Posts by Dan 55

Official: Cloud computing invented by two technophobic old geezers

Re: Two countries separated by a common language

Adam Smith is on the back of 20 pound notes, not on the back of local condoms.

(For local people.)

In the interests of science

Would they be more efficient being notified every time mail comes in? Get Mail.app polling or receiving push e-mail on the computers and give them Blackberries. Come back with another article when you've got the results or when they fail to return your phone calls because they hate you.

If you don't dare do that, please for the love of God convince them to implement a backup via IMAP or ActiveSync if they haven't already.

Rid yourself of Adobe: New Firefox 19.0 gets JAVASCRIPT PDF viewer

Re: Dan 55 Dan 55 JavaScript?

Here, have a link.

Have you finished digging or shall I hand you a spade?

Re: Dan 55 JavaScript?

No, it's the clueless that maintain that JavaScript is from Larry's Swiss Cheese Emporium instead of Mitchell's Swiss Cheese Emporium. If you want to make a comment on safety, don't talk about ownership.

We need a double fail icon.

Re: JavaScript?

For the love of God, JavaScript is not Java.

Re: Am I the only person...

Actually what I said was nonsense, it's not pdf.js, it's Google's own plug-in. It's not Adobe's PDF plug-in either.

Re: Am I the only person...

Chrome uses the same pdf.js library as Firefox, they just managed to get it out first.

Now down to just two plugins

Flash and Windows Media Player, and I suspect I could live without WMP.

Flash is protected by flashblock.

Adobe punts fix for Reader, Acrobat holes battered by PC, Mac hackers

In related news...

Java 7 update 15 has just been released by Oracle.

Microsoft: Office 2013 license is for just one PC, FOREVER

Re: Why do you care?

Why do I (we) care? Only Microsoft control the file format and only Microsoft can guarantee that your documents can be saved and read properly yet you're being offered an office suite with the same terms and conditions as Nintendo WiiWare games (one non-transferable licence linked to the machine), only it's not 500 points and the information it reads and saves is far more important than a list of high scores.

If you would like to transfer the suite to your other machines you've got to pay rent for the privilege (Office 365).

Not even Apple manages that, their iWork programs are linked to the user's Apple ID.

Office 2010 PKC

Will those people who bought a laptop and paid extra for a copy of Office 2010 to be bundled with it be happy to find out they can't take it with them to the next computer? They'd probably feel entirely justified in pirating it on their next computer, it wasn't so long ago that bundled software meant a DVD being included in the box.

France Telecom takes huge profit hit after swallowing €1.8bn writedown

What would Hans Snook make of it?

The only innovation Orange has seen since FT bought it is in billing and new depths of marketing. If anything they should sell it all and release it from their death grip.

Ad-titan Google blocks Adblock Plus in Android security tweak

Re: security first

It should be another permission, not just knocked on the head.

Permissions need an overhaul by the way, you should have control over each permission that the app wants (Blackberry style).

Re: The thinking behind its Android security update

It was enough to make Google nobble it.

No matter

Just download Firefox for Android and install Adblock Plus or Adblock Edge there.

Top Firefox OS bloke flames Opera for WebKit surrender

Re: bah

They did... Firefox 15 plugs the add-on leaks / They are... MemShrink | Nicholas Nethercote

Re: WebKit alone

I give you Nokia's WebKit browser. Use it for 10 minutes or so then get back to me.

One browser engine to rule them all won't fix your problems. There'll always be bad implementations and different versions of WebKit about, and if WebKit is the only engine out there then the incentive to fix problems is gone.

Re: too bad the Gecko engine is half-baked bloatware

18.0.2 has just come out which fixes JavaScript problems.

Apple and world HACKED by Facebook plunderers

Re: FaceBook gets hit? F'em.

Er, no. They disabled older versions of the Java plug-in as there was a known exploit (however the new version of the Java plug-in wasn't yet released to java.com when they updated the blocklist meaning for a while all Java plug-ins were blocked) and they disabled this malware when they had a signature for it.

Burger King's tweets fried after hijackers pimp Big Macs

"Staff working McDonald's tweets expressed sympathy and distanced themselves from the BK attack."

And changed their password from "bigmac987" to something else.

AMD: Star Trek holodecks within reach

Re: java?

You remember the episode when the Holodeck went crazy?

That's Java letting the virus in.

Was it really 25 years ago?

Damn you El Reg, you've made me feel old yet again.

Apple design bloke Ive finally honoured properly - with Blue Peter badge

Two Is in iAluminum

Noted for being the the most beautiful and marvellous metal in the periodic table.

Microsoft exec: No 'Plan B' despite mobile stumbles

Re: Save As on OS X

Hold down the Option/Alt key whilst clicking the File menu (or pull down File menu and pres Option/Alt key to get 'Save As'.

That still doesn't disable versioning nor does disabling auto save in Preferences > General. I'm not sure why Apple decided that we'd all like versioning enabled if we've also got the choice of Time Machine, but who are we to question the ways of Cupertino.

Versioning is not even done particularly well on a technical level either, they could have simply used the same method as UDF (;<version>) at the end of the filename in the same directory which would allow you to control versions in Finder (with a slight UI alteration) or the shell.

Re: There's the Kool-aid...

How to give them Save As... here, here, or here.

Enable ask to keep changes, close windows when quitting app here.

See also De-IOSise Mountain Lion here.

It just works!

Actually when you do all this it's usable again, hopefully they won't go mad and remove these options in 10.9.

Re: Sounds familiar

"We're very focused on continuing the success we have with PCs and taking that to tablets and phones,"

The Reuters reporter should have picked up on this and asked, "How do you expect to replicate the desktop's success on tablets and phones when you've butchered the desktop UI so it looks like the tablet and phone UI? It makes no sense whatsoever, all you're going to do is screw up your desktop platform."

Oracle wants another go at Google over Android Java copyrights

Re: What smart phone?

I believe that was an S80 or S90 device. S60 definitely had Java ME.

@Tom 35: Smartphone platforms of the day were BlackBerry, Symbian, and last and most definitely least Windows Mobile. True, the last two had their own operating systems written in other languages but both also had a Java VM and ran Java apps, which is the same set up as present-day Android based on Linux running Dalvik apps now.

Re: Lul wat?

Isn't that how Exchange ActiveSync works? (You have to license it from MS, how you implement it is up to you.)

Re: <Sigh>

They have innovated with Java, you just don't appreciate the finer points of toolbar installation.

Re: What smart phone?

Blackberry, Symbian (not for itself but it has/had a JVM to run jars).

Nokia's Elopocalypse two years on: Has Microsoft kept its side of the bargain?

Re: "make its phone OS its priority number one (and two and three)"

It's the almost part which means its not unified. You can take any technology/language/framework and one of them will be slightly different on one of the three platforms, it'll be there but you're not allowed to use it, or it'll be missing (e.g. see here).

They did a lot of behind the scenes work for WP8 but people complained that there were few visible changes from WP7. They're only about half-way there but they've got to concentrate on features instead of technology for WP8 if they don't want it to bomb.

Re: I think it was worth a shot

If you've ever seen an N9 in action you'd have a different opinion. BlackBerry have taken a year and a half since it was released to come up with something very similar.

"make its phone OS its priority number one (and two and three)"

They can't. If they really want one overarching platform they need to unify Windows 8, Win RT, and WP. But as the Win RT is tanking, Windows 8 is getting slated, and the priority for WP is probably featuring matching BB10 instead of making nice APIs I can imagine internally management are like a rabbit trapped in front of the headlights and don't really know where to go from here.

Spanish boffins increase GPS accuracy by 90%

Re: Las Carreteras

Sideways is +/- 2 metres. Forwards/backwards while on the move is precise down to a range of approximately +/- 25cm. Parking is precise down to the nanometre (don't worry, bumpers and number plates are designed to crunch).

Adobe investigating attacks on PDFs using zero-day flaw

Re: Simple solution (if you have Chrome)...

I expect you'll still need to use Reader to fill in official forms online. Like Java, it's enough just to disable the browser plug-in.

Firefox 19 onwards also has a built-in PDF reader (in fact Chrome's comes from Firefox), so disable the plug-in just to be sure and let the browser render PDFs itself. In earlier Firefoxes (15 onwards I think) you have to enable it in about:config, the option is pdfjs.disabled.

Android? Like Marvin the robot? Samsung eclipses Google OS - Gartner

Re: Hmm

Because they'd like revenue from data, advertising, and purchases instead of Google.

Hmm

I know Android is far from perfect but I'd hate to think what it'd turn into if Samsung's keyboard monkeys ever manage to wrest control from Google.

Google Play privacy SNAFU sends app buyers' details to devs

What about free apps?

Do they get the same info?

Coming soon: Open source JavaFX for iOS, Android

Yeah, Oracle reaching out to the community, that'll work...

See Open Office.

Anyway, JavaFX mobile was canned at the end of 2011 and now they want to concentrate on mobile platforms. Do Oracle know what they're doing? Answers on the back of a stamp.

Not done yet: Oracle to ship revised Java fix on February 19

Re: "disabled on IE and enabled but always asking for execution rights on Firefox"

I also disabled it in IE's add-ons manager, in the advanced Internet options tab, and by running the control panel from an elevated command prompt and changing the advanced settings tab with the keyboard because clicking with the mouse didn't work. This was a few versions back. I have no idea whether it was one or a combination.

Now happily if you update there's a new security tab which lets you easily disable it for everything.

Re: Any chance...

There is an auto update. The only problem is it waits anything up to a month before updating and installs the Ask Toolbar when it finally does update.

Icon is for Oracle.

I need Java for Eclipse

At the moment I've got it disabled on IE and enabled but always asking for execution rights on Firefox. This piece of news will get it disabled in every browser.

I don't believe Oracle give a toss about Java and when their legal wrangle with Google over Dalvik is over they'll completely lose interest.

Mind out, Apple: Ericsson leads charge against the SIM

Re: eCall

Calls to 112/999 are now supposed to work if you don't have any coverage by your own network but you're within coverage of other networks. Some countries also allow calls to 112 even if you don't have a SIM in the mobile, but not the UK.

If the phone's saying Emergency Calls Only or similar then the number of bars is the coverage for whatever network the phone has decided it will use to make an emergency call, not O2, so he was probably saying something to shut you up. The binoculars were probably a quick way of filling in the paperwork saying that the base station had been checked over so he could disappear. Such professionalism...

eCall

If eCall is required (which is another debate), what's wrong with using a SIM for an MVO which has roaming rights on every network in the EU to achieve this?

I get the feeling this idea of getting rid of SIMs is a solution looking for a problem.

#Forwhy: American Express lets you pay by tweet

What could possibly go right?

I asked what could possibly go right because the list is shorter.

Twitter translated to LOLCATZ: Strangely this had not been done

Re: Lolcatz?

That's good, I do like strongly typed languages instead of rubbish like JavaScript.

Dead Steve Jobs 'made Tim Cook sue Samsung' from beyond the grave

Perhaps Steve is still haunting Tim in a white polo neck (see Randall & Hopkirk) and all Tim does is relay instructions at board meetings.

Mine's white.

AT LEAST two-thirds mobile traffic will be video by 2017 - Cisco report

Company which sells networking products says customers will need more network bandwith

Comes out with study showing most expensive use of bandwith is due to rocket.

In other news, the British Pie Society says that pie sales are projected to go through the roof.

Big Windows updates may ship this summer – and every summer

The only way that would work is by dumping backwards compatibility and making developer tools generate code for the latest couple of OS revisions so that users are forced onto the upgrade treadmill. I can't see that going down too well with people used to Windows.

Google to splurge $82m for exclusive airport exec enclave

Re: Hmm...

It's going to be their Google Maps World HQ.