* Posts by Mike Moyle

1715 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Feb 2007

Classic telly FX tech: How the Tardis flew before the CGI era

Mike Moyle

Re: On a related note about sci-fi effects pre-CGI.

On at least one episode of original Star Trek ("The Trouble With Tribbles", I believe) the U.S.S. Enterprise visible from a space station window was actually one of the AMT kit models hanging against a backdrop -- None of the regular Enterprise effects models was the right size.

I've always loved the way that Dr. Who -- and Brit TV SF in general -- could make up in cleverness what they lacked in budget. Possibly my favorite was a "vortex in space" that it took me a couple of seconds to realize was just solarized footage of water going down a drain, superimposed over a starscape... Simple, effective, and cheap!

Tim Cook stands firmly behind pro-LGBT, anti-discrimination law

Mike Moyle

@ Greg J Preece

The thing to remember is that the United States is a federated patchwork of (semi) independent political units that are allowed to draft their own laws so long as they don't contravene the Federal laws (and, sometimes, if they do; e.g. recreational/medical marijuana laws).

The states that have legalized same-sex marriages are likeliest (haven't checked them all -- don't plan to) to already have anti discrimination laws on the books that include LGBTs, and the ones that don't are likeliest not to. This is the reason for the push for a Federal anti discrimination law -- to sweep the floor, as it were, and ensure that someone that can't be fired for being gay in, say, Massachusetts, can't be fired if their job moves them to Utah.

SECRET Google store touts pricey accessories to Glasshole shopaholics

Mike Moyle

So the next time that you're tempted to make a comment about overpriced Apple kit, just remember this...

Want to go to billionaire Sun kingpin's beach? Hope you're a strong swimmer

Mike Moyle

Well, if it's no longer a public road...

Martin's Beach Road should be officially signed over to the property owner as a private driveway (if it isn't already) and removed from the city highway department upkeep roster. Eventually -- even is SoCal, and with only limited traffic use -- it'll need repairs, which the property owner appears to be well-equipped to pay for, himself. (Up here in the Northeast U.S., the expense of plowing a driveway that long in the winter and repairing the frost-heaves the following spring would be considerable, and we would all stand around to point and laugh!)

Moto sets out plans for crafty snap-together PODULAR PHONES

Mike Moyle

That endoskeleton...

...appears to take two modules each of three sizes and four formats -- small square, large square, thin rectangle long-edge-in, and thin rectangle short-edge-in. I foresee problems unless module-makers produce their parts in multiple formats: "I want THAT camera module, but they only come in 'thin-short-edge-in' and I only have a 'small-square' slot left!"

OTOH, it's probably a good thing that it's Googorola trying this, rather than Nokia/Microsoft... With tiles on both sides, you might not be able to tell which side of the phone you're looking at after a night out!

Do Not Track W3C murder plot fails by handful of votes

Mike Moyle

Maybe we can come to a compromise...

We'll allow you to track users.

You're just not allowed to PROFIT from that tracking; you can't sell, rent, or give away the data and you can't use it to push advertisements. And you are required to keep that data safe from any third party that might want to use it in any ways that are disallowed by the rule or illegal.

There. Everybody gets what they're asking for. Problem solved.

Cook: Apple 'so very, very proud to be a FORCE FOR GOOD'

Mike Moyle

@ returnmyjedi

"They're not the ones spouting guff about being a force for good."

...e-r-r-r-r... maybe... maybe not...

http://investor.google.com/corporate/code-of-conduct.html

Sorta depends on how you define it, really...

Don't crack that Mac: Almost NOTHING in new Retina MacBook Pros can be replaced

Mike Moyle

Re: Batteries!

Since the battery appears to sit at the bottom of a nice. flat, heat-transferring metal case, I actually wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that they have a big (moderately) hot-plate in the back room that loosens that glue in about 5 minutes.

In the larger sense -- as others have said -- with AppleCare, you're covered for 3 years on, AFAIK, EVERYTHING from stem to gudgeon that could fail. "It's broken... Fix or replace, please... Thank you!"

Granted, for any hardware older than THAT, you're on the hook for repair costs but, honestly, unless you either are really cheap or really ENJOY tinkering inside your computer, when has that NOT been true? For the vast majority of users -- for whom "tinkerability" is neither a fetish nor an article of faith -- the important thing is that "It's broken... Fix or replace, please... Thank you!" is as far as they really WANT to get into it.

Don't get me wrong; I am not OPPOSED to tinkerability. By the time that I retired my MDD G4 duallie as my main machine last summer, I had maxed out my optical and HDD bays (and upgraded all of those repeatedly as disks came down in price), tossed in more RAM, USB 2 and Firewire 800 PCI-e cards, added extra fans and (slightly) modded the case, and it served me well for more than a decade. But that level of component swapping was about as much as I EVER wanted to get into it, and the vast majority of my family, friends, and co-workers consider me to be an absolute computer geek because I chose to do that. For the rest of them, "It's broken..." is really as much trouble as they want to go to. They don't want to fix or upgrade their own computers any more than they want to fix their own cars, stoves, or vacuum cleaners when they have -- in their opinion -- better things to do with their time.

Reg mobile correspondent Bill Ray hangs up his Vulture hat

Mike Moyle

Thanks, Bill.

It's been fun!

Apple bats away WiLAN cellular data patents sueball

Mike Moyle

Re: What about the ones that gave in?

@ frank ly

Actually, I'm not sure that that's the case.

My understanding is that, if you buy, say, a box that BOTH you and the seller believe is full of diamonds, and it turns out that they're all lumps of glass, you're STILL on the hook for the purchase price, since you both believed, at the time that the deal was made, that the contents were worth a given value. If WiLAN and the licensees both believed that the patents were good and contracts were signed to license the tech covered by these patents, then the licensee should be blocked from backing out of the deals. They would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that WiLAN knew that the patents were indefensible and intentionally defrauded the licensees.

"WiLAN does not believe previous license agreements signed related to the patents are negatively impacted by this decision."

This sounds to me an AWFUL lot like they're telling the ones who settled "It doesn't matter that the court said the patents were invalid, you signed a legally-binding contract and we're going to hold you to it because Rule #1 is YOU NEVER GIVE THE MONEY BACK!"

Google pulls all Android apps linked to adware badness THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED

Mike Moyle

...But, then again...

Shadowy drug fans threaten FBI agents, vow to 'avenge' Silk Road shutdown

Mike Moyle

Re: Chalk one up for the War on Drugs

Well, of course the value went up; the feds confiscated $3.6 million worth. As the available quantity of a commodity goes down, the value goes up.

Maybe I don't understand the basic principle but it seems to me that, if the Feds want to destroy Bitcoin, they should be using their Crays (or whatever super-computers they use) to start "mining" Bitcoins like crazy and flood the market, offering WAY over value in offering to buy products and causing runaway inflation. When your Bc200,000 is roughly equal to $1.98 you've pretty much hyper-inflated the currency out of existence.

I mean -- admittedly -- I'm old and I don't understand this here newfangled tech-no-low-gee stuff, but if Bitcoin (and its user base) follows the basic rules of economics, this should work, right?

Boffins spot LONE PLANET roaming interstellar void

Mike Moyle

*sigh*

So, clearly, I am the only geezer here old enough that my first thought was, "Bronson Alpha".

Brew me up, bro: 11-year-old plans to make BEER IN SPACE

Mike Moyle

Re: Not a trivial venture -

Sterilization, at least, shouldn't be a problem. A quick wash, then take it outside and "hang it on the line" during an already-scheduled EVA.

A couple of days of high-vac and intense ultraviolet (You DID remember to put it on the sunny side of the station, right?) should kill 'most anything!

'Stupid old white people' revenge porn ban won't work, insists selfie-peddler

Mike Moyle

Re: The law?

Well, for any legitimate porn vendor (nudie magazine, adult website, porn movie producer, etc.), the producer/vendor is required by law to have a signed release from the models/actors AND proof of age on file. Presumably revenge posters DON'T have these things readily to hand should the authorities come a-calling so -- under the existing regs -- they're ALREADY in violation of the law. This just seems like a slightly different direction from which to attack the posters if the first one doesn't work.

...Which is fine by me; I see no reason why someone should be shamed and punished because they made an unfortunate choice in love/sex partners.

BOOGIE BALLMER: Steve Dirty Dances at tearful Microsoft leaving do

Mike Moyle
Coat

"Steve Ballmer is a rich buffoon. Perhaps not the first CEO or "celebrity" to be an oxymoron but definitely one of the most animated and hated. Goodbye Steve and fuck off!"

...an oxymoron... That means that he's still breathing, right...?

Boffins have constructed a new LIGHT SABRE. Their skills are complete

Mike Moyle

Crystals made of light...

.... Could they be made to work as gates? Optical computing in its ultimate form.

Modular smartphones floated by Dutch designer chap

Mike Moyle

Re: No@ jb99

Funny... I would have SWORN that Autodesk made computer software for people that do actual work...

You know... Like here:

http://www.autodesk.com/mobile-apps

Or, if you don't care for Autodesk, there's software suitable for doing pro-level work here:

https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id400083414?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Or here:

http://www.higheredtechdecisions.com/article/pro_video_editing_apps_for_android_and_ios

Or here:

http://appfinder.lisisoft.com/ipad-iphone-apps/prokon-structural-analysis.html

Oh, wait... Did you mean that ONLY having a software editing "environment"* counts as " functionality the user can use to do 'work'"?

...Or is "programming" the only thing that counts as "work"?

I must say; you seem to have an awfully limited definition of what counts as "functionality", "useful", and "work". That's not very technical, Ben.

--------------------

* ...And what ever happened to ""REAL" programmers use vi, anyway"? Ooooh, look! A vi-based text editor for iOS:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vim/id492668168?mt=8

Smartwatch craze is all just ONE OFF THE WRIST

Mike Moyle

Ah... the Casio Data Bank...!

...Reminds me of my days working for a (then) Fortune-400 computer manufacturer in the '80s. I had a DB and kept my phone numbers and schedule on it. If you didn't want to risk forgetting/losing your address book/scheduler, the Data Bank was (IMO) the best option available at the time. It could also be great fun, in certain circumstances.

I was a senior illustrator in the publications department at the aforementioned computer company and spent a fair amount of time attending Project Management Team meetings. (Before I got stuck doing that I felt that I was being paid an obscene amount of money to pursue my hobby; once I got roped into PMT meetings I felt that the amount I was paid was STILL an obscenity, just in the opposite direction... But I digress...)

The last item on the agenda of any PMT meeting is, of course, the scheduling of the next meeting. The documentation editor (who generally chaired the meetings, since everyone ALREADY hates editors) would study her Day Planner™ book and suggest, e.g., "How about Tuesday the 8th at 10 AM...?" The Writer would look at har Day Planner (denim, with leather corners) "That's fine." The Engineer would look at his Day Planner (larger, and with the leather cover) "Um... Yes, that works." The Marketing Rep would look at HIS Day Planner (the BIG leather one with the zipper around the side to hold in all the post-it notes sticking out from various pages that showed anyone who looked how busy and important he was) "Hmmmmm... No; I've got another meeting, then... Can we make it 11:00?" Everyone confirms 11:00...

...and looks over at the Dumb Artist.

Dumb Artist is so low on the social scale that he doesn't HAVE a Day Planner. He just has a pad of graph paper on which he's been doodling and occasionally scribbling cryptic notes throughout the meeting.

Dumb Artist looks at his wristwatch. *tap* *tap* "Tuesday at 11...?" *tap* *tap*... *tap* *tap* *tap* "Got it!"

It was always amusing to see the engineering and marketing reps of a computer company realize that the Dumb Artist was techie-er than they were. (Tackier, too, probably; but that's a whole 'nother issue!)

Granted that it's not particularly aesthetic-looking but, as a backup for contacts, etc., the Casio Data Bank was (and still is) a useful piece of kit.

An autopilot the size of a postage stamp

Mike Moyle
Coat

Re: Processing requirements for embedded systems are often over estimated

Well, it *DOES* say it's a Lisa™.

In case of LOHAN flight emergency, gobble THIS Iridium-Arduino sandwich

Mike Moyle

"Termination-Initiate" Transmission System Uplink Panel

Mike Moyle

Power-Abort. Release Everything. Not Today.

...Because if there's a bigger downer than a LOHAN PARENT, I don't know what it is!

'BLING BLING, BLING BLING' 'Hello, yes, my iPhone is made of GOLD'

Mike Moyle
Mushroom

Spoken (written) like a true AC...

...because, as we all know, (a good number of) Android users would never THINK of prating on about their tech devices of choice are the be-all and end-all, in order to (get their [tiny] little egos stroked more).

(Not all [Android] users, mind you, but a goodly number.)

Posted by an Android phone (ZTE) and iPad owner.

Bureaucrats foil Nestlé's bid to TRADEMARK KitKat's chocolatey digits

Mike Moyle
Trollface

Re: Nestle And Kraft...

I dunno... I'm thinking more "Apple and Samsung", here -- with this being Britain's "round-cornered rectangle" moment.

Google: Cloud users have 'no legitimate expectation of privacy'

Mike Moyle

"Don't be evil -- we hate the competition."

Elon Musk unveils Hyperloop – the subsonic tube of tomorrow

Mike Moyle
Thumb Up

One thumbs-up to Iain Thomson

For using the proper term "damper", rather than the lamentably common "dampener".

(If there were [only] one thing that I could never forgive "Star Trek: The Next Generation" for, it would be the promulgation of that horror. A "damping field" would be a field that inhibits a reaction; a "dampening field" would be the north forty under a heavy dew.)

(Sorry... Pet peeve. </curmudgeon>)

US taxmen told to hush up shadowy drug squad unit laundering NSA intel

Mike Moyle

Re: Just a heads up.

"The House and Congress have allowed the NSA to set up a 'shadow court' that bypasses the POTUS."

I think you meant SCOTUS. (Although, with some of the decisions coming from the Supreme Court in recent years (e.g., Citizens United, Voting Rights Act...) I'm not sure that having them ON the job would necessarily be an improvement...)

Sony refuses to flog off Spider-Man lab and other entertainment wings

Mike Moyle

An open letter @ David Loeb:

Dear Mr. Loeb:

I have a simple solution to your problem:

1 -- Buy nothing but Sony products. Make your family but nothing but Sony products. Get them to encourage others to buy nothing but Sony products.

2 -- Bottom line is improved the capitalist way -- by people buying products.

3 -- SUCCESS!

You're Welcome.

(Granted, it's not as fast as strip-mining the company, but it all rather depends on whether your ultimate goal is sustainable growth or taking short-term gain and abandoning the husk once you've sucked all of the life out of it, doesn't it?)

Microsoft cuts Surface Pro price by $100

Mike Moyle

Re: Firesale - best to wait

"...it's questionable how useful it is with a locked bootloader."

According to what I've been reading on the Hackintosh boards, it's only the RT (ARM-based) that has the locked bootloader, The Pro (Intel-based) isn't locked down.

People are starting to report success in getting OS X running on a Surface Pro, although others still have questions.

US and China make major bilateral anti-piracy bust

Mike Moyle

Were I the suspicious and cynical sort...

... which, of course, I'm not... I might suspect that the counterfeiting operations busted in China were all ones that WEREN'T connected to, or paying protection to, party officials and the whole thing was just a way of getting some good international press while covering up the fact that the ACTUAL goal was to cut "unlicensed" competition.

...But that would just be crazy talk, right?

A drone that can walk home

Mike Moyle

They were SO close!

DALER – Deployable Air Land Exploration Robot

Seriously; would it have been THAT much trouble to call it a Deployable Air Land Exploration Kit?

Curiosity team: Massive collision may have killed Red Planet

Mike Moyle

Re: Maybe it was just one impact

@ 2nobel2013

"...how then is Mars ALSO tilted a very similar amount? TWO impacts? Is that easier to believe than just one?"

Earth, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune all have axial tilts clustered within 5 degrees of each other, with none of the others anywhere near them.. By your post hoc, ergo propter hoc argument, therefore, one of them MUST have made a cracking good billiard shot to effect that result.

An at least as likely explanation is that, because the original protoplanetary disk wasn't one molecule thick but rather extended well above and below the mathematical "plane of the ecliptic", millions of impacts -- as well as close encounters with objects from WELL outside the plane that passed through it, such as we still have today -- gradually tugged the axes of rotation out of a strict perpendicular alignment with the plane of the disk into something of a "sweet spot" around 25 degrees.

Dear Linus, STOP SHOUTING and play nice - says Linux kernel dev

Mike Moyle

"Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty,” “meaningless,” or “dishonest,” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best." -- Robert A. Heinlein; "Time Enough for Love"

Google loses Latitude in Maps app shake-up

Mike Moyle

Oh my god... They killed Kenny!

For offline mapping, I like Skoobler's ForeverMap -- available for iOS and Android -- so losing the Goog's OLM isn't that much of a hardship for me.

Latitude is another issue, however. The family refers to it as the Stalk-O-Matic™ and we use it often to find each other at events or to see that each other got home safely after a night out. THAT one going away is gonna hurt. Does anyone know of / have any recommendations for a similar "Find-the-Rest-of-the-Gang" app?

Going lo-tech to avoid NSA snooping? Unlucky - they read snailmail too

Mike Moyle

Re: hmm ...

"The senders address is very frequently on the front of American mail, just a cultural difference :-)"

I tend to put the return address on the flap in back so, unless they're routinely photographing both sides...

Modern-day Frankenstein invents CURE for BEHEADING

Mike Moyle
Coat

Paternity suits...?

"Yes, your Honor, it WAS my idea to have sex with the woman, but the DNA test shows it was HIS sperm that got her pregnant, so I shouldn't be held responsible!

When Apple needs speed and security in Mac OS X, it turns to Microsoft

Mike Moyle
FAIL

@ Maharg

"Out of curiosity I noticed that the spend on new hardware for the marketing department was higher than the IT department, turns out in marketing they all need their monitors to be bigger then everyone else’s, white and have pictures of fruit on the back, because, you know, they update twitter better…"

Mmmmm... yes... Because we all know that Adobe will give away new copies for free of their $2000 software suites (...more if you do both document AND video work...) if a customer switches computing platforms. I hope that you're in accounting or something, because any of the IT people at MY workplace would factor in the cost of replacing software AS WELL as hardware when talking about switching platforms.

Besides -- why does IT need faster computers...? As long as you've got an OS and a basic word processor you can write code. Job done. (NB: I'm being sarcastic here. The difference between us is that, unlike yours, MY sarcasm actually has some small basis in fact.)

Your (apparent) argument that marketing people don't do "real" work, needing real computers that run real software that costs real money to replace is, at best, ignorance or, at worst, intentional trolling.

Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report

Mike Moyle
FAIL

For what it's worth...

While I am not a fan of the color choices made -- and I *DO* maker my living as a graphic designer/illustrator -- I feel that I should point out that, if you take a couple of pieces of paper and block off the two totally unnecessary toxic-waste green bars on either side of the picture in this article, the visual effect of the UI is not as bad. Those bars appear to have been added for the sole purpose of making the whole illustration as eye-searing and unpleasant to look at as possible, in an attempt at biasing the viewer.

Propaganda is one thing, but SLOPPILY DONE propaganda is just totally unacceptable!.

Comcast expands public Wi-Fi net using customers' modems

Mike Moyle

So-o-o-o-o-o...

Does providing Comcast with a free neighborhood hotspot get me any additional capacity before I get tagged as "using more than my fair share" of network capacity and face the sudden but inevitable throttling...?

Does Comcast indemnify me against the MPAA/RIAA/federal/state/local law enforcement if someone uses my connection to upload/download movies, music, governmental secrets, or kiddy-smut...?

No...?

Thanks, Comcast... I think I'll pass!

Sacred islet Rockall repels Brit adventurer's first assault

Mike Moyle
Coat

Neptune...?

Doesn't Lir have the franchise up in that neighborhood...?

Canadian regulators welcome US Bitcoin refugees with open arms

Mike Moyle

Unfortunately...

The current administration almost HAS to crack down on BC, et al.

The looney fringe on the far right -- which includes/controls many Republican Congress-critters -- keeps trying to paint Obama as a Commie.Muslim/Fascist/Pinko One-Worlder. One of the canards that pops up repeatedly is that he plans to eliminate the dollar and go with... I don't know... some U.N.-mandated world currency (They never actually seem to KNOW what he's going to replace the greenback with, just that it's going to be internationalist and un-American!).

That being the case, and independent of what he ACTUALLY may feel about such things, any sign of tolerance by the Feds for something that is, after all, INTENDED to be the exact sort of independent international virtual-currency that they fear will just feed into the Tea Partiers' paranoid fantasies and give them an excuse to tie even MORE members of the administration up testifying in interminable Congressional hearings.

Were I the suspicious and cynical sort of individual (Which, of course, I'm NOT! *a-HENH!*) I might actually suspect that their secret goal is to keep EVERY executive-branch employee permanently testifying before the various subcommittees in order to make sure that nothing gets accomplished for the rest of Obama's term.

Curse you, old person, for inventing computers!

Mike Moyle

Re:Re: Yup - Me too!

"OK I'll have a discount for buying by self-checkout."

Exactly! For THIS fifty-something, it's not an issue of not being able to figure out how to use a self-serve checkout; it's rather an issue of not WANTING to use one. I worked retail too many times in my life; my policy now is that, if I am expected to ring up and bag my own purchases, then I am damned well going to get an employee discount. If there's no automatic discount attached to the self-serve machine, then I want the full service that I'm paying full price for.

'Leccy car biz baron Elon Musk: Thanks for the $500m, taxpayers...

Mike Moyle

Re: Re: Note that difference *loan* (with interest) versus old car maker (2nd or 3rd) bailout.

@Ledswinger

"That's lefty speak that can be fairly translated as 'any cause not associated with my economically illiterate, luddite and socialist beliefs'."

Actually, I read it as a Libertarian "I've got mine; fuck you," anti-government, anti-tax-that doesn't-benefit-me-right-now screed.

...probably just goes to show that either: A) the inarticulate fringe at both ends of the political spectrum are almost indistinguishable, or; B) we all see the boogeyman that we expect to see.

Jailed Romanian hacker repents, invents ATM security scheme

Mike Moyle
FAIL

Re: Over complex

"Even in a tape recorder or VHS it is always the magnetic tape that is moving, never the magnetic pick up head."

You COULD do the same with a tape player -- you'd just need a 200 foot long tape player and cartridge for the head to move across. I'm just guessing that THAT's the reason that they move the tape rather than the record/read head on those, but i'll admit that I could be wrong. By your argument, hard disk drives should fail after an hour or two of use because of all the travel that the read/write head has to do. By the standards of HDDs, a read head that moves laterally only, at a moderate speed -- say 3 inches in a second or two -- would likely be pretty robust.

Congress asks Google to explain Glass privacy policies

Mike Moyle
Headmaster

Privacy rights

Here in the States this is, to the best of my knowledge, fairly settled law. If you are someplace where you expect people will see you, you HAVE no inherent right to privacy. In the past, courts have ruled that the documentary value of public photography outweighs individual privacy rights. To decide otherwise would mean that photographers shooting a public event would need to get signed releases from every person at the event; or shooting at the scene of a crime would require sign-off by the perpetrator on any photographs taken of him at the scene.

The exception to the "public places" rule comes if you go into an area where one normally WOULD have an expectation of privacy. You could, for example, take photographs of anyone on the sales floor in a clothing store (with the owner's permission, of curse, since this is private property), since this is not a place where a person could have a reasonable expectation of not being seen. You would NOT, however, be able to take photographs in the dressing rooms, since THERE, a person COULD reasonably have an expectation of privacy.

The short version, then, is that you would likely have no legal right to stop someone from looking at you or photographing you while they are wearing GoogleGoggles on the street or in a public park, or in any place where the property owner does not prohibit it, but the Glasses would have to be removed/disabled if the property owner required it or the wearer went into a place where a reasonable expectation of privacy would exist -- e.g. even if your local pub allowed them, you'd STILL have to take them off or turn them off when you went into the Gents'.

Downloadable capsule summaries of photographers' rights -- which should also cover wearers of GoogleGoggles -- for the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia are available at: http://digital-photography-school.com/photographers-rights-and-photography-privacy-advice

British LulzSec hackers hear jail doors slam shut for years

Mike Moyle

What level...?

Not that any prison is fun, but I'm assuming, since there was no violence nor threat of violence, that they'll be assigned to a minimum-security facility fir non-violent offenders. Even in these unenlightened United States we frequently keep the violent, likely-to-reoffend population separated from the ones that are most likely to be rehabilitated and successfully re-enter society. Surely the UK does the same...?

Biological chips go analog to boost efficiency

Mike Moyle
Coat

It's sad, sometimes...

I swear, my first thought was "bio-neural gel packs".

...I'm so ashamed...

Adobe price hike: Your money or your files, frappuccino sippers

Mike Moyle

Re: Re: valid assumption?

"Photoshop is the only one that has credible competition, and you could make a good case that for 90% of what the people using pirated PS copies are doing, they could do just as well with Gimp, which is free."

I'm actually going through this at work right now. I REALLY wanted to be able to recommend FOSS publishing software -- GIMP, Scribus, and Inkscape -- but,with the POSSIBLE exception of Scribus (which, admittedly, I've only dabbled with) they're just not ready for professional publishing.

The thing that keeps GIMP from being suitable for me, for example, is its lack of support for LAB or -- most critically -- CMYK colorspaces. Add to that the fact that the "roadmap" page lists high-end CMYK support as a low-priority item and I just don't see how I can recommend it.

OTOH. The way that I see it is that @ $50/month, it will take the department a bit over two years to pay Adobe the equivalent of the price of CS6 Design Standard edition. Thus, if we go cloudy with a subscription, that gives the FOSS teams two years to get their programs up to something that I feel may be worth reconsidering before we hit the break-even point and start losing money.

Mike Moyle

Re: Its just makes it more difficult for new talent to enter the industry

"I haven't looked, but do they allow short-term subscriptions that cost less than buying a boxed copy?"

Individual programs are available @ $20/month (annual subscription) or $30/month (no contract); quit at any time.

John McAfee talks of sex, drugs, and bad coding

Mike Moyle

Re: See! I told you guys!!

"I wonder if there are brand equity people at Intel who are now seriously considering a rechristening of McAfee (the software company)."

Oh, I'm sure that they wouldn't be averse to smashing a bottle of champagne over this one's head, either, if given half a chance.