Posts by Peter 39

rating ?

The ads on TV in the U.S. include the comment "Rated 'M' for 'Mature'"

That's giving far too much credit where little is due.

deserving

Couldn't happen to a more deserving target

What? Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work ??

transport

>Apple's iMessage is a text-messaging service which allows fanbois to send free messages over Wi-Fi.

True, but not the whole truth. It can send the messages using cell network connections as well as WiFi.

incorrect headline

Err - it says "Apple appoints..." but it's clear to me that's incorrect.

Apple did not appoint him - the Court did, to watch over Apple.

laugh ?? Err, no

>Ballmer was allowed to laugh off the iPhone

No. Steve and his friends had a full-blown funeral for it. With pipers and all.

I am sure that Apple will not demean itself by returning that favor.

wider? NOT

Most conspicuous by its absence is any mention of trade-in of Surface and Surface Pro for new kit.

You think MS would want to get shinies in fans' hands a.s.a.p., wouldn't you.

main difference

A crucial difference is that Steve Jobs knew he was mortal. He planned for it, and set up Apple for when he would be gone.

Larry, on the other hand, seems to believe he's immortal. That does not bode well for Oracle.

why ?

Why is el Reg still giving top billing for Larry ??

He's well past his use-by date.

various problems

To me, the main problem facing Surface RT was the lack of apps. Apple was lucky to avoid this fate and it was due to iPhone, which had been available for several years when iPad was released. Lots of apps had been created in that time.

The vast majority of those apps would run on iPad, even though they weren't optimized for it, so iPad was a useful device right at the start. Imagine the debacle if iPad had been introduced first, with just a few apps.

Fortunately you don't have to - Surface RT shows exactly what it would have been.

all about Netflix, methinks

I suspect what's happening here is the same as the bunfight in the U.S. between Cogent and Comcast+Verizon.

It's not that Cogent wants to charge - quite the opposite. It's Comcast/Verizon/etc wanting to charge Cogent more, and not adding more capacity until it pays up. Cogent's point is that it's just trying to deliver data (Netflix movies) to Comcast/Verizon/etc subscribers, that Verizon/Comcast/etc have already been paid by their customers for delivery of said data, and that Verizon/Comcast/etc are wanting to be paid twice.

I think Cogent has a valid point. Its revenue comes from Netflix, not the ISPs. The ISPs (Verizon/Comcast/etc) have indeed charged their customers for data delivery - quite handsomely.

And it's noteworthy that both Verizon and Comcast are in the business of selling movies to their customers. I wonder if the same is true for the European ISPs mentioned (DT etc).

deck chairs

The usual comment about "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" is no longer appropriate.

Steve threw them all off already.

electrons ?

So the engine spits out lots of positively-charged ions. Quite fast.

What do they do with all the extra electrons?

spin

The U.S. Administration's description of PRISM as "ordinary" and "ho-hum" is just spin.

If it were "ho-hum" then it wouldn't be classified as TOP SECRET and compartmented, would it ?

localization

I don't see the contradiction.

Apple Operations International and Apple Sales International are Irish companies but their managers (mostly) reside in Cupertino. So saying that the decision is made in Cupertino doesn't mean that it's not made by the international companies.

That's the beauty of this whole scheme. The tax authorities shot themselves in the foot.

Dumb. Really dumb.

This is the same legal foolishness shown by Judge Jackson in the Microsoft trial.

This will certainly be grounds for appeal, and maybe even for a motion for her to recuse herself.

Dumb.

own-goal

Seems to me that the Senate did not fare too well on this one. Apple seems to have done its homework and kept everything in order. Maybe companies with no tax residence is a bit too far, though.

The complaint about Cost-Sharing seems to be too far on the Senate's part. Apple says that the U.S. and international divisions share R&D costs and similarly share in the rewards. This has been in effect since 1980 and is not something recent. Apple's international revenue last year was 61% of the total, and international paid more than half the R&D (and therefore the notional "ownership" of the IP). Keeping the profit (rewards) overseas seems quite fair.

money to shareholders

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." - Michael Dell, 1997

I think he's walking back that suggestion.

Maybe no-one noticed that Apple blocked it already ?

"The post is required, and must contain letters."

It does seem that Apple is getting attentive to security issues. It has taken a while but, if this is any indication, the reaction time has improved considerably.

Uninstall Java ?

Uninstall Java ?

Better solution would be to uninstall Windows.

Christmas is coming

Christmas is four days away and the Microsoft store is *so* empty. The Apple store in the local mall is packed these days.

When I chanced by the Microsoft store at seriously-upscale Pentagon City, the mall was busy but the store had ten staffers and two customers. TWO. I have never seen an Apple store with so few.

temporary pause

This must be very recent, as Rachel called me yesterday.

These folks will just start it up again as, if I understand it, these are civil issue and not criminal. With criminal, you go to jail. We need these folks to do cooler-time for this to stop.

No surprise

I think Apple has been hearing for some time that iTunes needs major work, especially on Windows. I guess that some have not been listening.

Having now seen what happens when you ship an un-ready product, folks have decided to take the time to do it better.

A good plan indeed.

laid =/= paid

Technicolor, Cinemascope, IMAX, MogulVision -- what more do we need ??

Hey, Harvey, try "sanity".

As the music industry discovered, people will pay a reasonable price for content (aside from a small number).

The important principle for you to realize is that, if it's digital and you do not have physical control over each and every instance, it will be copied. Copy-protection stuff has been and will always be broken (for the commercial distribution under consideration here).

So start with that as your premise and build your *new* business model from there. Quite simple, really.

Let's try again

"Presumably if iOS Maps was better that Google's offering"

Let's try again, shall we ...

Presumably, if iOS maps were better than Google's offering, ..."

Think of the savings !!

CIO's are tired of being beaten up over IT budgets and see BYOD as a way of solving the problem. The consequent expenses ... well, they'll come later.

For those of you too young to remember, this is similar to the "movement" in the 70's towards departmental minicomputers (think, DEC and similar). Departments were unable to get work done because the mainframe-based IT folks took years to do anything. So the departments just started doing it themselves. The "PC revolution" was, in fact, less of a revolution than the minicomputer one.

BYOD is another turn of the wheel. So, read your history to see where this is going. Look especially at (1) what IBM does today and, (2) what DEC does.

Ikea catalog[ue]

"From now on, the items formerly known as "chairs" and "tables" will be referred to as "Ikea merchandise."

I wonder if it lists a "Ballmer chair" ?? What's that in Swedish, I wonder? Thrön Akros ?

DVD

"boot off the DVD"

Well, you may not have noticed that the very-iMac-like HP Spectre One doesn't have a DVD drive. That's the direction in which things are going. So MS is quite sensible in not replying upon it.

But this line about being unable to partition a USB-stick. That's just incompetence, pure and simple.

the threads, my dear Watson, the threads

That this was fake was obvious to anyone who has ever looked closely at screw threads. There are various kinds, to be sure, but never anything like this. One doesn't ever make threads like that.

Hello Dick - TIA is alive and well

These people are looking for the magic bullet - guaranteed information analysis to predict an attack.

We've all been down these roads so many times that the ruts are well-worn -- there IS no magic bullet

Get over it folks -- there's nothing that works as well as motivated, intelligent people to track down "problems". Nothing. Not TIA. Not the newer stuff that's being peddled by major-contributor defense-contractor folks. Which is mostly the same with newer, glitzier labels.

A clue-stick hint for folks who think they have a better scheme -- run it on your own dime for a couple of years, providing info to Intelligence folks gratis. If you have "the goods", they'll be convinced. If you don't (and most of you don't) then we taxpayers won't have had our money spent chasing a poorly-formed illusion.

I'm tired of spending money on really stupid **** that never had the likelihood of panning out. And ticked at the managers who (still) believe that the taxpayers have given them a blank check. Account for what you spend and what you do, or move over for someone who will.

easy vs. hard

Given the state of mind of most people after a theft or loss, it ought to be (relatively) easy to lock an account against being exploited. Maybe even just for 24 hours.

But it should be quite hard to reset the password so a new one can be established.

now for the inquiry

It's time for there to be a judicial inquiry into the actions of the Trustee - very unusual to say the least.

And also into the way the case was originally brought and pursued - some executives should be looking at jail time as a result.

simple

Just call it "Square".

if not now, when?

NYSE has been seeing this stuff for a while and has not done anything about it..

Computers can do things much faster than any human, and screw them up much faster than any human.

It's time that NYSE and other exchanges established limits so that the volatility swings from a single company do not exceed the net worth of the company. That is, if a company has "middling" net worth, then massive trades should not be accepted. If it has "low" net worth, then the limit should be lower. If it has a lot to lose, then the limit should be higher.

Having a small company generate a real-quick loss of a half-billion dollars is just stupid

what's time to a pig?

Do the fuel, oxygen and supplies actually care how long it takes?