* Posts by Charles Manning

3509 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jun 2007

MS, US take aim at data protection laws cyber trade barriers

Charles Manning

USA wants to go along with this?

We do have some precedence here. UN. When has USA ever listened to UN?

USA will go along with, and promote, international cooperation until it gets told to do something. The US will then give the world a one-finger salute.

But the whole idea is bullocks anyway. Running, or using, a regional server, for email to comply with some local law is hardly a significant cost in running a regional office.

GPLv2 - copyright code or contract?

Charles Manning

re: Linus

Swapping from GPL2 to 3 is not something Linus wants to do, and is not something that he could do.

Even if he wanted to do that, he'd still have huge problems. Linus has no right to make that decision on his own. The reassignment of code to a new license would require the OK from the thousands of contributors that have provided that code.

Sure, you could start out by dual licensing all new code and slowly wean the Linux code base over to GPL3, but there are probably more important things to be getting on with.

There are some curious holes in the GPL2. Most notably is the lack of an explicit definition of linking which continues to raise the dynamic linking is or is not OK debate. Some, like RMS, would like "binding" to include any code - including app code bound to an OS. Some would like to include dynamic linking and some only static linking.

Interestingly this is clarified in LGPL2, but that is a separate license and has no binding on GPL2.

Legally, the Linux license is not GPL2, but is GPL2-based. There is a difference because the Linux license contains the clarification at the top.

Ultimately GPL2, or any license doc for that matter, is an expression of values more than an article of faith. Nuns didn't rip off their habits when the shroud of Turin was shown to be bogus, nor will OSS developers quit just because the GPL has a few holes in it.

Finland grants 5.2m souls the right to 1Mb internet

Charles Manning

Is there an election coming up?

You can likely already get 1Mb anywhere in Finland via satellite. It's just whether you're prepared to pay for it or not.

Sounds like electioneering.

Perhaps Switzerland was the first to supply it, but is is enshrined as a Right in Switzerland?

If it is a human right, then the govt will have to provide it for free as a social service along with food, shelter and medical.

The Twitter storm that saved freedom of speech

Charles Manning

re: Can we have a 1st amendment please?

Take a squint at http://www.rsf.org/en-classement794-2008.html

Press freedom rankings UK=23, USA=36. [Lower numbers are better]

Where is the evidence that the UK needs the First Amendment?

Where is the evidence it is doing USA any good?

The First Amendment is a nice little smoke screen. Tell the people they have it and they don't question what they're being served.

Aerial laser gunboat 'burns hole in fender' of moving car

Charles Manning

Not really covert

If you're in any dusty, smokey, misty conditions light will struggle to get through and there won't be much oomph left when it gets to the target. A C130 flying close enough to deliver the goods is hardly going to be covert.

Pretty pathetic paint burning exercise in the video. If 5-10 seconds worth is needed to scorch paint, then how much does it take to burn through a steel helmet or even a turban? Try flying a C130 and controlling a laser to keep pointed at one spot for 5+ seconds. If you can do that covertly, then why not just use a rifle round? That's an easier control exercise.

Sorry, they're going to need a couple of orders of magnitude increase in power to make this as dangerous as a 5.56

Proles told to get online to save economy

Charles Manning

How they generate this bollocks

They look at what people are spending over the internet, average it and then multiply by the 10M that don't use the internet. In the process they ignore a few points:

1) Money people spend through the internet means money they are not spending elsewhere therefore there is no gain.

2) Those not on the internet are probably lower income anyway so their spending is less.

Most governments build stupid correlations like this.

eg. High speed broadband creates more employment.

Rationale:

1. There is a reasonable correlation between number of employees a company has and bandwidth the company uses.

2. Therefore, if we double the bandwidth available to a company they will double their staff.

3. Therefore if we give everyone fibre we'll have full employment.

Hypnotist expands breasts, cures irritable bowels

Charles Manning

Of course it works fine

Stuff a CD into each bra cup and you'll get instantly larger breasts. Even more if you leave it in the packaging.

Microsoft sees no silver lining in Sidekick server snafu

Charles Manning

"It isnt Microsoft's fault"... bullshit

MS can't blame this on the people they might have contracted out to. Their customers have a right to expect that an outfit like MS is capable of ensuring that their subcontractors can do the job properly.

Nor can they blame this on legacy systems. MS have owned Danger for well over a year and that is enough time to improve any broken systems, at least to the extent of firing up a backup storage system.

MS's main issue here is that they want to distance this failure from their Azure offering. MS + "cloud failure" could severely dent confidence in Azure.

Oh well Mr Ballmer, while it might not be your fault it's still another screw-up on your ship!

Fanbois howl over data-munching Snow Leopard bug

Charles Manning

re: Backup?

Who really does backups?

If you have a 100G of media files etc then doing backups is theoretically a good idea, but it s far from practical. Telling people to do a backup before a sw installation is just legal weasel-wording.

Sometimes I miss the days when a whole PC hard disk could fit on a box full of floppies.

Microsoft and Armani fashion a phone

Charles Manning

Buzz == flies

Turd attracts them.

Giant megaships to suck 'stranded' Aussie gas fields

Charles Manning

Anything to escape the Australian dockies

Building your own offshore facility is a great way to dodge the Australian dockie unions who'd otherwise screw this operation up in no time flat.

Windows 7, Bing and mobile will determine Ballmer's future

Charles Manning

On Wall St perception is everything

It doesn't matter what OS is technically superior. It doesn't even matter what people prefer to use.

Vista is the first time that average people have become aware of an actual OS, and not for a good reason. Most share holders are likely aware that **they** spent $5bn and many years developing a product and the people wanted to buy the previous version. That doesn't look good.

What matters here is how the the shareholders perceive things, because they're the ones who will ultimately give Ballmer the nod or the boot.

Before Ballmer, Microsoft could do no wrong. Microsoft = Windows = Computers as far as average punters go and Microsoft was Big Profit and the only thing limiting what Microsoft could do was DOJ action. That stopped in 2001 or so, and since then MSFT has gone down in value and MSFT has not done anything that looks new, exciting or profitable.

Sure, much of that is due to maturity. As a company grows and matures, it cannot keep up exponential growth. But the foot does look like it came off the gas in about 2001.

The only benchmark investors really care about is how their money would have performed if they'd invested elsewhere. Since 2004, MSFT is down a bit, AAPL is up1200% and GOOG 360%

When stuff goes right, you can be forgiven a shopping list of sins. When stuff goes wrong, people start looking for a length of rope. If Ballmer had laughed off iphone and still made Apple-like returns, he'd have been forgiven. He didn't. Everything has fallen apart on his watch.

A once great brand has eroded to almost zero.

To keep his job, Ballmer needs to show something positive. He'd better come up with a better story than "investors, investors, investors..."

Charles Manning

Ballmer is a monumental failure

He's been at MS since 1980 but failed to make a name for himself until Bill Gates went to pasture, and even then very few people know who he is. MS went from being perceived as the shining light of American Ingenuity, lead by well-known Bill Gates to a headless corporation.

If he is associated with anything it is bad decisions and being a buffoon:

* Zune

* His laughing off iphone - one of the most successful products and brandings ever.

* Visa.

* Even XBox was a huge cock-up until 360.

* Stupid monkey shows with motivations like developers, developers,.... sales, sales, sales,.... Vista, Vista, Vista,....

And Google are completely eating their lunch.

What's to like about this guy?

MS's biggest problem though is that it is very hard to find anyone that can fill Fates' shoes.

NASA tweaks killer asteroid's trajectory of death

Charles Manning

@Andy Burgess

We have no record of the dinosaur one if it even happened at all, so therefore it can't have set any records.

But this one will be recorded so would be record setting.

Ballmer mixed on Windows 7's success

Charles Manning

Anyone waiting for Win7?

A spike in sales due to W7 is based on the assumption that anyone is actually delaying PC purchases waiting for W7.

Does anyone know anyone that's actually doing that? For the last few months all Vista PCs sold here in NZ have included an offer of a free W7 upgrade when it ships. That's been a ploy to prevent the dreaded overhang.

Thus, it looks very unlikely that W7 is going to be anything to write home about.

US to export riot-roasting raygun

Charles Manning
Boffin

Faraday cage

The general principle for shielding is that any hole should not be more than one tenth of the wavelength. ie in ths case of 94GHz, approx 0.3mm

Sounds like just using straight tinfoil might work better and keep the juices in nicely, , but that will tear easier. Perhaps a space blanket or similar would be a better option.

US court says software is owned, not licensed

Charles Manning

It depends on what rights you're buying

So you bought something.... but what?

If you buy a transferable right, then that's very different to buying a non-transferable right (think full fare vs non-transferrable/refundable airline ticket).

You don't sign any EULAs for airline tickets.

Surely so long as software vendors are upfront on what you're buying then they can sell you anything.

Google to blight smartphones with big ads

Charles Manning

The clever ones

The clever advertisers will make their ads just the right size so that they are not too intrusive.

This removes restrictions so is surely a good thing.

Inside Intel's 'Moorestown'

Charles Manning

Forget it

As AC has siad, these things are just too big and power hunger and expensive relative to ARM parts out there.

Sure, they will improve in time, but process improvement lifts all ships and ARM parts will also improve.

Perhaps they can sell these into tablets etc, but they'll need some significant magic to get them anywhere near phones.

Charles Manning

2800mm^2 motherboard?

That's what they **hope** to achieve in 2 years.

An ARM-based gumsttix (an equivalent motherboard) is only 17x58mm = 986mm^2, including connectors you don't need in a final product, That's been available since the beginning of this year.

One of these gumstix going flat out running Linux uses less power than a current Atom in standby.

Dumping exclusivity could double iPhone sales

Charles Manning

Exclusivity was the right choice

In the beginning it makes sense to go with exclusive carriers for many reasons:

1) Premium: When you're production constrained, as Apple were in the beginning, then it makes sense to go with the biggest margin per unit. You can't sell more so it doesn't make sense to drop prices.

2) It is way, way easier to roll out with fewer telcos than with many, each with their own quirky services etc.

Of course things change. and it makes sense to extend the telcos supported.

Packing heat gets you shot, say profs

Charles Manning

Having been a gun carrier I'm not surprised

When I was armed, I'd happily go through areas that I would not when unarmed. And I've only been mugged once, when I had a gun, and chased the bastard away.

That would not have happened if I'd been unarmed because I would not have gone anywhere near that area.

Twitter tests Tweet nests

Charles Manning

Navel gazing?

Birds don't have navels.

Tweeting goes far beyond the level of introspection implied by navel gazing.

Given the narcissistic nature of twittering, perhaps mirror gazing would have been a better choice. One of those little budgie mirrors with the bell on it. You know the kind.

Ubuntu's Karmic Koala opens its eyes

Charles Manning

Powering down doesn't kill computers

I'm eagerly awaiting Lengthy Lingam to improve boot time.

I run three PCs that get powered up daily. They're in an office that gets very cold so during winter they often get booted at below freezing. I've been doing that for over 15 years. For a while it was 5 computers including 2 Macs.

I have never had a computer failure due this mythical thermal stressing.

Still, most PCs these days don't use much power. My dualcore Linux desktop uses around 40W with the monitors in standby..

Sure, in the very bad old days (1980s etc), some components, especially capacitors and power supplies, were prone to catastrophic failures. These days the more intelligent power supplies are far more reliable.

Leaving computers on just keeps them running botware etc. Very few people actually need their computers to run all the time.

Ballmer says Big Blue hands in too few pies

Charles Manning

If only we'd listen

Steve Jobs must be kicking himself that he didn't take Ballmer's advice about the iphone.

Perhaps Mr Ballmer needs to build a track record before he expects people to take his advice.

Study: US web users reject behavioural advertising

Charles Manning

No wonder Google is a complete failure

Whatever people say, they don't really care because:

(1) They don't even know this is happening.

(2) The results of the poll depend on the way the questions were asked.

(3) Most adults don't understand the difference between their computer and the websites. As far as they're concerned it is all "the computer".

(4) They'll still use Google, Facebook etc because having the service is more important than the privacy, Same deal as how they might object to having to show Id, but will happily drive around with license plates on their cars.

People are really too stupid to be allowed an opinion.

Apple tablet will 'redefine print,' says rumor mill

Charles Manning

Better than the Windows Tablet

Using Windows and x86 for a tablet like this is pretty broken. It will need a heavy battery etc.

Using ARM and a lighter wieght OS is a way better idea.

Until you can drop one and spill coffee on it, these won't replace books.

US govt cash to fund Tesla minivan?

Charles Manning
FAIL

Any earmarked for new power stations?

The dirty side to all these clean eVehicles that everyone wants parked in their driveways is that they need to be provided with some juice from those filthy power stations that nobody wants in their back yards.

MS dual-screen tablet to arrive next year?

Charles Manning

Where's the battery?

If this thing in running Windows 7 it needs a dirty great battery, fans and all the rest that goes with massive CPU and storage usage. Those are not shown here. What is shown here would only get an hour of battery life which would make it relatively pointless.

Home Office declines to detail DNA-for-foreigns trial

Charles Manning

Country of origin labelling!

Cool. At least I'll know my Russian bride is the real deal!

Perhaps there are a few areas where mDNA is relatively static, but pretty much every culture and ethnicity in the world has a history of raiding and running off with soon-to-be-ex virgins under each arm.

That's got to stir the pot somewhat and limit application to areas where the female population hasn't moved about much, perhaps very isolated tribes.

Windows 7 OEM prices revealed

Charles Manning

Apple already set the expected price

Snow Leopard upgrade = $29. And, remember, MS paints Apple as rip off artists so they need to sell the W7 upgrade for $19.

Apple advertisers are going to have a field day. "You can pay $110 for this shitpile. Perhaps you'd do better to make a down payment on a Mac."

Perhaps that's the reason W7 needs all those launch parties. It's more of a wake than a celebration.

Oz woman demands chihuahua at gunpoint

Charles Manning

Chihuahuas are dangerous!

A chihuahua recently killed a rottweiler.

The chihuahua stuck in the rottweiler's throat and it choked to death.

Vegemite unscrews lid on iSnack2.0

Charles Manning
Boffin

@Fihart, @barfridge

Vegemite vs Marmite taste varied according to location, something that I learned when I shifted.

In South Africa, Marmite is very strong/salty and Vegemite is relatively tame. A half teaspoon is enough for a slice of toast.

In NZ/Oz, Vegemite is about the same (and might be the same) as the Vegemite available in South Africa. You want about a tablespoon of the stuff on a slice of toast.

The NZ/Oz Marmite is pointless and is just coloured margarine. Just chuck it in the bin. Sounds like something the Poms might like.

Yahoo! reinvents! yodel!

Charles Manning

@Fihart

Any agency will do anything that the company wants. Just look at the Microsoft arse-wiggle ads.

Besides, the nostalgia angle might work. The only reasons to use Ya-who is because your grandpappy did and you are still using some old yahoo groups.

Microsoft takes on Wet Willie's to punt Windows 7 in Paris

Charles Manning

I'd rather watch Bill wiggling his bum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKM8kCPBn5E (1:24, so you don't have to watch it all).

Apple make their customers feel superior.

Microsoft make their customers feel like complete losers. How does that work?

Ammo rationing at Wal-Mart as panic buying sweeps US

Charles Manning

7 bn per year isn't much

That's just a magazine and a half of 9mm per person.

If you have a gun, then you should be going to the range and keeping your eye in - shooting at least 100/year otherwise you're just a hazard.

I'd expect 5.56 is pretty popular these days. When I was in the South African army many hunters used .308 (== 7.62 NATO) because that's what fell off the back of Army trucks back then and a crate of 2000 goes quite a long way even when shared with all your mates. Sure, mil jacketed rounds don't kill as well as hunting rounds, but that's why you have a magazine.

Panicky Plod apologises to Innocent Terror Techie

Charles Manning

Request to destroy DNA samples

Isn't that the same as asking to be kicked in the balls?

Honda develops motorised unicycle

Charles Manning

Twice as revolutionary as the Segway?

Remember how Segway was going to revolutionise urban transport? Is this better or just as pointless?

Microsoft pulls music service from wireless carriers

Charles Manning

What about current WM customers?

Screw them!

Apple serves everyone using Apple software, even those with the oldest ipods.

Microsoft was serving WM customers. Now they've given them the shove. Now they're only going to serve Zuned WM7 devices.

Remind us... Why would any hardware vendors want to offer WM products if Microsoft is just going to treat them like this?

Microsoft howls as Google turns IE into Chrome

Charles Manning

Not while Ballmer's watching

"This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take".

If Ballmer sees you using ChromIE he'll kick your PC to death.

Linus calls Linux 'bloated and huge'

Charles Manning

Efficient code

Clearly most posters above don't know anything about Linux or efficient code for that matter.

Linux might be bloated and huge relative to what it was, but that does not mean it is bloated and huge when compared to Windows.

Linux is modular which means that only the modules you actually need get loaded. Thus, the wifi drivers and tablet driver for some odd-ball machine are not actually loaded unless they are needed.

Code efficiency is very important for the majority of Linux devices (which are not PCs etc). Most Linux machines are phones etc and efficient code means better battery life and cheaper phones. As a phone software designer, try to ask the hardware guys to build 1Gbytes into the phone. Expect a lot of laughter.

The limitations constraining performance go through generations: CPU speed, memory availability, memory bandwidth, etc. The design choices that make sense at one time don't necessarily make sense at another time and you're always playing off memory usage against speed etc.

Dual-screen Microsoft 'booklet' uncovered

Charles Manning

nth time lucky?

Tablets have always been Billy-boy's pet format. MS have tried doing tablets at least three times in the past and all have failed dismally.

Why should this one be any different?

Intel will sell more SoCs than mainstream CPUs, says CEO

Charles Manning

Atom is just there for Windows

The only reason things like EeePC are running x86 is to run Windows. Get rid of Windows FUD and these devices will all be running ARM.

Atom is far too power hungry for nice small devices. ARM uses only a small fraction of the power and is cheaper too.

Next-gen Atom to clock above 1GHz

Charles Manning

Now try to challenge ARM's power usage

Hint: Less is better.

Until they can get Atom below 2 W or so they aren't in the game. That's far more important that anything else for most mobile applications.

Hospital loses vital cancer research to thieves

Charles Manning

Vital cancer research?

There's a lot of cancer research going on. No doubt the researchers feel that they are doing something important. But, how much of that research is really vital? Likely, equivalent research is being carried out elsewhere?

There is a lot of cancer research going on but very few real breakthroughs. We don't know which is vital (or even fruitful) until it has been proven to be useful or not.

This is a percentage game and if you lose some, then so what!

Texas Instruments aims lawyers at calculator hackers

Charles Manning

Why bother?

I can see it might be worth doing something with an RPN HP, but it's not even worth putting batteries in a TI, let alone a new firmware.

Does the Linux desktop need to be popular?

Charles Manning

Nope

Linux doesn't need to be popular on the desktop. I'd be worried at the stuff needed to make it popular would dilute the stuff that makes it powerful.

Linux is great where the user doesn't have to fiddle to keep things going: servers and embedded stuff like phones etc.

My family uses Ubuntu variants as primary desktops on 5 machines (except for gaming) and it is mostly pretty painless. It needs to be a lot more painless to be used by regular people though.

For example, a minor disk screwup needs a manual fsck which is beyond averagle Joe.

The other real limitation is the messing about with flash etc toi get youtube working. This is really a case of some developers putting their moral outrage about free software ahead of usability.

I recently set up a new network printer with a network using Ubuntu boxes, Mac boxes and Windows. Ubuntu and Mac "just worked" Windows needed shagging around pulling WinZip files etc.

US software firm sentenced for 'trading with the enemy'

Charles Manning

Need to keep them in the bad bucket

USA needs someone to fear. Helps to keep the citizens in check.

Psion founder retires

Charles Manning

Pity they went to sleep.

If they'd kept refreshing the Psion7 they'd have had something better than EeePC.

CSI boffins: You can't ID crims from bitemarks on victims

Charles Manning

Partial Id

So what if a bite mark isn't unique and cannot replace, say fingerprints or DNA. It can still help narrow the field like race, height etc. Perp was a 6ft white guy doesn't mean you lock up the first 6ft white guy you find.