Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 5th Jan 2013 14:53 UTC
And so this situation is starting to get ridiculous - and consumers are, as usual, caught in the middle of it all. Google has just blocked Windows Phone devices from accessing Google Maps on their phones. In addition, it also seems Windows Phone users are now restricted to the basic HTML version of the mobile GMail website. While understandable from a defensive perspective - Microsoft's extortion scheme targeting Android device makers and all that - it's still a massive dick move that only hurts consumers. Update: the media attention has worked - Google is backpedalling, and will remove the redirect. "We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users. In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users. Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users."
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Member since:2005-07-06
The very browser family/rendering engine in question would be much lower in importance in the world if it hadn't gained its position illegally in the first place, through the leveraging of another monopoly--but apparently the past no longer matters in the slightest bit.
you can repeat it as often as you want, but ms didn't need any illegal tactics against netscape
netscape just killed itselfe after 3.x
a quote from wikipedia:
The aging Netscape Communicator 4.x was slower than Internet Explorer 5.0. Typical web pages had become heavily illustrated, often JavaScript-intensive, and encoded with HTML features designed for specific purposes but now employed as global layout tools (HTML tables, the most obvious example of this, were especially difficult for Communicator to render). The Netscape browser, once a solid product, became crash-prone and buggy; for example, some versions re-downloaded an entire web page to re-render it when the browser window was re-sized (a nuisance to dial-up users), and the browser would usually crash when the page contained simple Cascading Style Sheets. Moreover, Netscape Communicator's browser interface design appeared dated in comparison to Internet Explorer and interface changes in Microsoft and Apple's operating systems.
RE[3]: it's about time
by UltraZelda64 on Tue 8th Jan 2013 18:43
in reply to "RE[2]: it's about time"
Member since:2006-12-05
Nice way to spin it. If that were the case, if products truly won market share based on their actual merits alone, then Windows itself would not have gained its monopoly in the way it did. And Microsoft would have never needed to use illegal tactics with its monopoly power to crush all competition before it even has time to exist as a threat on the market through strong-arming OEMs (BeOS?). Opera never went anywhere--if Microsoft didn't have the entire world by the balls with their Windows/Office/IE tri-monopoly, people would have been able to switch to it with no problem.
Hell, if a product had to be technically superior to win, Windows' own predecessor--MS-DOS--would not even have been the dominant operating system. Instead, that entire class of operating systems would be seen as the complete piece of shit that it is. Of course, Microsoft's lucky timing and deal with IBM, combined with hardware limitations of the original IBM PC, sealed history--and Microsoft's cheap tactics solidified them as a monopoly in many areas for decades to come.
It's about damn time for their eventual collapse, or at least significant reduction in power. It's what the world needed at least a decade ago.
Edited 2013-01-08 18:56 UTC
Member since:2006-02-15
In case you haven't yet noticed, this is the unofficial "feel sorry and kiss Microsoft's ass" thread, where everyone willfully ignores Microsoft's rich and crooked history to instead perceive them as little angels who can do no wrong
I'm sorry, could you please point me to where anyone here has said anything even remotely like that?
You're a few months/years too late; almost everyone seems to have completely jumped ship onto another hate train.
I see atleast you maintain yourself in the old train. But I don't really see these others you claim to have jumped onto another train; I see people who defend or bash whichever party or action that deserves it at any then-current moment. I, for example, do not hate either company -- I dislike both of their antics, I do recognize the wrongs Microsoft has done, but I will still choose to defend them when they deserve it.
Hating some party blindly is for children.
RE[3]: it's about time
by UltraZelda64 on Tue 8th Jan 2013 22:27
in reply to "RE[2]: it's about time"
Member since:2006-12-05
I'm sorry, could you please point me to where anyone here has said anything even remotely like that?
Just an observation I've noticed from the time this news item went up, both in the modding and the comments themselves, and also in several other Microsoft/Google news stories lately.
I see atleast you maintain yourself in the old train. But I don't really see these others you claim to have jumped onto another train; I see people who defend or bash whichever party or action that deserves it at any then-current moment. I, for example, do not hate either company -- I dislike both of their antics, I do recognize the wrongs Microsoft has done, but I will still choose to defend them when they deserve it.
Hating some party blindly is for children.
Hating some party blindly is for children.
I wouldn't exactly say that I "hate" Microsoft, nor are any of my thoughts on them "blind." I have developed a strongly deserved distrust and disrespect toward them over the years from the various vile and wicked misdeeds they've unleashed on the world.
For everything good they do over the years that makes me commend them and lighten this hostility, they do something far worse that just reeks of their old tactics. For example, I have praised the hell out of Microsoft for their stance on the DNT header (although I believe that the standard is nothing more than a joke). They need to earn their trust and respect back--I don't just pass it out overnight like candy. So far for every step in the right direction they take two steps backward, and occasionally they still do something that's of pretty much the same level of "bad" that they used to do and Apple just loves to do now.
Trust me... when Microsoft truly changes and regains my trust by acting like a halfway-decent corporation and once they have proved over time that they truly mean it, then what they did in the past and my overall negative view of them will all be history. But they keep proving, time and time again, that so far that's just not happening.
I do not forget or forgive easily... and respect is earned, not just given. They are getting better in several ways, but continue to do what IMO are 100% unforgivable actions that reek of the past, of the same old giant.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 13:17 UTC
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 12:06 UTC
"According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/15/13 23:03 UTC
"During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.More News »
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Member since:
2006-12-05
In case you haven't yet noticed, this is the unofficial "feel sorry and kiss Microsoft's ass" thread, where everyone willfully ignores Microsoft's rich and crooked history to instead perceive them as little angels who can do no wrong, instead ganging up to collectively slam Google. You're a few months/years too late; almost everyone seems to have completely jumped ship onto another hate train. It looks like it is time to move on, because by this point Microsoft bashing will only get you modded down... Google bashing is where it's at these days. It's like a sudden change of religion.
The very browser family/rendering engine in question would be much lower in importance in the world if it hadn't gained its position illegally in the first place, through the leveraging of another monopoly--but apparently the past no longer matters in the slightest bit. Never mind that this only effects the default browser of a relatively obscure phone OS, and other browsers even on that same OS would not have been affected.
Edited 2013-01-08 17:39 UTC