Posts by Sean Timarco Baggaley

A reported failure rate of less than *1%* = "untested"?

I bet you're the kind of idiot who blames Microsoft whenever an NVidia graphics driver falls over.

The iPad uses an OFF-THE-SHELF WiFi chipset. The number of iPads sold is in the 300K area. The number of reports of WiFi problems?

*Less than 1%*.

That's pretty bloody good for *any* manufacturer. So, yeah, I'd say Apple DO test their products. No manufacturer can guarantee 100% that you won't get a dud, but just because a few loudmouthed whiners pipe up, that's no reason to assume *all* the iPads have failed.

And now—drumroll please—for my own utterly gratuitous, and pointless, personal anecdote passing as "evidence":

My iPod Touch works just fine with the shitty hotel WiFi I'm dealing with here. In fact, it's a bloody sight better at connecting to Swisscom's pathetic excuse of a hotspot than my laptop, which the server often point-blank refuses to even talk to.

Meh.

Why the BBC?

Because the BBC as most of us knew it died kicking and screaming in the mid-90s.

When the Tories foisted John Birt on the BBC, he tore it apart. His "Producer Choice" concept resulted in almost everyone with any talent at the Corporation leaving in droves, so that they could then hire back their services—as consultants, freelancers, sub-contractors and even entire production companies—at much higher cost. At the same time, that modern scourge of society descended in hordes upon the ailing Beeb: middle managers. Suddenly, instead of paying for quality TV, the taxpayer was being forced to pay for "Creativity & Gender Workshops" and all that bullshit.

The BBC became little more than a shell, and has remained such ever since. That it gets anything done *at all* today is a miracle of sheer bloodymindedness.

"Auntie Beeb" died circa. 1994. What we see today is a zombie, an undead BBC, staggering about blindly like a headless chicken, only faintly aware that the final axe is looming somewhere nearby.

The BBC is living on borrowed time. It knows it too. If it's very lucky, it'll survive the next Charter renewal process, but not the one after that. "Broadcasting" is increasingly an anachronism; there is no future in it. Only a past.

Huh?

The US legal system REQUIRES they protect their patents. Apple—and other corporations—don't get a choice.

Nice little earner if you're a lawyer though. (Hmm. I wonder what profession many politicians come from...)

@M2Ys4U:

"[We are a] party that admits it doesn't always have all the answers, and is willing to listen."

If that's supposed to make me feel more well-disposed towards them, it's not working:

The clear implication from that statement is that they sincerely believe they *sometimes* do have "all the answers".

I suppose it's possible the Pirate Party are incompetent at using English. But that just makes me wonder what else they're incompetent at.

Weird.

iTunes and Mail run in the background just fine on my iPod touch. (I have a Nokia 2630 for phone duties; I don't make a lot of calls.)

OS X—which the iPhone OS is derived from—is a *BSD Unix OS, so it has no problems multitasking. Apple therefore aren't "working" on it: it's already supported. Apple have merely *disabled* it for 3rd-party apps. There's a good reason for this: it makes testing said apps a bloody sight easier, cheaper and quicker as they have far fewer combinations and permutations of software to test against.

As for Flash: that'll appear on the iPhone the day Adobe can make version which doesn't kill battery power and crash every ten minutes. Oh, and a 64-bit version would be nice too. It's a terrible piece of software, and every single one of its features is available through other means.

Just because something is "popular", that doesn't mean it's any bloody good. VHS was popular. Ryanair are popular. Popularity doesn't say a damned thing about quality; it's a reflection on marketing and PR, not engineering talent.

Unity Technologies' eponymous 3D game web-player plugin is more solid than Flash. And there's a 64-bit version. And the development IDE is pretty damned cool too. Seriously, if you've never checked it out, take a look. (Disclaimer: I used to work for 'em back in '07.)

Bullshit.

The only thing preventing people from stabbing others on a whim is social mores, not the lack of ready availability of suitably sharp implements or motivation. (Seriously, try reading some of the comments on YouTube. There are plenty of morons out there I'd love to give a hearty slap in the face with a concert grand Steinway.)

If you know there won't be any ticket inspectors on your daily commuter train, would YOU buy a ticket? You would? Why? Because of some sense of honour or duty? Or because of the vanishingly tiny chance that you *might* get found out and have to pay a fine?

Wandering the less salubrious areas of Peckham while armed with a knife and some friends, waiting for some unsuspecting stranger to walk past and then threatening to "do" him if he doesn't give you all his wallet and any other valuables is neither conceptually nor physically harder than hunting down a torrent of a particular movie on the internet.

ALL laws in the West are social contracts. Not just the ones about IP. We obey them because we *want* to, not merely because we *have* to.

Those who aren't members of the police or armed forces greatly outnumber those who are. If the majority of us wanted "non-fatal mugging" to be made legal—it is now, after all, a more positive experience for both parties than flying with Ryanair—then there's nothing the minority would be able to do to prevent it. Laws are just words on paper.

Oh please.

It's exactly the same f*cking policy they've had for years on the iPhone and iPad. It's much, much easier (and cheaper) to just send the things off to their recycling centres.

Many countries—particularly in the EU—require manufacturers to take care of recycling their products, so this is just a trivial extension of the same logistics and infrastructure. It's certainly cheaper

The customer gets a new (or refurb, which Apple defines as "including a brand new casing") replacement unit instead.

The *effect* is identical: you get a product back which works and holds its charge. This is all the customer actually gives a shit about; how it's achieved—a big factory in China, or some guy in an Apple Store's storeroom with a screwdriver—is utterly irrelevant.

I wasn't aware...

...the entire universe was in danger.

Not even the Earth is in any danger: it doesn't give a toss whether it's a giant snowball or a Venusian-style hothouse.

Only *WE* care.

Some animals and plants may become extinct! OH NO! Save the WHALES! Save all the cute and cuddly animals! (But f*ck those icky insects, spiders and amphibians. Ewww!)

The "Climate Change" industry is a blatant con, and always has been. The climate has ALWAYS been in a constant state of flux. Sometimes, it can be quite stable for years on end. Sometimes it wigs out and goes apeshit for a (geological) moments.

It ain't about to stop this now, no matter how much we'd like it to. If we don't like the way the Earth is treating us, perhaps we'd better get a bit more serious about colonising space.

What?

Which part of "use something else" do you not understand? Apple have absolutely no moral or legal obligation to let others f*ck up their design philosophy.

Don't like the way Apple do business? Don't use their stuff.

Don't like the way Google do business? Don't use their stuff.

Don't like the way Microsoft do business? Don't use their stuff.

Don't like the way the Cult of GNU does its unbusiness? Don't use their stuff.

Apple make appliances. Their philosophy is the *antithesis* of that of the FSF and GNU religions: Apple believe that the *developer* should have to do the heavy lifting, not the user. If that makes developing software a bit harder, tough shit. (The UNIX community's primary philosophy is that the coding should be easy, even if that means you end up with a stupid, barely-usable UI.)

Oh and this:

"...not to mention the user's right to load whatever software they want onto devices they have purchased."

There is NO SUCH "RIGHT". Your rights end with the CHOICE of BUYING the product. Don't like the choice? Make your OWN product instead. After all, there's clearly a gap in the market if you're right.

Nobody complains that we can't easily change the software in washing machines or TVs; why should computers be treated differently? Because GNU say so?

You can't control the user experience of a product if you let any Tom, Dick or Harriet bugger around with it unmoderated. If, as a developer or technology junkie, you prefer to have unfettered control over the computer's every action, you have the choice NOT to buy Apple's stuff.

If Linux is so f*cking awesome, why do its advocates insist that *everyone else* does things the Linux way too? Isn't your own pet UNIX clone good enough?

Yeah, because Linux invented desktop themes.

Oh, wait: no it didn't!

Windows has been able to change its complete look and feel pretty much since its inception. Even Explorer.exe is just another app; you can swap it out for someone else's shell if you prefer. And there are umpteen themes you can choose from in recent versions of Windows.

If you want to take it even further, you can install Stardock's "skinning" software and make Windows look like OS X. (Or early '90s Solaris if you're feeling particularly masochistic.)

As for Apple's own OS: Which part of "It's *BSD Unix" do you not understand? You can run X Windows (or any compatible WM you like) on it just fine if you don't like Apple's own look and feel. Granted, Apple don't go out of their way to make it easy, but that's kind of Apple's *point*.

Not every choice is inherently beneficial; how do you create support documentation for a program whose very interface might look completely different from one user's machine to another? When you're selling to a market not renowned for its high number of tech-savvy users, it's not sensible to create such a fluid GUI.

Linux users who already know about theming and ports and makefiles, and are happy to pop its hood and tinker with what lies beneath, have plenty of other distros to choose from. Ubuntu isn't *intended* for such people, any more than Apple's Mac mini is intended for hardcore gamers.

There are many, many target markets out there, each with its own ecosystem of suppliers. Those suppliers are in no way obliged to target *other* markets if they don't want to. It's *their* choice, not yours.

Yes, you can.

Is Google too hard for you?

Parallels, VMWare and Virtualbox do virtualization for OS X just fine. And, yes, you can run Linux, BSD or any other fecking OS in their VMs, just like on Windows.

Yes, OS X is easy to use. And, yes, it's a full-fat UNIX-based OS. Contrary to the continuing efforts of the GNU / FOSS crowd, it *is* possible to be both at the same time.

Wrong.

"Forum" is a *naturalised* word. The plural is thus *always* "forums". (Source: "New Fowler's". Also OED.)

This is the *English* language, not Latin. The latter *influenced* the former, but its rules do not apply universally.

A parallel can be seen in Italian, thanks to the rise and rise of IT: "Click on the [left] mouse button" became "cliccare il mouse" in Italian. This uses *two* English loan words, "click" and "mouse". The former has been fully naturalised into Italian (as "clic" and "cliccare"), and follows Italian rules for spelling and pronunciation, but "mouse" has not and is still pronounced according to English rules.

(The Italians are rather less precious about their language than the French.)

The Stupid is Strong in this one.

Apple have NO FUCKING CHOICE. They are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to protect any patents they own, or they will lose them.

Replace the word "Apple" in the preceding with any other US corporation.

Do you not understand the definition of "democracy"?

Don't like Software Patents? Guess what? YOU—"The People of The United States of America"— are ENTIRELY responsible for the actions of your government. Including passing dumb, stupid laws like these, which effectively hamstring corporations and stifle competition.

*Every* business with a patent portfolio has to go through this crap. It only makes lawyers (and the USPTO) happy. It does sod all for a business and is actually a cost-centre and low-grade, blunt-stick tool for inter-corporation diplomacy. ("Hey, those guys have some patents we could use, let's sue 'em to bring them to the negotiating table...")

Huh?

So people *steal* a commercial OS, and then whine when said OS' vendor—a company that has never made any secret about wanting to be *paid* for its work—tells you to piss off and *buy* a copy when you demand they give you updates they've developed at their own expense for *free*? Seriously? Do you have any idea how f*cked-up that sounds?

Why the hell do you expect *any* business to act like a charity, just because you have a misplaced sense of entitlement? Is your business and / or personal data really so worthless that you can't afford £60 to buy a *legal* copy of Windows?

If you really don't think Windows is worth the price, sod off and buy Linux. There's no shortage of people wanking on here about how awesome it is.

Fungi propagate through spores.

Or do you believe every island independently evolved its own, entirely unique, species of trees, grass, fungi, toads, etc.?

Pollen and spores float in the air. That's why many people suffer from hay-fever. (Including me.) They're spread hither and yon by the winds.

Whether humanity was involved in introducing the fungi or not is therefore irrelevant: *any* species which has such a fragile grip on existence is most likely doomed in the long run. Whether that fungus was introduced by man, or by a passing breeze, the result would have been the same.

We can't protect 'em all. Nor should we. Natural selection has the word "natural" in it for a reason.

You must be running some other parallel universe version of...

...Parallels 'cos it runs just fine here. Never had any problems with it, and I have to use Windows quite a bit in my day-job.

VMWare, on the other hand...

Congratulations.

You found my WRITING website. Well done. And yes, I freely admit I used iWeb. (Until last week—check out Google's cache if you don't believe me—I was using Acquia's distro of Drupal. Overkill for my needs, but fun to play with for a while.)

Perhaps I ought to post a full CV on it—I've written published games in assembly language, so I'm hardly a "Crayon-programmer". But please: do explain why you believe programming *should* be hard. I've never heard a logical explanation.

For a community which so prizes the concept of providing source code with everything, this is a truly bizarre attitude. Why include that source code if you don't expect any of your users to know what to do with it? Anyone who isn't a "Crayon-programmer" would have built their own damned tool, assuming you have the same NIH problem as the many others of your ilk I've met over the years.

The whole *point* of a computer is that it is a near-infinitely flexible device. Why should end users forever be kept from getting the most from it?

Oh please.

Google have also given plenty of code *back* to the community, as specified in the conditions of the GPL (etc.) licenses. What the f*ck more do you want? Money?

Either you're giving your code away and letting others use it on the conditions you have set out, or you're not. Which is it?

If you were grocery shop, would you constantly remind me how you're saving me from starvation by *selling* me groceries? "Morning Mr. B! Still not dead of hunger, I see! How about giving me some money to keep my shop going! After all, I sold you some apples yesterday, so you had something to eat and didn't die! Oh! Leaving so soon? YOU EVIL MAN!"

Get it now? If you didn't want to give your bloody code away, why did you slap a GPL license on it and claim it was "free"?