Posts by sandman

Customer Retention

Is anyone else old enough to remember when companies used to reward loyal customers? You know, the longer you stayed with them the better deal you got? Insurance premiums on cars used to go down the longer you stayed with the insurer (assuming you didn't actually claim anything) for example. Now you have to switch every year to get a reasonable deal, yet they still complain about churn.

I've worked with a whole bunch of companies in the consumer sector, they all complain about churn, but then bring out policies that have customers fleeing in droves - very, very odd/

Four way split

I'm thinking (and given my reputation for getting every single trend totally wrong, caveat emptor) that the popular tech market is / is going to split into four sections.

1. Luxury/aspirational = Apple

2. Business (laptop, desktop and some server) = Mostly Microsoft with lots of Linux on the server side and some Apple on the laptop/desktop.

3. General Consumer = mostly Android, Apple where 1. applies and Microsoft where business compatibility affects buying decisions or for gaming or "creative" uses (where 1. doesn't apply).

4. High-end computing = Linux (lots and lots of it) Unix, Microsoft and various bespoke OSs, inc the IBM ones.

No one dominant company across the spectrum of computing and plenty of opportunity for competition

Training optional???

A quote from one of our salespeople.

"Our software is so intuitive, users won't need training".

Ha, ha, ha.

Oh, Hyundai Coupes have a nice trick, the indicators and wipers are on the opposite sides of the steering column to most other cars, hence occasional frantic wiper action when approaching a junction.... and then on holiday you hire a normal car - guess what happens.

A slightly tepid war

Ah, a scientific reprise of the worst days of the Cold War, how quaint.

Real-world time

Ah, I see that some of us haven't done much engineering or software development. You can test all you want, try and replicate every real-world situation you can think of, get sort of smug and launch your product and then, guess what, hubris is followed by nemesis.

Then you go back and fix the problems: change the antenna in a mobile phone; replace a start button; recall 2 million cars to fix a problem; put helium in airships, not hydrogen; don't build reactors in tsunami-ridden earthquake zones; whatever.

The Cambridge people tried, it didn't work as envisaged and they've learnt what doesn't work, a normal real-world development stage, not a disaster.

Credit where it's due

That contraption is worthy of many, many, major geek credit points. With that level of garden shed style engineering you might have thought he was British ;-)

Gross stupidity

I am an unashamed environmentalist, but very few things make me more annoyed than those who cry wolf with no evidence that a particular project or technique is going to cause any real environmental harm. In the case of fracking all the evidence points to it being a relatively safe and moderately clean method of extracting gas. The very few problems that have occurred in the States appear to be down to operators cutting corners.

If fracked gas can replace coal in power stations (and lignite in Europe), that is an environmental gain, not a loss. More importantly, it's a human gain, cleaner air is good for humans too, ask the Chinese.

As implied in the article, if environmentalists don't fight the right battles, there'll be no public support and belief over the really important things.

Another W8 household

Looking for a reasonable deal on a new phone when my iPhone 3GS started dying, I ended up with an HTC 8X. I find it preferable to my work supplied iPhone 5. Herself went for a Lumia 620. We're both very happy with our phones, they work well and the OS makes iOS and Android look and feel rather, well, 20th Century. OK, I have some apps that I can't port across (ditto some music, bastard, bastard DRM), but otherwise the transition was fine.

It always entertains me when any piece of tech gets criticised by the sad juveniles who have either never used it, just have an irrational hatred of it (or the company who produces it) or who's experience is dated and irrelevant (or any combination thereof). I would suggest they grow up (or get a life), but that would seem just a touch unlikely.

3GS

It was as tough as old boots, until a crack started radiating from the power connector slot across the back, but that was after nearly four years of rough handling. Now replaced by an HTC 8X (so I could see what win phone 8 was like) and a work iPhone 5. Much prefer the HTC, both for the build and the OS (sorry Windows haters, y'all need to get a life, iOS feels positively antiquated by comparison).

Still running a mk2 iPod Touch, now that is indestructible - must have hit the gym floor 20+ times, been stood on, got caught up in a rowing machine, etc.

99%

OK, totally made up statistic time. I'd suggest that 99% of people don't actually need a computer, whether PC or laptop. What they want is a communication and media consumption device, with perhaps a little light photo editing and some casual games play. For those purposes a tablet is ideal.

I don't see anything other than a continuing decline in PC/laptop sales, certainly in the richer countries where the market is already saturated. We're looking at a market consisting of businesses, scientists, "creatives" (including programers) serious gamers and a variety of hobbyists, not the general public anymore.

Firing back

Of course, if the operators equip the drones with Hellfire missiles (something I beilieve is currently fashionable), then the odds will be more than levelled....

Good story

I am Legend is a "nice" little story, but they should have kept the ending in the Will Smith film. I think they missed the essential premise, if the rest of the population are vampires then the human is the monstrous outsider. You could argue then that in the film the monsters win...

It's 2013 ffs

This social media stuff has been around for a few years now and most organisations have rules governing its use. I would have thought any moderately bright person would know those rules and more importantly the unwritten one. Don't put anything anywhere on the net (not just FB and Twitter) that you wouldn't like your boss or a future employer to read. Oh, and for other numpties you could add the police, security services, spouse, partner and children, etc.

NAAFI Tea

Strong it is. Was available from Spar and various other High Street outlets, but haven't seen it for a while. Worth tracking down. If not, Yorkshire (Hard Water) or Twinings Assam. Use Steredent tablets to remove the tannins from the mug and spoon :-)

Ooh, fibbers!

"although we enjoy a good rumor as much as the next fellow" - now that is totally untrue - the Reg enjoys a good rumour FAR more than the next fellow!

Speechless (it's safer)

Somewhere the ghosts of Beria and Eichmann are laughing and laughing and laughing...

The Shard

Anyone else think that the Shard should really have the Eye of Sauron held in its spiky bits?

No surprise

It's not really much of a shock, how many people need a fully functioning PC as opposed to a portable media consumption and communication device? Add a bunch of useful apps and browser-based interaction and I reckon that's about most peoples needs satisfied.

Crash free zone

I'm running three Windows machines and one MacBook Pro and can't remember when I last had a crash on any of them. The occasional self-recovering video driver glitch and the odd long hang when editing big videos, but otherwise no problem with either OS. However, as has already been pointed out, with top of the range machines with plenty of ram and decent internal parts/drivers, you'd expect a decent amount of stability. Oh, and no BSOD since replacing Vista with W7 a few years back.

Not for the likes of us

No matter what we (I'm including most of y'all by proxy) think of the idea, we are hardly the target market. Just by reading the Reg and posting here we are almost automatically disassociated from the majority of mobile/Facebook, whatever, users. If by re-skinning an interface you make it simpler for a large number of people to get what they want more easily, you may be on to something - ask Gates or the shade of Jobs. Assuming there are a few million dedicated Facebook on mobile users and the interface works well enough, there is no reason to think that it won't have some degree of success, whether we here like it or not.

He'll be missed

A great writer - possibly even more so when he uses the M. Apart from the fiction his non-fiction book, Raw Spirit, a trip round all the Scottish malt whisky distilleries, is great fun. Think I'll just go and read Excession for the nth time.

Untermenschen

It's a simple policy really. If the potential claimant (for whatever service) can't get online, they don't exist. They effectively become an unperson. As such, they can't add to the statistics or claim any money. From a government point of view it's a win-win situation.

Smelling a rat

Something similar happened at a place I was working. Our control panels were housed in a shipping container. One day we lost all power and a thin stinking smoke started coming out of the top of the door. naturally we didn't panic (much) and carefully opened the door....

Took us ages to find the fault. A rat had crawled up the main cable through the hole in the floor, put one of its tiny feet on a 440 volt bus bar and exploded. One foot print on the copper and singed body parts everywhere else behind the panels.

I can't comment...

... for once, I just can't, well, not without releasing a string of profanities that would shock a Navy Clearance Diver on a bender. There's just something about this bunch of clueless twits trying to sound technologically "down with the geeks" that just makes my skin crawl. (Although admittedly it's a good laugh - sort of like watching a drunken uncle trying to chat up bridesmaids at a family wedding).

"We need to tackle the digital divide, and this is a very good way of doing it."

Sure is, we'll make it impossible to claim benefits unless you have a computer and broadband of your own. (Don't try and use one in your local library, poor people don't need books so we've closed them all). What do you mean you can't afford a computer thingy? In that case you don't exist, therefor there is no digital divide, problem solved.

Cunning plan

My agents speak Cantonese instead of Mandarin....

Nicely summed up here.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/donovan/the_intergalactic_laxative.html

Cheap!

I used to work in Mayfair and there was a shop next to our offices that sold stuff that you could never imagine needing to people with more money than sense or taste. My favourite items were mobile phone covers (this is in 2000, so we're talking Nokia, Motorola, etc). How about one covered in black diamonds for £36,000? The best thing was that each was made for a specific model of phone, so when you wanted to change your phone, you just chucked the case and presumably purchased a new one.