Posts by Tom

EC takes own sweet time backing Microsoft ODF move

Vapourware

Theres no point in ratifying vapourware. If it should ever appear then fine, check it and give them a pat on the back if it aproaches conformity.

Till then keep them on that hook.

Microsoft to ODF, PDF - let's get it on together

Vapor ware

The last thing microsoft wants is for interoperability.

A company only need one up to date version of MS office with an ODF export/import and the whole company can run free software on all other machines.

If they say they're gonna write one then its to stop others doing it.

Five misunderstood Vista features

whats it for?

I keep reading about Vistula and its problems but as far as I can tell it doesnt actually do anything useful that you cant do for free.

Eye candy never made anyone in our office work better and I'm still baffled as to how writing lots of documents that no one ever reads is called 'productivity'.

Especially when they are in a format that requires everyone else to slow their current computer down with Fista to pretend to read them.

Microsoft orders 65nm Xbox 360 graphics chip

It should be a lot quicker

to show that red ring!

Local mag claims Aussie Eee PC buyers will pay extra for Linux

Excellent! Party ON!

So I can get a an XP version cheaper, load Linux on it for free to make it work better! I get a decent Linux machine and M$ subsidises me for it. And I presume I'm entitled to a rebate for not using the XP!

Its just too good to be true for the FLOSS community!

Linux-guru's conviction fuels ReiserFS debate

Its not true that MS killed her

I dont know where that conspiracy theory came from....

Almost any system can have a dependency on one designer. The thing about open source is ... its open so if someone feels its usefull then they can at least develop/fix bugs etc.

It plain to see from MS OS development and problems that the closed nature of their stuff makes it very very hard for them to even develop at a crawl.

Good graphic design doesnt make an OS.

BSI faces High Court challenge over OOXML U-turn

Re: Changing vote after election has closed

There's already an international standard for this:

MXml. Thats M for Mugabe not Microsoft - though they may patent it and promote it as original.

Boris backs weed for pain relief

Doesnt work

I can still hear him....

Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

@Don Mitchell

While I have to agree that NT was a lot easier to install that Linux/Unix at the time most of the functionality you outlined was available in linux's here and there.

Most of Windows 'benefits' have been for the ignorant. I've been in computing for 33 years now and most of the last 20 years has been wasted on 'making things easy for the user' rather than using a computer 'properly'.

While linux doesnt solve the problem of people thinking they're computer experts because they can drag and drop things or embed one document in another and produce some bug ridden websites it does make it a lot cheaper for the users and its open standards means that those who have got an idea of how to extensibly manage a companies data (rather than bury it in documents) at least have a chance of organising it sometime.

It wont be long now before 'management' start to realise that having the ability to format a document to a sub pixel level is neither productive nor competitive, just very costly.

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

'Help big business to cut us in'??

Billy,

You dont need big business any more. You want to sell me music we can do it over the internet. The only need for 'big business' is to get my money to you.

I dont see anyone else need be involved.

Oh - other than lawyers who will sue you for not being big business!

Minister: Waste wood is 'huge potential resource'

I hope not!

I heat my house from waste wood form skips and local builders so I want it!

Also the report is in PDF so you probably have to kill trees to read it comfortably!

C'est La Vie!

Global-warming scientist: It's worse than I thought

Glug Glug!

'A global cap at 350ppm would appear wildly unrealistic in diplomatic and political terms.'

With New York and London underwater the politicians might think twice.

But probably not!

EC probes OOXML standards-setting process

There never was anything to worry about...

Microsoft were never going to use the standard:

If they used the standard then they could read in the standard. Which meant that you could save a fortune by running Open Office (which would be able to write a pretty comprehensive subset of the standard by the time MS actually try to implement it in one of their rameaters) and then using one copy of whatever MS software was necessary to move that pointless piece of styling the sub pixel fraction required by some AR in the marketing department.

So if they actually adhered to the standard they'd loose their monopoly anyway.

Its a bit of a Mexican standoff with one man and some fairground mirrors and few crazies in the crowd shouting foul!

Fixing the UK's DAB disaster

DAB reception here is awful

At least with FM you can still hear the program when the signal fades. With DAB it gurgles and stops.

If FM is turned off then I stop listening to the radio.

And what happens when everyone sets their clocks 5 seconds slow?

OOXML approved as international standard?

Make them have it BIG TIME!

The best thing that could come out of this is for governments to insist that all documents and software conform to either ODF or OOXML.

That way ODF will become the effective standard as M$ software cannot meet the OOXML specs itself.

Hutton: UK must become world No 1 in nuclear power

Hutton is BUSINESS minister

Of course he wants more Nuclear power - it would be very good for business'. An extremely costly and inefficient method of power generation is always going to benefit business. He's too stupid to realise it will be French business' though.

The fact that it will cost the UK taxpayer and our childrens children for hundred of thousands of years to clear up after us is irrelevant.

I should add that I studied Nuclear Engineering as part of my Engineering degree so I happen to know a lot more than most (all?) politicians on this one.

And I dont get lucrative contracts to change my mind either.

AJAX patent threat to giants under the hammer

what a lot of rot

I cant remember when frames were added to HTML but about 5 minutes after they were I was using them to exchange data and I think I got the idea from something mentioned in the spec.

Theres nowt new under t'sun.

Of laptops and US border searches

Dont take your laptop on holiday!

Given the FBI is planting 'dodgy' links and if your browser, like mine pre-loads links on a page to 'give a better browsing experience' the chances of not having something 'illegal' on your PC is pretty slim. Someone could slip a file of white noise onto a web site and you'll be hanging upside down having your feet beaten in GBay until you tell them the encryption keys for it!

It seems like the only way to function these days is to have all you data on a secure web server that can be accessed by a browser!

FBI agents lured suspects using fake child porn hyperlinks

What about pre-loading in browsers?

If I'm not mistaken my browser is set to start loading any links on the page I'm viewing so that should I click on them later they're already downloaded.

So all I have to do is look at a page the FBI has hacked and I'm getting more bottom action than I ever anticipated!

Oh the land of the free....

Facebook says occupied territories are Israel

How about

lebensraum?

How big an eco-hazard is IT equipment?

If your heatings on then it aint wasted

In the UK for all but a couple of months the power used by a PC supplements any heating.

Air conditioning raises the temperature of the environment and in some cities raises the temperature externally to the maximum cooling available - thus making itself completely useless.

So if your PC is wasting power - turn it off and go outside!

As for disposal - most PC eqpt I see disposed of is functional but it wont run the latest version of Windows. Stick an alternative OS on it and it no longer needs disposing of.

32nd Carry On film is go

In a universe that thinks Ricky Gervais is funny..

it'll probably be a hit.

Mind you they could just adopt the Freinds approach and put canned laughter on Shindlers List. Save any embarrasing attempts at creative writing or acting.

Skype blames eBay for killing 'our innovation buzz'

Charging for something free...

Skype are trying to charge for something you can get for free - or rather you have already paid your ISP for!

Its called the internet!

I can use Skype to connect to my freind in NZ and suffer enourmouse delays or VOIP direct to his machine and get clean calling.

The worst E-bay has done ( apart from encouraging nutters to pay more for second hand items than they can be bought new) is replacing a lousy + expensive credit/debit card system with a lousy and expensive pay pal.

Give me £100M and I'll make you a global payment system that costs the user 0.1% of the transaction - assuming the banks dont have me killed while I'm putting it together!

Wal-Mart stores drop cheap-as-chips Linux PC

Sold out but no demand????

That'll be the 'we tried but no-one was interested' ploy of the monopolies somewhere in the background.

As for not high enuf spec - I havent seen a machine that will run Vista as responsively as Ubuntu on a 512MB 1Ghz machine... I wont say yet because it breaks my heart to see a supercomputer reduced to dribbling so I'm not looking anymore...

Jodrell Bank offloaded on eBay

Just what I need

for my satelite destroying death ray!!

Software engineer builds straw house for £4k

He did it the hard way! + @Regulations

A steel frame doesnt cost a lot and can be banged together quite quickly.

I reckon you could build a good sized 3 bedroomed house for <10k.

And as for Mr Emersen's comment I think you find all necessary regs were observer - otherwise the council would have it pulled down - lime plastered straw wont burn!

Windows better off closed, says Microsoft

From the donkeys mouth

So we're expected to listen to the company that thought it was a great idea to re-invent the inefficiencies of the paper office on a computer and add a lot of new problems too?

Microsoft - the man with a red flag walking in front of your computer!

'Fuzzy' royalties policies challenge Microsoft's open API pledge

Reinventing the wheel?

Why is it when Microsoft reinvent the wheel it goes from four sides to three - one less bump but still totally impractical.

Stroustrup and Sutter: C++ to run and run

Tchah! The youth of today!!

C++ to hard to learn?

When I've had the pleasure of helping people learn programming I have found that if you introduce then to any OO language they say its too hard to learn. Then they try another OO language and say 'thats much easier'. Generally because they've slowly started to understand OO concepts.

OO seems to be the exception to the programmers rule that 'I learned this language first so its the best'.

Me - I learned OO techniques in assembler and buckets of asterixes in C and sed scripting so any 'modern' OO is fine by me especially if theres a nice (free) IDE!

Remember - if a problems hard then its hard and sticking a GUI on it only makes you make mistakes faster.

'Boil a frog' ID card rollout to continue until 2012

Goodbye to small businesses

I know its just waffle but if they want to stop terrorism then EVERY transaction has to be monitored. That means no cash whatsoever. They cant tell who you are if you pay cash and since you can make a massive bomb by pouring petrol into the main drains and chucking a fag in after it they will want to know who bought that.

It also means that all small business will have to have ID card readers - at about 10 grand a pop. And they will loose a cut to the credit card companies. So thats all your small business wiped out.

Might stop binge drinking though.

And as for keeping your personal info safe - this is the same government that pointed out how proud they were that they'd bribed some in Lichtenstein(?) to hand over all the top secret banking details isnt it?

Government of the people, by big business, for big business. By a bunch of ...

Treehuggers lose legal fight to solar-powered neighbour

revenge is sweet

Buy a bit of land in the shadow of the neighbours house and stick a couple of solar panels there and get their house pulled down - after all we have a good legal precedent now!

MS + Yahoo! = Microhoo! - Official!

what about two names

YahBoo Sucks as the new management (nocturnal e-)mission statement or, for the 'customers' BooHoo.

SCO bags $100m to fight another day

They are getting desperate ...

It would appear that if this aggreement is signed as is then Norris' lot get first pick of the carcass.

So they dont actually have to loan SCO any money but they get priority over current creditors.

It would appear that all SCO want to do is to prevent Novell/IBM getting the money they are due. And are prepared to sacrifice the company to that end.

How believable are government claims on ID cards?

Cheap at half the price.

What the missgovernment always fails to point out is that for the system to be of any use to anyone then all transactions will have to be done using an ID card.

How else would you track a crazed hairdresser - they might buy peroxide using cash - £20 billion (lower estimate) wasted.

So in order not to waste the money quite so obviously they will have to make certain sales ID card identified only. Which means small shops and haridressers will have to pay £10k + to sell fags or booze.

So thats your small shops closed!

Does this feel that, like most missgovernment stuff that this is government of the people, by big business , for big business?

Exploding Flash catalogue rocks Dutch e-commerce site

At last!

Well after all these years someone has at last done something interesting with flash.

I'll still be leaving my flash blocker on though.

Iran fires rocket 'into space', plans satellite for '09

@Anonymous Coward

The thought of another major loss of life in the US as part of the War Against Terror scares me silly. The fact that these will be self inflicted (flying armed nukes around 'by accident' seems quite common over there) doesnt fill me with any less dread that the revenge will be terrible.

By revenge I mean excuse to attack someone who had nothing to do with it . Iraq 11/9 for example.

Iran may as well do what it wants. The US is going to fit it up anyway.

Microsoft prints get-out-of-jail card for Vista Home

They just wont take a hint...

I wouldnt try and virtualise Vista even if I was allowed to. I can get the same effect by writing a self spawning multithreading endless loop.

I take it W7 will have all the best features of Vista added to it:

Untested, unmaintainable, massive footprint etc.

I can see why MS hate open source so much - they seem to have employed a lot of floss moles who are doing a great job of making cusomers look elsewhere.

RIAA told to pay legal fees for harrassed defendant

@Missing the point?

More likely a parasitic business dies and the artists can sell direct to the customer.

The artist gains, the customer gains. Problem with that?

Developer heads are in the cloud, Andreessen says

He wishes...

We live in a world where people are arguing over which document format to use.

When we get out of early 1990's 'computing theory' - data hiding in documents that no-one ever reads - and get into using computers to manage business then we will have an idea how much impact this will have.

None I would imagine.

Tarantino plans Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! remake

A desperate search for an IT link

only brings up the thought of a virtual Britney to make her more realistic?

MP accuses BBC chief of illegally championing Microsoft

Its quite simple really:

So the BBC doesnt own all the content?

For the stuff it does - it can stream it without DRM.

For the stuff it doesnt - let the owner stream it.

MIT in pedal-powered 'super' computer stunt

Ignoring the olpc....

Imagine a gaggle of youths who are forced to generate the power for their games consoles themselves!

I dont want maladjusted youths to be fit as well.

And as for “more arithmetic computations than were done on the whole planet up until about 1960.” the US seems hell bent on ignoring the 11 Colossus' (i?) at Bletchly...........

NHS frets over Brits' genitalia

Genitals of mass distraction

I look forward to trainee doctors seeing the opposite sex's genitalia for the first time and running screaming from the wards and being unable to treat patients with genitalia and perhaps suing them for obscenity.

Ignore the US - they have trouble with reality full stop, trying not to offend them is a sisyphean task.

Laptop power cranks up a gear

Want Two!

Brilliant - I want one so I can excercise parts other than my right hand while browsing the web!

And I can imagine saving a large wack on the heating bill as I wont need to keep it on so high to keep warm.

Looks like a win win win gadget.

We know security and usability are orthogonal - do you?

Does your new code work?

I dont know I dont have the security access to test it....

You can book £6Billion to that without writing a line of code!

In an ideal world

they are orthogonal. However with management in the picture they are inversely proportional.

Will Darling's data giveaway kill off ID cards?

What I'd like to know

Ignoring the impossibility of making the ID system useable and secure what I'd like to know is just what they think the moneys going on cos it certainly isnt software and computers. Or if it is the suppliers should be shot for incompetence/theft.

Confused BBC tech chief: Only 600 Linux users visit our website

Self fulfilling management decisions....

You get rid of all your useful programmers.

You employ Microsoft to advise and code for you.

Your site is designed effectively for IE despite a few nods to standards...

When others catch up you 'upgrade' to a new realplayer standard..

Then no-one else uses it.

Better shut down a few nice telly programs and pay the execs a bit more for that stroke of genius. Until Microsoft ups the ante and you cant afford that either..

Microsoft to search browsers for JavaScript compatibility

Why bother

Write standard Javascript - it will work on standards compliant browsers - IE users can install Firefox for free.

Why make yourself hoops to jump through?

Oxymorons!

The thing about microsoft is, if it finds standard, it automatically has to 'extend' and breach that standard. It has to do it to its own 'standards' to force everyone to upgrade.

These guys have put back computing for long enough! They must be ignored.