Posts by Philip Lewis

Who loves programming robots? Who wishes it was easier? Here comes Flowstate

Is this an English web site?

It's "... wishes it WERE easier" ... language usage in print gets worse by the day. :(

$5bn+ sueball bounces into Google's court over claims it continues to track netizens in 'private browsing mode'

Re: Its your choice

The point of the suit is that you get snooped on despite not using anything from Goggle

Academics demand answers from NHS over potential data timebomb ticking inside new UK contact-tracing app

Re: Slurp everyone's details

Welcome to he CCP controlled China. Is this what we really want?

There are always people who will give up their freedom for the illusion of security, sadly they are now in the majority and the outcome is not going to be good.

Guess who's back, back again. SE's back, tell a friend: 2020 reboot looks like an iPhone 8 and even shares components

iPhone 4 through 6

There are a LOT of phones in the 4 through 6 range still in daily use (I have a 6). The SE will push a lot of those onto the used market. I think it's a well positioned product.

Re: It's still the fastest Apple iPhone at the lowest Apple price

How many of the old SE were sold? It was iPhone5 size

Latest Apple gadget's production behind schedule, will come out at one month past iPhone 12, reportedly

iPhone SE

I am an iPhone6 user ... the SE looks like a killer machine to me. Those of us not on the upgrade merry go round will see it as a very, very good upgrade. It's a an upgraded 7 rather than something new and bleeding edge (the 12 one assumes).

I am sure the 12 will be awesome, but it won't be my new iPhone.

Australia to make Google and Facebook disclose ranking algorithms and pay for local content

Re: too few Australian eyes

What has this got to do with Netflix?

Cloudflare goes retro with COBOL delivery service. Older coders: Who's laughing now? Turns out we're still vital

Re: Why COBOL?

I can remember working at a client in the 80s, where we were allowed 2 compiles per DAY! This is the sort of limitation that encourages just the mindset and rigour you describe. I will admit to having written programs of several thousand lines that (s) compiled first time and (b) passed testing first time. We cared back then about what we wrote because the systems we wrote were the systems that WERE the company. Not surprisingly, many decades later, these systems, the legacy systems, are still the systems that decide if the company does business tomorrow.

As an afterthought, in Michael Lewis's book Flashboys IIRC, quite a bit of the story partially revolves about "Russian programmers" and why they are so well respected. It seems they would have all been excellent COBOL programmers, as planning, rigour, structure etc. are part of their skill set.

Which reminds me of Lewis's first book, Liar's Poker, which took place just down the corridor from my office at Goldman Sachs. At the time (1986) we were establishing the very basis for the GFC of 2008 and the entire system was written in --> FORTRAN. We had no Russians, but we really sweated the details and performance of the instrument valuation calculations.

You think that because you don't know any better, or in the modern parlance, clueless.

Re: Retrieve the old textbooks

+1 for Gestetner, a word I haven't seen used since I was a sprog.

Bose shouts down claims that it borked noise cancellation firmware to sell more headphones

Re: Audiophiles

It was once quipped, that ultimately, a turntable is merely a device for testing wow and flutter. Thus, having tested the available options I went for a Linn Sondek - https://www.linn.co.uk/sources/turntables - and yes, mine is over 40 years old. Amazingly, it still works and sounds great when I play some of my old vinyl. For the interested, it's the legendary Grace 707 coupled with a Dynavector MC cartridge.

The rest of the kit is getting a little aged now, but then so is my hearing. It's still worth the expense and effort I expended all those years ago.

I realise techies like to pooh pooh the audiophile world, and there is some cause to be sure. Two generations have grown up thinking MP3-128kb is what music should sound like and who have no idea what it is supposed to (or could) sound like. That is sad ...

Microsoft attempts to up its Teams game with new features while locked-down folk flock to rival Zoom... warts and all

Re: Teams is a flaming pile of

"Slim that bloated pile down.. seriously, it consumes and consumes."

Frameworks, whatever their current polished turd is called are a great idea for solving a great many problems, as long as resources are infinite. It's the Microsoft way after all.

Re: Teams video conference view

There seems to be an MS shill here with a downvote button. Probably that guy whose name I have forgotten that was here constantly in the old days boosting MS..

Re: Used both

This one probably https://www.pidgin.im/

Planet Computers has really let things slide: Firm's third real-keyboard gizmo boasts 5G, Android 10, Linux support

Will Linux still be a problem then because of the chipset?

I don't really understand the issue ... it's a curiosity, I could use a simple explanation of the issue

Yelp finally gets its chance to tell US Congress how Google screws its listings service every minute of every day

Re: This is News?

I bet there are posts here from me from maybe two decades ago when the Google motto was still "don't be evil" or some such, where I called them as evil. There was a zero probability that it would go any other way for anyone who was paying attention and had two functioning brain cells.

No amount of fines can hurt them in reality. Laws are for everyone else.

The Wristwatch of the Long Now: When your MTBF is two centuries

Re: Could not agree more

How equestrian of you. And you may have inadevrtantly discovered why the 4-speed became ubiquitous. The model T was just 2-speed of course, and we had "3 on the tree" for a bit but "4 on the floor" was for generations the goto, not unlike the past.

(It's time for Paris, because y'all have forgotten about her too)

Re: Could not agree more

As I recall. Later models with rudimentary memory and whiteout ribbons could backspace over the typed text, whiting it out.

Or maybe that was an invention I forgot to invent. So hard to tell theses days.

Re: Beware survival bias

As a child, Coke (tm) cam in 6 1/4 Oz. bottles IIRC. Again, if memory serves, because I am quite some considerable distance from my bookshelf, the Coca Cola company had determined empirically that this was the optimum size for "thirst quenching".

It could be that I just imagined this, or not ...

Re: Beware survival bias

That's the one!

Re: Beware survival bias

A guy from Rolls Royce once told me there are jet engines in service where only the nameplate remains of the original

Re: This is a nonsense comparison.

Broadly speaking, you are correct, but the devil is in the details and complexity of the movement. A top line movement with multiple complications is a wonder to behold. However, while a movement is a movement as you noted, new materials and constructions are still being developed and patented today.

Re: This is a nonsense comparison.

You might be surprised how many mechanical watches are made for the broad consumer market. I suspect you are the victim of sampling bias (you rely on tech rags to tell you that tech is the only thing that matters).

Re: Beware survival bias

Link: https://www.chaux-de-fonds.ch/musees/mih

Re: Beware survival bias

As I don't have a male heir for my PPs, I'll be taking them with me. Should I be exhumed many millenia from now, post C20 anthropologists will wonder why I needed so many mechanical devices.

Re: Beware survival bias

+1 for the SunBeam reference, though their toaster was more important and is the iconic pinnacle of mechanical toasters.

I'm more of a Kenwood Chef man myself, and mine is still going strong, though used less frequently these days.

Re: Beware survival bias

I accidentally upgraded my kid's iWatch 3. Bad move because his iPhone 6 will no longer pair with it. I get it, newer, better, shinier and so on. But I am trying to instil in him the idea that one should use durable goods until they no longer are fit for purpose. Apple's planned obsolescence in this case is irritating.

Re: Instilling new timeframes of thought in a world beset by faster/shorter.

iamanidiot missed an opportunity there, reasons should be obvious enough

We are shocked to learn oppressive authoritarian surveillance state China injects spyware into foreigners' smartphones

A lifetime of VANS phones

Looks on the shelf.

N9. That still works for 3G+ telephony and they won't have that

Xperia X running SFOS. Dump the Android 4.4.x emulation and that'll be safe as well.

Some old 2G phones around, but not sure if 2G even exists in China

Any iPhone4 or 3GS will have a version of iOS so old that their fruity app will probably bork - must have one here somewhere?

Windows 7: Still looking after business (except when it isn't)

ATM Administrator

My ATM (random asian bank) wanted me to login as Administrator, but no matter how often I pressed the screen, I wasn't allowed to do so - damn! I was allowed to withdraw money, though I was unable to read the screen for the message encouraging said Administrative login.

Eh-hmmm.

Chrome deploys deep-linking tech in latest browser build despite privacy concerns

" But because Chrome so dominates the browser market, its unilateral innovations tend to become obligations for competitors, particularly if web developers embrace them."

The 90s called ...

" But because Internet Explorer so dominates the browser market, its unilateral innovations tend to become obligations for competitors, particularly if web developers embrace them."

How bad is Catalina? It's almost Apple Maps bad: MacOS 10.15 pushes Cupertino's low bar for code quality lower still

Re: 2010

http://dosdude1.com/catalina/

I have been using the mojave version for quite some time on 2010 era machines, with no issues of which to speak. I expect the Catalina version will work just fine as well.

Apple, Samsung feel the pain as smartphone market slumps to lowest shipments in 5 YEARS

Re: Just one question

"who fail to appreciate this basic fact of life."

So there's hope, and they won't breed?

Did I correctly read a 6% ($12) uptick on AAPL today?

Me2. I took advantage of the cheap battery upgrade and I just don't see the value proposition of the latest and greatest. I prefer the old button too, so there's that too.

Tens to be disappointed as Windows 10 Mobile death date set: Doomed phone OS won't see 2020

I have been away for years. I came back here just to gloat at this wonderful announcement. I wonder if all the MS shills of old are still around shilling as they always did?

Blade Runner 2049: Back to the Future – the movies that showed us what's to come

A few references

OK. Went the "full Monty" and saw it in iMax 3D. Rather awesome.

A great "Max Headroom" reference, and what was more astounding to me was the whole "Forbydelsens Element" thing going. If you haven't seen this film, then it's worth a look - a very dark, wet and dystopian future. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Element_of_Crime

Re: Johnny Mnemonic...

Loved virtual Light - mirror contact lenses and paper pushbikes :D

Blade Runner 2049 review: Scott's vision versus Villeneuve's skill

Re: This could make me visit the cinema

Tonight I will be watching "Blade Runner: Final Cut" to set the mood. Tomorrow a trip to the cinema.

Is the iMax version worth the extra effort?

Microsoft's foray into phones was a bumbling, half-hearted fiasco, and Nadella always knew it

Re: It would be nice if ...

I still use my N9. I know, that sounds weird, but I still have to carry several phones, so one of them is my N9. I always liked it, incl. the Lumia shape.

Re: Does that mean we can now drop the crappy Win10 interface?

From the outset of Win8 (which was a much improved base OS) I have claimed that were Microsoft to see the error of their ways and give Win8 (now Win10) and Windows7 interface, all would be forgiven.

I still claim that.

And now that Windows Phone is very certainly dead, the whole underlying premise of the tiles interface (which was sort of OK on a phone actually, different, but OK) now disappears. If there is no need to have a Consistent interface across devices, then there is no logical impediment to going back to an interface people actually liked (Windows7).

Of course, we'd still have all the data slurrping and crapola that they've invented, but they could ditch that if they wished. Do they even make anything out of all that crap they apparently slurp?

Re: Microsoft is suffering from a desperate mind-set of locking people in

I haven't been here for a while ... retirement does that.

Anyway, where are all the Microsoft shills from back then. You remember them, the ones who always had a statistic or an anecdote or some strategy play that was a guarantee that Windows Phone would absorb the world?

Facebook in the dock: Web giant faces trial for allegedly ripping off data center blueprints

Re: Shaky grounds @Mage

Patents? From the article, it does not appear to be patents - more like breach of NDA or similar.

Uber is a taxi company, not internet, European Court of Justice advised

Re: Finally some common sense

Denmark KO'ed Uber recently for being a taxi company and incompatible with the latest revision of the taxi law (which might have been a stitch up, I wasn't following too closely).

http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/penge/uber-lukker-i-danmark

America 'will ban carry-on laptops on flights from UK, Europe to US'

Re: In their defense (sic)

Yeah, the chick flying for Aloha did a great job bringing that one down!

Re: Fly via Canada?

"What a shambles. But then, what do you expect from the current administration?"

Wearing your bias in public I see.

Given that the current "theatre" is a complete shambles (according to the commentarderie) and mostly bollocks, and it was all implemented by previous US Administrations, it is "Unfair, deeply unfair" to blame the current administration.

Find something DT and his team did do that was bad, and hammer them for that - don't just knee-jerk blame the current administration because you don't like The Donald. I didn't like Obama, but I don't blame him for the Iraq war!

Re: shoes (belts)

The reason, is that a lot of belts that are of medium width, have a zipper pocket in them (I have one myself and keep a C note in it. It is completely feasible to secret a small weapon i there as well. I am reliably informed, that contraband is confiscated very, very regularly from this source.

So tere you have it.

Field day for baggage theft

Expect travel insurance premiums to rise.

The primary reason I carry my laptop on flights (and I fly a lot, both left and right on entry), is that my laptop is worth considerably more than all my other baggage combined. Having it in hand is simply the prudent thing to do.

Luggage gets lost. Theft occurs from luggage. These facts dictate my actions.

Big Tech files anti-Trump brief: Immigration ban illegal and damaging to business

Re: ...

Precisely.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1182

And if you are wondering why the airlines went into a major tizzy, read the last bit.

(f) Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. Whenever the Attorney General finds that a commercial airline has failed to comply with regulations of the Attorney General relating to requirements of airlines for the detection of fraudulent documents used by passengers traveling to the United States (including the training of personnel in such detection), the Attorney General may suspend the entry of some or all aliens transported to the United States by such airline.

Boeing's 747 to fly off the production line for the foreseeable future

Re: "tuna in a can"

I flew LH recently in one of their new 747-8s (no, not in a freight can). It was a nice aircraft.