Posts by Ryan Barrett

Fixed

I'm all for people to learning to write – I wrote a piece arguing we should teach it in prisons earlier this year – but I think we need to be aware of its limitations. Writing is a niche, mechanical skill, a bit like plumbing or car repair.

Recognition..

...for the engineers and scientists who've designed and implemented these algorithms.

Totally understandable for a company like google: keep the talent happy by letting them give away their old toys when they've got something shiny new and much better to play with.

VPN

UK and European users can use a VPN to access US content (and Europeans to access UK content). It costs money, but not much ($5/month).

For the record, the box can play anything you throw at it. Which is more than can be said of the other options (notably the Xbox/PS3). It also handles subs properly, which is an issue with cheaper devices.

For the price, it should really include either significant flash storage (16-32gb) or a small hard drive (500gb-1tb).

Not sure I agree with them..

It wouldn't be because there isn't a compelling reason to upgrade a 3-4 year old PC anymore, because most things work 'just fine'?

Netbooks sold like crazy a couple of years ago, and they're *REAL* slow compared to my 3 year old mid-low end PC.

Sued for goatse?

What's the world coming too?

..and goatse. sexual? Thems are pretty twisted police officers if they find that sexual....

Clones are $15

Delivered from certain well known chinese websites.

You'd be a fool to drop 80GBP on it.

Pascal?

It was a joke back in 1997 when I was 'taught' it.

Java is the absolute minimum, but C# would be better (3.5+). It's a beautiful language (much more productive than Java for me).

They should allow Javascript as a dynamic language. Has more value than VB6 / Pascal.

iTunes sold me on Android

The fact that iTunes is a prereq for the iPhone is the reason I've not bought one. Unless you use a single PC and have the patience of a saint and don't see the need for backups then iTunes is a horribly broken mess.

Hate to think how much it fails when you try and use two devices (iPod/iPhone) on the same PC.

So yeah, not being forced to use iTunes is a big selling point for Android :)

Outsourcing

I sea a oppitunity four paying indeans too make money riting revews for moneh.

Or maybe someone's employing English teenagers to astroturf? Though to be honest the level of English is far too high for that to be the case ;)

SSL gets past it

Was on holiday there last month, and must say I noticed something was wrong. Lots of stuff only works via SSH tunnels back to UK (or via US).

Nice

Really like the Firefox 4.0 design. Chic.

Oracle gives you more for your money..

..which is probably why it's more expensive.

Oracle's still miles ahead of SQL server, but it is in my experience far more complex. Still, for a lot of users SQL Server does everything they'd ever need to do, and does it with less effort.

For the record I work at the moment almost excusively with SQL server, but I'm man enough to see (and admit) its weaknesses.

MS'll kill it..

They're not stupid. They have to be working on a true replacement for WinMobile, and when it's ready they'll quickly kill WinMobile.

I hope.

They're easily the best with developer support so it'd be nice for them to be there in a competative sense.

Guinea pigs do cunnilingus..

Male ones to female at least.

..and dogs are always licking each other's todgers.

Cool? Nah, just not blind..

MySpace is Geocities 2.0 for goodness sake. Home to some of the most terrible sites ever designed.

Format shifting

How, exactly, are the copyright cartel 'loosing out' to format shifting? They've already made the sale.

Selling the same thing again wouldn't be at all fair, it's rewarding the artists (well, the record companies and other parasites mainly) for doing nothing.

Power draw from the whole system?

With an integrated graphics and io controller I assume that the power draw of the entire system will drop a fair bit?

IIRC the current generation of netbooks draw around 25-30w, mainly thanks to the chipset. If this eliminates the need for the big drinkers in the chipset, could this lead to an entire-system figure closer to 15-20w?

Waste of tax dollars..

Public service suing an employee for something which is an internal problem.

Then the courts sentencing him to prision time? For visiting websites which are lawful?

If I was an Ohio tax payer I'd be wanting to know why my taxes are being wasted on something which quite obviously has nothing to do with the "crime" committed.

So how long do the thieves get?

Who broke into his home and stole a whole lot of his (and his client's) computing equipment?

You'd expect them to be made an example of given the fact that they were in responsible positions...

ICO logic

[quote]The ICO accepted BT's argument that it would have been hard to explain Phorm's interception and profiling system to internet users whose communications it was being tested on.[/quote]

So, lets say I someone ran over the BT CEO's kid, killing them.

Following BT's logic, it would be better hide the body and not tell him about it. As, after all, telling him you've murdered his kid is "hard to explain".

I'm of the view that if the EU win this, we should be pursuing criminal prosecutions against these at the ICO who went along with BT's argument.

It stinks of back handers and corruption in general.

RE: Dutch dell

>I was flabbergasted when I received my new Dell in the

>Netherlands complete with the only OS option of Vista

>(I took Basic) in Dutch, and tried to change the language

>to English unsuccessfully. I mean, they use a translation

>library, right? They don't recompile afresh for each language?

Considering the Dell website clearly states the language of Windows you're buying, and usually offers the option of English or Dutch, I can understand why you're posting as AC.

From what I understand it's an hard translation, they have different binaries for each language..

Of course we run the English version, as it's kinda annoying googling windows error messages in anything other than English......

Bezzle's bigger than the screen....

..shame, it looks like they could have crammed an 10 inch screen in there, or made it a couple of inches thinner/shorter.

SMS

If they could work out a way to charge the unwashed lots of money for something which costs nothing, then they'd be on to something.

Bit like the mobile companies do for SMS.

Remember that their users are the same people who buy Britney's latest ear buster and call those dodgy premium numbers which seem to be bankrolling the horror which is TV at the moment..... there'll be a way of extracting money from them, Facebook just need to work out which one to start with..

Don't feed the Marketing Trolls...

.. or the idiots'll keep doing stuff like this and the trademarked smiley..

ORLY

ORLY

Bummed in the Gob

n00b

sage

lulz

wintard

macwanker

aohell

...so many goodies missed.

BOFH tee spotted

On the Irish man!

MP3's does a disservice to their music..

..especially the one doing the rounds. Though the music's great, it really does butcher sections of some songs.

Great album btw, return to form after the awfully mixed mess that was Because Of The Times (I'm looking at you, On Call).

Did the record execs get jail time?

When they were found guilty of defrauding the public through price fixing?

Did the owners (shareholders) get jailed?

No?

Then something's very wrong here.

What about index.dat?

Are they going to clear that, or will the little spy file continue to monitor every site you've visited?

Don't encourage people to use expert$-exchange..

..that cancer of a site already b0rks most tech-related searches, and it's a pain typing -"experts-exchange" for each search.

Apples and Oranges

Ruby, particularly Rails, is great for developing small/medium scale bespoke solutions.

For example administrative systems, or invoicing systems for firms with 5-500 employees. Lots of code reuse, short development cycles, and it'll all run on a pair of servers.

All for a whole lot less cash and far less hassle than letting SAP and co at it.

Java's far more geared towards projects which need to scale and must be multiplatform. Big, but not infrastructure.

Which leaves C/C++ (and a pattering of assembly) to cover the infrastructural stuff - where the Big Boys play.

Dissing Ruby because Twitter sucks is like dissing an hacksaw because it does such a poor job at chopping trees down. You should be dissing the frikkin' idiots who're trying to use a hacksaw for a job which requires a chainsaw....

Mad cows buy cloned dogs

Oh, what a headline.

PS3 HDD is easy to upgrade!

Just the same as switching a laptop HDD. So this device could be useful to some people.

Not for me though, our digital cable comes via UPC and we need their decoder card to decrypt everything.

Boohoohoo.