Posts by hahnchen

Egg on North Face: Wikipedia furious after glamp-wear giant swaps article pics for sneaky ad shots – and even brags about it in a video

Wikipedia is chock full of advertising

There are thousands of adverts on Wikipedia, typically masquerading as business articles, or business biographies. It's obvious that volunteers alone aren't going to compete with those paid to edit, and most of the volunteers are not interested in policing business articles.

The foundation should adopt machine learning tools to highlight edits by suspected corporate sockpuppets. There are so many obvious signals that the editor is paid, the account activity, the categories pages edited, the date from account creation to first edit, the IP address, the other accounts on using the same IP.

Super Micro chief bean counter: Bloomberg's 'unwarranted hardware hacking article' has slowed our server sales

Re: Dump SuperMicro Stock

They were delisted from the NASDAQ due to financial reporting issues. They are now correcting those issues. Every investor with interest in Super Micro already knows this, it was already priced in before the Bloomberg story.

HMRC boss defends shift to AWS, says they got 50% knocked off

Why the negativity?

AWS is great, and so is Azure. Why on earth do HMRC have to defend anything?

A year living with the Nexus 5X – the good, the bad, and the Nougat

I don't have the 5X in a case because I don't want it any bigger. I've had it since the beginning of the year, and the rubberised back is starting to come off at the edges. Dust has also gotten into the front facing camera, and there's nothing I can do about it.

I preferred the Nexus 4 that the 5X replaced.

HP Inc shares rocket 13% on Wall Street debut after split

HP Enterprise needs a rebrand

It's too confusing, they need a brave new name which represents what they do and value.

I suggest "EDS".

HP Enterprise will axe 25,000 to 30,000 staff

They should rename HP Enterprise to EDS. Make a clean break from the past.

Jimbo tells Wikipedians: You CAN'T vote to disable 'key software features'

Sometimes, Wikimedia should just ignore the editors

Imagine if the design of a website was solely decided upon consensus of the writers. Imagine a newspaper or magazine where the writers get the final say, how would that look? It'd consist of massive blocks of text.

Editors rebelled against the use of infoboxes, these summarised key facts about the subject in a box out. Their argument was that if you wanted to know the place of Bach's place of birth, you could drill down and read their wonderful prose. But no one cares about your wonderful prose when they just want a fact. Google has all the data to know exactly what a reader wants, so search for Bach, and Google's Knowledge Graph gives you the key information on the right.

The new image-viewer is made for readers, not editors. If editors don't like it? So what? Wikimedia shouldn't be asking editors, it should just be looking at data, it should be doing A/B testing. What are the engagement figures? Are people looking at more images? Just release that data and shut everyone else up.

When PR backfires: Google 'forgets' BBC TV man's banker blog post

It hasn't backfired

Given the amount of coverage "right to be forgotten" takedowns have received today, it's pretty much a PR win for Google.

Review: BlackBerry Q10

Correction

Steve Bong is in Colombia, not Columbia.

Next from Microsoft: 'Blue', the Windows 8 they hope you don't hate

Think I'll wait for Windows 9

Or until they decide to row back on all the Metro bullshit and recognise that some old fogeys still like using a mouse.

Heroku cops to poor tech performance for last THREE YEARS

We succeeded...

...in a bait and switch for 3 years. We are sorry that you have caught us. - Heroku

UK ISPs crippled by undersea cable snap

Spent hours on the phone with O2 on Sunday

Took ages to convince first line support there was a problem, which involved switching my router on and off again ad infinitum.

Could tell something was broken by looking at traceroutes and comparing that with my not-broken 3G connection.

Finally got through to second line support, took my details, and told me they'd take a look at it after the bank holiday. Nice work guys.

Ex-Nokia staffers team up to revive MeeGo

How can they compete?

Windows Mobile fell a generation behind, and has never been able to catch up even given Microsoft's vast resources. The same thing happened with Blackberry, and now they're in a death spiral.

Regardless of how good it was when it was released, the world has moved on. So how are Meego going to catch up?

The touchscreens that push back, thanks to Brit hi-fi boffinry

Haptics, it's always the next big thing

Put some money on Immersion a few years back, was convinced (still am) that haptics are going to be massive, and that every single phone, tablet, thing is going to have them in.

But boy has the uptake been laggardly. The share price has gone nowhere. I've got a Nexus S, and the haptics are rudimentary at best - companies only seem to license the lowest of the low in terms of haptics, Immersion have much better tech in their labs, but it never makes it into a product.

Hiwave are so cheap though, the company is only worth £6.5M. That is absolutely nothing to any mobile phone manufacturer, so if the tech really is good, then it's probably worth a punt as a takeover target. I'm not putting any more into haptics though.

What's copying your music really worth to you?

How does rent seeking reduce "economic harm"?

Andrew is arguing over lawyery semantics. When people buy a CD, they're paying for music, not a shiny piece of plastic. That the law states that they are merely buy an obsolete piece of plastic, means that the law is anachronistic, and never really grounded in reality in the first place.

If record companies believe that format shifting of CDs is valuable, and this report suggests that it is, then why don't record companies raise the price of those CDs, introduce some stupid DRM, and see how much we *really* value it.

Then we'll see who's producing the lobbynomics.

AMD uncloaks tablet processor plans

AMD's issues have never been with their plans

It's been with their execution, which is notoriously hit and miss.

Intel bags $120m patent hoard from RealNetworks

Is this Real giving up then?

So Real are selling the technology and engineers building "Next-generation video codec software". Wasn't that their entire business? What are they going to do now?

Apotheker severance outrage: $2.4m 'bonus'

Hire an enterprise CEO

Get an enterprise solution. What did the board expect?

If Whitman carries on with his strategy, then his parachute will be deserved.

Oracle looking for $1.16bn, not $2.2bn, in Java patent case

"...a social gaming invention think tank"

What the hell is a social gaming invention think tank?

It's a patent troll. That's what it is.

Here is a patent filed in 2010 (and *granted*) for an in-game MMO marriage.

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=bmjnAQAAEBAJ

The USPTO is fucking ridiculous.

Green energy and jobs will cripple the UK economy

This is exactly what we should be doing

Solyndra failed because it tried to build a manufacturing company in the US as opposed to China. It costs less for a panel to be shipped from China than it does for it to be trucked across the States.

Subsidies should not go to low margin doomed to fail factories - but ploughed into research.

We need solar cells that can do better than 15%, we need high energy density batteries that charge in minutes - not hours.

We're not going to get that if we're ploughing all our non-existent money to promote people propping up windmills everywhere.

Misery at Acer: 'Breaking even this year is impossible'

letters and digits

I don't actually use Linux, and previously, I would have dicked over this notion too.

But we're at a point now, where the browser has superceded native applications. My most used applications all live on the web.

System builders used to make money selling crapware for Windows, there was no way to do that on Linux platforms - but now there is - Google are willing to pay for installations.

When the world's biggest PC manufacturer want to exit the space due to the tiny margins on offer, something drastic needs to change. At this year's LinuxCon, the phrase "year of the linux desktop" became a bit of an in-joke - http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/08/no-year-of-the-linux-desktop-after-2-decades-linuxcon-keynote-so-what.ars - but this is theirs for the taking.

Want to improve margins?

Stop paying for Windows licenses in your consumer devices. Right now, you try and make that back up by installing trial crapware that no one wants onto the machines.

Stick Ubuntu on there, stick libreOffice on there, and get some Google cash for installing Chrome as the default browser.

Has Google wasted $12bn on a dud patent poker-chip?

Nokia came out with ongoing royalties, not just a one off payment

Not just a one off payment as Orlowski suggests.

http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/06/apple-and-nokia-settle-patent-dispute.html

I think Google overpaid for Motorola, but I don't think it's a dud. Get the patents, get a skunkworks, sell the manufacturing to an Asian firm who actually knows how to do it.

Nokia snubs UK with N9

It's not getting released, not because Nokia fear it to be bad

But they fear it to be good. What a fucking disgrace.

Can you imagine any other company doing that? They fear it'll cannibalise the WP7 market which they don't own, and doesn't exist. This is a company that has given up on their own future. This is a company that deserves to fail.

Microsoft strategy chief quits Redmond

Microsoft's Legal Team is in charge of strategy now

The legal team have also replaced the product development team. Why spend all that money on building new things, when you can just sue developers of successful products? Much lower overheads, and great margins too.

Pink Floyd guitarist pays McKinnon's health bills

It's all part of the Big Society

You see, it's fine to withdraw funding, because Pink Floyd will pick up the tab. We've got The Sex Pistols running our local library and George Michael's funding some public loos.

A brief history of the BlackBerry UI

"Why should a square mean “stop” when the road sign is hexagonal?"

Geometry fail.

Google gins search formula to favor its own services

Bit of a feedback loop

People goto Google searching for Google services. So even though Google Finance may not be the standard, the most popular or best - Google users go for it.

And because it looks like people want it more, Google rank it higher. Loop complete.

Watson beats humans in Jeopardy! dry run

I see...

...that Wikipedia has gained sentience on its 10th anniversary.

Chinese official gets suspended death sentence over anti-virus scam

Suspended Death Sentence?

Does that mean hanging?

Axl Rose sues Activision

Such a fail

Axl Rose is suing Activision to prove that he can sell out more than Slash. That's what GNR has come to, who can sell out the most.

Twitter 'martyr' takes airport joke case to High Court

Judge Jacqueline Davies is right

That tweet was "menacing in its content and obviously so. It could not be more clear. Any ordinary person reading this would see it in that way and be alarmed."

Clearly, the People's Republic of China agreed, in their infinite infallible wisdom. Thank you, Jacqueline Davies, for leading us towards a harmonious society. Justice, with Chinese characteristics!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/19/china_twitter_prison/

Google accused of hard-coding own links in search

How is the CSCO search evidence of hard-coding?

So if you search for a stock ticker symbol, Google algorithms recognise what it is, and gives you finance links at the top.

If you append a comma, Google algorithms do not spot that it is a ticker symbol, and doesn't give you the finance links.

How is that "hard-coding"?

People understand the difference between an auto-generated Google results widget and "natural" algorithmic results. Prominent placement of Google widgets may be an issue, but its not new, and it isn't "hard-coded".

LimeWire (finally) dies under judge's gavel

PC Gaming is Dead - Take 34

Games For Windows is relaunching their service? GOG.com recently relaunched their service? What's that, 30 million active accounts on Steam?

Is PC Gaming thriving in spite of your imbecilic comments? Yes.

asshole alert

Here it comes, all the bewailing and bemoaning from the assholes about how tools should be outlawed because they allow copyright infringement to happen. Coming from a country in which firearms are perfectly legal.

Windows Phone 7 leaves operators on the hook

Operators are fucking useless

The only way they can get you to use their substandard apps is to force them upon you with a hope of uninstalling them.

Its disgusting. The only way they make money is the same way that spambots make money, pissing off millions to serve a few.

A public outcry managed to stop Vodafone once, on the HTC Desire - http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsId=3235017

But it has not stopped them from bloating up every other device - http://phandroid.com/2010/09/21/galaxy-s-on-vodafone-riddled-with-bloatware-might-not-receive-treatment-similar-to-desire/

Our carriers suck.

Samsung backs Windows Phone 7 for the duration

Support WinPho or we'll patent-sue-ball you bastards like we did HTC

Remember, according to US Patent Law, Microsoft own Android.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/29/microsoft_htc_linux_patents/

Thanks USPTO.

OpenOffice files Oracle divorce papers

It doesn't stop the name from being crap though

The gratis/libre thing is something only the neckbeards at FSF care about.

Apple iAds soar as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! sink

Android has Flash

The advertising revenue generated by Flash on Android is probably going to make more than iAds ever will.

Anti-piracy lawyers' email database leaked after hack

ACS:Law official statement

"Big whoop. It was only down for a few hours. I have far more concern over the fact of my train turning up 10 minutes late or having to queue for a coffee than them wasting my time with this sort of rubbish." - Andrew Crossley, ACS: Law

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/22/acs_4chan/

I wonder how concerned he is over his coffee queue now.

Blizzard issues fatwa against Starcraft II cheaters

Steam bans people, Xbox Live bans people

It's not news that cheaters get banned from online services. It happens all the time on other services, so why not battle.net?

Retailers price up Samsung 7in Android tablet

Absolutely ridiculous price

People mention the Apple tax, and in some cases, there is an Apple tax.

But every rumour behind GalaxyTab pricing suggests an absolutely ridiculous price. It's exacerbated by the fact that Samsung manufacture the (smaller) screens themselves, which should reduce costs.

It doesn't matter if this tablet can do more than the iPad, because the average consumer won't care. They'll just see it's more expensive than its bigger competitor and not as shiny. And then it won't sell - total fail.

Apple sued over hot iPad shutdowns

How can you even see the screen in direct sunlight?

In the battle between LCD readability, and the sun, the sun has won every time.

Apple iPhone forums gripped by deleted thread paranoia

This won't happen

The FCC have already OK'ed it, hence it's available for sale.

The 3% drop in share price is massive and overstated, this will pop back and more when they announce their earnings.

A drop in market cap by $5 billion? You have got to be kidding.

Apple bars radiation nanny from App Store

Old news is old

Techcrunch covered this months ago - http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/17/tawkon/

And here's Scoble showing you why Tawkon's app can actually be useful - http://scobleizer.com/2010/05/17/mobile-phone-radiation-studying-company-might-have-real-side-benefits/

'Unlimited' ads are dumb and misleading, says 3

They should be fined, there claims were worse than just "dumb"

3 was the worst. Not only did they advertised "unlimited" data, they actually halved their data limit to 500Mb a few months ago, but continued to mislead with their unlimited branding.

Your article mentions that they are doubling their data limits. But it is merely returning them to the level they were originally. It's a farce.

How is this legal?

Microsoft's KIN is dead, long live Windows Phone 7

An unbelievable fuck up

How could Microsoft have released such a fatally flawed product to market? This was dead from the get go, and every commentator could see it.

It released a featurephone in the era of the smartphone. It's just a sign of the massive culture of extravagance and complacency that Microsoft live in.

This should have been killed way early. They should have killed this before announcing WinPho7. How could they possibly allow an internal mobile team to detract from WinPho7? This is one of the reasons why the man smiling in the picture in your article no longer works at Microsoft.

Microsoft dubs Windows Phone 7 'ad serving machine'

People will buy this

People are stupid.

The vast majority of people buying phones don't care about the OS. Some guy at the Carphone Warehouse will show them the cool looking tiles, the shiny screen, and they'll buy it.

And this will end up being a success, and we'll see other OS's get more obnoxious ads too.

Facebook in 'solid net profit' shocker

Facebook Credits will draw in the cash

1) Allow people to innovate on top of your platform

2) Then f*ck them over

3) Profit.

Hidden in plain view: Google Music's stealth infrastructure

It's unsurprising that the tech industry is dragging media behind it

Because that's the story of big tech and big media all along isn't it?

The music industry needs this kick. A big name mp3 store without the massive hassle of iTunes? Yes please.