Posts by Magnus_Pym

Now Trident makes sense.

I always wondered why successive governments threatened to cancel Trident then backed down when they got read into the official secrets. I reckon Trident doesn't exist, at least not as advertised, but is a useful cover for grabbing huge amounts of tax pounds for these sort of projects.

Breaking news 2025

US courts report that all current IP patent licensing dispute appeals have been completed and the value of shares in US business jumped to record highs as every business is set to receive a trillion dollars in licensing fees.

In other news employment is at a record low everywhere (except the legal sector) cost cutting is rife as every business is set to pay a trillion dollars in licensing fees.

Coporaste purchase strategy?

Apple, like a lot of US high tech companies have a lot of money 'offshore' (i.e. money made elsewhere in the world that doesn't attract US tax until it is brought home). Buying non-US businesses is a way of turning that money into company value without paying the tax that bringing into the US would attract. Microsoft buying Nokia with some of their offshore money, in theory, increases the value of Microsoft stock so making money for the boardroom stock holders without paying the US tax that they would spending it in the US. Like a lot of web based business, streaming music makes it's profit where ever the owner says it does. If the purchase can be carried out 'offshore' then the streaming music service profits operate as a money laundering system. Hey presto 3 billion dollars of low-taxed overseas assets become become x million dollars a year of US onshore income.

Nokia sat nav

I loved the sat nav on my old Nokia N8. I found accurate, easy to read and fast to recalculate. I miss it now the office has moved onto iPhones. Hopefully they we re-licence the iPhone version sometime soon.

Hype marketing.

Call it the 'V8' and Americans will snap 'em up

I've missed something here

I'm I read somewhere that someone developing driver-less cars said they had to write their own OS because a PC or server based OS might go off and do housekeeping chores at inopportune moments. A pilot-less military helicopter however appears to be OK with a general purpose database app on top of a general purpose OS. Is that right?

So what are the 'things'

The 'Internet of things' surely relies on 'things' being on the internet. It's not clear if the "existing sensors" are separate entities accessible through the internet. If they are then as 'existing' sensors they already were an internet of things if not then then they just have an interface to a sensor array.

Also: Not sure where Azure comes in.

The way I see it ...

... Nokia executive could see that they had damaged the good ship Nokia and was it sinking fast. They could do one of two things. Make a last ditch, heroic, do or die attempt, applying all their business acumen, working all hours and risking everything they had to fix the mess they made and return Nokia to greatness OR sell out what little they had left for whatever they could get for it. Maybe they couldn't sell it outright but they could find someone gullible enough and desperate enough to tie themselves into a partnership that once made they can only go further in without admitting they made a mistake.

It might be arguable that the Nokia board took the second option. If that is the case they did get a bloody good deal for what they sold.

Hearing aid app

There are already hearing aid apps available for the iPhone and no doubt other OS's too. Many free. They appear to work as graphic equaliser type thing. Once the idea has been announced it's only a matter of time before it becomes a consumer device and the price falls.

Hijacking foiled scenario?

1. Plane sets off on flight to Beijing.

2. Plane is hijacked by tech savvy terrorist intent on a 9/11 type attack on Beijing.

3. Terrorist disables pilot and coerces co-pilot to make 'good night' call.

4. Terrorist turns off all comms that they know about.

5. Co-pilot alters course without alerting terrorist.

6. Plane flies out to sea where it can do no more harm.

But ... but ... but ... jobs

In this country there are not enough jobs to go round. Any 'unfilled' jobs are looking for skills that don't exist or are unrealistic in there expectations. (i.e. school-leaver IT positions with a list of required skills as long as your arm). Even the lowliest jobs get a huge number of applicants. The only vacencies that exist are the ones no-one can afford to pay for any more. (i.e. road maintenance, IT support staff, flood prevention engineers ). There are no jobs that prisoners could do that does not involve taking it away from someone else. The same goes for the unemployed (get 'em to sweep the streets etc. What would then happen to the street sweepers?)

Call centres are already in existence and employ people who have not committed crimes (or at least not been caught). By giving work to prisoners they are taking it from non-prisoners, what are current call centre employees supposed to do except sign on. Some may be enticed into a life of crime. Can nobody else see the flaw in this plan.

metaphorgasm

You can tell no body really knows what it does by the shear number of vague and ill defined metaphors used to describe what it. 747's , multi-billion dollar cars, puppets WTF."

to all the nay-sayers.

No driver also makes it easier, politics wise, to add a remote self destruct system. If the truck gets to the destination it unloads the container and returns home. No danger to the troops. If it detects a road block or deviation from the set course it alerts the base that the self destruct timer has been initiated and waits to see if base sends the stop signal. If no stop is received - boom.

So: unmanned supply vehicle or exploding trojan horse. win-win.

For ten years?

since 2005 WOW!. 2005 was great. A real high water mark for British tech ...

... Oh no. That's it. I remember now, in 2005 in was just the same, as crappy and underfunded as always.

Ooh ooh. me me.

I wrote that in a comment on the this subject back in August. Do I win a prize or something?

"Submitted on Friday 23rd August 2013 15:19 GMT

Not the same thing

Management sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting la la la at the top of their voices is not the same as nobody telling them what's going on.

22 thumbs up"

Same story different ending

It seems to me a lot of the tech industry has the same story. Interesting tech, bodged, buggy and released too early, doesn't quite work properly. The difference is they either 'catch' i.e. a compelling bit of software forces sales and a market is created or they don't. Apple had the spreadsheet, Microsoft had the IBM pc, There is always something. All these things need a bit of luck, a bit of tech co-incidence, a bit of serendipity. Sinclair was inventive and got lucky quite a few times but it was bound to run out in the end. He was his own worst enemy.

Leicestershire?

I understood that Tolkien modelled the shire on his home county of Worcestershire. Still in the Midlands just the other side of the country. I agree with the earlier that it's unusual for Leicester or Leicestershire (the forgotten county) to ever get in the news for anything remotely positive.

you think you've seen advertising ....

... You know those funny pauses or when the series ident' appears for no apparent reason. You know the ones that pop up every five minutes. They are the original US advert breaks. TThose in the UK and have Tivo type facilities at least can approximate the experience of US or Australian TV by pause the program for 5 minutes every 5 minutes of viewing time and play the same Cillet Bang advert over and over again in the space. That will give you some idea of what TV would be like in world where there is no national subscription based quality TV service to compare and compete with.

Visionary?

The problem is they always thought they were Steve Jobs'. They all thought they were high tech visionaries and technical vanguards when in fact all the real profit comes from old fashioned hard-ball business practices. Very early on Microsoft found a way to market software that sold the product but retain all the rights and they set up a legal framework to enforce it. It's this licensing model that makes all the profit not technical leadership. In fact it works against it. They absolutely had to stifle any innovation that threatened the Windows+PC+network+peripheral model because the model only works if you have enough leverage.

There used to be a wall of money large enough to prevent the real world entering castle Redmond. That is no longer the case. Whoever gets the job they will need to live in the real world or die in the imaginary one.

Relaunch Doctor

+1 for Eccleston. The relaunch Doctor. Many actors saw it as a poison chalice to relaunch a concept that had essentially died. All later Dr's owe him a debt.

Eh!

"Mapeley, is based in Guernsey."

The nations tax agency saves money by using tax-haven based spin off companies while criticising big business for saving money by using tax-haven based spin off companies.

Ironic?

Wouldn't it be a nice package some non-US citizens had illegally gained knowledge of the NSA illegally gaining knowledge on non-US citizens.

I still think ...

... that there is so much ancient legacy code at the back of Flash that no one really knows how it all works any more. Hence the difficulty in fixing it.

"The global list of stolen devices is maintained by the GSMA"

Except most UK providers (IME) can't be bothered to ask your name let alone the details required to lock the phone.

Hold on ...

... aren't there about a million third party keyboard/cover type thingies of various style and types already for the iPad? Some that act as cover/stand combos. Some actually sold in the Apple shops.

So in conclusion

Significant numbers of XP machines are tied to devices or process that are incapable of change. These will continue to be XP whatever Microsoft do until the device of process becomes obsolete.

Significant numbers of XP machines are tied to organisational units that require a lot of planning and effort to change. These will continue to use XP until the cost/gain balance swings massively to the other side.

Significant numbers of XP machines are tied to devices or process that are difficult to change. These will continue to use XP until the cost/gain balance swings a little further to the other side.

Some XP machines could easily be changed but the administrator has yet to be convinced of the gain vs cost equation.

Give the type and size of the first two sets of users and the kind of commercial credibility required for their working practices it's only a matter of time until some major user group or industry sector forces Microsoft to offer XP some kind of XP lifeline.

That was quick

They completed the investigation and got him through court in three days. Obviously this new system of renaming existing departments while cutting funds brings great advantages. </sarcasm>

feedback loop

Maybe it's the spy-tech the NSA have forced manufacturers to build into the chips and stuff. All their kit is constantly trying to report back to itself creating an runaway feedback loop.

iSomething.

It has often been stated the Steve Jobs created a reality distortion field wherever he went. People would believe black was white if he said so if only for the period of time he was in the room. I think there is an equal and opposite effect that restores the natural balance. it is demonstrated in any Apple related forum. A large group of people will not believe the a story about Apple even when it is true. They seek to twist reality to match their view. Apple products are liked by a lot of users and make a profit. Get over it.

Apple Inc ethics maybe a different kettle of fish.

I wonder what the request-bang convertion rates is?

Very low I should imagine.

Cuts?

It is possible that the upper management were tasked with making savings and chose to get rid of the costly and troublesome AKWTAD (actually know what they were doing) staff.

"Ulbricht made a number of operational security mistakes".

Probably linked to financial data available to certain agencies. It's alright being a bitcoin billionaire but convert it to a 'real' currency and you pop up on certain agency's OPDM (other peoples data mining) radar and become a 'person of interest'.