Posts by Lord Elpuss
2313 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Aug 2009
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Perl changes dev's permaban for 'unacceptable' behaviour to a year-long lockout after community response
Googler demolishes one of Apple's monopoly defenses – that web apps are just as good as native iOS software
Samsung stops providing security updates to the Galaxy S8 at grand old age of four years
Australia probes app stores, politely suggests Apple and Google could try being nicer and more careful
Wednesday 28th April 2021 18:28 GMT 
There's an order of magnitude difference between instances of malware of malicious apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Apple's security and privacy models are so far ahead of Google's that there's simply no comparison, and to imply both are equivalent in these respects is perilously close to slander.
Lego's Space Shuttle Discovery: No trouble with Hubble, but the stickers will drive a grown man to insanity
Docking £500k commission from top SAS salesman was perfectly legal, rules judge
Microsoft calls time on Timeline: Don't worry, more features that nobody asked for coming your way
NASA's Mars helicopter spins up its blades ahead of hoped-for 12 April hover
Monday 12th April 2021 13:08 GMT
Re: Nothing there....
Fair enough. How's this.
https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/inside-blm-co-founder-patrisse-khan-cullors-real-estate-buying-binge/
https://www.the-sun.com/news/2675013/na-patrisse-khan-cullors-houses/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/black-lives-matter-founder-patrisse-001000383.html
https://www.theblaze.com/news/investigation-demanded-black-lives-matter-co-founder-real-estate
Monday 12th April 2021 09:23 GMT
Re: Nothing there....
Differentiating here of course from the principle that Black lives do matter (the origins are genuine, honorable and founded on absolute necessity), the fact remains that the BLM movement itself is a con. A politically motivated, corrupt monstrosity just like Extinction Rebellion.
Monday 12th April 2021 06:36 GMT
Re: Nothing there....
"Perhaps consider what the "thing" that is there is instead.
That would be a rock, and this will get a photograph of it from about 5m away."
The 'thing' is never a rock. It's what the rock represents. This could be anything from helping us to understand better how our universe works, to figuring out where we can best dig on the Martian surface in order to build an underground habitat in the future, to finding an alternate home for Humanity if you believe - and I'm absolutely certain you do - that climate change is real and potentially catastrophic.
Apple's pending privacy clampdown drives desperate marketers to overwhelm domain database
No, no, let's hear this out, says judge waving away Apple's attempt to kill MacBook Pro Flexgate lawsuit
Tuesday 6th April 2021 11:28 GMT
"nothing promotes planned obsolescence like a very expensive repair which costs close to, or better yet, more than the value of the product. It's a win-win situation"
It's not win-win, it's lose-lose and in nobody's interests to 'engineer' this kind of sh*t in. The consumer loses, but ultimately Apple does too. The reason they're a $2tn company is because the majority of their customers are happy with their CURRENT product, such that when it dies they want to buy a NEW one rather than switching to a different brand. If customers were treated as a one-time hit, then Apple would be far less successful.
Android, iOS beam telemetry to Google, Apple even when you tell them not to – study
Thursday 1st April 2021 10:32 GMT
Re: Surprised?
Not sure why the downvotes, but in my case I'm not differentiating between sharing with the manufacturer, and sharing with the network provider.
In my case I trust Apple a hell of a lot more than my network providers, who between them have done everything they possibly can to destroy any concept of 'relationship' they ever had with me. Lock-in, dodgy billing, extra mandatory 'services' and 'value layers' that were neither needed nor wanted, sneaky-bastard handset customisation and firmware mods (then denying it was them when the manufacturer refused warranty*) and so on.
*Dubai. Network provider modified the firmware on my new iPad to remove iMessage and FaceTime, no mention of this on the retail packaging, Apple said it was effectively a second-hand product as a result of the mods and initially refused a warranty replacement, but to give them credit they did eventually agree to replace as it was clearly a misrepresentation by the shop that sold it.
Apple iPad torched this guy's home, lawsuit claims
Mac OS X at 20: A rocky start, but it got the fundamentals right for a macOS future
Sunday 28th March 2021 09:44 GMT
Re: Its still a bit marmitey though
"...a lot of power hiding behind the simplicity. Perhaps at times too well hidden?"
It's the OS Arms Race. Companies have to add more functionality, features etc or risk being left behind by the competition - unfortunately this feature-creep quickly grows beyond what the original designers intended, and you end up with - as you say - a lot of stuff hidden away. I've been on Macs for 10 years and have no intention of going back to Windows, but I would agree it's getting increasingly complicated to use and find what I need. I'm ok with it because once you're on Mac it's a gradual process and you can learn as you go along, but when you're starting on your first Mac it can be daunting.
John Cleese ‘has a bridge to sell you’, suggests $69,346,250.50 price to top Beeple's virtual art record
Apple stung for $308m in battle over patent used in FairPlay DRM software
Samsung spruiks Galaxy Buds Pro performance as comparable to hearing aids
Monday 22nd March 2021 09:24 GMT
Re: Shop around.
"In the UK of course hearing aids are completely free to those who need them, and you even get free batteries."
In a bid to stop half the World travelling to Blighty to take advantage of this, just let me add that they are free at the point of use, not free full stop. UKians pay a lot for the NHS, mostly in the form of PAYE National Insurance - estimates vary but it's certainly in the £thousands per person per year.
Whether you can technically get away with travelling there and getting free healthcare, the fact remains that the NHS is a service intended for those living in the UK, and either paying through NI or through eligible benefits.
Speaking as a UK citizen living abroad for more than 40 years, who has on occasion been tempted to head home for free treatment (and indeed has been invited to do so eg. yearly flu jab), but has resisted because it would be a flat-out abuse of the system.
Keeping up the PECR: ICO fines two marketing text pests £330k for sending 2.6 million messages
After spending $45bn on 5G licences, Verizon tells customers to turn off 5G to save battery life
Apple, forced to rate product repair potential in France, gives itself modest marks
Facebook and Apple are toying with us, and it's scarcely believable
Tuesday 23rd February 2021 03:16 GMT
Nobody mentioned a ‘monopoly on distribution’ though, did they? The article clearly stated it wasn’t possible to use an iPhone without the App Store. I’ve just shown (one of the) ways that it IS possible. Ergo: my statement stands, the article is incorrect.
Also, ‘various PDA-style tasks’ is a grave understatement of the capabilities of an iPhone without the App Store. Out of the box, it’s incredibly full-featured and suitable as is for many users as camera, phone, music player, messaging and comms terminal, internet browser, health tracker and much more; PLUS all the ‘PDA-style tasks’. Again here; the article is incorrect and my statement stands.
I’m really not sure what your point is in arguing this; the article is clearly, factually and provably incorrect. End of.
Monday 22nd February 2021 22:18 GMT
I'm pointing it out because it's materially incorrect and also misleading, because it implies a realtime dependency where none exists. You can easily use an iPhone without the App Store. Both my kids do, and my girlfriend's parents. My kids aren't allowed to install apps, and my girlfriend's parents have no need of apps that aren't preloaded. Without the App Store an iPhone is a fantastic phone, camera, music player, navigation device, health tracker, email videocall and messaging terminal, plus calendar clock and all the usual PDA tools. Fine for many users out of the box.
It's also perfectly feasible to put apps on your iPhone without the App Store and without jailbreaking, all legal and all above board, using Apple's own Configurator 2. I have two apps on my phone which aren't available in the App Store; I sent my UDID to the developer, paid by PayPal, and 3 minutes later received a .ipa file which could be directly transferred to my phone. Whether you'd want to do this or not depends on your personal situation and attitude towards device security, but it's incorrect to say it can't be done.
So yes, in both cases the "technicality", as you put it, does change the situation. It's also lazy of the article author to make these assumptions; unfortunately all too typical of the Reg writing about Apple.
Watch this space: Apple offers free repairs for the self-bricking Apple Watch SE and Series 5 wearables
Tuesday 16th February 2021 16:16 GMT
"while the WearOS-based Oppo Watch runs around 30 hours between charges"
No it doesn't; not even close. Both my App and my AW are what you could consider 'all-day' watches (in that they both realistically need to be charged every night), however only my Apple Watch will consistently continue to work until around lunchtime on day 2; early evening with light usage. The Oppo is invariably dead before breakfast.
Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep
Monday 15th February 2021 14:00 GMT
Re: And yet I was never contacted by a Google representative
"Yeah, when you bought that iDevice you gave them your details. Think it through."
No I didn't. Not now, not ever. My iCloud ID is a unique email not tied to anything personally identifiable and not used anywhere else outside the iEcosystem, I've never given Apple my real name, address or anything else. Of course; they might be able to determine this by looking at what I do/share, but I certainly never 'gave' it to them.
Apple iOS 14.5 will hide Safari users' IP addresses from Google's Safe Browsing
Oops: Google admits failing to wipe all Android apps with location-selling X-Mode SDK from its Play Store
Monday 8th February 2021 10:32 GMT
Re: Google and Facebook weren't born yesterday
2 examples.
Where I live, all Government services run through a Digital ID app for passthrough authentication. The alternative to the app is that they send you a one-time authorisation code by post to allow you to access the service once; which is impractical in real terms; especially when you now need to use it for all Government services..
My e-bike can ONLY be controlled by an app. Without the app, 80% of the functionality is inaccessible.
The first one can be considered 'essential' in any context - you can't choose not to engage with the services (e.g. tax office), and the alternative to the app is essentially unworkable for anybody who has other things to do than wait for the postman.
The second, whilst not 'technically' essential (I could choose to buy another brand of e-bike) but I would miss out on a large degree of personal benefit. If I want the benefits of a 'smart' bike, I have to use the app.
Going underground with Scaleway's Apple M1-as-a-Service: Mac Minis descend into Paris nuclear bunker
Friday 5th February 2021 09:18 GMT
Says who? It could just as likely refer to this Samsung sued for false 'waterproof' claims, or this Sony issues refunds after false Xperia waterproof claims", or any number of "electronics+water+marketing don't mix" stories.
Assumption is the mother of all f*ckups.
Accused of underpaying or snubbing women and Asian techies, Google spends pocket change to make it all go away
Tuesday 2nd February 2021 15:53 GMT
Very simply: the fact that Google could make this go away with less than $4m payout means there was effectively no case to answer; to all intents and purposes, they were found to be in full compliance with any anti-discrimination laws and the $4m was simply them tipping the doorman on the way out of the settlement conference.
Samsung Galaxy S21: Lots of little downgrades, but this phone is more than the sum of its parts
Loser Trump's last financial disclosure docs reveal Tim Cook gave him $5,999 Mac Pro, the 'first' made in Texas
Tesla axes software engineer for allegedly pilfering secret Python scripts after just three days on the job
Sunday 24th January 2021 14:09 GMT
Re: Investigator?
"Their role (in the security team) is to limit (clean up) or prevent any breach. By instructing the employee to remove the files from the dropbox account they are preventing further dessemination of the files.
Going through the legal route leaves those files in place to be copied out of a place where they can be tracked.
What destruction of evidance? They have the logs of the source so can prove the content, if needed they can subpeona (from dropbox) the source and destination. They do not need the files to stay in a personal dropbox account for an unknown period of time. Most video confrencing software allows for the meeting to be recorded (I haven't used teams so don't know on that one) if Teams does not nativly they could be using other screen capturing software to record the call."
That made my eyes bleed. Dissemination not dessemination. Evidence not evidance. Subpoena not subpeona. Conferencing not confrencing. Natively not nativly.
Samsung rolls out new Galaxy S21 range, including extra-lux Ultra
Friday 15th January 2021 14:36 GMT
Re: Yet again ....
Would this work for you? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YGXR8N3/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_DGAaGb88FS7HP
Friday 15th January 2021 14:32 GMT
Re: Yet again ....
@AC:
"A phone that supports fewer use cases, supports fewer user and is thus less popular. Does your GPS have roads you've personally never driven down? But your roads are other peoples roads! Wouldn't removing those roads make for a better, less cluttered GPS!"
Consumer goods aren't successful when they support the MOST use cases, they're successful when they accurately balance the PROs of a particular use case with the COSTS of supporting it. This inevitably means that some, less popular use cases will be dropped. "Jack of all trades" devices are rarely big successes.
And on GPSs, it's a crap analogy but what you state does in fact happen. Most devices prioritise roads based on usage, and remove low-use roads (such as rutted tracks) from the maps in the interests of costs & user efficiency/friendliness.
"This is a dumb decision."
In your view. Samsung thinks differently, and I guarantee they've done a lot more research than you have.
"Indeed if I have a computer with me, and can tie up the device, I can back it up via USB-C."
Or you can use a USB-C MicroSD card reader. Easy, cheap and just as effective for those that need MicroSD support, whilst removing the cost implications for those that don't.
"Yeh, Samsungs the one that has the premium price for reduced functionality, compared to other Android phones, .... reputation, got it."
Again, in your view. I personally wouldn't buy a Samsung because it doesn't support *my* use case (I don't like Android's stance on privacy), but I would never be so arrogant as to assume it's not right for *anybody*.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
