Sign in / up

* Posts by Mage

9268 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

Page:

One Win 8 to rule them all: Microsoft talks up 'universal apps' for PCs, slabs and mobes

Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

For Fart Apps

and pointless widgets.

You can't write a serious GUI application for every platform without differences in design.

I hate to bang on about this AGAIN

But this is garbage and always has been except for trivial widgets:

" Finally, at long last, developers can use "90 per cent" (its figure) of the same code base to create Universal Windows apps for Windows Phone, RT, desktop Windows and now Xbox."

No you need DIFFERENT GUI and UI strategies for

1: small phone/screen

2: big phone

3: tablet

4: Desktop / laptop etc

5: TV with only a remote

6: Games console with game pad etc/

7: Server, even if GUI as it has to be bandwidth / Remote Access friendly

Underlying non UI related code could be the same in some cases. But writing the SAME non-trivial application for these is fantasy. The same GUI dehydrated death no matter if old idea of miniaturising Win9x for WinCE 320 x 240 or expanding Zune GUI ported to phone up to a desktop.

Sinfofsky was doubly mad forcing one tile GUI yet different APIs.

Obviously APIs to access storage / files / draw primitives / print / communication etc should be the same. But even if EVERY API was identically compatible for the 7 platforms there you'd be moron to port say the same 3D modelling or accounts package with no GUI or design changes. I'd guess a trivial thing like an eBay sniping tool could be a little "widget" the same on all.

13 0

Nothing's as SCARY as an overly aggressive SOFTWARE PIMP

Mage Silver badge

Wonderful

Best ever.

You can have a coffee or cup of tea here any time you are passing.

The commentards arguing about pro or con of XP vs Win X have missed the point.

1 0

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon
FAIL

Re: byy bye moz.

Except Google, Microsoft and Apple are possibly far more immoral than Mozilla. Mozilla has possibly made a mistake. The other three have consistent clear policies of anti-privacy, dubious corporate pressure and consumer exploitation (respectively).

Of course this is only my opinion. But unlike Eich I can't be sacked for it as corporate greed, ponzi schemes and inept corrupt regulation I had no control over lost me my job and the the entire Department.

2 1
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Here's a fun thought

However it's not very funny and bordering on gibberish.

4 4
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: WTF Bigot

So if someone has a contrary opinion and puts money where their mouth is they are a Bigot?

8 1
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Maybe Marriage is the problem

Perhaps the State should not do marriage at all. Only Civil Partnership. Then the only "Marriage" is within faiths that have such an ceremony or sacrament and according to their own rules.

Civil Partnership can have all the state legal consequences that Civil Marriage has today. In fact the two kinds of Marriage are separate and only confusingly share the same name.

Of course Agnostics and Atheists and others want to be more equal. To eat their cake and have it, which will destroy the Faith based Marriage concept and leave a "Marriage" that is identical to Civil Partnership.

5 1
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Animals

It seems the LGBT community wants to be more equal than the Hetrosexuals. Disagree with their opinions and face a "witch hunt".

12 7

Speaker bods Sonos chuck FREE TELLY* in with discount offer

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Affiliate programme?

Not a premium system as it is poor speaker system. Too small drivers and too small case.

1 0
Mage Silver badge

Not the TV channels

No tuner.

Many people (more than half UK Internet users, note I didn't say broadband) don't have the cap for streaming video. Also it doesn't scale well compared to Broadcast channels.

Satellite, Cable and Terrestrial has TV channels. Internet has has media servers. Not same thing, complementary.

So NO "TV Channels" included. How do they describe it in the adverts?

0 0

In three hours, Microsoft gave the Windows-verse everything it needed

Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

I hate to bang on about this AGAIN

But this is garbage and always has been except for trivial widgets:

" Finally, at long last, developers can use "90 per cent" (its figure) of the same code base to create Universal Windows apps for Windows Phone, RT, desktop Windows and now Xbox."

No you need DIFFERENT GUI and UI strategies for

1: small phone/screen

2: big phone

3: tablet

4: Desktop / laptop etc

5: TV with only a remote

6: Games console with game pad etc/

7: Server, even if GUI as it has to be bandwidth / Remote Access friendly

Underlying non UI related code could be the same. But writing the SAME non-trivial application for these is fantasy. The same GUI dehydrated death no matter if old idea of miniaturising Win9x for WinCE 320 x 240 or expanding Zune GUI ported to phone up to a desktop.

Sinfofsky was doubly mad forcing one tile GUI yet different APIs.

Also ditch the stupid ribbon and Win 2.0 themes.

Fix the damm bugs in Explorer there since 1995 instead of messing with new features.

Obviously APIs to access storage / files / draw primitives / print / communication etc should be the same. But even if EVERY API was identically compatible for the 7 platforms there you'd be moron to port say the same 3D modelling or accounts package with no GUI or design changes. I'd guess a trivial thing like an eBay sniping tool could be a little "widget" the same on all.

27 3

Lego is the TOOL OF SATAN, thunders Polish priest

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: I guess it's official

look at the real statistics, not the newspapers.

1 0
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: I guess it's official

Not as much as people who are not Priests and Nuns actually. Humans are the problem.

6 8
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

In the dark, bare feet

At least he isn't in UK. Is the UK mains plug the most evil thing to tread on in the dark at home?

4 0

Soz, BT: All EE's 4G goodies still won't give you 'seamless voice'

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Perhaps this is not what it seems

Really??

"EE has proved it works in Cumbria"

What is "it" and definition of "works"?

0 0

Amazon sets FIRE to your living room in bid to shake up TV streaming

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon
Happy

Re: UK version?

Some folks thought Amazon was going to release a Game Console. Still, a so called "Smart TV" adds €200 to €400 price of a TV and this is $99 and does more.

Competition is Roku, Google Chromecast and so called Apple TV (no tuner or screen so how is it a TV?).

Why do people buy an Apple TV or Chromecast rather than a Roku or Tablet + hdmi cable?

Apple TV needs an iThink (iPad or iPhone) to work properly so this is cheaper.

All Smart TVs need a smart phone or tablet to access all features easily.

The Google Chromecast dongle is barely more than than Wireless HDMI as it seems to do nearly nothing without a hosting device (Laptop, tablet, smartphone etc).

If this is usable without paid content, works with your own attic server and comparable to a Roku it ought to do well. Smart of them to put Netflix as well as their own services.

1 3

How Microsoft can keep Win XP alive – and WHY: A real-world example

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: I hate shopping with a gun pointed at my head. Hello, it's you, Microsoft?

UNIX/Linux Family is used by 67.5% of all the websites whose operating system we know.

ALL versions of Windows 32.5% of all the websites whose operating system we know.

[A lot of them seem to be Server 2003!, the Server version of XP]

OSX about 0.1%

5 0
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Updates

OS X newer versions and Linux newer versions at least usually have some sense.

Vista (& Win 7 SP for it) and Win8 are not upgrades. They are just awkward and don't fix annoying GUI bugs in Explorer also add new GUI bugs.

Wine + Mint for new HW and the olde HW will keep running CP/M, DOS, WinForWorkgroups 3.11, Win 98SEWin2K and XP.

Much as I dislike Win2K, I found I could get some newer XP stuff to run on it and all the old NT4.0 stuff to work, so the laptop once with Dos/Win3.11/Win98/NT4.0/Win2K and Red Hat Linux only has DOS,WFWG3.11, win98, Win2K (using NT's boot ini). Mint and XP are on two other laptops.

One PC with XP and Satellite cards, two as servers with different Linux distros. We had NT4.0 servers for about 10 years and a short dalliance with Server 2000 and Server2003 before moving all the data to Debian.

I have also a dedicated CP/M and DOS machines "archived" in the attic. Dosbox isn't suitable for some old HW.

Some fancy expensive ISA HW I have I managed to get the 3.1 driver to run on Win98SE (no modern version).

This isn't a new problem. There was not this "panic" response from MS at previous EOL.

2 1

'Dads from the Midwest' pull down their email-spaffing LinkedIn plugin

Mage Silver badge

Plugin isn't the problem

This is yet another Linkedin fail in particular and social media fail in general.

1: Create a new email real address you can abandon or delete later. It needs to work.

2: Add it to Linkedin and confirm it

--- 3. now you can make the new address the Primary and delete everything including the "real" email addresses.

4. rename your self and add false country and profession

5. logout

6. Delete temporary specially created email address in (1) or never access it.

I've been on Linkedin over 6 years maybe and had recently begun to think it was as useless as Facebook.

2 0

Dark SITH LORD 'Darth Vader' joins battle to rule, er, Ukraine

Mage Silver badge

Crimea

It's baffling that it remained with Ukraine after 1991.

But two wrongs don't make a right. Of course it makes more sense for Crimea to be part of Russia than Ukraine. But Russia didn't use due process. They just seized it.

If a neighbour mysteriously ends up with my 1965 classic car I can't just go and and take it back. There are proper procedures.

5 1

Three daddy Hutch has no interest in O2

Mage Silver badge

But

Three are only a Phone contract seller.

All engineering is outsourced

The Irish Network too many data users as they mis-sell it as Broadband

They and Irish Government may be investigated for using €75M of taxpayers and EU money to fund base stations Three obligated to roll out and hadn't in breach of licence. Complaint is with EU

Three Ireland massive debt and never made profit.

Three are efficient at marketing/selling, nothing else.

They inappropriately install repeaters designed for Malls, underground carparks and tunnels in ordinary houses for so called broadband instead of outdoor aerial and 3G router.

0 1

LaCie adds fire to Fuel: Revs Wi-Fi external storage gadget to 2TB

Mage Silver badge

Wot?

No XP or Linux support?

1 0

Intel's DIY MinnowBoard goes Max: More oomph for half the price

Mage Silver badge

Cheap NAS controller?

Though maybe NAS without drives are cheap. I haven't looked lately.

0 0

BT Tower to be replaced by 3D printed BT Tower

Mage Silver badge

BT Tower memories

Always reminds me of a giant kitten.

GG, BO and TBT

0 0

FCC doubles 5GHz spectrum in prep for one-gigabit Wi-Fi

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

There are ALREADY Rural Fixed wireless using LICENSED spectrum. Using licence free WiFi spectrum for outdoor FWALA (Fixed Wireless) proved to be a disaster 6 years ago. Real commercial WISPs (Wireless ISPs) all changed to licensed spectrum years ago.

The problem is that Mobile Data is subsidised by voice and mis-sold as broadband. Hence there is now little investment in real Fixed Wireless Broadband. It's not a lack of Spectrum or Technology.

Also 5GHz band is really only line of sight. If you are going to be limited to LOS there is cheap good gear at licensed 10GHz band, much more capacity. Or if you need better outdoor coverage there is licensed 3.5GHz band which is much better than 5GHz.

0 0
Mage Silver badge

Grey imports

Have they checked what everyone else is already doing with that band?

Once China starts producing the WiFi Airpoints and Routers and Dongles we'll be flooded with the gear in Europe. No-one sensibly polices CE mark

0 0

Dropbox nukes bloke's file share in DMCA brouhaha – then admits it made a 'HASH OF IT'

Mage Silver badge

Or

Your own domain and a hosting service.

Dropbox, Google drive etc are lazy solutions for people that can't be bothered or don't want to set up their own solution.

7 10

Newsnight goes sour on Tech City miracle

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Posting anything anywhere?

Hmm.

0 0

Dutch doctors replace woman's skull with 3D-printed plastic copy

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: I want...

The teeth picking up Radio Waves myth was started by Lucy (Lucille Ball). It's no basis in fact.

0 0

Original iPhone dev team was 'shockingly small' - Apple engineer

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: A hideously inefficient hardware design

Yes, but Nokia in the same year had great HW, a great OS (symbian) spoilt by a bastard GUI (S60). They had lost the plot on management and GUI etc back around 2002. So Apple only had to make it shiny and simple to use, not needing every HW feature or great Battery life.

It was quite sensible to assemble phone chips, a capacitive screen (which are as old as Resistive ones) and an iPod for Mk1 iPhone.

MS tried gluing the Zune on everything from Phones to PC Desktop proving that sometimes simplicity doesn't work when taken too far.

1 0
Mage Silver badge

It didn't need a big team

Actually Big teams are counter productive.

Most of the development was the revised GUI on the OS adapted from OS X as iOS.

They didn't develop any phone or CPU hardware, that had all become virtually commodity parts by then. From the late 1980s the reason for resistive screens was for two reasons:

1) Stylus use of stupid concept of miniaturised desktop GUI.

2) Holy Grail of Handwriting recognition.

Capacitive screens were ignored due to low resolution. Their big step was to say "forget handwriting". The idea of gestures wasn't invented by Apple. That dates back to 1980s or earlier. The stupidity of using a desktop "WIMP" GUI on a small screen was identified in late 1980s. But MS and others wouldn't listen (WinCE ). Part of it too was that for a long while (i.e. Nokia Communicator) a high end phone with GUI and applications was seen as a Business tool, not a consumer gadget.

The best way to do any product is a small team. Or several very small teams working on unrelated aspects.

Maybe if Steve hadn't killed Newton they could not have see their way to an iPhone as it is known today.

7 0

Microsoft frisks yet another Android gear maker for patent dosh

Mage Silver badge

Xbox?

What connection is there between Dell and Xbox?

1 0

ECCENTRIC, PINK DWARF dubbed 'Biden' by saucy astronomers

Mage Silver badge

kilometres Fahrenheit

You need Miles or Yards if you want Fahrenheit

2 0

Facebook Oculus VR buyout: IT WANTS your EYEBALLS

Mage Silver badge

free content ad network.

You mean "content free ad network"?

I know an old joke.

16 0

Facebook swallows Oculus VR goggle-geeks. Did that really happen?

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Vociferous NOooooOOoooo

Sony is suddenly looking better.

But Nintendo was really going to be big on this. But shades of Red?

I'm reminded of Lucifer's Hammer, Ursula Leguin's "neareal" and John Brunner.

Hmm.. Is it good either way, I don't know.

0 1

Ancient telly, check. Sonos sound system, check. OMG WOAH

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Agreed

Needs Optical I/O & multiple HDMI passthrough as well as analogue(s) in.

It's a gimmick. Like an iPhone dock

0 0
Mage Silver badge

It's rubbish

4" speakers will do for something portable.

6" main drivers for any living room sound.

0 0

Apple vows to add racially diverse EMOJIS after MILEY CYRUS TWITTER outrage

Mage Silver badge

Oh Noes

Only the symbol ones work from here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji

Perhaps my OS is a strict Moslem?

0 0

As WinXP death looms, Microsoft releases its operating system SOURCE CODE for free

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Forgot Something

Word for DOS and Word for Windows are unrelated. Yes the WINDOWS versions of Word and Excel were real MS software and on Mac first. But not the DOS version.

0 0

GSMA: EU net neutrality reforms are the enemy of business

Mage Silver badge

Well? Bears in Woods etc

They'd argue nearly anything imposed on them is bad. Mobile only likes voice and SMS. Comparing the costs for £15 Voice and £15 Data sale, the Data costs them 130x more at least. Overpriced voice and SMS is subsidising Data. Also it's MOBILE. They are are in many cases offering caps to high and mis-selling as Broadband. It's for ON THE GO usage.

They need to realise that people just want to rent a connection. They need to stop blocking & throttling stuff and have more honest marketing. Mobile has limited capacity.

5 0

AMD: Why we had to evacuate 276TB from Oracle DB to Hadoop

Mage Silver badge

Not surprised

It's a normal development cycle that incumbents get bloated, expensive and lose touch with what customers want.

7 0

TEN THINGS Google believes you believe about Glassholes and wishes you didn't

Mage Silver badge

Wrong, it can do quick face recognition.

"But even with the limited processor in the headset working in conjunction with a linked smartphone and the greater cloud, you're not going to get Glass capable of the kind of real-time facial recognition portrayed on popular TV shows."

Actually of course it can if any camera can. Assuming you have a wireless data connection of some kind. It could be your own subterranean system.

0 0

This changes everything: Microsoft slips WinXP holdouts $100 to buy new Windows 8 PCs

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Too little, too late.

2002 Laptop

45 seconds boot

1600 x 1200 ultra sharp reflection free LCD.

Xp Pro.

Last re-installed when 6 months old.

HDD upgraded 6 years ago (partitition Magic on a desktop and adapters to copy existing install.

High performance SCSI scanner via PCMCIA /PC Card controller

Firewire still used

Serial & Parallel still used.

WiFi upgraded 6 years 11Mbps to 108Mbps

CD Writer DVD -ROM reader upgraded 6 years ago to DVD/CD R/W

XP pro based Media PC using 2 x PCI HD Satellite cards, SATA drives, and dual tuner DTT USB. Where do I get a new PC with 6 x PCI slots?

1 laptop multiboot DOS / Win3.1 / Win98 & Win 2K for things that need it. 1400 x 1050 reflection free LCD.

All else is various Linux distros

7 1
Mage Silver badge

This changes NOTHING!

$100 to compensate for a new PC (with inferior screen) and an Inferior OS?

I'll keep going till wheels fall off, then Mint + Wine.

6 0

Microsoft exec: I don't know HOW our market share sunk

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Inteligent ... Chess

Hmm... Computer Chess playing doesn't use intelligence. It's brute force.

1 8
Mage Silver badge

Screen Sizes

Idiots.

But not the only ones.

A very small screen, 4" approx touch, 6" to 11" touch, 10" and up keyboard/mouse, TV screen with Remote all need radically different GUI.

Once they stupidly tried to fit the Win95 GUI on 320 x240, now the other way round. The Zune/Metro interface isn't a bad idea for more featured PMP, PDA, Phones with touch. Stupid for TVs, Tablets, Watches, PCs.

The Win9x / XP interface is a reasonable improvement of Win3.x and NT prior to 4, but not only is it only suitable for 10" (with 1024 x 768 min) and up screens with no touch, keyboard and mouse, but actually quite good (so are OS X, Risc OS, Gem, KDE, Gnome etc in various more sane incarnations).

Idiots. More concerned with "Branding" and a single appearance than the best GUI for the form factor / Application.

20 1
Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Integent ... Running Windows

Amazing, 22% of Humans, Apes, Monkeys, Elephants, Corvids, Dolphins etc are running a Microsoft computer OS!

Um ... you do know that because they still can't figure out what intelligence is the AI people have completely changed the definition is since the 1970s? That in real terms there has been ZERO progress in AI since 1950s? Any progress is by redefining AI to include whatever program has just been developed.

Wake me up when you find ANY intelligent device that isn't replicating biologically. Sex is obviously currently involved to produce Intelligence, in a sense.

If we are talking about devices that are not a laptop, Notebook, All in one, PC or Server, then 22% is an amazing figure, and wrong, as MS are non-existent on Set-boxes, Routers, TVs, DVD, Blu Ray, Media boxes etc . Though in the USA in WinCE PDA / Early Symbian days it might have been more than 45%. But about 10% world wide.

(*laptop, Notebook, All in one, PC or Server etc I don't classify as a device but "computers" as they are very general purpose and OS can easily be changed. A device running an OS (the word "intelligent" is meaningless) to me is a gadget where you'd have to go through hoops, JTAG etc to EASILY change the OS. The only non-computer devices close to "general purpose" rather than dedicated appliance are Phones (so called "Smart") and Tablets.

Exactly what is the "Smart" in a Smart Phone? It's as dumb as a basic one that can only do phone calls and SMS with an address book. Just more applications and ability to load applications with awkward Web Browser)

2 12

QUIDOCALYPSE: Blighty braces for £100 MILLION cost of new £1 coin

Mage Silver badge

Facebook?

Why?

you have perfectly good forums without trying to help Zuckerberg's income with his very creepy walled garden.

No thanks.

(I'll keep my FB account for stalking though).

39 0

Europe approves common charger standard for mobe-makers

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon
Devil

Networking over house wiring...

Actually those are really illegal transmitters. They 99% just use the local part of wire as an aerial! They pass CE by only plugging in one or not connecting data. They are two way 1 to 30MHz or 1MHz to 200MHz radio systems.

The are also about x50 cost of a USB connector!

1 0
Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: What happened to wireless charging?

The wireless charger isn't. It's a large awkward pad with a cable to PSU.

It's as wireless as Cordless Kettle. Which is strictly a docking kettle.

Why can't they all put USB and earphone so the phone can sit in a cradle like my DECT or my ancient Handheld 2 way radio?

0 0

Win XP holdouts storm eBay and licence brokers, hiss: Give us all your Windows 7

Mage Silver badge
Reply Icon

Re: Oh stop!

Edit time ran out ...

Not much more so than Win7 /Win 8 users.

If un-needed services off, stupid plug-ins on browser disabled, separate firewall on Router (use a WiFi/Ethernet Sharing box/router for a 3G/4G dongle, don't plug in direct), sensible usage, no Outlook, MS IE etc then less likely in next 10 years to get malware than 8.1 or later Windows users.

Check with silentrunners.org and gmer, maybe even booting to safe mode, periodically.

MS though should consider Win 7 demand and amount of XP that their whole strategy stinks now.

I'll use Libre Office rather than any version of office after 2003, and Linux with WINE if I can't use the Win98, Win2K and WinXP laptops I have any longer. Unless MS swallow the Ego and make a fixed version of XP. as alternative to Win 9 for users that want it.

2 0

Page: