Posts by Bram

Office 365: This cloud isn't going to put any admins out of a job

Different way of working

Some of the restrictions that you mentioned and the usability of the Office365 solution is designed to work in a different way to how an organisation works.

An example would be: if you email out a weekly newsletter to all your members of staff (and you have a significant amount of staff) then your organisation is not thinking in the right way for 'cloud' computing.

With massive circulars like this an intranet site with audience targeting maybe better suited as provided with Office365.

If you want to replicate exactly what you had before then you will need experts to replicate and manage it for you, as you did before.

Windows 8: Not even Microsoft thinks businesses will use it

Business users =! retards

I just get a bit tired of hearing that enterprises will fall to bits if anything changes with Windows. businesses only care if it affects the cash flow.

Using Metro isn't hard just different, if users find themselves confused and uncertain where to find a program when there is a big tile on the screen theres no chance for them anyway

I need to multitask, but Windows 8's Metro won't let me

i dont think thi guy has used the previews

You can do both kinds of multi tasking and you have to have the 66/34 split. If you get the arm consumer version then you can't do any of the normal multiple task viewing things.

Buy an x86 platform and you can do pretty much anything.

If you still can't understand the difference no one is forcing you to use it, Linux works just fine.

Number 10 shuts wallet on closed-source IT projects

its not about the type of software

Its all about the people who manage the project, if smart they will pick the best long term, cheapest solution for their needs. With proper contracts you'll own the IP and source code and have good documentation to go elsewhere when needed.

Gov IT supermarket G-Cloud will cost £4.93m, says Maude

same story really

Regardless of the technology, decade or party when you have poor scoping, requirements elicitation, business analysis you will have failed IT projects. How can you not have clear cost benefit analysis?

Apple slapped with second Siri senility lawsuit

Beta!

Siri seemed like the biggest thing about the new iPhone and its in beta! Not good and a little under handed. No other tech company would do something as risky as this, as it is not uncommon for betas to scrapped

Windows 8 fondleslabs: Microsoft tip-toes through PC-makers' disaster

HTML5

It was my understanding that metro apps will be using HTML5 and JavaScript and not XMAL and other Silver light throwbacks, If you want to build non Metro apps you can use any .Net5 and silver et al.

This is the biggest pull towards the platform opensource developers can build apps straight away for the platform or convert exiting ones with little ease (they still would have to pay MS market subscription fee and submit it to the market place to distribute though). This seems like major pluses to do Windows8 app dev on the side or as projects

Do you keep your job when your IT is in the cloud?

Totally agree

with what they are saying, but this only applies to countries where there is a good enough internet infrastructure in place

It's official: IE users are dumb as a bag of hammers

Mix and Match users?

The study doesnt seem highlight those of use that use multiple browers. On the Mac I use Opera and Firefox on the PC I use Firefox and IE9. I wonder what that says???

Depending on the site I am going to I change browser to one that handles the site better or has better security etc.

On another note IE is the only browser I know of that has extensive enterprise control that can be integrated along side other windows based features so I guess that is why is used a lot its a commercial product rather than a consumer one (until IE9 which is more consumer focused)

One more thing

I don't like the idea of IQ tests, how can you sum up all the different possible attributes of intelligence into a single number? You can have a very IQ score but be an amazing athelete is that not a form of intelligence?

check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence#Human_intelligence

Microsoft rolls out One Big Windows strategy

someone help me

I cant believe this has turned into Windows doesnt work and MS are complete rubbish thread so quickly.

NEWS FLASH: no system is perfect, they all crash and have problems and require things to be changed and tweaked.

What I don't understand is that there are some techies here that are serious luddites who want to still use languages and controls from the 80s and 90s?!?!? why please somebody help them thats like asking for a manual choke and an engine start key for your car.

MS have consistently tried to unify their OS but it is easier said than done (.NET etc.) with so many partners dependant on the various versions it would be damaging to cut them all off. Now with more competitors it is easier for them to take the risk. Good on them for trying.

just a note Linux does run on multiple platforms but that doesnt mean that the same code will run on all the different distros in the same manner with the same experience level. MS are trying to deliver a consistant experience across all its platforms which is not that easy.

Google: The one trick pony learns a second trick

Couldnt agree more

Google do need to develop other revenue streams other than advertising. In the long run you can never be sure of what may happen and diversiification of revenue streams is always a good idea.

All monopolies come to an end all you have to do is look to some of the rumblings at the core of the Walmart business or to News International in the UK.

Yell and Microsoft ink SMB deal

SMBs...

on the internet get drowned very quickly. and would end up having to spend probably the same amount on adwords and website optimisations.

Lets face it most SMBs find it easier to just use YELL as it gives them a complete print and web foot print and it is easier to find a local plumber on Yell then with blind internet searches

Coalition renames GCHQ internet spook-tech plans

Theresa May...

is so frickin useless along with the whole government. everything they said they have to cancel because it is pointless and costly is now here again but with different branding.

I'm waiting for the biometric ID cards to make a come back, Im sure it will happen real soon with a tagline about how it is needed to stop benefit cheats and reduce the deficit and how it is also the previous governments fault why they have to do it now.

New company to lead UK police ICT procurement

Muppets!!!

Having worked at the NPIA on certain projects, I can say that Anonymous Coward (second comment) has hit the nail on the head, thats what you spend most of your time doing, while all the senior officiers go on the jolly around the globe.

However the Home Office is the biggest bunch of muppets in the entire government. Arse and elbow regularly get confused. They created PITO (Police IT Organisation) which handled all the IT then they merged them and created the NPIA (National Policing Improvemency Agency) which done alll PITO done a little more.

Then this government abolished them thinking its no longer needed because all they heard about is people going on the jolly and merged whatever left into the NCA (National Crime Association UKs FBI) Now they relised actually we need another company to do wht the previous ones where doing before.

Why Why Why, what they dont tell you is how much all the rebranding and office musical chairs cost the taxpayer. trust me its higher than you think.

Microsoft strategy chief quits Redmond

a little unfair

From what I read of this story this guy worked on the strategy which has made Office one of their biggest revenue streams and went a long way to correct the damage done with other IT companies.

The legacy he has left is one of 'lets try not to sue or get sued and see if we cant work together on problems'

South Korea to throw away schoolbooks by 2015

Great news

well done to South Korea for trying to be innovative.

Boo to the UK for tryiong to save money by closing schools and funding vanity projects instead.

Save mony go digital, it won't mean the end of books but it will save a lot of cash on numerous versions of the same text book and storage space

Apple will 'own games industry'

LMFAO

This all depends on network availability and cost. Only the western world and parts of the far east has broadband powerful and reliable enough to support this and as for cloud gaming how many developers will be able to scale massive processing farms to support multigame platforms, when no doubt they will have to use apples cloud with will demand 30% revenue.

This is laughable at best.

RAF Eurofighter Typhoons 'beaten by Pakistani F-16s'

pointless

Thus has nothing to do with the kit, the Pakistani pilot was talking about training differences that led to an exercise win. BVR training means you destroy their planes before they get in the air

Sony unveils PlayStation telly

They have done it already

and without the need for specs.

In the Mercedes S Class. The sat nav screen is visible for the driver and for those in the back looking at the same screen it will be a DVD. It works like those holograms whic change image depending on the angle you are looking at it.

A cheaper and probably more robust solution and you can have an audience while you play.

Sony are trying to get a 3d tv in everyones house

'Dodgy Android apps are breaking our phones' - Motorola

Actually

Moto dont sell their phones directly so it would the network operator or phone retailer who have just accepted the phone back and then passed it on to Moto. Back to the manufacturer is like the last line of support.

Who really wants to loose all their data when you download a poorly developed program???

This is squarely on the developers that are incapable of testing correctly all they are doing is damaging the market for everyone else

David Davis: Jobless should dig trenches for fat UK pipes

unpaid, unemployed

The problem is what would get these companies hiring if they can get free labour??? Why use JCBs, skilled/fully trained workers when you can just used unemployed and the next logical step would be to use prisoners then the average person would not be able to get a job or wouild have to work for next to nothing to get work.

Invest the money in broadband country wide and force teh companies to hire people to do the job rather than taking the money and running

McKinnon battles renewed Obama-era extradition push

down vote

When any quotes the law or a legal way of thinking they get down voted a lot. It says a lot for our laws and how we view them.

Anyway the guy caused some serious problems and breached security intentionally. Mentally disturbed or not there should be a trial and some sort of consequences. If he is mentally ill it should be taken into consideration, but no he shouldnt just be left alone that would be stupid.

Alpha.gov.uk – it's nearly a beta

Dont see the point

IT does the same as the direct gov only glossier, Why not sure update direct gov and not have a big hoo haa about it

Official: Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5bn

Skype was dying anyway

All those people who claimed skype was the best should ask why they did not pay for the premuim services earlier.

Skype was making a loss year after year, they would have died eventually or they would have been bought by Google which would have assimulated Skype into google talk (could be a good thing or a bad thing), Apple would have done they same as they prefer their brand name (facetime) over the Skype one.

Why worry, its not going to change much and I don't think the multi platform support will dissapear (apart from the linux version, which is a maybe).

Google says Android 'club' makes phone makers 'do what we want'

What do you expect

Openess stops when you have to pay the bills.

Microsoft inks Nokia deal with phones set to fly in 2012

Microsoft & Sega???

Was there anything much between the two of them? I think Sega was [retty much down and out becuase Sony beat the sh!te out of them with the playstation and n64 mopped up the rest

Seagate to buy Samsung's disk drive biz?

maybe

I reckon SSDs wont increase in size that much but they will become consumers first choice and most data will go to the cloud

Silverlight 5, thy name is 'Windows'

I hear ya

but you sound a little extreme, i don't see why any commercial closed platform software company which provides an end to end solutions should help their rivals and support their systems as well as their own.

Commercial companies aim to become monpolies.

I also would consider not reccommending SilverLight as a solution to an organisation, however it comes down to the business requirements, if the best solution for a set of requirements points towards it then in not to reccomend it when it could be the only viable solution would be unprofessional

Microsoft struck by HTML5 commitment phobia

wow

you made yourself sound like a right knob, dont get so angry about things you'll get high blood pressure.

Not the end of the story yet...

This turning out to be quite an interesting tale for Microsoft, as they go through organisational culture change and become more global and customer focused.

You cannot deny that silverlight looks very good where it has been deployed and it is very easy to pick up, but HTML5 is looking good at this stage and is on track to become the big fish in the pond.

I reckon MS and Adobe are really going to town rewriting their approaches and frameworks to everything they have based the customer facing end of business on. Be prepared for flash and silver to become more interwined and brought into line with HTML5 in Windows8.

With both Adobe and Microsoft reshaping their strategy and challenging theur developers it could pay off and allow them to hit back at the critiscim from Apple and devs who have lost faith.

Time for the next round...

Amazon splatters ads to cut Kindle price

There is a choice

The kindle is the same price as always. If you want a cheaper one you get adverts simples?!?!?

Why would you stop getting a product that hasnt changed n anyway? if you don't want the £25 off and adverts dont get it get the normal version.

I own the Wi-Fi version and I am pretty sorted if they try some advert update crap I'l just turn off the wi-fi and buy books in advance from my pc and drag and drop them the old fashinoned way. Its still a lot simpler then talking to teenage sales assistants in waterstones

Mobile operators ditch Tube plans

Welll

I think wi-fi would be better, you will be able to get more bandwidth and if they have smart devices they could make IP calls (Skype or whatever) and use internet messengers.

In response to someone else's comments about terrorism being a reason to stop this project that can't be the case because lack of a phone didnt stop the 7/7 bombers

Finally to the response about future proofing becuase the police can use there handsets is not possible, because it isnt a phone network the police use, they use the same network that the LU staff use which is radio transmissions (walkie talkies)

Antarctic ice breakup makes ocean absorb more CO₂

facts vs. theory

FACT: CLIMATE IS CHANGING

FACT: THERE ARE ALOT OF VARIABLES AND UNCERTAINIES

FACT: HUMANS ARE A VARIABLE BUT CANT BE CONSIDERED AS THE SOLE CAUSE YET

Its funny how many people are preaching science thoery as fact. The fact that the lingo changed from 'global warming' to 'climate change' seemed to ring so few alarm bells.

The realtity is if there is a global change to climate there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop it. We would have to find a way to survive in a vastly different world or move to Mars.

Lets try to understand what IS happening rather than talking about what might happen in a few hundred years time

Apple's 'App Store trademark': A farce of Jobsian proportions

Best to fight this one

because it will hurt the media industry and confuse consumers more than anything else. MS actually call their 'app' store The Marketplace Google and other phone companies have their own names for their stores. Consumers and the media use the more generic app store so let us have it.

Apple have already got anything with a lower case i in front of it so leave it at that

Nokia deal to 'rocket Windows Phone 7 past iPhone'

c'mon

I know theres a lot of hatred towards microsoft, but wp7 is actually quite good to use. A lot of the problems they are having are very similar to problems the iPhone had during its release.

Don't get too hung up on predictions becuase they are just predictions. However I can see Android becoming the largest operator and then their own business model will probably strangle off their own sales due to market fragmentation and poor copyright protection

Microsoft+IE9: Holier than Apple open web convert?

Industry Standard & MS Strategies

Quite interesting, This article shows that there are multiple faces to a organisation the size of MS and each has their own ideas about what is the best way of doing things.

For a while people have slated MS mainly because of its Corporate persona and its business tatics (sales and business over software robutness/quality) it seems now they are more concerned with the bigger picture beyond business and sales figures.

I don't blame MS for trying to force its standards on the rest of us because if you have ever sat on an international standards board you will understand how tiresome and long winded it is. Its not like the 70s or 80s where two guys in a garage can invent some TLDs and it sticks. Now it can take years and a lot of negotiations which are more politicalthan anything else.

A glimpse at Amazon's app store

Android powered Kindle?

I don't see the point really, people buy the kindle because it is a way to read books and thats it, nothing else. It would be a waste to use Android in that limited manner, it would raise the cost, introduce bugs & complexity and wreck the battery life. I believe it runs on JAVA and thats good enough.

However as long as all the legal matters are resolved this could be the move that would cement Android as the number one OS as those with Androids have another source of Applications and those without can see whats on offer through a reputable retailer.

I just hope Amazon have good checks in place to keep out the trash.

Apple handcuffs 'open' web apps on iPhone home screen

woah there

I am not an apple fanboi, but this sounds like a Bug or something that they planned to leave out of the 4.3 release for development reasons eg, not enough time, or it threw too many bugs when implemented.

Its a little too soon to confirm Apple as a shepherd for devil (even though they are w8nker$ now and then)

EA blocks user from game after alleged forum outburst

Taking the mick

I didn't even know that you had to part of a forum in order to play a game why? takes the mick I don't have the time to play the game then talk about playing the game and make friends. WTF I have friends in the real world.

Fair enough ban the guy for talking smack about the guys who are running the forum I wouldnt expect any less from a big corp. but to stop him/her playing a game which they bought takes the p!ss

Microsoft compares Amazon cloud to 'horseless carriage'

MS Cloud

I think he's just saying dont just dump applications on to the cloud like a VM machine. Take full advantage of the Cloud. For example if you build yourself an eight core 64 bit system but all your programs are designed for 32bit single core machines you will see an improvement but your not taking full advantage.

The guy does work for a company so he is going to push their methodology, if you dont like the way they are doing things then use an alternative. From what I read he wasn't saying anything really bad about Amazon just making an informed comment with some humour.

Anti-religious campaigners smack down census Jedis

Chill

A belief is a blief. Science like religion doesnt have all the answers so neither side should be trying to get one up on each other. What is interesting about this is that some people are extremely rude and nasty just because someone believes in something they cannot prove or have any evidence for.

Would you berate a child for believing in father christmas? no. Yet you still go out and buy presents for them at christmas time and say its from santa.

We are humans first so lets treat others like we would like to be treated and lets remember that Maths and engineering are much better platforms for a society.

How science works:

Someone makes a statement and finds some proof to back it up. This stands as truth until someone who has used agreed international standards to disprove this.

Maths however you cannot claim anthing until it is solidly proved by numbers otherwise its just philosophy.

Religion has a place in society to help guide people to aspire and to control people in times when we did not have the advanced technology we have now.

Maths is what will unravel the universe as Einstein said "God does not play dice"

Eurofighter Typhoon: It's EVEN WORSE than we thought

EuroFighter 2000

Let's not jump the gun, From my knowledge of stealth it means that the overheads will be high for the life of the aircraft so I don't believe that is a great difference. However the reason why the thing is so expensive is because it was meant to be ready in 2000. Hence its original name EuroFighter 2000

UK Border Agency: Good at making cash, crap at making decisions

Insane

Am I right in saying that if I make a lot money (40k+) and I am a foreign national I can stay as long as I pleaseIf Im on the average I have to go after a year.

That really explains how the football leagues walk around immigration laws so easily. I doubt if scrutinised that the majority of players wouldnt get a VISA because theyre isnt a true justification that no one else can fill the role they are advertising for

It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones

Market Differentiation

If they use Android, it is harder to differentiate their product from the rest, their brand also becomes dialuted. Thats why they attempted to produce their own OS, which is not easy despite what all the techies on The Reg seem to believe.

Nokia using Windows Phone is a way for them to sell Smart Phones in the growing smart phone market and be competitive in the long run Meego/symbian might pull something magical out (the next phase). Where Nokia hjas been strongest is in mobile phone sales and that's why they have decided to separate the business into two sections.

It is quite a savvy business strategy move which may pay off, if it doesnt then they can just dissolve that half of the business and it will have little impact on its stronger section the mobile phone one.

Wow - short sighted

Android is a competitor, open source and free doesnt mean that there isnt any drawbacks. All it would take is a new CEo at google or a major court ruling that would mean Google have to find revenue elsewhere and then there is a lot of people who would have tied their lively hoods to them. The only likely survior would be HTC who have diversified their portfolio.

This is very similar to the rise of China, they make cheap items which everyone can benefit from and a lot of countries have banked their businesses on getting manufacturing done there. Now China have got them by balls and very soon (with all the new international Chinese students studying around the world) they will learn from their 'competitors' and eventually cut them out. Do their own R&D and design (Nexus One).

Im not saying don't use Android, I'm just saying don't act they are the holy grail

HTC Mozart WinPho 7 smartphone

hmmm

You'll be surprised. informing customers changing contracts informing shareholders,regulators, bespoke information system updates. There's a lot more in it than the technology.

There's seems to be a lot of bashing of anything that is not open and free for all from a lot of other responders on reg, doesn't get a boring for you guys to be bitter all the time? this is why Managers love to lock IT guys in cupboards next to server room where they can grow their hair and moan at anything that makes their job seem simple.

Im saying this as an IT guy with knowledge of business and the real world

Yahoo! blasts Microsoft over WinPho 7 bug blame

Well

From what I read Yahoo said MS did not implement their IMAP standards properly. This leads me to believe Yahoo have their own implementation of IMAP and just provide a manual to other businesses on how to use it.

MS probably just used a standardised implementation of IMAP which leads to other problems ie extra downloads.

The win pho 7 hackers would be looking at the industry standard IMAP implementation and they seemed to confirm that win pho 7 is using that and there must be an issue with Yahoo's servers

story gone

hate with some hate on the side

Wow dude, you really got up on the wrong side of the bed, they're two different approaches to two different markets, you just want to be angry at something/one.

let it go some like the PS3 some like the xbox, some like kinect some like move, depends on the game. the kinect isnt 'laggy' their are a lot less games for the kinect but that will come in time becaue it is a completely different style of controller. The move is like an advanced controller so backward compatibility is easy.

Calm down

Cabinet Office claims major savings on ICT

IT Professionals

At the present I don't think there isn't many medium size companies that can cope with any governement project, because the way the some government projects are run is completely bonkers.

The money that is wasted could be used to invest medium size firms that are on the cusp of being able to do big nationwide projects and all could be well and done a lot cheaper and far more agile in the future, but the problem is...

Governments are political and people run projects not because they are the best person for the job but because they have been there for twenty odd years doing project support (and know nothing of business management let alone it project management).

Here's what happens

One admin staff decides to take important data home with them in blatant disregard of policy and looses it in the pub, press catch on to it and then a knee jerk reaction, hello new IT project bolted on to the end of another to improve IT security and all IT projects have to incorporate this change into their project regardless of the relevancy.