Posts by chr0m4t1c 939 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2009
And if you knew the different meanings of open then you might understand the point.
For example, OpenPGP is an open standard (RFC 4880), that doesn't make it insecure.
It's perfectly possible to have a secure infrastructure that you can easily add new devices or types of devices to, you just need to make sensible choices about if/how you lock down those devices and what kind of access they have to your internal systems (if any).
I don't remember any particular complaints about the WP UI, just the usual round of complaints that it didn't do absolutely everything that a given competitor did and was, therefore, "crap" or "useless".
Personally, I quite like the look of it, to the extent of trying to work out how I might migrate my current setup and what kind of functionality I might lose (or gain) in the process.
It is possible, but it's just slightly too much pain to be worth the effort/risk for me at the moment and much as I like the look of it, I don't covet it - if you see what I mean.
As for Surface, I would take a look at it if I didn't have anything already, but there are no compelling arguments to switch from anything else unless you have a specific requirement that is only fulfilled by Surface - can anyone think of one?
The problem appears to be that analysts only understand one business model, the one where you have the most "market share".
Apple are using one of the other options, the one where you make the most money.
I'm not an analyst, but I can predict with some certainly that at some point in the future Apple will be in financial trouble, it's not rocket science, it's what happens in normal business cycles. We've seen it with Dec (who went to the wall), IBM (who narrowly missed the wall), HP (hit the wall and are now in plaster casts), we're seeing it with Microsoft (just realised they left it too late to stamp on the brakes) and in the future we'll see it with Apple and Google.
The trick is to keep churning out these "OMG, they're going to fail if they don't follow my advice" stories in the hope that you're the one who calls it at the right moment and so reaps all of the glory and reputation for being the person who correctly predicted the collapse.
You need to pay attention, iLife & iWorks are free on *new* mac kit, the same as they are on new iOS kit, not existing stuff. I imagine it will work like the iOS ones in that once you buy new kit they will become available to all of your existing stuff via the Mac app store.
This may sound a little harsh, but given that they dropped support for your hardware at the previous OS, why would you have an expectation that it would be supported this time?
I know Apple buyers hang on to their kit for a long time because it keeps on working, but expecting OS updates for something that's over seven years old and on a different architecture seems a bit of a stretch
I think they forgot the word "smart".
And I think, at the very least, you're forgetting the earliest landline phones, a lot of which had curved handsets.
Curved telephones have been around for probably 100 years now. Curved smartphones not so long.
I have to admit that I am wondering how well you can hold this to your head as it looks like there would be a gap between your ear and the earpiece.
>Have you noticed that Mercedes came out with a C Class that starts at $29,900 USD?
There was a reason for that: The BMW 3 Series.
It turns out that a large number of people who buy luxury cars tend to be very brand loyal, once they start buying a particular brand they tend not to switch unless they have a really bad experience (or they have sufficient money to own several cars - a guy from Bentley once told me that they were typically the sixth car in someone's garage).
BMW started at the bottom end of the market (with things like the three-wheeled isetta) and worked their way up. Mercedes were at the top end of the market and have gradually moved down.
Why? Because the lower priced cars get "ordinary" people in to the brand and generally they work their way up. In the 1980's BMW's 3-Series acted as a feeder for the 5-Series and the 7-Series. Mercedes cheapest model was twice the price and once people were in BMWs they had to have a bad experience to even look at something else.
In order to counter this, Mercedes started with the C190 and then as that still wasn't an low enough rung on the ladder, they followed that up with the A-Class.
AFAIK, the mobile phone market doesn't really inspire quite the same brand loyalty at this point. I doubt there are many people buying a cheap Samsung who would automatically upgrade to mid-range Samsung next time rather than any other Android phone. A lot of people still just take whatever phone their operator offers them for free.
So, unfortunately, not a terribly good analogy.
I did read the document, I did see this, but it was wrapped in a lot of very thinly veiled threats.
All they needed to say was that they were investigating the site and believed it breached EasyDNS's T&Cs and would they review it to see if they agreed.
There was no reason at all for any of the other stuff at this point, if ever.
It's all very akin to someone asking you if you'd thought about taking out house insurance while striking matches and saying "It would be a real shame if there was a fire and you lost all of this".
>Unless it's led by a bloke whose father was a Marxist.
Yes, I've been struggling to figure out what the problem is here. My father & my father in law both hated the Germans so much that they joined lots of other Brits (and latterly Americans) shooting them (with guns and everything) around 70 years ago.
Now, they're not that bothered and personally I've always got on well with Germans (and Austrians) that I've met.
I'm not saying the views and actions of our parents have no influence on our outlook, but if we only ever mimicked them then we would never progress as a society.
I use Adblock+, but sometimes I disable it and have a few minutes fun clicking the "hide" button on the ads and then reporting them as "inappropriate" or even better "sexually explicit".
I'm sure it doesn't make any difference with little ol' me just doing it, but if more people did that FB would become seriously bogged down in investigations.
One can dream.
I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but WTF.
Apple normally issue two press releases for the launch of a new product. One for pre-orders and one for launch weekend.
Previously pre-orders have sold out in around 24-48 hours, at which point there's no point in delaying the press release.
This time, pre-orders have not yet sold out (looking at the Apple website, you can still order any 5c for delivery on the 20th).
So far, so good.
However, we have a big unknown in this mix: How many have they made for pre-order?
Anyone?
There's an unstated assumption that they have the same number of handsets available for pre-order as they have had in previous years (normally around 2m), but given that the 5c is essentially a 5 in a party frock, it's entirely possible they have 30m or 100m available for pre-order.
And that /could/ be the reason why they haven't sold out and also why we haven't had a press release. We'll have to wait until next week to get a better idea,
I thought most phones were stolen for the hardware, not the data on them.
In addition to that, the police say that the majority of thefts are "snatches" - phones taken out of open handbags, pockets, off tables in public places or even just directly from someone's hand as they're using it.
I can't see this technology changing that at all.
BTW, your unpleasant incidents in Hong Kong appear to be one incident in Malaysia in 2005, at least that's all that's turning up on a Google search.
"I wonder what this is going to do for obsolescence of the older phones. If apps start coming out that are 64 bit only? Worrying."
We already have this situation and have done for years, there are apps that require minimum versions of the OS that can't be installed on earlier hardware, sometimes because the drivers aren't there or quite often because it simply won't fit.
In common with other operating systems, I expect iOS will maintain backwards compatibility for a few years and then drop it when the majority of applications are 64-bit; expect Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry to follow the same path - although with such a relatively small market share and number of apps the last two could opt to just make a clean break at the next major OS release.
Vodafone might put up some resistance, probably for some very spurious reasons, but VM are a virtual operator (like Tesco, TalkTalk, GiffGaff, et al) and so may well welcome this.
IIRC, VM did use the T-Mobile network and are now be benefiting from the greater coverage as a result of the merger that created EE. They would presumably be able to benefit further from roaming charges being dropped.
Even with 'droid (some of) the libraries that link the OS to the hardware have to be provided by the manufacturers, the OS only provides a framework, so you still have closed elements - I don't know of any manufacturer who publishes those libraries.
This really isn't a straightforward problem, except to say that you shouldn't carry a phone at all if any of this stuff is an issue for you. At the very least, don't buy an iPhone 5S; it's not rocket science.
It's more likely that their blocking software is throwing up lots of false positives.
The filters at my workplace block access to all sorts of random but innocent sites, such as the landing page you are sent to when the NoScript plugin is updated by Firefox or even some news sites (can't think of an example off the top of my head).
In fact, about 3-4 years ago even sites like Facebook were blocked. That was until management decided they wanted us to push the company to friends and family ('cos they all have a massive requirement for managed server farms, right?) and then realised the irony of preventing access to the very sites they wanted us to be promoting on. It took them six months, of course, but they did eventually realise.
Not that I know of anyone who *has* promoted the company to friends or family.
Yes, I can see the comments following next week's announcement already:
"This is just an incremental change from the iPhone 5, Apple aren't innovating any more."
(New phone has new feature X)
"Apple claim to have invented X, that my <whatever> had years ago! They're just copying <company>, who should now sue them into bankruptcy!!!"
(Please ignore fact that X existed long before <whatever> had it or that <company> didn't invent it. Or that Apple licensed it from the actual inventor/patent holder.)
"How much? My <whatever> does all of that and cost me half that!"
"Meh. Loads of features I'm not interested in. I'll stick with my <whatever>."
And, of course, some stuff about Fanboi's, crApple, idiots, fashonistas and the death of Apple.
Same as the last few years, really.
I disagree, the mobile phone and car both offered more convenient (and better?) ways of doing things they were already doing.
Glass offers something that people aren't doing and it's by no means clear that people want to do it.
Ever been bored rigid looking at someone's holiday snaps or videos? Glass allows them to bore you in real time while they're filming! How great is that?!?
Don't get me wrong, parts of Glass look genuinely useful and probably will become significant parts of later products.
Personally, I can't wait for Samsung to bring out Galaxy Glass with NFC so you can pay for things by head-butting the sales terminal - or even better, you can share pictures and start a fight at the same time.
"If your phone was purchased outright, off-the-shelf if you will, the SIM card and carrier will have no idea that tethering is even happening - it just pumps data through."
Nope. I've had two phones that I bought SIM free that directed me to the operator tethering sign-up site when I tried to enable it.
It's not been a problem recently as the operator stopped charging extra for tethering a few years ago, but it certainly didn't make any difference having bought a "vanilla" phone.
On the other hand, using third-party apps like Joikuspot allowed tethering to work without problem.
>I wonder how console gaming stacks up against PC gaming in terms of numbers
Games played in 2012:
On PC: 33,355,879
On console: 445,278,842
The PC figures increased 13% from 2011, console figures dropped 23% from 2011.
It's possible that people are moving from console to PC because of a more "hardcore" experience, but it's equally possible that consoles are dropping off as casual gamers move to mobile devices or are just bored with the games coming out for hardware that's now getting very old (the XBox will be eight years old by the time the new console arrives).
In other words, the usual market forces are in play and people will shift around as their requirements change and new kit arrives.
"Just because you reside and operate in one country does not mean that you can not violate the laws of another."
This is very true.
Literally millions of Americans violate UK law every day by driving on the right.
Unfortunately this stuff is a long way from being black and white, despite what our governments (and a sizeable chunk of our media) would like us to think.
>The PS4 is the poor man's choice...
I can comfortably afford both of them and had planned on getting both, but I've only pre-ordered the PS4 because there are just too many unknowns about privacy and hidden charges with the xBone, so I've decided to adopt a "wait and see" policy for it.
*If* there are no stories about people being secretly videoed or spied on in their own homes by the xBone in the first 12 months, I'll probably buy one. Until then I see the PS4 as the smarter choice which just happens to be cheaper.
"I'm shocked that a right wing paper would support a Socialist regime."
Er, calling themselves a Socialist party didn't make them act much like one.
A bit like, you know, the English Defence League, I've never even seen them complain about a misplaced apostrophe let alone promote correct spelling.
"Back then Microsoft really was a juggernaut, squashing everything in its path."
Yep, if NT had been stable and scalable, I think it would have squeezed almost everything else out of the data centre.
Its biggest selling point? It looked like regular desktop Windows, so the sales guys would rock up to the CEO's office, show it do him and explain that not only did it look just like his desktop machine, it was just as easy to configure so he would no longer need to employ expensive IT server specialist, the cheap desktop guys could do it more or less in their spare time.
Complete BS, of course, but back then there were even fewer CEOs who had the slightest idea about this "computer stuff", so they were easily hoodwinked.
The first the IT dept knew about any of this was when the new boxes of software started rolling through the door and they were expected to install NT onto their existing kit - usually something that wasn't even an Intel box, never mind being even vaguely compatible.
"However the solutions to me accessing copies of media that I actually own is to buy a DVD player and hack it or to buy another DVD player of the other region (which is very much region 1)."
I think the idea was that you look to see if the DVD player you already own can be hacked, not buy a new player that can be hacked.
Alternatively, I've just typed "region free dvd player" into Amazon's search and it threw up half a dozen region free players for under £40, the cheapest being £26.50 that they'll even ship to you for free.
I understand that you might not have much money (you don't say), but that's the price of two or three DVDs. Unless you're especially determined to be outraged, maybe getting a new player isn't such a bad idea; you could always ask a few of the people buying you DVDs as gifts to club together and get a new player instead.
"Three has said it won't be using the "4G" moniker as it's all but meaningless these days, so it will be branding its new service "Ultrafast" instead."
Yes, this decision has absolutely no bearing on the fact that they named the company after the technology they were deploying in a slightly short-sighted fashion.
Now they've painted themselves into another corner, what will they call the service if they upgrade the speeds or when they go to 5G?
Maybe they're doing that for customers with a 4G handset.
>I wonder if they would publish the number of people who can actually use 4G out of those subscribers?
Anyone with a suitable handset, as long as they're in a coverage area (it is a *mobile* network, after all).
When I signed up last year I had more than one "fight" with them over a similar argument, for some reason they didn't want to sign me up because my home postcode wasn't in a coverage area and I had to keep explaining that I didn't care about 4G at home because I have a suitable wifi network and that I travel the country as part of my job, regularly staying and working in several place with 4G coverage. In the end I do get 4G at home and have done since December 2012, so their coverage checker was wrong anyway.
"How much would it actually cost to put 64GB rather than 32GB in one of these things, anyway? I'm guessing the parts would only be an extra tenner or so..."
Unfortunately, you guess wrong.
Because of the size of these things, the parts are packed pretty tight, so you don't make a product that can take 4x16gb and then leave three slots empty on the cheapest model; you make the device use a single memory module and change the capacity of the module.
I haven't checked prices recently, but last year if your 16Gb module was £X, then a 32Gb module was about 2.2 x £X (let's call that £Y) and the 64Gb module was about 3x£Y (let's call that £Z). 128Gb modules were something like 6x£Z, but I think they're getting closer to 3.5x now so we might start seeing that capacity option this year.
Also, I'd kind of expect that someone like Google might just have some data about what capacity tablets people are searching for - particularly in price comparisons - and that might make them tend towards particular capacities and price points. That's *my* guess for this thread :-)
No, those are the challenges that make the autonomous vehicles difficult to develop.
If you were starting from a blank sheet, you'd build your towns/cities/villages/etc so that vehicles and pedestrians were completely separated, vehicle automation would then be relatively straightforward as you can significantly reduce the number of unexpected inputs they need to react to.
The problem is that we're not starting with a blank sheet, not by a long way.
But he might be right. For the wrong reasons.
Right now consumers are looking at £400 laptops or £400 tablets, deciding to keep their old £400 laptop and buy a tablet because it's more portable and practical when what you want to do is take something with you when you travel that will allow you to do a bit of light web surfing, watch something or read a book/magazine.
The way the PC hardware environment develops, in 12-18 months your £400 device will be a laptop with a touch screen that will either fold flat or be completely removable to give you both options in one package. At that point, I expect most consumers will opt for one of those instead of the two separate devices, or (more likely), they'll buy one because it's the £400 option and everything in that price bracket is the same thing. At that point, the "standalone tablet" will start to decline again - not many people will buy a tablet device if their laptop converts into one.
What MS should be doing is setting up their OS to default to "tablet mode" when the device is just a screen and "desktop mode" when the device is docked as well as encouraging developers to make their applications behave appropriately depending on the OS mode. That's a lot of work, but it will give the users the best experience.
Who am I kidding? MS don't want to give the users the best experience, they want the users to give them all of their money. Maybe it won't happen after all.
Sony will almost certainly fight back for a while, they've already had a pretty hard lesson in bad PR over rootkits and PSN network hacks, so they won't want any more of the same over DRM if they can avoid it.
All they have to do is hold out until M$ cave and game sales tank on their platform. After that they can say "told you so" to the content owners and claim the moral high ground again.
Frankly, I'm surprised that M$ even thought their DRM restrictions were going to fly, they've been trying for 15-20 years and the consumer has repeatedly shown they won't have anything that's too restricting (unless I've missed massive sales of PlaysForSure devices somewhere). They're more or less ok with things that prevent casual copying, but as soon as you start telling them they can't sell it on or loan it to friends and family then it stays pretty firmly in the shops.
I don't think either M$ or Sony will turn on DRM now, it'll completely kill sales of the console and games in under six months if they do, handing the win to the other side. The only time you could do it is once it's end of life and the new model is out - at which point it's just going to look petty and spiteful.
As already noted, Sony have just done this.
I expect I'll end up with both consoles over time (I have XBox360 & PS3 already), but I'm now definitely ordering the PS4 first. In fact, I'm going to see how the DRM stuff pans out in practice before I order the new XB, so I may not buy one for several years (if at all).
I don't play games online, so I don't need to have a subscription to PSN, but I'm thoroughly unimpressed that I'd need XB Gold to be able to use half the functionality of the XB1.
Seriously, what's up with MS these days? They bring out a half decent mobile OS and then ruin their desktop OS by plastering the unsuitable interface all over it and now they've taken a decent gaming system and then tied it's feet together before asking it to run a sprint race against it's main competitor.
Has someone told them people often root for the plucky underdog so they're now trying to become the underdog to gain public approval?
>We all elect a government
Given turnout in the last two decades, only about 65% of us elect a government.
Actually, for the last election there was an online tool you could use that asked you how you felt about individual policies and then gave you percentage matches against parties (you had to tell them which parties you would consider voting for first).
My answers matched roughly equally across the three main parties, so that really helped my voting choice (not).
At that point, it became starkly apparent to me that we should vote on each policy as well as the representative, that way you can vote left/right/middle but not have to take the wheat and chaff together.
The winners then have a clear idea of what people do and don't want them to do with their power.
Nah, it'll never fly.
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