* Posts by David Gale

129 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Oct 2008

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Lithuania tells its citizens to throw Xiaomi mobile devices in the bin

David Gale

Did someone mention Google?

Google maintains at least nine different blacklists that impact our lives, generally without input or authority from any outside advisory group, industry association or government agency. Google is not the only company suppressing content on the internet. Reddit has frequently been accused of banning postings on specific topics, and a recent report suggests that Facebook has been deleting conservative news stories from its newsfeed, a practice that might have a significant effect on public opinion – even on voting. Google, though, is currently the biggest bully on the block.

Microsoft outlines some ground rules to prevent it from nicking your IP

David Gale

TADAG

MS's rip off of TADAG has cost Redmond circa $400bn to date. Sometimes, the little guys anticipate the big guy's move and only share a component of their overall design. That said, the TADAG report makes interesting reading, evidencing key MS personnel battling with their own company's lawyers in trying to maintain a degree of decency in their business negotiations.The lawyers' emails include instructions to senior employees to 'forget' face to face meetings held under NDA.

What went wrong at Tesco Bank?

David Gale

TADAG.com

This is not just Tesco's weakness. Multi-point, layered authentication is the answer: TADAG

EU ends anonymity and rules open Wi-Fi hotspots need passwords

David Gale

TADAG.com

...and still no credible long term strategy to protect citizens?

Roll on www.TADAG.com

HTC One M9 hands on: Like a smart M8 in a sharp suit

David Gale

It's the camera, stupid!

I'll be waiting to see the final shipped version's camera performance. The launch sample photographs were appalling! My M7, now smoother than ever on Android 5.0.2, has OIS and consistently outperforms my partner's M8 in both stills and video photography. Whoever took the decision to omit OIS from the camera specs of both M8 and M9 wants showing the door.

2015 and IBM: But it wasn't supposed to be like this...

David Gale

TADAG

IBM missed an opportunity to engage with TADAG.com in 2009. Not because they didn't think it was a good idea but because some mindless middle management got all high and mighty about not wanting to make a public record of the date of the meeting. As an ex-IBM employee, I appreciated (some of) the training I received but when the discussion moves inexorably to which swimming pool filter to buy at the third cocktail party of the week, life becomes a little dull.

Scientific consensus that 2014 was record hottest year? No

David Gale

Let's not forget that the warmists were caught moving the temperature sensors to sites that would show a higher reading. I remember fledgling climate modellers predicting a New Ice Age. Many later joined the AGW cabal. See 6m 23s for the 'incontrovertible science':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_861us8D9M

It's 4K-ing big right now, but it's NOT going to save TV

David Gale
Happy

Given that broadcast television is going the same way as the landline telephone, is someone really suggesting that 4k is an attractive proposition for the occasional watch of Netflix? The tv may still be a dominant feature in our lounges but the reality is that most of us are watching less and less of it. How long before producers follow Sony's lead, cut out the middle man, and go direct?

UK retailers in TABLET PRICE SLASH BONANZA

David Gale

Lenovo Tab S8

I bought a Lenovo Tab S8 at Currys for £129 Inc. It has 2GB RAM, a super thin full HD screen, Android 4.4, and weighs less than 300g. Use it for blogging / research / emails whilst in bed. Massive improvement over my HTC One M7 for this purpose. The clincher was a better spec than a main stream tablet of more than three times the price. WARNING! Do NOT take the Lenovo / Android OTA update when offered.

Windows Phone will snatch biz No 2 spot from Android – analyst

David Gale

Tried but failed...

Exchange mail is currently significantly better on Android than in WP8, so there is some ground to make up.. Data retention compliance? Retrieval of entire time-stamped SMS text threads? Recording of phone calls? Good luck trying to deliver that with WP!

Nokia Lumia 735: Ignore the selfie hype, it's a grown-up phone

David Gale

Re: Enterprise? Not yet...

Fortunately, Mr Bungle, I don't feel the necessity to hide behind a pseudonym.

1. We require entire SMS threads intact for evidential purposes. Compare Android's 'SMS to Text' app.

2. Not so, call recording doesn't work on 8.1. The microphone is muted to all third party apps.

3. I'll take a wild guess that you don't read for a living, since nowhere in my post does it mention 'mailbox'.

Last time I looked, Open ID was used by over a billion devices, so I maybe have a degree more credibility than someone who names himself after a children's TV character or a defunct Californian band?

David Gale

Re: Enterprise? Not yet...

KidsForCashUK needs to search calendars for previous appointments with victims with whom we're working. In tests, calendar entries were persistently missed by the search.

David Gale

Enterprise? Not yet...

"Enterprise buyers who've settled on Windows Phone, and who are looking for a good, low cost, and reasonably future-proofed fleet phone should take this very seriously."

Er, no, actually. I've just finished a back to back test of WP8.1 against Android and found serious deficiencies in the Microsoft offering.

For example:

1. Lack of SMS archive facility rendering business texts unretrievable for data retention / evidential purposes.

2. Lack of call recording capability, again rendering Windows Phone useless for audit and data retention.

3. Lack of MS Exchange search capability. Frankly, inexcusable for a Microsoft phone.

All of the above examples are functions provided by Android and, years ago, were available on Windows Mobile. I warned Microsoft in writing four years ago that if it didn't bolster its mobile presence for the enterprise space, it would open up its server and desktop footprint to attack. It's proven to have been a very costly error.

David Gale

Yes, it is possible to view the phone's directory structure and download photographs to a laptop.

BBC Trust candidate defends licence fee, says evaders are CRIMINALS

David Gale

Questionable legality?

Is it possible for this establishment pillock to be more out of touch? Each year, over 400,000 additional people ditch the TV licence. If they don't act soon, there'll be nothing left to save.

You want to pay for BBC programming? Be my guest. I don't watch it (Netflix only) and I don't see any reason why I should pay for a service that I don't use.

Premier League wants to PURGE ALL FOOTIE GIFs from social media

David Gale

Football is missing the point...

Do these morons not get it? The grassroots of interest in football (and now F1 motorsport ) is being destroyed by the advent of expensive pay to watch TV. Yes, a handful of people are making a mint but ask any kids' football coach what's happening and they'll tell you that with Freeview's loss of English league football has gone the interest of a large percentage of kids who can no longer watch top level English football on television. It's ironic that the football industry is now spending yet more money on technology to ensure that even less people have access to the game. Wake up! You're killing the golden goose.

Five-year-old discovers Xbox password bug, hacks dad's Live account

David Gale

Hack Attack!

Why the cynicism? At a time when I was working with local authorities, including education, my kid decided that hacking his school's admin network was more entertaining than his school's IT curriculum. Granted he was 11 yrs old at the time but, within a few weeks, he'd graduated to hacking a national curriculum online student testing facility. I had anticipated using his 'work' to provide me with some traction in discussing security infrastructure but the reaction (without blobbing him in) was indifference. Too much potential for embarrassment?

David Gale

SITFO.org

Ever get the impression a telesales op was being held prisoner?

David Gale

Financial Crime Pays!

The article fails due to flaw in its basic premise that "crime doesn't pay". The evidence shows that if you commit a big enough crime you will not be prosecuted beacause, and I quote the US authorities on HSBC here, 'the collateral damage would be too high'.

So, if you're HSBC, go ahead and launder money for drugs cartels and rogue states, you'll walk free...

"There's one law for the poor and several hundred willing regulatory accomplices for the rich."

BlackBerry CEO John Chen: Y'know what, we'll go back to enterprise stuff

David Gale

Going back to enterprise?

Going back to enterprise? Now, there's a coincidence. I wonder how long it will take Ballmer's successor to come to the same conclusion about Windows?

www.TADAG.com

How Britain could have invented the iPhone: And how the Quangocracy cocked it up

David Gale

Plus ça change...

Plus ça change...

www.TADAG.com but they only got part of it... :)

Ballmer: 'We made more money than almost anybody on the PLANET'

David Gale

Bean counting

Ballmer cost Microsoft massively more than he ever made them. He reigned over a period that, even to this day, sees market share thrown away on the back of a tactical, barrow boy focus on the short term. How much of Microsoft's enterprise advantage has been thrown away by the sales targets of individual product groups being allowed to run roughshod over customers' long term strategies? Add barrow boy sales mentality to MBA-style segmentation and you end up with an amalgam of process-bound bureaucracies that will sell their own grandmothers to hit their short term targets. Ballmer fundamentally failed to recognise what had made Microsoft successful in the first place. RIP the creative campus culture...

WikiLeaker-in-chief Assange refuses to meet Benedict Cumberbatch

David Gale

Stand trial?

Isn't it sweet how many of the locked away in an attic, neo-Con critics think that somehow justice is dispensed in a court of law? For goodness sakes, you're lucky if you get law dispensed in a court of law. Justice is for the movies...

myOpenID to close down for good in February 2014

David Gale

TADAG was always the answer

Given the way in which a small component of TADAG was ripped off by Microsoft and passed to Brad Fitzpatrick to become OpenID (later sponsored by Microsoft), I have little sympathy for OpenID's demise. The OpenID architectural solution was fundamentally flawed by its lack of access to the bigger picture of TADAG. Now, more than ever, TADAG is desperately needed to effect a paradigm shift in internet security.

With Balmer on the way out, perhaps its time for me to visit Redmond again?

David Gale

Author of TADAG - A copy of the Microsoft requested report is downloadable at: www.TADAG.com

SITFO.org

Oh noes! New 'CRISIS DISASTER' at Fukushima! Oh wait, it's nothing. Again

David Gale

Coal...?

El Reg is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Let's just suppose for one moment that carbon is an issue. Currently, under an EU mandate, the UK is in the process of shutting down six coal-fired power stations that will put the country's power generating capacity on a knife-edge. UK energy costs are already amongst the most expensive in Europe and are a major factor in our economic slow-down. We are told that coal is nasty and that we must stop using it but, in the next few years, India and China alone will bring on-stream four coal-fired power stations PER WEEK.

Now pardon me for being a pedant, but if closing six coal-fired power stations demonstrably further damages the UK economy whilst making, effectively, zero difference to carbon emissions on a global scale, why are we handing a commercial advantage on a plate to other nations?

We have around 300 years of coal and gas reserves, so why wouldn't we pour our development money into fusion research?

UK.gov to drive stake through heart of big IT outsourcing deals

David Gale

Control is good, architecture questionable...

Grabbing back control is an important first step to dealing with the blatant corruption and lobbied interests that have been running the show for too long. However, until such time as someone is empowered to put the citizen at the centre of the architectural model, we are throwing good money after bad.

Win 8 man Sinofsky's 'retirement' deal: $14m shares, oath of silence

David Gale

Non Disclosure Agreements?

Non Disclosure Agreements? Microsoft? LOL

I love the idea that a Microsoft NDA is somehow worth the paper it's written on: www.TADAG.com

Microsoft's murder most foul: TechNet is dead

David Gale

"Thank you", says Android desktop...

This move reminds me of Adobe's arrogance when they locked down products like Photoshop. In one fell swoop, they destroyed the underground skillbase that had ensured that their product was a natural choice the moment that any pirate grew commercial wings. It's remarkable that, apparently, neither Adobe nor Microsoft have the slightest clue as to the reasons that underpin their past success.

At a time when Android apps are already free to test, how long is it going to be before testing the core integration suite and enterprise apps becomes the sole preserve of the open source community?

Who is Samsung trying to kid? There will NEVER be a 5G network

David Gale

5G = Wi-Fi

'Mobile phone' network coverage is already geographically fragmented, so why wouldn't a new player come in and seize the urban market by partnering with a local authority's street lighting provider. A mesh Wi-Fi network run from antennae equipped streetlights could bring in much needed revenue for local government (and reduce their comms costs), at the same time as providing up to gigabit internet access.

The traditional telcos cling on to the current modus operandi despite knowing that their traditional operating and technology models risks being challenged. Why would I make a traditional voice call / send a text, if I could add much more functionality to a call or text using Skype / Facebook / Twitter? The traditional telcos had better hope that the IT world maintains its barrow boy focus on the short term... or get into bed with them very quickly.

David Gale

SITFO.org

National Audit Office tears government's savings claims in HALF

David Gale

Tactical versus Strategic

The evidence demonstrates that the Cabinet Office, together with the rest of Whitehall, is being steered away from anything truly strategic by lobbied interests: http://sitfo.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/tactical-vs-strategic/ SITFO has advocated a model that includes a Strategic IT Framework and regional CIOs, a model that has been adopted and proven by other governments including Finland and China. When are the vested commercial interests going to be put to one side to allow the UK to deliver something that is sustainable?

'Google's crap for business' - CIOs give ad giant dose of reality

David Gale

Playing by the rules...

It's fortunate for Google that Microsoft are so busy trying to play the enterprise game to Google's rules that they miss the opportunity to wipe the floor with the competition. 'Reminds me of IBM trying to play by Microsoft's rules. It didn't work for them either...

Ice core shows Antarctic Peninsula warming is nothing unusual

David Gale

What if they're wrong...?

The 'what if they're wrong' of the AGW lobbyists needs to include the FACT that current green-led strategies are fast rendering the West commercially uncompetitive. When governments have finished destroying entire industries and the communities that they support, who's going to deal with the civil unrest and disorder that results?

Whilst moving away from a dependency on carbon fuels may be a sensible LONG-term strategy, do not kid yourself that the current green lobby path does not constitute a further severe risk to already wobbly global stability...

Councils wave £34m cheque for phones, broadband, IT stuff

David Gale

Regional IT Services Centre

That makes a lot of sense but I would go further: Why not have a Regional IT Services Centre providing a Strategic IT Framework that will enable transformation across multiple public sector organisations?

David Gale

Suppliers underwhelmed by UK's G-Cloud services catalogue

David Gale

Not Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

This is what happens when you allow people who have little or no understanding of the business to set the agenda.

http://sitfo.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/not-every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining/

Told you so...

David Gale

SITFO.org

Bill Gates, Harry Evans and the smearing of a computer legend

David Gale

Independent Sources?

Perhaps you ought to read the linked document before you dive in with your h'appennies worth on the validity of TADAG. The sources are internal to Microsoft and evidenced by Microsoft's own communications.

David Gale

.. and of course

... and of course Microsoft would never rip off anything, would they?

http://www.TADAG.com

Why British TV drama is crap – and why this matters to tech firms

David Gale

There are people who still watch TV?

There are people who still watch TV? Oh, OK. Well enjoy your debate...

Foreign policy dictated news coverage, aspirational lifestyle dramas to keep the good little consumers focused on what we're supposed to want, sports that are more dictated by money than talent, all screened by broadcasters with a political axe to grind.

TV...? No, thanks.

Seize your moment, Microsoft: iPad is RUBBISH for enterprise

David Gale

Retro TC100 refresh please

Will someone please take the original HP TC1100 tablet design and stuff it full of modern kit? We still use our nearly decade-old TC1100s with full-strength Photoshop as part of a PC-based production workflow. The tablet capability saves hours and it's still the only tablet / laptop with a decent screen size that can fit (with keyboard in place) at a decent viewing angle on an aircraft seat tray. Docked with a full size screen, it's also a very usable desktop. It's time that HP realise the brilliance of that original design and did a refresh!

Microsoft takes a $6.2bn bath with aQuantive web ads write-down

David Gale

OS2

...and for the record, as an IBM employee, I was the guy who tried to 'open-door' IBM CEO John Akers to tell him that OS2 must be heavily marketed into the consumer space to drive upwards into the enterprise space. What a different world we could have lived in...

David Gale

Dear Steve...

Dear Steve

The legacy that you were left was a company that had the best enterprise integration stack on the planet. Whilst it's true that many of your own people didn't fully understand the full potential, there was enough there for you to be able to forge ahead.

First, we had the compartmentalised focus on product groups (that originally had a focus on split up / sell off) which cut across the long-term interests of your customers and saw strategic products being deployed tactically in the enterprise space just to hit the numbers.

Then, we had this dream of making MS a consumer-focused company, a 'vision' so fundamentally flawed that one has to wonder what your shareholders were thinking of.

The reason for MS's existence, in the face of IBM's OS2 PC operating system is that MS took Windows to the consumer space but the success was based on the consumer then taking Windows to the enterprise space.

You have enough good people in MS who really know how to leverage the advantage of the integrated MS product stack. Let them do their job and stop letting beancounters get in the way.

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