Posts by Nick Woodson

Windows 7 early promise: Passes the Vista test

Be Serious

Jesus, Allah and Moses.....a Dell XPS? I have a fleet of barely year-old GX745s in my hospital that won't run Vista......you have gotta be kidding with that test.

What I get from this is that it's great for a consumer looking for a Linux-like or Mac-like user experience that is still Microsoft. For those of us in enterprise-land.....where's the benefit? Reduced TCO? Improved reliability? How about the ability to NOT have to have most of our apps rewritten.....at our expense? Even if the OS is ACTUALLY improved...someone explain what's in it for me?

It looks like we're either going to have to scare up the cash for a lot of new software or stick to the Win2k (God help me)/WinXP mixed environment we have and finish the move (yes....we're behind the times as it is) to XP desktops. Civil service bites......tax increases anyone? Gotta pay Billy G.

North Carolina will pay IBM $750,000 for 10 jobs

Not really....

I live in Pennsylvania. Yup...Big Steel moved their operations to overseas facilities and the region lost the tax revenue that went with it. Since then, the incentives, moratoria and abatements that have been given to companies (VW, SONY, Bayer and a number of foreign companies come to mind) have had a net loss effect on the region. The number of PERMANENT jobs has decreased, tax revenues have all but dried up and the politics continue.

When I was young (in the 70s) a lot of businesses moved production from up here to the South (Union Switch and Signal and Alcoa come to mind quickly). That hasn't been recovered from either so unless mathematics has changed with the times, lost taxes are just lost unless there's a long-term replacement.

The strong economy arguement hasn't been borne out thus far in most ex-industrial regions so here's to hoping things changing.

US air force chiefs sacked in robot-armada brouhaha

Disband the USAF?

Why on earth would we do that? We've already spent so much money on all of their pet projects...most of which were at the expense of land forces...that it's worth it just for the "shock and awe".

Gee, if we did recall history I think that there was this thing called the U.S. Army Air Corps before the Air Farce.

AMD cries foul over Intel's 'river of cash' flowing to Dell

What year is this?

I thought that this battle...or one just like it...was fought about 10 years ago. The only difference that I can see is that the other one was a codebase issue... Anti-competitive behavior seems to be the rule rather than the exception in this industry.

OLPC and Microsoft punt Windows-only XO laptop

.....And again from an American.......

This is a blog from over here http://tinyurl.com/6y6cno . We definitely have similiar views on this debacle. I just feel bad for anyone who actually thought that there might be a little integrity in the world.

Yahoo? We don't need no stinkin' Yahoo!

Billy's right

They don't need Yahoo. They have the best and quickest browser, the most efficient search technology, most profiatble advertising strategy and most talented, open-minded management team. Why would they need those open-source hippees and hooligans from Yahoo? Seems to me the world is better off not seeing that match made in boardroom purgatory.

Japan to tax MP3 players

Could we be serious?

The copyright holders? Aren't they usually big music companies? Somebody explain to me where the artists actually get remunerated? I kind of thought that was where this debate originated.

NASA ditches Itanic for new Xeon-based SGI giant

Whiz - bang - thud

...and then Steve Balmer skulks in and loads Server 2k8 on it and performance increases exponentially.......

Pain ray really killer ray gun, many goats dead, says 'expert'

Good One!

Annie Get Your Goat......

Palm 'innovative Wi-FI device' invite points to Foleo revamp?

Now I'm depressed....

I was looking forward to ditching me E2 in favor of something with a little more kick.....and they let me down. Now they need to un-ass the plans and get a product to market. While they're at it they need to abandon PalmOS and fix a linux distro that will run FOSS apps.

Predator kill-machine pilots suffering 'chronic burnout'

Okay....fine......

I was in the US Army in the 80s when we had ammunition, fuel and parts shortages. One of the solutions to the ammo problem was to introduce firing range simulators. One was a somewhat large-ish electro-mechanical unit similar to a pinball machine (God I'm old!) and the other was based on the venerable N64....kind of like the old Duck Hunt with human silhouettes. We've been trying to automate training/combat for decades. As always, we have to wait for the next generation of soldiers to come up for the tech to be refined and made effective. Sad, but that's the way it is.

IBM hopes to patent 'dealing with chaos'

Are they serious?

What did they do...look at the Department of Defense's incident response framework and add pretend cash value concepts? If they get a patent out of this that will tell us everything we need to know about IP and the fallacy thereof.

Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?

Billy's right

I have a lot of respect for the man as an artist and I believe that he has a right to is belief. Let's face it...there are tons of songwriters, performers and arrangers who have to fight to get their fair share of their own creations. The sad reality is that it's similar Microsoft trying to co-opt FOSS so that they can get money from someone else's work.

Artists deserve the lion's share of the proceeds of their creations. It’s funny how people argue that it shouldn't be that way. The investment argument is great for "the capitalist", but does squat for the artist. All of the RIAA suits that have succeeded have made money for the record labels, but how much did the artists really get. The IP argument sucks because ASCAP, BMI, etc. manage to somehow restrict the rights of the artist/composer/arranger (I'm not a lawyer, but it's still true) in favor of the producers/promoters and "copyright holders" (read: patent trolls).

Capitalism by definition is predatory…and nobody likes a predator with an unfair advantage. If we’re serious (which I don’t believe we are) we need to press for new equity laws rather than beating the dead horse of music downloads.

Guitar maker Gibson thrashes out more robo-axes

Whiz - bang - thud

It's one of those good idea/bad idea things. Yes, it takes away a little musicianship.....but it helps folks like me (no, I don't plan on one) who never had a truly good ear and am suffering some hearing loss.

Besides synt guitars have been around 30+ years...this was a question of time and inclination.

Comcast acquires BitTorrent for $53bn

1 Apr 08.......

A gag that will live in infamy!........

NASA reveals Moon's rugged south pole

.....And again from an American.......

There's no need to ask how low anything is.......never as low as a NASA bureaucrat’s belly............

Gates! says! Yahoo! offer! fair!

..."It's our interweb".....

....And everything we do is fair and community-driven!

Overheard at a secret Microsoft meeting........

Consumer group slams 'unfair' software licenses

In the Greatest of Democracies........

You, the peasant, are the willing contributor to the coffers of the corporate feudal lords.

1) You WILL follow the rules or bend over and take it like a man.

2) You WILL like, promote and use exactly what you are forced to use in the exact condition it was forced upon you.

3) You WILL like it, embrace it and perpetuate it at the risk of legal action which you can not afford to fight.

4) You WILL NOT complain about, attempt to oppose or otherwise denegrate said product/institution at risk of prosecution for treason.

In the event that you fail/refuse to heed the above, men in dark, ill-fitting suits and Gargoyles (TM) will appear at your home/place of work/local brothel or wherever you may be and pummel you into conformity......and you're gonna like it.

Thank you for attempting to use OUR product.

EU investigates Microsoft's OOXML campaign

Not in this lifetime.......

Somebody help me out here. I thought that standards were something that MUST be implemented, adhered to readily available for review in their entirety. Proprietary, semi-closed implementations like OOXML shouldn't qualify just because of the money involved in their development/ownership. It's another example of "embrace, extend, extinguish" disguised as a tactical "fair play".

Frankly, it's up to you folks in Europe and Asia to do something about MS because our government won't enforce existing laws let alone getting involved in technical standards battles.

SCO details bleak future

Wheeeeee!!!!!!!

One less patent troll....one less FOSS obstacle.....one less bunch of wankers to deal with.....

Now if only someone could deal with Microsoft we'd all be set.

'Crash tested' e-voting machines spread doubt on Super Tuesday

@Tim Coughlin E-voting

I live in Allegheny County (PA) and can basically say the same thing......but being to sort of close Ohio I get some of their news. Their political bosses seem to have some interest in keeping things working badly (or well if you happen to be a Republican). Oh wait....isn't Diebold an Ohio company? Gee, wonder what accounts for Florida?

.....Meanwile back in the states.......again

Fuck me runnin'!!!! The whole point of changing the system is to pad tech businesses bottom line and let Cheyney, Dick's snoops "observe, revise and extinguish" the opposition.

It worked in 2000 and 2004.............

Scientists warn on climatic 'tipping points'

.....And now a word from an Ugly American

I'd greatly appreciate it if the Brits in the audience would separate the general population from our "leaders". Almost everyone has disavowed the current leadership (anyone with any sense) and I believe that the average American would agree that the current state of environmental affairs is, at best, potentially unhealthy. If you're informed regarding our "problem child" you'll no doubt be aware that many NASA reports were tampered with because they didn't promote the right politcal agenda, thus resulting in a number of high-profile firings after exposure. In fairness, it depends on who was in charge of some of the studies over here as to their validity.

That being said, we pretty much agree that the earth goes through natural cycles that still aren't totally understood, but the fact remains that damage done during the Industrial Age is becoming a measurable factor. Let's dispense with the hubris and get down to the work of cleaning house. We can't control natural cycles, but it's irresponsible to not at least attempt to control our own behavior...and for God's sake clean up or send the species to its grave without pudding!

Healthy? You're a burden on the state

This is hilarious!

I work at a state-run mental health facility. The focus in the public sector is to reduce/eliminate government involvement in health care. [Obviously I'm in the U.S.]

Let's face facts....sick people cost money. The choices are 1) pay for their care with tax money or 2) make them take their chances in the for-profit environment of the private medical sector. Either way, if you're not able to self-pay, the risk of staying sick or dying due to insufficient care is quite high. In the case of mental health, it's literally as simple as declaring somebody cured (I've seen it done). It's a little harder with a cancer, heart or liver patient. You simply tell them that their insurance is no longer in force and to go away. In any event, the patient is done a disservice. In the end, though, it really doesn't matter. Please note that the actuaries, accountants and attorneys are in control (as is evidenced here by cash values being placed on care costs and stated as the most important issue). The impression we should be left with is that health care is too costly at any price and costs transferred elsewhere....anywhere but here.

Pentagon pundits demand sensible raygun research

Very interesting......

....but stupid.

The US DoD has been focusing on little things like power supplies and output instead of the materials to make it possible. Accountant and marketing-driven engineering will be the unemployment of us all.

Shell IT staff disgusted at mega profits

.....Meanwile back in the states.......

If it weren't for multi-millionaire CEOs and crooked, insensitive business deals the politicos wouldn't have jobs. Menial laborers like engineers, programmers, DBAs, etc are a dime a dozen......oh, wait.....I could sewar that was the last quote on the commodities exchange........

Anyhow more power to their union.....private sector IT workers over here generally aren't even "allowed" to unionize. Really doesn't matter.....their jobs get sent overseas anyhow.

How to speed up Windows Vista: official and unofficial tips

Seriously?

If those are the only solutions for poor performance that are offered then I really fail to see what the point is in using Vista. Any superfluous programs are good candidates for removal/disabling, controlling the number of running processes is a good idea even for XP and running fewer programs simultaneously is common sense for RAM management. I thought that the eye-candy was one of the big selling points and if maxing out memory is a must then what's the point? All of those things are either routine maintenance or operations issues.

I use several different linux distros (Ubuntu, Fedora and PCLinux) and don't have the defrag issues (except over protracted periods of time), the GUI eye candy isn't that resource intesive with Compiz-Beryl and the indexing functions aren't either. What makes Vista so slow is plain poor memory and process management. There's no real excuse to require 3-4 GB of memory just to get a machine to perform unless you're doing something like video editing or high-performance gaming. Even audio editing with Audacity isn't that difficult. Hopefully, Windows 7 will mark a return to rational, manageable computing.