Re: Screwed the pooch and knows it
"Twitter is now suggesting a decentralised platform where they can be exempt from central censorship"
Sooooo...Mastodon?
21 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jul 2008
"What if web browsers were immediately useful instead of demanding input when you launched them?"
Anyone else read this line as "What if we harness The Power of Slurp™ to monitor your browsing habits and make woefully inaccurate predictive suggestions of what website you would like to visit?"
Hmmm, let's see here....
.cc
.cx
.us (To be fair this one gets a bit of use from European/Asian companies with a US presence, ie. aldi.us)
.tk
.me
.co
.io
I know I'm missing a few. And that's a US-centric list so there may have been others offered elsewhere in the world as "the next best thing to .com"
Of course the only REAL next best thing to .com is .net
If you can't get either one of those, time to think up a new domain name.
Sure you're not thinking of Engadget?
While Ars aren't exactly a crowd of Fandroids, they tend to be pretty objective one way or the other.
For example their piece on Android fragmentation is not all doom-and-gloom like some other tech sites and actually explains what frag is, why it happens, and concludes that it's not necessarily bad.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/06/ars-explains-android-fragmentation/
(NOTE: That's just the first piece I came across. I could probably find others, but it's lunch time and I've better things to do that argue on the Interweb)
Granted, their Apple v. Samsung patent coverage was fairly biased, but you'd be hard pressed to find an IT site that wasn't. IIRC the Reg's own coverage wasn't exactly glowing for Sammy.
Now, Engadget on the other hand, are your dyed-in-the-wool Apple-holics for certain. Just visit the site within 48 hrs before or after an Apple Press Conference.
"How about a BS bingo app for people who have to attend meetings populated with no content execs?
It could be networked so the lucky winner receives an emergency (get out of meeting early) message."
Hrm... sounds like something the BOFH and PFY would rig up doesn't it? >:-)
//Thumbs up for BOFH since there's no Steve Jobs with Halo/Satan Horns icon.
---quote---
"As safe as a domain with Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, 2003, XP and 2007 can be."
Oh dear. There's something seriously wrong with this list. For a start, I'm surprised there aren't any '95 boxes hiding somewhere, so that's at least another 3 versions missed off the list. 2000 comes in desktop (2k Pro) and server (2k Server) versions. 2003 is a server version. 2007 might be Vista or Server 2008. And they're sure to have a pre-release Win 7 somewhere...
---endquote---
First off, no self respecting BOFH would allow Vista within a five block radius of his network. The 95 boxes (both "bloody A" and "bloody B" as Montgomery Scott would say) were dumped into the skip during the last upgrade. I assume (as Simon probably did) that the single mention of 2K is meant to stand for both Server and Desktop products. As for the 2007 reference, it's nice to see I'm not the only one with a nasty habit of calling Server 2008 "Server 2007".
And yes, they do have a pre-release Windows7 somewhere. Two Windows7 boxes in fact. One on the BOFH's desk and the other on the PFY's desk. It's just not something you inform the Boss about. ;-)
Sounds like your PHBs have been watching far too much Star Trek:The Next Generation. Maybe counteract it by responding to all their ideas with "I've got a bad feeling about this." If they are indeed hardcore Trekkies, that'll get their blood boiling.
Mine's the one with the iPod in the pocket playing the Captain Picard song on repeat.
"Captain...Jean-Luc Picard, of the USS...Enterprise"
Vista would've already been YQ. I say let's go with ++Y++Q leaving us with...Windows ZR! Two reasons:
1) Chevrolet already has the Corvette ZR so that'll be great for marketing (Hmmm...Windows ZR...Corvette ZR...this must be the FASTEREST WINDOWS EVAR!!!)
2) Brits and Merkins can have a fun shouting match over the pronounciation.
Zee-R
No, Zed-R
NO, ZEE-R
NO, ZED-R
See what I mean? Endless fun.
...or I am. I've actually been able to understand him for at least a couple of weeks now. Good to see the man back to his old rambling, incoherent self.
/smiley because there's no *phew* icon
//if we had as many icons as Reg readers think we need, the comments module would take 5 minutes to load on 10MBps cable.
Sorry in advance for the loooong post. I have grievances. :)
I agree and I'm a little irritated now. Google, by creating their own frickin' web browser now, has made it quite definitively obvious that if they can't take over the Internet (and believe me they can't no matter how many billions of $$$ they have), but they're at least going to shape their little corner of the Internet into their image. Remind you of anyone? AOL MAYBE? As soon as somebody creates a search engine that can hold a candle to Google (instead of lighting its farts) I'm there. And I'm not signing up for bloody gOL (Google Online of course) either.
Kind of off topic here, but I've noticed 2008 has been the Year of the Marketer in the IT world. They come round every few years. Everybody from Google to MS to Amazon has their latest and greatest fad tech (Google Chrome, cloud computing, etc.) that'll kill the old kit dead in its tracks and forge a Brave New World of IT. Heh, yeah, sure. Remember Tablet PCs? They were the "tech killer" in the last Year of the Marketer. Please raise your hand if you actually own a tablet PC. That's what I thought.
Mark my words: Google Internet will be used by a niche of PC and WWW users, but it ain't killin' nothin'. Cloud computing, if it doesn't drift away (ha!) will only be used by people who...have their heads in the clouds (couldn't resist). MS will release another crappy version of Windows that we'll only upgrade to because XP won't run the newest apps anymore. IE8 will suck just like the 7 versions before it. Hard disks will get bigger and RAM will get faster and processors will get whizzier just like they've always done.
As wise old King Solomon once said: "There is nothing new under the sun."
"Do a real experiment. Put Vista on a box, let them use it for a month, and then put XP back on it. See if they want to switch back to Vista."
Haven't bother to watch the Mojave videos (I have a severe allergy to MS marketing drivel) but I'm assuming they allowed the users to do little outside the pre-installed confines but go onto the Internet, look at their favorite sites and check their e-mail. A public kiosk is a lousy way to conduct such and experiment, because even the luser-est of families uses their computer as more than a dummy terminal for teh Interwebs.
Did they let Mom and Dad open up Quicken/Money/whatever or even go onto their Online Banking? (the scourge of IE7 and Norton alike - I've fielded too many tech calls where somebody's Online Banking was jacked up because of IE7 or some firewall)
Did they let older brother, whom we'll call Jason, install and play his copy of Doom III / Crysis / Insert Hot New FPS With Whizzy Graphics Here Tournament Edition?
Did they even try to install little sibling Sequoia's copy of Reader Rabbit (or whatever poorly programmed edutainment software the kids play with these days)?
My guess is a big, steaming pile of "Nopity nope nope" to all of the above.
ANY OS - XP, Vista, Linux, OSX, hell even OS/2 - works like a trooper if you use it in the mental confines that the creators expect you to. (i.e. never installing any 3rd party software because you don't NEED any of course, never poking your nose around in the Big Bad Control Panel or other settings area, never installing a printer, scanner, or other peripheral that isn't an optical mouse, never going to any website that isn't Google, Hotmail, Facebook or the like, etc.)
This having been ranted, Nat the IT Guy is sticking with his typical response to Vista.
"Keep XP. Keep it until a noticable portion of the software you buy or download gives you an error message saying 'This program cannot be run under Windows XP'. Because that would be the only compelling reason to upgrade to Vista."
...if they're ever going to amass any interest from Google fans. Cuil can't be used as a verb. I can't count the number of stupid questions to which I've responded "Google it." I can't do that with Cuil, because (at least here in 'Merka) to tell someone to "cool it" is telling them to calm down. Not cuil at all.
I kinda like Kono for a search engine. "Kono it." Sounds nice, doncha think?
/mine's the one with the paperback copy of "How to Start Your Own Search Engine in 65,536 Easy Steps" in the pocket
Are you really surprised that the moderators of this pro-ID youth forum are indiscriminately banning people who happen to have the same names as politicians like David Blunkett and Jacqui Smith (and the odd Ted Bovis)?
OF COURSE they're screwing up and not checking people's names, ages or locations or anything of the sort BECAUSE...
"We wouldn't have this problem of people lying about their identity on the Internet if THEY ALL HAD TO REGISTER WITH THEIR ID NUMBER!!!"
How did you all miss that one?
/Dead Vulture for obvious freedom-related reasons