Posts by John 104

Sega’s Out Run: Even better than the wheel thing

Re: Memories...

I remember having crowds behind me when I played Darius. For some reason that game clicked and I could make it all the way through on one life. Never got me any chicks though!

Apple's GOLDEN BLING MOBE still the top selling US handset

Arguring on the internet! ;)

I find that the large battery is pretty freaking nice. I can go 2 days with light use, 1.5 with heavy. Runs everything I need without lag, great display, good fit for my eyes. What more is there to want? Also, it isn't that heavy. At 4.59oz, it is a mere half an ounce heavier than the iPhone. Not much to complain about there. Oh, and I can put an SD in it and have as much storage as I want without paying a bull shit premium for it thank you very much.

@AC

Oh I don't think so. I have an S4 that I bought on purpose. Far more powerful than any Apple kit. And a screen that you can actually read without glasses...

Ghosts of Christmas Past: Ten tech treats from yesteryear

Re: Not quite what you wanted

Oh, I had forgotten about Tente. I also got one of thse one year for Christmas. And yes, grossly incompatible with Lego.

Atari 2600

"To a late 1970s kid, those silver switches, the fake wood and the whole design seemed glamorously American"

And indeed it was! Mine had a great glitch that I exploited for amazing high scores in Space Invaders. If the power switch was jiggled during power on, it would allow double shots. You could tell if it worked or not by watching the spalsh screen. Two shots in succession meant that you were ready to smash alien invaders!

What a surprise to see the FX570. I had that calculator and have held on to it for a nubmer of years. Alas, when I pulled it out of a box last year to give to my middle school kid, the unit wouldn't power on any more.

GitHub code repository rocked by 'very large DDoS' attack

Safe in the 'Cloud'

Our shop uses git for code repository. Mostly because someone thinks its 'neato' and 'everyone is doing it'.

As a security minded sysadmin I think it is the biggest, most idiotic thing in the world to put your closed source, private business software out in the cloud so that it can be subjected to any number of vulnerability probes, DDoS attacks, or what ever the flavor of the week is. This puts your customers at risk, and puts your company at risk by putting your business critical source code in the hands of those who have nothing to do with your money making and assure you that it is secure.

I'm all for cloud storage of..., no, wait, no I'm not. I'm to paranoid to put ANYTHING out there. Pictures, letters, documents, you name it, I'll keep it close to the chest at all times when it comes to my personal data thank you very much.

Mines the one with the bag of popcorn in it.

'Abel, you're fired!' Hear AOL supremo axe exec during conference call

this is BS

OMG! I had totally forgotten about Prodigy and ComuServ. Earthlink, netZero, others?

Here is a good laugh.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/16/the-ten-best-memories-of-the-90s-internet-bubble/

Leaked photos of iPhone 5C parts portend ugly Google legal battle

Marketing 101

aren't those purported iPhone 5C colors a wee bit unsophisticated?

Gotta keep it cheap looking so that it doesn't compete with the vaunted iPhone 1 meeelion.

@AC colors

you are looking at them wrong

The terrifying tech behind this summer's zombie assault

@Gavin Park Weir

You are so cute when you are clueless. ;)

At my shop we have a 10gb/sec connection just for our corp traffic. Our dedicated backnet is also 10gb/sec, strictly for our operations traffic. Our front end is 30bg/sec if I am not mistaken. We aren't traders, just a SAaS business with average bandwidth needs. It is pretty common...

Child porn hidden in legit hacked websites: 100s redirected to sick images

Solution is Easy

Stay off of porn sites and you won't be subjected to this crap.

Apple 'iWatch' trademark filing hints Cook's make-or-break moment looms

Wow. That advert made me throw up a litte.

Wearables. Meh. I'd like to see them pull it off. Then I could watch and laugh at all the drones with their new Dick Tracy watches.

Galaxy S4 phondleslab selling like lukewarm cakes, analysts reckon

Surprising, really. I picked up an S4 for the wife when they came out and then one for myself a few weeks later. Fantastic kit. Plenty fast, smooth operation, etc. Easily rooted too. I have no worries about it being powerful in 2 years. It is powerful now, why wouldn't it be powerful later?

And at the time they weren't easy to come by, at least not in black. That would assume either large numbers of phones flying off shelves (as indicated by the 20 million figure) or a lower supply. 20 million is still a huge amount of phones to ship.

First look: iOS 7 for iPad

@Jolyon Smith

Ah, I think you are right. Wow. IOS users have been faced with that crap for how long? How embarassing!

Game Center Looks Childish

The new game center home screen looks like something you would find on any of the numerous flash or java powered game sites my kids play on. In other words, like total crap. Apple seem to have gone from sleek minimalist to throwing a bunch of crap on the screen and hoping the drones will love it because it is "new".

I certaily hope the new iPhone is not just more of the same form factor with the new IOS on it. If it is, then it will probably be the death knell for Apple mobile. Skinny screens and nice build only go so far...

'Leccy car biz baron Elon Musk: Thanks for the $500m, taxpayers...

@ecofeco

DARPA is a government entity, not a private business. THAT is the difference there.

Government in the US is supposed to be for the people, not for the government. It is more and more becoming for the government and less for the people. As a tax payer, I'm sick of it. End the entitlements, end the back room deals, end the pork barrel spending which is just payback in a thin disguise. Put the government back to work as intended, a steward of the country.

Go ahead and TD, if you don't live here you don't get it or don't care if you do. Keep looking at shiny things.

@Nick Thompson

2. The taxpayers got their money back with interest. Why do you care how the government invests if they are making a profit on it?

The government is not/should not be in the business of investing or making a profit. Period. Tax payers don't benefit from this particular loan because we won't be getting a check back for the money we loaned out (with interest). The powers that be will just spend it on something else. So, no, it isn't a win for us. Also, you can't compare this sort of thing to money for a tank a jet or whatever. Those things are national defence (somewhat...) and are for the greater good.

That being said, good job Tesla for paying back and keep up the good work. The 4 door looks great.

Also, this is a far cry better than Fiskar and the 5 billion that we wasted on that back scratching pay out.

Apple adds Galaxy S 4 to Samsung patent suit

Re: "How about you spend that fat cash on making a better product "

Only problem with the Mac PC commercials is that eventually it backfired and people started loving the goofy PC guy more than Justin Longs character. Snarkey cool dude only goes so far before it starts looking like smug cool dude, which no one cares for...

Peak Apple: First 'profit slip' in a decade - and, boy, it's gonna be BIG

Wrong and Right

You lot are all wrong on the beer thing. I've had my share of British beers. Boring. Guiness? A stout? Ahahahaha, barely. It's drinkable mind you, but here on the West Coast there are numerous stouts that put it to shame. Its my last ditch go to when nothing else good is on tap. Cascade hops are good and what the brewers are doing with those and other hops is fantastic. Imperial IPAs are some of the most complex tasting beverages you will ever drink. And the 9-11% alcohol doesn't hurt! Best part is, with the revolution in brewing going on in this country, you can find a quality micro brewery easily. My small town of 8k has 3!

And yes, Microsoft is in the toilet. Windows mobile is so so and Windows 8 is a first rate pain in the ass to use. They had better do something very quickly to clean up their mess or their market share is going to take a long dive into oblivion.

Oh, and no one is screaming about it because everyone loves to hate Microsoft and everyone LOVES Apple, right?

Twenty classic arcade games

Nice to see R-Type on there - one of my all time favorites and something I still play on MAME from time to time.

British armed forces get first new pistol since World War II

wow. A lot of nonsense on this article. Definately a lot of folks who have never used handguns but like to talk the big game. I'm not a soldier, but I do own handguns (for now a privelege of being a US citizen). My fav is the Glock 19. Utterly reliable, simple, and accurate (and as stated, easy to take down). It isn't elegant or fancy, but it gets the job done.

As for rounds carried and stopping power, do some reading on combat engagements, the US Army did after WW2. They found that the caliber of a weapon is far less important than the number of rounds you can throw at the enemy. In engagements with enemy forces, it was multiple shots to connect, not awesome Jon Wu style gunfights with massive editing to make the good guys look good. With that in mind, lighter caliber rounds and more of them are the adopted theory that the US took, hence the AR series of rifle. Light ammunition, more of it, and the ability to saturate a target area. Same goes for a hand gun.

How an Amazon engineer's slip-up started a 20-hour Netflix cock-up

Re: Shoulda gone with Akamai

Ya, but Akamai is expensive. :D

We use it here at work and our management keeps coming to me asking if there is a cheaper alternative. I keep saying,yes, but when was the last time we had an outage because of Akamai? The answer is never.

This is why you don't let Devs into production environments - EVER.

Tim Cook: Apple to manufacture Macs in US in 2013

Ass hole

"The consumer electronics world was really never here," he said, "and so it's not a matter of bringing it back, it's a matter of starting it here."

What a load of crap. So I suppose all those television, radio, computer, cell phone, and you name it products that started life here in the good ole USA were NEVER made here?

And I agree with other posters, this isn't about bringing it to the US, its about reducing costs through automation. Notice, however, that it will still be Foxconn doing the work. So while the production may be coming stateside, the cash will still be headed to Cupertino and China.

Voyager 1 arrives on ‘magnetic highway for charged particles’

Re: How many of it's designers has it outlived ?

@JimmyPage

They don't build them like they used to... :)

I remember when this thing launched. I'm not much of a space buff, but it is always fascinating to read articles about it and the latest chunk of space it is looking at, and to remeber that I was a child when it went up!

Girlfriend 'tried to MURDER ME with her AMPLE BREASTS'

title optional

"This man is about to die...."

Sam Sung found in Apple Store SHOCKER

If steve was still alive, this guy would have been fired already.

Apple's profits fetish could spell its DOOM

Re: Apple don't have 5 years - @loan 09:52 GMT

Sure they can force apple to do something with it. All they have to do is start selling the shares off....

Peak Apple: Forstall was 'closest thing to Jobs they had left'

Re: you forget an important thing

"taste & judgement (something that Jobs did have)."

Have you seen his boat?

'iPhone 5 is so easily scratched we just can't get them out the door'

Re: eh

@cyke1

Apple innovation? Since when has apple, aw, fuckit. nevermind. :)

Re: Well

@AC

We have a lot of iPhone fans here in the office. I have yet to see the new 5 in anyones hands though...

Pristine WWII German Enigma machine could be yours

Neato!

I now have a new wallpaper on my nexus. :)

A history of personal computing in 20 objects part 2

Re: That old IBM keyboard...

@AC Oh my GOSH those were loud!

Re: Hmm, iPads?

@AC

Agreed. Surprised not to see it in there. If people could get over their obsession with iProducts, and look back 10 - 15 years, you would see that the Palm Pilot was THE productivity tool for mobile users. They were HUGE in their time.

Asus pledges Android 4.2 update for Google Nexus 7

Re: I'm quite tempted

@AC Quite Tempted - Rooting Nexus 7

The toolkits do root it quickly. However, if you are like me, and waited to root until after the 4.1.2 update, you'll have to load the 4.1.1 bootloaders for it to work. It will be interesting to see what happens when 4.2 comes out. I'll be holding off until the root issues are sorted again. I like my Titanium backup, et. all. :)

UK iPad Mini FRENZY: Queues stretch SEVERAL FEET from till

Re: Hmm

@ Lost in Cyberspace

first timers may just be shocked by the price difference between oh, ALL the other 7 inch form factor tablets out there and the iPad mini. Hell, you could just go buy a big fat 10 incher ( in a few weeks) for just a little bit more.

Mozilla: Windows 7 browser bungle cost us nine MILLION downloads

Re: @ Daemon Byte

@ Nuke

You must realize, however, that it was Microsoft who reported the omission, not the EU. MS came clean on their own and fixed the issue. If they had kept mum, I wonder if anyone would have even noticed...

Re: While I think that to some extent users are suffering from download fatigue in

@ dogged

Agreed. I use all 3 of the biggies at work for various tools. Every time I use FF, I am reminded of logging in to AOL back in the day.... "please wait while [AOL] Firefox is updated”

Re: While I think that to some extent users are suffering from download fatigue in

@Tom 13

Actually, in the states, you CAN get off of a speeding ticket for a technical error. If the citing officer does not follow the correct procedure, and it can be proven (usually by a lawyer), then the ticket is dismissed. You obviously have to pay the lawyer, but at least the state doesn't get to ding your record.

Hmm, I think I'll order an iPad Mini on Amazon ... Oh no I won't

Re: Right back to the article.

@ all

I don't get the app count thing really. I have about a dozen or so core apps that I use on my tablet and my phone (both android). Beyond that, who cares?

As for quality, well, I think 1200 x 800 is better quality than 1024 x 768, no matter how you spin it, pixel density is going to win. Unless you walk around with your screen on full bright all day long, you won't ever realize the supposed difference in any of them.

Amazon: Store front, good price, great if you are a fan of that company.

iPad: apple store front (no different than amazon really), lame price, low spec, obviously a fan of that company.

nexus 7: barely a store front, good price, and you get to do what you want where you want how you want to do it, along with the same high res screen as the kindle plus the bonus of a GPS, accelerometor, and compass.

(OK, i was fanboing it up a bit there at the end, but you get the picrue)

Re: You do know that Google stuff has been sync'ing for years upon years, right?

@zanto

and the word ipad would probably conjure up images of a sanitary product for the ladies.

Strangely enough, it still does. And coming out with the ipad mini didn't help things any! Bwahahahahahahah

Re: Build Quality??

@AC Glass Case

Good point. Fanbois seem to have forgotten all the shed tears over the cool looking glass construction of the iPhone 4, et. all.

For the record, I have the nexus 7. The build quality could be better, as it suffers from the lifting left corner like so many others do. But for the money and the performance, I'm willing to let it fudge a little. Build material? Really, I think the ruberized backside is probably a better choice than aluminum. Yes, aluminum is sweet and light (I love using it on my boats), but not particularly grippy on its own.

Steve Jobs' Apple-powered yacht makes belated first trip

What an ugly boat

I'm not a naval architect. But I do restore classic runabouts for fun and am a fan of mid sized yachts. This thing is hideous. There are no signs of any naval or maratime influences visible in the shots provided. the bridge looks like a prison cell. Can you imagine being at the helm and having to sit at those pole seats? I pity the captain and crew.

The deck looks like a 50s rambler. The bow ? What the hell is going on there? This thing is in such bad taste I can't even put it to words. It will end up in the scrap heap before too long. Or should be anyways...

iPad Mini vs Nexus 7: inch makes all the difference, says Apple CEO

@it slayer

I beg to differ on the commute friendly statement. When it came out, all the advertisements showed people using it all over the place. On a train, on a plane, etc. That sure seems commuter oriented to me.

Huh. I can stuff my Nexus into my jeans pocket quite easily. makes for easy transport from my desk to a meeting at work. Or if I just want to be descrete about having it on my person.... I know thats hard for Apple fanbois to understand....

No GPS in the iPad Mini Wi-Fi: People are right to criticise

Re: " There are two good reason for not buying an iPad Mini - Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7."

We have both in my home. My son has the Fire HD and I have the Nexus 7. The fire is a nice piece of kit, really. But the lack of the GPS, accelerometer and compas was a no go for me. I need these things so I can use my tablet on my boat with nav software.

Aside from the lack of location tech, the Fire is on par with the nexus. Although I have noticed some lag at times when my son loads too many games on it and chews up the storage.

The display on both units is great, higher than the mini pad.

The Fire is very Amazon focused, naturally. Too much so for my taste, but just right for monitoring a childs purchasing habits... :)

The Nexus tries to be Google play focused, but you can ignore it by not playing by their rules. Not so much on the fire.

Nexus is just a bit smaller in the hands. Great for reading.

Re: Wasted £10 on maps of Spain

@AC Wasted maps of spain

LOL!!! Sorry for your pain, but this is what you get for not doing proper research before spending your money. I guess Apple is counting on that so they can upsell you on a new shiny ipad...

Re: Offline mappage

@argh, Offline mappage Osmand

I use osmand on my nexus 7 and its great. I've downloaded the entire west coast of the US and it does a fine job of tracking. As for storage on your device, really? If you are that starved for space, do some house cleaning...

Re: Offline mappage

@I ain't Spartacus

Your iPad wasn't useless because it didn't have a signal...

Apple's iPad Mini mishap: scratching out the retina screen

Re: Death of a salesman

One can only hope....

I was so sick of the Apple fanaticism back in the day right before Jobs took over again. I thought for sure that they were done for. Then they turned everything around handily and are "Teh most biggest company evar". It would be nice to see those smug smiles disappear again. :)

Re: why buy a £269 iPad Mini when you can have an equally serviceable Nexus 7 for £199

@ AC

Oh, that's easy to fix. You can just defame it by putting an apple sticker on it!