weather <> climate

Alright, you're boring me now.

I see this trotted a LOT. Usually when there's some report showing that the Apocalypse is not about to occur tomorrow and that the New Gaians might in fact be spouting a religion rather than actually using the scientific method to study anything beyond their articles of faith.

What this means to the victim on the street is "that thing you thought we were talking about where there's floods and droughts and apocalypse and the weather KILLS YOU DEAD? It's not weather. It's a special magic thing called climate that you don't understand. But I understand it. I can bless you and save you from your sins. Give me thirty-five million pounds for a new wind farm or GAIA WILL BE ANGRY".

Wankers.

(Note - no opinion on whether the climate is changing due to human activity or indeed whether any alteration of human activity is required, sensible or not was made in this post. Only the assertion that all priests are scammers, Gaian as much as any other).

Re: this device will fall flat in the UK...

that's why there are no laptops in the workplace, right?

Re: Nokia PureView 808

Android phone

Symbian Belle. Android doesn't have the chops to run that beast. Nor does WP (yet).

Re: Fanbois relying on Cupertino's idiot-tax outfit

Shows what I know. Where is the Reg getting "idiot tax" from then?

Re: One Fact Forgotten

and the HTC touch never existed.

Right?

Re: Cart before the horse

Hong Kong.

Your move.

Re: "Sneering like that makes you look fifteen years old, max"

I don't think you know what irony is.

Also, this whole thread proves my original point. It'll be a hate fest where morons from support - El Reg's new main readership, apparently - spew bile on the whole concept of Windows 8 in order to avoid having to do any fucking work.

Enjoy your script.

Re: Shame it doesn't support Windows XP

It probably doesn't support Windows 3.1 either. Your point?

Re: Jobs n Stuff

Depends on the IT pros in question, doesn't it?

.NET is stil extremely viable as a skill set and interaction with the WinRT library is still largely done through managed code. Your basic C#/XAML app developer will have no trouble writing a Win8 app unless s/he's of the "EW NO TILES ARE GAY" tendency - see above posters - but they may have trouble understanding the presentational design required and actually grasping at the market opportunities.

I see a real boon for canny developers who never overspecialized. If you can put together a reliable set of web services to function as a data source, you're on the right track. Disconnected apps - whether cloud based or simply on local networks - are going to become prevalent, with multiple front-ends for different usage patterns.

For example - say you've got a server at home. Doesn't have to be fancy, any Apache-enabled NAS would do. And suppose you want to run, uh... your own mailserver. You write the mailserver. You expose its functionality internally via web services. You throw out a few web pages to make managing it easy remotely.

But you've got a tablet now, and Win8 is pretty powerful. So... you throw together a C#/XAML front-end using MMVM where your C# viewmodels regard the web services as the Model. And suddenly, you can admin your mailserver - or any other type of application - directly from your tablet while watching the telly.

Decoupling functionality from interface is where everyhing must go. Win8 apps are simply a good example of an interface.

Re: XP was as secure as you wanted it to be

No, it really wasn't

Yes, it really was. The 9x layer was dealt with by Windows on Windows in XP, just as it was in 2K. WoW applications don't run with elevated privileges, except inside the WoW sandbox.

I dunno where you got that little rant from, but it's wrong

Re: "Fanbois see it as their God"

I've never saw a fanboi (using your words) say something like "I'll buy it for any price since it is from Apple"

I have. Also many variations on the "shut up and take my money" theme. Announce a product with a largely redundant screen resolution or that iTV thing they keep blathering about and watch it happen.

Re: BAe phone

Oh please.

You know very well that Lewis usually decries Euro-projects in favour of buying something that works and is cheaper (often from the US).

Re: Pointless.

" I went out and bought [...] Windows 7"

To go with your penguin. Right.

My debian boxes were free. I just don't understand how stupid the commentards are being. "Wah wah tiles wah M$ wah wah monopolist 14 years ago wah wah want it to fail" as if that would make linux on the desktop more attractive to users.

For the record, I want it to succeed. It'll make a shitload of programming, network design and architecture work for all of us. The only people who I can see having a reason to want it to fail are lazy fucks on support desks who hate working.

Re: "No, the real Windows Phone 8 advantage is actually that it's not iOS or Android"

you forgot your icon.

Here, take one.

Re: @Steve Evans

No, it's called "cross-licensing". Without it, there would be no cellular phones. At all.

And to the OP - "If they have icons with rounded corners" - they don't. Tiles. WP uses tiles and if there's one thing you can certainly say in its favour, it's that it is not copying ANY current mobile OS in any way whatsoever. Apple could try to sue Microsoft but there is absolutely no way they'd ever manage to make a case. Not even a jury full of rabid fanbois and Judge Lucy Koh could find any similarities however hard they tried.

While I'd prefer it if they dropped the Developer fees, I suppose it does help to filter out the fart apps.

Re: s41t

bowdlerization on the Reg? Grow some balls, man.

Re: Piffle

@AC- the "expert" in this case being you, with your clearly stated identity and qualifications?

The only bit I take issue with is the notion of "the healthy functioning of the planet". Planets don't function. They just are, until they collapse into the nearest star or get shattered into asteroids. Both of which could be regarded as "healthy function".

There is no "balance of nature". There is no "equilibrium". Stuff just happens.

Jesus being dead has no effect on your sins.

Re: Piffle

Well said.

Re: It's the operators who will decide

Microsoft also plans to bring Skype to the mobile plane

Are you suggesting that iOS and Android don't support Skype?

Seriously?

You owe me a keyboard.

@DrXym

This is interesting, so I've been poking about in the Win8 SDKs to try to find the information you're looking for.

1. There's an explicit setting when you install Win8 regarding whether apps are allowed to send usage metrics to Microsoft. This data is collated under your Microsoft account provided you choose to allow it. If you choose not to allow it, no data is gathered.

2. The DNT:1 header sent by Internet Explorer 10 does not persist into apps. However, each app makes HTTP calls in its own session. You could in theory have an unlimited number of browser sessions open with an unlimited number of applications and there is no means of cross-referencing between them (unless done explicitly through Contracts, where an app sends a 1-way message to IE about, for example, what URL to open).

3. There isn't a Bing Maps app (that I can find). However, the SDK allows developers to build mapping functionality into WinRT Metro apps. Apps can only communicate with each other through Contracts (see #2). This does create the potential for an unscrupulous app-maker to implement app-to-app tracking, but only for apps which they themselves developed. None of the MS apps available implement this (and it's easy to tell because the source code for all the "majors" is provided in the SDK as example code).

The summary is that you could probably track users via apps if you could make them use many of your apps all at the same time but MS don't (and publicly say that they don't). You could not track users between apps and IE10 or (and because this would imply dropping to Desktop mode, I can be certain) between apps and any other browser.

If you wish to indulge in tinfoil-hattery, you could theorize that MS track everything via Microsoft account (if you use one) and that the released source of their apps is not the production source of their apps but that's delving deep into "they'm watchin me with rays, them and their big weasel" territory.

It's in Microsoft's best interests to appear to be the "The Good Guy" to their customers. Advertisers are not their customers, users are. Therefore, the logical take-home is that MS is unlikely to fuck over their customers.

You could say the same about Google but in that case, the advertisers are their customers while the users are not.

Downvoted for a) ranting and b) use of the work "pikey", which I and others of my ethnic background find personally offensive.

Re: HP has hopefully paid their 30% iTax

I hope so!

I bet Apple don't get the same prederential treatment when suing an American company.

Re: Well now I've seen everything!

And you've seen it have you, in which case where is it?

It displays pretty clearly when you install the OS.

Re: it's pretty obvious how to turn it off

Windows 8 will be loaded down with Bing apps which will be analogous to Google apps on Android. They'll be tied into a single sign on through Live.com in much the same way too and will be tracking your location, searches and all the rest. If you think for a second that these will honour your privacy you're living in cloud cuckoo land. The primary reason for DNT is to give MS an unfair advantage in gathering data and in setting up their own ad services and to shut out other providers.

I'm running Windows 8 (release version) and you're wrong. The apps included make very sure that you agree to any service - location, whatever - that they use before allowing you to use them. Some offer opt-outs at that point, too.

What you've forgotten is that somebody who installs Windows 8 is Microsoft's customer. That's very different from Google, where you are their product and the advertisers are their customer. One could easily say that both companies are interested in keeping their customers happy.

The individual user's task here is to figure out which one works better for them. Do you want to buy some software or do you want to be sold to a spammer? Your call.

Re: Well now I've seen everything!

Actually, the license has been reworked and rather straightforward.

Bing and other MS properties are not absolutely exempted from DNT.

But nice try. Do you work for Adobe? Or Google?

Re: it's pretty obvious how to turn it off

Windows 8 has several good points. DNT is one of them.

Personally, I use Firefox but I have to go and find the setting every damn time I install it. For the "default" browser that the technically non-adept are likely to use to turn off tracking by default - that's a good thing by the standards of anyone who isn't just out to score points against Microsoft.

If Opera did this, the fourteen people who use Opera would be crowing it from the heavens.