Posts by PJI

Re: 'Be Lucky'

Napoleon is said to have said something like:

"I have plenty of clever generals but just give me a lucky one" and "I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good. ".

Apple quietly removed the ability to just sync between laptop and iDevices

Yes, this was one of the sillier things to do, showing complete cultural and non-USA legal ignorance or just extraordinary naivety. I gather that even in USA the innocent sometimes do have something to fear.

However, I have seen that beta test versions of the new iTunes release have reinstated this. So fingers crossed and, if true in the customer release, glad that Apple does react to customers' remarks, eventually.

So, as far as the "cloud" network storage goes, just disable it. If you really need it, choose one of the new services from Germany or, less handy for most people, install one on your own laptop and continue to sync locally. But this was foolish of Apple, both in terms of security and reality (strangely, outside American coffee shop chains, large parts of the world, even in the most advanced "1st world" countries, are not on free wifi networks away from home, or even mobile telephone networks. Yet one may still want to back up the device to a mobile computer that is with you (or a tablet, is that possible? No idea, no tablet).

Re: "And it’s an area where nobody has figured it out yet."

>>which can obviously be completely be re-invented by tying both hardware and payment platform to Apple, robbing customers of choice and interoperability.

Hmm. "robbing". Your grasp of English is even worse than your grasp of reality: "Robbing" means stealing with the use of force or realistic threat of force. Apple gear is damned clever. But I had not realised it could apply physical force to make you use iTunes.

Somehow, such linguistic dexterity makes me doubt, even further, the validity of any opinion you may have.

Re: wet Summer .... Aberdeen

No, no, no: Manchester, hands down and umbrellas up. Second place: Brussels.

Re: Apple's a fucking liar

Relevance? The most security-hardened computer product in the world is not immune to the silly owner, with full access to the device, breaking it by modifying or replacing the software with their own idiot versions.

I suggest you see the source of your rogue software or examine your own conscience if you realise that jail-breaking has made the device insecure.

Re: So...

No, "professional" does not mean that one is tied to every employer one ever had. One's current employer may object to one spending time on, possibly a rival's, software regardless of the authorship.

Most firms have a legal contract with the employee, that any software, invention etc. done for that employer belongs exclusively to that employer. Often, the contract forbids outside work without approval or even at all. Conversely, that means the employer takes full responsibility for work done for them and if, for whatever reason, the worker moves away, it is the employer's responsibility to ensure he covered this possibility. It is the professional's responsibility to do his work to a proper standard for his current employer, to keep to his contract and to protect the interests of the employer.

Re: Enter the metric pole?

And here, in Switzerland, one sees, sometimes, a Pfund (pound) of bread. But it is 500 grammes today, so a generous pound.

Cost of upgrade to Mavericks

quote from Apple:

"While you have the About This Mac window open, check what version of OS X your Mac is running. You’ll see it listed beneath your serial number.

You can upgrade to OS X Mavericks from Snow Leopard (10.6.8), Lion (10.7), or Mountain Lion (10.8). Click the link below if you have an older version of OS X."

https://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/at

And that is free of cost.

Re: So easy for WhatsApp to lose a all its value in a single stroke

>> nd has also the advantage that all people with a Gmail account are signed in already, even if they don't know.

Or, to put it another way, the DISadvantage ….

I and many I know are avoiding things Google+ and its like as we do not see this all-embracing, uninvited, automatic entry in the Google sales DB as an Advantage.

Re: History says otherwise

>>Back when Apple was being unsuccessful, anyone wanting a modern desktop OS, at a reasonable cost, had a choice of NT, OS2 or Linux.

Earlier in the comment you mentioned the '90s' as the low point for Apple. My memory is a bit vague about dates and the 90s was a decade of rapid, technological change; but I think Linux was barely in the picture for most of the decade for "normal" users seeking a Windows alternative. Some specialists were trying versions of BSD at home.

For most users, even now, at home or at work, Linux is not a "winner". They still use windows for desk tops or laptops. On tablets, they use IOS or, increasingly, some version of Android Linux, though out and about IOS still seems to be the single most popular (I do not include dedicated book readers) and the users are more or less unaware.

Just to conclude with the usual, anecdotal observations (not to be dignified with the word, evidence): having had some time on my hands lately, I seem to have spent some of it helping friends and friends of friends with their systems, either cleansing or upgrading or just discussing. They seem to be running OSX, Windows 8 and, in two cases, both computer professionals, a mixture of Linux, Windows XP, Windows 7 and OSX (in both cases). The "civilians" seem to be split equally between Windows and OSX, no Linux nor BSD. The Windows help has been to improve performance, update and clean ransomware and other unpleasantness; the OSX help is to upgrade the OS and implement the built-in back-up system (TimeMachine) to external disc; despite years of benign neglect, the OSX users' only "problems' were just ancient OS and no back-up.

re And that other browser on iPads & iPhones would be?

Well, I've got Opera on my iPhone, always have at least two browsers on all devices. I am certain there are other possibilities.

I suggest you learn how to run a search in the App service.

Re: Something else I won't be buying from Samsung

Nothing sucks like a VAX.

Ah, the VAX 750, running BSD UNIX please.

Re: One more sign that microsoft ...

I am under the impression that Microsoft is, mainly, a software firm. Yes, the software extends from operating systems to utilities; but it is still software that can be adapted to run on any platform MS chooses. They make money either way.

So, if they decide that Apple kit provides a good market for their software, it is just good sense to cover it. They did not reach their current size and profits through stupidity.

Re: Dell same-day onsite fixit-tards

>>I'm pretty sure Apple would not have replaced the motherboard

Did on mine when I managed to destroy USB (too embarrassed to reveal how, though I did explain to Apple), right at the end of, actually a few days over the guarantee period, gratis. I was amazed and very grateful.

Re: One is a reputable pension fund fronting for thousands of pensioners

"another socialist front"

Don't you just love the assumption that socialism in all forms is bad and capitalism is good? The former is to do with "people", like proper democracy. The latter is more akin to robber barons: the most rapacious and advantaged get richer while persuading the rest that this is God's way.

Actually, shareholding could, if exercised properly, be a non state form of socialism, excepting its abusive and corrupting distortion by institutional buyers and manipulators.

Anyway, I doubt any institution in California would qualify as socialist in the rest of the world and a pension fund is required to think long term as pensioners are now, soon and beyond the scope of your imagination or knowledge.

Re: ZX Spectrum Mugs

They seemed rather popular at the time - price, performance, availability, form.

I remember a colleague at the lab., where I worked in NZ, doubled the memory of his Spectrum - perfectly happy despite the large block sticking out of one side to accommodate it. He even did some professional work using it.

So easy to scoff now, in an age where people moan that 100 GB is too small when, at that time, 300 MB was thought sufficient to provide a working environment for 100 people. But then, point-and-click was just a twinkle in somebody's imagination and being technical meant more than snide comments entered through a GUI interface.

Re: Interestingly

>> You could go to a library, and look them up in a copy of PC Pro? Or ask a knowledgeable friend to look it up on the internet for you?

I assume you are taking the piss, out of the sales web site of course as you would never mock a buyer for expecting the seller to provide some information.

Or perhaps you are just displaying the common, smug ignorance of so many of we commenters.

On the other hand, perhaps you are a chromebook fan ….

Re: Apologies in advance

and the mushy peas interface. Oops, too much vinegar.

Re: Where is Woz?

And without Jobs, Woz would have been just a hobbyist with an incomplete, if neat, idea.

One needs both sorts, working together. Each drives the other. Jobs was the one who spotted the possibilities, realised how to sell them and had the fanatical detail and balls to demand perfection. Woz had the technical ability and imagination to do the practical side and technical design.

Jobs would have got nowhere without a fun product to build on and Woz would have got nowhere without Jobs's foresight and wider imagination.

How lucky that they found each other.

Re: How about...

No profit? But still expanding and not closing this loss making market? Are they a charity?

How gullible are you?

Re: @Trevor_Pot

So, you think this intrusion into "ordinary" lives can prevent tube attacks by extremists. So why did it not work?

Do you really think the loss of freedom is worth the price of being under control all the time? How did Britain survive the IRA for so many years? The dangers then were far greater and real; but we managed to live and have our being, relaxed and peaceful, even though most of us had heard bombs explode (three in my part of London) or knew people who had been affected in, say, the Harrods bomb or the destruction of Manchester city centre. Fortunately, mass hysteria against Irish accents did not occur and fear of visiting the Tower of London was not apparent.

Grow up and accept that nasty things do happen but we must not let them beat us by extreme measures that change our own lives more effectively than the terrorism itself. You are more likely to fall under a bus or a car or slip on an icy street and bang your head lethally. Are you going to forbid all traffic and confine people indoors when the Winter comes? Oh, most accidents happen at home. Forget that. Lots of burglaries and assaults too. Hmm.

Re: It's not just about websites though is it?

Just to add a wrinkle: I work in a country where my keyboard in a workplace can be US, UK, German, Swiss German, French or even something else. So, using even letters of the alphabet can cause problems as these move around the keyboard (I touch type and am reasonably multi-lingual in this respect).

So, one learns, the hard way, to not use those characters that may be absent on some keyboards or move about (e.g. Z and Y). Combine this with the above mentioned idiocy of enforced, frequent password changes with differing validity periods, numbers of retries, rules (sometimes clashing, such as minimum and maximum lengths): fine way to keep more and more low level admins. employed.

In the end, security is degraded severely as unhappy and alienated users find it almost impossible to remember which password for which system is current and so stay logged in for as long as possible to avoid having to reenter the string, or avoid using the system as long as possible or write down the numbers, with any luck in their mobile telephones or in a file under a login they really do use and know well.

I tend to put important ones in my mobile (according to the manufacturer, encrypted - I have the most complex password for that) and, because a mobile can get lost, forgotten or run out of battery, in a simple, text file, encrypted using gpg (using another odd password). It does not protect me against mistypes because I forgot I had changed it or which keyboard I am on or just was not fully awake. But it is the best that I could do so far.

Then, some systems seem to be so complex or perhaps the network is so bad, that the change does not actually go through or causes a lock at once. Some even warn you that the relevant server is so far away across some international firm's network that it will not be active for 24 hours (really) and the LDAP server is down and .... Or you must restart your PC to flush all caches ….

Then, the reminder email tells you that you must change the password within ten days. Oh dear, it arrived the day after you left for a fortnight's holiday, following the firm's rules that you must take at least a fortnight's holiday in one lump every year. What fun trying to log back in when you return (you know where the helpline number is or you must use email, it's listed in the internal website - oh you can not log in and you came in early and nobody else is here for two hours yet).

Moral: over-prescription and micro-control are not better than simplicity, education and adjustment to real human - computer interaction.

Re: Van or De?

The Normans were a small minority, albeit as the source of power, more influential on the language than most.

Of the top 100 English words today, I believe something like 70% are from the Angles and Saxons and the rest mainly Norse (though recent research suggests Norse is more significant, particularly grammatically).

American is rather different as it is highly coloured by East European languages, more modern German and Yiddish as well as big dollops of Spanish and some archaic, pseudo-religious forms of English that were somewhat concocted or archaic in England even in the 1700s.

Re: Legacy?

I love this crowing over Linux installed base size: reminds me of IBM (no one ever got fired for buying IBM), then VAX VMS in the academic, scientific and other worlds; oh, how about Windows systems on every desk top and most email and various other servers (hmm, still true).

What makes linuxphiles so cocky and boastful? Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Something cleverer, better, easier, better marketed will rise and replace it, probably fairly soon.

Why do some people get emotionally involved in and committed to something like an operating system, not even an original one but a derivative, copied one? Face it, a well written and ported application makes the underlying system irrelevant to the vast majority of users, including technical ones, whether something like Eclipse or an email interface. Nowadays, even bad operating systems are remarkably stable and reliable.

Re: Its a Catch-22

>>he infamous Dysons which are now worthless because of quality control issues and cheap manufacturing. (Sorry Dyson…)

Beg to disagree with this unsupported statement: I've had the full size versions and we use one of the handhelds frequently (or my wife does), have done for a couple of years, as have several others I know, because it is so useful. I note, when in UK, that lots of shops use Dysons because of their design and robustness. None of those that I have bought, nor those of people I know personally, have failed.

I suspect that those that fail are either the usual sample with absolutely any product and those in the hands of people who seem able, (back to computing), to break laptops made of metal while denying abusing them.

It's odd and perhaps supports some of the assertions in the article; but anything differing from what people are accustomed to seems to attract negative, false or ignorant responses. Then, once it gets widely copied it suddenly gets widely accepted or the copies do at least, just like certain mobile telephones from certain and Far Eastern sources.

Re: I have a chromebook

>>Why do you have to be 'offline'? Your Dad …

So, your personal usage model and fear of being non-existent because you can not be contacted must be the right one for everyone else? Was it Pascal who put forward the idea that things only exist if you can see them? Better keep permanently connected and Lord help you if you go out of WAN range.

You top off this arrogant ignorance with gratuitous denigration of anyone old enough to be "your Dad", presumably including most of the greatest IT innovators. Actually, a standard piece of security advice for those educated enough to understand is: turn off your private router if not using it. So such old codgers may be cleverer than you.

I expect you leave all the services on your mobile on as well, so you can pull down the latest tweet or email and flatten your battery even when in no position or necessity to use the device. Do you leave the car engine running just in case you want to drive off quickly, because you can?

One day, you will be "an old codger", not too far off now judging by your attitude. Bear in mind that, according to the demographics scaremongers, the old codgers of both sexes are becoming the majority, including in IT.

I expect you leave all the services on your mobile on as well, so you can pull down the latest tweet or email and flatten your battery even when in no position or necessity to read it. Do you leave the car engine running just in case you want to drive off quickly, because you can?

I seem to be somewhere between old codger and Grumpy Old Man stage. Great.

Re: Admin passwords...

The suits and hippies keep you employed. Without them, your work is unnecessary.

Re: I don't get it - The supermarket principle?

Really. You do not understand there is more than one way to go. Not all ways mean racing to the bottom.

Apple prefer to be the Harrods, Fortnum and Mason or even, at the lower end, Marks and Spencer. These have all stayed hale and hearty for rather longer than almost any current supermarket (Sainsbury is rather venerable, but they were home counties only until recently and then not the cheapest).

Were I a retailer, I too would shy away from the Tesco, Lidl, Aldi model and stroke my ego with decent, long term profits that seem less vulnerable to passing recessions.

By the way, you should read and understand some of the hardware comparisons that try to compare Apple hardware with, e.g. Dell or self-build, for exactly the same parts and quality, not forgetting the complete OS, shells, programmes, drivers that come with it but ignoring the sheer amount of time and effort needed to build and maintain the self-build. Generally, the comparisons do no harm to Apple and, in the case of, for instance, the Macbook Air, reveal that it is comparable to or cheaper than its rivals.

But the excellent thing is: you can ignore all that and buy or beg just what you want and use it how you want. Is n't that wonderful? So why be offensive or ignorant about things you do not like or understand?