Posts by Pascal Monett

'WTF! MORONS!' Yahoo! Groups! redesign! traumatises! users!

Re: M Gale

What is that you say ?

People are actually PAYING for Yahoo!'s Shitty! New! Interface! and they're being ignored on top of it ?

Dear me. You'd think that a company making users pay for using its forums would perhaps, in some way, let them participate in any major redesign that would touch a paying customer's usage habits.

Instead of just doing something, foisting it upon them without any beta feedback and then announcing that it could not be undone.

Unless, of course, Yahoo! did a Microsoft and did do a round of beta, but just ignored the feedback anyway. In which case, reap what you sow, Marissa.

Hypersonic 'scramjet' aims for Mach 8 test flight

Re: nervous Russian fingers ?

Russian fingers are never nervous.

They may be stone drunk, cold and calculating, or ragingly nimble, but they are never nervous.

'Peeping while you're sleeping' NSA parody T-shirt ban BACKFIRES

Re: "I can legitimately forbid you to copy this message"

Citation please ?

Because I doubt that you as an individual have any rights over things you post on a public forum online, any more than you have rights over what you say in a bar or shopping mall.

But I'm not a lawyer, so please correct me.

Furious Frenchies tell Apple to bubble off: Bling iPhone isn't 'champagne'

I don't see that this should be a problem for Apple

After all, someone recently famous did, in a similar case, mumble something along the lines of "just change the name, no big deal."

Microsoft - do you really think you can take on Google with Nokia?

Facebook is not insignificant, but only Facebook has managed to monetize Facebook.

So, from a business point of view, Facebook is neither a threat nor a competitor for Microsoft.

I basically agree with practically everything you say.

I would just like to point out that Microsoft is in a much worse situation than Google, because Google doesn't really care what platform you use its products with, whereas Microsoft is currently in the process of cannibalizing its Office product to set its presence in "the cloud".

That's all fine and dandy, but even if MS does manage to cloudify Office, sooner or later it will have to open it up to other platforms, meaning it will have enormous market pressure to make its Office 365 available to Android platforms.

That day MS Windows is dead as a dodo. Not because its Windows, but because people don't use PCs all that much at home anymore. Home computing is with tablets and smartphones because they are simple to use. PCs are the tech specialists tool, the platform for heavy computing (programming, CAD, video editing etc).

I'm not saying PCs will disappear, nor am I saying Microsoft will, just that until today, people only had PCs to surf the web, go on YouTube and write their emails/tweets/sms. Now they have many more choices, most of which are a lot easier to come to grips with. So, IMHO, MS is inevitably going to lose this war against Google, whatever happens.

You must be croaking! Boffins reveal sound-gobbling frog's secret

No outer ears, eh ?

So they never get earaches then, the lucky buggers.

Nature's ingenuity is truly a marvelous thing.

Verizon, Experian and pals bag £25m to inspect Brits' identities for UK gov

PayPal refused ?

I don't get it. Wouldn't an NSA-backed ID service be a Good Thing (TM) ?

Beat the UK's incoming smut filter: Pre-censor your grumble flicks

Re: And now

No, you have something to show them what bad acting is.

Well

It seems like the sneakernet is in for a revival if ever this scheme goes through.

Pron prevails !

Microsoft's Nokia plan: WHACK APPLE AND GOOGLE

WHACK APPLE AND GOOGLE .

A nice plan.

Too bad Microsoft doesn't have anything better than a wet noodle to whack them with.

Agreed. Microsoft does not have a history of leaving loopholes for anybody but itself.

Re: Nokia isn't so daft as to lose their brand fully.

I wouldn't bet the farm on that statement.

ICANN destroys Google's dotless domain dream

Thank you for that information.

So, Goldman Sachs wants its own TLD ? Doesn't want to mingle with the "common" dot coms ?

Well, I guess there is such a thing as too much money after all.

Vietnam crimps online freedom of speech with 'Decree 72'

Re: "exactly what government can and cannot do"

Government can do whatever the hell it decides to do right up to the point when the population it governs decides that enough is enough.

As for freedom of speech, if I remember correctly nobody has ever been arrested for posting something on a blog in our First World countries (with the exception of the English guy who blew his stack on Twitter and ended up making an unfortunate comment that was interpreted as a bomb threat - and that is still not something that impacts freedom of speech in a general sense).

There was news coming out of Vietnam ?

Well that's news to me.

Especially since I've stopped following the news. It's always depressing, without fail.

Storage vendors: You're next over the cliff after the server salesmen

Re: If it sounds paranoid

Unfortunately, since Snowden absolutely every tin-foil-hat wearer considers himself vindicated in his beliefs.

Even more unfortunately, what was once considered ludicrous and over-the-top as far as government surveillance is concerned is now a baseline for realistic expectations.

So, to be paranoid today requires even worse expectations than the worst-case scenario of just a year ago.

Baffled boffins 'closer' to finding origins of extragalactic COSMIC RAYS

Depends. Do you want it flash fried, or slow cooked ?

Scots council cops £100K fine for spaffing vulnerable kids' data ONLINE

Seems like Aberdeen is in dire need of a new Council

So this time it's vulnerable children's details posted online. I'm sure the kids needed that.

Last year, it was Moccasin Creek.

Trouble was brewing before though, and some local citizen tried to do something about it in 2011. Maybe she was unhappy about this.

But hey, no problem really. After all, £100,000 is just 9 days of bus lane penalty fines, apparently.

Top Twitter lawyer quits micro-blogging site ahead of IPO

Hmm. Could it be that we actually have an honestly capitalistic lawyer ?

Cognitive Networks to bring creepy awareness to LG's smart TVs

Re: 2) is there actually any use case in which [..] adverts is considered a benefit by the viewer?

They wouldn't know, that's not a question they ask themselves.

Boffins confirm quantum crypto can keep a secret

25 kbit secure keys

Oh. My. God.

I wonder what key length we will need in the 4th millennium.

Then again, we might be more interested by a log of wood by then.

Redmond's certification chief explains death of MCM and MCA

"causing upset amongst our most treasured community is far from ideal"

Agreed. So when are you reinstating Technet ?

Because killing that off was, in my humble opinion, the worst decision you have ever made.

Microsoft cans three 'pinnacle' certifications, sparking user fury

Ah, Microsoft

Microsoft has become a study in how to kill the Golden Goose.

And you have to admit, it's doing its damndest.

Boffins follow TOR breadcrumbs to identify users

If you have to go to the same place with any regularity, it will be most difficult to "randomize their routes".

Fiction is all it is meant to be, but in the real world I think that spies rely more on acting like normal people with daily routines. Someone who actually does randomize his travel routes every time is going to be easy to suspect of being a spy.

And having a (plastic) dummy drive the car is rather dangerous, not to mention terribly conspicuous.

Re: "Anything to throw a spaniard in the worms"

Goodness me, what have Spanish people done to you to warrant such ire ?

Billionaire Google founder splits with wife, allegedly beds Google Glass staffer

Re: Gossip!?!

If you don't want gossip, don't read articles classed under Bootnotes.

Duh.

Facebook strips away a bit more of your privacy – but won't say why

Existing users will [] simply comply with the new terms, or else ditch Facebook

I love it when companies adopt the burnt bridges style of public relations.

Then they get all surprised when the bridges are not burnt in their favor.

This is the Internet. You might have a billion accounts now, but you're not Google and you're not doing something someone else can't set up just as well.

And when that happens, your boat will leak faster than a sieve.

China: Forget running water, bumpkins. Have some lovely broadband

An economy slowly losing its momentum ?

Now just wait one cotton-picking minute ! China is just starting up its economy. It is a fast-growing young industrializing country with trillions of potential wealth to be realized.

At least that is what was being said a year or two ago.

And now its economy is losing momentum ? Am I supposed to understand that over 70% of households in China have fridges, TV, XBoxes and running water ? Not to mention electricity ? Somehow I don't think so.

I cannot see China's economy as losing momentum. There is way too much to do still before they reach that point. This national broadband project is, on the other hand, a monumentous undertaking however you envision it.

But they will still need those water pipes some day.

Punter strikes back at cold callers - by charging THEM to call HIM

How about not connecting a phone to the landline ?

I mean, if you have no use for it, why connect it ?

I was also getting swamped by cold calls, so we changed our number two years ago, required it be put on the ex-list (as you guys call it) and only gave the number to people that we actually would like to get a call from.

Any business gets our mobile number. For the handful of companies that somehow require our landline number (getting very rare these days), I give it to them with a very stern lecture on what will happen to them if that number gets into anyone else's hands.

So far, not one cold call since.

You cannot charge a fee for information that you're stupid enough to sign on and post yourself.

Get real.

'Kim Jong-un executes nork-baring ex and pals for love polygon skin flick'

The real question is. . .

Do they really have cameras in their personal possessions ? And tape duplicators ?

And are there enough people over there with VCRs and TVs that can actually view said tapes ?

In other news, one must remember that rulers since the beginning of time have been ordering the deaths of people who crossed them in ways that today would be considered perfectly barbaric next to an execution by firing squad.

I'm reminded of the French Revolution, where some unlucky people were "interrogated" by forcing them to swallow a gallon of cow urine, then beating them on the stomach until it burst.

I'd prefer a bullet or twenty any day.

WTF is … Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks?

And one day these sensors and connections wil be "baked" right into construction rules - as in, every building will need to include one sensor brick on each wall of each level, or something like that.

In a society like that, Hollywood will have a lot more trouble having people buy into scenarios like the recent film The Call - or even Shooter.

On the other hand, the NSA is going to go nuts keeping track of all that data. I predict that, in such a society, the NSA will take over the entire state of Iowa as its center of operations and storage center.

Microsoft fattens Exchange Online mailboxes to 50GB

Truer words have rarely been written.

Hey, Bill Gates! We've found 14 IT HOTSHOTS to be the next Steve Ballmer

Re: Just for the hell of it...

Heck, I agree - if only for the amount of swearing that would bring.

There might even be new swear words invented specifically for MS !

Re: "the uptake of Windows Phone is increasing rapidly in almost all markets"

That may be true, but double of not much is still not much.

Call me on that when the uptake of Windows Phone reaches the 50% market point.

Re: Microsoft is a Server and OS company

It doesn't matter what MS is at the moment. What matters is a CEO that understands that MS has to become something else.

Computing for the masses has moved from the PC to the tablet and the smartphone. Does MS want to be on those markets ?

Gaming is mostly done on consoles. Building games is expensive and risky, successes are few and far between. Does MS want to stay on that market ?

Business and servers are the top-of-the-line margin makers, but the Cloud is capable of eating MS's lunch. Ironically, it's MS's fault already, since Office is doing everything it can to move people away from PCs (where it sells Windows) to the Cloud (where it doesn't). I see a disconnect there, one that MS will pay for dearly in the years to come. Either that or MS has already understood that the PC is a dead dodo (for the mass market that is) and tablets are the future.

Come to think of it, that explains a lot about the Start button issue.

Servers are where its at, margin-wise, but MS already has plenty of healthy competition there.

No, I'm sorry, but any way I look at it, MS as it was is finished. It is time to boldly go . . . somewhere. The choice of CEO is going to be a very interesting one for a lot of people.

Women in IT: ‘If you want to be taken seriously, dress like a man’

Re: A competent person is a competent person and it has nothing to do with gender

Quite true.

Unfortunately, many, many people operate on impressions and preconcieved notions. I do as well, up to a point.

Let me give you a personal example :

One day, I had to change my running shoes. I thus took my noon lunch break to do so, and found my way into a sports shop. I was mosing around the aisles without a clue, and a clerk noticed me and intercepted me. He was young, had a mohawk, a wifebeater shirt, army leggings and some sort of black boots, with the complementary assortment of metal sticking out here and there in the most improbably places. Not the kind of individual I generally entertain a conversation with.

I expected to be conned into buying some expensive pair after a round of marketing platitudes. Boy was I ever wrong. He asked me pertinent questions about the type of activity I was planning, the type of terrain I was going to be on, the frequency of my activities and my weight. He asked me to walk in front of him, explaining that the way I walked would condition what type of soles the shoes needed. When we were through, he pointed me to two different models, explaining to me why he believed that those were the best choices possible in my situation.

In short, he was competent, polite and professional, a very far cry from what I was expecting. I left with a good pair of shoes (for a price, true) and a humbling recall that the clothes do not make the man. Before leaving, I made a point to thank him for his help.

So I try very hard to not judge people by their outward appearance - up to a limit (if you stink, are unwashed and unpleasant, I don't care if you're the best in your field - you can go on living in your mom's basement).

On the other hand, as a self-employed consultant to banks and other financial institutions, I wear a suit. If you come to me for an interview, I will expect you to know the field and dress appropriately. If you don't, I'm sorry but you will not be working in my market with me.

Re: "Ridicule never got anyone anywhere"

It's also rarely kept anyone from getting somewhere.

I mean we've all laughed at Monkeyboy, and many (including me) are cheering at his departure, but the fact is he's still got more money than 99% of the world put together.

Quantum crypto nearly ready to go mobile

Unless you reverse the polarity, in which case they invert them.

Kiwis (finally) confirm software ban under new patent law

Re: "They are set instructions and commands already in the public domain"

Let me give you an analogy : a hammer and saw are tools that are commonly available in the public domain, yet you can use these tools to create something unique, that could eventually be patentable.

That, in any case, is the excuse for the existence of software patents. As a justification, I can just about understand it.

Then they turn around and patent "one-click" operations, or sending data securely via TCP or some other such nonsense that we've all been doing since the beginning of time (i.e. the beginning of the Internet), and the whole house of cards falls right on its face.

I don't care what your arguments are for software patents - it's all just a sham to make more money out of litigation and stifle competition instead of actually making something better.

Boffin snatches control of colleague's body with remote control brain hat

Meanwhile, in a secret underground lair next to an active volcano somewhere . . .

Moto X teardown shows US manufacturing adds mere $4 to handset costs

"giving the handset the ability to listen in on its surroundings"

Wondeful, the new NSA phone is now available !

Obama prepares to crawl up NSA's ass with microscope

Yes, you did get it right.

And by Special Order 1287, you are hereby banned from taking any public office or speaking in public in any official capacity. You will now come quietly with us as we bring you to a reeducational facility where you will be reprogrammed to be a good citizen and appreciate total surveillance for your own good.

Thought the PC market couldn't get any worse? HAH! Think again

PC's have become fridges now

You buy one and you replace it the day it dies, because until then it does what you expect it to do.

The PC market is not declining because of Windows 8, nor is it declining because power is flatlining. The PC market is declining because tablets and smartphones fill the computing needs of 90% of the population, and consoles do it for gaming. Thus most people simply have no incentive to buy a new PC any more.

Why have tablets and phones taken over ? Because they are much simpler to use, and more reliable as well. A PC is a fickle thing - click on the wrong web page and it dies a horrible virusy death. Users don't care about security (if they did, Facebook wouldn't have a billion users), and PCs require them to learn and worry about technology.

Phones and tablets don't. With those tools, people just do what they want to do, and what they want to do is Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. Then they go to their TV and play on their console.

That is why the PC market is declining, and that is not going to change any more. Of course, phones are becoming malware targets, but it's rather easy to avoid if you don't root your phone or download apps from a non-approved store. On top of that, phones are under the control of the providers, and it is not in their interest to have viruses knocking around on their network. That means that any large threat is probably going to to be taken care of, unlike the PC market where nobody had any incentive to crack down on malware since it doesn't hit anyone's bottom line. Your PC is a zombie spam center ? Your ISP doesn't give a flying monkey's, and it's not Microsoft's problem. Besides, they now have Microsoft Security Essentials, so their image is safe (MS has actually been congratulated for it).

The PC market is in for a big shrink. Computing lifestyle has changed, and all computing partners are just going to have to deal with it.

Which is not necessarily a pleasant perspective for me. I like PCs, and I'm a gamer. I'm already bored with games designed first for consoles then badly ported to PCs, and this is not going to make things any better. On top of that, computing has always depended on the PC to innovate and drive computing power up. If the PC market becomes a pale shadow of what it was before, if a PC user becomes the equivalent of the bearded Cobol programmer, then where will computing innovations come from ?

Boffins' keyboard ELECTROCUTES Facebook addicts

I, for one . . .

welcome our keyboard-shocking timewasting overlords.

Long Live The Shock ! May it forever jolt you into transcendance.

Another big SAP project hits the rocks in Oz

Re: the equivalent of a construction quantity surveyor

Because in IT there is no such thing - it's all replaced by marketing sharks before project signing, then by promotion-searching sharks once the project is signed.

Nobody in that bunch is interested in making sure that the initial specs are "good", only that the project is "a challenge" that will result in good marks and a reference on their CV.

Re: SAP "empowers the users" and makes them think they can "do IT".

So, a lot like Sharepoint then ?