Posts by Mike Groombridge

The safest place to save your files is somewhere nobody will ever look

Way more common than it should be

back in my Hell desk days this was way more common than i care to admit.

even with users who knew better when i asked why. i generalling got a knowing wink and i'm hiding them from my (PA/ staff / n e other) as it contains confidental information she/he/they won't think to look there.

they all had home drives i even offered separate private network shares but "my "pa/staff/n e other" has my password/needs access to everything else.

great until 3 months later when i got a call if there was a way to recover from an emptied recycle bin. Finance manager deleted budgets cue sending the disk for recovery. and the creation of a senior manager share.

Migrating an Exchange Server to the Cloud? What could possibly go wrong?

i am clearly using the wrong back-up software, i've had back-up tools that wouldn't work without full domain admin rights especially going cross domain.or work group to domain or backing up AD itself for that matter.

before some one asks we use enhanced security to Lock down(mfa, restrict RDP etc) any servers that use a full domain admin service account and the passwords for them are long complex and stored in a password vault with mfa.

better question is don't they have a back-up admin account without exchange rights for this sort of thing Or use a secondary accounts for admin rights.yes a pain for the Admin but better from a security prospective (and some creative scripting can minimise the pain)

personally don't get with more companies don't use hybrid mode and migrate straight from onprem into O365 sure you have to keep a small exchange box for Ad Sync but that's a free license (i heard that some even put it on a domain controller but that's not Ideal).

Motorola Z² Force: This one's for the butterfingered Android lovers

Re: I have one and am really impressed

I thought i said in the first Post it's a JPL speaker (with built in stand) at 3400mha battery pack. and last and definitely least a Gaming pad.

not used them in anger yet but the speaker can seemingly be charger seprately to save battery phone battery life (atleast i assume that's the reason for the USB C port on the back )

one point i forget is it has no head phone jack but come with a USB to head phone adaptor which was annoying at first.

I have one and am really impressed

I have just renewed my Vodafone contract and got the Z2 force as part of my renewal with 3 mods. £35 contract for 24 months nothing down on the phone. and so far I'm pretty impressed generally it lasts me from 9 am when I leave for work though to about 7pm the following day of regular use (couple of you tube videos a few games and a lot of browsing/pinterest/twitter use.)

but heavy use will mean you get less than a day. easy example I used it to listen to Spotify in the gym for about 75 minutes yesterday and it went from 20% to 9%. that being said I found the same with my old iPhone and the s5 I have for work.

it's wired have the default plastic cover that makes the phone thicker but is just there to protect the contacts for the mods but you get used to it. not used my mods in anger yet as I not had need (have the speaker , battery pack and game pad) but the battery pack basically doubles the width of the phone - default. so it's still pretty thin.

unfortunately the scratch issue is true and I got one about 2 days after I got the phone when I stupidly dropped my keys into the same gym bag pocket. doesn't show as badly as some reviews say (mines pretty much the length of the phone but only shows when the screens off) but still getting a protector now.

FBI says it can't unlock 8,000 encrypted devices, demands backdoors for America's 'public safety'

Re: wait a moment

you analogy is a little faulty

lets take the 3 aspects your talking about

1. law enforcement

2. the people

3. the aliens

1. law enforcement - you assuming your invisible aliens aren't in the room temptering with the equipment doing the decrypt and changing the results and that all involved are honest and truth worthy.

2. the people - if the good honest citizens had information that would help would surely provide there decryption keys and provide that information. that none have decided to throw there lot in with the aliens,

3. the aliens if the encrypted data is on the aliens encrypt device they aren't going to provide the details to get that information you would have to steal it (oh no stealing is bad) or rely on an alien throwing his lot in with the humans

lets go back to reality we still have law enforcement the people and but instead of aliens we have negative actors (a catch all for terrorist, crims ,and other bad people) problem is that negative actors are a subset of the people not an external force as with the alien example.

1. law enforcement - encrypted phones can have information that's vital to stopping negative actors.

2. the people - ok i'll willingly decrypt my phone for you

3. negative actors - er no i'll use those this different encryption software that you can't decrypt.

again still no useful information is gained from the majority sharing there data

now again you have to assume that all of 1. are good and above rebuke and can secure there own systems, and that they don't have any of 3. inside that system. and that all of 2. trust 1. to always act in there best interest

Parisian cabbies smash up Uber-booked rival ride

As i've worked in this industry in the UK

my dads a cab driver and has owned and operated two cab firms in my life time. i' know abit about this. (since i've worked the radios taken calls helped repair cars and prepped them for council tests and now in my later live designed websites and booking/quotation systems for these his companies)

i can tell you that in essex at least cabs and private hire cars do the same tests and are regulated (i.e. if a drive takes the scenic route you can request his cab license number/car plate number a report him.)

the cars are tested regularly on top of the mot to make sure that they are safe and are in working order and they own of the firm can be held liable for a dangerous car in there fleet.

the drivers have to take health and safe courses so they know how to treat disabled ,elderly and children (some cab firms now have there drivers crb checked before employment. but i'm not sure this is law. )

failure to obey these rules means they can't drive cabs/private hire cars any more and if a firm hires that driver they can be shut down.

Now yes there are those that flout the rules and the forces of completion do some times apply but often they don't because people think it's just a cab they won't do anything and those that flout the rules are the cheapest because it's the only way they stay in business is people who care out cost of the driver being on time and the car being respectable.

As for how this pertains to this article. while I'm happy for private hire cars to exist they should be licensed to the same or similar standard a Cabs with he same accountancy

Although not knowing the rules in France these these not a lot i can say about there level of rules.

FIA to oversee first e-car 'grand prix' series

hmmm

now is the joy of racing in the watching some one go fast and overtaking etc or the whole experience the sounds and smell of the engine. as a vetern of several beer and meat fueled F1 Grand prix home(Yes woo back to Silverstone this year... Sorry) and abroad i got to say i'd miss the noise of those engines .

but you may make a nice support race for a bigger series touring cars etc hope there do one of the demos at the grand prix by interesting to compare to someing like the bmw's or porsche super cup.

or even the genettas with the touring cars.

Google and Murdoch - a divorce made in heaven?

looks like some one beat murdoch to the punch

don'r know if this is old news but it's on the bbc today that " The Johnston Press websites will either ask users to pay £5 for a three-month subscription to read the full articles, or direct them to buy the newspapers. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8385342.stm

don't know if you want to make a festure of it but i couldn't find the email a story link thingy (it's monday morning my brain doesn't start working till11:30 at the earliest) but makes a good comment any way (if a little late )

Windows 7 gets built in XP mode

havn't they done this before

Right maybe i read this wrong but i assumed they meant it a run the APPLICATIONS in a Virtualised environment not just run a xp vm on your windows 7 machine

you know like Xen App Streaming or microsoft V-app or VM wares product (VDI is it).

plus mickeysoft have done this or at least similar before with 95 they was a way of making command prompt act more like full dos (or was it in 98) as the cmd wouldn't run some apps without it. surely this is just the modern equivalent.

putting aside the compatiblity issues the machines i have used with vista have been pretty good the most annoying feature and biggest problem was the access control crap once i'd disabled it the machine worked ok (all right it was a brand new machine and the change in admin tools was annoying but once connected to the network it was fine)

it's only the compatibility issues that have prevented us from upgrading

(sorry to stop the microsoft hate fest)

Revealed: Mega City One's top e-car - according to Peugeot

@Tanuki

looks like a fish , moves like a fish, steers like a cow

I love that quote what's with all the hitch hikers quotes recently or am just noticing it more as i have all the radio plays on the computer now.

as for the car bike thing very stylish not very pratical where's my boot for the shopping.

Bacon sarnies cure hangovers: Official

not bacon but...

we once convinced are veggie friend that it was ok to eat chicken (we were drunk) on the grounds that the reason everything tastes like chicken. is that it's 90% universe (all that missing matter in the universe = chickens) with 10% feathers beak etc which you don't eat he was eating chicken wings that night like there were going out of fashion. he still eats chickens but no red meat.

I shall now terment any veggies with bacon sandwiches any chance i can get.

Terry Pratchett cuts ribbon on Treacle Mine Road

well we in essex already had tracle mine roundabout

I love the discworld books ready them all and good omens too.

i second the call for a Dagon Street. just so i could have go watch watch what happened, but where are you going to find a street with a former fish god temple we can rename so you can build your fish bar on. (of ourse all the owner left behind was kdiney and a earlobe but i'm sure an igor can find a use for them )

I think the Agony Aunts, Sadie and Dotsie would fit right in in some regions of essex, infact they would probable bring the crime right down and i met lots of blokes who could be C.M.O.T dibbler of for that matter any of his relations on many a essex market. (my favourite is Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala) i could make some joke about essex Librarians at this point... but i'll just get my coat it's the one with the banana in the pocket

US mums sue anti-sexting crusader

@Two different things going on here

Fair enough a child can't give consent but lets use some consense here i often think there should be a sliding scale applied by age (or possible IQ ) to use the uk as an example sexual consent is 16 but to star in porn is 18.

if i catch my 17 year old daughter texting her boyfriend half or naked pictures i'd probable except it (provided i liked the boy but in this case we will assume i do ) a they could be having sex anyway and be i'd trust i brought her up right and shes not stupid

if i caught my 15 year old daughter sending it to a boyfriend who was 15-17 i'd speak to her try not to be annoied and make sure it was her choice to take it and who got was her choice i'd warn her of the dangers of the pictures getting out and make sure she was happy

if i caught my 13 year old daughter send these pictures to any one that person recieving the pictures life would end either in prison or by me

but hey i'm relatively open minded as my family have always be open and honest about sex.

i know this the above only really applys to the UK and i suppose if the people getting the pictures were alot older 5+ years than my daughter at any age i'd investigate more

but in this case the photos don't appear to have been sent and was when the girls are with each other having fun

basically the DA is a Giant cock and while some education may be in order for the girls (inform of a gentle talking to by understanding parents (general mothers) if i was the DA i'd be investigating the school for invasion of privacy and child porn charges (after all they went into the phone to look at the pictures of the girls)

'Gv up txt 4 Lent,' urges bishop

Great Idea

I would love to do this can preists sign you off work like doctors can

Dear sir

i am signing your systems engineers off for 46 during lent

jesus be with you

regards

(some priest )

sure my boss and the company would love that

Teen sacked for 'boring' job Facebook comment

@Sarah Bee

Yeah but most of ours must be as we spend so much time posting on The Register.

personally i enjoy my job and have finished my day so can safely post here with out reprisal.

Satellites crash over Siberia: Iridium bird destroyed

@A Response...

"There are NO stupid questions..Only stupid answers."

not ture

there are no stupid questions as long as the quest for knowledge is genunine.

the chav on the street asking you if thats your car as you get out of it is in effect a stupid question as they don't really want to know they just want to be nosey,

where as the question being asked here is clearly in a quest for knowledge therefore not stupid.

but your right about the stupid answers. there are far to many of them about

i don't do the conspiracy theories really i think it was probably a cock-up

the DOD may track thousands of objects in space but do they control the satelletes in question probably not it's most likely controlled be a 3rd party company or another department so by the time they woke the guy with the password that lets them move it bam one less satellite in the comm network and one less ex russian sat.

Apple rethinks battery bondage

Sound like arse covering to me

apple ae probable coving their arse in cause the EU passes the law meaning all electronic devices must have removable power cells they will probable go back to the old days of batteries not included so

you buy ipod for £150(batteries not included) and buy a battery £50

Internet to Obama: 'Pass the joint'

@Suburban Inmate

been there done that and with the fell asleep group knew lots of users during My uni days (3 years ago) and still know 4 or 5 users (and a couple of growers) and they only use at the weekend as they know it means they get fuck all done while stoned so leave it for when they have nothing to do. those who are now married or have kids have now stopped cause they can't aford to be out of it on the sofa while they kids kill themselves.

i have no trouble with the use but i think the arguement that it's better then achohol is invalid as is the if your not willing to try it you don't get a say argument.

i've seen stoned people act just as stupidly and violent stoned as i have people have when people are drunk. and i don't need to go and jump off a cliff to know it's dangrous.

at best you could argue that it's treated like achohol sold to over 18's only and taxed in the same way then let's watch every one stop using it and move to the harder stuff when the legal pot costs 3 times the amount.

Mac mini said to get Ion innards

oh well no mini for me

was doing to buy one as a toy as to play with but now i won't was waiting for the new one before deciding will be an xbox instead (now thats an pair an Xbox or a mac mini hmm)

or maybe a new laptop. oh well

LibDem cheeky boy rides to Segway's rescue

@Sam

i've seen the cheeky's live on the club tour and the other one was better looking plus lembit gave Gabriela manic depression which is why they broke up.

i heard they were going to relaunch there career as a ironic goth rock group (still called the cheeky girls that being the irony ) to suit her new outlook on life

Mom stole daughter's ID to shake pom-poms

@Jared Earle

didn't amy turn herself into a rat and get stuck like that ? (off topic i know)

Apple prices MacBook Pro battery surgery

Re:@ jeremy by David Kelly

to answer your question no i don't mind changing my break pads they to me crashing and dieing i would be abit pissed in i had to change my fuel tank every 3 to5 years. which would be a better comparson.

in my experience of laptop batteries the claims never pan out. i mean it's not like they have been testing it for 8 years so can say that they have done it. ( i support a couple hundred laptop users at the moment so had a lot of batteries come back most needlessly)

for those who use windows and moan about battery life a good trick i have learned is as dodgey as it sounds to turn off all the powr management and let the battery run completely flat and recharge to max turn power management back on. for some reason it seems most powermanagement software loses the 100 percent level over time and it only gets reset when the laptop battery is on 0 then recharged i got about 45 mins back on this laptop HP 6320 that way but it's still down on it's 2and a half hours promised for it's life time (3yrs) it's about 2 at a year and a half

Chrysler turns on Circuit at Detroit Motor Show

Bah where's my hydrogen car

I'm sorry i agree with topgear on this hydrogen fuel cells are the way to go here oil/petrol station companies will fight this to the end but if you give then some other form of business they can change to it'll help them and they will back it

plus range/recharge issues go away at this point as hydrogen can be refueled in a simalar way to natural gas cars. so some petrol stations already have the kit. so no recharing it at work /increased drain on national grid etc etc

yes iknow there is the whole storing hydrogen problem and the producing it to but some one will get that down sooner or later

hmm maybe a combination of hydrogen long hual vechiles and battery cars for every one else. may work.

mines the one with the honda clarity brochure in the pocket

New York judge OKs Amazon Tax

@simple

Not really as every one would then be forced to shop from REAL shops and spend they money in state hence more money for the state government. see the problem here.

now i sorry i fail to see the problem. surely this is just the equivilent of VAT in the UK . just set on the state instead of the national level. and i expect to pay VAT no matter were i buy online or not thems the rules.

as my tax advisor friend says to me every few days the government will get it's slice of cake some how and generally it tries to get 3 or 4 slices.

UFO wind turbine prang site sealed

It was Thor

He never could fly straight that boy ah well looks like he finished counting the pebbles on that beach wonder if he has learned to use a phone yet ?

I don't expect any one to get what i'm going on about but if any Douglas Adams fans. do well done treat yourself to a cup of tea

McKinnon lawyers push for UK trial

@Sarah Bee

Sarah ,Some people are just bat shit crazy and take things really personally in this case i think they all work in IT security

I do think he should be sent to the US though put in a nice minimum security prison where they will put him to work hacking russia, china, etc etc.

would love to see the reciept for the $700'00 that what 7000 copies of symantec end point security :-) if that's all they spend on security for all there systems then i'm surprised people aren't in and out all day

Happy smilie as i'm in a good mood depite or maybe because i only got 4 hours sleep

Is the UK.gov IT gravy train heading for the buffers?

don't worry

I'm sure that they have they own mad ideas about IT projects is the tories get in

seeing what they have done so far to get dave "down wid dda kids"

i'm waiting for Facegov think political face book but in stead of groups about football and pokes etc . It'll be what do you think are policy should be vote now ( we don't know ourselves we just made some vague promises and got in now we don't know what to do) .

as they say the more things change the more they stay the same.

'Sonic boom' golf club may 'damage hearing'

more interested in a complete study

I rarely hit my driver (wouldn't have one if it wasn't a gift) i get similar distance and more control with my 3 wood.(although i'll pass this article on to my dad as he uses his all the time)

i'd be interested in a study on all clubs and the different type of shafts.

just to see how deaf my hobby will make me. also maybe they should study a pros hearing over a year as they hit thousands of balls a week on the range and on courses

Microsoft and Apple: 25 years of couples therapy

@word 6

No i don't i as microsoft would be privateers (a ship of soliders that were licensed by one government to be priratical against another governments ships) i believe that would be the best bastardised analogiue for it considering what pirates actually means.

Zavvi goes titsup

can i just point out

that i like buying in shop instead of online at a guess 85% of my purchases are spur of the moment generally books and dvds or games. i go into hmv or waterstones look round read a few backs of covers then buy on impulse. (personally i want waterstones to survive i like the fact that they incourage staff to read the backs and write reviews and recommmendations i spend so much time in my local one i now know the staff and let them pick stuff for me.)

point is when i buy something i buy it cause i want it now play it now read it now watch it now. for that i need a shop yeah internet shoppings cool for christmas/ birthday presents or if you need something unique or hard to get hold of but me i like seeing what i'm buying before it arrives.

plus i like some one to yell at when i buy a dvd boxset for my mum and one of the dvds has the wrong show on it instead of being told there was nothing the company could do this actually happened the dvd had been printed on as some detective show (for get what now but had raw hide burned to it) they told us we must be mistaken and wouldn't take it back.

Walmart's Jesus Phone no better, no worse

dear el reg

Please turn down the volume of anti iphone/Apple articles it's getting rediculous

i don't have one and don't want one have played with a few but the tied in contracts to much for personal calls (plus i perfer vodafone) and i have a work smart phone for internet access and email so getting ones pointless. but i don't need to hear about every little thing that happens with them this article could have simply been

walmart start selling iphones not as cheap as believed will subsidaries start selling it (asda)

and thats all. the moaning about rumours that aren't ture (well durrr thats why the are rumours) was unnecessary

if it was a discussion on the social/political aspects of the elite smug i have an iphone i'm so cool (yes they do exsist if you have an iphone and you think i don't know any one whose scug about owning am iphone thats cause it's you) now that the huddled masses can get them more easily though a mass distribution system (and how this will dilute apples brand images or elite and cool) well that may have been insightful (it will clearly lose it's social status if every one has one and something else we have to take it's place, the problem for apple is will the over popularity. )

for balance i got my first apple product recently it was a second hand 2 gig nano i now keep in my work laptop bag to hide the noise of 2000+ servers when working in the company datacentre. it was given to me when my friend got himself a iphone 3g which is used maining to check the footie scores and fantasy stats while in the pub on the weekend.

any way point is more tech news/social poliitical commentary less ranting cause you didn't get a jesus phone for christmas.

thanks

It's Sadville: The Movie!

IMover

Is that the Apple funded remake ?

Battlestar Galactica prequel shuns space, spaceships

@what are you guys on?

get where your coming from but remember ds9 only got good around way of the warrior then the battles started

as for caprica i could be good but only if the humanesque cylons are agovernment secert which is why no one knows about them. anyway the first serie should finish with the first cylon act of revolt the second should build to the war and 3rd be the war 4th aftermath adn rebuilding (possible human civil war, secertly started by the human cylons before there run off then its are cover up be the families mafia style.

if that's the plot i'll take 100'000 pound per series please.

Bittorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers

i hate people spout ing off when they don't know

User Datagram Protocol was orginally designed to be a connectionless protocol period it wasn't designed to work with any service really as there was sod all services for it to work with.

if become clear as network applications where advanced that connectionless protocols didn't work without error checking.

Transmission Control Protocol was created to be a universal connection based protocol with error checking and if used with IPv4 or IPV6 Tcp if little different remembering that IP is it's own protocal and not part of tcp.

it just so happens that UDP being connectionless lends itself to Voice and Video and Real time data as if you lose a packet it doesn't matter.

while tcp lends if self to file transfer etc as you don't want to miss half your web page of file cause the packets got lost.

people can correct me if i'm wrong but thats what i was taught at university so include evidence to back it up

now personally i hate bit torrent etc as used to use them and after tring to download anime of a show not shown in the uk and actually getting me something that would get me done for extreme porn on a few occasions i gave it up

but i really hate people spouting off on things when they don't know

if we move to a pay as you go internet rate i want a pay raise as i do on call as part of the network and infrastucture team so put in alot of internet usage with rdp and telnet sessions

that can't be avoided so what am i meant to do ?

NYT scribe: No bailout for Tesla-buying 'centimillionaires*'

Confused

Is el Reg in support of tesla in this one. normally you seem against them.

personal if the US won't back them lets invite tesla to the uk to build his "affordable car" don't get me wrong i'm a petrol head i go to the grand prix and the sound of a v8 engine it beatiful . and if i had 150'00 grand i'd by down aston martin like a shot to get me some of that beauty not to mention that servicing an engine can be quite focusing and relaxing.

but on the other hand i have two 35 minute drives a day and my top speed of about 65 most days 70 on good day if i had a cheap electric car i could do that in then fine i'd save my petrol aston for the weekends or long drives

not to mention it would create jobs that we need right now.

i now expect to be most hated man here for suggesting an electric car could be a good thing

Satanic net neologisms - nominations invited

roots of the evil the meaninf

pwnage - comes from first per shooters where owned was used alot because stopping to type can mean your death you used to get all sorts of opwned pwn opwen varifations the most common was pwned though and it was sort of semi adopted (personalyy i only ever saw it a few times. but thanks to the migration of people from FPS to WOW it's been adopted be the tits playing that now (not helped by web comics etc using it )

LOL- laugh out loud i understand

ROFL - roll on floor laughing i unstand

ROFLCOPTER - was a helicopter game where everything was made from the word* "ROFL" hate it don't unstand why it's been adopted

LUL - what the F&^K does that mean

!!!!1!one etc - ok i get where it comes from but adding the word one if makes you a fool

M8 - keep text speak for text's are

J00 - means you but it's just stupid

L33t- since leet isn't a word. i guess the mean lite or elite so shouldn't it be 3l1t3 or 3l33t

2.0 - surely really we are on v4 of the internet of V1.3.984 or something for service packs and revisions?

i could go on but i'm bored you can have the rest but let me keep LOL cause otherwise lolcats would make no sense

http://icanhazcheezburger.com (ithink just google lolcats)

*loosest possible use of the term

oh one more cum instead of come purely as i learnt the cum spelling as having a totally different meaning and when my ex used to text me cum over and see me i turned up expecting a totally different night to the one i got.

NASA orbiter reveals buried Martian glaciers

forgiven me if i'm worng but..

didn't the japan prepose sending a nuclear reactor to mars. polar cap to melt it just to see what would happen if it would do the total recall oxygenise the atmosphere job

was the theory defunct or what. get those arses in gear and send up those nukes if it didn't. work well its not our world if it works we can invade :-)

@ Nagyeger -cool music was by jeff wayne they need to do a rock version nowadays though.

Selfish worm targets month-old Windows flaw

@the thing is

good god no

"The only solution is a computer licence, and quite frankly if you cannot write your own driver code, reverse engineer applications, you have no business being on the net - oh I can dream :)"

most of them are worse than the chav argueing on face book. cause coders are so smug all the time. i do think there should be layers to the internet with chavbook and other social sites should be on the bottom with wikipedia. then a layer with shopping sites athen progressive high for the more meaning ful and intelligent (elreg of course at the top) and you'd have to pass some sort of test to prove you deserve access to that layer.

Jamming convicts' mobiles works

i'm sure this is old tech

my college jammed all mobiles in are computer suite for about a year until some (tit) one complained. the commputer suite was meant to be a quiet ( as quiet as 200 pc's can be ) so no phones any way but because it extended two metres beyond the door he moaned and they turned it off the irony being he started making calls from the computer room and so they confiscated his phone and locked him out of the computers for 2 weeks as the rules allowed and you try being a computing student when you can't log onto the computer

PETA cooks up gory game in Cooking Mama protest

never Done turkey but have did a chicken in scouts

PETA realism is every thing you should of got a consaltant cook in there would have told you

a. blood on your cooking implements after not before as they harbour germs. eveything would have been spot lessly clean before starting.

b. personally i'm have prepared the stuffing first before the chicken just personal choice gives less time for draining as the "juices" in the chicken improves the taste of the stuffing.

c. you don't dump the egg shells in the bowl too. just the yolk and white

d. these not much blood when i plucked the chicken i went with the grain and there was little to no blood.

e. you remove all the organs in one go (well i did anyway.) and you keep them to make soup or stock or something. ( afriend puts it in her compost heap which she then spreads in her veggie patch )

f. head removal one word clever takes one blow. (and you forgot removing the legs)

when i was younger i didn't know whether to work in IT or to be a chef decided i didn't wanna work christmas so went into IT. if really was last minute decision on college enrollment day. and hate seeing stuff done wrong especially with food (i mean food poisoning is not good) the reason i've plucked a chicken is when i was a scout we did a suvival day on a camp they split us into groups and gave you a chicken and said that's your groups dinner prepare, cook and eat that i ended up in the group of (newly found ) veggies so i did it all myself. it's amasing how quickly they recovered when it was cooked and they were hungry.

unforunately i was ill during the sarvival weekend a few months later so missed me chance to prepare rabbit. :-(

fire to cook my rabbit cause rabbits tasty (yes i know they are cute and fluffy too!)

PETA = People Eat Tasty Animals :-)

Virgin Media wields mighty jobs axe

Personally

I've never had a problem with customer service. had a couple of stupid engineers but no worse then the sky engineers and BT we had before and i can have 3, 300+ k downloads going to together with no problem. so i can't complian maybe it's cause i was telewest and not ntl i hear ntl old service was bad so i imagine it'll be the ntl staff for the chop. (sorry ntl staff ) don't know any one who had telewest whose had a major problem since the switch. especially now we are getting sky channels back. i feel sorry for the staff for the chop i hope they can expand and keep them on.

Ofcourse all this could be cause i live within a mile of there south essex office

Google fixes world's most stupid bug

I would just like to point out

that during my spell as a Hell desk engineer i quite often got text messages from users with problems who were traveling or were doing work on the weekend asking for some friendly out of hours support (as this was a best efforts deal only the CEO or CIO actually called unless it was life and death ) the rest mostly work mates would text me and hope i called or text back with an answer. this would often contain the words reboot and restart in typical help desk style.

thankfully those days are over and now i'm a systems engineer and my out of hours support is paid :-) but about 100 times harder :-(

Yahoo! shares tumble as Ballmer shuts coffin on Microhoo

@AC of @chris iverson

maybe not steve but his corporate team will have adviced it for 2 reasons

one. Alot of they investors were venture capatalists looking to make a buck and it looked like microsoft had offered them a way to make that buck plus some extra. this was bound to make the board nervous of split the broad some in favor some not. especially after yahoo had brought some profitless start-ups recently that had no benifit

Two. if they except you get they webmail users search users and advertising revenue can trim out the fat and become a google rival in the Advertising field or argueing amoung broad members causes the share price to drop makeing them cheaper for a second attempt to buy or causing them to go broke and you gain a market spot that way.

failed purchase attempts nearly always cause the company being brought to have a share price drop a sad fact of life.

and with the bad moves yahoo have made it's not surprise they would now be looking to sell themselfs

Hotmail users bitch and moan about new interface

@iPhone "Upgrade your browser"

i got that on my pc usering firefox hit continue and it worked just ignore it

Honda debuts groin-clutching walker exoskeleton

Great idea

but the sony battery think is mildly worring but it would give a lot of people more independance which is great 2 hours battery life not so good i can imagine now 20 old ladies lined up in a row recharging while having a chat and a cup of tea maybe a new type of cafe :-)

Fadell gets $300,000 golden handcuffs Apple deal

@Jai

the Irony is that ibm are sueing a man for leaving with secert corporate data

while apple are giving a guy in the same position $300'000

in my view that's hardly anti apple or anti ibm maybe

of course the irony could by the thought that ibm actually developing products of it's own and not just reverse engineering some one elses

i find both the above ironic.

of course the author is free to clarify the irony (of course these irony in explaining irony )

ok i'll be good and shut-up now

Sky channels return to cable

as homer would say

WOO HOO simpsons are coming back oh how i missed thee if it wasn't for the kick arse broadband i'd have switched too!. oh and sky sports news the two most watched channels in my house disappeared the day they started there spat now they are back something else to watch other than DAVE

New Scientist goes innumerate in 'save the planet' special

@one simple question for Tim

that' not the point is it

the point is that adding to GDP of one country doesn't Necessary mean more rescourses

if i make a processor today with x about of sand and y amount of power. then tomorrow some one says you can do it with half of y the rescources are less for the same GDP.

now it is ture that if i make double the number of processors i make then i'll use more rescources.

i think the point trying to be made is that stating a 10% growth in GDP is linked to a 10% growth in resource usage is wrong . the turth is a 10% growth in GDP we probable by a 6 or 7% pregrowth in resources as companies will try to reuse any waste etc that can be be

also strength of the pound and weakness of the dollar and as well as other ecomonic pointlessness effects gdp too.

'Series of Tubes' Senator convicted of corruption

actually i used a simalar discribption once

but i used vacum tubes like the tills at super stores to as my analogy to explain how the internet. (simular not pural) worked to my nan. she used to get confused between e-mail and internet to at first. she picked it up and corrected my aunt once saying it's e-mail the hints in the name Mail :-) but to be fair to him it's not like he has a real job where he may actually use email so would need to know the difference.

as for the point that he's been convicted good he deserves it for hiding the cash hell he'd probable cept half of it if he'd declared it

Plasma rocket space drive in key test milestone

Warp drive

as some one pointed out warp dirve is about a bubble of normal space around a vessal but they missed that you then compress the space in front of said bubble and expand the space behind. not sure who thats supposed to work something to do with artifical gravity and magnetism. your then travel over the compressed space using a more conventation means ion drive etc (star treks famous impulse drive was supposed to be ion refusion drives) these relative to the ship speed was only 1/4 of the speed of light (impulse drives topspeed but probable self limited by ship builds to stop the time dilitution effect being to bad) while to the rest of the universe yours traveling faster than light

of and the warpfactor is the factor of compression once you reach warp factor 10 supposely you can go compress the intire universe to a degree you can go anywhere personally i think that's a bit stupid.

on of the reasons given for no warp in a solar system is compressing the space in which a star is would me either a start in your face or possible prature super nova neither good for a starship.

yes i know this makes me a total treky nerd but when i was younger like physics and start trek so the science of star trek book was out so read that.

ok i'll get my coat