Posts by johnnyblaze 215 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Mar 2017
Basically, if MS in any way valued the security and confidentiality of the people who use their software, they would provide a NONE option, and would also make all settings opt-in rather than opt-out. But, the only thing they value is the data they collect, and the more of it the better. MS are truly pond-slime these days, and probably at least as untrustworthy as Facebook (and I personally think Zuckerberg should be expelled from humanity and cast away on a space rock)
These days, if you've already suffered through the awful Cortana assistend Win10 installer that just drives you nuts, you probably already want to kill her by the time the installation has finished - it is THAT annoying.
It does make you wonder how many more billions MS will throw at Cortana before conceding defeat though - she deserves to die a death by a thousand cuts.
Here we go again then! MS are trying to co-erce developers once again to start actually writing stuff for Windows, rather than where the action actually is - Android and iOS. I'm sure Nadella has preached that 'we want you to love Windows again' mantra many times before. What they just don't understand is that Windows is far from #1 in the world now. People who use it mainly just sit in a browser, or write letters. They don't need all the AI crap, or features MS keep shovelling in, but they don't actually need Windows to run a browser, and when they realise that, Windows will slide very quickly into a death spiral.
Win10-on-ARM is DoA anyway. Just consider it RTv2. This is MS thinking, "we fucked up mobile and lost all consumer confidence, but trust us with our wonderful 'always on' Windows 10 PC's running on ARM". This is just going to confuse so many people, but in reality this is just MS's next step do dumb down Windows, take control of everything, force people to the app store and make 'S mode' the default. Just watch!
I actually get the sweats if I ever have to go near the HP/IBM or Citrix support sites. It is litterally one of the most painful processes known to man. You go round and round in circles, and just when you think you've got somewhere, you're either kicked out, asked for information you don't have or lose the will to live.
Dell aren't actually that bad comparatively, but they recently changed their online server configurator tool from one that worked to one that was designed by monkeys. I complained loudly to our account manager (and he said others have too), but nothing's changed.
I also can't believe HPE require you to have a CarePack to download critical ProLiant updates. These are critical for people whove PAID MONEY for your kit. The least you can do is let them have them. I can understand if you want help from their support team (I use the term 'help' losely), but just let me download the damn updates!
Really. What with the f**kin notch LG? WHAT'S WITH THE F**KIN NOTCH! Apple release a stupidly expensive phone with a stupid notch that everyone laughed at, now other vendors are copying it. That is just so dumb, and they don't need to do this. It's makes other vendors look like they have no ideas left, but hey - Apple are doing it and can sell £1000 phones to their plainly gullible/mad/rich customers, so let's do it as well. Stupid. Just stupid.
Until they can have truly autonomous flying cars where you don't need a pilots license, or to register a flight plan, don't cost stupid money or have to use a runway these will always stay in the R&D phase.
There will also have to be big changes to the way aircraft/flying vehicles are regulated and controlled, and that will take years and years. I think realistically, we're looking beyond 2030, maybe even 2040 until personal flying vehicles become even remotely viable.
AR/MR are destined for the consumer trash pile. There's nothing there that excites the average buyer. Annoying, cumbersome, expensive headsets that require tethering to powerful PC's, limited software, poor support and general overall lack of direction means there's so little interest, I give it 12 months before vendors start throwing in the towel. Only professional 'niche' markets will make any use of the tech, but it will still be limited.
VR is the realm of gamers. Full, immersive gameplay with high quality visuals and 360deg sound is an expensive proposition, and in all honesty still a few years away, but that's the only area that stands any chance. Gamers tend to spend a lot of money on their rigs and are the only ones who *may* keep the tech afloat.
Sounds like a lovely warm comment from the London Mayor, but does he really think mega-corps in a capitalist society will suddenly change their ways and do things for the greater good rather than cold, hard cash? Yeah right, tell their shareholders or the city that, and watch shares tumble. I can tell you which would win.
Not that I disagree with the comments of course - it makes sense. Social media is tearing society apart, and having a terribly negative effect especially on the young, but he's just delusional I'm afraid.
Win10S (or 'S' Mode) exsits for two reasons only, and neither of them are really about security;
1. It pushes users towards Microsoft's store, because they'll have no other choice, and because everything will be UWP, anything not Edge won't work unless competitors browsers adopt UWP. MS hope this will generate way more store revenue, and make finally make developers take notice
2. In relation to (1), it will mean MS hope to bury win32 six feet under, as that's their ultimate goal to start building a walled garden ecosystem around Windows, get people using their services and finally become what they've wanted to be for ages now - Apple v2.
Any other 'reason' MS come up with is pure horsesh*t.
Still love my G Watch R running the latest Android Wear. The thing with wearables (like watches) is that unless you can make it desirable, it's not a compulsive purchase. Apple sell's most of their products (especially inc the Watch) as a fashion accessory - who else would launch one in 18c gold FFS! If Apple can get those watches onto the right wrists and be seen in the right places, their loyal followers will take the bait - as they always do. With Android Wear, there's none of that, so it doesn't get the column inches, or the exposure and thus doesn't have the appeal. Doesn't mean it's not a great product though, but as has been seen many times before, that doesn't mean it will be a great success.
Nope. Android is a sinch these days, and the setup will walk you through everything. You can't really go wrong. WM on the other hand was a complete UI mess. Those stupid live tiles either didn't update (when they were meant to), or disappeared, or just didn't respond. They were never that intutive, and MS never really did what they promised with them and 3rd parties just weren't interested. All that black/white UI was also really nasty - MS trying to use the flat, monochrome look everywhere. We have colour all around us FFS, why do we want a smartphone to be drab and boring!
That's exactly why we *are* looking at running the LTSB on the standard desktop. No Edge, Cortana, App Store, data slurping etc by DEFAULT. We don't want feature updates - just security ones. We want a stable, reliable platform to run Win32 apps, just like Win7 does. I don't care you have to do a complete rebuild to update - that's fine with me.
If MS had actually asked enterprises what they wanted - they'd have said Win7 v2, not 8 or 10. Win10 (Pro) is a nightmare to manage as things just keep changing all the time. Who needs feature updates in the workplace? People do the same jobs day in day out. It's all just crap. Win10 is a clusterf*ck, but we don't have a choice.
then why don't you look elsewhere, for something non-Apple if you don't like Apple's prices. There's plenty of choice. You know, that thing we take for granted when you can pick and chose what you want. Oh yeah, I forgot, Apple have brainwashed the word 'choice' out of iPhone owners minds.
FB could crash and burn tomorrow for all I care. Never used it, never will. How people get so caught up in it I'll never know. I was hoping that whatever will replace FB just hurries up and get's on with it, but I know it will just be the same... or worse. Who needs Skynet when you can have Zucknet.
...it's not about the patents. It's not about the patents!
Seriously, Google have aquired a lot of IP and talent, but haven't aquired a whole company, which is probably the right thing to do. Now all Google need to do is see sense, and bring back the beloved Nexus brand at the low/mid range and keep Pixel at the high end. Pleeeeease..
I've upgraded a few clusters to vSphere 6.5, but then reverted back to 6.0 with latest 'U' release. Until VMware sort out the management web UI and port everything over to HTML5 (which won't be until v7), they can stick it. The Flash based UI is horrible, and the current HTML5 UI is buggy and unfinished. If they're going to dump the VIClient, then at least give us something that works in it's place.
Most of these 'features' are utterly pointless, and are turning windows into a garish side-show that bares little resemblence to what it was originally designed for. Feature bloat is now becoming a real problem as MS fall over themselves to try and attract people to the platform, and every new feature that's part of the OS adds bugs and other problems. Not that MS really care - 'as a service' means they don't have to really worry about bugs at release time anymore. They just keep patching the system as they go, but in reality, it's like the boy with his finger in the dam - and there are a lot of holes to plug.
Windows, at it's core, is designed to be a program launcher. That's all it needed to do. Run win32 apps of the users choice securely and stably. MS never even really acheived that lofty goal though - Windows now is just inherantly broken. MS just do their best to make it look pretty to take peoples minds of it.
The last version of Windows with the actual user in mind was Win7. It ticked almost all the boxes people needed, and that's why MS have such a huge problem with Win10. 10 is primarily a conduit to push people towards MS services, extracting huge amounts of data at the same time, so MS can inject ads, promotions and offers directly into the OS. It's a bastard Jekyll'n'Hyde of an OS that just shows how low MS have sunk.
The sum of all this is, despite all these advanced space telescopes, AI models and people with brains the size of small planets, is that we don't know jack sh*t in reality. Yep, we know so little about what's really out there, that even in 50 years, we'll consider the ideas of today like something from the dark ages. The real funny thing is, we consider ourselves and advanced species! Maybe we are when compared to amoeba's, but I'm sure there are civilisations out there now that make us look like single-cell organisms.
You do wonder if there will be anyone left at IBM soon. Hursley is just up the road from where I work, an IBM 'think tank'. I bet I know what they're all thinking at the moment...
Still, when target's need hitting in big companies (or not so big in IBM's case anymore), the first thing they do is fire the staff. Always get a good return off that one! IBM - In the Bloody Mire!
My Moto G5Plus has an 8 core CPU, 3GB RAM, 32GB flash (plus a 64GB MicroSD I added). It can go 2-3 days on one charge, has a great screen, is blazing fast for everything I need, and will get Android 8 early next year. I paid just over £200. I have unlimited texts/calls and 3GB data p/m. Why do I need a phone costing £1000 and pay £60 or more a month? I wouldn't use it any differently, and would just be paying for the privilege (iPhone owners are very familiar with this!).
The phone upgrade cycle has gone mad. Phone prices have gone mad. People don't *need* them, they're just told they must have them because 'it will make your life better'. It won't, ever, because next years handset will, ofcourse, be even better, and you must have that one too!
Sure, Android is so huge now, it's not easy for Google to manage, but the whole fragmentation thing has been blown out of the water. Sure, there are many different versions of Android out there, but ultimately, from a user perspective, if the apps work - and they do, always, then there isn't a problem. I've an old Kitkat 4.4 Nexus 7, and it just runs everything fine. If apps didn't work, there would be a user revolt - and their isn't. Apple are happy to say how they can upgrade all their devices easily, at will, and yes they can, primarily because they have pretty much everyone in their pockets, with a cast iron grip on their gonads, ready to squeeze at the slightest question. Apple are infact, a considerably worse company than Google in many respects, but they seem to have a teflon coating.
Windows Server 2016 is not proving that popular with Enterprises so far. Very slow, almost glacial uptake. Can't see this version making much difference, and we all really asked for 'server as a service' didn't we? Not. I'd much rather run disk pools in hardware on decent RAID controllers than this lame software BS. Must be the fact Server 2016 is the bastard uncle of Windows 10, and sysadmins are real worried about it sending info back to MS. I know I am.
I guess it just means they can keep charging more, because of course, everyone wants to pay hundreds extra for a 'pretty' finish don't they. Look at the HP Spectre or MS Surface. The internals are pretty much the same as you can buy on a £500 laptop, yet slap on an anodized/ceramic/virgin's blood finish, and you can charge double that - or more. Sorry, it's just a lick of paint at the end of the day. They've found a way to charge more for a basic device just by making it look nice and calling it 'premium'. I'm sure buyers aren't that dumb.
I can truly see why big companies want AR to be a success. Where before, they could slurp up details of what you typed and what sites you went to, now they'll be able to take it to the next level - massive data collection of everything you look at. Imagine watching TV, or looking at a web page or an old style catalog wearing 'AR' glasses.They'll be able to tell how long you spent looking at an item for, what you spent most time looking at etc. All that info will be invaluable to them monetizing the end user.
My personal opinion is that VR will be moderately popular with hardened (not causal gamers) who are used to shelling out lots of cash on their rigs. AR will fall flat on it's arse though. It's too expensive, cumbersome and limited for the casual user, and pointless for the all-in gamer who want's the 'full' experience. Professional markets may make more use of it, but not the consumer.
Give it a few years, and this is what cloud services *will* be costing. Once they've got you - they've really got you. Prices will soar as companies who thought it was a good idea at the beginning finally start to realize that moving everything to the cloud is bankrupting them. I'm just waiting for BAAS - Bankruptcy as a Service!
Sorry, but not in the eyes of Microsoft. You may have bought the hardware, and that parts yours, but you only have a license to run the software, which remains Microsoft's property. MS allow you to run their software on your hardware, and that's about it. If you agree to their EULA, you're then committing yourself to Microsoft's laws, restriction and control. If you don't want any of this, then don't run Windows on *your* hardware. There's plenty of other choice out there.
The big question is - exactly how many waste-of-time, gimmicky features can MS squeeze into one OS? The next release in Spring 2018 is now officially called the 'Kitchen Sink Update' as we're litterally getting to that point.
Hey, Microsoft. It's a god damn operating system - an app launcher - it should be a simple, reliable and consistent allowing you to run your own programs without all this other crap getting in the way. At what point exactly did you forget this? Oh, I remember, straight after Windows 7.
First, 'hey google' works well too, and is one less syllable. I use this in preference all the time. If you're linked into Google services (such as Play Music), it generally works really, really well. You can also have context sensitive conversations (of sorts) with it. One thing I don't believe it can do in the UK at the moment though is make phone calls, but Google should have this in place soon though.
Really, just what is the point of all this VR/AR stuff for the average user? Gamers, sure thing. Professionals (architects, medical etc), yeah, I get it. For the average person - not a chance in hell. They will not spend this type of cash on something that would be consigned to collect dust after a brief few minutes (that's after they've bumped into everything in their lounge, broken the TV and trod on the cat in the process). Then they'll feel sick, throw up and never touch it again.
Sorry, but this is not the next big thing. I got my brief fix with a £5 Google cardboard device last year. Moderately interesting for half an hour, but I haven't touched it since. I don't mind as I didn't spend much on it, but how they expect people to spend between £300-£500 plus hand controllers is plain delusional.
Nobody feeling the buzz over Ignite? thought not. If this is Microsoft's main podium now, then that shows that their consumer interests are pretty much dead. MS are now retreating to their cloud, taking as many enterprises with them as possible. Nutella is a cloud/server guy. He probably didn't understand the consumer market from day one, but knows that Enterprises will continue handing MS money hand over fist, and he'll take that... for now.
Where will MS be in 10 years? A forgotten name on the high street probably. An IBM clone who still make money, but strategically located where the money is, so they don't have to do much work. Consumers are fickle - too hard for MS to work out. For MS to get back into mobile now they'd litterally have to re-invent the wheel, and that's way too much for them to even contemplate.
From Microsoft's perspective, if a baby fell from the sky...
First check what version of the baby it is. Is it Windows 10 Baby Edition - if not, move along and leave it alone.
Is it running anything previous to the Baby Anniversary update? If yes, we don't support it, so leave it in the road.
Assuming it's full patched and up to date (baby probably fell from sky after the latest humungous patch which forced a reboot of said baby), then next consult lawyers - can we legally pick up the baby?
If consulted lawyers agree, pick up baby, return to side of road
Three months later, ensure mid-level manager in grey suit no-one has heard of posts a blog entry saying that MS only thought of the baby at all stages, and no unauthorized information was gatherd during the 'saving' process. MS did get the nappy size, but the baby agreed to this without realizing when the Baby Creator's Update was installed.
I think in some ways we can all believe Apple are one of the new companies who can get away with the price they're asking for this 'X' thing. They actually seem to believe they're invincible, and feed on their own hype and marketing. In reality, it's all a very carefully stage-managed con job, but Apple are very good at it, and the faithfull believe it completely. The X will sell, but the 8 (a tweaked iPhone 7) is the fall back device. The X is really nothing more than Apple testing the market to see how far they can push prices before consumers push back. If this is successful, they'll just increase from there, and still cream 50%+ profit per handset.
Me, I'm happy with my Moto G5 Plus - £200 thankyou very much. Very fast, great screen, good camera, 2+ day battery life. Apple can shove 'X' where the sun don't shine.
Would potentially advanced cvilisations even be using radio? It's an archaic communication method with some massive limitations. Surely they'd be using some form of quantum entanglement communication would be the order of the day - ordering a Maccie D's from the other side of the universe would be easy then.
Anonymizing collected data from users and selling it to advertisiers (yes, you are the important bit), is done by pretty much all major companies now, on a scale that you cannot even begin to imagine. It's far from just Google, although they're one of the originals, so you hope they've perfected a lot of the security side. The real evil, underhand basterds in all this though are Microsoft. Win10 is their data collection machine, so they damn well want to get it onto as many machines as possible. Sure, it's secure - secure from everyone else except MS themselves. They'll suck you dry.
If Computacenter can make money off the back Windows 10 upgrades, despite being a bunch of shyster cowboys - maybe there's a chance for the rest of us. Why, oh why Windows 10 and the cloud though? Two things that, at some point are guaranteed to come crashing down in spectacular style. In truth, MS just aren't giving anyone any choice if you want/need to stay with Windows. You either install their steaming pile of horse sh*t O/S so they keep supporting/patching/fixing it while you act as an unpaid beta tester, or you go elsewhere. Come to think of it, elsewhere sounds pretty interesting....
Here's a tip VMware. If you want to increase revenue and profit, start by reducing for f'ing prices and support costs. That would make a lot of customers feel better. Next, stop believing VSAN is the answer to life, the universe and everything else. It's not, so stop telling me it is. VSAN, VSAN, VSAN is all I hear from VMware these days. F-off.
FFS, it's not rocket science. Cloud 'introductory offers' will suck you in, then as you use it more and more, they lock you in. Getting out of those 'deals' is very difficult as the big players will entice companies with big discounts on longer agreements. The problem is, the more you use it, the more your costs go up, to a point where it's costing more than on premise, and as companies would have let their IT staff go and mothballed or sold server resource, they're then stuck.
The cloud will unravel eventually. There will be some ultra high profile hacks, whole infrastructures will go down, and companies wont be able to function.
We are definately turning into a nation of brain dead recluses who stare blankly into 5" screens at cat videos and irrelevant ads. It's a sad thing. Kids no longer actually go out and visit friends, so have no social skills as their 'friends' are all online. Where will we be in 20 years I wonder. Maybe 'The Matrix' isn't that far fetched.
One day, when we do make contact with a truly advanced civilization that make us look like we've just crawled out of the primordial soup, people like NASA will be sitting down for about 100 years eating nothing but humble pie. We think we're so clever, so advanced, so able to predict what's out there and how the universe works and hangs together. Believe me, we don't. We don't have the slightest clue. We stare out to space from earth-bound or orbiting telescopes, or listen to radio waves thinking we know the answer to this stuff. It's a farce really.
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