Posts by John Sanders

Apple iPad

I would like to know...

How much did apple pay to get a positive review...

Just Kidding. (maybe not)

For sure I would like to know how the reviewer would feel about the device within one month once the novelty wears off.

Canonical explains Ubuntu unfree video choice

You know...

I'd like to know what those H264 famous patents are, I keep hearing and reading about them here and everywhere else.

I bet they're an absurd bunch of well understood math... and that's why there's open source implementations of H264.

In a few years we'll see the paradox of many, many, many media players playing H264 using the open source implementation rather than the proprietary one made by Apple or even the proprietary MS one, but paying their patent tax religiously.

And that is because Mr Ballmer would like the manufacturer of such media player to use windows embedded (plus license, ca-ching! $$$ thank you) or Mr Jobs forcing the whole Quicktime (painful) experience down the manufacturer throat (no to mention the worker suicides) Hence the savvy Chinese manufacturer will use the mplayer libs to play H264.

(Note the chinesse manufacturer will likely be sued by the FSF because they will violate the GPL on their busybox implementation)

Jobsian Vendetta - Flash stabbed by Mac the Knife

The lesser of all evils...

EVIL is Mono, so is .NET, so is JAVA, so is Flash... and any other modern programming abortion that can do not produce native executables.

So the point is to decide which one of these monsters is the bigger evil of them all.

In my case I would be happy with native compilers of all those technologies.

'Snowmageddon' on Saturn snapped by amateur stargazers

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx: A (free) Mactastic experience

Still too many odd bugs

I wish Canonical would spend more time polishing and less time on the "Constant Innovation Nonsense Syndrome" (CONS) that plagues IT nowadays.

My laptop could boot with 9.10 and it does not with 10.04, honestly I do not even fancy to investigate, I will wait a month and try again. Generally they iron out lots of stuff the first month.

I do not want to just make a rant, I think this release is solid and a good improvement; some things like the VNC client show a lot of promise.

10.04 shows that a Linux desktop is indeed viable, if enough care is used to make it, and this is also a testament of what the Open Source community can achieve.

I wish Wine was in better shape (although I run a lot of Win32 tools on it though) with at least Office 2003 operating as it should, I could kiss windows goodbye once and for all, and as someone pointed out, a working blackberry sync would be just ice on the cake.

RIM's BlackBerry OS 6 may be too late to fend off Apple

Blackberries

When you use a blackberry is it because:

1) Your company gave it to you.

2) You bought it knowing what you bought.

3) You bought it and have no clue.

If you're of the 1st type, you do not care, you may like it or not, your company bought it so you get the corporate email, updates to the OS and what can you run on the phone depends on two factors, how old the blackberry is, and how good the IT dep is. Corporates may find easier to keep buying new blackberries just because it is easier to do so, rather than jump the boat. So they're moderately loyal, and change blackberries every two or three years.

If you belong to the second type, you absolutely love your blackberry, you run the latest OS, and even knowing that an Iphone-like is better for the silly stuff, your blackberry is very convenient and they will take it away from your dead cold hands. You know its pros and cons. You're very loyal and will buy another blackberry, although you won't buy it tomorrow, you will buy it in the next two to three years, and maybe like me, you'll buy it once the old one breaks. But when you buy a new one, it will be probably high end model.

If you belong to the third type, no matter what, you'll think that the iphone-like or (whatever new market fashion) is great, you'll regret buying the blackberry, and more likely you won't buy another blackberry unlike it is even more flashy that the one being shown on tv.

So whatever happens, anyone having to spend more than £200 on a BBRY smart phone, won't be buying them in quantities, nor they will do it often. So I do not know how RIM or anyone else for that matter could expect to have a big market increase overnight.

My Bold has 5.0.610

Man,

Everybody and his dog is running 5.0 on the bold, if you can use Google, you can find it, it is even being offered on many popular blackberry sites.

Os 5.0 runs fantastically well on the Bold 9000. Of course phone companies do not rush to offer it to their customers because they would prefer you to buy a newer phone. Your convenience inconveniences their revenue. This is similar to the case of the Blackberry Storm 1, with a proper 5.x upgrade it feels as if it was a newer phone, not perfect though, but much much better than in it's original 4.7 incarnation.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

It is mean´t to be a cheap modern X40/41

This little thing is a very nice thinkpad, sure is not as nice as the £800+ pounds, but that is also the point.

I have one, it is by far the best netbook I ever had (I had a few asus an an acer) the chassis is solid, it feels like a real laptop, the keyboard and the trackpad are 100% thinkpad, in few words:"what it should be". It feels as solid as my beloved X40.

The video performance is fantastic too, the ATI card is much, much, much better than those crappy intel chipsets.

The CPU is ok, not great, but ok. As someone pointed out the performance improves a lot if the latest bios is used. Do not ask me why. Same with the VGA and battery life which improves a little too.

The hard drive is fast and feels fast.

I do not like: lack of proper screen lock, lack of metal casing, and lack of keyboard light, but hey, this is meant to be a cheap thinkpad. As the article says, it is not meant to be your primary machine. I would say the score should be 80% or 85%.

Adobe mulls changes to close hole in PDF apps

The wonderful world of "powerful apps"

Also implies "powerful exploits", the funny thing is that almost nobody I know uses those power features.

Most of my customers use either pdfcreator or Adobe Distiler to create pdfs, only very few know that you can use Acrobat pro to modify PDF's, and almost no one would ever generate or have to handle anything like an executable attachment inside a pdf.

In fact I have a customer's office (about 10 seats) all using version 5.01 of Acrobat Reader because it is blazing fast compared to 6/7/8/9, and there is no way I can convince them to update.

However I had been wondering for a while why acrobat got so huge and slow compared to the old days' Acrobat 5.x, I think I found the answer, it comes bundled with a DIY exploit construction kit.

RSA says it fathered orphan credential in Firefox, Mac OS

Big brother....

Is signing my certificate.

Firefox plans fix for decade-old browsing history leak

Cool!

A solution at last:

Nice and simple.

about:config

layout.css.visited_links_enabled = false

I do not miss the color change at all.

I wish there was a GUI element somewhere to disable this, but for now it will do.

What I would like of software developers nowadays

Is to be less clever for once. For god sake, put a bloody switch on the configuration named: "disable colored history markings on links" plus a note underneath saying:

"this does blah blah blah, while we fix the problem with a much more clever solution (not recommended)"

That way I could have been browsing for 9 years without being tracked.

But what can I say, software development nowadays (open source or not) is like modern Hollywood flicks, an excuse to make something shiny, not good.

Thanks Mozilla.

US Navy plans self-building floating fortresses

For a second...

I thought I read "Flying Fortress" and got excited for half of a second, until I realized it is an over-sized carrier ship.

China hits back at Google's uncensored Hong Kong servers

What politization?

(((( "This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues ))))

What? to the Chinese officials censorship its just a commercial issue???

I guess that to the Chinese government the regular Chinese citizen is a product too?, like cattle, or like companies like to call people, "a resource".

Disgusting.

Nerd alert: First Lucid Lynx Ubuntu beta fun

I insist, it has too many bugs

And most of them will remain well after the release date, and there are a lot of regressions...

Come on, I have been running ubuntu since 6.04.

For every five steps ahead, one of them is to the side, and two backwards. The thing moves forward faster than let's say "Debian", but in mr Shuttleworth's roadmap the word "polish" occupies a non urgent place.

Having said this, I seriously think that the penguins in whatever incarnation are the future, however at this very moment Ubuntu is not the one to rule them all.

This being ubuntu...

Most of the bugs will remain well after the release date, and many will stay forever, there will be lots of regressions.

And unfortunately for all, this is what one of the best Linux distro is.

Imagine the bad ones.

And what is with the stupid button change on the windows, who asked for that?

Microsoft confirms IE9 will shun Windows XP

Truth is that...

MS is still in charge of the largest commercial computer platform, but it is not as relevant to the industry as it was anymore.

Three things about Vista SP3, I mean Windows 7/2008/R2 sorry NT 6.1

1) Why you can not put network files on a library?

2) Why shared folders do not show a different icon anymore?

3) Why you can not pin shortcuts of exes from network files to the task bar?

What's up with the network? Not friends anymore?

Net downloads cause 'millions of lost jobs'

Cost of replication 0

Why does the software industry still makes the equation download = lost sale?, the reality is download = customer does not buy competing product.

Balmer said so once, it doesn't matter if pirate as long as it is a copy of our product.

Ex-Sun boss punts Apple-Microsoft-world 'tried to sue me' missive

Sueballs!

Very good indeed!

Most resistance to 'Aurora' hack attacks futile, says report

CONVENIENCE IS THE FIRST VICTIM OF SECURITY

Well, I for once nearly got fired for denying a level-c exec local Admin rights on a windows 2000 box, the IT manager gave them to him, and saved my ass.

After a week the guy's machine got infected with everything under the sun, this was circa 2002-3 Neither to say that he kept the admin rights, after all, what is he paying the IT dep for? A virus (trojans, spyware, malware) they are all the same according to management isn't? only causes your computer to slowdown innit?.

This fight was lost a long time ago because:

CONVENIENCE IS THE FIRST VICTIM OF SECURITY.

Only the paranoid survive... Mine is the one with the deep packet inspection book in the pocket, and the double closed LAN

Oscars can Sacha Baron Cohen Avatar skit

Avatar's best review:

There's a comic review of Avatar on youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJarz7BYnHA

and;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLzKwTcGO_0

It describes Cameron quite well.

Forgot your ThinkPad password? Get new hardware

Thinkpads

Have been the same for years, what is the news?

I always considered the Thinkpad's motherboard password a last laugh, a "fcuk you thief" kind of thing. You stole my laptop, now you'll have to sweat to use it.

'We're on a virtual walk out of Africa', futurologist tells Intel partners

Futurist Ray Hammond

I'm speechless, I had no idea intel had found how conscience work, or by the same account, what conscience is, and the means to digitally reproduce it.

So the next marketing crap-word to replace "innovation" is "built-in conscience".

As per addressing the rights of processors, I'm sure intel will find a way so those rights won't affect their quarterly results... I can't stop imagining processors asking for retirement pay, paid holidays... or the right to relax playing "prom" from time to time.

So much for the IQ of an audience who think of technology as some kind of magic.

Lenovo intros ThinkPad X201 series

Sir,

Your comment comes from someone who sees the laptop as a fashion Icon and not as a reliable tool.

Microsoft: Oracle will take us back to 1970s hell

Freedom of choice according to MS

Is: Choose whatever MS software you want running on any operating system of your choosing as long as it is MS's.

Asus Eee PC 1005PE

Where is the...

...Blond girl?

Open source - the once and future dream

And the point of FOSS is:

To prevent anyone from taking whatever source code I put on the Public Domain, making a commercial product using my public domain source and releasing it as theirs, also closing the source of their version down in the process.

Making an obscene profit from a work they never paid to use, and negating the improvements (if any) to the rest of the public.

Well this is one point, there are many more, but you need to read the GPLv2/GPLv3 licenses.

Microsoft to cough up surprise SQL Server 2005 SP4 furball

XP SP4?

And why not also a Win2k3 SP3?

We're talking MS here customer comes after, not before.

QLogic sues over video of chip frying egg

That recipe is tasteless

Without some drops of olive oil on the pan prior to the egg drops...

Some bits of dried minced garlic would help too...

Not mentioning that seeing the olive oil boiling would have made the video more spectacular.

Very cute pan by the way, mi 5 year old daughter now wants one.

Spanish city shuns Brit 'Saga louts'

Lately

Unfortunately for Spain the Spaniards have not discovered yet that 99% of the Spanish politicians are a bunch of illierate rednecks, and they keep voting them.

Microsoft erases Windows 8 optimism

MS and Windows

Reminds me of the Spanish politicos, always making huge promises, people buy it and it turns they need to make some more promises as the old promises were not so good.

The next Windows will be the best windows ever.... bah, it will be another annoying bunch of changes for the sake of change, on an even more and more black box platform.

I'm with the penguin now, it has its issues too, but no one hides them, and most get fixed soon enough.

El Reg reader assembles own iPad

It's...

...magical

Inside Microsoft's innovation crisis

Marketing words...

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, MULTIMEDIA, blah, blah, blah, blah, MULTIMEDIA, blah blah blah, WEB SERVICES blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, CLOUD COMPUTING, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, CLOUD COMPUTING, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, INNOVATION blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, INNOVATION, blah, blah, blah, blah, INNOVATION will save us all.

Can any marketing drone give us the new marketing buzzword? I´m sick of hearing innovation.

Innovation is meaningles on an industry dedicated to REFINE ideas and concepts that have been lying around for 40-50 years.

the iPad, the iPhone, the Xbox, Windows GUI, etc, Operating systems, processors, the internet...

Those are the refined expressions of the concepts of computer, computer application, the old server-client model, and electronic networks that were developed during the 70 and the 80.

Innovation is not when you find new ways "TO DO THE SAME ON A DIFFERENT FASHION", but to do trully new things in new ways.

MS probes bug that turns PCs into 'public file servers'

Is it only me...

Or Windows XP is suddenly a pile load of insecure old trash...

Oh wait Windows 7 is the most secure windows ever...

Silly me.

Microsoft's SVG talk a prelude to IE support?

Nah... MS at its best.

They will ruin SVG for everybody, wait and see...

Google's Android code deleted from Linux kernel

GPLv3

Linus will regret no having the kernel under GPLv3... He'll soon see why.

I was somewhat expecting this.

Google reveals nonexistent Chrome tablet

No sir...

I´m not buying any xPad as long as it is not open so I can do what I please with it.

The rest of the world can do as they please, heck from my part people can buy and iRope and do as they please...

In my case as long as the penguin boots on 'me hardware' I´m happy.

Google yanks IE6 love from web apps

Running only chrome? why not?

"Running only their own browser would be incredibly stupid."

No, it is called eating your own dog food. If you do not believe in your own product, who will?

This doesn't mean they should not try their products with other browsers, or design their products with other browsers in mind, but at least internally they should try to stick with Chrome as another way to truly polish and perfect their browser.

Could you imagine a percentage of MS's employees happily working on Linux or Mac OS computers while at MS?

By the way I do not like chrome I use FF & Opera

CIA, PayPal under bizarre SSL assault

The Chinese...

Now know how to get your private key...

Apple video shows Flashed iPad

Sanders said it before...

The only choice for adobe's flash's survival on the long term, is to open source the flash player, so it can be ported to other architectures by the Linux community.

It is either opensourcing, or death, if they do opensource, flash will get performance fixed and made a de-facto web standard.

Critical infrastructure execs fear China

So...

Can anyone care to explain why critical systems are connected to a public network like the Internet?????

Back in the day we used to use leased lines for important things... like money, the banks did it with payment gateways.

I do not understand....

Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'

LOL!

"Pricing begins at $499 - that'll get you a non-3G iPad with 16GB of storage"

Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (rolling on the floor)

$500 for that piece of... so I can enjoy the pleasure to buy crap from virtual apple sponsored stores???? not even multitasking... !!!!!

Come on do not make me laugh.

Oh wait this was about saving the printed press...

Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (rolling on the floor)

Who's going to be the idiot buying one???? $500!!!!

Once impenetrable PS3 cracked wide open

The PS3 cracking saga is far from over...

But one thing is for sure, I do not have a PS3 already because it can not be pirated.

And so does everybody I know, and in fact that is the very reason I have an XBOX 360 despite not likening the platform at all.

Like most of the people who can afford those gaming beasts, I have two pairs of little hands that love to literally destroy anything expensive daddy has, specially if comes in 120 mm cute funny colored disks with a hole in the middle.

They destroyed many CD's of my PS2 game collection, broke my light gun.

I'm not buying a PS3 until I can make copies of the CD's. Will I pirate games? yes of course, I will not buy everything that gets published. But so far of the 40 games I have for the XBOX, I bought about 10 original games, and those I got them because a friend had tried them pirate at first. I would not have bought those if I did not have the console, I will probably buy some more during the lifetime of the console.

Those tittles, and that console could have been Sony's.

IBM's monster tape will take three days to fill

This might come handy

To store Sander's pron collection...

But as somebody pointed out, tapes are way too expensive compared to decent HD's with 5 year guarantee.

Again my dear register... how much??

Microsoft re-org hints at Windows and Mobile merge

You can not expect a single person to do everything

If MS depends on Sinofsky to be able to consistently release every single MS product, I bet Sinofsky is now a single point of failure.

And besides, unless MS makes something out of Win-mobile and gives it away for free, they won't have the slightness of the opportunities to make a dent against Apple, Google or RIM.

They have had systems that work and do it well from the get go.

Firefox 3.6 goes live and final

Personas is a bad joke

I do not understand how can the Mozilla guys think that slapping a bitmap over the toolbars makes FF looks good, there are only one or two of those bitmaps which are actually any good looking.

I've found that the theme "cromifox basic 3.6.1" makes FF looks quite good (Chrome-like).

Besides personas I think that this release is quite solid, what 3.5.x should have been in the first place.

Now if they could fix the bookmarks

For me the only thing left to be fixed is the bookmarks, I find very annoying that when you search for a bookmark once you find, it it doesn't show its location within the bookmarks tree.

If like me you have hundreds of categories under hundreds of folders, if you lose a bookmark, you need to know where the hell it is.

Opera is top notch on that respect, sad they removed the menus on the last beta.

Opera and Firefox downloads soar after IE alerts

HERESY!!!

***2. Is it me or is sombunall of the Register's content written by and for Daily Mail readers? How about some more objective journalism or does 1. refer to you?****

Don't you dare to badmouth my beloved register young man!

Even if it doesn't look like, this is an intellectual temple!

Chinese stamp on Avatar

They're rulers after all

And rulers do as they please when they see fit, for whatever strange reason crosses their minds that particular day.

I'm sure the officials in the Chinese government will all go to private passes to see what the fuss is all about and enjoy a nice evening of good-old commercial cinema from the west.

And that is what life is on a dictatorship state.

Plextor plunges into SSD pool

I know I'm a pain but...

Where are the prices????