Posts by nichomach

'The Washington elites fear liberty. They fear you'

Colour me shocked...

Republican who had no problem with NSA wiretapping under Bush suddenly dsecides it's a threat to liberty under Obama. Quelle surprise....

Fanbois smash iPhone 5s much sooner than iPhone 3s ... but WHY?

Re: Nokia!

Even the cheaper Lumias are rugged little buggers; my 620's showing little sign of the mistreatment it's received.

Rotten hackers feast on mouldy Java flaws

@lansalot

Well, yes, but the difference is that they *are* updates - they get rid of the code that has a problem when they install, unlike Java, which installs the new code but leaves the old and vulnerable stuff there to be exploited.

How the clammy claws of Novell NetWare were torn from today's networks

He didn't just forget it...

...the trauma erased it from his memory!

HP confirms it's back in the smartphone business

I agree with the notion that they should be focussing on the business market, but I would say that WP8 would be a better fit for that. I have WP8 handsets in use and they are easy to set up, reliable, easy to use, and seem to generate fewer support issues than the various androids that we have in service.

Sean Parker: 'My fairy-tale wedding harmed no trees'

Re: Turd

Pretty certain the three downvotes are from prime examples of homo toolboxus, though...

Re: Turd

You do if you're only putting it there temporarily for cosmetic reasons, doing no damage by doing so, not planting it but placing it in self-contained pots and then taking it away after you're done. Which is what he did. Toolbox? Perhaps, I wouldn't know, but this certainly doesn't make him one.

Questions of taste aside...

...which bluntly are rather irrelevant, and if what they want are pointy ears and dwarves that's up to them, I read the article and he does have a point. There may be many reasons to consider him a tool, but this isn't one of them, and it's readily apparent that there is a *lot* of lazy reporting around this story.

Eurogeddon? Pah. UK banks are more terrified of hackers - big banker

Re: What a wunch ..

This would be an example of the Chewhacker defence - "Never mind the incompetent bankers, look at the hacker! Look at the evil hacker!"

How NSA spooks spaffed my DAD'S DATA ALL OVER THE WEB

Re: Gloves

I suggest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4xw8dJkicI

BBC's Digital Moneypit Initiative known to be 'pile of dung' for years

And the clue is...

""The technology solution for the Programme has so far proven to be valid," the government accountants concluded after an investigation into the technology transfer of assets from Siemens..."

Because obviously the people best equipped to carry out an evaluation of the validity of a technology were the beancounters...

Microsoft parades Windows 8.1, the version you may actually want

@ShelLuser

The problem was that Microsoft didn't listen to an audience at all - they listened to "metrics" provided by crap like the customer feedback apps without putting it into any sort of context.

Microsoft waves white flag: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

Re: people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

"Several hundred"'s over-egging it a little - Office Home & Business includes Outlook and that's less than £150 ex VAT.

BOFH: Go on, beancounter, type DROP TABLE asset;

Re: XKCD reference

Ah, Little Bobby Tables, a perennial favourite...

The Tomorrow People jaunt back to the airwaves

Re: That awesome Tomorrow People theme

I'd forgotten that, although judging from the credits for Fringe, JJ Abrams hadn't... Not that that's in any sense a bad thing, mind.

Biz bods: Tile-tastic Windows 8? NOOO. We lust after 'mature' Win 7

Re: And?

I could live with that - if they give my users something that's a non-terrifying incremental shift from previous versions, which they can use without extensive retraining, is policy-configurable and so forth, *then* I can see it getting a look-in. Not before, not until.

I don't know where...

...that 38% that prefer Windows 8 are coming from, but the initial reaction here when users have been confronted with a Windows 8 UI is complete vapour-lock; people draw comparisons with the Office changeover to the Ribbon, but this is not that. This is a hard mental bluescreen followed by a request for "proper Windows". So we'll stay on 7, thanks.

Stop, naturally, followed by INACCESSIBLE_USER_INTERFACE...

Google tells Microsoft to yank its new WinPhone YouTube app

Re: Interoperability?

Google didn't implement ActiveSync to benefit Microsoft; they implemented it because they didn't have anything that worked as well, and it was cheaper to license it than to home brew an alternative.

Re: Who feels sorry for Microsoft ?

We have had an *assload* of UEFI machines delivered, with secure boot. Then we turned it off. Also, we can turn on Legacy mode in the BIOS with no hassle. "UEFI enforcement" my hairy backside.

Re: Google does not even have the choice

Then they should probably allow Microsoft to serve the ads. Sorted.

Re: Genius from MS

Well said, El Andy.

Copyright minister admits: Google has better access to No. 10 than me

You know that thing...

...when you're arguing with someone, and it's clear that they're not replying to what you *actually* said, but rather to what they expect or want you to have said? That sounds *exactly* like this.

Fraudster gets ten years after selling fake 'ionic charge' bomb detectors

@RP

I know what you mean, but (leaving aside the fact that vehicular manslaughter/homicide doesn't exist in the UK) he was convicted of fraud, becuase that's what the judge here had the ability to do. If you want him to serve time for the *deaths* that he caused, I agree, but that is something that should be dealt with by those countries *where* they occurred and after he is extradited to them to face trial (which I would wholeheartedly support). We can't just make up laws on the fly when we find the existing ones inconvenient; then they wouldn't be laws at all.

Regarding your example, we actually already have specific provision for manslaughter as a consequence of an unlawful act - have a butcher's at http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/h_to_k/homicide_murder_and_manslaughter/ , specifically the section on Unlawful Act Manslaughter.

Ten ancestors of the netbook

Re: Libretto :)

You wouldn't have been; I worked at a place where we had a pool one that we used for network diags and taking off to remote sites. IIRC, ours was something a P233MMX, and we had to install a 3Com CardBus ethernet card to hook it up to the network. It was a little gem to use, very capable, easy to hook up to monitors, mice, keyboards and so forth, so we could bob over to a site with something less bulky than a paperback, and have a decently powerful fully-featured PC when we got there. I still kind of miss it *sniff*.

Spies catch Acer's Windows 8-incher before it hides

Looks tempting

That's a 1.8GHz dual-core hyperthreading Atom, so I think performance is probably going to be pretty decent.

Shaky liftoff for Sputnik: Dell's Linux lappie runs its own cloud, ish

Re: Multiple desktops on windows...

@Fatman - My experience has been that, actually, most Windows users are perfectly capable of finding whatever applications they want. By the way, could you perhaps post using the word "Microsoft", but spelt with a dollar sign? That one always cracks me up...

@Robert Long 1 - Re: Multiple desktops on windows...

Yes, only 4 - which matches Workspaces on the Dell; there are other options for Windows, however, free and paid for:

http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/ - up to 9

http://virt-dimension.sourceforge.net/ - Unlimited

http://vdm.codeplex.com/ - Unlimited

...and so forth.

I'm such a helpful soul... :-P

Multiple desktops on windows...

*cough*

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc817881 - OK, so you have to download and install it, but it's there and free.

Gartner: RIP PCs - tablets will CRUSH you this year

Tablets will continue

to sell loads until everyone who wants one has one. Then they'll drop off too. Make hay while the sun shines, slab shifters.

RAF graduates first class of new groundbased 'pilots'

Re: What's That Whirring Noise?

They would have to find all the bits and weld them back into an aircraft first, after this current mob's act of spiteful vandalism.

@Derezed Re: next step - outsourcing

Two words: area bombing...

'To employers, Jobs would just seem like a jerk in bad clothing'

@AC 10:59

Thanks for taking the hit for us there...

Steve Jobs to supervise iPhone 6 FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE

Re: Ummm...

Perhaps, but Nokia's are a *lot* better.

Are the PCs all getting a bit old at your office? You're not alone

Re: Congratulations PC makers! @Ledswinger

I'm on board with *some* of what you say, but I think you're glossing over a couple important practicalities. £300-£400 business laptops typically don't have proper docking connectors (we're looking at Dell Vostros or HP Probook S machines) and thus would need something like generic USB docks (which I've used and some are OK). Some support external monitors, some don't, but typically you're looking at another hundred or so for those that do (or do adequately) - and these require the user to use their laptop's PSU, plug in a USB lead also, perhaps a network cable (although the Kensingtons we've been using have built-in networking), and generally do not work with the laptop's own video adapter (which can result in reduced graphics performance). Also, if you're running a big screen, it'd be handy if that dock were the USB3 version and your laptop supported USB3. A laptop that supports a proper docking solution is generally north of £450 ex VAT, the docking stations themselves (with built-in power supply, NIC and video out from the laptop's video adapter) are frequently north of £90 for a basic dock, another £90 for a monitor stand and so on - the costs mount up (I am assuming that one already has a monitor). Conversely, I have upgraded well-specced laptops that were three, four, even 5 years old, that work with docking stations that we already have and the users have been delighted with the effects of the £130 I spent doing so. I would also note that if one's now buying cheap machines you have to factor in a shorter lifespan for those as well.

Reg man bested in geek-to-geek combat - in World War 3 nerve centre

It's all very well giving the location

...but what's the altitude?

Seriously, though, good writeup and it sounds excellent.

Freeview telly channels face £240m-A-YEAR shakedown by Ofcom

So the net effect of this is...

....that even if there *is* broadcast TV after this charge is imposed, we won't be able to receive it on our existing kit, forcing us to throw out anything with a freeview receiver built into it to replace them with other boxes to do exactly the same at our expense. Sod the £200m p.a. charge, Ofcom's plan will force all of us to pay for it, chucking out our tellies, DVRs, freeview boxes, freeview enabled disc player/recorders of whatever flavour just so they can show a nice little earner to the treasury. Ofcom truly are useless bastards.

Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan

@Tony

That is a daft reason; it suggests that a Western cannot be serious, for a start, and that's just bloody ridiculous. The Searchers, Cheyenne Autumn, yes, High Noon, The Shootist, ANYTHING by Peckinpah, you seriously think they don't say anything about the human condition? Hell's teeth, the fact that High Noon translates so well to a different planet at hundreds of years remove indicates that its themes are universal. Suggesting that a sci-fi movie that deals with those same themes can't be serious is bizarre to say the least.

"Argo....

...&%#@ yourself!"

Health pros: Alcohol is EVIL – raise its price, ban its ads

Re: Hahahahahahahahahaha

The Kings Fund estimated the additional cost of smoking related conditions at about £1.5bn per annum, last time they published any research. *Duty alone* on tobacco was raking in over £8bn and VAT was charged on the total price including duty, so that added maybe another couple of billion or so (although that VAT might have been charged on whatever else the smoker might have bought instead of tobacco). The £8bn is utterly tobacco dependent, however.

Look out! Peak wind is coming, warns top Harvard physicist

@ Cipher

Given that nanchatte was responding to:

"But that gets all the Guardian-reading, leather-elbow-patched, left-wing, bleeding-heart-liberal-hippies knickers in a twist, because the fail to understand anything about required power output and risk!"

...your whingeing about "vulgarity and crude ad hominem" is, at best, misplaced. The "politics of the world" are a lot more compex than you allow, and nanchatte makes a very good point, which your own response tends to support. nanchatte is posting in support of nuclear power (despite living near Fukushima, and adopting a commendably calm and balanced approach), and merely noting that there appears to be rather a lot of lazy stereotyping with regard to the issue. But, one supposes, you have "no need to let facts confuse you, you have your mind made up..." eh?

Council IT bod in the dock for flogging scrap work PC parts

Re: @Terry Barnes

Right, yes, because obviously the problem here is that we have laws against theft, not that someone broke them.

Re: @Cameron Colley

No, it marks Holwell down as someone breaking the law and consequently probably not someone particularly concerned with whether the kit was even safe, let alone whether it worked. It marks the council spokesbod as working for an organization that is responsible and law abiding. Guess what, if you start from the basis that you're half-inching your stock from stuff that belongs to your employer, and you're not concerned with niceties such as safety, whether it works or not and you build into your "business model" that utter disregard for both your employer *and* the luckless schmuck that you're flogging the stuff to, yes, you can make money at it. That doesn't mean that you're right, just unprincipled.

Re: Cameron Colley @El Presidente

That's what a lot of commentards don't seem to get - if the Council flogs old kit, they are doing so in the course of a business and *they are responsible for it*, andin most cases cannot exclude all liability for it.

Don't Menshn the snore: Chick-lit queen's jabber site killed in its sleep

"I'm heartbroken"

...said no-one at all.

The truth on the Navy carrier debacle? Industry got away with murder

Re: Lewis misses the point

I thought the problem at Jutland was shells that DID go bang, all of them, at once, along with the battlecruisers containing them...?

Don't like your cell network? Legal unlocking ends TONIGHT in US

@James Micallef - Re: Legal, illegal, scheissegal

I'm dubious of the logic behind the proposition that, say, a Nexus 7 changes from a tablet to a phone merely by being bought with or without HSPA.

Microsoft may be readying Outlook for ARM – or not

@AC Re: It would be insane not to release this retrospectively for RT

Given that I can pick up my mail from and synch my calendar and contacts with our company Exchange server on *most* Android devices (I don't use Apple) and can't on RT, then your comment is simply daft.

Cameron's speech puts UK adoption of EU data directive in doubt

Re: If the Conservatives win the next General Election

The LibDems are going to cease to exist as a force at the next election. They've alienated their own voters, anyone who might have jumped ship from Labour and a whole raft of undecideds. Disenchanted Tories will go UKIP, disenchanted LibDems of a lefty persuasion will go Labour or Green (possibly Plaid in Wales, maybe some will head SNP in Scotland - assuming Scotland is still part of the UK) and only the neoliberal orange-bookers'll be left. And good riddance to the treacherous bastards.

Engineers are cold and dead inside, research shows

Re: Amazing

They probably should have gone for Duke though - "Don't have time to play with myself!"

Re: Doctors caring & empathetic?

Because she gets paid a metric fuckton more than a mechanic. Because human beings are generally assumed to be a little more important than cars. Because humans actually do have feelings and can be hurt whereas cars can only be broken or fixed. However, I would note that as an anaesthetist it's somewhat unlikely that she'll actually have to deal with people in any state other than unconsciousness (unless she screws up, in which case, hey, Adomako here we come), so she'll probably be able to go through her entire career without it being an issue.

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