Posts by Ottman001

Re: Most people wouldn't be surprised by this

Data transfer rates are governed by the nearest red 7 segment display counting down to 0.

I completely agree. I honestly think the Windows 95/NT4 UI was one of Microsofts finest achievements. Windows 98 and 2000 added a few minor tweaks but since then, the trend has been down hill ever since. I remember Microsoft advertising telling us of R&D effort they put into Windows 95. In the years since, Microsoft have reworked their UI without paying attention to the lessons they learned previously.

Re: So, to sum up. . .

Wait... someone set up a petition that if successful would require parliament to sit and discuss not sitting?

3) The Commodore +4 and C16 were spawn by Commodore marketing from a design for cheap entry level home machines. They were not C64 compatible and far inferior. Marketing confused the message by putting the C16 in a C64 case and packing business software into ROM in the +4. Then they priced them to compete with the C64, which of course they couldn't.

4) History pretty much repeated itself with the Amiga 600. During development it was thought of as the A300 which gives you an idea of its intended market position and relative spec. The much older Amiga 500/500+ was a great selling superior machine that was being manufactured cheaply after years of optimisation. Commodore discontinued the A500 in favour of the inferior and more costly A600 and watched their profitability disappear.

Re: +5v next to ground

While I was writing my post I decided to shorten it by removing parts that were about how Apple treat third party repairers. In the end it wasn't really relevant to the point I was trying to make. That one somehow survived the cut and I didn't fully explain the circumstances. More proof reading required in future!

@Charles 9,

"The REAL real solution is to simply not offer them"

Mostly we're talking about features that should never have been permissible on the open web. Applications based on web technologies may well need these features but the web does not. It would be good to constrain these features to the particular environments to which they're suited.

But now it's a bit too late. Any suggestion to break back compatibility won't get very far so with that in mind, I was suggesting a practical way forward.

Allowing the developer to select which liabilitiesAPIs their application can use is still a good idea for all environments.

If it had been a proper beer, that would be a right result.

That it is but I'm sure we've all met people who need the bleeding obvious pointed out to them.

Re: A smartphone should be as fixable as a refrigerator

A few years back, I woke one Christmas Eve to find my fridge wasn't working. I walked into a shop less than a mile from me, asked for a K57 type thermostat, spent £10 and had it repaired before Christmas was ruined. I'm not done feeling smug about that.

Re: It's an orange

No, its the Bolivian navy on manoeuvres in the south pacific!

Re: Read title

Your title has an infinite loop bug.

Bloody inconvenient if the online shop you just bought from can't give your address to a courier. Very little is that black and white.

Re: The real problem is why it's only 36%

>You mention the problem right there already.

Agreed.

eCommerce and in shop card operations are regulated by Visa and Mastercard to the point where it's easier to attack the human elements. PCI DSS inspections go as far as independent code reviews. Is there an equivalent regulatory process for mobile banking? I don't know. If I knew the answer, it may alter my decision not to use mobile banking when I have a perfectly convenient local branch.

Re: A Web browser is for Web pages

A real fix requires that windows does not give credentials for server A to server B.

Re: Shambles

Maybe it's a test to see if the entrant actually read the whole specification before choosing a development environment. A good programmer will choose the best tool for the job. In this case, it's probably not Java.

Good point. I'm still not in favour of things that do so much to hinder natural selection.

Re: Base Camp One on Everest?

When someone talks about the IoT being kettles, fridges, washing machines or toasters, it helps to stick your fingers in your ears. On the other hand, if someone starts talking about internet connected sensors attached to major infrastructure helping to simultaneously improve services and reduce costs, you might be able to see some value in it.

Re: A brief - and significant time

"Certainly 1980 to 1983 was a disaster in the schools."

I'm not sure if you think something positive happened to IT teaching in 1984 but my experience suggests not. I remember seeing a BBC micro in every classroom at primary school (86 ~ 93). It bugs me now that significant money had been spent on them but we weren't allowed near to them. In the whole time I was there, I don't think I ever saw one switched on. Some had double disk drives, most had printers and a few even had hard drives. Oh, how I wanted a shoebox sized external hard drive of my own.

Re: My personal gripe

Any default size for unsized images would break a significant chunk of older content. That is a line that browser vendors refuse to cross. Also, if the problem is with some other type of content it would be ignored. Say the problem is that a JavaScript script forces a reflow by inserting a large chunk of content into the page after the user has had a chance to start reading. That would be an alternative example of the same kind of bad practice.

I have never come across a scenario that prevented the sizes being given. I'm sure if I said it never happens, someone would point out otherwise.

Ultimately, it boils down to this: If the clues to the final document layout are given, the browser will do a better job. If they aren't, browsers already do the best they can unless you think they should wait (maybe minutes on a slow connection) for everything to download before rendering.

Re: Save XP

From what I think is an impartial point of view, XP was superseded by Vista in January 2007, more than 7 years before support for XP ends. Even if no wanted Vista, this is surely the point at which the clock started ticking for XP.

From a consumers point of view, Vista doesn't count because, well, its Vista. Windows 7 wasn't released until October 2009. That means support will end for systems under 5 years old.

From Microsoft's PR departments point of view, XP was released in 2001 and support will be ending after 13 years.

More than one way to skin a cat.

Re: Reminds me of programmes for schools.

Look And Read (Magic Magic E): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XdMvrZgLE

Re: Is a bad or a good thing ...

I think possibly you're under estimating the age point. As a young school child in the late 80s and early 90s, I was 'protected' from the truth. You may have to be closer to 35 or 40 to have an accurate recollection.

The one stand out memory I have on the subject is the discomfort of a teacher when asked questions about that mornings topic: the end of the second world war. Now I'm sure primary school teachers have to tip toe around issues all the time and are good at maintaining youthful innocence. But there was something about the way she changed subject that was different and causes me to remember.

I was in her class during the 1989 ~ 90 school year so the Berlin wall may or may not have been toppled and the Soviet Union was yet to collapse. I recall that we were told that Germany was divided into two "because Germany was too powerful". The Russian occupation of east Europe was a bit too grown up a subject.

Re: Pushrods!

All good points. The radio shown doesn't have crystals so need to worry about that. I would use thread locker rather than CA on ball links because a mistake is a permanent mistake with CA.

To add to Don Jefes list of common problems, do not mix the arms for Futaba and Spektrum servos. I can't remember off hand if Futaba and Spektrum are actually close enough not to notice when fitting but where the wrong type of arm is used, it can appear fine in preflight checks but jump splines under load.

Re: Ottman001's generalised perception

>Whatever its failings, why would this make "younger generations" less likely to look non-celeb stuff up?

I'm a little uncertain about your meaning of 'this' in that question. Were you referring to dumbed down media or the current emphasis on self directed learning in education?

If you mean the first: it was my contention that a dumbed down article attempts to leave fewer unanswered questions about basic principles at the cost of delivering fewer points of interest that may compel someone to look into a subject further.

If you mean the later: My contact with the 'yoof' is rather limited so I can't directly answer the question but I have an anecdote and an opinion. To manipulate the way a child learns you have to start early. When I was about 14 I had to do a school project in which I had to "research" the subject 'disability'. The teachers were very excited about this idea but the class was bemused. We were used to being spoon fed information and thought they had absolved themselves of the responsibility to teach us. Result: It didn't work.

Most of my class copied and pasted from Microsoft Encarta (the web was in its infancy) without learning a thing. We continued doing exactly what was wrong and what was intended to change - we blindly regurgitated information without taking it in. For us, our ways of 'learning' had been set firm and we were resistant. Not intentionally so, but resistant none the less.

My point of view then is that new teaching methods take time to get right and even more time to have a notable influence. Only once children leaving school have had a significant number of years using the new methods can those methods be reasonably evaluated. I am very happy to concede that recent school leavers may be more likely to seek information for themselves, but they have not had an opportunity to influence my perceptions.

I'd also like to know if others share my perceptions or not.

Re: Does it only have rudders?

Means Of Delivering Effortless Retaliation Against The Really IneXcusable

E could alternatively be for Excruciating, depending how sadistic the device.