Re: "Fall Creators Update"
Apple re-forgets the Southern Hemisphere exists with every release that breaks daylight-saving again, and again and again.
Posts by hitmouse
364 posts • joined 15 Dec 2008
Feature snatcher Microsoft tweaks OneDrive
Google now mingles everything you've bought with everywhere you've been
Given that Google interprets all dates in my data stream as MM/DD/YYYY despite location and language settings predicating DD/MM/YYYY, it makes a royal mess of things.
Opposable thumbs make tablets more useful says Microsoft Research
Re: Next up
That has also been looked at for many years. You could have finger set or chord modes appropriate to cases where tablets are being held. It's not far from having fingerprint sensors on the rear of cameras as a login mechanism - I actually find the current Samsung galaxy rear mounted sensor to be quite easy to use.
The original Microsoft Tablet PC team worked this out nearly 20 years ago, but because other OEMs were making the devices, these ideas were never implemented.
Nuh-uh, Google, you WILL hand over emails stored on foreign servers, says US judge
This is consistent with the US's policy of "if we can rendition a person from foreign territory, then they're subject to our laws".
Stop asking people for their passwords, rights warriors yell at US Homeland Security
They can do it to all the spring-breakers heading to Mexico. You know, the ones who shout "build that wall" from the wrong side.
"less bullshitting" than Trump? With the bar he sets, that's not exactly a limbo-challenge
Australian Taxation and Immigration depts fail infosec audits
Immigration and Border Protection ? The department that sends out automated email replies with links that have been broken for years? Oh them.
If nbn™ can't say when it will arrive in your street, you're getting a Telstra HFC connection
Re: Hmmm...
That's re-branded as Turnbull's 2020 Hindsight plan.
I'm pretty sure I signed up for NBN updates years ago but have never heard anything from them, so tried to sign up again. However after filling out all the fields, all I get is "We are not able to complete this action. Please try again later. Sorry for any inconvenience.".
"Later" being 2021 presumably.
Loyalty card? Really? Why data-slurping store cards need a reboot
They have gotten worse for me over the years. For the last year they've been advertising Kindle titles to me in the Kindle app that's already holding those titles. So they're good at picking what I like if it 100% matches what I've already bought from them.
Living with the Pixel XL – Google's attempt at a high-end phone
Self-driving cars doomed to be bullied by pedestrians
Re: An assumption too far...
"Darwinian-yourself-out-of-existence-pedestrians"
Most of them don't even attempt to look when they cross the road. Having them attempt to discern vehicle-types is a couple of orders of magnitude of cognitive processing beyond "look left and right".
"'The reason is that pedestrians know their fellow humans may run them over. "
An increasing number of pedestrians (and cyclists) are oblivious to this. Some are too engaged in their screens, and others dare drivers to mind-read their intent when they suddenly turn and walk out onto the road without giving any clues. Few stop at the kerb and look in each direction before walking out.
There's definitely an air of "my indifference/indignation outweighs the laws of physics".
Will US border officials demand social network handles from visitors?
I was surrounded by armed guards (audibly taking their guns off safety) because some idiot processed someone else through with my same common first+lastname. Apparently it was MY fault. Haven't been back.
Making us pay tax will DESTROY EUROPE, roars Apple's Tim Cook
Even with this massive tax advantage, Apple has not invested in support for its products in Europe, either at the design or post-sales level.
I tried to get iTunes support in France, only to be switched through to Ireland, and then finally to an "ïnternational" guy in Apple HQ who admitted that he frankly knew very little about any of how Apple's products worked outside the US.
Excel hell messes up ~20 per cent of genetic science papers
Re: Killing spreadsheets for fun and profit
People should just learn to compute in their head.
I read all of these things and wonder how I figured this stuff out in less than a minute in the days when you couldn't Google a variety of solutions in five seconds.
Re: More appropriately...
Or make users understand that sometimes significantly more users want something different than you do.
Microsoft can't tell North from South on Bing Maps
Re: "We're the Hakowi" - F Troop
I tracked a local business around the corner from me back to a current Yellow Pages listing. However there has not been anything there for a decade, unless the rotting premises of a long abandoned fish and chips shop qualifies as worthy of Yellow Pages relevance.
I should note that for the first two years after Ikea opened its flagship store in Tempe, Google Maps showed a vacant lot. But then again, most American companies can't put two and two together without an Allen key.
For years, Bing maps has totally relocated dozens of Sydney landmarks around the city as it indiscriminately treated X street in the CBD as X street in another suburb, Notifying them of the scale of these errors (via feedback, twitter etc) has been a thankless exercise.
Bing also has a gift for identifying the main location of some institutions at minor branch locations. It placed the University of NSW in Manly for several years, and now places it at the location of its small College of Fine Arts, several km from its main campus. At least it's now on the correct side of the Harbour.
Anyway, all you need to do is open Bing maps in a neighbourhood you know well, to find dozens of businesses that you heretofore thought were located elsewhere: beach holiday resorts in suburban streets. It's hilarious.
Much of the data appears to come from the Australian Yellow Pages, which - from following links - seems to be years out of date. Obviously a poor partner for Bing's local offerings.
It's not our fault we don't hire black people, says Facebook
Re: Hiring laws
Generally people can make quick assessments based on surname of someone's foreign-ness.
This is something that has come up time and time again in France, which collects no statistics about race. Tests have been run against mailed-in applications to employers who claim not to discriminate on race because they're unaware of it - however applications from non-traditional French surnames are massively rejected
"" the purpose of a business is PROFIT. Therefore, you hire the person who will MAKE THE MOST MONEY FOR THE COMPANY. ""
In theory. My experience of working in a big west coast software company is that a lot of managers would rather the company lost business of large market segments than they would have to address issues completely foreign to their way of thinking.
I've seen it time and time again. Smart people, but blinkered in so many ways.
Re: re:just it is easier to get a job with them if your skin is white
One big problem with starting out with a homogeneous workforce is that they often simply don't know what skills and knowledge they are missing out on by hiring only for competencies THAT THEY ARE AWARE OF.
American software companies are generally lousy at hiring people who know how to address customer issues outside of the US. They cannot even conceive how living in a different hemisphere, set of timezones, school system etc might be possible or require changes in the way that they design and support their products,
Case in Point, Facebook has not addressed a single internationalization bug that I have reported to them in the last five years. It's like asking their employees to breath something other than American Oxygen. They can't even imagine what it would take to solve such issues, and they don't hire people who might know how.
Virtual reality will take over the world by 2020, reckons analyst haus
Given the great difficulty that so many organisations have in creating reliable 2D web experiences, I can't fathom how they can possibly manage immersive 3D
Samsung: Don't install Windows 10. REALLY
Given my experience trying to run various versions of Samsung's horrendous Kies software, I am sure they are giving customers this advice in Korean, just as with most of the error messages on my English installation.
Why has Microsoft stopped being beastly to Google?
Considering the number of ex-Microsoft people at Google, and the general career merry-go-round between Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle etc, I wouldn't lend much credence to any avowed policy of one vs the other.
Microsoft introduces yet another Skype for Windows 10
Re: Single version?
"..yet the Linux version Skype is Advert free."
Because advertisers recognise that once someone has Linux they yearn for nothing else but an opportunity to tell the world that they have Linux.
Beyond iTunes: XML boffins target sheet music
Re: xml to midi
Essentially long-established art. Most music notation programs (which themselves allow round-tripping of custom file formats with MusicXML) have export to MIDI options.
It is worth underlining the fact that MIDI provides performance/playback instructions and so opening a MIDI file in a notation program can show you a lot of jangly garbage unless you pre-process with a lot of heuristics regarding rhythm etc.
Apple supremo Tim Cook rules out OS X fondleslab, iOS merger
Re: OSX is just too far behind Windows
"MacOS (and Windows) were both designed for mouse & keyboard input." So you're going to rule out all forms of natural input forever?
For those of us who use computers for diagrams, music and other non-text-based endeavours, having touch/stylus + speech etc interfaces are essential additional tools.
"What idiot thought you'd have a touch interface on a server?" Lemme see, someone managing media with a push-button interface or otherwise "naturalistic" interface.
Can we please get more commentary from people not stuck in a 1970s mindset?
Re: OSX is just too far behind Windows
" I don't know of a Win tablet with a capacitive screen that measures pressure (aka force touch) but if one is made Windows could support it."
The first Windows tablets released with Windows XP SP1 by NEC, Acer, Motion Computing etc etc had 256 levels of pressure reading. If you use the Windows Journal application released at the time (Tools > Options > Pen and Highlighter Settings) you can set pressure-sensitivity on or off. I favour using it on with the Chisel point pen so that you get variable thickness in your hand-writing.
More information here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms703290(v=vs.85).aspx
BBC shuts off iPlayer to UK VPNs, cutting access to overseas fans
Re: licensing
So that gives you a mountain of ephemeral (but still enormously entertaining) radio content which the BBC was going to flog to the world before it closed down the BBC Radio Downloader service a few years ago, ... and then never got around to selling any content. Lose lose situation
It's not just USA ( there's a Commonwealth-load of countries to start off with) and it's not just TV.
I'd happily pay the license fee JUST for BBC RADIO 4. Most of which is BBC owned or contracted or could be trivially negotiated for international. As it is most of it is not onsold anywhere else in the world
Hurrah! Doctor Who brings us a bootstrap paradox treat in Before the Flood
22nd century technology
... And no bionic ear or automatic/ambient speech translation facility?
Australia the idiot in the global village, says Geoff Huston
Re: That's too generous
correction to "I think it's slightly different.." They didn't find it in the bible where traditional connections are honoured.
Android in user-chosen lockscreen patterns are grimly predictable SHOCKER
My complex pattern is a nightmare when the screen is even the tiniest bit moist (a raindrop screws it up) and any double-back just gets lost. A disconnected numeric pin is much easier to manage in such a circumstance.
Australian online shoppers and Netflix to be fully taxed in 2017
Re: won't make much difference
I buy stuff from overseas because it is simply not available in Australia. I can't even buy lossless digital releases of Australian music unless I use a VPN to buy from an overseas retailer - there are simply no outlets here.
Also books - digital or paper - most of what I get is simply not available here.
Your gadget batteries endanger planes, says Boeing
Re: "... you probably shouldn't be checking delicate electronics into the hold anyway."
Actually well-packed electronics in the hold are, in my experience, less likely to be damaged than by exposing them to the fumbling fingers of airport security staff during gate inspections. It's like watching chimps inspect a bag that's fallen out of the sky: sharp objects are smashed against glass, camera lenses are re-packed with caps off. No thanks.
Sydney adopts 'world's first' e-ink parking signs
Except they would never use it in a forward thinking manner to divert traffic at major junctions before a blockage. No - let traffic accumulate into gridlock at the point of failure.
Sydney Council has already done that with the old signs - they put up event signs after I'd parked, and then fined me.
The NSW State Recovery Office is an unassailable pit from whence fine notices are issued and no discussions may be entered into. My solicitor thinks its appalling - the only way to contest is in court, usually meaning you lose more in wages missed than in erroneous fine monies recovered.
Scientists love MacBooks (true) – but what about you?
Re: The view from Silicon Valley
@dan1980 "The simple truth is that most people who want to use Macs don't just want to use a Mac computer - they want to run the way they do at home, without the burden of IT policies and having to use this program or that program or accessing files in this way rather than that way."
No one wants to use their computers with the restrictions they have at work. Being on a Mac has nothing to do with it.
I look at Macs as having a higher initial outlay cost, and then a higher support cost per head and per incident across the organisation.
Re: The view from Silicon Valley
If you think these very very recent editions are as featured as the Windows version you are wildly mistaken.
Re: The view from Silicon Valley
Working in a large research environment, I can unequivocally say that the Mac users generate at least 3x the support calls per head that Windows users do. There is much less problem solving capability demonstrated when issues arise.
I also see a lot of younger scientists preferring Windows laptops so they can use OneNote.
"NT4: Great, snappy, fast, reliable. No USB, no drives over 8GB, no DirectX"
NT4 - released two years before USB devices were generally available with USB 1.1
For its next trick, Microsoft diminishes the iPad with just a driver
Re: Just one problem
The real issue is in-house devs as the mobile workers are generally using custom apps - often highly form-driven - that are used elsewhere in the organisation.
Management might have to cough up for resources to train their devs in creating touch/pen-centric interfaces rather than the lazy 100 fields on a screen approach that has kinda worked for decades.
'If you see a stylus, they BLEW it' – Steve Jobs. REMEMBER, Apple?
"They are not precious and religious as many in the computing industry are."
BWAAHAHAHAHAHA
Did you hear Steven Jobs' preciously pious reaction when Microsoft released this technology 14 years ago?
Dear departed Internet Explorer, how I will miss you ... NOT
What many forget unless they were from other parts of the globe, is that IE was the first international browser supporting non-European character sets etc. Netscape took too long to realise that it had forgotten to support the first two Ws in WWW and so even when AOL bought Netscape, the AOL browser had to be built on IE technology to support international customers.
It's not a lesson well learned. Other browsers are still full of code that assume WWW=USA.
