* Posts by Son of Steve

22 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Feb 2012

Apple SOLDERS memory into new 'budget' iMac

Son of Steve

Re: How many people upgrade computers?

"They don't do any testing other than sending it out the door."

Completely wrong, at least for Apple gear. Maybe the QA contributes slightly to cost.

Son of Steve

Re: Repairs

I know of not one real case of RAM ever failing as a result of anything but a manufacturing defect such that it would immediate (and unlikely to have got through testing), or a heat-related failure will will manifest itself soon enough. I'm not saying it can't happen, but that it is very unlikely indeed and I have never come across this as a reason not to buy a laptop, for example. Even if it did, in the UK, you have fitness for purpose as an implied warranty. It just isn't an issue and this is Apple-hating FUD. (I'm still not saying I would buy one.)

Son of Steve

Re: Repairs

I think the other reply was accurate - that's where refurbs come from - but what I'm saying is that every retailer would do this with every brand: how the RAM is attached to the motherboard isn't going to make any difference. If it's as simple as bad RAM, then the manufacturer will swap it out one way or another.

Son of Steve

Re: Unneccessary lock in saving a few pence of build costs, but....

I think you're exactly correct.

Son of Steve

This canard. Yes, you could. Some ugly as sin box looking like a to-scale model of a nuclear power station, with a large power unit and fan. A cheap nasty monitor with cables all over the place. Ditto for the keyboard. And yes, upgradability.

Against that, this iMac offers a beautiful screen in the thinnest machined aluminium case available, with a very nice keyboard, and exactly one cable. It uses less power, and looks better on every conceivable metric. That machining - the laser-cutting of the aluminium, and yes, the design process itself - costs money.

Nice things cost more money. There are exceptions to the rule, but not many. If you think nice things are a waste of money then don't buy them. I'm aware I'd be just as dry if I bought my clothes in a supermarket, but I don't do that. If I had chronic incontinence and I could only wear my clothes once, I'd change my clothes buying habits to fit my new circumstances. And so on.

Son of Steve

Yes, so you're part of the 5%. (Probably closer to 2%.) So what? Don't buy this machine.

Son of Steve

Re: Repairs

You'd take it back to the shop, just like you would with memory installed on sticks. The shop isn't going to give you a swap-out of the RAM; they'll just replace the machine.

Son of Steve

Re: Unacceptable

Do you know what "predatory pricing" means, or did you simply think it would sound good. Predatory pricing is the practice of putting your price below your competitors', often in a very targeted way: think air fares on certain routes, hoping to drive a new entrant out of business, before putting prices back up again once that's been achieved. Do you think this describes Apple's pricing strategy? Most Apple users I know are buying into a "culture" of exceptionally well-engineered devices that are very pleasing and easy to use, including with each other. I agree that this particular iMac isn't one I'd recommend, though I'm willing to bet that the soldering has a lot more to do with lowering the cost of manufacture than some grand plan to force people to upgrade sooner.

How practical is an electric car in London?

Son of Steve

Re: On Street Parking

Why?

1. Electric cars are quiet. In years to come people will be as amazed that we put up with so much noise in our cities as we are amazed that in years gone by they put up so much horse manure. (Please, if you feel the urge to suggest people will be mown down, resist: people will get used to it, and there is plenty of low-level noise from tyres on the road.)

2. Electric cars are smooth and unless you have experienced driving a car that doesn't vibrate you don't know what you're missing. Torque however is amazing.

3. Many of the figures here about the energy potential of petrol miss the point: pollution shifts from our cities to central locations where there may be no pollution at all, or where its harmful effects can be scrubbed and captured. Look up recent news stories about Marylebone Road in London. This is a very big deal: exhaust gasses coming out of a chimney hundreds of feet high are not comparable to diesel particulate being belched out at ground level.

4. Electric cars are much safer - see all the fuss about the three Tesla fires, and compare that with statistics about ICE cars. Ford Pinto, anyone?

5. It's undeniably true that the infrastructure just isn't there right now. But it's easy to see how it could be. There could be chargers at every car park bay. Even in cities, there could be chargers on every pavement, just as there used to be parking meters. Is that uneconomic? Maybe - but unlike the roll-out of petrol stations beginning a century ago, the basic infrastructure - mains electricity - is already there. It is clean, safe, and efficient - and getting more so. As Lac-Mégantic in Quebec showed all too clearly, that cannot be said of oil. Granted, something has to fire power stations. But natural gas doesn't pollute sea-life when it spills. Not everyone will have, or want to have, a Tesla. But do bear in mind that the majority of their Superchargers are solar-powered.

Lastly, the statistics quoted (which I do not take at face value but for the sake of argument) show that in the worst case, the electric car is better than the majority of the ICE car fleet. That's the worst case, on somewhat suspect data. I must be missing something about the point here.

Of course, for some people - many, perhaps most people - in 2014, range anxiety is an overwhelming factor. But a car is not a once-only decision. Right now, the answer is no. Next time, maybe it's marginal, or maybe you get the serial hybrid like the Volt or BMW i3. The time after that, when the Tesla Model E (or whatever it will actually be called) is on sale? Maybe it's a yes. I'm not sure about 20 years either, but I do think this will be a dynamic with a tipping point, and that tipping point may not be so very far off. And yes, I think that will be a very good thing.

Fanbois rejoice: iPhone 5, iPad Mini finally jailbroken

Son of Steve

Hooray. So the person who stole my first iPhone 5 can now get round the IMEI block. Thrilled.

Victory on mobile belongs to Google in 2013

Son of Steve

Re: Doesn't the winner in business makes the most money?

@Khaptain Why not use Google then to look up relative profitability let's say since Google's IPO. Or cash. Or revenues. Or gross margins. Or indicated satisfactions and replacement rates. Will that always be the case? Obviously not. But I'm not too worried about a company with $121Bn in the bank (as at 3/12/12).

Do users have enough power?

Son of Steve

Re: What users dont realise

Sorry but this is a terrible - but telling - analogy. If I buy a car I can do what I like with it (within the law). It may not be very wise, and if I don't know what I am doing I would be stupid to try, but BMW doesn't come round and prevent me from opening the bonnet. On the other hand, if I want to install new car stereo or hand furry dice in the windscreen, no one will stop me. As it happens, I _don't_ fiddle with my car, just like I don't fiddle with my boiler, or my toilet cisterns. I am a grown-up and don't need someone to tell me that doing so would be a bad idea. On a PC, I have a pretty good idea what I am doing, and I certainly don;t need my choice of browser, or how up-to-date my Flash plugin is, or whether I can turn on font smoothing, or whether I can install an app from RIM's own store on a BlackBerry, or whatever it may be dictated to me.

Son of Steve

Re: Eat your own dogfood

@RonWheeler Dead right.

Son of Steve

Re: Eat your own dogfood

@theodore Define "browse recreationally"? In fact don't - that's the problem. It's not, or at least it shouldn't be, up to you. I have had to be white-listed for streaming video, which it was assumed was YouTube. Hardly - ft.com etc. I had to be whitelisted for Blogger and Wordpress and I forget the others - because half the links on FT Alphaville are to sites hosted there, or charts are there. I got approval for Twitter only after showing that my boss' boss was tweeting. And so on. While I'm lucky enoguh that I can get this nonsense over-ridden, I resent having to make a use case to someone with no qualifications to make those choices for me. Boo hoo, right? Sure. But I ensure the bills get paid.

Son of Steve

Re: They don't need more power

Utterly specious. You don't make the computers and phones work, you support them, and you may also be involved in the installation. It is more efficient for this to be managed by specialists, just like it is more efficient for one person to manage the buying of the stationery. But don't confuse efficiency for necessity, particularly when the efficiency gains may in fact have quietly morphed into self-perpetuating bureaucratic overhead. There is a root cause for BYOD - you get that, right? And you get that this doesn't happen with stationery, furniture (for the most part), climate control, or lighting? Yet something has happened where "users" (the contempt drips from the terminology) are saying no. I would suggest that you might want to think a bit more about why that may be the case.

Son of Steve

Re: They don't need more power

No, you don't get to dictate what I need, any more than vendor of the chair I sit in gets to dictate how I choose to do so. I can (and sadly do) get pointless annual advice from health & safety (another cost centre) about ways to sit in the chair without harming myself, but no one actually give me a spot-check to make sure I am sitting in the prescribed position. What you are describing is a management problem, but your solution is that of the school: no one owns up to giggling, so we all get detention. You can do that, but the people who actually make the money are slowly winning. I hope you realise this, because the long-term future is not looking rosy.

Son of Steve

Re: Enough power to do what?

1. Your company hired an idiot. They can still be dismissed without notice. Do so.

2. They have learned a valuable lesson that no amount of pointless email circulars and seminars would otherwise have told them. Let them stew in their stupidity stressing about being fired. It will be motivating.

3. You have no support back-up. See 1. Your company - albeit in a stripped-down example that may merely be illustrative - is very badly managed and you have bigger problems than passwords.

Apple 'less innovative' at laptops than Lenovo

Son of Steve

Yeah, who needs retina resolution. Or pioneering unibody cases laser-etched from aluminium. Or backlit keyboards, cut from the aluminium to make the keyboard firmer. Or integrated batteries making the machine both thinner and firmer. Or build- and component-quality that is industry-leading. Or glass multi-touch trackpads. Or abandoning optical drives and other IO to emphasise thinness and lightness. And all this in the past four years, really starting with the original MacBook Air.

Yep, you're right, Apple's innovation with laptops is a joke and some moron will pay double just for the logo.

BYOD cheers up staff, boosts productivity - and IT bosses hate it

Son of Steve

Re: Responsability

Maybe, but he's right. IT = people telling me how to do my job, and saying no to common sense because of "policies", or - whisper it - because there's job-security in complexity. BYOD is a reaction to exactly this kind of nonsense. Embrace it, or get crushed by it.

Ofcom saves piece of 4G spectrum pie for '4th operator'

Son of Steve

I mis-read the first sentence as, "UK regulator Ofcom said today that the spectrum auction for 4G services would start at the end of time...", which sounds about right. What a farce.

New iPad: The only review roundup you'll ever need

Son of Steve
FAIL

Re: Retina screen?

You mean it's not 16:9? Or 2.35:1? So you have black bars - as opposed to the view of your knees you'd have with a tablet with that form factor? The screen, even once the bars are taken into account, is better than 1080p - it's 2,048 x 1,536. 75% of 1,536 is 1,152, so your 16:9 move will be displayed on 2,048 x 1,152 pixels. Remind me why you are disappointed by this, again?

O2 quietly cans gratis Cloud Wi-Fi connectivity

Son of Steve

On contract? FON?

My bolt-on is described as, "Unlimited Wifi for iPhone SIMO" - anyone know if O2 are allowed unilaterally to change this?

Always very irritating that BT adds in all the FON network hotspots: it happens frequently that you can be walking along when the iPhone connects to a BT network, which I want it to do in places like Heathrow, but for it to be on FON so blocked. It's a tiny reflection of the thought process of BT, and why I have no intention of being their customer.