* Posts by hoverboy

53 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Aug 2013

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Windows boss takes on taskbar turmoil, pledges to 'make Start menu great again'

hoverboy

Explorer Patcher is a nice lightweight FOSS way to bypass the "All Apps" click.

Vote now on who should take the lead in Musk: The Movie

hoverboy

Adam Sandler.

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

hoverboy

So if Windows will run in effectively a web browser, the TPM requirement goes away and I can keep using my ten year old Ivy Bridge i7 box? (currently running W10 and Ubuntu 22.04)

Microsoft hits Alt-F4 on Windows 10X: OS designed for dual-screen PCs axed

hoverboy

I'm a MS shill, I admit it, I'm delighted with my Surface Go 2, it's awesome. I need a new phone and I really like the uber-expensive Duo. I won't get it though for this single reason: MS will kill it off.

Meet the Internet of big, lethal Things

hoverboy

Re: Do you own it, or not?

Would this then apply also to aircraft? It takes huge resources to certify class A or B flight controller software. And yes, the FAA very definitely do stop you from going to anyone who doesn't have full approval to even change the oil. Software is only ever OEM.

A perfect marriage: YOU and Ubuntu 16.04

hoverboy

I upgraded 14.04 to 16.04. There was a glitch that was widely reported as borking the upgrade; I just did a hard reset, booted back to Ubuntu and got a dconf window, Carried on and everything went perfectly. Apart from this it was the smoothest upgrade I've had in years - I normally always re-install but this time I don't think I'll bother. It's now working perfectly as my workhorse. Couldn't be happier.

Microsoft files patent for 'PhonePad', hints at future Windows plans

hoverboy

Re: Really?

I'm a massive MS fanboi, but that is painfully true and very funny. Hat-tip sir!

Team Microsoft: Device Police... 'Are you pumped? I'm pumped'

hoverboy

Re: Oh dear

I bought a Band 1 because I'm an unashamed MS fanboi and wanted to play with the new tech. I never expected it to be of any use whatsoever. In the end I found it indispensable for two reasons:

(1). unlike all the other wearables it has integrated GPS as well as all the biometric stuff, which meant I could go running or biking without having to carry the phone or wear a chestband HR monitor with my Suunto. It's much more comfortable and the web interface is pretty good too.

(2) the notifications are genuinely convenient. If I'm on my bike, in the tube or at a meeting I get an inaudible buzz on the Band and I can discretely and/or safely check to see if it's something important or not.

I was so impressed that when the, much prettier and slicker, Band 2 came out I upgraded. The Band 1 went to a colleague (Apple fan) who loves it.

Remember Netbooks? Windows 10 makes them good again!

hoverboy

Running Windows 8 on a Netbook involved a simple and widely-advertised registry hack http://www.askvg.com/how-to-force-enable-windows-8-snap-feature-in-low-screen-resolutions/

Apple's iPad Pro: We're making a Surface Pro WITH A STYLUS over Steve Jobs' DEAD BODY

hoverboy

Embarrassing

I long ago switched back to a mix of MS and Linux when Win7 and Ubuntu 12.04 both offered something that didn't suck too much and the stagnating OS X lost its unassailable lead. Since then it's been amusing to watch Apple's decline but this is truly horrific. Sure they'll keep making money (for a while) but a stylus? Painful to watch and a betrayal of everything Jobs stood for.

Windows RT on life support: Microsoft vows it won't pull the plug

hoverboy

Shame

Let's just imagine that the Windows 10 idea takes off and the dev promise of one app runs on all devices comes true. An ARM powered tablet running W10 would be a sweet device. How much effort would it really be to keep a port live?

Drop-stitch: Microsoft's 3D Photosynth app sinks into oblivion

hoverboy

More than a Panorama Stitcher

I really like the Photosynth app. It let's you take a full spherical view so you can, for example, capture an entire room including ceilings and floors. I don't know if there are apps on iOS or Android that do that but for a Windows Phone app combined with the good Nokia camera, it was pretty sweet. I shall miss it. It seems that you can still use the tech, but you have to take the pictures first then stitch them online. There are more options than just spherical too. https://photosynth.net/preview/help#get-started

Windows 10 is due in one month: Will it be ready?

hoverboy

Re: huh?

Except that dist-upgrade is just like regular windows updates. W8 to W8.1 is more like 'do-release-upgrade', which even on Ubuntu is hit and miss at best. I always save myself the heartache and do a clean install every two years at LTS.

hoverboy

This, exactly. On the desktop it's already perfectly useable; it's only the TOS (keylogging) that prevent me from using it for real, paying, work. Even the mobile is useable at the latest build, although I've only got it on my spare phone (925) not _quite_ ready to put it on the daily 930. The rate of improvement has been huge though over the last couple of builds.

BOOM! Stephen Elop shuffled out of Microsoft door

hoverboy

Re: "However this strategy has completely failed

No, he was a fat f*ck and than god for everyone's sakes we now have Nadella. If you haven't tried a Windows phone recently you really ought to get out more. Take the US out of the figures and Windows Phone is doing very well. Jobs could maybe face up to Nadella, but Cook? Really??

Carry On Computing: Ten stylish laptop bags for him

hoverboy

Ask anyone who expects to be on a flight on any given work week...

...and he will tell you that there is only one brand that makes the cut: Tumi. They're expensive and pig-ugly, but after getting through a Samsonite carry-on every year I splashed out on a Tumi at five times the price. It's still good as new after ten years. You can write Tumis into your will.

Heroic German rozzers rescue innocent lamb from sordid brothel

hoverboy

Re: breaking news : european dna

Where might you be going with this, I wonder... :-D

Nokia getting there with HERE as rivals talk up price

hoverboy

Re: HERE app on my Windows Phone

For me it was always the killer app for the Nokia Windows Phones and I suspect it is why they ended up with (almost) the entire (albeit small) market. It's also now available as an Android app and I used it last weekend with downloaded maps on my Nexus 7. IMO it's better than any other turn by turn, free or paid.

Theresa May: Right, THIS time we're getting the Snoopers' Charter in

hoverboy

Re: If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear.

Seems like that was a 'whoosh' for 13 people, at the current count.

WinPhone? PAH! If you want Microsoft's mobe apps, grab an Android

hoverboy

Why not? There's much worse stuff gets bundled on phones. OneNote is pretty useful and Skype has its uses too.

So long, Lenovo, and no thanks for all the super-creepy Superfish

hoverboy

Surface.

hoverboy

Re: They shot themselves in the head

Yes. Exactly this. This was a collosal quality failure by their management chain and it should call into question all of their products. I was weaned back to Wintel from Apple on the back of W7 usability and Lenovo build quality, since when my go-to supplier has been Lenovo. Funnily enough, a technophobe friend was so p*ssed off with her macbook she insisted she wanted a windows laptop. I found her a sweet deal on an i7 Lenovo Yoga2. I didn't have time to do the usual crapware cleanup and lockdown I would do on my own machines and sure enough within a week it was a nightmare of popups; unusable. W8 has a GREAT feature of the easy reinstall without losing data. I did this, did a proper install and she's had no problems since.

Lenovo shipped lappies with man-in-the-middle ad/mal/bloatware

hoverboy

Re: Criminal

Sadly, in the Windows World, Lenovo used to be the 'premium brand' - I guess if I want a Windows machine in future it's going to be a Surface...

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

hoverboy

Re: Where are the Cortina cycles coming from?

I have Cortana on my Windows Phone. At first it was a bit lame compared with 'Google Now' on my Nex7, but it has improved so rapidly it is now more or less 'Orac' (Blake's Seven Reference); it's now a noticable inconvenience to have to physically touch the phone's screen; most things I can now do just by saying 'Hey Cortana' + random command. It's amazing how much it can understand. Speech recognition is near perfect. Scary

hoverboy

What's that, Microsoft? Yep, a Lumia and Surface SALES BOOM

hoverboy

Re: Comparing shipped and sold figures again

You may or may not have a point, but quoting known MS hater Ahonen in any discussion regarding Nokia/Microsoft adds no credibility. Notice how many of the figures are 'Ahonen Consulting Estimate?'

hoverboy

Re: It's not so bad

An official Dropbox app came out last week. They got Rudy Huyn to write it; his CloudSix app was the best 3rd party Dropbox app.

No more free Windows... and now it’s all about the services

hoverboy

Re: Ongoing revenue stream...

To be fair to MS, one of the ideas behind the Metro app model was that all apps would run in sandboxed memory and whilst the registry is very much alive and well in W8, access to it and to the filesystem is at least better controlled with the Metro apps.

Behold the Lumia 535 NOTkia: Microsoft wipes Nokia brand from mobes

hoverboy

Re: What is the high end?

The queue was quite short compared with iDevice ones, but I was the first person at the Toronto Microsoft store to NOT get a Surface Pro when they came out. There were plenty of people behind me and there were some very long faces. Thanks to Mr J. Daniels for your comfort at this time ;-)

hoverboy

Re: What is the high end?

Glance is a hardware feature. It needs an LCD screen. I have a 930, which I love for the fantastic camera and the Miracast screen casting, but overall I still prefer my old 925 which is more than adequate in all respects compared with the 930, but it has glance.

hoverboy

I realise where I work != the rest of the world, but in my German aerospace engineering office you get laughed at for NOT having a Windows phone these days. People tend to be impressed if you can produce thermal analysis results during the meeting from running Excel on your PHONE.

hoverboy

Re: Meh

Trolling troller is a troll. No food from me tonight, troll

Microsoft to enter the STRUGGLE of the HUMAN WRIST

hoverboy

Nooo, it may well be all of that except that it won't be plastic. It will have the vapor magnesium stuff case like the Surfaces, which is quite nice really.

How much is Microsoft earning from its Android taxes again?

hoverboy

Re: Separation of handset and OS

Is this really still true? Do you have figures? I'm not saying you're wrong, just interested.

hoverboy

Why the downvotes for this comment? B&N rolled over to let MS tickle them on the tummy and it was widely and accurately reported both by el Reg and others.

hoverboy

Re: RE: And that is why mobile Windows is so shite - they want you to use Android

Because this forum is Worldwide and not just the USA? I know it's an unrepresentative sample but I work in a German aerospace company where people will laugh at you for not having a WP; (stupid) foreigners use Android, (fashion-conscious) 'Marketing' use iPhones, all the engineers use WP...

Nokia Lumia 735: Ignore the selfie hype, it's a grown-up phone

hoverboy

Re: I have seen some brain-dead comments in my time but this takes the biscuit.

I think it *may* have been a response to the knee-jerk Windows haters...

hoverboy

Re: No thanks

Brilliant! Thank you for this :-) Made me laugh out loud.

hoverboy

Re: I'm sorry

Sorry to hear of your bad experience. I'm on my fifth winphone, my wife is on her fourth. I'm an early-adopter bleeding edge type, she's a 'more than ten seconds needed to understand then I'm not interested...' type. Everything works fine for both of us. I keep a Nexus 7 for the apps that haven't yet made it to wp and try not to let apple products touch my bare skin...

Microsoft hopes for FONDLESLAB FRENZY as Surface Pro 3 debuts

hoverboy

VirtualBox

I have a Pro 2 with 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM it can run a Linux VM in VirtualBox very nicely. Compared with the Yoga devices it works better than they do as a tablet, but not so well as a laptop. All in all, the Yoga would have been a better choice for me but I can't say I regret the purchase. The build quality is extraordinary, even compared with Apple kit.

I think Microsoft are gradually converging on a sensible product line. The Pro 2 is nice but the lower weight and larger screen of the Pro 3 makes it a better machine for doing work. If they release the small form factor ARM 'Mini' device (at a low enough price) then they'll maybe start to see some small success there too, although merging the Phone and RT OSs and extending the 'Phablet' (Lumia 1520) line would make even more sense.

Hello Moto... It's the Nokia Lumia 630

hoverboy

Re: whatsapp?

No, Whatsapp is free when you install it. I think after a year you're supposed to pay £1 per year but so far I've not had to. It has been temporarily withdrawn from the store because it does not work correctly with the new notifications. The wisdom is that it will be re-released, patched, in time for the official general release of 8.1. Whatsapp is a pretty sloppily coded app, or at least, badly ported. It took a couple of years for them to stop using a horrible kludge (tricking the OS into thinking it was streaming music) so that it could respond 'real time' to received messages.

Nokia to launch low-cost Android phone this month – report

hoverboy

"...Windows Phone is too resource-intensive to run on cheap hardware, these sources claim, which is why Nokia is turning to Android for its new, bargain-priced kit..."

Oh REALLY? I suspect it has more to do with licensing than hardware requirements. Windows Phone seems to run pretty sweetly on some very cheap kit but Android needs quad-core monsters and is still laggy.

It's Satya! Microsoft VP Nadella named CEO as Bill Gates steps down

hoverboy

Why not install, run all updates and take an image? Save to DVD. It really isn't that hard.

hoverboy

Re: Mega Hard

Haha! Kind of with you except that I *like* the tiles.

hoverboy

Re: Signs of failure

You are wrong. Read the news. WP8 is firmly in 3rd place overall and in many countries it is ahead of iOS. Over 100% YoY growth too. I can provide citations, where are yours?

hoverboy

Re: Not Elop then.

I own some patents. I worked long and hard for them. I wouldn't give them away, why the f*** should MS give away theirs? They are NOT trolls, they are active in the field.

Hello! Still here! Surface 2! Way better than iPad! says slightly desperate Microsoft

hoverboy

Re: hmm

The biggest problem that MS have is that although all their products share a common-ish theme (The tiles) the codebases are not compatible so they lose a lot of developer support. Their strategy is reportedly to converge on a single code base for all devices. If they can pull this off then it will be worth the while of developers to write more apps for them.

Of the four main consumer product lines, XBox has its niche, full blown X86 Windows will be around for lifetimes yet and the phones are pretty sweet (and starting to take off now, at least outside the US) RT, however is really a bit pointless, especially considering, as others here have pointed out, the affordability of decent Atom-based tablets.

The tiles work well on a phone screen, I have one and I wouldn't go back to an iPhone now. The first part of the convergence will be to merge RT and Phone OSs, with features applied dependent upon screen size. The 'RT' brand will then quietly fade away...

hoverboy

Remember the "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC ads?" At least Microsoft are concentrating on the products and not a veiled ad hominem attack.

Julie Larson-Green: Yes, MICROSOFT is going to KILL WINDOWS

hoverboy

Re: still behind.

Here's some of that market data you were talking about:

http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-phone-kantar-9-percent-eu-decline-china

Sure the sales are still small, but they are growing very quickly.

hoverboy

Re: Full circle.

Interesting! But presumably that means that userland is entirely interpreted / managed code? Even with really good JIT compiles that means a performance hit? Surely there will always be a need for native-compiled code?

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