* Posts by leeeeeb

31 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT

leeeeeb

That's the way to do it, always leave on a high and with the audience wanting more.

European Space Agency goes for mostly solid Ariane 6

leeeeeb

Re: newsflash Arianespace is no government outfit

Arianespace was created to operate and market the launch vehicles, it's not responsible for design. That responsibility remains with ESA, which contracts it out to national space agencies and private industry.

It is considered the first commercial operator, because until the Space Act was reformed by the Reagan administration in '84, only NASA could operate launch vehicles in the US (Military excluded). Following the reforms manufacturers such as Boeing and McDonnell Douglas became launch service providers as well as manufacturers, able to operate and market their own vehicles as Arianespace did.

However, they failed to gain significant commercial payloads and with a few exclusions, these companies merged their products to become ULA.

leeeeeb

Re: There are other issues

Concerning manned launches, one of the major safety concerns for solids is the debris cloud in the event of a catastrophic failure. The solid fuel may may scatter and continue to burn across a wide area, and incinerate the parachute of any capsule descending through it following an abort.

You can see such a cloud in this footage of a Titan IV failure in the 90's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFeZkrRE9w

This risk was highlight as a major concern for Ares 1, and had not been resolved when the launched was cancelled. The shuttle of course had no launch escape system.

4K vs OLED: and the winner is...

leeeeeb

Re: 4k Monitors

Considering the direction of the PC industry, that's not really going to lead to high volume. None the less, I want one!

STILL TRUE: Facebook and co to handle taxpayers' ID

leeeeeb

Re: 185 people

Or possibly:

180 people implementing the PRINCE2 management process

4 people with "UX" in their job title who have been in the same meeting since the start of the project

1 developer

Forget Apple's AirPlay - it's Windows 8 you want, says speaker maker

leeeeeb
Alert

Re: I don't understand.

Why yes, or at least the increasing price of copper will mean that in many situations a little bit of bluetooth chippery will actually be cheaper than a run of cable.

Apple Lightning adaptors reveal limitations

leeeeeb
Joke

Thunderbolt and Lightning...

... very, very frightening. Are they really naming connectors after Queen lyrics?

Apple iDevice dock port to drive wireless streaming

leeeeeb
Facepalm

Or use the other port, the round 3.5mm one that's always been there.

Eight... AirPlay speakers

leeeeeb

Re: Looks nice

Yes, but this whole category of device is really for people who want a completely integrated and cable free setup. The problem of course is that these are often used as satellite speakers in the kitchen or bedroom for which they are just too blasted expensive.

The airplay micro system are great, but these integrated speakers need to be much more competitive with bluetooth equivalents.

Films-on-USB kiosks come to airports

leeeeeb

Hmm, some quick back of an envelope numbers tell me you could do a 1GB in about a minute using wireless N (assuming 150Mbps). That's of course in the fantasy world of perfect conditions, the QoS of public wifi is probably so poor that the idea is hopeless for a few years yet.

leeeeeb

You can tell this was invented and pitched before the studio DRM requirements were fully realised. Impulse buy a movie straight onto a memory stick at the airport, great idea. Introduce an element of DRM with online activation, and you instantly lose customers and create a sizeable customer support issue.

In fact even without the DRM, would it not be more convenient to do this by integrating it with the terminal wifi? Add some NAS storage and a web shopfront to the access points frontpage, and flyers could purchase and download whilst sat waiting to board.

Atari pings Pong Apple champion wannabes

leeeeeb

The article neglects to say several things, inaccurate my omission. Nolan Busnell invented the word "Pong", this man invented the game http://ralphbaer.com/

Chutzpah indeed.

leeeeeb
Stop

Interesting version of history you have there. Pong was invented by Magnavox not Atari.

http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm#P8

Microsoft 'yanked optical drive from Xbox 720'

leeeeeb
Thumb Up

Very welcome news. Optical discs were essentially designed for streaming, whereas games also require high IO bandwidth and random access.

The widespread adoption of disc media in console was partly for the low cost per GB, but also Sony's larger agenda of using it to push adoption of first DVD and then Bluray formats. The engineers behind the original PS1 saw the CD as a medium that would load the game and then only be used afterwards for video and background music. Of course games quickly grew and in many cases we've endured crushingly dull load times.

If the intention is to use some form of PROM/cartridge at retail, the per GB is more than fine at the price point of console games. The only drawback would be what it means for backward compatibility. Cartridges don't themselves restrict the availability of a second hand marker, and the ability to do that with discs via unique serialisation has been around for a few years.

leeeeeb
Thumb Up

Very welcome news. Optical discs were essentially designed for streaming, whereas games also require high IO bandwidth and random access.

The widespread adoption of disc media in consoles was partly for the low cost per GB, but also Sony's larger agenda of using it to push adoption of first DVD and then Bluray formats. The engineers behind the original PS1 saw the CD as a medium that would load the game and then only be used afterwards for video and background music. Of course games quickly grew and in many cases we've endured crushingly dull load times.

If the intention is to use some form of PROM/cartridge at retail, the per GB is more than fine at the price point of console games. The only drawback would be what it means for backward compatibility. Cartridges don't themselves restrict the availability of a second hand marker, and the ability to do that with discs via unique serialisation has been around for a few years.

New Chinese space plans are all about security and strategy on Earth

leeeeeb

The Long March 5 is LOX/Kerosene not Hydrogen. This is considered non polluting, because unlike the current generation of UDMH/N204 based rockets, the fuel won't kill you on contact or contaminate a large area of land if it explodes.

UDMH/N204 is the favoured liquid fuel for dual use (military) roles as it's storable without refrigeration and the engines are mechanically simpler.

Apple predicted AI assistant for tablets in 1987

leeeeeb
Thumb Up

Bow ties are cool

They also successfully predicted a fashion revival.

Tech City UK quango rearranges Shoreditch

leeeeeb
Facepalm

own goal

The Tech City website* declares the area to be "The Digital Capital of Europe"

*website built by Creativeworks, based in Surrey.

‘We save trips to the library’ – Google

leeeeeb

It's just a shame that the libraries we can all walk to, now seem to be full of people using computers and ignoring the books.

Skype: Microsoft's $8.5 billion identity tool

leeeeeb

Meanwhile..

... the Skype app is now such an unusable UI mess, I'm considering alternatives. Many use it for work, and we're probably the majority of paying users. The IM side of Skype is as important as the voice calling, and the interface since version five is hopeless. Seems to have been built by a bunch of UX numpties, with a whitespace fixation.

If Microsoft want to own the user accounts/identity go ahead. Hopefully that will also allow them to open up the API and allow some competition in the client/application space.

Google Apps end love for Firefox 3.5, IE7, and Safari 3

leeeeeb

IE support

A good move, but will be interesting to see what happens when IE10 is released. Will they cut off support for IE8, and thus force XP users to switch browser?

Apple iPad 3 to sport 3D screen a 'dead cert'

leeeeeb

Glasses free

The iPad can be held at any angle, landscape or portrait. That of course isn't compatible with the current display technologies that do 3D without glasses.

Virgin tempts Brits with fee-free TiVo

leeeeeb
Unhappy

So is it free, or is it "free"

My recent experience of Virgin's direct marketing tactics leave me sceptical. I'd received the BB offer to upgrade to 30MB, which appeared to use two different letters. For one group the upgrade was completely free, for others there was a £30 install charge.

I had the letter for completely, but when I tried the call center they wouldn't budge from £30, plus another £5 per month due to a previous loyalty discount. So free = £90 more for the next 12 months...

If you use direct mail, addressed to a customer by name and personalised, get it right. If not, you annoy the customer and look like a bunch of numpties.

Regent Street blocked by iPad fanboi swarm

leeeeeb
Thumb Up

Or just go to a shop.

Picked on up at Currys this morning. No queue (well three people) and they seemed to have good stock of all the models.

The staff had all been instructed to clap though, which was a little awkward. Erm.. yeah, thanks, you didn't clap when I bought a washing machine last month.

Adobe clutches chance to bury Steve Jobs 'hog' insult

leeeeeb
Go

Plus HTML5

Whilst it's of use to Adobe, the API is also of interest to every browser vendor and supports Apples push for H264 as the default codec for HTML5. Chrome support will likely follow, but Firefox will be more interesting.

Only nukes can stop planetsmash asteroids, say US boffins

leeeeeb
Boffin

Unit of Measurement.

As the Roman Catholic Church is now the standard unit of measurement for asteroids, should we also classify the threat from abbey, monastery and convent sized objects? Perhaps throw in a Popemobile for minor objects.

Zero-power LCD aims to reduce paper use

leeeeeb
FAIL

Photoshop

I'd love to comment, but I'm too busy uploading their entire amazon gallery to Photoshop Disasters, take a look.

Gran Turismo 5 launch delayed

leeeeeb
Unhappy

The 90/90 rule.

The quote from polyphony is incomplete, the full quote is “about 90 per cent of the game is done, the problems are with the other 90 per cent of the game that aren't yet done”

Talking DAB and the future of radio

leeeeeb
FAIL

Quality

I was an early DAB adopter, and have now abandoned it. The key reason was reception, followed by audio quality. The response on quality seems now to be, to position DAB as the digital option of last resort, after Freeview, Sky, Internet etc.

My listening now comes from a general purpose wifi radio called a Mac.

Web browser makers line up battleships

leeeeeb
Thumb Up

RE: IE6 still on 23%

It's bad, but not that bad. Look closer into the stats and you'll find two things.

First, in North America and Europe the figure is closer to 12%, the worldwide figures is skewed by Asia where IE6 is above 30%.

Second, take a look down at the day resolution graphs. IE6 usage drops another quarter at the weekend in those territories, which indicates that many people are tied to it at work due to the usual legacy intranet problem.

Hopefully after Win7 IE6 will finally start to die completely.