* Posts by The Other Steve

1184 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Oct 2007

Apple threatens Java with death on the Mac

The Other Steve
WTF?

WTF

"like banning java"

Or in fact, not at all like banning Java.

The Other Steve

Android unaffected

Because as we see every day in these hallowed and august comment threads, frothing at the mouth fandroids hate Apple with such ferocity it's a wonder they ever have time for anything else.

And from all the 'open' rhetoric and broken word salad that emerges from the alleged developers, it's clear that most of them aren't old enough to have a job that pays enough to buy a mac even if they didn't.

Of course, Im unfairly generalising a whole set from an entirely unrepresentative sample, aren't I.

The Other Steve
Coffee/keyboard

Industrial strength apps like Eclipse ?

Thanks for that, haven't laughed so much in weeks. Industrial strenghth, chortle.

The Other Steve
FAIL

@Open Source

"the problem with developing for Mac OS as opposed to Linux is that the OS's GUI system is closed source and proprietary making it extremely hard for Oracle to interface with it to provide a JVM."

Only if Oracle are retards. The API is open enough. Oracle can just go get a copy of Xcode and set to work on a new VM if they want to.

If lacking the source to things made it "extremely hard" to program against them, there'd be no software except FOSS, and outside the febrile imaginations of a few wackaloons, that's just not the case.

HP whips out iPad challenger Windows 7 fondle-slab

The Other Steve

But I await to be enlightened

You'll just have to remain bemused. Consider yourself past it, in the long dark tea time of just not getting it any more.

The Other Steve
FAIL

Stylus, but no palm rejection ? Fail.

Stylus input on Win 7 is pretty unusable without palm rejection, and it's not even hard to do. In fact, it's not even hard to hack in later, provided that the hardware and driver for screen report contact point sizes. It's best done in the driver, or failing that at in the driver stack, but you can get medieval with a bit of global hooking if you can take the performance hit or aren't willing or able to bang out a quick filter driver.

This has been the single most requested feature on Win 7 touch screens since they started appearing, HP have seriously missed a trick here if they haven't implemented it.

Win 7 has surprisingly good handwriting recognition, albeit somewhat unwieldy as an input method, probably because MS tablet 'vision' has always been about pen computing. But pen computing doesn't work if you cant rest your hand as though you were working on paper. So well done HP for buttering up the single attractive feature of Win 7 on a tablet.

Linux bug bestows attackers with 'superuser' powers

The Other Steve
Flame

Unreliable Datagram Service

Great, so the kernel team managed to introduce a root bug with their first release of a new feature. Good work fellas. Of course since you are all open and stuff, we wont rag on you the way would if some dumb ass like Microsoft had released code with stupid holes in it. We'll overlook the fact that it ought to have been a no brained to check code that writes to kernel memory.

And because we don't bother to keep up with the constant stream of vulns disclosed on mailing lists, or research forums, or bother to check CVE updates, or have a clue, we'll also pretend that security bugs in Linux software are rarer than rocking horse shit. What's that ? Dozens ? A month ? Lallalalalalalalalalala, see, I've got my fingers in my ears!

“a low impact vulnerability that is only of interest to security professionals and system administrators"

Of course! Like all Linux bugs that can be exploited to execute arbitrary code as root, because everyone knows only good, honest, open, gentle people would know how to exploit Linux!

The Other Steve
WTF?

Show your working

"open source software, including the Linux kernel has fewer defects per line than some proprietary equivalents"

I can only assume you have some kind of metrics for that, and for something at least marginally more specific than 'some' proprietary software, otherwise it is completely meaningless.

Red Hat exec proposes end to IT suckage

The Other Steve
Flame

Blame the Unified Model++

YAGNI

Kids these days are such process whores.

Green light for spooks' net snoop plan

The Other Steve

@The Cube

That's a nice fantasy, I would argue with it at length, but I think this is succinct enough

http://xkcd.com/538/

And if you truly believe that your "plausibly deniable" truecrypt volume doesn't look like exactly what it is to anyone with a clue, you have been severely mislead.

As Bruce Schneir is won't to say, if you think crypto is the answer to your problem, you probably haven't understood crypto, or your problem.

The Other Steve
Unhappy

RE:RE:Except

"Rubbish. Phone companies don't keep track of who I send and receive mail from"

I hate to burst your bubble but your ISP does, at least if you use their mail servers.

The Other Steve
Unhappy

Insufficient. VPNage

You forget, I have access to ALL traffic data, so I can see your connection to the VPN and I can see the traffic coming out of the VPN. How long do you think it will take my supercomputer to join the dots ?

You're still pwned. You'll need to obfuscate your endpoints better than that.

The Other Steve

It's a meat pie with legs, and a tiny hat

"Given the cost of data centres and the number that are going to be required how much money are they planning to throw at this? I dont think 2bn over 10 years is going to do the job.

Her indoors is of the data centre persuasion, she just laughed when she read this."

2Bn is only the part of the budget you can see, and don't forget, GCHQ already have the supercomputing SIGINT back end running. This is really just a case of making it's integration into domestic networks more official.

The Other Steve

Universal or selective or purple

"Are all these really going to be happy about that?"

Do you really think anyone is going to ask them ?

The Other Steve

Paranoid ? Vouz ?

Yes, I've read those novels as well. Cut back on the espresso and try to get out more.

The Other Steve
Black Helicopters

Darknets? It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim.

"Time to start getting serious about encryption then"

Well, that will stop them from reading the content of your communications that they promised they wouldn't, but it won't stop them from being able to see who you are comm'ing with. For that you need some kind of endpoint obfuscation as well.

Course, if every single byte in and out of your domestic DSL is encrypted traffic routed through a VPN or TOR node, it will show up like a sore thumb in the data mining that they promised that they wouldn't do. And then your name will also go on the list that they promised they wouldn't make. Not to mention the five years in chokey they'll threaten you with when they come for your keys.

So unfortunately, in this case, it's much much worse than a glib "we'll get around it with crypto/VPN/TOR" would suggest.

Of course, all of the above assumes that any government agency is capable of running such a large project without fucking it up. Then again, GCHQ already have plenty of experience of using big iron to do SIGINT, so if anyone can, it's probably them.

Depressing, really.

The Other Steve
Unhappy

Gosh! You mean ...

.. to say that the current government are just as much a bunch of liberty eroding, statist, authoritarian super cocks as the last one ?

Well fuck me, who would have thought ?

Mozilla man accuses Jobs of 'bypass the web' scheme

The Other Steve
WTF?

It isn't, and so what if it was ?

It's bad enough we have to listen to Jobs' whiny hyperbole ("this laptop we just created is like nothing we've created before", yeah, it's ever so slightly smaller!!!!!) without Beltzner getting in on the act as well.

Jobs' vapourware app store doesn't prevent anyone from distributing all the betas they wish over the web, or even choosing not to bother with it at all. I mean Jesus, who's ever released software without at least one bug in it ? That's gonna work.

So no Beltzner, you whiny freetard, it doesn't 'bypass the web', and who gives a fuck if it did ? When did 'the web' become a sacred fucking cow ? There was a time before it and there will be a time after it. Deal with it.

Google Android chief smacks Steve Jobs with Linux speak

The Other Steve

And by 'remember' ...

"You have only to remember why RMS got so upset about closed software in the first place to see why genuine openness is important."

... you mean 'read on the internet'.

The Other Steve

ESR wins again.

ESR is a jackass. Why don't you get some of your own opinions instead.

The Other Steve
Linux

I feel a great disturbance in the clue

It's as though a million idiots typed ./configure; make; sudo make install all at once and were silenced.

The Other Steve

BIG difference between GNU Linux and the Mac OS.

Yeah, one of them's successful on the desktop.

Also :

"Major components of Mac OS X, including the UNIX core, are made available under Apple’s Open Source license, allowing developers and students to view source code, learn from it and submit suggestions and modifications" http://www.apple.com/opensource/

And that's an OSI and even FSF approved licence, BTW.

And in addition :

Even amongst the Linux user base, and in fact even amongst the tiny vocal subset that comprises the Linux Jihad, only a vanishingly small number of them actually do OS level stuff. I'm sure it makes their geekWangs all tumescent knowing that they could if they wanted to, or were even remotely competent to do so. But mostly they don't.

And no, compiling a 'custom' kernel doesn't count.

The Other Steve
FAIL

Arse gravy

"Dev's do care about openness"

No. No we don't. Openness fetishists care about openness. There may be some set intersection there. Those of us who expect to get paid couldn't give a flying fuck about openness.

As is often the case with the hardcore freetard, your argument is one from your imagination of how things should be and does not match observation. There is a thriving developer ecosystem for iOS, and there certainly always has been for Windows.

So I'm afraid your rather sweetly naive and idealistic assertion fails the smell test.

Jobs' Lion to marry Mac OS X and iOS

The Other Steve
FAIL

Apple apes KDE, an poem

Steve Jobs is a massive wanker, true,

But if you think the flow of concepts,

flows out, instead of inwards,

For KDE, then so are you.

Bless you young'ns, I remember when KDE was copying Windows.

Lone Android dev 'almost brought down T-Mobile'

The Other Steve
WTF?

Shirley not

"Seems to me that he used a reasonable strategy to maximise battery life"

No he didn't. He used a fucking stupid strategy in a misguided attempt maximise battery life, because he didn't understand anything external to his code.

And that's a pretty good description of incompetence.

The Other Steve

And it will happen again, I tell you.

T-Mobe's shitty network aside, this is what happens if you get a load of neophyte devs with no experience other than a bit of hobbyist Java coding and let them distribute mobile apps to millions of people without adult supervision.

This may be an acceptable price to pay for all the open, I couldn't possibly comment.

Symbian chief withdraws from iPhone and Android fight

The Other Steve
Coat

Personal reasons ?

Probably his ears are sensitive to the high pitched whining generated by both opposing camps.

Vatican confirms Simpsons as Catholics

The Other Steve
Troll

Re: Wow, a religious argument that doesn't involve. . .

"Could have involved GNU Hurd, Minix and Haiku."

Two of those are as mythical as Jesus. There is some historical evidence of their existence, but little proof of the miracles their followers claim they have performed.

The Other Steve
Thumb Up

Catholic church aint big on bible bashing

That's because anyone who actually reads the fucker finds much at odds with Catholic doctrine. But then you could say that about all sky pixie fetishists and their documentation.

Or actual science and the "sky is falling" greenies.

Weird coincidence, that.

Jobs dubs Google's 'open' Android speak 'disingenuous'

The Other Steve
FAIL

Yes, yes you did

Just repeat the exact same points I made, only without the reality.

The Other Steve

Ah the price premium argument yet again, with knobs on

"As a developer maybe the Android platform is more fragmented than Apple but I can publish anything I want, I don't have to pay the apple tax"

$99/year is a tiny fraction of the overheads for a professional developer - if you expect people to be paying for your apps.

The Other Steve
Boffin

It's (not) the API, stupid

"I think Android will be fine. Devs do not code to some random Android branch, they code to 2.1, 2.2, or 1.6. As APIs are forwards compatible, a dev states the bare minimum API level their app requires in a manifest and then they code to that"

So what ? The WinMo API was stable for a long time. The problem - or rather the additional challenge - is that you have to contend with the number of different devices with disparate specs in terms of things like screen size, resolution, battery life, storage capacity, CPU speed, etc, etc.

Dealing with some of these things is not impossible, but it does add extra complications to the design and coding process. And even when you've taken as many of them into account as possible, the diversity of hardware means that sooner or later you're going to lumber some users with a shitty UX.

And when that happens, users will think their phone is shitty and/or that your app is shitty, when in fact there isn't anything wrong with either, they just happen to be mismatched.

Those of us with slightly longer memories and more mobile development experience than the average Reg commentard remember this kind of pain from the WinMo days, which is why we keep banging on about fragmentation.

The WinMo comparison stands further examination, because of course the handset OEMs actually built their own versions - making MS driven updates all but impossible - provided their own (often flaky) drivers and inserted their own crudware to the detriment of the platform.

Android is of course susceptible to these very same things, by virtue of it's very openness,

This is not to say that Android is bad, wrong, or will fail, far from it. Simply that it has these additional challenges to overcome and there is historical precedent to suggest that not dealing with them gracefully can result in serious problems.

Why do you think MS, with all this experience from their foray onto the market, have chosen to ape Apple's model ?

The Other Steve
WTF?

OMG I NEEEEEEEED DivX for my pr0n and pirate movies!!!!

" I think this "average bloke" would get it quite fast if you said to them that Android offers a great deal more freedom "

Really ? Go try it and watch how fast their eyes glaze over.

Oh, and you can play DivX movies on iOS. CineXPlayer, VLC.

The Other Steve
Badgers

Did you just fail the Turing Test ?

I'm notl sure that I understand what you're trying to say.

I _am_ sure that you don't.

The Other Steve
Thumb Up

IT DOESN'T MATTER!!

+1 for voice of sanity, are you sure you're in the right place ?

The Other Steve
Happy

"Trollpants"

Is my new favourite word.

The Other Steve
FAIL

LOL

Good luck building that for anything other than an emulator or a G1.

The Other Steve
Jobs Horns

No! Android is OPEN! And powered by unicorns!

"Yes, the man's arguments are bit muddled. But he's certainly right that Android faces a fragmentation problem. And we'd be very pleased if the world dropped this open and closed nonsense. Thanks to both Apple and Google, the words are now close to meaningless. ®"

And when it starts up, magic open pixies come out and give me a Linux blow job. And there will never, ever, ever, be any bugs in it.

Also, Steve Jobs can be readily compared to such historical characters as Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.

And that's basically a summary of the rest of the comments underneath this one.

iPad tethering does disappearing trick

The Other Steve
FAIL

No

"Moreover, the mere fact that tethering is actually an advertised fact from several networks that are all up in the new HTC handsets puts it in a very different shade of light"

That is supremely irrelevant to an imaginary feature of iOS 4.2 on the iPad.

Oh and the reason you haven't seen anyone with so many down votes as the OP is because you post AC.

The Other Steve
FAIL

they don't write 'tethering disabled' in the spec. list now do they?

Yes they do. This comment thread has been particularly unfettered by clue requirements.

The Other Steve

Not at all surprising

Speculating on the final feature set based on odd things that appear in any of the betas is utterly futile, wait for the GM seed.

The Other Steve

Not to the users though ?

Oh hell yes to the users. 3G networks are already congested, and it can only get worse if you're using your unlimited plan to stream audio over the air all the livelong day and hogging all the bandwidth.

So maybe not to 'heavy use' users, but to everyone else. And the heavy use crew need to get used to paying more for the extra.

The Other Steve

Maybe not theft

But certainly breach of contract, and if your provider catches you at it they are well within their rights to terminate your service. Possibly invoking penalty clauses. Caveat emptor, and ALWAYS read the contract.

Police turn to extreme-sport mobe sucking

The Other Steve

Coke or Pepsi

It's not the acid, it's the sugary crap crystallising on things and generally gumming stuff up.

Windows to Linux defections to outpace Unix shifts in 2011

The Other Steve
FAIL

Remedial math.

That survey doesn't say what you seem to think it does.

"Linux was used by 18 percent of embedded engineers responding to a survey"

So straight away, we have a whopping 82% of respondents are using something other than Linux for embedded systems development.

So even if we assume that the survey numbers quoted here are actually representative of the whole spectrum of embedded development (hint : they aren't), the vast majority of embedded systems are not running Linux.

So whether or not you meant to imply a prefixed 'all', the statement "Embedded systems are Linux." is a complete fantasy according to the figures you just supplied to prove otherwise, which suggest that a more accurate claim would be "Less than one fifth of embedded systems are Linux.". Your _own_ figures prove you wrong.

Climate change apocalypse NOW

The Other Steve
FAIL

Evanescent I fade, unmissed.

You're right, you won't be missed.

Facebook leaked users' real names with advertisers, suit says

The Other Steve

Why ?

What would be the point ?

Facebook is 'killing privacy for commercial gain'

The Other Steve
Coat

Oh come on

If you post drunkpix of yourself felching a bulldog at a war memorial chances are you were fairly low on self respect to begin with.

Spanish fascist decries Franco Eurovision slur

The Other Steve
Pint

Don't mention the war!

You mentioned it once, but I think you got away with it.

Former White House advisor wants cybercrime haven crackdown

The Other Steve

Vint Cerf

Really needs to stop telling people he invented the damn internet. Fair enough he has a better claim than Dan Quayle, but come on Vincey, we all know the story by now mate.