Posts by stephajn
57 posts • joined Thursday 11th March 2010 16:05 GMT
Jobs Icon anyone?
I think we need a Jobs icon for all of the stories and posts that inevitably lead back to Steve Jobs.
I swear we hear more about that guy in death than we did in his life! </hyperbole>
Paris...because I am sure we could link this back to her in some way too.
Frankly Mr. Shaw....
.....we don't give a damn what kind of pop you drink. Couldn't resist.
But at any rate, yes, Windows 8 does have its good points. I won't deny that. I use it on a laptop that is six years old and it is pretty snappy. Kudos to Microsoft for allowing aging kit like that to run a modern OS. I hardly ever enter Metroland except to use the Netflix app because it just works so perfectly for that. But in the end, I am firmly set in Desktop mode. Sometimes I really miss my start menu that I am used to, but I am waiting patiently for Microsoft to get it through their heads what people have been saying for over a year. GIVE METRO A REST WILL YA????
I don't want it on my desktop machine for the most part. I really don't. I like the performance improvements, but seriously hate the Windows Boot Manager and what has become of trying to get into Safe Mode or things of that nature.
to Microsoft I say, "STOP!! PAY ATTENTION!!!!" They were told long before it came out that people hated it and that it wasn't going to do well. They pushed ahead. The market responded and said, "Fine....we are going to go to Apple, Linux or even Android power desktops and laptops if we have to. Take your Windows 8 and shove it if you're not going to listen." The way it sounds is that this guy is feeling like a victim of harassment and he claims that it isn't deserved. It IS deserved!!! The Internet community tried to be nice....Microsoft plugged their ears. Now the Internet community has given up on being nice and is screaming at you to smarten up. So.....stop running around like a whiny little baby and beg for people to "stop picking on you" when you brought it on yourself.
</rant>
WHEW! I feel so much better.....time for a pint or two...or...three.....dozen....
US Politics
Heh....US Politics being what it is....I like that.
Remembering of course that this is the same United States that has that awful patent system that needs reforming. I have to laugh when people feel the need for a law to exist for something that should just be so obvious! If anyone ever reads Uncle John's Bathroom Readers...then you will know that the US has a long history of making stupid laws. (For example, in some places it is illegal to give your donkey a bath in a bathrub) Yup...that's right....it was made into a LAW people. Albeit a long time ago, but hey....traditions of the forefathers and all that...
Re: Yahoo veteran
Thrilled at being a customer at one of the most hacked email providers in the world? Hmmmmm......
Then again....maybe Hotmail uhhh Outlook uhhhhh Live.com uhhhhh DAMIT what are they CALLED now???....isn't all that much better eh?
Seems counterproductive...
....to be suing someone who is trying to draw attention to your works and could be bringing you additional revenue. I could understand if the entire book was being put online and thus sales were hurting on books that an author may complain a bit. But to sue that much money from someone who is taking PART of your book and putting it online so as to help people find you? Uhhhhh did I miss something here?
Simpsons Tapped Out comes to mind....
Under these terms, when The Simpsons Tapped Out wants to download new updates and such to add more content, does this mean that they now have to find a way to distribute that new content through the play store as an entire app update rather than the smaller bite sized updates that are done in the app as they are needed?
"With only 14 months to go"
Did I miss something or is the reporter's math just a little off? Considering that I am posting this on April 25, 2013 and the end of support is April 7, 2014....how exactly is that 14 months? Is 2013 supposed to have an extra two months in it that I don't know about???
Welcome aboard AppGratis...
...now get the hell off our app train. We don't like you anymore.
Very Sincerely Yours,
The Apple Store App Police
And off in the ditch, so many other apps that faced the same problem, with Mozilla still screaming, "We aren't interested in your platform anyway!!!" and Facebook shouting out, "Come on! Facebook Home is the wave of the future!!!"
Been done
My father in law has the Asus Transformer with the keyboard that is detachable. And of course, it runs Android 4.0 Basically like having a netbook running android really, only it also has a touch interface. If I could go back in time I might have bought one of those instead of the Acer Iconia A200 I do have.
But I have often thought that this would make for an intriguing alternative, and hey...Kingsoft Office for android works great for my needs even without a keyboard.
Like watching Survivor...
I swear...reading articles like this is like watching Survivor. First you have an alliance, and then ones in the alliance turn on the other ones when it suits their best interests while still pretending to hold up appearances.
And we consider that to be trash television! Why is it any different in the corporate world??
Re: MS Security FAIL Windows + Antivirus Considered Harmful (AGAIN)
Wow dude! What took you so long?? Was starting to think one had slipped past ya!
A struggling platform
It feels so much like Microsoft and getting people to develop for their Windows Phone / 8 platform. Plagued with so many problems that by the time they can get anything out people may not be all that interested or start thinking their strategy through and wonder if they should switch to something a bit more promising or less unsure as to its future.
The question that arises at this point though is this: What platform is that?
Did I read that right??
Internet Exploder Legacy Browser Add-On?
AHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Re: My watch is in the bedroom drawer
I want the watch from James Bond's Goldeneye video game. Shoots a lazer when twisting the dial. Could really use that for rude customers. Either that or the same sort of shock a cattle prod gives....
"What happened to the customer is always right???"
"Look into my watch for a moment...." KZZZEEERRRRTTT!!! "You were saying?"
Posted in Ten Windows tablets
What about the Lenovo Twist? (Or does that not qualify because it isn't a tablet by more of today's reckonings?
Have sold a couple of those where I work. The customer's like it. Had a good balance between being like a netbook/notebook and being a tablet. Despite the fact that the screen in itself doesn't stand alone and sits atop a keyboard that it can swivel around and latch down onto....it was a nice piece of gear to use!
Re: So el reg is full of....
"So el reg is full of....
Shamsung fanboys/Apple haters?"
In a word....yup.
Reaching for my Samsung made device to just it a little hug and thank God that it isn't an iThingamajig
Just to spite themselves
Just to spite themselves, Apple wants to give Google the toss just because they want to say they aren't doing business with Google anymore. Meanwhile, their already suffering product suffers more by doing more with Yahoo? Wow....makes me even MORE happier that I don't own any iJunk anymore.
Longevity
...meh.... the more longevity a human being has, the more senile they are considered to be. In computer terms, any system from 2005 is considered old news or really outdated.
Dig deeper and one will find out that Apple has their hand in that bean counting company somewhere which explains their longevity.
Just being cheeky for a late Friday afternoon....
Creepy and SO not necessary
As if preloading phones with Facebook isn't bad enough, but to make it a Home and Lock Screen app as well? Frightening! Like I REALLY care about what my friends are doing that badly that I have to have that?
But the other scary part is that if I ever had a Facebook account and I posted something, then if one of my friends who is goofy enough to have this app installed is seeing what I posted even on their LOCK screen, then yes, it is like hanging me out to dry whether I want to be or not!
Frankly, I just can't stress enough to my family and friends how dangerous a place Facebook is and how much it is just not necessary or welcome or desired in the slightest.
Re: Tempting fate a bit
"Also waiting for a lawsuit from IBM who have surely trademarked the word blue in relation to computing."
And from NASA for the Gemini name.
Gemini should...
...bring back the menu system and ditch the Ribbon. (Not holding my breath for that one)
But it should also bring back a bit more colour to the Office suite. The washed out white look is so brutal to look at and work with. Allow for the same sort of customization that Visual Studio 2012 got with its colour editor.
Re: Updates
"At some point (for me, years ago) people choose to be blind to the constant nagging and just ignore it."
Me too. And mostly, people see that UAC popup and think that it is a virus instead of something legitimate. (And I use the word legitimate loosely when talking about Java)
Microsoftese at its finest
"Edge devices connected and working in unison with an enterprise's broader IT infrastructure unleash the potential of the Internet of Things by yielding the actionable data and operational intelligence that drive businesses forward," said Kevin Dallas.
Seriously....who in the REAL WORLD actually talks like this???
Explains something...
Explains why my Iconia A200 isn't getting anymore updates although it is barely a year old. Acer can't afford to maintain it.
Jailbreaking
I get it. The idea being that Apple wants to control how you use "your" device and "protect you" from yourself and so on and so forth. But the whole idea that people have to HACK their phones or iDevices just to be allowed to do with them what they want just really gets my goat. If Apple has left something in their software that allows a phone to get unlocked and allows me to install software that I want whether they like it or not and do with my device as I please, then for crying out loud Apple...LEAVE IT ALONE!!!! But to "plug up a hole" that allows a device to be jailbroken just stinks of total control. Same goes for Microsoft and their Windows 8 platform. If I want to install something that you haven't signed onto my system, then let me! It is MY device, let me do with it as I please! Especially if that thing I want to do with it is perfectly legal.
The whole thing about having to jailbreak a device just to be allowed to use it as you please really burns me up and just makes me wonder why in the world someone wants to shell out big bucks just to be told what they can and cannot do.
</rant>
Re: Android's problems
Someone get this AC a beer! Having such a slow day at work, and that crack woke me up with a good laugh.
Re: Loyal Customer
Don't forget the army boots and blonde braids. I do believe I have a spare set. :)
Re: "you might as well go all in and go Windows 8 rather than Windows 7"
Which, if Windows 8's pre-release behaviour from Microsoft is any indication, they don't. It is like they were in a car with the brakes cut, and had thousands of passengers yelling at them that the brakes are cut and they just stepped right on the accelerator and went forward with their ears plugged and humming.
Now if only...
....they would do an about face on trying to ram the Start Screen look down our throats and give choices when the device the OS is installed on isn't a tablet or even a screen with a touch interface.
I can't even begin to tell you all how often I tell a new Windows 8 user just as they open their mouth to say "Where did my start menu go?" to visit www.stardock.com and download Start8. I never knew that $5 could eliminate so much hurt and pain from an operating system!
Re: Apple is refusing to hand over certain documents which might prove this one way or the other
Wait a second...isn't that exactly what happened in Iraq with the US?
Iraq -
Assumed guilty
Told to hand over all Weapons of Mass Destruction
Ordered to allow UN investigators to look for them
Bombed and raided by the US despite no real evidence being found before or after
Good for goose? Good for Apple?
Give Up the Grudge
...better shut your mouth.
This is what I say to Apple. Just give it up....and move on. Microsoft tried to fight this same battle against open source and look how that turned out. The more they fight, the more they lose. So...give it up already. Just stop whining, and join the rest of the world in reality.
Re: Different kinds of products
Windows XP Mode.
May I have my upvote please?
(Digging for other features to list as well but that one comes to mind right away)
Re: Mint is great but ...
Agreed! In fact, I would say that for anyone who wants to switch on and switch off and has no real interest in learning anything about computers should just stick to his/her Nintendo DS or Smartphone and leave it at that. WAY too many people stepping up from Windows XP to Windows 7 and (perish the thought) Windows 8 are just absolutely lost because it isn't blue and green anymore. For many people we have sold a Windows 7 machine to who had Windows XP....a whole world of pain and hair pulling "OH MY GOD can you be that dumb???" has been visited upon us.
I just sit back and iLaugh
The marketing phrase of "it just works" is going right down the drain isn't it? It is joining that "trustworthy computing" one that already went down there ages ago!
It makes me wonder if things like this happened more often before, but Steve Jobs would somehow keep it all secret in such a way that Tim Cook can't. I remember the colossal mistake I made upgrading my iPod Touch 2nd Generation from iOS 3.6.3 to 4.0 and then seeing my Wifi on it was never the same afterwards. (Maybe I was holding it wrong?) But it just showed me in that short six months where my device was still supported how much I do not want to ever own an Apple made product again.
Here in Canada
....living in Saskatchewan and I got my OTA update today. Installed in less than a minute. No real changes so far, but if there is one feature I am SO thankful for in 4.2.x...it is the magnification anywhere just by tapping three times! For someone visually impaired like I am, this is a GODSEND. :Or...GOOGLESEND....or....well you get the idea.
Back to hovering over my phone for Android 5.0....
The 16 month old Device
"Why that 16-month-old device and not something else was not immediately clear"
Who cares??? Why have to release a phone for every new OS? I LOVE the fact that a phone I already have could run this if I want it to! Seems to me it makes good environmental sense to show people that this OS can run on something you already have and you don't have to wait to get a new phone and thus add to the electronic landfill in order to get on board with it if you want to.
Biggest thing that excites me about this is getting to have the entire screen at my disposal instead of having to lose the top and bottom to Android's UI buttons that are always pinned there. As I watched the keynote address and they showed the Nexus phone basically doing full screen with all of those apps, it made me pick up my phone, turn it on, look at it, and think, "Hmmmm...would be nice to have that full screen all to myself!"
I am debating on whether or not I will give it a go on my phone. I already am running it unlocked and with a stock image of Jelly Bean, but this raises an eyebrow and makes me wonder...
Article Title Out of Whack
Seriously??? Dead Steve Jobs Tried to Kill actor from beyond the grave?? Could we seriously be trying to grasp at straws here for drama and absolute stupidity in an article title? I wasn't aware that we were reading the National Enquirer here...
Java...meet C4
And by C4 I mean the explosive kind. Seriously....it is just insane to think of using this plugin on a site anymore in my opinion. Especially if your site is say....a bank or a government site. Just frightening.
But then, Internet Explorer is no better. Thankfully their market share is dropping in favour of other, much more secure browsers....
How things have changed....
I remember back in the early days of .NET thinking Windows Forms was going to be where it is AT for years and years and years to come. Especially with some of the things Microsoft was introducing like ClickOnce and even the ability to run a WinForms app in the browser. Although I never did get that to work just right....
But even now it seems that it just isn't the company it used to be. It feels like they have a bunch of young rookies working there who can't get their act together with anything. Thinking about the MYRIAD of security updates for .NET 4 and the complete fail that is Metro. I have been using Windows 8 on my laptop which dates from the early days of Windows Vista. Yes it runs decently and I respect that. But that Start Screen and the whole Metro design principles just annoy the hell out of me. I installed the Register's app for Windows 8 and it made me want to gag. White text on a busy blackish background? REALLY guys???
Anyways....I have been firmly opposed to Mac OSX and still am. But it frightens me to think of Mac OSX becoming mainstream for everyone if this continues on. I am really starting to think that I should buckle down and really get serious about learning Linux so I can recommend it confidently to my friends and family when the time comes...
Re: Indeed
Actually I have used both. and yeah, I would say Android is more poolished. Just the very idea that it allows me to use my phone the way I want to and not having to go back to the home screen just to switch tasks that I have actively on the go is great. The fact that my data is open for many applications to share on my device means a lot to me. I love that I can choose to have multiple readers for one file type on my phone or tablet and all of them have the same access to everything rather than each application having its own silo of data.
True, some would say, "Ah...but what about malware on Android?" Well, I grant you this, it may get malware, but at least I can use it MY way and not how Apple thinks or forces me to use it.And when I compare my Jelly Bean based Nexus with my friend's phone who is running iOS 6, it just feels like iOS is starting to really show its age and lacklustre features to me as a user. It feels like I am putting Windows 2000 and Windows 7 next to each other. Battleship Grey vs Aero polish.....I would never choose the former.
Schmidt and it?
"However, Schmidt said it was “extremely curious” that Apple was suing Google's Android partners rather than Google itself."
Did Schmidt lose his status as a man and is now genderless?
I too find it funny that Apple is suing Samsung and not Google itself and files a court motion to have Jelly Bean banned along with its lawsuit against Samsung. Even a five year old knows that there is a difference! And why oh WHY is Apple not suing others like Asus and HP and Lenovo for ripping off their designs?
A while ago I forgot what being a sane customer was like and stepped into a Future Shop to look around. And at first glance, I thought that several machines were MacBooks with the way they were designed! On closer inspection, I THEN saw the Lenovo name and the HP name and such. How come we don't hear about these people being hauled before a judge with Apple crying and saying, "They copied our innovative designs???"
Complete Redesign???
Doesn't look like that much of a complete redesign to me. Windows 7 Start Menu to Windows 8 start screen....THAT is a complete redesign! (Not a successful one but it is a complete redesign)
But this....it looks like all they did was shuffle around a few sections on the screen, and hide the sidebar by default and apply just a tiny wee bit of touch-up to the chrome at the top and slap a new icon on it.
But...Apple ...with their marketing engine and hype and such....call it a redesigned iTunes. Ungh! My wife still has her iPod Touch 2nd Gen, and when I hold iOS 4 up next to iOS 6....I really see nothing changing for the most part. Certainly nothing that deserves two version numbers newer! So....why did it take so very long for this to come out then?
National Bias as well?
I am sure SOMEONE must have brought out this fact before, but it really does beg the question...
Apple is a US based company correct? And one of the most valuable companies in the world blah blah blah.
Samsung, based out of South Korea is now challenging a US based company in the mobile phone business and doing quite a good job of it too!
Putting aside jury bias...is it possible....just POSSIBLE that there is a lot of country bias as well in this regard? US court favours their own home based business especially due to the failing economy? Who knows...perhaps I am stating something obvious and already discussed into the ground, but it sure does make one wonder when in other parts of the world, Apple is being handed their ass in some other cases. The UK case comes to mind.
Comments? Anyone?
Posted in FaceTime now on patent troll list
Seriously???
Surely this has to be something that is obvious isn't it? Hardly an innovative idea! Doing intercarrier messaging has really been done for ages. Just look at the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo partnering up and using only an email address as the identifier for pairing MSN Messenger users with their Yahoo Messenger friends. Or perhaps other IM programs that tied all of these different services together and within the program selected which carrier to use?
I swear that if this goes any further than the first hearing where the judge tells them to sit down and shut up, then I am hanging up my software development hat forever because obviously nothing can be built without someone having a patent on it and having them turn around and sue you.
Re: Ban The Iphone 5!!!
Hate to tell you this...but iPhone 5 is no longer using Samsung CPUs anymore. I suppose if what you said happened then any 4S devices still left in the channel would be pulled. But every Apple customer I know is always chomping at the bit for the newest device anyways.
August 15th and....??
Logged into my MSDN account today and looked and....what?? Nothing new there? Still showing only the release preview and release candidate versions of Visual Studio. What a letdown....
Re: Better yet...
Perhaps this is how the US economy can start to come back? Sue the crap out of other countries' companies and then a US business has the money?
Re: Better yet...
Even as a Samgung phone owner, I do have to agree that they did copy Apple's packing to a huge degree. At one point when I was working at Staples before the iPad was allowed to be sold at the store I was in, we received the Galaxy Tabs in and we were excited. We all commented on how different they looked from the others of the time. (Iconia A500, Xoom, Asus TF101 etc) and how thing is was....like an iPad! Even the black edges with the white backing...we thought...kinda like an iPad! So I will admit that is a thought that has some merit. The packaging....once we got the iPads in and looked closely at both....we thought...hmmm....some similarities there.
But then here comes my next question.....why has this same kind of lawsuit not happened in say....the car industry? Someone comes out with an SUB....then others do it too. Someone comes out with a certain design....and then there are others following suit on similar designs. So much so that from a distance, I'm looking at them and thinking they are one kind of car but not another.
In a case like that...does maker of Car A have the right to go to maker of Car B and say, "Hey! That's my design!!! I made it first! Cease and desist or I will see you in court!"? Or....do car makers not patent their designs to the same degree that smartphone and software makers are doing it? Or, for that matter to the same degree that Apple patents certain things?
Re: Better yet...
I still don't understand how anyone can claim they have these two devices confused with each other. My wife, who sometimes isn't even able to tell the differences between Windows XP and Windows Vista or Windows 7 can't understand it either. The screen size alone should be a dead giveaway shouldn't it? I can't think of any samsung device that is considered a smartphone that has a screen anywhere near as tiny as an iDevice. And that's just inscreen size! So if this whole patent is about rectangular devices with rounded corners, and if Apple is REALLY concerned about protecting that "design" then why hasn't Gene Roddenberry's family piped up and said "Excuse me Apple.....we invite you to watch most episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation and look at the devices found on there" Why hasn't apple dragged other companies in front of the courts for the same "infringement". Yes, I do have an Android device. My wife has an iPod Touch. We like both devices. So this comment isn't made because I'm a Phandroid or anything like that. It really is an honest question.
Why doesn't Apple bring EVERYONE before the courts for making a smartphone that is rectangular with rounded corners on it? Is it really about protecting their intellectual property and all that jazz? Or is it about picking the one competitor that really seems to be giving their iDevice a run ofr its money and selectively applying the patent to that manufacturer?
Can ANY Apple oriented person out there answer that question without bringing emotion or fandom into it and use hard facts to back up their response?
Re: Foxconn-marketing biz
Maybe the Reg should be renamed to the Microsoft marketing biz? Especially considering those obnoxious ads they were displaying about the private Microsoft cloud that appeared and would suddenly drop the screen about a third of the way down and turn everything a sanitarium blue.
