Posts by Snake Plissken

Re: Indiana, WTF?

>>>

Do they honestly think a law like this could do anything but harm, could do anything but cause further divisions and unrest? Who actually benefits from this?

<<<

There is an odd subset of politicians (mainly Right Wing) who seem to think that Bad Things can simply be legislated out of existence. The thought process seems to be that if you ban gays, then homosexuality (which they see as a choice) will some how disappear. Some of them have banned reporting on climate change, or even using the phrase "climate change".

You can judge how successful these campaigns to deny basic human nature are, because for many years we have had laws against murder and prostitution. And if you look around our society, you will surely agree that no-one ever gets murdered or becomes a prostitute.

Re: Errm, Richard...

In a very real sense, any single linux distribution is in better shape installer wise than Windows.

Christ, when was the last time you used Windows?

Windows used to get rightly mocked for DLL Hell, but it has largely overcome that problem with the .NET Framework and GAC, to the extent that even when they change the Framework around and introduce a new GAC (e.g. 4.0) there isn't a knock on problem with earlier versions.

This does still leave the problem of .config files needing exactly the right components. And using NuGet in Visual Studio to keep packages up to date is definitely a throwback to the bad old days of version x.y.12345 being out of date the day after you download it. But Windows has largely been free of stupid DLL version incompatibilities for a while now.

Re: Microsoft FAIL

My HTC Desire HD died a couple of weeks ago. I needed another phone fast - picked up a Lumia 630 with WP8.1 for £110 SIM-free last weekend.

Admittedly it is early days yet, but it is a superb phone and OS for the money. The App Store is a wasteland, but it comes with the bits and pieces I actually use (apart from a free version of 2048). It is going to fail, but it will do so in style.

Re: Eurotunnel

You think that is bad? I once got interrogated for 45 minutes at the French side coming back because "why would someone as young as you want to spend a couple of days looking at the WWI graves?"

I'm middle-aged FFS!

You realise that those ratings aren't based on a binary vote, instead on a pattern of voting around an issue?

Oh, you don't. You really don't.

Re: Trend?

DoubleSpace was very relevant in real life, as PCs were regularly beginning to hit limitations on disk space and RAM. My memory is fading (ironically) but wasn't there some kind of disk limit in DOS which was causing issues?

(Could be 32Mb hard disk size limit in DOS and off the shelf disks were getting to 40Mb+ or something, but might be wrong.)

Re: Public competition?

You didn't like the other coins? Were you afraid of change?

Re: Super Mega Nawsome Power

It was Super Nashwan Power.

Recently Bomb The Bass released a track called "Mega Dis", 25th anniversary release combining updated versions of "Beat Dis" and "Megablast". I think it is still on iTunes.

One of my proudest moments was putting "Megablast" onto the playlist for the local ice hockey team. Still fit in among all the usual stuff and had a few fans come up to me afterwards saying they recognised it.

Re: Assumptions

In my experience, Barclays are very upfront with the terms of their contracts. You have to give them two weeks notice, they don't have to give you 60 seconds notice. They have always been explicit about it.

On the one hand, you know where you stand employment wise, on the other you know exactly where they stand in their attitude towards their staff.

Re: Where the line lies

Three things. First, the site in question doesn't just do form filling, but subsequently requests the photo/birth certificate etc etc before posting it on to the Passport Office.

Second, the application doesn't go from the third party to the PO directly, so they can't block it.

Third, the site has a disclaimer (big enough) but presents the official PO phone number as a helpline and plenty of official logos to present the appearance of legitimacy.

I agree that Google can't do too much about companies that are pushing up against the boundaries of the law but rather than punishing those, Google could prioritise the "real" sites in searches/advertising.

Because they are following the Zynga model.

1. Make a load of cash from idiots playing your ripped off game

2. Make another load of cash from idiots who think attempting to catch lightning in a bottle a second time is a sound basis for a long term business.

Really?

"not just me who's offended by Abrams' continued rape of classic Star Trek. "

Rape? Did you really have to use that word in that context? I mean, really really?

Re: Anti-Sinclair stitch-up?

The program was made with the assistance of the people involved - I believe around the time of its first broadcast, Sir Clive was asked about one of the ludicrous situations he was involved in and he said "Yes, that happened. Come to think of it, they probably toned it down a bit."

Re: Time you went home

"If you remember the Amiga 500 and Atari 520 ST wars you'll remember there was only about £20 or so difference in price between the two and that was enough for most parents to go for the ST."

Try £100, fella. It was the reason I had an ST for a year.

Re: Going..

"R,R,R,L tough bitch to complete and R,R,R,R was evil too."

Rule of Outrun. Right at the junction is the harder route.

Re: Shurely shome mishtake

"I will not win the upvotes for this but politics is leaning further left all the time."

Indeed. At the last election. all three parties were in favour of the NHS, nationalising key utilities and the railways, more regulation of business, more free education, a larger welfare state and higher taxes on the richest.

No! Wait! The other one!

Re: Well done for the plastic back

my phone spends a lot of time in my front trouser pocket.

Damn. I thought you were just happy to see me.

Re: You have to admire the cheek

The money is there purely to avoid it being taxed at the proper rate. There was a "one-off" holiday in 2004, which meant billions flowed back without proper tax being paid on it.

Now they want another "one-off" holiday. And if they get it, I'm sure in five years time they will be asking for another "one-off".

Re: Seriously

"If you are just going on the sales figures that you provided then Angry Birds has netted £5.9M (roughly)

GT5 has netted at least £137.5M (based on £25 per sale so the figure will be higher given it was £40 at 1st launch)

"

Well done. Now, for your second cookie of the day, how much did Angry Birds and GT5 cost to make? GT5 has been in development since God was a small child and they still screwed it up. One is produced and distributed for buttons, the other has to be manufactured, put into retail stores, licence fees for all those cars and music, advertising etc etc.

Except...

"If the subscription is being delivered via Apple's infrastructure then it's up to them if they want to charge a margin. If it's not via their infrastructure, then not."

AIUI, and I might be wrong, if the content subscription is not being delivered via the infrastructure but the initial purchase was, Apple still want their 30%. And I'm not allowed to work outside of the App Store on generating new revenue (via sales, promotional discounts etc).

So Apple take their 30% of my app sale, and 30% of my revenue and dictate my business model.