Posts by David Perry

Mozilla CEO blasts Apple for putting security of the internet at risk

Firefox auto-update + safari thumbs down

This program (Firefox auto-update) just looks after updates for ONE product. IIRC It's the same with Thunderbird which just pops up to say "we've updated it". Maybe this starts a debate which says should each application take care of it's own updates, but this might be deemed inefficient. Anyhow, I rate that - if you're happy with a browser (easy to reinstall if something breaks - just make sure you use foxmarks to backup your bookmarks), surely relatively inobtrusive security updates taking place whilst you get on with your business are a good thing. Remember you don't HAVE to restart the browser until you're ready (to apply the update) too.

I'll also agree that Safari is utter b0ll0x. Whilst I'm looking at getting a 20" iMac later this year (I'll furnish it with some kind of VM tool for running windows networking experiements), it'll be like my iBook - Firefox as default. I've found the rendering by safari to be so unreliable on some sites that it's not true.

Cambridge brain touts wind-n-server combo farms

@ Sun not Wind

How about sun AND wind? Solar panels I would imagine are far cheaper than wind farms are? And either way, heck, you can flood your roof(s) in them without needing to have a lot of land, building permission, a lot of wind or even a specialist engineering firm?

Free voice and video firm plans April 1 UK launch

Erm

Early April Fool? A smack of the author is in order if so :@

Malware removes rival rootkits

Because, Paul...

...sometimes enthusiasts will spend far more time than people paid to do the same thing.

Elonex punts £99 Linux laptop

For admins and techs..

Looks perfect. I'd prefer windows or OS X to linux (more au fait with both of them) but something that's enough to run diagnostics in the field or just check network points are behaving etc looks good. Wonder if I could squeeze win2k onto it (I know XP would be pushing it).

Virgin Media taps Microsoft in lengthy email outage

VM?

I won't be on them much longer - moving to Hull (work) and the soddin monopoloy (even though they get arsey when you tell them it constitutes one) of Kingston Communications. I rely on gmail anyway.

Paris cos they say they aren't obstructing competition in the area, but by use of strange hardware and high wholesale price they are.

Hitachi hypes 'world's most capacious' laptop hard drive

@ Wow

Slam it in a USB2 enclosure and you could probably plug into into an unmanned PC at HRMC - or ask a junior to do it for you, and blag that you could get him sacked for refusing to co-operate..

Vista sets 2007 land-speed record for copying and deleting

@ Edward Miles

I've been thinking about this recently - whenever I get queries about Vista, I'm having to tell them I've only used it a handful of times. I'd put Vista on my next machine purely so I have a copy of it running I can get to grips with, however I like my main machine to be stable and be low maintenance - XP Pro SP2 is just that, so think I'll wait a while before touching vista at my house.

To be fair, when I was installing a wireless network at a client's house last week Vista picked up the Netgear USB dongle, asked for the driver CD then did the installation painlessly once I'd OKed the driver it didn't pester again. Took a couple of minutes to find the wireless config screen though.

Dell's laptop customisation options not very customisable

Generic dell point...

I've spent a company I consult for's money 3 times in a year and a bit on Dells - 1 new Dimension (I forget the number) and 2 Optiplex GX260s (one was a larger case than the other mind, but both came off ebay). All 3 worked fine out the box, and, presumably as the new spec one last year was a basic spec, it arrived 2 days after ordering! Never had a problem with them, and my dad's old OLD Dell laptop (that no longer boots, not had a chance for a year or so to check why) that was bought in 1997 or something crazy like that (it was when a machine with 144Mb of RAM, NT4 and 266Mhz was an extreme spec), survived til end of my 2nd/3rd year of uni with no faults. I agree Dell's technical support people in India are useless, but then again as I know what I'm talking about I generally ignore any bull**** of theirs I disagree with and demand to speak to a supervisor (who tends to get on and accept I might know better than a lot of their staff). Same with PC world - all I get is useless advise from most of their staff, so only go there knowing what I want from the getgo (and when I've ordered it online first to get it a bit cheaper, if I really can't wait for dabs to deliver something I need).

Laughing Squid squirts ink at Best Buy

@ Previous comment

Err you would be spotted when you actually:

a) knew what you were talking about

b) didn't try selling a customer something that didn't really suit their needs

c) if you got beyond that, the fact you'd ward them off their insurance!

Mind you, laptop's I'd think twice about rejecting insurance on as they're a pain to fix (unless you don't mind rushing out to maplin as a friend of mine did when needing to change the hard drive in his ibook :D)

PC World parent awaits FTSE 100 relegation

@ Lee Dowling

Having worked in a school IT department (and been chummy with the IT team at my senior school, as well as at my uni), I know that a common procedure when acquiring new hardware is to get however many you need of PCs/laptops all with identical spec, create a disk image on one (ignoring what ever cack/uncack was on there in the first place and using your trusty XP CD with the company's company-wide license key) then upload that image to the other machines.

Only concern might be checking what components are included to make sure you can get XP drivers for them, but I'd imagine most Vista-drivered parts are XP-drivered.

I nearly used the paris icon as it has a question mark in, but thought that would be insulting as no IT bod I know has a kind word to say about her so might feel insulted :)