* Posts by Fred Flintstone

3106 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2009

Apple's poisonous Touch silently kills the GNOMEs of Linux Forest

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The trouble with "intuitive" ..

.. is that that differs for everyone..

Kim Dotcom offers free internet with own submarine cable

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Ssssssssshh..

.. don't destroy that illusion of democracy..

Tiny Ubi Android machine pre-orders open

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Re: Sweet, if it works

.. or "Hal" .. :)

Sony KD-84X9005 84in ultra-HD TV review

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Joke

With that high a resolution ..

.. can I still play pong?

Steve Jobs' Apple-powered yacht makes belated first trip

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No, it isn't..

Most Apple gear is actually well designed, and the looks reflect the decent engineering inside (except when they screwed up with the iPhone 4 antenna). So it had form that followed function.

This tub has no form, and cannot function. I personally think it's bone ugly, I have seen far better yachts for the money - and those are sea worthy. Epic fail..

All IMHO, of course, but I'd name it "fugly"..

France again threatens Google with link tax

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Huffpost ?

Hmm, does this mean they would make Huffpost pay up too?

TSA fails again with adjustable boarding passes

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Re: Encoded <> encrypted

Presumably, the key holder would have enough common sense to keep the private key safe

Well, that rules out Sony :)

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Encoded <> encrypted

on my Android phone there is a (free) barcode reading app that can create encrypted barcodes

That 's the whole point - the data is NOT encrypted. It is a string that's converted ("encoded") into a barcode, but if you feed a barcode generator the altered data and put that on the ticket it apparently raises no alarm because there isn't as much as a checksum on the whole string.

To do this right you would stick a reference number in the barcode, with a local checksum and a backcheck to a simple database if the code actually existed. The way it is implemented now is less than useless because it gives TSA staff handling instructions that are not verifiable. I'd do a serious background check on whichever moron came up with this approach..

It would be good if they tried to actually do something sensible with the TSA, but that would mean admitting that until such time it was just another hoax to waste tax money. Never going to happen..

Surface RT: Freedom luvin' app-huggers beware

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Re: Useful features

Why has it taken all the manufacturers so long to add this mission critical feature...?

Because no other computer so far has needed training wheels..

Yahoo! will! ignore! 'Do! Not! Track!' from! IE10!

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Re: In related news,

what does Yahoo! actually do now?

1 - hang on to users with an email account (marginally safer than Hotmail or Google)

2 - deplete world's supply of exclamation marks

James Bond doesn't do CGI: Inside 007's amazing real-world action

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Thumb Up

I miss an article rating system..

.. because this one would have gotten full marks. Interesting, informative and entertaining.

Thanks for that.

Apple CEO: Microsoft Surface 'compromised, confusing'

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Re: hubris

You're absolutely right. The problem is that marketing droids seem to think that pretending to be Jobs is the thing that works, so they give someone who is VERY clearly an introvert the script of an extrovert. It literally *screams* FAKE to anyone who knows a little bit bout reading non.verbal clues, and I'm positive the audience must have felt that (you cannot hide that for too long unless you practice daily like politicians, actors and presenters do).

Message to Apple marketing: it is the PRODUCT that sells. The script MUST match the presenter or it looks brutally insincere - which it does. Just watch the mismatch between body language and the spoken word. No enthusiasm, no facial movement, no muscle tension or power behind movements.. I can understand if the lack of facial accord could be down to a metric ton of Botox, but in that case I would have started looking for a different presenter.

IMHO, the words were still written for Jobs, but the body language was more a match for Jobs as he is now..

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

It's pretty tragic..

.. when people adapt hyperbole to talk up a product that should sell almost by its design alone.

To me, this talking down of the competition is weak, unstylish and an expression of a serious lack of confidence. Having said that, their elections tend to take that tone too.

First of all, Tim doesn't strike me as someone who normally talks in hyperbole, so it works incredibly artificial (or fake for people that cannot handle long words) and if you know a little bit about body language you can see that it doesn't match the enthusiasm the words attempt to convey. The guy is trying to ape Jobs instead of being himself. In this respect, Ballmer actually has an advantage because he is genuinely extrovert.

Secondly, it makes you start wondering why Apple bothers to talk down a product. They don't need it. This just makes it look like they're worried. Even if they *are* worried (which is intelligent, always keep an eye on the competition) I would not air that.

As for Microsoft, I found it a bit weird they presented the Surface with training wheels :).

I'm sitting back - Microsoft has tried many, many things over the 3 decades that didn't work so the jury is out. The market is there and the tech can handle it now, but they should not try to change everything at once because it denies them the benefit of the vast co-dependent (aka "locked in") eco-system they have built over the years. Let's see what happens - it is *FAR* too early to declare winners IMHO..

Sinofsky: Surface 'best tablet, best laptop' he's ever used

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Great..

.. so usable it needs training wheels..

Apple's skinny new iMac line: Farewell, optical drives

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Re: Apple can't do optical drives

I think this is actually a more generic issue with lens degradation. Apple seems to buy the cheaper drives with plastic lenses too - the ones that last have glass lenses but those parts are more expensive.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: And thinness matters in this space WHY?

But WHY do you care how thick your desktop is?

You're missing the logical progression. The next thing that will happen is that the screen will become touch sensitive. It will be at this point you realise why Apple put the launch pad in OSX - lie the thing flat on its back and you'll have a 27" iPad..

Personally I don't care about thickness. I want Apple to make those cool see-through glass sheets like every SF movie is showing..

Her Majesty's Secret Service opens a Q-Branch apprentice scheme

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Re: Sometimes though

"Qualifications though don't necessarily equate to intelligence"

In this case, I think the word you're looking for is "ingenuity", and yes, that is a *bastard* to find. The biggest problem is that the clever ones tend to be exactly the misfits that HR filters out (and are classically the ones I get on with, go figure :).

I know one guy who has a couple of businesses, and during a speech he mentioned he has one department which was full of people "none of you would employ" (to his audience). "They don't know what office hours are, we had to make the canteen free so they would at least eat properly, not a chance on imposing a dress codes, and they don't exactly take well to management either. However", he went on, "they are worth every penny I pay them. It doesn't matter what the problem is - if I give it to them they WILL solve it, usually improving things along the way. From their solutions alone I make more money than the rest of my businesses put together. All it takes is giving them problems and leaving them alone. So, thank you all for not employing them."

I don't think I have to add that this guy still makes serious money.

Apache promotes OpenOffice to top-level project

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Re: Weirdly, I get on better with OpenOffice..

Is that on Windows or Linux?

OSX 10.8 and Linux (stopped using Windows about 2 years ago). I don't think it's video, it's presentation. Maybe I just got too used to the way OO does it - I like an almost empty desktop (without it being *blank*, so not the "full screen" mode). This is also what bugs me massively about MS Office. Clutter distracts.

I was, however, making a general point. Thanks to MS needing something they could call *cough* innovation *cough* we got saddled with crap that is seriously counterproductive. Auto-correct, for instance, is responsible for people having stored "teh" in muscle memory rather than the correct word as there is no longer a feedback loop - and so creates a well desired dependency.. Carrying formatting along with text instead of the raw data should have been a user defined option from day 1 - especially Word gets eventually into a complete state with all the crud you can't even see (remember WordPerfect "reveal codes"? Now *that* was useful).

Turning email and web addresses into links (and different formatting) - has anyone actually used that? Ever wanted to type something *word* and see it turn into unwanted bold? FFS, *I* should be in control of that, not some Silicon Valley jerkoff who decides for me what I want. I'm OK with being given the option, but I think that 30+ years of writing information ought to qualify me for at least a tiny insight into what *I* want and what works. But hey, that wouldn't sell upgrades and training courses, right? There's a whole eco-system dependent on MS screwing up your work methodology ..

/rant

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Weirdly, I get on better with OpenOffice..

I have both installed, but somehow OpenOffice works better for me.

Maybe I ought to re-install both and spend at least a month working with each - might just be a config issue.

First job: nuke auto-correct, auto-format of Internet links and killing off auto word completion. That's not OO or LO specific, that's a bane that has been with us since someone in Microsoft came up with that. And I would really, really, really wish there would be a switch that would default a cut & paste to "leave the /&%ç formatting behind and just paste as text". Here is a vote: has anyone ever found that NOT go wrong?

Salesforce CEO Benioff: Win 8 is 'the end of Windows'

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Re: I'll argue the difficult

Where the server is run is essentially an irrelevance; the Patriot Act means that the US Govt can demand the data anyway. I can't imagine any US-based company refusing to comply with that...

Correct - as a client of such an organisation you effectively have double exposure: either the Americans abuse the PATRIOT Act to get at the company if they are in the US, or they grab the underlying IT service company. You only need as much as an *association* with the US to have a problem. It's a bit like the Mafia, but marginally legalised and not yet planning to get at your family if you don't comply. No doubt they're working on that.

It pays to go back to the original of all this Data Protection stuff to see just how insidious it all has become. Dp has its origin in the privacy component of Human Rights (Article 12) which has been adopted by most countries in one way or the other. The "get out" clauses inserted in EU law were there to assist law enforcement, but it is time people realise that such exceptions are EXCEPTIONS, privileges the voter grants for the exclusive purpose of assisting with crime fighting. They are in principle rights infringements, warranted, but infringements they remain and they should be treated as such. Anyone wanting to use those privileges has to justify why.

Curiosity scoops up SHINY BITS from the RED SANDS of MARS!

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Coat

Re: Looks like a tooth

I think it's chewing gum. The damn stuff gets everywhere.

FTC offers $50,000 bounty for robocall-killing tech

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Re: VOIP gateways

There's also the large volume of extremely short calls, and I agree with you. The best approach would be a bureau you can call after you had a robocall who had access to the full call records (because they do exists), or a code you could dial when you get hit by a robocall like #212#.

Come to think of it, isn't the US more or less saturated with intercept? Why not use that setup? Would be a first to use it for something positive, no?

Why James Bond's Aston Martin Top Trumps the rest

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Re: The DB5

Looks like the number plate still rotates as well

If not, it can be updated: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQOgGoz3Q0 (also somewhere in English). God help you if he police catch, you though.

Craig, Connery or ... Dalton? Vote now for the ultimate James Bond

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Moore [..] was let down by making the films in an era of terrible fashion

That alone was worth an upvote, thanks :)

'PENDING LARRY QUOTE' - Google financials dunder blunder

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Well, this is what can happen ..

.. when a 3rd party has your personal data..

Canonical flings out Ubuntu 12.10 – now with OPTIONAL Bezos suck

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The Ubuntu website says it is still in Beta!

The website is :)

Google shares dive as profits reported down 20%

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Re: Lulz-fest!

Patent attorney or people that say 'lulz'...can't quite figure out who is more annoying.

Why choose?

Apple ordered to open its books on iPhone, iPad profits

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Subtle..

Why do I get the sense that the judge is trying to make Apple see that ending this nonsense is going to be better than proceeding?

I may like some Apple gear, but I sure as hell do not like what the company is doing in court. It serves no useful purpose. Would the outcome of this really influence how people buy?

All you get is grey import - the way this case is progressing shows IMHO very clearly that the argument is balanced - it's not black and white. This means that the judge is more likely to look at the greater good as part of the judgement, and I think that really doesn't do Apple any favours.

As I have argued elsewhere, in a way, an Apple product is like fashion - and they don't have copyright protection at all, only trademarks are covered.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Apple loses UK 'Samsung copied us' appeal: Must publicly GROVEL

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Dear Apple - here is where you went wrong..

See this TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_culture.html

Those who care about design, will buy the design. Those who don't, don't - and will not have been your customer in the first place. The talk above is about the fact that the fashion industry has NO copyright protection, only trademark protection - for a reason.

Chinese arrest 9,000 cyber-crims

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Re: @Fred Flintstone

Amen to that.

I mainly get annoyed by people screeching loudly about their "rights" without the willingness to

(a) stand up to protect someone else's rights;

(b) meet the obligations that always accompany rights. They always come in pairs.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Whoever deleted their post

I see what you did there.

Re-editing - that oh-so-needed feature to handle the kind of errors that %&ç* auto-correct throws in when you press "Save". Because I work on many systems, not all of them have that crap killed in all apps - I *hate* it with a deep purple passion, almost as much as auto-formatting..

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Some content control is needed, though..

Neither you, nor anyone else, has the power to infringe upon another person's right to express themselves or share information.

I quote:

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

That's just an example (it's from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 12) - there are more arguments available. No "right" is universal and without matching obligations. This is one of the entertaining things that has been happening of late: people hollering loudly about their rights, but ignoring the fact that such rights always come with obligations.

Now, if you want to claim that the request to abide by your obligations amounts to censorship you ought to look very carefully at what sort of world that creates. Am I happy with censorship or even remotely in support of it? No. Do I understand why it is in some cases worth considering? Definitely. If such measure is the result of a carefully balanced legal process than I have, as a responsible and law abiding citizen, an obligation to abide by this - that is the price of living in a democratic society.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Some content control is needed, though..

.. because it's exactly because the legal system is slower than a snail over coarse sandpaper that such extortion rackets exist. If you publish negative and untrue content in print, it takes time and preparation - this stuff can be online in seconds.

In addition, as we have seen in the Australian case, you can prejudice a nation's justice system with such manipulations by simple jurisdiction shopping.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer. I can see the point of only being compliant with your own laws too, but there must be a happy middle somewhere, and I too am absolutely no fan of random censorship. In some cases it makes sense, but it is a power that must be wielded rarely and transparently, like the blanking of news about IRA bombing in the 80s.

Now pay attention, 007: James Bond's Q re-booted

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Before I forget..

.. epic letter, that article. Can't find a rating thingie, but you'd get top. Just so you know.

Final decision by Home Sec on McKinnon extradition due today

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Re: BREAKING NEWS

Can they? Would be interesting.

Anyway, I'm glad they actually decided. As I said before, I had mixed feelings about this case, but the decision is well motivated, and this decision has at least solid legal grounds.

I also like it that they are now discussing that no other case should never take this long again - what I do NOT like is that the independent review seeks to take the decision power away from the Home Secretary to bar extradition on the grounds of Human Rights. I'm not sure that is a sensible and humane idea.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft turns 15 while spying on Saturn

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You may ..

.. lay off the double espressos for a while..

Chinese e-tailer to build 1,000 empty stores

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And a few hour later..

.. a van delivers pictures of all the things you scanned.

HP prosecuted by Australian consumer regulator

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Translation:

"HP takes seriously the matters raised by the ACCC and will fully investigate and respond appropriately

"HP knows full well what it did and is annoyed at formally being found out. Please bear with us while our PR department finds a way to spin the news and BS our way out of it"

I bet they will be spinning like maniacs, because the very announcement of this means customers will stop buying. It's well timed to become a large, fat spike into their Xmas sales..

Sky support dubs Germany 'Hitler's country'

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Re: full of crap

That's generally the toilet..

Given the amount of available target area and the size of the average male appendage there must be a large amount of people with *serious* deformities or eyesight problems to still miss the urinals and make puddles on the floor..

Apple extends fail-prone Seagate HDD swap scheme

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Website failure...

Actually, you should. This is how warranty issues are discovered - too high failure frequency.

You were ahead of the announcement, but AFAIK, Apple will have to roll back the transaction as you now have solid evidence that it WAS a warranty issue. However, this only applies if you replaced like for like. If you upgraded drive size you may have to argue for a refund, and only may get something to the value of the original replacement drive.

In this case, Trading Standards (or Consumer Direct) will be your best ally - give them a call. They'll descend like a tonne of bricks on Apple if they try to keep a charge for what has turned out to be a warranty issue.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Urgh - hate how the HDD is fitted..

Apple uses a 3.5" for the iMac (at least the older ones) with a VERY short data lead. If you want to replace that drive with something that is a bit more zippy such as an SSD or the SSD cached Seagate Momentus XT you have to fiddle with hard disk frames - and that %ç& short data cable isn't exactly helping either (and you also need a VERY small TORX).

On the flip side, the screen surface comes out very easy as it's only held in place by magnets. If you have a window-sucking GPS, just use that sucker and pull out straight (see iFixit). It doesn't need much force, actually.

13-inch 'Retina Display' MacBook Pro to uncloak next Tuesday?

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Epoch? Isn't that in 2034 or so?

And there I was, thinking that only Microsoft had mastered the art of making WAY too early announcements..

:)

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: I don't understand.

Why are they making their small things bigger and their big things smaller?

Packaging. With so many eco freaks running around, they are trying to get to The One Size(tm) that everyone is happy with, so that can recycle packaging ad infinitum. The ultimate goal is to actually stop making iThings and only resell the packaging it came in, but such a dramatic change has to be introduced gradually.

Yes, yes, I'll go and change meds..

Endeavour: donuts and a Toyota ease shuttle's drive through L.A.

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Sjeez, that throws me back a few years, grin. Thanks :)

Regulator spanks quiz line with record £800k fine

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Re: So many scams

Correct. It's teh same model used by cheap travel agents. They get a few cheap trips, so it looks like a working business, and when the holiday season hits they cash in and disappear. They tend to use fake IATA numbers now as well - always check..

Teachers get earful of racy XXX chat in Capita IT cock-up

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Is this an early BOFH?

Normally you post those much later on a Friday :)

(missing them!!)

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

.. or contacting them :)