* Posts by Jim Moores

10 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2008

Frustration with Elite:Dangerous boils over into 'Refund Quest'

Jim Moores

Re: Arguing over nothing

Except that these people put money into a kick starter project. That is not buying a product, whether you like it or not. It is funding a high risk project. I funded it, and I specifically wanted a Mac version (which isn't out yet). If I never get a Mac version I will be disappointed but I will not go storming around demanding a refund. I realise (unlike apparently many others) that funding E:D was going to pay for about 2 hours of developer time and I what I wanted to do was help give the project a _chance_ to succeed. That tiny contribution does not entitle me or anyone else to dictate what ends up in the final product.

No, modular Java isn't dead. It'll be in Java 9 – honest

Jim Moores

Calling Java 8 another 'evolutionary' release is a tad unfair.

Default methods on interfaces are another huge (and rather unappreciated) change in Java 8 and the Streams API is a pretty different way of doing things. Compared to the new features in 6 & 7, they're much more significant.

Oracle gives 21 (new) reasons to uninstall Java

Jim Moores
Thumb Down

Great, we can now use the author's nominated alternative

If you're actually writing applications, what completely secure alternative is the author suggesting? Oh, and Apple don't control their JDK any more, so the OS X argument is rubbish.

Intel: Microsoft's ARM-on-Windows deal no threat

Jim Moores

Oh yeah...

So, Microsoft ports Windows to the first new architecture in years, with the trigger level for MS set much higher this time because of the wasted efforts of the old Alpha/MIPS/Power/Itanic ports, and it's not a big deal? Yeah, right.

An ARM port had been on the cards for a while as MS can saw the low-end SmartBooks, phones and especially tablets cannibalising the mid-range and even threatening to go into the server realm. And they've got no real offering for that hardware. There's a massive difference between WinCE on ARM and the mainstream version of Windows.

Despite what Intel says, and the fact they have so much to say about how it doesn't matter underlines this, ARM is going to seriously threaten them (and AMD too) in the long term.

Galactica 1.3

Jim Moores

A bit harsh

I bought Galactica, and although it is just a toy, I think you're being a bit harsh. I thought the graphics were very nicely done, and have found myself going back to it from time to time. The two-point touch activating gravity function is a bit odd, and the flick detection not sensitive enough, but I liked it.

HP Mini 2140 netbook

Jim Moores

Don't worry about the buttons.

If you're in the market for one of these, don't worry about the track pad buttons. I have a 2133 and they're not a problem - I actually prefer the placement as you can hit the left button easily with your thumb (although I usually tap). I'd also recommend holding out for the higher res screen, the 2133's 1280x768 really is magic, but then i am a bit of resolution junky.

British pilot makes first supersonic stealth jumpjet flight

Jim Moores
Happy

Great idea!

Would you like an AIM-9 Sidewinder with your Tuna, Sir?

Microscope-wielding boffins crack Tube smartcard

Jim Moores
Black Helicopters

Any sensible business plan should build in the cost of a crack

I remember reading that one of the big reasons why ONDigital (later ITVDigital) went down was because the smartcard that went in their set top boxes had been compromised. Unlike Sky, who had built into their business plan an assumption that cards would need to be replaced around every five years due to exploits, ONDigital hadn't built this cost into their calculations and so couldn't afford to reissue cards to all their customers.

Sun dreams the impossible Java on Jesus Phone dream

Jim Moores

Just a game

It's fairly clear in my opinion that the iPhone is going to be a major new development platform. Sun are trying to get in on the action. By stating that they are going ahead with developing a JVM, it makes Apple look pretty stupid to stop them from deploying on it.

Having said that, deploying the JVM via the AppStore is never going to happen, and Sun very well know that - it would completely open up development and allow people to sidestep Apple's control. The only possible route to IPhone/JDK I can see is if Sun persuades Apple to let them add Java as part of the SDK. And the only way that's going to happen is if Sun start taking deployment of Java on OS X more seriously.

That assumes that the reason that the JDK is so far behind on the Mac is Sun's fault rather than Apple's. I have to admit I'm not sure about that one - it might be due to Apple's famous paranoia about new products (understandable, but does have these kinds of side effects). Or it could just be that Apple doesn't care for Java. They've said some pretty weird things about it in the past.

Snap Sun decision launches Java at iPhone

Jim Moores
Jobs Horns

Jobs hates Java

The more interesting story here is that Sun didn't get early access to the SDK. Jobs seems to have some bizarre thing against Java. He lives in his little objective C bubble and he hasn't seemed to have noticed that Java is probably the most popular compiled language in the world at this point. Just recently he made some bizarre comment about 'no one using Java on the desktop' or something like that. Sure, no one is writing office applications in Swing, but there are probably tens of thousands of bespoke in-house applications written in Java. What makes it worse is that they dropped their Java/Cocoa binding - just imagine if you were one of the poor saps that invested in that API!

Still, I find myself about to buy a MacBook Pro so they must be doing something right...