Posts by Richard Plinston

Re: Java property of Oracle

> yet books are.

The 'API' of a book is: "Frontispiece, Dedication, Contents, Preface, Introduction, ... Index, Appendix" is that copyrightable to the extent of one publisher suing another for using those ?

Re: Java property of Oracle

> they are property of the first that made them

Things like println, substring, toString, toUpperCase, toLowerCase, trim existed before Java so Oracle should be sued for using those.

Re: The author misunderstands Microsoft completely

> Lose money on the short-term in order to try to gain long-term

They did that with Windows Phone: they gave a billion a year to Nokia and Nokia phone division still lost money every quarter. That loss is still continuing and does not look to ending.

> so that eventually users have to upgrade in order to run new software

Or will just keep running the old software that works (eg XP or 7).

> An app written to the new W8 UI will hardly run fine on W7, and eventually, ...

and an app written to W10 UWP will hardly run on W7 or W8.x. Eventually the developers will get pissed off with having to redevelop all their apps for every change in MS direction and will move on. Or will continue to develop stuff that runs on XP and W7 (and Win10).

Users buy computers to run applications not operating systems.

> The other answer is to move your products to the cloud,

At which point the 'PCs' are just terminals to the 'mainframes' which is what led to the Apple II, IBM-PC, and Mac being _Personal_ computers. The new 'PCs' fit in your pocket and outsold the old 'PCs' 300% last year.

> Microsoft will have worse Windows sales, but this hardly threaten their marketshare.

It threatens the OEMs. They will decide that their loyalty lies elsewhere.

> it gains a much more reliable revenue stream,

Or putting it another way: the customers gain another cost stream. They moved to PCs to save costs, they will move to the next 'PC' to save costs again. With Raspberry Pi and similar costing the price of a bottle of good wine, why pay that every month to MS for the subscriptions?

> what's up with intel only supporting W10 with their new processors?

You have that the wrong way around. Microsoft will only support Itel's new CPU features with Windows 10, and will not update Win7, 8 or 8.1 to take advantage of the new CPU features. Those will still run on the new CPUs, just not use the new bits.

Other operating systems: Linux, BSD, etc probably already support these.

It is Microsoft attempting FUD to claim that "only Windows 10" will run on those CPUs.

Re: Feed this into MS' Agile development methodology...

> "That and linux is copying Windows more and more closely all the time.

> Fixed that for you...

Thank you for clearing that up, I now realise, thanks to your correction, that such things like 'virtual screens' that I been using for a dozen years or more were originally copied from Windows 10.

Re: @ AC: "It works scarily well..." @ paply

>> "not too long after the Model T,

> had SWEET FA to do with the Model T's incarnation.

That is why he said: AFTER the Model T

Re: I'm a bit confused

> Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 were killing the PC industry ... now Microsoft is making their own PCs ... screw-um

Microsoft has a policy of increasing its revenue by 'stealing' it from its 'partners'. It seems that it was trying to create an 'XPC' back in the early 00s. This was to have been a .NET based PowerPC (as the XBox was) that would dispense with the need to have OEMs taking all that hardware revenue. This failed to work correctly so they had to throw together Vista to have something to push out the door.

Yes, I think MS plan to have more hardware and become more like Apple with walled garden. They also want to be more like Google with collecting and selling data and advertising.

The OEMs will work out that their loyalty should not be tied entirely to Microsoft and will diversify to avoid being part of the 'death of the PC'.

Re: What screwed

> if they wanted to use a new UI, why not offer it as an option

MS asked some consultants why Windows Phone 7/8 was not selling as well as IDC analysts had said it would (overtake Apple phone by 2014). They reported that it was because the WP UI was 'unfamiliar'. The solution to that was to make that UI 'the most familiar on the planet' by forcing all Windows users to become familiar with it. Then they would _demand_ that same UI on their phones, laptops, tablets, IoT devices, TVs, watches, and everything else that Microsoft wanted to control.

The flaw in that plan was that WP sales weren't failing because of 'unfamiliarity', it was because MS kept dumping developers (WM6.x, WP7, Silverlight, and now WP8 ->'UWP') and so there were few 'killer' apps that were worth bragging about. WP couldn't find a market position that gave them any volume, and certainly not any profit. They didn't have the style, bling, or apps to take on the high end, they didn't have 'street cred' to be mid-range. They wound up in the bargain bin where they were 'good enough' to be just phones.

Re: It's science!

> The Bernoulli equations are only applicable to flows of an incompressible fluid, i.e. water, and are not applicable compressible fluids such as air or other gasses.

You are confused.

It is not "incompressible fluid" but 'incompressible FLOW' that the Bernoulli equations apply to. The fluid may well be 'compressible', such as air, for the equations, and effects, to apply, but the simple equations only give correct answers when the fluid maintains the same density, or the change is very small.

Derivations work for compressible fluids where the density change is to be taken into account.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_principle

Re: Exkeewws me

> What exactly is a 'long ton'?

It is what they divide up into 'long weights' so that you can send the apprentice down to stores to get one.

or: 12% more than a short ton.

Re: You're forgetting one thing...

> MS SQL server will be available in 2017

Which is how you spell 'vaporware' ...

> with *limited* set of features.

and 'bait and switch'.

Re: "Everyone was buying iPads for business a few years ago."

> And then it turned out that the notebook form factor is much, much better for actually writing stuff.

Do you think that keyboard/covers are not available for iPads (or Androids)? It is simple to get one that gives a 'notebook form factor'. In fact, because they use bluetooth rather than a plug, they can often give portrait orientation, too, which is better for "actually writing stuff". They have better weight distribution and smaller footprint than a Surface and can be used on an actual lap or airline table.

http://www.apple.com/nz/shop/product/HA500X/A/logitech-ultrathin-keyboard-cover-for-ipad-white

> and MS decided to give away Win 10.

Win10 is 'free' only to those who have already paid for 7 or 8 on a particular machine, and who don't have a enterprise agreement (which will pay for Win10). It is not free on new machines, it is bundled in the price.

> and then returning them as they did not know the machines ... would not run windows programs.

They did that with RT and will be doing that with 'Continuum' too.

Re: W10 Pi? nope.

> All serious Pi users are running Linux,

or BSD or RISC OS

Re: Yes and No

> For each machine running sever you have tens, hundreds if not thousands of clients.

The server may be 'free', but CALs not so much. Which is why it must be Software Assurance.

Re: Horse has left the barn on that one!

> Micros~1

Microsoft own patents on creating short names, in order to use Microsoft's technology you are required to purchase a licence.

Re: noise from business communities about the data security of windows 10...

> maybe other information too !

It is very likely to include software usage data so that 'audits' are automated and the 'software assurance' invoice is updated immediately (and permanently) every time each computer accesses something they weren't already licensed to do so.

Re: As many PC users think IE is the Internet...

> All partakers in a capitalist free market desire to be monopolies don't they, if they want to make more money than others and have more customers?

That is the doctrine of Bill Gates where 'winning' means that everyone else (including the customers) lose. But not everyone in the market wants to be a monopolist. Apple, for example, can make more money (profit) without being the only one in the market by the simple method of being the best, it leaves the low end to many others.

Re: As many PC users think IE is the Internet...

> You complain about socialism being stupid

No he didn't. He stated that socialism was difficult to eradicate and that stupidity was difficult to eradicate and that they were alike in this respect, and possibly that only in this respect are they alike.

He made no indication about whether he liked socialism or not, or whether it was a good thing or bad.

However, he did imply that failing to understand what was written was one of the fundamental stupidities.

Re: I'll jump in before everybody starts to state the obvious....

> Surely an upgrade to Windows 10 is effectively a security update.

Yes it is. But it is only a 'security update' to the security of Microsoft's future revenue streams*.

* which is, as yet, undeclared fully. It does involve MS moving to extract 30% from 3rd party software sales by converting all software to 'app store' sales. It may also require subscriptions for Microsoft Accounts and/or for future updates and/or for Azure storage and/or Office 360.

Re: 100 times more?

> Running just a single browser in Linux tends to eat up 4+ GB of memory,

You are mistaken, uninformed, or fudding. I am running a browser (Konqueror) and it is reported as 'eating up' 157MB. Opera takes 86MB. Firefox is currently using 1.2GB with many tabs open.

> Hmmm... Sounds like Microsoft just re-invented FreeSco.

Freesco (a play on Cisco) booted off a 1.44MB floppy and ran on a 16MB 20MHz 80386 (no HD). As well as being a router/switch/print server/time server, it could even run a database server and much else.

The Microsoft distro and software will require 100 times that or more.

Re: Depressed at the state of the market...

> MS had a chance, but being late to the game

MS has had smartphones since 2000 or so and had 42% of the US market before there was iOS or Android. There is a reason for the 8 in WP8, but perhaps you never noticed the 1 to 6.5.

> This does more sense as a loss leader

Or as vapour-ware, which worked so well through the 80s and 90s. "Hold up on that convert to [MongoDB, Neo4J, PostgreSQL HStore, MySQL, ...] project, we will have MS SQL on Linux real soon now." (repeat every few months).

Re: Continuum'd

> Then people can buy a Windows phone instead of a Windows PC, and keep people in the Windows world.

Microsoft needs revenue growth because that is the basis of its business plan. Suggesting that MS would be happy with selling just a phone instead of a PC (plus a phone) goes against their needs. Currently they are selling phones at a loss, Nokia phone division did not make a profit in any quarter selling WP in spite of getting a $billion a year from MS. Phones are highly competitive. MS/Nokia has tried high-end, low-end, middle and corporate and still not made a profit.

> iPad (which is totally fine if you mostly just browse and email, and aren't doing stuff like writing term papers or editing spreadsheets)

I don't know why you think that iPad (or Android tablets) aren't good for writing or spreadsheets or everything else. Is it just dogma or are you unaware of what is available and what people are actually doing on these devices? Do you think that bluetooth keyboards don't exist? Do you think that apps on iOS and Android and just limited little toys?

Re: PCs fading away...

> The IBM 5150 was integrated into the monitor before that. :-)

The IBM 5150 was the original IBM PC (pre XT), I have one here. Nothing is less like "integrated into the monitor".

Perhaps you were thinking of the IBM 5120.