Posts by Fred

'Thieving' sperm whale caught on CCTV

Thieving ???

People drop strings in the water that have snacks conveniently attached for the whales.

Where's the thievery ? Maybe copyright infringement, at the most... :)

SCO threatened with Chapter 7 destruction

Kill it already !

Burn the witch ! Scatter the ashes, mix them with salt !

No investigation after malware is found on parliamentary PC

Police vs. computers

Unless you manage to get hold of one of the few and far between specialised units, it's completely useless to try and talk to the police about anything remotely computer related.

As soon as they're out of their usual turf (man grabs bag and runs away, or something similarly plain), they'll likely pretend it doesn't exist.

Asus unwraps 10in Eee with 9.5-hour battery life

Windows again :(

Well the open source projects that I use don't run in Windows or else I would be running Windows.

Not to mention that some of us old farts vastly prefer the types of UI found in X11 to what is available in the Windows or Mac world. If at least there is a practical option to get a refund for the useless bundled software, then it doesn't matter much.

Anyway for now my Samsung Q35, at 11" is light enough to travel with me when I need it. Of course it came with Vista (long gone) but that cannot be helped nowadays alas. I didn't try to get a refund (I should have though) because of the months of paperwork that is typically required.

Acer's 10in Aspire One spied on web

No word on the OS ?

So it's going to be a Windows only gadget I presume ?

Users who want to won't have trouble installing whatever they like on it but good luck getting a refund for the unneeded software.

Sony teases netbook fans with 'new mobile' Vaio promo

PowerBook memories...

I still have my old PowerBook, which had a Pentium II BTW, the Crusoe versions came later. It ran for a whooping 1 hour 20 on its smallish battery. And despite Sony's claims, the later models didn't run for that much longer (unless you got the extended battery).

I used it for ages with Mandrake Linux and have been considering reviving it. However the fact that you can only boot it from a special USB floppy drive makes it a bit more complicated than with your random laptop.

Still a great little machine at the time. I have PCMCIA WiFi cards that fit nicely in it. Mine needs a new battery though, it can only run for ten or twenty seconds at the moment before needing to be plugged back in.

And it does fit in a coat pocket !

Chromefirexplorer girds loins against rich and closed

How exciting !

Oh wait, no it's not. Chrome doesn't run on any of my computers.

Palin didn't know Africa is a continent, McCain aides say

Stop making fun of Sarah Palin ! She's a human being ! (of sorts)

Palin shouldn't be made fun of. She obviously has suffered a massive cervical trauma and needs some neurological help. Or the probing went to far during her last abduction. Or she wasn't properly thawed after her latest rampage on moose and bears...

Or maybe she should be put out of her misery (for our own sake).

As said above, that in the US "she's at least as stupid and ignorant as I am" can be seen as worthwhile qualities in a potential leader is quite frightening.

Palm OS II-based smartphones now due H2 2009

By then will there be any Palm users left

My first Palm (US Robotics at the time) handheld was the Pilot 5000, soon upgraded to "Pilot Pro" with the addition of a little memory (1 meg, wohoo) and a system upgrade.

Then I had a IIIx and now a Palm T|X.

With every iteration the platform has been getting steadily worse. The T|X has an absolutely crappy WiFi layer, an abysmal Web browser and what's more doesn't even sync the same way as the other machines that use the *same* system. Which does make a lot of difference when you run Linux.

I say let them die already. They dug their grave, push them in and let's be done with it.

Fujitsu intros 5.6in bonsai laptop... with Vista

Battery life ?

So no word on battery life either ? Seems like an important point for those pocket devices.

And why do they still bother offering Vista on these things ? Did it sell in Japan for some reason ?

(I'll stick with my 12" running Linux for now)

PSP-3000's LCD is 'berry' good

Wait

You've actually seen someone with a PSP ?

iRiver Lplayer 8GB MP3 player

iRiver and Cowon

They've always been my two favourite makers of pocket players.

The Apple stuff is too bound to their software to be practical to use for me (I run Linux, sue me). Besides after a year 1/2 with one of their laptops, I don't like their software.

So I'd rather have good sound, support for numerous formats, easy firmware upgrades and a platform agnostic player at the price of an interface that may be a bit quirky at times. Shame that those players are so hard to find. Especially when the Creative ones that are just as quirky and are bound to Windows are ubiquitous, not to mention the Apple ones (which at least have a clean interface).

Currently using a Cowon D2 and happy with it.

Flames because I never agree with anybody