Posts by John Tserkezis 2242 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2007
Ok, so they're fine-tuning the speed of light, that means that the measuring equipment and techniques in early-ish 1900's wasn't as good as 2014. Yes, that's shocking, but true - 100 years DOES make a difference to accuracy.
That doesn't make Einstein "wrong", he just didn't factor in some guy farting in Thailand, to affect the weather in Canada.
...For reminding me that bicycles will remain largely in my memory since my hips have worn out. I have a couple of years of grinding my natural one till it's replaced.
Worst of all, you can't get hi-tech canes. The carbon fibre canes available now are merely cosmetic in nature, and not actually light at all. Yep, the zenith of walking cane development is wood. Sad really.
Back on topic, I didn't bother with the fancy shifting, I felt it was a lot of money and weight for albiet nice shifting cabability. That said, I have a fair bit of tech attached my old bikes, most of it customised because it didn't exist off the shelf in the day... Oh well.
"It's a shame: I'd rather like to see a service like that flourish - but right now, the law doesn't allow it without paying extra."
Not quite, it's the *networks* that aren't allowing it, and they're just using the law to get their way. If this were purely about the little bit of money they were arguing about, it would be working today - albeit at an additional cost.
But it's not. It's about advertising that is not being paid for for regions it wasn't destined for, it's about advertising that's being shown in regions it's not applicable to (wasted ad space), it's about much more money than that.
But the law is not on your side on that matter, well, it's not so cut and dried, they just used whatever applicable law they could get away with to squash Aereo - what they wanted to do in the first place.
"Anyone want to guesstimate the maths?"
I've wondered that myself, but didn't want to look like a dick in the shop with a tape measure and calculator.
At this point, I'm pretty sure it's not going to matter enough to make a difference - not enough to buy a curved screen because it's a curved screen, rather than a flat one - the other specs will take full priority on my decision.
At this point, I really don't know if the curved screen is purely because it's technologically possible now (and not before), rather than possible and we should be doing it because it's better. I'm not entirely convinced of the latter. or yet, anyway.
On the down side, it would certainly put a damper on our viewing conditions: Our living room through a number of reasons, has people positioned not only in front, but on either side as well. Our flat screen is very much usable as-is, and a curved screen would probably wreck that for those on the side extremes.
The networks want Aereo to "go away", and they'll use any means they can. There's lots of arguing over who can and can't legally do something, it's irrelevant - as long as Aereo vanishes - the networks will be happy.
The reason is money, of course, just not the money you think. Terrestrial networks advertise over certain areas, money they charge advertisers is calculated on that coverage and market. If someone (Aereo or otherwise) re-transmit to an out-of-primary-broadcast area, that advertising gets a wider coverage than what they originally calculated. Worse still, if it's a very local ad, and is not applicable to the new viewing area, then you're dealing with a slot that's wasted.
The networks can't calculate based on that, because it's outside their hands, they have no idea and no control over what's being shown, and where it's being shown.
Online broadcasting is a little different. They have some control over the ads, even if the program material is otherwise the same - to the point the rest of the world can't get even the program material. Oops, sorry, now do you know why pirating is "rampant"? Consumers don't care where it's coming from, and even less so with the rant that some "silicon valley startup behaving like children" are the cause of all this.
They're not. It's the networks delivering "quality" (ahem) programming, on THEIR terms, not yours, and they will squash anyone like a bug if you get in their way.
The early internet in Australia was pretty much reserved to those who had "bucketloads of money and perhaps a reason for it". But I was a mere mortal human, and had been already established with a 2400 baud modem and BBSs, so had no reason to even think about it. Even less so "who was on it", because the answers was invariably "no-one useful yet".
By the time I had actually seen the Internet, it was setting up a corportate client with the then AOL of Australia, Ozemail. The client's reaction mirrored mine: "Is that it?". Perhaps more so with me, because I had already been spoiled with BBSs, file transfer routing between systems, all wrapped around an AFFORDABLE network.
Some years later when prices had dropped to the point where tight arses like myself could get it, I signed up for a 60MB (yep, I was a glutton for data useage..) a month deal with a small ISP, primarily for email and newsgroups. Windows3 was on its way to being established, but software availability was entirely void of anything useful, even if many were so mesmerised by the cool "new" graphics they didn't notice. So, sticking with DOS and the plethora of good Fidonet mail readers, I wrote a gateway that translated Internet email and news into Fido netmail and echos. I wasn't impressed with DOS based graphics for 'net access, so still used windows3 intermittantly for http access. I stuck with that arrangment for some years, till about the mid naughties where I conceeded defeat: Fido was dead (well, perhaps twitching a leg and a bit of whimpering) and the windows developers at the time actually realised there was more to it, and pretty pictures weren't going to cut it anymore.
So I gave up Fido, and the politics behind it, and bloody Fidonet Policy 4 which wasn't helping matters.
And the rest as they say, is a bad memory. As far as differences go? It had hard to get soft porn, little to no spam, no flash (fuck you macromedia, fuck you very much), and 16 colour low resolution graphics. So, some things have improved, some declined. On the upside, now that "everyone" is using it, contacting people via electronic means is easy. (Fuck you Facebook, fuck you very much).
"It sounds much better than the old steam powered intercourse I used to have with mum, until we couldn't get the special coal and meta tabs it used, and had to reserve it for royal weddings and other special occasions."
I think you found a new dark and dank corner of the Internet we didn't know about before... But hey! Without collabarative work, no-one else would have known about it either!
An RSS feed would be nice. Makes it really easy to manage a billion and one podcasts that I get.
If not that, a "regular" download technique would work. My Firefox will simply not have a bar of it, even with all my addons disabled, and I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I start up Internet Explorer.
<Blleeeaachcharggg> Ok, got it now. Where do I forward keyboard cleaning fees to?
"Allowing these two things would greatly extend the life of the Surface lap-tabs and give them a huge advantage to tablets and a couple laptops."
And it would also single-handedly kill the upgrade cycle of the manufacturer. The only reason some DO offer that, is because their marketing people deemed it better for sales in THEIR market, rather than if they didn't. Apple, Microsoft et al chose their model because it works best for their market.
Ever wonder why most if not all manufacturers offer user firmware-upgradable equipment, while only few actually offer a firmware upgrade after the sale? It's not because the first firmware release is perfect - it's because the attraction of being able to upgrade, is worth to sales than the (in)ability to fix any of their screwups once it's out the door.
"I actually used their guide once myself to change the dock connector on an old iPhone that got wet"
You mean you repaired an iPhone instead of upgrading to the latest model? Yourself? Shocking. That goes against the belief system of every fanboi ever.
Allright, allright, I'm going. Sheeze, no sense of humour these guys....
"if you're going to keep on adding components and services to your applications that suck up vital computing resources such as CPU, RAM, Battery and HDD, why not then let the users of your services/software and by extension hardware upgrade the components if and when necessary?"
Outside of the odd Hard drive or RAM upgrade, few bother to upgrade in that manner. To most everyone else, "upgrade" means "new computer".
I don't think it matters, just wait for someone to "hack" the site storing the code, and release it on the torrents. In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't been done already...
I mean, it's not like GovCo keeps things secure, remember the Fairfax reporter that typed in "http://www...." and got a preview of a site that hadn't been "officially" released yet? And then was accused by a polititian who obviously knows everything, accusing the reporter of "hacking" the site?
"The simple fact of the matter is that the free market has failed to provide basic broadband connectivity to more than 15 million Americans,"
That's not quite right. You can have all the internet you like, as long as you either empty your wallet to pay for it, or, sign off your first born and look at several pages of ads before they give you any access.
This plan will have your first born sign off themselves, saving a step. How generous.
Unless of course you live in the middle of nowhere, where telephone connectivity is delivered by a cable that's draped over your fence. That fries half the electronics in your house every time the cable gets hit by lightening. Then you should be bloody grateful you get anything at all. What? Your carriers and government don't treat you like a third class citizen for living out in the sticks? Congratulations, you probably live somewhere other than planet Earth. No, that's not true, I'm sure there's some third world countries that get internet connectivity, just not any "civilised" countries....
"You can block that dubious ad, so why not X?"
It's a slippery slope allright. In Australia, we got to a Queensland Dentist's website being banned. That is, before the list "that didn't exist" was leaked, then subsequently fixed. The fact it was banned in the first place means they had hard and fast procedures in place with absolutely no background checks at all.
Is it going to stop them? I don't think so, I just think they're going to learn how to hide it better.
There's a thousand things wrong with your statement, and simple downvote isn't going to do the job.
"IT won't let me spend my own money to upgrade it."
Nor should they. Stock ownership control becomes vastly more complicated, even if you wanted to "donate" the money, there is still the paperwork to deal with. It's still an upgrade and still handled with regular internal policy either way. Best option here, is if your work offers BYOD, take that path.
"The ability to upgrade computer hardware should be protected by law."
Yeah well, I agree, and if I were the king ruler of the universe.... And we both know how that would turn out.
"I think 60% less off MSRP is fair for un-upgradeable"
What you think is irrelevant. Mainly because you haven't been assigned the job of setting prices. And it appears for good reason.
"However, the Apple-ites NEED to be led around by the ring in their nose."
The real power users are quite sensible (yes, I was shocked too). Everyone else has their own reasons to buy - some sensible, some a bit misled. Bottom line is, If I want to hang half kilo weights from my nipples, then I should be allowed to do that. However misled I might be.
"there used to be a reason ... when Mac once had a speed advantage but no more."
That and desktop publishing. But either way, neither was the reason. It was software availability. The Atari games console was highly sought after for MIDI work once apon a time, even after it was well and truly obsolete. Not because the Atari was "good", or "better", just the original author had an Atari, was familiar with it, and wrote software that ran circles around the "competition" at the time.
"as any faults should be detected during manufacturing."
Nope. They don't do any testing other than sending it out the door. I had a motherboard with a card slot soldered crooked. Had it replaced under warranty, and asked "don't they check for this sort of thing?".
The cost of checking each and every unit is higher than the cost of dealing with faulty returns, and the brand badmouthing aftermath when things go really wrong. They can hide and obscure things like that pretty good with the right PR people. Volkswagen DSG gearboxes anyone?
"(Seriously: kudos to anyone who can touchtype on a keyboard with totally different alphabet to the one they are writing in.)"
I started touch typing on a keyboard and occasionally noticed wrong characters. Looked down to notice the keys were indeed in the "wrong" places. Customer grins and states the actual keyboard layout was not US-English. Thanks. Now I have to hunt-and-peck, something I hadn't done in a long, long time.
Agreed. I wondered the same thing.
I read the AustPost brochure, and looked for the icing on the cake. I couldn't find it.
Every service mentioned, I was either already using, or at least had the capability to use. From years earlier.
Especially notable was the cloud storage of bills and other "important" documents. Were they kidding?
I had a app for my Palm, that claimed to deliver locational services to within a couple of feet, for a series of devices where GPS was still a twinkle in the engineer's eye.
It pasted a large X on the screen, and said "You are here".
And yes, it was well within the specified accuracy.
"Put your NAS on the Internet?"
I have plans to make part of it available to the outside world, but I'm still doing research on how to secure it. It's a lot more work than you would think it is - especially when the majority suggestions are "just don't do it". Which I suppose are somewhat justified, if not helpful.
"but the Police in the US and Canada anyway use Farcebook all the time"
Don't forget employers who monitor it to check if a sick day really is a sick day due to unforseen sickness, or the previous night out drinking lethal amounts of piss.
Which interestingly enough, they wouldn't have known if the hungover soon-to-be-ex-employee didn't shout it to all and sundry.
"One of those terrible tragedies that just passed me by."
Yeah, I didn't notice, and the world didn't crash around my ears either. Well, it did, but Faceplant didn't have anything to do with it, nor Optus, nor Vodafone who's services co-incedently crashed at about the same time...
Thank goodness for news sites. We wouldn't know when to panic then.
"The FCC said that the fines are primarily a public safety measure, as users whose phones are jammed would be unable to contact emergency services if needed."
Of course. We don't want to lose out on those fecking loud generation Y'ers yackking endlessly on public transport, nor those simply can't wait ten fucking minutes to get to their destination but instead have to yabber about in their cars. And most of all, we wouldn't want the NSA to miss out on phone calls either.
Shocking, just shocking.
There could be ten people in the house, but only one will actually buy that new carton of milk. Nine faithfully return the empty carton into it's place in the fridge. The tenth person will try to pour the empty carton, curse, and put it on their shopping list - because none of the other nine will do that. Tenth person goes shopping, buys new full carton of milk, returns, and places new carton into its designated spot in the fridge. Nine others resume consuming contents until empty, and the process starts all over again.
No amount of technology telling those nine how much is left, is going to help. It's not their job. No amount of technology automagically ordering more milk is going to help. That auto-order technology is well established - remember the milk man bringing a bottle every morning? Was there any feedback required there? Nope, and it still worked well.
If you want to REALLY impress me, try creating a chip that can be inserted into people's heads that actions that empty carton, or gets teenagers to take less than six hours to get ready every bloody morning, or that phone repair guy to turn up in the same century they said they would, or a remote control mute button for your mother in law. To hell with your Internet of Things, I want something useful.
"Several plate recognition evasion techniques existed including covers, sprays and infrared lasers which could foil the ability for scanners to read license plates. These techniques may be considered illegal."
These are not new, and they don't work. Besides, there are fines in place for more reliably (and clearly overtly) obscuring your plates. This was once a nice little loophole that worked quite well, the fine for obscured plates was paltry at best, and in many cases, by far cheaper than any speeding fine.
But they later closed that loophole. It now has a court issued maxiumum of AUD$2200. Fucking ouch.
"If neither Amazon no any retailer will be ship it here, then there must be an export prohibition."
There must be more to it than this. Certain DVDs, either season boxes alone, or packaged multiple season box sets, will outright refuse to ship to Australia.
Pick another DVD, and you can happily have it with "one click". And it's not just the vendor, (Amazon operates as a host to other suppliers too) One vendor will ship a particular product, but not another. And it's not tied to that product either. I've ordered tapes that some refuse to ship, but others happily ship here.
There's some silly buggers going on here.
This one a little different, in that a vendor had done a stupid. One where they *should* know better.
Ordered a bunch of discrete assorted components from wagner electronic services, box arrived, some resistors and caps did not show up, and some others we had not ordered were delivered instead.
Wrote up a list of order corrections needed, and had our receptionist send the wrong bits back. She comes into the workshop soon after (she had called them first) saying the order was correct and looking a bit bewildered. She's not a tech, but has her head screwed on straight, and I was puzzled too. So I spoke to them. Had to get them to explain twice because I didn't believe what they were saying:
(paraphrasing because this was several years ago) "If you order a component that is out of stock, or not a regular stock item of that value, we will substitute the next closest value for you".
It's not libel if it's true, I hope they sacked that idiot we spoke to.
"Borrow one off a mate. Nobody makes you buy stuff."
You do realise that to the Studios, borrowing is equivalent to stealing?
Two people consume content, one pays. Now you know why they're DRMing everything. They're working on changing the model to force a one buy, one consume.
"If something is too expensive then don't buy it, you asshole."
You do realise that if they succeed with their new model, there will be higher gross prices paid for each product, regardless of the fact there will be less overall consumption.
It WILL be more expensive, but rest assured that you don't have to buy it, you asshole.
"Thank you for visiting Project1709! The Australia and New Zealand site is currently undergoing testing and maintenance."
Lazy shmucks. Not only working with a limite handful of formats, they haven't learned the Internet actually works worldwide. Or, more likely they haven't learned enough about the Australian/New Zealand legal system to be able to convincingly screw this side of the pond as all.
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