Posts by Fihart 1150 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008
@ Steve Davies
Try telling that to my young neighbours. We share a wireless network so if things slow down I can check who has wireless turned on.
Answer-- all of them -- phones, pads, laptops. Most, even if they are out of the house.
When I've visited, the TV is on as background. When they went on hols I had the keys, to water plants, and went from room to room unplugging idle power adapter cubes.
Is it just the immediate postwar gen like myself who had economy drummed into us by parents who'd experienced rationing ? All I know, is my phone goes into flight mode after midnight and I only turn its wireless on, or my computer on, as needed.
" Maybe Microsoft will, at one point, be (financially) forced into supplying older software (think Windows 7, Office 2010, etc.) besides their current line of (unwanted) software."
To save face*, all they have to do is launch "Windows8 for the PC* which turns out to have the performance enhancements of Win8 but compatible with and visually similar to Win7.
* okay, what I really mean is as a final humiliation.
As for what they've done to Word -- as a continuing user of an earlier version I was somewhat bewildered when faced with the Ribbon. They really seem determined to scare away existing customers while losing a younger generation to Apple and Android.
"Some advertisers worry they will end up spending more money on creative development, on top of what they are spending on the ad placements"
Judging by the low standard and sheer quantity of tv ads presently, the above seems to be a widespread worry among advertisers.
The lack of originality is abysmal, even among those with a creative budget -- all perfumes and men's toiletry product ads seem visually interchangeable, for example.
I'm not so troubled by the privacy aspects, rather that these bloody companies are using data which has been transmitted from our handsets (presumably) at cost to us and probably also affecting general performance.
I've had incidents with T Mobile where amounts were deducted from my balance and I received no believable explanation beyond that data was used -- without any intervention by or any obvious benefit to me. So what was transmitting data from my handset without my knowledge and why ?
Anyway I agitated and got most of the money back, but it makes you think.
I've done a turn as a Mod on Tom's Guide forum and spam postings were a problem, but many ordinary members took pleasure in reporting it, so it was just a routine chore deleting nonsense ads for fake trainers etc. I suspect the volume of crap has increased since.
My complaint is more about completely irrelevant security measures which sabotage one's efforts even when working on a home network.
The other day I was trying to link my phone to laptop and was faced with entering a seven digit pairing code on a tiny keyboard within seconds, assuming I'd clicked okay on the phone first (which I failed to do the first time so ran out of time).
Goddammit, I'm in my own home with little possibility that my neighbours will also be Bluetoothing with their phones pressed against the party-wall hoping to hack into my boring files.
I've given up networking computers with different versions of Windows because they seem to have been deliberately hampered by each evolution of the OS in order to force you to upgrade every machine.
CAPTCHA is less annoying for me (as an able bodied person) but much of this security malarky is to do with product liability concerns rather than any real-world necessity.
When security sabotages what one is legitimately trying to do, it has gone too far. Would you shop at a place which regularly searched your bags ? In many circumstances an option which said "Thank you for your concern for my security but I'll pass on this occasion" would not compromise security a jot..
This applies to Apple as much as Microsoft -- if anything, Apple are even less acceptable in their walled garden.
Inevitably (though probably wrongly) people may see Samsung/Google as alternative and somehow more open. But give them a stranglehold on a segment of the market and they'll behave just as badly.
I exclude Android because it seems to have escaped into the wild and be thriving there.
Face it, the Surface brand will forever be seen as "that Turkey of an attempt at an iPad rival".
Consumers clearly either want an iPad regardless of cost or an Android because they're decent value. Surface isn't an iPad and, even if reduced in price, isn't a contender against the established Android infrastructure.
The apps situation tells you all you need to know about this market.
"We are thrilled that Office Mobile for Android phones is available in the US today."
Why, did you not expect it to be ?
Well, to let you into a little secret, the rest of the world isn't at all thrilled about the subscription model of Office 365.
In fact we may come to regard it as the final nail in the coffin of the real thrill that was the personal computer and the optimism and generosity of spirit of its early inventors and adopters.
Damn you Microsoft -- and all your Works.
God, how dull is F1 ?
Recently BBC showed Le Mans Disaster of 1955 and some other progs about 1950s and 1960s racing.
Beautiful cars, the drivers, the sounds, the photography, the drama.
Today --ugly cars, robotic sponsor-pleasing drivers. And TV just makes everything look slow.
Too right. Long ago given up on music radio. MOR pop stations are irritating beyond belief . Radio 3 gravitas and quirkiness has been eliminated -- now sounds like Classic FM.
That leaves R4 and the bits of R5 not occupied by bloody sport.
As for DAB -- I think Freeview has proven that more choice of stations actually boils down to less choice of material (and more advertising).
These days I might watch TV on Saturday nights and the odd movie the rest of the weekend. Otherwise the TV is off 5 days a week.
Powerline devices often warn that they won't work with extensions.
My own experience with crappo devices supplied by BT (didn't work at all even in the same room) and Netgear (didn't work in most of the flat) is that you should only buy these devices if the retailer agrees to a full refund if your home's wiring turns out to be unsuitable.
It's almost as simple as this; power-demanding technology is evolving faster than the development of batteries.
Not helped by drive to make devices slimmer, thus smaller batteries.
If you must have the latest things like 4G and big, high res screen, you could consider carrying a spare battery. Though, stupidly, the drive for slimmer devices also means that many devices do not have replaceable batteries.
Long term users were recently corralled out of Yahoo Mail Classic and into "new" Yahoo Mail or a Lite variation thereof. The Lite version has been playing up recently, returning "Server Hangup" error message when one attempts to insert addressees or attach files.
Cue lots grumbling from users already upset at being forcibly evicted from Classic to bland looking New Yahoo Mail(s). Plus, of course, some misadventures with account hijacking and spam.
Perhaps said leading investor agrees with users like me that Yahoo would be better off fixing its products rather than buying up other brands and pursuing the chimera of a social network (that boat sailed long ago).
An issue related to cost and originality is the vast range of different battery shapes deployed, I suspect to maintain a grip on the replacement market.
I've just been overhauling 4 laptops of 4 different brands --all are similar in shape and size, 3 have a strong family resemblance -- suggesting that they have come from the same factory in China. All use PSUs of 19.5 volts. The batteries are all about the same size.
But each is shaped differently.
Camera and mobile phone batteries, similar picture -- in fact some brands chip their batteries and design the camera to reject batteries lacking the chip.
I believe the EU has belatedly introduced rules to reduce the waste associated with pointlessly different phone chargers. Time we told the largely US, Japanese and Chinese manufacturers that if they want to sell in the EU, batteries should be more interchangeable between models and brands.
Don't be silly. Most Americans don't own a passport, let alone have any knowledge of world sports.
Many of those were invented (or at least formalised) in Britain.
Obviously, Soccer, named after the Football Association (of England) which is literally global. Cricket (which is the national sport of quite populous countries like India and Pakistan), Rugby which is popular in NZ, Australia, Italy, France, Ireland, S. Africa. Formula One, Rallying and Motorcycle racing which are the only world motorsports. Perhaps the only major sports the US shares with the world are Golf and Tennis -- invented in Holland/Britain/France but formalised in Britain.
I'll grant you that Japan, Korea, Mexico, Canada love baseball, but it just hasn't caught on worldwide like our sports.
A glance at Yahoo! Facebook page suggests that some of their email customers are very unhappy.
a) recent account hijacking disaster
b) forced "upgrade" from Yahoo Classic to a bland replacement (forced, because so many users refused to adopt a new version last time Yahoo tried this).
And the adman thinks that commerce invented the internet ?
While much of the development of the net has been down to porn and other greed merchants, part of what makes using the net so irritating (waiting for slow ad pages to load before you can see editorial) is the very commerce which claims to support it.
Personally, I'd categorise cookie tracking and pester advertising on web pages as essentially in the same category as phishing, spam, ransomware and stalking.
Basically, commerce has hijacked the internet and anyone who helps resist that is to be commended.
That Samsung takes big and UGLY to the next level. As for including a phone -- I could see a few paps going for it to get shots to picture editors before the competition. But I can't help thinking of the early days of transistor radios when they were being rather pointlessly built into binoculars and sunglasses.
@ John Bailey "people returning the ones with Windows installed, because they found them too slow to use."
Well, undoubtedly that happened too.
My brush with netbooks suggests that one supplied with Ubuntu wouldn't work well (hideous looking UI, and wireless problems) -- so a slim version of XP was installed and, after searching for drivers (thanks for nothing, Elonex) it ran very well.
Alternatively, a Dell netbook as supplied with XP slowed to a halt (typically cluttered with crap) and was replaced by a Mac.
My impression is that Chromebooks rely far too much on wireless/3g to be practical or economic in many circumstances. Any device reliant on 3G will be crippled as long as the telcos are permitted to run riot with pricing.
@Yet Another Commentard
Only twice told off -- once by guy who decided I was taking hard drive to sell data, once by security guard behind office block. The latter was rather undermined by an office worker who had seen me in conversation with guard and popped out to advise that the coast would be clear after 7.00PM when the guard went off duty !
.... for a 15 years.
Some donated by friends as broken. Fixed using parts bought at car boot sale/flea market or from PCs found in the street. Have even started to find laptops -- so far with broken motherboards but memory, wireless card and hard drives can be used.
Rummaging through dumpsters is definitely less humiliating than a trip to PC World.
Regardless of stupid use of language, T Mobile's scheme further demonstrates the complete greed and irresponsibility of the telcos. Deploy confusion-marketing tariffs with more texts or speech than the customer can ever use. Persuade the gullible that their new $500 phone is somehow "free". Increase tariffs during the course of ridiculously long contracts. Encourage users to trade in after 6 months phones that should last a good five years, lock phones so they can't be re-used so easily.
If only advertising was so effective.
Mostly it's pretty random -- the clients don't really know a) who buys the product b) why c) what media they peruse.
The people briefed by the client a) account execs, don't know anything b) creatives, are willfully indifferent to the product and only interested in winning awards for smart-aleck ideas.
Research only shows what people currently buy -- or what they think they want based on what's already available. Most really good product ideas are the brainchild of one person who is interested in his/her field and doesn't give a damn about people who buy stuff, or sell it.
I would have agreed, having seen a friend's silver coloured Acer laptop rapidly turn black on the corners as the silver paint wore away. But now I have a very cheap Packard Bell (aka Acer) laptop and it's not too bad.
Judging from the general shape and the position of things like hinges, mousepad and sockets, it looks essentially the same as laptops sold as Compaq, HP, Toshiba and was probably made on the same production line.
Too right.
We now know that the US spies on its allies in the EU -- that any stolen data that is commercially sensitive may be made available to US competitors.
Then there's the likely Data Protection Act breach involved in lodging client or employee personal data knowingly on an insecure platform.
Dell's problem is easy to guess if you visit any car boot sale/flea market. In the good old days (P2-P4 built in Ireland era) their laptop range was mechanically solid, easily dismantled and with many interchangeable parts. So, maintaining an office full of Dell laptops was probably little more trouble than a fleet of desktops.
Presumably to compete on costs, later models are not like that -- in fact they are indistinguishable from any brand built in China, but duller looking.
Dell brand just doesn't mean hip or edgy or disruptive. And I don't see returning to quality built mainstream machines as an option either.
I switched to Opera originally because it was faster than Firefox. I could live with the odd quirks. But I've noticed it has slowed down with version changes and when I tried Google's Chrome I found is much quicker.
Which probably explains why the new Opera is a faster -- but if it's just Opera with a new dress on, what the point of trying it ?
A designer branded iPhone, anyone ? For a further triumph of form over function.
Anyway, been there, done that with LG (or was it Samsung ?) silly designer-name phones and Acer's Ferrari branded laptops.
At least the apparently irrelevant brand-link on JCB and Caterpillar branded phones suggests (and perhaps delivers) ruggedisation.
"Being late you have to create a different set of propositions. There are still things that can be done. It's not late. When HP has a smartphone, it will give a differentiated experience," he claimed.
Well, is it late or not late ?
With self-contradictory statements like the above, HP aren't going to be making very good decisions any time soon.
"A differentiated experience" suggests that IT business drones mangle the language because they cannot marshal their thoughts before opening their mouths. Or are they simply too scared to state anything directly in case it's used against them later.
As per an earlier comment, Microsoft gained market control by encouraging piracy of Win95/8 -- supplying businesses with a CD per desk (which were then frequently dumped en masse) and publishing Microsoft Press guides (aka manuals) to its major products.
Having achieved world domination, they turned the screws with XP activation, coincidentally first forcing businesses to buy broken ME and then broken Vista on new machines and have to pay extra and waste a day to install XP that then needed time consuming Service Packs to work safely.
The nonsense with DOCX as the default save in Word made users who knew no better put pressure on the many who'd stuck with earlier Word versions. Win8 (again) obligatory on new hardware and, if not broken, almost universally unwelcome. Subscription model for applications, costing as much per year as cheapest retail versions cost to buy outright.
Though I'm not part of the market for TechNet or MSDN, I understand how galling Microsoft's strategy (or suicide note ?) is -- in effect, "if you you won't let me win I'm leaving and taking my ball with me".
Well, we can play that game. Follow the mass migration of Joe Public to Android and Apple -- or look seriously at Linux.
Many 'normal' consumers have heard that Windows 8 is a lemon. Mostly hearing that from their techie friends who should be impressed by the industrial strength features of 8.1 but hate Microsoft and 8 so much that they won't change their position any time soon. And probably feel that they ought to go with Linux cos it's more hairy-chested (not just beardy).
If Microsoft don't give users what they think they want, they'll find it elsewhere. Witness the vast uptake of Apple and Android products in the past few years.
I may avoid iPod and iPad and iPhone for Apple's cynically exploitative walled-garden approach, but Microsoft seem to be going that way too with the threat of restricted boot PCs -- and applications rental schemes.
If the only Windows versions people actually want (XP and Win7) are ones MS are determined to dump, they are putting themselves and users in a precarious place. My guess is most will jump, or already have.
Presumably SK were already selling lots of 4G if they and Samsung are prepared to invest in a follow-on tech.
Contrast with UK where EE's attempt at 4G has been met with less enthusiasm -- largely due to charges and coverage issues. UK providers need a wake up call about prices before consumers here will buy 4G.
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