Posts by Cullen Newsom

Microsoft talks turkey in Brussels

@Chris Miller

That's nonsense. There are plenty of folks who would rather buy a bare PC.

Some of those folks already own a Windows license or two, or twenty and might not like to "upgrade".

There are also plenty that would like to buy one with Linux pre-installed. Most of the examples I've seen of an OEM "offering" Linux pre-installed, they've done it giving customers a very limited choice of hardware (usually last year's). I'd personally buy a PC with Linux pre-installed (even SuSE) just to avoid the MS tax. Even if I immediately reinstalled something else. If only they'd offer the full product range for selection.

While I may indeed be happy "tinkering" and assembling my own PC; I have yet to find a place to purchase laptop components. When's the last time you "tinkered" a laptop together from parts? And since you don't mind the "MS tax" How about if we add a "Linux tax" as well? Or you could just send me £20 for my trouble? Didn't think so.

MS' bullying OEMs to install only its latest OS, bundling all of its latest "freebies" (and no one else's) doesn't serve the market (us) well, even for users of MS software.

I don't know whether or not the EU has done any good, or even if they're able to. It's a certainty that MS will do everything that it, can for as long as it can, to avoid having to play nice.

Masked passwords must go

Someone got paid for this?

Look, it isn't THAT hard. And it does offer a little security, especially if you store some passwords in your browser (only for things that don't matter, calm yourselves).

The thing that really frustrates me is all of these sites with differing password rules, that somehow think I have read their programmer's mind, and that somehow I know that I must make it more than 8 characters in length, but not more than 16! must include a number, but the number mustn't come first!, and must also include a special character, but some characters aren't allowed! only one of our six favorites, oh, and at least one of the letters must be capitalized, but not all of them! Must I also stand on one foot and pat my head while typing it in?

I guess it's good money when you can get it.

Eurostar tunnels through UK border ring of steel

@AC 16:04

"The US and Australia seem to be able to sort out permission to travel schemes quite happily without any problem."

"quite happily" "without any problem"

"quite happily" "without any problem"

Quite happily, without any problem? No matter how many times I repeat it; I can't manage to associate it with any of the "Security Theater" that I've experienced.

And how many times have the US' airlines been around to congress begging for money in the past eight years? How many "quite happy" TSA agents have you met? How long's it been since you were out the house?

NASA reacquires original Moon landing footage

@AC 13:55

Oh, rats. Here's to hoping that they didn't store the tapes next to the stereo speakers.

Oh FFS

It's a reel of tape. Which is nothing but a fancy slideshow. Scan the frames, encode it, post it to the toobs, done. Heads had better roll if they screw this up.

Buzz Aldrin weighs into NASA

Slow space agencies are slow

Robert Zubrin, and a growing cast of others have only been suggesting this direct path to Mars for a couple or three decades now. Maybe NASA will come around before someone launches from his or her garage, and beats them to it. (that is, if the FAA doesn't deny them a permit)

Ecopocalypse causes giant fish ears

@David England, Charles Manning et al

No no no, it's because our submarines are more quiet than they used to be. Or it could be because that careless idiot Lewis Page dropped his damn wristwatch in the Gareloch (you've keeeeled us all!).

Beijing snuffs Google.com

2 Hour Blockage?

It's still down as I write this.

US team create carbon nanotube ultra-memory

Mechanical memory

Isn't that something.

Rambus pitches XDR2 for future memory

@AC 07:39

re: FTC v. RAMBUS - But the FTC dropped their case which could only mean that RAMBUS is a pretty cool guy...

I really hope you're being Ironic, otherwise you need to have your sarcasm detector looked at! I reckon that RAMBUS only gets to pull that stunt once.

pppffffffffffffffbbbbbbbbbttttt!

Hey RAMBUS! Why don't you join an industry consortium and help everyone by getting your designs included in the next industry wide standard for memory modules!

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something tells me that they shouldn't be trusted!

Stolen RAF files are blackmailer's dream

lol @ all you cowards

I'm glad that none of you had the opportunity to fire Alan Turing while he was at Bletchley Park.

Red Hat sticks lawyers on non-neutral Switzerland

Oh for crying out loud

For most purposes, it couldn't possibly matter which OS that pdf file, or spreadsheet, or game of solitaire originated on. Most of your "numpty" users would be taxed to tell the difference, or remember which one they used last week, much less to care. So stop already with these ridiculous ideas like "Data entry clerks demand Microsoft Access!" or "Four out of five dentist's secretaries surveyed prefer MSSQL." or the absurd "drop to the command line to read email." Though, I will admit, MS has everyone beat with powerpoint; it's so easy, even executives can create a presentation.

Microsoft arms half-wit developers with PHP handgun

@Ted

Why don't you tell us what you really think?

Boston dorm computer raid ruled illegal

plods everywhere plodding along

What did they reckon he'd hacked with his camera? And the ipod and cellphones?

Google blames cheeseburgers for destroying the planet

pffft

Do you have to use "I'm feeling Lucky"? Or is it good for any Goooooooooogle search?

Fired IT director admits $94k rampage on organ bank

Backups

What's the $94,000.00 for, they had backups, didn't they? And aren't these Dell laptops too powerful? Somebody ought to make a law...

Study finds IT heads not interested in power saving

@grumpy and all of those other luddites...

@grumpy and all of those other Luddites who haven't heard of "Wake On Lan", cron, "Scheduled Tasks" and "Power Options", etc.

This website is for IT folk, and other folks who make their living by working with computers.

Corporate IT folk ought to do a better job managing the power consumption of idle machines. And it is pretty obvious that they would if electricity came out of their IT operating budget. To those who think that "productivity" is lost by a user having to switch his machine on while he goes and gets more coffee:

*Show the twit how to have it switch itself on before he arrives.

*Configure the machine for him.

And if you can't do either of those. What the hell are you doing in IT?

@adam

>Do we switch street lights off ? - there must be millions of them.

Yeah, we do turn them off in the daytime when they're not being used. Can we have a 'face palm' icon?

Ireland scraps e-voting in favour of 'stupid old pencils'

He who laughs last...

"The biggest loser will, no doubt, be the Irish people, as they are forced to shell out to extricate the government from the mess. "

Haven't they already lost that money? In any case that is no reason to throw more money at a failed project.

Let me be the first to laugh at the Irish politicians; who will have to continue stealing elections the old-fashioned way.

Boffins build super-accurate atomic clock

@Bernie et al, wristwatches, etc.

Pshaw! at all of those radio-controlled "atomic wristwatches". Cheap hacks! This is the man you want to see about your wristwatch.

http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/

Sun packs 150 billion web pages into meat locker

Nice try Sun

HP uses those to ship replacement motherboards (one per).

Slash your way inside Apple's Mac Mini

Hard to upgrade?

You can have the thing open in under a minute with only a butter knife. Take that and a screwdriver, you can max out its RAM and install a bigger disk in the time it takes to dig your tower PC out from under your desk.

IBM solves world's 'paper or plastic' crisis

It's a NIGHT ELF MOHAWK!

Foo!