Posts by Paul 77 99 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jun 2009
Hmmm,
I thought MFM wasn't an interface type... There was ST-506 (SASI?), ESDI, the old narrow SCSI that I used during my early career.
But I do remember bodging of IRQ's, including the use of 16bit IRQ's on an 8 bit ISA card... I'm fairly sure little bits of wire and solder were utilised. You could do things then that you probably couldn't get away with now because of the much higher clock speeds.
"At the very least I can see this leading to WP7 taking a lead position in the business market."
Where I work, the people who are given mobile devices for business are currently ALL given Blackberries. The previous phones were all iPhone 3GS units. Nokia & Android not even in the running. I think when it comes to business, RIM have got a very solid product that gets the basics right *for business* - not as a toy, and they will not surrender that position easily - if at all. I think pressure from employees may give a reasonable share of the business market to the iPhone, but I don't think Microsoft will be able to make much impact.
I will never understand why they did not want to continue development of Maemo. Like you I own an N900 (which I bought, unlocked as soon as it came out!) as well as the older N800, which I still occasionally use. But Maemo seems to have stopped all development, other than a little maintenance of some apps by 3rd party developers, so I'm seriously thinking about sticking Android on the N900 - someone has already done the hard work.
Like you, right now, I can't see me ever buying Nokia again. Great shame.
There are some things I *need* Windows for (bespoke database software + timesheet software). So, at work, the primary OS is Linux Mint, with Virtual Box allowing me to run Windows XP and Windows 7 when I need to.
As with many organisations(I imagine) many of the forms I have to fill in are now Word or Excel documents, and I've filled all these in with OpenOffice. Not a problem.
But not all workers are going to want the relative hassle of operating virtualisation software to run a few nasty Windows apps, so I can see that it might just be easier to revert to XP :-(
I think there needs to be, either at the ISP level or higher simple tools that people can use to see if their machine is sending out SPAM. I can't be that difficult for an ISP to profile its users by the amount of traffic on port 25 (or maybe secure SMTP, which I can't remember the number for), and then maybe look a little more closely at the people who are sending unreasonably large amounts of traffic.
Presumably at the higher level, people do notice the IP addresses where much of this traffic is coming from, and there could be a web site like, amIazombie.com or something, which looks at your IP address (in the same way bandwidth checkers do), compares it with a list of known bots/zombies/whatever you want to call them and says yes or no.
Or am I wandering around with my eyes closed and these already exist?
Tux, 'cause there's less chance of a Linux machine being got :-)
I do get annoyed that the only options for aircraft are US... It would be nice if we could actually have an aircraft industry in the UK, that did not just put aircraft together from kits bought from other nations.
I wonder if either of the following is possible:
a) develop a new harrier with more use of composite materials, which would hopefully make it lighter and more stealthy. Because it would be lighter it would be able to carry a heavier weapons load, or more fuel. It would probably still not be supersonic, but it could probably still be very useful in the ground attack or air support role.
b) develop a tailhook version of the Typhoon. I'm sure I'm seeing this from a very simplistic standpoint, but apart from the tailhook and strengthened undercarriage, what changes would need to be made? Don't we have some of these in mothballs somewhere, that we could use as development aircraft?
Just thoughts from someone sitting on a (non naval) ship in the South Atlantic...
Might it not be possible to have a carrier version of the Typhoon or Tornado? I seem to remember a bunch of Typhoons were going to be bought to spend most of their time sitting in a hangar. If so, surely a couple could be used as development aircraft to testnew undercarriage and arrestor hook arrangement.
I would have thought a Tornado could be turned into a pretty good carrier aircraft because of its variable geometry.
But I'm not an expert in these things. And yes, I know it would cost money, but I would imagine that much of this money would be spent in the UK, rather than elsewhere :-)
I think learning a little about low-level programming could help educate a new generation of geeks :-)
But instead of the Beeb, how about using PIC development kits?
At a slightly higher level, my favourite project in my HND Computer Studies course was using C under OS-9 on 68000 boxes to make vector graphics on oscilloscopes using digital to analogue boards - really cool!
I guess its all about getting a computer to do something other than just making something happen on a screen, be that turning LED's off and on, moving a robot arm or controlling a laser :-)
Having lived with one of these (a free upgrade on Three) for a couple of weeks now, I believe it does deserve at least 80%. The keyboard is fine for texting and I've not experienced any bugs with it.
There are two things I have had minor problems with. Sometimes after a long call I've had trouble working out how to hang up - but then I've not read the manual. The other minor niggle is that the microphone on the supplied hands-free kit seems to be a bit insensitive, so that you have to grab the mic bit and bring it fairly close to your mouth.
Some of my inlaws live in Rindge, New Hampshire. Wired broadband stops approximately a mile from their house. The only options are slow dialup or slightly faster satellite broadband - which they have recently gone for, but even that has not been perfect, probably because they're in the middle of forest and the wet leaves attenuate the satellite signals.
There is ONE problem with Linux Mint, versus standard Ubuntu (hopefully someone will tell me I'm wrong and how to get around this :-)
When there are distribution upgrades, Ubuntu tells you a new version is available in the package manager, and you can start the big upgrade process from there.
Linux Mint does not seem to allow this. The only method available seems to be to back up your user area and do a complete new install before restoring your user area.
Or am I wrong?
Okay, the one thing that has been noticeably improved with this is the FM radio. However if it is still not perfect, and sometimes forgets where it is meant to be tuned to - despite showing the correct frequency, I sometimes need to do a re-tune after completing a phone call, because I just get white noise.
I learn Pascal, then C during my time at North Staffs Poly (now Staffordshire University). I've never used Pascal during my career, its pretty much been nothing but C (well, apart from a bit of shell scripting and 68000 assembler in the late '90's). Someone made a comment about Pascal having good structures and pointers... Well, I'm quite happy with structures and pointers under C, myself.
One more thing. Can anyone think of any open source projects that use Pascal?
Would it be possible to have ISP's restrict Internet access, instead of cut it off? The problem with cutting off Internet access is that more and more people are banking online, receiving bills on line and doing the communication online. So, would it be possible for an ISP to set up a really restrictive set of routing rules to only allow IP routing to banks, utilities and online E-mail services?
Okay, I don't have a Mac, so I don't know what I'm talking about :-)
But, from what I've read, the only people who are really gonna have problems with this are the people who are running the older PPC based Mac's and those running Intel-based Mac's who, for some reason or other do not want to upgrade.
So for the PPC group, there's a PPC version of Linux (Yellow Dog) which presumably will run up-to-date and future browsers. Not sure if there is something like Boot Camp, which will allow dual booting in order to still be able to run MacOS...
For Intel-base Mac's, well its easy. You can use Boot Camp or Parellels in order to run a standard Intel version of Linux, and then you can use an up-to-date browser. Sorted :-)
Well, not in the middle of the Atlantic. I too would have like to see a LAN port.
Why on Earth didn't the reviewers have a bash at loading Ubuntu on it? It would have been nice to know if it was more useable under that, and also if the built-in 3G worked out of the box on Linux, like some of the Huaweii devices do.
Perhaps they should have said something like "well, we can't work on this machine, but we can supply you with the spare parts that will be needed in a repair". This assumes that the machine is:
a) diagnosable by them (i.e. they're not too afraid to touch it)
b) not damaged by the smoke, and its something within warranty that has failed.
Just an idea.
Tux, because if you didn't buy these overpriced toys, it wouldn't be a problem... I wonder if Dell do the same...
So, with this IR remote, can you hold the shutter open as long as you want? At the moment I have the Fuji S9500, but it can't do that and I was wondering about getting a DSLR like this. One of the things I would like to be able to do is shoot stars (and space stations) moving across the sky - I've seen the results of other people doing this, and I'd like to do it myself, so the question is, would this camera be able to do that?
Thanks!
Paul
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If it does finally get sold, I think it should change its name because it will no longer have any relationship with the other bits of T-mobile. As it is, I can't seem to reliably get text messages between T-mobile UK and T-mobile USA. You'd think this would be a relatively simple thing to get right, but no, apparently not!!
According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_TFE731) this is not exactly new technology...
Is open rotor the new name for unducted fan then?
Mine's the silver one with the breathing apparatus strapped on, along with the helmet, since I too wonder how additional mechanical complexity will survive long term, on such a large engine.
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