Perhaps this article was imported, but in the UK, the noun is "licence", whereas "license" is the verb.
Posts by Mark Allread
138 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2012
Australian digital driving licenses can be defaced in minutes
Disco, Pogs, and the Microsoft Surface 3
Microsoft offers sneak peak of Hyper-V containers with Win 10 nested virtualisation
Google asks the public to name the forthcoming Android N operating system
The 'new' Microsoft? I still wouldn't touch them with a barge pole
Sunday 8th May 2016 02:36 GMT
"Microsoft decides, never admits a mistake, never apologizes and very, very rarely accedes to customer demands"
This is just actual bullshit. The Windows Insider program had literally millions of people giving feedback and shaping Windows 10. They put the Start menu back because too many people cried.
How one developer just broke Node, Babel and thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript
Wednesday 23rd March 2016 07:47 GMT
1. Why is actual serious commercial software being written in a language where you have to include and external component just to left pad a string?
2. Why is actual serious commercial software being written using components that are themselves written by unpaid bedroom coders and chancers who have no liability, no SLA etc.. Who are the idiot project managers who allow this?
Microsoft will rest its jackboot on Windows 7, 8.1's throat on new Intel CPUs in 2018 – not 2017
Microsoft Surface Book: Shiny slab with a Rottweiler grip on itself
Wednesday 16th March 2016 19:24 GMT
Re: The Dance while you wait to get permission to remove a drive/device
"Windows says the equivalent of
'Sorry Dave, I can't let you do that'.
When I tell it to eject the drive.
Yet, there is nothing using it."
Something *is* using it, you just don't know what it is. Sure Windows ought to be better at telling you what is using it and in fact Windows 8.1 onwards does usually tell you.
Microsoft: Ditch your phone biz and do crazy hardware experiments
Tuesday 8th March 2016 13:38 GMT
Re: "looks for ways of getting people to write Universal apps"
"Is that 30% really stopping anyone more writing them? No, it is the fact that there is no one is buying Windows Phones, meaning you will make a pittance whether you collect 70% or 100% of the top line revenue"
You actually make a decent amount because any app you write doesn't have much in the way of competition. Most apps written for Android sink without trace.
Microsoft wants to lock everyone into its store via universal Windows apps, says game kingpin
Sunday 6th March 2016 17:09 GMT
Re: Re:The FTC started looking at Microsoft's anti-competitive activities......
"If this is true then MS are intending to lock out of the Windows pc market every independent software producer on the face of the planet"
Well they aren't intending to do that, there's nothing they've done that suggests that they've done that and you'd be an idiot to believe the tin-hat brigade that are ranting about scenarios that they've invented.
Microsoft scraps Android Windows 10 bridge, but says yes to Objective-C compiler
Sunday 28th February 2016 16:18 GMT
Re: "2 bridges was 'unnecessary' says dev platform VP"
"As written, it's clearly a plural ("2 bridges") followed by a 'was'. It could have been written "Having two bridges was unnecessary"; but it was truncated into incorrectness. "The idea" (offered as a counter-example) is singular. Thus perfectly non-applicable"
The very nature of the article is that of the two approaches only one is really necessary. Therefore in the sentence "two bridges was unnecessary", we know that it's referring to the "idea" of two bridges, therefore it's singular. If the sentence had been "2 bridges were unnecessary", it would have implied that both bridges were unnecessary, and perhaps that there were actually more than two bridges.
Compare these two sentences:
"It was not necessary to have two bridges"
"Two bridges was not necessary"
If you think the second sentence ought to be "were", then reconsider when you see these two sentences, because that's effectively what you're saying:
"Two bridges were not necessary"
"It were not necessary to have two bridges"
In short, "two bridges was not necessary" is correct.
Sunday 28th February 2016 16:09 GMT
Re: Contemporary Microsoft Thinking
"If true then they burned the wrong bridge. The "run apk in simulator" approach could have worked - and can't have been that difficult given that Android simulators already exist for development use. "
Ah yes, I imagine your finger in the air research definitely trumps their thousands of man hours of research. Android simulators exist, but they only work to a decent level of performance on PC hardware. You can't start emulating apps on a phone and expect them to perform just as well as they do in similar hardware with native Android.
Saturday 27th February 2016 11:09 GMT
Re: Contemporary Microsoft Thinking
"So."a lot" of people told you that you wouldn't need to develop a bridge tecnology for iOs and a seperate one foe Android because even though they are 2 very different things it would be "unnecessary"?"
The thinking is that most app developers have an iOS and Android app already and to create a WP app, only one needs to be ported. They've done a lot of work and decided that it's easier and/or the results are better when the iOS version is ported and therefore dumped the Android porting tools. The only problem is, Microsoft should have done this research and made this choice before making any announcements like they did at Build last year.
Windows 10 is an antique (and you might be too) says Google man
Microsoft's HoloLens: Here by 2016, mere three THOUSAND dollar price
Got Windows 8.1 Update yet? Get ready for YET ANOTHER ONE – rumor
HTML is a sexually transmitted disease, say many Americans
Even 'Your computer has a virus' cold-call gits are migrating off XP
Wednesday 15th January 2014 14:29 GMT
That's the impression I've got when I've spoken to them. I don't think the front line people know it's a scam. They're following instructions and training but they don't really understand the tech. They're given 'leads' (which are just random numbers), and they attempt to get a sale. Some of them get really defensive when you tell them they're part of a scam.
Think your brilliant app idea will earn some big bucks? HAH. You fool
Wednesday 15th January 2014 14:19 GMT
It's a shame they didn't bother to include Windows Phone
Where they will have seen how developers make much more money since the apps-to-users ratio is much much better. The Android store is *so* broken now because it's impossible to charge for anything. I don't know why developers even bother with it.
Microsoft: Everyone stop running so the fat kid Win RT can catch up
Surface Mini on shelves NEXT YEAR – and it will run Windows RT
Microsoft: Surface is DEAD. Long live the Surface 2!
Women in IT: ‘If you want to be taken seriously, dress like a man’
Thursday 29th August 2013 14:50 GMT
This makes perfect sense
I work with some women who turn up every day looking like they're going out on a night out. Loads of make-up etc.. There's simply no reason for anyone to turn up to work with make-up on. Be neat, be clean, but as soon as you start applying transient stuff designed to make you appear more attractive (including certain attire), then you'll be judged in that way. It would the same for blokes too, but blokes very rarely do indulge in this. Simply put, if you turn up for work looking like you want to be judged on your appearance, you'll be judged on your appearance - to the detriment of being judged any other way.
Despite Microsoft Surface RT debacle, second-gen model in the works
Microsoft Surface sales numbers revealed as SHOCKINGLY HIDEOUS
Microsoft to ship Windows 8.1 in 'late August'
Windows 8 apps pass 100K, Windows 8 passes Vista
Wednesday 3rd July 2013 08:23 GMT
"Has anyone actually recorded who makes all the 100k+ apps? Could it perhaps be that the majority are all MSFT ones?"
Ah... conspiracy theories... Maybe Apple did the same huh? Maybe Google did the same huh?
Or perhaps the development environment, languages and tools are streets ahead on Windows.
Out with a bang: The Last of Us lets PS3 exit with head held high
Smart TVs riddled with DUMB security holes
Thursday 6th June 2013 11:27 GMT 
Call me paranoid but..
A friend of mine and his wife have a Samsung TV in their bedroom. I did point out that it's connected to the internet and it has a camera on it pointing at the bed. He didn't seem to concerned that he might be releasing his own sex tape soon. Perhaps he just doesn't get lucky very often...
More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7
Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims
The Metro experiment is dead: Time to unleash Windows Phone+
Wednesday 8th May 2013 13:28 GMT
As predictable as night following day
Whenever The Register posts an article about Windows 8, Phone 8 or Metro, the comments section is filled with mongs saying they don't like it, whilst at the same time showing that they don't understand it or have massive holes in their understanding. They moan about being unable to do things that in fact, they can. They moan about missing features that are in fact, present. It's incredible.
Oi, Microsoft, where's my effin' toolbar gone?
GoPro accused of using DMCA to take down product review
Microsoft Surface Pro sales CANNIBALIZING Surface RT
Friday 15th March 2013 10:16 GMT
Another day, another win 8 hater story on the reg
This time, the surface angle. The Register seems keen to forget that the Surface is in a market with all other Windows 8 machines whereas the iPad is not. Microsoft has deliberately balanced the Surface's availability and exposure to keep their competing OEMs sweet. The Register really ought to know and understand this.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
