* Posts by JDX

6847 publicly visible posts • joined 28 May 2010

Microsoft puts something hard and sensitive in your pocket

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Microsoft relents: 'Go ahead, install Windows 8.1 on clean PCs'

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You realise for most users this is a non-issue... how many home users upgrade their OS? Only nerds and businesses are affected; nerds will easily manage and businesses work differently.

Apple beckons fanbois back into its golden era... of, er, 2010

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True but

a)That's not Apple's fault

b)No surprise developers stop supporting older versions when Apple won't let anyone install them

Perhaps app-developers will continue to develop for older iOS versions, or keep support alive longer, if there is a large enough userbase to make it worthwhile.

DARPA: You didn't think we could make a Mach 6 spaceplane, so let us have this MACH TEN job

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Re: Basic questions for DARPA projects

How much in the world of medicine has its roots in military R&D do you think?

Microsoft no longer a top Linux kernel contributor

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Bloaty?

Given that we're talking about the KERNEL here, not Linux as a whole, I'm genuinely interested what all these companies are changing all the time - why is the 2010 kernel not any good for 2013?

It's Grand Theft Auto 5 day: Any of you kids remember GTA the First?

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Re: No PC Version...

The future is clearly whatever platform developers develop for; it doesn't matter a damn how fancy it is. Wii is proof enough of that.

Bill Gates again world's richest, tops in US for 20th straight year

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Re: Food for thought

If you can afford food, housing and new cloths, plus (I assume) a computer and/or smartphone, by what metric are you under the poverty line?

Genuine question, not an attack.

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It is impossible to have a billion dollars without that fact in some way helping others.

Perhaps true but if we assume that $1bn existed already, concentrating it in one person's bank account is probably the least beneficial option.

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Re: still better at making it than giving it away

Maybe he's making it faster than he can give it away...

Apple to uncloak new iPads, iMacs at October 15 event?

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An updated iPad is nice news but not really big news, since they don't even number the iPad series themselves! iPad4 is already so damn fast too.

An updated iPad mini is probably the most interesting thing here, though I still expect it to be a repackaged iPad4.

Google cooks web dev teaching tool for Raspberry Pi

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Coder needs to be installed on an SD card and that card must be poked into a Pi.

Gee thanks for the tip that you have to plug the SD card in.

Paypal not sure if its bargepole is long enough for crowdfunding

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Re: "Never really seen the point of Pay Pal."

Just like a bank then.

You confuse the term 'point' with 'business model'. The point is to let people buy and sell stuff online, the business model is to make money off that.

From launch to orbit: The new commercial space pioneers

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Mars One

"Mars One is essentially an interplanetary mashup of X-Factor and Big Brother, with candidates being selected by web vid audiences and the whole mission being broadcast live 24/7."

No it isn't (my housemate is an applicant so I have a good source). While it does plan to be relaity TV, that's actually in this case simply showing 'real reality' on TV, not people acting like idiots for the camera. It's designed as a very serious colonisation mission - nobody would get to go purely on the public vote, the public would only influence which of the pre-screened people get to go on the arduous and very thorough training program, teaching them everything from medical skills to toilet management.

I personally don't think it's going to get anywhere, but please don't believe the sound-bites about this being "big brother in space" with all the negative connotations this implies. The people applying are physicists, nerds, etc, not loudly gay morons.

The future of PCIe: Get small, speed up, think outside the box

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simplicity ... helps developers ... reap the benefits of PCIe in small form-factor devices.

What are the benefits, specifically?

Microsoft announces iPad amnesty for fanbois

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Re: only going to cause more embarrassment ?

Yeah, a straight trade-in would actually make some sort of sense for RT tablets, and a big (like $500) voucher towards a Pro version.

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New business idea

MS are clearly getting into the used hardware market - they see a market to buy your iPad for $200 and sell it at $300-600.

Each refurbished iPad will make up for a few missed sales on Windows 8.

Nokia's 41Mp Lumia 1020 'launches' in UK - but hoi polloi must wait

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Presumably they paid enough in cash/promised promotion that they figure it offsets potential lost sales. Anyone who really wants one would probably consider switching networks so how many lost sales there really are might be hard to quantify.

Windows 8.1: Microsoft's reluctant upgrade has a split-screen personality

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For some reason it's supposed to be easier to open a search window

"it's supposed to be easier to open a search window, type "Firewall", and click "firewall" in the list, than to click the icon directly."

I think it is. Even on W7 I am doing this more and more for control panel stuff, and apps, since perusing to see exactly which sub-folder I put the icon in is rather boring.

It's not a "search window (on 8.0 anyway). Even on W7 Hit Windows-Key and type "fire", this is much quicker than start->control panel->wheverever-it-is

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Newly installed apps hidden

That sounds terrible for non-savvy users (i.e. the bulk of users). Just how hidden are things - more detail from anyone else who tried it?

ZTE Open: This dirt-cheap smartphone is a swing and a miss

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Re: Underpowered hardware doesn't mean the OS is shit....

Read the mini-review from the persona above you, they said Android is better on equally crap hardware.

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RTFA, it's an 80quid phone being compared to an 800quid phone, FFS.

No it isn't. The article makes it quite clear it sucks in general. The article compares it to an iPhone 1!

It sounds from the article like an $80 Android phone would be a better choice, which is of course the worst thing. And remember the Nokia Lumia 510 received favourable reviews but is in a a similar price bracket albeit not quite as cheap).

TWO can play this 64-bit mobile game, says Samsung, crossly

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By doing this...

... Samsung simply lend weight to Apple's claim that a 64-bit processor is something to boast about.

Zuck off, Zuck: Brit duo's JustDelete.Me nukes clingy web accounts

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Why would anyone use their real credentials on these sites?

Ever heard the phrase "garbage in, garbage out"? The entire point of networking sites is that people who know you can find you. I can't be bothered keeping track of who "minni mouse" is in real life, and matching online accounts to real life people is the whole point, unlike forums like these.

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Re: Impossible sites?

BEing banned isn't the same as having your account deleted.

Moving from permie to mercenary? Avoid a fine - listen to Ben Franklin

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They claim each contract is independently viewed as inside/outside, but you'd have to assume in reality it sends a clear signal you aren't someone to bother investigating!

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I pay my taxes happily because it's a moral obligation

You are flat out, 100%, absolutely wrong. It's a legal obligation. If they reduced the tax rate 5% you wouldn't feel morally obligated to still pay the same amount you do now, would you?

Being outside IR35 is not about not paying tax. You pay 20% off the top as company tax, then you pay tax on dividends as well. Being inside IR35, you pay employee NI AND employer NI AND income tax... way more tax than an employee earning the same amount would do.

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Re: Looks up, checks calendar.

The HMRC business tests were introduced last year. IR35 is something the tories said they'd scrap but didn't.

It's still a current issue.

Massively leaked iFail 5S POUNDS pundits, EXCITES chavs

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No need for revolution

If you have a good product, gradual refinements are just fine. iP5 already nailed the design side of things and has all the features most people - or at least Apple customers - want. So up the spec and what else is needed? It's a sleek little box with a powerful CPU/GPU inside, arguably the most powerful on the market (this month).

Look at the Porsche 911. It's not to everybody's taste but it keeps on selling.

iPhone 5S: Apple, you're BORING us to DEATH (And you too, Samsung)

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Maybe smartphones now do everything we need from them. In which case companies can seek to differentiate based on price, build quality, style, etc rather than some sort of feature arms race. A bit like most other things you buy in fact. Look at a small car - you have loads of choices but they are broadly similar. Some models target low price, some are way more expensive and focus on being a premium model, the rest sit somewhere in the middle.

Nothing wrong with Apple focusing on the premium end - the Fiat 500 - while other focus on attracting more techy users wanting to tweak their phone, or capturing the poorer end of the market.

Facebook stock-spaffers officially LOSERS: Stock hits all-time high of $45

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Re: How the hell

Some adverts and "a few servers"?

FB has the same 'population' as China.

Also your comparison makes no sense... "worth more than the GDP of hundreds of countries". That makes it sound like FB is worth more than those countries, but a country is worth WAAAY more than it's GDP, just as FB's value is far more than it's turnover.

You thought NFC tags were Not For Consumers? Well, they're in Maplin's

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So that saves you about 5s each time, from manually setting the profile?

I genuinely applaud the nerdiness, but not so sure it really solves a problem.

iPhone 5S: Fanbois, your prints are safe from the NSA, claim infosec bods

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Boring

As it says, this has been on laptops for ages.

More relevant is the point about airport security - surely anyone travelling on an internation flight in the last few years has been fingerprinted in some way. It's been a while but don't they routinely check fingerprints and retina scans?

I remember I got taken into a small room because my prints didn't match - due to playing guitar I think.

Modular smartphones floated by Dutch designer chap

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Re: No

They are computers, for once the press is right. The fact they're not USED as PCs is the key.

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Re: Love the idea.

Can't you buy a "phone chip" to plug in to a Pi?

Apple’s iOS 64-bit iUpgrade: Don't expect a 2x performance leap

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iOS-based laptops?

Seems a bit of a stretch to conjecture that simply because iOS and OSX moved to 64-bit, they plan to release iOS laptops. Maybe Apple just like 64-bit.

Intel reveals new Haswell-based Chrome OS kit from old, new partners

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Why Intel?

Wouldn't it make more sense for a ChromeOS PC to use ARM? You don't need blazing extreme CPU power, and battery life is always cool. Or do they reckon the newest Intel chips are on a par for power usage?

Torvalds suggests poison and sabotage for ARM SoC designers

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Re: @ Destroy All Monsters

The movies portray nerds that way because it's often accurate. How many IT administrators become jumped up little twerps because of the power they have? Linus is hardly unique, except that most nerds don't get into the public view until they've had some of the rough edges knocked off through having to work with other people in order to become important.

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Re: Puerile

From mine, you don't know what "puerile" means and your post is just the equivalent of "no YOU are".

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Re: Another "spoilt child stampie footie session"

Being good at something doesn't make you a role model.

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What is this cuddly namby-pamby world where employers are supposed to care about their employees? (any more than one person should care about another person to start with I mean) I want you motivated and to feel valued if your work is valuable, I don't want to have "company hug time".

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Re: I think people who can't distinguish

Regardless if it's easy to tell he doesn't really mean it literally, it's still a stupid thing to say. Call it a ****ing stupid idea and the people who run it total ****wits, if you must be such an attention seeker.

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I invariably find his unabashed hyperbole ... refreshingly honest

I don't see it's refreshing, it's exactly how programmers are stereotyped as behaving in movies - arrogant anti-social nerds.

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sometimes measures like this are needed to make a point

I'm sure terrorists often use similar arguments... some causes are worth blowing up the odd building for.

For PITY'S SAKE, DON'T BUY an iPHONE 5S, begs FSF

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an instant, convenient large database of fingerprints

Surely the same principles as passwords apply here - you don't store the actual fingerprint, only a way to verify it.

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Blah blah blah

Nobody who buys into the FSF has an iPhone, those like to buy an iPhone couldn't care less about what the FSF has to say.

This is nothing more than one group trying to get publicity of another's launch.

Intel reveals 14nm PC, declares Moore's Law 'alive and well'

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Cut the Rope

What a way to demo a breakthough in CPU progress, playing a dumb game that will run on a 3rd hand smartphone. Did they not want demo it doing anything more taxing in case it broke?

Apple ships new iPods in 'SPAAAAACE ... Gray'

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iPod Classic doomed?

Or is it simply going to languish for years, available but poorly promoted, like the Mac Pro - niche but not worth killing off?

New iPhones: C certainly DOESN'T stand for 'Cheap'

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Re: ah yes

As opposed to other flagship phones, which have added dozens of ground-breaking features? No, I thought not.

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Question to developers

I've been tinkering with iOS development using iOS 6 SDK, XCode 4.x, OSX 10.8 on a fairly old unibody MacBook.

How will developing/releasing apps be affected by iOS7 - will I have to upgrade XCode (which requires the new OS) to be allowed to release apps now or can I still build against the iOS 6 SDK as before? I'm not sure my Mac will even support Mavericks...

James Bond's Lotus Esprit submarine car sells for £550,000

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Re: This prop used to live ...

So you never read a novel, watch a film, play a computer game? Yet you do spend time posting on internet forums, you sad little troll.