Posts by Playjam

DNA database swells despite human rights ruling

@AC: REAL reason for keeping the data

Actually you can find out about jewish, black or whatever ancestry using DNA samples for a couple of years now. According to the guys who run www.rootsforreal.com you need high resolution mtDNA sampling and specific Y-DNA markers and a huge geographic dna database to do this. Apparently this technique is already being used in the forensic sciences. The "DNA fingerprint" (autosomal DNA) used in court for identifying parentage or murderers is only suitable for detecting recent ancestry up to the grandfather generation, if you're lucky. According to wiki the UK National DNA Database only stores the "DNA fingerprint", so you're safe for now Mr Cohen or is it Yoruba?

Windows Vista stuck on single digit enterprise adoption

Market fragmentation

Application development before Vista was easy, you only needed to test Windows XP (unpatched, SP1, SP2) to cover 90% of the Windows market, for the next few years you will need to test Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 (+ SPs + 32/64 Bit) for the same coverage.

Given that Microsoft have lost their way with Vista / Windows 7 (and the whole managed code .NET bloat thing) and I don't fancy switching to Linux or OS X, I am considering to finnaly get involved in helping develop ReactOS (open source Windows clone). So maybe in one or two years there will be a fourth Windows flavour which needs to be taken into account.

As the price of an application or a hardware will remain the same, the amount of time and money currently spent on developing and testing drivers and applications for Windows XP (and a little bit of Vista) will in future be devided between a lot more platforms. The resulting quality and/or the profit margins will suffer.

If the Windows market is further fragmented device and software manufacturers will start considering if supporting a specific windows segment promises as much profit as supporting a competitive platform with a higher market share.

Is this the beginning of the end of the Windows world as we know it?

New Symbian launches mobile free-for-all

@Anonymous Coward

Often the problem is sitting in front of the device not the device itself.

What you describe is not operating system specific. Obviously the error is yours, as you did not check if the network operator would allow you to use the device as it was meant to be used by it's creators.

I wish consumers would wake up and put the blame where it belongs - the network operators. Device fragmentation and network operators are the main evil for independent mobile software developers.

Microsoft urges developers to tag sites for IE8

Bad news for webdevelopers

class BusinessModel {

function checkReality() {

return (IE8 == standards_compliant && website == standards_compliant) ?

NO_NEW_CONTRACT_OR_EXTRA_CASH_FROM_CLIENT :

NEW_CONTRACT_AND_EXTRA_CASH_FROM_CLIENT;

}

}

Hackers target outsourced app development

Outsourcing can work...

You get what you pay for.

I have had excellent results working with designers who do a great job at designing UIs and websites. Of course, they have their office near me and speak my language and they do NOT have the cheapest hourly rate, but in the end the results and the time saved make them cheaper than any messing around with cheaper than dirt offshore labour.

Should Europeans pay to receive phone calls?

@Fred Goldstein

Austrian PAYG phones may have high incoming charges for the networks but this is not passed on to the consumer. For PAYG you currently pay €0.069 to all networks, all networks have similar offers. Monthly contracts are even cheaper, which can cost as little as €15 and you get 500 minutes for free, after that €0.03 per minute to all networks.

We have family and friends options and same network for free and other restrictive and confusing contracts here as well, however most people I now go for the cheap and anonymous PAYG or the monthly flat rate option.

In my opinion the U.S. American way of billing is complicated and the European simple stupid "I call I pay" has kept the cost down significantly.

@Fred Goldstein

FYI: In Austria for pay as you go the rate per call to all networks is €0.069 per minute. Flatrate (no limit) is €19 to all networks. Germany is slightly more expensive: Pay as you go is usually about €0.04 per minute in the same network and fixed lines and €0.09 to other mobile networks. Flatrates are €22.50, meaning totally unlimited calls inside the same network and to fixed lines and 60 free minutes to other mobile networks. 3G data flatrates are about €25. As an incentive with monthly plans we get a free new mobile phone every 18 months.

The $ will have to sink a lot lower than it already has before I start drooling over the prices you quoted.