I can see it now
MS Office Online now includes Happy Clippy that you can throw and play fetch with Happy Dog (or spot, rover, whatever its name is).
Posts by Eddy Ito
4662 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007
Page:
Microsoft to hook Facebook game maker?
Racist content on US server 'within UK jurisdiction'
Friday 12th February 2010 15:50 GMT 
Just wondering
Can we have a poll showing all those in favor of this ruling in the UK and against the US version which is about internationally hosted online gambling instead of racism?
The internet is little different from your TV in that if you don't like what's on it, change the channel or turn it off. There is no need to go running to government crying for help. That said, freedom of speech goes just as far as freedom to be popped in the mouth and there is a line somewhere as it approaches falsely calling 'fire' in a crowded theater or inciting a riot.
John Mayer tweets remorse over Playboy interview
Thursday 11th February 2010 21:16 GMT
Another step
So if we take it to the next level and assume folks start using "n-word" as a direct replacement, e.g. "Don't listen to him, he is such an n-word". Would not "n-word" become equally insulting as the word for which it has become the surrogate for? Further, would one then need to use yet another locum for "n-word" such as 'the "n" proxy' only to have the cycle repeat ad infinitum? In short I appreciate the dilemma of context but surely using a word to indicate that word must be acceptable and perhaps even preferable if only to avoid confusion. Granted, meaning becomes more tenuous with increasing ambiguity but regardless of intent it has to be treated the same regardless of the speaker or more specifically regardless of the race of the speaker. Otherwise we wind up in a situation that is bound to cause confusion especially where mixed race people are involved. Seriously, is there a certain fraction that makes it ok? Can I say anything I please without offending anybody simply by privilege of birth? We half and quarter caste folks need to know.
Google extends Chrome for Fanbois
MEPs to US: Hands off our bank accounts
'Clumsy' French cop tasers schoolkid
Wednesday 10th February 2010 21:51 GMT
Typical
We'd all be better off if we simply didn't allow police to have weapons. Clearly they can't be trusted with them. That said, he didn't shoot himself although I think it would have been a more effective "learning moment" for officer in question. Oh, the title? see here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/13/cop_tasers_self/
Women face 'glass cliff' after breaking glass ceiling
Wednesday 10th February 2010 21:42 GMT
Not so easy
I can't say that I've ever worked in a company where the leadership really resembled the majority of the staff. It seems to me that the ladder to the corner office is based on job function. That is to say there likely aren't many F.500 CEO's that started out as a welder on the shop floor somewhere in that company. There probably aren't many programmers or engineers in the top who aren't founders and even those are probably better motivational speakers than they are engineers or programmers.
I guess what I'm saying is that people who become CEO aren't necessarily the ones classically trained in the industry they work. Look at Sam Palmisano at IBM, he has a degree in History not IT or technology; and Jeff Immelt at the conglomerate GE, Applied Math + MBA. I'm not sure that your occupation, where you start or what you study is relevant to reaching the top. What seems to matter is a desire to "get there" and the skills to do it. I guess like Steve Jobs, you just have to "think different".
Viking frogmen chase Street View spymobile
Arab conned into marrying bearded lady
Avatar whups Confucius's sorry ass
Mozilla becomes latest to dump Mac OS X 10.4 support
Tuesday 9th February 2010 14:32 GMT
Conflicted
The forward looking part of me says drop the PPC code base entirely and only support 10.6. The skinflint part that is writing this on a G4 iBook running 10.4 says 10.4 support should stay. I suppose in the long run this iBook will wind up running some flavor of linux and tucked nicely on a shelf being a perfectly good file dumbwaiter or some such and I'll finally have a shiny new 64 bit multi-core lapnetbook that can actually play HD video content. Good thing that's not today. As I always say, "live cheap or free".
What, no miser icon? What a cheap lot you are! (I'm so proud)
New cig peril: Third-hand smoke coats puffers in poison
Sony to demo 'world's first' in-box wireless tech
Monday 8th February 2010 16:55 GMT
14mm!!
When I started reading I thought this was a great feature but clearly it needs some work to be really useful. Exactly what wires are you going to replace with a range of 14mm? Great, they can transmit from one side of the "A" key to the other and with the right kit they might be able to reach the "F" key but even then they couldn't spell "fail". I suppose it might be a useful replacement for an opto-isolator.
MySQL handler Jacobs walks out on Oracle
Drink beer not fizzy pop for pity's sake, say boffins
Monday 8th February 2010 16:35 GMT
Forgot one
There is also sucralose which looks a lot like sucrose but exchanges 3 hydroxyl groups for chlorine and goes by the name "Splenda" in the US, it's E955 according to the wikipedio files. Sure, it will probably kill you if you eat a half pound per day but then so will a lot of things.
That said, by all means stay with the ale! Cheers!
Microsoft banner ads vanish from Facebook
Saturday 6th February 2010 16:32 GMT
New UI today
Disabled account tomorrow. They seem to be pushing the games people play over things you might want to know. The latest UI shuffle dumps the option of having the things you are interested in, like the status of your friends, and forces "News Feeds" which are just ads for the facebook games people play. It's back to playing 'block this application' or working through the friends menu to find status updates. That or dump friendster 2.0 altogether.
US economy sheds 20,000 jobs in January
Saturday 6th February 2010 00:10 GMT
Ooops
Unfortunately, the monthly accounting is... well, bogus. Reality check required.
From http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recessions-job-losses-likely-cnnm-1998556151.html?x=0
"The payroll number is created through a monthly survey of employers, but that survey misses employers who start a business during the course of the year, as well as those who have gone out of business."
So if there is no longer an employer to survey, they don't count, or rather, don't get counted. In the bizzaro world of BLS it's, "hey, that employer doesn't exist anymore, good thing they disappeared, they might have laid off their last 50,000 employees." Add in all the intentional number skewing that started back in the '60s and 10% becomes something almost mythically diminutive.
Saturday 6th February 2010 00:10 GMT
As if...
we needed more help getting people to hate us. Yes, let's kick 5.5M visa seekers in the teeth and stop outsourcing so another 7.0MM people in other countries will be without jobs and perhaps even more inside the US as business cuts back because its costs have gone up. This is politician like thinking that nearly always gets things backward. Protectionism doesn't work. It didn't work by taxing imported trucks 25% and thereby causing domestic makers to turn their marketing dollars toward gas sucking trucks with built in profit margins instead of more sustainable smaller cars the marketeers tried to tarnish as "unsafe". It won't work by making more global residents desperate and susceptible to the siren song of a well funded radical who claims suicide is the only salvation if you can take enough of those damn USians with you.
Big picture people, focus on the big picture.
Apple vs the iPad Bedwetters
Firm grows multi-touch see-through 'skin' for gadgets
Smartphone sales skyrocket
Monday 1st February 2010 19:52 GMT
Niche picking
Two of the current "big three" have one basic attribute that makes them appealing, it's sync. The ease of syncing data to a few basic applications is what makes user base expand. This leads me to believe Nokia is going to be losing ground unless it can find a point to get leverage from. The iPhone uses ActiveSync to connect to Exchange which makes it fairly easy for users to get their phone working with the company network. Blackberry has long had ties with business to provide a whole package, from phones to back end connections giving business a "one stop shop."
Where does that leave Nokia? They don't seem to have big corporate space ties and they don't have the iFaithful and individuals bringing in mass public appeal. What they have is a big brand name that gives people comfort. People who start with a high quality basic phone and come to know and trust the name. It is a name they will likely stick with when they decide to get their own smartphone. Unfortunately, Nokia has weaker high end phones so they need to improve their products as well as carve a niche if they don't want the high end to atrophy. That said, I'm not sure Ovi is it.
The rest of the pack have a whole lot of work to do just to get noticed. They need to be way ahead of the curve because being as good or even a little better isn't going to cut it against the heavy weights. I had hoped Palm would have done better but they seem too focused on syncing with iTunes and going bare knuckled against Apple. In the long run, phones will be a commodity and if you are just making phones... you're just making phones. If you're thinking you've seen this before, you did, but they were called PCs.
Obama to boost US nuclear power industry
Monday 1st February 2010 16:39 GMT
Why expensive?
Let's examine what happened at the Seabrook nuclear plant. Since it was close to the border of Mass. it required then Governor Dukakis' approval of evacuation plans for a couple of Massachusetts towns that lie within a 10 mile radius of the plant. Needless to say, Dukakis being opposed to nuclear power, he held up the opening for about 10 years. Guess how much money was being generated by the plant to repay the loan for those 10 years? That's right, zero dollars. Add to that time the delays in construction by assorted protest groups blocking access and you have a considerable cost overrun, which, along with over regulation of utilities, initiates the bankruptcy of the company in 1988. In the end, only half the planned capacity was ever finished resulting in lower efficiencies and higher costs.
Vote, vote, vote for Barbie the computer engineer
Apple's iPad - fat iPhone without the phone
Ubuntu Firefox shuns Google for Yahoo! search
Thursday 28th January 2010 01:10 GMT 
Maniacal Monkeys
Did these Yahoo!s ever think that I don't want my homepage to be the same as my default chrome search? Great, I've got search functionality built into the chrome / fascia, why would I want my homepage to change to one with the same search functionality? Please, please, please oh crafty canonical coders, have a heart and don't hack my homepage!
Steve Jobs uncloaks the 'iPad'
US book giant confirms Apple tablet
Defects in e-passports allow real-time tracking
Wednesday 27th January 2010 00:42 GMT
EMP?
Are the passports still valid if the RFID doesn't work? If so is there any way to whack these things with a sufficiently large or proper frequency pulse to fry them? I took great pleasure in building a home-made degausser for correcting the magnetic strip on my drivers license and I'd like to know what I need to make in order to fix the new one when it comes due and the passport I'm currently waiting for. Hmm... I wonder if 30 seconds in the microwave will do.
T-Mobile to revamp tariffs
Tuesday 26th January 2010 00:53 GMT 
Stilton or Camembert perhaps
You know to go with that whine? Have a look on this side of the pond.
@T&T = 2 years, 900 minutes is ~$60 (~£37) /mo. Another $5 (~£3) for 200 texts or pay per at $0.20 /text, $0.30 /pic.
Verizon = 2 years, 900 minutes is the same $60 /mo. and either add $20 for unlimited texts or pay per $0.20 /text and $0.25/pic.
T-mob = no contract, unlimited minutes and texts, you guessed it, the same $60 but you have to pay full fare for the phone. Want cheaper phones? 2 year, 1000 minutes is $50 /mo and unlimited messaging is another $10 bringing it back to... $60.
Sure lower price plans can be had with 450 - 500 minutes for $40 but it would be nice to get into the $20-30 range and not have to be 65 years old.
Hmm... tough choices. Oh yeah, @T&T lets the minutes you don't use this month become even more minutes you probably won't use next month. All this before Uncle Sam and the local governor get their cut. Now about that cheese icon?
Google Chrome 4 lands (Windows) extensions on world+dog
Monday 25th January 2010 22:36 GMT
"Your operating system is not supported."
"Google Chrome is available for Mac OS X 10.5 or later, Intel only"
Yes, I'm still running a PPC chipped ibook. It works fine for what I use it for. Yes, I have a perfectly good atom/ion combo but it's attached to my TV and yes, I have a nice quad core desktop for doing the heaving lifting... But, inasmuch as this is pretty much my pre-netbook netbook used for my casual surfing, I'm not buying another while it still works fine and will simply do without Chrome and it's hair extensions. So what if I can't watch the metropolitan opera in HD online? That's what the big screen is for, thank you very much.
Bloated Office 2010 kicks dirt in face of old computers
Monday 25th January 2010 22:34 GMT 
I wouldn't mind actually
If there is an easy way to actually select a "truly basic" installation for each app, I'm all for it. Going through a custom Office install and deselecting all the default crap that gets shoved in really sucks. Oddly enough, I don't do desktop publishing and I don't even know what half of the current features in Word 2003 are but I appreciate most of the ones in Excel. I'm certain there are folks with similar and even opposite requirements but unfortunately we mostly get stuck with two options, "woefully inadequate" and "WTF is all this shite!"
New music file aims to sink piracy using blogs and Twitter
Monday 25th January 2010 22:29 GMT 
Let's ask, shall we?
Perhaps these geniuses should ask listeners what really matters to them instead of asking RIAA. They might find out something really odd, for example it may be that folks really want a karaoke option where the vocals are muted and the lyrics have a bouncing ball; maybe some folks would like to detract or enhance percussion, bass, brass or guitar as a way to practice perhaps with the notes displayed a musician-karaoke if you will. Whatever it is, it has to be portable if for no other reason than a guitarist with a pignose could use nothing more than an !pod for backup.
Oh, if someone wants to do this, feel free. I hereby cast the idea into the public domain, sorry Steve no patent there, that said the implementation is up to you.
Once impenetrable PS3 cracked wide open
NASA flying-car man designs electric VTOL podcraft
Friday 22nd January 2010 22:08 GMT
_nearly_ hang gliding
Ah, the beauty of words like nearly and virtually is in knowing they are marketing terms which mean "not". Now then, Mr. Armstrong, I doubt members of Critical Mass were in the target market demographic inasmuch as they'll be busy riding their bike all day.
@Graham Bartlett
Granted people do fly hang gliders for extended periods while prone but let me provide the relevant FAQ regarding a supine flying position;
"Increased visibility (due to the head up position) helps in searching for active clouds and other pilots, increased comfort, less neck strain and better abliity(sic) to perform windy cliff launches due to the ease with which the nose may be pointed into the lift vector."
Thursday 21st January 2010 16:11 GMT
A pain in the neck
The short range would actually be best given the inevitable neck strain induced from flying forward in a prone position. The muscles supporting the head don't actually do much work as they simply balance the skull on a stack of discs known as a spine. Lying prone requires the head to be supported by muscle tension and places added compression on the vertebrae. Put simply, humans don't have the paddywhack for it where a horse does.
Sure, my 15 year old niece can watch the latest Harry Potter movie, straight through, lying on the floor but she can use her arms and hands as a built-in bipod.
Clinton throws down the gauntlet to China over Google
Apple and Microsoft plot iPhone Google slap
Wednesday 20th January 2010 22:30 GMT
... slinging monkeys
Who cares, folks click search, a box appears, they type shit in, it gets slung to an engine and back pops shit for results. On a tiny phone screen, the best goobing can hope for is a faded name in the background that disappears under the typed shit. They best they can hope for is the user gives a shit when it's thrown their way.
Can Republicans steal Obama's Web 2.0 mojo?
Tuesday 19th January 2010 10:36 GMT
Back in reality
About half the population really doesn't care that much about either party and sides with what they see as the lesser of two evils and even then the more evil side has to be seen as sufficiently evil to actually motivate these folks into voting in the first place. Note that this doesn't mean folks are necessarily apathetic, just that they are smart enough to recognize there isn't much difference between the two big government parties. Given the lack of political zeal seen in this demographic, they probably don't produce much of a radar echo in either rabid sphere of the true believers and thereby go unnoticed by the fanbois. Note too that is most likely this group that is out busily producing and inventing the next great thing; what with all the time they are not wasting on twiddle, twaddle and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Oh, they probably weren't friendowing your tweetbookspace anyway.
ACLU challenges US laptop border searches
Escaped con who taunted cops on Facebook finally collared
Chinese Avatards go mad for Pandora
Friday 15th January 2010 15:48 GMT
Always fun
I also enjoy catching movies abroad, as I did avatar. In fact, I probably got to see it with some of the bloggers mentioned in the article. It was a bit odd though, most of the dialog was in english with chinese subtitles but the native na'vish (na'viese?) dialog had german subtitles... I'm almost certain it was a mostly legit copy... sort of. On the up side, I recognized enough german to get the gist of what they were saying.
Atoms in supercomputing?
Gambling boss gets three years
Police cuff citizens for videotaping arrests
Wednesday 13th January 2010 03:15 GMT 
No "Consent"
"Consent" has nothing to do with Federal law. The Fed. law refers to "notification" not "consent." Massachusetts law, as stated here http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/272-99.htm , prohibits interception which is nullified by notification. In essence, the Mass cops can bugger themselves if they think their consent is required for recording. California cops should brush up on the definition of "confidential communication" and then bugger themselves also.
Half an ice day!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
