* Posts by marc

76 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jul 2007

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Firefox devs ask navels when to curtail Mac OS support

marc

That is why I stopped using Macs

Having to upgrade an whole OS to get the latest browser or Java release... I'd rather use Vista.

Opera sings praises of Microsoft-browser statement

marc
Gates Halo

Doesn't opera bundel an email AND Bit Torrent client with their browser?

Call the browser police! Opera are bundling stuff!

Their browser sucks. Hell, it's free, and still nobody uses it. Firefox came from nowhere to take 20% of the market share in 5 or 6 years. Opera has been lingering around for about 13 years, and still can't get over 1% of the market share. Why? Because it's utter crap. I'd rather use Netscape Navigator 4.01.

The EU are of course looking after their own here. Pathetic.

EU says Microsoft violated law with IE on Windows

marc

Opera are just green with envy

Microsoft INVENTED Ajax with IE. More innovation that Opera, who if it wasn't for Microsoft, would still be ripping of users with their extortionate fees. The US should take action again the EU for the unfair treatment of it's companies.

Windows 7 beta washes up on Pirate Bay

marc
Gates Halo

Windows Versions

For the record:

Windows 1 - 3.11 were all DOS based before the days of NT.

Because of that, Windows NT 3.1 was started at version 3 for marketing purposes. ("it looks and acts the same as your home machine")

But wait we still had some DOS based systems being released:

Windows 95 = 4.00

Windows 98 = 4.10

Windows ME = 4.90

Then we have NT 4 (released just after Windows 95)

Microsoft then stopped naming the NT line releases after the kernel version.

Windows 2000 is NT 5 (released just before ME)

Windows XP is NT 5.1

Windows Server 2003 is NT 5.2

Windows Vista is NT 6.0

Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 are NT Kernel 6.1

Windows 7 will likely be 6.1 still.

Please remember an operating system these days is more than just a kernel!

Stardock revises 'Gamer Bill of Rights'

marc
Thumb Up

Steam works fine

Why can't all games publishers use Steam or a similar system? It lets you install games on any number of PCs, but only one can be in use at a time. I have even activated my 10 year old copy of Half Life Generation,so can still play timeless classics on my modern Vista PC. I've been persuaded by the steam homepage to buy more games over the wire.

Seems like the perfect system to me. People buy games, they are happy because they can put them on all their PCs, people buy more games on-line, publishers are happy because they get more revenue.

The only downside is if you're away without Net access it sometimes won't work because it's halfway through an update, however by simply testing the game runs in offline mode before going away you can mitigate this.

Chrome: A new force for web applications?

marc

Don't be evil

I like the speed and the fancy tab dragging and dropping. However I still prefer Firefox.

I notice Google have placed a link to download it on their home page.

Last time I checked Google was used for 70% of searches. Is this not as bad as Microsoft including an icon to Internet Explorer on the Windows desktop?

Yet everyone just sees the words "Open Source" and "Google" and goes all warm and fuzzy, so I doubt anyone will care.

Apple, O2 to release PAYG iPhones this month

marc

@Tom

>"So you lose Wi-Fi after 12 months?!"

I am guessing that means you can't log onto their public wifi networks in places such as coffee shops. You could always pay thr £20 or whatever T-Mobile/The Cloud charge.

They surely can't disable a device function all together

Advent 4211 mini notebook

marc
Happy

Warrenty

Other reviews have noted the MSI version is £50 more but you get a carry case and 2 year (instead of 1 year) warranty.

I have plenty of bags, and prefer being able to drop into a store should it go wrong, as opposed to waiting at home all day for a courier. Plus I will probably have dropped it within a year anyway.

So better pop down to PC world then hadn't I?!

Anatomy of a malware scam

marc
Stop

Just Windows?

Very interesting article.

Would this scam have worked on Mac for example? If 90% of PCs were running Mac OS X, could a site create a fake OSX window, and convince the user they need to install the software? OK, so no security centre, apart from that?

Is the very fact that most Mac/Linux users feel like they don't need Antivirus software likely to mean they ignore the fake warning? Does this mean Antivirus software is in it's self a security problem?

There are legit online virus checkers that make you pay to remove threats (I think McAfee or Norton do this).

Maybe requiring users to press Ctrl Alt + Del to confirm UAC actions will help? Or maybe Apple's iPhone strategy of reviewing and signing all software before it can run will end up dominating desktop operating systems.

Microsoft starts stoking hype for Windows 7

marc
IT Angle

There's nothing actually wrong with Vista

It's absolutely fine. I'm running Visual Studio, Netbeans and Rad Studio along with Office and SQL Server Express. Not had any problems on this laptop.

it's just a media /perception thing, kind of like the current state of the Labour party.

I used Ubuntu for a while, but got fed up when I had to restart the Window server every time I miss typed my WEP key/specified it as the wrong type of key.

Apple make you upgrade to get the new version of Java, something Sun don't charge for. Oh, and you need to buy a new OS every 2 years to get the latest Safari. Microsoft still produce a web browser for the OS the was released in 2001. Apple only go back as far as OS X 10.4.

Vista is not as bad as most of the sheep on here think

Microsoft's slogan should be "Try it, You'' Love it". Or is that taken?

Generic VoIP toolkit comes to the iPhone

marc

Jobbs?

I doubt Steve Jobs really deals with this. Apple have about 10 billion layers of management between him and the folk who decide whether one particular program gets allowed.

'Milestone' Microsoft service pack staples .NET's stomach

marc

@aL

Does it allow you to do Area in winforms? What about Task Dialogues?

Codegear's VLC does this easily... however there arn't many 3rd party controls out there, so we';re using winforms. Making it look Vista-ish would be nice.

Linux risks netbooks defeat to Microsoft

marc
Linux

Not enough money in it

Unlike Windows, Linux doesn't require £100 worth of add-on software to get up and running. Retailers rely on this to stay in business.

Also consumers don't mind paying for software. Being able to walk into a shop or order a piece of boxed software and a manual , something that you know will work (because you have Windows version 'X') is much better than using some obscure command (aptget) to install some piece of half-baked ammature software (let's face it, a lot of it is..!) that might or might not work, and may not be compatible with your work PC. Apart from Mozilla and Netbeans, I can't think of much open source that rivals proprietary alternatives. Open Office is certainly not as good as MS Office.

Despite it's flaws, Windows works and it's a defacto. This is better than 30% of people using Mac, 40% using Windows and the other 30% using various Linux distributions.

Companies don't mind paying either. Even £30 grand a year for all their software that they know will work. For them it's like an employee that works 365 days a year, and never phones in sick. Bargain.

Microsoft promises SP 'milestone' for Visual Studio 2008

marc

Too complex

In my Add/Remove programs I have .NET 2, .NET 2 Sp1 SDK, .NET 3 and .NET 3.5.

Surely when I installed 3.5 (along with Visual Studio 2008), all other entries should have been removed?

Even worse is that the .NET 2 folder is still required, and still shows up on the IIS installed version number.

With Java you actually UPGRADE. Seems Microsoft copied most of Java, well they should have copied the installation and version system as well.

As for making Visual Studio like Dreamweaver - isn't that what I've just shelled out for Expression Web for? I certainly prefer it over Dreamweaver for it's HTML/ASP and CSS auto completion. The designer is actually more standards compliant than IE7 or IE8.

I'm hoping the entity framework will work with SQL Server 2005, as the article implies it will only be 2008.

Ubuntu to get open-source Java heart implant

marc
Happy

@Joe Geer

You've obviously never coded Java or used Java EE.

PHP has more in common with QBasic than Java or c++. Lot's of seemingly random functions that don't belong to any class hierarchy. It's ok for quick and small projects, but when you have multiple tiers running on separate servers, all needing security, asynchronous messaging and fallbacks, PHP becomes a bit unstuck!

Seriously, just use Hibernate for a week and then try writing you inline SQL code again. Horrible.

iPhone 2.0 unlock tool released, tested

marc
Boffin

Running 3rd party apps, got copy and paste working

on my N95 :D

Leak reveals Xbox 360 Pro debut due

marc

No Blue Ray

No Blue Ray or Wireless N ? Damn!

3 calls foul on T-Mobile price promise

marc

Change it to this then

"More minues than anyone for £30 (you get signal too)"

Microsoft touts trustworthy browsing with IE8

marc
Stop

@Anonymous Coward

"Stick with IE6 "

You obviously don't design web sites. In fact you obviously don't care about the security of your network, since IE6 has a number of flaws that will not be fixed. Ever.

Running IE6 is a risk to the user, and a pain in the ass for web designers/developer (no native XMLHTTPRequest object either). If you're too worried about IE7 being bloated (it does take longer to load, I know) then at least install Firefox. Please!

Microsoft targets online Office bundle at US cheapskates

marc

One of fee would be better

Like Steam. You pay for a game, and you can run it on any PC. Only one at a time though. It's Fair.

Microsoft says ‘hasta la vista XP’ - well, kinda

marc
Paris Hilton

Not as bad as Mac

Apple make you buy an OS upgrade (and install the bloat) to upgrade your Java version or web browser. I'm running and old Safari and Java 1.4 on OS 10.3

In comprason, XP runs IE7 and the newest Java. Vista runs it even better.

marc
Gates Halo

Vista is actually faster than XP

For me it runs faster on my dual boot system. While boot time is slightly longer, (mostly due to services not bothering to use the *new* delayed start-up API), everything else - program launching, context menus, task switching and sleep/hibernataion are MUCH faster than XP. Getting rid of unresponsive programs is also quicker.

What is this "bloat" I keep hearing? What it uses your graphics card's memory to store off screen windows instead of repainting everything every time something changes.. like Mac OS X... oh yes that's very wasteful isn't it!

The only thing I resent about Vista is the need for Anti Virus products. That's where the Mac and Linux users really can boast.

So don't believe the media... oh go on then, believe everything you read and downgrade to XP :) Might as well vote Tory while you're at it too :p

Web'n'Walk falls over

marc
Stop

Also down in the south east

I live in the south east and my MMS/Internet was from Sunday evening and most of the day Monday, well until about 8... well I just happen to try again at 8 so it might have been earlier.

I even considered cancelling my web and walk. After 6 months or so, unlimited data looses its "wow" factor.

Sun to lose lunch money on JavaFX

marc
Thumb Up

Is there a decent IDE?

Not used Java for over a year (when it was whoohooo ejb 3.0 is here, another change!)

So I wonder, do the Likes of Netbeans and Eclipses rival Microsoft's Expression Studio and Adobe's CS3 Creative Suit for designers?

While Netbeans has to be my favourite IDE (I'm currently having to use Rad Studio :( ) it was always a good coder's IDE, rather than designing, wheather it be making CSS or Swing interfaces.

HP's VoodooPC challenges MacBook Air on thinness

marc
Happy

Does it have a removable battery ?

Because if it does that would be great.

I like the idea of having a PSU double up as some kind of USB hub. Since the times when you use a lot of devices are when you're plugged in. When you just want Internet and Outlook, then you can survive on battery.

Microsoft proposes gadget feature disabling tech

marc

Quiet Zones?!

Quiet zones are stupid attempts by train operators to justify their high prices and turn them into starbucks on wheels.

By definition trains are very noisy, so calling it a quiet zone is just misleading. What's wrong with making a phone call or listening to an ipod as long as it's at normal conversation level, or in the case of the MP3 player, so no one else can hear it?

If this tech ever restricted my phone, out of shear detest I would hold my (non working) phone to my ear and shout "HELLO?! .......YEAH I'M THE TRAIN! .... SPEAK UP.. IT'S REALLY NOISY!!"

Microsoft seeds HP PCs with Live Search

marc

RE:Jim's Comment

HP laptops are top quality, polar opposite to Dell. Apart from Norton 360, mine had lots of useful software preloaded.... DVD creation, LiteScribe design software etc.

I do feel that a browser toolbar is just too much. Now that IE has a popup blocker, we don't need it.

IE7 gave us a great minimal interface. Windows Live toolbar goes against this.

Just as Vista has a nice elegant interface, Windows Live Messenger has an ugly crowded ad-infested interface. Is Windows Live where MS send their developers who turn out to be rubbish? I am thinking back to Ricky Gavias' training video where he said "ban them from the meetings" - maybe MS actually do, sending them to work on Windows Live!

So I think this may ruin HP's reputation for good quality, premium machines.

Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

marc

Out in the country

For some people 2mb is all they get.... and yes we were sold 8Mb with the words "up to" in really really small print too!

Ballmer and Gates defend Vista, drop Windows 7 hints

marc
Gates Halo

Vista Is Great!

Linux can't even sleep properly without editing conf files... (something to do with my NVidia drivers) hardly good for laptop users.

Ubuntu 8's Gnome crashed when I entered an incorrect WPA key on my wireless network (silly me). Yes the OS didnt crash, but I had to restart the window server, so it might as well had. Ubuntu also doesn't work with my soundcard. While I love Linux for development, as a home entertainment system, or mobile system - it's miles off.

Vista on the other hand works with all my hardware, sleeps/resumes reliably and doesn't crash when i mistype a network key. Yes it's not perfect, but nor was Mac OS X 10, 10.1, or 10.2 (10.3 became usable). User Account Control and Windows Defender means if you have common sense, you can not bother with AntiVirus software (woo give me back that CPU cycles!)

Don't get me started on Mac. Imagine if Microsoft charged users £100 to upgrade their browser or get the latest Java version- that's what Apple do. I'm still on 10.3 and it's out of date and useless (for a Java developer!). Windows XP (released prior to 10.3) on the other hand is still usable.

Bottom line: Don't believe what you read in the press. Do a Google News search for Windows XP in 2000 - 2002 see how many negative articles you find, tons. Now everyone loves it!

Tories show they're ready for government...

marc

The BBC

Are reporting a Pro tory story from their front page news ticker at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7414279.stm

Tories are speaking rubbish!

Five misunderstood Vista features

marc

@there's an easy fix

Add to that: ban apps from registering as startup. There's no need for Adobe to be in the background all day. Make it so we don't need Antivirus software, like Macs. Antivirus./Antispyware/ how many CPU cycles are wasted???

marc
Gates Halo

Vista is a big improvement

Vista is a big improvement on XP. If you compare it's speed to Mac OS X (the fist version) or even the second and thrid versions (10.1, 10.2) I think you'll find it wasn't until 10.3 that Mac OS X became usable.

Microsoft should have done what Apple did and include XP with Vista, as a dual boot option. Let people move over when they're ready.

That way they could have made more even more radical changes necessary to make Windows more secure, and to finally end the need for antivirus/spyware software.

Vista runs fine for me. The Desktop Composition is really great, although older apps that have to go through an emulation layer are slightly slower (apparently, never noticed it myself). The sleep and hibernate is much more reliable than my Linux box, and unlike my Mac Book the Vista laptop doesn't sleep until the battery dies, it hibernates after 2 hours (and unlike my Mac I can set this!).

Overall I think Vista is great. TV Tuner + iPlayer and an XBox 360 connected to a TV means I have Sky Plus like setup too :)

Dixons admits 'it's even worse than you thought'

marc

@Chris Collins

"I have heard when you see something on sale it is still sold at a profit "

Geeze Louise! Why don't you report them to trading standards?? They're trying to make a profit! How dare they...

Is Vista ready for Business?

marc

@Levente Szileszky

Maybe I take it for granted that I can use PCs without a second thought, I guess some people are just unlucky. Maybe ask your IT bloke (or pay BT) to help you out?

Vista runs fine for me. Much nicer than XP to use, faster too. The new explorer saves me a lot of time, Rad Studio runs fine, a few glitches with Visual Studio, Netbeans is fine. Team Fortress 2, Flight Simulator X all running OK..

The sleep and hibernate thing for laptops is great.... you sleep it... you wake it ... instant. But if you sleep it and then forgot about it, leaving it in the bag, it hibernates and you don't run down the battery... genius. Vista is the best OS change I had since going from OS9 to OS 10.2 (OSX 10.0 - 10.1 were slow and crap, 10.3 was it's peak I think too!)

So I recommend people upgrade, mobile users especially.

PC World, Currys staff to be dumped in DSGi rescue plan?

marc
Linux

You Sad Nerds

I used to work in PC World, and I used to eat customers like Anonymous Coward (“Sometimes it's fun to enquire about Macs just to watch the look of panic and confusion on their faces” ) for breakfast! Loved making “Know It Alls” look stupid (usually in front of their Mum).

Fair enough a lot of the staff don’t know the technical details, just like a car salesman won’t be able to tell you how the onboard computer controls the engine’s fuel mixture.

Yes PC World staff will try and sell you stuff; it’s a shop for goodness sake. If you don’t like capitalism, go and live in Cuba. I admit, PC World could learn lots from the salesmen at Apple stores, staff could be more passionate about their stock and learn to sell more convincingly – but they can’t because they sell so much stuff – TVs, iPods, Macs, PCs, Network Cards, NAS boxes, eSATA, USB2, 802.11G with or without WPA, Sling Boxes – I know more than most about these things, I did Cisco’s CCNA have a degree in Computer Science – yet a lot of question that get fired are either difficult to explain it impossible to answer because you can’t replicate the customer’s setup in store.

So please will you sad nerds who ask “difficult questions” for fun, go and ask an Estate Agent a technical question on property - they won’t know! Now ask them to recommend a house for a family for 4 – of course they can help, because that’s their job.

This isn’t the end of PC World, but hopefully a wakeup call telling them they can’t go on selling PCs at a loss and hope to make the margin up by selling antivirus with it.

Windows XP SP3 sends PCs into endless reboot

marc
Jobs Horns

Mac Users

Why do Mac users feel the need to push their choice of operating system onto others? Do Volkswagen Polo drivers do the same? What about people who shop in Tescos as opposed to Sainsbury's?

I stopped using my Mac when I had to pay £99 for upgrade the OS, in order to install and develop for Java 1.5. Daylight robbery.

Pros. Cons. They all have them! I am happy with Vista at the moment, yes I miss certain features of the Mac, but at the end of the day it's the programs I run that matter.

Apple blocks cheaper UK iPod sales

marc

Tesco's did this with Livi Jeans

Can't remember who won, although I haven't see any Livi's in a tesco store for a long time!

Maybe we should thank Apple for not doing what the Sony and Microsoft's of this world do... region encode their devices.

All regional price fixing should be illegal, unless, as in the case of cars for example, they need to be re-engineered

I got my iPod touch in the US, and after Tax was added the difference in price was about £10.

Grand Theft Auto IV leaked online

marc

It was delayed because of the PS3

Yes Sony's crappy architecture and SDK arethe reason we're all still waiting. Had it been XBox only, we'd have had it last November.

Not preodered it. Will go into town the day its released.

AVG revamps free security scanner

marc
Alien

Just give us a choice...!

Yeah I use AVG Pro. Great piece of kit. As long as the new stuff is all optional (e.g. I might want to keep Windows Defender and Zone Alarm separate)

Microsoft beta tests Office subscription software

marc

Live Mail

Does Live Mail still have adverts plastered all over it?

Ballmer bitch slaps Vista

marc
Gates Halo

Vista Is Brilliant!

Well said Jeff. Vista runs faster than XP for me. You see it uses that memory that's empty is XP to speed up the system! Give me Vista over XP any day.

Yes I had problems on my 3GHz Celeron with an ancient graphics card, driver issues. But on my new HP laptop - no problems whatsoever.

Buy a new machine and it will work fine. I use Linux daily, and from a user perspective it's still half finished. Changing the screen resolution requires you to log out for goodness sake (this will change in Ubuntu 8 I believe). Apple have it lucky, they only have about 10 different types of hardware combinations to support - and they can cheekily release upgrades every year that users will be forced to buy if they want browser/java upgrades. I run OS10.3, and I can't get the new Safari and I'm stuck with Java 1.4. Imagine if Microsoft decided not to issue IE /.NET Framework updates to XP users.... outcry.

SO my advise, don't believe the media muppets - buy a new machine with Vista, and as long as you arn't using a 7 year old parallel printer, you;ll be fine.

Sony, MS want control of PS3, Xbox iPlayer, Beeb boss claims

marc

It already works on Xbox 360

You just download it on the PC, copy into your "My Videos" folders and share using Media Player 11.

Sales slide at PC World, Currys

marc

@ JW

RE: Top Tip

t only works on item that are exactly the same - so no going down with a print off showing a £3 ebuyer own make memory card.

Also, JW - if you're such an expert why are you even asking these basic questions? I used to work in PC World and I can tell you the staff I knew had good knowledge. I had sad customers like yourself try and "test" me - and every single time I either supprised them, or made them look stupid. The best one was someone asking me if some USB adapter would work on his "Linux Box" - I said well what kernal version are you using and he looked stunned.

Would you ask a car sales man how a gearbox works? No but he would be able real of statistics on fuel comsumption.

Final beta of Firefox 3 available now

marc
Happy

@greig strafford

Yes it was a running joke that that the only reason to upgrade to Vista is to get the flashy new icons and transparency.

marc

I like it...

But i prefer IE's transparent toolbar in vista. I might as welll go back to XP if they don't have that!

Only Ubuntu left standing, as Flash vuln fells Vista in Pwn2Own hacking contest

marc

All versions of flash?

It mentions the Flash exploit may work on different operating systems, will that include the open source plugins for Flash Player, or just Adobe's?

OpenOffice update released

marc
Gates Halo

I prefer word...

OO has this bug where the spell checker turns its self off.. It's somehow linked to the text, as copying and pasting into a new document doesn't fix it, unless you paste as plain text.

I also like Word's new toolbar, which tool me 15 minutes to get used to, and the image editing/3D stuff.

I use OO on my Linux box, but for seriously long stuff it has to be word 07, which is a lot better then 2003 with large documents

AJAX patent threat to giants under the hammer

marc

world's gone mad

Thank goodness no one patented the Client Server architecture, or what about using electricity to represent binary logic? Supprised no one has tried it yet.

Apple US retail sales leap past PC par

marc

having wored in retail

I can tell you, many times did I serve someone so stupid and unintelligent, only to help them out to the car and see it's a 50grand BMW X5, the funniest Chelsea tractor. How on earth did they get so rich? More to the point why did they blow so much cash on such a horrible looking car? Dumb luck or rich families I guess.

So yes, rich != clever.

Security researchers show how to hook phishers

marc
Thumb Up

If I get sent a pishing link

instead of typing in my banking username and password, i'll spend a few moments entering random numbers and insults. I hope it makes their life harder.

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