Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Is the new Twitter just like the old?
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/02/2023
» The Twitter situation is complex and somewhat confusing. On the one hand, all kinds of people from The Babylon Bee satirical website to former US president Donald Trump have been allowed back on the platform. The stated aim is to allow freedom of speech to be supported by Twitter once again. On the other hand, you can be banned by linking to a public photo of a public person on a public platform. The rule for the latter appears to only be for friends of Elon Musk. A YouTube channel I enjoy watching, The Quartering, did this after someone else had been banned and was also almost instantly banned himself. This is of course wrong in every respect especially given the individual in question, apparently now hypocritically, is always banging on about freedom of speech. Update, the ban is permanent.
Waste no time, delete your TikTok
Life, James Hein, Published on 28/09/2022
» Most people know that social media platforms collect their personal information. Location, ordering patterns, browsing history and more are passed into Google, Meta, Amazon, Twitter and others' analytics. The newest and potentially scariest of these is TikTok.
Google triumphs over Oracle
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/04/2021
» - Long-time readers may remember that back in the mists of IT time, over 10 years ago, Oracle challenged Google over the use of Oracle's Java API's and some of their code in Android.
Alternatives sought as chip shortages disrupt production
Life, James Hein, Published on 31/03/2021
» - There is a silicon shortage, which is another way of saying that getting your next computer will either be difficult with long wait times or that prices may rise soon, so you'd better get in earlier rather than later. A couple of fires, a cold snap in Texas and Covid-19 restrictions are some of the causes of the shortages which shows that it doesn't take a lot to disrupt supply chains.
WFH causes a rethink of sales
Life, James Hein, Published on 03/06/2020
» - I love a good marketing vs predictive analysis battle. Lenovo is guessing the current work-from-home trend will be good for PC makers. This is on top of the orders for laptops that went through the roof as offices closed and staff were asked to work remotely. Sales in Western Europe for example jumped 55%. My organisation just had me take my PC home as they didn't have enough notebooks to go around. Lenovo are betting that if people are working from home on a more permanent basis that will mean more PC sales, predicting 25% to 30% growth in the next two to three years.
Apple sours as rivals rise
Life, James Hein, Published on 04/12/2019
» Apple can't seem to win a trick these days. Overall phone sales in Europe picked up during the last quarter but iPhone sales did not follow the upswing and ended up 4% down on the same quarter last year. The problem is that the latest models are not giving many users a reason to upgrade. Their battery replacement programme and bad sales in China have not helped either. Overall market share worldwide has dropped from 20.8% to 18.6%. By comparison, Samsung has increased their share to over 35% in the same market. Huawei, in second place, sits about the same on 22.2%. Xiaomi is still in fourth place but well behind the others at 10.5%. The biggest impacts predicted going forward are 5G and Brexit though in reality I don't think the latter will have any real impact other than short term. The most popular Samsung models were the Galaxy A10, A20e, A40 and A50.
Zuckerberg gets all warm and messianic
Life, James Hein, Published on 19/07/2017
» I rarely post on my Facebook page, and never about what I am eating. Its primary use, for me, is to reconnect with old friends or communicate with current friends overseas. Mark Zuckerberg has other aims, claiming that Facebook is the "new church" and that his social network can fulfil the role that religion once did in giving people a sense of community and belonging to "something bigger than ourselves". With 2 billion users, 100 million of whom Zuckerberg considers "meaningful", that is a lot of influence he wields. A vice-president of Facebook recently visited Pakistan to assure its leadership that Facebook would be removing anything criticising Islam, but nothing criticising Buddhism, Christianity, Hindus, etc. This should give some indication of where Facebook's "community" may be heading.
Apple struggles to make a connection
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/03/2017
» There is a rumour that Apple could be replacing its Lightning Port on the 10th-anniversary iPhone with the popular USB-C alternative. I don't believe it. USB-C is too popular, and Apple has a habit of going its own way with connectors and other items. Apple has long been anti-standards when it comes to their devices, and, while it would be a good thing, they have invested too much in their proprietary Lightning connectors to let them go. So even if they did adopt USB-C it would be an Apple-only version, requiring Apple-specific cables and chargers. Sure, Apple could come up with a Lightning-to-USB cable of some kind, but that would be too easy.
Not all cookies created equal
Life, James Hein, Published on 15/02/2017
» I was on a technical support call recently after having problems accessing a service provider's product. The advice given was "Use Internet Explorer and make sure to clear all cookies and cache". There are multiple issues here. The first is coding to a single browser platform, and all too often that is still Internet Explorer. According to www.w3counter.com, the current usage stats for browsers is Chrome at the top (with 58.4%), followed by Safari (13.3%), Firefox (9.5%), IE and Edge (8.1%), and Opera (4.4%). Another problem is with the advice to clear all cookies. This is like using an atomic bomb to get rid of a mosquito. If you have years of cookies working for you, then one bad one shouldn't be taken care of by getting rid of the lot. I advised the help-desk staff member to review their suggestions, especially since this was the first time I had used IE to access that site, so there would be a fresh cookie.
Money trumps morals in the online world
Life, James Hein, Published on 07/12/2016
» In a world where making everything smaller and lighter is the trend, a half-tonne CPU is certainly an anomaly. The 42,300 transistors, 10,548 LED CPU machine was built by hand from regular components and can be seen at the Centre for Computing History in Haverhill, England. The builder is James Newman, who wanted to learn about transistors and then got busy. The result is a CPU that shows how it is working in real time by following the flashing LEDS. At 15m² it roughly equates to the old 33m² Intel 8086. OK not quite that powerful as it only has 256 bytes of ROM and RAM and runs at an estimated 20kHz. I'm putting this in for the people with way too much time on their hands category. You can find out more here megaprocessor.com/programming.html.