Posts by stolennomenclature

China shutters 50 websites for spreading explosion 'rumours'

Re: Woah. Thank $DEITY for $REDACTED Freedom of the Press

And of course Western politicians and the press always print the gospel truth, don't they?

Apple's 16GB iPhones are a big fat lie, claims iOS 8 storage hog lawsuit

If only Apple knew about flash memory technology, then they could put a Micro SD card slot on their products, and users would not be limited to the memory supplied with the phone. Most other manufacturers seem to know about it. I suppose its possible that Apple does know of it, but wants to make a killing on over charging for the internal flash memory. No. Surely not. This great company worshipped by millions would not do such a crappy thing to their loyal customers? Or would they?

Apple iPhone 6 Plus: GORGEOUS FAT pixel density - but it's WASTED

quad not double

Sorry but going from 480x320 to 960x640 is quadrupling the resolution not doubling it. I know the author knows this, but using the expression "doubling" is rather confusing.

Elon Musk: 'Fudged' NYT article cost Tesla $100m

Re: @ Snake

If we switch over to renewables for power generation, as we need to do in any case to solve all the other serious pollution/oil depletion issues, then a rechargeable electric car like the Tesla surely is the solution, is'nt it? Until all power generation switches over to renewables (which incidentaly it never will), cars like the Tesla still reduce pollution to some degree since large power generating facilities are more efficient. Also solutions like the Tesla are amenable to local solar power charging (as you pointed out) which is a tremendous advantage. Hydrogen is certainly not a solution to anything (unless you are an oil company). And transmitting power via the electric grid surely has to be more efficient than trucking large volumes of liquid around. I agree that battery manufacture is not exactly clean, but then what industrial chemical process is? Is manufacturing ethanol or ammonia perfectly clean?

GNOME hacker: Culture isn't holding desktop Linux back

continual change and too many distros

Nothing is said in the article about the proliferation of distro's and the lack of any stable api's, which are surely two of Linux main problems.

The OS marketplace is not IOS, Windows and Linux - but rather IOS, Windows and Fedora, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Gnubuntu, ANotherBuntu, Debian, Arch, Mageia,l OpenSuse, CentOS, Redhat, PCLinuxOS, etc, etc, etc, etc. I cannot believe that anyone can seriously make the case that this proliferation of distros, whose most important common characteristic is that they never work properly, does Linux no harm. Linux is not an OS, its a whole family of ever different, ever changing OS's. The main things they have in common is lot's of bugs, ever changing api's, and the family name of Linux.

The fact that all of the major api's are continually chnaging hardly helps. There is no stability whatsoever in most of them. It's a moving target. At least Windows is stable for a few years between releases, and maintains some degree of backward compatibility with older api's. Linux's answer to the ever changing api situation is to bundle the applications with the OS, so in effect the OS and the applications are a single entity. Upgrade the OS and you have to upgrade all the apps to go with it. I doubt this is considered an advantage by most people outside of the Linux community.

Why the Apple-Samsung verdict is good for you, your kids and tech

Where would the world be without the iPhone and its ground breaking rectangular shape with the rounded corners! We must protect such ground breaking life changing innovation at all costs. How many phone conversations have been completely ruined by the use of a phone with square corners? We can only guess. All those trillions of useless pre iPhone conversations that occurred that would have worked so much better when conducted on a phone with rounded corners. Makes you think eh? I don't own an iPhone so as you can guess my life is useless and without any purpose, bereft of rounded corners. Mind you I would rather die than buy something from that egotistical arsehole Jobs, but that's just me. I would probably feel different if only my life had been changed bu those rounded corners. Oh well. Now where did I put my square cornered phone?

Apple, Samsung blast away in patent case closing arguments

too easily shocked

If the iPhone "shocked the world" then the world is easily shocked. If anyone is really shocked by a rectangular piece of metal and plastic which shows magic pictures and talks, then they either just emerged from a life in the jungle without any other human contact or they have the mind of an imbecile.

SOPA is dead. Are you happy now?

the real solution..

Make a good product, at an affordable price, that's easy to get hold of and does not have lots of inconvenient copy protection (in other words easy to use), and most people will willingly pay for it. There will always be thieves, people who for one reason or another would rather steal something than pay for it, but this does not matter with digital content, since they don't deprive anyone of anything - they simply make a copy. For example manufacturers of VCR's and other consumer products have always lost sales to thieves who steal VCR's from homes rather than go into a shop and buy one. Its simply a fact of life. What the movie and music industries need to do is to stop persuading ordinary people to become thieves by making there products so hard to get hold of, so expensive, and of such poor quality. I think this approach will fare much better than producing crap products at outrageously high prices, and then introduce measures to try and force people to buy them.

the real solution is...

Make a good product, at an affordable price, that's easy to get hold of and does not have lots of inconvenient copy protection (in other words easy to use), and most people will willingly pay for it. There will always be thieves, people who for one reason or another would rather steal something than pay for it, but this does not matter with digital content, since they don't deprive anyone of anything - they simply make a copy. For example manufacturers of VCR's and other consumer products have always lost sales to thieves who steal VCR's from homes rather than go into a shop and buy one. Its simply a fact of life. What the movie and music industries need to do is to stop persuading ordinary people to become thieves by making there products so hard to get hold of, so expensive, and of such poor quality. I think this approach will fare much better than producing crap products at outrageously high prices, and then introduce measures to try and force people to buy them.

Boffins reckon Mars quite blustery actually

sandstorms

That's what I thought too. Sandstorms without wind is a novel concept.

Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is dead at 56

Inventive Genius?

It is indisputable that Jobs was good at running Apple and making lots of money, but I do object to him being labelled a creative Genius, with at least one observer likening him to a modern Edison. Just what is it that Steve invented? It was Steve Wozniak that designed the Apple II, but there were microcomputers around before that. The iPod was not the first mp3 player by any stretch of the imagination. Nor was the iPad the first tablet. The MACos uses the Mach micro kernel which jobs had nothing to do with, and the BSD Unix kernel - again no Jobs involvement with that. Software for the Mac is written in Objective-C - not a Jobs invention either. The windows and mice GUI paradigm that entered the market with the first MAC was not invented by Jobs either - that was done at Xerox PARC.

That he was really good or perhaps even brilliant at seeing a business opportunity and heading up a large corporation, does not make him an inventive Genius in the mold of an Edison or the many other real inventive geniuses that built the technology which Jobs used to make apple products.

Its sad to see anyone die of course, and its always nice to find some good words to say about someone, but inventive genius? Not the correct accolade for this person.

Consumer Reports: 'We were wrong about the iPhone 4'

when is a phone not a phone?

Some irony here in the fact that the one main function this device cannot perform correctly is its supposed prime function - being a phone. It is after all called an iPhone. Perhaps they should call it an "iThing" or "iGadget" instead? That might be cheaper than trying to fix it.

Seriously, how could such a flawed device ever get out of the labs of a major company like this without being properly tested - what a blunder. And to think people have to pay a premium price for this device.

Apple bars radiation nanny from App Store

no proof either way

There may well be no scientific proof that cell phones are dangerous, but neither, and perhaps more importantly, there is no scientific proof whatsoever that they are safe. In other words, no one - and I mean no one - actually knows one way of the other.

If you look back over recent history, there are numerous cases of things which were once thought to be safe that are now known to be dangerous. When my house was built, the law required the ground around the slab to be treated with an anti-termite chemical. Years later this chemical is now banned by the very same people (more or less) who originally mandated its use.

My advice is this - if someone is making packets of money out of something - like mobile phones for example - no doubt it will be pronounced safe. Safe for the fat cats to make tons of dosh. And so what if a few thousand people die with brain tumours - so long as the cash keeps on rolling in?

are'nt they all?

Most of these apps are a waste of megabytes. The whole smart phone thing is all about cool gadgets and playing with toys, rather than doing anything useful. I like cool gadgets and playing with toys too - but lets not pretend any of these apps are curing cancer or saving the planet. Its all just for fun.

One second-hand space shuttle: Yours for $29m

nothing useful

The Brits have done nothing useful in space exploration mainly because of lack of money, not lack of technical expertise or imagination. Much of the early space technology in the US was taken from the Germans at the end of the war. Wernher Von Braun headed up the Appollo team which designed the Saturn 5 rocket engines. The Americans might have been mainly responsible for the Shuttle, but I would'nt pat myself on the back over that one. The Shuttle was hopelessly uneconomic to operate, inherently unreliable and dangerous, and not a shining example of technical innovation. As to jet aircraft, I would also like to mention that the jet engine was invented almost simultaneously in England and Germany, and that the first American jet aircraft used jet engines designed in England. America's main contribution to technology comes from the large amounts of money it has to fund development - and I don't want to even begin to talk about the ethics of where the money comes from.

Bono accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy

exactly

The truth, beautifully written.

are isp's policemen?

Why is it the job of isp's to police the content transmitted over there network? Are the telephone companies supposed to listen in to the phone calls going over their networks? Are the authorities that control the roads supposed to routinely stop traffic and check what people are transporting in the boot of the cars being driven on their roads? Is the postal service supposed to open up all the letters and envelopes to check their contents?

This is rediculous. Just because content is transported over their networks surely does not mean that the ISP is responsible for that content or obliged to control what is transmitted, any more than any of the others. To inspect data I send over the network is an infringement of my civil liberties, just as it would be if someone in the post office opened a letter I had posted.

Interesting how privacy rights and civil liberties get thrown on the scrapheap when some of the rich parasites find the supply of their ill gotten gains is drying up. If they all lose their money they will be poor just like the rest of us. Learn to live with it. We do.

California ban on violent video games killed on appeal

violence preferable to sex

Funny how violence seems to be so much more acceptable than sex. Apparently viewing a man having sex with a woman is bad, but viewing a man blowing a womans brains out with a shotgun is ok. [sarcasm mode] Still, I guess violence is not a significant problem in America, so there is no urgent need to control kids exposure to violence. [end sarcasm mode].

I have to laugh at these men of great stature, deliberating how to protect our children, and they do not seem to possess one iota of common sense, or any other kind of sense for that matter. If they do not have enough intellect to figure that violence in the media can have a negative influence on children watching it, then they ought to be confined to some sort of instituion - they desperately need some kind of help.

Odd how people readily accept that adverts on TV influence people, but somehow the programs themselves do not. So 30 seconds of a commercial showing an adult viewer something they dont really want to see can influence them, but hours of violence in a TV program show to a child who wants to watch and is intensely watching, will have no effect. Yeah, right.

What society really needs are laws to prevent morons getting into high office.

Brits 'a bunch of yellow bastards', says irate Yank

brave people have guns, cowards have none

Interesting point of view that people without guns are cowards, and those with them are brave. I would have thought the exact opposite. I would have thought that only a coward would be so afraid that they would feel the need to protect themselves with a gun.

Interesting also that the people the Americans feel the need to protect themselves from with their guns are in fact their fellow brave Americans.

America, home of the gun toting brave, etc. Sounds wonderful, does'nt it?

OLPC designer styles goes-like-stink electric motorbike

why is it desireable?

Sorry for being an old stick in the mud, but why is a motorcycle which can do 150 mph desireable? Dangerous, yes. Pointless, yes. But desireable? There is no where you can go where these kinds of speeds are either sensible, legal, or even possible (owing to traffic and road conditions). When are people going to grow up?

Blu-ray ramp beats DVD up-take in Europe

simply a matter of price

Surely uptake is directly related to price. The quicker the price comes down, the faster will be the uptake. Perhaps Blu-ray is simply proportionally cheaper than DVD during the same period. I am not sure this says anything about the relative merits of the two technologies.

Ubuntu man says Microsoft's about to 'swallow a hand-grenade'

why talk to him?

So he got his money by hanging onto someone elses coat-tails. So why are we listening to this person? Does having lots of money make your opinions valid?

If someone wants to talk to someone about Ubuntu, lets talk to one of the guys that programs the thing, not the lotto winner with the fat wallet who bankrolls it.

California inches toward 300 megawatt solar plant

meanwhile the bad guys are?

Meanwhile the large coal, gas and nuclear companies are presumably sitting on their thumbs and spinning quietly while their lucrative planet-destroying bunsinesses are sliding down inexorably down the proverbial? Somehow I doubt that. They will find some way to torpedo the plans.

Just browse the web and look at how many start up companies with innocative energy technologies suddenly get bought out just before a trial plant is constructed. The same thing is happening with maglev and monorail train technology. Too many companies make truckloads out of the inferior wheel-on-rail tech to allow maglev to get off the ground.

Only when the world is on the brink of total disaster and when its too late to do anything will people come to their senses and open the door to these new technologies. We are not there yet. Another couple of decades should do the trick. Fortunately i will be dead by then.

Record labels to ditch CD singles for USB Flash drives

how long would the connector last?

Im just wondering how long before the physical USB connector wore out, on the music device itslef but especially on the host. The connectors look fragile to me an i have already had one self dustruct on a keyboard.

temporary music?

I hope we are not forgetting that flash memory is not permanent - eventually the data leaks away. Some time ago I heard the figure ten years touted as the expected lifespan. Perhaps its greater by now, but enyhow lets hope people realise that eveutally the music on the sticks will evaporate.

Of course foe the record companies this is a wonderful feature, and I suspect one of the main reasons behind the move.

Of course on the other hand todays music is such shite that it is altogether a good thing that it wont be permanent.

Novell won't pull a SCO

microsoft and novell

Interesting how Microsoft initially backed SCO (financially) when it looked like SCO were the owners of the Unix copyrights. Then later when SCO was foundering in the courts and it seemed likely that Novell would be found to be the Unix copyright owners, Microsoft struck up a cosy deal with Novell.

I just wonder what Novells vow is actually worth in the face of Microsofts persuasive billions and the smooth talking of the softly spoken Ballmer in the back rooms.

Having said that, it also seems fairly clear that Linux has not copied Unix copyrighted code (at least not in any significant way) so appears to be safe on that front in the sense of actual legality, but perhaps not so safe from a carefully orchestrated FUD campaign.

UK gov rejects Cliff Richard's copyright extension

Why shouldn't they reap what they have sown?

I dont think the issue is whether songwriting or performing is regarded as work or not (which it is). The issue is whether you should get paid again and again for the one piece of work.

A carpenter who makes a chair doesnt get paid everytime someone sits in it. And if he wants to sell two chairs he has to make two. The music artist makes one performance in a studio, and then the CD factory stamps virtually free replicas out by the million. The musician then gets paid a million or more times for the one piece of work.

Some lucky artists have recorded a single song and then never have to work again for the rest of their lives. Was the work really worth all that reward? Hardly.

fair reward? pensions?

Is earning several million dollars for a weeks (or much less) work "fair reward"? Just how much money do these people need to collect for a weeks work. Most people get paid a weeks wages for a weeks work. They dont get paid 50 years wages for a weeks work, let alone 75 or 95.

Also, though pop stars may not get a pension, surely they could put aside some portion of their multi-millions for their twilight years?

Me, Id happily trade my decades of depressing drudgery and forthcoming paltry pension for a slice of Daltreys past millions.

I think these people need a reality check.