http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/blog325110.html http://www.daniweb.com/forums/dani-images/misc/dani/logo.gif http://www.daniweb.com http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2848.html The fact that the UK's Internet providers are doing something about illegal downloads of music is of course to be welcomed in principle. Whenever the subject comes up there are a handful of objections; civil liberties, the Internet should be free, whatever, the objectors seem to come from everywhere. But they're wrong. Speaking as someone who writes for a living, frankly my family eats or not depending on my ability to claim copyright in everything that comes from my fingers and onto your screen unless I sign a specific agreement that says otherwise (that's UK law, by the way; in America I... IT Water Cooler Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:48:55 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2848.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2833.html Since everyone else is speculating like mad about Apple's plans following their warning on profuts due to a product transition, I thought I might as well have a go. I'm doing it with a difference, though; this isn't what I think will happen, it's what I want to happen. 1. A less expensive, better connected MacBook Air. Come on you guys, you know you can make this better. It's a perfect looking machine that connects to next to nothing. Either find it an application or connect it to more stuff. 2. Larger capacity on the iPod Touch. This will almost certainly happen - they're unlikely to... IT Water Cooler Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:13:22 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2833.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2822.html So I'm reading through the online press, as one does, and I come across this piece from the BBC. It reports Gartner as saying that the mouse is on the way out as a means of pointing with the computer. It would be wrong to get all emotional, of course - it's a mouse, it's not a friend or something. I'd miss mine but I'm sure my grandparents missed their 78rpm records, and their parents would have missed their wax cylinder recording equipment. That's not really the issue. What I'd be really interested to hear is what some of the programmers and developers in here would think of a thing like... IT Water Cooler Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:10:29 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2822.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2812.html That's what the Wall Street Journal seems to think anyway. I can't help but be a little cynical about this, what with their would-be deal with Yahoo! hardly cold in its grave. The cold-hearted journalist in me tends to see conspiracy theories wherever it looks, so please forgive me if I indulge in one right now. But wouldn't it be odd, after Microsoft had been trying to pressurise Yahoo! into a snap decision last week, if they were actually using another company just to apply a little pressure. Surely that wouldn't happen. Not really..? IT Water Cooler Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:36:53 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2812.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2794.html So I get this call. Would I like an exclusive briefing on a new technology that's going to turn text into speech - the first one to do this 'native'. Forgive me, but no I don't. This typifies, in my view, the all-too-common view that a technical advance ought to be done for the sake of it. Let's examine a few facts: 1. There are numerous text to voice facilities on the Web. OK, they don't do texting but they do a lot else. 2. I'm really quite good at reading. 3. If I'm in a position in which I can't read a text - by which I take it we mean 'I'm driving' - I don't want to be distracted by... IT Water Cooler Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:48:11 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2794.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2800.html Hoping to be the first person to unlock an iPhone 3G? Too late, it looks like someone has already done it. I know, I know. There will be loads of us thinking things like serves them right, they shouldn't have been so shuttered up in the first place, et cetera et cetera. Myself, I see it as a really good way to void your warranty almost immediately the phone is out of its box. But what do I know... IT Water Cooler Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:20:35 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2800.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2784.html My colleague Ron Miller makes some excellent points about the iPhone shortage in the US in his blog entry. If this were any other company we would indeed be taking them to task. Hang on though, let's think a minute: everyone's talking about a hardware shortage, the iPhones aren't in stock yet so it's a bad thing, yes? Well, yes, but that's only part of the story. A hardware shortage can be rectified over time. In the longer term a few people hanging around waiting for their phones a couple of days is an inconvenience, nothing more. For me what was much more interesting was the MobileMe... IT Water Cooler Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:32:47 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2784.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2778.html I have an iPhone on my desk. Don't get excited, though - you'll have read a number of accounts of difficulties getting hold of them in the UK, and they're right. I have one on my desk because mobile phone company 02's media relations department kindly sent it over so I could have a look at it before mine arrived as there seems to be some sort of delay. They've taken the money from my bank account, I should add, which makes it just a little annoying that I don't have the phone itself as such. They've then been asking new customers for extra ID over the phone. My wife, who shares my address... IT Water Cooler Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:54:31 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2778.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2765.html Sometimes an analyst just gets it so wrong it's not true. Is it just me, or is this too ludicrous for words? You can see the support issues now: "Yes, as a matter of fact the computer is packed to the bilges with games and pirated music instead of work files, it happens to be my property..." Bad idea. Straight to the trashcan I hope. IT Water Cooler Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:38:03 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2765.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2756.html First, a bit of confirmation - the iPhone does indeed seem to be in short supply over here, many thanks to 'staff writer' for the story here. I had a text from 02's publicity people to say the orders were being taken at 7.30am and the site had stopped offering them by 10. And it appears we're not getting the white one, either. Not sure what we're being punished for there, nor who they think is going to notice. Anyway, today I want to talk a little about Europe. Specifically the new proposed European laws about the Internet: It seems the European Union wants more stringent piracy laws. Now,... IT Water Cooler Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:34:53 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2756.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2726.html If I wanted to sell a domestic computer I'd do what Apple did a while ago and make it look good. It's supposed to go in someone's home. That's the secret of the laptop-on-a-stick, sorry, the iMac. It also sells into the corporate environment to an extent. This surprises me. Someone has now decided to ape the company and put a laptop-on-a-stick into the PC-compatible world. The EEE model will be out later this year and there can be little doubt that it will go into businesses in the same way the Apple equivalent has done. The interesting thing to me is that we're all supposed to be more... IT Water Cooler Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:49:58 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2726.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2721.html Sometimes a piece of research is so magnificently obvious that you wonder why people did it in the first place. Just such an example is McAfee's report that confirms that spam is a nuisance. It could be just me, but I can't think of any part of this research that couldn't have been guessed by anyone with ten minutes' experience on the Internet and half a brain cell. If anyone can spot anything you'd be welcome to comment... IT Water Cooler Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:32:28 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2721.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2716.html I've left this one a few days as I've been waiting to see whether there's a consensus. Last week ICANN overhauled the rules on Internet domain name, permanently - there's a BBC report on it here. Without seeing any of the new domain names just yet it's difficult to tell just what the impact is going to be. Ideally people will simply register those names that clarify exactly who they are - so maybe daniweb.com could become daniweb.tech, for example, and my own clapperton.co.uk could become clapperton.xxx because I'm in a cruel mood and want to disappoint people. Flippancy aside, the real... IT Water Cooler Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:43:22 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2716.html http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2691.html So the ICANN people are discussing a major overhaul of the Internet in Paris today. I can't say I'm all that delighted. The thing about the Internet is that it basically works. If you can read this it's because I'm able, from London, to type in www.daniweb.com and follow the links in to submit my blog. It just works. Unfortunately, expanding the web and the domain names available will make it easier to make a mistake or to overlook a registration if you're establishing your identity on the Net. Six years ago PriceWaterhouseCoopers rebranded itself - ludicrously - as Monday. It set up a... IT Water Cooler Thu, 26 Jun 2008 06:32:41 CDT GuyClapperton http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2691.html