* Posts by RyokuMas

1913 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Oct 2009

In three hours, Microsoft gave the Windows-verse everything it needed

RyokuMas
Facepalm

Re: Clueless

Jesus, who downvotes someone for wanting to check something out? Has Eadon gotten back on here?

RyokuMas
Paris Hilton

Two steps forward...

"Finally, at long last, developers can use "90 per cent" (its figure) of the same code base to create Universal Windows apps for Windows Phone, RT, desktop Windows and now Xbox."

You mean just like they could when XNA was still a supported architecture? Let's see some official endorsement and support for Monogame on the XBone, Microsoft!

(yes, I know there was no RT in XNA times... but there was Zune, which was just about as popular...)

RyokuMas

Re: I hate to bang on about this AGAIN

"And that you can build your app using HTML and JavaScript instead of .Net?"

But would you want to? For me, there are a few things that I've yet to see Javascript do well enough for my liking. Little things like, ooooh, readable code, inheritance, interfaces...

RyokuMas
Trollface

Re: Lots more than that -

WinJS, javascript interfaces to the Windows API, who cares?

FTFY :)

RyokuMas

Re: Clueless

"Wanna code iOS/OSX? Objective C and XCode.

Wanna code Android? Eclipse/ADT"

Wanna write for pretty much anything? Use C# and Xamarin, and only worry about maintaining a single code base with some very minor tweaks for how the underlying system behaves (eg: handling an incoming call on mobile).

I can now take a game that I've developed on one mobile platform (usually Windows Phone as I prefer Visual Studio to Xamarin Studio), and go from "new Android Project" to "running game requiring a bit of plumbing work (ie: call handling)" in under an hour.

RyokuMas
Pint

Re: Too little too late? don't be preposterous!

Have an upvote (should be +100) and a Friday beer for a being a voice of reason among the bile that is so often thrown back and forth between the rival camps on these forums. Hat's off to you, sir!

Titanfall pits man against machine, Kiefer Sutherland Snakes into Metal Gear Solid V

RyokuMas
FAIL

No single player game...

... equals "always-on internet connection". Call me a tinfoil-hatter, but that's scarily close to always-on DRM - plus the AAA studios don't have to waste allocate resources on the content and story required by a single player campaign... brilliant!

Now all they need to do is find a way to further monetise... maybe "buy training to use the super-duper rifle in your next game for only £5, or allocate two days training time (during which you cannot play at all)".

... plus I really, really love settling in to play a game I've just spent £60 on, only to be ganked repeatedly by someone who has already been playing for some time within five seconds of starting.

Sod that. Less visuals, more fun please!

Is Google really mulling building a US cellphone network? Allegedly, yes

RyokuMas
Black Helicopters

Re: Open Strategy

My money's on option 2... no big business does anything purely for altruism

Nokia: ALL our Windows Phone 8 Lumias will get a cool 8.1 boost

RyokuMas
FAIL

"Fantastic new for all 23 owners of the handsets."

Wow, the same old wisecrack being wheeled out again, and not quickly enough to make first post...

... and this coming from the same group who accuse Microsoft of lack of innovation!

Is this photo PROOF a Windows 7 Start Menu is coming back?

RyokuMas
Paris Hilton

Re: Still doesn't look as usable

"Are people so quick to hate that they'll agree with any old nonsense?"

@bigphil9009 - unfortunately, if it's Microsoft, then the answer will always be a big, fat "yes" - there's too many people who've been burned by them and can't let it go. Plus you'll always have the anti-microsoft zealots who will use any excuse to take a pop.

Samsung unveils fourth-generation Galaxy Tabs

RyokuMas
Facepalm

Great...

... yet another device to worry about when testing...

BT befriends Google's lonely TV dongle – and saves YouView

RyokuMas
Mushroom

BT and Google in bed together???

Next stop: halfway through a call, you're interrupted by an automated advert. Google have been listening to and analysing your call, and have determined that these products might interest you...

In fact, part of me is surprised that Google-based Android doesn't already do this in some capacity...

When big biz is forced to compete: Now Microsoft latest to cut cloud prices

RyokuMas
Facepalm

Of course they all want us on the cloud...

... easier to scan our data that way.

That's it, we're all really OLD: Google's Gmail is 10 ALREADY

RyokuMas
Meh

It has its uses...

Every time I need to set up a throw-away testing account, or sign up for something which might cause me to receive a deluge of shitemail - Gmail every time!

Google asks April Fools: Want a job? Be our 'Pokemon Master'

RyokuMas
Trollface

Gotta track 'em all...

"The company said... that it would be adding the Pokemon-tracking functionality"

And why not? After all, they track everything else!

Boss at 'Microsoft' scam support biz told to cough £000s in comp

RyokuMas
Facepalm

"From Luton" - surprise! (NOT!)

Luton always makes me think of Star Wars: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy".

... in fact, I reckon that the only reason that Betjeman wrote "Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough" was because he hadn't heard of Luton.

Candy Crush King sees IPO go sour as stock price heads south

RyokuMas
Devil

Hopefully King's Waterloo moment

As an indie game developer with a sense of ethics, nothing would please me more than to see this pack of thieves ruined. Hopefully this is the beginning of a rapid decline into obscurity for King.

Unfortunately, there will always be someone equally greedy willing to step in and take their place.

Hey frumious Reg gamers: BANG-or-SNATCH? We look at Second Son and Thief

RyokuMas

Looks gorgeous...

... bet your life that the actual gameplay will be formulaic and rapidly very boring

Microsoft frisks yet another Android gear maker for patent dosh

RyokuMas
Stop

"you finance the corrupt Redmond empire"

How is Microsoft any more corrupt than any other big corporate player? The only difference is that Microsoft have been caught on various occasions.

There are much more pressing issues at stake here - like the total erosion of privacy. How about a class action against any organisation that provides a public email service and then reads said emails?

RyokuMas
FAIL

Re: Dell does build Android slabs

Better "do be evil" than "do be boring"

It's 2014 and you can pwn a PC by opening a .RTF in Word, Outlook

RyokuMas
FAIL

It's 2014...

... and el Reg appear to be using a script to generate headlines about Windows vulnerabilities.

I'm tolerant. I can deal with the fact that this might not have been spotted in the mound of code-upon-code that probably underpins Word by now (I know all to well that greenfields projects just don't happen).

... but to have known about something this serious for over a month and not done anything? Poor show.

Android update process gives malware a leg-up to evil: Indiana U

RyokuMas
Pint

Re: @the Anonymous Swiss Cheese connaisseur

"Maybe paying 1$ for official version of some app is not that stupid when cracked versions exist ?"

Where's the +100 button when you need one?

If I were wearing my hat right now, I'd take it off to you!

Hey, Glasshole: That cool app? It has turned you into a SPY DRONE

RyokuMas
Devil

Not an "undocumented feature"...

"Yep, that's a security flaw. Definitely not an undocumented feature. No, Google never spotted this, thanks for pointing it out before we went live. No, we never realised that it was possible to have the Glass snoop on everything its user sees without them knowing..."

...

...

...

... "right, the press has gone. Back to the drawing board lads - and see if you can sort out that battery drain too, it's a dead giveaway..."

Reg tries out Google's Chromecast: Yep, we even tested smut sites

RyokuMas
Stop

Next stop...

Adverts a la Youtube: "You're watching [blah] - Google recommends [blah that someone has paid to advertise over your blah]"

... although watching Chromecast through Google Glass could make for some interesting data farming feedback looping... :)

Google wearables: A solution looking for a rich nerd

RyokuMas
Stop

Re: Waste of time waiting

"Where is Glass in the UK"

Probably waiting while Google's laywers scrabble through EU legislation for loopholes against cases of photographing and retention of images without permission...

Nokia tries to lure Android porters with free Nokia X mobes

RyokuMas

Re: How hard to port?

The four games I've got out on Android so far all pass the online checker test that Nokia offer with no changes - and that's with Admob.

Guess I'll find out for certain when I can actually get a handset to test on. But end of the day, it's another potential market, so why not?

Crap flap-app flap chap yaps: Yes, FLAPPY BIRD is comin' back

RyokuMas
Devil

Oh, what a surprise...

Spot the carefully played P.R. stunt! Although I'm now sniggering at the thought of all those ebay buyers who paid thousands for a phone with Flappy on it.

I look forward to when the world has forgotten about this crap and we can get a bit more sense back into the app marketplaces - it's bad enough as it is with all the shovelware and fart apps...

Xenon: Bitmap Brothers' (mega)blast from the past

RyokuMas
Pint

Re: Booted up Xenon 2 and

It was the "men in suits" that stagnated games: as I've said before, the Llamatron readme says it best.

All hail Jeff Minter!

RyokuMas
Facepalm

Re: @ RyokuMas

Whoops! My bad, misread it!

RyokuMas
Thumb Up

Before the Cult of Clean Code...

Only problems with Xenon 2 were that it was too easy with an autofire stick, and the ending sucked!

The ST/Amiga era was a very special time for me, and for coding in general - the days when processor power was measured in KHz, and coding was all about squeezing as much performance as humanly possible out of the machine.

Xenon, Speedball, Gods, Magic Pockets, The Chaos Engine, Cadaver... fond memories from a time before AAA games really existed.

Call me an aging code hack, but I still yearn for the days when games were fun, rather than formulaic.

RyokuMas

Re: Early hardware modding for Xenon II on the ST

"Reminds me that my brother did a mod on one of our joysticks to upgrade the auto-fire to 255 shots per second"

... or you could just switch on the autofire switch that most sticks of the era seemed to have :)

RyokuMas
Headmaster

Re: Konami inspiration

R-Type was Irem, not Konami :)

/arcadepedant

Hidden 'Windigo' UNIX ZOMBIES are EVERYWHERE

RyokuMas
Meh

The devil's in the detail

"...exploits poor configuration and security controls, rather than a vulnerability in Linux or OpenSSH"

No matter how secure you make a system, the greatest security flaw is between the keyboard and the chair.

... although I'm guessing this won't stop some of the Windows faithful from gloating.

Google slams Play Store password window shut after sueball hits

RyokuMas
Unhappy

Race to the bottom...

The problem is that the current model is broken throughout. Too many consumers want something for nothing, which has fueled the rise of the IAP model - indies are forced to adopt it as there are usually loads of "free" alternatives to their app, so releasing a paid-only version is suicidal, while big studios treat it as a licence to print money - hook them with free stuff, then switch them into paying.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if both free apps and IAP were banned (apart from say free trial, paid full version) - I firmly believe that this would benefit the end consumer as the focus would shift more to quality rather than quantity as only decent apps would make money.

Of course, this could never happen without doing something to tackle the Android piracy problem...

Win XP holdouts storm eBay and licence brokers, hiss: Give us all your Windows 7

RyokuMas
Facepalm

Re: Maybe I'm missing something here...

"But the target user of Win8 isn't."

So basically, it's mostly down to the UI, Microsoft's insistence on trying to prioritise Metro, and people not thinking to click on the "desktop" tile when their PC first boots?

... not that this would surprise me - I've got more than a couple of low-scoring reviews for my games where the platyer has left a comment starting with "crap controls!" - then goes on to show that they never bothered calibrating said controls, despite the fact that the game walks you through the process the first time you play it...

RyokuMas
Thumb Up

Re: Maybe I'm missing something here...

"Seriously? You've never seen anyone on El Reg or elsewhere explain (often at great, frustrated length) why they don't like Win8?"

I've seen plenty of "Metro is horrible" (which I agree with!) and "What no start button?" posts. I've also seen a shedload of "It's crap because it's Microsoft" posts.

I'm interested in technical reasons. So no, not a troll. Although I can't blame you for suspecting...

RyokuMas
Paris Hilton

Maybe I'm missing something here...

This is a question asked out of genuine curiosity - what exactly is it people find so bad about Windows 8?

Surely it can't be all about Metro and the lack of start menu? Or do I use Windows in a fundamentally different way to everyone else, with shortcuts to pretty much everything I use on my desktop?

Metro is horrible, I agree. But I have one tile on my metro interface - "desktop". And the first thing that I do when my laptop boots up is hit WindowsKey-D, so even that doesn't get used. On average, I'm looking at the Metro UI screen for a couple of seconds.

Start menu? Yeah, it's handy, but I used it about as regularly as I use the Metro UI, even for previous versions of Windows.

Now, I fully expect there to be the usual problems and patches that accompanies any Windows version - but Win8 does have various improvements under the hood to improve security etc. And on balance, I'm willing to look at a horrible UI for all of two seconds and every once in a blue moon (ie: when I would have used the start menu) faff about trying to find what I want in order to a) continue developing what I'm working on and b) do so in a more secure environment.

So am I missing the point? Is it that the vast majority of people use the start menu on a daily basis? Are they forced to use the Metro UI to get at the tools they normally use, and I don't use these tools? Is it some other feature that I just plain don't use?

Can someone explain this to me?

Mozilla takes Windows 8-friendly Firefox out back ... two shots heard

RyokuMas
Meh

Got to admit...

... the only feature in Metro I ever find myself using is the WindowsKey-D shortcut...

Brussels' antitrust boss not budging on planned Google competition deal

RyokuMas

Re: lets see..

@AC "let's see" :"nobody ever gets forced to go to Google"

Get a new computer or tablet and fire up a web browser, or download one from the web. Fire up the built-in search bar, or even simply type something that isn't a url into the address bar. What's the search engine that gets fired up?

(hint - it's Google)

Go to the website of virtually any major company and view the source. Find the section that provides tracking and analytics information scripts. What's the one that's always there?

(hint - it's Google)

Your analogies are ridiculous. Nobody ever got forced to go with Internet Explorer back in the browser wars - or even to use Windows - yet there was still the huge antitrust case of "oh, Microsoft are forcing us to use IE". Wrong. It was just what the computer was bundled with, and there was no mention made of the fact that other browsers were available.

... sounding familiar yet?

Moreover, the Ford/Coke analogies fall down in that Ford only want to sell cars. Coke only want to sell soft drinks. On the other hand, Google want to tell us what to buy (advertising), where to buy it (search), and that they can provide it cheaper (wallet). They want to know about every aspect of our lives (analytics), who we talk to (gmail, android), what we watch (youtube), where we are and where we go(maps, streetview) and even the things we see (glass).

If Ford wanted to know the details of every journey I made, or Coke wanted to know every shop I personally bought a can of drink at, I'd be worried about that.

Codeplex had a link to a good article on this - a bit tongue in cheek perhaps, but still backed up by various sources.

RyokuMas
Black Helicopters

Re: Secret operational note ..

"Tell me how in any way am I compelled to use Google Search?"

But it's not just Google search. It's Google analytics - pretty much a "must-have" for any company that wants to maintain its presence on Google's search rankings. Yes, those of us with the technical know-how can block this. But the average person on the street, who may now choose not to use Google search, is still likely to unwittingly be transmitting data to Google - even more so if they have an Android-based phone.

Without technical knowledge that the vast majority of people do not currently have, it's almost impossible to use the web and not have Google watching over your shoulder. This attitude flies directly in the face of the "do no evil" mantra, and Google have the power to be a lot more evil than Microsoft ever were. This is nothing to do with preference (personally, I dislike and distrust all large corporate bodies), it's simply a matter of scale - thanks to the rise of internet on mobile devices, Google can influence a lot more people.

I used to think that the European Commission was simply a means for the fat cats to ensure they stay fat - now I'm wondering how much of it is a mechanism put in place by big business to ensure that national governments are hamstrung against them...

Microsoft gives away Windows Phone 8 licences in India – report

RyokuMas
Thumb Up

Makes good sense - in terms of download counts, India has second or third highest total for my WinPhone games.

Also, from what I understand, in India "Nokia" is almost synonymous with "mobile phone", like "hoover" and vaccuum cleaner here, so it makes sense for Microsoft to try and more Windows Phones out there: all it takes is the realisation that while a "Nokia" might be outside budget, local brand X is affordable and works exactly the same...

Of course, the Google apologists will chalk it up as "desperation" and any number of other negatives to downplay the move.

Time will tell.

UK's CASH POINTS to MISS Windows XP withdrawal date

RyokuMas
Trollface

Re: "realised the capital cost of paying for the existing ATMs"

"The only reason we even put them in is the convenience of our clients - so that they can do banking after hours...."

The only reason we even put them in is so we can lay off more front-desk staff and incorporate the money that would have been used for their salary into our executive bonuses fund...

FTFY

You thought it was dead – but Flappy Bird may return: Millions prepare to poke own eyes out

RyokuMas
FAIL

"Flappy birdman plans three new games..."

... which translates to about 3000 clones and a flood of shite in all the app stores. Time to check my release schedule again to avoid the clashes!

It's 2014 and Microsoft Windows PCs can still be owned by a JPEG

RyokuMas

Bash, bash, bash...

I especially like the way the headline is all about screaming at how vulnerable Windows PCs are (bonus points for getting "Microsoft" in there, and for not mentioning which versions), and then at the bottom, almost as an afterthought: "Oh, and Adobe released a fix too for a cross-OS vulnerability".

Personally, I believe that there's no such thing as a vulnerability-free system. However, it's very easy to target the runaway market majority holder, especially when they've traditionally painted a bulls-eye on their forehead. And yes, it would be a lot better if patches were released as soon as possible.

But this is just patch Tuesday. It's the way Microsoft have decided to do things as a corporation, and it's been that way for ages. No need to make a fuss.

Wanna make 15 bucks? Assimilate someone into the Google Apps BORG

RyokuMas

I'd be a hypocrite....

... if I said anything about supplying Google with credit card information, since I have done just that to get my Android games onto Play.

However - bribing people to use their stuff? Sounds on a par with Microsoft paying people to port apps to WinPhone.

As has been mentioned before, it's a case of scale - and unfortunately, Google has a far wider reach to spread their brand of evil that anyone else right now.

SACRILEGE! Hitchhiker's Guide game's back ... and it TWEETS at you

RyokuMas
Stop

When games with spoon-fed gameplay came along...

"...before falling out of fashion when games with proper graphics came along."

Give me a text adventure with some substance rather than these massive glorified cut-scenes that AAA titles have become, any day.

Google facing $5 BEEELLION antitrust fine in India

RyokuMas
Black Helicopters

Re: Breaking Google Up!

So basically, you're saying that Google now has more power that the governments of entire countries?

An unelected, profit-focused organisation that is based on the premise of mining as much information about everything and everyone can wield more power that the body of people (democratically elected or otherwise) that make the laws which determine society works?

How the hell is anyone not scared by this? Compared to this, the browser wars thing was nothing more than a storm in a teacup!

Murdoch dumps Microsoft, prepares to Hangout with Google

RyokuMas
Coat

Re: Well, that screws...

Interesting... I get plenty of downvotes here for accusing Google of being evil on a par with Murdoch, yet when I comment here about how dangerous the amount of power Google has over our data from pre-cradle to grave I get upvoted...

Either people need to make up their minds over some things, or someone out there is running scripts to auto-downvote anything that accuses Google of being evil...

RyokuMas
WTF?

Re: Well, that screws...

"Yes, the slime bag IS that bad."

Which one?

Google's "Don't be evil" has been screwed for ages - between Murdoch's phone hacking escapades and Google's email reading for profiling purposes, this is more like a match made in hell than a priest hiding satan.

Triple-headed NHS privacy scare after hospital data reach marketers, Google

RyokuMas
Black Helicopters

Healthcare information stored on Google?

Well, shit. Welcome to Google Britain! As of now, we are part of the collective - every mother-to-be's records will be on Google, ergo Google will have complete records on every child from before they're even born.

Add this to Google glass - probably with an addition of transmitting audio as well as visual data back to base - and we're watched, monitored and profiled from cradle to grave, with Google in a position to push us onto whatever path they choose.

This kind of power is dangerous beyond the comprehension of most and needs to be broken before it's too late - if it isn't already.