* Posts by Mikel

2643 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Oct 2008

Microsoft lures top Linux exec from Oracle to Redmond

Mikel

Re: Microsoft Linux Container OS with NT kernel

The NT kernel source leaked out years ago. What a barrel of laughs that was, to the people who could look without tainting their own work. You would not believe what horrors of incompetence lurk in there without reading it yourself. It's an epic freak show that boggles the mind. No doubt they would want to start over before publishing the new thing and calling it an open source NT - using coders who had never themselves been tainted with the experience of reading that.

There are some things you just can't unsee.

Gartner: RIP double-digit smartphone growth. 2016 has killed you

Mikel

Great news

Now the cutthroat pricing begins. More value for your smartphone spend as makers fight for share. Less bogus "sold out" marketing and scarcity pricing.

Bash on Windows. Repeat, Microsoft demos Bash on Windows

Mikel

Stealing VMS

>It's true that MS employed a guy who did work on VMS but as far as I have understood claiming the NT a rewrite of VMS is more than a bit silly. Then again this topic was discussed in more detail about twenty years ago.

His name is Dave Cutler. He remains employed at Microsoft as a "Senior Technical Fellow". He brought some people and ideas over from Digital, but consensus is that his grasp was far from complete and what they did with what they managed to steal is legendary for poor function and abysmal security. The one thing he got wholly right - cross platform being a critical key - was overruled by the MBAs until it was too late.

Mikel

Re: Embrace....

>The thing is, despite how you perceive Microsoft as a company, the people who work for them are genuine human beings. Many of them are former and indeed current open source developers in their spare time.

"Mopping Up can be a lot of fun. In the Mopping Up phase, Evangelism’s goal is to put the final nail into the competing technology’s coffin, and bury it in the burning depths of the earth. Ideally, use of the competing technology becomes associated with mental deficiency, as in, “he believes in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and OS/2.” Just keep rubbing it in, via the press, analysts, newsgroups, whatever. Make the complete failure of the competition’s technology part of the mythology of the computer industry." - James Plamondon, Microsoft Technology Evangelist, official company evangelism training curriculum.

Mikel

Re: Hmm.

>*I'm just a bit narked that 16.04 won't have a working proprietary AMD graphics as far as I can see;

Vulkan is coming. You won't need a proprietary driver soon.

Big Blue bloodbath: More IBM staff slashed in Europe, US

Mikel

IBM will be fine

They reinvent themselves at need. Once upon a time they made typewriters which - for you kids - was a rudimentary word processor lacking any online capabilities whatsoever.

Ad giant Google thinks its cloud biz could be bigger than its adverts

Mikel

Good news for Google?

I hear their home Internet service is quite popular, and has the potential to bring good revenues as well.

Calm down, dear: Woman claims sexism in tech journalism

Mikel

Got another pic?

Can't quite make out her qualifications from the framing and/or angle of this one. /sigh off to GIS...

Edit: here we go. http://www.shinyshiny.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/IMG_20141222_120247_20141222120733010.jpg

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Mikel

Re: User feedback

>the only assistance in that regard I provide now is the advice ...

"Your primary problem is that you're using Windows. It is designed to be like that. If you're willing to accept that then your judgement and skills are sufficiently advanced to not need my help."

Creaking Surrey distie Northamber: Windows 10 ate my hamster

Mikel

No tears for disties

By eliminating non-Windows choices in the marketplace they eliminated the need for Microsoft to make a compelling product. Then when an alternative arose they didn't participate in it - giving over the pace and direction of progress to upstarts. They could play in this hot new mobile game if they wanted, and be big movers in it. But they won't. They will persist in their futile attempts to wring profits from the shrinking Windows PC market, competing with all the others in it - each growing ever more desperate, all refusing to accept that the climate has changed. And one by one they will close their doors and go home for good.

That's how you fight alligators. You drain the swamp.

Oracle fires big red Solaris support sueball at HPE

Mikel

Genre violation

Zombies don't attack each other.

Clear April 12: Windows, Samba to splat curious 'crucial' Badlock bug

Mikel

Correction

>It sounds like a flaw in the SMB protocol, which Windows and open-source Samba both implement to share files between computers over a network.

SMB is a malware delivery and document publishing platform that some people unwisely use to share files.

Facebook, WhatsApp farewell BlackBerry

Mikel

The FB app is creepy

Use the website.

One in five PCs will be a tablet with detachable keyboard by 2020

Mikel

IDC and Microsoft

Has Microsoft ever done anything at all that IDC didn't think was the cat's pajamas? "To the moon!" is the only decree they have for the largest purchaser of their "Independent" analysis.

How Microsoft copied malware techniques to make Get Windows 10 the world's PC pest

Mikel

Get a Mac

Or Linux. It is long past time to stop dealing with this nonsense.

Comcast now touts unlimited gigabit service (that you can't get)

Mikel

Not the first to enjoy gigabit

The first to enjoy this specific method of getting it. Because the bits taste better over copper or something. It is amazing the things Marketing comes up with.

Former Nokia boss Stephen Elop scores gig as chief innovator for Australia's top telco

Mikel

Re: Elop - incompetent or criminal?

He destroyed the economy of Finland.

Mikel

Trojan

Horse

Hey Windows 10, weren't you supposed to help PC sales?

Mikel

Re: Improve PC Specs

A big win for AMD: the market seems to have sussed out that the end of Intel's process advantage and pace of progress control means AMD is back in the race. AMD stock is up 46% in the last month.

Mikel

IBM beat Toshiba to the exit by a country mile

Big Blue cashed in during the run-up to Vista. Prescient! Must have used an AI or something.

Like masochism? Run a PC? These VXers want to help you pwn yourself

Mikel
Pint

Re: Sounds like a W10 upgrade...

You can prevent this "Windows 10" and the annoying pop-up ads that serve it and come with it by running this totally safe and not virus infected program that I put up on my website "hahagotcha dot com". Of course it needs Admin access to tweak your system settings so Microsoft can't take over your PC. ;-)

Clear November in your diary: SpaceX teases first Falcon Heavy liftoff

Mikel

Re: Fun at mission control

The center booster is fuelled by the outer two until they are exhausted (shy enough to land of course) and then carries on with its own fuel. It uses a cross flow system. So only two boosters landing at a time. I am thinking Musk wants the central booster on orbit as a gas station, and a Mars booster. After that used up Falcons can fly fuel to orbit missions until they explode.

The LOX and fuel tanks on these are 12 feet in diameter, so the empties would make fine crew habitat modules as well. Make mine LOX, as Kerosene smell doesn't come out.

Microsoft adds 'non-security updates' to security patches

Mikel

Brainstorming

There's a bunch of people in a conference room right now in Redmond plotting which increments to make this worse. Don't even think this is all of it by half. It isn't.

Security market to exceed $170 billion by 2020, analysts say

Mikel

Shocker

It's all snake oil.

Google emits Android N developer preview early to smoke out bugs

Mikel

It keeps getting more awesome

Let's bang that "fragmentation" drum once again though, because that never gets old.

So you wanna build whopping pools of PCIe flash? Say no more, whisper Intel, Facebook

Mikel

Xeon D is interesting.

It might make a decent SteamBox. They probably want too much for it though.

Microsoft joins Eclipse Foundation. Odd thing for a competitor to do

Mikel

Nobody has covered this yet

Java sucks.

Microsoft: Ditch your phone biz and do crazy hardware experiments

Mikel

They can't give up, and they can't win.

1.8 Billion mobile computers were sold last year. They can't give up on that because they would rapidly become irrelevant. And they can't win, the others are too far ahead.

In my mind that is the perfect situation for them to be in. Now let's watch them wiggle on the spike.

McAfee gaffe a quick AV kill for enterprising staff

Mikel

Champions!

'$5bn for Slack?! I refuse to pay!' You don't pay – and that's its biggest problem

Mikel

Pay? That's so Ballmerish

"In my day - and we were quite successful - we didn't pay. We adopted their USP features into our own products, poisoned our OS so their app wouldn't reliably run, and stole their users. Paying is for losers." - Bill

Microsoft wants to lock everyone into its store via universal Windows apps, says game kingpin

Mikel

Re: All about margin

Remember, Microsoft has been convicted of changing their OS to prevent the proper functioning of a competitor's application, over and over. He has a lot more to be concerned about than just profit margin. In their store, discovery of apps is wholly up to them and only a fool would think they wouldn't hide their competitor's apps. The features available are designed by them - and it's well known that their app developers get premium access and documentation to upcoming features even to the point of being able to request specific features. They get the guy who designed the thing to come over and help them over the bumps.

It's just not fair to the third party developer. It never was, and it never was intended to be. As the US Marines like to say: "If you're in a fair fight, your strategy sucks." That is the attitude they have about third party developer. They are the enemy to be defeated at least cost and fairness be damned. Third party developers would be wise to avoid participating in their war, playing in their rigged game.

Fifth time's the charm as SpaceX pops satellite into orbit

Mikel

Eventually...

Sooner or later, they are going to be reliably landing the booster. And since the recovered rocket is a valuable windfall resource, it makes sense to share part of the value with the launch customer. Perhaps like a pop bottle deposit: if the rocket is successfully recovered, you get a launch cost refund of 5% - or some other number. This puts shifts the economics somewhat, allowing the customer to share some interest in the rocket's recovery. Altering their orbital height requirement, launch window timing or whatever.

Before you know it SpaceX won't be losing any boosters at all.

SpaceX Falcon 9 set yet again to soar aloft

Mikel

Godspeed

May your flight be fair and fast.

Hardware – yes, hardware – is driving Hewlett Packard Enterprise's top line

Mikel

Re: "exiting another 30,000 heads will likely help… in the short term at least"

I am sure they will find something amazing to do after they exit HPE. Engineers don't just stop engineering.

VMware licence changes put users on upgrade treadmill

Mikel

Shocker: company wants more money from existing customers

A shame there aren't free alternatives available, eh?

Google risks everything if it doesn’t grab Android round the throat

Mikel

The fragmentation story again? Really?

It has been coming up quite frequently since before Android even launched. And it hasn't prevented Android from taking over the world. Any more it is just another way for an "analyst" to publicly announce his clue deficit.

Microsoft releases Windows 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 3

Mikel
Thumb Up

Re: PCs fading away...

Let's not claim Apple invented it. The IBM 5150 was integrated into the monitor before that. :-)

Mikel

Re: No, thank you.

It's always a trap with these guys. They don't know anything else

No doubt soon they will be working to prevent anything BUT Windows on the Pi.

One supposes their WinCE business is taking a hit, as much as people use these for industrial control.

Windows 10 claimed another point of desktop share in February

Mikel

Re: W10 when?

Me either. They need to figure out how to get that "upgrade now or upgrade later" question onto Android and Linux to get me, as I don't use Windows. I hear they are working on it.

Great news! Only 707,509,815 records breached in 2015

Mikel

The tip of the iceberg is 10%. The rest you can't see.

So this is just what is reported, out of what was discovered - each of which leaves a large multiplier: undiscovered and unreported.

Face it. If information is digitized, it is hacked.

Windows Phone devs earn double what poor Android devs pocket

Mikel

Re: Just Microsoft b*ll and nothing else.

It's a survey. They probably surveyed a disproportionate number of WP developers employed in Redmond who work on salary. Which makes sense actually, as elsewhere they're as rare as albino unicorns.

Samsung off the hook as $120m Apple patent verdict tossed

Mikel

Days off?

How quaint.

Mikel

Re: Dramatic recreation

Can I get a Photoshop of that with "political debate" subbed for "court battle"? And kittens?

That is straight win.

Microsoft scraps Android Windows 10 bridge, but says yes to Objective-C compiler

Mikel

Their heel

It must be mounted on a swivel. It turns more often than the wind blows.

Official: Toshiba pulls out of European consumer PC market

Mikel

The PC hasn't had good profits for a decade

Consumer PC double so. One would think PC OEMs are looking at Michael Dell saying "You want this? It's yours! As is, where is. Haul it away yourself."

Microsoft acquires Xamarin: An obvious move not without risks

Mikel

Re: Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft

At least de Icaza finally gets his payoff for sucking up to Microsoft all these years.

Who hit you, HP Inc? 'Windows 10! It's all Windows 10's fault'

Mikel

Duh

Who didn't see that coming?

Linux lads lambast sorry state of Skype service

Mikel

Wait, what?

Penguinisas who didn't uninstall Skype the day the Microsoft acquisition was announced? What kind of bizarre alternate reality have I fallen into?

Microsoft finally ties the knot with Xamarin, snaps up mobile app biz

Mikel
Pint

Xamarin is dead

Not that it was interesting when it was alive, but let's have a Merry wake anyway.

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

Mikel

Re: We have the power

Can I ask you something? Do you mount your car on rails so it doesn't veer off the road of its own volition, as the manufacturer told you it would? Do you chain it to a tree when parking so it doesn't wander off with your stuff in it? That is what this is like.