Posts by Dave McKewan

Watchdog urges Tesla to recall 158,000 Model S, X cars to fix knackered NAND flash that borks safety features

This, and the use of flash cards for debug level data dumps, along with overall privacy issues, is why I won't get (buy or lease) a Tesla.

By gum(stick): Samsung speeds up 970 EVO Plus drive

I have 20TB or cold storage, all spinning rust....

HDDs will still have a place, both at home and enterprise level, until there are 6+TB SSDs that don't require you to make large sacrifices to the gods to obtain.

How to build a real lightsabre

Re: How is this an article?

I find your lack of a sense of humour disturbing....

Food, water, batteries, medical supplies, ammo … and Windows 7 PCs

Linux, still not the way

So I loved W7 when it first came out. So much so that all the PCs that I support (think family) quite quickly moved over to it. Then along comes 10, so I give it a download and install. OMFG, what a piece of junk. I skipped 8 and 8.1 because of the nightmare that it was. W10 just seemed to keep the nightmare going. It lasted 3 months on my machine and then a clean install of W7 fixed that issue.

So I started looking at Linux as a way of moving on, something that I do from time to time. I went to linuxmint, did a dual boot install on a spare laptop and then tried to get it to work.

And there's the kicker. Windows, pretty much most of the recent flavours, just seem to work right out of the box*. LM just didn't work right out of the box. It required extra bits to see the network, extra setup to share folders with the Windows network. Extra, Extra....

So I went through some forums and all I could seem to find was variations on the following:

1. This isn't Windows, so learn it.

2. You have to know stuff to get stuff to work, see above...

My answer was that it lasted the weekend before I removed it.

To the Linux crowd. No, just plain no. People are used to it just plain working, finding stuff and doing stuff. If you want to become a credible alternative to Windows, to those of us who are finally through with M$ and their 'ways', then you have to become like Windows.

And by that I mean it just needs to work...

* This does depend on your definition of work. We're home users, so all that we wanted/needed just worked....

Last major VHS supplier ejects from tape biz

Ah the English, such a backward bunch....

I'm an ex-pat living in the US and this article, and the comments within, have been very entertaining reading for me.

I have bought stuff on VHS, DVD and BD. BD wins every time. The image is much better, those with lossless sound is much better, the whole experience is just much better.

SD DVDs that have been up converted look better on a HD TV than on a SD TV. But those of you who claim that they don’t look much better have one of 2 problems (or both). Either you haven’t used the best type of leads that are available (like going from yellow, red, white to S video etc) or you need your eyes tested. Or both.

I do have a big arse TV (living here in the US as I now do), very good AVR, decent powered sub and a matched 7.1 speaker system. I prefer my setup to going to the cinema as I don’t get twats on the phone, dickheads sitting in front of me blocking the way or oiks chucking corn at me. Yes, the cost of a BD disc is more than a ticket. Until you factor in the cost to get there, anything else that you buy at the cinema and the fact that I can stop the film, come back to it anytime I want and watch it many times, all for the same BD price!

For the ‘tards banging on about solid disc and DL for films, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee my friends. There are reports floating around that SD manufactures are in trouble and looking to scale back production and raise prices. SD media is also susceptible to being corrupted, unlike a BD (yes, one will damage, but with the coating that they have, this is less likely than DVDs). And DL a 25 or 50Gb film? Please, be real. I have a decent connection here in the US and a 50Gb film would take days, at 24 hours, to DL. And now several US ISPs are talking about throttling speeds and limiting DL limits so that they can push their own VOD products. Wait 3 days to watch a film that may have corrupted, or wander out, buy a disc and pop it into a player. Hmmmm, let me think about that one…..

I do buy BDs when I can, even replacing SD that I already own. I have yet to pay full price for any of them. And as for the cost of replacing the discs, haven’t you lot heard of birthday’s and Christmas? I got 5 BDs this Christmas, all replacements for existing SD DVDs. All as presents. It’s not so difficult once you think about it….

Paris, because even she can work this out….

Government finally names the day for porn ban

Let's get some in.....

So this article is actually against this stuff, and will probably fall foul of the new law. There are reckless people inciting the mindless masses to revolt against the system.

Me personnally, I'm going to Torr**** Emmanuelle in America, and I've added those sluts to my Favs.

Paris, because even she thinks that this rule sucks. Or because she'd fall foul of it.

Developers to get Windows 7 pre beta next month

A turd by any other name is still a turd

I avoided Vista and I plan to avoid this POS until MS gets the idea of stripping out the DRM infestation and such like, not just the movie making portion.

What they should do is toss out Vista and its kernel and dust off the XP code and start there.

Oh well, more money saved on a crappy OS....

Paris, because even she wouldn't fall for this crap again.

Artemis Fowl scribe to pen sixth Hitchhiker's novel

Smoking spin....

All we need now is to attach some diodes (a la Dilbert) to where ever DA is buried and we'd solve the world's engery problems for good. For sure DA is spinning quite well by now.

WTF! Leave well alone!

Paris, because *even* she isn't so stupid to try this on for size.

McKinnon loses extradition fight

Bye bye

He did the crime, now he should shut up and do the time.

Breaking into people's systems is a crime and if you're caught, then tough tities.

He broke into systems in the Strates, then he should be tried in the States.

Paris, because I'm sure she has a back door....

US Congress to vote on in-flight mobile ban

@ @ban babies

No, you're the bloody idiot for taking a feeking 1 year on a plane. Most adults can barely stomach the grinding crap that is modern air travel. How the hell does a 1 year old, who can barely process their homelife, process all the goings on in an airport and being stuck on a plane?

And if the bloody thing starts screaming, don't just sit there like the apparent brainless moron that you obviously are, shut the feeking thing up. Know how to do that? Feed it idiot. Make it go to sleep. Gag it. Throw it out the window. I don't feeking care, just shut the bloody thing up. You're the moron who brought it on, not me.

And no, I don't have kids (be grateful - for the kid anyway), and yes, I have been stuck on an 8 hour flight with a screaming brat.

The kid I don't blame, and I never do as it's *NOT* their fault, but I was ready to murder the moronic parent who was stupid enough to bring their bundle of joy with them.

Please, stay at home or leave them there, or better still travel with them when they are old enough to amuse themselves. Please, for the love of God and all that is Holy.......

Paris because even she has more brains than some of these parent's....

Dave M.

Microsoft says ‘hasta la vista XP’ - well, kinda

@ "re "Sorry, it's not Linux either. "

Yep, I tried re-partition after tried the format. I tried the re-part several times, using various different boot discs (Win95, Win98 etc).

I even went so far to remove the partition, reboot, add back the partiton, reboot and re-format. The RH screen still came back.

That's when I reached for the last resort (other than a drill....) and broke out my trusty HDD util disc.

I was trying to use it about 6 years ago, and my point was that it was not better than a Windows install. Having installed various flavours of Windows, I expected the all mighty Linux to do the same thing. Odd expectation really.

And I got it when buying a book that touted the virtues (sic) of Linux. Strangely enough, I found no section in the book that discussed how to remove it.

We were looking at it from both a Windows and VMS standpoint. Still glad we ditched it.

The bank did end up using Linux for its servers, but not for this project. That ended up on an AIX box with WAS, JAVA etc etc.