Re: I can recommend La Coupole

> Presumably the V3 was intended to have enough range to reach New York?

The 'V2 weapon' was actually the A-4 rocket. Development of other rockets included the A-4b winged version which led to the A9 which was similar to the A4 but with full length delta wings and the A10 which was much larger and was designed to be a stage 1 for the A9/A10 combination to give it a 3000 mile range - sufficient to get to New York. It is likely that the A9 needed to be manned to get adequate accuracy. In theory the pilot could escape. The A10 was supposed to be recoverable by parachute for reuse.

"Development of the Guided Missile", Gatland, 1952.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_%28rocket_family%29

Re: Redirecting V1s

> V1s are, apparently, somewhat rare. There is one mounted on a pedestal outside of the courthouse in Greencastle, Indiana, USA:

Is that an actual Fiesler Fi 103 'V1' or the American copy: the Republic Aviation-Ford JB-2 'Loon' which was built as an almost exact copy of the V1 after receiving crashed examples. 1,391 were made in America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic%E2%80%90Ford_JB%E2%80%902

Re: Maybe a bit flawed?

> researches also predicted the end of the PC as we knew it

No one is trying to take your desktop machine away from you, but it is less likely that you will replace it with another PC in the same format. You may get a laptop, or use a tablet to augment it, or use a phone like device plugged into a TV as your next 'desktop'.

"The end of the PC" isn't the end of _using_ PCs, it is the foreseeable end of manufacturing them and selling them as current machines are 'good enough' to last out the decade.

Re: Yeah, but ...

> 'Surface Pro' is more comparable to a laptop

While the 'legacy' software is mostly designed around, and requires, a keyboard and mouse or touchpad, the Surface Pro is definitely not a 'laptop'. With a floppy junction between keyboard and screen, a fixed angle for the screen, and poor weight distribution they are not suitable for using on your lap, nor on an aircraft tray, in that format.

They may be called 'Surface' because they require one to be useful, such as a desktop.

Re: @Flocke Kroes - If I wanted high Linux usage figures ...

> Android has nothing to do with Linux.

Linux is the kernel of all GNU/Linux Distros and is the kernel of Android. While many Linuxes have KDE, Gnome, XFCE, or other front end GUI Android has its own front end GUI plus Dalvek VM.

Android is as much Linux as Red Hat, Ubuntu and all the others.

Re: Nokia competing against Android

> reviews say it is better than Android on bottom-end smartphone hardware

The dead WP7 was fine on low end hardware, but that was because it couldn't run stuff in background*. Apps were tombstoned if another app was started and then it had to restart if 'brought back'. All WP7 phones were single-core because WP7 did not support multiple cores, nor multi-tasking.

* there was a sort-of background that was more like MS-DOS TSRs than actual multi-tasking and it was as difficult to write for.

The current WP8 _requires_ dual core 1GHz, which is why no WP7 phones will run WP8. So how is that "bottom-end smartphone hardware".

Re: I don't get the this Landfill Android meme

> Because they often are exactly that. With cripplingly slow processors and a lack of memory, they fill up just installing basic and common apps, let alone anything fancy.

Many people just want a phone to make calls and maybe a bit of email and messaging. They don't care about the latest games or irrelevant apps.

Re: MSFT the Value Destroyer

> MS don't have the ability to deliver anymore, so they buy buy buy. And the result is, predictably, a complete mess, with each camp fighting internal political battles for turf.

Actually they always did "buy, buy, buy". MS-DOS (SCP), FrontPage (Vermeer), IE (from SpyGlass), VisualBasic (Tripod), MSC (from Lattice), PowerPoint (Forethought Inc), ...

Re: Bloody hell..

>> "And Android is not trying to do that either. Google makes it available and it is up to manufacturers to do as they wish."

> That is not how it works. Google churns it in secret, with no input from its customers, spits it out, and leaves it there: then it's up to the non-favoured manufacturers to try to get it working.

And the difference between what I said and your 'not how it works' is ?

You complained that Google could become a hegemony and then complain that they give no direction, no directives.

> I think allowing manufacturers to skin Android is a major flaw of the platform.

Manufacturers don't, users don't. It is called innovation and choice. Every WP from all makers looks the same as the first ones did 3 years ago. What's the point of that ?

Re: Bloody hell..

> What costs have Nokia added?

The cost of the MS WP licences. But more importantly, the 'cost' of being tied to MS dictating requirements. They can only build what MS allows them to in terms of actual SoC used, UI, layout of the screen, and many other.

> The special apps they do for Windows Phone are ports of the products they provided on Symbian (and Maemo), so no increase in cost.

So your claim is that they are not developing these beyond what they were two years ago and merely ported them ?

> Overall, engineering costs have decreased dramatically,

Yes, they fired whole groups of engineers and developers and closed factories and outsourced almost everything. That doesn't save costs it merely redistributes them to some other account.

> not any choice of Windows Phone over Android.

I doubt that Android was the only choice. Symbian collapsed not because of the costs but because it was announced as being dead when sales were actually increasing. In fact they stopped production to prevent people buying them because they were still outselling WP. Maemo/Meego N9 was outselling WP where it had been allowed to be sold and was also killed

> Compare a Nokia N800 with Android 1.6, and tell me which is better?

I still have and use an N800. It is not a phone. I do have an Android which is used mostly for development. They are completely different types of devices. I would have liked to get an N950 or similar but never had the opportunity as it was killed off so as not to compete with MS products.

> Maybe you want to see a Google hegemony,

Not at all. And Android is not trying to do that either. Google makes it available and it is up to manufacturers to do as they wish. They can use as many different OSes as they wish to, or change the way that Android works (granted that if they want to use the Google brand then there are some restrictions).

Re: Bloody hell..

> Android phones have always had better CPUs and more RAM than phones running any other OS. Yes, they're under-specced, but because Android is the heaviest of all current mobile platforms, not that the phones are weak in themselves.

Some Android phones have better CPUs and more RAM, some have less. All seem to run reasonably well.

The reason that WP7 phones could run reasonably well on medium CPUs is that they never did background tasks* and tombstoned apps put into background, WP8 _requires_ dual core CPUs while Android does not.

* there was a sort of background task that was more like MS-DOS TSRs than multi-tasking.

Re: Bloody hell..

> So, how is it that removing the software cost from smartphone development has managed to destroy everyone's business, bar Samsung? (..or Apple and Nokia who aren't playing this game, but have their own special long- and short-term problems, respectively)

It hasn't destroyed *everyone's* business, it just seems that you have an agenda that wishes this to be true.

Nokia has _added_ software costs and their business is destroyed. The only conclusion is that software licence cost and business destruction, or success, are completely unrelated.

Sorry to disappoint you.

> If the 7.5" Surface runs Windows 8,

Given that most Windows x86 software is designed around using keyboard and mouse, and that shrinking the screen to approx half the area will make fat fingers even more inappropriate, then what keyboard/ touchpad options will be offered ?

The current 10inch keyboard covers would make having a 7-8inch screen x86 tablet pointless. 7-8inch keyboards would be useless. Even a folding or rolled up keyboard would be extra bulk that would counter the reason for having a 7inch tablet - it fits in the pocket.

Re: MS Surface strategy was wrong

> They should have released the full x86 Win 8 devices first.

MS needed to wait until suitable chips were available from Intel. Without those the processor power would be inadequate and/or the battery life too short. Of course they could have simply delayed RT until later this year but were already 2 years late with decent tablets.

Windows on ARM always seemed to me to be a club to bludgeon the OEMs with rather than being aimed at customers. The OEM agreements seem to say that to earn loyalty discounts all machines that are capable of running Windows should be sold with that (with some exceptions probably). With HP working on ARM tablets and Dell on ARM servers it was essential for MS to have something to threaten them with. RT is the result. Not good enough to use, but it Killed WebOS, so !result!.

Re: @Richard Plinston (Maybe HTC could focus on)

> It seems to me that having a camera spring mounted is indeed a form of mechanical stabilisation.

It may be mechanical, but the question is: is it 'stabilization' or merely 'damping'.

The HTC One, on the other hand, has a real mechanism. Comparison videos don't show much difference, but that is because both only work over a very limited range and each image of a video is taken with the camera pointing at a different place as the operator walks. On average the results will be much the same. The actual differences should show up in the sharpness of each individual image.

Any stabilization system will try to steady the image for a short time but then will get to some limit and have to return to a neutral position.

With springs some images will be better and some will be worse as the springs will not know when the image is taken. It may be when the lens is stable, it may be when the lens is bouncing back.

With the HTC One shifting the sensor, the system should know when the image is being taken and activate stability for the duration of that and then return to neutral between shots.

It may be that with the 920 it does take great shots, but it also takes rubbish ones (as the spring bounces back to the neutral point) but those are discarded and never shown.

For taking videos a completely different system is required for getting stablity and that is holding the complete camera pointing the same way for each image and also not bouncing up and down as the operator walks. Neither camera has any way of doing that.

Re: Microsoft - sorry Nokia - on the patents rampage

> Nokia invents something, gets a 3rd party to manufacture it for them. Said 3rd party manufacturer sells these parts to another vendor illegally.

It seems to me that this is a contract issue. There is a contract between Nokia and ST Micro. There is _no_ contract_ between Nokia and HTC.

Nokia are suing the wrong people, but probably don't care, they might even win. They probably don't want to sue ST micro because then their supplies would disappear.

Re: Maybe HTC could focus on

> but if you can have a 3x zoom fold out lens on a tiny camera, why not on a phone?

You mean like this from 2010 ?

http://pda.photoscala.de/Artikel/Kamera-mit-Telefon-Altek-Leo

Re: Maybe HTC could focus on

> Mechanically stabilized camera.

It is not "mechanically stabilized", that implies a mechanism as used by camera makers such as motorized optics. The 920 has its camera spring mounted.

Re: Maybe HTC could focus on

> As for their hardware being a generation behind, ... They may be using lesser chips ... They can always put in better ones

No they can't. With WP7 and WP8 MS dictated which specific SoCs they would support and even dictated which OEMs would deal with with SoC makers. The OEMs (such as Nokia) do not have the ability to change the code to support different or better chips. Those that MS wrote for were chosen over a year ago and thus are falling behind the leading edge, with no sign of newer ones becoming available.

Apple control their own hardware and software and release new models with the latest designs of chips. Android makers have the software and can write their own drivers and modify it to suit the absolute latest, or for completely different architectures.

WP makers must rely on MS getting around to coding for new stuff, one day.

Re: Good

> Nokia as a new entrant to the US market are already outselling Blackberry nearly 6:1! (4.1% versus 0.7%)

You are confused (and later you claim 4.7%). The 4.1% is for Windows Phone from all makers and versions, not for Nokia. Nokia reported that in Q1 they sold 400,000 phones in the US market. Your 'new entrant' reference is unwarranted.

Nokia also reported in Q1 that 1/3 of to WP phones shipped were the obsolete WP7, presumably overproduction being dumped into bargain bins.

> Windows XP itself is due to be cut off soon. Once that happens,

Where did you get the idea that XP would stop working ?

If it did then MS will face a large class action. You won't get updates, but it could run forever, given no hardware failures.

Re: Good news

> But you realise it costs more to license Android (from Microsoft, Nokia and Apple) than it does for a Windows RT license?

Completely untrue. Windows RT was originally to be $90 or so to the OEMs but they complained, as well they should, and it is reported by OEMs as being around $70.

While MS may be taking an unreleased amount from _some_ manufacturers it is thought to be around $5.00. They shelled out $300million to B&N. Nokia is suing Viewsonic but that case isn't over yet. Apple and HTC settled with cross licensing.

Apple vs Samsung is about round cornered rectangles and has years to run yet.

Re: Build it and they will come?

> that did what people needed it to do.

MS-DOS's greatest feature was that it kept out of the way. "What people needed to do" was WordStar, Lotus, WordPerfect, dBaseII, Turbo Pascal... DOS was irrelevant and was so very poor at displaying data that these programs bypassed it to do direct screen writes.

Windows /386 was a success, initially not because of Windows programs, but because it could run multiple DOS sessions and thus run WordPerfect _and_ Lotus. Eventually actual Windows programs were developed and Windows didn't get in the way of working too much, with some exceptions:

With Win95 MS brought in the original MSN which blocked access to the internet because MS wanted to replace it with their own. Netscape fixed that and MS had to concede and join the internet.

With Win98 MS brought in 'Active Desktop' and channels. These simply were annoying and got in the way. Fortunately it was easy to turn off.

Bob, and its derivative Clippy, also get in the way and are ignored or turned off.

The _function_ of an operating system is to _keep_out_of_the_way_ while I do my work or play. Microsoft never learned this. They think that Windows is all people should need (plus Office). It has been getting more intrusive with each version. Windows 8 _deliberately_ gets in the way because it is promoting WP and Surface.

Re: Build it and they will come?

> Not if Microsoft doesn't rethink it's pricing model with RT and Surface.

I think that they are about to. I suspect that 'Blue' will bring in a subscription model for Win8.1. The OEMs, or actually anyone, will get it free and it will work for 30 days or so until you sign up for a MS account and pay the annual subscription.

This way they can cut the retail price while taking more revenue away from OEMs and retail, ie the margin on the licence component.

2 or 3 years ago I saw a Windows XP (I think it was) 7" tablet. It actually had dual boot Android and Windows. The Windows was a _trial_ version. It was more expensive (x86 based) than any other 7" tablet and would require a couple hundred more for a licenced Windows plus a few hundred for MS Office (which was also a 30 day trial version).

I don't think that they sold many.

Re: 5.6 million...

. SHIPPED to distributors and stores. Not sold. The retail chain is flooded with unsold stock.

I saw one comment that 1/3 of these were WP7.x. If this is true then it explains why the average price is down so much as these would be contracted production left over from when Microsoft dead-ended WP7. Probably sold below cost to go in the bargain bin, or perhaps not sold at all to distributors but just shipped to various countries to grab a headline about 7 countries where shipments exceeded Apple's ;-).

Re: Weak? Their most profitable business is tanking!

. But that is probably due to the 5 million Asha full touch Series 40 phone sales being categorised as "smartphones".

Which is not reflected in the sales of 6.1 million smartphone sales.

Re: Fuck Off Microsoft

> The GUI was invented by Xerox.

> Who did NOT license it to Apple or MS.

Apple paid heavily for a visit to PARC Labs and this included an implied licence for anything they saw. At the time there were no patents for 'look and feel' only copyright on the code (which Apple did not get nor steal).

MS copied Apple and others.

Re: Fuck Off Microsoft

> "rip-offs" of various DEC minicomputer operating systems

CP/M was all new code. The BDOS was written in Gary's PL/M language, many utilities were in 8080 assembler. No code was copied from DEC OS or utilities. There is a lot of similarity in the 'user interface' such as utility names, but you you really think that 'RENAME' is protectable IP ?

It is alleged that the original QDOS was built from a decompiled and translated copy of CP/M. Both SCP and MS were CP/M OEMs and had all the source code that DRI would supply. In fact Gary Kildall was able to demonstrate to IBM that PC-DOS 1.0 could display a DRI copyright that had been hidden in the CP/M code.

Even if QDOS had been all new code it copied the structure of CP/M, mimiced the internal working of CP/M, copied the 'API', and even exhibited an obscure bug in the handling of the FCBs on a file close.

DRI was about to sue IBM (which would have ruined the IBM PC launch) and settled for undisclosed amounts but including that IBM would sell CP/M-86 for the IBM PC, and would rewrite MS/PC-DOS which they did and passed it back to MS.

> The only people who seem to care are modern anti-MS bores who think that all this was significant!

It seems to me that the 'people who seem to care' about 'ripping off' the UI, API, and direct copying of code are: Apple, Oracle, Microsoft and such. DEC sued MS (and got $100million or so) for NT.

Re: Fuck Off Microsoft

> MS bought DOS from Seattle Computer

Completely correct, it was SCP that stole from Gary.

Both SCP and MS were CP/M OEMs. It was alleged that SCP disassembled CP/M BDOS using a widely available tool to do so and then used Intel's 8080-8086 translator to arrive at an initial QDOS that was needed to develop the company's 8086 based S100 board for their Zebra series when CP/M-86 was running late.

(MS's FAT disk system was added later, the original QDOS used CP/M file system).

Re: Triple Microsoft tax bingo

> very obvious proof that Android has extremely serious IP issues.

No, it s obvious proof that the US has serious Patent Office problems. The PO will pas just about any application because that way they get to collect the fees and not have to worry about any consequence.

The result is lots of lawyers making lots of money while businesses and courts, and ultimately consumers and taxpayers, pay the costs.

If a patent is put up for review then the PO collects another set of fees. This is inspite of prior art or the patent just being an 'idea'.

Re: Triple Microsoft tax bingo

> You are mixing up patents with copyright

No, he is mixing up patents with trademarks. If you don't protect a trademark you could lose it.

Re: Triple Microsoft tax bingo

> That no credible company has tried to take them to court suggests that they have something valid.

Microsoft tried to shake down B&N for royalties on these patents. B&N refused to sign the NDA and then published to alleged patents. Instead of going to court over this MS paid $300million for an alleged 'partnership'.

One conclusion is that MS did not want to go to court and lose the patents.

> Android ... So these stats don't reflect user choice;

Users chose Android (maybe with Chrome or several others) and did not choose Windows Phone (with IE), that's a user choice.

Re: Its true.

>> "Launching a new mobile platform ...

> Microsoft look to already be succeeding with that one. Windows Phone has over 10% market share in several countries, over 6% in the UK, over 4% in the US, and still growing rapidly...

Microsoft is not a _new_ platform, it has been around in various ways for over a decade and once had 42% of the US market. Of course it has gone through various incompatible iterations, and that is one reason why it dropped down to 3-4% where it has stagnated for two or three years.

> Maybe Microsoft should think about giving Windows RT licenses for free to OEMs

That would be interesting given their current complaint to the EU about how anti-competitive a free OS is.

I did see some reference to a drop in price to $30 for OEMs, but that may just have been a rumor.

Re: Sorry but

> for software that is run on every last bit of hardware on the planet.

Your view of the range of hardware that is in use seems to have been formed entirely in a retail shop and by reading only MS marketing blub.

. This is another step for Facebook in concreting itself in our daily lives.

In what is it "concreting itself in" your life ? It certainly isn't doing that in mine - not at all.

Why would you care if others think that facebook is a good thing, does it reduce you, does it exclude you ?

Re: Good lord no

> "Facebook OS?" Kill it with fire!

I can understand why you wouldn't want one, but why would you care if others would want to buy it ? What harm does it do to you ?

It is almost like you want to reduce choice so that, perhaps, they _have_ to buy what you have chosen to suit your needs.

Do Nissan owners want to blow up Toyotas ?

Re: How Mobe Makers Make Money

> Microsoft is all about software,

No. Wrong. Microsoft is also about collecting data and targeting advertising.

> https://advertising.microsoft.com/splitter

"""Reach your audience through MSN, Xbox, and Skype"""

"""Find out how our insights and data can help increase your ROI"""

Re: Will nobody think of the programmers

> fragmentation by forking cannot be good for the market.

It is called variety and choice. Choice is good for the consumers, which is why Android leads the market.

One OS vendor wants their OS to be identical from every OEM. That limits choice. That is not good for the market, as shown by the market share that it has.

> Testing apps for a smartphones/tablets will be so involved that developers will be forced out of the market or end up prducing software that only mostly works some of the time.

What complete nonsense. Most apps will run on any fork, it is only the Google branded stuff that gets removed. Developers may choose to only support vanilla Android, or may choose to use Google specific stuff, such as maps, and thus not run on facebook, or could use Facebook specific stuff and thus only be in the Facebook app store. It is called _choice_. Or they could do both.

There is a large enough base of users, and a large enough base of apps to not worry the developers or the users.

Using your argument then 'forking' Windows into Starter, Home, Professional, Ultimate, Server, Enterprise, Home Server, etc "cannot be good for the market" and "developers will be forced out".

Re: How to LIE witih selective STATISTICS

> I'll counter: What makes you think that retailers are buying huge amounts of phones which they can't sell, rather than smaller amounts, selling them and then buying more?

What makes you think that retailers have bought _any_ of those shipments. It would seem that Nokia has shipped to their local distributors. They may have shipped 'on consignment', ie without any specific orders for that quantity.

In any case the comparison with iPhone is flawed. In many cases iPhones are brought in to countries by the grey market, as they are here, and those are not counted in the shipment comparisons.

Re: SmartTV

> How difficult would it be to integrate a Pi-style processor into the TV, supply a remote keyboard and trackball (or going with the times a really competent tablet remote app)?

Not difficult at all, and widely available. Google 'Android TV' for a 'Pi-style processor' that plugs into TVs. Integrating it is not a good idea, I have TVs that are several years old and do not want to throw them out just to update to a better CPU or OS.

Re: TV - Iplayer

> I expect 99.5% of that .02% is catchup TV and movies (that is more TV) not web.

Maybe, but then they will no longer be using their PC to do that, so less need for the PC.

> Who is going to type stuff using a remote?

Those that have a 104 key remote, otherwise known as a bluetooth (or similar) keyboard.

> with more useless services added.

Fine, you don't want to use 'SmartTV' services. You probably had no use for Teletext either. But don't feel threatened, nobody is going to take your PC away.

Re: desktop

>> It does all the same Shit as XP did"

> Except run all your games, all your applications, and Office 2013...

Office 2013 does _not_ run on XP. So that is the same as Mint.

Office (2010 or before) can be made to run on Linux, but OpenOffice or LibreOffice does a good job for most users. Sure, a Ferrari may be a great car but something with less performance is better for going to the shops.

Re: MS shows the sheep, er Windows users, the abattoir, er, MS Store

> + Nobody is forcing me to use the Modern apps

Microsoft would like to, that is why TIFKAM is compulsory on Windows 8 and is the only thing on RT.

> + The MS apps are free

I suppose that you think 'Windows is free' because it came with the computer. The MS Apps that are 'free' are merely included in the price that you paid for Windows 8/RT.

> + Linux has been doing almost the same and calls it "Repository" and "great idea"

The various distro's repositories are not the _only_ way to get software installed, while MS wants their store to be the only way* to install 'modern' apps.

* yes you can buy an enterprise server and set up your own store as long as it is only for machines within your enterprise.

Re: What OS?

> Every version of Windows should have a 'Classic' UI option

Maybe users would want that, but it would fail to meet Microsoft's future plans. MS's mobile market share has decreased from 42% of the US smartphone to less than 3%. Eventually this would impact on desktops as users move to Android, ChromeOS and OS/X or even Linux as being more familiar to them than the archaic Win95 derived UI.

In order to make Metro UI familiar MS needs to force it down users throats until they love it. Then they will demand that UI on phones and tablets. Making it optional it not an option.

Re: @anons

> they have essentially no commercial competition

The reason that they have "essentially no commercial competition" is that they have eliminated it using various means such as vaporware, outright purchase, withholding API information*, and contractual anti-marketing**.

What is left is software that is immune to such tactics. FOSS cannot be bought out of existence, it doesn't rely on OEMs or retailers who are influenced by MS, it cannot be undermined by MS giving away their products for free***.

* such as Wordperfect.

** OEMs were allegedly paid $5 to _not_ install Netscape. Per Box pricing was also to eliminate competition.

*** IE was given away for free to eliminate Netscape (and to avoid paying Spyglass). MS-DOS was given away for free (in a DOS/Windows bundle that was the same price as Windows) to eliminate DR-DOS.

Re: hate python with a passion

> What total retard decided to use invisible whitespace to denote code blocks?

Someone with a decent text editor that doesn't put tabs* in the text randomly instead of (correctly) filling whitespace with spaces, or at least visibly showing tabs.

> What was wrong with curly braces.

The principle of indenting is 'what you see is what you get'. Spurious or wrongly indented curly braces, or other start/stop symbols or words, can disguise the real indenting.

> This single issue is a show stopper than prevents adoption for me

No. It is your text editor, or settings within it that are the show stopper. Set or get the editor that will never use tab characters and everything will work fine.

* Tab is short for Tabulate: make into a table. Source code is not a table, so don't use tabs.