* Posts by MonkeyScrabble

24 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Jun 2010

Google gets my data, I get search and email and that. Help help, I'm being REPRESSED!

MonkeyScrabble

The big problem is

At the moment this information may be "relatively" worthless.

When google started your data was probably worth a couple of pence.

Now it's worth 10 to 140 dollars or whatever.

How much will it be worth tomorrow and not just in monetary terms.

I read an article somewhere once about reasons we need to fear google and about the only point I took away from it as plausible is this.

At the moment google are riding high on the wave. Lords of all they survey and the data is being used "relatively" benignly.

What if that changes and google is no long cock-of-the-hoop.

As their popularity\relevance wanes, what would they do with your information then?

For me that's the big question.

When you're making money it's easier to appear as the big friendly corp while quietly tearing the arse out people in the background.

However when that same corp has it's back against the wall and is staring a MySpace decline in the face, they will not even pretend to be friendly in any way.

Will they take the hoard of data they have collected and abuse it in any way they can to try and prop up a failing business?

Or worse?

To add something else to that that popped into my head.

What happens to the data when they decide they're too big and powerful to be governed by the law or any particular government?

Top Apple exec: 'I knew [ebook] prices were going to go up – hell, the whole world knew'

MonkeyScrabble

"Cue freely admits Apple worked with publishers to fix the prices readers paid for ebooks, but argues Apple was being unfairly singled out when all it really wanted to do was bring electronic copies to the (paying) masses."

So by that reckoning Lee Harvey Oswalds lawyers could have said that, yes, he shot JFK but he was really doing us all a favour because JFK was a bit of a troublemaker\man whore and nearly caused WW3 over the Cuban missile crisis\drove Marilyn Monroe to suicide so by killing him, LHO was helping to secure world peace\chastity for movie starlets.

Seems airtight to me.

Breaking the law is breaking the law, fictional "good" (I use the world VERY loosely when in the same sentence as Apple) intentions mean nothing. How can you possibly expect to have a court decision overturned when you simply admit that your company commited a criminal act, "Cue freely admits Apple worked with publishers to fix the prices", and then try to justify it by saying it was for the altruistic\humanitarian reasons we all know Apple are famous for?

And I agree with Tromos. Give them a proper fine, $4.5 billion minimum, and 50% of their book sales profits for 5 years. Also go after the publishers and gift them with similar fines.

These bell ends only care about money so they need to be hit hard in the only place it hurts. Only when they are finally hit hard enough that it hurts will they start to change.

Apple's SNEAKY plan: COPY ANDROID. Hello iPhone 6, Watch

MonkeyScrabble

Re: so bitter

The point here is though that they didn't create any new IT market.

They made a phone with a bigger screen - years old.

They made a watch - years old.

They made a contactless payment system - years old.

Nothing here is new in any way, shape of form.

Their "innovation" this year is to copy what everyone else has done and slap that badge on it and gouge people on the price.

It's also not just people here who see that, Apple's share price dropped by 1% at close of trading yesterday. Even satrry eyed investors are seeing the Emperor's new clothes are looking a bit thread bare.

Down-with-the-kidz Apple stuffs up with wild 'funness' claims

MonkeyScrabble

As an aside

"According to this profile of Apple under Cook in the Wall Street Journal, it seems the fruity firm has lost the "laser focus" it maintained under Steve Jobs."

Really? I thought they were still price gouging like a demon...

What the world needs now is... a Bluetooth-enabled baby's dummy

MonkeyScrabble

For God's sake why does no one think of the children??!

Anyone who buys this pointless, overpriced tat needs to be taken out and shot.

The average IQ of the human race as a whole would increase slightly as a result.

Hint to parents about their baby. If something is wrong the child will let you know by opening it's expansive (also expensive) gob and loudly protesting.

An iCrap connected dummy will not assist in this instance since it will not be in the yawning chasm of earache that is the childs screaming yap at that time.

I'm amazed any child survived before the invention of this useless shite.

Facebook's Zuckerberg buttonholes Obama, rages against NSA dragnet spying

MonkeyScrabble

Re: A translation

Another question is why did el Presidente entertain this bellend by answering his call?

Zuckerberg is a large, annoying pimple on the arse of society and definitely does not warrant a direct line to any head of state.

Brussels' antitrust boss not budging on planned Google competition deal

MonkeyScrabble

Re: lets see..

If I go to a search engine (any search engine) should I not get a fair and impartial return to my query?

If google wants to do search they should do so fairly.

Google are being picked on because they are overwhelmingly dominant.

The phrase "to google" something means to run a websearch. If they were the size of duckduckgo, they wouldn't be investigated, the same way MS were hit for dominance but crapple weren't.

If google won't be fair in search, they need to be forced to.

Anit-competition laws exist for this exact prupose.

MWC: The good, the bad ... and the Galaxy S5

MonkeyScrabble

""That's bollocks," I replied."

Wearables are a marketing gimmick looking for a sucker.

As for phones I agree with Andy Prough. New phone releases are pointless these days. Increased specs\cost for little return.

All I want in a smart phone is:

-the size of a Sony Ericsson Ray

-OS not made by google\apple

-doesn't spy on me

-has a good, clear screen.

People are looking towards Linux distrosbecause they're sick of the android, ios tat\spyware.

I personally wouldn't trust Ubuntu not to follow the google model though.

Just like Elvis, dead Steve Jobs to appear all over America in 2015

MonkeyScrabble

FFS

Why not just give the prick a sainthood then we can ignore him like all other religious icons?

(Apart from the St. BellEnd's bank holiday we will obviously have to get to allow fanboi knobjockeys a chance to worship at the Apple store altar of their choice for 24 hours)

Google's Nest gobble: Soon ALL your HOME are BELONG to US

MonkeyScrabble

Re: Internet of American Things

Yeah but every home appliance or device from every manufacturer will have a chip in the near future.

Almost everything at CES was either iRubbish or Internet of things.

It started with Smart phones and TVs. Smart kettles and nosehair trimmers are just down the road.

You won't be able to buy anything without one soon.

(Where's my tinfoil hat?)

MonkeyScrabble

Re: This internet of things

Some of the new cards power themselves of errant radio signals in your house, WiFi, TV or radio waves etc so don't need to be powered.

These can run a radio transmitter that can send it's own signal, all low powered of course so not much range however, what are the chances it will connect to your Android run phone or the streetview car cruising past your house and send the data on that way whether you agree or not?

For google plugging the fridge in will be accepting the lack of privacy T&Cs

Unless the tracking chip can be physically removed they'll find a way to take the data whether you want to give it to them or not.

MonkeyScrabble

Where's the off switch?

All I care about on the great google data slurp is, that if I buy a washing machine with this trash installed, will there be a network card I can easily remove to ensure my stuff isn't being sent to the overlord in Cali or do I have to get a screwdriver and pliers out to take the machine apart and then put it through a shredder?

When they start paying me hard cash for my data then they can have it, until then telling me how to save energy is a waste of time. Many free websites already exist which do that for free and don't ask for anything in return. Hell I could write one, turn down the thermostat and switch the lights off. Easy. Sorted.

This is just another data land grab dressed up as a "service" to mine data and flog it to anyone that wants it.

Buy 'n' Large here we come.

Also why is this spying allowed in any way, shape or form?

Government agencies require a judge issued warrant to look at anything an internet user searches for, phone calls etc. Why can these companies do the same thing with a few shady lines in their T&Cs?

Apple, Samsung get a room to settle patent war. Forgive us if we don't hold our breath

MonkeyScrabble

Someone in the US needs to grow a brain and actually use it

There is nothing new in smartphones, their Os's or their interaction systems.

Everything we see in iOS, Android, WinPhone etc is rehashing of older tech and ideas that have been around for 30+ years.

This nonsense has to end and the US court system needs to end it.

If someone invents a phone that makes me a cup of tea, brings it to me in bed and then goes off to work in my place, then yes that is an original idea and is worthy of a patent.

Rounded corners and slide unlocks or any of the other warmed over crap I see on the phone OS's of today is not original or patentable.

American courts, wise up. Tell these jokers to sling their hooks. If you do that then the price of phones can drop because they aren't constantly spunking all their money on lawyer fees.

American government, give the patent office some money to clean up their act and put these wasteful clowns back in their respective boxes.

Apple & Samsung, grow up. You are acting like pathetic children arguing over who gets to sit in the puddle at the end of the sandpit. Have a bit of dignity, we're bored of you now.

No sign of Half-Life 3 but how about FOURTEEN Steam Machine makers?

MonkeyScrabble

for me it works but who knows about everyone else?

Gamers are fickle so this may or may not sell. Who knows?

Lots of consoles have failed, or soared, in the past and it hasn't always been because they are bad

e.g. the Wii sold in spades because it was cheap and different, even though the games were generic and cartoony.

I bought all 3 of the last gen consoles. The Wii went to my neice after a year of sitting in it's box.

The PS3 is, and always was, a glorified blueray player due to the controller being designed for the size of 12 year old girls hands. I used it for maybe 60 hours of gaming in total.

The 360 was the workhorse simply because it had a perfect controller (just my opinion).

Steam boxes will sell if the games and price are right.

I have no plans to buy an XBone or PS4. Intrusive software, all the other dross "features" and £60 price tags for the games have firmly nailed the lid shut on spending any more than 100 notes on a second hand one in about 3 years.

Before the steam box was announced I had actually made a decision to buy a small form factor PC for under the telly to run steam and play games. A lot of people I know had come to similar independent decisions.

All this console does is give me what I, and others, had already started to think about.

Google's Project Glass headman answers most pressing question: 'Why?'

MonkeyScrabble

Voice control

I just had a thought. Since this rubbish will be voice activated, does that mean that when a bunch of mouth breathing tourists are all standing around staring at something and one of them says "Go go glasses camera" or whatever nonsense they program in to make it click and upload, does that mean every other pair of these pointless articles within hearing distance will also click?

Up to an including the hapless sod that jumped behind the wall to take a leak and happened to be staring at his member when the camera went off? If it automatically uploads to whatever facebook style drivelfest that wearer is signed up to and emails all his friends with an update, would that not be slightly emabarrassing?

This sounds very like the XBone with always on Kinect. "XBox ON" is apparently the supersecret code phrase for turning the XBox on. Now if I'm sitting in my living room talking to someone and I say, "That new Xbox is crap and invasive. I haven't turned the XBox on in weeks", then chances are I will hear the jet engine roar of the lurker in the corner firing up.

Voice control is only useful if it isn't going to intrude on your, and most imoportantly, everybody else's life.

I personally will be seeing how this turns out with intrest. Especially if these intrusive little foibles end up being allowed in public places.

If so, then my entrance to any public toilet in the land will be acoompanied by a shout of "Google glasses take picture" and then listen to see how many pervert clicks I can hear.

And any firends who have one will be asked to leave them at the door so the neighbourhood cats can use those as a crapper instead of my lawn.

Pirates not to blame for Big Media's sales plunge

MonkeyScrabble
Thumb Up

Spot on in this, although every single company in the world is the same.

To use a phrase, "teaching would be an enjoyable profession if you didn't have to deal with the kids".

Every company hates their customers. They are stupid, annoying and cause problems by demanding "product" and "improvement".

Take an examples of banking. Banks want to be left alone to trade commodities, make profit, raise their share price and pay dividends. They don't want to give mortgages, take savings, pay interest etc. Consumer banking is a necessary evil, but all the banks want to do is trade and make profit to show the share holders.

The customer is no longer king, the share holder is.

When someone develops a business model that allows the generation of profit, without any product creation or customer base, they will have created the perfect company and share holders will wet their collective pants with glee.

The companies aren't the real problem, the share holders are.

It's all about money now with no regard for customer service or the quality of the prodcut released. Anything that hampers the generation of the maximum bottom line (i.e. pesky customers) is something hated by the company.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

MonkeyScrabble
Coffee/keyboard

Megashark Vs Giant Octopus.

Even the inclusion of 80's songstress Debbie Gibson couldn't save it....

What has my life become? I watched a film called Megashark Vs Giant Octopus.

Mass Effect 3

MonkeyScrabble

Aye that multiplayer is needed a bit to get the "best" ending of the current 3.

I saw somehting last night that said the total for doing all side missions is 7000 total military strength and the galactic alert level is a percentage of this total, which equals your effective military strength.

That is the number that is currently measured at the end.

So in single player where you are stuck at galactic alert level 50%, it basically means the total of 7000 is halved, so 3500.

To get the best ending, apparently you need a score of 5000 effective military strength from the side missions etc.

At the moment that can only be done by lightening your wallet and buying xbox live time to get your galactic alert thing up to 75% or so.

Shame really. I don't play well with others....

MonkeyScrabble
Holmes

Well

I finished (not beat) the game last night and two words apply, gutted and unfulfilled.

The endings that are currently there are just place holders for the real endings. This is most likely being done in an attempt to combat piracy because the real ones will be DLC requiring an Origin account etc.

There is another theory going about that since Japan players won't see the game until the 15th March, the real endings are being held back to allow everyone to experience it at the same time.

If I'm correct and this is the case then the DLC would need to come very soon and need to be very free. Trying to charge people to get the real endings would be an extremely cynical and transparent attempt at creating revenue and in the long run will break Bioware in two. Gamers will not be milked like cattle to increase the baseline profits of the company.

In regard to the Galaxy at War nonsense, there is a slight difference in one of the current endings that you can only see, in game, if you have played this and raised your readiness to a certain level. Now, based on the statement made that Galaxy at War being optional and not required, the current evidence implies you may have to use it to get an ending you want in the single player only environment. I hope that in the DLC for the real endings, the galaxy at war requirement they currently have in the game is resolved so that all endings (bar maybe one special one for people who do invest the time in the multiplayer) are available to me.

I'm no Bioware fanboi, Jade Empire was an atrocity that cost me 20 odd hours of my life that I'll never see again, so trying to get the goose to lay another golden egg in order to download what I should have been given in the box, and should be able to see without paying for XBox Live membership \ doing something I hate (multiplayer gaming), will make me think twice about buying from them again.

If all above is right, then Bioware are trying something very brave and if they pull it off, then they deserve to be commended. I fear though they will try to be too smart and end up doing something stupid. If so then it's going to come back and bite them hard.

I read around a few boards last night after getting depressed at the let down of the current endings and there are more than a few people who are out for blood over this.

Facebook suggests sharing everything all the time

MonkeyScrabble
Holmes

The sad fact is...

That the sheeple who religiously log into Facebook, day in and day out, keeping the world updated on how many times their bowels have moved in the last 24 hours, will accept any changes that Zuckerberg wants to make.

They will bleet a bit and follow the herd into blindly clicking "Ok"/"I accept" then continue to dole out every last bit of private/inane/earth shattering news that happens in their life and not stop to consider the consequences.

In my opinion, good luck to them. When it comes back to bite them they will have no one to blame but themselves, and I don't mean identity theft or targeted marketing.

When you go for that new job and get turned down becasue the company says you seem a bit undesirable or just not their type of person, you should know it's probably due to the photo of yourself drunkenly running round with your trousers down wearing a traffic cone on your head, which you posted "for a laugh".

Inconvenient truther hints at multiple iPhone October

MonkeyScrabble
Facepalm

Cunning Linguist

"And don't tell me he misspoke. He has been a politician most of his adult life, Words are his craft and trade."

Daoes anyone remember Dan Quayle and his Potatoe?

Anyone?

NASA to make MAJOR ALIENS REVELATION this week

MonkeyScrabble
Coffee/keyboard

Hmmmm

I think NASA were going to announce that the aliens had decided we were advanced enough to contact , up until they received that rambling piece of semi-literate gibberish penned by Nicole (X).

At that point they probably decided we weren't quite as intelligent as first thought and politely declined the offer of a weekend stay in Area 51.

Cheers Nicole.

I bet she breaks her teachers hearts every day.

Facebook unveils changes to enhance privacy

MonkeyScrabble
Pint

Um.....

Why does it matter what privacy settings they apply? The Zuck takes and sells all your information to the highest bidder no matter what your privacy settings are.

Remember, privacy is dead. He owns everything you post on Mugbook.

By the way, the only thing the privacy settings do is possibly stop your HR department from seeing photos of you with your pants round your ankles and a traffic cone on your head.

Diary of a somebody - life in iPhone 4 land

MonkeyScrabble
Coffee/keyboard

Is it just me

Or is there something seriously wrong with people who queue outside a shop for hours to buy an overpriced piece of tat which doesn't actually work properly?

The iPhone can't make calls if you hold it. I may be alone in thinking this but is this not slightly worrying to anyone considering making a purchase?

There's a subtle hint to the iPHONE's intended function in it's name yet it spectacularly fails to deliver what I would say is a pretty basic and mandatory function in a telephone.

This sits up there on the rather shoddy lack of testing which failed to spot the iPad's inability to stay connected to the internet. Or maybe the testing did catch it and Steve said put it out anyway, the faithful will still buy it.

Please change the ad slogan to "iPad goes anywhere. Just make sure you copy everything you need onto it before leaving the house, because you ain't going to be able to download it once you get to where you're going." At least pretend you want to tell people some of the the truth about the shit you peddle.

As an aside , I would like to take the time to point out to stevie boy that Tommy Cooper was magical (as in he did magic), the iPad is not magical, it is scientific.

It crunches numbers and outputs the results of this crunching to a screen in a user friendly format. A large number of other companies have been doing things like this for 30 odd years with greater or lesser success. You are not the first and certainly won't be the last matey.

But anyway back to the rant, 2 own goals in as many months there Mr. Jobs. It's a good thing the cult is alive and well because if you were trying to build it up on the back of this rubbish you'd be in trouble.

I wonder when one of the mildly reatrded FanBoyz are finally going to wake up from the Steve infested dreamscape they now inhabit and spot that the Emperor's new clothes aren't clothes at all....