I was very much in the thick of it when the Microbe was a favorite toy in the NSW Department of Education. It was unreliable, the company was unreliable, and dominated by amateurs. All it had going for it was its cheapness, which meant that you could afford to more computers for when the others had failed yet again.
One of its serial weaknesses was the two-tiered design which created poor electrical contacts and was very much subject to problems with heat and just simple movement.
In principal, the whole thing was a good idea. In practice, very poorly implemented.
Assuming that the gentleman in question didn’t gain an extra 100Kg between the door and the seat, staff were in a position to address the issue before the flight took off.
I have had flights delayed for lesser reasons, such as people trying to find storage for their so-called cabin luggage, so putting in a bit of extra time resolving what is essentially a safety issue would have been appropriate.
Had there been turbulence a standing passenger is at risk. Had there been another emergency, then having somebody like that anywhere at all is a major obstruction, and again poses a risk to other passengers.
As for playing the sympathy or disability card, although there are occasional genuine cases of unavoidable largesse, the main medical reason for obesity is the medical fact that too much of the wrong sort of food and not enough of the right sort of activity leads to, well, too much.
When I got my iPad, I wanted something that did many things, of which eBook reader is just one.
However, iPad has a weakness when it comes to eBook readers. The best one available, Stanza, has just bitten the dust with iOS 5. What a surprise, it was bought by Amazon a few years ago, and it seems they have lost interest in making it work.
The alternatives, especially iBooks, don’t compare, and a serious eBook reader may well be tempted to look elsewhere if the iPad doesn’t pick up something soon.
Apple’s software development model has its points, but it also has a serious flaw. It is entirely dependent on third parties to value-add the iPad, and then gives them a hard time doing so. Amazon’s is much more straightforward. Sell books, and develop a machine with software that knows how use them.
One thing which has always distinguished Apple from Microsoft is its appeal. Apple promotes itself as fun and easy and arty. Nobody would accuse Microsoft of that. I can’t see Microsoft retail stores having the same atmosphere or the same clientele.
By that logic, high taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and fuel should decrease consumption. As far as I can tell, they don’t; they maek life more expensive, increase government revenue and give them the opportunilty to say that they’re doing some thing good.
Microsoft may imagine that what it’s doing is good for Enterprise, but it means that for the next decade, they will continue to patch and bug fix a product which should have been discontinued long before that.
IE 9 is not up to scratch, and certainly will be far behind the opposition in the years to come. However, Enterprise will be fooled into thinking that it’s OK to continue using it because MS says it’s OK, they’re still supporting it. Just like IE6.
If you find a pin locked phone lying around and want to break in, arguing the merits of whether the pin is a dummy, randomly generated or the same as something else is pointless. Here is a list of 10 suggestions which will quite possibly get you in. And not knowing the owner personally, you don’t offend anybody by assuming that the owner is an idiot.
Personally I’m a great fan (and user) of CentOS. However I am aware that its development depends on work at RedHat, and is being paid for by RedHat’s customers.
Microsoft have never been a positive force for Open Source, and to support CentOS over the paid alternative can only be an attempt to undermine the most significant player, and thus weaken the competition.
TB is the only realistic and popular alternative to the proprietary email clients, especially, God Help Us, Outlook.
I find it reliable, extensible and flexible, it renders HTML email intelligently, and, importantly for me, I can rely on a portable version which gives me the environment I want regardless of the machine I am saddled with.
The only problem with TB is that the development appears to be lethargic, and addons, on which TB is very dependent, tend to be slow in catching up with TB version. But that is only logistic.
As a former Mathematics teacher reduced to teaching Excel to supposedly numerate adults, it is appalling that too many adults cannot correctly answer a simple question like 1 + 2 * 3.
Australian education is not as rigorous as it should be, and it is no surprise that the higher achievers are more than ever from non-Australian backgrounds.
I have trained many people from various government departments, am commonly informed that they are still locked into IE, and all too often IE6, which says all you need to know about their knowledge of and attitude to IT security.
“This would lead to higher travel prices, fewer travel choices for consumers and businesses, and less innovation in online travel search, FairSearch.org said.”
A real announcement might have been “Apple finally releases a finished working copy of IOS”. I’m just waiting for my iPhone recurring alarms to work again and iPad to be able to do what iPhones can already do.
Is there a Beatles fan who doesn’t already have the complete collection?
The Australian Labor party may present itself as moderate, but it has always had the inclination to take control of the proles.
Their desire to censor the Internet beyond what is really necessary, in order to mold the minds of the masses comes as no surprise to Australians. What is a surprise is how many Australians who oppose mid control put the Government there in the first place.
Why anybody still uses IE is a mystery. Microsoft puts a lot of energy into telling the world that Open Source is evil. If they put half the amount of energy into fixing their security problems, every body would be a lot happier.
It’s very simple. Full disclosure of the source code plus a planet full of developers, or secret codes in the hands of a (relative) hand full of developers?
Thunderbird 3 has been on the books for a very long time. I have yet to upgrade, since I still have too many extensions caught out by the change. I have downloaded the new Lightning, but I can’t try it out since it won’t work on TB2. What’s going on here?
Let’s face it. Microsoft once had a good product in its Office suite. But when they implement dramatic changes and incompatibilities, it is harder to justify the effort of an "upgrade" when it is barely the same product.
I train in Microsoft Office products, and, while some appreciate some of the improvements, most users are unhappy with what they perceive to be unnecessary changes to something which seemed to be working well enough before. They are also unhappy with the fact that Office 2007 is an incomplete product, with many omissions, quirks and annoyances. They will be even more annoyed if they have to go through it all again, especially if they have to pay extra for the privilege.
Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away, but mostly Microsoft taketh away and charge you extra for it.
So why is Microsoft so much better than Open Source?
My understanding of the licence is that you can’t have two people using it at the same time. ("No other person may use the software under the same license at the same time for any other purpose"). Now
(a) in what sense are you in breach of this if somebody else is using your computer, but you are not;
(b) might you be in breach of this licence if somebody looks over your shoulder while you are using it, or is one of the few people enjoying a PowerPoint presentation on a projected screen?
As far as I am aware, an impossible contract, ie one the terms of which are impossible, is automatically invalidated ...
To all those morons who miss the point, announcing and plugging security holes is not what makes a browser insecure. Waiting until someone else has forced the issue, and even then waiting till next round of patches is.
It has to fall apart. The whole patent thing. With enough dumb law suits like this, maybe somebody will finally realise how moronic the system is. Then again, maybe not ...
Not for the first time there was a recent report of child abuse which the local authorities neglected to address despite the usual warnings. Rather than fooling around with Internet censorship, a little more effort in dealing with the real problem would be appreciated.
But then this government has always been more about mind control than about serving the people.
Does this mean that Schiller can be solely responsible for the downfall of the App Store, and hence for the downfall of the iPhone? I can't imagine that alienating developers is the best strategy for increasing or even maintaining market share.
Whenever Apple is on the road to success, someone has a moronic idea which will blow it. Clutching defeat, as they say, from the jaws of victory.
Apple dominate the mobile music market, are on track to dominating the smart phone market, and people are starting to notice the Macintosh again. What could possibly go wrong? What if some idiot should make their OS awkward, inconvenient and just plain annoying? That should do it.
Apple have a history of shooting themselves in the foot.
Come up with a good product, and then alienate the users. There’s only so much loyalty available for a company which falls over itself to exclude users from the process. In the case of the iPhone, there are many shortcomings, and Apple have locked users from fixes to them.
I love my iPhone, but my next phone will be a phone which I can call my own and doesn’t bar me from adapting it to the way I prefer to do things. Whether it is an iPhone, or something based on Android is entirely up to Apple. If they want to chase away their customers, well, we’ve seen it happen before.
... but mostly taketh away. Then charges you for the next upgrade to get some of it back again.
Microsoft charge you to upgrade to an incomplete product, and charge you again to fill in some of the gaps.
Happened with Orifice 2007. Take away customisation of the tool bars, and give you an inadequate quick access toolbar. Then charge you for the upgrade to 2010 when you can customise the ribbons.
in 1897, there was an attempt in Indiana to pass legislation which would indirectly have set pi to a wrong value of 3.2. I has been indefinitely postponed (which suggests that it may yet happen).
To put it another way, politics and truth just don’t mix.
Let’s see. I might go for OS X. No, wait. I want the advanced features so I’ll go for OS X. But I don’t want it to be too hard to use, so I’ll get OS X. Business or personal? Better get OS X just in case.
Loved the Missed Universe type metaphor. I suppose their hobbies are mainly traveling and meeting people and they’re all aiming for World Pieces. Perhaps, like the real thing, they all look good, but disappoint with their chosen talent.
I wonder where the horse race came in. Shouldn’t it have been a cat fight?
The Simpsons has barely turned out a good episode this century. Maybe Scientology is all that keeps it going, because it sure isn’t quality.
Cartwright is, of course, entitled to use her own voice, and if it happens to sound like Bart Simpson, well, that’s the way it goes. I believe, however, that Fox is legally entitled to govern the use of the name.
Did Warner Brothers have anything to say when Mel Blanc used his voices to promote Amex cards?
Clearly there must be a link between any activity which promotes or glorifies violence and violent or aggressive behaviour.
The link between brain dead adults and moronic behaviour, both in themselves and in their unfortunate offspring must be stronger.
What about all of those notices on cigarette packets that warn of a horrible death, or a life of misery? All they do is desensitize the user into ignoring any warning as a waste of space.
My understanding is that you have to fail an IQ test to work for Immigration in this country. They have a track record for moronic decisions which include deporting residents in error, rejecting legitimate entrants but accepting criminals, and generally making a dog’s breakfast of the country.
Seems to me that M$ is just trying to prove what it has always maintained: you get what you pay for. Fee web browser (Internet Exploiter), free web mail (NotSoHotMail), anybody who voluntarily relies on them is being punished for their ignorance.
Oddly, though, the competition don't seem to get the hint. They do insist on supplying a service or product that actually does a good job.
I suspect that the main target of these advertising gimmicks is the advertisers themselves. Any technique that cons the advertiser into thinking they’re onto a winner must be compelling enough for them to fork out a few more hard-earned dollars ...
Register
67 posts • joined Monday 31st July 2006 22:16 GMT
Page:
Not again ...
The Microbe(e) has few happy memories for me.
I was very much in the thick of it when the Microbe was a favorite toy in the NSW Department of Education. It was unreliable, the company was unreliable, and dominated by amateurs. All it had going for it was its cheapness, which meant that you could afford to more computers for when the others had failed yet again.
One of its serial weaknesses was the two-tiered design which created poor electrical contacts and was very much subject to problems with heat and just simple movement.
In principal, the whole thing was a good idea. In practice, very poorly implemented.
Two good reasons ...
... to avoid Telstra.
There’s an app for that ...
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iscanner-tricorder/id298654660?mt=8
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tricorder-tr-580/id290579379?mt=8
http://38i.biz/tricorder/
Why is there no Spock icon ?
Flight Staff were partialy to blame
Assuming that the gentleman in question didn’t gain an extra 100Kg between the door and the seat, staff were in a position to address the issue before the flight took off.
I have had flights delayed for lesser reasons, such as people trying to find storage for their so-called cabin luggage, so putting in a bit of extra time resolving what is essentially a safety issue would have been appropriate.
Had there been turbulence a standing passenger is at risk. Had there been another emergency, then having somebody like that anywhere at all is a major obstruction, and again poses a risk to other passengers.
As for playing the sympathy or disability card, although there are occasional genuine cases of unavoidable largesse, the main medical reason for obesity is the medical fact that too much of the wrong sort of food and not enough of the right sort of activity leads to, well, too much.
Apple’s Competition may be more serious
When I got my iPad, I wanted something that did many things, of which eBook reader is just one.
However, iPad has a weakness when it comes to eBook readers. The best one available, Stanza, has just bitten the dust with iOS 5. What a surprise, it was bought by Amazon a few years ago, and it seems they have lost interest in making it work.
The alternatives, especially iBooks, don’t compare, and a serious eBook reader may well be tempted to look elsewhere if the iPad doesn’t pick up something soon.
Apple’s software development model has its points, but it also has a serious flaw. It is entirely dependent on third parties to value-add the iPad, and then gives them a hard time doing so. Amazon’s is much more straightforward. Sell books, and develop a machine with software that knows how use them.
Is it just too obvious to include the fire icon?
The difference ...
One thing which has always distinguished Apple from Microsoft is its appeal. Apple promotes itself as fun and easy and arty. Nobody would accuse Microsoft of that. I can’t see Microsoft retail stores having the same atmosphere or the same clientele.
But who knows ... ?
Sleight of Hand
By that logic, high taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and fuel should decrease consumption. As far as I can tell, they don’t; they maek life more expensive, increase government revenue and give them the opportunilty to say that they’re doing some thing good.
The other monopoly
Don’t forget Telstra. Giving Telstra a bigger cut of anything is seriously bad news for the consumer.
Any company that controls what you see as well as how you get to see it has too much power, IMHO.
Microsoft Holding the Internet back ... again
Microsoft may imagine that what it’s doing is good for Enterprise, but it means that for the next decade, they will continue to patch and bug fix a product which should have been discontinued long before that.
IE 9 is not up to scratch, and certainly will be far behind the opposition in the years to come. However, Enterprise will be fooled into thinking that it’s OK to continue using it because MS says it’s OK, they’re still supporting it. Just like IE6.
Deja vue all over again ...
Worth a try ...
If you find a pin locked phone lying around and want to break in, arguing the merits of whether the pin is a dummy, randomly generated or the same as something else is pointless. Here is a list of 10 suggestions which will quite possibly get you in. And not knowing the owner personally, you don’t offend anybody by assuming that the owner is an idiot.
Divide and conquer
Personally I’m a great fan (and user) of CentOS. However I am aware that its development depends on work at RedHat, and is being paid for by RedHat’s customers.
Microsoft have never been a positive force for Open Source, and to support CentOS over the paid alternative can only be an attempt to undermine the most significant player, and thus weaken the competition.
Now multiply it against all mobile phones ... ?
What the hell does that mean? Makes as much sense as, well, pushing MMS as an exciting new thing.
Thunderbird must continue
TB is the only realistic and popular alternative to the proprietary email clients, especially, God Help Us, Outlook.
I find it reliable, extensible and flexible, it renders HTML email intelligently, and, importantly for me, I can rely on a portable version which gives me the environment I want regardless of the machine I am saddled with.
The only problem with TB is that the development appears to be lethargic, and addons, on which TB is very dependent, tend to be slow in catching up with TB version. But that is only logistic.
However
As a former Mathematics teacher reduced to teaching Excel to supposedly numerate adults, it is appalling that too many adults cannot correctly answer a simple question like 1 + 2 * 3.
Australian education is not as rigorous as it should be, and it is no surprise that the higher achievers are more than ever from non-Australian backgrounds.
IE again?
I have trained many people from various government departments, am commonly informed that they are still locked into IE, and all too often IE6, which says all you need to know about their knowledge of and attitude to IT security.
Why can I never find rancid milk when I need it?
Thanks for the Link
I was looking for a good example of how not to create a web site. The Bombay High Court will do nicely.
Not the sort of thing Microsoft would do ... ?
“This would lead to higher travel prices, fewer travel choices for consumers and businesses, and less innovation in online travel search, FairSearch.org said.”
Losing it
A real announcement might have been “Apple finally releases a finished working copy of IOS”. I’m just waiting for my iPhone recurring alarms to work again and iPad to be able to do what iPhones can already do.
Is there a Beatles fan who doesn’t already have the complete collection?
Alternative fix
“To resolve this behavior for existing alarms, set the repeat interval to Never.”
or buy a different phone.
Given that we have had scheduling in operating systems for decades, how do you actually break it?
Oxymoron
“Microsoft's number-one priority is now to deliver touch-based computing pads running Windows 7 and that people want”.
How can you run WIndows 7 and be the one that people want at the same time?
Setting Things Right
‘Windows Mobile missed a "whole generation of users" and promised Windows Phone 7 will set things right.’
A whole generation not using Windows. What is there to set right?
On par for the ALP
The Australian Labor party may present itself as moderate, but it has always had the inclination to take control of the proles.
Their desire to censor the Internet beyond what is really necessary, in order to mold the minds of the masses comes as no surprise to Australians. What is a surprise is how many Australians who oppose mid control put the Government there in the first place.
Good to get things into perspective
Considering what Apple won’t allow or approve, allowing for online gambling looks like a strang move ...
Open Source or Closed Doors?
Why anybody still uses IE is a mystery. Microsoft puts a lot of energy into telling the world that Open Source is evil. If they put half the amount of energy into fixing their security problems, every body would be a lot happier.
It’s very simple. Full disclosure of the source code plus a planet full of developers, or secret codes in the hands of a (relative) hand full of developers?
Long time coming
Thunderbird 3 has been on the books for a very long time. I have yet to upgrade, since I still have too many extensions caught out by the change. I have downloaded the new Lightning, but I can’t try it out since it won’t work on TB2. What’s going on here?
Less reason to stick to Microsoft
Let’s face it. Microsoft once had a good product in its Office suite. But when they implement dramatic changes and incompatibilities, it is harder to justify the effort of an "upgrade" when it is barely the same product.
I train in Microsoft Office products, and, while some appreciate some of the improvements, most users are unhappy with what they perceive to be unnecessary changes to something which seemed to be working well enough before. They are also unhappy with the fact that Office 2007 is an incomplete product, with many omissions, quirks and annoyances. They will be even more annoyed if they have to go through it all again, especially if they have to pay extra for the privilege.
Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away, but mostly Microsoft taketh away and charge you extra for it.
So why is Microsoft so much better than Open Source?
Is this legal
My understanding of the licence is that you can’t have two people using it at the same time. ("No other person may use the software under the same license at the same time for any other purpose"). Now
(a) in what sense are you in breach of this if somebody else is using your computer, but you are not;
(b) might you be in breach of this licence if somebody looks over your shoulder while you are using it, or is one of the few people enjoying a PowerPoint presentation on a projected screen?
As far as I am aware, an impossible contract, ie one the terms of which are impossible, is automatically invalidated ...
Another Reason
I love my iPhone, but it’s feeling very cramped. If Apple don’t open up sometime soon, the others will look more and more attactive.
The Ribbon Interface
... Still a slim hope then.... that someone will crawl out of the woodwork with a prior patent on the ribbon user interface ...
Like Macromedia?
Absolutely
To all those morons who miss the point, announcing and plugging security holes is not what makes a browser insecure. Waiting until someone else has forced the issue, and even then waiting till next round of patches is.
Sooner or Later
It has to fall apart. The whole patent thing. With enough dumb law suits like this, maybe somebody will finally realise how moronic the system is. Then again, maybe not ...
Missing the Point
Not for the first time there was a recent report of child abuse which the local authorities neglected to address despite the usual warnings. Rather than fooling around with Internet censorship, a little more effort in dealing with the real problem would be appreciated.
But then this government has always been more about mind control than about serving the people.
@why the heck is anyone still using IE6 anyway?
No Reason.
It may not be the individual users' fault, but any IT department which is still geared toward IE6 is run by morons.
In fact gearing your intranet towards any specific browser is asking for trouble, and towards IE is asking for double trouble.
Let me get this straight ...
Does this mean that Schiller can be solely responsible for the downfall of the App Store, and hence for the downfall of the iPhone? I can't imagine that alienating developers is the best strategy for increasing or even maintaining market share.
Had to Happen
Whenever Apple is on the road to success, someone has a moronic idea which will blow it. Clutching defeat, as they say, from the jaws of victory.
Apple dominate the mobile music market, are on track to dominating the smart phone market, and people are starting to notice the Macintosh again. What could possibly go wrong? What if some idiot should make their OS awkward, inconvenient and just plain annoying? That should do it.
Linux, anyone?
@Just close it #
"Sorry if I am being stupid (I do not have a Hotmail Account) ..."
If you don’t have a Hotmail account, you can’t be all that stupid.
History Repeating Itself
Apple have a history of shooting themselves in the foot.
Come up with a good product, and then alienate the users. There’s only so much loyalty available for a company which falls over itself to exclude users from the process. In the case of the iPhone, there are many shortcomings, and Apple have locked users from fixes to them.
I love my iPhone, but my next phone will be a phone which I can call my own and doesn’t bar me from adapting it to the way I prefer to do things. Whether it is an iPhone, or something based on Android is entirely up to Apple. If they want to chase away their customers, well, we’ve seen it happen before.
Microsoft Giveth and Microsoft Taketh Away
... but mostly taketh away. Then charges you for the next upgrade to get some of it back again.
Microsoft charge you to upgrade to an incomplete product, and charge you again to fill in some of the gaps.
Happened with Orifice 2007. Take away customisation of the tool bars, and give you an inadequate quick access toolbar. Then charge you for the upgrade to 2010 when you can customise the ribbons.
Open Patent?
I’m tremendously confused here.
Is it possible to patent something which you have tried desperately to establish as an open standard?
What is the point of a patent if there is no intention of suing? Is it OK to rip it off?
What do the standards bodies think of this?
Where am I?
Legislating Science
in 1897, there was an attempt in Indiana to pass legislation which would indirectly have set pi to a wrong value of 3.2. I has been indefinitely postponed (which suggests that it may yet happen).
To put it another way, politics and truth just don’t mix.
Politics and stupidity, on the other hand, ...
Clever Americans
China has the Great Firewall. Much cleverer to just tax things. This way you either discourage it or make money out of it. A bet both ways.
Modern?
"Norwegian web sites are campaigning to have users dump Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 for a modern browser."
I must have misread this. IE 7 and "modern" in the same article. Obviously put there for comedic effect.
Anything but Vista?
One obvious reason to be happy with Apple is that it doesn’t include Vista.
OS X
Let’s see. I might go for OS X. No, wait. I want the advanced features so I’ll go for OS X. But I don’t want it to be too hard to use, so I’ll get OS X. Business or personal? Better get OS X just in case.
Etc
Missed Metaphors
Loved the Missed Universe type metaphor. I suppose their hobbies are mainly traveling and meeting people and they’re all aiming for World Pieces. Perhaps, like the real thing, they all look good, but disappoint with their chosen talent.
I wonder where the horse race came in. Shouldn’t it have been a cat fight?
Who cares?
The Simpsons has barely turned out a good episode this century. Maybe Scientology is all that keeps it going, because it sure isn’t quality.
Cartwright is, of course, entitled to use her own voice, and if it happens to sound like Bart Simpson, well, that’s the way it goes. I believe, however, that Fox is legally entitled to govern the use of the name.
Did Warner Brothers have anything to say when Mel Blanc used his voices to promote Amex cards?
Useless warnings
Clearly there must be a link between any activity which promotes or glorifies violence and violent or aggressive behaviour.
The link between brain dead adults and moronic behaviour, both in themselves and in their unfortunate offspring must be stronger.
What about all of those notices on cigarette packets that warn of a horrible death, or a life of misery? All they do is desensitize the user into ignoring any warning as a waste of space.
Immigration Department
My understanding is that you have to fail an IQ test to work for Immigration in this country. They have a track record for moronic decisions which include deporting residents in error, rejecting legitimate entrants but accepting criminals, and generally making a dog’s breakfast of the country.
Hidden Agenda
Seems to me that M$ is just trying to prove what it has always maintained: you get what you pay for. Fee web browser (Internet Exploiter), free web mail (NotSoHotMail), anybody who voluntarily relies on them is being punished for their ignorance.
Oddly, though, the competition don't seem to get the hint. They do insist on supplying a service or product that actually does a good job.
Whom are they trying to impress?
I suspect that the main target of these advertising gimmicks is the advertisers themselves. Any technique that cons the advertiser into thinking they’re onto a winner must be compelling enough for them to fork out a few more hard-earned dollars ...
Page: