* Posts by JohnsonVonJohnson

15 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jan 2012

Canadian spookhaus says airport Wi-Fi slurp didn't invade privacy

JohnsonVonJohnson

Politicians are weaksauce technologists

The thing that REALLY burns me up, is we have a bunch of poorly educated yahoos making huge decisions about things they know absolutely nothing about.

The minister has revealed his poor hand by stating, "Oh, it's just metadata. No big deal" when he doesn't even know what metadata IS.

This is becoming a REAL problem in governments around the world.

When the internet, artificial intelligence, mass surveillance, digital currencies, etc. are challenging folks to educate themselves to participate or deal with these issues, why is it that our governing politicos are listening to industry pundits and shaping laws without consulting actual experts or the public.

Even worse, why is some yahoo that thinks evolution is an unprovable theory, global warming doesn't exist and science comes from satan in charge of a country?

Just a completely disgusting situation we have in Canada.

'Leaked' iPhone 6 pics will make cool fanbois WEEP - it's a PHABLET

JohnsonVonJohnson

I don't think they'd stick to one size. If they offer a larger phone, they will likely have a regular phone-sized unit as well.

Who the hell makes calls on those giant android phones?

Likely less than 1% of mobile buyers buys one of those bricks.

iPHONES and 'Pads BANNED in US for violating Samsung patent

JohnsonVonJohnson

The Prez was forced to BB

Actually Obama DID use an iPhone when he started office, but was told he'd have to switch to a BB for security reasons. ;)

So he's stuck with security, and isn't allowed features most modern android and iPhones have.

Patent wars are so ridiculous. The only people who will be hurt by this is the consumer.

Apple's huge pile 'o cash and pending new releases will protect them until the lawyers do some other game changing ridiculous thing, like getting samsung devices banned for eating soup with my mom.

We're not making this up: Apple trademarks the SHOP

JohnsonVonJohnson

Not that big a deal

Ever been to a Wal-Mart or a McDonald's?

Same deal.

Apple blocks Java on the Mac over security concerns

JohnsonVonJohnson

Re: :(

He's just firing up a virtual machine to do a few tasks... why bother installing anything you don't need?

If all you need is to look at something or quickly interact, a VM can be quickly setup and it doesn't matter what browser you use.

JohnsonVonJohnson

Re: AusKey

Despite apparent benefits, Java IS antiquated.

Sorry about your job, guy, but Java is toast, and you don't NEED to make something in .net just because you can't use Java.

Learn something new.

JohnsonVonJohnson
WTF?

Re: Apple, ooh Apple!

Apple is just a company. You are investing too much emotion in something you supposedly despise.

People like products, it doesn't define who they are, and there are always people who are enthusiastic for almost any platform/product. Something doesn't suck, just because you don't like it. Kids these days.

Java is a cockup on every platform. Apple, and any other company that can do so, SHOULD block it. It is not a little bug, buddy, this is such a HUGE clusterfap that Oracle needs to get on. Oracle needs to stop screwing around and fix it, or shut it down. Chances are high that they CANNOT fix it, due to the cross-platform and backwards compatibility built into java.

Google, Apple, eBay shouldn't pay taxes - people should pay taxes

JohnsonVonJohnson

Re: I suggest a compromise

Poor analogy.

The guy is right about at least one thing. Corporations shouldn't have the same rights as people... considering they don't have the same responsibilities or conscience.

They should have the right to be sued, or sue, but they should not have any say politically.

Corporations often lobby governments for changes beneficial to their bottom line, but are against government involvement in their affairs. So they're willing to bend you over, but they don't want to accept the risk of being bent over like the rest of us.

JohnsonVonJohnson

Re: Nonsensical

He may provide a chain of reasoning, but the facts and opinions are debatable.

JohnsonVonJohnson
FAIL

ROFL

This is a common argument of corporations.

Taxing a company a reasonable rate, when they have decent profits (i.e. cash lying around AFTER they've paid operating costs like wages, etc.) will not break them, or cause any undue pressure on them financially.

They have a responsibility to report higher profits to shareholders year after year, this is the untenable thread of corporate greed, and it is an illusion that everyone expects it to continue forever.

What are taxes for? Primarily to pay for infrastructure to facilitate commerce (transportation services from roadways and airports to buses and trains, police and military protection, health care for your workers from birth to death, education to prepare to work, old age security for aged workers, government oversight of labour laws, trade protection, throw a smidge of environmental protection in there). Of course being a worker isn't all that bad in this day, all this infrastructure helps us enjoy our time here too, we could still be living in sod or mudbrick houses.

Corporations are not people, so they can't make sound decisions about the greater good though. Corporations are structured in a way that they can only make economic decisions. As anyone who works for a corporation, myself included, will tell you, you feel a definite responsibility to uphold the rules and seek profit wherever it can be found. They are not evil or good, but are forces of a financial nature. If you want a large section of your economy to be held in banks, benefitting nobody (because a corporation isn't a person) except maybe an offshore banker, then by all means, eliminate corporate taxes.

There is a cost to doing business, just like the roadway outside a drive-thru gets potholes more frequently due to the high volume of traffic, there are costs to everything. The average person sees the costs shifting more and more to their shoulders, while services diminish and suffer, and governments tell their citizens that this is all untenable and we need to pay higher taxes, let corporations pay less, pay politicians and executives more. People in general would be happy if everyone were taxed a flat percentage to even things out, and corporations maybe a bit more to pay for the extra cost of abusing our infrastructure and having lack of responsibility to humanity. The only way to encourage social responsibility in corporations is to offer financial incentives, like tax deductions in exchange for acts of good towards the communities in which they thrive. So they have to be required to pay taxes to begin with.

Lowering corporate taxes never results in lower prices, higher wages or more jobs, the only three reasons you would ever want to. OK, maybe there is a fourth reason if you're desperate, if you want an incentive to keep call centers from moving out of your country into others with lower tax rates.

Also, tying taxes to a specific financial district is so old school. With our modern economy, we need more modern taxation. Sales taxes levied locally should apply to the online services we use. Why should I pay tax through the price of an item, to the government of another country? Likewise if a corporation is based in one country, it should have to contribute to the taxes of the country it does business in through "income tax." It's using the services of the country of business.

Organic food offers basically no health benefit, boffins find

JohnsonVonJohnson

Research based on... research

So they studied some studies that suggest this.

I wouldn't go throwing out the organic veggies just yet.

I like the flavour better, and surely fewer pesticides couldn't hurt you.

Google drive cloud to rain on Apple, Dropbox parade

JohnsonVonJohnson

Huh?

These services, dropbox, iCloud, etc. allow you to store more than just documents.

Mac mail supports URL click through to browser sessions, so I don't know what you're complaining about, maybe these folks aren't using Safari as their default browser. Not all Mac users are new to computers, in general.

In Gdocs you can convert any document into a PDF without a "pdf printer" in by selecting a doc, clicking More, share, email as attachment. Then email it to yourself as a pdf using the "Attach as" drop down box.

Apple's new TV allegedly spotted... in Canadian office

JohnsonVonJohnson

Stupid, stupid employees...

These morons in their labs likely just pushed back the Canadian release date (as iPhone 1 was) and dinked Rogers and Bells contracts. Apple gets a little heavy handed when people they're trying to deal with pull crap like this.

Assuming the info is legit, of course.

RIM's co-CEOs quit in top exec shake-up

JohnsonVonJohnson
FAIL

They have a LOT to fix

I also work at a University, but don't think I'm in some sort of bubble where everyone in the world uses the same devices I see every day.

Here iPhones and androids are the top gadgets we see. Blackberry kind of has an old-guy/government worker reputation around here. The handsets are kind of big, and feel like plastic junk.

Sure, that makes them durable, but god they need to update their design to be more modern and portable.

The OS is what REALLY stinks though, unless you've used BB a lot, you can't find anything in the menus, and many walkthroughs tell you to do things, but the menu option isn't in the place they're telling you to go. Very unintuitive interface. Email support is spotty at best, haven't they heard of Exchange? Support nightmare.

Wireless issues with both BB and Android are often creeping up here, as we use security certificates with our WPA, and only half the androids support it, while blackberry doesn't at all. iDevices and Windows phones work well, as do Mac/PC/Linux laptops.

Apple iPhone 4S grabs back ground lost to Android

JohnsonVonJohnson

It's not hard to imagine

It's not difficult to see why anyone would go back to an iPhone after being inflicted with an android device. iPhones and Windows phones work easily and integrate into most everything you require... flash and java free for the iDevices, of course.

Cloudbrowse helps a bit with that though.

The biggest problem we have at our University is that the Android devices are absolute crap for both email and wireless setups. We don't use basic WPA like you would at home, nor do we have basic IMAP or POP access. When you DO get an android device to work with wireless, most of them randomly drop their connection. 3G works great, but wireless support is terrible across several manufacturers devices.

Email will work on one android phone, but not another... set up using exchange or IMAP, even with the same OS version. Email will sometimes work, and then inexplicably fail, and can then the account will not work if you remove it and re-add using the same settings. You have to reset your phone to factory to re-add. Very frustrating experience. I have to setup between 20-30 android devices per day, and it's always a crapshoot.