Posts by John 104

Watch out VW – French prosecutors are pulling on the rubber gloves

Re: Let he that is without sin...

Similar to the Tour De France...

Boeing builds British Airways 787 Dreamliner in 4 minutes

Re: Nice video.

@ raveniz, all

You are all not paying attention. the tail fin is not CGI. It is pre-painted. Notice during the tail end of the video when they mask the aircraft for painting, its completely covered. Could be that while they can easily paint the fuselage and wings, it might not be cost effective to rig a painting gun to go as high. Or it may just be cheaper to have them painted during the assembly of the stabilizer.

Spirit of Steve Fosset lives on as glider is poised to soar to 90,000ft

Re: thermal cycling

@Denarius

Oh yes, I had forgotten to mention the rotor. On the hill we used to fly in, if your glider got stuck in the rotor during retrieval, it was a walk down the other side of the hill and hoping that it didn't hit too hard...But then again, 5 minute epoxy and masking tape do wonders. :)

Re: Spinning for 50,000?

Very cool project. Nothing new, though, I'm afraid. All that is happening here is a glider is taking advantage of a massive amount of ridge lift. Obviously the altitude is a big deal and will require special consideration for the airframe and crew area. Beyond that, the same things that happen to the little RC gliders I used to fly on a local hill side will happen to them: They will fly aloft, probably back and forth across the pressure wave, gaining the altitude they want. When they get to their desired height, as has been done before, they will spin their way down to a more reasonable altitude prior to landing. Flight surfaces will continue to function as long as their is a pressure wave to fly upon. When that peters out, I would expect the aircraft to stall. If that is the case, just ease the elevator back until control is regained. If it spins, opposite rudder and stick forward. .

Still, very cool anyway. :)

Massive global cooling process discovered as Paris climate deal looms

Re: Let me be the first to say..

@AC

And please no scientist claims that it is settled science - they investigate, they test, they research. But 'it's difficult' doesn't equal 'so we won't bother'

Problem is, true scientists aren't the ones saying it is settled science. It's the ones bought and paid by governments and large corporations who are saying this. Oh, and politicians.

As stated here many times, use the scientific method. It's pretty irrefutable. However, that isn't what is going on.

Re: So-

The brakes on the gravy train are broken. There's no stopping it now, no matter what facts you bring to the table.

Arabic-speaking cyberspies targeting BOFHs with crude but effective attacks

Thank you Captain Obvious

IT personnel are targeted because they work with elevated permissions inside organisations necessary to manage and operate IT infrastructures.

Managing DevOps in the hybrid cloud

Yawn

Another DevOps article for a technique that "everyone" is trying, no one can implement correctly/successfully, and is the only way to keep your job in IT or else. Really, it should be called Dev-Dev, since they run the show and Ops is always an afterthought or perceived as blocking because they set realistic expectations.

*Happily NOT in the SaaS space anymore and enjoying my continuing career in IT - Without Dev-Ops.

FOUR STUNNING NEW FEATURES Cook should put in the iPHONE 7

Re: USB3

@DougS

You obviously have not been paying attention for the last decade. Apple will never - I mean NEVER adopt an industry standard connector for their mobs. They will always have something unique that is, slightly slower, interesting to look at, cheap to produce and expensive to buy, therefore causing you to spend money at either the Apple store (money direct to their pockets with 1000% markup), or to get one from a 3rd party (also money direct to their pockets via licensing the technology). They have been doing this for years and there is no reason for them to stop with this easy cash cow.. Remember FireWire?

You said 'muppet'

hehe, huh huh

More email misery and pillory for Hillary as FBI starts quizzery

Re: She hired the wrong IT guy

D-BAN would have worked nicely in this instance. Followed by a fresh install of 2 or 3 operating systems in multi boot configuration to thoroughly scramble any remaining traces. And then D_BAN a few more times for good measure.

That's government cheese for you though.

iOS 9 security blooper lets you BYPASS PINs, eye up photos, contacts

Doing it Wrong

If you are entering your pin incorrectly and then asking Siri to tell you the time, you are obviously doing it wrong. Just don't do those things and your device won't be vulnerable....

Shameful

At least on Android you don't get to look at photos when you bring up your camera app. It politely asks you to enter your pin or swipe pattern to unlock.

Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows: The spirit of Clippy lives on

No one?

Seriously?

Some will remember Clippy and “it looks like you’re writing a [suicide] letter"

There. Fixed that for you.

CHEAT! Volkswagen chief 'deeply sorry' over diesel emission test dodge

Re: "carmakers skirt air pollutant rules by circumventing emissions testing"

Yes, lets get batteries on the cheap and put them in our cars. Because having lead acid batteries by the billion headed to waste facilities in the next 10-20 years is going to be SO much better for the environment.

Ahmed's clock wasn't a bomb, but it blew up the 'net and Zuckerberg, Obama want to meet him

Best troll ever.

Asus ZenBook UX305: With Windows 10, it suddenly makes perfect sense

Re: For those interested in Linux:

Thanks for the info.

Definitely interested in a linux distro for one of these little guys.

My wife's PC has Win10 on it and I really don't like it. The whole thing is designed to drive you to the app store and buy stuff to make it work. Sorry, but why are we now being upsold on things that were given away for decades?

Oh, and the interface is still annoying. Not as bad as 8/8.1, but not something I care for.

Re: ?

Also, note that the SSD in the 305 is an m.2, so if your current kit is larger it ain't gonna fit. :)

Re: Thanks!

Wow. that is quite a price difference for a lower spec. That's $300-$400 more depending on your sale luck. Blah.

Re: ?

If you are comfortable fiddling with device drivers, this shouldn't be an issue. Windows will freak on first boot, install what drivers it has and the rest you'll have to do manually.

Re: Thanks!

No, taxes aren't included in that price. Is VAT included in their list price in the UK? I always assumed it was before tax, but what do I know?

At $699, figure an additional $50-70 depending on where you live. Most places are around 8-9%. Find an online retailer out of state and you won't pay at all. :)

Re: Thanks!

At least the SSD is serviceable... :)

And actually, having the wireless module be a FRU means it can be kept up to date as the spec improves.

Thanks!

I'm saving my extra cash for one of these and this is a better review (more real world) than what I have read on Anand, etc. And good non-marketing pics also.

Here in the states, the 305 is 8GB RAM and a 256SSD. Oh, and the price is better at $699. Microsoft store has them for $100 off when they have them as well. Sorry. :)

As for build quality, I have an original 701 and it still looks like the day I took it out of the box. (Pity about the low res screen though.)

Looking forward to dumping Win10 (which I hate) and running Ubuntu (until mint is working on it).

Re: Checking it out under Linux is a good idea.

Not Mint. A few reviews on the net show that Ubuntu is the way to go. Most can't get Mint to get past the boot loader no matter what they try.

'To read this page, please turn off your ad blocker...'

“Sorry ad-blockers, I assume you mean well and you have a point about page-load times and ads junked up with tracking tools and Trojan horses and the like,” wrote Advertising Age editor Ken Wheaton, recently. “But theft is still theft, even if it's dressed up as some sort of digital Robin Hood act. You're not just interfering with pixels, you're interfering with business.”

Hey, Ken. Get fucked.

Re: What next

yes. You would be stealing because you are depriving the adverts from delivering their worthless junk.

Netflix to complete global rollout, add 120+ countries by end of 2016

Slowly Failing

I've been a subscriber since the early 2000's. I've watched the streamable content decline steadily over the years. Less and less classics and current content, and more and more B and C movies and foreign films. Oh, and lots of TV shows that I don't care about. They need to expand less and grow content more. Then they will keep subscribers. I'm about ready to cancel and just use Prime...

Wileyfox Swift: Brit startup budget 'droid is the mutt's nuts

Fail

Any handset that is made today that isn't waterproof is a big fail in my book. It can be done, has been done, and should be done. These devices spend time in the elements and around kitchens and bathrooms...

BOFH: Power corrupts, uninterrupted power corrupts absolutely

Strangely Appropriate

We had an unseasonably powerful storm here (Seattle) last week. Sure enough the power took a dip and our UPS took over. And immediately fell on its face due to 7 of the 40 batteries having high resistance. Into bypass mode it went and a call to the supplier to come out and re-wire the remaining units to get us back to filtered power.

Of course, the drop wasn't enough to trip the ATS and fire the generator. Just a sensitive Eaton and a brace of the cheapest that could be found.

Unfortunately for the on call engineer, there are no pubs within walking distance...

Re: This rings too true...

Best drink those pints in the fridge before they warm up then...

Glaring flaw in Apple car hype-gasm: The iGiant likes to make money

What I'd like to see...

Is auto companies providing a display that gives you the option of using whatever platform you want. Or, better yet, just a display that interfaces with your phone. No extra cost to the buyer, and no huge layout for the manufacturer. Simple! Which is why it won't happen...

Twenty years since Windows 95, and we still love our Start buttons

Re: The public accepted Windows 95

@andy Non

Then you, sir, are the target "user" for Windows. There were and are all sorts of ways to get things to happen in Windows from the keyboard. The windows key is very useful in this respect. Hold it down and start pressing keys on your keyboard. You find it does useful things...Or you can continue to use the mouse like the rest of the unwashed.

'I don't recognise Amazon as a bullying workplace' says Bezos

Interview Experience

I interviewed there several years ago for a corp side engineering role (Exchange, AD, etc). It was a most of the day event, lunch provided. Manager was nice, most of the folks I interviewed with were nice, but by the time I was finished, I didn't want the job.

Each engineer revealed more and more about how things worked, what they had to work with and how overworked they all were. I love tech, but I have a family to raise and a life outside of work. This just seemed like a self inflicted prison term!

Dell, Google dangle Chromebooks over IT bosses sick of Windows

Re: $900 ??

Privacy for business is kind of a big deal...

Re: Fail

@Arnaut

You are describing a home use scenario. Probably good kit for such a thing (although a tablet may suit casual use better). The Marketeers are pimping it as a business solution, however. :)

Fail

I still don't see the value. For $600 you can buy an Asus ultrabook with Windows 10 installed. Don't like Windows? Wipe it and put your favorite version of Linux on it. Now you have a fully functioning ultrabook with real storage, real processing power, all the abilities of a Chromebook, and a similar battery life.

As far as manageability goes, how is this better? Not being a Windows notebook doesn't exclude the device from having to have patch management in place, nor does it remove data integrity requirements and the ability to manage users, etc.

Management doesn't just magically go away in the business sector just because you move away from Windows workstations.

Pluto revealed as KING of the Kuiper belt

Brontosaurus.

Gartner, Gartner, on the wall? Who is the fairest IT backup biz of all?

DING DING DING! We have a winner. It's all nonsense. Businesses pay to get where they are and Gartner says they are wonderful. Not making this up. A shop I was at was poorly rated. They paid Gartner to review, and suddenly they were in the magic quadrant.

Microsoft starts switching on paid Wi-Fi service with latest Windows 10 preview

1990s All Over Again?

Your time starts right after you buy a Microsoft Wi-Fi plan through the Windows Store and ends at the specified time. For example, if you buy a two-hour plan, your time will end two hours later, regardless of how long you're actually connected to Microsoft Wi-Fi. You can't save time for later.

Smells a lot like AOL monthly minutes to me. Except with AOL, you didn't get charged for your minutes whether you used them or not. What a joke.

Re: Feaping Creaturitus

To wit, it probably isn't in the kernel. Likely, it is one of the many svvhost processes running and is tied to the networking stack. That being said, its still bullshit. having it pop up any time an MS network is near and prompting to buy is annoying at best, and probably misleading. Uneducated folks will unwittingly buy something they don't need...

HP one of the fairest, claims Gartner's magic quadrant on the wall

Re: Bias All Around

So true. If you want to be in the magic quadrant follow this recipe:

Come out with a product of some sort.

Get a few customers.

Pay Gartner a shit ton of money to "review" your product.

You are now in the magic quadrant.

The whole thing is a joke.

BOFH: Don't go changing on Friday evenings, I don't wanna work that hard

Friday Fails

As stated above. No change Fridays.

Devs are gone, management is gone, and you are expected to get it all done and resolve any issues.

No thanks. Did that for years at a shop. Devs didn't test their code well enough often enough that it was just predictable that things were going to sideways once we deployed. And it was just as predictable that they would be impossible to get ahold of for a good hour or more. On a Friday or Saturday. Then you have to wait for a fix. Re-deploy. Oh, and all of this on site. Just in case...

Now, if shit breaks over a weekend for some other reason, well, I'm there and will ride it to conclusion. But planning on ruining a weekend? Fuck off. :)

BOOM! Stephen Elop shuffled out of Microsoft door

Hope is not a plan.

Did climate change scare off vegan dinos for millions of years? 'Yes'

Extra thumbs up to that one. I wonder if these people even read what they write.

"The conditions would have been something similar to the arid western United States today"

Last I checked, the Western States aren't experiencing out of control heat waves, causing 600 degree C fires... Excellent scientific conclusions there...

Limited edition Iron Man S6 sells for $91,000 thanks to ... serial number

Lost in translation

Are you sure it didn't sell for 91,000 Yuan? Still a tidy $14,560, but not quite so embarrassing...

'Snowden risked lives' fearfest story prompts sceptical sneers

Fixed

How many [Bothan] spies died because of this? Er...

Apple store staffers probed like 'criminals', lawsuit claims

Re: what..

Gads, I hope you are joking!

Scientists love MacBooks (true) – but what about you?

Re: It's nothing to do with the users, and everything to do with the IT department

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner.

Linux based machines are great. They really are. And as one off's, I salute those who use them. In an enterprise environment they are absolutely rubbish. User management is a pain, patch management is non-existent, and app comparability can be problematic.Cost of support is the bottom line. Being able to manage machines through group policy, centralized anti-virus, and other tools is the best way to keep costs down. And cost is what drives business.

* me, I'm about done with Windows for personal use. 8/8.1 are really annoying. Maybe MS will gain back some loyalty with 10 but I'm afraid their best days are behind them for consumer OS's.

'Draconian' French Charteur des Snoopeurs gets senate approval

Branding

You really should spell hoover Hoover. It is a brand name after all.

I'll get my coat...

Re: France is a police state anyway

Don't misbehave and you won't get shot by the police...