* Posts by Eponymous Cowherd

1596 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Nov 2007

Apple prevails in Siri marketing lawsuit

Eponymous Cowherd

False advertising.

This isn't about the fitness of purpose of the iPhone. This is about false advertising. We have all seen those Siri ads where Siri answers every question instantly with an accurate answer. If Siri really was that good then it certainly could have been seen as a killer feature which could cause people to decide to buy an iPhone rather than the competition, and pay extra for it.

We all know that Siri is nowhere near as good as it appears in those ads and I'm not surprised that people feel aggrieved.

Perhaps the real problem is with the way advertisers are regulated and punished when they make blatantly false claims. In the UK we have the pathetically useless and toothless Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who offer no effective sanctions against serial false advertisers and, therefore, are no deterrent at all.

I'm guessing regulation in the US is at least as bad, or even worse.

Japanese fanboi first in queue for, er, iPhone 6

Eponymous Cowherd
Joke

Yeah but.....

has it got Flappy Bird on it?

Object to #YearOfCode? You're a misogynist and a snob, says the BBC

Eponymous Cowherd
Facepalm

RCJ misses the point, again.

But that isn't surprising considering his own ineptitude with regards to IT.

The biggest problem with ICT in schools isn't that they don't teach coding. That's like saying the biggest problem with a music course is they don't teach the guitar..

The problem with ICT teaching is they aren't teaching IT. At all. RCJ is correct when he says its mostly all Powerpoint, Excel and Word, but there is nothing inherently wrong with teaching those if the course was "Office Skills".

ICT should, at GCSE level, be giving kids who take the subject a broad grounding in Computer Science, and that includes the basics of computer hardware, operating systems, networking, and software engineering (note: NOT just "coding").

Perhaps the real problem is with the name. ICT. Information and Communication Technology. It doesn't match with what is being taught. Its like driving lessons being called something like "Automotive and Vehicle Technology".

And as to Andrew's assertion that all the coding jobs will be going offshore? Offshoring is all well and good when things are going OK, but when things start going wrong the language barriers, cultural differences and time zone differences make resolving the problem much harder. And from experience things go wrong at least as often when offshored, if not more so. You often end up with as many local software engineers (usually expensive contractors) as you would have needed for the entire project to manage an offshore project with even minor problems.

To finish, a personal gripe. Its that "C". Why add the C to IT? Information implies communication because information that isn't communicated isn't information at all. The "C" is redundant.

MP 'shocked' at failures 'at the top' of the BBC over epic DMI tech fail

Eponymous Cowherd

of stuufed shirts and project managers.

There is a world of difference between a technically competent project manager and the kind of stuffed-shirt idiot that usually gets the job in government and BBC tech projects.

UK internet filtering shouldn't rely on knee tappers, says Tory MP

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Sorry... am I reading that right?

"hit them in the balls"

As long as its Ed, I'm happy with that.

Good news! Today is Data Privacy Day ... Stop sniggering at the back

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

Privates on Parade......

is more appropriate.

I'll file that alongside "World peace day"

Amazon's 'schizophrenic' open source selfishness scares off potential talent, say insiders

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Amazon can't live without opensource

"Amazon are competing directly with Netflix, who open a huge amount of incredible code on GitHub (http://netflix.github.io/), and they're absolutely destroying LoveFilm."

That has more to do with Netflix being more platform agnostic than LoveFilm. You can get NetFlix on pretty much any platform, LoveFilm is missing from many, including Android and most STBs (including Roku)

Netflix also has a Windows store app, you have to fart around with the LoveFilm website to watch that on Windows 8, and it only works on the Desktop (and not RT, because of their reliance on Silverlight).

I know they say "content is King", and LoveFilm certainly has a better on-demand portfolio than Netflix, but you have to have something to watch it on.

Mexican drink-driver shopped to cops - by his own gobby parakeet

Eponymous Cowherd
Trollface

Re: Odd timing.

I'm glad you liked my photo recon parrot.

I'll be posting the pictures shortly.

NSA: It's TRUE, we grab 200 MILLION of your text messages A DAY globally

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Even if it were effective...

Hark, I hear banjos.

Eponymous Cowherd

Targets

"'Specifically deployed against – and only against – valid foreign intelligence targets'"

"Wird nicht in der heute, brach mir das Bein Skifahren. Angela"

Microsoft buries Sinofsky Era... then jumps on the coffin lid

Eponymous Cowherd

Quite.

The wrong UI for the wrong device.

Trying to force a common UI on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops is like trying to force common controls on bicycles, motorcycles and cars.

They have different controls for a reason.

Pint-glass-flashing FISHNAPPERS strike at Firefox daddy Mozilla

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

Taken for a Ride?

"A Mozilla marketing source told El Reg: "Have you seen the film Taken with Liam Neeson? This whole thing played out in almost exactly the same way. What a roller-coaster." ®"

A Mozilla hitman located the missing fish on a sheik's luxury yacht (after leaving a trail of corpses halfway around the world) and blew the his brains out before rescuing them?

Bit extreme for a couple of goldfish, don't you think?

Boffins hampered by the ampere hanker for a quantum answer

Eponymous Cowherd
Coat

Nail that Electron

"A quantum-based standard would be preferable, but it's proved elusive because counting individual electrons is prone to error."

They just need to recalibrate their Heisenberg compensator.

Apple coughs up 7 hours of profit to refund kids' $32.5m app spend spree

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Down

RTFA

Read the feckin article!

There seem to be a lot of idiots about here deriding parents for giving kids their credit card details.

Can I suggest you actually read the article before posting your ill informed turdspurts? You'd save an awful lot of embarrassment and downvotes that way.

Modern spying 101: How NSA bugs Chinese PCs with tiny USB radios - NYT

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Sceptical @AC 07:55

Superb Strawman, there.

My point has nothing to do with whether spying on private citizens is wrong or right ( I happen to think it's wrong ), or the rights or wrongs of Edward Snowden's actions ( I happen to think his actions did far more good than harm ).

My point was merely that, in this case, I am sceptical about the veracity of this spying tech.

Eponymous Cowherd

Sceptical

A device that can transmit 8 miles to a briefcase sized receiver is going to need considerable RF output power (several hundred mW).

You could certainly derive such power from a USB port and conceal such a transmitter in larger USB devices, but the problem is it will be eminently detectable, both from an RF point of view, and from a software point of view when, say, a keyboard presents itself as something other than an HID.

Its not that this stuff couldn't have been done. I just feel is is highly unlikely that it could be done without some inquisitive individual finding it.

EE and Voda subscribers to get 2G and 3G INSIDE the Channel Tunnel

Eponymous Cowherd
FAIL

Vodafone......

can't even get decent 2G (let alone 3G or 4G) to many major town centres.

Virgin Media spanked by ad watchdog over 'in your neighbourhood' fibs

Eponymous Cowherd
Devil

Re: Of course...

"..it's not called 'Advertising' these days, it's "Marketing", dahling."

Ah, yes, "marketing".

The art of getting idiots who cannot think for themselves to buy stuff they neither want , need or can afford.

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

This isn't advertising.....

It's shooting yourself in the foot.

Advertising a service to people who can't get it is just going to piss them off?

Apple asks judge to axe ebook price-fixing watchdog

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Apple are not being unreasonable.

"Apple's customers have a choice. If they choose to pay Apple's prices then by very definition they are not being overcharged - they are paying what they are willing to pay and Apple are pricing accordingly.

The difference is that Apple and their price-fixing cartel buddies were forcing customers of other vendors to pay inflated prices in order for them to keep their own inflated 30% markup on eBooks.

I choose to read my eBooks on a Kindle, yet I was being forced to pay more because of Apple.

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Down

Booo Hooo......

The nasty man is being mean to us.

Typical bully, Beats up anyone smaller then them, but goes crying home to mummy when they get a taste of their own medicine.

Block The Pirate Bay? Arrr, me hearties, new P2P client could sink that plan

Eponymous Cowherd
Unhappy

Re: They'll stop this

Well, they'll try to stop this.

But, as long as "Big Media" continues to take the piss**, there will always be demand, and as long as there is demand there will always be a way.

**Got a shiny new Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-Ray for Xmas. "Includes Digital Copy" emblazoned on the case. Great, thinks I, Something to watch on the train. Errrm no! Only when you jump through the registration hoops do you discover how limited this is.

Android will ship more than ONE BILLION mobes+slabs in 2014

Eponymous Cowherd

Kias are a damn site more reliable than Ferraris.

So your point is?

iPhone fanbois outsmart fandroids in totally reliable test of brain power

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: I had a go at this test

Yes, did that.

15 seconds.

IBM spends holiday season wrangling e-tail FAIL

Eponymous Cowherd
Facepalm

Re: Whatever, (way to go, jake)

Considering the nature of this site. I'm guessing you just insulted 99.99% of everyone who reads your post.

Graciously yours, The Drooling Eponymous Cowherd.

Microsoft tries to trademark 'Mod' in the US

Eponymous Cowherd
Devil

Re: TIFKAM

They can call it whatever they like, Modern, Mod, Metro, TIFKAM.

I'll still just call it Shite.

Mosquitoes, Comets and Vampires: The de Havilland Museum

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Up

Re: Mosquito

The Mosquito is my all-time favourite aircraft. Beautifully proportioned and the front profile of the FB variants with the four 20mm cannon in the nose and the radiator openings inboard of the engines gave it powerful warlike appearance unmatched by any other WW2 aircraft.

Bomber, Fighter-Bomber, Recon, Pathfinder, Night-fighter, Ground attack, anti-tank, ant-shipping / submarine. The first true multi-role aircraft.

Any wonder it had Goering bricking his pants?

China's supercomputing whizzkids: Busting out a 8.224 teraflops cluster? Guilty as charged

Eponymous Cowherd
Coat

National University of Defence Engineering

Surely?

Apple prepping 4K resolution 12.9-inch MaxiPad – report

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: WTF?

Indeed.

The whole 4K thing is marketing wank as far as consumer devices are concerned. The same goes for 4K tvs. Nobody will be able to tell the difference between a 1080p and 4K screen at normal viewing distances unless they fork out for an enormous screen with a price tag far exceeding almost everyone's budget and wall space.

While the BBC drools over Twitter, look what UK's up to: Hospital superbug breakthrough

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Up

Re: Teeth sucking Welsh slap-head

Agreed.

My granny has more technical insight than RCJ.

And she's been dead for 15 years.

Oracle drops shedload of CRITICAL vuln-busting Java patches

Eponymous Cowherd
Trollface

Holes

"Oracle's biz suites have more holes than a Swiss cheese"

Unlike their boat.

Perhaps they should just stick to what they are good at and forget the whole computer tech thing?

Gates, Zuckerberg to deliver free coding lesson

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: One hopes ...

No, Jake.

While BASIC certainly permits bad habits, and in its earlier incarnations could be said to facilitate them, modern BASICs like VB.Net, are really rather good and certainly no worse than any other mainstream language.

It is the teaching that is important. You could even argue that a language that permits bad habits is a better teaching language as it allows poor and good styles to be compared.

Another issue is that most students will be learning to program for employment purposes. There is little point teaching Lisp if they are going to be spending most of their time coding Java (etc)

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: One hopes ...

Even BASIC would be an improvement over the language most kids learn in UK schools' "ICT" lessons, i.e. none at all.

The problem with "TehIntraWebTubes" isn't down to any particular language, you can write robust and well structured code in any almost any language, but in the instruction, or rather lack of it, that the programmers receive in software engineering principles.

The weapon of choice of these wannabe web coders is usually PHP, not BASIC. Nothing particularly awful about the language itself, however.

MS Word deserves DEATH says Brit SciFi author Charles Stross

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Up

Word is.....

An excremental pile of unimaginable bloat with 100 times more "features" than anyone is ever going to use.

Yet it often can't handle a minor edit without completely screwing up the formatting of an entire paragraph.

I did most of my uni work (1994 - 1998) using Lotus Ami-Pro and found it far better than Word of the same vintage. Possibly rose tinted specs, but I think I'd rather be using it now instead of Redmond's current be-ribboned turd.

Apple bags top Windows feature: Blue Screen Of Death arrives on iPhone 5S

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Down

Android 64

"However, I don't know how easy it will be for Android to adapt due to the fragmentation of the operating system."

Because most Android apps are jit compiled on the device itself, most existing apps will be able to take advantage of a 64 bit architecture with no modification providing the Dalvik vm is optimised for 64 bit (which it almost certainly will be on a 64 bit device).

Third of Brits now regularly fondling their slabs, say beancounters

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Down

Re: Jesus there's room for everyone..

Taking that analogy, if Apple is BMW, then Android devices fill the slots occupied by Dacia, Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari and Bugatti.

The difference is an Android Veyron is the same price as an Apple 3 series, and, with its current iPad Mini, its like BMW are still trying to sell the Isetta for the same price as a top of the range Focus.

You put up with CRAPPY iOS 7. You can put up with Obamacare too, says prez

Eponymous Cowherd
Facepalm

Rooting for Failure

"That's not how we do things in America. We don't actively root for failure."

Hmmm, recent events would tend to suggest otherwise.

The Democrats and Republicans are essentially playing a game of political "chicken" with peoples lives, livelihoods and the entire US economy.

Techno-thriller author and gaming franchise Tom Clancy dies at 66

Eponymous Cowherd

Always believable

No other author of "techo-thrillers" could convey an air of authenticity like Tom Clancy.

A real sad loss.

Samsung: Sod off Apple, we've made gold mobile phones for way longer than you

Eponymous Cowherd
Coat

Re: Yawn

"In 2006 i had a Google Motorola RAZR V3i gold"

Can I table a motion that comments like that should, from now on, be called "jakeisms"?

Plastic ingredient FOUND ON MOON of Saturn

Eponymous Cowherd
Happy

Apparently.....

similar materials are used by Playmobil..

Google's robot army learns Spanish

Eponymous Cowherd

All I know is.....

my hovercraft is full of eels.

Rare gold iPhone 5s goes up against 50 caliber high precision rifle

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

Re: @AC 06:09

Wow, a Yank calling the British "insular"?

Reg readers! You've got 100 MILLION QUID - what would you BLOW it on?

Eponymous Cowherd
Thumb Up

Simple:

My own secret underground base complete with monorail and personal ninja army.

Google's boffins branded 'unacceptably ineffective' at tackling web piracy

Eponymous Cowherd
Unhappy

Effective reading....

Just replace "We" with "Our paymasters" in the quotes and you'll pretty much have the truth of it.

Oracle sued over $33,000 bill for SaaS: STRIPPERS as a SERVICE

Eponymous Cowherd
WTF?

How much?

Saw a 64Gb iPhone 5s in the window of the local Cex (Chav's Equipment Exchange) for £850.

Seriously? Who the hell pays over £800 for a sodding phone? And a 2nd hand one at that!!!

iOS 7 SPANKS Samsung's Android in user-experience rating

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: Only one Android?

Just got a Note 2, and I have to say I find its UX to be quite a bit clunkier than vanilla Android (on my Nexus 7) or my old HTC Sensation (sense).

Personally, from a UX point of view, the customisation features of Android trump all other concerns. I just wish Samsung did a better job (or left it alone)

Firms fined $350,000 after yogurt sting uncovers review rigging

Eponymous Cowherd
Pint

Re: It must be true.

Online, anonymous revues?

Sounds a bit risqué, if you ask me.

How very Freudian.

Have a beer and a thumbs-up on me :-D

Want FREE BEER for the rest of your life?

Eponymous Cowherd
Coat

Re: Farty? Gas for combustion?

The trouble is, the gas produced by the fermentation process is CO2.

I'd guess the alcohol will be absorbed by the body, so only the gas will be expelled.

So people afflicted with this are some kind of farty fire extinguishers???

Eponymous Cowherd
Joke

Fruity Flatulance?

Sounds like our resident office fanboi talking about his latest finger scanning shiny toy.

KVM kings unveil 'cloud operating system'

Eponymous Cowherd

Re: I've been running my personal cloud using a KVM switch ...

The BBC couldn't string together a coherent tech article if their lives depended on it.

A recent article on the 64 bit iPhone 6 and Samsung's announcement that it will move to ARMv8 for its next generation of devices noted that there aren't any 64 bit apps for either iOS or Android. Completely failing to appreciate that most Android apps run exclusively on a virtual machine (Dalvik) and will be able to take advantage of the 64 bit cpu if the Dalvik VM is compiled for it (which, of course, it will be).