I'm looking at getting rid of the iPhone later this year and going to Android, but if MS increase services through XBL I may go with that.
I already have a lot of games on XBL, plus use it for Movies & TV, if any of those services can be used on my phone I'd probably be persuaded to go with that.
Currently though the models of phones don't really excite me.
I'd have to say Windows 7 is not too difficult too bad these days.
The biggest problem I have always had with Windows though is the way it manages applications. There are far too many install vectors, from a single binary to various packaged installers.
Microsoft should have secured this better and reduced the options to developers for installing applications. All it does is confuse the user, and make it more difficult for heuristic scanning to determine what is legitimate or not, plus it allows developers to be lazy.
The way Linux/Apple have gone with Applications as packages is a much smarter idea.
Even with Windows 7/Windows 2008 Microsoft still haven't really addressed this. UAC while good doesn't address the underlying problem of the heterogeneous environment(or mess) that Windows applications are.
I'm working with a client still trying to get their Sun Software Support agreement recognised by Oracle. The Product support contract was not recognised in Oracle's support system when we migrated off Sunsolve and after waiting on hold for over 4 hours the other day we are still no closer to fixing it.
Actually getting a hold of someone at Oracle is difficult, compared to Sun where they would work really hard to maintain relationships.
When I hacked my first Gibson using an Osborne 1 and its Modem Peripheral all I got when I bragged about it to the captain of the high school football team was an atomic wedgie.
With my Billion 7800N I can get signal from down the end of my street which is about 40m away and never drops out, even with 6 access points the immediate area.
I enjoy the competition that many different retailers bring to the market, and also being able to buy second hand.
The convergence of all media to digital stores where you have no rights at all scares the hell out of me because of the lack of regulation governments put on digital sales to protect consumers.
The thought of a world where games/movies/music/books/news being controlled by Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/Google doesn't seem like a very nice place.
It really is a gold mine for identity theft in the wrong hands.
Most phone support for companies only need Phone number, address and DOB for an identity confirmation and all it takes is for someone to get access to someone's credit card account for them to be able to completely steal their identity for dodgy bankloans or being able to get drivers licenses/passports.
I took a very angry phone call from my clients CEO yesterday morning who was trying to log onto Skype for some a conference call with a few of his staff members in another state.
After confirming that their Firewall/Proxy was under Christmas embargo, no changes requests had been processed and the ports were open I checked the Skype twitter feed and noticed the service was out.
It still took a few attempts at explaining that it wasn't our fault and there was nothing I could do to access their network which was offline, I eventually sent him the link to the Skype twitter feed to shut him up.
I used to spend all my spare time tweaking and upgrading my PC to be able to play games at the best possible frame rate, it was a hobby.
Then I got a job and with the money I was earning from that job, I got a life.
I'm now a console gamer because its convenient. Not having to worry about drivers, patches, different DRM systems and not dealing with retarded server admins who boot you as soon as someone you just spent 15 mins bitch slapping reports you for cheating.
PC's may be generations ahead in hardware, but they still don't offer the convenience and simplicity of a console, which is why they are popular.
This dragnet approach is pretty pointless. All it does is cost people time and money.
With the amount of browsing I do I would probably be able to look at my entire history and find illegal things I have accidentally or unintentionally stumbled across over the years, not to mention what kind of traffic I have generated when I have got the odd virus/worm.
It doesn't really protect the community either as anyone who wants to go to the trouble of hiding what they do online can do so very simply so in sense something like this is akin to listening to everyone's phone conversations and not realising the people you are trying to get are sending each other letters.
Australia really needs a Bill of Rights created, and in this day and age of Communications and identity it strongly worded to protect peoples individuals rights online from government, corporate and other individuals.
What I find is quite often forgotten is the word "Support"
Most people generally just want someone to acknowledge they have a problem and give them a realistic time frame on when the problem can be fixed.
Computers are Logical, people are generally not and will always get emotional about a problem they are experiencing with any piece of technology, the more you abstract the support for these complex systems the more you alienate the people who actually require it.
Going by the Shotgun testing of the Filter trials by Tennex, the scope adjustments mid-project allowing the trials to complete with a 100% success rate, the lack of consulting from the Ministers Office to Telstra, Optus, iiNet and other major networking players, I'm worried we will see a similar thing with the RC review.
Who will review it? What will be done to ensure that the review will be transparent and all voices can participate and it won't be a front for the Australian Christian Lobby or Family First to get whatever they find morally objectionable banned for all of Australia.
When reviews of censorship happen they very rarely get relaxed or reduced and its more likely we will see RC grow.
The fact you have never heard of it probably means the targeted marketing was done competently.
Considering Microsoft's marketing strategies for Zune, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Bing it's more likely that the marketing was not done competently.
It's almost as if Ballmer is employing that failed salesman Gill from the Simpson's to develop their product sale strategies because they all appear desperate, corny, out-dated and un-researched.
The ACL(Australian Christian Lobby) jumps up and down and pretty much every politician is falling over themselves to appease them
The lobby groups for Gaming launch an incredibly successful campaign for R18+ gaming to the point they manage to get 85 000 people to fill a survey out for the government, and the government calls it rigged.
The ACL claims to be a representative of Australian Christians, but every Christian I know thinks they are a bunch of ultra-conservative bastards who want to force the entire country to adhere to their very narrow view on what is and is not ok.
Apple have nothing to gain by leaking the iPhone 4.0, they wouldn't attempt viral marketing like this.
When the iPhone 4.0 is launched at its conference and Steve Jobs proudly declares they have "innovated" by inventing Video Phone Calls, Optical Zoom and multi-tasking to receive a standing ovation, that's all the viral marketing they need.
Someone jumping the gun on them only ruins that shock and awe ceremony.
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I'm looking at getting rid of the iPhone later this year and going to Android, but if MS increase services through XBL I may go with that.
I already have a lot of games on XBL, plus use it for Movies & TV, if any of those services can be used on my phone I'd probably be persuaded to go with that.
Currently though the models of phones don't really excite me.
Apple hasn't figured a away to get fee's from sellers and customers yet.
I'd have to say Windows 7 is not too difficult too bad these days.
The biggest problem I have always had with Windows though is the way it manages applications. There are far too many install vectors, from a single binary to various packaged installers.
Microsoft should have secured this better and reduced the options to developers for installing applications. All it does is confuse the user, and make it more difficult for heuristic scanning to determine what is legitimate or not, plus it allows developers to be lazy.
The way Linux/Apple have gone with Applications as packages is a much smarter idea.
Even with Windows 7/Windows 2008 Microsoft still haven't really addressed this. UAC while good doesn't address the underlying problem of the heterogeneous environment(or mess) that Windows applications are.
The latest version of MSN(now Live Messenger) you link it in to Facebook and can use it to chat to all your Facebook friends.
It's much more stable than Facebook's chat, plus you can keep chat history.
I'm working with a client still trying to get their Sun Software Support agreement recognised by Oracle. The Product support contract was not recognised in Oracle's support system when we migrated off Sunsolve and after waiting on hold for over 4 hours the other day we are still no closer to fixing it.
Actually getting a hold of someone at Oracle is difficult, compared to Sun where they would work really hard to maintain relationships.
When I hacked my first Gibson using an Osborne 1 and its Modem Peripheral all I got when I bragged about it to the captain of the high school football team was an atomic wedgie.
It's 2011, who still uses Hubs?
With my Billion 7800N I can get signal from down the end of my street which is about 40m away and never drops out, even with 6 access points the immediate area.
I enjoy the competition that many different retailers bring to the market, and also being able to buy second hand.
The convergence of all media to digital stores where you have no rights at all scares the hell out of me because of the lack of regulation governments put on digital sales to protect consumers.
The thought of a world where games/movies/music/books/news being controlled by Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/Google doesn't seem like a very nice place.
It really is a gold mine for identity theft in the wrong hands.
Most phone support for companies only need Phone number, address and DOB for an identity confirmation and all it takes is for someone to get access to someone's credit card account for them to be able to completely steal their identity for dodgy bankloans or being able to get drivers licenses/passports.
Giving any App developer access to peoples contact details is just an insane move if FB is meant to be making things more secure for their users.
Having someone's address and phone number makes identity theft so much easier.
I took a very angry phone call from my clients CEO yesterday morning who was trying to log onto Skype for some a conference call with a few of his staff members in another state.
After confirming that their Firewall/Proxy was under Christmas embargo, no changes requests had been processed and the ports were open I checked the Skype twitter feed and noticed the service was out.
It still took a few attempts at explaining that it wasn't our fault and there was nothing I could do to access their network which was offline, I eventually sent him the link to the Skype twitter feed to shut him up.
I used to spend all my spare time tweaking and upgrading my PC to be able to play games at the best possible frame rate, it was a hobby.
Then I got a job and with the money I was earning from that job, I got a life.
I'm now a console gamer because its convenient. Not having to worry about drivers, patches, different DRM systems and not dealing with retarded server admins who boot you as soon as someone you just spent 15 mins bitch slapping reports you for cheating.
PC's may be generations ahead in hardware, but they still don't offer the convenience and simplicity of a console, which is why they are popular.
All the Australian robots realised they were in Adelaide and were quite happy to let the place get blown to bits.
This dragnet approach is pretty pointless. All it does is cost people time and money.
With the amount of browsing I do I would probably be able to look at my entire history and find illegal things I have accidentally or unintentionally stumbled across over the years, not to mention what kind of traffic I have generated when I have got the odd virus/worm.
It doesn't really protect the community either as anyone who wants to go to the trouble of hiding what they do online can do so very simply so in sense something like this is akin to listening to everyone's phone conversations and not realising the people you are trying to get are sending each other letters.
Australia really needs a Bill of Rights created, and in this day and age of Communications and identity it strongly worded to protect peoples individuals rights online from government, corporate and other individuals.
If you have to resort to using ICMB's against terrorists, then the terrorists probably have already won
I was thinking the carpet might also be a problem too.
What I find is quite often forgotten is the word "Support"
Most people generally just want someone to acknowledge they have a problem and give them a realistic time frame on when the problem can be fixed.
Computers are Logical, people are generally not and will always get emotional about a problem they are experiencing with any piece of technology, the more you abstract the support for these complex systems the more you alienate the people who actually require it.
Going by the Shotgun testing of the Filter trials by Tennex, the scope adjustments mid-project allowing the trials to complete with a 100% success rate, the lack of consulting from the Ministers Office to Telstra, Optus, iiNet and other major networking players, I'm worried we will see a similar thing with the RC review.
Who will review it? What will be done to ensure that the review will be transparent and all voices can participate and it won't be a front for the Australian Christian Lobby or Family First to get whatever they find morally objectionable banned for all of Australia.
When reviews of censorship happen they very rarely get relaxed or reduced and its more likely we will see RC grow.
Considering Microsoft's marketing strategies for Zune, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Bing it's more likely that the marketing was not done competently.
It's almost as if Ballmer is employing that failed salesman Gill from the Simpson's to develop their product sale strategies because they all appear desperate, corny, out-dated and un-researched.
It's not as if people are forced to stay with BigPond or anything. I haven't had a BigPond internet account since Dial-Up internet days.
It's what you get when you combine a revolution with a little magic.
TA-DA!
The ACL(Australian Christian Lobby) jumps up and down and pretty much every politician is falling over themselves to appease them
The lobby groups for Gaming launch an incredibly successful campaign for R18+ gaming to the point they manage to get 85 000 people to fill a survey out for the government, and the government calls it rigged.
The ACL claims to be a representative of Australian Christians, but every Christian I know thinks they are a bunch of ultra-conservative bastards who want to force the entire country to adhere to their very narrow view on what is and is not ok.
That certainly explains Apples App store.
"Folks who want cancer can buy an iPhone"
Apple have nothing to gain by leaking the iPhone 4.0, they wouldn't attempt viral marketing like this.
When the iPhone 4.0 is launched at its conference and Steve Jobs proudly declares they have "innovated" by inventing Video Phone Calls, Optical Zoom and multi-tasking to receive a standing ovation, that's all the viral marketing they need.
Someone jumping the gun on them only ruins that shock and awe ceremony.