Posts by Jack Harrer

Windows Mobile 7 feature details mined

Re: Ty

"Wave goodbye to the mobile market M$!"

As much as we all wish this, don't be too quick. If that system is even half arsed, then MSFT can find some small Chinese manufacturer (remember HTC?) that aspires to be bigger, bribe them (I mean "give marketing incentives") then "give marketing incentives" to networks, and we will have another bastard breeds of mobile handsets on the shelves.

Also iPhone is not a competitor for WinMo. It is only locked for 1 range of phones. The true one is Android. Android is controlled by archrival Google, it's free and open source. Everything that they hate. Also it can be used on wide range of handsets which directly competes with WinMo. Just look at HTC. They pretty much lost it. Even the flagship handsets are switching from WinMo to Android.

YouTube Lad from Lagos gets a bite

Watch out

"Marvellous. You know, they could make a TV show out of this.."

Watch out what you wish for! We can end up with another Big Brother, this time filled with certified nutters, not just presumed.

HTC readies radical Touch HD revamp

Poor MSFT

Even their big marketing machine hasn't stopped WinMo from slipping. Which I suppose is a good thing, judging how terrible WinMo is.

Also that will give Android another push, as well as Apple, to innovate. Love that part of capitalism ;)

LG promises 3D plasma telly

Hmmm

"On LG’s set, these timings are fed out to the glasses by an infrared signal – so a direct line of sight is always required"

I always enjoyed watching TV seating backwards, I think it will not work with that new TV...

Toshiba multimedia touchscreen tablet out by Christmas

Windows CE?

Win CE? And what are we supposed to install on it? It should run Linux, at least there are some programs for it... FAIL, big, big MSFT sponsored FAIL!

Reg reader captures Perseid meteor

Photoshop

Obviously photoshopped.

(http://xkcd.com/331/)

Microsoft's web Office: No love for Chrome, Opera

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Worldwide browser stats are irrelevant. Major markets for MS webapps are Europe, Australia and North America. And in those markets Firefox has bigger share that worldwide claims. So if we look at only those markets all statistics will be skewed more towards IE alternatives. In some countries in Europe (quite a few already) FF has bigger market share than IE. Also IE 6, 7 and 8 are totally different browsers and cannot be taken as one anymore (ask anybody who makes webpages!).

Rogue iPhone app stores raking mazuma

Obvious quote

Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers...

Microsoft assaults our senses with 'viral' Bing video

Ouch

Some people should not be allowed in Internet ;)

Who also wants to support Internet Driving License?

Adobe spanked for insecure Reader app

@Ian Bradshaw

Or offer as a standard small exe that downloads the current version with all hotfixes. Of course they should bury somewhere full pack for users that have more that 2 IT related brain cells.

Microsoft talks turkey in Brussels

Wrong problem

Shame she's leaving. I bet the next one will not be so tough, more "corporate friendly".

She should look at selling Windows with all PCs. That is the real problem, not a browser. They should finally force computer makers to sell PC or without OS and DVD image with ghost so they can install it or providing trial of Windows so interested parties can call and buy it - presumably with a discount as it comes with computer. That would make all computers cheaper instantly and increase a choice.

Of course that will never happen...

Hackintosh maker rises from the dead

Different approach...

They should sell Apple-compatible machines without OS. Sell OS in a box and give them nice manual how to install it. It's not hard anyway, if machines are fully Apple-compatible.

Then Apple wouldn't be able to sue them. They could sue customers, but I really doubt they would like all that fallout all over the Internet.

Is it so hard?

Kingdom of Sweden dragged into Reg smut-basket

That was cool

Brilliant letter. Best part - one sentence extrapolated to 2 page answer.

Question: what happened Andrew? You're allowing comments being posted in your article... That doesn't happen very often.

Is your cameraphone an oxymoron?

Brought to you....

... by the Department of Bloody Obvious.

Almost all cameras embedded in phones suck. Some suck less, some more. There are few fine exceptions (Sony Ericsson Cybershot range), but those are rare exceptions. What can you get from crappy plastic lenses with terribly undersized sensor and no proper software to drive all this crap-o-rama?

Hero: HTC names third Android smartphone

Getting crowded

The market is getting a little crowded nowadays. Which is brilliant.

Interesting part: the biggest WinMo phone maker has announced more Android phones that WinMo. Looks like Google pays more nowadays than MS ;)

Dreamliner first flight delayed yet again

Let's start a new flame war, 3...2...1...

My Airbus is better than your Boeing...

Intel tears up CPU branding scheme

Celeron

"Intel will still offer Pentium - which stands for the values "dependable and proven" - and Celeron processors - "value and reliability""

Yeah. Everybody knows that Celeron means "cheap piece of sh*t that doesn't fly". I still feel sorry for some of my friends who bough that utter cr*p, even after being warned.

Game laws to make underage selling illegal

Quite reasonable

It seems quite right. Of course as long as they allow to sell even the most violent ones, provided you're over 18. No exceptions, as long as it doesn't break the law, it should be allowed, but for adults only.

9/11 hero mutt cloned

Puppies

Look at the photo... Cutie little puppies... They damn should be if they cost 144k each! ;)

Hydrogen-powered two-seater car unveiled

One word to describe it

FUGLY!

Also the idea of hydrogen is stupid. You need to get it from somewhere, yes? Oh, let's use electricity! From coal burning power stations as there's nothing else around. It's little inefficient? Happens, in 30 years we will get there. And kill Earth in the process.

Electric cars are slightly better. It's not that those are mighty effective, but at least are cleaner (on the spot, not general) and quieter. If only batteries were cheaper...

Opera to take web back to the old days

Old days

True, like old days of exchanging music and stuff on IRC ;) I wonder how MPAA/RIAA are going to respond to that "new" old threat.

It is an interesting functionality although lots of websites provide pretty much the same stuff, not to mention IM clients. That can stop it in its infancy. Also Opera's market share is quite small (especially outside Europe) so that can also be a deal breaker.

Imagine! Government to legislate against badness

Yeah

Child poverty is specified as FAMILY income less that 60% of average income. That means they will give even more cash as benefits, without actually helping in any constructive way. So more cash to people who can't be arsed to work, more cash to addicts with kids, and so on. At the end of the day all that cash will go to parents not kids, so only ones benefiting will be pubs. Judging by state of economy that is not viable anyway.

Probably the only way to help those kids would be to invest sensibly in education system - but that requires some hard work and consultations not shitty piece of worthless paper.

German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite

Oh come on...

He needs to confess - he staged all this to have day off school.

Dog has eaten my homework doesn't cut it anymore... Check that one out: http://failblog.org/2009/06/03/solution-fail/

Microsoft to bomb Europe with IE-free Windows 7

Stupid

That's just plain stupid. What is the point of all this? They should rather said that all computers are sold OS-free with easy to use image of chosen OS on DVD. I think it wouldn't be such a problem for customer to put DVD on first boot, isn't it? And then everybody would see how much each OS actually costs...

All that "sans WMP" and "sans IE" is just a huge waste of time that will do nothing, except create confusion.

Indian outsourcers prepare for US trade war

Re: "This is a huge market"

"And why do they think they should be made immune from the effects of a severe recession? When money's tight, then things will change. Deal with it instead of whinging."

And that's what India is doing - instead of US weapons they will buy Russian ones. You know, those are cheaper (unless you reinvest in India's outsourcing companies, wink, wink).

Companies to be Bob the Builder with Firefox 3.5

Group policy

Can't they use same registry keys that IE is using? This way admins will need to only set up everything once and be done with it, both IE and FF. Is it so hard?

Orange Vegas

Hmmmmm

Now somebody just needs to put Android on it.

If they can make touchscreen phone so cheap, let's wait for all those Chinese shops to start releasing Android phones... Without OS cost overhead it can be a big game-changer.

New York cops seek tech solution to plod-v-plod shootings

Something's wrong

Once again somebody looks for technical solution to sociological problem. Kind of like IT security industry...

Hackers claim T-Mobile scalp

Re: Really

They don't need all those terabytes of data - just names, CC numbers and social security would be sufficient...

They said that they "pwned" the servers for some time - looks like some kind of rootkit being installed and work being done from there.

Still no confirmation from anywhere, but if it is true, T-Mobile and their services arm - T-Systems, will take a big blow.

AMD locks and loads 'Istanbul' six-shooter

Re: how long..

According to Ghost in the Shell it will happen around 2030. Project 2501, you know ;)

Shifty study proclaims Brits a nation of freetards

Re:wait

25 quid is one, but every day? That's like 175 quid per week. Please, give me a break...

Sky dishes up iPlayer-style service for Xbox 360

Great

I like the idea of being able to connect mic and speak with the friends. Not always you can go to the local to watch the footie.

Brilliant. When is it going to serve beer? ;)

Amazon joins with TuneCore for on-demand CD pressing

It's just a start

Think what it can mean in the future. Amazon can automatically promote those artists. Imagine them creating embedded player like last.fm or Pandora to promote all those unlisted artists. Every time you search you can listen to music, you can have "Recommended artists" with instant preview, etc. All needed would be for the artist to check a checkbox "I agree for Amazon to promote my music". It will take a while to build up a collection big enough, but it's just a matter of time.

Another thing: although artist gets only 40% they still retain the rights to their music. Tell this about RIAA. Not bad, I'd say, especially when artist wants to move to competing service.

Future is bright, future is Oran.. I mean Amazon ;)

Apple preps Jobsian magic wand

That's new

That's like WiiMote with LinuxMCE, combined together. Wait, LinuxMCE has been using it for quite a while already...

I call Bollocks!

Ten of the best... noise-isolating earphones

Or just

Head to ebay (just an example):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Earphone-Headphone-Earbud-For-MP3-MP4-Player-PSP-NDS-e2_W0QQitemZ110353394609QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioVisualElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Headphones?hash=item110353394609&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A15|39%3A1|240%3A1318

There are thousands of them, most under 2 quid. Sound quality is rather unimportant as you will probably use them during commuting which is not a nice soundproofed room, anyway.

Campaigners nail amphibians to Google Earth

Time to play...

Frogger - do you still remember? Now with 600 new levels ;)

Dear Obama: Please consider open-source a waste of your time

Guys...

To some extend he's right.

Problem with Open Source is marketing. Nothing else. Stuff is marketed by geeks and as much as appealing for geeks, other people are not impressed. Community needs to deliver a message that can be understood, not some technical mumbo-jumbo. I'm still surprised that RedHat, Novell and Ubuntu haven't approached any newspapers to write about Open Source. Not an advert, mind you, but a reasonable articles to compare, to make people understand that it's nothing to fear about. We know how it works - but majority of population has no clue. All that needs to be delivered in lowest common denominator format, so no pompous academic words - no. Make it a software for average people.

//Rant over ;)

Intel 'accelerates' 32nm chip launch

@ First AC

Actually a Turbo button would be a great idea. You press it and processor shuts down all but one cores, GPU does the same, harddrive slows down, etc. That would save a lot of energy, if implemented properly. How often do we need all that processing power anyway? Except when logged into Vista ;)

Parcelforce website cold-shoulders Linux lovers

Interesting

I tried royalmail.co.uk from Ubuntu 8.04 and latest (stable) Firefox - EPIC FAIL. Site is totally broken. So then I used User Agent Switcher and switched to IE7. Guess what? Perfect.

No comments...

Ubuntu's Shuttleworth praises Windows 7, welcomes fight

One thing

He has a vision, it's hard to deny it!

That's what Linux community needs - somebody with a vision to tell all the geeks what to do. Without it we'll still probably get to the same place, but rather later, than sooner.

Way to go Mark!

Disabling Windows Autorun - there's a right way and a wrong way

XP

In XP disable service Shell detection something. Done, Autorun is gone system-wide!

Chinese electric car maker pitches 'safer than li-ion' batteries

Yeah!

We only need now electric infrastructure to support those... Nuclear Power Plants anybody?

EU says Microsoft violated law with IE on Windows

Stupid

As much as I agree with previous ruling, that one is bollocks. All OSes come with browsers, it just happens that Windows is the biggest one. If they ruled that IE sucks because it doesn't follow the standards then I'd praise them, but hitting for inclusion with Windows? And how the heck people would be able to download other browser? Using FTP? Or maybe directly telnetting to getfirefox.com on port 80? Perspective is sometimes needed. Common sense would be useful also.

Happy Ubuntu user. Because some things taste better without marketing sugar ;)

SSD and HDD capacity goes on embiggening

SSD problem

As density increases, number of electrons storing state decreases dramatically. Those electrons have a tendency to leak, weakening the state over the time. Unless SSD manufacturers develop some new materials, we will hit a wall sooner than later. Quite similar with HDD, although for different reasons. I don't believe we will get to 2TB without some breakthroughs.

EDS pays for tax failure

I wonder

Can't uk.gov just create a nice big consulting company for all their internal needs? Now with all those people being let off, it would be even quite cheap.

But at the end gravy train needs to roll, doesn't it?

LG trumpets 3G wristphone

it comes also with....

...suspense... 15 min of battery life! Hurray!!!

Motor quango thumbsup for satnav speed restrictions

Oh please...

Are they joking? So now everybody will need to travel at stupid 70mph on motorway? What a waste of time. Just go to Germany, where limits are quite strict: safe speed. So you go 140kmph (with all the traffic) without any problems. Often even more. But try doing something stupid and police will be on your back.

Maybe it will be easier to just educate people instead of creating silly rules? Do as in Finland - fines are based on percentage of your earnings from last year. Have fun breaking a speed limit (by considerable amount) few times in the year... BTW: they don't use points on the licence, there's no need.

HP caught flogging to Iran

I call it BS

..because that what it is. HP sells to a reseller - they shouldn't really care what reseller does with the stuff. Iran can always buy some "hardly used" stuff from places like Russia or China.

All that export sanctions are moot - can be easily overridden in most cases anyway.

Google sponsored links caught punting malware

Simple, really

As always, hit where it hurts. Take a deposit for a whole month run of ads if it's a new unproven company - in case of problems - ban a company and keep a deposit. When it becomes expensive, it'll stop.

Same with bot herders. Start killing their DNS entries and name and shame their ISPs, it'll become more and more expensive, thus less worthwhile.

Of Dell's self-encrypting laptop

UK.gov solution?

Can they also automatically encrypt any kind of writeable media connected to it? That would save UK.gov lots of embarrassment in the future. I mean 2data loss" embarrassment as other kinds will still prevail ;)