Posts by Mage 9268 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007
Certainly Ofcom and Comreg only exist to benefit the Mobile operators and care more about big business such as Arqiva, Sky, BT and Eir than consumers or sensible allocation and protection of spectrum.
They are not doing the job that they were created for when migrated from Ministers of Posts & Telegraphs etc.
Did they make record players for cars before they got into car radios?
I'm thinking car radios in the valve era (tubes) was their first thing... then later mobile two way radio, semiconductors etc.
Like HP, the current Motorola brand has not much in common with the original.
Philips oddly are back doing what they did before radio: light bulbs.
The Motorola Mobility (Infrastructure) is gone too I think to Nokia Networks (despite not making phones, Nokia is still a big company. Who knows if they will make toilet paper, rubber boots, TVs or Set-boxes next year? :) )
Mary Shelly was writing practically the first SF , Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus when Ada was a baby...
First Scientist & Electricity in fiction? (Volta invented Electric battery in about 1799 and wrote refutation of Galvanism, or Animal Electricity, such which was obviously an idea for animating the monster.).
It's a great pity that Babbage chose the mechanical calculator route rather than electrical relays, which would have been possible. (c.f. Conrad Zuse and Z1). The Babbage design wasn't really manufacturable with the machine tools of the time.
In 1814, Mary began a romance with one of her father’s political followers, the then married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Together with Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, Mary and Shelley left for France and traveled through Europe. Upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percy's child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter. They married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelley's first wife, Harriet.
In 1816, the couple famously spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland, where Mary conceived the idea for her novel Frankenstein. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third children died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley. In 1822, her husband drowned when his sailing boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son and a career as a professional author. The last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley#Authorship_of_Frankenstein
How many users are really saving by using these services instead of their own?
The issue though isn't money. If it's not profitable it's not sustainable sales price. If it is very profitable, then many people can do it cheaper themselves. It's not like buying pay TV which if you think you need it, you can't make your own.
The real issue is should people be using the cloud at all, other than temporary files or ad hoc collaboration of non-critical nature.
Core Business functions shouldn't be outsourced.
What strategy is there if you lose internet connection, so called cloud provider goes down?
Privacy? Security? Backups?
The cloud is a hype and buzz world. The services are as old as shared computers. It's not a new business but a 50+ year old one that for 20 years has been migrating from expensive secure leased lines to insecure and unknown up time internet connections to access it.
They need to build NINE times as many masts to support the same number of people on 1080p as 480p
HD video needs cable or fibre, or else Mobile needs to be x5 more expensive to support a higher density of basestations = smaller cells = more capacity = more speed.
So it's about profits.
"Because as soon as the authentication server goes offline (company folds, title deleted, etc...) then you've lost the game."
Then is the time to break the DRM. Yes, DRM is stupid. But enabling "piracy" while the system is active is childish.
DRM actually is contrary to Copyright, as copyright is supposed to expire eventually on any work. DRM is evil.
Indeed, why doesn't she and the teams do something useful for humanity instead of wasting time pirating games? That only allows more people to waste time and deprives the people developing them. The cost to develop a game is extremely high compared to producing a book or music.
I'm 100% opposed to DRM, but this isn't the solution.
It's simply adding a USA UHF ISM band.
Pointless.
If these things are made, then idiots will import them to Europe, add booster amps and Yagi aerials sold for fixed GSM 900 (common rural Internet in Czech republic in the past) and cause havoc to European GSM and 3G (Some operators are migrating 900MHz gear from GSM to 3G/HSPA, trials started some years ago).
Consumer Electronics seems to :
A) Lost the plot.
B) Not be properly regulated.
C) In Europe not enough "in the Retail Market" Policing. Many "approved" devices are not the same as the one approved, or tested incorrectly (Power line networking) or simply fake labelling.
The GUI / UX has been going down hill in MS Land since 2004.
Vista
Ribbon
Flat
Tiles
Flat & Tiles
PSP7 was the peak of decent GUI for Paint Shop Pro but lacked the drag line tool of Win 3.1 Aldus photo editor for picking amount of Rotation. I installed PSP X or 10 or something, and went back, Corel had seriously messed up UI consistency. Some Photoshop plugins do work in Paint Shop Pro 7
"Pretty" or "Minimalistic" of itself doesn't mean a good UX (ask Nielsen Group), Excessively Skumorphic, inconsistent, fragmented or Minimalistic (esp. flat) UI designs are are a failure.
Mint is now (esp Mate Desktop) is now maybe better than Ubuntu for UX/GUI. Windows is a GUI disaster now. Gimp only needs to get a bit better. It does, like Thunderbird, Calibre, Firefox, Filezilla, X-Chat, VLC, Open Office, Libre Office, Audacity and other programs have native Windows and Linux versions.
All of them can be jammed. None are "professional" systems.
Some have a jamming alert. The criminal keeps setting that off till it's disabled. Then later jams it to enter.
They are a poor method to save install cost (time really as the four core wire is cheap). The actual hardware of an EQUIVALENT wired system (especially sensors) is cheaper.
Yes, the proposed standard would only suit in USA and related countries which has a different bandplan. Europe has a small SRD band at 864MHz approx. USA has a large general band in what is 900MHz GSM. in Europe.
USA also SRD at about 385 MHz but Europe is 433 MHz (middle of USA & Europe 70cm Amateur band).
DECT Phones in Europe are 1900MHz. USA is a different band.
USA FRS and Europe UHF Licence free walkie talkies are also different bands.
You see illegal stuff all the time. FCC and European regulators are only interested in mobile revenue.
You only need ONE expert in the WORLD to know how to break into a system, that writes it up clearly, maybe with a video.
Then anyone able to use a multimeter can follow the instructions.
"We aren't buying your security setup for our workstations and servers" said the College, "most of the students don't have clue."
"How many of the best ones do have a clue and are untrustworthy?" I asked. "Do they have any friends, or websites?"
We got the order.
Without me having to suggest some of their students by name.
bbc.com/news fails instantly.
bbc.co.uk/news redirects to bbc.com and dies
The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
Not really, they could be keeping a copy of everything uploaded? I don't know.
BUT A FRIGGING WEB ONLY utility you have to UPLOAD to isn't a free application. It's potentially the evil of the cloud and only works online?
MuseScore IS a free application.
" batteries got about 20% extra capacity per year while the price dropped 20%. "
Which batteries?
Not Lithium, Alkaline or Lead Acid.
(I agree broadly with the rest. It's unlikely we can get 1/2 as good as the theoretical limit of battery density so you are generous.)
Alkaline: Similar to 1965. The x5 capacity gain vs Zinc is a lie for anything at 1/10C discharge, more like x2.
Lead Acid, Zinc Carbon: similar to 1950s
NiCd increased a bit from 1940s to 1970, then peaked at 450mAH to 500mAH
Never really. What happened is that different battery technologies were developed and then later became economic.
Lithium cells have hardly increased in capacity or life in 10 years. The number of cycles is still an issue.
By volume NiMH now match Lithium, but weigh very much more. They are about x5 capacity of NiCd now. originally NiMH were about x2 to x3 the capacity of NiCd.
"Then microprocessor controllers started to supplant designs using discrete logic devices"
As small computers, running programs simulating slow discrete logic. Internally a quite different design. I've implemented decoders, counters, generators etc using PIC micros. They ARE small cheap computers, (from 30c).
FPGA are fast, power hungry and expensive. They ONLY execute code AFTER loading the configuration if the design implements a CPU or it has a ready made CPU core.
Field Programmable Logic Array. They replace discrete ready made VLSI with a custom design in a production chip.
You won't get much FPGA for $10.
Unless they are implementing a CPU.
The FPGA "source" is really a description (not a program) and "compiled" into a logic array configuration loaded at power on. No run time code at all, unless part of the FPGA is implementing a CPU. It's pretty wasteful of FPGA resources to implement multipliers, so most FPGA have pre-designed multipliers. Similarly there are a variety of FPGA with an ACTUAL cpu core (not one wired out of FPGA gates), to allow efficient execution of run time code or prototype the HW around a CPU core on an SoC as implementing a CPU uses too much of FPGA.
A raw FPGA is useless to programmer unless that programmer can design the HW of a hypothetical CPU from scratch. They are not programmed in CPU sense, but designed by people that design hardware. Verilog and VHDL only look like programming languages, they are hardware definition languages for physical definition and interconnection of gates (due to ultra fast static RAM, some logic functions are truth table type Look up tables in RAM rather than interconnected NAND and NOR as in earliest designs). The Hardware design is LOADED from a ROM, EPROM, Flash Memory or even USB or JTAG at power on time. After that, it's functionally an ASIC or logic board, only actually executing ANY code if there is a CPU (FPGA based or a pre-designed core element) as part of the design.
Above about 10K parts there is no point to an FPGA.
Only for proof of concept Prototypes. Any IoT chip will be an SoC / ASIC. An FPGA is simply too power hungry.
FPGA are only for volume too low for ASIC or prototypes. The FPGA "design tools" can target a specific FPGA for a prototype or specialist lower volume application or an ASIC.
I wish I could afford a priv.
Slider
real keyboard
Android but with Added security
My last "smart phone" with keyboard was the Nokia E65, stupid Nokia killed the widgets and created useless Ovi. The Sony / Experia Z1 is OK, but no updates and the Android apps and Playstore is so much like spyware I only use Camera, Phone, FM Radio, Music Player, etc. Bluetooth, WiFi and Mobile Data are disabled. I had to uninstall Amazon Kindle Reader as it was trying to connect, even when I wasn't using it and even though WiFi and Mobile Data disabled. I can't afford Mobile Data, so the Priv would have to work on my WiFi.
If the economy goes cashless, then WE WILL MOSTLY DIE, (food riots in less than 2 days) if Banks don't reverse their outsourcing.
ALL Mission critical stuff, stuff that defines the core of your business needs to be in house. It needs to keep going via having at least 2 geographically separated data centres if one has dodgy sw added (never do both at same time), or PSU fault, bomb, fire, flood, terrorist, aircraft falling on it, etc.
What happens to to the public and your business, if you and all the similar businesses have outsourced to the same megacorp and it falls over (for WHATEVER reason, Amazon, Oracle, Google, Microsoft never have outages?)
So don't just consider the money!
I thus will not be surprised if Amazon take over the local Petrol stations / Midi-markets and use them also as parcel depots (to ship and receive, to aid selling on Amazon and buying), with a coffee shop with not just WiFi but the Amazon voice controlled ordering terminal as a touch screen for menu, local shopping and online ordering.
2015 was the year it was finally obvious to everyone that what ever disease Nokia had in 2002-2003, killing good stuff, insisting on S60, losing direction culminating with sabotage of Maemo and TrollTech's QT, that MS caught the same disease. Was VS6, SQL7, Windows XP, Server 2003, Office XP/ 2003 the peak and it's been downhill since with GUI stupidity and bloat?
Win 10 is a train wreck.
Indeed people might purchase the full version with the lyrics. I'd have thought that on balance this boosts sales if these lyric / voice free versions are not available. Seems yet again the publishers are missing a trick.
The creation is copyright violation, requires a civil suit. If there is monetisation, then perhaps there is unpaid VAT, unpaid tax on profits, possible criminal cases for forgery etc ...
Amazon has a creepy thing that lurks in your living room.
Are these things are gimmicks for people that:
a) Can't type
b) Can't use search properly
Do they actually manage as well as an 8 year old with a laptop and Google Search?
"Wee Jimmy, find me a deep fried pizza"
1) It was a good idea, badly done, a sort of C syntax Visual Basic for every platform. You really can do a GUI based application that looks like OS native style that runs on all the common desktops. Why though by default do people use the default stupid eye candy builds.
2) The insane license terms for Desktop Java is one reason for Davik etc on Android
3) Sun made a mess of it long before Oracle took over.
4) Amazing how many people don't realise that by default the applications have all the source in a manner easily extracted.
It could be fixed in the future, not impossible even to make a version to rule them all and work with old applications. Better GUI development tools with easier choice of window style etc and distribution only of bytecode.
Smart TVs are a bad idea, likely provider X uses codec Z, management Q and DRM R next week/year/month and the TV "maker" (or real OEM) never releases new firmware, or if they do it's only OTA on one platform in another country, or impossible for joe soap to install.
At least a laptop as a final resort can be dual booted into unwanted OS U to get X, Z, Q and R.
Yes, Adobe DRM added to ePub open standard: Books that tell someone what page you are on, and in the clear too!
Adobe DRM on PDFs, often scans of Public domain documents.
Purchased downloads and media should NEVER have DRM. It's immoral.
DRM on Streaming? Well, a decent HD camera and 42" HD monitor defeats it.
DRM is pointless and immoral. It only makes life more awkward for ordinary users, never stops commercial pirates and only for a short while stops casual home "pirates". Yet removes consumer rights, adds restrictions not in Berne Convention on copyright, allows corporations to "landgrab" public domain works and retain restrictions when copyright should have expired.
Some contracts and so called licences on Digital Downloads (not streaming) may not even be enforceable.
Did I mention DRM is pointless and immoral?
Well. I boycott pay TV and Subscription Streaming.
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