Posts by Roger Greenwood 1123 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Sep 2006
Dear commentards above,
We don't give a fig about you, the interested, the educated and the engaged. You are almost too few to count. We have largely stitched up the education, retail and business sectors in most of the world to ensure that the vast majority of people are not even aware that an alternative desktop OS even exists. Apple is a brand, Google is a brand, Microsoft is a brand, that's what matters, people buy and trust brands thanks to modern marketing. We take orders from businesses by the thousand for each little winger like you on some obscure tech comments page. It's not that we don't like you, we just don't care.
Yours,
Microsoft.
Even when you hand dig, in many places the services are very close together and a 6" cast iron pipe looks like any other - Gas or Water? Yes the gas men drilled the wrong one so everyone down the hole got wet. Cue lots of angry local residents as the water had to be cut off to fix it. Mapping isn't going to solve that.
Sadly I agree. The solution could have been to force shops to make it clear what you were paying for the OS when you bought your new shiny. Could still be done, but of course it's not in anyone's financial interest except the user. Last 2 laptops I bought (for home) came OS free which is much easier to find these days.
For a business the initial OS cost is almost irrelevant so no pressure there either.
Could be, I genuinely can't remember. For well over 25 years now, when anyone asks for DOB (especially online) I ask myself how could they check? If I don't think they can then I fake it, usually 1/1/70 but several others. So far not been challenged, and it's nice to get all those birthday wishes several times a year.
Fun indeed. 48V probably won't kill you if you touch it, 400V is a different beast and once a short gets going (and it surely will) the effects will be spectacular. Fusing is one thing but arc fault detection might also be a good idea. I sort of see why DC is attractive for final distribution though - reducing use of all those pesky heavy and lossy AC transformers.
There are some folks partly there, I know a few. No passport, no driving license, no smart phone. In some cases they only got a bank account a few years ago so pretty minimal footprint. They are working age for a few more years, not everyone has embraced technology like those reading this. How do they manage? Mostly cash, no credit and use family and friends (e.g. we send payslips by email so they ask a family member).
Mine is a plug-in so I could dip my toe in the electric car driving world. It is still a complete mess of different charging and billing systems of course (UK) but I can imagine it working great eventually as long as we shift away from this obsession to always refuel on demand in seconds. Endpoint charging is a long way away though - just look at any hotel car park, hundreds of spaces but few if any charging points. I always ask but am rarely successful.
Vans and wagons are different - they often need to go long distances all day every day but do not seem to be discussed much in the mainstream media.
p.s. our works forklift is electric and has been for decades, bit slow though.
I know that English is a wonderfully flexible language and that meanings change over time, but I am sorry that this particular word has changed so much in only 64 years. The article could have said "noticed" and most would understand.
Example of one version of the original definition:- "Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed – to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience."
My coat? The one with "grumpy old man" on the back.... ;-)
"There is a good chance that was from PC Pro magazine... And I helped put that together, and I wrote the accompanying 2 part feature."
There is more than a good chance Liam, and I am still a subscriber, mainly for the real world stories at the back. Anyway thanks, it has been my main OS at home since those days.
I wonder where they got that idea?
Judith : [on Stan's desire to be a mother] Here! I've got an idea: Suppose you agree that he can't actually have babies, not having a womb - which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans' - but that he can have the *right* to have babies.
Francis : Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother... sister, sorry.
Reg : What's the *point*?
Francis : What?
Reg : What's the point of fighting for his right to have babies, when he can't have babies?
Francis : It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
Reg : It's symbolic of his struggle against reality.
(Life of Brian, 1979)
Well the alternative (when overloaded or blocked) was to let it flow down the street so I think those victorian engineers knew what they were doing. We may not like it today, but it is working as designed. As in Russia maybe we could have spent a little more time upgrading in recent decades.....
"The difference between a basic shampoo and dish soap is the coloring and scent for the most part."
I keep saying "it's just soap" when referring to many cleaning products and am then corrected every time due to the huge difference in price. Marketing:- you won this one.
Yes I have worked in a soap factory, very slippery underfoot.
We used to have a "purple plunger of doom", awarded to the last person to fsck it up (3ft handle, plunger on the end). No one wants to work next to that for long.
We also used to have a huge clock, about 2ft diameter, awarded to the last one who was late for work. These things are jokey ways to keep people focussed and at least aware of consequences so I hope it works for him.
Who says computers can't be fun.
Some decades ago (college course) we were introduced to various project/programming/data analysis methodologies e.g top down, bottom up, JSP (Jackson Structured Programming) etc etc. Our lecturer was real old school so he also told us about the one method we really needed to learn and would always find a use for:- JFDI. Still use it today.
Such a good line.
The answer of course is that the cost/ease of retrieval is directly proportional to the importance of the data.
Unless you want stuff to remain a secret, then it will become public knowledge a few seconds after typing/copying/saving etc.
Around here (within sight of Emley), modellers normally only fly with line of sight on relatively clear days. Hang gliders similar, some launch from the same hill as Holme Moss mast or other hills around but don't normally go cross country. The nearby airfield (Crossland Moor, also known as Huddersfield International Airport) handles larger light aircraft but they look at the maps as pointed out above. Balloons pass by occasionally, but again on calm clear days. None of the above should be flying at night, and we are pretty much smack on the approach to MAN and sometimes LBA so there are various other limits. A large, well known, static mast is the least of your worries.
By definition half the world is below average on lots of measures, including resistance to bullshit marketing (I work with some). But they still have money to spend and are a valuable part of society. The rest of us (ahem) may make different choices, but we are in the minority and we probably spend less on consumer goods anyway.
It got a bit complicated in the 90s. A friend worked for a local council (computing dept), at one point they were running 3 very separate systems to do the same thing:- Old rates + business rates (tax on property), council tax (which replaced rates and was applied individually to every adult), new rates system when council tax was dumped. They all had to run in parallel for many years due to non-payers and those in arrears. Anyway it kept him busy.
