Posts by Charlie Clark

Re: This was the case...

Yep, pretty much an open and shut case. The "like" button is very clever marketing by Facebook but it really is just a tracking beacon and one of the reasons for the GDPR. More importantly, companies that use gimmicks like this are fooling themselves: while they can collect some data, they can only get what Facebook will give them, while Facebook gets to keep everything and aggregate it so that they can track users across the internet; they can (and do) even sell the data collected to companies' competitors. Would be nice to see more emphasis on the business aspects in these kind of stories.

Re: All true

There are no "real LED" displays

LG will happily sell you an OLED screen with all the contrast… OK the screens arent' quite as good as those on phones but given the distance you sit from them it hardly matters. But, LED backlighting has vastly improved the contrast levels of LCD screens because the backlights can be individually dimmed or switched off. Though, from what I see of how most people set their TVs up I don't think they'd notice or care.

Windows Phone also had various security reviews by whitehats that stated that it was more secure by design and implementation than Android and IOS.

Seeing as the design wasn't available in detail, it's difficult to see how this could be reasonably assessed. Some versions (and there were enormous technical differences between them) did, however, appear to fare well in tests.

Re: Simple questions

Your population from which you're taking your average includes a lot of young, inexperienced drivers. They pull the average down. With experience they'll get beyond average.

But they'll be replaced by equally inexperienced drivers so the average is more or less constant. As for getting better… I think that is dependent upon the routine: we get skilled as the journeys we most regularly make.

Re: "a beacon of all that was great and wonderful about social media"

Only a few one understood how dangerous it was since the beginning

Not sure about that. I think cultural studies has for some time been highlighting the dangers of mediated communication. What Facebook did really well was to make it pretty easy for people to give them their photos and thoughts in return for the promise of passing them on to their friends: it was easier to set up than a blog and came with notifications. It also fed the desire of the media and the politicians to engage with the public. The BBC's collection of brainfarts in its "Have Your Say" forums was one of the many canaries (usenet being one of the first) pointing out the fallacy but try getting a journalist to admit they're out of touch.

Re: Invalid numbers

I think you are underestimating the numbers hugely for Skype/ teams usage.

I doubt it but I suspect it depends a lot on how you define the use and hence the market. I've had to use Lync/Skype/Teams for one of my customers for years so I'm reasonably familiar with it and its use. You need a VoIP infrastructure to replace a traditional system after which it doesn't really matter what clients you use for it, but, sure Skype now does this quite well.

The market is really what companies are prepared additional money on. I'm not overly enamoured by Slack but I can see why it's popular in some environments and why Microsoft has been prepared to make Teams free go after it. I just don't think it will be enough to convince those with an investment in Slack to jump back. And, as I said, I think Microsoft is likely to miss stuff playing catch up.

When it starts force-feeding teams on GitHub it might be successful in establishing a new standard client but I'm not sure where the upside will be. Even if they achieve a dominant market share they're likely to find it hard to start charging. This has been the case for a lot of Microsoft products over the last ten years.

It isn't really any of the sellers' fault: the market has matured as it was bound to one day. Apple got an extension as it switched to bigger screens but the novelty of that seems to be wearing off too.

Re: A conscience is a fine thing

If you find yourself working on a project with which you don't agree you should be able to ask to work on something else. If that isn't possible then a change of employer might be required.

Don't think it really matters whether this "dual use" military stuff or, say, genetic sequencing for the cosmetic industry, etc.

Re: Google does it's usual...

Can you think of any company that provides unlimited free services forever?

Re: Chacun à son goût

Maybe to the city-folks in the audience, but not to the critters in question. Back when I raised meat birds, the geese would line up for their free fill-up(0).

Sorry, I didnt want to ignore that. I'm not a coutry boy but that's my understanding, too. However, the foie gras bit does usually involve some additional feeding, that may include force-feeding, in the last few days.

The whole law i, based on squeamish hyprocrisy: the lifestyles of many of the proponents is dependent upon exploitation which they find acceptable just as long as they don't have to watch videos of it.

Re: Xmas dinner?

Possibly true if all you ever eat is roast beef. But with poultry? Gravy yes, but not horseradish.

The rule is: if you can have cabbage with it, you can have mustard with it (the same family after all), but you don't have to. Just make sure it's the good stuff: purveyors of any of the "mild" stuff should join the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation when the revolution comes!

unless you're running a business that relies on the existence of said product.

Well, you're a fool if your business depends on a freebie from a company that can be withdrawn at any moment. Google treats it commercial offerings differently. But then these have support contracts, etc.

Re: Re:oil in dollars

This time, if the USA try to abuse SWIFT (which they mostly own) the global currency systems will change drastically and permanently, probably sending the USA back to the dark ages as a result.

Have you ever been to Mississippi? I don't think it ever left the dark ages.

Countries are much better prepared for US sanctions this time: Qatar leaving OPEC could be a coincidence or just a convenient new conduit for Iranian oil.

I'm not sure Trump really cares about Iran or whether he's doing all this for his islamic extremist friends (which is the House of Saud) in Saudia Arabia and his corrupt mates (Netanjahu) in Israel.

The theocratic rulers in Iran are, by and large, a despicable bunch but they are more reliable and open than the bastards on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz…

Re: Losing customer

The first is that the pre-eminent manufacturer of Android phones is Samsung - a company whose attitude to long-term support would make Don Juan blush.

I don't think you should confuse Samsung's fairly shitty approach to OS updates with the hardware which is pretty well-built and lasts well. Several people here have posted that their S* are still running fine, as is my Wave (hardly ever start it but it still works).

Android < 5 used to add features and memory requirements with new versions and phones hit RAM limitations fairly quickly. Since then feature development has been minimal and Google has put Android on a diet (ART replacing Dalvik, more aggressive scheduling). At the same time the baseline for hardware has improved: more RAM, more cores even on the cheaper phones. As a result Andrew's jokes about "landfill" phones don't resonate that much any more. Cheaper phones do the business and continue doing the business for longer. Samsung has adapted to this and I suspect Apple will, too: an SE of the 8 at some point, no doubt.

Re: Depressingly accurate

I just had a three-week wait for a ticket where the computer was continually trying to uninstall or update some Outlook add-on which required not just closing Outlook but also rebooting, rinsing and repeating. Solved by manual intervention in two minutes but not my machine and I don't have the power to do that.

Re: Actually, this may be a well-disguised win

And these are the people lecturing to us about open borders.

… within a single market. An important condition some people seem to like to ignore. Apart from the countries with colonial histories the proportion of non-whites in the population is tiny though that is starting to change quickly in many places: it's a lot cheaper for Indian engineering students to study in Germany than it is in the UK.

In any case group photos of NASA aren't much different.