Posts by Graham Lockley 442 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Aug 2006
So Seagate get their wrist slapped for something any computer savvy person knew anyway. 1Gb is 1024mb, always has been and always will be. If not then why arent memory chips and various other components measured as 1000 ? Or does this mean my PC has been 'upgraded' and now has 2.1Gb of memory ? In other words, why should HD manufacturers be allowed to count differently from all the other component makers !
'I'm with Bulldog, an LLU line. Yes, Bulldog!!! :-) I put my successes down to the fact that I'm not with BT.'
Im afraid you only hand off in the exchange, the cable up to Bulldogs equipment is still the same as everyone elses and this is the area that causes most problems. When you went LLU, the wires between you and the exchange didnt get magically altered :)
Most of the above chatter simply illustrates, for me, why Linux will struggle to enter the home and displace MS.
Me at PC World: I want a computer
Salesman:Certainly sir, heres a nice Dell, what OS would you like on it ? Windows or Linux ?
Me: Err Linux ?
Salesman: Certainly sir, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Mandriva... (100 names later) ? And which grapical front end to go with it?
Me: Sod it, cripple it with Vista
And until all the Nux geeks can stop bitching it will remain that way for Joe Public. In the meantime, good luck Ubuntu and I look forward to a really successful launch of Stoned Stoat :)
(oh I have a TM on that, just in case LOL)
'Where the BLOODY HEll are my 33Mhz, 32bit PCI Slots?!?'
Getting scarcer on all mobos Im afraid, most stuff we used to slap on PCI now tends to get stuck on USB 2.0 (modems/video capture/tv tuners etc.) or built on to the board (sound/LAN etc.)
Yeah it sucks a little, the inside of the pc has the clutter reduced but it gets transferred to the clutter of USB cables that hang off most modern PC's
How can they consider this medium as mainstream when you have to hook up your player to a broadband connection to get a disk to work ? Guess what ? NOT EVERYONE HAS AN INTERNET CONNECTION.
Even if they did, do they imagine that the average joe would realise they need a firmware update ? How many 'man-in-the-street' types would actually understand what firmware was ?
Come back in a few years when you have sorted this sh*t out and Joe Soap can buy a player that just works.
"The home market is clearly the driving force behind Vista so far and they won't have the availability of volume licence keys."
The ready patched ISO's of Vista are freely available with volume keys, automatic updates work fine etc. If anything its easier to install one of these rather than a genuine copy of Vista, no buggering about with activation etc.
Everything Ive read so far just convinces me that in reality we have no idea how many copies are installed, as opposed to the number actually sold.
Seems that there are two things that will fill El Reg's postbag. Stories about Christianity and stories about Apple/iPhone etc.
Maybe the hacks at Vulture Central could invent a piece about Jobs offering an iPhone to God (as one deity to another).
Now the reactions to that would be fun to watch :)
Reading through the above only reinforces my belief that laptops etc. shouldnt be treated as anything other than disposable computers. I have a (4 year old) Acer laptop that (mostly) works but is used for those times when the main PC is unavailable or not convenient. On the other hand my main PC was bought from Escom (remember them ?) back in 1989 and has slowly evolved into what it is now without the trauma of losing everything at any point. OK so the floppy is the only original part (I think it still works OK, been so long since I tried it) but at no point have I had to start afresh or send it off for a few weeks only to have all my data wiped.
"We're guessing that our overseas readers won't have access to NBC Direct. The service isn't likely to be accessible outside the U.S. Our overseas always get the long the end of the stick."
Well a little bit of IP redirection/spoofing would probably sort that but really... who cares ?
Firstly, I cant think of a single TV show that originated in the USA that Ive felt a desperate urge to watch as soon as its aired (actually very few Ive wanted to watch at all but thats another story)
Secondly, if I did have such a desperate urge then lets consider the choices. I could download from the official NBC site and be able to watch ( for a week only ) an ad laced programme or I could download a pirated version via a torrent with no adverts and no expiry .
Difficult choice ?
"now if only he knew DImac too he would be invincible (if you get that one, congratulations your as sad as me!)"
Goddamit Im a 10th Dan Master and Im not as sad as you.
If anyone wants to disagree they will find me down at the Flying Swan in Gods country, ready to take all the posers in the poll on.
"If you've ever wondered what it's like to trip on acid"
then go out and do it,
Anyone who has actually taken acid knows that the visuals are only part of the 'trip'. I suspect the VR stuff here could be fun for 30 mins or so but ulimately dull as the effects become predictable after a while.
Of course I wouldnt say no to a quick test drive just to prove my point :)
'FYI: I found NTL/VM's cable offering to be wonderful.'
Having just spent the last 3 months using a cable connection, I would love to know what number I have to call to get a service that actually approaches the 4mb that is sold. Packet/Traffic shaping is so bad that after about 4pm the service is almost unusable. No way am I going to call tech support only to be charged 25p a min to be told that the reason the BBC website is timing out (on the frontpage FFS, not a streaming media page) is the Beebs server problem ! My 512k Pipex connection was faster than this POS !
Another to add to the list. Now you can add to your security fears the possibilty that some war-driving geek will hack your remote and change channels for you !
Wonder how long after these things are on sale that the first exploits are publicised and 'service packs' are released ;)
Being no great fan of either McAfee or AOL I have to say the product appears to be free, the only requirement is an AOL e-mail address which is free to sign up for.
Ive already got an AOL addy and the prospect of something for free was very tempting but past experience with McAfee has left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth so I will pass on this offer.
Ok I've read all the 'research' and read all the personal statements above and the only common factor I've spotted is 'sugary foods'.
Im not a biologist ( or any other kind of 'ist') but isnt sugar a 'now' fuel to our bodies ?
Having said that, I worked as a lab technician to the soft drinks arm of a major multinational back in eighties and saw some of the coal based dyes that were added and wasnt happy then with it.
I thought Tartrazine had been banned along with one we called Supra Green ?
'So, those that have had free email services from Orange, Tiscali or whoever, think yourselves lucky that your ISP has been generous enough to give you access to your email for such a great length of time since you stopped actually sending them any money.'
Ok, so you are no longer a customer and you no longer donate to the coffers so you have no right to expect an e-mail service for free.
In that case would someone please explain to me how Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo and all the other hundreds of FREE mail providers survive ?
Maybe on advertising revenue ?
I dont actually care either way but it seems a little foolish of Orange to stop a service to non-customers that costs very little and yet may provide good rep as being trustworthy. Sadly the bean-counters cannot put a dollar sign over that so it probably wasnt considered.
Given that the legal age of consent varies from country to country, to actually try and remove torrents based on a 'child porn' tag would be very difficult. Google may be trying to do something but hey, they have slightly more resources (and probably more kiddie porn on the books).
Its a difficult situation for PB but would I be correct in demanding my local Telco blocks all calls that paedophiles make to their victims ? Surely better that users pass on details to local police forces of torrents that may contain child abuse images ? Simply banning such torrents from PB wouldnt stop them from being shared, reporting their existance at least gives the plod a chance to get the culprits.
'Morality may be a quaint term to cretins like Himod. Hopefully he does not represent *any* of the others at Pirate Bay.'
Maybe you would like to consider that statement the next time you download an MP3 track or film using torrents or similar, Himod isnt questioning morality or defending rape etc. its simply the same defence that ISP's have used for years (and newspapers/tv/radio etc.) e.g. we are dumb bit-pipes/blank shields. If you are going to hold PB responsible for every torrent they index then Google is in DEEP shit :)
'Just like back in 1995, when Bubba Bill Clinton signed off on the selling of VERY sensative ICM Missle,' <snip>
To paraphrase a chart single of recent years ' Who let the Trolls out ? '
Maybe if 'Phreaky' had employed a spiel chicker program I may have got further into his argument.
While its very interesting watching the debate about how useful/ vulnerable this 'weapon' is likely to be, personally I doubt it will ever see anything more than token active service. It all just smacks of Ronnie Ray-Guns Star Wars all over again. Another excuse for the contractors to feed at the trough and deliver a defense for a problem that doesnt exist. While it may make (some of) the American public proud that they have such inventive weapons I doubt it will make the average grunt in Iraq/Afghanistan/<insert next victim here> feel much safer while he runs the daily gamut of snipers and car bombs. Unless of course they develop an air-support version of course....
' This is Black Hawk, please get the Big Bird to vapourise the building in front of us...'
Now Im scared !
... the Teleophiles
People claiming that the higher frame rate/refresh rate of Brand X makes a noticable difference sounds suspiciously like the audiophile arguments that have bored me for years. As with audio (as Apple et al found out) , someone will figure out that what the great unwashed (and with regards to TV that includes me) want is 'just good enough'.
Now maybe some kind company would broadcast something worth watching on these super-tv's. Or a way of making all those Youtube vids watchable :)
I got warned back in the late Seventies, a policeman warned that he could arrest me for the t-shirt I was wearing.
I was dead proud of that shirt, it was blagged from the launch party for Stiff records and read 'If it aint Stiff it aint worth a fuck'
Didnt stop me wearing it and I never heard a complaint from anyone else.
'f I wanted to watch this service (which thankfully I don't) I would be up in arms about how unfair they are.
They have tied the TV package to their broadband package so you can only watch these matches if you take their DSL as well.'
Yeah, why should I have to deal with the dirty diggers outfit, Sly, or Bransons mob, Vergin' (on the farcical) just to watch something that they have exclusive rights to ?
The above two outfits should be forced to unbundle the broadband/TV/phone packages they offer. Vergin should be made to allow other ISP's access to their network and Sly should be made to give other TV operators access to their satellites.
I wont hold my breath waiting for it to happen tho :)
Why isnt the following the first thing that came to mind when you read the story ?
Baldrick: Right, how about a nice meal, while you chew it over?
Blackadder: [suspicious] What's on the menu?
Baldrick: Rat. [shows him a big black rat] Saute or fricassee.
Blackadder: [peers at the rat] Oh, the agony of choice. Saute involves...?
Baldrick: Well, you take the freshly shaved rat, and you marinade it in a puddle for a while.
Blackadder: Hmm, for how long?
Baldrick: Until it's drowned. Then you stretch it out under a hot light bulb, then you get within dashing distance of the latrine, and then you scoff it right down.
Blackadder: So that's sauteing, and fricasseeing?
Baldrick: Exactly the same, just a slightly bigger rat.
Disregarding the UI (some nice takes on a few ideas that have been around for a while) the Iphone wont be on my upgrade list for the same reason a lot of others wont be, its closed. I suppose as phone users (and possibly computer users) people tend to fall into roughly two camps. The ones whose phones (or computers) are pretty much the same as 'out of the box' after 12 months and those whose devices are barely recognisable. Im firmly with the latter camp, the ability to add or remove functionality from a device so that it suits my needs is important to me. For those who have no need/desire for this then the Iphone certainly looks like a worthy device, but as Ive said, its not for me. Oh and the final nail is the lack of 3G, bored moments surfing the web would become as pleasant as using a 14.4k modem again :)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
