* Posts by Giles Jones

2536 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Dec 2006

Coming to terms with Raon's Everun tiny, Lolita-based PC

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Take a break

I don't see why people want to have a computer with them everywhere, take a break, learn the art of conversation.

UMPC aren't usable simply because the OS was never designed for use on such a small device. Application windows all over the place etc... it's only something you'll put yourself through if you need a Windows application on the move.

London man coughs to 172mph Porsche jaunt

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Driving vastly faster than the average speed is stupid

If the average speed on a motorway is 60 and you do 172 then if someone moves into the fast lane in front doing the average speed how are you likely to slow down?

You can talk about performance brakes all you like, you can't drop 112 mph in a second safely, road surfaces are uneven, hit a bump and you're in a spin.

You can get caught out with a sudden change in speed on the motorway doing the limit (accident ahead etc..).

Warner Bros to remake Enter the Dragon

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Aint broke don't fix it

I have no problem with a decent director and writer remaking films, but it's always these young sell outs who do the remakes. Young directors who let the film company bosses manipulate their work.

If a director is to be able to contribute something and make a better film then they should do it.

To be honest this is as much about selling new DVDs with modern image quality and DTS sound as it is about entertaining people.

What next? Bladerunner?

Is VMware too close to Linux?

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Eh?

"Once again the Linux community takes aim at its own foot. "

So by preventing code theft by a company that is raking in millions the open source community is doing bad things?

Linux is published with a licence that prevents the code being abused, VMWare are abusing it and therefore they should stop doing so or comply with the licence.

Signed bands have released their song recordings in Garageband/Sony Acid for remix purposes before. While it's possible for me to just mixdown and record the output onto CD and sell it to everyone for profit the licence prevents me. How is this any different to what VMWare are doing?

VMWare could have used one of the BSDs which would allow them to withold the source code, but they chose Linux.

Let's face it, Linux isn't going to vanish anytime soon. There simply isn't another open source OS which has the vast levels of hardware support it has. Plus there are many embedded Linux experts out there now.

Could Linux become the dominant OS?

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Bold predictions

"The bald assertion that Linux will become dominant on the desktop eventually is just wishful thinking. Perhaps at home, but never in the office."

That's the point, if people use Linux at home, they get used to it. They then start to demand to be able to work at home with Linux and then they move to open formats.

>And the main reason for this is Microsoft Excel. Huge numbers of people in offices have fairly complex spreadsheets which they need to do their jobs.

Buy Crossover Office, you can run Excel in Linux.

" I have found from experience that even a slightly complex spreadsheet (doesn't even need to have macros) will not convert to Open Office without a LOT of work. The sheer number of spreadsheets that will have to be converted to Open Office and then thoroughly tested is immense."

Not everyone works with spreadsheets. Transition from any IT system to another always has pain. But convert to an open format and you can move easier, this is why people are advocating open standards.

Free software campaigners stonewalled at BBC

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Freeview

"This is a common misconception. The BBC (as with any TV company) does not buy the programmes, they buy the right to show them for a certain period. That contract will often include controls on the method of ditribution."

---

So why do they broadcast reasonable quality digital MPEG2 over the airwaves which can be recorded with any DVB card in full quality?

There's no DRM on that. Plus the iPlayer actually allows people without a TV licence to watch the programmes.

Total world Wii sales close in on Xbox 360 tally

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More than one per customer

You need to buy more than one 360 as they keep going wrong. While the warranty has been extended, I bet there's a few people who missed that offer and have bught another.

The 360 has been out the longest. It's very easy to look at the US market and deem the 360 a success, look at Japan though, not even sold a million yet.

SCO 'disappointed' as shares plunge 70 per cent

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SCO Unix

Why would anyone use their Linux?

Relinking a kernel and rebooting to change an IP address?

OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, AIX, Solaris etc are all worthy alternatives.

'Portable' CD player puts MP3 into a spin

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Been done before

I've seen similar designs before.

Anyway, who in the hell uses discs anymore?

Punch out your own code on a Greenphone

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Too expensive and not open enough

Compared to OpenMoko it's too expensive, there's an SDK licence fee to be paid.

The phone hardware is low end to average. You'd expect a phone from HTC with such specs to come in at $350 max.

OpenMoko has no licence fees, is more open and the developer version of the phone cost me $350 (inc shipping). Retail version is expected to be $450.

The specs of the OpenMoko are on the whole better, VGA screen, GPS. With the retail version it will also get Wifi, 3D chip and two accelerometers (like in the Wii controller and iPhone).

Novell owns Unix copyrights after all

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Novell have their own Linux product

Novell bought Suse and have released Linux themselves. So they would be suing themselves.

Novell CEO confirms that Microsoft is a reality

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Linux has replaced Unix

How many big Unix players are there left apart from Sun?

Why does Linux need to be big? it's already creeping in. Three years ago people I know never used it. People at work are installing it, friends are installing it.

Linux doesn't need Novell, Novell needs Linux. I don't hear of much Netware business in the news these days?

The only card Novell has up its sleeve is some Unix patents.

Dell UK dances with Linux

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Novice users

Thing is, novice users will not know about some of the complexities of Windows either, installing drivers and new hardware will be beyond them.

So long as the pre-installed OS works and detects their net and printer they will be happy.

Of course a novice wouldn't get Linux anyway.

Nokia calls Microsoft for DRM software

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Oh no

I've dreaded the day when Microsoft got its foot in the door for licencing of DRM and media formats.

There's just no way they will ever licence to anyone using Linux, which means it's almost two horse race in the mobile market. Windows Mobile and Symbian. Linux devices and the iPhone will be shut out. It's not much of a worry for Apple who have their own DRM platform.

DRM is as much anti-competition as it is anti-piracy.

iPhone's keyboard prompts patent violation suit

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Cashing in

They could sue Microsoft or Nokia or many of the other makers of devices with touch screen keyboards, but they go after Apple for the publicity.

Free Software Foundation plans protests at 'corrupt' BBC

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Freeview has no DRM

Freeview has no DRM, I easily record programming with a DVB card in glorious broadcast quality. It's good to be able to watch programs again until the DVD is out.

So given I can do this at much higher quality than internet files, why do they bother putting DRM on the internet files?

Also, with my DVB card I am required to have a TV licence. With the iPlayer you aren't. So people are freeloading.

US cracks down on mod-chippers

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Oz

In Australia they made them legal as they bypass region coding and stop anti-competitive pricing of games.

Alienware Area-51 m9750

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Happy to see

Happy to see people being negative about expensive PC kit as well. Makes a change from bashing Apple hardware all the time.

I do wonder why people spend such money on a laptop to play games?

It's nowhere near pocketable for on the move, get a Nintendo DS lite :)

Sony faces case for 'Cell' patent infringement

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Why Sony?

The Cell CPU was developed by a partnership of Sony, Toshiba and IBM.

I would imagine IBM with it's hoards of patents can find one that Parallel infringe on.

If anything I would say that someone in the UK (transputer patent holder?) has a right to see, after all, we had this multiple cores linked via a communication bus malarkey in the 1980s.

Prior art is always there somewhere.

The BBC iPlayer 'launch' that wasn't

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Typical British bungling

This shows why Britain doesn't have many world class IT and technology giants.

We can't even get a simple streaming TV service working, never mind produce complex electronics.

Why waste your net bandwidth? get a couple of DVB cards and record it all instead. Given the lack of anything decent on TV these days I find dual tuners is sufficient.

BSkyB buys Amstrad

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Pace

If you have any shares in Pace, now might be the time to think about selling them.

BBC iPlayer launches, but with limited viewer reach

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Free programming for non-licence payers

You don't need a TV licence to watch this content as it isn't broadcast simultaneously with the live signal.

So licence payers pay for the content, everyone else gets to free load.

Ironic given the BBC make it Windows only, thus locking me out of being able to view any of it.

Windows Vista unreadiness revealed

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Webster troll

>What planet did you come from?

>Go back.. they miss their idiot!

Don't worry, I don't think he's ever owned a Mac. Just another MS fanboy troll.

Look at the number of updates that have caused major problems on XP lately. There was one for .NET which caused problems, another which caused a system service to use up all the CPU power.

I've had no problems on OSX at all.

Suit blows £105k in London bar

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Down the drain

Doesn't matter what booze you drink, be it White Lightning or a vintage Champagne, it still ends up down the drain.

Just shows that executives get paid too much while the workers struggle to buy a house.

MS: Zune 2.0 to arrive in time for Xmas

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Ugly 2.0

I wonder if the version 2 will look any better? I'd be embarrased to take a Zune out of my pocket. It's about as generic and bland as you can get.

Is 'green' software possible?

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Irony

They say Americans don't get irony. So it's ironic that Microsoft is helping track emissions when their latest OS has loads of bloat which makes computers that run it use more power.

The 3D functions and eye candy of Vista result in more power usage.

Vodafone forced to recognise Connect

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It can work both ways

Strong unions and powerless management is bad.

Weak or no unions and powerful management is bad.

We have the problem where management feels to need to pay stupendous wages to the top players and a pittance to the people who actually do the work.

In the USA they pay their top dogs at heck of a lot more money. But at the same time their staff also get paid fairly.

We have the stupid situation where a director can screw over a company causing job losses and loss of market share, but leave the company with a few million quid pay off. All carrot and no stick.

Microsoft grows despite Windows Vista

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Naive?

>Claims that the Vista UI is copied from the new Mac are naive. It takes years to plan, >code and test the operating system,

OSX was released about 2001. Vista was released 2007. That gives Microsoft about 5 or 6 years to copy OSX.

That is plenty of time.

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Paintjob

All Microsoft seem to do these days is give existing code some minor tweaks, add a few gimmics and give the interface a new paintjob.

Be it Windows, Office or Windows Mobile.

It's no wonder people can see past this and know they're being had.

DVLA urged to consider number plate recognition

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Change the system

Currently you can only get road tax by showing an MOT and Insurance document.

Taxing your car is used as some kind of check t ensure you can legally drive your vehicle. I'm sure that there's a better way of doing this which will allow people to pay their road tax even if their MOT has run out and they're waiting for the car to be fixed.

Hackers saw through iPhone AT&T shackles

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$600 phone?

I've bought sim free phones costing a lot more than $600.

It's not a lot when you consider you can keep it for 6 months and then sell it if you fancy a change. You get a lot of your investment back.

Also you can use phones on planes, the restrictions were limited. Maybe not on all carriers but I certainly remember some of them lifting the restriction.

Those hacking the iPhone would be better contributing to OpenMoko.

Nokia offers assistance for unresponsive GPS phones

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What are you on about?

Anyone that knows anything about mobile phones has known the GPS implementation in the Nokia N95 and E90 is just a bit of an extra in the chipset.

If you can't see Sirf chipset or similar in the specs list you won't get a good GPS experience.

Burned by a MacBook

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Reconditioned

This is why I got a reconditioned Macbook, it's been through two test processes instead of one.

The Magsafe insulation must be weak in these laptops, but you can avoid the problem by not wrapping the wire up too tight, people always do this with laptop chargers and you end up with stressed connectors and spirally leads.

Most laptops are too hot to be used on the lap or on any soft surface. There's vents in the casing which must not be blocked or the unit can explode.

Laptops often used Lithium Ion batteries which don't like to get hot, never leave a laptop switched on for long peropid while it is not on a hard surface. That's any laptop, not just an Apple one.

Behind the Apple vs Universal breakup

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Why?

Why should the music companies get money from the hardware?

It's simple:

Apple makes the hardware, the record labels make the music.

Apple gets the money for the hardware.

Record labels get the money for the music.

If the music isn't bringing in the dough then you need to look at the cost of the music in terms of how much it takes to produce and reduce that cost.

Try not spending millions on a promo video as people buy the music first, video second.

Music is cheap to produce, producers and video directors aren't cheap.

Economise like all other media companies have to.

El Reg lobs iPhone at Genius Bar

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Price

I don't see the issue people have with the price?

Quite simply if the price puts you off then the product isn't for you.

"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it"

Zune DRM stripped

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Grey imports only

Who has one?

Pretty much nobody in the UK, Microsoft thought it was a good idea not to bother launching it in the UK for quite a while, not sure it's even out now? searches reveal it's end of 2007 maybe even 2008 for a EU launch.

iPhones, iPhones and more iPhones

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Microsoft didn't pay dividends either

Microsoft didn't pay dividends for the first 15 years either. Some companies invest the dividends in the company to increase growth.

Sony says no to Euro PS3 price cut

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Doomed

With Wii availability improving and the XBox 360's lower price the PS3 is doomed to be the 3rd place console.

The only factor against the 360 is the unreliability of the console. The Wii is underpowered if you value graphics more than gameplay.

Sony would clean up if the PS3 was the same price as the 360 or Wii.

Nintendo to let Wii gamers go for their guns

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Sensor bar

>I'm searching for a light gun that will work with these new TV's, as the timecrisis >gun only works with CRT technology.

>Is that Nintendo gun actually a light gun?

This is why the Nintendo Wii uses an infrared sensor bar placed on top or under the TV. It works really well and allows you use shooting games on any TV.

The sensor bar outputs IR light and the Wiimote uses the light to determine position.

Microsoft's software IP prophylactic

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Microsoft protection

Microsoft would never release their own protection to developers, products using it would never get sold. Microsoft gets away with using it because of their monopoly.

Lib Dems call for NPfIT review

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FUD

What the Lib Dems fail to point out is that much of the NHS IT project is just replacing existing systems. The new parts include electronic medical records and choose 'n book.

If anything allowing a health specialist access to someone's medical records instantly will save lives. Even if it takes 2 hours to access the file it is still faster than waiting for the postman to deliver the paper copy.

Much of the problems are down to the financial side of things, iSoft for instance have been in deep financial trouble and so can't hire people to speed up development.

Many parts of the system are live already, the database used will be one of the largest in the world. Of course it is going to be difficult, but we will be a world leader in medical database systems when it is all working. Does the UK want to be a leader in IT or just stick to paper and pen?

BBC Trust to hear open sourcers' iPlayer gripes

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Monopoly

>Few would argue that Windows is the more popular operating system, so why isn't it >accepted that "more popular" leads to wider support?

Might have something to do with the popularity of Windows being due to monopolistic practices (convicted in the USA and EU) and the Windows lock-in.

Windows Media has been removed from EU versions of Windows due to an EU ruling as the EU didn't want a repeat of the browser wars where bunding IE killed off Netscape.

Therefore if the BBC are using technology removed from Windows due to it being anti-competitive, you have to ask why the Beeb are using it? especially when the BBC created their own video codec a while back which is open source.

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DRM

This is what is wrong with DRM, it's called Digital Rights but unless you use the technology they specify then you don't have the right to watch the content.

It would be like the BBC only letting you watch their programming if you use a Sony television. Just because it's a popular brand doesn't mean it is fair.

Sick to death of the bloody iPhone? Click here

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Design

>Personally I don't think that Steve Jobs is an evil, grasping bastard. I think he just >recognises that Apple users are too dumb to swap batteries themselves without >breaking something important.

It's not dumbness, it's purely because the physical appearance of the phone would be ruined with a hatch on the back. I'm sure there's other ways of making it openable, but these could let in dust and get behind the screen.

If so many Apple users were dumb, you wouldn't see so much free software available for it. A stupid user would not be able to program a computer (and if you're not using Cocoa you will need to use Objective C which is quite daunting at first).

Lack of changeable battery is the norm for many products. But it does seem odd given the 2 year life span of this phone. I guess Apple are just trying to keep out the hackers.

I have an mp3 player and GPS unit with no removable battery. Many devices I own use a Lithium battery to retain memory and yet there's no hatch to replace it. Ok, they're not glued shut, but who keeps a phone long enough to need a new battery? I keep mine less than 6 months as I'm not on a contract.

Personally I have ordered an Open Moko as I'd like to work on mobile software.

Is your phone free?

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Nice

Been looking for a new phone, nothing takes my fancy. This however looks cool with it's VGA screen and Linux software.

I mainly use a Windows Smartphone for GPS. If this gets some GPS software it would be useful. If not then I'll get a Tomtom unit.

Turing test challenges spam filters

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Easier to filter

Spammers are making things easier to filter. I rarely receive PDFs and can now filter messages based on attachments.

Red ring of Xbox death costs Microsoft $1bn

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Microsoft are doomed

This is one example of why Microsoft are doomed. If it wasn't for their lock-in practices they would be nobody now.

The Zune is a flop, the XBox 360 was Microsoft's attempt at getting a entertainment and media hub into all homes, but they've cut too many corners. You would think they would have learned from the XBox and it's power cable and power supply issues.

Windows Mobile keeps getting a lick of paint, new buttons and a handful of new features (largely for their own online services) and the rest stays the same as ever (thank god for iPhone, a well deserved kick up the butt for Microsoft).

MS makes date for Xbox Elite Japanese debut

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Size

Maybe the PS3 and XBox 360 are losing in Japan out due to their form factor and controller?

The Wii is very small and the remote is innovative. It's a fun console and those predicting a demise due to the novelty factor wearing off are missing the sales volumes. You simply won't see a console dying off when it has a massive user base.

I don't need amazing graphics to have fun, just like I don't need tons of special FX in a film to enjoy it. Films need a good plot and story, computer games need good gameplay and fun!

Too many console games try to simulate football and driving games as realistically as possible, but why? it will never be realistic until you feel G-force and feel the wind blowing past you.

Many Wii games on the other hand don't try to be realistic, they try to be fun. Mario Strikers Charged Soccer is a fun football style game (it's like a blend of Speedball 2 and Football) and totally unrealistic. So is Excite Truck, 4x4s flying 30ft in the air and driving at impossible speeds, but it is a lot of fun.

O2 gets UK iPhone deal

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EU version

While in the US it probably makes more sense due to patchy 3G, for heavy data users the lack of 3G is more crucial.

However in the US their 2.5G is rubbish, it should work better over here.

People point out the limitations in the phone, but the iPod is very basic too and does everything it is designed to do very well and easily. The iPhone is similar in this respect.

Once again though, it is worth stating that if a device doesn't do what you want, don't buy it. Let the company shoot themselves in the foot if they want to.

McLaren suspends top F1 engineer

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Money

While the money has been part of the sport for a while, the sport is going the way football is. Very expensive tickets, very high salaries for the drivers. You can go and see a lot more interesting racing many times a year for the cost of going to see F1.

While some appreciate the technical aspects, it's surely about the driving. The technical competition means nothing when one season you will get one set of drivers winning and the next season another, proving that with a few exceptions it is the cars that make the difference.

The best designers move between the teams and so there's not all that much competition at times.