Posts by Bad Beaver

Bloat is everywhere, go big or go bust

Look around, everything is bloated. Set up a new file in, say Word, like a good office drone. Let it have your company's little stationary logo of about 10kB. Now add a couple of paragraphs, just a single page. Save to docx.

How large is this document? Expectation: a whopping 80-120kB, because of all the docx overhead and the little picture and stuff.

Actually, it is more likely to be around 500kB. For a single page of text.

I guess this is according to the infinite growth paradigm or something. Everything must grow and expand, use up more resources, bigger and bigger, to keep the system alive.

By any account, in 10 years your little "S'up mate?" Whatsapp message will require several megabytes of data.

Netflix is a sad excuse

for a video-shack. They could be such a cool place, a candyland for movie-buffs. Instead they don't even have a proper classics-section, plus if you happen not live in the US, you are expected to be happy with of last years' (if you're lucky) seasons of a very limited selection popular shows. For example, they sold out House of Cards, THE NETFLIX SHOW!, to some other service in Germany (sky?), so you do not get to see the latest episodes first on Netflix itself. It's pathetic.

As a service...

stuff tends to break after 5-6 years :D

On the other hand, I still habe PPC machines going strong, not to speak of Newton Message Pads that just won't die.

Ten days

That's a little late for my taste.

Obligatory: Might be hard to even get Bruce Willis on the phone in that timeframe.

What a meltdown.

Wow, just wow. So you remove the humans from an area – and then animals proceed to thrive in the freed up space? Who would have thought!

On the other hand, during the five minutes of this very recent NYT video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG-nwQBBfmc

about the wildlife in the hot zones of Chernobyl we learn that there is for example …

• Less biodiversity than expected

• More tumors

• More deformations

• Decline in populations of insects and spiders

• Some birds adapting to increased radiation levels

• Very "hot" mushrooms

• Dramatic color changes in the rings of cut trees starting in 1986

• Abnormal color patterns on bugs

Well, sounds dandy in my book. Therefore, I would suggest for Lewis to permanently relocate to the hot zone in order to prove his point. There are very little human-related distractions there too, so he would find much more time to produce even more flawless pieces of balanced reporting regarding his favorite topics. I would personally volunteer to finance a nice big stick for him to shake at the abundance of wolves that now roam the blooming landscapes of Chernobyl. Further, if Lewis manages to convince a fertile female companion to make the move with him, I will even pay for a second stick in a color of her choice. Be warned though, this pesky radiation thing has a tendency to muck with your offspring so you might want to have an eye on that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VffZ2sSZ30M

Tennis, a sport for folks with some balls

Apparently not. I am flabbergasted by how tight the clutch of fear culture on peoples' minds seem to be these days. Scared to death by the unspeakable menace of a tiny RC-toy (stop calling these things drones for crivens sake).

Because hey, it's not simply a minor nuisance not worthy of further attention but most likely a terrorist delivering a tiny load of ultra-efficient explosive or maybe even enough VX wo wipe out the entire tennis court.

Get a grip!

It's the devil's work

Is there any good will for them left to burn? I don't know. People will keep buying phones though. Yet I cannot say that I would be much interested in a Nokia branded device running NSAndroid. I would be interested in a Nokia branded device running Sailfish and as we hear, Jolla is going the licensing way and ditching their hardware efforts – but as Jolla only exists because folks were being axed by Nokia, that idea is high up on the unlikelyhood-shelve.

Regardless: Do try! Come back and sell N- and E-Series style devices. Hire Fallon or a bunch of other mad folks to come up with an earthshaking campaign. Free us from the boredom that is Apple and Samsung.

Torn

The article says they would design the phone and license the brandname.

I don't know. Could be interesting if they came up with useful designs, not generic landfill phones. I guess it would be some Android crap but maybe one could put Sailfish on it. Sailfish on a Nokia design is something I would pay good money for. Especially if it had some buttons or  – heavens – a real QWERTY. Because, honestly: Sailfish is the cool part about Jolla devices. Their phone all by itself is a bit lackluster.

As is, my E6-00 is doing a stellar job and the battery lasts for days at a time. Improve on that and we have a deal.

Positioned as the badass mainframe to put in your office

So whenever you have a guest they will oogle it in disbelief while you close the door via remote control, then lean forward and whisper: "I'm Batman."

At least you will know how to operate it, contrary to that darn espresso-monstrosity that nearly cost as much and now only collects dust while you suffer the humiliation that is Nespresso.

Anyhow, this could do better. Why are the door designs not mirrored? Does it have a faint purple glow oozing out from inside? Do the doors make a cool decompression noise when opened? Can you program it to rumble, hiss and growl when certain people are nearby?

"Everything works just swell …

… while it works."

Seriously, I am delighted that there are places on this lump of space-dirt where internet and leccy are so reliable that you can make this stuff work. One must be really, really satisfied to add a slew of complications and sources of possible failure to one's daily grind. So if people want to pay good money for their own personal orwellian nightmare I won't stop them. Go ahead.

Why can't we be together …

I think I once dropped my Newton MP2100 on some unsuspecting Palm unit and it was not pretty … made up story that is. Anyhow, the big green brick was way superior for my needs in about every aspect including size. Nevertheless, the small thingies were quite appealing to look at. I also remember how very keen I was on picking up a Pre 3 but then HP threw a hissy fit instead of just selling the darn thing. So why would I want it now?

Well, it's Christmas Day …

… therefore I shall refrain from verbalizing any of the many negative thoughts that this causes to bubble up inside me.

Models, models, models …

I learned to drive on a 90s Spider 2.0. That car was full of surprises. There was a little open canal behind the seats, I think a little less than an inch deep, that cought the water leaking in on rainy days. You would never know what would stop working next. It was a wonderful little car and I loved it dearly.

Yet whenever I see the Gulietta I cannot help myself but think "boy, that thing is ugly". It is high time for them to reintroduce some decent designs and widen the range. The 4C is pretty nice but if I wanted an impractical racer I would much rather pick a Lotus. 156, 166, Spider and GTV are dearly missed.

And please stop making them look like fat, frightened little rodents, it is unbecoming.

Huh? This is new?

What's the point? These things have been around forever – just search for whiskey stones.

Shudder

For some reason I doubt I would want to be seen with that. No the slightest clue why.

They need to step up their game

Having had opportunity to fool around with the Wii U a couple of time I can say that it really is a fun system. But: The interface is a little sluggish, this makes browsing the store etc a little frustrating. There are some great titles but there is no abundance. The latter is especially true for the Virtual Console: There are true gems in there (like Pop'n Twinbee!) but there should be a lot more.

This is still a thing?

I thought this had already passed. Anyway, it involves a creative element, therefore: MUCH BETTER than the avalanche of self-obsessed duck-faces, unpleasant, badly lit dishes, my-ugly-naked-trotters-in-front-of-whatever-random-vacation-locality, or – my personal pet peeve – the dreaded "jumping with joy" shot.

Video

Does not work.

Walking Dead S201 is more of a 4/5 in my book

Only 4 because this particular episode is simply too short and rather on the easy side. Otherwise it is just as gripping and involving as it used to be, including several very well executed "geez, what have I done?!" moments. And yes, like it or not, the zombie apocalypse still comes with zombie violence.