Posts by hammarbtyp

While I agree with you on most. MS did miss the internet, because it was not in there culture to understand a system in which the PC was not central and therefore could not be controlled by them.

They spent a lot of money making the least compatible browser out there (something we still paying for) and trying to make the PC the portal of choice, as the world started to move to online services

The internet is based around co-operative open standard. Foe long time these were just a anathema to MS, who did trust what it could not control

They were so blinkered on the PC it meant that they were slow to offer internet services, so allowed Google to grow, cloud services allowing AWS to take the market, and even mobile phones where they seen as some sort as add on to the PC and not a device in itself

Re: Why?

Same reason why there is still a cult of St Jobs (who also wasn't a particularly nice man). Because they were incredible important in the creation of the modern world.

In truth nice people rarely have the drive and push to overcome the hurdles to really create a new industry.

You don't have to like the guy to respect what he achieved.

Re: "What on Earth the GE engineers thought they were doing..."

No, were probably sofware developers. In my experience Software developers create solutions that work for them, and bugger the rest of the world because they assume everyone is like them

"Just download Python 2.2.2, install any dependencies, edit 4 scripts using vi, adding these 16 random characters generated from this 256 character URL and you're good to go

....

what do you mean 'what is a python? '"

Tax Cuts - Yes that's very nice for you, but you do realise the money has to come from somewhere don't you? For example the budget deficit has increased with the Trump administration with no plan how to bring it under control. Its like living on credit cards, at some point you will have to pay for your excesses. Of course Trump in the past managed situation like that by declaring chapter 11, I wonder what the equivalent is in a country? In the meantime the US infrastructure is slowing reverting to 3rd world standards

H1B - Again good for you, on the other hand have you ever wondered how much of the US technological dominance was through the ability to attract the brightest and best? With increased restrictions, increased fear of immigrants and greater restrictions on non-citizens I wonder how many of those would prefer to take there skills elsewhere?

IP Theft - this is a two way street and product counterfeits occur in the US as well as China. I don't think Trumps policies will make any difference to this, because in the end only the Chinese government can actually stop it, and they are not going to want to show loss of face by what could be seen as kowtowing to trumps demands. The global supply economy is so integrated, you could not isolate China, without huge knock on effects to your economy. Big IT companies know this which is why they are lobbying for the tariffs to end

Trump is an ass - Well we agree there, although I am not willing to look over for his xenophobic, narcissistic personality for a one off wage rise bribe, because I have seen where eventually that leads to.

Economy - well if you look at the figures the economy started rising during the Obama administration, this after the biggest financial crises in the 21st century, so i think you give Obama too little credit. It could be said that Trump is just riding on the coat tails of the economic improvement bought in by the Obama administration. The best you can say is that he has not managed to bugger it up yet. On the other hand, economies are like super tankers , they take a long time to change course, so it is likely we have not seen the effects of this administrations policies yet

Reagan - In many ways the crash of 2000's was a result of the Reagan boom and boost policies. It is easy to boost an economy short term, long term steady growth is far harder and most Republican policies fall down here, unless you are the very rich. Clinton managed growth and a balanced budget, something that eluded most other residents of the white house.

Sure vote for Trump, but be aware that history has shown with people like Trump in charge, when things start going bad, they go very bad

Re: There are now answers to this that will make everyone happy.

"PP’s founder Margaret Sanger was an outright racist who saw abortion as a tool for exterminating blacks."

No she wasn't, however she was closely associated with some who held those views. As Ellen Chesler put it

"Margaret Sanger was never herself a racist, but she lived in a profoundly bigoted society, and her failure to repudiate prejudice – especially when it was manifest among proponents of her cause – has haunted her ever since"

Yes she was a flawed women (she also did not believe in abortion), but there is also a danger in viewing people outside the times she lived (For example George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners). Before the horrors of WWII and the Nazi's use of eugenics there were many who saw it as a method to provide huge social change. It is is easy in hindsight to blame people for their views.

None of this however diminishes PP and the work they do that allow women of all social classes to have control over there own lives and bodies

Re: Beware spinoffs; they allow HR policy changes

While useful (and thanks for providing the links), such stats like this can be misleading. Firstly averages only tell part of the story. What is the spread of wages. For example a few very high earners can skew averages compared to an economy where the wealth is more widely spread.

Secondly health care costs. One important point is that in Europe, health care insurance through taxes travel with the person and are guaranteed. US healthcare tends to be connected to the employment. This has a great affect on the level of control an employer has on a employee, because removal of medical insurance through redundancy is a big thing especially to those with families or older workers. That in turn restricts the ability of employees to unionise etc

Also it does not cover pensions, which again tend to be connected with the employer rather than through a social tax

In the end it is complicated and you cannot just make black and white comparisons

I think the angle of attack is that rather than the value of Autonomy being overpriced based on dodgy accounting practices from Lynch and co, it was due to HP's dysfunctional company culture and a desire to move into a high margin area, whatever the cost. Interestingly it appears that HP thought they were in a bidding war with Oracle. True or not, such things tend to push the price up and it must be remembered that it wasn't unusual at the time for so called Web 2.0 companies to be bought with stupid money, despite having no visible assets.

How much Autonomy is to blame in this is still to be decided, but if someone comes to you and offers 10 times the value of your house, are you going to ask questions? It is the equivalent of HP doing this then finding the expected gold seam they had expected in your garden was not there and therefore blame you for not putting it there

It also feels that there was open warfare at the top, and as with any such conflict, those involved on the losing side will try and rewrite history to put themselves in a better light.

Whatever happens, HP does not come out looking good in all this

Re: Security concerns?

You are quite right @steve 1234, you should boycott any device made, manufactured, associated or even gone with in 100 miles of China and its allies.

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Good, now he's living in a technology free slum of his own devising, that's one more nut job we will never hear from again

Re: Presitator for life

If he were to attempt to stay, that freedom to bear arms suddenly makes sense (although I really doubt even Trump would be stupid enough to try and stay in power).

Trump has so far managed to confound those who underestimated his stupidity. Unfortunately narcissism has no upper limits. Trumps problem (well one of his many problems) is that he cannot conceive of someone not voting for him, therefore if anyone does it is down to fraud, fake news etc.

stupid is as stupid does

China iPhones unit sales are $50 billion China revenue, which is about 19% of Apple’s total revenue.

Plus losing access to the worlds most populous country and a growing market, where the other markets are saturated.

Yep, not much impact at all

Re: Freedom!

I would suggest pimp is the more accurate term, because at least a condom provides protection to both parties

Re: RIP Joe Armstrong

Yes its nice to see that El Reg has finally got around to acknowledging his demise, although not in the fashion that I was expecting.

Saying that, having met Joe a few times, I'm pretty sure he would of been chuffed with the reference

Re: 1984 !

The arguments over the last 2 years have been about what Brexit the 51% voted for. Since none of them appear to be able to agree which clusterfuck they want its seems quite reasonable to ask the question again

Do keep up!

Re: Yawn

The important thing with legacy is not to invent something but to make sure it has a sexy memorable name i.e AJAX

Re: Beginning of end of the 737?

I think the main reason was that the engineers were given the target of 95 percent commonality with the rest of the 737 MAX family. That makes sense from a business point of view. It would allow them to sell the aircraft to legacy 737 customers as an upgrade with minimal spares and maintenance overhead.

I do believe the landing gear is 9 inches longer and is extended after it leaves the wheel well, but it just goes to show the design compromises that had to be met to meet the business case

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/boeing-737-max-10-landing-gear/

Its not so much the bad actors - any system can be gamed. However if you go to the extremes in any system this is what you get.

The problem is there is always a push to reduce government oversight. The libertarians will spout the Ayn Rand shit and say the government has to get out of the way of the market. However without the checks and balances that government provides this, Enron , 737 max is what results because eventually someone will realise that without someone providing neutral oversight they can do anything they want and nobody will stop them

Re: Two screens with an infinitesimally-precise and tiny mating junction

On the other hand the "notch" was universally accepted.

This shows two things

1. Apple can get away with most things

2. People adapt. For example I've had a crack on my phone for about a year now. Initially it was annoying, but now I hardly notice it

I think the mechanical issues on folding phones will be insurmountable without some major material science advances. However the desire to have a larger screen, in a small form factor is undeniable, so a compromise solution with two screens that butt together maybe the best solytion

Re: so it's...

Worse that that. Its a JAFPL (Just another .... programming laguage)

However nice the syntax is, unless it can prove to have a specific application which it can do better than the present incumbent, it will just be one of those academic exercises with no real world usage

Re: Stand your air

Well that's just Lefty Pinko thinking.

If federal marshals are allowed to be armed, well so am I just in case I feel the need to form a well armed militia at 40,000 ft.

I didn't notice anything in the US constitution which provided a altitude limit. If they had meant to limit it to ground based citizens they would of said so when they wrote it, goddammit.

I am going to complain to my NRA sponsored congressmen right now

Re: Fellow?

Sorry Dilbert is no longer relevant ever since Scott Adams declared he was for the dark side

Re: Not much sympathy

Clinton would have been like all those before her, secretive, attention diverting, money grabbing, plutocratic dealing figure head who is the servant of the real power. Which is the highest bidder.

and yet somehow you believe Trump is better...hope the weather is nice in your delusional fantasy world

Re: Jam and spoof

Yeah but it's not all about deep ocean is it? You have to come into port and that is where depth and position is critical. I would posit there is a higher amount of traffic in coastal waters.

No doubt, but coastal waters make up a very small part of the worlds oceans and you don't have to be very far from land to not see it at all. Most of the world trade follows the shortest route across oceans, which generally involves being out of site of land for days. So apart from pleasure boats, most ships require to navigate without any land reference. GPS is not greatly used in port because there is a plethora of other navigation aids and the need to see and avoid other craft is a priority. Also most ships are piloted by a local expert when coming into port

Your lorry driver analogy is pretty derisory of professional navigators in terms of ability and capability. Day sailors and Gin Palace drivers maybe and if they wish to ignore depth data then more fool them.

Its not an insult, just a statement on human behavior that we are more likely to believe technology than our own sensors. I can point to airline pilots, who also are well trained, who have crashed because they refused to believe their own senses over what their instruments are showing them. There is a tendency to always doubt yourself over the supposedly inhuman precision of the electronic overseer. Most of the time that is a good thing, however the danger if someone deliberately jams or falsifies the data, then it becomes an issue.

The saddest thing is, that after all this, they are probably still legally allowed to own as many firearms as their little arms can carry.

This is where the stupidity of US gun laws is writ large.

Re: sink containers in deep sediment with location devices

Wow, the [insert rogue nation state here] Governments would just love this idea. Just take a large vessel. find the location device signal and recover all that lovely radioactive material. I'm sure some of those states are cavalier enough to do that!

If you have the capability to access a submarine 10km under the ocean, then you are probably already capable of processing your own radioactive material

Not wrong, but maybe concentrating on the wrong thing.

The quality of your photo is not a direct relation to how much money you spent on your camear, the size of your lense or the number of megapixels, otherwise we should just put the camera price tag on each photo and base our judgement on that.

No, its about utilising the most appropriate equipment for the situation and making the best use of what is available. DSLR's, phones, polaroids, pinhole cameras they all have their place, advantages and disadvantages, but there is no right camera.

There is just too much concentration on camera wars.