Posts by Mage 9271 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007
But it's a BAD one.
"Agile" is a buzz word, not a plan.
They need a LESS frequent release cycle. Its a BROWSER!
Just fix the bugs.
Make it able to be multithreaded
Fix the GUI BACK to some sort of sanity.
Job done. Then go write something else. Like a calendar integrated to an eMail client. ANYTHING, but stop already re-writing a Browser forvever and driving us mad.
I now have two plug ins just to make the stupid thing usable.
PIN can have fraudulent transactions.
I know two different routes. But PIN reduces bank's liability to fraud. They just insist that you MUST have used the PIN.
(One route is to watch what pin is used or intercept it with doctored reader, easy to turn up at shop and claim you are upgrading. Other route is that madly, the terminal doesn't send a hash of pin to HQ. It asks card if PIN correct, so you add a chip that simply always replies "OK" to terminal for ANY pin. Massive design flaw! No encrypted clever handshake, it's like sending a POP3 password!)
"why are the banks trying so hard to get pay-by-bonk into the arena?"
a) I'm not convinced they are trying hard. The folks making card are pushing contactless cards which are less secure. Notice Lidl only allows small payments for contactless.
b) NFC tech was invented for warehouses. It's inherently stupid for retail products (nothing needs to be stored a barcode is fine) or payments (inherently insecure, security is a fudged after thought.
NFC should NOT be in payment cards (debit or credit) or retail products, door keys, travel cards or passports.
What crazy too is my post office is using insecure and easily duplicated or damaged mag stripe instead of chip & pin.
Cheques are practically dead in Ireland. Most places don't take them and I've not seen one for years.
"You can't patent an idea, but you can patent a particular way of implementing an idea. "
Except Apple will use the Patent to sue anyone with a similar idea, even if done differently.
"Apple's patent won't stop anyone else from using NFC phones to transfer money unless they want to do it in exactly the same way."
Yes it will, as Apple will use the patent and sufficient Lawyers. They spend only 1.5% on R&D and I bet that includes the secretaries, floor space and patent applications.
The reason Apple ever patent anything (and they have very many patents, yet I've not seen one yet developed in house that ought to be a patent, so called "design patents" are what are called elsewhere "Registered Designs" and most are totally derivative of much older products e.g. Braun and should be invalid. The fluted coke bottle is a valid "Design Patent").
Some Amazon titles are effectively DRM free too. The Publisher (or Self Publisher) decides.
I don't know why you'd use Calibre to reformat Gutenberg texts. Their Mobi version has always been compatible, and now they call that Kindle version
(Amazon bought Mobi, IMDB, Goodreads, Book Depository, ABE Books and probably other stuff).
.AZW with DRM -> Kindle
Adobe Digital Edition (ePub with DRM) -> Kobo
Calibre with added plug-ins lets you use either dedicated ereader and remove DRM.
The Kindle isn't any more walled in than Kobo.
Kindle Touch: Best Value
Kindle DXG: Best value for A4/Letter PDFs, free Wikipedia and Amazon on 3G, 60 M Byte a month limit otherwise
Kobo Aura H20 : Waterproof, 6.8" screen that might be same pixel count as DXG, so might do better than Paperwhite or Glo for PDF
Kobo Glo and Paperwhite: Only needed for very gloomy rooms.
VB6 was last version.
A review from a VB Guru when it came out:
"VB.net is a C programmer's idea of VB, it's pointless. Better off learning C#"
He was 100% correct. C# is of course based on J++, MS version of Java.
There is a LOT of C still used. It's nearly 30 years since I started learning C++. Why are people still writing ordinary C? Many people that think they are using C++ are really programming in C. So in that respect (Moving people to C#?) MS was correct to make VB.net incompatible with VB5 / VB6?
Strustrupp didn't want C++ to C backward compatibility.
Yes the survey is inaccurate.
It was wonderful (win 3.x?) when shadow and highlight added to buttons.
Flat buttons are a fad. One of the stupidest fads on GUIs in last 25 years.
They are copying it now on real equipment. Stupid unusable print (or meaningless icons) areas on shiny flat panels. ST-TNG was only a TV show.
IDIOTS!
I need to be less on the Internet ... just one more forum to post to and I'll go read a book.
Outside has a big hot shiny thing, insects, animals, fast moving vehicles. Other people. It's safer here.
I can't imagine why someone downvoted your excellent sentiment.
You CAN have one kernel I suppose, though arguably some devices need a different one.
but small Phone, large tablet, desktop primarily with mouse/keys, TV set screen and Server need different GUIs
They need to stop this nonsense (since 1993) of branding everything windows and believing one fits all. For years PDAs / Win CE was crippled by Win95 style GUI. NT family security and integrity damaged after NT3.5
1) NT3.51 gratuitous Office 95 WinAPIs invented to stop win 3.x running office 95
2) NT4.0 unlike explorer preview for NT3.51 integrated too much graphics and printing to Kernel
3) Stupidity of Direct X (so DOS games could be ported
4) Win9x apps on NT4, 2000, XP needing user to be Adminstrator.
5) Aero Stupdity and down grading existing GDI APIs in Vista. Win7 should have been free, only a SP.
6) Stupidity of Win CE/ Win9x reversal of insisting keyboard/Mouse desktop machines should have the Zune inspired interface that only makes sense on small phones On Win 8
7) Win10 is long line of downhill ride since NT 3.5
Perhaps MS will learn and bring out an Enterprise Classic Workstation and Server with best of NT3.5 and XP?
Or will Win 10 be a progressive fail requiring Azure/Cloud and impossible to use without Internet.
They used tax windows, hearths, radio sets, car radios separately.
I think governments can tax anything if they can collect it and the natives don't revolt.
Revolts
USA (Mad King, unfair taxes -> Boston Tea party -> War of independence)
India Cotton (Could only be exported to UK, Indians had to buy UK cloth)
Ireland Water (it's not like there a lack of rain, but they don't have enough reservoirs and 30-% to 50% is leaking)
UK Bedrooms and Poll Tax
Tax on Blank media supposedly to compensate rights holders. What about people with their OWN content?
Fire Family is now marketed as Fire, it's a tablet, not a Kindle.
For dedicated readers of paperbacks, the current eReaders with eInk are fine. They don't need colour. It's a niche.
Colour inherently on anything reflective can't be better than about 1/3rd of B&W brightness. Mono LCD is 1/2 brightness or less. Colour about 1/10th. Hence LCDs have backlights.
I had to switch Windows Update to manual review:
1) Wrong Printers, graphics, audio drivers installed by MS Update breaking stuff
2) Stupid MS ware I don't want getting added.
3) Some updates forced a reboot!
LOADS of MS Updates are nothing to do with security, or are for vulnerabilities in stuff that anyone sensible has uninstalled or disabled.
Also even if Samsung give MS all the "latest" drivers, there isn't any assurance it doesn't go wrong. Windows has become a mess and Win 10 is going to be worst yet.
DLL Hell was nothing as to what is coming.
The figures show LOTS of people still by CDs and some even Vinyl.
That's in world with now additional competition for your entertainment spend that didn't exist up to 1970s:
Subscriptions/costs for Mobile, Broadband, Netflix, Amazon Prime, online gaming.
Apps, Games, DVD/Blu Ray, iTunes etc
So just a different shape but same issue as most other electronics products in existence.
I expect CFL are similar curve. Early failures due to electronics and manufacturing defects. Later failures due to cooking electrolytics, gradual degradation of phosphors (brightness halves every x thousand hours) abrupt failure due to electrode emission if turned on and off every day.
Of course the failure modes of SSD are not the same. But I think have been well understood for very many years. This isn't news or ground breaking research, but then it's a press release from an exploitive content free / free content advert network that wants to make a walled garden.
Probably pretty averagely ...
Why does spam exist?
Why to fake lottery/estate/money emails exist?
Because enough people are stupid enough. Some people otherwise seem smart but when presented with text messages or emails seem to switch off brain, or put it in neutral.
Yes it is. Because many only want that as info to sell, not for security,
Nor is a useful addition to security the way the some providers are doing it.
If the crooks know your phone number, then it's pretty useless additional security anyway.
Also avoid SHARED logon / password schemes, and persuade your providers to disable them. For best security EVERYTHING needs different user & password.
Put them all in a little address book in a safe place so that the executor of your estate can sort out what you leave behind. Never keep it in your phone/tablet/netbook/laptop case.
not on whether they shared data with commercial partners, or whether they snooped on users' devices and trafficked that data back to their own labs:
"there's likely room for an entirely different report that looks at how much data companies collect, retain, and share."
"There are lots of things we could rank companies on: for instance, how well they encrypt user data,"
A lot of EFF activities of late seem dubious.
Also unlike RIM, Nokia had been many other things, paper, boots, TVs, Computers, Set Boxes and Infrastructure.
Nokia are still a big company apart from the Name and IP, none of which Microsoft acquired.
Nokia went wrong due to internal politics in 2002 and burnt many platforms before Elop. He helped them get a lot of money from Microsoft for essentially something that had become worthless and was beyond help (the phone division).
Microsoft's Windows Phone that Nokia adopted is really their third attempt in that space. It and xBox are maybe more about selling the brand and other services (azure, Office 365, etc) than making money on the hardware.
Iridium (slow & expensive)
Inmarsat (slow & expensive)
Thuraya (slow & expensive) Only really North Africa, parts of Europe and Middle East. But handsets are Modems and GSM phones too.
WildBlue / KaSat and similar Ka band Geostationary. Highest speed & capacity, but still less capacity than ONE rural exchange or Cable street cabinet!
Older Ku Band Geostationary.
O3b Medium Earth Orbit, lower latency and high Capacity http://www.o3bnetworks.com/
The Google / Musk proposed satellite system on LEO.
The capacity of this sounds good till :
Divide by 1000 for realistic capacity per satellite
Divide by 10 or more for speed in rain (they always quote perfect conditions)
Divide by more than 1000 for speed per user.
So capacity per user is likely 1/10,000,000 th of quoted system capacity.
Likely the pathetic capacity of Ka Sat (one of highest in world for a single bird) is very much higher per user. A single user gets about 1/100,000 th of Ka Sat capacity in normal conditions.
NT3.5 / NT 3.51 / NT 4.0 was FAR superior to the garbage Win95 & Win98 that was little more than all the 32 bit options and Explorer shell integrated to the 1993 level of WfWG 3.11 and rubbish graphics layer purely to make it easy to port DOS games to Win95.
Virtually every ill, esp. Security was caused by porting / running the Win9x eco system into Win XP.
The rot started with NT 4.0 GDI into kernel.
That was MS competing with itself.
QNX and QT might be the best Mobile OS and Shell ever, I don't know. But because it's not Apple's or Google's preferred platform, it's probably going to just be a niche or doomed.
RiscOS on the Archimedes was a good ARM OS back in the day too.
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