* Posts by Fill

36 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Nov 2011

FCC big cheese given Congressional roasting in reconfirmation bid

Fill
FAIL

Pai is an id!ot

This is the guy (Pai) who just made an arm-waving plea to Apple to 'activate' FM radios in their iPhones. Apple's response? What FM radios? Check out FCC fillings with you, you id!ot, there are no FM radios in our iPhones to activate!

Microsoft frisked blogger's Hotmail inbox, IM chat to hunt Windows 8 leaker, court told

Fill

Re: Microsoft can just read anyone's hotmail account?

I'll answer my own question after reading their ToS:

"Microsoft reserves the right to review materials posted to the Communication Services and to remove any materials in its sole discretion."

They define Communication Services to include email, chat, forums, file storage, etc.

Fill

Re: Microsoft can just read anyone's hotmail account?

I was wondering that too. Did they need a warrant? The article implies they did not. I suppose the Terms of Service might have something stating that MS retains the right to look at your emails and your VMs.

Thanks a lot, Facebook: Microsoft turns Office 365 into social network

Fill
Unhappy

Re: I only need to know one thing...

The thing is, this is exactly the sort of thing a clueless middle manager would force you to use because it's the 'latest thing'.

Fill
WTF?

Who wants this?

This is another example of a feature/product I can't imagine even MS management using or wanting. Of all the top technology companies, Microsoft is the only one where it is hard to believe they use or at least like their own products. Does Ballmer like playing XBox with ten year olds cursing at him in his headset? Does he have a Windows Phone? A Zune? Does he actually like the interface of Windows 8? Does he prefer Bing? It is a bit of a head scratcher how/why they keep pushing such half baked features and products. They've taken their core business, Windows and Office, and are morphing them into things that people don't want to use any more.

MtGox MELTDOWN: Quits Bitcoin Foundation board, deletes Twitter

Fill
WTF?

Mt Gox home page has hidden HTML comment

There's an interesting HTML comment on the home page right now:

"put announce for mtgox acq here"

How much did NSA pay to put a backdoor in RSA crypto? Try $10m – report

Fill

Re: @Fill A different era?

"I imagine it more went along the lines of "Here's a new encryption algorithm we developed to boost security. ..."

It was a random number generation method (Dual Elliptical). The NSA played on that it was what they used internally. Had nothing to do with the actual encryption methods, but a bad random number generator is going to defeat RSA.

Fill

A different era?

True, although back then the NSA had a lot more respectability. RSA might have honestly thought the NSA was recommending the algorithm to help protect national interests, not undermine them. It's a bit naive today to ask "Why would the NSA want to work against us to weaken our encryption?" knowing what we know now, but back then?

Ditch your boring iPhone for a hot Android piece, says Google's TOTALLY UNBIASED Eric Schmidt

Fill

Lock-in

The trouble is most people probably already have a tidy investment in apps and content. If Google would offer a program where they will give you all free versions of the same apps you currently have on your iPhone, then they might have something. Until then, a lot of people are simply locked-in to their current platform.

Gates chokes up, WEEPS to Microsoft shareholders amid talk of CEO hunt

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Unhappy

End of the Old Guard

"The Internet is the Home Shoplifting Network" - Gates

"The iPhone is a sea of icons! It will only sell single digit market sales." - Ballmer

"Android is so complicated, you need a Computer Science degree to use it." - Ballmer

"Not impressed with the iPad, don't think it will be successful like the iPhone." - Gates

It's time for the old guard to leave. They just don't get it. I for one found Gates crying a positive sign for Microsoft, as they are finally letting go. Just... let... it go. Time for a younger leadership.

PlayStation daddy on new PS4: She's ALL 'PLAY', NO 'Station' this time

Fill

Re: "We stopped trying to make a product that was all things to all people"

They took away Linux but never adequately made the other aspects of the PS3 work well. I have a PS3 and use(d) it a lot and it's a sea of worthless menus that I only bothered to dig into because of annoying things like clearing the drive for enough space for the next game install. I tried to explore their version of the App Store, but it was messy and again the demos took too long to download and ate up even more precious space.

If they can focus it, yet open it up for the masses to develop on, that would be great. And, I'm not just talking about Linux, I mean the average hacker to put something together and sell their wares on a PS4 Store. That would be neat.

Fill

Open up development to the masses!

It is interesting that they mention the "App Store". Will they open up development to anyone? I'd certainly like to see what the casual programmers out there can do. I doubt they would, especially after yanking the PS3's ability to run Linux.

Pop OS X Mavericks on your Mac for FREE while you have LUNCH

Fill
Thumb Up

More battery life here

I tested my laptop today and I'm getting about 40%-50% more battery time. That's pretty huge for me as it lets me last a full work day without a recharge. There's a lot of other interesting additions I haven't had much time to play with yet, but so far it was a big win here, especially for free.

One word of caution for users who haven't updated yet, though: LET THE INSTALLER FINISH! It pauses for many at "less than one minute remaining..." for 10 minutes or more. Just let it sit and finish. Also, Mail has some new bugs introduced, so if that's super critical, wait until they push a patch for that.

The web needs globally backed, verifiable security standards – says Huawei

Fill

There's is no 'global' authority

I've said this many times in regards to security, wars, laws, etc. There simply is no higher enforcement authority than at the Nation level, period. At *best* there are agreements between nations, but there's no higher authority (besides your make-believe man in the sky type, of course).

Microsoft mocks Apple and new iPhones in vids it quickly pulls

Fill

Re: Stop trying to be funny - just make products people want to use.

Absolutely right.

BTW- Speaking of which, can we get a real forum here Reg? OMG, I forgot how painful it is to follow threads here on TheReg.

Fill

Re: Bad decision and taste

Yes, it does look like a Steve Jobs from behind complete with a black shirt. I noticed that too, but wasn't sure it was in good taste to even point that out. But, you are absolutely right. Shame on them!

Fill
Facepalm

Out of touch?

MS mocks Apple in these vids to what end? MS has no compelling products in the area of mobile right now. (WinPhone and Surface need a lot of help.) Why even draw attention to their own deficiencies by distastefully poking fun at a mobile leader? And, I'm not trying to tout Apple here, this could easily be an anti-Android ad too. It just seems to smack of how out of touch MS is at their own market standing?

Fooling the AppStore one code-chunk at a time

Fill
Megaphone

News flash!

Obfuscated code is obfuscated!

There have been countless apps that have passed approval that did things the authors didn't disclose. Much of the vetting process is questions asked of the submitting authors, not extensive digging through the source. The risk is if they detect something amiss, even later from complaining users, they can pull the apps and dev account.

Wii U sales plunge: Nintendo hopes Mario and Zelda will shift some kit

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Thumb Up

Time to backport!

They have a huge established Wii market and obviously they are continuing to sell. Unfortunately new games for the Wii have stagnated in anticipation of the Wii U. It's now time to go back to their bread and butter and get more content out for the Wii! Backport Wii U games to the Wii. Release a Wii "Enhanced" console that can output at least 720p, etc.

Microsoft offers free keyboard covers for Surface RT

Fill

MS is playing Follow the Leader

...and taking a huge hit at being behind and trying to be what the critics say they want them to be. Trying to emerge now as a tablet and smart phone power after Apple and Google is remarkably daft given the mistakes made. Do what you do well, and don't assume you can trump the competition like you could in the past through brute force. It just doesn't play well any more. MS isn't hip, so don't try to be! Focus on business. You've lost the other fronts so admit that and adapt and move on. There are classic signs here of old upper management failures here and maybe it's time to change the guard.

Intel doubles Thunderbolt speed to 20Gbps

Fill
Happy

Re: long cables @fill

"I've found 10GbE quite able to run at 10Gb speed consistently when the other systems can keep up."

It's literally impossible to run 10Gb of useful data through 10Gb Ethernet. For one, the packet headers take out a significant chunk (e.g. IP and TCP encapsulation) Secondly, packets don't train together perfectly w/o gaps on the wire. Lastly, you might be lucky to not have any TCP transmissions, but they do happen. What ever magic you've stumbled upon, please figure it out and publish it (or patent it!) I've love to use it.

Fill

Available Peripherals?

Lack of peripherals? Google "thunderbolt expansion chassis" to start with and then down to external SSDs, dongles (VGA, DVI, Ethernet, etc.), cables (copper or fiber optic), etc. And tell me where I can get a USB3 to HDMI cable... for under $5 on Amazon like I can with a Thunderbolt to HDMI?

Fill
Happy

Re: long cables

In the demo (see Engadget for a convenient video clip), they are getting about 9.6Gbps (1200MBps)... actual throughput. You'll never get that with 10Gb ethernet with all the collisions and overhead. You'll maybe get 400MBps on 10Gbps Ethernet in real world usage. (Note, I'm trying to be good here about b = bits and B = bytes. :')

Fill

Re: Cables

They are quite comparable to PCIe cards, which is basically what they are. They are 'active' cables with chips in them to perform the function. Longer data-only cables are actually fiber optic with the optical drivers in the cable ends. It's pretty cool tech and the prices are going down. Right now you are going to be paying at least a few thousand just for a computer and, say, external drive and you are complaining that a good 2 meter Thunderbolt cord is going to cost $40 USD?

Fill

USB isn't even close

Is it only 'proprietary' until mass adoption? You can run through the history of connectivity technology that Apple has used through the years being relatively 'first' that later became mainstream. My favorite is WiFi where Steve Jobs does this sort of corny "Let me unplug this laptop and carry it over to the other side of the stage while loading this web page" schtick during a keynote (you can Google for it and watch it). Blows the crowd away.

Thunderbolt is basically PCIe. I own several Thunderbolt accessories. They are getting pretty cheap these days, for example, you can buy a Thunderbolt to HDMI cable for under $5 (USD) on Amazon. There simply is no such thing for USB. My next external drive will definitely be a Thunderbolt drive.

Apple tears itself away from iThings to squash Mac OS X bugs

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Thumb Up

Thumbs up

Update was fine and quick on a rMBP lappy here.

Microsoft Office 2013 vs. Office 365: Is either right for you?

Fill

Re: Who needs Office?

Wait, what? Can't use Office for commercial use? Can you show and prove where MS says you can't use Office for commercial use? I'd be very interested in that.

Fill

Works?

"These are not casual users --- and this is not a "Works" market"

Is this a reference at AppleWorks.. which was discontinued in 2004?

Fill

Re: Too expensive

"There's Open Office / Libre Office, but they just don't work with Microsoft Documents..."

From the Libre Office web site:

"Compatible with all major competitors' file formats. You can easily import files from Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and many other formats, and can easily save to Microsoft Office and other formats when needed."

That's very true from my own experience. I don't think there is 100% compatibility, heck, there isn't even between versions of Office, but it's pretty good, you should at least try it! If nothing else you would be more educated in your posts.

And, I agree, it's unlikely that MS would include Office in Windows, sadly.

Fill
Facepalm

Too expensive

They pretty much cracked that nut of word processing and spreadsheets, shesh, dare I say 20+ years ago? I know there's more to Office than that and the UI has certainly improved since then. But, as everybody seems to agree, start with a free option first and then move from there. At work we moved a lot of tasks that we'd normally do in Word to email clients, believe it or not. Email has formatting, spell correction, quoting a parent email, etc. It used to be standard to have everyone have a copy of Office regardless of position, but that's not the case any more. We have just a few copies for those times when we need it in a pinch.

To me, I just feel like Microsoft is just taking users hostage and assuming everybody is going to pony up for the next version. And I'm tired of the CD Keys, online activations, etc. I get it - I'm assumed to be a pirate/thief first and a customer second.

Microsoft should have just included Office with Windows (at maybe a modest fee increase) and not drive consumers away with high costs and convoluted product schemes.

Post-defenestration Microsoft: It's the APIs, stupid. And Metro

Fill
Windows

Playing catch up

Microsoft got themselves in a real pickle. They were on top of things 10-15 years ago and just sat on their hands unwilling to take any chances that could risk hurting their cash-cow. Meanwhile Apple and Google had nothing to lose by dabbling in the mobile market, and they won big. So how does Microsoft look relevant again without playing catchup with products that look like Apple/Google knock-offs? Meanwhile, Windows and Office may be Microsoft's bread and butter, but in the long term, the choice of OS and spreadsheet/word processor will be marginalized. I mean, do people get excited about what the next version of Office will have in it, or care what OS their, say, tablet runs? No. And by forcing their established user base to learn a new UI with Win8, they are forcing potential customers into pondering other options, like MacOS, if they already have to learn a new OS anyways.

Eric Schmidt: Ha ha, NO Google maps app for iPhone 5

Fill

Number vs. Profits

"That's great for Apple, but the numbers are on our side," he said.

That may be true in raw numbers, but Google actually made more money from iOS than Android... until now.

More Steve Jobs iPad mini attacks from beyond the grave

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Megaphone

Developers, Developers, Developers!

Initially Jobs didn't think an app store would even fly and had serious doubts that enough quality developers would be on board. I think that might be why he didn't want to potentially frustrate developers by having too many distinct hardware platforms (at least off the bat). But now, the iPad might have even exceeded Jobs expectations in sales and there's plenty of developers chomping at the bit to develop for a new form factor if there is, indeed, one in the works.

'Super-powerful' Flame worm actually boring bloatware

Fill

Confusing article

The title and summary seem to contradict the article and its conclusion. The article says it is an advanced and complex piece of targeted malware that must have been made by a nation/state that will take months if not years to analyze, while the title and summary say it is just boring bloatware. Which is it?

Steve Jobs' 'private Apple spaceship' seeks public love

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Coffee/keyboard

Loaded statement

I live near a major HP campus and it isn't public. It's a fortress with barbed wire and guards. A former coworker of mine used to work there and had a horror story of leaving his badge behind when he went to the cafeteria for lunch and was ridiculously told he could not leave it without producing his ID. He said his only choice was to run through the halls with mall-cops (ok, campus-cops) chasing him to beat them back to his desk where he left his badge to prove he was an employee. If Apple owns the land and it's a place of business, they can reserve the right to restrict parts or all of it from the public.

Water utility hackers destroy pump, expert says

Fill

Smart meters?

Curiously enough, just a couple weeks ago the local power utility came to my house and replaced my meter with a 'smart' power meter which they tout now is networked all the way to the mothership. If somebody figures out an exploit to set them on fire, they could burn entire neighborhoods down. Of course, the hardware probably won't let such a thing happen, but it's funny the sort of trust you have to have with what utilities are attaching or wiring to your home.