Posts by Pascal Monett

London cabbies to offer EVEN WORSE service in protest against Uber

Uber has been banned in <city>

Seems to me that that is a sure sign of monopoly disruption (since we're not talking about criminal or immoral activity), and I don't see how that can be a Bad Thing (tm).

Netflix FREEZES prices for existing UK users to stop them quitting vid-streaming service

Re: Why should a stream service have to negotiate "rights" to stream content?

Because the rights holders will sue to the ground anyone who streams stuff without their prior permission. They do that because they have the mistaken impression of living in a world where they decide what is on offer, thus "managing availability", and where it is on offer.

Unfortunately for rights holders, the Internet means two things : firstly, everything is available everywhere as soon as it is posted, and secondly, whatever is available now will be available forever. If rights holders attempt to limit content availability or accessibility, they are attempting to artificially limit content access and the Internet is bloody good at routing around artificial limitations.

That is why the content majors have not set up their own portals - they do not want to take the brunt of the backlash they will be getting if they set up shop on the Internet like they are used to doing on the street. That, in turn, explains why streaming services are continually short of content to stream - rights holders are handing out limited contracts with the same generosity as Scrooge before that fateful XMas night.

So let's make one thing clear : the only acceptable user experience is where the user logs on to a major's portal, finds the entire catalog available regardless of his worldly location, and clicks on what he wants to watch and starts watching. Anything less than that and piracy will continue because piracy is providing that experience.

So, Hollywood, RIAA, MPAA et al, you set that up for a price we're willing to pay and you will do away with piracy overnight. Guaranteed.

Twitter jitters: Investors turn into quitters as shares hit the sh...

"Every one involved agrees that the shares are worth that initial 25B"

Not any more.

Bill Gates: Sell off Bing? Nah. Xbox? Maybe...

Server OS & Desktop OS = Windows.

Application business = Office

I said those two lines were the money makers, no contest there.

Developer Tools = free, so no money from that

As for Office 365, it's not doing as well as Microsoft wants it to, and Azure is not the rush either.

I will grant you Exchange, but it's still a dog to run, and Hyper-V is making some people happy, no doubt there.

But I don't see that Microsoft is making billions on those last two.

Bing was shit 5 years ago and it is still shit today. It'll probably still be shit 5 years from now. The fact that Bing gives you personally the results you need is irrelevant.

What is relevant ? Investments. Like this. And this. Google has been investing billions in datacenters for years now.

That is why we are seeing this kind of news. And this. Microsoft is playing catch-up, because Microsoft has decades to catch up with.

Even Facebook is getting into the act.

I don't know how much money Google has put into its worldwide datacentre architecture, but I do believe that, until Microsoft has at least equalled that amount, Bing will remain a 2nd-rate search service. Which is not to say that it can't be useful before that time.

But right now, Bing is shit.

Recently ?

Microsoft has screwed up every major project for the past two decades.

The only thing that has kept Microsoft afloat is the fact that Windows+Office is everywhere and is the default choice. That tag team has made Microsoft its billions, nothing else.

And that is why Microsoft is desperate to get people to use Office365, because it knows that the future is going to see PCs relegated to developer/content creator tools. The masses have already ditched the PC for tablets, iPads and smartphones. Windows is going to lose the mass market, and that plus the no more Office licenses is going to put a serious dent in Microsoft's revenues. Maybe businesses will keep PCs for office drones, but the PC of 2050 will probably not be a tower. And this Bring Your Own nonsense is not helping Microsoft either.

So Microsoft is going to have to get its web services into top shape if it wants to survive. As usual though, it is pretty much screwing that up bit by bit as well.

But fear not, fanbois, Microsoft has plenty of cash to see itself through these difficult times. It will be able to screw up Windows 9, 10, 11 and all the way up to 25 if it wants before really getting into trouble.

Because it will screw up. It is much too used to having things work its way.

Scariest NSA revelation yet: Spooks are RUBBISH at CIPHERS

The NSA is longer in the shadows.

Personally, I don't know what I find more disturbing : the fact that the NSA publishes a job recruitment pitch on Twitter, or the fact that the NSA has a Twitter account in the first place.

Oculus rips ZeniMax over claims of Carmack foul play

I thought this was about Carmack

Who is this Palmer Luckey they mention ?

In any case, if all the source code is available on the Web, I think this is going to be pretty much an open-and-shut case.

And apparently Zenimax is in good standing to lose, because you don't publish code online that contains unlicensed IP. That would be a suicide note.

French software developers are all beautiful women

Automatic upvote for mentioning Girl Genius !

Re: so bad it's funny

You mean something like this ?

Denmark dynamited by cunning American Minecraft vandals

So the download is so popular

That's nice to know. Could someone please tell me how to get it ?

I would appreciate something more specific than just "go to the Danish geo site and download it there", because I went to the site and can't, for the life of me, find out how to get the download.

Yes, I found the interactive map where they show you the 10km2 chunks to choose from, but after that ? Is there any easier way ? Torrent link maybe ?

Any info is welcome.

Google forges a Silver bullet for Android, aims it at Samsung's heart

Re: Is Google becoming the big-bad corporate entity and Microsoft the one that plays fair?

Let me reassure you : Google is simply becoming as bad as Microsoft, in its journey to become worse than Microsoft.

The only reason Microsoft is where it is is because before smartphones, there was only the PC for getting mail and going to the Web.

Now there is phones and phablets and the PC is going back to being used only by content creators and professionals, so Microsoft is on its way out and Google is taking its place.

The king is dead, long live the king !

Absolutely

I have a Galaxy SII just like my daughter. The difference is that mine is tied to a different operator.

My phone is running 4.1.2, hers is still on 2.x something. Mine has had a system update twice in two years, hers has had none.

"The handhelds must run Google's flavour of Android – the open-source-ish OS it bought in 2005 – rather than customised, bloatware-ridden versions cooked up by some hardware makers."

That in itself is going to be the beginning of the end for customized versions. Everyone knows about the latest functions made available in the latest version of Android. Most people look at their phone and can only dream about the day it will finally trickle down to them. It is nothing short of infuriating to know that your hardware CAN support it, but it's your operator that is not.

Operators are not going to get any pity on this front. Not that they get much anyways. They've been milking us for long enough.

UK.gov data sell-off row: HMRC denies claims it'll flog YOUR private info

Not sure you evan have to go that far in Clause 2 : except such as is in accordance with the law

Make a law that torture is legal part of the judicial system and the only complaint you can have is that it is immoral. Same here. They did it with the NSA, what makes you think they'll have the slightest compunction to not do it for this ?

Cue ominous music and cloaked figure saying "I will make it legal".

"HMRC would only share data where this would generate clear public benefits"

Am I mistaken, or would getting money be a clear public benefit ?

In their point of view, that is.

Immigration Dept: we have NO IDEA how many people saw asylum-seeker data

Gotta love their level of understanding

“the department believes that if a person has downloaded or saved the report, they can still access the personal information”

No really ? And how many meetings did it take for them to realize that ? Did they have to go to the nearest Helldesk drone to ask confirmation ?

Could somebody please visit them with a cluebat ? Made of iron, preferably.

And! For! Yahoo!'s next! trick! ... Making! two! new! TV! comedies!

No, but the Yahoo/ Mail experience is in its own class for sure.

Russia 'incompatible with the internet', cries web CEO 'axed by Putin'

Define "average US businessman" then, 'cause I know a few and they're very decent fellows.

But I'm guessing you're not counting Mom & Pop discount stores as "businessmen".

Why two-player games > online gaming: See your pal's shock as you bag a last-second victory

@Nick Ryan

You need to get a copy of Settlers 10th anniversary.

All the joy of the best version of Settlers with zero ladders or ranking or any other shit that gets in the way. It runs on everything too.

It's spade sellers who REALLY make a killing in a gold rush: It's OVER for graphics card mining

Re: Are people still stupid enough to pour money into it all??

You know what they say about the birth rate of suckers.

Trolls and victims watch Supremes for definition of meaningless patents

"the more ambiguous the patent, the easier it is to build a relevant product"

So, if I understand you correctly, the only thing keeping us from having a functional hyperdrive is the fact that nobody has filed the patent yet ?

New .london domains touted tomorrow amid usual tech hypegasm

I think that phrase refers to the number of cameras that totally cover London but are of absolutely no use when you need to find out who mugged you.

The technology that allows that to happen is indeed something unique in the world, and thank God for that.

Beijing's anti-smut crackdown catches 'Chinese Twitter' Weibo red-handed

Imagine

Just think of what it would be like if that happened to YouTube.

Minecraft players can now download Denmark – all of it – in 1:1 scale

Re: "will they be improving the resolution of the game"

I don't think they can, technically speaking.

We have games today that boast about how the terrain can be modified, but they lie. They look gorgeous, but the terrain "modifications" are small and temporary.

In Minecraft, every part of the world is a modifiable entity. It doesn't look so good, but technically it goes way beyond just having a hole in the ground.

The tradeoff is clear : you use memory for gorgeous graphics, or for actual functionality. Minecraft has decided to go for functionality.

That being said, you can easily find Minecraft mods that propose texture packs. Some of them make the game look quite better than the original textures. Still just as blocky, obviously, but the blocks look nice.

It woz the Reg wot won it: UK mobe network EE fixes voicemail hack flaw

Well done Simon

Kudos for getting something done in the security chaos arena.

Every little bit helps.

Look behind you, 'declining' sub-$5bn iPod. The iWatch has come... to EAT YOU

I have a watch, thank you

So, apart from being the next must-have status symbol for all Apple addicts, what does the thing do ?

Apparently, it "plays nice with your iPhone". Well that's a sales pitch that does not impress me. Besides, I have an Android phone.

It's a watch, so it will have minuscule screen space unless they go for the dork look (possible). For energy-saving reasons, I'll bet you'll have to press a button to activate said screen which means that, as a watch, it is less useful than its regular competitors. I sincerely hope Apple will not go and do the not-replaceable battery thing on this, but you never know. And what else will it have ? Blutooth probably, otherwise it won't play with anything. Sounds like dismal battery life in view.

And it's supposed to replace the Ipod, so that means earbud jacks going to your wrist. Or maybe Blutooth to your iPhone - except that we know that Apple does not like music collections that it does not control via iTunes. Sounds like a mess right there.

Yeah, I know, it's Apple. There might be a miracle and this thing might actually be useful.

I doubt it though.

Japan plans SEVEN satellite launches to supercharge GPS

The military already have plenty enough accuracy to lob a hundred kilos of Semtex into a specific meter-sized location from thirty miles away (or more if we're talking nuclear warheads). Centimeter-level accuracy will make zero difference when those kilos go boom.

Civilian accuracy is the next step in allowing us personal cars that we don't have to drive, which is the next best thing to flying cars that we'll not be seeing until the portable fusion reactor can power the gravity modulation plates that nobody has invented yet.

So go for the super-accurate civilian GPS network. It's progress.

Google adds a sense of history to Street View with archive footage

There are two comments before yours, and none contain any hating I can detect.

Seems to me you've jumped the gun there.

95 floors in 43 SECONDS: Hitachi's new ultra-high-speed lift

In that case, press the Close and Open Door buttons simultaneously - in some elevators, it resets the choices made.

Think-tank to infosec: You're doing it wrong

"a source of global shocks for which [highly-paid people] and government officials are not prepared"

What ever does that change compared to the usual faffing about when a crisis happens ?

Nothing.

So business as usual then.

Systems meltdown plunges US immigration courts into pen-and-paper stone age

Five servers down at the same time ?

And they can't even get a phone line up and running ?

It has to be a terrist strike.

Somebody phone Homeland Security, there's a Bin Laden mole in the Justice Department !

Love the reference, but the Butlerian Jihad was caused by AI mimicking the human mind too well. I seriously doubt these systems mimic a human mind in any way, unless it is a very sick one.

Got Windows 8.1 Update yet? Get ready for YET ANOTHER ONE – rumor

Microsoft : could you please bite the bullet already ?

Stop trying to make us like your fucking tiles and put the frakking Start Menu back the way it was.

Then prove you can actually deal with this bloody mess by giving us a checkbox where we can choose which UI we want.

Is it really that hard ?

Boss of Russia's Facebook says Putin cronies have taken over his company

In any case it would appear that :

1) he's rich (like The Zuck)

2) behaves like a jerk (like The Zuck)

3) is not intelligent enough to not antagonize immensely more powerful people in a country where such people can have you legally extraordinarily rendered to a holding facility and kept there for the rest of your life - if they're feeling magnanimous (so not like The Zuck)

OpenBSD founder wants to bin buggy OpenSSL library, launches fork

"a new version that they say will be more trustworthy"

Well that's nice to know.

Now, what does the NSA have to say ? I'm sure it's willing to participate in this project and give valuable insight into security procedures and encryption techniques.

Ok, ok, I'm going already.

Battery-production problems delay anorexic 5.5-inch 'iPhone Air'

On the Internet it is.

This kind of article is actually People-magazine-level for IT specialists. And if you have a pic of the yet unreleased object, it becomes Page-3-of-the-Sun level.

SAVE THE EARTH... give all your iThings back to us, begs Apple

"without the harmful toxins we have removed from ours"

And what about the harmful toxins they haven't removed from their products ?

Or is Apple trying to make me think that there are no harmful toxins of any kind in their products ? Because that would be wrong.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: Great changes, but sssh don't mention the...

Search is for people who do not organize their data on the PC or only have one copy of any given item - aka most people. As soon as you develop or program things, you are bound to have archive copies of this or that in backup folders and that totally screws up the search function.

Being a developer, I do organize my data, my folders and my disks. I know where I put things and I must be sure of what copy of a given program I am launching in order to properly interpret the results.

So no search for me.

Fixing OpenSSL's Heartbleed flaw will take MONTHS, warns Secunia

"Machines that are kept at cutting edge or actively managed will have received security patches within a day or two of the disclosure/announcement."

Really ? I'm sure that actively managed machines will have been patched quicker than others, but I'm also pretty much convinced that patching schedules tend to not be on the top of the urgency pile most of the time - until the waste product encours the rotating propulsion system, that is.

Now that it has happened, all high-profile web sites are on the ball, no doubt, but I'm certain that we'll be hearing about this bug for as long as we've heard about unsalted (or non-existant) hashes for passwords.

For the moment

The media is just waiting for a declaration from Steve Jobs before deciding to go with leniency or overzealous outrage.

Zucker punched: Google gobbles Facebook-wooed Titan Aerospace

Big Dog

Not knocking the technological achievement, which is remarkable, but it seems to me that there is yet progress to be made because those robots may be semi-autonomous and capable of carrying the necessary munitions to the front line where required, but given the racket they make to do so, I can't help thinking that "the enemy" will quickly learn to target the tinny quadrupeds and do a one-stone-two-crows thing.

Big Dog needs to get stealthier or more heavily armored for the battlefield, either of which will require an order of magnitude improvement in energy management and production. Even the civilian version could be of more use if rendered half as audible as it is now.

I wish them good luck finding the solution.

Innovation creates instability, you say? BLASPHEMY, you SCUM

Ah, teenagers.

When they try to communicate with me I generally wait for around ten seconds (or their first breath) before I hold up a hand and say "slow down there, old ears can't keep up."

Generally they understand and provide an audible speech pattern - for about a minute before diving back into 7th gear.

Rinse & repeat.

Spy-happy Condoleezza Rice joins Dropbox board as privacy adviser

Re: Mastery of technology, not bloviating brought down the Soviet Union

If the Soviet Union is no more it is because the best rhetoric cannot fill an empty stomach, not can it make widespread corruption invisible.

The Soviet Union imploded on itself due to financial mismanagement and blatantly well-known underhanded dealings on a national scale. Even if the hadn't been a Cold War to funnel even more precious resources into a mad bomb race, the USSR would have undoubtedly crashed because of its own internal instability.

Melting permafrost switches to nasty, high-gear methane release

Re: James Micallef

Thank you for the link. I have briefly reviewed the page and I will most definitely read it in detail later.

In any case, that is exactly the kind of information I prefer : scientific, clear and precise, and nothing said without proper justification. Makes a welcome change from all the hyperbole and unfounded exxageration.

I appreciate this opportunity to educate myself and will relish the opinion revision that it will entail.

So, nuke it then ?

Re: "Amount of CO2 in the atmosphere because of human activity is a known quantity"

Really ?

Because you have measured and recorded every single charcoal fire, log burning and every single emission of coal-burning furnaces all over the world ? Every year ?

Nice to know. So what are the exact figures, down to the kilo ?

Of course not. Nobody can. We can, however, agree that with 7 billion people on the face of this planet, the consequences of our activity are more important than when we were just a billion. That is obvious.

The issue is that everyone is approximating everything without exact figures because we don't have them because it would be prohibitively expensive to record and measure all we need in order to know what it is we need to measure.

So please do not go around spouting nonsense like we know the quantity of CO2 that we pump out. We don't. We approximate it more or less accurately and then we start deriving conclusions because we have to in order to make mistakes and correct our conclusion-making process in order to make better predictions the next time around.

Which sweaty exec dreamt up Office for iOS? Ballmer, Ballmer, Ballmer

No use betting

Steam OS is on its merry way to becoming available and will happen some time this year.

Microsoft Linux ? Not even in Ballmer's most heavy chair-flinging-induced trances will THAT ever get authorized.

And yes, I know Ballmer's not CEO any more. Unfortunately for Microsoft, he's still on the Board, and last I heard, a CEO reports to the Board.

So if he says no to something, it's still no.

Bendy or barmy: Why your next TV will be curved

Nice to see them upping the resolution

For the rest though, I'm not interested, and a bent screen will never be on my list.

My current TV was bought in 2005 and it's working fine. Pixel Plus means the image is very good and people who see it for the first time still comment on that.

For my next TV my needs are simple : it needs to look at least as nice as what I have now, and have an Ethernet connector I can plug into my home network to stream films from my media NAS. No connecting to Internet, no complicated user interface and nothing more difficult than "show image from this source".

Make something like that and I will happily buy it.

Try to flog me some bendy "smart" thing that incessantly nags me to connect to the Internet or is a nightmare to use and I will leave it in your shop.

The cloud awaits... but is your enterprise ready for the jump?

"Large cloud services are in secure data centres to which access is strictly controlled"

And I am glad that they are, but physical access is hardly the problem.

The problem is the NSA, or other shady organisations or even criminal ones, with the ability to worm their way into said secure data centers without ever showing up at the front door and, once in, cherry-picking whatever fits their fancy. How are you going to find out that your data has been taken ? It might be because you lose an important deal to NSA's corporate spying program. It may be because your customers start getting targetted ads and leave you. In any case, it will likely be far too late to do anything about it.

Frankly, in this day and age using the old "iron door" argument as a reference for security is a tad ridiculous.

MtGox boss Karpeles ordered to Dallas to face bankruptcy probe

I find your point of view perfectly reasonable, and I subscribe to it.

However, I have no doubt that there is some leeway in how all this is handled and, given that it is US citizens filing complaints, it may also be logical that MtGoX might want to seek protection in the US.

The real question is : why does a company in Japan care about a court case in the USA ? US citizens could win anything they want, I don't see that a US court has the power to force anyone in Japan or elsewhere to pay up. The the CEO isn't even an American citizen, and if he were it would grant no special powers to a US court either.

After all, that is, if memory serves, one of the prime reasons some people scamper to a non-extradition country with millions in a suitcase, is it not ?

Except that Japan is hardly a non-extradition country for the US.

Nevertheless, this whole thing should indeed be handled by Japanese law. That's where the company is located.

Otherwise, the Microsoft CEO could be summoned by any court in the world as soon as Windows keels over or loses data, and we don't see that happening, now do we ?