* Posts by JDX

6847 publicly visible posts • joined 28 May 2010

Nokia Lumia 925: The best Windows Phone yet

JDX Gold badge

iPhone has shown expansion and so on are not features the general public consider critical. It makes no sense to cram every feature into every phone when more people would be put off the bulkiness than are turned on by those features. They have phones with these features for the (apparently niche) market who require them.

JDX Gold badge

Re: The definition of an idiot....

What are you on about? How is releasing new phones "the same thing"? How is growth in market share "the same result"? I think they don't want a different result!

NASA serves up Curiosity's billion-pixel panorama

JDX Gold badge

Re: Simply amazing

THe people who care are the ones who can't see it.

JDX Gold badge

@Norman Hartnell

I'm sorry, you think the most interesting thing on Mars is the rover we sent there?

JDX Gold badge

Re: Not Available on Mobile

Woah, people are downvoting someone who complains about use of silverlight/flash? What weird dimension is this?

Google's JavaScript challenger gains better tools, performance

JDX Gold badge

Re: I don't want ANOTHER language

How about improving a language that already exists?

JDX Gold badge

I don't want ANOTHER language

The answer to making things easier is not to create more and more languages.

JDX Gold badge

Re: 'How many .....remain in"BETA" stage, or get canceled once people start liking them?'

re:1.

Grow up.

Hey fanboi, is that an EXPLODING BATTERY in your MacBook Pro?

JDX Gold badge

You can replace the battery?

First look: iOS 7 for iPad

JDX Gold badge

Re: Lacking in everything

The UI shouldn't be exciting, it should be unnoticable.

JDX Gold badge

Re: Game Center Looks Childish

Yeah the old version looks like a 90s Geocities page!

Samsung wins Apple MacBook contract, starts spitting out PCIe SSDs

JDX Gold badge

Re: El Reg storage desk is fairly confident this means 1TB capacity products are coming...

Ah, the Sleeper Service approach to laptop design... fill every cubic inch with SSD.

When to say those three little words: 'I am quitting'

JDX Gold badge

Re: Loose talk costs

Clearly you don't tell them where you are working at that early stage.

JDX Gold badge

Surely the brash style is deliberate... he wants to make it very clear that he is not writing about what is right or wrong, how things should happen, or what he likes or dislikes about the world of recruitment, only the facts about the system so you can play it to your advantage.

JDX Gold badge

It's almost like he thinks he knows more about the recruitment world than we do.

Critical Java SE update due Tuesday fixes 40 flaws

JDX Gold badge

Re: @DryBones

Some of us actually use computers to get work done.

JDX Gold badge

Re: @AC

Where are all the news stories about .NET being an insecure POS? Or are you just against anything that isn't FOSS regardless of if it's actually any good? What'd you rather they use, PHP (laugh).

Nearly-transparent screen adds solar charge to phones

JDX Gold badge

Where did they say 18% of its quality was lost? When you wear sunglasses does what you see lose quality, or just look a bit darker?

One issue for me though is that if you have to ramp up the screen brightness to compensate, won't that use extra power?

Facebook killing off Sponsored Results in search pages

JDX Gold badge

Re: The Sun @h3

I don't think anyone who uses the phrase "dumbed down" is in any position to complain about changes to the standards of education since they attended school.

JDX Gold badge

Re: A win for the consumer or just FB re-adjusting its trousers...?

Why can't it be both? The most effective ads are ones that get noticed but don't irritate people by getting in the way.

Sony sucker-punches Xbox on price, specs, DRM-free gaming

JDX Gold badge

Re: "XBOX Vista" already dead?

You guys don't get it. Sure, moving house or if your ISP going down are a PITA but people are not going to make a decision on which console to buy based on the one which will work when they move house, something they do perhaps every couple of years. Most people won't even think of this fact when buying (tech-savvy people are like 1% of console owners) and even if they do, it's not the big issue. It's like saying nobody will take out a Netflix/Spotify subscription because they won't be able to watch TV or listen to music after they move house... it's an inconvenience (I just moved house!) but people still use those services.

All the people who use their PCs and PS4s to play online games won't be able to play them for two weeks either, but I've never read a review of a multiplayer-focused game which marksa game down because you can't play it after you move house.

As for dodgy internet... phoning home is not using a lot of data, it's just logging in.

And if it's really an issue... just run your phone as a MiFi for a few minutes.

JDX Gold badge

Re: It was bound to happen - somebody LISTENED to CUSTOMERS...

They haven't listened to what customers want, they have just taken the gold-plated opportunity to profit from MS' foolishness. Sony are ONLY doing this to steal MS customers and make more money, there is nothing close to "doing good" here, just a shrewd financial move.

JDX Gold badge

Re: Pricing FAIL

Perhaps because of import duties? Perhaps because you live so far away from the rest of us?

JDX Gold badge

Re: "XBOX Vista" already dead?

Except that to many players, having to phone home every day is inconsequential as it will always be online through WiFi.

The 2nd-hand game issue is the thing which could scupper MS, but I'm not convinced of that... yet.

What do you mean WHY is Sony PS4 so pricey in Oz?

JDX Gold badge

Re: "they probably won't have a real debate about selling more at the correct price"

I was being sarcastic, to highlight that even if they did sell it the exact same price everywhere, some people would still complain.

JDX Gold badge

"they probably won't have a real debate about selling more at the correct price"

Yet they probably won't have a real debate about selling more at the correct price. They'll just assume they're making more money by gouging the Australian people.

There IS NO "the correct price" you idiot. That's the whole bloody point. Even if there were, it wouldn't be the same price everywhere... if you sell it for $500 everywhere then it is cheaper for people in countries with higher salaries, that's not fair for people in poor countries...

We want to put a KILL SWITCH into your PHONE, say Feds

JDX Gold badge

Re: Bad idea

Oh no, the government can kill my phone. Hardly near the top of my worries, like having them block my bank account.

Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report

JDX Gold badge

Re: What's going on?

We've heard news before that Apple are under pressure to release iOS7 ASAP, rather than when they're ready too. Apple are one company who can play on their own terms so "release it when it's finished" has to be the right route here.

Microsoft to open Windows Stores inside 600 Best Buy locations

JDX Gold badge

Re: Yes, because I associate quality with Best Buy

Dummies are not a niche.

Who's to be the next Dr Who? Sherlock beats Maurice - says you

JDX Gold badge

The most boringly obvious choice

Pick someone who's already playing the role of an eccentric, almost alien genius, with floppy hair and no interest in women.

I really hope the BBC show more imagination.

Scientists investigate 'dark lightning' threat to aircraft passengers

JDX Gold badge

Re: hundreds of chest x-rays worth of radiation

Good to know JP19 is here to refute people who actually study physics for a living.

Nowhere did the article say dark lightning risks x-ray exposure. gamma rays are not x-rays (well there's a cross-over but the principle applies).

Online music world on iRadio: Apple, imagine our concern

JDX Gold badge

Re: relies on DJs to choose the music rather than algorithms

If you don't want to hear people talking, don't listen to the radio, listen to a CD, you moron. The whole point of radio is it's not just playing CDs back to back.

JDX Gold badge

Re: a 3 page credit-card form every time you want to buy something?

I hope you leave your credit cards at home when you go out too, just in case someone mugs you.

JDX Gold badge

Re: relies on DJs to choose the music rather than algorithms

It's still humans picking the playlist, and there is scope for the DJ to change things or talk in between and muck up the timings.

From what I remember of listening to Moyles talk about things like this, you do get some sort of timer/count-in.

JDX Gold badge

Re: "You can easily buy it with one click!"

If you want to buy something, a 1-click experience IS helpful to you as well as great for the seller. Or do you prefer going through a 3 page credit-card form every time you want to buy something?

Google gobbles map app Waze

JDX Gold badge

Re: "data generated by some 50 million or so users to provide real-time traffic updates"

They could but it only works because of a willing user-base. Waze already has that so if they carry on, the rest of us can benefit.

Magpie Apple plunders the competition for cosmetics, as egos run wild

JDX Gold badge

Re: Familiar

You know deep down every iPhone user is going to look at this and think "well, they kept telling me this was better than the competition for all those years

Yeah, the average Apple user definitely thinks all that, rather than just buying iPhone because it;s cool and pretty. People buy phones because they like them, not as a result of prolonged introspection.

JDX Gold badge

Copying

That's how every industry works... products evolve most of the time, and they tend to do that by learning/borrowing from each other. Revolution is not the rule. If it were, things would be too confusing because every two years the OS would change totally.

Did Android copy Apple by launching a full-touch mobile OS? Or did they simply see it was the best way to go?

Chrome and Firefox are planet-wreckers, IE cuddles dolphins

JDX Gold badge

Re: Incomplete

Do you also make sure to turn off unused power sockets so the electricity doesn't leak out?

JDX Gold badge

Re: Browser setup?

Well IE9/10 doesn't run on XP for a start.

JDX Gold badge

Yeah because W8 isn't more resource-efficient than W7, which was better than Vista. Oh wait, it is.

And good job for failing at science, when they eliminate the baseline the fact it's W8 is not a factor.

Apple at WWDC: Sleek new iOS, death of the big cats, pint-sized Mac Pro

JDX Gold badge

Re: It's Apple

These days, you do NOT need to upgrade your PC every year. A beasty 12-core machine is going to be quite relevant for several years.

JDX Gold badge

Just because it's a powerful workstation does not mean it needs to be any more easily upgradeable than a regular workstation.

Most Apple using-professionals don't spend their time upgrading the thing. The old Pro might be great from a PC user's perspective but the sales figures show it simply isn't that interesting to Apple users. Cool is what Apple do...

JDX Gold badge

Air

I'll wait for reviews, but I have to say I am tremendously impressed they have focused on such a genuinely useful improvement as all-day battery life, rather than simply making it even thinner and lighter just because they can. Of course this is mainly down to Intel and will (hopefully) be seen in WinBooks too, but it's a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

FUTURE of mobe tech: Today will be dry with chilly gusts of 12Mbps

JDX Gold badge

Re: Giving for free, whilst the Security Agencies have to dig for it

Please can we just ban cliched lines like "You're the product, not the customer"; honestly it gets so tiring and is just a way for people who nothing about the issues to trot out trite comments to sound current.

I hate companies trying to make their service better as much as the next guy, but really...

Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59

JDX Gold badge

I wonder if anyone else will step up

To write Culture books... it really is such a great SF universe. I can't decide if it would be a good or a bad thing but amongst SF writers, it is not unknown for great writers to write in homage to other writers they are fans of, especially where an author knows they are dying.

Putting aside the question of if this should happen, are there any authors who you reckon could write stories in a Culture universe?

JDX Gold badge

Re: Public service announcement

Thanks Prof.

JDX Gold badge

If you are a fan of Iain. M. Banks, may I recommend...

...Alastair Reynolds' SF to you, especially the "Revelation Space" books. Definitely in the same vein.

JDX Gold badge

Re: A Great Author

May I recommend Alastair Reynolds' SF to you, especially the "Revelation Space" books. It's the closest SF to I.M.B I've come across.

Apple unveils hints of Monday's new-product announcements

JDX Gold badge

Re: To recapitulate :

I missed the part where you were forced to read the article. And where like an idiot you wasted even more time writing a comment about it.