Posts by Vociferous

Despite Microsoft Surface RT debacle, second-gen model in the works

Re: Microsoft do stupid things

Yeah... The idea was that the Desktop should go the way of the dodo and the Dos-prompt. Metro was going to be the new interface for windows, and microsoft referred to the desktop as "a bundled app" with the "legacy UI" which allowed users to run "legacy software" (no joke, they really did).

The future was Metro, all windows devices would have the same codebase and run the same Metro interface, regardless of hardware.

The slight flaw in the plan was that Metro sucks flea-infested goat balls on computers with keyboard and mouse, the Windows developers didn't get on the bandwagon and develop Metro apps (because Metro sucks), and the different versions of Windows doesn't yet have the same code base as they're supposed to.

Clusterfuck ensued, and instead of being just a clean break with the past, RT and Metro became just broken.

Re: Wow, it truly is amazing the mis-steps Microsoft is making.

If I wanted to program my reports instead of typing them, I'd use LaTex.

Re: Really?

Is there any reason to think that Outlook DOESN'T have backdoors for the CIA/NSA?

Any company which competes against US companies for contracts of any value, at least in the defense or energy businesses, should not discuss sensitive details in unencrypted mail or cellphones period, and if it's a major defense contract, for fighter jets say, it's probably wise to assume that the full force of US intelligence community is being used against them.

Comet ISON seen eructating 300,000km-long methane and CO2 BELCH

Re: Can some boffin explain how it works

The comet tail always points away from the sun, regardless of which direction the comet is traveling. It's the radiation pressure of the light which pushes the (very light) particles away from the sun.

Anyone else had to google "eructation"?

Murdoch machinations mean Microsoft must rename SkyDrive

Considering they're going to make it default storage location for all Windows users, and they're making it harder and harder to find files on the local computer, just name the fucking thing C:

Is Murdoch Satan?

Have anyone ever seen both in the same room at the same time?

US Republican enviro-vets: 'Climate change is real. Deal with it'

No, the reason there no longer is any credible scientific debate about the basic facts is because THAT debate was held in the 80's, and is long since settled.

That the oil industry and their astroturf disagree, is irrelevant.

Re: Cold enough yet? No? Just wait...

The article you're referring to is published in "Energy and Environment", a junk.science mag which deniers use because _it isn't peer reviewed_. One can publish anything there, and the deniers do. That specific paper makes a lot of erroneous assumptions, and would not have been publisheable in a real science journal.

And, in other news: "NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1988, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record." http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20130115/

Re: Whatever.

Hahahahaha yeah, and the ocean is so vast that it's hubris at best to think humans could ever pollute it!

The fishes of the ocean are so numerous that it is hubris at best to think that humans could ever deplete the stocks!

The rainforests of the world are so enormous that it is hubris at best to think we could ever cut them down!

The oil reserves of the world are so huge that it is hubris at best to think that they would ever run out!

The buffalo herds are so big that it is hubris at best to think that they could ever be hunted to extinction!

Seriously, even for an argument from ignorance yours is the dumbest I've ever seen. Not just because there are countless examples of humans affecting vast resources, but because _we actually know that humans are increasing the CO2 level of the atmosphere_.

Re: Whatever.

God you're dumb.

You think that all climate scientists in the world are in on a big conspiracy because the money in basic science are soooo good. Because you're too dumb to realize they could instantly triple their salary if they started saying climate change _isn't_ real.

Google scientists rebel over company's support for 'climate-hoax' Senator

Re: Conspiracy Trifecta

The winner is "Hollywood". Hollywood is conspiring to scare the americans into becoming willing slaves to the control of multi-national organizations, like the U.N.

He's also accused the Obama administration of buying all the ammo so gun owners wont get any.

Stark barking mad. I'm surprised he hasn't been appointed head of the Science committee yet, that's where the craziest bible-thumpers tend to wind up.

Re: God?

It's the far right/conspiracy crowd. They believe the UN is a front for the Illuminati/Jews. Here, enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVj_GxBR_A

In the late 90's, early noughties, Google got a reputation in the USA as being liberal, for instance it had as its slogan "don't be evil". No joke.

Being perceived as liberal in the USA automatically means that about 30% of the population will boycot you, will organize write-in campaigns to get companies to disown you, and that 50% of Congress will do their best to legislate you out of existence.*

Google has in recent years tried to compensate. For instance, if you go to the USA edition of Google News, you will find that more than half of the top stories are relayed from Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and Washinton Times - all extremely conservative - while supposedly liberal sources such as New York Times only get "human interest" stories.

I don't know if Google really is conservative, but in the present climate in USA, all corporations better be, or face the consequences.

* No, there is no similar movement from the left. Democrat senators do not try to put Fox News out of business, and there aren't hundreds of democrat astroturf organizations organizing write-in campaigns against conservative-leaning companies.

Plods probe death threat tweets to MP - but who will rid us of terrible trolls?

Re: Not sure whether trolling...

It IS telling people about the net before the web. It was a different world, and not many active today ever experienced it.

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your twitters are seriously no fricking concern of mine. At all.

What will various crusaders play up the next time? Racial insensitivity? Sexual innuendo? Let me ask you, have you been potentially insensitive to any sort of minority recently? Furries? Bronies? Beliebers? Kim Kardashian? You heartless fiend.

Wont someone please think of the children?!

We used to snicker at the Great Firewall of China, and here we are, building our own.

So, who here LURVES Windows Phone? Put your hands up, Brits

Re: My hand's not up.

Oh, I doubt Kies is worse. You see, besides enforcing DRM and being a filter making sure nothing horrible, like a file with an extension it doesn't recognize, ever reaches the phone, Zune uses Metro with SIMULATED TOUCH INTERFACE. When I first downloaded the 250 MB slug and fired it up, I was greeted by two icons. I moved my pointer towards one of the icons - and it jumped away. I moved my mouse pointer to the other icon - and it, too, jumped away. I was supposed to drag the screen ("simulated touch interface") with the pointer, not move the pointer.

Mind. Blown.

A billion dollar company had, in a central piece of software in a strategically important product, reproduced the functionality of the old Magistr virus/joke from 2001, and somehow thought this was a good idea.

That was the moment when I realized that there were no longer any grown-ups in charge at Microsoft, or at least no sober ones.

My hand's not up.

I deeply, honestly, heartfeltly (is that a word?), despise and loathe my Windows Phone, an HTC Radar. There's nothing wrong with the phone itself, it's solid, but the OS (WinPhone 7.5) is stunningly bad. Half the screens can't be rotated, some screens (e.g. the Contacts screen) doesn't fit in the 4" display so edges are, the interface is not consistent (e.g. there's four different Enter-icons, used in different ways), it can not be customized at all, it is full of bloatware which can not be uninstalled, and the only way to access the phone from another devices is via the worst, most insultingly poorly designed and misfeatured, piece of software I've ever had inflicted on me since getting my first ZX Spectrum in 1983: Zune.

I hear some of these problems (notably Zune) have been fixed in WinPhone 8, but personally I would sooner listen to a Justin Bieber sings dubsteb versions of classical polkas-marathon, with cracked speakers, than ever get a new Windows Phone.

Kevin Bacon avoids slapped wrist after TV pipe-fatness claims

Fast is over 100 Mbit to me, Superfast is 1Gbit or better, and at 1 Tbit we've reached Ludicrous Speed.

Curiosity team: Massive collision may have killed Red Planet

Re: Impact? Isn't lower G and solid core sufficient?

Yes, AFAIK the theory that the solar wind stripped the atmosphere off Mars after its core solidified and, therefore, Mars lost its protective magnetic field is still the leading theory.

German guardsmen growing mono-boobs from drilling with Nazi-era rifles

I'll take a wild guess here and say that the Ceremonial Display Unit is probably very small, and the incidence of breasts in it can probably counted, and perhaps fondled, with one hand, meaning that the standard error of the statistic is huge and slight random variation has a huge impact. Meanwhile, the army as a whole is huge, variance and standard error low, and proportion of moobed men probably indistinguishable from that of the general population.

In other words, junk science.