* Posts by Ryan.T.Student

19 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jul 2016

Facebook Fake News won it for Trump? That's a Zombie theory

Ryan.T.Student

Fake news is not the problem. The filter bubble/echo chamber is.

Google may just have silently snuffed the tablet computer

Ryan.T.Student

My Nexus 9 runs like crap. It's run like crap from the day I got it.

Android Studio 2.2 debuts

Ryan.T.Student

Re: Justaskin'

Not simple so much, but if you want to make games you'd want to look at Unity, Game Maker or LibGDX. For applications, Xamarin can be used but it's a pain in the arse and far from simple, while phonegap is simpler but has poor performance. The choices aren't great, sorry.

Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please

Ryan.T.Student

Re: @kraggy

Both comments above pretty much sum up my thoughts on this. Malware hell for all of us.

Russia is planning to use airships as part of a $240bn transport project

Ryan.T.Student

Re: 1957: Russia is planning to launch an artificial satellite

Err the helium is a problem isn't it? Last I heard there was still quite a shortage.

Hello, Barclays? Why hello, John Smith. We meet again

Ryan.T.Student

Re: Wrong biometeric

Not to mention the sound quality on a typical phone call is piss-poor.

Ryan.T.Student

Re: Not impressed with Barclays

Barclays are absolute scum. My local branch replaced all their humans with some absolutely crappy machines. Thing is I'll trust a machine to scan my groceries, or to withdraw cash, but to do anything more complicated? No f*cking way. And if you want to talk to a person to do something instead the staff get really arsey about it. Terrible customer service, terrible bank.

Survey for my MSc Project - app developers help please?

Ryan.T.Student
Pint

Survey for my MSc Project - app developers help please?

Hi all,

Apologies for what may look like a bit of a spammy thing. I'm a long time lurker, first time poster, and currently completing an MSc in Computer Science. For a project I'm presently working on as part of that MSc, I need to gather some opinions from app developers regarding their experiences with the rating system and supporting users.

There are 20 questions, you're free to answer whichever ones you want, but of course I'd be grateful if you can answer as many as you can. It's not enormously mobile-friendly so I'd recommend doing this at a PC. I've made a point of keeping it very lightweight with only a tiny CSS file, no javascript and no images, so it won't cause any privacy issues nor use unnecessary resources on your machine. It does use a session to carry information from page 1 to page 2, but that's it. That session does of course necessitate use of a cookie.

http://www.koalasoftware.co.uk/msc/

Apologies for the stupid domain, it's the only space I had available to put PHP form on. Thank you very much in advance for any help anyone is willing to offer. I'll be accepting new data up til 7th August 2016.

Ryan

PS apologies if this isn't the best place to post this

UK employers still reluctant to hire recent CompSci grads

Ryan.T.Student

Nah it's a 2 year one if full-time, I'm doing it part time as work plus that would be a bit much so 3 years for me. Your description does however do rather a good job of covering my MSc. Lots of breadth, no depth, very little academic rigor, I mean one test I managed to get 97% on for something I'd never studied before (we had 10 topics to choose from and the best 3 scores would count so I figured I'd do the ones I hadn't studied as well, just for the crack). Trust me, I'm not thick but I'm not 97% without studying smart.

Ryan.T.Student

Re: skills shortages

I would agree that the skills list in job ads these days is getting fairly ludicrous. I remember the days when knowing your way around PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript was sufficient and you could earn decent money doing that. Not now. I think the barriers to entry for newbies is much higher than it was, given that I got into the business back in 2000 off the back of a few little web projects and a failed HND in computing. [note that I'm now doing somewhat cooler and more advanced stuff]

Ryan.T.Student

You're spot on with this.

I'm presently doing an MSc in Computer Science, and you'd think that would be a bit more hard-core. It's really not. Ok I've got 16 years time served in the industry but still, I shouldn't be finding it this easy. If the MSc is this easy how easy is a degree these days?

You're right about the state of education in schools too. I worked as a teaching assistant at a school for a while (long story) and throughout the school there was so much blatant cheating because the school had to hit targets. Other TAs were basically doing the work for the kids when they were perfectly capable but just couldn't be arsed. Of course it didn't help that the curriculum itself bored even me to tears let alone the kids. Every lesson in every subject started "Now listen up because this might be in your exams". Schools are exam factories, doing nothing to light a fire under students, create a passion for learning or for their subject. It's shameful, it really is :(

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

Ryan.T.Student

Re: I wonder

I've had reports from reliable sources (ie geeky mates who have tried it) that it works.

Sky / No Mans Sky

Ryan.T.Student

Tbh I suspect this could end up being as empty and pointless as Elite Dangerous. I was so disappointed by that. It just doesn't look like there's much other than going to places and shooting. I suspect seeing green giraffes will eventually get dull.

Selfie-proof smartmobes will hit stores for Christmas

Ryan.T.Student

How about just not dropping your phone? I've only ever broken one phone in 16 years of owning mobile phones (yes I was late to the party) and that was a cheap Motorola from back in the pre-smartphone days. People should simply take care of their possessions a bit better.

Forget your RTO*: Real world Disaster Recovery needs garbage bags and bubble wrap

Ryan.T.Student

My main memory of Thailand was a spell as an IT teacher out there.. in the computer lab it wasn't uncommon to have to reach under a desk and mess with a computer. I got an electric shock every single time. Trying not to swear in front of a class of 5 year olds is quite challenging.

Jeremy Corbyn Brexit and the Chilcot Report

Ryan.T.Student

I'm a bit disappointed really, I'm fairly socialist and had considered Corbyn to be a good thing up til recently, I also voted out, and no I'm not a foaming-at-the-mouth-Daily-Mail-reading-racist type. However, I found Corbyn somewhat disingenuous. He claimed to be pro-EU but didn't exactly campaign for it with vigour. For me, while my 'side' 'won', the manner of the victory is tainted by the feeling that perhaps Corbyn sabotaged remain somewhat.

Self Driving cars

Ryan.T.Student

As a bit of a petrolhead, sometime trackday enthusiast etc, I can see the value in this because frankly driving on public roads just isn't fun. On the other hand, it does rather spell the end of competitive motor racing (though some could argue that Bernie has already killed it) as we'll have fewer petrolheads as cars become commoditised. That's a bad thing.

Apple Watch craze over before it started: Wrist-puter drags market screaming off a cliff

Ryan.T.Student

Re: Yoinks!

One slight problem with the Dick Tracy thing.. either you're going to have your arm at an awfully awkward angle or you're going to have people looking up your nose. Neither seems terribly attractive.

Ryan.T.Student

One of my fellow geeks at my place of work purchased an Apple Watch. He regretted it almost instantly as he very quickly realised he had absolutely no use for the thing. It's (as I'm sure has been said before ad infinitum) a solution searching for a problem, and so far the search has failed.