Best wishes for 2017 to everyone who posts - or even lurks!
Astonished re AndyJS. Not just for the work he put in, but his willingness to share it with one and all was exemplary.
This might be a bit datageeky but I do wonder whether his spreadsheets deserved to be covered by thread headers, not just confined to the comments section.
Me too - I think Twitter's problem is that its very liberal bias friendly and censors largely only conservative views - that's a poor user rep to get/and discourages them from joining.
Farage is now seen as too close to Trump. If UKIP oppose the Brexit deal it will be mainly because it was not tough enough on migration and Nuttall is best placed to exploit that
Best wishes for 2017 to everyone who posts - or even lurks!
Astonished re AndyJS. Not just for the work he put in, but his willingness to share it with one and all was exemplary.
This might be a bit datageeky but I do wonder whether his spreadsheets deserved to be covered by thread headers, not just confined to the comments section.
Well I was one of the less than ten who voted for AndyJS.
I suspect that Andy's low score is an indicator of how few people actually bet among readers of PB.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
Me too - I think Twitter's problem is that its very liberal bias friendly and censors largely only conservative views - that's a poor user rep to get/and discourages them from joining.
LOL. No.
Twitter's problems are manyfold; they are losing money hand over fist, have not worked out how to fully monetise their core product, and have got much more innovative competitors snapping at the heels of that core product.
Any bad reputation will hurt in two ways: as you say, it will act as a barrier to new people using the service. However more importantly, it will not help encourage buyers with deep enough pockets to buy the service. But those are minor issues compared to the ones mentioned in the first paragraph.
I don't think Twitter will die per se; there is a name and brand there. It's just that it will become much less relevant and much more of an echo chamber.
It's yet another business where someone had a bright idea, yet that bright idea has not been backed up with good business (or sometimes even technical) acumen.
Google were very different: not only did they invent good search algorithm back in 96 and 97, but they worked out how to monetise a blank page. That was genius.
My phone is 3 years old and the OS is 4 versions further on than the one which goes out of support, so this isn't a real issue unless you're on a truly ancient phone.
Ive just done some detective work and 'Flag' and 'Off topic' can only be seen by clicking your own symbol. So even if you're in the habit of doing that you are the only one likely to see it. it's like a private rebuke. So I'm thinking 'what kind of a nutter does that' and the answer is there are loads of them!
I'm starting to wonder whether this is the sort of place you make your excuses and back out of quietly!!
Looking at the off-topics I've received I rather suspect they arise when a fellow PBer wanted to quote you but clicked on the adjacent 'Off Topic' tab by mistake.
Apparently TFL / Khan won't be buying anymore Boris buses. No idea if that is a good or bad move, never used one and no idea if they are any good or not.
Apparently TFL / Khan won't be buying anymore Boris buses. No idea if that is a good or bad move, never used one and no idea if they are any good or not.
Are they the ones w no windows that open or air con? In the summer they are unbearable
I don't place bets with bookies (though like every free-roaming adult on Earth, my everyday life decisions in the face of uncertainty are but a string of bets - and with quite alarming stakes, if I stop to think about it) but even I saw the glory of those spreadsheets.
I'm glad I'm not the only one in the AndyJS fan club, though disappointed we don't seem to have made our votes count!
Apparently TFL / Khan won't be buying anymore Boris buses. No idea if that is a good or bad move, never used one and no idea if they are any good or not.
Are they the ones w no windows that open or air con? In the summer they are unbearable
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Vive isn't HTC as such though, they spun it off into a separate company and a partnership with Valve. From the article, it seems to state that HTC core business of phones is the real issue.
Boris Buses were a massive waste of money. They came in because one of Boris's original election pledges was to get rid of Ken's bendy buses, which were apparently hated.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
It might be the best but VR is just undesirable. A few of my friends got it and I got a PSVR. Instant regret.
"TFS, I rather think it is due to him being a complete T**** "
You veer between being a curmudgeonly old soak and being creepily ingratiating.
I don't know which I prefer
Oh.... and Happy Hogmanay.
Roger I may at times be a curmudgeon but you are confused if you think I am ever ingratiating, you need to get your head out of your erchie and see real life now and again. A Happy New Yea rto you also and no creeping involved.
Boris Buses were a massive waste of money. They came in because one of Boris's original election pledges was to get rid of Ken's bendy buses, which were apparently hated.
I find it quite startling that we cannot seem to order busses that simply work as required. It's not as if the requirements and market in London are unknown.
So what's the problem? Political interference? Over-engineered specs? Pain incompetence at TfL?
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
Vive is the best of all the VR so far, but it still isn't really that great, and it is way more expensive than Playstation VR (both the unit cost and needing a really high spec pc) and the games are generally crap. Playstation VR is doing better, because well Sony "get games".
I have access to all of them, plus Hololens, and Hololens "mixed reality" is the way forward but miles off being good enough. There are another x generation cycles before it is really get any chance of widespread take up.
Talking of companies that may crash and burn, surprised Magic Leap didn't get a passing mention. Their core product appears to be not working as they promised all the investors and they haven't a clue how to make it work.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
Vive is the best of all the VR so far, but it still isn't really that great, and it is way more expensive than Playstation VR (both the unit cost and needing a really high spec pc) and the games are generally crap. Playstation VR is doing better, because well Sony "get games".
Ah, but I play Elite Dangerous. That game is apparently mahoossively good under VR.
I attended the Virtuality conference in 1994. Back then everyone was saying that VR was the next big thing. It'd be a shame if VR fails again, over twenty years later.
Disappointed I only have 19 off topic and 15 spam. A miserly amount but I am almost at 15K posts , so 14,960 erudite intelligent and witty posts is not too bad..
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Vive isn't HTC as such though, they spun it off into a separate company and a partnership with Valve. From the article, it seems to state that HTC core business of phones is the real issue.
Their core phone business has been circling the drain for three years at least. The Pixel phones are good business for them, but they are branded as "Google" and probably a step back to when they used to manufacture phones for other brands as an ODM. The issue with that is that they aren't an ODM, they have no manufacturing and get their phones made by Hon Hai, just like everyone else. As Google becomes more confident with hardware design, HTC turn into an unnecessary middle man. Back in 2008 HTC made ODM devices for Samsung and Sony Ericsson, look at what happened to those relationships, the Google one won't be far behind.
Given how frequently celebrities and wealthy people and the POTUS elect use Twitter I would have thought it was a prime market for advertisers
Firstly apparently Twitter don't do "relationships" with the celebs, they just let them advertise what they like on there and the BIG BIG BIG reason why facebook is massively successful and twitter isn't for advertisers, twitter haven't got a f##king clue who all their users are, where as Facebook can tell you how many left handed cat owning vegans whose favourite tv show is Breaking Bad in Skegness there are.
It appears I have a disappointingly small number of posts marked off topic, but I do have 4 marked as spam. Which is nice
I see Nicola has used her New Year message to announce that all children born in Scotland this year will get an SNP baby box.
It contains a flag...
Labour and Tories behind as ever, they are so bitter and twisted they cannot even commend a quality policy that will help poor children. Then they wonder why they are losers and so shunned by teh electorate.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Vive isn't HTC as such though, they spun it off into a separate company and a partnership with Valve. From the article, it seems to state that HTC core business of phones is the real issue.
Their core phone business has been circling the drain for three years at least. The Pixel phones are good business for them, but they are branded as "Google" and probably a step back to when they used to manufacture phones for other brands as an ODM. The issue with that is that they aren't an ODM, they have no manufacturing and get their phones made by Hon Hai, just like everyone else. As Google becomes more confident with hardware design, HTC turn into an unnecessary middle man. Back in 2008 HTC made ODM devices for Samsung and Sony Ericsson, look at what happened to those relationships, the Google one won't be far behind.
Learn something new everyday....I for some reason presumed HTC were an actual manufacturer, not just a designer who got Foxconn to do the making bit. As you say that sounds like a bad spot, neither the mega brand like Apple or Google nor the people key to the manufacture.
How concerned are people re her majestys health? I've always assumed she would go on and on. That is not possible but I don't remember her health being discussed so much before.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Vive isn't HTC as such though, they spun it off into a separate company and a partnership with Valve. From the article, it seems to state that HTC core business of phones is the real issue.
Their core phone business has been circling the drain for three years at least. The Pixel phones are good business for them, but they are branded as "Google" and probably a step back to when they used to manufacture phones for other brands as an ODM. The issue with that is that they aren't an ODM, they have no manufacturing and get their phones made by Hon Hai, just like everyone else. As Google becomes more confident with hardware design, HTC turn into an unnecessary middle man. Back in 2008 HTC made ODM devices for Samsung and Sony Ericsson, look at what happened to those relationships, the Google one won't be far behind.
Learn something new everyday....I for some reason presumed HTC were an actual manufacturer, not just a designer who got Foxconn to do the making bit. As you say that sounds like a bad spot, neither the mega brand like Apple or Google nor the people key to the manufacture.
My previous phone was an HTC and it was not bad at all, if a bit big. Worked better and easier to use than my current iphone, which I went for based on size, small SE .
How concerned are people re her majestys health? I've always assumed she would go on and on. That is not possible but I don't remember her health being discussed so much before.
Not concerned at all, she will be getting the best treatment available to anyone , has had good 90 years to say the least and when her time comes it comes.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
FU Resolving that problem would help but the difference between them is you can use Twitter to debate whereas Facebook is largely a glorified photo album
How concerned are people re her majestys health? I've always assumed she would go on and on. That is not possible but I don't remember her health being discussed so much before.
'Concerned' is perhaps the wrong word. I think we are all aware that her reign is closer to its end than its start(!) and I wouldn't be surprised to find there is more to this illness than we are being told, although the Cambridges clearly don't expect this to be her last Christmas or I imagine they would have gone to Sandringham instead. However, she is 90 and therefore it is sensible to assume at some point in the reasonably near future there will be (either a regency or) a succession.
Both possibilities are well provided for and at present there appear to be no significant constitutional dramas in the offing. True, Charles may not make a good king but he's also unlikely to be King for long anyway given his age.
Her personal health and its impact on her family is different but I also can't see that that's of any concern to the rest of us unless it causes a family feud.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
You can prove the infinite set N of natural numbers (1,2,3,4,...) has the same (infinite) number of members as the set W of whole numbers (0,1,2,3,4...), even though there is exactly one more member of the latter (ie "0"), because you can map one to another by the process n=n+1...
...That is: infinity = infinity+1
Applying the transformation n=n+1 to each member of an infinite set is not the same as saying "infinity = infinity+1". The latter is a phrase used to describe that process, it's not a legitimate arithmetical equation in its own right.
Vive sales have taken a massive nosedive after an initial flurry of action. Would be surprised if they lasted the year.
Have they? I thought they were slightly the better of the VR systems on the market, at least from reviews and specs.
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
Vive is the best of all the VR so far, but it still isn't really that great, and it is way more expensive than Playstation VR (both the unit cost and needing a really high spec pc) and the games are generally crap. Playstation VR is doing better, because well Sony "get games".
I have access to all of them, plus Hololens, and Hololens "mixed reality" is the way forward but miles off being good enough. There are another x generation cycles before it is really get any chance of widespread take up.
Talking of companies that may crash and burn, surprised Magic Leap didn't get a passing mention. Their core product appears to be not working as they promised all the investors and they haven't a clue how to make it work.
There's a very funny video around of snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan trying to play pool in a VR world - with a headset on and a 'cue' in hand. The problem was that he leaned on the virtual table and end up on his arse! It also needs much more space than most of us have available, to avoid banging into real-world things!
Good point about HoloLens, they do rather sound like Theranos, thinking that exciting talk about their fascinating product is a substitute for actual invention and engineering.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
Absolutely. It's cross-platform operation and universality mean it's going to be very difficult to delete, especially when living somewhere where SMS rates are high and data rates low.
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
Given how frequently celebrities and wealthy people and the POTUS elect use Twitter I would have thought it was a prime market for advertisers
Firstly apparently Twitter don't do "relationships" with the celebs, they just let them advertise what they like on there and the BIG BIG BIG reason why facebook is massively successful and twitter isn't for advertisers, twitter haven't got a f##king clue who all their users are, where as Facebook can tell you how many left handed cat owning vegans whose favourite tv show is Breaking Bad in Skegness there are.
I turned on the advertising option on Twitter several months back - its targetting is useless. Repeated ads for sensible shoes/Citrix servers et al/merchant banking advice... I reckon their adverts are no closer than totally random - and probably worse based on crap data.
@ydoethur - if the Queen dies and Charles lives as long as her, he'll be King for 22 years or so. A prospect which doesn't bother me at all, but apparently does bother a lot of people.
FU Resolving that problem would help but the difference between them is you can use Twitter to debate whereas Facebook is largely a glorified photo album
I always see FB as a Look At My Great Life competition. I've no interest in slabs of emotional wailing or other people's children that also seems prevalent. My brother posts pix of random bits of junk shop furniture he's doing up. Hundreds of them.
@ydoethur - if the Queen dies and Charles lives as long as her, he'll be King for 22 years or so. A prospect which doesn't bother me at all, but apparently does bother a lot of people.
Assuming (a) he lives that long and (b) he doesn't abdicate.
I was just checking and only three British monarchs have lived to be 80 or older - Victoria, George III and of course Elizabeth II. So it's quite unusual for a monarch to be long-lived (even Edward VIII, the last monarch to die, only made it to 77).
That also raises questions of what to do with an elderly/enfeebled monarch, which didn't generally arise before the 1900s. Perhaps Charles could be like Benedict VI and set the principle of retiring when he's too old to carry out his duties effectively.
(Given his character it seems unlikely, but we all thought that of Benedict too - and Charles may also think about the best time for William to become King, which the Pope didn't.)
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
Absolutely. It's cross-platform operation and universality mean it's going to be very difficult to delete, especially when living somewhere where SMS rates are high and data rates low.
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
"WhatsApp me" is why it's going to be impossible to replace it.
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
That's a good article about a few very marginal companies, one to bookmark and come back to next year.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
Absolutely. It's cross-platform operation and universality mean it's going to be very difficult to delete, especially when living somewhere where SMS rates are high and data rates low.
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
"WhatsApp me" is why it's going to be impossible to replace it.
Any challenger has to find a weakness in their offering and exploit it.
If I want to speak to someone I phone them. If I want to send someone a written message I send an email. I fail to see the need for other platforms that reinvent these functions.
@RobD - (apologies for lack of quotes) It is specifically Catholics that are excluded. The Act of Settlement 1701 excludes from the succession anyone who "is, are or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the popish religion". That Act elsewhere states that the monarch must be a Protestant and that, on inheriting the crown, they must "join in communion with the Church of England".
So anyone who has ever been a Catholic is excluded. Anyone else must be or become a Protestant in order to inherit the throne and, on doing so, must become an Anglican.
If I want to speak to someone I phone them. If I want to send someone a written message I send an email. I fail to see the need for other platforms that reinvent these functions.
Perhaps you are thinking of where you are? Here in Malaysia if you want to send someone a written message it has to be WhatsApp. I tried email two days ago and the recipient didn't even look for it. I had never heard of the other two platforms before today, i.e. Signal or Telegram, so I suspect they are not in significant use over here.
I turned on the advertising option on Twitter several months back - its targetting is useless. Repeated ads for sensible shoes/Citrix servers et al/merchant banking advice... I reckon their adverts are no closer than totally random - and probably worse based on crap data.
Twitter's advertising team must be made up exclusively of people who couldn't get hired by Google, or Microsoft, or Facebook, or Amazon, etc. The advertising is very poorly targeted, which implies either their social graph is garbage (and so they are spraying adverts all over the shop), or they are having trouble booking adverts and left serving up crap for cheap. Even flagging adverts as "not interested" doesn't seem to improve matters.
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
All true. And yet Twitter is, politically, the most influential global social medium of them all. Trump ran his presidential campaign via Twitter - he didn't use Facebook. And he won.
It's truly bizarre that Twitter can't find a way to monetise this salience.
Yeah in an era where important policy is announced by a late night tweet from The Donald, you would assume that being the gatekeeper to that would be an easy money spinner.
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
Being old and doddery hasn't made much difference to Keegan. He was always an idiot with but a shaky grasp of reality.
For a classic example of just how dense he is, see here:
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
Absolutely. It's cross-platform operation and universality mean it's going to be very difficult to delete, especially when living somewhere where SMS rates are high and data rates low.
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
"WhatsApp me" is why it's going to be impossible to replace it.
Any challenger has to find a weakness in their offering and exploit it.
To me, that weakness was the purchase of the company by the World's largest data miners and privacy invaders - although I appreciate that for others the barrier is somewhat higher. I deliver a lecture called "Why I'm Not On Facebook" to schools and parents about the perils of social media.
Signal is squarely aimed at people who value their privacy, but being a small open community - rather than a startup company with a marketing budget - they rely on word of mouth for market share.
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
It is worth remembering that much of the progressive Left around the world were not pro-democracy until 1989.
I grew up when it was standard (and not at all surprising) for a Labour MP of the left or CND spokesperson etc to declare that the East Block "Peoples Democracies" were more democratic than western countries where you got to vote for the government.... Claims that there was no unemployment and the joys of East German child care figured largely in this.
In addition "democracy" was apparently racist when "imposed" on "non-western" countries.
When the wall came down, the tune changed over night. We had always been at war with Eastasia.
All true. And yet Twitter is, politically, the most influential global social medium of them all. Trump ran his presidential campaign via Twitter - he didn't use Facebook. And he won.
It's truly bizarre that Twitter can't find a way to monetise this salience.
Yeah in an era where important policy is announced by a late night tweet from The Donald, you would assume that being the gatekeeper to that would be an easy money spinner.
Speaking of which, this is a very good piece from Kara Swisher about why Silicon Valley is getting excited about Trump:
Apparently TFL / Khan won't be buying anymore Boris buses. No idea if that is a good or bad move, never used one and no idea if they are any good or not.
That will cause problems with the pollution targets - the old buses are a big problem
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.
The Queen's father died in middle age. Her sister apparently followed the advice 'live fast die young'. Who knows if she'll get to 101, like her mother. I think it's possible she'll die before the Scott Trust runs out of money or sub-editors who should surely have also spotted this and questioned it.
I deliver a lecture called "Why I'm Not On Facebook" to schools and parents about the perils of social media
In a world where Mr Pussy-Grabber can become President, perhaps we need to accept that some of the perceived risks of oversharing are overblown.
But yet people still think death threats and the documentation of their own illegal activities are somehow okay.
This year's graduates will have been on social media since they were 13 or 14. How much of what they have posted in the intervening period, would they wish to have disappeared from the internet as they enter the real world of life and work?
The first thing to understand it that there's no delete button, even if you think there is. The second thing to understand is that if you're not paying for something (and sometimes even if you are) then you're not the customer, you are the product sold to the customer advertisers. The third thing to understand is that anything you post on *someone else's website* is basically theirs to do with as they wish, that US freedom of speech laws ban very little in this regard, and that if you have a problem with it you'll need expensive lawyers.
I could (and often do, professionally) go on all day about this, so I think I'll quit now rather than derail the New Year thread completely!
I don't use WhatsApp - but saw a report earlier that it won't work on millions of phones later this year - do you know why? Another headline said ATT were using an upgrade to disable phone batteries charging the last G7s.
The problem with WhatsApp is that they're just a brand for a common protocol, their product is easily replicable and their value is in the userbase - hence the sale to Facebook. The new owners basically bought a massive number of phone numbers and the connections between them, to add to their ever-growing database.
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
It's not easy to get people off WhatsApp. It is the default messenger for all of my friends, even when it was a paid service for a buck a year. I've got 100+ contacts of mine in WhatsApp, in my Telegram list there are less than 10 and most of them are family members.
Absolutely. It's cross-platform operation and universality mean it's going to be very difficult to delete, especially when living somewhere where SMS rates are high and data rates low.
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
"WhatsApp me" is why it's going to be impossible to replace it.
Any challenger has to find a weakness in their offering and exploit it.
To me, that weakness was the purchase of the company by the World's largest data miners and privacy invaders - although I appreciate that for others the barrier is somewhat higher. I deliver a lecture called "Why I'm Not On Facebook" to schools and parents about the perils of social media.
Signal is squarely aimed at people who value their privacy, but being a small open community - rather than a startup company with a marketing budget - they rely on word of mouth for market share.
They should maybe go 'invitation only' to emphasise that point like Gmail did back in the day.
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
The sub-editor seems to be becoming a rare beast indeed on Fleet Street, certainly if the online versions are anything to go by.
One gets the clear impression that self-publishing and the race to be first are very good at delivering typos, inaccuracies and poor phraseology such as that highlighted above.
I do sometimes wonder if the printed version of the Telegraph manages to contain all the uncorrected typos that the online version does, maybe a bored student of journalism with time on their hands might like to undertake a comparison?
Gab.ai is is an interesting idea, a true free speech platform. The rules are simple in a sense, don't break the law. Trolling is allowed and the advice to people being trolled is "turn off your computer" or "don't say stupid things".
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
Guardian tips for a happy 2017
"Decentralize whiteness
Just about every aspect of western culture centralizes whiteness. Our history, infrastructure, medical system, justice system, education system, entertainment industry – and yes, our social justice organizations – all do this. Whiteness is default, it’s ubiquitous and it’s insidious.
We don’t have to purposefully center whiteness. When we neglect to decentralize it, it will be automatically centered. So work to decentralize whiteness: in your children’s school lessons, in your PTA meetings, in your office meetings, in your city council meetings, in the film and TV you watch, in the music you listen to, in the leaders you support. If you do not decentralize whiteness in your movements for progress, you will leave people of color behind. And what kind of progress is that?"
To be charitable to the journalist, William Keegan, he is quite old and maybe a bit doddery, and - maybe - he didn't realise how this would sound. i.e. oozing contempt, reinforcing every stereoptype of Remoaners.
What amazes me is that the Guardian editors let it pass. A good or sensible sub-editor would have jumped on it and taken it out in a trice. It's in the first sentence!
I sense possible terminal decline here. The Guardian is the Queen with a cold.
I pray fervently that the Queen survives The Guardian.
The chance of a 'mere mortal' living to 100 is one in 10,000. I doubt the royal family have better genes or a much better diet, but they might have better medical care.
Wrong statistic. We need the odds of a 90-year-old surviving to 100, not any mere mortal.
Gab.ai is is an interesting idea, a true free speech platform. The rules are simple in a sense, don't break the law. Trolling is allowed and the advice to people being trolled is "turn off your computer" or "don't say stupid things".
I joined Gab a few months back, but the UI is awful.
Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.
This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.
Comments
I know this to be a significant underestimate
Twitter is on ARSTechnica's 'most endangered tech company' list for 2017.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/staff/2016/12/deathwatch-2017-the-most-endangered-tech-companies/
A good assessment of some of the platform's problems.
Astonished re AndyJS. Not just for the work he put in, but his willingness to share it with one and all was exemplary.
This might be a bit datageeky but I do wonder whether his spreadsheets deserved to be covered by thread headers, not just confined to the comments section.
As is always the case with decent punts it is probably gone.
Or any price ?
The good news is I seem to have £67 left in my account - which I can get back to paying the mortgage shortly, hopefully...
*Looks for the ever hidden withdraw button*
https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/815524317463281664
I suspect that Andy's low score is an indicator of how few people actually bet among readers of PB.
HNY to all.
Twitter's most basic problem is that they really don't have a business plan to actually make any money, and their forays into politics and censorship are haemorrhaging users.
Their best bet would have to have been acquired for megabucks for the userbase à la WhatsApp, but they chose to go down the IPO route instead, so now every potential investor can see the stock tanking.
"TFS, I rather think it is due to him being a complete T**** "
You veer between being a curmudgeonly old soak and being creepily ingratiating.
I don't know which I prefer
Oh.... and Happy Hogmanay.
Twitter's problems are manyfold; they are losing money hand over fist, have not worked out how to fully monetise their core product, and have got much more innovative competitors snapping at the heels of that core product.
Any bad reputation will hurt in two ways: as you say, it will act as a barrier to new people using the service. However more importantly, it will not help encourage buyers with deep enough pockets to buy the service. But those are minor issues compared to the ones mentioned in the first paragraph.
I don't think Twitter will die per se; there is a name and brand there. It's just that it will become much less relevant and much more of an echo chamber.
It's yet another business where someone had a bright idea, yet that bright idea has not been backed up with good business (or sometimes even technical) acumen.
Google were very different: not only did they invent good search algorithm back in 96 and 97, but they worked out how to monetise a blank page. That was genius.
My phone is 3 years old and the OS is 4 versions further on than the one which goes out of support, so this isn't a real issue unless you're on a truly ancient phone.
There might be some truth in that.
I don't place bets with bookies (though like every free-roaming adult on Earth, my everyday life decisions in the face of uncertainty are but a string of bets - and with quite alarming stakes, if I stop to think about it) but even I saw the glory of those spreadsheets.
I'm glad I'm not the only one in the AndyJS fan club, though disappointed we don't seem to have made our votes count!
It'll be interesting to see what patents they have, and how valuable they are.
On that note: I decided against buying this generation of VR systems when I got my new PC. I'm banking on the second generation being far superior as the providers compete. But with Vive out of the market there might not be the case.
It appears I have a disappointingly small number of posts marked off topic, but I do have 4 marked as spam. Which is nice
I see Nicola has used her New Year message to announce that all children born in Scotland this year will get an SNP baby box.
It contains a flag...
A Happy New Yea rto you also and no creeping involved.
So what's the problem? Political interference? Over-engineered specs? Pain incompetence at TfL?
I have access to all of them, plus Hololens, and Hololens "mixed reality" is the way forward but miles off being good enough. There are another x generation cycles before it is really get any chance of widespread take up.
Talking of companies that may crash and burn, surprised Magic Leap didn't get a passing mention. Their core product appears to be not working as they promised all the investors and they haven't a clue how to make it work.
I attended the Virtuality conference in 1994. Back then everyone was saying that VR was the next big thing. It'd be a shame if VR fails again, over twenty years later.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/fascism-spreading-across-world-bmg-poll-trump-brexit-le-pen-wilders-petry-a7492981.html
https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/808961397602349056
Their explaination for why they're ending support for older phones, is because they want to introduce lovely new features that old phones are not powerful enough to implement. The cynical view is that the enhanced Facebook data mining they want to introduce won't work on older versions, and probably stop old and new versions working with each other.
A new free app called Signal Private Messenger does exactly the same as WhatsApp but without the user being the product. Tell everyone to use it, because these social apps only work if all your friends are on them.
Plenty of techie posts on this thread that are fairly incomprehensible to me. Should I mark them all as off-topic?
http://www.cirsd.org/en/horizons/horizons-autumn-2016--issue-no-8/populism-as-a-backlash-against-globalization
Both possibilities are well provided for and at present there appear to be no significant constitutional dramas in the offing. True, Charles may not make a good king but he's also unlikely to be King for long anyway given his age.
Her personal health and its impact on her family is different but I also can't see that that's of any concern to the rest of us unless it causes a family feud.
Good point about HoloLens, they do rather sound like Theranos, thinking that exciting talk about their fascinating product is a substitute for actual invention and engineering.
Edit: found it, try not to laugh like a drain.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OMceVbo3Tm4
WhatsApp can't be deleted until nearly everyone you know is on Telegram or Signal.
I really don't see the appeal.
I was just checking and only three British monarchs have lived to be 80 or older - Victoria, George III and of course Elizabeth II. So it's quite unusual for a monarch to be long-lived (even Edward VIII, the last monarch to die, only made it to 77).
That also raises questions of what to do with an elderly/enfeebled monarch, which didn't generally arise before the 1900s. Perhaps Charles could be like Benedict VI and set the principle of retiring when he's too old to carry out his duties effectively.
(Given his character it seems unlikely, but we all thought that of Benedict too - and Charles may also think about the best time for William to become King, which the Pope didn't.)
Does this make me boring, compliant, evasive or like a tax avoider?
So anyone who has ever been a Catholic is excluded. Anyone else must be or become a Protestant in order to inherit the throne and, on doing so, must become an Anglican.
For a classic example of just how dense he is, see here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/oct/07/labour-miliband-one-nation-conference
Edit - in many ways this one is even better:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jan/29/labour-not-to-blame-for-recession
Signal is squarely aimed at people who value their privacy, but being a small open community - rather than a startup company with a marketing budget - they rely on word of mouth for market share.
I grew up when it was standard (and not at all surprising) for a Labour MP of the left or CND spokesperson etc to declare that the East Block "Peoples Democracies" were more democratic than western countries where you got to vote for the government.... Claims that there was no unemployment and the joys of East German child care figured largely in this.
In addition "democracy" was apparently racist when "imposed" on "non-western" countries.
When the wall came down, the tune changed over night. We had always been at war with Eastasia.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/28/forgive-me-techies-but-here-are-the-seven-reasons-why-silicon-valley-likes-trump.html
The Queen's father died in middle age. Her sister apparently followed the advice 'live fast die young'. Who knows if she'll get to 101, like her mother. I think it's possible she'll die before the Scott Trust runs out of money or sub-editors who should surely have also spotted this and questioned it.
This year's graduates will have been on social media since they were 13 or 14. How much of what they have posted in the intervening period, would they wish to have disappeared from the internet as they enter the real world of life and work?
The first thing to understand it that there's no delete button, even if you think there is.
The second thing to understand is that if you're not paying for something (and sometimes even if you are) then you're not the customer, you are the product sold to the customer advertisers.
The third thing to understand is that anything you post on *someone else's website* is basically theirs to do with as they wish, that US freedom of speech laws ban very little in this regard, and that if you have a problem with it you'll need expensive lawyers.
I could (and often do, professionally) go on all day about this, so I think I'll quit now rather than derail the New Year thread completely!
*Or does she go all techie and WhatsApp herself?
One gets the clear impression that self-publishing and the race to be first are very good at delivering typos, inaccuracies and poor phraseology such as that highlighted above.
I do sometimes wonder if the printed version of the Telegraph manages to contain all the uncorrected typos that the online version does, maybe a bored student of journalism with time on their hands might like to undertake a comparison?
"Decentralize whiteness
Just about every aspect of western culture centralizes whiteness. Our history, infrastructure, medical system, justice system, education system, entertainment industry – and yes, our social justice organizations – all do this. Whiteness is default, it’s ubiquitous and it’s insidious.
We don’t have to purposefully center whiteness. When we neglect to decentralize it, it will be automatically centered. So work to decentralize whiteness: in your children’s school lessons, in your PTA meetings, in your office meetings, in your city council meetings, in the film and TV you watch, in the music you listen to, in the leaders you support. If you do not decentralize whiteness in your movements for progress, you will leave people of color behind. And what kind of progress is that?"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/01/how-to-keep-fighting-for-justice-in-2017?CMP=twt_gu
Incidentally, have you noticed that Keegan has quite brilliantly mucked up his figures in that sentence about the 'so-called people'? 52% on a 72% turnout is 37.4% which by various rounding methods would go up to 38% in practice - not the 28% he claims.
This merely confirms me in my belief that he's basically thick, as well as patronising. You have to wonder what strings had to be pulled to get him a job at the Guardian, even for a job involving economic forecasting where I suppose blatant fiddling is to be expected.
It gave you a urinary infection? Sorry to hear it.
Anyways, off out for a get-together with the in-laws. Hopefully there will be cake.