* Posts by Chris

27 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Dec 2007

Original Xbox kicks bucket

Chris

Good for me and...

... everyone else who has a modified xBox, now the spares will be cheaper on eBay as people flogg off their old kit.

Ballmer to go Kumo on Microsoft's Live Search?

Chris
Thumb Up

Just checked kumo.com...

Access Denied

You don't have permission to access "http://www.kumo.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.e47e7a5c.1236066548.1ff6c016

Nice.,

Hollywood to totally recall Total Recall

Chris

Just checking that...

... as a collective group of people who don't truly believe in working on a Friday, that we've got all the memorable lines from the film sorted out and on here. It would a crime of hollywood-remake magnitude if we didn't!

May I start the ball rolling with "If things have gone wrong, I'm talking to myself, and you've probably got a wet towel wrapped around your head. ".

Western Digital flashes home backup and media server

Chris

Now, the last time...

.. I used a MyBook World it was, and you can check this online with others experiences, the most painfully slow thing. WD eventually admited that the CPU used was far to sluggish to cope with the giggabit, or even really 100mbps connection and the software required to serve the files.

I hope mistakes have been rectified in their future lines, otherwise I'll end up doing the same... taking the HDD's out and popping them into my PC anyway.

Opera sings praises of Microsoft-browser statement

Chris

two points...

a) they would say that now wouldn't they

b) agree heartily

pureSilicon unveils 1TB solid state drive

Chris
Happy

You know that it

will cost it's own weight in gold-plated uranium encrusted diamonds however

Israeli Linux fan squeezes Windows refund out of Dell

Chris
Stop

@AC: No choice??

Because sometimes we want a particular bit of hardware. We've spend the hours researching, looking, pondering and checking the bank balance, knowing that what you're going to do with the software is wave a magnet at the HDD and start again. For example, I was toying with the latest Thinkpads, not for their software but for everything else.

If that's the hardware you want, then that's the hardware you buy, and the rest should be completely up to you, with the ability to get the money back if it's not.

Chris
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Haha

ha! The range of Dell kit that you can buy with Ubuntu installed on is a bit of a joke. Not the hardware mind, just the limits of what you can get with it. I understand their argument that 'if we can install it, we know it works' when building custom spec machines but an option to have _no_ OS would be nice, leaving those of us with too much time / too much sense to install everything per our own requirements, even if we have to do some digging in advance for those pesky sound / wifi drivers.

New .tel domains bid to be world's phone book

Chris
Paris Hilton

Great if....

... you're name isn't John Smith. Or any other name for that matter, with how-many-billion on the planet you're soon going to be given business cards that say 'Contact me at notthatjohnsmithbuttheonefromdowntheroadwhosmarriedtojane.tel'...

I've got a simpler idea, how about we just put our phone number on our business card? Hmm?

Paris, because you never can .tel

Endeavour crew set for ISS gig

Chris
Joke

If I where flying...

into space with all the (cough) nasa budget behind me, I would ask that the crew photo where not a photoshoped mess! This is could be one of the last photo's of these people alive, surly nasa could tote them out in front of the actual shuttle to take a snap?

Royal Society: Schools should show creationism 'respect'

Chris

Yes, I say..

"could be encouraged to view evolution as one way of understanding the universe."

the same way kids are encouraged to view mathematics as one way of ensuring 1 + 1 = 2. 'Encouraged' until they bloody well know it's true, unless they can bring evidence to the contrary. Those situations will need to be provable also.

It's called evolution for a bloody reason, it's not just physical, can we stop thinking that we're not just chips who invented the soldering iron please.

UK.gov told not to subsidise superfast broadband

Chris
Thumb Down

Frankly...

while I agree that money should be spent on the backbones, getting the advantage to the door of every joe blogs instead of just the hight-paying business users. I like, I would guess, many other businesses use a typical residential ASDL or ASDL2+ line (cable being harder to get hold of), and the prospect of someone digging up the driveway to put in Fibre fills me with joy!

Sadly I'll have to keep flicking through the BT catalogue at all the nice things I can't afford.

NASA preps Atlantis for Hubble mission

Chris

@Fuel & Chance

Does anyone know an open Ladbrooks?

Coventry fans blue over 'hackable' cashless payment system

Chris

Umm...

Ok, ticket touts are a pain, but while there isn't common cause for Cov tickets to sell out, I'm sure a 1/2 price skimmed season ticket would be a tasty offer to anyone who's thinking of shelling out the full whack. But then, anyone who is would be supporting the club, so would they bother at all?

Interesting to see if they role the scheme to the other areas in the venue (e.g. the casino..)

Anyway, it doesn't inspire confidence in your new product does it?

Ubuntu zoo preps for new arrival

Chris

@Jerome

If you think we'll have DNF before they run out of letters then I think you'll be saddened.

TSA says 'checkpoint friendly' laptop bags on the way

Chris
Stop

So let me just check...

that all airport security worldwide will be informed, trained and de-programmed of the urge to 'remove that from he bag please sir' when seeing a generic laptop case...... Why do I expect that the extra price that will undoubtedly be added onto these for the 'business traveler' market will _not_ be spent on such a thing.

Unless, on all sides of the bag, big red letters spell ' CHECKPOINT FRIENDLY LAPTOP BAG ' in many amusing languages. Which they'll ignore because I'll be getting a big red marker pen and doing the same. If someone hasn't nicked my laptop first.

Maybe the MoD may wish to try this, but deploy 'DON'T STEAL THESE SECRETS', or simply 'DON'T LEAVE ON THE TRAIN'.

Utility computing's 'dirty little secret'

Chris

Already ran into this one

I need cloud computing for all it's benefits... not having to manage a large amount of hardware and network infrastructure would be fantastic. However, what I need to run on all this kit is costly video streaming servers, so I have to buy the licences for all the servers that I _may_ user, in case I ever user them. Each instance with it's own licence key and whatnot.

Now, this is no different from what I'm currently doing, don't get me wrong. However the migration over to cloud computing (or CaaS or whatever) isn't going to be beneficial to me at the moment, as I sit here maintaining existing hardware and software licences.

The first utility computing company that comes along that adds requested software licence costs into the hourly running of an instance is onto a winner.

CSC cranks the whalesong up to 11

Chris
Paris Hilton

@Chillington

Not makers of the largest wheelbarrow in the GB then? Paris would be confused clearly.

US imposes 72 hour pre-reg for Visa waiver travellers

Chris
Paris Hilton

Ohh b....

Welcome to my Nighmare. The GF not only wants to go to the US, but he's from the US, so the likleyhood of me having to once again be fingerprinted / scanned / probed and, more importantly, treated like I've got a very large chunk of C4 up my arse every time I fly into Newark is great.

How did that saying go, treat people like children and they'll act like children? Nice affect on the world this will be having, treating everyone like terrorists.

The business points are right also, we travel at short notice for work so we'll just be registering most of our company's employees details in January for some serious data-mining.

This does lead to one story of greatness from US Border Control however. When travelling to see the GF...

Border Control :: So is the trip for business?

Me : No, I'm going to visit the GF

BC : She lives here then?

Me : Yes

BC : You are gona take care of business as well then!

Fantastic. Paris because she always requests the the body search

Sony Bluetooth Walkman NWZ-A826K

Chris

At least give us the software....

Sony's Sonic Stage is a blight on the world, but sadly it's the only thing I can use to manage my 20gb NW-A3000. I'm not that fussed if the device can't support ATRAC (Can someone else confirm the formats it _can_ handle please?) however 20gb of already sorted, ripped and tagged music is a lot... and I don't think I have the time to re-do all of it.

So, if Sony bring in a tool to allow users to migrate away from ATRAC then maybe I'll start looking at their newer products. I've always said that with Sony you pay a bit for the brand, a bit for the great hardware and then a little bit more for the brand, but I'm not enjoying being locked into an audio format.

Microsoft! bids! $44.6bn! for! Yahoo!

Chris
Coat

A study into..

exactly how many Yahoo! Stock! Holders! actually fell of their chair when reading this.

Phone with foldable e-paper display to get summer roll-out

Chris
Thumb Up

I remember...

I remember seeing the video of the prototype when that was first announced, and have been waiting for this ever since.

I've got a feeling that it's going to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it devices... I can't see much from the pictures given about the interface / controls and that's what I'm worried will make the device difficult to adopt.

As someone who's started to order eBooks to get my grubby mitts on information faster than Amazon delivering it, I'm still looking for a satisfactory way to read them comfortably. While I've not tried it to many times, even my EEE PC isn't anywhere nearly as friendly as a good book.

The Eee PC cuts the mustard at CES

Chris
Thumb Up

Doubts dealt with

I picked up my 4gb Black EEE PC while in the States this Christmas, and it's come and responded well to all my initial quibbles.

You're not going to use this thing to play Battlefield, or manipulate those 100's of large spreadsheets for work, but for browsing, note taking, email sending and photo manipulation before firing the whole lot off to a web server somewhere, it does the job brilliantly.

Previously I've been using my Vaio while at home on the sofa, and I couldn't see around the screen, let alone move away from a mains connection for long enough to read the instructions to cook a curry. The EEE doesn't block my TV viewing, and will sit on the kitchen counter well into the washing up (I don't think it's water proof however!)

It's interesting to hear that companies are using them at expos and events now. We do video streaming and score board controls for sports events, and my boss has already been eying up the EEE to run the myriad of software that we use. We're currently lumping shuttle-esk PC's and laptops around to run everything, and we're all getting back strain from carrying them around airports. If two or even three of these could do the same as a single mid-range laptop, then I can see it being a much more viable and flexible alternative to more conventional laptops.

I think as time goes by, all those tech-geeks will be showing these around the offices / work places and coding sheds of the world long enough for people to realize a practical use for the cheap, lo-cost and very portable hardware.

Fluorescent sow drops glow-in-the-dark piglets

Chris
Paris Hilton

@ Hans

It's more about what it would add to the general nights festivities, and have more useful than just keeping me alive. I feel that glowing internal organs will aid my Disco fun in a number of ways..

1) I'll be able to see my wallet after dropping it on the floor while propping up a lamppost waiting for a taxi

2) I'll be able to do cool E.T. style glowing-chest tricks to impress the ladies

3) It'll allow me to win many a drink with bar bets.. 'I bet I can make my abdomen glow...'

And other such things.

Do composting toilet worms get the blues?

Chris

@Andy

Never a truer word said.

>> There wouldn't have been such an issue if it was cows/horses/pigs/sheep that they were discussing.

Nope, Mainly because I'm much more likely to eat one of those.

Warner to back a single HD disc format?

Chris
Boffin

@ Tim

I'm a Sony fan as well. I'm typing on my Vaio and my Walkman in the bag is playing sweet songs into my ears. I've come to an understanding with Sony now that, while paying a bigger price tag, I'll get what I pay for and I'll enjoy it and the styling.

For some reason I can't stand the PS3, and for this associated reason I don't like Blu. (Or BR or BD or which ever acronym we're going to use!) Currently Blu is a format being propped by an expensive game system.

As for updates, my LG TV updated it's firmware last night, without network connections or anything....

Remember : The best format technically doesn't always win the race.

HMRC offers £20k reward for ID goldmine CDs

Chris
Thumb Up

''I wouldn't return them...'

That's a good point actually, I didn't think of that.... with the profile of these things there's no way that you're going to be able to get out of the cavity search and conversation of anything electrical.

So it's £20k for allowing the MET to put a thumb up your arse.