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Comment: Re:Is this a genuine case? (Score 5, Insightful) 225

by daBass (#41033403) Attached to: MplayerX Leaving Mac App Store

The app can only open files in specifically defined (and Apple approved) locations. Outside these locations, you need express permission (via a file open dialog) to access files. So all would be OK for ~/Movies or ~/Downloads.

But while you could open "/Volumes/My Big External Disk/Movies/movie.avi" via a file dialog to play it back, the software could not automatically also open "/Volumes/My Big External Disk/Movies/" to show you subtitles.

That's the problem.

Comment: Left over parts? (Score 1) 221

by daBass (#37261300) Attached to: One Final Manufacturing Run of Touchpads

Yes, they may make a loss on these unit, but not as much as they would make if they just scrapped the 100.000 parts and sub-assemblies they have lying in a warehouse.

If those parts are worth $200/piece, that would be a $20M loss.

Spending an extra $100 to turn them into units and selling them at $250 (nobody said these ones would be $99 also!) that would be a $5M loss.

(Shipping will only be a few dollars and reseller margins on these things are so thin at the best of times, they just want to get people into their store and sell them accessories)

Comment: Re:They gotta know where you are all the time (Score 3, Insightful) 500

by daBass (#37078232) Attached to: Dutch Government To Tax Drivers Based On Car Use

You are working on the assumption that the system will send location information to the government.

The trials utilize a little box outfitted with GPS, wireless internet, and a complex rating system that tracks a car's environmental impact

Sounds like the box has all the info it needs to calculate the cost, needing only to send that information to its base.

I'm not saying that is how it will work, but there is no reason to jump to conclusions.

Comment: Re:So much new and yet nothing new (Score 1) 449

by daBass (#36269816) Attached to: Flight 447 'Black Box' Decoded

The reason for drawing that conclusion is that when an aircraft departing controlled flight in this fashion without evidence of structural or control failure, there really is only one other option.

The conclusion did not come from knowing these things fail regularly; instead it came from working back what could cause the observed events - a purely scientific analysis.

The leading theory for a long time has been super cooled water droplets causing a blockage so rapidly that no amount of heating of the pitot probes could have prevented it.

Comment: Re:Amazing (Score 2) 218

by daBass (#35995278) Attached to: AF 447 Flight Recorder Found In the Atlantic

When you look at the twisted mass of wreckage the flight recorder came from, finding the data unit is a miracle.

I miracle would have been some deity appearing in the cockpit on that fateful night and telling the guys how to not get into this mess.

Finding this flight recorder is simply a great achievement of science, technology and perseverance.

I really wish people would stop calling great examples of human ingenuity with no evidence of divine intervention "miracles".

"Miracle on the Hudson" my ass!

Comment: Re:Uhh, guys? (Score 5, Informative) 129

by daBass (#33867100) Attached to: iPhone Opens Up Bluetooth For Data

I am working with a hardware company on this. The main issue we are having is that the whole program is tailored to high-volume manufacturers; little guys like us are below the Apple radar.

To apply for the program, you need to supply a lot of information, including company turn-over and a whole lot more that should be none of their business.

Then to make it work, you must integrate a chip supplied by Apple that does the authentication. That's great if you are starting from scratch and intend to send millions of products. It's a pain if you already have a working design with thousands of devices out in the field with bluetooth, but not Apple's chip.

That's what's stopped us from signing up and doing it. Luckily, in our business, people would be buying mostly tablet devices that are exclusively used for the purpose. Android here we come, which is a shame as iOS is a much nicer platform to create something that works well and looks good in very little time.

Comment: Re:Yay for common sense (Score 1) 612

by daBass (#32768906) Attached to: Zoho Don't Need No Stinking Ph.D. Programmers

Yeah, but looking at the guy's name, I'd say he's Australian. While nobody here ends up with $100K student debt, the days of free are over too.

Australia has some of the lowest taxes in the western world, affordable quality education and healthcare and a very high standard of living. (Same big cars and McMansions Americans enjoy) All while having a $10K lower GNI per Capita than the US. So obviously, there seems to be a good balance between taxes and government spending here.

It also has barely HALF the unemployment rate of the US. Europe and US are on par hovering around 10%; you might want to check your facts.

Comment: Re:Move to another ISP? (Score 1) 173

by daBass (#32701552) Attached to: Australia's Largest ISP Ditches Linux Mirror

No NBN trial for me, but with the RIM hell we have here I have good hopes of being hooked up early in the rollout!

When the NBN was going to be FTTN I used to joke that's what we already had: it's called a RIM, look how great those are!

Yeah, if we had an ADSL2+ minimux, I'd be laughing at 24mbit, but 17 ain't so bad... (I used to live 75m from here on the other side of the suburb's ring road. That was direct exchange at 21mbit.)

But there are also a lot of RIMs with severe backhaul problems, where people sync at 8mbit and get a whole mbit or two at peak times.

Comment: Re:Move to another ISP? (Score 1) 173

by daBass (#32701254) Attached to: Australia's Largest ISP Ditches Linux Mirror

Internode is the best ISP in the country, not Telstra!

Having experience with both Agile ports and TWS ports, I can say there is no discernible difference in being on either of them with Internode. The only difference is price; I have to pay the Telstra tax; being on a Agile port would be $30/month less.

My particular RIM actually has no minimux, instead it is fed by a 100-pair from the exchange for ADSL.

Comment: Re:Move to another ISP? (Score 2, Informative) 173

by daBass (#32701130) Attached to: Australia's Largest ISP Ditches Linux Mirror

Yes they do: Internode offers Telstra wholesale ADSL2+ where available.

I do believe they are the only ISP to do so.

It's not cheap, but you do get the best ISP in the country. Linux mirrors included.

How do I know? I am on ADSL2+ (17mbit sync) on a RIM off a Telstra-only exchange using Internode as ISP.

Comment: Re:hmmm (Score 2, Interesting) 459

The larger the aircraft, the bigger the boom. A conventional 200 passenger airliner will create a very big boom.

I was surprised because the Mythbusters couldn't break any windows with an F-18 unless they were at tree-top level. But big booms from big airliners are real.

And it's not just the boom, it's also the engines. Hard to create a supersonic airliner using quiet high-bypass turbofans. Concorde used straight turbojet with after burners: very loud.

Right until the Paris crash, Concorde between London and NYC was full and making a lot of money for BA. (buying the aircraft for peanuts from the government helped) Ticket prices were barely more than 1st class going subsonic.

I would imagine a NYC-LAX service and between other hubs would be equally lucrative; there an aweful lot of very rich folks and companies!

That said: I agree the next SST will more than likely be a business jet.

Comment: Re:DRM, restrictions, outcry (Score 2, Insightful) 610

by daBass (#32246262) Attached to: iPhone SDK Agreement Shuts Out HyperCard Clone

Uhm, I hate to say this, but that is how Windows Phone 7 will work - no native code, Silverlight only. And only apps approved by MS, thought the MS app store.

Like Microsoft with Windows, Apple does not place any of these restrictions on OS X, just iPhone OS.

Wrong or right, each can have their own opinion, but you can not compare iPhone to Windows. Compare iPhone to WinMo7 and Windows to OS X. Looks like the two companies are not so different in their policies after all.

Comment: Re:hmmm (Score 2, Insightful) 459

Booms aren't just loud, they also smash Windows and American law-makers care; the FAA specifically bans not sonic booms, but *all* supersonic flight. So even if you came up with a boomless SST, you'd still need the get permissions to go supersonic!

Your views on trips are also rather US-centric. There are a lot of aircraft flying from Europe to Asia, all over land.

If it had not been for this minor boom problem, Concorde would have been a much bigger success.
