* Posts by Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

18 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Mar 2012

This is TRUE science: Harvard boffins fire up sizzling BACON LASER

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

I welcome our new

airborne laser pumped self frying incredibly tasty overlords.

(Someone *had* to do it.)

Build your OWN Apple iBeacon with a Raspberry Pi

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

It can't be that simple, surely....

It looks like the apps that look for beacons control where the data is pulled from, so you can spoof a McNasties beacon all you want, the app that listens for it will only pull data to display to the user from the McNasties server,

So it's a little smarter than the previous, and annoying, bluetooth adverts you used to get spammed with when they could simple send you a message via bluetooth.

It's NOT an iPad - but that's FINE: I learned to LOVE Microsoft's Surface 2

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Re: @SuccessCase

There is no single universal standard by which to code apps in the true sense of the word "universal". But it is fair to say that web apps are usable on a wider range of devices than pretty much any other means. That very issue comes with a huge range of limitations and workarounds in the development process, which adds cost. Of course if your primary goal in developing that app is reaching the widest possible audience, then developing within those limitations may be the lesser of all evils. Its still an exclusive process, and web apps are not a panacea.

Indeed you focus on *your* desires. However, it is rarely so simple unless you are only ever responsible for purchasing a limited selection of apps for your own use. Most often than not in my experience, each and every company has its own set of requirements, that are often only served by a very limited selection of app development providers, so your available choices are limited, sometimes to a single provider.

User preferences can often play an exaggerated and disproportionate part of the selection process. As the gentleman made in one of his posts, responsiveness is a highly regarded factor. Maybe not for you personally, but again, in my experience, lag is unacceptable to most users unless it is a very niche app and they have no choice. Web apps, including native apps that rely on a web or 'internet' based backends often have a noticeable lag involved, simply due to factors that are outside the control of developers and users. I specifically single out the internet, as most of us have very little control or choice over our transit across the public internet as opposed to a corporate LAN where we can often, though not always, have a direct impact upon performance. Native interfaces to web apps are yet another compromise solution, and done well can provide native interface speed, and ameliorate the effects of the public internet on response times on a users experience. But then again, we move away from the nearest to universal platform.

Quote "AS to you "but it's *hard* to code for the differences in multiple browsers" whinge; Bullshit. I flat out don't buy it. It's far harder to recode native apps for every platform." May be true, but displays I believe a misplaced belief that an app needs to be available on every platform. Most don't, doing so just adds an unnecessary cost. You also underline the point that there is NO truly universal way of coding an app to reach the largest number of devices without incurring a certain amount of overhead and dealing with a number of limitations. You may want to consider that cost, man hours available and other factors decide whether it is needed for an app to be web based such as the ever moving goalposts of the development platform/language/library/paradigm which seems to shift faster online than off.

And you can never get around the fact that internet access is required for a web app to work at all (though not for apps delivered into a web browser that may operate on local data rather than remote and have some method of local persistance). You may be happy in your cosy suburbanite office with both fiber and wireless internet, and this may come as a shock, but not every app deployment has internet access. Larger corporates have departments that may "request" internet access and be denied for reasons including security and simple politics (one such springs to mind, an oil company, where the client department was denied internet access mainly due to the application in question coming embedded within the industrial machinery rather than being supplied by them which in their eyes meant they wanted nothing to do with it - end result being the department simply getting their own internet connection without any support from their IT department). Or the widely roving auditor, who travels to corners of the globe that have no internet at all, shocking as that may be to some.

So I guess what I am trying to convey, in a terribly long winded fashion for which I apologise, is, there is no one size fits all development route. If your only criteria is it must be a web app, you are doing yourself and your company/clients/whatever a disservice with a myopic view of requirements and with no consideration to factors such as cost.

"I get to do what I want. You're the vendor. Do what I say or I go elsewhere." is a short sighted, arrogant and needlessly combative viewpoint. I guess it works if you only buy generic apps and have no relationship with the developer other than parting with some cash. If that is the case, why the vitriol directed at developers?

Then you assert that native apps lock users in to an upwardly spiralling cost of ownership. What? Really? Maybe in your own experience this has happened to you. Pure conjecture here, but that may be due to a lack of groundwork on your part than any effort of the developer. The same thing could happen no matter the delivery means.

I think you already made the point, a bad developer is a bad developer. Well, an app is an app, and a platform is a platform. and a bad purchasing decision....

Hey, I got through that without once calling you a dick! :-)

Sysadmin Day free give away

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

So, sysadmin day is basically a sales pitch? Fathers/Mothers day is a sales gimmick too, but at least you get stuff without being pitched more crap than usual......

Motorola shows off tattoo and swallowable password hardware

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Longer range ones

obviously come in the shape of a suppository.......

Mmmm, think I'll stick with passwords.....

Who did Apple LIE TO: Australia or America?

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Its not that the tax laws are a joke (though they may well be), it's that our elected representatives are a joke, but we are failing to hold them to account.

Vodafone slurps MEELLLIONS for redirecting police hotline calls

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

0845

0845 is Local call rate, no matter where you are calling from in the UK from landlines. Not sure about mobile rates. So it's not really pushing the boat out much. Of course I don't think it comes out of your free minutes on mobiles, so maybe not as good as the mentioned 03x numbers in some cases.

Flat mobe battery? Just light a fire

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

But you can already get.....

the Biolite camp stove, which runs off of twigs and stuff. And believe me, there is no shortage of wood in Sweden. I'll be taking one with me when I move there (finally) this year.

TSA to pull backscatter perv scanners from US airports

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry
Mushroom

@Rampant Spaniel

>>but as long as they keep us safe (which includes not harming our health, which is currently being looked at) and speed up those ridiculous lines I am ok with them. They make a huge difference in wait times<<

Actually, all the new security makes you less safe. Just take one look at the queues at an airport, and think about what would happen if some suicide vest wearing bombers in theory 'sploded themselves into the arms of those mythical virgins waiting for them in heaven/hell(depends on your experience with virgins I guess).

And remember, that's before they go through security.

Real security still takes real humans, and we rely on minimum wage chimps most of the time.

The year GNOMES, Ubuntu sufferers forked off to Mint Linux

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry
Coat

Re: A good question

>> I doubt I could attract a Linux geek to these premises if I baited the trap with a keg of beer and a girl from one of the border town strip clubs.

Beer and ho's? Hey, I'll come.........

Swedish teens GO BERSERK in Instagram sex pic slut riot

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Hmmm, whats the problem with being tagged an "end"?

Doesn't slut mean end in Swedish? Unless you prepend Bell ofc....

Publishers pony up $69m in ebook price-fixing settlement

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Re: The point isn't the money..

Of course, if they make more money than they get fined, then they are still ahead. So where is the incentive for them to stop this kind of behaviour in the first place?

Google wingmen rain Project Glass on San Francisco

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry
Facepalm

Funny, but I seem to recall at least one other company flogging wearable computers with "glasses" at least 10 years ago for use in the engineering space.

I guess Google can leverage their awesome giantness to, ermmm, give you a heads up google maps?

Its a cool gadget, whoever makes it practical, but its hardly new and / or groundbreaking anymore. More a practical demonstration of marketing.

Mad Apple patent: Cloneware to convince trackers you don't like porn

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry
Black Helicopters

Or, just to be paranoid.....

Apple could be planning to pollute what anyone outside the walled apple garden see's, keeping it's own accurate info on its slaves... errr, users, thus boosting the value of the data they hold.

Plasma drive starts with pee

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Hmmmmm

Methinks they will be taking the piss......

Cameron's attempt to cram a robot arm wearing a Rolex into his pristine bottom

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Re: Ballwatch.com

Working at -40 is useful, depending on where you live. I have a place in the north of Sweden, even in April it gets to -20 at night, and colder during the earlier months of winter.

Suitably-endowed punters lured into bonking for Vaseline loving

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

You have to look on the bright side, now when someone kicks you in the nuts and knicks your phone, they can get you to pay for their escape on the tube, and pay for a McNasties to replenish their, errr, energy. Oh, and sign you up for a crapload of advertising so that when you get your replacement phone you have a stack of messages about 'products'.

Modern technology. Love it.

Ford: kick your car to open the boot

Mark 'Brain Fart' Berry

Cougars in Kickers kicking Kuga?