* Posts by Another Justin

57 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2012

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Windows 8.1 start button appears as Microsoft's Blue wave breaks

Another Justin
Joke

Re: Windows 8.1 start button appears

>Why should people be forced to change the way they work if it works for them?

Precisely! The Program Manager from Windows 3.1 worked really well for me - I could organise my programs however I wanted to in a nice big folder, but now Microsoft are making me use this crappy start menu thing.

They need to add an option to Windows 8 to make it work exactly like Windows 3.1 did - why should I be forced into using Microsofts crappy new "user friendly" UI when what they had before worked perfectly fine for me?

Apple: If you find us guilty in ebook price-fix trial, EVERYONE suffers

Another Justin

"Apple has maintained that it just did what any business would do when getting into a market: negotiate with suppliers for the best possible prices."

And then negotiated with suppliers to stop competitors from undercutting them.

Facebook foolishness foils (un)civil servant's squirm up greasy pole

Another Justin

Re: When will people learn to control their verbal diarrhea

So you want a world where a bank teller / shop assistant / workmate etc... can openly call you a dick to your face? They certainly have the right of "freedom of expression" to say that to you, but that right doesn't necessarily extend to getting to keep their job afterwards.

What about if they sent you an email instead? How about if it was a company-wide mailing list? Saying it publicly on the internet (where customers / colleagues can see it) isn't any different - you have the right of "freedom of expression" to be as rude and offensive as you like to whoever you like in exactly the same way that you do when speaking to them in person or through any other medium.

Another Justin
Megaphone

When will people learn to control their verbal diarrhea

I've had clients I work with being fairly offensive begind my back on Twitter, completely unaware that I too can use the internet. My girlfriend narrowly avoided getting into trouble when a friend of hers decided Facebook was the best place to discuss her current boss / workplace.

Social media has been around for long enough now that people should realise what you should and shouldn't put on the internet without needing any training. The rule is straightforward enough - if you wouldn't say it to the bosses / customers face, don't post it on Facebook. People who don't realise this are either rude, stupid or both.

Review: Acer Aspire P3 Windows 8 slate

Another Justin

Re: A non working keyboard at boot...

Also a standard USB keyboard would also probably have worked just fine.

Another Justin

Re: A non working keyboard at boot...

A quick search reveals plenty of people who have successfully installed Windows 7 using a bluetooth keyboard, as well as several people who struggled installing Ubuntu.

The non-working keyboard is purely down to what drivers are loaded at that point in the installation process. An alternative distro (or newer Ubuntu release) that includes the correct drivers should work just fine.

El Reg drills into Office 365: The science of compliance

Another Justin

Re: I can't recommend it.

Microsoft recently announced that Office 365 is fully compliant with EU data protection standards, which means that what you are saying isn't true (or Microsoft are lying).

Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

Another Justin
WTF?

Re: @John P re trying windows 8 before damning it

> So when I read articles about how Windows 8 only supports full-screen apps

I'm using Firefox and Visual Studio alongside each other on Windows 8 right now. Those articles are probably talking about Windows RT which is not a desktop operating system.

> When I read blogs about how Windows 8 requires you to sign in to an online account, or, if you don't, constantly nags you to do so

Again, I'm not signed into a Microsoft linked count and I've only been nagged about it the once.

> When I read reviews stating that the new TIFKAM interface is going to be a walled garden where only Microsoft-approved apps can be installed

This is just about the only thing you've read which is almost true - installing non Microsoft-approvd apps is intended only for Enterprise customers and developers and is a bit of a pain for everyone else.

> If I told you that the next version of the OS you'd be using had a C64-style command-line-only interface with no mouse support, no icons...

Then I'd probably think you are either lying, or don't have a clue what you are on about, or both - I don't believe everything that gets said on the internet and neither should you.

Mozilla teams up with Foxconn for Firefox 'fondleslab'

Another Justin

Re: open handset alliance

As I understand it Firefox OS isn't in any way a fork of Android - the only code shared with Android is stuff for interacting with the hardware which is used to allow Firefox OS to run on Android-compatible devices. Presumably this wouldn't be needed at all if it was being run on purpose-built hardware.

Schmidt: Don't like our tiny tax bills? Google this... 'Change the law'

Another Justin
Megaphone

Politicians need to stop asking companies to pay more tax and start telling them!

Rather than faffing about asking Google "pretty please can you give us some more money?", decide how much tax they should be paying and change the law so thats what they actually pay!

Asking companies like Google and Amazon to pay "what they think is fair" is just a waste of time - Tax laws exist to define how much companies should pay.

Steve JOBS finally DEFEATS the PC - from BEYOND THE GRAVE

Another Justin

Re: No surprise

I have a tablet sat on my coffee table that I find myself using picking up very frequently for fairly standard "light internet use", reading e-mail, looking up film reviews, ordering takeaway etc... Its so much easier to just pick up a tablet and turn it off standby than having to walk across the room and wait for the PC to boot up.

In reality about half the time I find myself giving up on these fairly straightforward tasks and using the PC anyway through sheer frustration at the effort of typing in password / card numbers, or some website with a dodgey drop down menu / JavaScript combo box that doesn't work properly without a mouse (I'm looking at you National Rail!). The one that really gets me is takeaway ordering - the tablet should be ideal for this but the ordering systems are so difficult to use that I generally just give up and use the PC anyway.

Although many people don't "need" a full PC for these sorts of things, a lot of the time its just so much quicker and easier to do these simple tasks on a PC with a proper keyboard and mouse. The only way I can see this changing is if the average tablet also has a keyboard and mouse, which is kind of cheating really.

Another Justin

Isn't this mostly just down to people buying their first tablet?

I'd imagine that most customers buying PCs aren't buying their first PC, they are replacing an existing one. Now that the rate of improvements of PC hardware has slowed customers don't need to replace their PCs as frequently - a 2-3 year old PC is still perfectly usable (even for some gaming).

Conversely I'd speculate that most tablet buyers are either buying their first tablet, replacing one that they smashed, or buying one as a present.

I'll be interested to see what happens to tablet sales in a couple of years from now when most people already have one - do people replace tablets more often than PCs? How many people will actually replace their PC with a tablet and how many will just use both?

Video services chug half of US net capacity

Another Justin

Re: Availability

Its just as cheap for unlimited streaming in the USA ($7.99 I believe)

In fact with the current exchange rate that makes it cheaper than the UK (£5.99)

Microsoft: Subscription-only apps? Not for us, yet

Another Justin
FAIL

Re: Not worth it

The Adobe subscription model could have been brilliant for users (like me) that don't use their software frequently enough to affort the massive price-tag, however might have signed up for a month or so at a time for the odd project now-and-then.

If it hadn't been rediculously over-priced that is.

Another Justin

Adobe might have been fine if they had chosen a more reasonable price

If the release cycle for a product is 18-24 months then you can probably expect users to upgrade on average about once every 2-4 years. If the cost of an upgrade is around £200 then this makes the cost of ownership for that product £50-£100 per year (not the £200+ that Adobe are charging).

A subscription plan set at around that price point would actualy becomes reasonably sensible for many end users - satisfied customers who keep up-to-date with the latest versions pay roughly the same amount (depending on how frequently they upgrade) while users who will only use the software for a intermittently (for example writing up a CV or a short project) can use the fully featured product for a lot less than if they had to buy the boxed edition.

Of course even with the pricing set competitively its still a matter of trust, which is not something that many large software companies have an over-abundance of at the moment.

Adobe kills Creative Suite – all future features online only

Another Justin
Thumb Down

Would have been fine if they had chosen a more reasonable price

If the release cycle for an adobe product is 18-24 months then you can probably expect users to upgrade on average about once every 2 years. If the cost of an upgrade is around £200 then this makes the cost of ownership for that product around £100 per year, not the £200+ that Adobe are charging.

Subscription pricing actually sounds like a pretty good idea (no need to pay for upgraes, you can use it for a couple of months and ditch it), but the massive price hike just makes me think "money grabbing bastards".

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

Another Justin
Facepalm

Re: We told you it was shit

> Honestly, this change of UI for the sake of change, with no possibility of user configuration is beginning to annoy me!

Nowadays its fairly well established amongst usability experts that having configuration settings for everything results in a poor and fragmented user experience. I've seen and used plenty of software where lazy developers couldn't decide what approach to take with their UI and so just did both and added a setting to change between the two - good UI developers identify which approach is best and focus all of their efforts on making sure that apprach works well.

You also have increased training and support costs to consider whenever you have two approaches to the same operation.

First, the bad news: EA bags Star Wars games rights

Another Justin
Thumb Up

Excellent news!

Things that I have no interest in purchasing:

- Games made by EA

- Any game about Star Wars

Synergistic!

Study: Most projects on GitHub not open source licensed

Another Justin

GitHub is "project hosting" rather than "open source project hosting"

Although I didn't do an exhaustive search, having done a basic run through of the homepage and sign-up process I couldn't find anything that suggested GitHub was exclusively for open source projects (although it did say "The world’s largest open source community").

I suspect that a significant number of the repositories on GitHub are just "pet projects", a convenient place to put source code so that you can share it between multiple PCs and possible a couple of friends. Do these sorts of projects really need proper licensing?

ARM's new CEO: You'll get no 'glorious new strategy' from me

Another Justin

Re: Whats all this Intel vs ARM rubbish I've been hearing about recently?

While I don't own one myself as I understand it the chromebook has recieved mixed reviews, due to the limited functionality offered. While I'm sure its very good at what it does the chromebook currently sits firmly in the "laptop alternative" category laregely as it doesn't have access to the larger range of software available to x86 based competitors. The reason why thats not going to change is a simple chicken-and-egg problem - at the moment few applications are made available for ARM operating systems, and so the limited software limits the availability of ARM based devices.

Servers are a different matter as servers only need to run a limited selection of software and so the chicken-and-egg principle applies less. That said although at the moment running an ARM based server (e.g. Apache) is possible, its rare at and so for the vast majority of people the technical expertise needed to set it all up (and the limited selection of ARM based hardware) stops it being cost effective for anyone except the likes of Google who have power bills through the roof - its still going to be a while before the idea of an ARM based server becomes mainstream enough for that to change.

Another Justin

Re: Whats all this Intel vs ARM rubbish I've been hearing about recently?

Any by "Non-Intel" I do of course mean x86.

Another Justin

Whats all this Intel vs ARM rubbish I've been hearing about recently?

Both companies are well entrenched in their respective markets - the idea of Intel breaking into the mobile market is only slightly less laugable than that of ARM based PCs. ARM based servers might be a slightly more realistic however at best its still going to be a good while before a non-Intel based server is anything other than a fairly specialized piece of kit.

The gaming habits of Reg readers revealed

Another Justin

It would have been interesting to see the number of gamers using Linux operating systems

Although understandably the number is going to be smaller than those using Windows systems, it would have been interesting to see exactly how much smaller.

Microsoft backs law banning Google Apps from schools

Another Justin
Thumb Up

Re: The bill sounds good

The use of a such a service (a cloud computing service that used the students data for commercial purposes) in the UK would already be a breach of the data protection act.

If by "MS competition" you mean "companies who can't be trusted to provide basic protection for students details" then yes, this is obviously amed to whack out "MS competition".

Here's the $4.99 utility that might just have saved Windows 8

Another Justin
WTF?

Utterly pointless

So this is for people who want to run Metro-style apps but in a window, which is who exactly?

Anyone who hates the Metro-style interface even 10% as much as the author does just won't bother with metro apps and will just use the fully fledged Win32 equivalents instead (which are actually designed to run in a window)

For everyone else having Metro apps be full-screen is kind of the point (pretty much the only app I ever use is the Netflix one because it works well in full screen mode)

SimCity 3000

Another Justin

Re: Dons cynical hat

Seems like the SimCity launch is suffering from fairly massive technical DRM-based failures at the moment

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/permit-denied-simcity-servers-overloaded-building-gets-under-way-1C8725410

No coverage of said story on here though - isn't this the sort of story that The Register usually thrives on?

New UK.gov cyber-security standard puts MANAGERS in firing line

Another Justin
Meh

I smell a potentially good idea about to go very wrong

The main problem with cyber security is that in a lot of organisations nobody really cares until after its too late.

If some sort of "cyber security standard" means that organisations are willing to invest in security simply to keep their accreditation then that can only be a good thing, although I have no idea what this standard could involve to achieve that and I suspect neither does anyone who is going to be involved in creating it.

Want a promotion? Study economics, says HDS economist

Another Justin

Want a promotion? Study everything!

While I'm sure that studying economics well help, will it really help more than say "Windows 8 deployment"?

I don't need to study economics to know that a quick way of saving money is to get rid of employees that don't know how to do their job properly.

Wanna really insult someone? Log off and yell it in the street - gov

Another Justin
Go

Being "insulting" should not be illegal in its own right

Being insulted is a matter of personal beliefs, interpretation and state of mind - its practially impossible to say anything that is guarenteed not to insult somebody. Unless insulting behaviour / language is also covered by another offence (e.g. because its abusive or antisocial) then it shouldn't be an offence.

That goes for social media too (where apparently the laws of Libel already apply).

John Lewis agrees to flog Microsoft's Surface RT tablets

Another Justin

Re: Demand has been phenominal.

Well reportedly John Lewis weekly sales figures went up by over 4% (total, not just technology sales). They claim that this is "largely driven by interest in the retailer’s Windows 8 ranges" - presumably this is the "phenomenal demand" that they are talking about (as opposed to simply a comparison of Windows 7 sales to Windows 8 sales).

I don't know if this claim is actually true or not, but if it is then its definitely impressive.

Google kills free version of Apps for business

Another Justin

Re: 5 years 10 months

If Google said "We will soon be implementing feature X", I'd hope that by "soon" that they meant less than 5 years from now.

85% of Windows 8 users wield the desktop on day one

Another Justin
Go

Very entertaining stuff

I have to admit it, I'm impressed with the bloody-minded determination involved with spinning every statistic into a prophecy of the imminent failure of Windows 8 - it makes for very entertaining reading!

Also I've said it before but the Windows 8 start menu is the best Windows start menu I've ever used. To start with the search feature actually works - I start typing and it finds the setting or program I was looking for faster than I can blink (unlike the Windows 7 one that thought that the My Documents is obviously where it should be looking for "Visual Studio"). I also get to see all the programs I actually use on a single screen, instead of having to click on "All programs", do some scrolling and navigate a folder structure.

Windows 8 is the first OS I've ever successfully used without installing my own launcher replacement (e.g. Executor)

Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 arrives, first of many

Another Justin

Re: Butt Ugly UI

I've been using it since it was released and I'd never go back. Aside from pretty much every feature being better (especially the quick search thing and the in-editor searching) the old blue of VS 2010 now just looks awful in comparison (SQL 2012 Management Studio is based on VS 2010 shell so I have to use it from time to time)

If you really want to "do something about it" then you can do it yourself - the menu caps thing can be changed with a registry setting and you can change the color scheme to whatever you like (including the blue)

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YourColorfulVisualStudio2012WithTheColorThemeEditorVS2010ColorsToo.aspx

Microsoft dragging its feet on Linux Secure Boot fix

Another Justin
Thumb Down

Pretty sure its not malice

Having read the original blog post it appears that Microsoft have given Linux Foundation a signed binary, however accidentally signed it using their own identity rather than that of the Linux Foundation - whoops!

So the Linux Foundation are currently in the position where they could release (or leak) a working bootloader, but they have chosen not to because they don't want to piss Microsoft off - information completely missing from this article.

Windows Phone 8: Exceptional tools, but where are the devs?

Another Justin

Clearly that was never going to happen

For developers to be able to develop Windows 8 apps on Windows 7 they need to be able to run them, which means back-porting the entire WinRT infrastructure something which both takes them a load of effort to do and actively undermines sales of their shiny new product.

Halo 4 game review

Another Justin

Nice review but...

Does it go "Du Du Du Duuuuhhhh!"?

Microsoft's 'official' Windows 8 Survival Guide leaks

Another Justin

Re: "News"?

How about "The Register: Sci/Tech News for the World" (in the title of your browser when you visit the home page)

Nothing wrong with satire, as long as it is accompanied by actual news as well. Also it doesn't explain what is wrong with Windows 8, its an opinion. A very popular opinion, however an opinion nevertheless as opposed to verifiable information.

If I wanted opinion I would be reading reddit or the Daily Mail.

Another Justin
Thumb Down

"News"?

Last time I checked the word "News" featured in the title of this website, its a shame that its missing from the content of this article. While I appreciate that it's important to target your content for the audience, and that bashing Windows 8 is the "in thing" on the internet at the moment, I can't completely shake the view that this piece has somewhat missed the "information on current events" aspect of "News".

If I wanted satire I would be reading The Onion.

Amazon accused of remotely wiping punter's Kindle

Another Justin
Thumb Down

Justin

Considering that the account that she is supposedly linked to is in the UK then can she not submit a request for her details under the data protection act? This would obligate them to at least reveal the information about the account that she supposedly holds, and possibly allow her correct the information if its incorrect.

'Stop-gap' way to get Linux on Windows 8 machines to be issued

Another Justin

Re: let me get this straight

Its not really a workaround that malware can use - the bootloader performs a "present user test" (just a prompt that says "WARNING: This Binary is unsigned, Are you sure you wish to run an unsigned binary in a secure environment?") before allowing an unsigned chained bootloader to run.

Anyone who is not used to seeing this message (e.g. Windows users, or users of another signed OS) will be alerted to the ruse if malware attempts to use this to subvert secure boot. Anyone who is already using this bootloader is essentially disabling secure boot anyway.

Fans revolt over Amazon 'adware' in Ubuntu desktop search results

Another Justin
Thumb Up

Sounds like a reasonably good idea to me

As someone who is wholely against advertising and the general day-to-dat pummeling of "marketing messages" that I currently recieve, this strikes me as a fairly neat feature that I'd probably actually use. Of all the points in my day where I get adverts shown to me, when I'm searching for stuff is probably one of the few cases where that information might be beneficial to me as the user, which in turn makes me more likely to click on it (a mutually beneficial agreement). The fact that its generating cash for Ubuntu doesnt't really bother me.

This is of course with the assumption that my data is properly protected (i.e. not used to track / market things at you), and that the results shown are not completely in-my-face. If I was to critique this feature then I'd have to ask why only Amazon, why not other retailers? That said I guess you have to start somewhere - if this feature is successful then I'd hope to see results from other shops being shown here.

I can see why people are getting wound up about this, but at the same time if Ubuntu weren't getting any money from Amazon nobody would really care.

'Programming on Windows 8 just like playing bingo' - Microsoft VP

Another Justin

Not really seeing the "change in direction", just need to choose the right tool for the job

There may be a number of different tools, but thats becuase there are a number of different jobs (and some of the tools are older than others)

- Win32 / GDI is the original API that has been around since the dawn of Windows. Its stable, reliable, its here to stay until the end of time (for backwards compatability reasons) and its also a pain in the ass to use because the API was designed before OOP became prominant (and also for backwards compatability reasons)

- Windows Forms is essentially just a wrapper around the WIn32 API / GDI. Its stable, reliable, infinitely easier to use than the Win32 API, and again here to stay until the end of time.

- WPF is for developers creating "rich" (i.e. flashy) user interfaces for desktop PCs. Windows forms is still built on top of GDI, a system originally designed at the time of 16-bit operating systems and so its not really geared around flashy interfaces. WPF aimed to make things easier by starting from the groud up with a new layout engine. Its future may not be as assured as Win32 or Windows Forms, but I'd say that its still a fairly safe bet that WPF will be around for a while.

- Silverlight is a WEB technology, don't confuse Silverlight with WPF just because it uses XAML. There probably could have been more consistency with WPF, however in a lot of places the inconsistency is there because its a WEB technology and just can't do everything WPF can (e.g. for security reasons).

- WinRT is a technology for building mobile (i.e. phone and tablet applications). Like Silverlight, don't confuse WinRT with WPF & the .Net framework just because it uses XAML, and again like Silverlight its inconsistent in places because you can't do everything that you can do on a desktop on a tablet. You woulnd't choose WinRT to build desktop applications, you choose WinRT to build mobile applications - the fact that they work on desktop PCs too is just a bonus.

Maybe they could have been more consistent in places, but I don't really see the "change in direction" - Each of these technologies has its purpose (even if that purpose is allowing me to keep developing my legacy applications).

In fact Microsoft are being pretty consistent with their use of existing languages (C#, XAML, HTML, JavaScript) even on new platforms. The only popular development environment I'm aware of which is more consistent across platforms is Java, and developing in Java is a pain in the ass.

Another Justin
Stop

Whats the obsession with the name of the interface?

Honestly, does anyone actually care that the new interface is no longer called "Metro"? Yes they had to change it for legal reasons and of course they don't really want to admit that, but does it actually matter? I for one couldn't really care less what they call it.

There is life after the death of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Start button

Another Justin

Re: I too found after some use

Can I suggest that you investigate the Windows 7 downgrade rights?

http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/pages/downgrade_rights.aspx#fbid=66BVjcQ4aQ8

From reading your posts its clear that you won't be happy with anything less than exactly the same behaviour that you are used to. Yes everyone has different working processes, but there are also some people who just don't like change - you appear to be one of those people.

In my (humble) oppinion Windows 7 is superior to every previous version of Windows in pretty much every way and the start menu / task bar is no exception.

Nokia flagellates self further to quell fake cam ad Twitterstorm

Another Justin

Understandable, but also fairly inexcusable

The footage was probably filmed on a different camera because if it had been filmed on a phone I'm guessing it wouldn't have looked particularly good.

This isn't to say that the phone doesn't have really good camera (for a phone), and that the footage wouldn't have shown that the OIS feature worked really well (for a phone), simply that the recording quality of a phone can't stand up in comparison to professional recording equipment used to record most adverts.

That said, its fairly inexcusable to try and pass off footage in an advert that wasn't recorded using that product without some sort of disclaimer.

Build a bonkers home cinema

Another Justin
FAIL

Forgive me for asking a stupid question but...

"While discs can be ejected from the Vault’s carousel at anytime, you’ll not be able to access the digital copy when they’re AWOL"

If the disk needs to be in the player in order to play the digital copy, then what exactly is the point of taking a digital copy in the first place? Why not just play the disk directly?

Also while I'm here, 320 disks really isn't that many. If I'm the sort of person who has £30k lying around to spend on a Blu-Ray player then I'm going to have a lot more than 320 disks, and after forking over £30k I'm definitely not going to be happy about having to stand up to change them over whenever I want to play a disk that isn't in the vault.

Number-plate spycams riddled with flaws, top cop admits

Another Justin
Facepalm

Re: Nevermind the gaps.

So you see having your photo on a police database (that in all likelihood will never be looked at by a human being) as more of an injustice than say (for example), uninsured drivers on the roads, or stolen cars? Your saying that if the cost of catching criminals is having your photo taken then you'd rather the police just not bother? What if its your stolen car they can't find?

Visual Studio 2012: 50 Shades of Grey by Microsoft

Another Justin
Thumb Up

Colour scheme works great for me

I've been using the new-look Visual Studio for a week or so now and from what I can see the use of colour is in fact very well thought out and much improved from previous editions.

Yes at a glance the initial lack of colour compared to 2010 was a little disconcerting, however one I started using it in my day-to-day coding I found colour being used to draw my eye to the important details, such as my code, the pass/fail state of my unit tests, notifications etc...

I do have some minor complaints (for example when debugging unit tests with all CLR exceptions being thrown I now have to hit continue about 8 times before my unit test actually starts running), however overall Visual Studio 2012 gets a definite thumbs up from me.

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