* Posts by Jim 59

2047 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Nokia loses sales lure as Maps and Music apps cracked

Jim 59

Nokia

I worked for Nokia in the mid 90s, visiting Finland many times. It was a well run company, and the Finns were for the most part pleasant and effective workers. Good at management and good at software. Towards the end of that period, our Finnish manager in the UK, liked by one and all, moved back to Helsinki and a British guy was promoted to replace him. Disaster.

The British guy was a traditional British manager in the worst sense. ie. he thought it was the army and he was our seargant. His spoken English wasn't as good as the Finnish manager's, he acted like a buffoon and p*ssed off everyone by and by.

@Lars: the author says "...buy Finnish..." becuase Nokia is the only well known mobile equipment manufacturer in Finland. He was obviously not attacking Finland generally.

Mexican drug runners torture and decapitate blogger

Jim 59

War on drugs

Disagree with Version 1.0's assessment. It is not the USA that carried out these murders. And, with assistance from its allies, USA "won" gulf war one, gulf war 2, stopped the genocide in the Balkans, and contributed towards the democratization of the the USSR and its satelites.

It's not black and white of course, and USA does plenty of bad/stupid stuff too. But if the USA had been like China or the USSR the world would be a much darker place.

Oracle dubs Solaris 11 world's 'first cloud OS'

Jim 59

Cloud

Nice article. Built in dedupe is the only thing that stands out here.

NB. "cloud" is purely a marketing term now. Once it was used in connection with the remote compute server business. Now it is merely an air-freshener for stale marketing campaigns and dull CVs. One is reminded of the late 90s audio biz, where everything had to be called "digital", and even headphones and the like were preposterously labelled as "digital ready".

Great CV fodder though. You don't build virtual servers, you implement cloud-ready architectures.

UK.gov deputy CIO quits Cabinet Office for EMC job

Jim 59

Conflict of interests

I haven't checked, but I am sure Mr McCluggage has never recommended EMC products to government, otherwise this job might be seen as a reward of some type. And I am sure it is not part of his new role to lobby or influence his old goverment colleagues, because it if were, that would be a clear example of a coorporation buying government influence, and "wholly innapproopriate" would then be the kindest description.

Ditto John Suffolk in his new role at Huawei. I haven't checked, but he probably speaks fluent Chinese, has an Engineering degree plus 30 years of top-notch security experience. Otherwise why would they hire him ?

Why GNOME refugees love Xfce

Jim 59

Lighter means faster

I recently installed LXDE on my healdess server at the recommendation of Reg commentards. Seems great: pretty and light.

Mozilla updates to Firefox 8, disables add-ons

Jim 59

Faster

"Faster" is the feature people want. I would be surprised of more than 4% of users use tab grouping, for eaxmple.

A browser is essentially a vehicle for exploring the internet. Having twitter built in is like eating in your car rather than driving to the restaurant. Feature packing reminds one of web portals circa 1995. Yahoo, Alta Vista et all all thought we wanted a busy portal with as many links and features as possible. Google realised search was all we wanted.

Just give us the best vehicle to explore with, we will do the rest. That means: fast, light on resources, private and secure.

Compact Disc death foretold for 2012

Jim 59

Computers = good but complex

The world often assumes someting is easier becuase it involves a computer. Compare 2 music purchases:

Suppose you bought a Cilla Black LP in 1973. Total effort involved: You walked to Woolworths and spent 10 minutes buyung the LP. Every couple of years you clean it with an anti-static cloth.

Suppose you bought a Stone Roses CD online in 2003. Total effort involved: you spent 20 minutes buying the music online including PC boot up time. After it arrived in the post, you spent half an hour ripping it onto your PC. Every week you spend 45 minutes backing up the ripped music along with all your other data. In 2008 you realised the bitrate was too low and you spent 2 hours reseraching psychoacoustics and re-ripping your CDs at a higher VBR bit rate. In 2010 you got a new NAS and spent several hours transferring over the Stone Roses along with all your other data. In 2011 you realised the music was in an out of date format so you spent several hours transcoding your whole music library. And this is without DRM.

Now to listen to the Stone Roses you have to boot up your digital telly and associated ecosystems, make sure your network is fired up, boot up the streaming server in your attic, fiddle with a interactive menu for 2 minutes before retiring to an armchair only to discover you have the wrong remote control.

In 2016 mp3 and other compressed formats died when disks became big enough to render them obsolete. You spent 5 hours re-ripping your whole CD collection in lossless FLAC.

In 2020 you bought a new PC, formats and technology changed again and you had to re-rip/transcode again, before uploading the music to your cloud locker. 7 hours.

By 2025, loudspeakers had become so small that artists (who are mostly amaters because illegal downloading killed professional music) don't even bother to add any base line to the music at all. You scoop your whole digital ecosystem into a skip, fire up your old 1974 hi-fi with the 15" woofers, locate your CDs and get the ****ing Led out. Ahh that's better.

Jim 59

"The only CDs that will go on sale through 2013 and beyond will be special editions and albums from the biggest artists."

So what are you saying ?

US.gov: We aren't hiding any space aliens

Jim 59

Memory wiped

The government got them with that zippy pen memory eraser thing. What was that flash ?

Spectra builds MONSTER TRUCK of tape libraries

Jim 59

Tapes keep rollin'

They are going to need some monster networking to feed those tape drives. And some monster logistics for tape off-siting. I guess any tape movements would involve moving the whole RAID set, since a tape is useless without its RAID set buddies.

Cabinet Office publishes open source procurement toolkit

Jim 59

With apologies for the cynicism

Being free, FOSS does not fit well into a framework of government cronyism and back room deals. It might save money, but it can't help anyone politically. To stay in power, the government needs to "look after" the right people, ie. shovel cash and contracts into into large coorporations. Sir Humphrey needs powerful friends, not beardy ones.

Zimbabwean claims prostitute turned into donkey

Jim 59

Ass

It's that donkeys fault for being so damn sexy.

Canonical: Mobile OEMs are going to love our Linux

Jim 59

Get the Market right and they will come

If canonical can produce a decent, quality-controlled Market Place, this might just work.

Even better: make the OS capable in the first pace, so punters don't have to chase round the flea market for basic functionality that should be built in.

Dell bundles Ubuntu Linux on PCs in China

Jim 59

Round 3

Dell does this every few years, cops a rocket from Microsoft, and immediately desists. Right now Ballmer will be heading to the Dell office carrying a garden gnome.

Insulin pump hack delivers fatal dosage over the air

Jim 59

Insulin pump

There would be no "cutting open". The pump is an externally worn device, only the needle pierces the skin. Presumably the wireless connection is to allow the adjustment of the control unit (also external) from a PC. I guess it integrates with monitoring sofware etc, so the patient can set the device according to historic stats of blood sugar levels. With the old fashined insulin pen, the patient must work it all out in their heads.

There must be some diabetic Reg commentards who can explain...

UK shamed in high-speed broadband study

Jim 59

France Telecom

French chief executives! Come to Britain. The regulators are supine, the pay is just awesome, you won't have to achieve anything and you will get a knighthood after 15 years.

Jim 59

Network upgrades

These other countries are faster becuase they don't have a comfortable monopoly policed by a pointless quango staffed by innefective managers on telephone number salaries, gorging themselves on a torrent of public cash while providing third rate service to the world's most docile consumers.

Father-of-three attacked teen after Call of Duty jibes

Jim 59

Attack

"...walked 200 yards to where the boy lived and grabbed him by the throat, causing scratches and reddening."

ie. did a Homer Simpson. The internet suddenly got real for this lad, in no undertain terms. The lad was not completely innocent. Swearing at people, being abusive and bullying are also illegal.

Google dumps + from Boolean search tool

Jim 59

Documentation

The documentation says that all search terms are now included by default, ie. there is an implicit "+" (the old fashioned sort) in front of every term in your query. That seems to contracdict the email sent to the Reg.

Apple's iPod: ten years old

Jim 59

Alternatives - Predecessors ?

Where is the expected a brigade of folks all saying "I had Archos/Creative xxx on 2001 it wasted the iPod". Well I bought an Archos JBM20 in 2002, in preference to an iPod. Not as elegant as the ipod, but far cheaper, same 20 Gb capacity, and it had a colour screen and (drum roll) played videos! The cutting edge is sometimes more attractive than the elegant, especially when it is half the price. Still jealous of the Apple wheely thing though.

Ballmer disses Android as cheap and complex

Jim 59

Back to 1985

MS tends to think people are thick. It assumes everyone is living in 1984, where only computer enthusiasts had any computer knowledge. It still builds that assumption into its products.

Time has moved on. The average "housewife" sends texts and emails. Your grandad edits his own website. The average Joe uses wireless, satnav and MP3 on a daily basis. We are all "computer scientists" now.

FSF takes Win 8 Secure Boot fight to OEMs

Jim 59

Microsoft OSes

On the desktop, MS OSes are techincally inferior to Apple OSX and Linux. In the datacentre, Windows is still years behind Linux, Solaris, AIX. On the smartphone, Windows is inferior to Android and Apple. Windows 8 is good but that's only compared to Windows Vista. Microsoft's tactic is not to improve their products, but to use their market dominance to put better products out of our reach.

Jim 59

True to form

Having failed to compete technically, MS is once again falling back on its core skill, an area in which it genuinely excels: bullying others by market domination. This is a dangerous game for them. If somebody stands up to the the bully, his bullying days are over. Microsoft has been doing it for 20 years though, and they are the experts.

Hats off to MS, they really are the best at this, no question. Their customers had the power of choice confiscated decades ago, and have long been "users" rather than true "customers". Heck, I cannot even buy a memory stick without some OEM paying tribute to MS for the ancient FAT file system onboard, even though superior free alternatives abound. That's genius.

I don't hate MS and don't wish to offend MS fans. But I do hate this aspect of MS behaviour. If they focussed on their business rather than manipulating the market and harming competitors, they could be better than Apple, and their products even more glorious.

Users decide Fedora 17 will be 'Beefy Miracle'

Jim 59

KDE

Thanks, but doesn't that just expose you to the even bigger horrors of KDE 4.x ? It would be good to stay with Fedora, maybe XFCE is the true path.

Jim 59

Fedora 14

I've been using Fedora as my main desktop for a few years, currently on version Fedora 14. Support for 14 will stop with the impending release of Fedora 16. Sadly I must leave Fedora to escape Gnome 3.x. PCLinuxOS and Linux Mint are in the frame.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S Android smartphone

Jim 59

Noddy phone

The built in noddy phone could use an entirely seperate CPU and only a tiny portion of the screen, or its own small screen on the back. Or no screen. It would use the same SIM though.

Jim 59

Samsung 1170

At the other end of the scale, I bought a Samsung 1170 for £20 after El Reg gave it a good review. Bought it 19 days ago, charged it the same day. It still has 3 power bars out of 5.

Smartphones should have a "noddy phone" built into them. At the touch of a button, your smartphone becomes a crap phone, which can only do calls and nothing else. Won't even alert you to emails. But the power draw is as above. Press another button and it boots fully into super phone / pocket computer mode.

OpenSUSE 12.1 delivers Fedora punch with GNOME 3

Jim 59

Tweakery

In Steve Davies' defence: apart from the factual error that was a jaunty and well written post.

Toyota Yaris 2011

Jim 59

IT Angle

No, I was "making conversation" with an IT angle. I am delighted with the USB in my car. But it is ironic that is uses an antique file system when better technology abouds. This is a small example of what market dominance brings to the consumer.

Jim 59

Microsoft

Doubtless the USB function reads fat16 and fat32 file systems only. Microsoft can now flog a license on every new car so equipped. We are surrounded by free and far better file systems - ext3, ext4, btrfs etc, but MS can force the car industry into using a 20 year old file system simply because most car owners have Windows PCs.

My household does not use Windows at all. But I have still paid MS for FAT on 7 or 8 devices (USB sticks, media players, satnav) for the privilage of bringing this poor technology into my life. Will there be no end to their wheeling and dealing ?

Jim 59

Good car

Looks good, and must be a very pleasant drive with all the AV kit and great visibility. A touch too expensive, but with current market conditions, they will likely sell you one for less. 44 mpg is a disappointing though.

Apple, tech titans lead US brands to world domination

Jim 59

Poor company

How depressing that the British list is dominated by tax-dodgers, discredited bankers and a flipping tabacco company.

Belkin Conserve

Jim 59

Washing machne

A lot of people in here mentioning hard-to-access electrical sockets. There could be a safety issue there. If you need to quickly power off at the socket and can't, while someone is being shocked. Even "always on" stuff should be easily switch-offable, right there where it is located.

Jim 59

Printer ?

Just being nosey - why is your printer on all night ?

Jim 59

The manual method

A similar thing can be achieved with by thoughtful cable laying. Have 2 adapters: one for you always-on stuff, the other for everything else. Before retiring to your "boudoir" for the night, switch off the non-essential one at the mains. Works for me.

Which actor should play Steve in upcoming biopic?

Jim 59

Stephen Fry

he does a great american accent, honestly

Ten... Freeview HD recorders

Jim 59

Toppy

Disagree with Jason7. The Topfield/MyStuff user experience is pretty near perfect. In feature terms it is well ahead of Sky+ (eg recording based on text search - basic on the Toppy since 2007 - can Sky owners even do that yet?). My only complaint with the Toppy is that the 250 gb disk is getting too small now, and you have to be techy to administer MyStuff. But the authors are friendly and helpful, unlike Rockboxers.

I will take Greg 16's advice: wait 12 months, and then buy a FreeSat HD box with YouView installed.

Jim 59

Topfield

Not tempted. I suspect an old Topfield / MyStuff setup would beat these offerings.

BBC One and bureaucracy spared in Auntie cuts

Jim 59

Question Time

I admit to no longer watching question time. It just feels lower budget than of yore. They once had Robin Day and a big heavy wooden table surrounded by ministers and political heavyweights, and a big audience. It was a great tub thumping rhoobarb. Now they tend to have comedians and media "personalities" huddling round a polystyrene question mark. The audience seems smaller and the discussion seems too avoid difficult areas.

Jim 59

Cappiccino

"More than a fifth of the population never watches BBC One, a rising proportion, yet the channel swallows an astronomical £1.4bn".

What are they doing with that 1.4bn? BBC1 has become very low brow - endless quiz shows, soaps, cookery, reality and and low budget features. Quality stuff like Question Time and This Week are the exception. BBC1 rarely troubles my PVR these days. Guess I am no longer yoof.

"Can I be terribly London and have a cappuccino?" would have been more appropriately "Oi! Can I be terribly London and have jellied eals?".

US rocketeer thunders to 121,000ft

Jim 59

Awesome

Awesome in the traditional sense. Well done guys. What is that burning glede that shoots off to one side at take off ? Good job it didn't hit anybody.

Hero Ordnance Surveyors dodge bullets, tweet as they map

Jim 59

OS Maps made by Ninjas

OS_Dom appears to be a Ninja. Ditto OS_Matt.

'Hey, Tories, who knows what a nontrepreneur is?’

Jim 59

Good Article

The Internet stops people who create non-physical things from making money on them. Music and books today, maybe your product tomorrow. Unless we are all to work for free, counter measures are needed. What they are is anyone's guess. I hope it will not involve tracking the online activity of every netizen.

The source should be stopped. People who offer property for illegal download should be treated a handling stolen goods and be given a prison sentence proportional to the number of downloads they caused and the value of the item. Downloaders should be treated lightly (there is a potential minefield of "accidental" or partial downloading). Maybe this already happens.

Meltemi is real – Nokia’s skunkworks Linux

Jim 59

Go Nokia!

Give us proper phones again and save us from this ocean of bland, flowery Gameboys.

Android's scariest nightmare: resurgently sexy Microsoft

Jim 59

Android Market - sorry for the rant

I'd like to buy an Androind phone but am put off by the shocking Android Market Place. Why does nobody talk about this ? Browsing the Market Place is like looking for shareware circa 1994. In fact logging in through FTP and reading the 00Index file was actually a bit less clunky. And in quality terms, many of the apps are like something we hacked together in BASIC on our Dragon 32s. An app to count your turnips is useless and we certainly don't need 25 versions of it.

Best skiing in space is on Saturnian ice moon Enceladus

Jim 59

Powder

"the "snow" on Enceladus would be more like trying to ski on real talcum powder."

...which would work nicely ? Fine powders (finer than sand) can behave like liquid when disturbed, a property used in earth bound industrial processes.

Trust me, I'm a computer: Watson takes on health care challenge

Jim 59
Thumb Up

Great idea

Sounds wonderful to me. Nobody has to follow it "blindly", but it's obviously a good thing to have on hand, if it works as hoped. Things will get tough if it threatens doctors' interests in any way. The BMA and their closed shop will hit it like a wrecking ball.

Rogue toilet takes out Norfolk server

Jim 59

Sorry can't beat "Crazy crapper's crippling crash"

so let me bore you with yet another war story. My home linux server would crash every time I cut the grass. Reason: The attached webcam, sensing motion in the garden, would take up to 10 photos a second and attempt to email each one with a seperate sendmail process. Soon after, the server dies for lack of memory. Or rather, the OOM killer would kill something that mattered.

Server sunk in cesspit sludgefest

Norfolk server sits on naughty stool

these pithy headings are not as easy as they look

MS denies secure boot will exclude Linux

Jim 59

MS Partners

"Microsoft has effectively batted the question over to its hardware partners and firmware suppliers."

...who are controlled my Microsoft. MS has long been occupying a central position it does not deserve in the PC market. If it continues to behave in this way, the world might just stop bothering with Microsoft alltogether. Which would be bad. Microsoft - please stop controlling and start competing.

Memo to open source moralists: Put a sock in it

Jim 59

Gates/Theresa

...wish I was more like either of them.