This explains...
...why they changed the name of Jif cleaning cream to Cif.
Sorry.
379 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jul 2009
If you make something law (i.e. comulsory car insurance), you MUST regulate the insurers. The reason it's so expensive for younger drivers is the insurers feel no remorse in ripping everyone off. They have no reason or incentive not to.
Insurance is a con.
Car insurance in the UK is the biggest swindle since the word swindle was coined.
Why bother with a secondary device? Unless of course you still have an analogue/PBX/non-IP phone system, you dont need any physical phone, just a laptop and the right software.
Also if you have an occasional unacceptable delay on your IP phone, then your comms engineers are not doing their job properly and probably didnt put any QoS on your voice VLAN (or your LAN is straining under load, which is equally bad).
Yup, Cisco are a bunch of money grabbing weasels. Constantly changing the command sets, licensing models and pricing, all to make us pay more - whether it be in staff training or having to pay an extra £500 for an integrated services router cos they removed a single feature we rely on from the previous model.
IOS 15 was a joke in terms of licensing. After upgrading some of my IOS 12 routers, I lost functionality and had to go to my supplier to license it - effectively paying for a router I'd already bought!!
Its not like I can turn around and say - "ok lets rip Cisco out and bring in Juniper" - cos believe me, Id love to. Just that replacing 900 switches and routers, along with all our datacentre cores (Nexus) will be a bit of a challenge in any normal human lifetime.
Actually Win8 Pro steps the game up a little. This is instantly appealing to the Enterprise market, since it has a full fat version of Windows, which is compatible with group policy and company standard software out of the box.
The problem Android and iOS have is that they are proprietary computing environments, each with their own fragmented software development communities. The desktop Windows platform (and consequently, Win8 Pro) is already up to speed, so it is cost effective to roll these out across enterprise.
The attraction doesnt end there either. With the Lenovo Win8 Pro units we have in for testing, we can dual-boot and run pretty much any OS we want on these new slabs. Obviously you'd want to pick something touch-friendly, but it's not necessary since they have full-on keyboard docks.
I see Win8 Pro and OS's like it the future of computing. It combines the best of both worlds. When I buy a tablet (dont have one yet) it will be to replace my laptop. Currently I CANNOT do this, as none of my software will work on an Apple, Android or Win8RT tablet (among MANY other reasons). The versatility of a tablet isnt enough from the Apple, Android and RT world - no power-user or sysadmin could replace their PC with one. Win8 Pro should fix this or at least go some lengths to getting there.
Not for me, since I'm already fully on Android... but my old man uses it, and he loves it. Everyone I've spoken to, including devout Apple lovers have enjoyed using it. Businesses (including mine, in which I am a senior systems engineer) are loving it with its easy integration and UI.
I've used it myself a few times and personally find it quite nice to use. Smooth, fluid, does the job well, no real hassle getting it setup etc.
I refuse to believe anyone can convince me that WinPho 8 is a bad OS (especially Eadon since he tends to err on the side of batshit stupid), because from a functionality and usability standpoint, it ticks more boxes than Apple's IOS, and is pretty close to being as nice as Android.
I see your point :)
What I meant was power efficiency. Back in 2004,. desktop CPU's were still more powerful than that of today's smart devices, just not power efficient. ARM's architecture was designed around low power consumption, whilst maintaining a decent level of performance. Not breaking records in either field, but something that made smartphones viable at the time!
Depends how you are defining a tablet...
In 2004, there were real-world, commercially available devices that were rectangular, had rounded edges, a touchscreen (albeit resistive touch), stylus and keyboard dock. They ran Windows XP, which was able to run a multitude of software (apps) and consume many different forms of media.
Hell, even the CPU ran at 1Ghz! Albeit a battery-sapping Wintel x86 CPU.
How is that different from an iPad of today? The only thing Apple and Co. are doing differently is the OS is much nicer to use and a lot faster/smoother. And the guts of the things run on much more efficient architecture (ARM/Qualcomm/nVidia).
You do realise MS tried to do this back in 2004?
http://www.tabletpc2.com/Review-HPTC1100.htm
Back then compiling a list of any other tablets would have yielded nothing but MS powered devices. They were ahead of their time and didnt sell. Now MS's efforts are seen as behind the time, despite pioneering the foray into tablet form factors!!
I will agree that back in 2004, XP just didnt do enough to make tablet computing nice to use. But what gets me is people that go around praising Apple for bringing us the "first" PDA-like smartphones and tablets. THEY DIDNT. MICROSOFT DID. Their interface just sucked at the time.
Win 8 Pro tabs = win
Win 8 RT tabs = fail
Purely cos with Pro, you have full fat Windows, unlocked so you can install ALL of your normal Windows software you've been using for the past 20 years. Couple that with the versatility of having a stylus, detatchable keyboard and improved interface, which is touch-centric AND the ability of using full-sized USB attachments (keyboard/mouse/anything) you've got a winner both in corporate terms and personal.
Win 8 RT is an attempt at emulating the Apple closed environment, which is doomed to failure. Forcing users to obtain software (apps) via a moderated store rather than just getting a copy and running the installers yourself, which you've been doing since forever.
In short, Microsoft NEED to push Win8 pro on all devices they can in order to win anyone over. Win8 RT has not got any fans and never will.
You're missing the point. Mobile signal flaps like a bitch unless you're standing right under the goddam masts. It is simply NOT reliable or fast enough (most of the time) to work as well as a local microSD card.
How can you even conceive that online storage is a good replacement!? Backup, yes. Replacement, not even close. It's not even about the data allowances that are the problem! (I have unlimited). Maybe when the technology for wireless data transmission becomes more reliable, faster, and able to cope with even the current demand, MAYBE I will agree with you then. Currently I can't even load Simpsons Tapped Out without waiting ages for a connection or going through a couple of "connection lost" messages!! (uninstalled that game btw, EA are greedy fuckers).
Until then, microSD please or I'm not giving you any of my money.
To re-iterate. Online/cloud storage is shit for mobile. Good for backups and the odd casual file, but for instant access and/or streaming on a mobile device, you can forget it.
Yes well, you obviously don't use your phone on a moving vehicle, such as a train, if you are saying Dropbox (or equivalent) is acceptable as a replacement in such situations. Flapping signal = waste of time, and I'm not paying for the shockingly poor in-train WiFi. It's not just train travel either - pretty much anywhere inside buildings, rural areas, built-up areas with too many people (most of London)... etc.
I would even say this: To say online storage is an acceptable replacement for removable/expandable local storage is utter bollocks, especially so in the mobile world.
I understand your other arguments, but answer me this: why remove this functionality in the first place? It may not inconvenience people like you but it pisses me the fuck off. I dont want to carry around cumbersome USB sticks and adapters when I can just have a couple of tiny microSD's in my pocket!
So in answer to your statement "I'd have more time for the "must have a removable battery / SD card" crew if any one of them proffered a solid reason for those features that can't be better accomplished by another means." I say this: The alternatives are not good enough. MicroSD works, it's convenient, fast, reliable and portable. There is NO reason to ditch it.
I bought a Sammy because of this - I almost went for the One X+ but got put off that purely because of that.
Specs aside, all I ever see is people moaning when phones come without an SD card. How can you say that we're the minority!?
Personally, it's the idea of REMOVABLE storage that interests me. I watch a lot of video and have a huge music collection, so the internal storage is not adequate (maybe 64gb may do it, but it's locked to the handset). Additionally it gives you the option of removing the storage if your phone breaks, or needs to go off for repair, thus you dont lose everything.
The idea of online storage is NOT an option for me on mobile. It's too unreliable and slow (the unreliability being a HUGE problem for mobile broadband). You cant stream a vid or download a HD movie/TV show using a mobile broadband connection whilst you are on a train can you? No. Online storage is NOT an answer, just another option, and should be used in conjunction with having a removable storage option.
HTC used to fit microSD slots in all their handsets. Why the sudden move to change that? It's lose-lose for them, cos it puts off punters like me (of which there are many).
... we're just not going to have a good enough EV.
Even fuel cells suffer from hydrogen storage issues, not to mention the catalyst in fuel cells is basically one of the rarest elements on earth (platinum). So until they find an alternative catalyst and storage method, that ain't gonna work either.
The super-supercapacitor graphene batteries are looking promising though, but years off this scale of production.
For the geeks: http://www.graphenetracker.com/graphene-super-supercapacitor-an-energy-revolution/
So according to the insane story of Ann Droid, Oracle is basically trying to say that they were going to release an open source mobile operating system?
Yeah right.
What planet is Larry on? Does he actually realise that Google dont sell Android for a profit? Ok they make money from Android by other means, but that's besides the point.
If I were a judge, I'd read that story and tell Larry to go back and fix his fundamentally broken Java client before he starts throwing stones, before all the big corps sue for the damage the recent security fuck up caused!
...to afford this ugly slab of ugliness, I think I'd still "slum it" with my Galaxy Note II.
Did I mention it was FUGLY? Like REALLY FUGLY? It's like the designer went on a 1980's design course, realised he was in the 2000's, and this was the best he could come up with given the knowledge he had. I mean look at how FAT it is!
It's also probably less advanced in the materials department compared to say a HTC One X - forgetting the screen durability.
I think your views on this are very narrow minded and short term. This sort of research takes a lot of time and money. Carbon nanotube research has now at last yielded a workable method of mass production, and has always promised a raft of awesome applications. Graphene is not far behind.
Waste of time and money you say? Curiosities for academics?
If we didnt spend time and money researching these sort of ideas and innovations, then the whole of human scientific progress would stagnate. I'm pleased you are only a minor comment tard (with your own Reg bronze badge too!) and not an actual scientist or politician.
I'm happy to see I was right! Well, maybe not with the Android bit, but Linux at least.
It's the only way forward. Consoles stagnate too much, and there is too much of a barrier between them (Xbox can only play with other Xboxes etc). They run ancient (in tech terms) hardware, and thus hold back development of true next-gen game engines as developers fret about their bottom line too much to not have it run on the old consoles.
Bring this shit on I say. Living room PC's are the way forward, whether you want to upgrade or not. Will be interesting to see how this develops and what the demand is for it.
Starting to get annoyed an people trying to play FPS games on consoles. They just suck. Especially considering the console hardware is nearly 10 years old now. Even the game developers are getting annoyed at that.
PC version. Thats your demographic here anyway! Better graphics, easier to play, and much easier to review & create screenshots etc.
This was the nail in the coffin for me and HTC.
I bought a Desire HD about 14 months ago and thought it was great. Then, after about 8 months, I got fed up with the UI freezes and general slowness feeling (never had that slick iPhone feel), so I rooted it and threw on Cyanogen Mod 7.
My god.
What a difference in performance! Since then, EVERYTHING about this phone has been slicker than a hippo harpooned to a banana tree. It's seriously quick, even for a 1.2Ghz single-core Qualcomm CPU (hah! I say 'even' like that's slow!)
In stark contrast, my missus' HTC Sensation XE, with it's dual-core 1.4Ghz chippery, double RAM and Android ICS, is horribly slow and jerky. Even worse than my stock Desire HD.
That was when I decided either no more HTC (unless they cut out the bloat) and/or immediate invalidation of my devices' warranty when purchasing a new one by loading Cyanogen Mod on there.
That in mind, I'm looking forward to obtaining and rooting a Samsung GSIII
This is primarily the battery getting warm due to increased drain (use). Same thing happens when I'm just using it to play games with airplane mode on.
Standard Li-Ion physics. Power drain = heat output.
Disclaimer: I dont claim to be a scientist of have any in depth knowledge on this subject (or anything beyond very basic Lithium Ion battery physics). Just sayin it as I sees it.
Windows needs to tack on developer/3rd party support on to the 'Programs and Features' control panel to allow a centralised place to update all installed applications. Just like you do with the Android Market, or Apple App Store.
Hell even the new Windows Mobile does this ok. Why not extend to the desktop market!?
Windows gets viruses, and Apples OSX gets viruses. A virus is just a piece of software code that is written to work on a specific software platform, not hardware.
The hardware in this case is completely irrelevant, since both MS and Apple write their OS kernels for the same god damn hardware.
I tend to agree, this could help desktops out, possibly relegating laptops into the history books in the long run.
I have always been a high-end desktop user and couldnt even conceive getting rid of that. Not just for gaming, but I run a lot of my lab environments off my dekstop machine as well, and always access it when I'm not in. I could definitely see myself using a tablet to do this, as like the article states, they're much handier and less cumbersome than a laptop.
I'm not actually sure there was a point to my post. Ah well :)
I have to agree with Irongut... I actually know less people who use XP these days. Near enough everyone is on 7 now.
It's a MUCH better OS, regardless of it's size. And on that point, when you CAN'T buy a brand new laptop with a HDD smaller than 250gb, does a 10gb OS really matter? I think not. Besides, with updates and drivers on, XP isnt much better anyway, and it is a LOT slower with all the updates installed.
Also 64bit and >3GB RAM support is better.
Seriously what planet are you on?
Are they still making you use IPv6 for DA? Thats the sole reason we didnt use it with Windows 7 when we rolled out last year (none of us really understand IPv6 properly). Although I still really want to use it cos I cant find another VPN thats available before a user logs on.
Did manage to get DA working in a test environment, but so much stuff going on that we didnt get (mainly with IPv6), that we decided it would be too difficult to support so ditched it.
If only it was all about RAM. Unfortunately they use an ancient (in technology terms) GeForce graphics processor, meaning they'd still have to keep the detail and polygon count low.
Agreed that this console is holding back PC gaming. I've always been a PC gamer, and since the Xbox 360 and PS3 have been around, have noticed a marked reduction in game quality on the PC.
The graphics are still much better on a PC, sure, but you always get the feeling that they're lacking the new engine innovations they can use now that the hardware is so much more advanced, all because the developers want to ensure it works on all platforms.