* Posts by Tom 35

3040 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Is the next-gen console war already One?

Tom 35

"The history of espionage, real espionage rather than James Bond, is of governments taking extraordinary levels of interest in the lives of normal people."

Even without espionage, I'm sure there is someone at MS thinking of all the commercial valuable info they can collect.

For example they can count the number of people watching a TV show, and if they watch the ads.

Microsoft and pals: Save the global economy by NOT ripping us off

Tom 35

Re: One thing that always bugs me

Back when I worked in retail, and MS Office didn't have product activation companies bought Office (maybe not all the companies, and maybe they installed a few extra copies...), and everyone else copied it.

You could not sell a low price home word processor, every one just used Word. It was a de facto standard. A few used MS Works as it was sort of like Word.

It was not until product activation made casual coping more difficult that Open Office had a chance to grow.

Tom 35

Re: What a joke...does money grow on trees?

Maybe spent spent locally and not sent off to some offshore cash pile by way of Ireland?

FLABBER-JASTED: It's 'jif', NOT '.gif', says man who should know

Tom 35

Re: Acronymity...

No you don't Joojle it, you search using Joojle. *

* another failed attempt to tell people what to say.

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7

Tom 35

Re: Trivial

"I bet they had a version working before they launched just to see."

The beta had a registry setting to turn off not-metro. If I remember it was killed in the RC.

MYSTERY Nokia Lumia with gazillion-pixel camera 'spotted'

Tom 35

Re: Lens

They put the big fat lens on an SLR just to look cool.... right.

You might get... the results can match the output of a pocket camera, maybe even one of the better ones.

I'm sure this camera is way better then the one in my Nexus 4. I'd have paid a bit more for a better camera, but I would not go for Winphone just to get a better camera. Just like I would not buy a Lada, just because it came with a great stereo.

A backdoor into Skype for the Feds? You're joking...

Tom 35

I thought that was why they said not to buy Chinese network gear

Oh, it;s not that it has a foreign government mandated back door, they just think it's the wrong foreign government.

It will work as well as when the US was trying to block export of encryption. You had to fill out a form to get 128 bit IE. A joke and a pain for US companies at the same time.

Don't Panic! Google FCC filing reveals mystery media device

Tom 35

But

Will it come with a towel?

Tom 35

Maybe

It is powered by the infinite improbability drive.

It will allow you to stream high quality, original Hollywood movies, for a reasonable price, available anywhere in the world at the same time.

Biz bods: Tile-tastic Windows 8? NOOO. We lust after 'mature' Win 7

Tom 35

Employee interest in Windows 8 is “very high”

Only if Employee interest = they went to the store and came back with a $400 laptop with windows 8 (not pro) that was on sale.

Half of youngsters would swap PRIVACY for... cheaper insurance

Tom 35

Re: It does genuinely save money

The normal statistics crap.

When it's optional you will get volunteers who know they will save money.

People who don't drive much. Haven't even had a close call in 20 years.

It's just cherry picking.

If everyone has to do it, you will have the same lot you have now.

Google tells Microsoft to yank its new WinPhone YouTube app

Tom 35

Re: So, it would appear that

"the Xbox YT app shows ads, but that was developed by Google"

Didn't Google develop most of the youtube apps on other platforms?

Could it be that Google didn't develop a full feature app for Winphone because MS don't give 3rd party developers enough access?

Then MS wine that Google will not give them full access?

Sony investor wants to break up firm, re-invest in hardware biz

Tom 35

Loeb declined to detail exactly how he would use the extra cash

Give it to Loeb I expect.

Full metal jacket: Nokia launches new Lumia 925

Tom 35

Re: What's the surprise?

You're the one that asked.

It may not be astroturf, but that's what it looks like. It's not like you are required to use your real name here, the only difference between posting with an anonymous handle (or even a first name) and using AC is that no one can see what else you have posted. A "personal opinion" posted as AC is not worth a pinch of shit, it only has value when your reputation is attached to it.

Microsoft/Nokia can put "some anonymous person said it looked good" on their next advertisement, I'm sure that will really boost sales.

Tom 35

What's the surprise?

Down votes for anonymous astroturf.

Who is Samsung trying to kid? There will NEVER be a 5G network

Tom 35

There will almost certainly will be a "5G" mobile broadband network

It will almost certainly be marketing BS.

Bell Canada call LTE 4G Super phone (because they already called 3.5G 4G). You can be sure the next improvement will be called 5G.

United Nations: 'Overpopulated Earth? Time to EAT BUGS'

Tom 35

nobody likes me everybody hates me guess i'll go eat worms

Big fat juicy ones,

Eensie weensy squeensy ones,

See how they wiggle and squirm!

Icahn, SAM to give MickeyD the boot if they take over Dell

Tom 35

Please stop

Calling them "Activist investor", they don't invest in anything.

UK.gov blows a fuse at smart meter stall, sets new 2020 deadline

Tom 35

"smart" meters

We have had them for Electricity for some time (Toronto Canada). They charge us extra for usage during peak times. No they are forcing us to get smart water meters. Not sure what the plan is with them, charge extra if we flush before 8am? Rat out anyone who waters the lawn during a watering ban, or just charge extra when there is a "shortage".

Adobe price hike: Your money or your files, frappuccino sippers

Tom 35

Re: goodbye Adobe

Presumably they are more interested in professional users who use it all the time and "don't subscribe" already by upgrading to new versions every two or three versions.

Fixed.

Snoopers' charter rests in shallow grave - likely to rise again

Tom 35

Don't forget cell phones

I go to one of the "what is my IP" sites and I see a public IP address. I look at the status on my phone and I see 10.200.x.x The cell phone network is using NAT.

Police need to know who used a certain IP address? Don't know could be hundreds of people using that address.

Tom 35

Re: Stupidity

This is about retaining data. They can't make them keep a copy of the whole internet, but they want every connection made. They just had to figure out how to solve the problem of knowing who made the connection... or just pretend it's not a problem.

We have this guy, we don't like the look of him, must be up to something... tell us what he has been connecting to.

He was taking pictures with his iPad, then went into a coffee shop with free wifi. Must be a terrorist!

Elon Musk and PayPal chum quit Zuckerberg's immigration gang

Tom 35

different and innovative

How is buying votes different or innovative.

I also expect that the science bit is a cover for what they are really after, cheap exploitable labour.

Microsoft honcho pleads with media: 'Stop picking on us!'

Tom 35

nuanced analysis

If some dog takes a huge dump on your lawn, nuanced analysis is that last thing you need.

"He's starting to lose us here."

Maybe he is talking about that other shades of gray. That was crap and it sold like crazy, why don't people buy our crap.

- Metro is crap.

- Windows RT / Surface is crap (I know, I have one)

- Windows Surface Pro is good for a few people (just like older windows tablets) but too expensive for general users, and even with touch metro is still kind of crap.

- Windows Phone (is not Windows) is kind of ok, until you add the locked down, buy it from the app store crap. If you want that just buy an iThing and have lots of apps.

Notebook sales to surge, says notebook seller

Tom 35

Mybe if MS really do fix Win8

If they ship Metro off to live with it's old friend Bob maybe some people will buy a new laptop because they want one, not just a few that have to by a new one.

'Liberator': Proof that you can't make a working gun in a 3D printer

Tom 35

Friends of the NRA

I think the Liberator is something thought up as a distraction. To turn the talk away from assault rifles, and large magazines. Things that are easy to buy and have been used to kill lots of people already.

Icahn and Southeastern try to hamstring Mike Dell's buyout bid

Tom 35

Would you like some cheese with that wine?

If you think they are worth more then $13.65 per share go ahead and sell them for what you think they are worth.

If you can find someone who will pay you more...

German govt DUMPS 170 NEW PCs riddled with Conficker

Tom 35

Simply cleaning up the malware would have cost €130,000

I guess I didn't charge enough when I cleaned this up!

YouTube launches subscriptions with 53 paid channels

Tom 35

This paid channel is unavailable in your country.

Your not in the US, nothing to see here...

Look ma, no plugins! Streaming web video with just JavaScript

Tom 35

Re: @Paul Crawford

Just to reply to my self...

Here is what the Media companies think is a good use for watermarks...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinavia

Tom 35

Re: @Paul Crawford

"You do realize that the whole point of this watermarked vid idea is to allow the customer to have a completely open"

And what are the chances that content companies would go for that? When we have record company execs saying that copying a track from a CD to an iPod is theft and they want to sell you the same thing over and over.

"It's just a matter of the level of acceptable mitigation."

But this will have almost zero effect on "mass-sharing". It might reduce the number of people giving a copy to friends at work, but for mass-sharing you only need one cracked copy the same as any copy protection system.

Tom 35

Re: @Christian Berger

"By knowing their download is marked, less people are going to share the copy they paid for with others"

So it might stop a few people from handing out copies to friends at work. It will only slow casual copying.

You can pay with a gift card, download in chunks from a coffee shop wifi, use a fake name.

So now you can post it all over the net and Hollywood thinks it was downloaded by I.P. Nightly who lives at Starbucks.

Or they could use infected computers to download a file.

You only need one person with a copy that is not linked to them to uploaded it to the net.

Tom 35

Shouldn't that be...

their business models rely on being able to pretend they can prevent piracy.

Water mark is not going to be enough to fool the content company management who have been listening to macrovision and the like tell them "you're all going to die" for years.

Why are scribes crying just 'cos Google copied their books? asks judge

Tom 35
Facepalm

Re: So, if someone comes along and copies all the Star War Movies

You do know that you can go to a variety of Places online and find samples of Star wars movies, I think they call them trailers. Or IMDB where there is all kinds of searchable info about Star Wars. A lot of this info was provided by the people who created the movies. I bet you can even find out who shot first!

You did read the story right? The part about Google only posting snippets online?

Apple's head bean counter boasts WORLD'S BIGGEST PACKAGE

Tom 35

Re: I once found 8 million pounds

No, you would still get zip, even if you were staff.

But you should be happy to know your bosses boss gave him self a bonus for being in charge of finding the money.

New 'BLOCKBUSTER' APPLE iTHING imminent - billionaire Einhorn

Tom 35

Re: Am I just cynical?

"Otherwise known as a Boiler Room Scam."

If your rich enough they call it an investment newsletter. They only real difference is they have enough push to do it with real stocks.

Review: BlackBerry Q10

Tom 35

Wait a few months

And you should be able to buy your Lumia for about £79.95 :P

John McAfee talks of sex, drugs, and bad coding

Tom 35

Re: Mythomaniac

I'm waiting for the game myself.

Microsoft: Subscription-only apps? Not for us, yet

Tom 35

Re: Problem with Subscriptions

There is one plus... maybe.

They should not need to add bloated pointless "features" to try and get people to upgrade and keep the money flowing. Stuff like Acrobat or Nero where the core features have not changed much in years, they just keep adding more junk (yes I want to put flash videos in my PDF).

But once you subscribe the bean counters will not want to pay for anything that will not bring in more money, and software will stagnate.

Then again how long until they start offering upgrades on subscriptions. Upgrade your Office 365 subscription to Office 365 double good edition for a small additional fee each month.

The Metro experiment is dead: Time to unleash Windows Phone+

Tom 35

Re: Too many abandoned non intel platforms from Microsoft.

Zune stuffed people from both ends.

People and companies who bought into "plays for sure" get stuffed when MS killed it to make room for Zune (they get all the money).

Then zune never when any place. The hardware was not bad, but like Sony who had good sounding players, the whole package was lacking.

Tom 35

Stuid, impossible not bold

"In response, the early strategy was a bold but simple one: encourage third-party developers to create a new library of apps using a central Metro programming interface, allowing the software to run on Windows 8-powered PC desktops, ARM tablets, x86 slabs, laptop hybrids, smartphones and more without a rewrite for each targeted device."

Such a system would limit you to software that works on a tiny screen, low power and low RAM.

Yes your full screen calculator phone app will work on a desktop (but suck since no one wants a full screen calculator), but are you trying to say Office should run as is on a phone? Even the crippled RT version would not be usable on a phone.

Tom 35

Re: Windows Phone+ is a poor name

No Bob.

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

Tom 35

Re: We told you it was shit

"Best for whom?"

Best to help sell phones and tablets, get people using the app store. So MS can be like Apple and get a cut of everything.

Tom 35

stuff that used to be buried in menus

Is now buried in tabs.

Show file extensions is two clicks, you have the select the view tab first. Assuming you know what tab it's on and don't have to go hunting for it.

For something like Office where there are lots of settings the ribbon is no better then the old system of a tool bar for stuff you use all the time, and menus for stuff you only use once in a while. And the ribbon uses up way to much vertical space on a typical wide screen laptops crappy screen.

With Windows 7 you had every program asking to create a shortcut on your desktop. With Windows 8 you get a whole bunch of crap on your "start screen". I used to laugh at people who had a desktop packed full of shortcuts, now that's how it's supposed to work, except now you have to scroll to see them all. No thanks.

Full screen not-metro apps are fine for your phone, I don't want them on my full size computer screen.

- Get rid of the not-metro start screen with all the invisible charm bar junk. (or at least make it an option you can turn off). Give me the start menu back (but you can keep the auto arrange feature.

- Let me run not-metro apps in a window if I find any that are of any use.

Hey, Acer: Is that a rounding error, or did you actually make a profit?

Tom 35

fragile notebooks

Their notebooks/netbooks tend to shatter if dropped. I expect a lot of people bought one because it was cheap, but will think twice about a second.

PLAGUE of SEX CRAZED MONSTER GRASSHOPPERS to hit East Coast

Tom 35

Re: Nah...

That must be some lawn sprinkler system you have!

Just the normal late summer with a few of them singing from the trees is loud. I've never run into thousands of them (may flies so thick I thought it was foggy at first yes).

Redmond probes new IE 8 vulnerability

Tom 35

Re: 'enry the eighth I am I am...

Lots of people still using XP, 8 is the new version of IE.

If you need to access a site that uses active x then you can't use a different browser.

Plans for fully 3D-printed gun go online next week

Tom 35

Re: Oh puhleeze.

But if they are pointing it at some one else's head, I'm quite safe, as are any other people around.

Now if they are on the other side of the street with an AR15 then we are all screwed.

Tom 35

Re: Oh puhleeze.

This is just a distraction designed to shift talk away from things like large magazines. This thing is no better then a zip gun.

The UK's copyright landgrab: The FAQ

Tom 35

Re: Two sides to the orphan issue?

Copyright is not enough for some people, they use trademark as a forever copyright. For an example see Ann of Green Gables.