Posts by agricola

Ubuntu smartphone to go on sale: It'll be harder to get than a new iPhone

"JUST ABOUT READY--REAL SOON, NOW."

"“Clearly we are going for the mass market, and [it’s] something we will do intelligently over time..."

You mean, of course, that 'mass market' which belongs to Android and Apple to the tune of greater than 90%. Of course you do.

It has already taken you an inordinately LONG time to do it--UNintelligently, while you have seen an upstart like FireFox announce THEIR plans--way after you--to design and produce a phone, and then beautifully EXECUTE that plan while you have been sitting on your hands, trying to determine what your next big excuse will be.

As a leading technology-news reporting organization put it this past December: the Ubuntu phone is a mirage; it's always 'just about ready'.

Yahoo's! Mayer!: We'll! spin! off! $40bn! Alibaba! stake! and! pay! ZERO! tax! on! it! Ha!

El Reg: you answer your own questions with your comprehensive reporting.

Title of one of El Reg's articles today:

"Does Big Tech hire white boys ahead of more skilled black people and/or women?

Drop the words "more skilled". The answer provided by this article is obvious.

What's wrong with seeking diversity--at any cost--in the high-tech industry?

How is this lack of ability to see beyond the end of one's nose any different than Ford's selling of Jaguar, when Jag was Ford's only profitable division; or the US government's (sometimes laughably-stated-openly) argument against building the Keystone oil pipeline as "...we don't need it, what with the price of oil being so low..."!{!!!}

No difference.

Just proves--again--Mayers' continuing lack of ability as a corporate leader.

Re: Gee.... no mention of Icahn or Elliot or "activist investor".

""... I guess the board learned from the master asses and want to cash out their shares and retire?..."

Y'a think?

Planning to upgrade your Lumia to Windows 10? NOT SO FAST

Another of the Artificial Intelligencia heard from...

"Why are you folks even here posting? This is just a hate all things Microsoft rag. I work for ...They want as many people using 10 on all of their devices as they can muster..."

"I will not insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said."

--William F. Buckley

{ "...even here posting..."??!!. The esteemed commenter and I agree: some should not be allowed to be even here posting.}

Re: Talk about PERFECT TIMING! THANK YOU, MICROSOFT!!!

...but, most of the thanks should go to you, El Buitre, for bringing this typical Microsoft activity to light.

Keep their feet to the fire, along with--choke! choke! cough! cough!--Google.

Talk about PERFECT TIMING! THANK YOU, MICROSOFT!!!

The great news: I decided to never again buy any product or service from Google, after just having returned a 'phone whose only 'giveaway' was a well-hidden request (within the set-up process) to "...click here to acknowledge your acceptance of Google's privacy Terms and Conditions...". Believe it or not, the term 'Android' was well hidden on the box. But the cost was outstanding.

Sooo, I went looking, and after a week of really serious comparisons HAD decided to place an order today for a new Lumia phone offering.

Now, I'm not one to say, "...no, Hell no...", or "...never...", but the FACT of an upgrade to Win10 was a serious consideration in--what I thought was--my final decision.

I'm old enough to have seen too many millions of people burned by Microsoft, and to have seen tons and tons of PolyAnnas whose stance is..."surely it won't happen to me..." (some are right here, in these comments. Unbelievable!).

I won't be placing an order for a new Lumia phone, today.

Thank you, and warmest regards, Microsoft.

Canonical goes all Internet of Stuff with Ubuntu for DRONES

Shuttleworth's entertainment value is priceless!

Well, looks like Markey is up to his old tricks: spewing horses**t about how Ubuntu is going to take over the latest gee-whiz technology d'jour.

Where's the Ubuntu TV, Mack?

Where're all those fixes for Ubuntus 9.10 and later, genius? (Oops, I forgot: according to TA Edison, 'genius' is 99% perspiration; something Shuttleworth knows absolutely NOTHING about).

Where's your community?

Where's your credibility?

WHERE'S THE UBUNTU PHONE?

Never mind; we ALL know: it's been delayed until 2016--fourth quarter, of course. That is, until December 31 of 2016.

Re: Rasbeen there done that...

Thank God for that!

Otherwise, Raspberry Pi would be dead.

Would you buy a domain from Google? Industry weighs in on web giant's move

"Would you buy a domain from Google?"

You, El Buzzard, are mightily concerned with internet security, right?

Well, I also am, and that is the reason I refuse to buy, use, or have anything to do with any product or service remotely associated with Google.

And before all you sheep weigh in with how much I am missing out on by not using Android phones, Chromebooks, Google+, and ANY Google sevice, I have one piece of advice--which is woefully too late, and which is a tantamount to casting pearls before swine: learn to think for yourselves.

Preserve the concinnity of English, caterwauls American university

It's (or maybe that's 'its'. Or perhaps 'thats its') all your fault---

If you Brits hadn't had the poor grace to lose (or is that 'loose') the BIG one back in the 1770s, we'd all be speaking English today.

"It's a poor mind as can't think of at least two or three ways to spell a word."

--Andrew Jackson

Google unveils Windows 8.1 zero-day vuln – complete with exploit code

"Awww, c'mon Goog, ..."

"...cut us some slack. We're used to having 'way more than ninety days to screw our customers."

The REAL advice coming later from Microsoft...

"Have you tried switching your computer off, then on again?"

Forget Hillary, HP's ex CARLY FIORINA 'wants to be next US Prez'

The problem is--the inordinate number of psycopaths in high places.

"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.

To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”

― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

[I would add a personal comment, except for the following sage advice:]

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place,‭ ‬but far more difficult still,‭ ‬to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.‭"

‬--Benjamin Franklin‭

Canonical rolls out home-grown Ubuntu OpenStack distro

I want to hear it straight from the (dead) horse's mouth.

Where's Jono Bacon when you need him for real dissembling.

Mark Shuttleworth is still up to his old modus operandi: announcing a brand-new world-beater of an application while still not having delivered on the last three, or four, or five... Oh, and putting him smack in the middle of the ranks of legitimate organizations such as Red Hat and H-P,

The only thing missing from this report is Mark Shuttleworth's stock, standard prediction prediction of an immediate user base of 20 million (go ahead: "google' "mark shuttleworth twenty million").

What's the reason for this? Same as always: to divert your attention from the fact that his last three or four or five "announcements" were pure, unadulterated horseshit.

Where's that ubuntu TV, watch, smartphone, and combobulated system-which-works-across-all-products that you've been waiting for?

Now you can shift you hearts' desires to a NEW, never-to-see-the-light-of-day

UNIX greybeards threaten Debian fork over systemd plan

There goes the Linux touchstone.

"Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better"

-- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Are you a gun owner? Let us in OR ELSE, say Blighty's top cops

Democracy? Republic? Where?

You people are running as fast as you possibly can to follow the US into being a police state.

Be very careful what you wish for.

Torvalds CONFESSES: 'I'm pretty good at alienating devs'

Major contributions...

...HAVE been made to any field of human endeavor you can name by people who did it by not being assholes.

Linus Torvalds can NOT claim that distinction,

Greedy datagrabs, crap security will KILL the Internet of Thingies

The world is filled with people who don't have any real work to do, ...

...wouldn't recognize REAL work if it slapped them in the face, and are totally incapable of doing any.

Who exactly ARE these numb-nuts who come up with these completely effete ideas?

Sorry, but I've had "e-intrusion" up to here; and not a week goes by without a breaking story regarding a major financial catastrophe due to hacking.

Get this, blockheads--and this includes Google, BIG TIME--loud and clear:

I'm LEAVING the internet as fast as I can; NOT, for God's sake PUTTING MY HOUSE ON THE INTERNET.

"Good ideas are overrated...The world is filled with people with good ideas and very short of people who can even rake a leaf.‭ ‬I’m tired of good ideas." --Andy Rooney‭

"Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better" -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Jaguar Sportbrake: The chicken tikka masala of van-sized posh cars

Re: That last photo..

"looks rather like a slick and speedy hearse. Maybe a market they hadn't considered?..."

How very appropriate, considering what Tata has done to Jaguar-LandRover.

WROOOONG!!!

UNreliability of turbocharged engines.

THE most reliable internal-combustion engines extant are the ones used in diesel-electric locomotives: they are SUPERcharged diesel engines, most definitely NOT TURBOcharged.

If you want the correct answer, always ask the guy whose bottom line depends on having made the correct decision.

Re: Jaguars are astonishingly awful in the snow

This comment is not about Jaguars, specifically.

It's about a disturbing trend among automakers to use turbochargers to boost performance--for a while--rather than using their brains to innovate.

Turbochargers are a cheap way to boost performance while actively exacebating the long-term (<100K miles) UNreliability of the powertrain. Forget that this is an inherently long-lived diesel (if it's a proper diesel); it's the turbocharger--on any engine--which causes the problems.

Remember all those "rubber-band" engines which used a (internal) flexible timing belt which REQUIRED changing before 100K miles, and the breakage of which could ruin an engine? Before the industry killed THAT design concept, it at least had the good grace to ensure that total engine destruction did not occur WHEN the belt failed.

Thanks, but no thanks. None of my cars--including my 2005 Jag with 160K miles--have turbos, nor will they. And they all last--save the Jag--well past 300K miles.

Just one guy's opinion--who's been working on autos for a loooong time

OMG! With nothing but machine tools, steel and parts you can make a GUN!!

...except as...

...an excellent indicator of the intelligence, knowledge and reasoning and logic skills of the respondees.

"It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.‭ ‬Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work,‭ ‬and I studied it intently.‭ ‬The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts.‭ ‬They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more*.

--Sir Winston Churchill,‭ ‬Roving Commission:‭ ‬My Early Life,‭ ‬1930,‭ ‬Chapter‭ ‬9...

*...except for some.

Just some food for thought...

Criminals obey gun-control laws in the same manner as politicians follow their oaths of office.--anon

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is,‭ ‬as a last resort,‭ ‬to protect themselves against tyranny in government.‭ ‬-‭ ‬Thomas Jefferson

‭An armed society is a polite society. – Robert A. Heinlein

‭Switzerland is a land where crime is virtually unknown, yet most Swiss males are required by law to keep in their homes what amounts to a portable, personal machine gun. –‬Tom Clancy‭

‎The police can't stop an intruder, mugger, or stalker from hurting you. They can pursue him only after he has hurt or killed you. Protecting yourself from harm is your responsibility, and you are far less likely to be hurt in a neighborhood of gun owners than in one of disarmed citizens – even if you don't own a gun yourself. – Harry Browne

‎

The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in their possession any swords,‭ ‬bows,‭ ‬spears,‭ ‬firearms or other types of arms.‭ ‬The possession of these elements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues,‭ ‬and tends to permit uprising.‭ – ‬Toyotomi Hideyoshi,‭ ‬Japanese Shogun,‭ ‬August‭ ‬29,‭ ‬1558

‎The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed. – Alexander Hamilton

‭We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists. - Patrick Henry

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it.‭ ‬If you do that,‭ ‬you will double the danger.‭ ‬But if you meet it promptly and without flinching,‭ ‬you will reduce the danger by half.‭ ‬Never run away from anything.‭ ‬Never‭! --‬Winston Churchill‭

Internet of Things? Hold my beer, I got this: ARM crafts OS to rule them all

We all saw this coming...

Microsoft, Canonical, ARM: makes no difference.

You got a license for me to sign? Your product dies.

Microsoft boss Nadella makes fleeting visit to China for conciliatory competition talks

Time to re-boot.

One whole day later, you have TWO WHOLE COMMENTS!

WOWEE!

Be certain to send this ringing endorsement of reader interest in things Microsoft to Redmond.

Not appy with your Chromebook? Well now it can run Android apps

Re: Can you say, "Read between the lines...", boys and girls?

"They're not a full computer in the sense you're implying, but for many people they're all they'll need, and easier to use and maintain. I got one to use only for internet; I have many other computers for the other needs..

Not a full computer? You mean not being able to print (easily, at all), no serial port, not being able to upgrede hardware, not being able to store and run YOUR software makes them not a full computer, right.

You've made my point for me.

All a Chromebook is, is a TERMINAL for GOOGLE. It's nmot even a terminal you can connect to all your "...many other computers...".

And if you've got "...many other computers...", why'd you throw your money away on a device which makes your other computers look like supercomputers?

Thanks for making my point for me.

Can you say, "Read between the lines...", boys and girls?

No matter how much whipped cream with maraschino cherries Google piles on the Chromebook, it's STILL a useless turd.

The one thing it is NOT is a computer.

Gee, everyone who wants a tablet has a tablet. Waiddaminute....

Too bad,,,

...the younger, 'I-want-it-now', 'I've got-to be- continually-entertained', 'I've-GOT-to-be-seen-with-the-latest-technology' generation scoffs at the acquired wisdom of maturity.

We've looked at tablets, phablets, CHROMEBOOKS, ultrabooks, INOT, 'wearable' (cough, cough) technology, and have told the idiots who dream up--andthese effete pieces of technological sh*t that "...you are totally, completely full of sh*t"...

Stagnating, falling sales, hmmm? Q.E.D.

YES, I have ridden the Unicorn: The Ubuntu Utopic unicorn

It's too late to make up for all the years of ...

Offering Ubuntu with Mate because of all the defections to Mint Mate, are they?

Purely and simply a red herring.

Mint is just simply better, and the gentleman behind Mint is sterling. Two things which cannot be said of Ununtu, or Canonical.

Creaky PC? SanDisk gives users a NAND with speedy '3-bitter' SSD

People won't learn.

So Sandisk refuses to learn ANYthing from Samsung's TLC fiasco.

Fiasco: Samsung's falling, falling, falling prices on their TLC devices as potential customers stay away in droves, regardless of all of Samsung's hype.

Sandisk, people are a lot smarter than either you or Samsung give them credit for.

Chromebooks to break out of US schools: Netbook 2.0 comeback not just for children

CHROMEBOOK?! I thought you wrote articles for NON-BRAIN-DEAD people.

Thanks to all three of you room-temperature-IQ mouth-breathers for your unwitting (what else would we expect from you?) affirmation of my exposition of the utility of this piece of shit, via your three down-votes. My only disappointment is that there are not a lot more--but we know you're out there. You simply don't know how to write coherentlly

You also probably believe that a Chromebook is more useful than a four-function calculator.

CHROMEBOOK?! I thought this article was about COMPUTERS.

How much is Google paying Gartner to beat the drums for this brain-dead piece of shit?

Apple's iWatch may be DELAYED over sapphire glass supply problems

Another Apple 'Red Herring', for certain.

All Apple has is to do is pay Canonical money.

If you remember. Canonical was prepared to offer the Ubuntu Edge with not just a sapphire glass screen, but a SAPPHIRE screen.

With the "self-appointed-benevolent-dictator-for-life" 's prediction of sales of at least ten million of anything he proposes or promises, he SURELY knows that there is enough sapphire in the world to support these kinds of numbers, and had the supplier "...lined up...", as he always does.

Apple: get in touch with SABDFL. What have you got to lose? That can only have two outcomes: solve all your problems, or cneate new ones.

Use Tor or 'extremist' Tails Linux? Congrats, you're on an NSA list

Tit-for-tat...

"...If something as innocuous as Linux Journal is on the NSA's hit list, it's a distinct possibility that El Reg is too, particularly in light of our recent exclusive report on GCHQ – which led to a Ministry of Defence advisor coming round our London office for a chat..."

So why don't you SHOW GCHQ that you will not be intimidated by them--and, more importantly, that you consider them nothing more than room-temperature-IQ arseholes, and pond-scum--by PUBLISHING this entire chat you had with this Ministry-of-Defence so-called "ADVISOR"?

Believe me, we would ALL simply delight in NSA's boot-lickers, the GCHQ, being made fools of.

The NSA has already taken care of that problem on its end.

Microsoft: NSA security fallout 'getting worse' ... 'not blowing over'

Re: Duh!!!

"Reader--Imagine yourself to be a blithering idiot.

Now imagine yourself to be a member of Congress.

But I repeat myself."

--Mark Twain.

HP's $1bn 'Linux for the cloud' dream: Will Helion float?

Another H-P fiasco?

"http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/16/cloud_computing_is_fail_and_heres_why/

"Cloud computing is FAIL and here’s why

Stick that online service up your SaaS

By Alistair Dabbs, 16 May 2014"

The Register

HP's Whitman rues 'biggest failure' at eBay Japan

Sell your HP Stock

From one of the world's premiere technology companies--medical equipment; all forms of engineering instrumentation; the world's best industrial research organization; chip manufacturing--...

Wow! Carly Fiorina REALLY turned HP into...nothing.

And, Meg Whitman has all the credentials to finalize this transition.

Great going, GIRLS.

AND: GREAT GOING, H-P BOARD WHO JUST HAD TO SHOW THE WORLD WHAT DIVERSITY CAN DO.

OK. You've showed us. We're now believers, every one. Won't ever happen on my watch.

SpaceX: We NAILED the Falcon 9 landing! The video, on the other hand...

Now I haven't seen everything!

WHAT?!

The guy who knows absolutely EVERYTHING can't take a proper video?

AND, he's asking the amateur community for HELP?.

Sounds just exactly like the modus operandi of another South African: one Mark Shuttleworth. Must be a systemic South African disease.

Perhaps the Ubuntu-controlled (lifted straight out of a Tesla) fire extinguisher for the camera didn't respond to its Ubuntu commands.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: Great changes, but sssh don't mention the...

of COURSE, don't mention Mark Shuttleworth's INCLUSION OF SPYWARE !!!

...because this is TYPICAL MARK SHUTTLEWORTH.

A dumb-ass decision, POSSIBLY UNETHICAL, is made, the justification for which goes something like

"...this is NOT a democracy, I made the decision; it's good for you; GET OVER IT!"

And then what follows is a series of prevarication, circumlocution, out-and-out lying, and cover-up. Oh, and grandstanding, diversionary tactics to take the public's mind off the whatever-it-is.

BUT, MAINLY, SIMPLY NEVER MENTIONING THE WHATEVER-IT-IS EVER AGAIN, and doing whatever is necessary to ensure that it never appears in the press again.

Batten down the hatches, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS due in TWO DAYS

WHERE ARE ALL THOSE BELLS AND WHISTLES?

"Batten down the hatches, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS due in TWO DAYS!"

Why?

Mark Shuttleworth has already dropped more announced features for 14.04 than will appear. AND, when the bog-standard Ubuntu is flawed, we'll get the same set of excuses: my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE was the brain-dead excuse when Unity didn't work when it FINALLY appeared:

"I never said it would WORK(!); I said this would be a work in progress" (!)

Get ready for another work-in-progress.

Boffins make noise about D-Wave chip: it seems quantum

I'm going with the odds...

Wishful thinking.

Mozilla DENIES reported claims of board rift over new chief Eich

<b>Reverse Things!</b>

I'm so tired of all this political correctness sh*t I could puke.

I don't CARE what someone's stance on being homosexual is, either way.

What would have been the consequences of this gentleman's saying, "I don't care for heterosexuals."?

You know as well as I: effectively nothing. Heterosexuals would NOT have called for his head. They might have written him off as ONE MORE homosexual nut-case screaming for "the cause" (I have yet to deternine what that "cause" is). That's the very real risk you homosexuals run by your very strident approach to gaining notoriety. Those whom you haven't turned off laugh at you.

Oh, and by the way, I'm calling a press conference next week with a local TV station to announce my "coming out" of the closet. I've kept my heterosexuality secret for far too long. Boy, do I feel a LOT better about myself now.

CERN team uses GPUs to discover if antimatter falls up, not down

Einstein's answer:

Everyone knows that the universe is a composite of matter mixed with a vanishingly small amount of antimatter (that's why there is "something" instead of "nothing", to answer an age-old child's question). We also know that, by definition, antimatter has al the "anti-" properties of matter. Why does this question need investigating any more than does confirming the fact that an anti-electron in a magnetic field travels in a direction opposite to an electron.

Einstein's probable answer to the question, "Does antimatter fall up?":

"Of course. This keeps fewer dishes from breaking when a stack of them is dropped."

Hold on, everyone ... Prez Obama thinks he's cracked this NSA super-snooping problem

FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU. FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME.

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Oxfam, you're full of FAIL. Leave economics to sensible bods

Misery really does love company, you think?

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

--Sir Winston Churchill

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

--Confucius

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

--Aristotle

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

--Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

--Thomas Jefferson

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

--Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

--Thomas Jefferson

Dying for an Ubuntu Linux phone? Here's how much it'll cost you

Shuttleworth understands that people have been paying for emotional attachments for a long time.

I wonder if Canonical has patented a new use for the vibrator-annunciator used in phones?

[Keep it clean, folks. I can literally hear all those of you who want to say, "By George, this'll lend new meaning to the phrase,'I've got to get off, now.' ".]

Fee fie Firefox: Mozilla's lawyers probe Dell over browser install charge

What IS it about this industry that attracts slime-balls?

Let's see, now:

Larry Ellison, Steve Balmer, Mark Shuttleworth, Michael Dell, Samsung, ...

Distro diaspora: Four flavours of Ubuntu unpacked

Re: Your lack of Ubuntu knowledge is pegging you as a Shuttleworth Cult Member.

That's one.

Someone want to start a list of the number of Ubuntu Cult members who respond?

(It shouldn't be hard work at all; the list will be a LOT shorter than it would have been three years ago when there were more than one or two in the "ubuntu community": the ultimate oxymoron).

The interesting fact is that they still exist for some reason.