Posts by Dan 55

Re: "but it also treats mobile users like adults capable of making their own decisions"

Where do I download the dancing ponies? I've only got a row of dancing monkeys.

No problems for my point of view about what Apple did, except that if they were anyone other than Facebook and Google they'd probably have had their App Store certificates yanked and would have been kicked off the dev program too.

Re: The sound of the world's smallest violin - in the quantum realm

As another poster mentioned below, they could have set up a one-man developer shop just to upload this app.

I guess they're convinced of their own infallibility and they have the God-given right to invade privacy.

"Legacy software" you cry? Yes. So ditch it. Like you should have before it became legacy. If that costs, then that costs, but it's like expecting a 1960's Morris Minor to be the company car and I bet that doesn't happen.

I guess it's the age old problem of someone paying a not insubstantial something to someone else to re-do their software all over and test it to make sure it works in exactly the same way as before all because Silicon Valley had another fit of re-arranging the deckchairs. By the way, the differences between a 1960's Morris Minor and a modern-day car are about the same as the differences between IE 10 and 11. You can't use the car industry as a comparison because there's far more change in IT and at a far faster rate.

Honestly, if you even SAY the words "Internet Explorer" nowadays when on a tech support call - unless it pertains to finding out if I'm using some obsolete piece of insecure junk - then you've failed. If that's the customer's ONLY option to use your product/service, you should really get out of the industry.

What about if your support call is about something which needs a Java? Only IE does that now.

I honestly judge our banking supplier (Barclays) SO harshly because their online smartcard-based super-duper sign-in to authorise payments for a multi-million-pound business has a minimum spec of "IE 10, or Firefox ESR"... and it literally doesn't work on Chrome at all. That's just so ridiculously stupid nowadays that I can't fathom why we give them the business. And that's orders of magnitude better than "only runs on IE".

Knock on Google's door and ask them to implement FIPS.

I'm not defending it, that's the way it is. Change management has to be better than "raaaaargh, throw it all out and start again lusers" because that obviously doesn't work for everything.

Re: On the subject of slowing things down...

I maxed my memory out to 16 Mb (ignore the official max of 8 Mb because it's not true) because Mac OS expands every year, sort of like The Blob. Since then it seems okay but the battery doesn't last as long as it did.

Re: Typical el Reg

There was a CD drive designed for the A1200 with a built-in Akiko chip called a CD1200. Commodore UK wanted to launch it after the CD32 but it seems it never got to the manufacturering stage as Commodore International went bust.

Video 1 - Retro Computer Museum in Leicester

Video 2 - David Pleasence

My Mighty Mouse died in a couple of months, for which I was thankful because it didn't half screw with my wrists. There hasn't been one mouse since the rainbow-coloured iMacs that has been usable.

Re: Speaking of birthdays...

No File Synchronisation!

Re: Much negativity, such wow

Then too, when the Amiga and Atari launched a year later in 1985, they both only came with 256kb!

They could, however, be expanded from the get go, and customers didn't have to wait for marketing to discover that engineering hid extra address lines in there.

Re: Typical el Reg

But Apple differentiates themselves with the amount of in-house R&D and QC they do which is light-years ahead of the competition who outsource all that stuff to the lowest bidder.

Software - goto fail;

Hardware - Louis Rossmann

Re: Typical el Reg

One thing I remember about the Classic Macs is that using a computer with no terminal was like using a computer with one hand tied behind your back.

The PC had MS-DOS, the Amiga had Shell and AREXX, the Atari ST had a load of different terminals, but the Mac had... nothing.

Re: We will still have electricity right? [citation welcome?]

You do realise you will be depriving people of their emojis. How will they communicate without them?

Re: A cynic would say

The WA is payment for all work agreed previously up until now, citizens rights, and a plug-in architecture for a later trade agreement called a backstop. Unfortunately there's a problem with the plug-in API, there are too many dependencies between NI and GB meaning the trade agreement won't work with anything but SM & CU. Strangely enough this feature was added at the user's request but it seems the user (the UK) didn't know what it was asking for.

So it just shows you have to get it right at the design stage otherwise your project turns into Agile hell.

Re: Here's an alternative

You might be interested in Delta Chat which is an attempt to use IMAP for E2E chat, although you and your contacts really need e-mail accounts with IMAP IDLE support.

What's the difference between WhatsApp and Signal/Telegram when it comes to address book slurping?

Re: Damn

I'd have hoped our members of parliament would have used Signal, Wickr, Wire, or something to conduct their scheming and plotting instead of entrusting their schemes and plots to the whims of Facebook, but such is British politics for you.

Anyway, they've probably all got chat history backup to Google Drive set up which makes E2E encryption pointless.

Looking forward to the update that uploads everything in the chat history to Facebook as well.

Re: Did Microsft pulled Windows when if was forced to offer the ballot and open up interoperability?

What does geofencing have to do with Google slurping your location 24/7? Do tell.

If Google is forced to remove the slurping, the only thing the customer will notice is increased battery life. There are no downsides.

Re: Did Microsft pulled Windows when if was forced to offer the ballot and open up interoperability?

Plus users are likely to workaround any steps taken to comply with the request.

How's that, will they send daily emails off to Google with their location history?

Re: Can the fine be increased?

They can quite easily push out non-slurpy Play Services and applications for Europe if they wanted to, or are forced to.

Re: Daniel Belin is right

Refusing to use Swift is beside the point, if you read the patent (not the introduction which means nothing and is never taken into consideration) it could be used to clobber C++, Java, Rust, D, and any other object orientated language with a C-like syntax.

Re: Google Can Fuck Right Off With That

Have you found a way to stop it being killed in the background? I tried all the toggles in the app and disabling battery optimisation and it still disappeared after a while.

Re: Firefox forever (except at work)

Firefox especially at work. It has its own certificate store so you can see if you're being MITM'd.

There are settings for NTLM in about:config.

Re: Where is the poll option for

I think the idea is you're supposed to be stockpiling now for when the Hobnobs and Marmite run out in April.

Re: Two words for you ...

What you need is ZX Omni 128 Laptop or Spectrum Next in a laptop case...

Re: too short to reach the post box

So you object to single market standards existing even if the UK is part of making them, not the incorrect reporting of them.

You seem to prefer the fact that in the event of Brexit the UK won't be part of the process for creating single market standards, yet if it is to sell to the EU after Brexit it would have to meet them anyway.

I can see no logical rational reason for your stance on this subject.

But if it makes you feel happier, I admit single market standards on jams, bananas, and low power electrical appliances exist, the UK was part of making them, and British newspapers misreported them, and you fell for the Sun, the Express, and the Mail's propaganda on behalf of their non-dom billionaire owners.

By the way, Dyson's buggeted off today. Another one who believes so much in Brexit he's relocated his company HQ out of the chaos that it'll bring and, this is funny, will take advantage of the free trade agreement Singapore has with the EU.

Ever had the feeling you've been had?