Posts by Alan Bourke

Quick Q: How many FLOPPIES do I need for 16 MILLION image files?

Zip drives were great while they lasted

but I have never seen anything blown out of the water as quickly as zip drives once the first Disgo USB Flash sticks appeared.

Windows XP market share decline stalls, Mac OS X surges

Re: "What methodology is used to calculate StatCounter Global Stats?"

> That explains why even strong pro-Windows websites like TheRegister

El Reg is strongly pro-Windows in the sense that the Tea Party thinks the BBC is strongly pre-left, i.e. it only looks like that from way over in the other direction.

King's stocks are candy-crushed as its top toy suffers splurge slump

Oh dear

they'll have to steal some more ideas quick.

Ninten-DON'T: Wii U bomb blows Mario Kart giant off track – but new console promised

The Wii U

... is not a competitor for the One and the PS4 any more than the Wii was for the PS3 and 360.

WAN-furtling pays off for app-happy Riverbed

Great word, furtling ...

... an old boss of mine used to use it all the time in the Yorkshire meaning of 'messing with'. He was unaware of the naughty original meaning.

Lost treasure of Atari REVEALED

ET was indeed released on the VCS

and is not as bad as the big boys said down at the internet. It's shite, like, but I've played a *lot* worse.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: Great changes, but sssh don't mention the...

"Less so for organisations running Ubuntu on lots of PCs and moving to 14.04"

Is there no centralised way to push a change to the default privacy settings a la Group Policy in Windows?

Batten down the hatches, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS due in TWO DAYS

Re: @asdf The desktop deadend.

Can I do a major version upgrade of Mint yet without backing up/reinstalling from scratch/restoring? No? Bye then!

Irish plod biro outrage invites Limerick Limerick challenge

WINNAR

My dad's from Limerick

An unreasonable head beak from Limerick

went completely ballistic

the cops had no pens

the perps and their friends

thought the whole thing was terrific

Object to #YearOfCode? You're a misogynist and a snob, says the BBC

It's all silly.

Not every kid should be a coder any more than they should be a car mechanic. The people with a natural affinity should be identified early and encouraged in that direction. For everyone else, a good grounding in using computers, staying secure online and basic troubleshooting is all they need. The whole idea of everyone being able to code is daft. It's complicated, not everyone can do it. Like fixing a car engine.

JavaScript is everywhere. So are we all OK with that?

Re: Javascript is the VB6 of the 2010's

The lack of scoping is a total PITA

JavaScript's OK ...

... if a bit reliant on confusing messing around with functions.

"If a mobile developer can use HTML5 and JavaScript to build a potentially 'ubiquitous' app capable of running everywhere, then why wouldn’t they?"

Maybe in a few years you'll be able to do that. Maybe.

I've just seen 10% of the PC biz disappear into the cloud

The usual sales flim-flam

from a vested interest.

Apple’s Mac turns 30: How Steve Jobs’ baby took its first steps

Re: Wired ethernet is not a rarity for laptops

Fair enough, but I'm betting those offices are mainly Apple

Wired ethernet is not a rarity for laptops

It was never common in the home, and in the office they're still most cabled in.

Ex-NSA guru builds $4m encrypted email biz - but its nemesis right now is control-C, control-V

Disabledt cut & paste eh?

Let's see how you do against screen cap software,

Vultures circle to feast on carcass of free remote desktop service LogMeIn

Regarding VPNs and VNC

They're all great and all - but require configuration and dicking around with firewalls. The attraction is stuff that works over port 80.

LogMeIn: We're stopping our free offering from now

I wouldn't have a problem with going to LogMeIn Pro ...

... except it's kinda expensive.

Microsoft buries Sinofsky Era... then jumps on the coffin lid

A common API is definitely a must.

Also clarity as regards to the path forward for developers.

Google's Nest gobble: Soon ALL your HOME are BELONG to US

This internet of things

Maybe don't plug the fridge into the ethernet/don't put in the WiFi password? That's what I'd do.

Anatomy of a 22-year-old X Window bug: Get root with newly uncovered flaw

Re: What?

Well indeed. But of course all operating systems have holes, so it's academic to take the piss.

I use Linux every day.

Fanbois, prepare to lose your sh*t as BRUSSELS KILLS IPHONE dock

Re: Give some credit where it is deue

Hugle is my new favourite word.

Sega’s Out Run: Even better than the wheel thing

I still remember the first time I saw a sit-down Out Run cab.

Coming from the C64 and other arcade games, it was literally jaw-dropping. The music, presentation, hundreds of scaled sprites bring flung around ... a real classic.

I KNOW how to SAVE Microsoft. Give Windows 8 away for FREE – analyst

Except Apple aren't giving it away for free.

Notice how Mac hardware is that bit more expensive? Partially down to manufacturing, partly down to trying to add exclusivity, partially making up for giving the OS away for tuppence.

eBay head honcho: Amazon drone delivery plan is 'FANTASY'

Re: Yeah...but...

Buy a book online - what were the hurdles to overcome? Books existed, the web existed, technology to process credit cards existed, warehouses and trucks existed. All it needed was somebody to devise a working business model and take a punt. Using drones is just silly. Being possible doesn't mean it will ever be sensible,.

Well of course it is.

Did anyone with even a basic understanding of the science not realise that this was just bullshit kite-flying to get them in the news on Black Monday, and detract attention from stories of working practice unpleasantness in their warehouses? No? Good.

Internet Explorer 11 at it again, breaks Microsoft's own CRM software

Of course it's Dynamics that is the problem

but why let that get in the way of a good old anti-MS whinefest.

Recommendations for private cloud software...

Re: Recommendations for private cloud software...

> Why did the FTP/FTPS/SCP thing not work out?

I would guess that the people on the other end couldn't find their arse with both hands, never mind use a secure transfer method that involved any sort of setup.

Sceptic-bait E-Cat COLD FUSION generator goes on sale for $US1.5m

cough(orbo)cough

The hilarity

Visual Studio 2013: 50 Shades of Grey not a worry for MONSTER dev TOOL

Re: "Too good to be abandoned"

Yes he should immediately embrace the cool shiny thing that all the kids on the internet are talking about this week, regardless of whether it's the best tool for the job or whether the existing application does everything users need.

The lunatic.

Meet the BlackBerry wizardry that created its 'better Android than Android'

To quote Ian Dury ...

... there ain't half been some clever bastards.

Google: Hey, devs - grab ahold of our Chromecast pipe and work it

After we've worked the pipe

do we work the floor, and then work the pipe some more?

In serious leather? Serious chains? Serious clothing?

Native Americans were actually European - BEFORE the Europeans arrived!

Columbus?

Is this the same Columbus that not only didn't discover America but never set foot on what is now the United States?

3D printing: 'Third industrial revolution' or a load of old cobblers?

Right now I can see only specialist application

Medical prosthetics, specialised jewellery, some types of models ... can't see it ever being fast or scalable enough to replace most current industrial processes.

Mind you I confidently predicted, pre Direct 3D, that Windows would never be fast enough for gaming and we'd always have to boot to DOS. So WTF do I know.

Brit graphene maker poised to go public: Yes, wonder stuff WILL float

The potential for a real wide-reaching revolution is here ...

... unlike this 3D printing bollocks.

Microsoft bags another glamorous Office 365 customer

Ah, Notes.

At one time there was nothing that could touch it.

XBOX One SHOT DEAD by Redmond following delivery blunder

So no, your console is not banned

and you should dry your eyes.

Right royal rumpus over remote-control 'RoboRoach'

They're COCKROACHES

Kill them all, I say. They're not puppies FFS.

Backup software for HDD and Cloud

For the local backups ...

I have a Sheevaplug plug computer running Debian Squeeze. This has a TB hard drive off it, NTFS format, Samba shared. Then on the PC I have Beyond Sync. This just watches nominated directories and replicates file changes to the share above.

A steam punk VDU ?

Something like the Entex Adventure Vision / Nintendo Virtual Boy?

A spinning mirror and a vertical line of LEDs (or bulbs) producing this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4gNP74tqsI

Or Logie Baird's 'Televisor' ?

Coding: 'suitable for exceptionally dull weirdos'

This man is both right and wrong.

He's absolutely right that it is pointless trying to teach every kid to be a coder any more than it's a good idea to teach them to be a car mechanic. However, it's a good idea to know how to drive both a car and a computer, and troubleshoot problems up to a point. The latter is what they should be learning.

He's talking out his hole in describing it as a repetitive mechanical skill though. Maybe it is when (if) he does it.

Phantom Flan flinger: The story of the Elan Enterprise 128

First Elan, then Flan ...

E to F ... it's just as well they weren't forced to then take the next letter in another rebranding, or the press would have got extreme mileage out of gags about their 'Glans' ...

PC addict RM finally quits its building habit, plans to axe 300 jobs

Is the RM of Nimbus fame?

Like the Amstrad kit, looked and worked tantalisingly like a PC, yet ran little actual PC software.

NSA-friendly cyber-slurp law CISPA back on the table with new Senate bill

"Saxby Chambliss" ?

Where do they get these names.

Surface 2 MYSTERY: Haswell's here, so WHY the duff battery life?

Re: Ditch Windows, save the planet?

Probably them all, since all the software used to run businesses runs on Windows.

New Development. Where do we go?

Look at your use cases!

Do not listen to people telling you that everything has to be browser and HTML5-based if this thing is designed to run on desktops in the corporate LAN space. You will go through a world of hurt trying to get a UI anything like as rich as a desktop application.

Microsoft watches iPads flood into world's offices: Right, remote desktop clients. It's time

Re: I'm still baffled as to how anyone can do proper work on a tablet.

Well, it's a use-case thing. Anything involving a lot of typing or mousing, and a big screen, use those. Farting about looking at spreadsheets or documents and pinging the odd email off, tablets fine.

They're not.

"This means you can have the odd experience of seeing apps like Excel and Internet Explorer 11 running on an iPad or Android tablet."

They're not running on the tablet. They're running on the server. A client that receives a picture is running on the tablet.

Is this the silicon chip KILLER? Boffins boot up carbon-nanotube CPU

They really need a different three letter acronym ...

... because that one is just asking for japery.