Posts by BozNZ

Google: Mmm. Tab-free Gmail desktop client? We won't DENY it

Just the ticket

Ah email software which can change UI at the suppliers whim and may possibly have advertising thrown in whenever they choose, where do I sign up?

Borland's heir Embarcadero says one dev tool can rule them all

Lazarus Rocks. Its the way Delphi 7 should have gone before the Delphi 8 .NET fiasco

INSIDE GCHQ: Welcome to Cheltenham's cottage industry

Re: I was there at the same time as you

Check, check and double-check

Check also 4 years in HK - waiting in vain to get seduced by some hot rampant chinese spy totty but I guess I wasnt important enough :-(

Check also the ridiculous payout for voluntary redundancy in 1994 when loads of awesome engineers and technicians - like me :-) - were paid off as part of some bean-counting exercise. (Some of whom came back in to work the next day as contractors on more pay which always makes me laugh)

GCHQ - Nothing but fond memories..

No AC required, it was need to know, and I knew nothing except how to fix PDP and VAX computers..

We gave SQL Server 2012 one year to prove itself: What happened?

New features...

If your coding an application to support multiple RDBMS then many of the 'features' discussed are superfluous harder to support and more worryingly may tie your client to the platform and its upgrade cycle.

Nice I guess if your already in the club but this review doesn't make me want to join.

Student falsely IDed by Reddit as Boston bomber found dead

Better left to the authorities

... Because they never fuck up do they.

Nvidia Tesla bigwig: Why you REALLY won't need x86 chips soon

Re: So... how do you boot?

Bit of history

The reason the PC dominated the opposition for the first 20 years was the BIOS layer which provided an abstract firmware layer for developers to use, this is why DOS will still load on a Core2 motherboard if you wanted it. ARM SOC's are incompatible, you will need to re-write from scratch most of your lower level code for every new chip. Here lies the problem

Also since 32 bit Operating systems the BIOS has just become the bootloader as it is 16 bit. A 32/64 bit BIOS would have been a good standard but there was no IBM to force it through by the time it was required, not even sure if it was ever proposed

As an SOC programmer having to code new for every ARM variant is a nightmare (datasheets for each soc run to 1000's of pages) A 32/64 bit BIOS layer for ARM is long overdue.

Production-ready ZFS offers cosmic-scale storage for Linux

Must say it..

256 quintillion zettabytes, aught to be enough for anyone...

'We the People' seek to double NASA budget – at least

More Pork

The price of your space toilet just went up to $20M

Hands-on with Ubuntu's rudimentary phone and tablet OS

GUI for wimps, Give me the Command line Phone

>Phone Mum

- You do not have permission to phone Mum.

>sudo Phone Mum

- Phoning mum on /dev/phone/3g...

Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet creator Gerry Anderson dies at 83

Three cheers

The guy was an inspiration to anyone who grew up in the 60`s or 70's

Submarine cable outage hits Kiwi internet

lack of comments

..explained by lack of internet

Apple squeaks over revenue estimates, misses earnings target

Wow!

I didn't know sheep farming was so profitable!

Amazon reportedly looking to buy TI chip-maker at heart of Kindle Fire

Re: Tips from a Pro

Totally agree

ARM SOC is almost a commodity market, Amazon is a large buyer which can achieve prices not far above cost, no need to get entwined in an industry you know jack about which is even more cut-throat and fast moving than the one your already in.

Astroboffins to search for mega-massive alien power plants

Kardashev Type II

We're currntly in a Kardashian Stage 1 society, a long way to go me thinks!

Ubuntu 12.10: More to Um Bongo Linux than Amazon ads

Anyone using this?

This is becoming more of a Unity rant, maybe Unity is not to everyones taste but many actually prefer it.

Linux Mint is a nice Ubuntu derivitive for people who prefer a more traditional desktop, nobodies stopping you from using it but remember not everyone wants command prompts and root access from linux, they just want to write a letter and go on facebook.

The real issue is amazon search sponsorship integration, this is a beta release and they are planning a kill switch, did anyone read the fucking article!

Is Oracle squeezing the MySQL lemon too hard?

FUD

Nothing to date has changed on the community (free) version from when sun owned it.

The second it does you will immediately get the openoffice -> libreoffice effect where all the developers take the current branch and fork it. That's the power of open source and oracle know it.

NZ software giants join patent bill protest

Being a mere computer programmer and not a lawyer, this seems pretty damn logical to me, my wife who is an accountant says it seems pretty damn logical to her as well.

That's 0.00004% of the population on board.

Nokia tears wraps off new Windows Phone Lumias on steroids

Looks Nice

I've recently taken a personal decision to boycott Apple Products (Litigation and snobbishness are two things I seriously hate) so If the build quality in this is up to their old models it could be a winner. My 5250 is still going strong despite 4 years of hard knocks, ugly and the GUI is as quirky as sin but you eventually got used to it.

Still in two minds about Windows on a phone though, I'd prefer someone else to take the gamble on that.

Apple confirms 'surprise' September 12 event

iLitigate

Microsoft claims Windows Server 2012 is 'first cloud OS'

bit of a whinge...

Only been away from windows server admin since server 2003, but the newer server GUIs look like they've been designed by a committee as I totally couldnt find out how to find anything on the server 2008 GUI I has too look at the other day when all the normal guys were away, had to google everything! even basic things like the event log took a million more mouse clicks to open..

Not sure I like the direction MS is going, hope 2012 is more logical

New Zealand softens software patent ban

Software patents DONT work in the real world outside of big corporations.

I'm a software and embedded systems designer based in NZ working for myself (a soletrader) and working for small to medium clients (you know the mom-n-pop ones also without legal departments!)

When a client asks me to develop software for them I generally just follow exactly whatever they want. If they ask for a dispatch scheduler say where I drop records on to a time grid to schedule them, how the hell am I to know if someone holds a patent for that, most (read all) non-techie clients by default just look at what a similar system does and asks to make it work like that but with this improvement and without this wanky bit.

They actually never say "copy that exactly" as that would probably be copy write infringement, however with loose software patents (like the US is doing) will I be obliged to do tell them to do a patent search beforehand on every aspect of their design (and loose the work), do it myself (I wouldnt know where to start) or just do it, If I just do it who is at fault if the lawyers come a calling? me for not checking the customers design was patented or them?

I wrote to the MP chairing the comittee a few years ago stating this, but who's going to listen to me?

Jury awards Apple $1bn damages in Samsung patent case

OMG

I seriously wouldnt know if I could scratch my arse these days without knowing if it infringed an apple patent...

UK.gov to clear way for Britain's first SPACEPORT

not in UK

Last week one of the engineers from reaction engines was interviewed on the space show he mentioned that the runway needed to be about 15KM long and the noise of the engine would contravene just about every H&S Law in the world, as much as blighty needs this, the UK is not really an ideal place for it,

Plus, and unfortunately but true, You'd never get it past the tree-huggers in a million years.

Make them in UK by all means but I'd tell reaction engines to sell their pre-coolers and sabre engines to real space faring countries

Microsoft takes on tablets with keyboard-equipped Surface

Apple

So the big question is.. When will Apple Sue them?

Google founders, James Cameron, go asteroid mining

Good on em

Would serial-whingers and people who have achieved nothing in life, please let the entrepreneurs get on with making history.

Battlefield Earth ruled worst film EVER

Re: Battleship

Bulletproof glass for the aliens helmet visors but not the spaceship windscreen..

Destroying the roads and cars but missing a massive battleship full of weapons

Stupidest aliens that *ever* existed..

Sucky'ist film moment in history when all the old sailors appear..

barf quotent +5 as america saves the world (again)

+ everything else in the movie

.. You could make a whole spoof movie just out of this one film!

.. saying that I still quite liked it

NASA brainstorms with John Q Public for 2018 Mars mission

Re: Seed it with life

Greenpeace in space...

Give us a break, there are no trees to hug up there mate

Twitter open sources MySQL enhancements

good on em..

Raspberry Pi supplier coughs to ship date delay glitch

EU Regulations

Give us a break, I dont even live in the f**king EU

E-tax may return to Mac OS

Agree

Delphi XE2 is starting to look pretty awesome but firemonkey is not that mature yet as is reporting, best to port it to the web. Agree Opensource good way to go

FAA mulls scrapping in-flight iPad, Kindle ban

Re: As someone who may* have a clue about this....

I'm sure al-queada have never tried leaving a cell phone on!

Windows 8 for Kindle-like gear hinted by Microsoft bigwig

Battery Life

2 months battery life running Windows 8 e-reader edition - ROTFL

Intel runs three Ivy Bridge fabs ragged for April blast off

Wuooo Huooo!

Just in time for the next generation of bloated operating systems and badly written applications....

Jackpot: astronomers tag Goldilocks planet

Awesome

Awesome, Just need a f**** starship now!

Amazon Kindle Fire

You forgot the UK Rip-Off Tax

A Normal kindle in US is $79, in UK its 89 quid by that logic this will be be around 230 quid

We talk to Moon designer about ULTIMATE sci-fi ship

UFO 2013

Bring it on

This weekend: First ever iPADS IN SPAAAACE

Space hardened?

What about radiation, would it not do strange things to yonder iPad?

Just a thought, I dont know enough to elaborate..

Amazon's Kindle Fire is sold at a loss

Long term profit

I'm sure my kindle was sold for under cost too, however the $100+ I have subsequently spent on Amazon for books helps to heal their profit margin, and I don't mind one bit as I'm still several hundred dollars better off than buying the books locally.

Funny I never really rated Amazon until I started using a kindle, if anyone can get the balance right, I think they can.

Sony: PlayStation Vita will win gamers back from tablets, phones

SDK Price

Learn Sony!

You Need an SDK price of exactly $0.00

I can develop for android, windows, linux and ipod/phone/pad for that

Database high priest mud-wrestles Facebook

High Priest?

Never heard of him!

Tilera throws gauntlet at Intel's feet

Competition is good

I really wonder what would be powering our PC's now if Intel had no competition?

Sputnik retro PC puts bureau back on the desktop

Not quite complete

We need a steampunk OS now

Skype reverse-engineered and open sourced

$kype

Microsoft should have waited a few months, with all the bad publicity they could have probably picked up Skype for a lot less $$

Skype pushes out Windows update following massive login glitch

Chill out..

Life's far too short for that attitude

ESA: British Skylon spaceplane seems perfectly possible

Awesome

whatever happens, the goalposts have moved forward and at worst at least there will be some R&D and engineering happening in the UK for a change.

Amazon heralds unstoppable rise of the e-book

but

Had a kindle for just over 8 months but also had to buy 3 paperbacks in that time, the first one surface detail was because it was actually the same price in paperback (??) and the other two because they were not available on the amazon.

I cant actually fault the kindle itself, I actually prefer it and the books are generally a lot cheaper than rip-off NZ, however theres also a lot of shit reads masquerading as classics out there

Ten... fantasy gadgets you wish you owned

Awesome

Just found a load of Tomorrow People episodes on You Tube, not quite as awesome as when I was 10, but yehaa!

Is iPhone data collection legal?

I'm not a lawyer either, but

An EULA cannot and should not have an opt in or opt out to override the privacy law (or any other law) of a country, if it does so the application should NOT be available in that country and the company should withdraw the applications use.

Greenpeace spies soot lining in cloud data centers

There's Greenpeace "Science" and real Science.

They seriously need to get rid of some of these idiots they currently have, without a neutral bias and true weighing up of environmental impacts, real issues will get swamped under the non-substantiated and scare mongering crap.

Greenpeace science reporting currently rates somewhere between Intelligent Design and Astrology

I ripped my card up over ten years ago and now keep it quiet I was ever part of it

Blighty's Skylon spaceplane faces key tech test in June

Awesome

The Skylon should have an Apple logo on it, it just looks so much cooler than the other crap out there, just on this it deserves to be built.

I note the sabre engine also burns hydrogen and so is potentially emission free, not much being said about that but that does have an implication on conventional air travel which is a big polluter (does it not!)

Good on em for keeping trying, and taking a sensible staging approach to testing the technology personally after 30 years of this Reaction engines should work on the assumption there will be no help from UK PLC