* Posts by xantastic

20 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Dec 2009

Tim Cook: Android version fragmentation is 'terrible for developers'

xantastic
Thumb Up

Something good coming out of this ...

I don't recall ever seeing the distribution of iOS versions before - I believe it was previously unpublished. Would like to heartily thank Mr. Cook for finally giving some bloody stats so I can tell clients that want to support iOS 5 to ... reconsider.

Facebook accused of 'wanton' use of Canadian woman's pics

xantastic
Mushroom

Re: Amnesia?

That was my first thought. I've personally opted-out within FB privacy settings.

If she didn't bother to review the settings they handily provide, I'm not sure what else she is expecting. Opt-in will never happen in non-paid services, and the fact that it's opt-out is very well advertised imho.

A bit more hassle to retain a lawyer than to set your privacy settings in the first place, but more upside I suppose.

Chinese cops bust culinary Apple trademark thieves

xantastic
Pirate

They even stole the rounded edges!

Dastardly.

Microsoft apes Google social search master plan

xantastic
Headmaster

I get to use the grammar nazi icon!

"Google has been busy injecting its once gleaming search engine with far to much Web2.0rrhea ...", eh?

Any much is too much, I always say.

Android Marketplace blocked by Great Firewall of China

xantastic
Facepalm

Worse, he has the face of a man but the heart of a beast ... or some such dramatic nonsense.

Diebold e-voting hack allows remote tampering

xantastic
WTF?

And a Republican freed the slaves ...

Of course back then the Democrats were for state's rights [and a southern slave-empire that extended into the caribbean] and the Republicans were in favor of a powerful federal government. You see ... they switched.

It's completely inappropriate to pull out party examples from 100 years ago. Let's stick with conservatives and liberals; the conservatives implemented the Jim Crow laws.

Researchers poke gaping holes in Google Chrome OS

xantastic
Thumb Up

And it counts ...

because the fix was automatically pushed to every system. I love that feature.

(And I understand that someone's IE6-based internal Web app may not appreciate security updates at Google's whim ...)

Judge approves handover of BitTorrent IP addresses

xantastic
Happy

Not everyone is a moron ...

http://www.globalregulatoryenforcementlawblog.com/2011/05/articles/data-security/judge-rules-ip-address-does-not-identify-user/

For example, this guy.

Humans shamed in round two of Jeopardy! showdown

xantastic
Welcome

IBM's buzzer-buzzing robot ...

I thoroughly enjoyed the event, but I question the fairness of placing an electronic system against humans when the critical step is timing a buzzer. I'm fairly certain a highschooler could design a robot capable of beating the world best trivia-experts at mashing a button first.

Ken/Brad could have easily answered most of those questions instead of Watson, but for some reason are unable to match his 1ms buzzer response times.

Not detracting from the parallel compute power - welcome our new, redundantly animated overlord, and such - but I was very distracted by this part. And I'm also curious if Watson knows the exact answer when it buzzes, or if it buzzes and then finishes refining the answer.

Steve Jobs unveils 30% subs model for ... everything

xantastic
Unhappy

My issue with this ...

That's almost true, except that Apple will REJECT your App if you do your own thing in competition with Apple's payment method.

You CANNOT have secure payment pages within your app or link to them outside the app. That's nuts. And you cannot install your app on a device without approval.

It's an apparent conflict, in my opinion. I think it'd be fine to give the users a choice, but the choice is so slanted that it's not really fair to the users at all.

Tunisia plants country-wide keystroke logger on Facebook

xantastic
Go

Bank-level security

What if Facebook implemented a personal login page for each user over secure connection ... ?

1. You enter your email.

2. They display a custom image that the gov't of Tunisia likely cannot guess, and you enter your password.

Ta da!

cheers,

Xan

Facebook bigger than Jesus online in 2010

xantastic
Paris Hilton

I Googled johnlewis ...

... and was unimpressed by the results.

Is that like a crap WalMart?

And are electricals similar to electronics?

Uncle Sam sues Oracle (again) for alleged fraud

xantastic
Terminator

Analogy Addendum

Even more, it's like you were the best damn TV leaser ever and you wanted to lease 1M TV's from this shop. And you agree to keep renewing your lease every year.

Since you're going to spend so much of your cash with this TV shop you'd expect to get a good deal, no?

And yet you're completely ripped off at every chance by every TV shop. Throw the book at 'em.

Google Chrome consummates Adobe Flash marriage

xantastic
Heart

A tangential gem ...

Actually, it's really smart that Chrome auto-updates all browsers. Can you imagine if Web software only had to be developed with 3-4 browsers/version in consideration.

I'm all for this being a trend.

IBM job cuts go compulsory

xantastic
Thumb Down

IBM doesn't like you ...

I was laid off after only 13 months and while I was fully staffed for the entire evaluation period - but I was working on a project in a different "sector" and my sector had to cut folks.

I don't recommend IBM to any of my friends graduating uni ... it's too much of a backwards bureaucracy and too impersonal/illogical in their decisions. Hope they enjoy becoming TCS.

good luck with your prospects!

Google Energy gets OK

xantastic
Thumb Up

Criterion Collection

I am finding myself referencing this movie more and more. Detroit is certainly looking very similar to its dystopian portrayal ...

China swings at Clinton as Schmidt fudges exit plan

xantastic
IT Angle

@ fix my computer

To say "China ruled Tibet since ..." is retarded. China as a nation is, what, 50 years old? If you want to start using historical references, than China should submit to the will of the Mongol hordes, and I should hail the Queen.

The Google issue is interesting, though.

IBM's 'Project Vulcan' sneak peeks Lotus Notes future

xantastic
Linux

I've used it, and ...

I don't mean to spoil the fun, but it's a wiki. Maybe IBM thinks that large corporations can be sold "secure" wiki's for an outrageous subscription service or licensing fee, but it's still just a wiki that runs 10 times slower than every other wiki.

Maybe IBM could just buy 37signals. Tux b/c Python doesn't have a mascot (that I know of).

Google fined for book copyright

xantastic
FAIL

China doesn't like sovereignty anyways ....

Maybe our tribal nations should give up a little sovereignty and allow a global organization to create a copyright/IP structure that the global world can follow.

Makes more sense than allowing someone posting something legally on the internet in the US to be sued for libel in Australia ...

Watchdog files complaint over Facebook 'privacy' settings

xantastic
Happy

Personally responsibility for my shit ...

I'm satisfied with the level of privacy that I get on Facebook because I have several tiers of access to my profile that I allow for various groups of people that I friend (or don't). Every time Facebook updates its policy, I have to go and check that my preferences are still in place - so that's what I do.

I guess if you're upset about your profile pic, you should change it to something innocuous. Other than that, everything else can be hidden to non-friends, and everything on your profile can be restricted to some level to friends in various Friend Lists.

Total non-issue. I think the real issue was when they started allowing the use of personal photos for adverts to friends ... but I stopped that from my privacy preferences as well.