* Posts by Andrew Stubbs

11 publicly visible posts • joined 22 May 2008

Official: Windows 10 has hit the 400 million device mark

Andrew Stubbs

Re: Windows 10: Fine for the elite, but caution against the unweary.

"it was hard enough replacing my Mom's OS X iBook with a Windows 8 Dell Laptop!"

Why would you do such a thing? That's got to be the wrong direction surely.

Hypervisor indecisive? Today's contenders from yesterday's Hipsters

Andrew Stubbs

I believe Joyent deserve some love here too for the work they've already done porting KVM to the Illumos family, and now the work they're currently doing resurrecting and doing the 64 bit thing with LX Branded Zones in SmartOS.

'Ribbed' for your pleasure: Jony Ive unveils NAKED IPHONE

Andrew Stubbs

Perhaps for a screen on both sides?

Google's tax returns are trop petite says Hollande

Andrew Stubbs

Re: Optional

I think you need a better bookkeeper. Or if it's causing you pain, maybe you're in the wrong VAT scheme.

As for income tax... nobody is saying VAT doesn't exist. But don't get me started on NIC.

Andrew Stubbs
Headmaster

Optional

Oh go on I'll bite - my inner pedant can't stop me.

Consumers pay VAT; (VAT registered) companies merely collect that for HMRC. It's not a tax on companies at all and "value", added or otherwise, has nothing to do with VAT in the way you seem to think. You're also wrong about shareholders like pension funds being "the public again", far from it, they are more like special interest groups.

The sentiment is about right though.

Google snags patent on price discrimination

Andrew Stubbs
Pint

There's nothing new under the sun. Historically, a merchant would sell an item based on what it was worth to the buyer, and outside of the grocery store this is basically still the case - an item (or service, whatever) is only worth as much as somebody is prepared to pay for it. It's also still basically de rigueur in developing markets. Dynamic pricing basically predates the fixed price market, but perhaps they have come up with some clever non-obvious way of implementing it. Sure, it's exploitative by its very design - so take your money elsewhere. The merits of the patent application are actually small beer though; I think we've been here often enough to expect that it will be awarded regardless, haven't we?

Apple New iPad 3 Wi-Fi + 4G

Andrew Stubbs
Pint

Well, I was expecting the power issue and I wasn't complaining about it - I was just saying it was odd it didn't even get a mention given that it seems to get a regular airing elsewhere. I could have wittered on about how people seem to want a 20W PSU with the thing instead of a 10W one and how some USB ports seem to provide just enough power to trickle charge the thing, and others don't. But I didn't, because it's boring. My point about the dock connector is a genuine gripe though - I just know it's going to get damaged sometime by leaving it plugged in and picking it up, or something dumb like that. By the way, try replying to a post instead of creating a new one - makes it easier to spot.

Beer because my local opens in 90 minutes.

Andrew Stubbs
Meh

No mention of the increased difficulties in charging the thing over the iPad 2? That seems to be a bit of a bugbear. And my personal gripe: how fragile the dock connector feels; this really could benefit from a magnetic connector now, or at least curly kettle-type lead which would be a bit more forgiving than the one supplied. The screen is nice (read: gorgeous), but I can't help feeling the nagging doubt I maybe should have held off until the next one, when I hope these issues would be resolved (I seem to skip every other upgrade)

RIM stands, staggers, falls again

Andrew Stubbs
Childcatcher

Won't someone think of the children!

How are they going to organise their riots now?

New GPL licence touted as saviour of Linux, Android

Andrew Stubbs

Redistributing GPL v2 under GPL v3

I quote from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html

"This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

of the License, or (at your option) any later version."

Er, doesn't this mean anybody can redistribute any piece of GPL v2-distributed software under the v3 licence if they so desire? I think that was the intention. In which case, no need to contact all the authors at all.

But this is a non-story isn't it?

Petrol stations deploy anti-theft stingers

Andrew Stubbs
Pirate

Ooh, that could hurt

What do these steel spikes shooting up from the ground do to the feet of unwary or unlucky pedestrians who just happen to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time?