Posts by gort

Google 'screwed over' its non-millennials – now they can all fight back

Haha that stock photo is awesome

I'M STRAIGHTENING YOUR TIE YOU OLD FART!

Google Chromecast 2015: Puck-on-a-string fun ... why not, for £30?

Re: I love REAL remote controls!

Chromecast works with HDMI-CEC remote controls so if your TV has this feature (most modern ones, even cheapies, should do) then you can just press Pause on the TV remote and the Chromecast will pause whatever it's streaming.

Playing MKV files

You can play MKV files on Chromecast with Videostream for Chromecast (Windows or Android). It doesn't need to do on-the-fly video conversion, it just streams from the MKV container. It does do conversion of AC3 audio though. Plex also supports MKV.

Hey, Microsoft, we can call Windows 10 apps anything we like – you're NOT OUR REAL MOM

who can know whether Microsoft will remake its app platform yet again in a couple of years?

Everybody, because of course they will.

'Gaia' Lovelock: Wind turbines 'may become like Easter Island statues'

Calculation is wrong:

4.7 terawatt-hours / ((0.1 megawatt)*(365*24 hours))

should be

4.7 terawatt-hours / ((0.125 megawatt)*(365*24 hours))

or if you prefer

4.7 terawatt-hours / ((0.5 megawatt)*25%*(365*24 hours))

So the correct answer is 4,290 turbines.

China turns to no-name handsets: Android - without the Google-iness

Re: Can anyone tell us .....

The kernel is GPL, the rest of the open source is Apache 2.0. Microsoft (and everyone else with their hand out) has absolutely zero chance of collecting license fees from any of these manufacturers.

Amazon only releases their kernel source, as required by GPL, but don't share their user interface source, as allowed by the Apache License.

No Google services?

I'm sceptical that all or even most of the Shanzhai MTK Androids run no Google services. Even the cheapest of them that I've seen has a hacked-up version of Google Play running.

'Shake to charge', similar crapps foul up Amazon Android store

There's nothing "malicious" about these apps. Doing nothing is hardly malware. Just more hype from an antivirus vendor trying to drum up business.

Samsung mobes pwned by ANY APP, thanks to chip code hole

Re: Headline is flawed

Patches on my Nexus 7 and Galaxy S running Cyanogenmod are no-wipe and easy enough. For Cyanogenmod I just use the Cyandelta app, which downloads the difference between the current build and the last one I installed. The Nexus 7 just notifies and downloads an over-the-air update. Both require a reboot but that's about all.

Headline is flawed

It's not a flaw in the System-On-Chip, it's a flaw in the security rights given to Samsung's device driver that interfaces with the SOC's memory. It's fixable with a simple software patch. Unfortunately Samsung are terrible at getting software patches out, and suddenly they have loads to issue.

iPad Mini vs Nexus 7: inch makes all the difference, says Apple CEO

So if it's 8" instead of 7", you'll only need to sand your fingers down to a third of their size instead of a quarter of their size? Jobs: "It's [7 inch tablet, that is] meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size"

Apple files disappearing-feature iPhone patent

I claim Maxwell Smart's shoe-phone as prior art.

New British tax-cuts-for-patents scheme criticised

This is the stupidest corporate charity idea I've ever heard. A goldmine for businesses big enough to exploit it, and patent lawyers, a money pit for everyone else.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Just play it on an emulator, it's just as much fun. I remember playing it on one of the earliest N64 PC emulators, using a 3DFX pass-through graphics card.

Flash Player to vanish from Android store on Wednesday

Re: Android starts to catch up with the iPhone...

You don't have to use a Google account on any version of Android I've used. You can just skip the account setup at first boot. You won't get backup or contacts sync without loading some more apps, and you will have to use an app store other than Google's (e.g. Amazon, but then you need an Amazon account, oh noes), but that's about all you would lose.

Apple pounces on Samsung doc as proof of 'slavish copy' claims

The main point that came out in the cross-examination of Kare was that she was only commenting on the comparison between the Apple home screen and the Samsung app drawer, which is not the Samsung's default home screen. This is something Apple always gets away with in photos.

Samsung's lawyer made the point that a user would have to go through a boot screen with a giant glowing "Samsung" logo, a distinctive lock screen with puzzle pieces, and a home screen with widgets and a big Google search box, before pressing the Applications button to get to the app drawer, which does have icons for all the apps on the phone arranged in a grid.

Ice Cream Sandwich still a no-show for most Android users

Re: Oh I do miss Apple at times...

Lucky iPhone user, my iPad 1, bought slightly over a year ago, won't be getting any upgrades ever.

Apple demands Samsung flogged for 'unethical' court doc leak

Re: Wtf

The F700 was designed and registered in Korea before the iPhone was released. Apple initially included the F700 in copying allegations against Samsung, but later withdrew the allegations. See http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1257891/Samsung_unredacted_trial_brief.pdf page 4.

Apple refutes 'Sony Jony' iPhone prototypes

According to Samsung, "As Mr. Nishibori has confirmed in deposition testimony, this Sony-style design he prepared changed the course of the project that yielded the final iPhone design." Apple is now trying to get this testimony stricken.

iOS was SO much more valuable to Google than Android - until Maps

Re: Semantics

On this leaked document the split is 5% to Google (which they say is for "operating costs", and at least 2% of which will go to Visa/Mastercard), and 20% to the carriers. It may be different for other countries/carriers.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-25/tech/31397498_1_google-s-android-targets-chart

Re: Apropos of money...

Google has had offline caching of viewed areas in Maps for a while, but has just announced full offline mode for Maps including offline navigation, coming soon. On both platforms you can buy apps with full offline maps, Sygic is probably the best one on Android at the moment.

The Graun article is wrong on Google's revenue from app sales. Google make nothing from Android app sales. The developers get 70% and the rest is split between the mobile carrier and the payment processor.

iPhones, iPads to be FULL OF FACEBOOK and NOT GOOGLE

Re: What a silly argument!

Amusingly those graphs show that Android is about the same or possibly more homogenous than iOS from a developer's point of view, with a large majority of the userbase on the almost identical (for developers) 2.2-2.3 versions.

And with Apple about to introduce yet another screen resolution, and the orphaning of the iPad 1 by iOS6, it's only going to get worse for Apple fragmentation.

Oracle case crippled after judge rules APIs can’t be copyrighted

Re: Floored, I tell you

Judge Alsup actually includes a little Java tutorial in his judgement for future judges. Quite surreal.

Vauxhall Ampera hybrid e-car

The average car trip length in GB is 8.5 miles, average commute length 9 miles, around 90% of all car trips are less than 25 miles, and around 70% are less than 10 miles (National Travel Survey 2010). Also only 20% of car trips and 26% of car mileage are for commuting.

People don't use public transport because it's usually slower and less convenient than driving.

Re: Same old

The price premium is nearly all in the battery and the associated parts, and the flashy extras thrown in as standard to appeal to those willing to pay the premium in the first place. The transmission, development costs aside, is relatively small and cheap. It's there because it improves performance and fuel economy over what is currently possible with a pure series hybrid.

There is no way having it as a pure series hybrid would "cut the price in half", look at the pure-electric Nissan Leaf, a smaller car which is UKP30.5k before the 5k grant.

Re: Point Being?

The Opel Ampera has 7,000 pre-orders already and is basically sold out till the end of the year, so someone must want them. Also the average UK new car list price is 28k (source DrivenData) so 32k for something this high spec is not unreasonable.

Re: In the winter count on electric range being <10miles

Users report all-electric winter range with heater at around 25-30 miles. In extreme cold the petrol motor kicks in to help warm things up, and the battery has a climate control system to keep it warm when plugged in.

Re: Point Being?

In the US GM is targetting early adopters and techies, and I imagine it will go for a similar group in the UK. People who would otherwise be buying a new Lexus or Beemer, but want to drive into the congestion charge zone in the latest thing, and love the whole idea and experience of an electric car. I'd certainly buy one if I could afford it, and I never buy new cars.

Saying it gets "45mpg" is missing the point, the people most likely to buy it will be using it mostly in electric mode and get triple-digit petrol mileage.

Re: ISTR, that should be:

No, the Voltec transmission is significantly different from the Toyota one, and is not licensed from Toyota. See http://www.motortrend.com/features/editorial/1010_unbolting_the_chevy_volt_to_see_how_it_ticks/ for example.

Google in the clear on Oracle patents

More gems from Mr. Yoghurt on the strengths of Oracle's patents case

As pointed out by Tim Bray:

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2012/05/23/Florian

Re: Probaby not too important from Oracle's point of view

And yet this is what Oracle employee Florian Mueller (of FOSS Patents) was saying earlier:

“If Google could countersue, it might already have a favorable settlement with Oracle in its hands. Since it can’t, it will either have to fend off all seven patents asserted by Oracle (plus any others that Oracle could assert in a second suit), in each case by taking the patent down or proving that there’s no infringement, or it will have to come up with some theory that it was entitled to a license of some sort. Otherwise, Oracle will prevail and the vast majority of Android applications would presumably have to be rewritten. So chances are this will cost Google (and possibly the Android ecosystem at large) dearly.”

Larry Page has painful day on stand in Oracle Java case

Re: it's not just that email

LOL at the bottom of Muller's blog post: "I would like to inform you that Oracle has very recently become a consulting client of mine. We intend to work together for the long haul on mostly competition-related topics including, for one example, FRAND licensing terms." Oh what a surprise. Coincidentally he has been making ridiculously overblown and wrong predictions in Oracle's favour every step of the way during the pretrial.

Court rejects Tesla’s latest libel spat with Top Gear

Not really, the script, sound effects, and visuals strongly suggested that it actually ran out of power.

"This car really was shaping up to be something wonderful but then....

(artificial dying motor sounds and music slowing down and stopping)

...although Tesla say it will do 200 miles we worked out that on our track it would run out after just 55 miles and if it does run out it's not a quick job to charge it up again.

(footage of people pushing the car into the hangar followed by Jeremy Clarkson inserting the charger lead into the Roadster)"

In fact reading a Top Gear producer's highly disingenuous explanation of their biased and faked broadcast, what actually happened was a fuse to the vacuum assist pump for the disc brakes blew, the same sort of fault as you would get in a conventional engined car with a leaky brake assist hose.

So there was no total loss of braking, but just about everyone who saw the report would tell you that there was, just as they would say that the Roadster ran out of power and had to be pushed into the garage, where it would have taken 17 hours to charge up (actual charge time with a proper charger: 4 hours).

A blown fuse on the Roadster doesn't mean no brakes, just that you have to press the pedal down harder than normal because you only have disc brakes without any assist from the regen braking, much like a petrol car when the engine fails and the brake vacuum assist stops.

LG 3D TV ads misled buyers, judges watchdog

There are "full-SBS" downloads that are full HD, or so I've heard. At 3840x1080 pixels they require some grunty playing hardware though. Active shutter glasses are down to about 10 quid each on eBay.

How can family sysadmins make a safe internet playground for kids?

Gargoyle router

I highly recommend gargoyle-router in conjunction with OpenDNS for this. Gargoyle is firmware that runs on cheap consumer routers (TP-Link WR-1043ND recommended) and has a good and easy to configure firewall with some basic filtering rules and whitelisting. In addition it has good traffic and quota management to deal with that other home internet problem of "who used all the gigas??".

To block alternate DNS, on your firewall/router, block all outgoing access to DNS (UDP port 53) to all servers, forcing everyone on the LAN to use your router's DNS. On a good firewall you can add exceptions to allow specific devices access to other DNS.

The Adventures of Tintin: the Game

Yes you can play it completely without Kinect.

This is a fantastic game, probably the best movie tie-in I have ever played. A lot of the slapstick and surrealism of the books is there and playable. Kids love it too. Terrific.

I have to say the captain's drinking is played down to the point of weirdness; without the alcohol a lot of his more excessive behaviour just appears to be deranged. Funny for those who are in on the joke though.

Google+ opens up to enterprises and apps

There is nothing you can do, they just haven't fixed the login for either the Android or iOs apps yet, that sucks.

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/10/google-is-now-available-with-google.html?showComment=1319741696455#c8951537968640832900

Microsoft trousers yet more royalties from Android gear

Because Microsoft didn't go to court, they just extracted a (probably very low) ransom to avoid having to do that.

It is blindingly obvious stuff that should never have been able to be patented, like putting up a "Loading" message while a web page is loading ("Loading status in a hypermedia browser with a limited display area"). Google the Barnes and Noble vs Microsoft case for other representative patents.

Devs still frozen out of Android ice cream source

Read "The Cathedral and The Bazaar". Development models where the source is only available to a select group between releases are not new. Past examples were Emacs and GCC, though they have since changed to more open development.

Here, let me do your research for you

The binary (on the Galaxy Nexus) hasn't even been released yet. Google's Andy Rubin already confirmed at the AsiaD conference on Wednesday that the source would be released "in a couple of weeks", after the release of the Galaxy Nexus. This has been standard procedure for Android all the way, they release the flagship device with the new version, then they release the source code a short time later.

Samsung Android 4.0 smartphone priced for Blighty

That patent (filed in 2007, not 2008) was for notifications on the lock screen, not a pull-down shade containing notifications.