* Posts by Arctic fox

2770 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Nov 2009

'Our entire corporation cannot send or receive emails from Outlook'

Arctic fox
Headmaster

The effect of the US' hysterical attitude to "homeland security" is something.......

...............that several of us here in our little congregation have already commented upon. Particularly with regard to the likely effect on the capacity of US tech companies to do business abroad. Only recently we saw the German government cancel a large contract with Verizon citing security concerns. The US already has enough difficulty facing the new economic challenges from the BRIC countries (if memory serves I believe that stands for BrasilRussiaIndiaChina) without shooting themselves in the foot in this way. I suggest that the current generation of American politicians review the slogan than one of Bill Clinton's advisers gifted his boss with when the aforementioned stood for reelection for the presidency, "It's the economy stupid".

Snowden's HELPING public clouds says VMware hybrid head

Arctic fox
WTF?

I have seen some fairly eye-crossing examples of whistling in the dark in my time but.........

..........that chap's comments take the biscuit!

Bloke squeezes Apple's boules, predicts millions of iPhone 6s, iWatches

Arctic fox
Happy

@Vic Re: "Doubling of earnings?" I agree, personally I think its a load of......

...........boules.

Crucial MX100 256GB SSD: Cut-throat competition in flash land

Arctic fox

@kokoro " Not confident to touch crucial again after this tho obviously a bad batch."

Good to know, that possibility was of course why I expressed myself cautiously with regard to quality. It is a major league PTA even when the company concerned behaves properly (replaces, refunds or whatever) because of the disruption/delay that kind of crap causes. Personally I have owned/used three Intel SSDs so far and am pleased with the quality if not impressed by the price! I have also heard good things from friends/workmates regarding Samsung's offerings.

Arctic fox
Happy

I am amazed.

I have not used any of Crucial's kit and cannot say anything about the quality but the prices are astonishing. SSD prices (per gig) appear to going through the floor in comparison to the painful not to say eye-watering reality of only a year or two ago.

Huawei WILL make a comeback to US market, policy wonk predicts

Arctic fox
Headmaster

I think that both the US political establishment and the US enterprise sector...........

.............have found themselves in a very embarrassing and potentially very costly pickle in the wake of the Snowden affair. During the last few years (pre-Snowden) it was becoming very obvious that the American political establishment and their paymasters friends in the US enterprise sector were using security concerns (both genuine and bogus) as a way of reintroducing a degree of protectionism via the backdoor which otherwise would be illegal under various international trade treaties that the US (ironically enough) had vigorously campaigned for during the last decade of the previous century. Given what World+Wife+dog now know about what the NSA have been up to, the American enterprise sector and their political cheerleaders are facing the serious prospect that individual firms outside of the US will start to avoid doing business with them where they can and that governments will start to regard US firms (as well as the American Spookerati) as a security threat that they would wish to avoid even if they at the same time do not wish to confront the US directly. The situation is starting to rebound on them in ways that they did not anticipate. I suspect that a great deal of rowing backwards will, albeit slowly, become visible in the medium term.

Apple, Cisco line up to protect offshore data

Arctic fox

@Trevor_Pott Re: "You're still left with the question................"

To be honest I am not sure that that is the most important question. The question is (IMHO) for how much longer is the US going to be the single most important market on the planet? Answer? A few more years max. Certain consequences are likely to flow from that inasmuch as the travails of the aforementioned US manager/company may become less and less important for the rest of us earthlings if their economy starts to become of lesser importance on a global basis.

Intel pleads for €1bn EU fine to be overturned, is denied

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

Re: Fines don't work

Agreed. The only thing that would work is personal fines on the directors plus jail time. The damage that those bastards cause society demands nothing less.

Arctic fox

@P010nium "Without that deal........."

It is far from unlikely that were it not for the demonstrable and very considerable damage to AMD that Intel's illegal tactics caused AMD would not have had any need to sell their Fabs to SAD.

It is further unlikely that the deal they settled for was anywhere near enough to compensate them for the long term damage that Intel's behaviour caused, however the situation they were in meant they had little choice but to accept the deal. This situation may very well have contributed substantially to the decision in the end to off-load their Fabs. In total Intel has ponied up about 2 billion but gets to keep a monopoly that earns them vastly more than that. You'll pardon me if I remain unimpressed.

Arctic fox

@P010nium "They paid it when........."

Thanks for that, I was not aware. However, I have to say that yet another example of "BigCorp" dragging out a case for as long as possible even when they must have known that they were toast over the AMD business is not very edifying. One can just hope that their legal costs were as sky-high as possible.

Arctic fox
Flame

To be quite honest I had not realised that the beggers.......

...........had not yet paid up. Any chance that it could include a substantial interest payment on top by way of making the point that time wasting and frivolous attempts to avoid their very clear obligations should not be permitted to pay?

Apple is KILLING OFF BONKING, cries mobe research dude

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Don Jefe. "...... doesn't fill a need gap......."

In a nutshell.

Arctic fox
Happy

"Apple is KILLING OFF BONKING"

Possibly because their customers are too "involved" with their shinies to concentrate on, ahem, bonking*.

*Or have I possibly misunderstood what El-Reg is referring to here? :P

Report pegs Apple for October smartwatch release

Arctic fox
Thumb Down

Sorry folks.....…..…

...at least another four months of iWatch stories.

Why?

Redmond is patching Windows 8 but NOT Windows 7, say security bods

Arctic fox
Headmaster

@Gav "I spy publicity stunt"

Not to mention that this bunch may have a commercial interest here. In fact the accusation is, IMHO, unlikely. Win 7 is still crucial for Redmond within enterprise. Bluntly put, they cannot afford to piss around like that.

First iOS, now Android to get fondleslab Office ahead of Windows

Arctic fox
Happy

@dogged Re:"It's mandatory for anyone......" Be fair now, he didn't use.........

..............."Windoze" even once. Nary a mention of CONVICTED MONOPOLIST either. (Do please excuse the use of caps, I was just trying to convey the flavour of the oeuvre).

The Strippers, Unicorn Computers and Martian Watches of Computex

Arctic fox
Windows

I'm chuckling, not quite sure why but I am.

"...........or unlikely homages like the flock of iPad cases with keyboards that are seemingly based on Microsoft's Surface."

Lupita Nyong'o, Game of Thrones' Brienne join Star Wars cast

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Neil B.

"They failed because the story and dialogue were, for the most part, dreadful."

Dead right Neil B - see icon.*

*I should say here that my lady and I are major league devotees of the original trilogy.

Arctic fox
Mushroom

"Why yousa dun likey the jar jar?"

Stop that. Stop that at once. Or I may just take off and nuke El Reg from orbit and take the rest of you with me. Mwaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

The enemy of my enemy is my, well, temporary ally: Apple and Microsoft in pact against Google

Arctic fox
Headmaster

Re: "It's interesting to note................" No, unfortunately.............

Mainly because there is a nation called China and a population who are generally known in the West as Chinese. However, there is no such thing as "the Chinese language". There is Cantonese, Mandarin etc, etc, etc.

Deleted

Arctic fox
Happy

@JDX Re: "A positive thing." Actually JDX I have to say that I agree with you.

Whilst my interest in the Kardashian clan per se is zero, I find the response of those who were interested strangely human and, dare I say it, reassuring. I wish neither of those two people any harm and I hope that their marriage works out for them - although I would probably run a mile if I ever bumped into them in a bar somewhere!

HP breaks ranks: Foresees data archiving on Flash

Arctic fox
Thumb Down

If you are going to do irony AC (of course, what else would you be).........

........I suggest you work on it before you post. That was, to say the least of it, somewhat laboured.

Arctic fox
Unhappy

What is the world coming to?

You actually referred to FarceBook in an article of this kind?

Sony Xperia Z2: What we REALLY thought of this Android fondleslab

Arctic fox
Happy

@Dave 126 Re: "I use my kettle every day"

You of course downloaded the manual before purchase?

Sorry Dave 126, I could not resist that. In fact I am geeky enough that I not only RTFM I indeed DTFMBIBI. (Download The Fucking Manual Before I Buy It).

Watch: Kids slam Apple as 'BORING, the whole thing is BORING'

Arctic fox
Happy

Re: When I were a lad

This is surely not the room for an argument.

Asus Z97-A puts Intel's 9 Series chipset through its paces

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Semtex451 Re: Please Sir, can I have some more?

I am obliged to agree. I thought for a moment that I had logged onto Anandtech by mistake! Very welcome if it continues.

Apple vows to squash iMessage SMS-KILLER

Arctic fox
Trollface

Oh right, just a little accident then, no harm meant.........

"Cupertino's problems were compounded when it experienced a server glitch which prevented Apple users from reliably disabling iMessage from their hardware before exchanging it for another device from outside Apple's walled garden."

.......nothing to see here, move along now.*

*Yes, if you think that I am being satirical you'd be right.

Intel cutting prices, taking on all comers in fondleslab market grab

Arctic fox
Windows

Ok guys, ok. Why don't we look at what is actually happening here.......hmm?

"Intel is so desperate to gain a foothold in the fondleslab market that it's willing to slash its margins in exchange for market share, supply-chain sources claim."

Let us rewrite this a bit. "Intel is at last experiencing real competition and as a result is having to cut their prices to non-cartel level". Furthermore, Redmond has realised that the "good times" can't not roll for ever and is doing the same. Isn't this how the market is supposed to work? (at last, but hey!).

No, this does not mean your favourite hate-figure (your choice, I have better things to do with strong emotional responses that get that exercised over the future of Microsoft, Intel, Google, Cupertino - whatever) is likely to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection anytime soon however much your wet dreams are driven by that wonderful image.

Expulsion from Garden of Steven: Apple staffers tossed out of Fruit Loop

Arctic fox
Windows

This was a windup post - what on earth did you expect?

The opportunity to extract the urine was clearly irresistible for El Reg and its subbies. Did you expect anything else?

'Microsoft Research slides' show touch-enabled Office - report

Arctic fox
WTF?

What part of the fact that this is medium to long term research did some of our posters......

......fail to understand? No, it is clearly not yet ready for showtime - this is Redmond's research division* FCOL!

*As explicitly pointed out in the article.

iPhone-stroker-turned-fandroid sues Apple over iMessage text-slurpery

Arctic fox
Headmaster

@jai RE:"in other news sinners have been......." All right old chap I'll bite..........

......do translate that for me...hmm?

Charity: Ta for the free Win 8.1, Microsoft – we'll use it to install Win 7

Arctic fox
Trollface

I say chaps, I don't think that you understand what you are supposed to do here.

You are supposed to hooooowwwwwl. Don't you understand that? Making reasonable comments, albeit not especially complimentary to Redmond is definitely not on the agenda. Remember, hoooowwwlllliiiing about the Demons of Redmond is where its at. If you do not do that you are going to lose all your street-cred.

Sony bosses will return bonuses as firm preps for BILLIONS in losses

Arctic fox
Trollface

@Sabroni "Re: Seriously?"

Indeed, if we are to judge by our own (w)bankers, in the equivalent situation one would have expected them to increase the bonus-levels and show the rest of us the middle finger. Oh hang on, isn't that precisely what some of our "financial experts/brokers/(w)bankers" have done recently? Why am I suddenly thinking about lamp posts, lengths of hemp and the day the revolution comes?

Apple poaches Nokia photo guru Ari Partinen from Microsoft

Arctic fox
Headmaster

It is interesting the way this is being reported (ie with very lazy assumptions)........

...........all over the web. It is a remarkable thing that the "cult of personality" is not entirely confined to North Korea, it also finds its analogue in modern capitalism. I am sure this guy is good, he may very well be extremely good and will I am sure be of value to Cupertino. However, I doubt very much that this means that Nokia is suddenly crippled as far as its mobile camera expertise is concerned which is the impression one might get from the kind of reporting of this story that we have seen on far too many tech sites throughout "Known Space".

Apple pulls iPhone 4 from sale in India after just four months

Arctic fox
Headmaster

Re: Inventory Hole in one..........

............I strongly suspect. Cupertino are very sensitive about image issues - if the sales response was well below their expectations in their key constituency, the Indian middle classes who can certainly afford Western prices then they may very well have decided to bail while they could get out without it being humiliating.

Amazon granted patent for taking photos against a white background – seriously

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@Dave Stevens Re: "Something's off here". That is a bloody good idea and..........

..........what is more, relatively simple and cheap (except from the point of view of the trolls) to implement. Indeed it really would put the onus on firms (whether they are non-producing entities or just another example of "BigCorp" taking the piss) to sue the USPTO if the patents office refuses to issue the patent. The brilliant thing about that would be that the corporations concerned would automatically have to accept their patent being tested in court whether they liked or not, or swallow no patent being granted. Genius level - see icon.

Microsoft may launch several new Surfaces on May 20 – report

Arctic fox
Unhappy

Looking aside for one moment from the alleged merits/demerits of the.........

"Doing so could give Redmond the opportunity to figure out where previous pint-sized Windows tablets have fumbled and provide some thought leadership for its OEM partners."

............operating system itself the tablets produced (running Windows 8 not RT) in the 7 - 8 inch form factor have largely been crap. The OEMs (pretty much all of them with one or two very limited examples of a product at least worth a look) that produced them ought to be frakking well ashamed of themselves.

You'll hate Google's experimental Chrome UI, but so will phishers

Arctic fox

@PaulR79 "Never click links for banks etc in emails"

Indeed. However, I would further. If my bank were to be so brain-dead as to send me an e-mail that required any kind of active action by me they would get the most tremendous rocket from me over the phone. In all fairness they have shown no signs of doing anything like that.

Google said to have hired Calxeda's chief fabric architect

Arctic fox
Headmaster

" they want it for their own shit and they don't want Bing to have it."

Translation: They want to use/abuse their market dominant position to lock out Microsoft their competitors. Oh the irony. Do no evil? Can we please have a truce when it comes to the tribalism shit? They will all do it, given half a chance. That is after all what "BigCorp" does if we do not keep a very tight grip on their gonads......hmm?

Google forges a Silver bullet for Android, aims it at Samsung's heart

Arctic fox
Headmaster

Well, it was only a matter of time......

..........when Google would conclude that the tail was wagging the dog from their point of view.

"Today they must be weighing their options – and the daunting cost of creating a joint competing brand to Google's Silver."

In practice it is only Samsung that could do this (i.e. Fork Android and go it alone.). They are probably the only Android OEM with brand name recognition on the scale that would be necessary to take that step. Their "skin" (Touchwiz) is sufficiently "dense" that the visual change for the ordinary consumer would probably not be in any way "jarring" but there is, of course, a fly in that particular brand of ointment. If I may be permitted to quote/paraphrase a exhortation used by one of Bill Clinton's election advisers, "it's the apps, stupid". Indeed, Google Play is Mountain View's not so secret weapon when it comes to maintaining a firm grip on Sammy's organs of generation. As long as you do not have that kind of facility (Amazon was able to do it with its "Fire" range but Amazon has software and content coming out of its ears) you are stuffed.

On a side note, if The Demon Spawn of Redmond, AKA M$ or Windoze (or whatever tired and unimaginative insults you can come up with) had announced plans to do this to their OEMs (or if they were to do so in future), what do you imagine would have been/will be posted on a thread like this one....hmm?

94% of Brit tech bosses just can't get the staff these days, claims bank

Arctic fox
Headmaster

I think that on the basis of the comments I have seen so far.....

..…….95% of Brit tech bosses just can't get the staff these days, claims........"

.........the businesses concerned might with advantage examine the conditions under which they are employing tech-staff, hmm..…?

That's right, MICROSOFT is an ANDROID vendor after Nokia gobble

Arctic fox
Headmaster

@Don Jefe A very interesting perspective.

I will admit that the possibility that at least some of the senior managements within the industry might not think that game was worth the candle is a thought that had not occurred to me.

Arctic fox
Trollface

Mmm.......that's interesting.

"My guess is that Microsoft know the carriers will not tolerate Windows Phone being successful on their networks. The carriers understand that being locked into Microsoft technology leads to becoming a Microsoft Partner (then it's bend over and trouser down while Microsoft empties your pockets)."

Given that the US carriers have bent over to take up the back passage from Cupertino ever since the first iPhone was released one would assume that having to reach for the vaseline was something they were entirely used to.

UK bank heist-by-KVM gang sent down for 24 years after nicking £1.2m

Arctic fox
Windows

Canny crooks..........

.............and they bought Macs?*

*Sorry boys, I just could not resist it.

Dell charges £5 to switch on power-saving for new PCs (it takes 5 clicks)

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

@M75 Thank you. A calm and rationally argued post.

Not as common an occurrence as one would wish on some threads. See icon.

Sony Xperia Z2: 4K vid, great audio, waterproof ... Oh, and you can make a phone call

Arctic fox
Happy

@Ledswinger "Wow. Geek bird, you lucky chap."

Actually, so far from giving me a slap, she absolutely roared with laughter when I read your post out to her just now! No, she is in all seriousness absolutely delighted and very much looking forward to getting her mitts on it when it arrives.

Arctic fox
Thumb Up

"Very nice piece of kit." I have in fact just ordered the aforementioned........

.......and La Senora is well pleased. Our supplier should have them in on the 6th May which is just about perfect for my good lady's birthday. Look forward to setting it up (well I have got to have some chance to play with it.....hmm?).

Arctic fox
Happy

Very nice piece of kit.

La Senora has an important birthday coming up and this fella is a definite contender - very nice indeed. A couple of small points: I can't say that I feel that 163 g is over the top weight wise given the size of the phone and as far as the built in speakers are concerned my good lady would (and I suspect this is true for a lot of customers) be using the earphones.

Judge halts spread of zombie Nortel patents to Texas in Google trial

Arctic fox
Headmaster

Re: James Watt introduced many advances..........

Indeed he did. His advances were key to the development of manufacturing and transport at the heart of the industrial revolution. The importance of his contribution cannot be emphasised too much.

Leaked photos may indicate slimmer next-generation iPad

Arctic fox
Headmaster

@Graham Marsden Re:"Or leaked...."

Indeed. I realise that El Reg has to earn its crust like the rest of us. However, I do think that they could, now and then, restrain themselves from giving the publicity hungry corporate troll the meal it so evidently desires. After all, in this case, El Reg have little to lose - hmmm?