* Posts by chekri

62 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Apr 2011

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Amazon can't or won't collect sales tax in Australia

chekri

Not in the case of any physical item as you would have to have it shipped to Australia which is an obvious catch point.

Tesla's Model S autonomous mode may have saved a life

chekri

Re: PR stunt

I think the point is that this saved a life by acting when the human failed to do so. So yes humans avoid not crashing into shit almost every second that they drive, the point is that when they don't pay attention there is an extra line of defence.

Dear Tesla, stop calling it autopilot – and drivers are not your guinea pigs

chekri

Re: Do we want to advance or not?

I refer you to the FAA, Advanced Avionics Handbook - Chapter 4:

"An autopilot can be capable of many very time intensive tasks, helping the pilot focus on the overall status of the aircraft and flight. Good use of an autopilot helps automate the process of guiding and controlling the aircraft."

I don't read anywhere that a pilot can just go wander around and leave it to George. I see emphasis that the Autopilot is there to help the pilot "focus on the overall status of the aircraft and flight"

So although you may find some case where an asshat pilot may have done so illegally, this does not detract from the overall case that the name Autopilot does not imply that you can divert your attention from the driving task.

chekri

Re: Do we want to advance or not?

First of all the name Autopilot, obviously borrowed from aviation, does not imply that you can have a snooze, hop in the back seat or read the paper. Do you see the pilot and co-pilot just wandering around the plane whilst letting the autopilot on a plane do its thing?

Let's say Tesla caves in and calls it Driver Assist. Do you think that the man watching the DVD would have done anything different? That the lady who accelerated her husbands Tesla into a brick wall wouldn't have? That the man who crashed into a field because he refused to place his hands on the wheel despite the car asking him to do so repeatedly would have put his hands on the wheel?

Look I'm no aviation expert or behavioural expert but I think common sense dictates that the answer to the above questions is no, no and no.

chekri

Do we want to advance or not?

First of all, as already stated by Tesla, a car running in Autopilot is far less likely than a car not driven in Autopilot to be involved in a fatal collision.

The fact is that when used properly this technology saves lives, but like many other safety technologies when used incorrectly can cause serious injury or death. i.e. an airbag is more likely to cause injury to a passenger who is not wearing a seat belt involved in a low speed collision than had it not been there. Do we then take that one isolated fact and extrapolate it out to conclude that airbags are bad and should be banned? No we don't, we expect people to adhere to the road rules and not behave in an unsafe manner so that the majority of people can benefit form the net safety benefits of airbags.

Another factor with any safety technology is that people risk compensate, for example this excerpt from the British Medical Journal:

"Compulsion to wear a seatbelt cut deaths among drivers and front seat passengers by 25% in 1983. But in the subsequent years, the long established trend of declining deaths in car accidents reversed, and by 1989 death rates among car drivers were higher than they had been in 1983. Evidently the driving population risk compensated away the substantial benefits of seatbelts by taking extra risks, putting others in more danger. This period saw a jump in deaths of cyclists "

So we need to decide will we all become luddites in the face of advanced safety technology or will we embrace it despite the fact that humans will initially try and find a level of risk that they are comfortable with, usually overshooting the mark and then coming back to some soft of acceptable level.

Oz propaganda lists 'alternative music, environmentalism' as TERROR THREATS

chekri

The reason we have to label "alternative" music, left wing views, etc as extremist is because our government seems to be scared to point out that the threat we face is from Islamic extremism. The whole point of this anti-radicalisation toolkit is to combat the phenomenal amount of people with extreme Islamic beliefs who leave this country to go fight with IS, Al-Nusra, etc. A person of Islamic background is more likely to go fight in Syria than to join the Australian Defence Force!

Once that intent gets filtered through the political correctness filters and bureaucratic round-tables, whitepapers, green papers and what not, this is what it ends up looking like, a totally ineffective programme that will only serve to target the wrong section of our society and do nothing to stop the Islamic extremism we ar actually trying to stop.

Another one for the PC crowd, good work fools!

Australia to run first robo-car trials in sleepy Adelaide

chekri

Re: Bring them to Melbourne

"Hint: The more you flash and honk, the less inclined I am to move over."

So lets get this straight, you break the law by not keeping left unless overtaking (As is the law in Australia), causing unnecessary inconvenience to other road users, often leading them to frustration and unsafe maneuvers to get past you. You are a person who day to day makes the road a frustrating and more dangerous place to drive and you break the law, then when another motorist signals for you to modify your behaviour to something more socially acceptable you become more entrenched in that behavior (and probably take delight in the frustration you cause that person).

The above is classic sociopath behaviour. You sir, are an asshat.

NBN Co loses the “Co” for AU$700,000

chekri

If they weren't spending our money, it would be funny...

So I assume they had to buy rights to the trademark? If not, 700k is a lot of coin for what was an obvious shortening of the name, a somewhat bland logo and a trademark registration

Microsoft: Profit DECIMATED because you people aren't buying PCs

chekri

Re: Be patient, it's coming!

UEFI secureboot = better security

Windows 10 - its great, try out the tech preview

Windows App store - Easier access to applications

Forced cloud - Umm no, there is nothing forced on the user whatsoever

Subscriptions - an option in addition to the traditional perpetual rights, use whatever suits you

nice try but you are clearly talking out your backside

Cisco loses logo lawsuit against WiFi inventor boffinhaus

chekri

Woolworths != Woolworth

The local tentacle you mentioned is not at all a tentacle, it is Woolworths Limited and has nothing but its name in common with F.W. Woolworth (USA & UK) or Woolworths Holdings Limited (South Africa).

It's an Octopus unto itself.

Gleeful Apple and Microsoft bathe in bathfuls of debt

chekri
FAIL

Re: No it's not

"As for Microsoft, clearly the cash pile is not that big."

$67bn in cash, not that big?

It's like saying John Holmes' appendage was 'not that big'

Welcome to Spartan, Microsoft's persuasive argument for... Chrome

chekri

Correction

Article states that Chromium is the engine of Chrome. This is not correct.

- Chromium is the open source version of Chrome

- Chromium, Chrome and Opera use Blink as their rendering engine. Blink is a fork of WebKit.

One Sync to rule them all: How Microsoft plans to fix OneDrive

chekri

This is a regression

I see that the Reg took in the full puff piece without noticing the key f#ck up Microsoft is making here.

In Windows 8.1 OneDrive has a feature called smart files, the file is displayed in File Explorer whether it is stored on the computer or not. If you attempt to open a file that is stored only in OneDrive, File Explorer retrieves the file from "the cloud" as a file operation.

This greatly simplified the storage of online and offline files, particularly on space constrained devices.

The rub is that MS is totally removing this feature, without any regard for what users want - a mini-Sinofsky event if you will.

On the Windows 10 Preview this has over 900 votes and 500 comments for it to be restored as a feature, considering that the audience is Windows 10 alpha testers, this is a significant volume of users.

https://windows.uservoice.com/forums/265757-windows-feature-suggestions/suggestions/6708195-add-an-advanced-option-to-restore-showing-all-oned

Microsoft shutters Office 365's free web site service

chekri

Nadella, where is your 'New Microsoft"?

Because this stinks of the same old shit that gave MS the reputation it has today.

No more free Windows... and now it’s all about the services

chekri

Re: Windows in kit form?

"Indian CEO genius"? Did you ever call Jobs an "American CEO Genius" or Elop a "Canadian CEO Genius"?

How does his being Indian come into this Joerg? Not saying you are racist, just curious as to why you felt a need to identify his race as part of your criticism of his performance as a CEO?

VW's Scirocco diesel: A sheep in Wolfsburg’s clothing

chekri

Re: Diesel

Well that would would do wonders for your economy, good luck with that.

Rethinking desktop delivery

chekri
FAIL

Hyperbole much?

FTA: "relentless Windows upgrade spiral"

Using XP as an example, it had a service life of 12 years.

To put this into perspective this, Solaris 8 had a service life of 12 years - heard any Unix admins complaining about a "Relentless Solaris upgrade spiral".

Another Reg journalism fail

Chinese hackers spied on investigators of Flight MH370 - report

chekri

Re: The fact that the attack occured one day after MH370 disappeared...

Plane carrying 152 Chinese citizens disappears, Malaysian investigators have information which China understandably would want access to. China hacks into Malaysian investigators systems to retrieve said information.

and you write:

"Clearly the Chinese Government already knew something about MH370 that it's still not sharing with the world, and it was worried investigators would find out."

FFS use your brain - China is acting in its own national interest to find out what happened to 152 of its citizens.

Russia to SAP, Apple: Hand over source code to prove you're not spies

chekri

Try adding in some punctuation - this is barely readable.

So whither Microsoft? If Nadella knows, he is keeping it well hidden

chekri

On the Surface not making money...

It is something that embodies the Microsoft vision for Windows, one platform three screens I believe. Microsoft needs to invest in the most exemplary of devices that fully embody this vision, if they don't, no one will. As was evidenced with the initial release of Surface RT based devices, there is a huge risk bringing these untested form factors to market, and the Asus, Acers and Lenovo's of this world just arent that interested in shouldering that risk

"Simply putting a crude, Tablet-like interface onto Windows"

This is obviously your bias writ large, given that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, why has Apple moved to the same design concepts initially implemented in Windows Phone? Surely they wouldn't be copying it if it was "crude"

"Without consumer services Microsoft would be smaller and more profitable, argue dissident shareholders – and, vitally, more focused."

In the gargantuan IT company game you don't get to play in one one sandpit, you have to play in all of them. Particularly with the consumerisation trend in IT, the employee is choosing the tools, platforms and devices that they want, not the Enterprise IT department. Look at how many iPad's are used in business with Apple having some sort allergy to enterprise...guess who is making the purchase decision. You can't isolate yourself as an Enterprise only vendor. IBM, Oracle, SAP, etc make money sure, but their profits are nowhere near that of companies that dominate the consumer space.

"Lumia today is simply more expensive than most Indian consumers can afford"

WinPho runs on lower specs than Android - Symbian is EOL, S40 is as good as selling a toaster, you cant attach services to it.

"Xbox doesn’t have an innovative TV studio" It doesnt need one, one can still watch House of cards on X-Box video, sure Netflix is giving the studio thing a go, its by no means a proven model.

"They’re already choosing $30 Androids over $90 Lumias, and will become much harder to woo back."

Again WinPho has lower requirements than Android. No reason it cant run on those same $30 phones.

"Are Microsoft devices a profit centre, or just a showcase? " It is something that embodies the Microsoft vision for Windows, one platform three screens, call it a showcase if you want.

"And the cuts have fallen hardest on the incoming Nokia devices unit." And so it should, they are getting rid of entire product lines, factories and management levels. Of course you are going to get massive culls after such a large acquisition, particularly when there are overlapping products & services

"In his first 60 days Nadella had picked up lots of kudos for decisions made by his predecessor."

Who's to say that Steve B was going to release Office for iPad? You do know that companies often port their products to different platforms in skunkworks but never release them? Solaris for Itanium & Windows for SPARC come to mind. Nadella has a proven track record of supporting non MS platforms from his time in Server and Tools, there is a reason why SCOM supports just about any platform you want (Solaris, AiX, Linux) and I remember how my draw dropped back when it was released.

Microsoft takes on Chromebook with low-cost Windows laptops

chekri

Azure is not a consumer product, so yeah, 42,000 is a lot

Missed it? Here's the latest on Microsoft's mobile strategy

chekri

Re: Cambridgeshire Police Constabulary

rm -rf / on your sense of perspective?

Google: Why should we pay tax when we make 'intangibles'?

chekri

Re: Gmail is out

Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo?

Microsoft's NEW OS now runs on HALF of ALL desktop PCs

chekri

Re: Interesting stats to play with

"Windows has crashed from 92% to 91% over the last 2 years."

At this rate it will be less popular than Linux in 180 years!

Crash?

chekri

Re: Its not suprising..

"Have you ever worked in IT support???"

Yes

"Half of them couldn't even find their backside. With both hands."

Half of the users that call maybe, most users just get on with it and only call when something is actually broken. No matter what minor change you make the retards will call, if we accommodated the tards willingness to accept change we'd still be using Windows for workgroups.

"Oh, and driving a manual vehicle is NOT a sign of increased intelligence. It's a basic skill most of the rest of world just performs."

I never said it was a sign of intelligence, it is however more of an intellectual challenge than clicking on big square icons instead of little square icons. And as you point out this is something large portions of the worlds population somehow manage to do on a daily basis.

chekri

No - these stats are based upon browser agent strings visiting a broad range of sites.

chekri

Re: Its not suprising..

People like you like to conflate the so-called problem to validate your own opinion - employees will manage just fine when they aren't coddled and will take no more than thirty minutes to work it out - these are the same people who somehow managed to work a smart phone, drive a manual vehicle and do their tax return without your finger up their backside. I'm sure they will work out the big square icons all by themselves without your "help"

PC makers! You, between Microsoft and the tablet market! Get DOWN!

chekri

Re: @Eric Hood - Dare I say differentiation

"And if you just happen to miss that once a month phone home opportunity ?"

What if a unicorn shits on your tablet?

chekri

Because heaps of suits are doing network diagrams in Visio?

I think you are confused.

Sticky Tahr-fy pudding: Ubuntu 14.04 slickest Linux desktop ever

chekri

Re: Head to head

Yes they are - and name a sizable corporation that only uses browsers.

Windows 8.1 becomes world's fourth-most-popular desktop OS

chekri

Re: Which is more secure? REALLY?

"I predict Microsoft is going to back down and offer a paid continuation option for people who would rather pay for XP than switch."

Already do mate - it called 'custom support' and will run you into the millions if you are talking a substantial fleet of devices.

chekri

Might be a good idea to go cash-only for a few months after the first unpatched vuln is released :)

chekri

8.1 and 8 should be grouped together

8.1 is a service pack of Windows 8 - why report it separately? Windows 8 market share is 10.58%

If you are going to break out service packs for Windows 8 then you should do it for all other versions.

Snap! Nokia's gyro stabilised camera tech now on open market

chekri

Re: Comparing the camera cost to headphones isn't very helpful

This is not replacing anything, it is a part that will move the optical component of the camera (not the sensor) contrary to the movement of the camera on a number of axis' - there is not a part that does anything of this sort in any non-Lumia smartphone today.

Microsoft to Australian government: our kit has no back doors

chekri

Re: Do people have no memories at all?

The article you point at actually states "Researchers are divided about whether the NSA key could be intended to let US government users of Windows run classified crypto systems on their machines or whether it is intended to open up anyone's and everyone's Windows computer to intelligence gathering techniques deployed by NSA's burgeoning corps of "information warriors"."

So yes there was an NSAKEY label used within ADVAPI.DLL, however its actual use case and function has not been identified. As per TFA it could be "intended to let US government users of Windows run classified crypto systems on their machines" ∴ not a back-door

chekri

No need for a back door

Why would there need to be a specific back door anyway - unpublished vulns are as effective as a backdoor and when found in use are easily deniable as a security bug. A specifically coded back door has no plausible deniability and would seriously damage your reputation when found.

A question to be asked that would leave less wriggle room, "do you share information on unpatched vulnerabilities with intelligence agencies?" I suggest an answer to this question would appear much more evasive :)

FreeBSD 10.0 lands, targets VMs and laptops

chekri

Re: Nothing about OSX/iOS link?

It was only a matter of time til the old Unix beards would get Alzheimer's. It has begun.

NTT DoCoMo says two mobe OSes are enough, so sayonara to Tizen

chekri

Re: Who can vouch for that?

Considering that Nokia US market share was > 5% for 2013 and its trajectory is up year on year, I'd say Microsoft won't vouch for that!

Microsoft zaps self in foot with WinPho/Office remote control app

chekri

" Another user reports it is also impossible to install the app from a Windows Phone "

Well that user is wrong, I installed the app from a Windows Phone with no problems ∴ it is possible

Anonymous Indonesia claims attacks by Anonymous Australia

chekri

Re: Could be false flag

Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front?

Azure hops into Australia

chekri
Black Helicopters

So if Microsoft is issued a demand for data in the USA, the fact that their infrastructure is hosted in Australia is going to make what difference?

And not picking on MS for this either, same question should be asked of Google, Amazon, Rackspace, etc

Sony investor wants to break up firm, re-invest in hardware biz

chekri

secularly challenged markets

Call me stupid, but is he trying to say that Vaio's don't sell well in Iran?

Apple seeks techies, designers to revive iWork office suite

chekri
Headmaster

Ninja? Is this some subtle way of saying that non-Japanese need not apply?

Or are we expecting a Beverly Hills Ninja sort of person; tubby white guys with a malformed ego?

I don't see how either of the above lends itself to creating an office suite.

Adobe price hike: Your money or your files, frappuccino sippers

chekri

Re: valid assumption?

Unfortunately it is that much better than the competition - well Photoshop is at least.

There is Paint Shop Pro, Pixelmator or even Gimp or Paint.net but none of these have the immense amount of functionality and automation that you get with photoshop.

I wish it weren't so and that we had a decent competitor to take over the lead.

Nokia teases world+dog with snap of new 4G Lumia 928

chekri
Megaphone

Re: I'll stick with my QWERTY thanks.

How in the fsck does using "REAL QWERTY" mean that you're using your brain? You clearly didn't post this from a "REAL QWERTY" keyboard if we apply this rule to your post.

Outback geothermal plant goes live

chekri

And what natural resource would it be wasting Tony Reeves 1?

Smaller, second-gen Surface slabs to arrive in June?

chekri

Once they include 4g connectivity and slim down with the new haswell chipsets - the Surface will be a fantastic device.

The main selling point for the Surface Pro is that it is a desktop PC when you plug it in at home and a tablet when you take it with you. For people who don't want two or three devices but still want to use photoshop, lightroom, download torrents, etc the Surface is a great device. The RT version however, it just doesnt have enough useful applications yet, hopefully this will change with time

Foxconn must pay Microsoft for EVERY Android thing it makes

chekri
Unhappy

Rest in peace Eadon

It has been more than four hours since this was posted and still Eadon has not graced us with his written word, ergo, he has shuffled off this mortal coil. Rest in peace dear Eadon, rest in peace.

chekri
Windows

Re: …And we still have no idea what these patents are

The asserted patents are known and are referenced here: http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=2011111122291296 refer exhibit D

IMHO the patents would not withstand a legal challenge, perhaps a good reason why MS have tried to keep specific details away from the public where it would face broader analysis and discussion.

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