Posts by Flossie 46 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Sep 2009
You can do that with a big wide screen monitor on a desktop. The problem is with the smaller laptops, a 16:9 screen isn't wide enough to be able to accommodate two browser windows side by side without triggering horizontal scrolling, so you have wasted space on the edges and more scrolling because the screen lacks height. 4:3 is the ideal size for a small screen, 16:9 starts to makes sense if the monitor is 18" or bigger.
The only benefit I ever saw to 16:9 (or 16:10) was that it's good for watching Video. It's rubbish for anything text-based because the lines are too long, in most cases you end up with a lot of wasted space and more scrolling. Ask yourself why books are rarely published in landscape format! What gets me are the repeated protestations that "nobody makes 4:3" when the iPad is 4:3, including the iPad pro which has a 13" 4:3 screen.
The Thinkpad X1 Tablet has a 3:2 screen which isn't far off 4:3. I'd prefer the retro design of the laptop described here, but it has to be an X series ultraportable. I'm assuming since this is a T it will be at least a 14", that's too big and heavy for me. If they could shrink the retro case and use the screen from the X1 tablet, I'd be first in line. As it is, I'll probably get the X1 tablet when my X61 finally dies.
I have a Symbian touch screen smart phone (Nokia X6) and I honestly can't see why so many people seem to think it is no good. It seems to me to involve far less hassle for normal day to day functions than my Girlfriends Android phone (note, I am a Linux desktop user by choice, so i'm hardly biased against Linux based stuff in general). eg: Perhaps you could explain what is supposed to be wrong with the email client, it works perfectly for me.
Because of this decision by Nokia, my next phone will probably be an Android, and therefore not a Nokia. Nokia lost my loyal custom with this decision (my last 5 phones were all Nokia/Symbian) and I suspect quite a few others will make the same decision.
Also, please remember the human cost. The developers who remain at Nokia may like the new tools, but a lot of people have been made redundant in Finland because of this decision, so I suspect the opinion of those developers that remain is coloured by a strong desire to tow the line and keep their jobs.
"Eric Raymond has stepped in to defend his open-source colleague"
I suspect that RMS would dispute the "open-source colleague" bit, since he hates the term open source and refuses to be associated with it in any way.
Personally, I agree with RMS that the walled garden that Apple has created is a really bad thing.
My primary problem here isn't with the proprietary/closed nature of the software, it's that fact that if I use an iPhone/iPad I can only obtain my software through Apple (who choose what is and is not allowed) and as a developer I can only sell through Apple and have to accept their terms. This is highly anti-competitive and i'm amazed that the anti-trust people haven't shut this down.
If I buy a car I can choose where to have it serviced and buy spare parts or accessories. Some actions may invalidate the warranty, but I can still choose to perform those actions if I want to because it is MY car. If your car refused to start because you had installed a new radio from a third party dealer, how would you feel? Would you accept this? I don't think anybody would and yet millions seem to accept this kind of behaviour from Apple without a single thought.
The problem with HTML 5 video isn't just down to the lack of a standard codec and DRM (assuming you agree with such technology). HTML 5 also fails to specify support for a video streaming protocol, without which HTML 5 is useless for any serious video application.
HTML 5 isn't going to work for Hulu because it doesn't specify support for streaming video protocols and trying to run a service like Hulu using http progressive downloads just isn't going to work. I also suspect that DRM isn't possible with HTML5. That rules out HTML 5 for the time being, so one way or the other, Apple are still going to be using a browser plugin or extension of some kind to deliver this service, unless they dump the web interface and push everything into iTunes.
Android apps are mostly written in Java (although because of the trademark issues they can't say that it is java), so Java is hardly dead.
I also agree with the above comment that HTML 5 doesn't exist yet. It is still a draft specification and is likely to remain so for some time. HTML 5 support in our products is turned off by default for this reason since we cannot guarantee the consistency of the end result.
The complexities of VAT vs sales tax are irrelevant. The main point about VAT from a collection point of view is that it is levied in the country where the business is located and paid to that government, no matter where the customer is. We sell EU (and worldwide) through our website, but the VAT is all collected at the UK rate and paid to the UK government on all sales within the EU. That way each state still gets to set it's own rate without making life difficult for the retailer.
I can't get Cable (I tried, they won't extend the network by the 20 feet necessary to cover the last two buildings on my road) and the satellite signal is blocked by surrounding tall trees (again I tried), so DTT is all I can get. However, the signal is weak, I find a booster to be essential even though I have my own external ariel. This needs to be blocked,Offcom shouldn't allow new services which have the potential to degrade existing ones.
"Media tablets are not PCs in IDC's taxonomy, and the processors inside them are not PC processors. I define a PC processor by the design intent of the manufacturer."
The original design intent of the ARM processor was for use in a PC, namely the Acorn Archimedes, and later the RISCPC. They were simply more successful selling to the embedded market where conformance to a specific chip type (ie x86) to run a specific OS (windows) wasn't a big deal.
Since when was PDF tied to A4 portrait? I was under the impression that PDF was designed to provide a consistent fixed document display across multiple platforms. It could easily be formatted to match a typical widescreen monitor.
Portrait is not a "legacy format". He also ignores the fact that there are good reasons why portrait is the best format for text (we've been using it for 100's, probably 1000's of years for a good reason), there is a limit to the length of line which the human eye can cope with, so the portrait format is ideal. Widescreen monitors are now the norm because of the economics of the screen manufacturing industry and because many people use their laptops as video players, so consumers demand widescreen. It has very little to do with what is actually best when it comes to reading written documents.
I don't think people ever bought quite in quite as random or uninformed a manner as Bon Jovi seems to imply. I rarely bought an album based on the jacket artwork, it was always an informed choice based on one of four things:
1) I liked and enjoyed previous work by the artist.
2) I had heard the song on the Radio prior to release, or a friend had played it too me.
3) I had listened to a part of the CD in store on one of a sample stations. (Or in earlier days on the in store record deck).
4) Reviews of the album in the press.
For me digital downloads simply make option 3 a bit easier, it doesn't really change anything else.
I suspect the CO2 cost of manufacturing can be largely ignored, it's probably about the same for both since the only practical difference between an electric car and a petrol one is the engine and fuel tank/battery. An electric engine is simpler than a petrol/diesel one but batteries are more complex than fuel tanks, so I suspect they roughly balance.
Now if you have a hybrid, which has both, then the CO2 cost is almost certainly higher.
I've been a loyal Nokia customer for 12 years. I love my Symbian phone and I actively chose it over Android because it had features I needed that Android didn't have (surprising though that may sound), although Android ran it very close. I never even considered a windows phone, there didn't seem to be much point. If Symbian is being dumped for WP7, then my next phone will be an Android, which won't come from Nokia.
To the best of my knowledge HTML5 does not require the browser to support streaming video protocols, so for any serious video application HTML5 video is essentially useless. Therefore while it may displace flash for some basic functions, it won't have much impact on the higher end and that is where Adobe make their money.
Yes, but they've probably got vans equipped with detectors driving about on non-collection days making sure that you haven't put the bin out on the wrong day handing out fines to people who do. So leaving the RFID on the curb side will probably get you an automated fine every week for this instead.
I can't see how this makes any difference, my choice of web browser only affects the security of my computer (and the network it is located on), so depending on which browser I use I may or may not end up with the latest malware/virus installing itself on my computer. If the malware gets in it doesn't really matter which web browser I use to access my online banking.
Chances are if i'm using opera/chrome for my day to day browsing, i'm going to continue to do so and only switch browsers (or use a user agent switcher) for the services which lock out my preferred browser. Therefore the chances that I might have a password stealing virus on my system are exactly the same no matter which browser I am forced to use for the online banking.
I have OVI maps on my E51 and it isn't free. They are only giving away the free version to people who have phones with a built in GPS receiver, if you have a bluetooth receiver (as I do) you still have to pay.
I also found that you need to re-download all of your maps, it dosn't like the map data used by Nokia Maps 2.0, once that is done it seems to be happy without an internet connection.
I hope this gets blocked further down the line. I don't work for Cadburys but I live next to the HQ in Bournville, Birmingham. Local jobs have already suffered worse than average in the recession. Now our most profitable and successful local business is going to be forced to make job cuts just to make profits for the the very people whose speculation caused the recession in the first place.
They seem to have dismissed hydrogen fuel cell technology as a 'someday' technology, even though the German car makers are gearing up to make test production runs of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles aimed at normal consumers. It seems to me that the authors information on this area of research is woefully out of date.
I realise i'm probably in a minority on this one, but I really hope that these changes aren't so hard wired into Firefox that they can't be switched off or reversed with extensions to restore the old interface design. I find the Chrome interface design to be ugly and inefficient. As a developer I need to get at menu options easily, this hide the menu bar things just makes my life more difficult. I also prefer to have separate windows rather than tabs, because I can easily move them about on my muitl-monitor desktop. One of the things I like about the current design is that if you don't want tabs you can easily hide the tab bar and change the default so that stuff opens in new windows. This new design looks to have made the tab bar a more permanent feature.
I've not got a problem with a new interface design being the default, I just want to be able to switch it off if it doesn't work for me.
The speeds being done by some of the Bikers going over the Llanberis pass last sunday were nothing short of frightening. For those who haven't been there, it's narrow (for an A road) and on a mountain ledge. The slightest mistake and you're either into the wall/cliff face or tumbling down a very steep slope. If the police want to catch dangerous bikers, this would be a great place to hang out, but i've never see a police officer there ever, obviously they are far too busy hassling the innocent elsewhere.
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