@me
What am I talking about - I thought that was Balmer - oops!
Posts by Dan Wilkinson
107 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Mar 2008
Researchers out Apple over unpatched iCal bugs
Friday 23rd May 2008 10:26 GMT
@Tony Paulazzo
Check your spyware definition. While you may not be aware it was running, it's not attempting to "intercept or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent." - It's just Apple's networking protocol. Quite why it's needed I'm not sure, but it's not spyware.
I quite like iCal as a product for home use, but I can't recommend it over Outlook, and it's a real shame that acceptance emails between the two have never worked. That and the fact that you cannot rename or otherwise alter an event you have accepted (other than removing it) is a bit irritating, especially when you want to remove all the rubbish that Outlook occasionally pads appointments with, like putting "Updated: ..." at the beginning of changed appointments.
Can we request some Steve Jobs icons please? There are 4 for Microhoo! after all...
PS3 update fails to fix Grand Theft Auto IV woes
Friday 16th May 2008 10:43 GMT
Bias
Anti-PS3 bias on the Reg again. So far as I am aware this is a multiplatform problem, so clearly something to do with Rockstars code. Quite how a console firmware update would be expected to fix broken game code is beyond me. I know plenty of people with this game, and no-one who has had a freeze.
I once had a pause, where I thought it had frozen, but it soon carried on - probably loading textures or somthing. One other time when flying down a bridge at high speed I think it couldn't keep up pre-caching the environment I was moving into, and I ended up driving with a matt grey road surface for 5 seconds or so until it loaded the texture, but that's the worst I've seen.
Apple to announce handheld games console at WWDC?
Blu-ray-for-Xbox 360 rumours restoked
Friday 2nd May 2008 13:14 GMT
Never gonna happen...
Why on earth would MS change the drive in the 360? Makes no sense - it'a bad enough that some xbox have a hard drive and others don't meaning that developers never make use of the ones that have it for pre-install caching etc. Having a new SKU with a Blu Ray drive would mean games would start arriving with required specs on the back. Imagine - Required: "Xbox with Blu Ray", or Required, "Xbox with Blu Ray and Hard Disk" Makes a mockery of the whole console thing. They will never in a million years start releasing multiple versions of the same xbox games. They never released any HD-DVD versions of games, so they won;t for Blu Ray - all it will do it pump the price. And there won't be an external version either, as we all know the external HD-DVD drive was released in an attempt to help kill Blu Ray rather than as a useful product with a genuine purpose. Save it for the next gen system...(which will NOT be download based, I put my hat on it. Piracy is bad enough when you have to recreate physical media, how easy will it be if it was all download to start with...)
Apple US retail sales leap past PC par
Wednesday 19th March 2008 21:09 GMT
Yawn.
.5%, and people can still get this wound up about it? I haven't even seen one yet...
All this posturing about what OS is based on what, and how old it's origins are etc is tedious to the extreme, as I base my opinion of whether software is good or not based on if it achieves at what it was procured for. Don't see anyone bitching about Apache being based on ancient free code, it's still happily serving half the internet...
I wouldn't call myself a convert, although I got my first Mac recently. There's good and bad in it. But I have managed to replace every program I used under Windows with Mac OS versions quite happily, with the exception of some digital mapping software, and all my peripherals work with the exception of my Garmin unit, as used by said Windows mapping software anyway...
I use Mac OS, Windows, Solaris and AIX daily, and can find fault with all of them if asked.
Wednesday 19th March 2008 12:08 GMT 
@ Greg
The "more money than sense" argument just doesn't stack up. As with most other products in the world, people don't always want the cheapest product available. They want to feel that they are buying the best that they can afford, and to think that they are proud of their purchases.
If this attitude was widespread in other sectors, no-one would buy BMW or Mercedes etc, because, on the face of it, what are you getting on a 3 series that you aren't getting in a Focus? More MPG? Probably not. Faster? Maybe, but not so as you would particularly notice on your rush hour crawl into work. No, you are paying for 2 things, 1) the increased quality - comfier seats, better design and materials etc, and 2) you are buying into the "superior product one-upmanship" that is prevalent in todays world.
Who, when going to buy a new telly, is going to go to Tesco and buying an own brand "teknica" TV set that marks you out as a cheapskate when for a little more you could buy a Samsung or LG or Sony that you would be proud to show off to the neighbours... All right this may actually be making you prudent, not cheapskate, but you generally get what you pay for. In reality only people who have no choice but to buy budget, will actually do so.
As Mr Pratchett would say, it's Sam Vimes boots theory. A rich person may spend $50 on a pair of boots that will last him a lifetime. A poor person may spend $10 on boots that last a year, and crucually STILL HAVE WET FEET...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
