Posts by JDX

Amazon's S3 object count kisses 1 trillion

Yikes

Exponential alert!!

I always find it bizarre that Amazon, who sell books and gadgets, even entered this market. Can anyone provide a link to a good article on the subject, or a potted summary of key facts about Amazon I missed?

WTF is... UltraViolet

Re: Remind me?

It'll certainly work on Android!

The iPad 3 would make me so horny...

Re: new retina screen makes my existing content look worse

The only way I can think it would is that images are not simply resized so each pixel is displayed as a 2x2 rectangle of the same colour, but upscaled/upsampled to try and improve the resolution, and this leads to blurring or other artifacts.

If this is the case Apple could easily release an iOS update which disables this or makes it a config option or an API option or something.

a tablet without it is not worth having

That's a load of crap. The iPad2 screen is great... certainly I note not one jot of graininess compared to my PCs/laptops.

If you never owned a previous model you're not really in a place to make the comparison.

Re: Blame your tools. not your ipad

Why DO they do it as image per page? There must be a motivation that counters the large file sizes and inability to interact with the content. Is it an anti-piracy thing or does iOS lack a good format for this kind of thing... such as PDF?

Did you even read the article? He clearly contends you get LESS for the same money... heavier, thicker, less battery life. And for graphically intensive apps, slower too.

overpriced?

£329 for a premium 10" tablet seems pretty darn competitive to comparable Android tablets. And top-end Android phones cost the same as the iPhone.

new retina screen makes my existing content look worse

We discussed this the other day - I want to see direct photographic comparison please.

Windows 3.1 rebooted: Microsoft's DOS destroyer turns 20

memmaker

At least in some ways we've moved on a long way :)

Apple's stock price swells above stuttering Google

Oh for crying out loud

It was $500 only recently and AGAIN I decided I'd missed the boat on investing.

I could buy a single Apple share and it would pay for a new iPad in a fortnight, I want to get on the gravy train but surely this time it's maxed out. Right? Right?!

HTC One X Android smartphone

Holy Crap

A Tegra3 in a phone - that's ridonculous!

Re: No-sd slot = no interest

It's all about the cloud baby. Fiddling around with bits of plastic is so 2008. Apparently.

But you're not a typical user so I doubt they'll worry about the lost sale. And I suggest it's not a matter of "a few cents" when every cubic millimeter is precious.

Google's Page: Dying Jobs called ME, I didn't call him

Tricky

It must be tricky when you create a product which is a runaway success, which works well and doesn't need drastic changes. You can't really just say "we're done" and rake in the cash, you feel compelled to do new things and grow, etc.

Google could sit there and rake in the billions without doing much at all - social ads are clearly a powerful thing but web-searching isn't going anywhere.

That's what I would have done. Probably why my business isn't worth $billions.

Aliens Blu-ray disc set

I love Aliens

Waits for "Alien was the classic, Aliens was popular mass-market crap"...

Anonymous turns its fire on China

Irresponsible idiots

>>whilst urging Chinese hackers to join its cause

Yeah good idea. You guys sit on another continent playing your games, and encourage the locals to be the ones who will get the rap when they follow your lead.

Still, if the Chinese government acts about hackers, it'll give anon something else to retaliate too which is ultimately more important to them than any ethical cause.

Browsium rescues HMRC from IE6 – and multimillion-pound bill

Re: How I liked the simplicity of tables.

"Tables are for the display of tabular data. Not for layout/styling. That's what styesheets are for."

Yes we're all aware of the mantra, which web developers must recite at every possible opportunity. After all, it justifies them getting a lot of work to create old sites.

Re: Is it a saving?

DO they need to rewrite the apps? Or can Browsium let them avoid doing so until the natural end of life for the app, when something new is needed regardless of browser upgrade issues?

Re: Smart Fellows

Talk about stuck records. Yes we know, find something new.

Smart Fellows

Find a niche and sell it for all it's worth. Well done to them, I say.

Publisher hails CS Lewis 'space trilogy' e-book debut

Re: Misconceived idea of Lewis' work

I totally missed 'metal' meaning 'music' no wonder I was confused. I didn't even know POM were Christian, but I doubt that's why they're awful - the vast majority of bands in all genres are terrible. I can see that combining a musical style based on anger and so on with a religious view about love is not going to easily work, but I'm told there are some great Christian Punk bands out there :)

Re: Misconceived idea of Lewis' work

I am fairly sure CSL deliberately uses his books to showcase and explain Christianity through fiction. Narnia is certainly written to paraphrase significant parts of the bible.

Tolkein is a better example of a Christian author in whose work Christian themes cannot help but come out, without him forcing it so explicitly.

Re: Misconceived idea of Lewis' work

>>These are no more sci-fi than Christian metal is metal.

Can you explain that phrase? What's "Christian metal"?

Anyway I'd never heard CSL had written any SciFi, are they any good? I like the Narnia books - or liked them as a child - and his ScrewTape stuff (I am a Christian though) so how does the style compare?

Apple plugs Java hole after Flashback Trojan intrusion

Not just banking

Tons of browser-based games use Java too.

Condom compartment hidden in iPhone case

Re: yeah ok

I love the downvotes to my post, suggesting Android users really think people who use Adnroid are cooler than those using Apple. OK guys I'm sure you'd be absolute hits with the ladies explaining how you're an individual and not won over by superficial things like appearance... if you ever met any ladies that is. And I'm sure when they met you they'd be able to tell things like appearance weren't your priority without you spelling it out.

Re: yeah ok

No you're thinking of Android users.

Terrafugia flies first prototype: Flying cars 'within a year'

being able to lift off from your driveway and land at your destination

This is never going to happen in a world where we're trying to reduce fuel usage. Individual air travel with conventional flight is massively inefficient, surely?

We need proper sci-fi technology to achieve flying cars, not a conventional airplane with foldable wings... holding constant height without burning loads of energy.

Why new iPad renders your pile of slab mags as garbage

Upscaling 2:1 is never going to look as nice

I don't think that's the case. Since the resolution is exactly 2X in each dimension, 1 pixel on the iPad2 is exactly replaced by a 2x2 block on the new one. If you simply colour all 4 of those tiny pixels the same colour, shouldn't it be identical?

The only way it wouldn't is if the rendering is doing fancy trickery which blurs the pixels in an attempt to upscale rather than simply resize the image.

it's only a matter of time before this kind of pixel density becomes standard

Why? We've been able to do this resolution on desktop PCs for probably a decade but nobody has driven it to happen in the mainstream. And on such a small screen as the iPad it remains to be seen if this becomes the norm, or a bit of a gimmick.

WHY does it look worse?

It's 2:1 resolution mapping so what is going wrong? Does it really look worse, or just worse in comparison to everything else looking so pretty?

iPad app that lets mute kids speak menaced by patent lawsuit

Re: @DavCrav

OK, except it costs £billions and ultimately someone has to pay for it... either the sick people using it or everyone else through taxes.

Re: every patent invalidated is a victory for us all

An algorithm is not "just an idea". The work is not all in the implementation... for instance if you were working on an image compression algorithm 90+% of the work would be in the algorithm which involves hard computer science and mathematics. Implementing it is just following a list of instructions.

Unless your work involves creating new algorithms, I don't think you're placed to say how hard it is to create them. "Just an idea" only shows your ignorance... people spend their life's work creating algorithms.

Re: Toys out of the pram...

Hmm, this whole thread seems like a conversation with a non-technical manager. "What do you mean it'll take months, it's just a bunch of buttons. How long can it take to make a button?"

And if it's $299 how do you know what the app does to see what it would involve?

good and proper software patent?

Wouldn't H264 be a valid case? Creating something like a new codec could be a massive cost in R&D. Therefore licensing it to users seems fair to me. I don't know nuances of H264 specifically, but an original codec seems fair.

As I said above, prices are higher because the market is smaller. You have to make far more per unit to cover your costs.

every patent invalidated is a victory for us all

No it isn't. It's not a victory for those of us who pour our own money into R&D for new products and want to avoid someone reverse engineering it and selling it for half the price!

Re: Toys out of the pram...

You're missing the point. A mass-market iPad app sells thousands and thousands of copies so $2.99 is fine. If only a few people buy it you still have to spend the same amount of work creating it therefore the price is higher.

That's why niche software costs more, basic economics really. The ultimate case being bespoke software where you have one customer who pays $100k.

Re: if

You realise giving it away for free doesn't stop you getting sued?

Software patents are bullshit - we all know it - don't defend it.

No, they are often BS, and the system is crappy, but that does not mean the concept of patenting stuff used in software is BS. Investing in R&D for an algorithm is no different than investing in R&D for a physical invention.

In this particular case, it sounds like BS though. The company issuing the suit should create their own official iPad app and sell it for $500 or something.

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

Re: Welcome to Facebook, sweetheart

Only if you have a very limited imagination.

Internet Explorer nibbles browser rivals, swells by 1%

Re: IE9 is still a crappy browser

Seems great to me. But then I use a browser for viewing web-pages, not running tests.

On the FF mailing list they had a huge discussion about how to catch IE9 on accelerated page-rendering not long ago.

Re: I've never trusted browser stats sites...

Of course they're not 100% accurate but when you consider the % of PCs which are just running a plain install of the browser compared to those which are in internet cafes or belong to nerds who do fancy things, I imagine such effects are very small.

We can assume browsers like Opera are hardest hit since that's probably the most technically savvy/paranoid choice - i.e. a greater proportion of Opera users don't want to be tracked.

Re: Nice.

No, just realistic. I know which I'd rather drive to Tesco or to holiday in Scotland in.

Re: Wahey! - @AC

Indeed. There was an article a while back claiming Google don't give a damn if Chrome gains market share, as long as it leads to whichever browsers ARE dominant being fast and compliant, so that web-based apps can take over and get Google more traffic.

Re: Its the competition, not Microsoft..

I'm really surprised Google has even stagnated, let alone lost growth. I thought they were increasing share at a furious rate - did they tail off very suddenly?

Re: Nice.

I don't think I've had IE9 crash either, and I used it for months alongside Chrome 50:50.

Re: Wahey!

As opposed to Google and Firefox who never create their own non-standard extensions?

NaCl, -moz-border-radius, etc...

Ice Cream Sandwich gives Android mobes brainfreeze – Sony

Re: Google fanboyism is destroying Android

So we're in the ironic situation MS' phone OS is getting faster and tighter as it develops while Google's and Apple's get bigger and fatter, in direct contrast to the desktop OS situation?

Mac Java hole exploited by wild Flashback Trojan strain

Re: April Fool??

It's nothing to do with trusting your bank or their site... their sites MAY get hacked but it's rare.

Re: java such a turd

Is this trolling or deliberate misinformation? either way pray tell us which platform/framework/runtime is immune to bugs? Certainly not Java, Flash, .NET, PHP or any existing browser's HTML5 implementation.

Nokia v Apple nanoSIM format war: Victor will be named next month

NFC

How is this going to play with those guys that figured out how to get NFC built into a SIM? Or did that turn out to be a bust in the end anyway?