Posts by Tippis

Windows 11 turns five, leaving some important lessons for Microsoft

Re: Debloating it helps.

You're being very generous about that Win10 FOQ, but I suppose if you measure it early on it might be right.

Towards the end, the amount of useless junk that Win10 absolutely refused to let you get rid of, and reinstalled alongside its “required” working directories and shortcuts to said directories and desktop icons and whathaveyou became downright absurd. It got to the point where some of the forced installations during some updates were taking on “downloaded a utility package from a dodgy .bb side” characteristics, and would for instance fail the entire windows update if you had dared to, say, write-protect the desktop to keep it free from unwanted icons. Because what do you mean you don't want babby's first 3D thingy as one of your default directories and associated app for your production-document extensions?

XP good?

“Microsoft's operating systems have followed a set pattern over the years. Windows XP was good, Windows Vista was not. Windows 7 was good, Windows 8.x was not. Windows 10 – good.”

I'm not convinced. In particular, I will never accept the notion that XP was “good” other than that it was the version that got everyone over on NT and finally forced software developers to stop assuming that the wide-open Win9x environment was their playground to shit all over.

For similar reasons, I don't think Vista was bad. It was just strict. This was a good thing. The UI silliness and associated power requirements aside, the whole business about complaining about UAC can invariably be traced back to yet more incompetent software designers who didn't get the hint with XP and still tried to treat the OS as their own playground rather than learn how to operate within the clearly explained and defined boundaries of user space. Any software that triggered the safety mechanism enough to be annoying was shit anyway, made by amateurs, and should be avoided.

It was very similar to trying to run Win98 software under Win2k and see what broke and what didn't.

Microsoft 365 confirms new premium tier, stuffed with AI and few discounts

So the opposite then?

What I'm reading here is that if I pay less I get no AI, is that right?

Have MS accidentally made a customer-satisfying value proposition?

Trump orders purge of 'woke' Anthropic from government

Businesses act in the way that they think best serves their customers.

Perhaps not so much “serves” as “sells to”. Hence why the moral part can only come as a purchase preference on the consumer end. But then again, there's the question of ethical consumption…

“Best serves” is reserved for shareholders, investors and other owners.

Apple's ultra-thin iPhone flops as foldable iPad hits a crease

They shrunk it in every dimension that doesn't matter. Maybe they'd have better luck using the same tech to reduce the other ones instead.

I can feel my 13 mini slowly edging its way towards battery failure and once that happens, there's nothing on the market that can replace that handy form factor. Ugh.

Everyone wants a fancy phone – even the folk buying them second-hand

Re: I must be a weirdo

Just give me a reasonable size. Preferably something that's more convenient than wheelbarrow- or cargo cart-sized.

It's been almost 5 years since Apple provided a mini model, and as they slather more and more useless functionality into their devices, and the batteries needed to power them, the lower the odds that they'll ever return to that infinitely more handy form factor.

Microsoft insists Copilot+ PCs are 'empowering the future' – reality disagrees

Re: True "AI" story.

How about time on target? That's a classic.

Or maybe even some kind of issue count at [release window]?

Or why not something that actually lets you find and fix project issues, something like evidence-based scheduling to try to figure out where and what guesstimates go wrong?

Or how about defining a purpose for the report? That would probably answer two questions at once – both what and why.

I suppose making the c-suite understand that it's a non-linear and partially-creative process towards a goal that might not actually click together until at the very last second – so nothing measured along the way correlates to the final outcome – is a bit too much to ask of the poor souls…

Return on investment for Copilot? Microsoft has work to do

Re: "I think it improves the literacy"

If an AI can be used to write an email, that email didn't need to be written to begin with.

If they implemented the oft-requested “This could have been an email” meeting filter, they'd at least have a case for arguing some kind of algorithmic productivity improvement.

Good morning, Brit Xbox fans – ready to prove your age?

Re: At the ripe age of 43, i got the email too

I'm somewhat sceptical that the children will be saved seeing as how I got one without being in the UK and having no connection to the UK service.

If they can't figure out geographical location, their age verification is not very likely to fare much better.

Copilot+ PCs? Customers just aren't buying it – yet

Don't give them ideas.

Instead, the philosophy should be: if you want to sell me a funky-feature party-trick machine, I will have to spend time and effort and possibly some sort of software license to turn it into a functional and workable computer. How do you intend to compensate me for that extra work? My time and effort is not cheap. The price proposition needs to be the exact opposite of what they're going for now, and by a pretty large margin.

It's as if the industry has forgotten how loss leaders work and how you use them to build a long-term customer base that you can then slowly turn up the heat on.

Why is Big Tech hellbent on making AI opt-out?

I had to go the cancel-subscription route as well, except it flaked out and didn't offer me any alternative subscriptions.

The tech I contacted was very helpful and only marginally confused as to why it wasn't doing what was expected. However, the speed and precisions of the way alternate solutions were offered indicate that this was not his first rodeo as far as dealing with this kind of request and problem. I'm guessing they have a lot of cancellation feedback to redirect to /dev/null pass on upwards.

Sweden's 'Doomsday Prep for Dummies' guide hits mailboxes today

Re: Any mention of 'bug-out-bags'?

They're not really a thing here, and definitely not in official material, since the whole thing ties into the "Total defence" concept which essentially states that, if shit hits the fan, just keep plugging along. Go to work, fulfil your role, continue as best you can. Bugging out means shirking your societal duties to keep everything else going. Also, bugging out means you will not receive any aid from official sources, from the community, or indeed from anyone - you're on your own and that is the best way to get yourself killed even when there was little chance of that before.

Apple debuts iPhone 16, Watch Series 10, assorted AirPods

It's telling that one of their best models — soon to become tricky to come by — was named “Mini”.

In fact, it's kind of funny how they roll out all these amazing numbers except the one that really makes a difference: a <5.5" size.

Apple finally adds RCS support after years of mixed messages

Re: What's wrong with adding a passwords app?

Also, what are they actually adding that distinguishes this new app from ye olde Keychain, recently changed to optionally direct you to the Passwords settings?

The grand-plus iPhone is the new normal – this is no place for paupers

Quite so. It has a better form factor than any of the subsequent models and infinitely more clever and elegant security system than any of the modern ones. Of course they had to cut it loose.

Elon Musk: Wanna see a multimillion-dollar rocket EXPLODE? WATCH THIS

Re: Acronym fun

Other euphemisms from the same source include “hardware-rich combustion” and “litho-braking” (as opposed to, say, aero-braking).

Pixel mania: Apple 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display

So what you're saying is that were given a computer for free? After all, the cost of the computer here is $0, and you claim you paid half of that, which makes no sense whatsoever.

So you didn't really buy it, now did you? Someone gave you a workstation for free. That's very nice of them but it also makes it completely useless as a point of comparison if you want to talk about cost.

New leaked 'Windows 8 screenshot': The Start Menu strikes back

The difference is that no-one uses the launch pad in OSX since you have the much more useful dock and the vastly more useful Spotlight bar at your disposal.

The reason for this is that the transition is massively jarring, offers no useful advantage and, in fact, serves absolutely no purpose at all that can't be done in far better ways by not splattering them all over the screen.

Firefox joins Microsoft in uncool kids class

Re: Chrome is bad

"you can't even block ads with Google chrome, so it's perfect for THEIR business, I'm not anti-google, just can't stand their privacy politics."

Neither does Firefox, unless you get Adblock or some similar extension. Now, as it happens, Chrome has this: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom?hl=en

Steve Jobs denies Judas Phone antenna problems

E71 here...

...and I tried to duplicate this when the whole "oh, but it happens with every smartphone" spin first got out. And indeed, I *did* manage to get it to drop bars...

...by more or less sitting on it. If I made sure that the only thing not covered in me (ok, just using my hands worked as well) was the part of the screen that showed the connectivity, I could indeed see how it would sloooowly start losing bars, but open up just a little bit and they'd start coming back.

Sure, I suppose other phones could exhibit the same kind of sensitivity as the iPhone 4, but that doesn't mean that the iPhone is any good, only that a number of other phones are just as horrid as the iPhone is.

Visual Studio 2010 - your chunky new friend dissected

F#

The inclusion of F# is in and of itself another interesting development that shows the pressure that's been building on MS. It's in functional programming that we find the fundamental concepts that made Google search so successful. If MS have picked up on this and begun to push in the same direction, then that's yet another good sign of how they might be moving out of their complacency and into the very nasty competitive mode that occasionally makes them produce wtfawxsome products…

Jesus Phone in shock Opera browser benediction

re: what's in it for opera?

My guess is it's the same as on all other platforms: brand <-> moving (and integrating with) more desktop versions <-> search referral $$$

YouTube's IE6 support dies on March 13

Kill it with fire.

…and then douse the ashes with chlorine trifluoride and burn them as well. It's a better funeral than IE6 deserves.

Opera cuts cord on first open-source baby

Does this explain…

…why activating dragonfly has only given me the dragonfly main page for the last week or two, rather than the tool itself? The URL in the browser is the same as always and I haven't seen any announcement that they've changed it or why it redirects to the wrong page.

Top security firm: Default Windows 7 less secure than Vista

UAC was never the problem

The real issue with the UAC nagging wasn't UAC – it was the fact that windows programmers were incompetent and/or complacent. They'd gotten use to the idea of programming for an all-permissive environment (everyone is an admin, right?) and completely blanked when they were suddenly forced to program for a limited-mode environment.

Well-sorted programs never unduly triggered UAC; crap programs made by idiots did.

In some ways, it's no different than the move from Win95/98 to Win2k, when suddenly programs started to die horribly (most notably games, giving rise to the "Win2k can't run games myth) because those programs used various no-no ways of doing things that Win2k wouldn't allow. Just like UAC, it was a great way to weed out useless apps… also, Win2k was truely win for gaming ;D

Windows 'openness' hailed in Nintendo game defeat

The non-ubuiquity of DMCA

"First, they throw DMCA out the window by ruling that copying a DVD for backup purposes is legal."

It's hard to throw something out that they're not subject to to begin with…

PS3 development

"Unsure what the effect will be for the Xbox though or the PS3 for that matter."

Sony is probably in for an easy out on that one – hell, they even have a "Install other OS" option *in the main system setup menu of the console*.

Nokia E72 smartphone

Upgrade?

The two key pieces of software on my E71 are Mail for Exchange and JoikuSpot, and with one of them being replaced with something that doesn't work properly, and no word on the compatibility of the other, the "upgrade" value of this handset just isn't there yet.

Firefox at 5: the Google Cold War

...plus ça change

And now, five years down the road, Fx has become the same kind of slow, bloated, non-innovative and barely functioning mess that it was once designed to combat.

Apple Magic Mouse

Buttons...

So they've removed the very handle wheel-click, which even the mighty mouse had, and it still can't do proper right-clicks (i.e. discrete ones that you can do at the same time as left-clicks)?

Riiight… So yes, the best Mac mouse is still an MS mouse then.