* Posts by Pandy06269

149 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Page:

Google Chromebooks molt, grow fresh browser

Pandy06269

Your analogy

OK but now let's extend your analogy and imagine people could add their own functions into the calculator.

In one case, the functions are vetted before being released so you know they work, and 99.9% of the time they do.

In another case you have 100 different functions, unvetted, claiming to do the same thing, but in practice only 10% actually work - and the ones that do look awful and "amateur." You might get one decent one that looks and works, but it took you a week to find it.

Pandy06269
Coffee/keyboard

USP out the window?

"and a "tech preview" of the Citrix Receiver, which lets you run traditional desktop applications on Chromebooks. When you complain that Chromebooks don't run good old fashioned Windows apps, Google inevitably points to Citrix Receiver"

I thought that was Google's unique selling point of these Chromebooks - the fact that you cannot run traditional apps on it so all your data is lost - sorry, stored - in the heavens - sorry, cloud - and hence the computer is more secure. If Google allow people to run traditional apps using Citrix, is this not removing the very benefit that Google is using to sell these?

Why would I pay £300-£400 for a netbook when I can pay that for an iPad 2 or similar tablet and still have full control over my data*, particularly when working out in the field with no access to wi-fi.

As AC @ 04:24 said - with the advent of the tablet, the netbooks days are over - if they ever began.

* before you flamers downvote me, yes I understand about the walled garden of Apple, but I've owned both Android and iPhone handsets and I know which I prefer - the one that is controlled and is hence more stable, more user-friendly and higher quality. That would be the fruit.

Chinese giant Alibaba offers 'Cloudphone'

Pandy06269

100GB?

"Every cloud OS user will get an initial 100 gigabytes of storage, with the intention to increase this in future."

Seriously?! Every user gets 100GB? I don't even have that much data on my laptop, with 3 years worth of music, documents, photos, applications and a full fat OS.

Apple Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Part Two

Pandy06269

@Gulfie

Regarding your point about Versions, this also horrified me to begin with. However, apparently (I don't use iWork so I can't verify this) you are able to restore to a previous version - so if you didn't want your change, you just restore to the version of the document prior to when you made the change.

I've seen it billed as time machine for documents (within each application not the overall time machine.)

Pandy06269

@robjmurphy

Oooh no, I thought that was zoom in? Or is that double tap with a single finger? I'l give it a go when I get home tonight.

Pandy06269

Mouse gestures

I've been running OSX for a little over 36 hours also with a Magic Mouse on a MacBook Pro.

Full-screen is a god-send, I can't believe it hasn't been done sooner. The only other app I've seen it in before now is Microsoft Office 2011 (specifically Word) which is amazingly useful on my MBP's 13" screen. I wonder if Apple were inspired by Microsoft on that feature?

Mouse gestures do mostly work with the Magic Mouse, but are typically a finger less. For example - on the trackpad, you need two fingers to scroll while the mouse will happily scroll with one. Swiping two fingers on the trackpad across Launch Pad changes pages, while the mouse only requires one.

Similarly switching between full-screen apps is a three-fingered swipe across the trackpad, while to do the same on the mouse it's two.

The only one I haven't been able to replicate on the mouse is the three-fingered up-swipe to access mission control, which I do miss on the mouse when I'm running my MBP in clamshell mode connected to an external display.

I have to say though, I do agree with Apple's decision not to support three-fingered swipes on the mouse - trying to hold the mouse still while swiping two fingers across it feels heavily unnatural, I can't imagine what it'd be like with three! Whether this is a limitation of the mouse hardware or a specific design choice by Apple, it's hard to say.

Incendiary MacBook blamed in house conflag inferno suit

Pandy06269

Lucky you

"Can't we just have a *normal* AC adapter, Apple? Personally I've never felt the need to be coddled from tripping over my cable - because I, like, totally look where I'm going, dude."

Actually it's saved my bacon (well my MBP) a couple of times. Yes, I look where I'm going. Accidents still happen.

Most coders have sleep problems, need 'hygiene and care'

Pandy06269

A response to your comment

I'm not getting into the debate of who has it worse - programmers or admins (because I've actually done both jobs and know that each has its own pressures) but I'd like to respond to some of your constructive arguments:

"In my (actual) experience, when developing in ANY way, shape or form, you are not working on a LIVE system. This means that it is a system that is not in use during standard business hours."

Except for when a system is not tested and pushed out to live, then the customer complains that it's causing business critical issues because they wanted it in live yesterday regardless of whether they'd tested it properly.

There is such a thing as DR - if a live system fails, the DR environment should be able to take over if necessary. You can't correct a malfunctioning bit of functionality so easily.

"We can't pass the blame like programmers do either"

Believe me, I've seen so many more cases of sys admins passing the blame. "The server's up, but I can't investigate it any more than checking I can log in because I don't know what the application's supposed to be doing."

"Although I stilll believe admins have it far worse, I understand developers, in cases, have to deal with the same."

I have to disagree. In all the businesses I've worked with, the first point-of-contact for a frustrated client whose system isn't working is the developer. "The developer made it so they should know what's wrong." Most of the admins I've known only ever had to deal with the developers or the support desk.

iOS 4.2: An 'ace' for iPad, a 'meh' for iPhone

Pandy06269

Apple Genius

"they're always really helpful and it costs nothing."

I'll second that. My boyfriend had an iPhone on contract from Vodafone (in the UK) and it was playing up, the screen kept stopping responding to touches, and requiring it to be locked and unlocked again.

We were on holiday in Canada a few months back and popped in to an Apple Store. They got the phone on a diagnostic tool and identified app crashes and while it didn't fix the fault it's not been freezing as much.

This didn't cost a penny - for a phone that wasn't bought through them and wasn't even bought in the same country!

(And yes I know the phone would have come from Apple anyway, but there are plenty of companies who sell products through resellers but only support these sales through the resellers.)

Berners-Lee: Facebook 'threatens' web future

Pandy06269

Other way around

"If I walked up to you in the pub on Friday night, in front of your mates, I asked you for your date of birth, where you live, what you did last night, where you went last week, a picture of your wife/girlfriend/kids, where you're going tomorrow, what you bought in TESCO/Argos/COMET this morning."

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think the analogy is the wrong way around.

It's more akin to someone grabbing a megaphone and announcing the above information while standing on top of their car in a 3-lane motorway traffic jam - nobody asked for it but you'll make sure they hear it anyway, and there are plenty of people $hitless who'll listen to it just for something to do.

iAds to flood UK iPhones, iPads

Pandy06269

Did you read the article?

It's to allow developers to earn money for coding applications then giving them away for FREE.

"one more reason not to let an apple product through my front door"

You don't want ads, don't use free apps - buy them instead. I've moved to an iPhone from my previous Android handset because the iPhone is much superior, and let me tell you - there are PLENTY more free apps with ads on the Android Marketplace than there are in the App Store.

And you get the added bonus that Apple apps are better quality anyway because they've been reviewed before being published to the App Store.

It's no different whatsoever to TV broadcasting (at least in the UK.) You pay an annual licence fee which goes to the BBC, so there are no ads (at least only ads for BBC programs) but you get ads on ITV, C4 and five because they don't get any contribution from the BBC's licence fee.

Vodafone warns investors of rival spoilers

Pandy06269
Go

Done!

"My next phone will be bought outright. I will sign up to a rolling 1 month contract with whoever offers the best value data package and move if a better offer comes along."

I've just done exactly that. Gone from a £35/mo 2year lock-in contract, to paying £419 one-off for an iPhone and a Giffgaff PAYG SIM who are currently offering unlimited texts and unlimited data (yes) for £10/mo.

I reckon it'll save me about £200 over 2 years.

Angry Birds struggle to take on Androids

Pandy06269

And...?

Yes, but, it works on all iOS devices.

From a consumer point-of-view, if an app says it works on "Android", it should work on "Android", not "Android but only on these handsets..."

Shell's London office UNDER WATER and besieged by GIANT EELS

Pandy06269
IT Angle

Saved me some keystrokes

Exactly what I was going to say! Wonder which genius thought that up?

Internet Explorer 9 preview thinks inside box, outside browser

Pandy06269

Yeah

I think the point is that they can become buttons on the actual task bar (correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure IE 9 will only run on Vista/7 - or maybe just 7) and 7 has no quick launch any more.

Instead you pin an app to the task bar (essentially the same thing, it's just quick launch and the taskbar have merged so both your shortcuts/pinned apps and running apps are intertwined in the same area.)

Virgin demands ISPs end broadband speed 'con'

Pandy06269

It is starting to happen

I've just been upgraded (free of charge, no increase to my bills) to BT Infinity - fibre broadband from their "up to 20MB" ADSL package.

On their speed tester, BT now specify the minimum and maximum speed I should be receiving (min 12Mb and max 34Mb on an up-to 40Mb fibre connection.)

I'm actually only getting around 7Mb in non-peak times and around 25-30Mb in peak times (yep those are correct - I'd expect it the other way; go configure.) If it's not improved once I've reached my 10 days settling down time they'll be getting a call.

Microsoft spooks software customers about dangerous pirates

Pandy06269
Joke

Genuine Microsoft software does harbor some malware

"unless of course Microsoft would insinuate that their genuine software might harbor some malware."

Actually it does... I've seen it.

It's called Windows Genuine Advantage.

UK.gov ignores 'net neutrality' campaigners

Pandy06269

ISP vs Consumer

I think the point is that it's the ISPs making the decision and taking the money, not the consumer/business/whoever.

For example: Medium Corporation Ltd pay £000s to Megabig ISP PLC for a 100Mb dedicated connection to the net.

Megabig Corporation PLC then pays £000s to Megabig ISP PLC to prioritise its traffic over Little Company. Medium Corporation Ltd accesses a vital service provided by Little Company but although it's got a super-fast connection, Little Company's traffic is trumped by Megabig Corporation PLC's so its received at a much lower speed.

It's no good for Medium Corporation Ltd to go elsewhere because Megabig Corporation PLC has paid £000s to other ISPs too.

Pandy06269

Don't count on it

"(or those lucky fuckers with FTTC)"

In that case I'm an extremely lucky f**ker as I had fibre to the home installed 9 days ago.

Or so I thought. My average speed so far has been 7Mb - a whole 5Mb lower than my ADSL line was!

If it's no different tomorrow (end of the 10 day settling down period) BT are getting a serious complaint - it should be up to 40Mb!

Pandy06269

That would only work if...

... you could live in the house for a week to test the speed of the broadband line.

I can't see many landlords allowing that. A property is a huge investment; it's not always an option to ditch it and move just because the broadband isn't up to speed.

That's like selling and buying a new car because the radio doesn't receive your favourite station while at work - something you'd only find out if you used it for a week before you bought it, but something that isn't a concern of the sales garage. Yes, you can replace the radio, but you'll get the same effect because the infrastructure isn't there.

Pandy06269

What?

How, exactly, are people who pay good money for a decent connection, freetards?

I would agree with you if people were given phone lines and broadband connections for FREE and then moaned that the service wasn't up to scratch.

Everyone on a home broadband connection is on the net because they're paying for it.

Will Facebook target ads across the interwebs?

Pandy06269

Not true

It doesn't just use site keywords.

About a month ago I was looking at holidays to Canada - so I looked at the likes of Air Canada, British Airways, Canadian Affair etc.

Pretty much straight after that evening, every site I visit that uses Adwords now has some reference to Canada or (in the case of Sourceforge and YouTube) every advert I see is for Canadian Affair - including a hilarious example I saw on Sourceforge where no less than 4 Adwords adverts on the same page were all for CA!

Scary stuff.

Airport security boss calls time on tech

Pandy06269

Finally a breath of fresh air

I agree and the ink cartridge example is a good case in-point.

Police at East Midlands airport, where the cartridge was discovered, took the move to allow the flight to leave the UK and continue on to the US because the cargo wasn't identified as explosive until later in the day. The reason it was not identified as explosive? Technology. The scanners were using out-of-date software.

Despite the fact that (allegedly) wires were showing and white powder was leaking from it, the police were powerless to hold the flight any longer because the technology said it wasn't explosive, yet any idiot could have guessed that it was just by looking at it.

Humans should be allowed to make decisions based on their own instinct - not based on whether a computer says no.

iPhone users are sad and mentally unfocused

Pandy06269
WTF?

Excellent piece of research

Of course people will answer a random survey if their mind is wandering and they've got nothing better to do.

If they're really busy and focused on getting something done, most likely they'll hit the "ignore survey" button.

Google alerts users to Facebook contacts 'trap'

Pandy06269

Harry Hill

FIGHHHHT!

Red Hat launches Enterprise Linux 6

Pandy06269

RHEL not just a server distro

"That's because it's a server distro"

Wrong. RHEL is not just a server distro - it also has a desktop variant. http://www.redhat.com/rhel/desktop/

Yes, I agree Redhat focus on stability rather than bleeding edge.

Ofcom to TalkTalk, Tiscali: Stop over-billing

Pandy06269

Tiscali

I'll chime in here too - cancelled by old broadband and phone contract in December 2006 when I moved house - I gave them my new address and telephone number to send the final bill.

Their debt collection agency caught up with me almost a year later demanding over £200. I phoned Tiscali to complain who said that the contract hadn't been cancelled as they'd sent me a letter to sign and return. I didn't receive the letter. I didn't receive any communication from me until the debt collection agent phoned.

Airport screeners go for the groin

Pandy06269

Gotta be done

Will somebody please think of the CHILDREN!

Canadian teen charged with school board hack

Pandy06269

US legal system favours IT techies

IT developers write software that allows a school kid to crack it - let's punish the kid.

IT department uses built-in camera in PC to take thousands of photos of kiddies at home - let's give them a slap on the hand and tell them not to do it again.

IT techies have it easy with the US legal system.

App Store II: Steve Jobs sucks Mac's soul

Pandy06269

Think of it like a dealership

First off let me get this out there - I have a MacBook Pro bought a year ago, and an iPhone bought a month ago. I love them both, and won't be switching back to a PC or other smartphone.

Like most people I really can't help thinking this is FUD at its greatest.

The way I see it, it's like a car dealership. You purchase your bright, shiny motor from Ford or Nissan, and then you HAVE A CHOICE. You want to replace the original tape player with a CD/MP3 player.

Dealers these days have a limited selection of CD/MP3 players that they have tried and tested with their models and know how to fit them (i.e. App Store.)

However, you can buy a CD/MP3 radio from a much larger range from your local Halfords and either fit it your self, or have Billy's Mechanics Ltd fit it for you (i.e. traditional delivery methods.)

The only difference is that your dealer (i.e. Apple) won't support yours or little Billy's handy work, but if the dealer made a cock-up (i.e. Apple approved a dodgy app) then it's their responsibility.

I'm certainly not going to be rushing to return my MacBook to the shelf and go back to a cheaper, plastic, uglier Windows machine, as a result of this FUD.

iPhone alarm bug: now it's the UK's turn

Pandy06269

Simples

It's no big deal. Buy a real alarm clock.

Sent from my iPhone.

DfT to install new motorway tech

Pandy06269

They close the hard shoulder

As soon as the accident is reported or noticed, the control centre close the hard shoulder some way back so emergency services can get through.

Germany's autobahn is much cleverer - the systems constantly monitor the traffic flow along the road and if it notices an unusual pattern (stopped or slowing traffic) it alerts a control centre who can respond and close or open a lane as necessary.

iPhoto 11 ate my library, say users

Pandy06269
WTF?

Backup... drastic?

"take the drastic step of backing up their iPhoto library before making the switch"

Since when was taking a backup before a major upgrade, a "drastic" move? It's good practice.

iOS bug unlocks iPhones sans password

Pandy06269
Megaphone

Data loss bug

I used to have a HTC Magic running Android 1.5 which had a much worse "bug" than this, yet it was never mentioned.

If you have an "unlock pattern" (similar to a pass code but you connect dots on the screen in a defined order instead of typing in numbers) - if you draw it incorrectly 3 times, it asks you for your Gmail details. Whatever details you put in (even correct - I logged in to Gmail on another phone to double-check) it renders the phone useless. You have to restore to factory settings, losing everything.

As of Android 2.0 (2 major versions forward) Google still hadn't even acknowledged the problem.

My point - all phones, and all OSs have bugs. You only hear about those in the iPhone because they're so popular. Don't refuse to buy an iPhone because of one minor bug.

Amazon gives away freebie baby virty data centres

Pandy06269

Excellent

Amazon's devised a way of eating up IPv4 addresses even quicker.

Although there is a positive - scammers now don't need to create and command botnets - they can just use fake card details and email addresses and Amazon will create them one for free!

Two-year wait for Windows 8, MS blurts

Pandy06269

Only if XP was a SP to 2000

Your logic only works if you believe that XP and Server 2003 were service packs to Server 2000 - which it obviously wasn't, as most businesses are still running XP.

Server 2000 was NT 5.0 (as a replacement for NT 4.)

Windows XP was 5.1.

Server 2003 was 5.2.

I certainly wouldn't call 2003/XP service packs to 2000.

iPhone makes many Aussies late/early for work

Pandy06269

Alarm clocks and clocks

Clocks are (mostly) not clever enough to cope with Daylight Saving Changes, and I've never before read a story in the media - "everybody's late because the clocks changed overnight."

iPhone (or any phones for that matter) shouldn't be any different. I never trust that my computer will make the change correctly.

I also set two alarms every night, just in case one keels over, or I turn off the first one and go back to sleep!

Microsoft releases Windows Live apps suite

Pandy06269
FAIL

People are spending more time in the cloud

Are they really? Anyone?

I recently bought Office for Mac. Desktop, not cloud. I have VMware on my PC to run my test servers locally. Again, desktop, not cloud. My photos will soon be hosted on my own website. Server, not cloud.

In fact the most cloudy stuff I do is Facebook and Twitter which I doubt you can even call cloudy - just social networking.

I know of no-one who uses Windows Live, aside from MSN on the desktop. Some people use Facebook Chat but it's appalling. No-one I know use Office in the cloud, or Google Apps for that matter.

I'm well known for my paranoia, so I don't trust anyone else with my data.

Anyone out there more trusting, and have a more cloudy success story? Do tell.

Google punts url shortener to world+dog

Pandy06269

Bug in Twitter?

You're not a Twitter user, are you Tom_B?

"...due to the arbitrary character limit. However, this is bug in twitter..."

It's not a bug in Twitter - it's the whole point of the service. The guys who started Twitter used it as a replacement for the "I'm away from my desk" statuses you put on messengers like MSN.

It's now used as "how much can you say about where you are, what you're doing and how you're feeling in 140 characters?"

Trucker pulled with DVD and laptop on dashboard

Pandy06269
Coat

Blocking view of the road

"McMillan explained that a key to collision avoidance is not having stuff like DVDs and laptops blocking your view of the road"

Of course - blocking the view of the road is the only issue here.

So if my laptop / DVD player is on my passenger seat, that's OK then? Keeping your eyes on the road and not on the laptop/DVD player is not important, no?

Mine's the one with the laptop not in the pocket but on my dashboard.

Amazon plots Android store

Pandy06269

Membership fee

The membership fee is for developers to list their applications in the store.

In your analogy, it's a supplier paying a fee to sell their products through a supermarket.

Jailbreak hole found in Apple TV firmware

Pandy06269

Not curious at all really

If an application is well-developed, you can swap out components of it (such as the underlying OS comms layer, or the database access layer) without changing any other part of the app, including the UI.

Look up N-Tier on Wikipedia.

Über-zombie cookies give us the fear

Pandy06269

Website

I hope his coding is better than his website design - paragraphs of text in Courier New? Ugh.

Vodafone shares subscriber info with world+dog

Pandy06269

Not any more

Nope - it sent a code to my mobile phone and asked me to enter it.

Pandy06269
Go

And it's fixed

You now get:

"If you provided us with a valid email address when you registered online, click on Send email. When it arrives, click on the link which will take you to a page where you can reset your password and view your username.

Alternatively, you can enter your email address by clicking 'Enter my email address'."

You can still build up a list of valid usernames as it gives you the message "something's wrong with your account; contact the support desk blah blah blah" if you enter an invalid username, but get the above text when it's valid.

At least it's not a phone -> e-mail converter any more.

Pandy06269
FAIL

@20:30 GMT

Just tried a couple of attempts and yes, mine and my boyfriend's phone numbers and usernames return our e-mail address.

Haven't seen it give up my phone number to my username.

Now it's off-line though - the world's friendliest error message states:

"We're making things better

We're making some improvements to this area of our site. But don't worry - we'll have everything back to normal soon."

It'll be interesting to see what they come up with.

Google cools data center with bottom of Baltic Sea

Pandy06269
IT Angle

Am I the only one...

... who spotted this?

"The facility will also store water in an old paper mill silo, but this water will only be used in a case of a fire. It will not be used for cooling."

Water + electrical equipment - there's something wrong in this equation. Especially in a data-centre. Whatever happened to fire suppressants (e.g. CO2, halon gas?)

Facebook on the blink for second time in two days

Pandy06269
Thumb Down

Yeah...

... because the quote assumes that the people mentioned have nothing better to do than post loads of pics, statuses etc to Facebook, which in turns asks people if they like anything and everything - i.e.:

"xxx is now in a relationship. LIKE?"

"xxx is getting ready for a night out. LIKE?"

"Here's a photo of xxx with new partner on a night out. LIKE?"

But as Facebook was down, the only way said people can get other people to like their photos, statuses etc is by going out in the street shoving them in their faces and asking them "LIKE?"

It's not really that funny, but I get it.

Twitter flaw creates micro-blogging mayhem

Pandy06269

Third-party apps good; twitter.com bad

Ever since I found the beauty that is Twidroyd on my Android phone, and Tweetie on my Mac, I've never used twitter.com.

I was even more glad of that when I saw tweets containing raw Javascript in Twidroyd yesterday. How can such a huge, high-profile site make such a school-boy error (not escaping text entered by users before writing it verbatim as HTML?)

Samoan clerics finger homosexuals over global warming

Pandy06269
WTF?

Unbelievable

Seriously, what else are ministers going to blame on us gay people?

Page: