* Posts by JC_

426 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2011

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Iranian nuke plants rocked in midnight 'heavy metal blast'

JC_
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Re: Hear hear sheeple.

Obligatory xkcds here and here.

It's a bit like when someone cites Ayn Rand with a straight face; it just makes you *cringe*... no wonder non-IT folk think IT-folk are a bit odd.

JC_

Re: David Webb

An argument that presupposes American was being forced to invade Japan - a country which at that point was not capable of threatening American interests for a long time thereafter and which we know had already signalled to the USA that it wished to negotiate. How come this argument about saving lives is always trotted out and we're expected to never question the assumption that without the bombs America would be forced to invade Japan in a sustained land-war. Forced by what or who?

The Japanese lost the benefit of the doubt when they started the war in the Pacific.

They knew they'd lost but hadn't given an unconditional surrender; given that Hitler went on to the bitter end, what else was to be done? It was either invade, ignore or use the nuclear weapons to encourage the surrender. Truman chose the bomb and it worked.

Dell uncloaks trio of muscular mobile workstations

JC_
Pint

@Geoff Campbell

Love that someone voted you down for using maths! Looking at it the other way, 1080 is only 10% less than 1200; of course that won't stop the widescreen-haters from voting me down now, too...

Microsoft to announce new Office version on Monday

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@Roger Greenwood

Well we are all so used to the autosave feature in Google docs by now, they probably feel the need to copy this feature.

When was the first time you used Word? Last week? Word 2.0, from 1991, had it...

'Young people don't want to become like us', say IT pros

JC_
FAIL

@GotThumbs

With the new US health bill allowing children up to 26 to remain on the parents healthcare....seems the US government just doesn't understand the idea of children growing up and being self-sufficient. Children want to be given jobs that they like and don't understand the reality of how life really is. The kids just want to have stuff done for them...

What utter bollocks! The US government (actually the Democrats) understand that not having healthcare is a disaster waiting to happen, as well as economically inefficient. This is one small way that the ACA ('Obamacare') increases coverage*.

Really, what is it with IT that attracts all the Ayn Randians? You guys know she signed up for Social Security & Medicare, right?

(* single-payer universal coverage would be best, but not politically-feasible, hence the ACA having to include a lot of alternatives such as allowing children to remain on their parent's plans for longer.)

Wheezing Guardian flogs radio biz for quick cash

JC_
IT Angle

Re: You see, you see!!

If it was left to the market to decide then Jeremy Hunt would have signed off on his chum Murdoch buying the rest of Sky; clearly the market isn't always right.

Compare the Guardian with Murdoch's papers (including the Times): one hacked into a dead child's phone and lied about it; the other investigated and reported it.

So you find some of the Guardian's commentators a bit left-wing? No problem, that's where they are on the spectrum, just like millions of people and voters. Murdoch on the other hand really is black-hearted nastiness and it would be a sad day that there was no counter-point to him.

Microsoft takes on tablets with keyboard-equipped Surface

JC_
FAIL

@AC 07:41

Problem is: Microsoft is already bleeding lots of money. Losses in web services, pumping money into that 'strategic partnership' with Nokia.

Netting more than 20 billion in a year is "bleeding lots of money"?

Nokia's Great Software Cleansing scrubs off everything since the '90s

JC_

Re: Are we witnessing largest robbery ever?

How come that countries market authority, police and even intelligence doesn't look into it?

Cause it's paranoid bullshit?

Microsoft 'mulled Nokia buyout, ran away screaming'

JC_

Re: It's only a matter of time...

Because Nokia could use their final, dying breath to dedicate all their patents and copyrights -- which are what Microsoft really want -- formally to the Public Domain.

Nokia is a public company with shareholders and it's pretty unlikely they'd go along with throwing away money; if it was your pension invested you wouldn't be happy, either.

How does stuff this silly get upvotes? The same people that loathe Elop and accuse him of destroying Nokia seem rather irrational themselves.

HP Z1 quad-core Xeon 27in PC

JC_

@No, I will not fix your computer

In other words, a high spec iMac is better spec and value

How would you feel about hauling your all-in-one to an Apple store and waiting a couple of weeks for repair? The HP has 3-year onsite warranty.

Nokia lights up Bat Signal for Lumia 900

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WTF?

Re: What do you get for your £175?

Someone upvoted the comment above? Really? It literally doesn't make any sense; it's a follow-up to deleted comments.

Any chance it's Shitpeas using multiple accounts to pat himself on the back?

JC_
FAIL

Re: Not even a screen printed bat logo

Shitpeas, your exact words were: "an otherwise shit phone lumbered with an even shitier OS".

Earlier you said that the exact same phone with a different OS would be "reasonable".

Either the hardware is reasonable or it isn't; you can't have it both ways...

JC_
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Re: Not even a screen printed bat logo

Shitpeas today: Not even a screen printed bat logo would convince me to buy an otherwise shit phone

Shitpeas earlier: An ICS version of the Lumia 900, with the bugs fixed would actually be reasonable mid-range Android handset.

All shit, all the time...

US mayor and son charged with hacking into opposition site

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No difference? Are you kidding?

You might feel superior saying that, but if Romney gets in any Supreme Court nominations he gets to make will be people like Scalia & Thomas. If you think the consequences of that are unimportant then you're being willfully stupid.

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Dems being outvoted isn't a problem; it'd be lovely if the party with more votes got to enact legislation. Unfortunately, in the Senate the Republican minority filibuster everything and put unending holds on appointments, purely to stuff up the country enough that re-election for Obama will be more difficult.

Cable to stimulate stiff growth in entrepreneurs' trousers

JC_
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Re: Who pays fir it?

"disgraced Keynesian economics"? WTF?

The current recession, which is being needlessly deepened and prolonged by austerity policies, is a perfect example of why Keynes' analysis and policies remain correct.

Apple design chief Jony Ive knighted - but not by the Queen

JC_

Re: Sir Job

Why not? Bill Gates has got a KBE stuffed in a sock drawer somewhere. Maybe Her Majesty just likes Windows better than OS X ;)

Nokia Lumia 900 WinPho 7 smartphone

JC_

Re: Titles are for toffs

Let's not t forget that that slick Lumia 900 hardware design is wholesale stolen from the N9.

Get the same lawyer who sued John Fogerty for sounding too much like John Fogerty onto this!

Mozilla and Google blast IE-only Windows on ARM

JC_

Re: the main job of an OS is to get the fuck out of my way.

Well, if you say so. But if finding applets is a problem, why not use the search? Windows-key, start typing what you're looking for, and there it is. How would you do the equivalent in NT more efficiently?

If NT 4 was still supported and on sale I doubt 1 in a million people would choose it over Windows 7 / Server 2008. Sounds like you've got a case of nostalgia!

JC_

Re: Copying Apple

MS GUI changes since NT4 have in reality added NOTHING to productivity

Really? You don't remember NT4 with a shudder at how ugly it was? Prettiness aside, there have been lots of UI improvements: window snapping, non-hierarchial start menu, jump lists, taskbar grouping, integrated search, libraries, explorer previews, ...

Nothing that adds anything to your productivity?

Greenland glaciers not set to cause disastrous sea level rises - study

JC_

Bollocks. We have more than a clue about what's going on and it's the theory of AGW. The "debunking theories" are diversionary hypotheses and invariably proven wrong.

Not all articles are created equal, or else we'd be wavering between evolution and creationism, round-earth and flat-earth, gravity and intelligent-falling...

Public sector exempted from swingeing Microsoft UK price hike

JC_
WTF?

@AC

The more knowledgeable and experienced IT workers WANT to move away from Windows

This is typical fanboyism - those that are knowledgeable and experienced share my beliefs, those that don't are clearly lacking... better to make the case for how moving to Linux will increase productivity and/or save money, using facts, not opinions.

years of Windows technology has permeated so many systems that making a move away extremely difficult

That's institutional knowledge, which is an asset. Again, you've got to make the case that throwing this away will be justified with productivity, not just because M$ is teh evil.

Samsung unwraps 17in Ivy Bridge beast

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Re: Why would I want to do that?

Why the hate for laptops? All the accessories you listed (monitor, keyboard, mouse) work just as well with a laptop as with a desktop. Sandy Bridge - let alone Ivy Bridge - mobile processors are blazing fast and few would feel they lack anything compared to a desktop, especially when paired with a SSD.

It seems like you haven't used a laptop since the early 80s. Laptops are relatively cheap, certainly fast and it doesn't take much of a productivity gain to justify the price-premium.

'Geek' image scares women away from tech industry

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@AC 07.47

5 upvotes for a post blaming "feminazis"? Isn't this exactly the mysogynistic attitude that discourages females from working in the tech-industry? It's certainly a strange attitude to have.

Report: Microsoft tried and FAILED to offload Bing on Facebook

JC_

@Tony Gregory

Can't agree or disagree with you, ich spreche kein Deutsch! But if Press Europ is right, then Süddeutche Zeitung is somewhat similar to the Guardian, which gets a thumbs-up from me.

My down-voters clearly don't like the NYT, but can't actually name a superior newspaper. Maybe they're like Sarah Palin and can't actually name any paper... ;)

JC_

Re: NYT lost relevancy about 10 years ago

I like the Economist, too, but it's a news weekly, which is rather different from a daily paper. It certainly doesn't cover as many subjects or news as the NYT does, though the special reports are great for depth.

BTW, the Economist sadly has its own fashion section and embarrassing blogs, too.

JC_

Re: NYT lost relevancy about 10 years ago

To all my down-voters (5 so far, close to a personal best!): which newspaper surpasses the NYT for depth & reach of journalism?

The Times (of London), Washington Post, the WSJ? None of these come close, IMHO, so which do you think is top of the pile?

JC_

Re: NYT lost relevancy about 10 years ago

That's utter crap. The NYT is as it ever was: the most iconic and respected newspaper in the world. No other paper comes close to the depth & reach of its journalism.

On the other hand, some of the blogs it hosts (like 'Bits') are rubbish and I wouldn't miss them any more than I'd miss the fashion section if it disappeared, too.

JC_
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You're Both Right...

ratfox is right - the article never mentions Apple; dogged is right that the 'Bits' blog of the NYT has its metaphorical tongue right up Apple's arse.

For example, this Bits review for a pair of headphones assured readers that the 3.5mm headphone jack they came with is "ready for iProducts ", as if every other tech company has yet to implement this advanced technology... Another post refers to the Flashback trojan as a "Windows-style computer virus"...

Ted Nugent fined for failing to kill bear

JC_

Re: @Tom 13

That would be because you are an ignoramus... Yes, since it was for a TV show, Ted probably should have had a paid off duty game commissioner on staff to make sure everything he was doing was legal. But I think the average person seeing a "bag limit of 1" would assume that meant they got to take 1 home. Oh, and the final nail in your self-righteous hypocrisy: the judge who tried the case said he was unaware of the provision before it came to court.

Whoa, put those six-shooters away and calm down, cowboy! If you're gonna go out killing animals, the onus is on you to know the rules and follow them. Ignorance is no excuse, right?

As for your "final nail", by your logic a 'hunter' can go into the woods with a machine gun and kill everything he sees, just so long as he only takes one home?

JC_

@Greg J Preece

"I'm afraid I was blindsided by this" sounds weaselly to me! 10 grand and a season banned is no big deal to a rich man with plenty of other playgrounds available. A scaled fine, based on income, might have had him squealing a bit more.

Cellco execs lay into Nokia's Lumia

JC_

@N13L5

tl;dr

Have a look at this video of the manufacturing of an N9 - which has the same type of shell as the Lumia 800/900 - and you won't say it was "primarily designed for cheap manufacturing".

Moody's downgrades Nokia to near-junk status

JC_

Re: Actually quite like it

"I love your not-too-subtle astroturfing shill antics for WP7"

Reading that on my HTC Desire is rather ironic...

Elop is a cancer? Take a deep breath and realise that Nokia is a mobile manufacturer, not your mum.

JC_

@firefly

"the legions of astroturfers in the pay of Microsoft"

I have a sneaking suspicion that Barry Shitpeas is in the pay of MS as a double-agent - say completely stupid things often enough, always attacking WP7, and he just might convince people that MS is doing something good. As we've seen with the plan to insert Elop at Nokia, Redmond is that cunning...

JC_

@Daon151dh

Sort of like how my ISP gave me a router for free in return for signing up to a contract. They're not actually standing in front of the shop, handing phones out to passers-by.

Is that better for you, internet-tough-guy?

Microsoft to bake Windows 8 in three flavours

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Re: Solitaire

Thought about it a second and came up with a points table that results could be posted to, similar to the Sudoko game on WP7. Of course, you didn't actually want thinking, just applause for calling it an "abortion"...

BYOD sync 'n share

JC_
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SkyDrive

Yes, it's from MS, but it works well in my experience. 25GB of online storage for free and it only requires a hotmail account.

Nokia shares fall as it drops first quarter forecast

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@Alex

Yep, I'm aware of the N9, but it isn't actually running MeeGo. It's OS - Harmattan - is based on Maemo.

JC_

Re: @jc: Google won't offer any help

Apparently you forget Nokias own admission that they wouldn't go with Android because they couldn't *replace* Google Maps with Nokias service and still have the apps package.

There was a lot more to it than maps, but consider it from Nokia's point of view: they spent billions on buying out Navteq so that they could use the maps & navigation as a unique selling point. Go with android and throw that away, or leverage it on another platform? Which would you choose?

On a Lumia you get worldwide (pretty much) offline navigation. The interface needs improvement, but it's a compelling feature for a lot of punters.

JC_

@Paul

2 million Lumias sold (I'm going with 'sold' because that's what the article states, FWIW) is a lot better than no sales of nothing. HTC are competition so they can hardly be cannabilised by Nokia.

Name any mobile manufacturer which makes its phones outside Asia. Apple has done very well with slapping "Designed in California" on the back of Foxconn's efforts; if Nokia were to keep production in Finland then it would be going into the fight of its life with one hand tied behind its back. </cliches ;) >

Nokia didn't sell its future to Microsoft, they're MS's immediate hope in mobile and that's why MS paid so much for them to sign up. Each needs the other now, but there's nothing stopping Nokia from switching down the line, and who knows, they might just do so.

JC_

Positive Spin?

No spin (and no interest to disclose, either) because it's worth understanding why Elop made the decision to go with WP7. The whole Trojan Horse conspiracy is stupid and much less interesting than the facts.

Imagine joining Nokia as the boss and having to come up with a strategy when Symbian is a dead-end and MeeGo - the great hope - won't come out for another three years. Everyday Nokia is getting eaten alive, Google won't offer any help and time is fast running out.

Business Week has a good article, check it out.

JC_

Re: Translation

"sold two million Lumia... in the first quarter" on the page turns into nobody wants our Windows phones in your head?

The Reg hive mind clearly loathes Elop, but in 2011 the schedule for Meego was to have three phones shipping by 2014. That's still two years from today, assuming no delays, compared with the three WP7 phones Nokia already have on the market and selling in the millions.

Ten... Kitchen Gadget Treats

JC_

Paying for convenience.

At 30p a shot they're not cheap, but still much cheaper than a cup from a high street shop. There's a lot less faffing about than with loose coffee and basically no cleaning or wastage. By the way, if you're in France you can buy generic capsules from the supermarket, though they're not much cheaper.

The worst thing about Nespresso is the incredibly wanky ads.

Nokia drops Lumia 900 price to $0 in response to bug outrage

JC_

@DrXym

The run off is a design conceit which usually looks good, but it's annoying with contacts who have similar and long (Polish!) names which get cut off.

Off-topic: 3 downvotes for your entirely factual post? What is it with so many Reg posters? Y'all react like Pavlov's dog as soon as you see "M$".

JC_

Re: The company will push out a patch

Patches are applied when connected to a PC, same as an iPhone, so no problem... ah, why bother, trolls will stay trolls.

Renault Twizy budget e-car

JC_

Pedant Fail :)

...when the word ends with a vowel, 'n' or 's' the stress falls on the penultimate syllable (barring an accent). calle

Ofcom calls for end to 0800 charges on mobiles

JC_

@jsphsmith1985

You'll have to stick with 3, they make it so bloody hard to leave! The harrassment getting a PAC from 3 is ridiculous. Great deals, but watching a friend struggle to get a PAC put me off 3.

Busted in the US? 'Drop your trousers, sir'

JC_

Re: I see why Americans that agree with this want a smaller government

And yet the so-called 'party of small government' - the Republicans - nominated the justices that made the majority in this decision. How can any voter with two brain cells keep voting for these guys? Santorum, FFS...

UK government says no to turbo e-bike

JC_

Re: too slow

Slow women do 30mph? Not for long, and never on flat ground.

Maybe you're exaggerating because an old lady on her pushbike passed you? ;)

JC_

@Vic

Pulling a consistent 30mph on the flat is great going for anyone, let alone a "fat bloke on a foldy bike"!

If cars are passing you with a big speed difference then you must be cycling on major roads or outside the city? Going across London I have no problem keeping up with motorised traffic, unless it's night and the roads are completely clear. 12mph average stopping at all red lights (and there're 70 or so lights each way on my commute).

Drivers seem to be adapting to cyclists and most don't make silly attempts at passing because they know the cyclist will just filter by at the next pinch point.

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