Posts by Arctic fox
1898 posts • joined Friday 6th November 2009 05:17 GMT
Page:
Perhaps realising that there are times of day and places where.............
.............your fashionable accessory should not be on display might be a smart move (advice which of course applies to all property that is easy for thieves to turn over).
@Sean Timarco Baggaley Re: "Shark. Jumped." I am fairly suprised that an old Reg hand......
......like you would react to a very obvious wind-up in such a fashion. This kind of article is a speciality of El Reg - we all know that don't we? It was very clearly irresistible for a entirely standard Reg piss-take, I am surprised that en experienced member like yourself allowed this to get to you.
"angular design with floor-to-ceiling windows built into the hull."
Installed by means of Boot Camp one assumes.
I apologise for hitching my wagon quite so shamelessly to the first post but I...........
..............thought that those contributing to the thread would like to know that Ars Technica are reporting that Cupertino appear to be rowing backwards at high speed. I shall say no more - information only.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/12/apple-lifts-block-on-combo-30-pinlightning-charging-accessories/
". I was shocked to find that it is still running Android 2.3." Let me see now, you...........
......... are an "advanced user" (as the PR boys put it) and know enough to be able to "root and rom" a device yet you managed to buy that phone without being aware of which iteration of Android it was running? You were "shocked"? Hmm, for some reason I detect a certain aroma coming off of your posting.
Re: Resources "Yet another non-related reply to the first comment from LarsG" Had you......
.........not posted that as an AC I might have had more sympathy for your point. Or was your posting some form of highly advance post-modernist irony that I am intellectually unequipped to appreciate?
@Eadon Re: "Microsoft the patent troll - and it's slave, Nokia" Since anybody with more......
............than two neurones firing at the same time is perfectly well aware that Nokia got itself into the shit well before the "sweaty, chair-throwing, fat bastard's bum-boy, Elop" (as he is so affectionately and objectively known amongst the gold card members of the Anti-Micro$oft Choral Howling Society) came anywhere near the Finnish company one would have thought you had better things to do than post that kind of crap. Nokia is not any kind of patent troll - they have never displayed the kind of behaviour that Cupertino have over the past two years, however you feel about the fact that they are now allied with Redmond.
One does get the feeling that Apple's strategy is beginning to unravel.
Ars Technica is also covering it:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/12/apple-stands-to-lose-another-patent-crucial-to-its-battle-with-samsung/
If indeed it is the case that "pinch to zoom", "tap to zoom" are looking dodgy and given that "the patent office ruled in October that the '381 patent ("rubber banding" or "bounce back" feature) should never have issued." then it does look as if Cupertino's attempts to plant "anti-competitor mines" over the whole of the mobile device market is beginning to come apart at the seams. It now looks certain that their attempts to lock Samsung out of the US market are doomed to failure and it is now increasingly likely that their entire approach is, at last, coming under scrutiny by the American authorities. If these key patents are invalidated then Cupertino are going to have to think again. A modest suggestion from yours truly, concentrate on what you have been good at - making kit that your very loyal customers clearly like very much. I personally do not own one single piece of Apple hardware but I doubt that that keeps them awake at nights. However, I know that an awful lot of folks do like what Apple produce - they should concentrate on doing just that.
"wouldn't be surprised to learn that there's more than a little back-room wrangling going on."
I would not be at all surprised if Cupertino decided to settle with Samsung for rather less than the one billion that that joke of a jury awarded them. Despite what a particular section of their supporters might hope or believe Judge Koh cannot in fact stop Samsung appealing the case higher if they choose to do so. That might very well have considerable consequences as I am quite sure Apple's lawyers have already advised their clients. The issue is whether Cupertino have the brains to sweeten the pot sufficiently in any negotiations that may, or may not, be going on. Koh's refusal to allow Apple to use the judgement to shut Samsung out of the US market is significant and more of a defeat for Apple and SJ's "nuclear war strategy" than might be obvious at first reading. It is now simply a matter of bickering over how much loose change Apple will be able to boast that they got as a result of that fatuous trial. The judge in this instance realised that she could not support Apple's underlying strategy - an embargo against Samsung's products.
@CountZero Re: "May contain Comic Sans related humour" Sorry, I did not get........
................the point of that joke.*
*All right, I know I should be ashamed of that pun, I'll get my coat.
@Rampant Spaniel RE: "This is what drives me nuts................
..........That is an outright admission the law was wrong and the convictions were unsound so why not automatically quash them all?"
I am very much afraid that there is as usual dirty politics involved. The current leadership of the Tory party are very worried by the gains being made by UKIP. That party has a very homophobic political line and is making all the running in that area. In addition the current Conservative parliamentary party also has a strong anti-gay lobby and they are also coming under considerable pressure from a powerful and very reactionary lobby within their own Tory constituency parties. It is highly unlikely that the present government under Cameron would engage in a mass expunging of these convictions against gay males pre-1967 because their own backwoodsmen within and without parliament would go apeshit and the Tories would leak even more votes to UKIP.
@AC 00.35 GMT RE "Foxy boy"
If it's "!foxy boys" you are after I suggest you visit your local all male bathhouse - something tells me that you are definitely not my type.
@James O'Shea "Yes, there really was a shoot-out in a Wallyworld parking lot..."
Good grief - there I was thinking that a car sticker I had seen "honk if you're reloading" was simply a somewhat macabre joke!
"She was lucky to be tasered, I'd have punched her in the face"
Funny thing you know but upon reading your comment I suddenly experienced a powerful urge to treat you to 50,000 volts for some reason - can't think why.
@Tom 35 RE "How is this copying Apple's playbook?........
.............Apple don't make any of the parts found in their stuff. Apples extra value comes from controlling the content that comes after they sell the phone............"
I agree entirely. There is a very significant difference between Cupertino's model and what Sammy are doing. This "they are all copying Apple" meme is lazy thinking. Indeed I would go further in saying that Apple's rivals in the market-place are these days trying find a way of challenging Cupertino that does not involve simply copying them because it has dawned on them that that will not work. Look at the way Samsung has pursued the "if there is a niche (hardware-wise) we will fill it" - that is definitely not Apple's style yet that is how the original "Galaxy Note" came into being. There were plenty laughing then when Sammy launched that "monster", they are not laughing now, hmm?
"Are we all becoming fanboys? If you broaden the term...................
...................beyond those who favour Apple products".
Err.. as far as I can recall the term "fanboi" or "fanboy" referred to any and all who were psychopathically obsessed with excessively keen on something. It has only been relatively recently that I have seen the word used to specifically refer to the keenest amongst Apple's customers. There are "fanboys" everywhere - you only have to look at any thread involving a product from one of the majors and you will see plenty of examples of slanging matches between the various denominations. "Fanboi is as fanboi does" if I may be permitted to paraphrase my dear old gran in this context.
While I would agree in principle that the decline in the.............
...........centrality of Windows in the modern computing world is a positive development I wonder how many here have thought of the implications with regard to what comes next. Anyone actually happy with the prospect of Mountain View and/or Cupertino controlling the market is not actually thinking things through. Indeed it could get worse if "the big three" in their joint bid for Kodak's patents are edging towards a "peace settlement". Such a settlement (if it came) would be on terms that suited the three of them, not me and thee. They would in practice be very happy to "divide the city and their rackets" in the manner of three Mafia dons wanting to avoid a gang war and the mutual attrition and bloodshed that goes with one. We are seeing a major paradigm shift within computing systems, that much we can agree on and it is highly likely that the conventional control that Redmond has had is on the wane. However, I am not at all sanguine about what comes next.
Re: "AC, because, well, I work for a little known company that exports it's tax"
I am often somewhat sarky about AC postings - however in your situation I entirely understand!
@tonysmith RE:"China and Pakistan are very close as are the people "
I am sure that Pakistan values its relationship to China such that this would not have been anything that one would describe as "officially sponsored" and indeed there is as you point out a pretty cordial relationship between to two populations. However, Pakistan does have its own wealthy middle and upper/middle class with their spoiled brats just like in the West. That section of Pakistani "yoof" are heavily influenced in their use of English by both the British educational influence and the influence of American English. The style that some have referred to could well have come from a group youngsters from Islamabad or wherever within Pakistan. Though of course it could equally well be a bunch of "kiddie-hackers" from any part of the English speaking Western world on the basis of the same "textual analysis". :)
@DavCrav RE: "AC? Nice touch with the whole having a go at me on an online forum........
.............in a thread about defamation.
Ouch! All I can say is you hit that one right in the bull.
Re: "Does it run whisper quiet - thought not." I take your point about it not being an.........
...............all-in-one. However, it most certainly does run whisper quiet because in common with many others who get pleasure from building their own I made a point of learning to do it properly rather than just throwing it together.
Re: " that has nothing to do with electronic noise issues."
As far as the motivations of the FAA are concerned you are in all likelihood right. However, I am obliged to (partially) take issue with another point in the article inasmuch than I do not see that the issue of possible interference from electronic devices can be regarded as solely the result of poor shielding on those pieces of kit. If the onboard control systems are so poorly shielded that there is in reality a quantifiable risk that I could bring down a Boeing 747 with my Desire Z then I have to say that the manufacturers of the aircraft concerned and their electronics suppliers also have a responsibility. Indeed if it that shielding is of such mediocre quality that we are potentially at risk I think we should be very worried already - let alone when the guy in the seat next to us is permitted to talk (very loudly and annoyingly) to his office/wife/misstress on his latest shiny.
Re: "A threat of legal action where lies are concerned is justified"
Morally speaking I would agree with that and in the UK you could certainly sue on that basis. However, although IANL I seem to remember that in the US you have to be able to prove malicious intent before you can successfully sue someone for slander/libel, that which we in the UK would call "malicious libel/slander"*. What appears to be different in this case is local state law with regard to the specific issue of falsely accusing someone of a criminal offence.
*Which is seen here as an accusation so serious that Judges have directed the jury to use the criminal burden of proof, "beyond reasonable doubt", rather than the civil law evaluation of "balance of probability".
RE "Anyway are there any like-for-like non-Apple equivalents?"
Well if you are interested in both aesthetics, punch and good value for money you can build one yourself (there are some very well designed "bespoke" cases out there if you know where to look, ours is in one of Lian Li's whole body aluminium offerings) and you can definitely obtain and install components at least as good or better for anything up to forty percent cheaper than Apple charge (often for exactly the same brand and quality). Then you simply install the os of your choice, whether it's Windows, Linux (we have both on dual boot) or OSX. Oh, hang on a moment, Cupertino won't allow that will they? You guys actually have to hack the os in order to install it, even if it is a wholly genuine paid for version. Pity that, oh well, carry on paying for your "designer hardware".
Re: " I knew I should have used the Joke Alert icon."
I thought it was amusing at any rate. However, I think that a "satire alert" icon might be the thing. Your bon mot was after all rather more satire than an outright joke and I have notice that a certain percentage of our fellow earthlings are satire-blind.
How big?
I am not at all sure that the prices in the over sixty inches category are going to drop as fast and to as low a level (per unit area of display) as we have seen hitherto in the TV market. The constraint IMO is getting a telly like that into the average family living room. The percentage of the population that have the room for an eighty inch telly has to be a lot less than that we would consider as mass market. Whatever "the next new thing" may be in TVs, my crystal ball says that it will sell best in the fifty to sixty inch section of the market. Displays as big as are being referred in this article are not going to be bought by world+wife+dog regardless of how high the display resolution is.
@Kristian Walsh "Both sides of this argument are not above paying bloggers and journalists"
You appear to have attracted both up and down votes. Clearly you have posted common sense.
Yet another example of BigCorp arrogance.
Being required to obey the law is "unwarranted government interference". The "big two" better remember the concepts "anti-trust violation" and "abuse of market position" because if they do not someone is sooner or later going to remind them. Happily the appeals court judgement was without dissent - it is highly unlikely that the Supremes would overturn it without Verizon having a very good case for arguing that the court had unanimously misinterpreted the law.
@Lee Dowling Re: "But what about muh socialism?"
Erudite old chap, every word pure gold.
@I ain't Sparticus "They got the rather more thigh-slapping....."
I think that even if the bride and groom took the mistake in good part I would have paid good money to see the expression on the faces of the respective mothers in law!
@LarsG Re: "An indirect form of child abuse.........." When I was a very little chap..........
.......(we are talking very late fifties, very early sixties here), one of my playmates was a young lad from a family whose surname was "Hood" - I do not think that you will have to strain yourself to guess what forename those idiots gave him. Imagine, growing up and attending school when every time you went out into the schoolyard there was a mass chorus of "Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen, Robin Hood, Robin Hood and his band of men."* Some people should be banned from reproducing themselves.
*For the (much) younger amongst us there was a very popular series about the famous outlaw on the telly in the early sixties starring an actor called Richard Greene. It was at that time compulsory viewing on a Saturday evening (God help us all). What you can see in quotation marks above is a quote from the series' theme tune.
Re: "Windows 7 is actually NT 6.1, and Windows 8 is actually NT 6.2."
Please old chap, I realise what you were doing but, I beg you, do not encourage those misguided anoraks/trainspotters. :)
@AC 30th Nov 15.17 GMT " Why is it that when someone asks a question like this......
..............about a Windows/MS product........."
The reason is straightforward. Some of the MS critics on threads like this are classic "anti-fanboi tribalists" and their tactics are boringly repetitive, howls of "shill" "astroturfer" and "you are expletive crazy" each time and every time. *
Declaration: I have zero interest in buying any kind of Windows RT tablet regardless of who the producer is. I will not under any circumstances by any kind of pc that is a "walled garden" device - which is one reason why Old Nick will be complaining about the thermostat on His central heating system before I buy a Surface RT or an iPad.
@Phillip Lewis Re: "OMG! I have upvoted RICHTO - the is nigh I tell you!"
Well if we are in the confessional here I have to admit that I upvoted Barry Shitpeas about six weeks ago - how bad is that?
@AC 30th Nov 10.31 GMT "And don't forget the Full HD (1920x1080) screen"
Indeed. In fact (without commenting on any other aspect of the "Pro" until I have actually seen one) I would have to say that given that it has a HD screen and is running a current generation Core i5 I would regard 5hrs battery life as not too bad. I would not expect to see any major improvement as far as that is concerned with x86 tablets or ultrabooks until we get the Haswell chips some time at the back half of next year (if they actually can do what Intel is claiming of course).
@Tony Paulazzo "Surface Pro battery life half that of the RT - 4 to 5 hours"
What precisely did you expect? The RT runs on a Tegra 3 ARM SoC and the Pro is running on an Intel Core i5 cpu - it would be astonishing if it did not have half the battery life of the Surface RT.
Not have had any hands on with the Surface RT I have no personal experience.......
"Hewlett-Packard’s chief of personal systems Todd Bradley, who called Surface RT “slow and kludgey”, expensive........"
...........with regard to whether it is a good device or whether it stinks. However, hearing one of the major Windows OEMs criticise the Surface in such terms when one thinks of the piles of slow, kludgey and expensive devices they have inflicted on us over the last couple of decades or so I cannot help thinking "pot, kettle and all that".
Folks can I suggest we just chill, hmm?
.........Take a look at the "age" of what Cupertino has succeeded in banning as a result of their "victory" - Sammy can take a very chilled attitude to this. It is old news - if this is the best that the iFruit company can do then it suggests that the high water of Apple's judicial assault on the industry is beginning to recede. I suspect that in a year or so we will look back on this and say "that was the moment at which it turned". These thrashings and twitchings are residual responses. I genuinely do not believe that Apple can pursue this for very much longer and the sooner they realise that the better for all concerned including their own customers.
@Lee Dowling "iPhone users are more likely to have more disposable income from the start"
I think that that does have a great deal to do with it. It would certainly have a considerable effect on the figures in the US. Last time I saw any relevant figures some 50% of Apple's customer base in the US were males in the 20 - 35 demographic living in households with a combined income of in excess of $100k annually. Given the costs involved contra income with regard to mobile broadband it is unsurprising that iOS customers with well above average disposable income (although I am not suggesting that they are "1-percenters" :P) spend more time on the web than the average Android customer. We see after all the exactly the same pattern reflected in average spend on apps per annum amongst the two groups.
Re: @Trevor Pott "That wasn't a hostile post telling you off" Fair enough Trevor, I clearly.....
.......misunderstood who your ire was directed against. As to your new posting itself I will have to chew over what you have said before I open my trap further. :)
Re: @Trevor Pott "Learn to live with it, or leave." Is that kind of posting the way you normally..
...react to a friendly and polite post? I simply asked your opinion of something, precisely indeed because you are an IT professional and I have read stuff by you before that I have respect for. As to whether or not the Metro UI becomes the sole means of interacting with Windows, that IMO will depend on customer reaction (both private and enterprise) - it is not solely in Redmond's hands whatever they might wish to believe. If customer reaction is very negative then MS are going to have to rethink the way forward whether they like it or not. There is of course a big difference between self-confidence and cut-your-own-throat arrogance - if Redmond largely display the latter they may well find themselves in far more difficulty than they were anticipating.
RE:"Of course anyone with a brain cell knows, iPad = they are a bit thick." Well, no......
....I cannot agree with that. Owning an iPad does not make you thick, I know plenty of intelligent people who own iPads as their leisure tablet and I certainly would not describe any of them as thick. They feel that as a media consumption device it has very good build quality and delivers a customer experience that they enjoy. I personally would not have one as a gift (or even if you paid me to take it away) but it does the job for them and in that sense Apple have created a very fine device. However, the type that thinks that owning an iPad says something important and positive about them, who waves it around at meetings and in coffee bars or who logs on here to tell us all how productive they are with their precious - well yes, that type is extremely thick.
RE: " water is free in pubs." You must be the life and soul...........
....of any party you attend.
Oh dear, I feel a musical interlude coming on.
.
My mother was a 'Softie,
she fixed all of my blue screens,
but my daddy was an iPhanboi
who lived way beyond his means.
.
I have one foot on the platform
and one foot on the train
because I have to score at the Apple store
my latest ball and chain.
.
Apologies and gratitude of course to The Animals.
@Trevor Pott
Not precisely on topic I admit but following on from your posting here:
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2012/11/18/sinofsky_correspondence/
have you or any others amongst the members here taken a look at this take on how to modify the "Win8 experience"? It does appear to address some of the issues that the more serious minded critics of Win8 like yourself have with the os.
http://www.retroui.com/default.asp#header_wrapper
For example they claim that you can "Run Metro UI and Metro Apps in a Window" with this installed. I'm going to stick it on at the weekend and see whether its worth the enormous sum of about 3 quid they want for it. :)
@jubtastic1 "did I simply miss the sarcasm tag?" No, you did not miss anything. I made a.......
........typo in as much as I intended to write "every five seconds" because I simply did not believe the figure given for the iPad's rate of sale. I.E. I would expect it to be much faster than the figure quoted. Sorry, my fail. :)
Re: I blame Holly wood
Damn - you remembered that film as well. I was just about to post as well. :)
Re: 11 ipads per hour? Yes, must admit that I find that one a bit strange.
Given Apple's well established position on the "high street" I find that hard to believe. Given kind of sales Cupertino are used to I would have expected something like one every five minutes or whatever. It does however go to show that the whole basis of this article is dubious to say the least.
@Pete Foster: Not a balanced survey? You can say that again.
One could also mention the fact that Apple have been well established in main-street retail for many a long year and have been sellers of a whole rang of hardware for a very long time. MS has barely started to open retail stores. The whole thesis is preposterous - Redmond's retail operation may very well turn out in the end to be a complete steaming turd, but this "survey" of the current situation is a bad joke.
Re:" slightly higher than they think OEMs" Indeed, that is precisely what they have done in fact.
However, you have to understand what the game is here for the gold card members of the Anti-Microsoft-Choral-Howling-Society. Had they priced it significantly lower the aforementioned cognoscenti would have logged on howling "see, nya nya nya na, we told you so, they are bumfucking their OEMs". Given that they have not done that (as they indicated they would not) the members are in the delectable position of being able to have their cake and eat. By that I mean that they can log on and howl "it costs too much, they are fucking idiots". You see? They do not give a shit about honest contributions to a debate. If it is their favorite hate figure (in this case it happens to be Redmond but it could perfectly well be another company) they do not care about the size of the odoriferous piles they excrete on a thread.
