* Posts by Pete

63 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2008

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Microsoft to punt pensioner-proof PC

Pete
Heart

Pensioner proof, my ***

Have MS ever sat pensioners down at a Windows system and actually listened to their feedback? Some of the most astute comments I receive have been from pensioners I've helped, ranging from "Why do I have to single click on some things but double click on others?" and "Why are there so many different and confusing ways of doing the same thing?" to more practical matters like "Why does the computer tell me every time that it starts that my network cable is unplugged - what does that mean?" (no amount of disabling solves the problem).

Before making PCs "pensioner-proof", perhaps MS should try making their operating system people-proof, in so far as making the use of Windows as intuitive and natural as possible. I usually end up having to write down a series of steps for common tasks for my pensioner friends, a thankless task that I wouldn't have to undertake if the interface actually worked on an intuitive and common-sense level.

Grumble, grumble....

Whitehats tackle The Great Botnet Dilemma

Pete
Heart

@ Ken Hagan

This is the way that the world is going. Imagine that you notice that your neighbour's front door is open and has been for a while. You know it shouldn't be and you worry that someone might take advantage of it and burgle them. What would you do? Simple - you would close their door for them. According to your argument, you shouldn't close the door because it would be the "thin edge of the wedge" and because you could have, instead, popped into their house for a cup of tea, watched their videos and taken a dump in their toilet.

Previous comments are correct. People are simply wooses these days. More interested in self-serving publicity than in just doing the right thing. More scared of what could go wrong if they get involved. After all, turning a blind eye is so much safer. Let's just go about our business, let's forget our neighbours, let's allow the bad guys to win. Have you not tickled my tummy in a while mister bad man? Hang on, I'll just roll over for you. Pah - just take the Kraken down, or as much as you can do, or stop talking about it and wasting our time.

'We could wake up smarter' - Ballmer hints at Win XP reprieve

Pete
Paris Hilton

Swimming against the tide

I suppose I've always liked being different, the sort of guy that ploughs his own furrow, but I've been running Vista (recently upgraded to SP1) for several months and I actually like it a great deal - great functionality, beautiful look and no speed problems. I keep my system lean and mean and it works well.

Now I despise Microsoft as much as the next user, but recently I installed Ubuntu Hardy Heron, through Wubi, on my laptop. I spent 24 hours jumping through hoops getting my wireless card to be recognised (finally managed it) and connect to my wireless router (no success there, with much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth involved). To be honest, I found Linux to be lacking in the intuitive stakes, with help and error messages doing little to help solve problems. To cut a long story short, I've now uninstalled Ubuntu. Maybe in a couple of years...

Anyway, there's no argument - the best operating system of them all was the early 90's version of QNX. Now that was lean and mean...

Paris - because everyone likes Paris in the spring.

BOFH: Lift laughs

Pete

Actors revisited

It just has to be:

BOFH - Alan Rickman

PFY - Charles Laughton (I know, but I can dream...)

Boss - Jim Broadbent

Rescuer - Jason Streatham

Head of Security - Jeremy Irons

Paris - herself

Guess that's why I don't work in casting... :-)

'Bullying' Aussie high school stops fingerprinting kids

Pete

Good on the girl...

who refused to cooperate, even when bullied to do so, because she had "read 1984". The spirit of the conscientious objector is not yet dead, although it is only a small small minority of people who are standing up against the way the system is currently going. Identity cards, biometric screening, CCTV, interception of communications... How much further can they push us?

V

James Bond menaced by red hot Chilean

Pete
Paris Hilton

Many a time...

scenes supposed to be set in Scotland have actually been filmed in Ireland. And have the Irish protested? Nope - they've coined the lolly and thanked the government for putting in place so many sweeteners for film-makers to make their films on the Emerald Isle. Sometimes people take films too seriously and life not seriously enough. Are we in the process of "amusing ourselves to death"?

Paris, because they've made some nice films there too...

Final beta of Firefox 3 available now

Pete
Thumb Up

Mmmm...

I like it. :-)

BT and Phorm secretly tracked 18,000 customers in 2006

Pete
Heart

@Peter White

I'm no lawyer but if VM signed a contract with Phorm for an activity that is illegal, and if VM did not know that said activity was illegal at the time of signing the contract, then I don't see why they couldn't tear up the contract and use for toilet paper. The truth of the matter I imagine is more that the guys on high at VM are just standing back and monitoring the situation, still sorely tempted by the carrot of Phorm-based revenue.

Almost every decision in life is made on a cost-benefit basis. You weigh up your projected benefits, measure them against your projected costs, and if the benefits outweigh the costs (with suitable certainty) then you go for it. At the moment, the costs associated with a handful of IT-related folks such as ourselves leaving for another ISP, and of the effort of lobbying for a change to the law (or even easier a relaxed interpretation of current law) to make future Phorm-related interception activities legal, are still far less than the rewards to be reaped. So VM and partners are biding their time...

A heart, because in the end love is all that counts.

Pregnant man to hit Oprah with ultrasound

Pete

Oh no, not again

It's déja vu all over again Boo Boo! I thought we had already done this one to death a few days ago, the most incisive comment for me being "If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it's a duck".

Now if Oprah decided to interview that bloke from Ohio who got caught making sweet furniture love to his picnic table four times in one and a half hours, that would be worth seeing.

Paris, because despite Ms Bee's comment above, she's 110% woman. Although I must admit that if I ever did meet her I would be tempted to ask her if she's got any Scotsman in her just so, when she said no, I could follow up with the line "Aye, well, would you like some then". It's never worked for me yet, but here's hoping.

Ohio man cuffed for shagging picnic table

Pete
Happy

It was all just a misunderstanding...

His wife had asked him to "lay the table"...

DIY satellite TV installer shoots wife dead

Pete

He thought everyone was inside the building...

Yeah right. More like he simply got angry and frustrated at not being able to drill his way through and so just grabbed his gun and blasted away, not really thinking about anything else. I know he lost his wife through this but he should be sent down for several years to show others how completely irresponsible and dumb his actions were and, of course, for needlessly taking a human life through his stupidity. Darwin must be cursing that the wrong person was removed from the gene pool.

British youths think Churchill went to moon

Pete

@Salsero

"Well, the real Brits (I am just alien) may have other opinions, but to me, if I should choose the one and only representative Brit of XX century - it would undoubtedly be Sir Winston Churchill."

Strangely enough, when I read this, I asked myself which person I would choose as the representative Brit of the XXth century, and the first person to come to mind was Eddie the Eagle, god bless him... :-)

Pete
Alien

But surely...

... everyone knows that the moon landings were faked.

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