* Posts by Buzzword

1030 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Jun 2010

Barclays warns freelance techies of DOUBLE DIGIT rate cut

Buzzword

Re: Banks don't understand IT staff

If it's their third time trying this on in as many years, then they've presumably realised that they can indeed get away with it.

Roll up, roll up for the Reg Readers' Ball

Buzzword

Only if...

I'm only coming if "aManFromMars" comes too. I'm sure he (or she) is quite eloquent in real life.

RSA booked TV's Stephen Colbert to give the final speech. This is what happened next

Buzzword

"This is what happened next."

Christ, since when did El Reg turn into Upworthy-style click-bait?

Java or .NET bod in the Midlands? Congrats - you've got a DOUBLE DIGIT payrise

Buzzword

If I were a central banker...

... I'd be worried now. Pay rises show up soonest in high-turnover job markets, of which IT contractors are the prime example. They really ought to be raising interest rates by now. It'll never happen though.

Volvo tries to KILL SHOPPING with to-your-car Roam Delivery

Buzzword

Good idea for low-value items

Sounds like a decent plan to me, at least for fairly low-value goods. You can order your pet food online and have it delivered to your parked car (either at work or at home). You don't have to be present to open the door, and the delivery driver doesn't have to wait around for you to turn up. Obviously you wouldn't order a new MacBook this way, nor any frozen or refrigerated items, but for sub-£100 dry goods it's a neat idea.

Toshiba Encore: The Windows 8.1 tablet that might catch on

Buzzword

Better spec than many laptops

"It may only have a resolution of 1280 x 800"

- That's still 32 vertical pixels more than the usual rubbish x 768 laptops we see. And a solid state drive, all for only £299. Impressive.

Ignore the pie-in-the-sky storage roadmaps. This is what's REALLY afoot

Buzzword

Do you buy a new wardrobe when you have too many clothes?

Just get your users to clean up their data from time to time. Their own productivity will improve as they learn to chuck out useless info and only keep the important stuff; and you'll spend far less on storage costs.

This week the IT guys presented me with a (proposed) massive bill for new storage hardware, based on the fact that the current disks were 91% full. After a couple of hours of deleting redundant data, it was down to 35% full.

Just as we would throw away old clothes (or put them in a box in the attic), we should make more effort to throw away old data. If you keep buying new wardrobes for your end users, and not charging for them, then no wonder they just keep filling up.

WD My Cloud EX4 four-bay NAS

Buzzword

Comparison with "real" servers

If you shell out for a real server, you're going to have considerably higher power costs. A NAS, particularly one powered by a Marvell CPU, will consume much less power than a full-blown server. A Dell PowerEdge server uses 250W, whereas this WD My Cloud EX4 uses around 30W. In a single year the Dell will cost you £320 in 'leccy, compared with just £40 for the WD device.

As for the commenter above who suggested Windows Server 2012 would be suitable, may I gently point out that it isn't cheap either. I can't make head or tail of Microsoft's pricing system, but it looks like the software alone would blow your budget out of the water. Sure, there are Linux versions available, but if you're billing clients by the hour and you value your free time, you might prefer something that works out of the box.

Credit card of PayPal PRESIDENT cloned by UK crooks

Buzzword

Any business where you hand your card over to somebody is vulnerable. When your friendly waiter takes your card and inserts it in the chip-and-pin terminal, you're unlikely to spot him surreptitiously scanning it through a dodgy mag-stripe reader hidden underneath. That's all it takes.

The real question is where did the crims manage to use the information gleaned from the stripe? Pretty much everywhere requires chip-and-pin these days.

Apple's iTunes 'n' App Store rakes in half the mazuma of Google's ENTIRE core business

Buzzword

Re: Music in decline?

You misunderstand. The green block at the bottom of the Apple chart, labelled "music gross revenues", has clearly shrunk in recent quarters. Reading off the graph, music sales appear to have fallen by over 50% in the most recent quarter compared with their peak in Q3 2012.

Buzzword

Music in decline?

It certainly looks that way. Spotify and other subscription streaming services are having a major impact on iTunes-style download-and-keep sales.

Google invades videoconferencing market with Chromebox for Meetings

Buzzword

Pareto-optimal

Video just doesn't add much value to a tele-conference. Seeing other people's faces is actually quite distracting.

Screen-sharing does add value. For that it's better to be at your desk and at your computer, rather than in a dedicated conference room.

Voice quality is another issue - people in video-conferencing rooms forget that they still need to speak into the microphone, and the sound ends up worse.

2014 will be the year of video-conferencing, just like it will be the year of Linux on the desktop.

Hands up if you have one good reason to port enterprise apps to ARM

Buzzword

Managed code

Chances are your server code is written in an interpreted language anyway. Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby - as long as there's an engine your apps should just work.

Duracell powers into cloud storage market

Buzzword

Local cache

Obviously with the box and claims of higher speeds, it's just a local cloud cache. Nothing fancy about the hardware; so presumably there's some clever software deciding what to cache. Nevertheless, there's no such thing as unlimited storage - they'll have to impose limits eventually.

Twitter avoids IP face-off with Big Blue, will buy 900 IBM patents

Buzzword

Patent madness

Goes without saying, but it's quite ridiculous that a service which does nothing but replicate SMS messaging (est. 1992) should require any patents.

Give hackers your data, says former RSA man

Buzzword

Social media should do this too!

The likes of Twitter and Facebook need to implement this ASAP. Imagine hacking into somebody's social media account only to be faced with meaningless drivel....

Facebook app now reads your smartphone's text messages? THE TRUTH

Buzzword

iOS?

"We saw a similar cycle last year over iOS read/write permissions"

I can't find any more information on this. What's the app privacy situation on iOS?

Mobe industry quails as Ofcom floats idea of QUADRUPLING 2G spectrum prices

Buzzword

Re: Of course costs multiply

Nope, not at all. If you're a crisp company and the cost of one of your inputs (potatoes) rises, why should the cost of your other inputs (sunflower oil, marketing) also rise? If anything, the CEO tells everyone we've had a tough year and there'll be no salary increase for marketing this year because the rising cost of potatoes wiped out our profits.

Buzzword

"this sum multiplies by the time it's passed down onto consumers"

In a competitive market, it shouldn't multiply at all.

Facebook will LOSE 80% of its users by 2017 – epidemiological study

Buzzword

They're all on mobile

More and more people are accessing Facebook via their mobile app, not via the desktop, so their accesses wouldn't show up in Google's logs.

Not even 1.4m users can save 4Chan founder Chris Poole's startup

Buzzword

Dear Reg,

Perhaps next time the article could provide some clues as to what DrawQuest actually was?

Microsoft empties a can of BUG SPRAY on Visual Studio 2013, hands sticky result to devs

Buzzword

Re: DID THEY FIX THE ALL-CAPS MENUS, YET?

Why the six downvotes? There really is a very simple fix for the all-caps menus, it took me all of three seconds to Google it.

Buzzword

Re: DID THEY FIX THE ALL-CAPS MENUS, YET?

There's an easy fix if you can be bothered to search online for it.

I'm in: Peter 'Dragons' Den' Jones launches bid to buy out Expansys

Buzzword

What's their USP ?

Fifteen years ago, Expansys offered products not available elsewhere, at reasonable prices. Today they just sell the same stuff as Amazon and hundreds of others, without anything to distinguish them.

Cocky Spotify drops time limits on free listening, skint music-lovers cheer

Buzzword

Self-advertising

At the moment, all the adverts are for Spotify Premium.

Parisian cabbies smash up Uber-booked rival ride

Buzzword

Re: Most Valuable Single Asset.

Yes, it's the same principle as in New York. A Parisian medallion costs € 200,000 - € 250,000 so obviously the drivers need high fares to recoup the cost. The government could lower the cost of medallions (and hence lower fares) by issuing more medallions, but it chooses not to, because it would anger existing cab drivers.

A medallion is not a natural asset. It only exists thanks to government rules. In Britain we have a similar situation with planning permission: it's a piece of paper issued by the government which is only valuable because the government restricts their numbers. If the government issued more of these pieces of paper, their cost would go down and we'd have cheaper housing; but they choose not to, because it would anger existing home owners.

Use strong passwords and install antivirus, mmkay? UK.gov pushes awareness campaign

Buzzword

Not just online

"if an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is"

That's a lesson that applies just as much in the real world.

Light, fast ... and pricey: Toshiba's Portégé Z30 – now THIS is an Ultrabook

Buzzword

Even 1600 x 900 would be acceptable; but not 1366 x 768, not at this price.

Citrix counters Amazon's ambush of virtual desks with Framehawk gobble

Buzzword

Re: Is this really new?

Fair point. I just wish they wouldn't claim to have invented the wheel.

Buzzword

Is this really new?

"This architecture introduces an active 'fire break' between the public mobile networks and sensitive enterprise content because there is simply no means for the mobile device to access raw secure data,"

How exactly is this different to Remote Desktop, VNC, X Windows, etc?

You... (Sigh). You store our financials in a 'Clowds4U' account?

Buzzword

For many users it doesn't even occur to them to ask IT if it's ok to install or use a particular piece of software. If they can BYOD they assume they can BYOS too.

Pre-Xmas phone numbers: Apple slips, Windows Phone grabs 1 in 10 new sales

Buzzword

Apple grabs 9 in 10 used sales

Apple's fiercest competitor is itself: people don't always buy the latest and shiniest new iPhone 5S because they can pick up a two year old iPhone 4S second hand for much less. First sales matter most to Apple, but even the second-hand sales are useful because those second customers will go out and buy iTunes / App Store content. Also, as long as they're buying used iPhones, they remain in the Apple ecosystem and are more likely to buy other Apple gadgets.

Android antivirus apps CAN'T kill nasties on sight like normal AV - and that's Google's fault

Buzzword

Re: Wait,

On Windows, most of these "apps" are consumed as mere websites.

This morning my Android device prompted me to update the HungryHouse.co.uk app. It requested an additional permission: get the list of currently running tasks. I cannot fathom why a takeaway ordering website wants to know what tasks I'm running in the background. I'll stick to ordering my food via the website, thank you very much.

Browsers: the original sandbox.

Google embiggens its fat vid pipe Chromecast with TEN new supported apps

Buzzword

RealPlayer?

Good Lord, didn't that piece of crudware die about ten years ago? Have they re-invented themselves by sticking the latest buzz-word "cloud" on the name? On second thoughts I don't want to know.

Universal Credit: £40 MILLION and counting's been spaffed up the wall on useless IT gear

Buzzword

Baby steps, not great leaps

In my (admittedly limited) experience, large IT projects work best when they start off as small systems, already in use, and receive incremental improvements. "Big bang" projects are far more prone to failure.

IBM turns plastic bottles into life-saving 'ninja' MRSA, fungus fighters

Buzzword

Re: On the contrary.

Goodwill? Can they pay their scientists with goodwill? Can they pay their suppliers with goodwill? Can the pensioners who rely on their IBM share dividends heat their homes with goodwill?

For a similar reaction, try asking a professional photographer or graphic designer to do some work for free. Tell them it'll make a great portfolio piece, or it'll look good on their CV, or some such nonsense. Or how about you just give away years of your work in exchange for "goodwill"?

SaaS superstars' cynical sales schemes make them dinosaurs-in-waiting

Buzzword

Accounts

The accounts guys love clear fixed prices; they hate the budgetary unknown of pay-as-you-go contracts. Imagine going to your boss and saying "I need about $2m for a new software rollout, but it might actually cost $7m if we like it and use it a lot, or it might just be $0.5m." It's the same principal behind mobile phone contracts with more free minutes than anybody could use: people don't want to be shocked by high bills, and would actually prefer to pay a bit more to avoid them.

What's wrong with Britain's computer scientists?

Buzzword

New universities

The linked article "What's wrong with computer scientists" nails it.

> Computer scientists are far more likely than other graduates to study at post-92 universities (64.4% of computer scientists study at post-92, whereas only 13% study in the Russell Group).

New universities attract students with lower A-level grades. Many employers skip the university section of the CV, because it's so hard to compare: is a 2:2 from Durham worth less than a 2:1 from Bucks New University? Instead they look directly at the A-level grades which are likely to be familiar ("I did Maths at A-level yonks ago, so I know what's involved").

Since more CS students go to former polytechs, we can infer that they have lower A-level grades. That would partly account for their lack of success in the job market.

Pakistani phone-buyers will need skin in the game with biometric buying plan

Buzzword

Roaming

What about foreign anonymous pay-as-you-go SIMs roaming on Pakistani networks? No way to control those.

Microsoft fires devs into the cloud with Visual Studio Online

Buzzword

Re: Disturbing..

The point is that they are (finally) listening to their customers. One of the major issues with VS 2012 was general responsiveness; 2013 is a damn sight faster (I've been using it since it came out). I for one am glad they're paying attention to their customers. Now if we could just get the API teams to listen to us too....

EYE-GASMIC: Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch with Retina Display

Buzzword

Numpad?

There's space on the 15-inchers for a numeric keypad. Why won't Apple include one?

Blighty promises £49m to get more British yoof into engineering careers

Buzzword

Comparative Advantage

"... the UK was currently relying on immigration to pick up the slack ..."

That's the problem though. Why should I study a hard degree for many years, only to have to compete against 1.2 billion Indians? Much easier to study something like Law, or even a "soft" subject like History or English, where there is no competition from immigrants. It's called Comparative Advantage. If the good Prof had studied a soft subject like Economics, he might have heard of it.

Google barge erection hypegasm latest - What's in the box?

Buzzword

Showroom?

Why would a company which sells mostly non-tangible products need a showroom? Their few tangible products include £199 tablets, £299 phones, the $1,500 Glass beta product, and maybe in future some self-driving cars. The first two don't have the added value to justify the cost of the boat; the Glass might at that price, but presumably the final price will be significantly lower; and the cars need an open road for test drives.

In short, I don't believe it's a showroom.

iPAD AIR WORLD DEBUT: Our Australian team gets an early fondle

Buzzword

Tablet apps

The Apple app store has a great many more tablet-friendly apps than the Google Play store. That seems to be a deciding factor for many people.

Mac OS X Mavericks 'upgrade' ruins iWorks

Buzzword

Ribboned for your pleasure

Sounds just like Microsoft Office 2007 and the Ribbon. Cue lots of angry users.

How to spot a coders comment

Buzzword

Passive-aggressive comments

In any sufficiently large team, there is usually a snarky comment like "Well, I wouldn't have written it like that, so I've had to insert this hack to make it work. Thanks a bunch."

That's one of the more polite variants. Team morale is the first casualty.

AT&T bags 363,000 new customers ... where did THEY come from?

Buzzword

Tablets

Could it be 3G/4G tablet buyers taking £10/mo data contracts? (Hah, as if it would be that cheap in the USA. )

Chrome for the slurp-weary: Cookie-binning Aviator browser arrives

Buzzword

Referrer

"The technology strips out referring URLs across domains to protect its users' privacy."

That'll break a fair few websites, based on my experience on having tried to disable it before.

UK's tech capital named: Read it and weep, Tech City startup hipsters

Buzzword

But for how long?

Wokingham Borough is indeed home to many techies, with the likes of Microsoft and Oracle nearby; but it's not a hub of innovation. Those dinosaurs arrived in the 1980s and 1990s at a time when London was considered a dangerous urban wasteland with poor schools and high crime. Today's dynamic tech companies (Google, Facebook, even the likes of LastMinute.com) choose offices in central London, and their staff seem to prefer London living to the comparative delights of suburban Berkshire.

Microsoft: Everyone stop running so the fat kid Win RT can catch up

Buzzword

Tablets shrinking, not phones growing?

Perhaps the long-term goal is to install WinRT on phones, not WinPho on tablets. Advances in mobile CPU technology mean that today's phones are already more powerful than yesterday's tablets. I seem to recall reading that WinPho wasn't designed for multi-core processors, at least in the beginning. It may just be a matter of WinRT being the better architecture.

Of course all this means that WinPho 9 or 10 won't be backward-compatible with 8, but that hasn't stopped MS before.