* Posts by Craigness

1498 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Mar 2010

Good luck displacing Windows 7, Microsoft, it's still growing

Craigness

Re: You listening Microsoft?

Why would you expect them to listen to you? You're not a customer. You're not even saying "if you release something with nothing new on it I'll buy it," you're saying" I will not buy anything new because what I've got already works." Of course they won't listen.

Android gaming platform Ouya is down to its last life

Craigness

Re: The Key

"control the store" is spot on! But they had very little chance of doing that when they were up against Google's store offering users the ability to start a game on a phone or tablet and complete it on their console (and only buy the game once). When I first heard of this Android console my first thought was "that's a good idea, I'll wait until there is an Android console which supports Google Play and the games I already own". They thought the "Android" word would attract customers, but customers want "Ecosystem".

'Android on Windows': Microsoft tightens noose around neck, climbs on chair

Craigness

Pining for fjords

If this is the only way to save Windows Phone and this will kill the patient, then Windows Phone is already dead. The faster they recognise that the better. Resurrect the Nokia X and they can at least save Microsoft's services!

Craigness

Re: Times change, business does not

The main issue for Microsoft and others implementing Android variants is that Google's is the popular version and developers for that platform use Play Services APIs. But, as Google went to great expense to prove, an API cannot be copyrighted. So, with a bit of lag which we expect of Android OEMs anyway, Microsoft can copy all the functionality Google implements (apparently the cloud infrastructure supporting the APIs is the hard bit, but MS should be well placed to cope with that). In short, if Google moves the goalposts it can cause MS to miss the goal, but only by making Play Services users miss at the same time. And they won't do that.

Google TUGS Nexus 7-INCHER from its online store

Craigness

Re: Katy

She can fondle those too!

Craigness

Katy

I'd let Katy Perry fondle my 7" any time. And since the 5.1 upgrade I've had fewer issues with the touch screen, which is nice.

I hope the next Nexus is just like the last (but one) one. It's a good size for the hand and I'd be able to reuse my case.

Sick of tech bro Silicon Valley? Oakland is building a better tech world – say Oaklanders

Craigness

Sexism

An all-female panel throwing out sexist terms of abuse like "bro". I'll give it a pass thanks.

Ex-Windows designer: Ballmer was dogmatic, Sinofsky's bonkers, and WinPho needs to change

Craigness

Windroid

They made a "Windroid" (Android preloaded with Microsoft stuff) for Nokia and now they've teamed up with Cyanogen to make another. But for Windows and RT they went with a new mobile platform (actually, 2 platforms). Meanwhile, Chrome OS is now able to run Android apps on its desktop, which seems like a pretty good idea. Why didn't MS go with a Windroid solution after their first failures? Keep hold of Nokia, re-relase the original Surface as an Android tablet, and run Android apps in the Windows 8/10 desktop. The UI would have been solved already, and there would be loads of compatible apps and developers potentially willing to port them.

Windows Phone has the "junk" in the Hamburger menu? In Android everything's in there but the junk is in a smaller font. The drawer can be opened with a swipe from the left so you don't need an extra long thumb to reach the icon in the top corner.

Oracle grunts, grimaces, pushes out 98-flaw security patch batch

Craigness

Re: More bloatware...

(Almost) everyone is a Chrome user! You could make the same association with lavatory users.

Chrome version 42 will pour your Java coffee down the drain: Plugin blocked by default

Craigness

IE in Win 10

"...lack of IE support in Windows 10..."

IE 11 will ship with Windows 10, it just won't be the default browser. It is supported until 2023-01-10 (the same date as Win 8) but will get no new features and there will not be an IE12. Hooray!

Microsoft points at Skype, Lync: You two, in my office – right now

Craigness

I happen to love Jabber. I only got it working one time, but that was when I had to demonstrate my ability to "video call" from home in order to be excused from travelling for a pointless 3-day project meeting in a soulless business park near Oxford. Come the day, Jabber failed so I missed the entire meeting but had the most productive week of my tenure with zero interruptions!

Is there no Web RTC product yet to replace all these silly messengers?

Android lands on Microsoft's money-machine island fortress

Craigness

Almost any OS

Another key bit: "security with a secure boot-loader used to validate the kernel and operating system and prevent hackers booting code not signed by NCR"

That's what Chrome OS already does (when run in Kiosk mode, which is ideal for ATMs as well as hotel front desks, restaurant tills etc). And for banks there's Chromium OS so they don't need to depend on Google for updates (or have them pushed by Google).

As much as I like Android, if "Kalpana apps are Webbified – built using HTML rather than using Microsoft-friendly tools and language" then the best OS would be something like Chromuim OS, Firefox OS or WebOS.

Craigness

Re: What a lovely piece of FUD you've written Gavin

Activist blogging is the future of journalism.

Craigness

Roadmap

Android's roadmap is to have better integration with your car, watch and entire digital life. Can you imagine how cool it would be if you just had to wave your wrist in front of the ATM and it showered you with cash? I can't see Red Hat doing anything like that.

A MILLION Chrome users' data was sent to ONE dodgy IP address

Craigness

Re: Urgh

A Chrome extension with "No special permissions" can read the URL of the tab you're on and use AJAX to send it to a remote server. It can also inject code into the page, which makes it possible to grab a username. It can be run every time you load a page.

Craigness
Trollface

Re: "Users could opt out of sharing data"

"Went back to using a laptop."

A Chromebook I hope!

Google takes ARC Welder to Android, grafts on Windows, OS X

Craigness

Re: apps?

FTP Server Pro is an Android app - frippery.

Minesweeper is a Windows application - useful functionality.

Just go with "App" means "Application" and you'll be right 100% of the time!

Craigness

Re: This is VERY good and important

"in a Chrome browser" is misleading. Chrome allows you to set a web app as an application, run it in its own window (not in the tabbed interface) and pin a shortcut to your OS applications menu. That app is running "in the browser" but the user doesn't see a browser. ARC is similar AFAICT.

Craigness

Re: Yawn

I can think of one, but only because the dev is too lazy to build a web app for it, and I'm sometimes too lazy to reach form my phone. Other times I'd rather use the website than the app when I'm on a desktop. But "crap app ecosystems" is going way too far! Just because an app's not particularly relevant on the desktop doesn't mean it's not relevant on a phone.

Anti-gay Indiana starts backtracking on hated law after tech pressure

Craigness

Re: Inconsistent

Or if you want to force a muslim publisher to print pictures of Mohammed...

(that would be interesting because unlike christians they're a "protected group" so might already have religious freedom)

We can't all have rights when government is expected to decide them. The fight is to decide who should be allowed them, and christians are losing. It's one set of bigots against another.

<waiting for downvotes from both sets of bigots>

Craigness

Re: Why is compelling servitude "freedom"?

Do you need me to write it slower?

Craigness

Re: So what about the other nineteen states and the U.S. Government

@gnasher it turns out they all offer the same protections. The controversy is not what they want you to think it is.

"four federal courts of appeals and the Obama Justice Department have all taken the position that RFRA can be used as a defense in private suits involving the enforcement of laws that substantially burden free exercise of religion"

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416160/indiana-protecting-discrimination-josh-blackman

Craigness

Re: Why is compelling servitude "freedom"?

Ellen would still be on TV if religious people were not compelled to work for her or to watch her.

Craigness

Inconsistent

"America’s business community recognized a long time ago that discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business,"

That's why Apple doesn't discriminate against Saudi Arabia, which religiously uses its freedom to act like ****s towards anyone they want.

Craigness

Re: How does this boycott thing work again?

Just adblock them.

Google whacks CREEPY predictive search up to 11 in cheap Chrome OS beta

Craigness
Coat

Re: Good to see Google offering a choice as always

One does not simply return information from the database.

Craigness

The concierge talks about you with other hotel staff. He tells the cleaners that you're a bad tipper, they tell him you leave hair on the soap. You walk through the lobby and can't look people in the eye because you know they know you know they know your secrets. But when a computer knows where you live all it does is realise you're in a hotel and might be interested in some local attractions. When the Value Judgement engine goes live, THAT'S when you need to feel creeped out.

Sent from my Chromebook

Bye bye, booth babes. IT security catwalk RSA nixes sexy outfits

Craigness

Citing Kotaku...

...is instant fail.

Apple's Tim Cook and Salesforce's Marc Benioff DECLARE WAR on anti-gay Indiana

Craigness

Re: Torn

"So why not someone promoting rights?"

The law does promote rights. It's just that it's rights some people don't want us to have.

Craigness

Re: It's never black or white.

The state hasn't banned gay people, they've allowed private business to decide who they do business with. This is more freedom, not less, and less government, not more. This leaves business to operate as they see fit, and to succeed or fail depending on the will of the people who transact with them. That's more democratic than having a government tell us what we can and can't do, and far more democratic than having a CEO tell a government what they can and can't tell people to do. Are you sure it's a good thing when CEOs use their influence over government, rather than over the public?

Craigness

Re: Indiana, WTF?

@AC the Hobby Lobby case you allude to was not about contraception. They never excluded (female) contraception and never asked to be able to exclude (female) contraception. It was "abortifacients" they objected to, which is post-conception birth control. There was a lot of hot air generated by the fact what they objected to were not technically abortifacients, and they were alternatively labelled "contraceptives" by the left-wing media despite not being contraceptives.

Craigness

Re: Indiana, WTF?

They're not banning gays, they're banning the ban on freedom. Freedom does go away if you ban it.

Craigness

There are usually loud voices arguing against corporate influence of government. They must have taken the week off.

Craigness

Re: Cook ... came out publicly as gay late last year And Cakes ...

@Mage the guest house couple were only refused after they had turned up in the evening expecting to be able to sleep in a bed. There are gay-only hotels and a gay resort, I've been refused entry to a club for being straight, refused a taxi ride and been excluded from parts of gyms for being male, so I support the general principal (it would be homophobic and misogynistic not to support discrimination!) but nobody should support them refusing service at such a late stage.

Craigness

Hypocrisy or stupidity?

Apple say they can't support a law which leaves people free to run their business as they like and face public censure rather than state sanctions if they offend common decency, but Apple is free to run their business in such a way that an entire state faces censure for offending common decency. They have proved the new law (which is really the overturning of laws restricting freedom) makes sense. If Indiana had banned boycotts then that would definitely be worth complaining about.

If you're gay and want to buy a wedding cake with a plastic man and woman on the top I'm sure a christian bakery would sell to you. They're not anti-gay. If you're straight and wanted a wedding cake with pentagrams and a goat's skull depicted on it, they'd probably refuse. But not because they're heterophobic.

The solution to the gay marriage "problem": get government out of marriage. Get it out of as much as possible, including telling us who we can trade with. Am I correct in my understanding that the US marriage license was introduced to prevent interracial marriages and was not intended to serve any useful purpose?

Incidentally, it's legal for a gay baker to refuse to sell to christians.

Prez Obama cares about STEM so much he just threw $240m of other people's money at it

Craigness

It's not about STEM

He doesn't care about STEM, he cares about "diversity". But he doesn't care about diversity in street sweeping because you don't win votes by encouraging women to do dirty work in unsafe or uncomfortable environments. And he doesn't care about diversity in rap or social work, because there are no votes in making black culture "inclusive" or in challenging women's dominance in any area. What he really cares about is being sexist and racist towards men and white people, because that's what the influencers call for and anyone else is a "troll".

Degree courses where women are >70%: Health, Public administration, Education, Psychology.

Degree courses where men are > 70%: Computer science, Engineering.

Degree courses which are being made "diverse": Computer science, Engineering.

Which countries have "diversity" in STEM? Those where women have fewer options. If you let women choose not to be scientists, they do so. Be fine with that, like we're fine with men choosing not to be psychologists.

http://imgur.com/5XqyNwz,avzUR7V,wASaasz,eKsY7ik,2djbM1S,cQ7wlgB,bwJxZ4E,EoziThx,VLAzpE6#8

Taylor Swift snaps up EVEN MORE pr0n domain names

Craigness

TaylorSwift.porn

Glad she got that one. I'd hate to go to TaylorSwift.porn and see anything but the real thing.

I'm pretty sure KelisTaughtTaylorSwiftToGiveHead.com. But she had to charge.

Woman caught on CCTV performing drunken BJ blew right to privacy

Craigness

Re: Rape!

Did you read every word, or just every other word? The guy was raped (by feminist standards) but he'll see no justice because our gynocentric laws allow women to rape with impunity. In reality (not the feminist fantasy world the law reflects), there is no justice to be served here because there was consent, but in the Ched Evans case consent didn't matter...because he's a man.

Craigness

Rape!

Ched Evans had his life ruined because he had sex with someone who was drunk and therefore unable to consent. This woman was unable to consent to being filmed and the man she was raping* could not give consent to being "pleasured". Don't put her on TV, put her in jail! And tell us her name.

Technically it's not rape, but it would be if our laws were not sexist. She enveloped him, he penetrated her. Only penetration is rape. Because she was unable to consent to penetration it's actually him that's the criminal, and being drunk is no excuse (for a man).

Pass the Lollipop: Google creepily warms to body contact with Android lock function

Craigness

"lock if it suddenly moves more than a metre or so"

That makes a lot of sense.

Coincidentally I had the "unlock if walking" idea myself a few days ago but quickly realised all it would take to unlock a stolen phone would be...to walk. For the article to make sense the phone would have to be unlocked when you put it in your pocket, but that would mean the screen would have to be on. If it could detect walking shortly after being turned off, that might be useful, though insecure, but it would lock when you stop to cross a road so is not a lot of use.

As for setting an alarm off when you grab your bag, I assume the phone would be locked in the bag and therefore not considered stolen when it moves.

$30 Landfill Android mobes are proof that capitalism ROCKS

Craigness

Re: @Craigness "Higher prices mean cheaper electricity for everyone"

@Tapeador

Markets are not entirely free but the major characteristics exist in many markets. Namely, price determined by supply and demand, and no external barriers to entry. Moore's law exists in free markets and a state contract does not absolve a producer of the need to compete for other contracts. If they stagnated they would not have any private customers after their contract ended, and would not get another state contract either. There is always an imperative to improve.

Craigness

Re: "Higher prices mean cheaper electricity for everyone"

"Moore's law is a product of technological advancement."

...which is a product of free market capitalism. If you don't have to compete you don't have to get better. If you're not allowed to compete, you can't make something better.

Explain the adoption of the steam engine without reference to the profit motive!

Craigness

Re: "Higher prices mean cheaper electricity for everyone"

"...owes as much to Moore's law as it does to free market capitalism."

Moore's law is a product of free market capitalism.

Craigness

There may be snake oil

Read (or listen to) people like Nicole Foss who make a good point about how credit and resources (energy in particular) are the drivers of economic growth. With credit we have effectively built capital and bought products with money we've not yet earned, and we rely on growth to enable us to earn that money in the future. But declining returns on energy make that growth more difficult to achieve. For example, a Texas "nodding donkey" well can extract about 100 barrels of oil using only the energy from a single barrel to power the well. In a growing world economy we need to turn to Alberta tar sands for our energy needs, but for the same barrel of oil input the energy you can extract from that environment is far lower. The growth of energy has to slow, and efficiency gains might not be enough to counter it, meaning economic growth has to slow, meaning we can't pay off the credit.

Credit has enabled us to bring forward consumption from a future that might not exist! The $30 phone may be a mirage rather than a miracle.

On the other hand, it's just Malthus' theory with some finance mixed in.

Internet Explorer LIVES ON, cackle sneaky Microsoft engineers

Craigness

Re: OK, I think I've got it...

How does "not covered in shit" fit into that explanation?

Watchdog slaps American Apparel's youthful naked arse

Craigness

Re: Ha

"I wonder which side the feminist lands on- womans freedom vs objectification."

Demonisation of male sexuality, every time.

Craigness

Here's the same model, in the same pose, in 2012. When, presumably, she looked "under 13".

http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/wooooah-now-since-when-does-american-apparel-sell-lingerie-pics-inside.250138226/

"We considered that readers were likely to interpret the model's expression and pose as being sexual in nature."

I consider it necessary to show people what the clothes look like.

Leaked Windows 10 build hints at peer-to-peer patching

Craigness

Re: re: re:oh lord...

Download updates from other users, download checksum from Microsoft secure site. Simples!

Honey, I shrunk the Windows footprint

Craigness

Re: Stop the Chrome hate

@cambsukguy I always have my laptop nearby. I have a desktop in the study because it's cheaper than a laptop and a Chromebook for "around the house" because it's better than Windows. All in, I spent less than the cost of a Windows laptop with Chromebook-like performance.

My phone and tablet are always nearby but they're not as good as a laptop for many tasks.