Posts by Jamie Jones

Re: can't compete with a much more up-to-date platform, iOS

Nice to see I have some groupies!

I'm mildly curious why I got 2 downvotes for answering a question.. Still, if it makes you happy, fire away!

You have been able to backup most things via adb since android 4.0.

Backup and restore commands Description

backup [-f file] [-apk | -noapk] [-obb | -noobb] [-shared | -noshared] [-all] [-system | [-nosystem] package_names Write an archive of the device's data to file. If you do not specify a file name, the default file is backup.adb. The package list is optional when you specify the -all and -shared options. The following describes the usages for the other options:

-apk | -noapk: Back up or do not back up .apk files. The default value is -noapk.

-obb | -noobb: Back up or do not back up .obb files. The default value is -noobb.

-shared | -noshared: Back up or do not back up shared storage. The default value is -noshared.

-all: Back up all installed apps.

-system | -nosystem: Include or do not include system apps when backing up all installed apps (-all). The default value is -system.

restore file Restore the device contents from file.

More:

command line: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40202829/adb-backup-unknown-backup-flag

https://9to5google.com/2017/11/04/how-to-backup-restore-android-device-data-android-basics/

gui front end: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=36499906#post36499906

Improvements to ADB in android 8: https://www.xda-developers.com/android-oreo-adb-backup-better/

Re: can't compete with a much more up-to-date platform, iOS

Actual applications that are part of open-source Android, or all the proprietary stuff that Google have tied to it to make it almost impossible for the average Joe to use Android without having their data harvested?

Both.

E.g. Webview (open - https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/android-9.0.0_r3/core/java/android/webkit/)

play/gms (propretary)

Re: can't compete with a much more up-to-date platform, iOS

It bugs me when people downvote without saying why.

I'm not too sure about Ios, but you're right about android - some google apps are installed as user apps and are updated through the play store in the normal way - others, which may be preinstalled as system apps, can also update through the play store - the new version will be stored in "user" rather than "system" space, but will automatically be treated the same as the version it's updating. (the "system" copy will still exist, but will be ignored, until you delete the "user" update)

Re: I think I can define ClickBait as

"Outbrain and tombola - sites I completely block in my firewall."

Until now I have never heard of those two sites. By the sound of it, hopefully I'll never hear about them again.

Arggh, despite Giovani giving the correct name, I cocked it up in my reply.

As he says, it's taboola not tombola

For completeness, here is my personally compiled list of similar clickbait sites. Of course, check them out before blocking them - some may be dead now, or may have cleaned up their act. More importantly, never trust random-person-on-internet-especially-when-hes-a-self-described-welsh-git!

# --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Kill these zones belonging to either deceptive ad companies, or crappy tacky 'content based'

# click-bait ad-servers, which generally link to a page that links to the link (along with

# others). They usually have a misleading sensationalist headline too. Kill them with fire!

.adhitz.com. domain

.adsmarket.com. domain

.adnxs.com. domain

.content.ad. domain

.content-ad.net. domain

.gravity.com. domain

.mgid.com. domain

.outbrain.com. domain

.zizu.xyz. domain .steepto.com. domain

.taboola.com. domain .tribalfusion.com. domain

.zergnet.com. domain

.revcontent.com. domain # This one even uses thumbnails of people irrelevant to the story! # --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#

Re: pot / kettle

Do it properly..... https://www.fca.org.uk/ppi/how-to-check

Re: I think I can define ClickBait as

Ugh. Yes. Outbrain and tombola - sites I completely block in my firewall.

Total dregs of the internet.

(gosh, if only there was a technology that could perform Network Address Translation.... oh, no, sorry, some fools condemned all that because "IPv6 would fix it all"... all that stuff that's not actually broke...)

Wrong. IPv6 NAT exists, and is as easy as IPv4 NAT.

Just because some "fools" say you no longer need to NAT, you can if you want. Heck, there is also DHCP6 and IPv6 private-lan address ranges if you really want to stay old school and stick with ip4 type restrictions.

Please don't make stuff up to suit your argument, or call people fools because they understand the headaches NAT can cause. It makes you sound like Trump.

Re: What I want (i.e. will pay for) in my smartphone OS

""rooting" has become a dirty word"

It has? Even though if you don't have root access, you don't have control over your own computer?

Yes, it has. I didn't say rooting was wrong - I have root on all my devices, and wouldn't get a device where it wasn't possible - I said it's become a dirty word.

People wanting 'root' are considered dubious hackers, many apps will refuse to work, some companies say rooting voids guarantee... As I said, no-one would treat your access to your desktop machine the same way, but as soon as you talk about "rooting" your phone, it's considered dubious. i.e. rooting has become a dirty word.

Re: What I want (i.e. will pay for) in my smartphone OS

"rooting" has become a dirty word. (No sniggering at the back, there, Australians)

"Have admin access" sounds more respectable - no company would restrict users from having administrator on their own machine!"

wave a chicken in the air

Kids....

Back in my day, there was no waving. We respectively held our chickens in the air, whilst sticking a deck-chair up our nose.

Of course, this was followed by the buying of a Jumbo Jet, and the burying of all our clothes - as was expected at the time.

Some of your other points are valid, but you're totally arse-over-tit with this one:

The permanent warning "App permission management is running" to put off users trying to control the abuse of personal data.

Permission Management is in 5.1 - it's purpose is to actively *block* access by apps. When a running app. attempts to use a potential privacy-abusing function, "app permission management" is what pops up the allow/deny dialogue before the app. can proceed.

Re: Kreskin in the Shell

By then they'll have the signals going through sub-space. No latency then, even at geostationary orbits!

Re: " Can't wait to see the MS fine then."

There are many alternatives to the google play store.

See: https://www.androidpit.com/best-google-play-store-alternative-app-stores

and https://fossbytes.com/10-google-play-store-alternatives/ for starters.

Re: Big fines are just a cost of doing big business

Indeed. They are certainly no ICANN!

Re: How about...

And if the beancounters need convincing... I know I miss a lot of comments I'd usually read - I usually read all the comments on an article after reading the article, but never see any further comments - other than checking to see if anything I've written has had a reply.

If there was proper comment threading/marking/notification, I'd be reading the comments far more often, and as the hacks have already done their job at that point, any ad revenue from then on is just free money, earned from the invaluable contributions of the commentards!

My way of seeing it: If you think about the bog standard 'web forum' you have categories, containing a few forums. Within each forum, you have posts, and replies to post.

I invisage each el reg article would effectively have it's own "forum" - within that forum, you'd have the posts and replies just like in web-based forums.

Then people can follow threads, see new posts since last visit (*still threaded* - the 'see recent posts' option that exists currently kills all threading), and replies to their posts and have online or email notifications set as they see fit.

Re: Setting cookie already takes JavaScript

I wholeheartedly agree - we strive to ensure the basic functionality of "things" works without JS. JS provides an additional layer on top of the basic functionality.

There were a number of changes to El Reg a few years ago that disapointedly broke that philosophy.

Firstly, in the forums, the clear-to-understand date/time of a comment was changed to a javascript "x hours" or the even more horrible "x days ago". To make it worse, the non-JS fallback doesn't show the date/time as it did, it just shows the date, which is useless when you consider that most posts in a forum are made in the same day.

Second, the needless "expand comment..." - if you are paging/scrolling through the comments, it breaks the flow to have to click "expand comment" . It's not necessary - vertical scrolling is inevitable! If you do want an easy way to skip long comments, a 'skip comment' anchor href is all that is needed.

Other than that, yeah, one of the big appeals to me of the Reg is it's light and efficient design, so fair doos there.

Re: How about...

Yes I know they've got a grey arrow you can click on that will move the page to the comment it replies to, but that's silly - and then you have to scroll back to where you were.

Wooooooooooooooooooaaaaahhhhh! I never knew the arrow thingies had that purpose... How long have they done that for?

But yeah, a silly way to do it!