* Posts by ratfox

3721 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Sep 2007

Google pulls 'racist' Make Me Asian app

ratfox

Big deal

Then again, the author made plenty of "make me" apps, but apparently no "make me black"…

Google files patent for eyewear that SHOOTS LASERS

ratfox

Re: Didn't think I'd ever say this - but why bother with lasers?

These are not augmented reality glasses (or at least, the current Google glasses are not). They only display an image on a small part of your vision.

Google sinks millions into plush new £1bn London HQ

ratfox
Angel

Look at the bright side, will ya?

These £650m are coming from outside the country and are being used to buy/build stuff inside the country. You'd prefer they do it in Ireland?

PR people 'put duty to the public ahead of employers' interests'

ratfox
Trollface

"I can't afford to lose my credibility ... As PR professionals, it's all we have"

Well, in that case I have bad news for you…

eBay's festive sales soar, but what's this? Profit DOWN 62%?

ratfox

Re: All that money so little profit

Or perhaps these servers and engineers actually cost money too. They have 27'000 employees, that must cost a little bit of cash.

Security audit finds dev outsourced his job to China to goof off at work

ratfox

White House raises the signature threshold for petitions to 100,000

ratfox
Devil

Heh

In Switzerland, with that many signature, you can force a referendum on any new law…

Privacy winds blow through Clouds towards Switzerland

ratfox
Happy

Switzerland does not cooperate when sources were acquired illegally

So, suppose just for instance that a rogue bank employee went to the German government with a CD full of Germans trying to hide their money in Swiss banks. Since revealing the name of bank customers is a crime in Switzerland, Switzerland will not help with the investigation.

This is of course a purely hypothetical example!

China's Android users warned of giant botnet

ratfox
FAIL

This is why

Android should let users block any apps they want from network access.

I hear you say: "yes but poor developers need ads revenue to survive and apps need network access to fetch ads". Fine. Provide an API which allows apps to fetch ads in a [i]controlled[/i] manner.

I mean, this is not paranoia. There [i]are[/i] people out to get you. It is now standard on non-mobile machines to get a warning whenever a program accesses the web for the first time, giving you the choice to block it. I see no reason why it should not be the case for phones.

Hey, open sourcers: Who's your code's daddy?

ratfox
Go

Yeah, fork it.

Create on github a separate project called vert.ks, inform contributors of the change. Let vert.x disappear for lack of maintenance. That is what Open Source is about…

Possibly, learn in the process that VMware is better than you at maintaining the project, and that contributors will not move.

EU antitrust chief growls at Google, hopes to avoid sanctions

ratfox
Boffin

Not the point

Google for an address like "17 baker street london": You will get a map on top of the page, created by Google Maps. As you would expect, clicking on that map brings you to Google Maps.

You might think this is obvious. But Google for "AAPL": You will get a chart on top of the page showing the evolution of the Apple stock; but clicking on that chart brings you nowhere. You actually have to choose between three (tiny and hard to see) options below the graph, which are Google Finance, Yahoo Finance and MSN Money. No assumption is made that since you are searching on Google, you necessarily want the Google product.

Note that this behavior could be argued to be worse for the user than just linking the graph to Google Finance. After all, the user who mostly does not care probably expects that he can click on the graph to get more information. He does not know that he has to click on one of the tiny links, he might indeed spend a few seconds figuring that out. This normally counts as bad user experience.

There might be many reasons why the assumption would be made that you want Google Maps, instead of Bing Maps or (god forbid) Mapquest. Probably, Google Maps is much more popular than its competitors, which might not be the case for Google Finance.

Of course, Bing and Yahoo do the "natural" thing and link to their own products…

Amazon puts up CD rack in the cloud, unearths your OLD stuff too

ratfox
Facepalm

Re: What about...

I doubt very much they are doing this without the approval of right holders… They are aggressive, not crazy.

Just what the world needs: Android in the rice cooker

ratfox
Stop

There is no android in the rice cooker

You just control the rice cooker with an android app…

'Doomsday' asteroid Apophis more massive than first thought

ratfox
Happy

Re: 2036

You forgot the 15-blades razor!

Google drops standards-essential patent claims in Xbox slap fight

ratfox
Go

Sure

How much do we get paid?

Apple may debut low-cost iPhone for emerging markets in 2013

ratfox
WTF?

Re: 'phenomenal' sales

There are less people in US and Europe than in China, yet they bought 2.5 times more phones. How could the penetration be lower?

UK Apple cart Square punched in the wallet as sales, profit fall

ratfox
Headmaster

Affected!

Affected! Affected! Affected!

Facebook snubs storage barons for cheapo Far East kit - insiders

ratfox

Is this news?

I thought it was common knowledge…

Minicam movie pirate gets record-breaking five years in prison

ratfox
Coat

Re: Was it worth it?

Well, once he has a rap sheet, he can finally become a true rapper.

ratfox
Devil

Doublespeak

"…helping to reassure consumers that the movies and TV shows they watch online are legitimate and secure, not stolen…"

This reminds me a lot of the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage whose stated goal was to reassure users that their Windows software was not pirated. Completely ignoring the fact that mostly, end users and consumers don't give a shit about whether their copy is legitimate, they just don't want to be assumed guilty.

Google wriggles out of FTC search smackdown. Now to Europe!

ratfox
Alert

Subtleties

I noticed some time ago that googling for a stock market ticker like GOOG or AAPL, you get a graph of the stock price. However, clicking that graph has no effect: you need to choose from one of the three links below it, which bring to the finance products of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft respectively...

If you search for a place, you only get a map which links to Google Maps. No link to Bing maps.

Polaroid plans retail Fotobars to print out your pics

ratfox
Happy

Re: And next to Polaroid

Heh. It is not so often in these forums that the cloud is touted as the safest alternative.

Samsung confirms Tizen-based mobes to debut this year

ratfox
Angel

Nobody?

I would think that users are reasonably happy about having an alternative to iOS and cheap handsets… But of course users tend to get forgotten.

Hey, Apple and Google: Stop trying to wolf the whole mobile pie

ratfox
Unhappy

Interoperability

Ever since Apple started patching iTunes specifically to stop Palm devices from working with it, it has been going downhill.

Ideally, any piece of a system should be replaceable with that from a competitor... Fat chance of that happening, unless regulations are somehow put in place.

Dotcom titan funds 'Mark Cuban Chair To Eliminate Stupid Patents'

ratfox

I did

The "Dotcom" in the title was fairly confusing. Shurely they meant "Dot com"?

US patent office: Nice try Apple, but pinch-to-zoom is NOT a new invention

ratfox
Devil

Good

The only good patent is a dead patent

Euro Commission abandons ACTA court request

ratfox
Go

Woohoo

…And stay dead!

Google can't use finger-fumble patent to poke Apple - Trade panel

ratfox
Go

Good

The only good patent is a dead patent.

Nasdaq's RIM shot: BlackBerry maker ejected from top 100

ratfox
Unhappy

Alas, poor RIM

I feel between the bargaining and acceptance stage.

Siri: Can you make a Raspberry Pi open a garage door?

ratfox
Unhappy

Beat me to it

Have an upvote

Google Maps becomes Apple's most popular app

ratfox

Maybe not

I wonder how many downloads are necessary to jump to the top of the charts. I suspect that a percentage in the single digits in a day would be plenty enough. I.e. you could probably have 80% rabid fanbois swearing never to install the maps app of the enemy, and still have the app get to the top if half of the remaining users download it.

ratfox
Go

Playing the long game

The problem with this is that Google has more users, and thus get more feedback and corrections. Especially since corrections are vastly easier to report using a desktop web site, which Apple does not have. It have to say I do not understand why Apple is not creating a web site for their maps, like Nokia has done with here.com. It should give their maps a lot more users at a comparatively small price.

EDIT: HOLY $#*! I CAN EDIT MY POST!!1! Adding GO icon!

Schmidt 'very proud' of Google's tiny tax bill: 'It's called capitalism'

ratfox

Re: Love or hate Google...

Meh. Compared to Zuckerberg?

Punters rate Apple, Samsung more highly than ever

ratfox
WTF?

Sony rated higher than Apple?

Who would've thunk?

RIM is really in trouble when even Windows Phone 8 looks great

ratfox
Meh

I believe RIM is toast

It brings me no pleasure to say it, but I believe that the best thing they can hope for is to sell, whether the company or some of its IP.

Upvote if you agree, downvote if you don't…

Entire US Congress votes against ITU control of internet

ratfox
FAIL

ITU's role is […] not to act as a regulator? O RLY?

Lessee what Reuters says on the subject this week:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-un-internet-treaty-idUSBRE8B316I20121204

"A U.S. and Canadian proposal to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty."

"The idea, also supported by Europe, would limit the International Telecommunication Union's rules to only telecom operators and not Internet-based companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc."

"That could reduce the prospective impact of efforts by other countries including Russia and some in the Middle East and Africa to obtain more powers to govern the Internet through the ITU, an arm of the United Nations. Those efforts, slated for discussion next week, could make Net anonymity - or the ability to remain anonymous online - more difficult to maintain and could bolster censorship, critics say."

This article implies rather clearly that the role of the summit is to write new regulations…

Court slaps down Verizon, upholds FCC data roaming rule

ratfox
Go

Go appeals court!

The sooner the telecoms market becomes commoditized the better!

Chinese student fails job interview because of iPhone

ratfox
Unhappy

40+ years ago?

There's your problem… Just come back when you will be younger.

Xboxes stay on sale but may cost Microsoft money in Google case

ratfox
Go

Makes sense to me

Now, if only all patents were subject to the same rules, think how much better off we would all be!

Who's using 'password' as a password? TOO MANY OF YOU

ratfox
Meh

Re-generating a password

When I am forced to re-generate a password because I forgot my old one, the web site invariably tells me that I cannot use this password, because it is the same as the old one.

ratfox
Mushroom

And a <i>special</i> mention to web sites…

That send you back the password by e-mail so that you don't forget it. After insisting you should choose your password carefully.

Tech titans lose our loyalty: Are fanbois a dying breed?

ratfox
Go

Good, good

I look forward to the moment where people will use a computer without even noticing what brand it is, or what kind of OS it has.

Clap Google, Amazon in irons to end tax shenanigans - MPs

ratfox
FAIL

They seem to have finally realized

That under the current system, what these companies do is perfectly legal, and that they must change the law if they want things to change.

Of course, they would not go out and say it that way. They will claim that "companies do not report their tax practices transparently", when in fact those tax practices are completely transparent, it is just that they do not approve of these practices. They will even accuse the HMRC of not doing their job of "policing the tax system", when in fact the HMRC can only apply the laws that have been given to them.

However, I assume that the law was written the way it is for a reason, and that this reason will crop up when they attempt to rewrite the law to make it impossible to do what the companies are currently doing…

EU joins Google, hippies, Uncle T Cobbleigh in fight against ITU

ratfox
Paris Hilton

So what is the purpose of the ITU?

I still have not managed to find out what problems the ITU is supposed to solve, considering it has allegedly no powers and is criticized by so many… They do claim to have some kind of mandate, though.

Don't worry, Apple: iPad still dominant in China

ratfox
WTF?

"pared-down, cheaper version of its iconic smartphone"

I fail to find words to describe the level of ignorance required to think that Apple would do that.

Apple plants flag on wireless power-supply map

ratfox
Devil

the charging unit will only work with identified devices

Technically, I understand their desire to make money, but I want to scream at the fact that, in this day and age, one would purposefully design a system to be incompatible. I may be wrong, but it seems that Apple is particularly prone to do this, like when they expressly stopped Palm devices to connect to iTunes.

NY Museum of Modern Art embraces 14 video games

ratfox
Alert

Nothing from Blizzard?

Hmm. Maybe not so surprising. However good they are, they might not contain anything you would call art. But then, why Street Fighter II?

Nice that they are considering Grim Fandango, though.

ITU to EU: We don't want to control the internet... honest

ratfox

The problem is not what the ITU is doing

…even though this is not quite as transparent as the article claims. The problem is what it could do. The mere idea that anybody – anybody – is claiming to have a mandate to regulate the Internet is anathema to many.

Google+ exec declares Facebook 'social network of the past'

ratfox
Trollface

Ballmer sounds the same

when he talks about Android and the iPhone.

The Lord of the Rings saga lies hidden deep in your Mac

ratfox

See also

.freebsd, and .history, and .birthday