Disqus - Latest Comments for mj

Re: In ten years time, will Apple be the new Microsoft - an abusive monopoly?

mj — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:02:14 -0000

We can witter on about it but history has shown that governments will do sod all to protect the consumer. To wit: the farce that was the Microsoft monopoly abuse conviction.

Re: The Microsoft “Lauren” ads are right

mj — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 06:04:33 -0000

Do people really buy laptops like that? Weird.

I receive my buying instructions straight from the Mothership - which would kinda explain why I went into a store looking for a 17" MacBookPro and came out with a MacBook Air....

I do think DELL is the antithesis of Apple. No R&D, an eye-drying variety of machines and specifications, blithering idiot sales guys* and a build quality that borders on the "creaky" and occasionally "functional". Which is why my ostensibly faster DELL Latitiude sits in the office collecting email and my slower-but-infinitely-nicer Air goes with me everywhere.

*to be fair, Apple has it's fair share here.

Apple got "expensive" this year as the exchange rates changed and I note we didn't get the same breaks when the exchange rate was vastly in our favour. That's a small annoyance - a micro-annoyance compared to other firstworldproblems.

Re: I have ordered 9 iPhones

mj — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:20:51 -0000

I'm actually glad to hear something is working! But yeah, O2 completely mismanaged this one. How hard would it have been to host this up on Amazon's server cloud and take what processing you needed?

Re: Don’t forget - Unlimited Drinks next Thursday (10th July)

mj — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:20:18 -0000

Arse, I'll just be home from OCC BBQ in Tipperary. How about you come see me!

Re: Stop! The Apple Store can’t sell iPhones!

mj — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:34:40 -0000

O2: hiring the IT team that Twitter rejected.

Apple must be raging that O2 have fubarred this again. The writing was on the wall with he difficulties last october! Didn't they bother scaling?

Re: 3UK bans customers wearing hoodies; Our 30-point guide for 3

mj — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:24:52 -0000

It's no different to bikers being asked to remove their helmets going into a bank.

Working retail with high price items is hazardous these days.

Re: 3UK bans customers wearing hoodies; Our 30-point guide for 3

mj — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 13:31:16 -0000

They're not asking for an actual item of clothing to be removed, just for the hood to be removed (ie, pulled back from covering the face).

Reasonable if you ask me.

Re: Sony Ericsson: Dead, dying, don’t even bother. We’re a Sony Ericsson Free Zone!

mj — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:02:03 -0000

That's so depressing. The Xperia was meant to be THE iPhone killer. S-E have managed to go from being THE name in cool phones (I had a T39m, a T68i, then a T610 switched to MOT for a RAZR and then back to SE for a K800i). I lusted after the P900 series.

Sad.

Re: What happened to the good old days of buying a mobile phone? (Or, why I’ve stopped being a Nokia customer)

mj — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:05:47 -0000

I don't think it's Apple's fault that S60 has been allowed to stagnate. I also don't think it's their fault for the Network/Handset exclusive partnerships because they existed way before then (for ages, I could only get a RAZR on Orange). That's just trolling.

Don't feel limited by the Magic - it's a lovely phone - and it's use of a 'more standard' Android build will likely work in it's favour. The Sense UI - well, I don't see what the fuss is about. At the end of the day it's all about the software.

And if you're set on the Hero, why not unlock it?

Re: Microsoft interface visualization | Conánn FitzPatrick

mj — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:56:19 -0000

The problem with this sort of video is that it adds nothing new.

Yes, we all want a minority report style interface but really does it help us work. This appeals to the PowerPoint Addicts - not the people collecting the data, or making those presentations.

And who's going to pay to put "Microsoft Surface" into the very pavements?

Agh. This pie in the sky stuff just annoys me.

Re: The newsprint never washed off…

mj — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:50:11 -0000

Ah, see my childhood was made up of Mighty World of Marvel, The Daredevils, Warrior and.... the Bonanza paperback "Batman from the 30s to the 70s" (which I just recently got in hardback!!!)

It's a pity that Miracleman and Captain Britain and half the stories in Warrior are so complicated in terms of IP. I'd love a hardback!

Re: Augmented Reality is Cool! But What’s the ROI?

mj — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:25:18 -0000

Where's the RoI?

Where's the RoI of LCDs, the Internet, the light bulb? Nothing. It's in the application of these technologies. At this point we're still pre-commercial but it's coming!

Re: Thoughts on O2’s iPhone 3GS offering

mj — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:30:43 -0000

I'm not worried about the subsidy price. That's a given.

I am a little pissed at the Tethering price. For that price I can get a dongle and have two machines on the net (using less battery power and not tying up my handset for internet). Other mobiles seem to get this free (I used it on a SonyEricsson for a year) and it worked with the same allowances for on-mobile and tethered data. The argument that it uses more data is simply bogus.

Re: Bill Gates keynote at CES (that playtable rocks)

mj — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 06:05:24 -0000

It's very hard to get interested in the technology when you can't flipping see it. I presume this is a "You're on a Mac, ugh! Why would you be interested in MS technology" thing.

“The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.”

*sigh*

Re: The great “pull the laptop off of a table by its power cord” contest

mj — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 02:44:57 -0000

I welcome the Magsafe because I run an Apple Service Provider. The number of Aluminium Powerbooks we get in with one corner crushed and wrinkled because someone tripped over the cord is shocking. And if the powerbook itself doesn't plummet to the ground, the DC-in board is usually ruined.

Try your experiment at a brisk walk. And the angle of the movement (perpendicular to the direction of the plug) will make a difference too.

This wasn't a solution looking for a problem.

Re: It’s worth the hell

mj — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:57:46 -0000

It's always going to be a struggle explaining this to people who look at a specifications sheet to tell you if something is good or better. It's not about the hardware, it's about the software. This is why my other half got, used and returned a HTC Touch Diamond all in the space of a weekend. It's just not the same.

Having to explain exactly this to a software engineer this week made me realise how many smart people don't get this. He pointed out that I had queued to get new hardware. He didn't realise that, for the same amount of money as I was paying every month, I now had two iPhones. One of them 3G and the other, sans SIM, effectively an iPod touch! It's like getting a free iPod touch mid contract.

Re: It’s time for the geeks to sit down and shut up

mj — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:41:31 -0000

Yay, it's a reinvention of CyberDog / OpenDoc

Brilliant.

Re: The iPhone hasn’t actually changed the game at all

mj — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:49:41 -0000

From the DeLoitte survey: "Implied penetration is now approaching 125%, meaning that up to 40% of mobile phone users have multiple SIMs and devices."

Your figures also ignore the iPod touch which is growing at 3x the rate of the iPhone and has a similar installed base.

So, if 3.5% of the market are making 18.6% of the game purchases, you have to admit there's a market change there. Add in the Touch (for which we don't have figures) and you see why the AppStore becomes more compelling.

Yes, if you're not on the top 100 list, you're going to find it hard but this is more evident that the time for releasing the game and hoping for the best is over. Now you have to market your game, find PR opportunities, price it right, collaborate with others, get reviews and make sure they're good by producing a polished product.

Java games distributed through operators and portals might be selling more - but then their market is nearly ten times the size. So a market ten times as large is buying only slightly more than half the games? That speaks volumes about the death of that market!

One local developer sells his Java entertainment products through several portals and earns between 30 cents and 1 euro for each sales of his 6 euro app. He produced one iPhone version which works on iPhone and iPod touch and makes 2 pounds every time it sells (for 3 pounds). His attitude: he's moving all but one of his development team to the iPhone. It's where the money is.

Re: Ways to Boost Irelands Homegrown Creative & Technology Industries

mj — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:45:00 -0000

I created a business plan about 18 months ago for a shared workspace but couldn't get funding at the time. I think, in retrospect, the idea was a little too ambitious for what Belfast has to offer but I still read over it every now and then.

So - where do we go from here. I'm very much into the ideas of co-working, bedouin workspaces, ubiquitous wireless.

So where do we want to go today?

Re: Do Not Buy an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station, They Crash and Burn

mj — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:15:00 -0000

Apple never admit bugs. Ever.

That said - BitTorrent seems to bugger up nearly every model of router.

Nasty, bad but sooo good.

Re: Do Not Buy an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station, They Crash and Burn

mj — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:49:00 -0000

It shouldn't die tho. Do you have a surge protector and a UPS?

Re: Do Not Buy an Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station, They Crash and Burn

mj — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:32:00 -0000

I might be a total fanboy, but we've not seen these issues with either Express or Extreme. Face it - we couldn't run our office on these devices as we plainly do.

Bittorrent is bad, mmkay. For routers. I mean.

Re: Co-working Belfast Plan

mj — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:01:00 -0000

Good start. I'd suggest that with 16 potentials, you examine how many will take a place or not.

I mean - looking at that list of 16, space for 10-12 would likely be sufficient especially as the summer comes in.

It depends how far you want to take this.

Re: Co-working Belfast Plan

mj — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 05:48:00 -0000

Nothing wrong with "Co-Working Belfast" as a name.

The rest of the questions really boil down to where you pick. Assuming everywhere can fit in seats, broadband and has a loo.

Re: Co-Working Belfast, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

mj — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:18:00 -0000

Have you considered the INSURANCE required for this location?

Costs are at 18K per year now (£1500/month) and insurance will likely be ...£300/month for this?

Re: Co-Working Belfast, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

mj — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:55:00 -0000

First -

Get a web site up at http://coworkingbelfast.com/

Second -

Schedule a chat for OpenCoffee. I'll blog this, you blog it, everyone blog it, twitter too and also we can market it on NiMUG and anywhere else that will let us.

Third -

If you can get enough people to commit to a deposit, show it is secure and can give me copies of the insurance certificate, then I'll commit to putting two Intel iMacs down there as 'drop in' machines for casual types. That's as well as securing a space there for my guys at Mac-Sys to use as a desk (which they will use very infrequently)

If this doesn't work out - come talk to me again because I know somewhere else that might work out.

Does this place have own door access?

Re: The Magical Fail Whale

mj — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:58:00 -0000

Twitter folk were admitted that they architected Twitter like a content management system when it should have been a messaging system.

As I have to work with Rendezvous every day and see millions of messages passing, I have to wonder....