS

> They should offer Stream to Watch + buy DVD/BD physical Disk.

THIS is precisely the option that Amazon should offer. They should offer a stream + disk option where you get to watch stuff as it airs and then you get sent the disks when they come out.

They already do a sort of inverse of this where they give you streaming access to a show on disk while you are waiting for it to arrive by courier.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

The store was replaced

The store was replaced by a vending machine. The things are all over the place. I think I have 10 of them within easy walking distance of the house and I live in the outer suburbs.

Netflix may have killed off Blockbuster & Hollywood but RedBox rose in it's place.

That's the nice thing about capitalism. Cockroaches and vultures rise out of the ashes and decaying corpses of other companies. Someone else always wants to make a buck.

All of these shenangians have made me take a closer look at Redbox.

Awakening the sleeper is always a dangerous proposition. Usually doesn't go the way you think it will.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Reality tells a different tale

> Netflix want to dump dvd rentals and

> go streaming only it's so obvious. It

> costs them far less to stream than mail

> a dvd out.

If that is really the case then why did they just part company with Starz over price?

It may cost more to push shiny disks around but at least I can buy them at the local Tesco. I can buy exactly the amount I need and I don't have to worry about Big Content suddenly deciding to jack the price back up to $90 per movie

Oracle 'engineers' SMB database appliance

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Paradox

If you have an enterprise license for something like Oracle then you aren't the target for a "SMB appliance".

Your own IT staff will rip this thing apart, declare where things can be done better, or start turf wars over the underlying components.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

The definition of SMB

I don't think Oracle belongs anywhere near the definition of SMB. This goes triple for Oracle's clustered products.

I also find it amusing that this thing isn't even an appliance as such. It's not a complete solution and you still have to sort out RDBMS licensing despite the fact you are buying the hardware from Oracle already.

Perhaps they are trying to avoid the inevitable sticker shock.

Celebrating the 55th anniversary of the hard disk

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Too much Doctor Who

Someone has been watching just a little too much Doctor Who and has themselves confused with a Silurian.

Some people fixate on Marilyn Monroe. I guess someone was bound to think that they are a Silurian sooner or later...

Canonical woos developers with Ubuntu app prep portal

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Silly idea.

Even with the similar payware equivalents, a great deal of the software is still freeware.

It doesn't matter if the platform is PhoneOS, Android, or Ubuntu you still have to stick out well enough that someone pays for your stuff rather than just downloading something else for free.

It's not the salesfront that's important. If Canonical wants to put a dent in things then they need to offer developer support, pay attention any complaints, and work at solving any of those issues or providing guidance where appropriate.

Focusing only on the most visible aspect of the whole enterprise probably won't help so much.

Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray disc set

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Lucas is badly out of touch.

There is nothing inherently bad or evil about "firing first" when someone is pointing a gun at you.

Let me repeat that:

Someone is pointing a gun at you.

You know what that is in real life? That's assult with a deadly weapon. You're well justified in firing first if you can in most jurisdictions. It's just nothing to get excited about. The change comes off like a senile liberal not fully understanding the context of the scene (his own scene).

JEDIDIAH
Linux

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

> Do any Brits say they are 'stoked'?

>

> If they do, I might have died a little inside.

The Brits have football hooligans. Lots of potential there.

Got a non-iPad tablet? Weirdo

JEDIDIAH
Devil

Beding over backwards to stay in the garden.

> Or maybe convert his torrents to .m4v and put them on the ipad before he goes away?

What part of 1TB being much bigger than 16G or even 64G did you miss exactly?

I have a 500G Archos for just this very sort of situation. It is capable of playing stuff that I have compressed for HTPC use. So I don't have to specially re-encode anything for it.

I just attach it to my desktop machine, open up the video folder, and drag+drop stuff.

Beats the h*ll out of messing with Handbrake and iTunes and whatever else I would need to bother with for an Apple branded device that doesn't even have any capacity to speak of anyways.

He might not have access to Netflix. It might not have what he wants to watch. He might not have any network access at all (or it may be prohibitively expensive).

It's funny how fanboys declare a story is fake when it shows the obvious limitation of their pet brand.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

What apps?

I am always amused about how a certain variety of tablet user like to drone on about "apps" but never actually mention any.

I take the opposing philiosophical position. If apps can't scale up and scale down on the same basic form factor then they are fundementally broken.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Size matters but not how you think...

Small tablets have the benefit of being extremely portable. Meanwhile, the larger ones have limited ways to distinguish themselves. You are still using the same awkward interface. Sure the screen is bigger but the UI on the smaller device is specially geared to help get around that. Besides, you still need to use the same zoom-in/zoom-out stuff on the bigger tablets too.

Some big tablets could be enlarged carbon copies of their smaller counterparts.

A few aren't. They are still in the minority though. Hopefully that will change... '-)

AMD: Windows-8-on-ARM app compatibility is relative

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Porting...

Of course stuff should "port" just fine. The real issue is whether or not the relevant software vendors will bother with that process. It's really not an issue of how feasable it is but whether or not the vast majority of publishers will ever bother.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Now for the zillionth time...

Emulation of x86 binaries work on something like Alpha only because at the time the Alpha architecture was MUCH BETTER than what it was emulating. Typically, there is always a huge performance hit for emulation. If you have enough extra capacity/performance then this is not a problem.

This is why Alpha emulation of x86 binaries worked and why stuff like vmware works somewhat.

ARM is on the other side of the equation. So "emulation" will likely be painful and unpleasant.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Acceleration APIs

> These have been designed _WITHOUT_ a common software

> architecture in mind. There is no way in hell to abstract them

> to a common API which high level programs designed for

> Windows can use. It is a throughly

You mean no stuff like OpenGL, OpenCL, and VDPAU?

The fact that such "common software architecture" exists is why cheap PCs can run circles around ARM gear. PCs use the same tricks that ARM does. Everyone has been using the same tricks as ARM does for not just years but decades. It's pretty standard industry practice across the board.

Oracle suit outs Google's closed source Android tactics

JEDIDIAH
Devil

AnotherNetNarcissist

> I strikes me that you in the Open Politburo have an "our

> way or the highway" approach to freedom that Stalin would

> be proud of.

This is just stupid nonsense.

There is no "politburo" mentality at work here.

What there is here is a predefined legal framework created by those developers who originally created the works that Google is deriving from. Someone created code. That same someone released it under a particular license. That license is the only thing relevant here. It is the only thing that determines what is or is not "correct".

Some people with an obvious agenda are trying to muddle the issue here.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Hysterical Nonsense

There is nothing about the GPL that requires the development process be open.

Google can hide their development process as much as they like. The GPL and similar licenses only come into play when they choose to ship product. At that point, and only at that point, do they have a legal requirement to disclose source code along with their product.

This is just mindless FUD with a well known blogger-instigator getting in on the fun.

How are we going to search our hard disks now?

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Librarians...

Of course a librarian "put everything into the library". That is what they do. The key difference between you and a librarian is that they have a system. Not only do they have a system but it's a standardized system that any other librarian or even a civilian can get a handle on.

"Desktop Search" is simply a response to people in general refusing to be organized or refusing to understand what technology can do.

It also leads to silliness where people dump their iPhoto libraries to CD because they became too large to manage (in iPhoto).

Apple ejects FT app from iTunes

JEDIDIAH
Linux

What are the actual costs?

What are the actual marginal costs of hosting a 2M download? Really?

Can't be much. Probably not nearly worth ANY mafia style skimming of subscription revenues.

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Except...

Except with some "browser plugin" you still have a common script language running on multiple platforms. It's not limited to PhoneOS, or MacOS, or Windows.

Amazon Prime streaming is very handy due to that.

You still have a platform agnostic development environment.

Apple's cloudy music streamer won't stream music

JEDIDIAH
Devil

Nice Self Nuke...

> I would be really dumb to rely solely on simple streaming for an obvious reason

This is the reason to shun the cloud in general.

Bring stuff with you. Ditch the network entirely. Buy a bigger device if necessary.

What vegetables are best for growing in Spaaace?

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Wabits!

I'm surprised that soybeans didn't end up on this list. In the absence of beans & rice or some dairy cows they need to have some good source of protein. You can only live off of a diet of potatoes, cabbage and cottage cheese only if you have the dairy cows.

Elgato readies iPad 2 TV tuner dongle

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Stuff to stick with...

It seems like you would be far better off with something that easily migrates your Elgato recordings to our iDevice and just leave it at that. Then you don't have to worry about any absurd looking dongle or signal quality issues.

Portable TVs are so 80s.

Just record your stuff with a nice solid signal and watch it later.

You could even automate it and have it run overnight and be ready for you in the morning.

Android bakes bitter 20th birthday cake for Linux

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Forking? So what?

Forking? So what?

I now have a smart phone that doesn't encourage me to keep a copy of Windows. The fact that it has "deviated" from the kernel I run on that desktop machine doesn't really bother me. As others have said, it was put out there to be used and "forks" are just a part of the scenery.

Devices that are more open than "that other Unix" are always welcome and generally useful.

So is meaningful choice in the marketplace.

Samsung refuses to buy HP's PC business

JEDIDIAH
Linux

It's all just silly....

Samsung doesn't need to buy any part of HP. They can just take up the slack left over by the exit of HP on their own already. Buying an albatros is not really required.

Buying HP's PC business would not give Samsung anything that they don't already have.

It's just silly.

Misery at Acer: 'Breaking even this year is impossible'

JEDIDIAH
Linux

The problem solver's dilemma.

They sell cheap gear that's more durable than Apple kit. A guy can only buy so many net tops. The market gets saturated after awhile. If gear is reliable, it just makes it that much longer until your customers have to buy something else again.

Hey, Music Industry. You're suing the wrong people

JEDIDIAH
Linux

If I could print a TV...

If I could print a TV, there's no good reason that I shouldn't be able to.

Stealing != Copying.

Coders breathe Android into dead HP fondleslab

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Can't do the math...

> Actually I do use a different car for long distance journeys because it is more economical.

Unless your car is sitting in your garage and slowly dying of rust, the vast majority of your operating cost is going to be day to day use. Adding another couple of thousand miles is not that significant overall. If your car isn't suitable for long trips than it isn't suitable for "general purpose" use either.

Samsung says Apple lifted iPad from Kubrick's 2001

JEDIDIAH
Linux

PADD vs. 2001

The PADD looks more like a conventional notion of a terminal from it's day or even more like an older tablet device from the current era. However, the tablets from the Discovery look like they could have been planted by a time traveling Apple fanboy.

Thought as much when I recently watched that movie.

Oddly enough just after that I heard a radio personality (who used to be a pop musician) complain about tablets and movies like 2001. Said that they "ruin the experience". Felt like a glitch in the Matrix.

Apple rumor mill predicts 'all new Mac'

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Plenty of room for improvement.

A local cloud appliance would make a lot of sense for Apple. Although it is the sort of thing that almost "makes too much sense" as it is the sort of thing that acknowledges current practical limits rather than just pretending that we all live 10 years in the future.

A consumer Mac with PCI-E cards is long overdue. Won't hold my breath on that one though.

Apple Mac Mini 2011

JEDIDIAH
Linux

Alien interest in Apple products...

> And I see little point in complaining about a product none of us would ever want, even if the price was cut in half.

The whole "lets make this thing an HTPC now" hype is part of this. It's the sort of thing that's going to draw in the crowd of people who already do the HTPC thing. So they are going to "kick the tires" and put in their 2 pence.

I got over that idea with the i945 Minis. ION buried the idea.

Now a half price Mini would actually be something interesting (as an HTPC).

JEDIDIAH
Linux

...and something else.

...and something else that just occurred to me.

Now that they have "ditched removable media" they should have put more thought into it. Sure the obvious retort is "use a thumb drive" but think about it for a moment. The USB ports on a Mini aren't terribly convenient to get to.

This thing needs a front facing USB port (or 3).

Extenders and hubs are imperfect solutions. The thing needs a properly accessable USB port.

It should be better thought out than a Revo.

Hardware-happy HP has swallowed a Sun death pill

JEDIDIAH
Linux

PCgeddon

>> Only, people who still need to do actual *work* will continue to buy PCs, not tablets.

>

> Given the economy, we may see the end of the PC sooner than you think.

The economy will end sooner than the PC does.

New Apple move against Galaxy Tab on Euro front

JEDIDIAH
Devil

Yes they're evil.

> There's nothing evil about protecting your work

> and designs. If it was some little outfit claiming

> the patent against Apple you'd be praising

> them as the new messiah.

No we wouldn't.

Not everyone likes being a hypocrite.