Posts by WatAWorld
241 posts • joined Friday 24th February 2012 23:04 GMT
for business products, how about adopting a 10 whatever review style? also testing
For business products, how about adopting a 10 whatever review style, like you have for consumer products?
At a minimum do more comparison of competing products to the product or service being reviewed.
Again, the willingness to report both good and bad aspects of the produce or service, and to compare competing products, is what makes reviews worth reading.
Of course for business products (big ticket items or items where a buyer will be buying 100s) a longer more detailed review is greatly appreciated.
Actually testing to see if a device meets claimed specifications would be the best improvement to individual reviews you could make. And if you could do that testing on samples anonymously purchased from random suppliers (rather than specially tweaked samples provided free by the vendor) that would be perfect!
I love your 10 whatever reviews of consumer products, where you review 10 competing products
For consumer product reviews, I love the 10 reviews, where you review 10 competing products and compare them.
Other organizations tend to have shameless "reviews" that are little better than re-printed vendor press releases.
On the other hand, The Reg tells us the good and the bad, and compares products openly -- which is what makes the reviews worth reading.
For the consumer product reviews, I think the approach is very good. If you want to improve it, maybe go into more detail about each product being reviewed, and compare on more points.
Posted in Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs
Re: Huh?
Where in the world do you live where you've only ever heard it pronounced that way?
Posted in Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs
another case of revisionist history
Maybe you young folks are calling them jifs, but if you were using computers back when Compuserve was still in business, I think you'd have been calling them GIFs with a hard G because at that tune the acronym was spread around with the words it was an acronym of (Graphics Interchange Format) and nowhere in the English speaking world is graphics pronounced with a soft "g".
Compuserv did not provide a pronunciation guide -- it provided the words that the acronym was an acronym of.
I've never heard GIF pronounced jif. If they wanted the J pronunciation they should have spelt it accordingly.
Posted in Word wonks insist GIFs are really JIFs
Was the vulture logo created by a jiffics artist on jiff paper?
I'll pronounce it "jif" when people start talking about jifics artists and paper with squares on it is pronounced "jiff" paper.
"The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced "JIF", was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987."
By using an acronym the creators gave up the right to dictate pronunciation.
A bit of IBM trivia here: In Canada CICS is pronounced "kicks" whereas the rest of the world pronounces it C.I.C.S.
The beginning of the end of Microsoft as a technology company
Replacing technically capable managers with sales, marketing and user analysts is common in mainstream businesses.
Most CIOs come from sales backgrounds.
But when you do it to a technology company you begin the end of that technology company as a technology company.
Witness Apple. Under Jobs it did wildly succeed economically as a minimalist inspired artistic company, relying on other companies to provide the technology and pretty much only owning patents on visually artistic aspects of its products.
But Apple is an exception. Generally technology firms fail when they depart from the technology industry.
Another rock-like weapon developed by those in glass houses.
Another rock-like weapon developed by those in glass houses.
While this lady surgeon doesn't wear make-up or jewelry or other adornments, most women do
Mice should be sized to the hand. Smaller mice for smaller hands, larger mice for larger hands. That is something everyone should care about.
Same with keyboards.
But while this lady surgeon doesn't wear make-up or jewelry or other adornments, most women do, and few men do.
It isn't as if Fujitsu was trying to make laptops in Barbie pink.
I see the day when Dell will make 3 models of laptop for men (black, brown and blackish brown) and 157 models for women in 16 sizes each of the petite, junior petite, misses, etc. size ranges.
It will be like clothing and shoe stores.
There is no technology in the patent, just 57 vague high-level descriptions
Take a look at the patent for yourselves.
There is no technology in the patent, just 57 vague high-level descriptions of what could be done.
It would be like getting the patent on automobiles with this patent:
1. A method for moving mass from A to B by converting energy to translational movement.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from chemical form to mechanical form.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from phase state form to mechanical form.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from atomic form to mechanical form.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from spiritual form to mechanical form.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from metaphysical form to mechanical form.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from trans-dimensional quantum string form to mechanical form.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein energy is converted from trans-dimensional quantum pulse form to mechanical form.
No technology, just vague words so vague as to include any technology and industrious innovator might actually invent.
How about the Reg doing the experiment under safe controlled cirumstances
The Reg goes out to an isolated area (away from roads and aircraft) where there is 2,000 feet of clear space from source to target, and something large (like a hillside) behind the targets so the beam doesn't go miles.
You create four plywood targets and place them 500, 1,000, 1500 and 2,000 feet from the source. Keep in mind the targets have to be big enough that you can measure how much the laser beam has dispersed.
You shine a few samples of commercially available hand-held laser pointers at them.
You do the same thing with some regulated high power industrial, medical or laboratory lasers. A friendly university engineering faculty should be able to source some for you to borrow.
You'll want to carefully align the lasers so you hit the plywood targets and don't overshoot into the unknown.
You want to wear the appropriate protective goggles when using the high power lasers. Note the goggles will be different for different wavelength beams.
Once you know which lasers are safe enough to be hand held, you can do part two where you check on whether the human hand is steady enough.
Tell us the results in a follow-up article.
No amount of debate replaces actually doing the experiment. It is cheap, and it can be done safely in an isolated area using plywood targets by a few competent people.
Re: A cost saving opportunity
"Military aircraft already have laser protection built into the glass (generally gold) - for enemy laser rangefinders."
Rangefinders are usually infrared wavelength, so your eyes would not perceive them, important in attempts to avoid counter-battery fire.
But even so, against what wavelength of light does it filter, because if it protects against all wavelengths of light it won't even be translucent.
Lasers are produced with variable wavelengths for laboratory use. It would be cost effective to weaponize these, if they would really did work.
Re: Several things about these stories bug me...
"Buy a decent sized flash unit and mount it on your car's dashboard facing you"
Completely wrong since you're comparing perhaps 50W with something a million times dimmer, in the range of microwatts.
Re: Several things about these stories bug me...
They would be waving it around, it would only need to pass over the cockpit to produce a flash, it would not have to shine in steadily.
And around some busy airports you could have an aircraft passing over every 5 minutes.
But still, yes, something like 50µ degrees of arc accuracy would be needed for the moment where you scanned over the cockpit.
Maybe that is the problem, people wanting to try laser pointers out on the wings, to see if it can be seen at that distance, and not realizing how much it is going to wave around, and so accidentally illuminating the cockpit.
With hand held laser pointers I could swallow that explanation, but then the light intensity would be so low it wouldn't make sense it could be more than barely noticed. It just doesn't add up to me.
Re: Ironic Punishment - use MIRRORS
What about cars? If this is happening how come car drivers don't notice it?
numbers don't add up, 5-25 mW over a 6 foot radius is too weak to have impact
But most of what the FAA is complaining about is incidents with hand held laser pointers.
So these are cheap devices and the light diffuses over distances of a thousand feet, instead of staying coherent like it would with an expensive laser. The article quotes 6 foot radius.
Spread that 5-25 mW over the 6 foot radius and it seems to me laughable it could cause eye damage.
I calculate 6000 nW per square inch (6 µW). Hardly a flash bulb.
25mW / (3.14 * (6ft *12in/ft/ 2)^2) = 6.14 *10^-6.
(I'm a little rusty, would someone please double check that?)
If they were complaining about industrial and medical lasers, if they had statistics for just those, they might have a strong point. But they don't. They didn't bother to collect the numbers.
I cannot help wondering if maybe what they think are handheld lasers are in fact something more powerful or higher quality.
For handheld lasers, I think the bigger hazard would be to truck and car drivers, where the distances are short and the light would still be concentrated and high intensity.
All that said, people shouldn't be messing around with these things.
Federal Circuit Appeals Court marks 30 years of spreading the "patent gospel."
The Reg is a far superior tech magazine, but there is one good article on this issue I found elsewhere, that people might like to checkout.
How a rogue appeals court wrecked the patent system
Federal Circuit Appeals Court marks 30 years of spreading the "patent gospel."
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/how-a-rogue-appeals-court-wrecked-the-patent-system/
Posted in Steve Jobs resurfaces in Hong Kong
Could we build a mausoleum to house him?
Could we build a mausoleum to house him?
Or maybe the folks in Moscow to eject Stalin or Lenin, whichever discredited communist they've currently got on show, and house Jobs instead?
Or maybe just rename Mount Everest or the moon in his honour?
Let us face it, in 100 years nobody is going to remember the real people who contributed to technology.
All they're going to remember are smart businessmen who stole or bought ideas, were masters of hype, and turned profits. (It is pathetic.)
So we let Jobs be the stand-in for Babbage, Turing, Berners-Lee, von Neumann, Amdahl, etc.
Re: Which patents are these?
And just as surely Samsung didn't create the Android operating system and gestures involved in the lawsuit it lost to Apple.
The idea is if parts or aspects of the device violate the patent, the device can be banned, even if those parts or aspects were purchased.
Re: What passes for reporting around here?
So the FTC is going to bat for a US-based importer over a foreign firm.
This is typical of US government, courts and businesses. Americans are biased against foreign companies. This is a big problem for companies in Canada. Even though in social situations Americans treat us very well and we're all buddy-buddy, when it comes to business we're just another bunch of foreigners to be treated like lackies.
Re: IT Pros?
In Canada, most PFY have Apple products. Also fashionistas are big into Apple.
Here it is IT Pros who are anti-Apple (and I own an iPod Touch and have in the past been stuck with Macs on my desk).
We are anti-Apple because Apple is anti-standards, anti-competition, charges way above the going rate, inhibits customization, and for the past several years has technologically far behind.
I find it hard to believe that anyone with more than 5 years programming or level 3 tech support experience would (overall) defend Apple over its competition.
We've known for 2500 years that name calling was a fallacious argument, so why are you using it?
Then you claim that you need to own something to evaluate it. I've evaluated lots of stuff I've never owned, and gotten paid good money to do it.
You can say Apple doesn't deserve this ..
You can say Apple doesn't deserve this ..
You can say almost anything.
But the fact is, Apple deserves this. Apple has been abusing the patent system since it patented the Xerox-invented graphical interface Apple uses on its Macs.
The US's patent system needs overhauling, and until the only recourse is to dish out to Apple what Apple so eagerly dishes out to everyone else.
He who lives by the automatic take down bot, dies by the automatic take down bot
It was complaints by these TV and movie producing companies that caused these automatic take-down bots to be created, and to be set to monitor for copyrighted material.
If they industry hadn't fought so hard to prohibit fair usage they would not have had this problem, which they created.
Re: For real?
Child labour in the USA.
34% of 16 year-old residents of the USA are child labour too. I think that includes a lot of middle-class suburban kids.
Here in Canada we don't even track child labour. I've just spent 20 minutes and all I can find is that our labour statistics go age 15 to 24.
I don't think the issue is the presence of people age 16 and 17 in a work place, that is common enough. The issue is, IF they are in school, are they working more than 12 hours a week? That would be a problem in Canada or the USA.
In the USA 34% of 16 year olds work
"We *have* to stop judging Chinese companies/workers with the same standards that we judge US or UK entities."
It isn't just that. Remember, having workers under age 18 is not unusual in the USA or UK or Canada. I don't know about the UK, but in the USA it is over 34% of 16 year-olds work, and that climbs every year.
What would be unusual would be, IF they are still in school, having them work more than 12 hours a week, or having them work in a hazardous area, like a mine or iron foundry.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm
Re: What's wrong with a bit of work?
Obviously the editor of the reg and the author of this article are upper class "Toffs" (I believe is the word) and didn't have to work until after they graduated from Oxbridge with their Masters of Arts degrees.
My dad worked in a UK factory at age 17.
My dad worked in a UK factory at age 17.
It isn't as if you can't get a job in Canada, the USA and UK at age 17.
I'm impressed, in the USA interns in industries and businesses are usually unpaid.
It isn't as if you can't get a job in Canada, the USA and UK at age 16 or 17.
This China Labour Watch needs to be more specific in order to give us useful information.
1. How many hours per week are these 16 and 17 year-olds working?
First world countries permit people under age 18 working. The key thing is, IF they are still attending school we limit their weekly hours of work. And of course people under age 18 working is how apprenticeship programs work.
2. What percentage of the staff do the under 18s make up?
Is it 7 out of 10 or 7 out of 1,000? IF they are most of the workforce, they their status as apprentices or paid interns is questionable.
Re: Lets not just blame java here
"This is why Linux seems to have such a high learning curve"
And unfortunately that is a killer critical requirement Linux fails to meet, being easy to learn.
Fix that bug and Linux could take on Windows and win.
Re: Lets not just blame java here
I've worked at a several clients and on my own time I take care of several home users, and they're all able to work using limited accounts on Windows 7 with all sorts of games and common business software.
Re: @Colin
@ShelLuser the article starts off by saying this occurred on SE6.
Re: Lets not just blame java here
You mean z/OS, z/VSE and z/VM. And that is true. But again, as with Linux and OS/x it is security by obscurity. Folks with knowledge of the major IBM operating system feel we have an ethical obligation not to exploit that knowledge illegally.
Some people with knowledge of PC operating systems don't feel any ethical obligations at all.
But to answer you question, "Care to name any viruses for S/360?" there is the "Christmas Tree" virus, and it was accidentally created by a co-op student who wanted to send electronic christmas cards through email, that is how easy it was to create.
Re: @Colin
It is the restrictions on what will run on the OS, restrictions that the FTC will not allow Microsoft, as the major OS vendor, to follow because it would inhibit free trade.
Re: Lets not just blame java here
"I bet it's quite possible to get into lots of trouble running any OS if you don't know what you are doing."
Who much of a newbie do you have to be to disagree with a statement that obviously true?
Re: Lets not just blame java here
"Because the Windows 'every user has to be an administrator else nothing works right' model is broken..."
That hasn't been true for over 7 years. But ignorant users think it is, so they use elevated accounts for everything.
If Linux users were as common and uneducated as Windows users, we'd have at least as many problems.
run OS/x or Linux and you're depending on security by obscurity
Large companies and governments can't run OS/x or Linux because they have not been adequately tested by malicious hackers.
When you're an attractive target, such as a large company or a government, it doesn't matter what the "popular" common malware is, you're going to be targeted with custom malware, and you need an OS that has been adequately vetted.
You can't get a desktop/laptop OS that has been adequately vetted, but Windows comes closest.
Does anyone argue that more hacker hours have been spent trying to crack Windows than OS/x or Linux? I didn't think so.
So basically you are in home user and you run OS/x or have the smarts to Linux and you're using security by obscurity; your security is dependent on the fact that hackers haven't discovered the exploits on the OS you've chosen, and haven't yet found it profitable to create exploits for it. You're secure only because of the relative obscurity of your chosen OS. That doesn't work for attractive targets where it is worth the cost to hackers to custom develop malware.
Re: ...for those running as root
As other operating systems become more usable, we'll find more poorly trained and untrained people using them. Which means more people making the mistake of using an elevated privileges account for everyday work.
Perhaps the only solution is to go the Apple route, and maybe a bit further. Create an operating system what will only run software signed by the operating system author. I fear that is where we are headed.
Re: Linux box had been rooted?
First you're making an error assuming all broadbank modems have firewalls, they don't.
Secondly, something that can get through a hardware firewall to access Windows computers behind it can get through a hardware firewall to access Linux computers behind it.
It would be unethical to send malware
It would be unethical to send malware to an unknown party or a party not working for a reputable major antivirus or security firm.
If you doubt that Linux has vulnerabilities and exploits search on Linux here:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/byid?searchview
Re: Why the Apple-Samsung verdict is GOOD for YOU, your KIDS and TECH
This decision is only good for lawyers.
It will make technology as expensive, slow and cumbersome as the legal system.
Re: The jury were not judging the validity of the patents
Actually the jury can decide the patents are invalid. They can decide that law is invalid too.
As with the UK and Canada, the USA does have the concept of jury nullification.
If Tim Berners-Lee was greedly like Steve Jobs there would be no world wide web
If Tim Berners-Lee was greedly like Steve Jobs there would be no world wide web.
If the pioneers and creators of IT were like the attorneys who run today's tech companies, we'd have no Windows, since Xerox would have patented it and neither Apple nor MS could have afforded the license fees.
We'd have no HTTP. We'd have no HTML. It would all be fragmented, no standards, just a hundred different ways of doing things so as not to infringe on anyone else's patent.
a bit like having a cop sitting on a jury in a trial where a cop is the defendant
A bit like having a cop sitting on a jury in a trial where a cop is the defendant.
Nobody should be able to patent silly obvious things where there is prior art.
Re: 480 Amp service panels? No, you'd charge the chargerthen dump energy that into the vehicle
By North American safety standards, at 7,000V you must keep yourself 2m (6ft) from surfaces at that voltage. That means tools with 3m (9ft) fiberglass handles, rubber gloves and rubber boots, and a pass mark on exam given at the completion of the safety course.
There are exceptions allowing 1m clearance, but that is another longer course, and only for emergencies and requires considerable approvals. Plugging your car in is not an emergency.
You could drive in reverse
You could drive in reverse, store the power you generate, and sell it back to the electrical utility company.
Re: Another thing..
Aitor 1, I missed that consideration of fire. You're right. So even the idea of slowly charging a stationary battery in charger in order to speed charge the mobile battery in the vehicle is unworkable due to excess heat (even in Northern Canada in winter).
I'm certain this article is based on bogus PR crap aimed at luring in retail investors for something that is a great idea for $30 laptop batteries, but completely unworkable for $9,000 vehicle batteries.
Re: Paul
Or two giant 4 inch diameter solid copper pipes to carry the necessary current at 220V.
480 Amp service panels? No, you'd charge the chargerthen dump energy that into the vehicle
Me thinks the press release was written to target investors ignorant of all things electric.
For any given voltage, to go from 60 A over 8 hours to 1 hour means 480 A.
In North America a 240V 200 A service panel is the largest in common use for homes, with 240V 100A being the most common.
I do not think there is even a standard wiring for 480A at 120 or 240V even in commercial installations, I think you have to go to a higher voltage and step it down so you have manageable size wires.
So you'll need voltages coming into the building at something well over 240V, 7,000V is common.
To be practical you'd need to store the charge in batteries in the vehicle charger over (say) 8 hours, and then charge the vehicle by dumping the stored charge in the charger into the vehicle.
So 2 sets of fancy expensive batteries.
But still, this will be good for charging laptops, telephones, remote controls and other small devices.
Re: Fast charging
In North America it is unusual for a home to have an electrical service entrance that will handle more than 30 kw.
And in summer, with air conditioning going, there is no huge amount of surplus.
So this is going to cut vehicle charging times by, at most 50%, in a normal home.
Posted in Why women won't apply for IT jobs
Re: Sexism in the industry?
In Canada the sexism is rampant. 3/4 of programmers and men, but 3/4 of lower level supervisors are women.
The disparity in promotions is not random chance.
