Posts by Mage

Microsoft exec: I don't know HOW our market share sunk

Integent ... Running Windows

Amazing, 22% of Humans, Apes, Monkeys, Elephants, Corvids, Dolphins etc are running a Microsoft computer OS!

Um ... you do know that because they still can't figure out what intelligence is the AI people have completely changed the definition is since the 1970s? That in real terms there has been ZERO progress in AI since 1950s? Any progress is by redefining AI to include whatever program has just been developed.

Wake me up when you find ANY intelligent device that isn't replicating biologically. Sex is obviously currently involved to produce Intelligence, in a sense.

If we are talking about devices that are not a laptop, Notebook, All in one, PC or Server, then 22% is an amazing figure, and wrong, as MS are non-existent on Set-boxes, Routers, TVs, DVD, Blu Ray, Media boxes etc . Though in the USA in WinCE PDA / Early Symbian days it might have been more than 45%. But about 10% world wide.

(*laptop, Notebook, All in one, PC or Server etc I don't classify as a device but "computers" as they are very general purpose and OS can easily be changed. A device running an OS (the word "intelligent" is meaningless) to me is a gadget where you'd have to go through hoops, JTAG etc to EASILY change the OS. The only non-computer devices close to "general purpose" rather than dedicated appliance are Phones (so called "Smart") and Tablets.

Exactly what is the "Smart" in a Smart Phone? It's as dumb as a basic one that can only do phone calls and SMS with an address book. Just more applications and ability to load applications with awkward Web Browser)

QUIDOCALYPSE: Blighty braces for £100 MILLION cost of new £1 coin

Facebook?

Why?

you have perfectly good forums without trying to help Zuckerberg's income with his very creepy walled garden.

No thanks.

(I'll keep my FB account for stalking though).

Europe approves common charger standard for mobe-makers

Networking over house wiring...

Actually those are really illegal transmitters. They 99% just use the local part of wire as an aerial! They pass CE by only plugging in one or not connecting data. They are two way 1 to 30MHz or 1MHz to 200MHz radio systems.

The are also about x50 cost of a USB connector!

Re: What happened to wireless charging?

The wireless charger isn't. It's a large awkward pad with a cable to PSU.

It's as wireless as Cordless Kettle. Which is strictly a docking kettle.

Why can't they all put USB and earphone so the phone can sit in a cradle like my DECT or my ancient Handheld 2 way radio?

Win XP holdouts storm eBay and licence brokers, hiss: Give us all your Windows 7

Re: Oh stop!

Edit time ran out ...

Not much more so than Win7 /Win 8 users.

If un-needed services off, stupid plug-ins on browser disabled, separate firewall on Router (use a WiFi/Ethernet Sharing box/router for a 3G/4G dongle, don't plug in direct), sensible usage, no Outlook, MS IE etc then less likely in next 10 years to get malware than 8.1 or later Windows users.

Check with silentrunners.org and gmer, maybe even booting to safe mode, periodically.

MS though should consider Win 7 demand and amount of XP that their whole strategy stinks now.

I'll use Libre Office rather than any version of office after 2003, and Linux with WINE if I can't use the Win98, Win2K and WinXP laptops I have any longer. Unless MS swallow the Ego and make a fixed version of XP. as alternative to Win 9 for users that want it.

Oh stop!

"Anybody running Windows XP after that date will face malware and virus writers targeting the OS alone unless they pay Microsoft for custom support."

Enough of the misleading propaganda.

US govt: You, ICANN. YOU can run the internet. We quit

Relief

For a horrible moment I thought Carl Icahn was getting it!

Is no browser safe? Security bods poke holes in Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox and earn $1m

Re: Why

Maybe "hacking" and designing and writing are three different skills,

Why is so much time and money spent on appearance and tools continue to be poor, underlying design poor etc?

It's daft to claim these contests are part of testing or QA. Quality and security is DESIGNED in, and implemented, not hacked and patched after the fact.

It [patching] leads to messy code and new bugs.

Why about 30 years after C++, Modula-2 and Objects etc are we still seeing Array Bounds vulnerabilities in SW?

I'm on a lot of security mailing lists and the bugs and vulnerabilities on for example PHP based CMS are all the more of the same year in year out.

We are doing it wrong in the first place.

4G auction helped keep mobile networks competitive ... for NOW

Garbage

Garbage

The real point of the spectrum auctions and TV digital dividend is a bit of instant cash for the Government.

There are better ways.

Actually, there is an Arapaho word for 'pliers'

Re: Is there an Arapaho word for this?

Also pens are sentient and escape via wormholes to a Sanctuary planet.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Friday is Pi Day

ISO?

3,141 59 27 Doesn't work

but 31,415 9 27 does,

But I might be dead by the 31415

Not sure if you're STILL running Windows XP? AmIRunningXP.com to the rescue!

Cynical

Never this hype on any other MS EOL.

Are they getting desperate?

Why don't they do the obvious and bring out a Windows XP SE for "legacy hardware"? Big market.

Or have they misplaced the source tree or too big an Ego?

Windows Phone beats BLACKBERRY in mobe OS popularity stakes

Re: Hollow Victory

yes, considering Blackberry / RIM may be doomed.

UK's CASH POINTS to MISS Windows XP withdrawal date

It's irrelevant.

If they are not connected to Internet and Users are not installing applications why does it matter?

Loads of stuff even running DOS, Win 3.11, Ancient pre 2000 Linux, OS/2, Win98, NT4.0, Win2K etc simply running. Nothing is ever updated or installed, nor is it networked.

If we are talking manager's and Office PCs on Internet it's more of a story, but even then may have no issues depending on configuration.

Blurred lines: Android e-ink mobe claims TWO-WEEK battery life

2G

You know many Operators have been conned by Vendors and have permission in some countries to switch off 2G replacing it with 3G?

Even though 3G for voice only is inferior to modern 2G implementations as it has nasty cell breathing due to being based on horrid CDMA.

Bugger the jetpack, where's my 21st-century Psion?

Nokia N9100 N9200 Communicators

Pocket PC with a phone on the outside?

Handy for sending faxes!

Blighty teen boffin builds nuclear reactor INSIDE CLASSROOM

Image Dissector Tube

"The Image Dissector Tube was the sensor used on the space shuttle to image low brightness stars to update it's attitude and position in space."

Nothing to do with Farnsworth's tube. Farnsworth's tube only sensed light the instant each part scanned by electron beam. It was rubbish. It would always have been rubbish as that method means sensitivity is abominable. Every successful sensor/tube accumulates charge based on light the entire time it isn't scanned/read.

EVERYONE was deep in litigation with RCA and Marconi 1922 to late 1930s. So in that sense he had plenty of company. Edison (much earlier) Marconi, RCA and Philips were the Apple / Oracle / MS of the era (depending on country), Though Marconi, EMI and RCA did do a lot of real R&D. But many patents bought in and others prior art (TV, Superhet, FM etc). The patents awarded were too broad and frequently ignored prior art and even patents outside UK or USA.

The big companies in 1920s and 1930s created patent cartels/pools. Hence RCA never sued EMI.

Baird tried to use Farnsworth cameras, but his Film camera with near real time development and essentially film scanner to video worked far far better. People's eyes were damaged the lighting needed for Farnsworth's camera so bright. The EMI and RCA (very similar to each other) cameras of same time able to work in ordinary overcast daylight.

Pre WWII electronic TV

Farnsworth Fusor

I know nothing about the Farnsworth Fusor. But Farnsworth Image Dissector camera was inherently doomed. Farnsworth invented "a" TV system. but like Baird's it wasn't actually original nor part of modern TV development (starting 1926 and EMI & RCA success in 1935). Farnsworth's and Baird's was a dead end. Though ironically DLP is mechanical TV, albeit using nanotechnology. The RCA and EMI electron gin cameras and today's chip cameras work due to charge storage per frame rather than only sensing light level at scanning instant (Farnsworth's Electronic Image Dissector and Baird's disc then mirrors) thus about 10,000 more sensitive for SDTV and over 30,000 times more for HDTV.

Roku flashes $50 HDMI TV web dongle at anyone sick of Google's stick

Chromecast

The Google creepy dongle is NOT FUNCTIONAL AT ALL without a suitable host device. It's effectively a wireless replacement for the HDMI cable from a Notebook, Tablet or Smart Phone.

Completely different.

If you want more functionality plug in a Roku3, tablet, smart phone, notebook etc via HDMI cable.

Steve Ballmer: Thanks to me, Microsoft screwed up a decade in phones

Re: Windows phones .... Blackberry

Eh? Win CE and Win Phone predated Blackberry.

Got 4G? Wake up, grandad. We're doing 4.5G LTE-A in London - EE chief

There is no 4.5G

Even LTE isn't much more than 3G really. They fudged the definitions to market WiMax and LTE as 4G.

It's 4G and the speeds in Marketing are fantasy.

Windows XP market share GROWS AGAIN, outstrips Win 8.1 surge

It's simple

Here MS, is how you make lots of money.

Release XP SE. (Special Edition).

Works as an update.

Makes all versions of XP be same as XP Professional SP3, but with all bugs and inconsistent behaviour fixed. (Everything that REALLY annoys me on XP GUI is the SAME or SIMILAR in Vista, Win7 and Win8!)

(Explorer moves or copies? Icons in some Desktop folders insist on list display)

Extra features:

Check box to turn off Autorun on everything

All Server type services off (disabled) by default

Built-in install time SATA support (I have a slip streamed XP pro install disc that supports sata)

Allow PXE (Up to 16G RAM) and more than 2G application space. Like NT 4.0 Enterprise and Server 2003. The current XP memory limitations are a deliberate change. Not because it's 32 bit.

All current patches etc as SP4

Lots of sales.

Offer 50% discount to genuine validated XP Users.

Most users just want a less buggy version of what they have. Not something with gratuitous OS GUI changes and new shiny shiny with new bugs.

Microsoft to get in XP users' faces with one last warning

Never before?

Win 2.0

Win 286

Win 386

Win 3.0

Win 3.1

Win 3.11

MS OS/2 (Yes this non-IBM version existed about 1989)

WFWG 3.11

Win 4.0 (Chinese?)

NT 3.1

NT 3.5

Win 95

NT 3.51

Win 95b

Win 98

NT 4.0 Workstation, Server, Enterprise server, PPC, x85, MIPS, Alpha and Alpha64 versions

Win 98 SE

Win ME

Win 2000

Win 2000 Advanced Server

Win XP workstation 64 bit NOT for x86 but Itanium: Killed LONG ago, No Support now I think.

When does Server 2003 support end? (Basically Server version of XP)

Anyway end of support isn't a big deal behind a physical firewall, with most services off and noscript etc on Firefox and very few web plugins, no Auto run on anything etc.

Even less of a deal for something with no Internet.

I still have machines with DOS, Win98 and Win2K for dedicated applications.

Alcatel unveils 'cheaper-than-Chromebook' Lapdock-alike phablet-powered laptop

This sort of makes sense

If done properly as I remarked on an earlier post.

The "phone dock" part shouldn't be much more than screen, keyboard and to make it really useful, ethernet and 4 x USB host sockets (though any decent smart phone has wifi, sometimes wired ethernet is better, e.g. open plan office).

For smartphone users that only want email, internet, simple document editing & photo crop/Upload this makes more sense than a separate tablet or laptop. Nothing to sync.

But... you work in IT... Why aren't we RICH?

"just use Skype blah blah blah", a text is much easier .."

I'm baffled.

I mostly (99.9% of time) use Skype only for text.

PayPal row heats up as eBay chair calls Icahn claims 'false and misleading'

Once more

Icahn proves he is an asset stripper and not an investor.

The sale of Skype made sense as

a) It wasn't doing anything useful for ebay, Paypal or eBay + Paypal.

b) MS was prepared to pay silly money for it

c) There is no obvious way Skype itself can make money.

OTH

a) Paypal makes money and has potential

b) ebay makes money and has potential

c) If ebay didn't have PayPal or it didn't exist, the synergy means it would make sense to buy it or invent it.

d) Selling it only makes a quick buck for people like Icahn and in the longer term reduces ebay ability to do its business.

e) Even Tesco has a "bank" now. Oddly I trust them more than RBS/Ulster Bank etc.

f) While ebay & paypal isn't without faults I trust it better than the classfied ads and <enter name of major UK bank>

PayPal got me money back of a fraudulant ebay seller. Would they bother if they and ebay had no connection?

Get Quake III running on Raspberry Pi using Broadcom's open-source GPU drivers, earn $10K

Good News

I hope this and the recent Nvidia release is the start of a trend. Not that I'm against software you have to buy (in some circumstances), but it makes sense for drivers to be open source as they are not charging for the drivers anyway.

Apple investors fall for CEO Cook's product-presentation prank

The Apple TV – deemed a Cupertinian "hobby"

So many buying into subscription viewing....

But it's NOT a TV. No screen, no Tuner.

It's just a very very cheap box with a PMP chip set, networking and video out.

Sad really.

New radio tech could HALVE mobe operators' bandwidth needs

No free lunch

You can't.

Shannon.

There is no free lunch. In real world you need more power or less speed. We are already close to Nyquist / Shannon Limit.

Mesh networking is REALLY SLOW and high latency compared with real basestations.

All of this has been done for years. Nothing new here just hype,

Samsung and Apple BEWARE: Huawei is coming to eat your lunch

Whah Wei?

"There are some problems with your post."

China's web giants unite to defuse Windows XP bombshell

Maybe

These guys will be repackaging XP Embedded updates. Which are till 2016 or later I think.

We nearly MISSED OUT on iOS7 redesign: But someone snatched Jony Ive from the jaws of quit

Well at least original

Robin, Chopper original.

Ives just copied 1950s Braun stuff by Dieter Rams.

Magnets to stick stuff to tablets: Yup, there's an Apple patent application for that

Magmount

Though mine has three magnets and a 2.5m aerial.

Facebook pays $19bn for WhatsApp. Yep. $45 for YOUR phone book

Re: charge outrageous amounts for data

Actually no, Mobile Data is too cheap compared to Broadband Data. Voice and SMS subsidise it as they are GROSSLY over priced.

About £20 of voice is about 135 M byte (depending on Codec and Country). Incoming termination charges about equal outgoing call costs. If the call isn't on their own network. SMS costs them nearly nothing.

Almost all data is I/O from the Mobile Network and ALL of it, both directions is paid for to other parties per Mbyte transferred, not by time.

Re: Speak for yourself...

What about your friends and/or relatives with your details? Are none of them on Facebook or Whatsapp etc?

Help! Apple has snaffled the WHOLE WORLD'S supply of sapphire glass

Re: Yeah right Anonymous Coward

Hard often means cracks easily. This is true of Sapphire.

You'll NEVER guess who's building the first Ubuntu phones in 2014

Re: I'm excited!

Yes in theory today there are phones that don't even need a [smart] dock!

The "dock" only needs to provide power and allow 4 x USB peripherals. BT or USB keyboard. USB or BT mouse, optionally ethernet USB adaptor instead of built in wifi. Use a USB portable HDD for "backup". HDMI to decent screen.

The main issue seems to really only be the OS and some decent applications that work fine with keyboard / Mouse and are not touch screen only.

Support of windows and not just full screen on 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1200, 1600 x 1200, 1440 x 720, 1024 x 768 as minimum screen modes.

My existing oldish Sony Ericsson Xperia is powerful enough and can do HD on HDMI, USB clients and BT keyboard. Just needs a suitable OS.

Re: Hope the contract includes upgrading the website to mulitingual support

Flags are actually wrong for languages.

Which flag do you show for English that won't offend (Irish, UK, USA, Malta or other Nationals that speak English but their language isn't listed)?

What flag for German? (Austrians, Swiss and some others might have it as language of choice. Swiss have 4 languages).

French isn't just in France. Nor Spanish in Spain or Portuguese in Portugal.

Sites should put the name of the language in that Language instead of stupid flags.

Reports pump fuel into iCar gossip: Apple in 'talks' with Tesla

Re: broken Shiftkey You have

NO IT IS NOT BROKEN - Sorry

Random Capitalisation isn't as bad as A Man from Mars Shirley?

The NSA can probably connect all my posts under different identities by case analysis. i think i need to disconnect it or something.

sorry if it annoys you. actually i barely know german and have a poorer understanding of its capitalisation rules than english.

Re: Domestic Grid

No country has a Domestic Grid that can take even 20% of people using Electric cars.

Synthetic LPG

Use Solar power or Fusion power, waste carbon or CO2 and Sea water. The best way to transport solar energy from very sunny places to very cloudy places. You can't transport Electricity that distance.

Hydrogen is horrible stuff to store and to transport.

Electric cars are Niche and using Batteries (loss of electricity charging & In Grid plus energy cost of making and recycling) may be higher energy cost than synthetic LPG. Which solves all the problems of hydrogen. Also existing Petrol cars have over 40 years experience with conversion kits. Petrol stations already can stock it. Distribution system / network already exists world wide. The only issue is same as with Battery cars. Where to get the clean Electricity in the first place?

Sony's PlayStation 4 pwns Xbox in the United States

Re: Choices, choices... Music

So why does a games console need to play your music?

Re: Choices, choices... Music

Who plays music on other than Phone or Media Streaming box (often mis-advertised as "Radios" but they need the Internet if not using your own.)?

Also the Xbone seems designed purely for 60Hz world. Trying to to decent 25i or 50p European video in a Window running at 30i or 60p (MS Xbone) is never going to work properly unless the images are static.

I buy CDs and read them once.

I can even listen to them on the 1980s HiFi via FM stereo using a little £5 CE FM Tx dongle meant for media players & car radio. Works on DTT, SAT or Laptop audio out to 3.5mm jack and powered of USB socket or USB PSU or phone charger Nokia coax plug.

£10 USB Memory stick on the HDTV USB in too.

Micro Men: The story of the syntax era

Re: A brief - and significant time

The IT education was largely by accident. They should have bought each Teacher a computer to take home and trained the teachers first. Certainly 1980 to 1983 was a disaster in the schools. I had a company in that era with contracts to maintain Apple II, BBC Micro, Research Machines etc.

The destruction of Inmos by Thatcher was almost a criminal act. The purchaser was clueless.

Re: Anti-Sinclair stitch-up?

Having followed Sinclair's products from 1960s radios and amplifiers and rebadged reject semiconductors, extreme hype and dubious marketing (the only advert banned from Wireless World), seen grief of people assembling black watch, the calculators, ZX80, ZX81, Spectrum, QL, the Micro TV etc, C5 car, I think Sinclair is a comic character.

Some good ideas, but everything too cost reduced and bad Production Engineering and non-existent QA (replace the ones returned was the QA scheme).

The Spectrum was maybe the best product as long as you only connected TV & cassette deck and avoided the expansion connector. Mind you I've had many cheap calculators with better keyboards.

Home lab operators: Ditch your servers ... now!

Hmm.

Also proof VMware has a vested interest in promoting Windows. Of course very useful for the majority of IT pros who also have to support Windows.

I have done "important" stuff for last 10 years on laptops to take advantage of UPS aspect. I've rarely used one actually really portable in 16 years.

Judge: Odds of bankrupt Lightsquared sorting itself out are 'zero'

"provide something nice"

Nothing you don't already have and the concept was totally flawed and unworkable from the start.

The GPS makers ARE in their band and not lazy. If you are beside an AM BC transmitter even a professional radio might only get one station.

But

ALL receivers are affected by out of band signals. The GPS signal is a whisper compared to pneumatic drill of a Terrestrial Mobile Handset or Base station.

Why on earth did FCC not squash this from the beginning?

Of course we have stupidity like Homeplug / PLT networking and so called "White Space" using channels that are used somewhere else and the Database claims are OK where you are.

PayPal 'n' Google's FIDO drops 'simpler, stronger' secure login spec

Fail Fail

Rely on a shared 3rd party authentication failure, I mean service.

Chinese mobe-makers in pincer movement to corner Qualcomm

Unfortunately

Qualcomm ARE more interested in revenue from patents than actually making stuff. That's why they bought Flarion. They seem to regard actual R&D and production as a necessary evil. They do like Monopolies as long as they have it.