* Posts by dogged

4790 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2009

Sick of Chrome vs Firefox? Check out these 3 NEW browsers

dogged

Re: Meta Browser

Opera Mini.

dogged

Would you be interested in a side bet?

£10 says Microsoft will open source Spartan (or whatever it ends up being called) within three years.

dogged

Vivaldi?

Isn't that just another WebKit/Blink implementation? No thanks.

I recently uninstalled Chrome. I'll continue to support Mozilla and look forward to Spartan because WebKit/Blink monoculture is a bad, bad idea.

Mummy, what's the point of Evgeny Morozov's tedious columns?

dogged
WTF?

Re: I do not think it means what you think it means...

we should probably abolish taxation and legalize guns then?

dogged

Re: @ IT Hack

whataboutery is an infallible sign of somebody with no argument and no inclination to work at constructing one.

It is often associated with jerking knees.

Microsoft to Android OEMs: 'Show me the money'

dogged
FAIL

Re: El Reg Exclusive!

walk past carphone warehouse, Bob. Or don't they have a branch in Mountain View?

dogged

El Reg Exclusive!

trans - story so obvious that nobody else is bothering to report it.

Seriously, you were expecting MS to sign away all rights enforce patents over Android manufacturers? They'd be looking at a shareholder lawsuit within seconds.

Microsoft opens kimono on Windows 10 Universal App Platform

dogged

Re: Here we go again...

> where whatever we're working on is about to become "legacy" in two years,

I think that applies to everything, except possibly the Forth Bridge.

dogged

Re: Does not look like a good proposition for desktop app developers

I remember ActiveX depressingly well, thank you. I even remember in-browser vbscript although to do so makes my neck spasm.

Microsoft were wrong about ActiveX (due to security issues) but I can see where they grew the idea from. It's exactly the sort of thing that somebody who doesn't think about security would see as an evolution of cgi-bin, moving the grunt-work to the client and thus getting the whole idea of http completely arse-backwards.

Still, it did give us XmlHttpRequest without which it would be a very different world.

dogged

Re: Does not look like a good proposition for desktop app developers

> ActiveX is back, this time restricted to the MS App store In the hopes of avoiding the security problems that orignally plagued the idea, I suppose.

Getting your FUD in quick, are you?

I see no ActiveX. You can already write Metro apps in HTML+JS so there's very little difference. I suspect this "packaging" would merely enable the damn thing to print or launch your default email client, for example.

I don't see much point to the packaged Web Apps when the platform has a full browser. The saving grace of Windows Tablets was regardless of "app gaps", real or perceived, one could use the browser and render anything your PC could. Maybe it's for corporates to deliver web-based code to the desktop with nice icons and stuff.

We'll see.

3 spectastic Lumias for price of 1 rival flagship: Microsoft sells biz on cheapie experience

dogged

Re: MTP support ?

> In Windows ? Or (as the PP stated) Linux ?

Last time I did it was from the xubuntu laptop I've got running at home.

They were only mp3s though, nothing complex.

dogged

Re: MTP support ?

I have a Lumia 930. I can drop media files onto the hard drive from File Explorer and they work just fine...

dogged

Re: Shurely shome mishtake?

Good point. Well spotted. This might be a misinterpretation of 1TB SkyOneDrive data storage but is very unlikely to be 1TB of actual data.

Although if it is data, I want one.

dogged

Re: I bought one in AU for $39

I can see the previous owner sold that one - it was obviously a duff model.

Not one single reviewer (who doesn't outright work for Google) agrees with you.

dogged

Re: Excellent pricing

which tablet was that, Arnold?

Google dips toe into U.S. mobile market with 'small scale' offering

dogged

Re: We don't intend to be a carrier at scale

"until we just get bored and buy T-Mobile".

Would you trust 'spyproof' mobes made in Putin's Russia?

dogged
Headmaster

Re: Who do you fear most ?

FSB.

The Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (KGB) ceased to exist in 1991. The Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (the Federalnaya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoi Federatsii or FSB) was formed in 1995.

Officially.

Out of time: Huawei, LG unveil watches nobody wants to buy

dogged

Re: Smartwatches

is that another Android-only "Android Wear" device?

If so, no sale.

Thing is, you see, the important thing is....

I like watches. I like my watch to last for at least ten years. If it's a really nice watch, I'd like it to be working well long after my own ticker has stopped forever so that my sons can fight over it.

A watch which is crippled if you don't buy $PARTICULAR_PHONE_OS is useless to me because I might want to change my phone OS in the next year or so while I buy a watch to actually last.

dogged

Re: Battery life

@Dave 126

I would totally get one of those. IF and only IF it wasn't iPhone only.

Acer enters Windows Phone fray with cheap Liquid M220 mobe

dogged

Re: Incentives

> There aren't any universal apps at the moment.

There are plenty. The framework's been in place since VS2013 Update 2 and you can write apps which are compatible with controlled interface changes between Win8.1 and WP8.1 without any extra effort.

Want an example? XBox Video.

The rest of your point stands.

dogged

Re: Seriously? Still on about apps?

Google does seem pretty determined to kill Windows Phone.

See also - anything posted by Bob Vistakin.

dogged

Re: Entry level indeed

It might well be but I still can't see it selling well anywhere people can afford, er anything else at all.

Then again, it's fits with Acer's usual stuff. "Every form factor, but shoddy".

dogged
Stop

Re: Just as well...

wow, that seems to be a bigger market share than linux on the desktop.

Are you arguing that as linux on the desktop has a tiny market share, it is useless and nobody should ever use it ever, Bob?

I think you are. I just don't think you'd noticed your own hypocrisy.

dogged

Re: I don't see an explanation about what MWC actually means.

Yes. "Mobile World Congress", a trade fair held in Barcelona.

Don't pay for the BBC? Then no Doctor Who for you, I'm afraid

dogged

Re: Well

Have you got kids, codejunky?

Is it feasible that you will ever have kids?

If so, get down on your knees and give thanks for the BBC because the alternatives are crammed with 20 minute ad-breaks aimed at turning your children into marketers on corporates' behalf.

dogged

Re: Well

It's amazing the amount of strongly partisan vested interests out there who think the BBC is biased.

You're company with the Greens, David Irving and Nigel Farage! Lucky you.

dogged

Re: Being in the US, I'm no expert on the BBC...

Rupert Murdoch gets very upset about that kind of talk.

dogged

Re: Overseas viewers

> In my experience, overseas viewers can't "freeload it".

I know - it's region locked. My point was that it would no longer need to be, if it were locked to license holders.

dogged

Trickle it in

All you really need to do is make iPlayer demand a code on your (physical or virtual) license in order to work at all.

This would raise revenue considerably because you could make licenses available world-wide, safe in the knowledge that overseas viewers would actually be paying for the BBC and not just freeloading it.

Microsoft man: Internet Explorer had to go because it's garbage

dogged
Stop

No you won't.

Honestly, this stuff is just plain lying to the ignorant in order to make MS look bad. Why are you bothering? They can make themselves look bad without you making up lies.

Stop it.

dogged

Re: Um, what?

.NET Core is .NET from now on. You run .NET core and install any other bits you need via nuget.

The 4.x framework isn't fully open source yet - and it may never be fully - but that's not really the point. Everything you need to develop new code is open and you shouldn't be using 4.x (after VS2015 is fully released) for anything except supporting old code.

dogged

No it doesn't. It sounds like Windows Update which runs as a Windows Service.

I get that you hate Microsoft but can you not see that FUD only damages your own credibility?

dogged
Meh

Re: No shitze Dick tracy

Hyperbole is absolutely the worst thing to have ever existed.

dogged

Re: Um, what?

> They did not opensource .NET, just parts of it

Yes, actually they did. All of it. See for yourself. Quit it with the FUD.

NERDGASM as Apple announces 'special event'

dogged

Re: Assuming it's about the watch

One thing the Apple Watch is touted as doing is analysing your sleep patterns.

That might be tough from the charger on your bedside table.

dogged

Re: Don't worry, it is Friday (TGIF...)

> Is it any wonder given the style of headlines that appear hear when there is a story even remotely connected to 'crapple'?

That's become more extreme over the years, largely as a result of Apple snubbing the Reg at all available opportunities if I'm any judge.

They used to be a bit snide about Apple, then there was the combination of "jagWAH" and refusing to kiss Steve Jobs' ringpiece in every article and the resulting blacklisting. Since then, I guess the Reg's editors figure "why not? What harm can it do? And we already know that Steve Davies 3 will do the requisite ass-kissing in the comments anyway...."

NO ONE is making money from YouTube, even Google – report

dogged

Re: "Child-friendly advertising?!?"

@Indolent Wretch -

I think there's a case to be made for review shows (sort of like the Gadget Show only for actual kids) where reviewers have no pressure to actually sell anything. That gets the message out there but without the black voodoo of advertising fucking with your kids.

A £10million ad campaign aimed at a 1630Hrs timeslot though - that's pretty much the definition of "blandly evil".

dogged

"Child-friendly advertising?!?"

Do you mean this?

or this?

Nothing which attempts to sell products to children or attempts to harness "pester power" is acceptable.

Ever.

W3C recommends Pointer Events standard – but it's a touchy subject. Right, Apple?

dogged

Re: Point of order

> In recent years the attitude from MS has been changing to the point where I'd be tempted to consider it actually altruistic.

It's kind of like Despicable Me. He's clearly a "bad guy" but he loves his adopted daughters and knows each of his minions by name.....

dogged
Thumb Up

Re: Point of order

I always enjoy riling up the emotional fanboys with a few well-chosen facts.

dogged

Point of order

the W3C never formally recommended Touch Events. There were moves to do so but then Apple threatened them with the possibility that the entire API was covered by restrictive Apple patents, which Apple made it clear they had no intention of offering on a royalty free basis. I further note that Apple are now saying there are no patents but this was pre-Samsung case. Maybe they were aiming to go after Samsung super-hard.

Anyway, it was at that point that MS developed Pointer Events and Mozilla and jQuery got on board. Pointer Events is written to be patent and royalty-free.

What Google are doing is... well, it's complicated. Apple are being dicks but you expect that. Google are probably just enjoying the opportunity to be dicks to people who use Windows touch devices - and what with touch-screen laptops, there are a whole fuckload of those out there - while blaming Apple for it and Mozilla are still aiming for workable web apps, which is obviously damaging to Apple and Google's "App Store" revenue so unlikely to be welcomed with open arms.

MS' motives in developing and offering Pointer Events for free? I don't know. Good experience for Windows tablet users? Hard to find a cynical reason although I really am trying.

$533 MEEELLION – the cost of Apple’s iTunes patent infringement

dogged
Headmaster

Re: Apple said it intended to appeal and called for patent reform

Dictionaries

Buy one.

dogged

Re: If there is to be any hope ...

Only if they happened to be for sale.

Now with Grunt and Gulp: Cross-platform ASP.NET in new Visual Studio 2015 preview

dogged
Meh

Re: Crap in - Crap out

Ah, I see. All those billion-dollar industries are stupid. Good thing you're so much cleverer than them.

dogged

> It's good for beginners, but after a few years you grow out of it.

"app" developer detected. Or possibly "web developer".

Come back in ten years, son. When you've written something that does some actual work.

C’mon Lenovo. Superfish hooked, but Pokki Start Menu still roaming free

dogged

@Kubla Cant

I'm in the UK but EU law and US law are fairly agreed on the concept. A "natural" monopoly arises from the market. Everyone got MS DOS and then Windows, nobody got OS/2 because bleh, OEMs bundled Windows because of consumer demand* short of ordering MS to make their product worse or withdraw it from sale, that's how it was.

The obligatory flawed car analogy is that if everyone buys Hondas and all the other manufacturers go bust or become tiny minority players, hey, good for Honda.

What is illegal is attempting to leverage an existing monopoly into a horizontal or vertical market. This is what MS was accused of doing with Internet Explorer (the merits of the case remain debatable - Netscape Navigator cost money and was notably inferior and there was never any effort made by MS to monetize their new leading browser market share or prevent users from choosing Navigator or Opera). This is also what Google have been accused of doing with selling subsidiary services by inflating their Search rankings and what Apple somehow failed to be accused of in leveraging their iPod/iTunes monopoly (by market share) into phone handsets and then tablets.

Leveraging an existing monopoly horizontally is illegal. It's also what's now become known as "ecosystem".

* wah, wah windows tax wah don't wanna wah linux wah wah wah monopolist wah - there, that saved you some time. Yes OEMs bundled Windows by consumer demand starting with IBM themselves. You might not want it but generally businesses on that scale don't go around doing stuff that pushes their cost per unit price up just to annoy nerds.

dogged

> I don't know how people have the patience for the monopolist's OS.

you mean Android?

Here's a hint, billium. Either they are all monopolists or they all want to be. And here's another hint - there's nothing illegal about a monopoly.

Ads watchdog: Er, what does woman in her undies have to do with ‘slim’ phone?

dogged
Black Helicopters

I'm still appalled by that Cillit Bang ad.

He lies straight out of the box. He is not Barry Scott. He's an actor playing the part of Barry Scott. He is Neil Burgess. There never was a Barry Scott.

After that, how can you believe any of it?

Why does the NSA's boss care so much about backdoors when he can just steal all our encryption keys?

dogged

Re: My apologies.

I echo the above sentiment with a minor alteration so that it regards GCHQ.

Lenovo CTO: Hey, look around – we're not the only ones with a crapware infection

dogged

Re: crapware free

> Nor will I be considering Samsung laptops.

Didn't Samsung recently drop out of the (European) laptop market anyway?