Disqus - Latest Comments for RichardGaywood

Re:

RichardGaywood — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 17:20:59 -0000

Ah -- seems to have been taken offline in a server move a while back. I still have it, I'll get it back online for you in the next couple of days.

Re: Yes, MacBook Pro's Retina Display Is Brilliant, But Not For the Average User

RichardGaywood — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:18:29 -0000

An app doing its own rendering that isn't Retina aware, by definition, can only render to 2x2 blocks of pixels -- that's how OS X handles legacy apps. Each 2x2 block of pixels is exactly the same size as the single pixel the app would have been rendering to on a non Retina display. So how can it look any worse? I can't see any mechanism [1] by which it can different.

[1] I admit there may be some very, very slight degradation from the factors discussed at this link: http://www.leancrew.com/all...

Re: Yes, MacBook Pro's Retina Display Is Brilliant, But Not For the Average User

RichardGaywood — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 03:41:11 -0000

Retina displays do not cause blurry text. Non-Retina-aware apps are the same on a Retina display as they ever were; they only look bad when they are juxtaposed with Retina-quality text. So the first section of your post contradicts itself.

Don't believe me? I have a screenshot here: http://actionatadistance.ne...

Re: http://indefensible.me/post/27253182367

RichardGaywood — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 10:15:54 -0000

Like Simon said: you have my sympathies and also enormous respect, for whatever its worth. We're all rooting for you mate.

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/15509034116

RichardGaywood — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:29:26 -0000

Yes -- it improved significantly about nine months ago. The iPad one is quite nice now, and it can finally send Series Link record requests as well as one-offs.
I can't get cable where I live, sadly. They'd wired about half of the town where I live back in the '90s when NTL got into financial problems and they froze all new network build. No-one's ever picked the project back up.

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/15509034116

RichardGaywood — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 13:21:34 -0000

Sky TV, Britain's largest pay-TV operator.

Re: Larry Dignan. ZDNet. iPad Sales. Analysts. Facepalm.

RichardGaywood — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:33:21 -0000

> Yep, all those gift-givers this holiday season will be putting “IOUs” instead of iOS under the tree.

Come on. The iPad 2 was announced 2nd Mar 2011; it's obvious that a non-zero number of people that bought iPad 1s for Christmas were annoyed at their expensive, generous gift being so quickly superseded. I know they exist because I've spoken to some. I don't think consumers are stupid, nor do I think they have short memories, nor do I think that after years of iPod and iPhone releases on a strict annual schedule (the iPhone 4S notwithstanding) that they can't put two and two together and come up "a new iPad in early 2012".

There absolutely has to be a chilling effect on iPad 2 Christmas sales from some people taking a wait-and-see approach. True, if you really want to give a tablet, you're not going to put an IOU, as you sarcastically posit. But for lots of people, the choice will be not be between an iPad and an IOU; it'll be between and iPad and some other shiny consumer electronic geegaw that isn't facing imminent replacement.

It might not be a huge factor -- in fact, I'm almost certain (but cannot prove) that it won't be. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, nor should it be dismissed without examining it first.

Re: When you follow Apple too much, you get Apple myopia

RichardGaywood — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:49:52 -0000

See also: the people who think the iPhone was totally different to every smartphone that came before it. It wasn't. The launcher system has similarities to Palm OS, for example, and the all-screen-no-keyboard approach was adopted by a number of Windows Mobile phones. Apple gets too much credit for these aspects of the design.

The actual hardware innovation in the iPhone had (for which Apple doesn't get enough credit) was having a capacitative touch screen large enough to hold a keyboard, meaning that the stylus and/or fold-out keyboards of previous phones could be jettisoned. I don't know if capacitative touch screens didn't exist previously, or if they were simply too expensive, or if no-one thought of it -- I've never been able to find solid information about why Apple were first to that particular thing.

Re: The Problem with Marco

RichardGaywood — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:16:20 -0000

Further, I'd say that the problem was caused by smart bloggers with strong opinions that were generally right and... forthright... methods of expressing them, who established a large group of loyal readers. Then lesser bloggers came along, saw the strong opinions schtick, and copied it looking to build their own loyal readers. Thing is, they weren't so smart, and so their opinions weren't right so often, or even much at all.

Those latter people just come across as dicks to me, although the people I have in mind as I write this all have far more readers than I do for my writing so clearly my judgement is flawed. They must be doing something right.

Re: The Problem with Marco

RichardGaywood — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:08:15 -0000

I'd agree with this. Humility, even just a hint of "here's my opinion, YMMV" isn't a strong suit for most bloggers.

Re: Not So Fast, Mr. King…

RichardGaywood — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:04:37 -0000

Another famous example of O'Leary's free-PR-through-trolling-the-press tactics:
http://crankyflier.com/2008...

Don't feed the trolls.

Re: http://delishytown.tumblr.com/post/11483014615

RichardGaywood — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 08:47:06 -0000

Hi! Thanks for you post, I made this and it turned out great!

http://objection-salad.com/...

Re: Tim Cook announces new charitable matching program for Apple

RichardGaywood — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:00:16 -0000

I note you aren't actually refuting my point. But thanks for making some feebleminded stuff up and assuming that's my point of view.

My take is that it is buying goodwill, both with the world at large and with its own employees. Silicon Valley is in a hiring binge, so things that make your staff feel warmer and squishier about staying with you instead of jumping ship to Facebook or Google is good business. Whether it's good enough to justify the costs of this program, I couldn't comment. Note that the cap is $10k per employee but it seems safe to assume that few employees would be making routine donations that are anywhere near that limit. It's possible Apple's actual costs from this program would be quite modest. It's almost certain they know what those costs are in a lot more detail than armchair pundits like us can.

And of course these donations will be tax structured cleverly, meaning a $10k donation does not cost Apple's bottom line $10k. But to suggest that Apple would choose to donate $10k purely in order to avoid a tax liability that is smaller than $10k is clearly nonsense.

Re: Tim Cook announces new charitable matching program for Apple

RichardGaywood — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:20:37 -0000

So, trenen, your reasoning is that to escape a tax of (let's say) 40% on $10,000 (a net cost of $4,000), Apple are going to give the entire $10,000 instead?

When you car runs out of gas, do you set fire to it and buy a new one to avoid high pump prices?

Re: UK console game trade-in: how to get the best prices

RichardGaywood — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:41:41 -0000

Thank you for your feedback, Alan!

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/9124862984

RichardGaywood — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:41:26 -0000

Hah, well, I'm married to an American, write for an American website, and most of my blog's readers are American. As a result, my use of language is shifting ever-westwards, and is currently on about the same longitude as Greenland.

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/8819311501

RichardGaywood — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 04:49:24 -0000

Thanks Ben! You've piqued my interest. Tell me more!

Re: http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/8773743081

RichardGaywood — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:03:18 -0000

Heh, I think we were thinking along very similar lines today Stowe: I wrote this earlier http://actionatadistance.ne...

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/7276637591

RichardGaywood — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:17:00 -0000

D'oh!

That's what I get for writing blog posts in the (terrible) Tumblr app.

Re: Roast Potatoes

RichardGaywood — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:45:38 -0000

Thanks for your comment, Sammy! I've never thought to try butter on roast potatoes -- I guess I assumed it would burn, although the oil should protect it. I'll certainly give it a go.

As for my offhanded swipe at British cuisine, my O:S! writing partner, Nick, wrote a rebuttal you might enjoy: http://objection-salad.com/...

Sent whilst mobile; please forgive excessive brevity or typos.

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/8307195797

RichardGaywood — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 16:11:36 -0000

There's a million variations, but mine was made to this recipe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/l...
I halved all the quantities except the chilli, which I kept at one. It all fitted into a 450 ml jar.

Sent whilst mobile; please forgive excessive brevity or typos.

Re: iPhone 5 Revealed: Larger Screen, Curved Back, Less Buttons

RichardGaywood — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:28:01 -0000

"Richare"? Damn you, autocorrupt / iPhone keyboard / my fat fingers!

Re: http://whileyouweresleeping.tumblr.com/post/7896635753

RichardGaywood — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:25:08 -0000

Her room is très chic too!

Re: http://whileyouweresleeping.tumblr.com/post/7509883398

RichardGaywood — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:15:06 -0000

WOw. The writeup about Murdoch is /blistering/. Not sure I agree with the claims that a toothier PCC would be a bad thing, however, but I suspect that's the Economist's right-wing stance coming into play.

Re: http://fscked.co.uk/post/7394114577

RichardGaywood — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:49:19 -0000

AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN REGISTER THROWAWAY TUMBLR ACCOUNTS