Posts by ratfox

It's just a patent cross-licensing agreement. I doubt their employees will ever meet apart from lawyers.

Re: Get a big broom, judge!

Sorry, copy-paste failure. I meant 1000 m³ of course.

This is stupid

What the feds say is that Apple's EULA allow them to hand over the data. What Apple says if that they are unable to decrypt the data.

There's no law that makes it illegal to flap your arms and fly either.

I hear Google is hiring.

Re: Stock is way up after results.

The news failed to turn heads on Wall Street one way or the other. Google stock was up by a modest 1.43 per cent at the end of the day, trading at $651.79 per share.

Erm. That happened before they released the results. The stock was up 10% after hours to $720, which I believe is an all-time high.

Re: Data centers can be run much warmer

I do understand that the current limit on DC temperatures isn't set by the machines, but the people servicing them.

Re: Subs service...for YouTube?

The current YouTube is staying as before, kids are going to keep watching. What is new is a paying ad-free service with a few more features.

Though I read in TechCrunch that Disney has refused the new terms, so there's that. Disney might still leave their videos on YouTube without monetizing them (no ads shown), otherwise they will disappear.

Re: Unless the management stops behaving like a bunch of accountants

IBM has a long history of hiring intelligent people, and I'm sure some of them are staying until retirement. But in the current job market, what intelligent person would take a job at IBM, when much more friendly work environments are available?

Re: Kelvin?

Wasn't Celsius originally based on 0C being the boiling point of water and 100C being the freezing point.

1) No, that's the reverse.

2) The boiling temperature and to a lesser extent the freezing temperature of water depend on the pressure, so that was a little bit imprecise. Celsius are now defined by the triple point of water, which determines both a precise pressure and temperature. The definition is now roughly: "absolute zero is 273.15 °C = 0 K, and at the pressure of the triple point of water, the temperature of the triple point of water is 0.01 °C = 273.16 K". The 0.01 value was chosen because that was the approximate value under the previous definition, and they didn't want to change all existing thermometers.

Re: How does this work?

Extending from this, what happens if something is 0.95 euros, and the person purchasing only has 0.90 in 'sliver' and three 2c coins? Who will lose out on 1c?

For the moment, shoppers are allowed to ask for exact change. In this case, if the customer insists, the store has to find a 1c coin to give back the change, and if they can't I imagine that they will just accept the customer only paying 0.94 euros.

However, this change is caused by the fact that nobody cares about such amounts. I remember a study showing that the psychological value most people give to 1c coins is actually negative, meaning that they are more trouble than they are worth.

How many cops can there be?

More importantly: where would you drive anyway?

Re: QI and unlocked phon

Almost no phone requires unlocking for taking pictures. The assumption is that people want to take the picture now now now before little Johnny stops making that funny face, and unlocking goes in the way.

QR codes (that's what you mean, right?) are not decoded by the standard camera app; you just end up with a picture of a QR code and the phone does nothing with it. You need to use a different app for taking pictures of QR codes and having the phone follow the link.

As far as I understand, Google already encrypts data from client to server, between servers, and at rest. They started doing this soon after the publication of the NSA slide which noted with a smiley that Google decrypted data as soon as it was on its network.

But that only makes it difficult for the NSA to hack user data. They can still get a secret court order (aka national security letter) and have Google hand it over.

Re: Keep Calm and Carry On

They don't even need to ignore it, they have DCs in Europe… Haven't they gone through this with Russia already?

Re: Mmm...

You're lucky. I pay 2€ for every MB in data roaming. I can get it cheaper by buying 200MB for 100€. Nice, eh?

Re: Despairing....

Quite a lot of people would say that this is a feature, not a bug. Would you rather have the workstation salesmen undermine their own unit by pushing an inferior product, just because it is made by the same company?

At best, this would be inefficient; at worst, it can land you in regulatory trouble: See Microsoft and Internet Explorer.

Re: If I paid £600 for a handset

Google doesn't sell £600 phones; Apple does. You get what you pay for and all that, I guess.

Carrier pushback

Carriers certainly have a history of putting conditions for selling Android phones. E.g Verizon Galaxy Nexus phones were the only ones not to have the Google Wallet feature, because Verizon was trying to push its own payment solution.

It's hard to believe now, but at some point in the past Android was an underdog, and Google had to convince carriers to sell Android phones.

Re: Could someone let Director James R. Clapper know...

The most likely explanation I can come up with is that Reg officials have a more powerful UI without such limits.

Re: Still don't want Chinese Kit!

You'll have problems these days finding a phone that wasn't built in China.

And if we're talking about software, Nexuses are pure Google, so as American as can be.

Agree. I have no ethical problem with not respecting a stupid law; but you have to be prepared to pay the price for not respecting that law. It is only if enough people are prepared to pay that price that the stupid law will be repealed.

Indeed, Yahoo! is Purple Palace, which does appear in the article!