Posts by joed

Re: "an amalgamation of Google and Facebook"

more like MS

Rule number 1 should be that all the stuff should have a kill switch for the smart/iot part that's non-essential for primary function. If I'm buying an appliance I may no longer have a choice to forego all the software BS tacked on (yet I'm inconvenienced by having to pay for it). Option to disarm the bloatware should be legislated manufacturer's responsibility (as most users outside design studios are perfectly happy with basic functionality and reliability)

Re: do any of these futurists think ?

I'd add that some block MS services at the entry to their network. Let Redmond stew in its own bubble.

Re: Lucked out

And I've just received another letter from Comcast (old school, they screwed up my email when I moved places, haven't bothered to recover it) to replace my trusty SB5100 (and experience all the greatness Exfinity could deliver;). And I just couldn't care less. DOCSIS 2.0 is plenty fast for my overpriced Economy Internet. Plenty of headroom (even if I wanted to upgrade, I don't). Surprisingly I often see the lowest ping to game servers (and I do not host any).

Re: What a ridiculous argument

Uber may be right today, but then its drivers (""contractors) should meet the requirements that traditional service providers are required to comply with. Since Uber's plans are to replace drivers with autonomous fleet the excuse may not apply in the future.

Re: OH dear

"let's hope they can't mess up Pebble too much." Don't worry. There's not too much to mess up.

Re: This, because we can't overwrite files that are in use.

It may be a terrible oversight but it may also have no remedy. It possible that disabling bitlocker is required because the actual upgrade is performed in WinPE (that can't get the key from TPM) or maybe because major changes to the system can result in bitlocker lockout (where manual entry of the key is required). So Windows suspends the BL for the upgrade and resumes it after next boot to Windows (since 8 it's SOP anyway) when new system can re-establish trust with TPM (and prevent lockout at the next reboot). Just a guess, but I'm curious if the same process would take place in SP1 update to Windows 7 and 8.1 upgrade from 8.

Re: Google and Co.

The real question is how soon the rules will be unified across all regions (fiduciary duties to shareholders and such).

Re: The taxes on cable made some sorta sense

Honestly, not to be rude but fu for attaching another BS to property taxes. I consider taxes as necessary evil (some things are needed but politicians come up with more and more of "necessities" that needed funding) but for number of reasons use tax is much better here as it gives individuals a choice. Not everyone cares for or has infrastructure to stream (and making everyone happy with expensive ideas like your nbn just to build that infrastructure is just as welcome by some). Big players (past startup phase) can easily levy the tax on behalf of states (all them claim to be "big data" players so even complexity of local taxes in US should not be a problem to them, right). After all, the subscriptions have to be paid with a CC that's linked to a real person (with enough detail to even verify that person's age etc).

Just keep mumbling. Imagine all this AI neural net brainstorming going on to figure you out. A brownout in Redmond is mission accomplished.

Re: А васька слушает да ест

Much simpler idea. Instead of whitelisting, just ship them routers with UPNP disabled or even not available. This protocol is just as much the cause of security issues as cheap IoT junk.

Leaks? Maybe they've lacked the courage and left the phone jack in the hull.

BTW, I can only imagine cleanup on the ship "prone to rolling in heavy seas". Luckily no deck to work on.

Not exactly, beige light would be rather bad idea (the source limits the color space). Flatscreen TV's evolved from LCDs to LED (basically an LCD) to QLED (another minor change). What's kept changing (besides resolution, price and marketing gimmicks) is how backlight was managed. Originally CFL was the source. This has been replaced LED (hence "LED TV"). White (approximately) source on the edge of the screen (or zones in fancy TVs) shines/spreads through the light-guide > LCD > color filter. The whiter the light (and the better the RGB filter up front), the better the color reproduction (especially if the video content can deliver). Use of quantum dots addresses the white balance (easier to distribute mix of correct size dots than to make uniformly white bright LED source) and power efficiency (LED source operates at its max efficiency/color while dots take care of turning that light white). Likely the RGB filter itself can be replaced with strips of uniformly sized dots (for each of primary color) increasing power efficiency even more and bringing complexity closer to OLEDs (while maintaining price, lifespan and power use advantage). Not sure of any impact on black levels vs OLED. Maybe quantum dots can be incorporated into OLED as - surprisingly so - color space is not their strength (but the picture is striking enough to forgive slight bias). QDs are source of really narrow/pure color light which is great for mixing 3 pf these into full range color space TV needed.

Anyway, QDs are not just for TV. Projectors, lights (including automotive headlights) and possible some applications outside lighting.

Re: Why 60Mb?

I'd argue that the issue is not so much with available bandwidth but rather the price of the "luxury" (and one's willingness to pay). For crazy money you'll get your fiber and 1G. For most it's just not worth it, much cheaper to tell them kids to suck it up and find something more productive to do.

every stick has 2 ends. Just wait till they regulate login to Internet (China-like). Then everyone will be safe and soundmuted.

Re: I'm confused

"el Reg isn't a good example." Speaking of which. When the team gets around this task please make sure to pin that cert so I can start posting - again - from work (no intentions on linking my generic username to credentials used by ZS, make the watchmen work harder for their pay;).

Re: Speak!

But “Unlike a human examiner/judge, a computer vision algorithm or classifier has absolutely no subjective baggages, having no emotions, no biases whatsoever due to past experience, race, religion, political doctrine, gender, age, etc, no mental fatigue, no preconditioning of a bad sleep or meal,”.

Just curious who decides inputs, weights and bias nodes.

Re: Surface is nice and all

Not just the OS. The whole thing is the same "trying to hard", locked/un-upgradeable glittering "art piece"/cruft with planned obsolescence fuse lit (or maybe this was the battery;). So basically the same like Apple but with legacy ports. It gets harder to find something that values function over the form (and at acceptable price). For obvious reasons there's no legal choice on Apple side but hackintosh build is an option for non-commercial use. Windows side is definitely marred by the system itself (though FB crowd has shared it all already so it probably won't mind MS embrace).

Re: Mac can be pawned too.

I can't be sure but the the FileVault2 reference would led me to believe that the issue can affect Macs or there's some inconsistency in the article.

Re: Not just API charging

Those remote buttons/fonts are not because someone got lazy. These are used to track you across domains. This is why I like FF (with essential addons) and have my pages rendered in arial.

Re: Chrome

"Why the high usage of Google's Chrome?" - many businesses give users 2 bad options. IE and Chrome. Guess which I've picked (and followed with number of "under the hood" tweaks). While Chrome has its privacy issues if far better than IE (especially on W10 when MS browsers relay users' activity to Sadya's team). FF caters more to its users' privacy than corporate-wide deployment (e.g. getting man in the middle proxy done proved too much in my place) and thus gets shafted. On the 2nd thought I'd rather have Mozilla keep it this way as it remains my preferred browser across all my personal systems (excluding the "walled garden" when Safari or lipstick on Safari is the only option).

Re: News? Or "olds"?

x250 is nice, especially if one could get it without a glossy 2 layer touchscreen (yet still an ips lcd). the refreshed x260 mutant is not worth the pricetag.

Still, $8bn is quite a bit for ..file conglomerate. It'd be more prudent for Samsung to set aside that for Note 7 related losses. There's only so much creditors are willing to cover before sending repo man.

Re: His concerns are valid

I'm surprised EU is sleeping through this one. MS is repeat offender (that they've fined for IE) and forced "upgrade", constant resetting of default apps, forcing Bing as default search, O365 and pervasive information gathering back to the mothership deserves a closer look. Lets hope this happens before it's too late (as the chokehold MS have on PC and enterprise PAS markets has never been this strong).

Re: News?

He's the 2nd coming and did not even need 3 days for resurrection. On your knees and repent you sinful ignorant bastard.

Re: cue...

We're at the edge when walled garden turns into a quantum well. Hopefully we'll learn to tunnel instead of banging the head against the wall.

Re: One other thing that is a big concern...

Really. I've been having impression that our current president sided with agencies and let the business as usual continue (if not strengthen their position).

Re: 2,500 sold

I'd not call 799$ tech mainstream. You better had business need (or a way to write if off) before visiting BestBuy. Not even hardcore geeks would part with their hard earned cash without 2nd thought. Not at this pricetag (that buys you 1080 and bragging rights in Crisis benchmarks;).

Re: Why Trump? People are just sick and tired.

Quite correct. Many are tired of "usual suspect" and legitimizing another White House dynasty decided the vote for many (even if there was no other criticisms of the candidate).

Re: The UWP Skype has some advantages at least

Being integrated into the system is not advantage (as proven by IE and now Edge and Cortana). Unless you like to share all your details with MS. I bet you also sign in with MS account (missed the little print during the setup?).

Re: How else are Apple supposed to harvest all your most personal info...

I'm drinking no Apple cider but - as opposed to MS - they do let the user disable/block telemetry collection or upload and even some of default settings respect user's privacy. Just about none of my data (work phone) is uploaded to Cupertino.

Re: I like it

I bet that some of the vitriol is the product of user base overjoyed with the form over function trend. As a designer you may be partial and side with MS pushing "the boundaries of innovation". This plus privacy concerns.

And we could all be happy (and quit whining) if MS just offered choice (to those that cared) instead of rewriting rules in their favor.

I don't think so. EPA requires that affected vehicles be disposed off in environmentally sound manner. I bet it be actually better to keep them on the road, punish VW and use collected fines on e.g. setting up parks in cities.

Re: Only half?

so the crime problem has been resolved in UK, right?

Re: My ISP doesn't do IPv6, period

And I don't do IPv6 because MS does. Last resort to limit Windows phoning home (and I don't mind to use it)

Re: Newer refrigerators use pentane

It may be OK to top of existing cars but once the production ceased in 2018 the refill will become hard to get (and expensive).

How true. MS first rebranded Clippy to Bing and now to Cortana. And Siri is just its mouthpiece for Apple's platforms. The only other difference (besides the name) is that now is next to impossible to get rid of the pest.