Posts by Richard

Apple takes flak as AT&T drops iPhone bomb

A success then?

"scaling up from just two days of sales it is still likely that Apple will make its first year sales targets."

Umm, if that proves to be the case then its another success for Apple.

I was looking for the Register side-swipe at Apple in the article but in reality it only appears to be in the title [was that you Mr Ed?].

Burned by a MacBook

Apple Airheads / Fanboys / blah blah

"It is only fashion concious airheads that like apple because they dumb everything down for them and look "different"."

Oh I wish I was fashion conscious, or had air in my head rather than 2 computing degrees (BSc + PhD) ... instead I buy Apple computers for Mac OS X as I've been using/administrating/programming with Unix (BSD+SysV) for more than 20 years and its nice to have the best of both GUI and command line worlds. I also prefer BSD based Unix to Linux's SysV roots.

The hardware looks good yes and generally the build quality is excellent. I've had the occasional problem over the years but Apple directly, or my local independent Apple service centre, has always come up trumps. I have a 4 year old iBook G3 which suffered from a motherboard + case issue and was covered by an extended repair programme and had its board replaced 3 times [almost a lemon then], no problem. It still works a treat and gets used regularly for various things including as a backup for when my MacBook needs charging 8-)

I had an iMac G5 suffer from an LCD screen issue in the first two weeks of having it, Apple sent me a completely new one under their DOA part of the one year warranty, years latter it still runs with no more hardware issues.

The battery in my 16 month old (out of warranty) MacBook refused to charge and Apple just replaced it no questions asked under its battery replacement programme. I don't bother with paid-for extended warranties as I personally don't have a need for them and I'd rather put the extra £200 towards a new laptop or server when I need it in a few years time.

My G3 "clamshell" ibook that is over 5 years old still works fine (the battery is long dead but the yoyo main adapter powers it) and so is the equally old and beautiful G4 Cube used in another room, which has only needed one replacement hard drive. The G3 iMac I bought from eBay came with a few months of its original warranty which Apple honoured when the analogue video board went phut but 5+ years later still works with no probs and still gets software updates for 10.3. Finally the G4 MacMini sits under the TV as a PVR and just works for years on end. Oh and yes the G4 Powermac is still quite happy as another server in the garage and has been for 4 years.

All computers go wrong, whether you build them yourself or someone puts them together on a far-eastern production line. You should allow for failures and have a DR plan regardless of whether the computer is for your business or for personal use. I have 2TB of RAID 5 and RAID 1 on my file-server and DVD, CD, zip-drive and tape backup plus stuff stored in "cyberspace" ... and all that is just for personal data, not business use!

iPhone v. Q – War in the backwoods of Mississippi

At last an unbiased review of the iPhone on the reg

'nuff said really. A much better piece than Guy whinging about POP3 on gmail or Cadz returning a phone that he only wanted for a review.

All 1.0 products have their rough edges but the iPhone does appear to live up to most of the marketing hype.

'Predator' Microsoft applies to give itself cancer

Mahatma Gandhi

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

So does this mean Open Source has won now?

Okay maybe not just yet but it provides some proof that Microsoft may be moving to 'the end game' 8-)

RFID a 'technical blunder', report says

@Ads by Google

I've did the same Squid filtering years ago after The Register changed from their lightly ad-filled webpage model to the horrendous flashing, popping, concentration breaking approach to ads they have today. Its a lot easier on the eye now ... although I've now noticed a significant drop in interesting stories and I'm fed up with the Apple/iPhone bashing of late .. lots of heat and no light being generated.

Prof advocates digital forgetfulness, calls Google 'Soviet'

Is History history?

Will this assign the study of History to ... err ... history? No point in studying "mistakes" of the past when you can re-invent the wheel or over again. Personally I cannot wait for the 27th June 2037 when Tony Blair's government papers/email/blogs/dodgy dossier notes, are finally all laid bare.

I'm sure Software Alzheimer's is a good thing but I forget why.

I seem to recall but probably have forgotten the details ... but wait

[ standby while Googling ........... done ]

yes "Digital preservation: a time bomb for Digital Libraries" .. so physical media and software rot might be the answer this Prof is looking for 8-)

Or we could ignore the Prof and he'll just fade away.