* Posts by gerryg

787 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Aug 2009

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Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

gerryg
Windows

Re: Once again...

<= not

"Frightened of change"? Perhaps customers would like to buy what they like?

While I have no idea why anyone uses anything other than open source software, it is difficult to believe they are so uncritical that they'll just suck anything up in the name of change.

Judge hands copyright troll an epic smack-down

gerryg

Re: The IRS...

I assumed it was a picturesque reference to removing Excalibur from the stone

Barnes & Noble bungs Raspberry Pi-priced Nook on shelves

gerryg
Thumb Down

Re: £29 e-reader dodgy marketing?

@Paul Westerman, @NoOnions, @Number6, @Anomalous Cowturd, @omnicent, @Alan Edwards

I took you all at face value and tried again (Thursday) and got the order accepted email

Fri 21:20 I got this email :

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your purchase. We want to provide an update on your order. You should expect to receive your NOOK® Simple Touch within the next 4-5 business days. We will email you parcel tracking information when your NOOK has shipped.

Thank you,

The NOOK Support Team

Saturday 00:27 I got this email

Dear Valued Customer,

You recently received an email from NOOK customer service indicating that your NOOK Simple Touch would be shipped shortly.

We apologize for this error but your credit card was not charged as NOOK Simple Touch is temporarily out of stock. We’re pleased to let you know that we do have inventory of NOOK Simple Touch GlowLight and you may place an order by visiting http://uk.nook.com/.

Thank you.

The NOOK Support Team

I look forward to reading your experiences

gerryg
Thumb Down

£29 e-reader dodgy marketing?

ASDA had none in stock in store last night, out of stock on line

B&N had problems on line today

John Lewis - out of stock online

Argos - 10 nearest store have none to reserve/out of stock on line

Got bored looking

Picture this: Kodak could get out of bankruptcy as early as July

gerryg

oops

half of that was in the article

gerryg
Childcatcher

by selling assets to its UK pension fund

Article about it in yesterday's financial press, aimlessly reading it while waiting - selling something (photo booth/print thingy business? for £650m in kind + £350m in cash, might be $, all from memory) to its UK pension fund already in deficit - pensioners taking 10% (? again from memory) haircut. I wonder how they feel about it?

But luckily a US corporation is coming out of bankruptcy in the USA - so that's all right then

Apple: You thought Google dodged taxes? Get a load of THIS

gerryg
Paris Hilton

Godwin's law invoked

<= just add a military band marching up her champs elysees

Japan's naughty nurses scam free meals with mobile games

gerryg
Windows

Just a thought

<= my online dating picture

Not necessarily too much money - one analysis is it's even one better than paying for a broadband connection which turns out to alleviate social isolation. Now, occasionally or more often they get to meet real people too.

We don't know that "Ms A" is nasty or not good company but it seems to me that on average the world might be a slightly happier place as a result of the transaction. We don't know that anyone is unhappy or failing to have their expectations met.

As one commentator suggests it's just like a first date and could actually be quite good fun.

Other commentators appear to be suggesting the underlying modus operandi is "meal => now you must sleep with me" which might say more about them than it does about Ms A or the geeks

Music resale service ReDigi loses copyright fight with Capitol Records

gerryg
Windows

ok - I'll bite

You were doing ok until "If". No bank was robbed, no robbery was committed.

For the hard of thinking if a consumer buys a CD they can sell it but not it seems, the digital equivalent. (let's leave aside dodgy behaviour, which redigit was claiming to protect against, and no-one seems to be disagreeing with the process).

Apparently we are living in a world where the consumer is no longer buying stuff but licensing it. And government and legislature are supporting this. Marvellous thing, democracy.

Blighty's revolutionary Cold War teashop computer - and Nigella Lawson

gerryg

Re: DAT MAINFRAME!

"A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the world's first office computer" available from the usual online sources

Nominet tosses plan for shorter .uk domains in the bin (for now)

gerryg
Windows

just a thought

<--- not

Surely my security should be my problem?

Nominet offering increased security as a service, at the margin, will increase complacency leading to greater insecurity in general.

I would draw parallels to all the regulation for cattle/beef/food signalling that caveat emptor is no longer necessary.

Ubuntu? Fedora? Mint? Debian? We'll find you the right Linux to swallow

gerryg
Linux

the unbelievable truth

While I've been using openSUSE and its predecessors since 1999 it remains true that I chose it for being European and that I could buy the 6 CDs and the manual for £20 or something from the bookshop near where I worked. I'd never heard of KDE per se nor Gnome. Luckily (IMHO) I got KDE and I've used it ever since. I'm used Gnome occasionally, elsewhere, I still like KDE. I could go on about that but not now.

I think the best advice in this article was choose your desktop.

All these performance benchmarks are largely tosh unless you are doing video processing (from experience) or 3D design/gaming (apparently) but I'm using a ten year old computer with 200 MHz DDR2 recently upgraded with an SSD because they've got cheap, and all's well.

I don't understand why people "test drive" distros but its their decision. I got lucky with S.u.S.E. Over time I've got to grips with how it's organised. They've got good core and community support. I now consider myself a power user. It's the one I recommend to other people because I'll be able to help them.

As far as I can see most distros are the same at the core and similar at the edges.

Ask Google this impossible question, get web filth as a reward

gerryg
Boffin

Re: There are multiple complex roots

no, because the minus here is a sign indicating a position on the number line not an operator

Android gets tipsy on Wine, runs WINDOWS apps

gerryg
Thumb Up

Re: Do be quiet!

I agree - as we saw elsewhere

http://the1709blog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/sas-v-wpl-programming-languages-not.html

A case about not being an emulator was found not to infringe copyright

World Programing Limited (WPL), creators of World Programming System, which replicated the functions of the SAS components. Crucially, World Programming System was compatible with the SAS language meaning that users were no longer tied to SAS and could use their own applications with World Programming System instead of the SAS system.

yeah, yeah - I'm sure there's a software patent in there somewhere however:

http://www.patentprogress.org/2013/01/31/why-newegg-is-exceptional-and-just-saved-you-money/

and then

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/31/mark-cubans-awesome-justification-for-endowing-a-chair-for-eliminating-stupid-patents/

Longest-standing bug?

gerryg
Linux

KDE

Yes, I've been using KDE since 1999, no I've never experienced this particular bug. (Don't get me wrong, there have been others...)

For me the point of the story is that the bug was noticed by someone with the skills and inclination to fix it. He didn't have to sign an NDA or otherwise trip up on someone's licence. He just fixed it.

Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet creator Gerry Anderson dies at 83

gerryg
Thumb Up

No one has mentioned the three hottest women on the planet

step forward: Harmony, Melody and Rhapsody - surely the role models for Kelly McGillis in Top Gun

Revealed: The Brit-built GRAVITY-powered light that costs $5

gerryg
Thumb Up

nicely combines three ideas

Pendulum based clocks use pull up weights for power source

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/clocks-watches/clock2.htm

for clockwork dynamo

http://h2g2.com/approved_entry/A810154

LEDs - think bicycle lights - were incandescent, required D cells, lasted 8 hours, now use two AAA and last all winter

Register readers mostly too ashamed to cop to hideous hoard horrors

gerryg
Gimp

Another El Reg opportunity - a clearing house

I'm sure we've all got piles of shit that in the right circumstances could be useful to someone else for the price of collection or postage.

I've got a pile of AGP graphics cards, a couple of PCI-E, a box full of old memory 128K to 1G, several sound cards plus a load of other stuff.

In my minds-eye there's a school somewhere that could upgrade their old computers, more memory, better graphics, sound. Then there's all those leads, ethernet cables...

Of course it might just be better to grow up and throw it away.

Microsoft v Google judge could shape the world in new patent punchup

gerryg

not if this article still true

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/ms-patent/

HP upgrades Linux Foundation membership to Platinum

gerryg
Windows

Google..

<--- humour

They can probably defend themselves, however...

Every year since whenever they have spent $millions supporting F/OSS projects though GSoC, developing and supporting the ecosystem and demanding no say over what and how is developed

http://code.google.com/soc/

as evidenced

(1) http://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2012/Projects

(2) http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/userrel/soc/

(3) http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:GSOC

(4) http://www.gnome.org/news/2012/03/gnome-to-participate-in-google-summer-of-code-2012/

(5) http://dot.kde.org/2012/10/02/kde-celebrates-2012-google-summer-code-success

HMRC: Moving our data to the cloud will make it MORE secure

gerryg
WTF?

Economical with the actualite

"The Skyscape contract is a major step for HMRC in moving away from traditional ways of working with large service providers. And it’s a great example of how we’re exploring smarter, more innovative solutions that make life simpler for us and help us provide a better deal for our customers."

size matters

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/09/government-digital-service-g-cloud-log.html

they're just lying

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/09/whitehall-apology-they-havent-gone-mad.html

Whitehall SNAFU

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/09/g-cloud-gds-hmrc-and-skyscape-company.html

five questions

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/09/five-questions-for-g-cloud-team.html

Patriot Act

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/09/g-cloud-gds-hmrc-skyscape-and-usa.html

penultimately

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/10/skyscape-whitehall-have-no-excuse.html

and finally, in unrelated news on government contracting, was Branson right?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/9583316/Cancelled-FirstGroup-West-Coast-contract-will-cost-40m.html

Graun Aid: Don't They Know It's Christmas 2.0?

gerryg

MC P Eye

remix

HMRC becomes first gov tentacle to buy cloud through G-Cloud

gerryg
Holmes

LMGTFY

http://www.skyscapecloud.com/about/the-skyscape-cloud-alliance

iPhone 5 Lightning cables sticking in USB ports

gerryg
Gimp

alas not

The lightning connector has a proprietary chip in it seemingly with the sole purpose of preventing cheap knock-offs

http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/report-apples-lightning-connector-wont-work-without-unique-chip-1099441

The perfect CRIME? New HTTPS web hijack attack explained

gerryg
Facepalm

meanwhile, elsewhere....

BBC You and Yours discussion of online fraud and LloydsTSB.

A Doctor and his wife each had their accounts hacked in circumstances in which the fraudsters somehow obtained:

- BT land line number, BT account number, home address

(for divert, so could confirm setting up a payment )

- mobile phone number, presumably some other details (for divert)

- bank account details of both adults (two IDs; not the account numbers, two sets of memorable details)

this was presented as a bank security issue

BIG BOOBS banished from Linux kernel

gerryg
Devil

I'm sure you won't mind...

...fewer

<---seems have some missing

Ex-gov man McCluggage on G-Cloud's slow descent

gerryg
Terminator

let's hope that the g-cloud isn't shared services on steroids

http://www.dmossesq.com/2012/07/francis-maude-and-economies-of-scale.html

"Shared service centres have failed to deliver the savings they should have. They cost £1.4bn to set up, £500m more than expected, and in some cases have actually cost the taxpayer more than they have saved. I welcome the Cabinet Office's ambitious new strategy for improving shared services. But unless it learns from the past it will end up making the same mistakes again."

Numbers don't lie: Apple's ascent eviscerates Microsoft

gerryg
Facepalm

Re: Tunnocks

I was on the wrong page - I thought OP was using back slang

Apple's UK smartphone lead shrinks

gerryg
FAIL

Re: Still Not as Smart as Apple ..

possessive its, LMGTFY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_personal_pronouns

Apple MacBook Air 11in 2012

gerryg
Flame

link says it all

http://9to5mac.com/2012/06/13/ifixit-tears-down-the-new-retina-macbook-pro-calls-it-least-repairable-laptop-ever/

I have no view on others finding Apple desirable. My test market of three relatively sensible teenagers/young adults tells me that all of their Apple laptops have suffered component failure (it's how I found out about iFixit) and each of them have "consumed" at least two iPods.

The changing nature of the power supply connector is in marked contrast to, e.g., most mobes

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/02/09/ec_common_phone_charger/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/09/miniusbs_and_common_connectors/

You don't have to be a Greenpeace nutter to wonder if this is great.

Looking forward to using the flames for the govt's renewable heat initiative.

Slippery £4bn supplier deadline flies through UK.gov's fingers AGAIN

gerryg
Terminator

There's a very good reason for the delay...

...they're going to take account of the findings of their open standards consultation.

Hungry reseller bags HMRC big cheese as COO

gerryg
Terminator

one thing you missed from his cv

He still got performance bonuses while all that didn't happen.

Not sure I'd want their shares in my pension plan

Intel phone boss: 'Multi-core detrimental to Android mobes'

gerryg
FAIL

What Linus Torvalds didn't say...

Bell [added] that having “access to source code where you can go in and really work with it” is a massive advantage.

Bell was more tight-lipped on the open source dogmatic aspects of working with Android. Asked if it was feeding back its innovations on the platform, he said that it was doing so "where it [was] required", but added: “[I] don’t like doing R&D for my competitors.”

HMRC Tax Calc

gerryg
Mushroom

It should not have been done

The problem with the app is not that it isn't comprehensive, nor that whatever it cost to produce was four times what it should have, as the total cost was a very small drop in a very large bucket.

The problem is the underlying approach to expenditure which this app represents. It is another form of vanity publishing which one can find throughout sectors spending other people's money. Do they ever ask themselves the question "if it were my money, would I use it in this way?"

For example, a better calculator has long since been available here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/ and it didn't cost the taxpayer (including the ones that didn't want it in the first place) anything.

The Treasury expenditure options appraisal requires proper consideration of "do nothing" not that you'd notice.

And of course the IT crew would not be able to self-actualise at our expense by producing apps for the iPhone

EU beaks to rule on Microsoft's $1.1bn fine appeal in June

gerryg
Mushroom

let's hope...

... the Commission notice the attitude and add it into their treatment of UEFI

Biz law reform: Bad news for lawyers, good news for hippies

gerryg
Angel

it's all right because...

...they'll be balancing the extension with fair use provisions.

oh, wait...

Can SMEs score those big gov contracts?

gerryg
FAIL

and another thing

"Government projects, for example the DVLA putting tax disc renewals online, are often inherently big and complicated. And that’s a reflection of the complexity of the civil service, and the technology it relies upon to maintain and constantly improve public services."

because: giving a stack of tax discs to on-line insurance compaines is so much more difficult than having Fujitsu (and IBM) build some huge platform to capture the same information and then check the motor insurer's database for a valid insurance certificate

why: if your job importance is measured on size of budget and number of staff then the HM Treasury "do nothing" investment option appraisal is nothing more than an inconvenient truth.

For a supplementary view as the comment to this article

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/when-it-meets-politics/2010/11/no-taxation-without-services-c.html

puts it:

"References to On-line Driving License renewal as a flagship should recognise that its success demonstrates shows that about a 40% of us are content to pay £2.50 extra for the privilege of helping HMG save 80p! I live barely 50 yards from a Bank and 200 yards from a Post Office. But for the queues in both, it would nearly always take me less time to transact with a human being than it does on-line - thanks to poor response times, bloatware and the need to look up security codes that I have forgotten. The Driving License renewal is one of the few cases where that is not the case."

UK.gov's G-Cloud 2.0 pushes back launch date

gerryg

full of it

"We are still committed to considering a full open-source solution"

UK's '£1.2bn software pirates' mostly 'blokes under 34'

gerryg
Linux

With the BSA on your team...

...Linux doesn't need an advertising budget

Microsoft digs Doppler to effect gesture detection

gerryg

Re: And if it's not possible

@AC 16.31 GMT - was discussing the signal conversion... the prior problem to interpretation - an IRL problem

gerryg
Holmes

Re: Points to ponder...

but here's the thing - I move my hand towards a device at say, 2 m/s - speed of sound is 330m/s

the observed frequency is (330+2)/(330+0) x actual frequency, f, say 1.005 f

(the zero in the bottom line assumes you are not throwing your laptop across the room in frustration)

It's a long time since I've done any serious digital filtering but it isn't going to happen using active analogue. Perhaps someone more up to date than me can advise on the feasibility

gerryg
Headmaster

Re: And if it's not possible

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/ultrasonic-proximity-sensors/2370799/

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/ultrasonic-proximity-sensors/2370783/

Cheap MacBook Airs for all!

gerryg
Linux

I'm reading this on an 8Gb SSD Acer Aspire One

running openSUSE 12.1/KDE 4.8.3 netbook edition, it cost me about £180/about 5 years ago add in failed keyboard, failed network card, (though now 2.4Ghz/5Ghz) both in last 12 months, still less than £200.

I can watch video fullscreen no dropout never tried to edit video so don't know but low/no expectations. My portable office device of choice. I don't know what you mean by too slow, screen fine but obviously smaller - OTOH about £600 cheaper and no signs of running out of the oomph I need.

Not going to argue with any aesthetic choice you might have made but the "copied" BS is a tired trope, e.g., http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa043099.htm and do we want to discuss, e.g., KHTML?

Microsoft delays license price hike for current SPLA users

gerryg

I'm quoting but I wish I'd said it

Is the definition of a monopoly a firm that can raise prices 29% during a recession?

Sergey Brin creates spectacle with Project Glass prototypes

gerryg
Gimp

Learning from history

Get Smart, a spoof spy series from the mid sixties, had a variety of wacky gadgets including the shoe phone:

http://voices.yahoo.com/get-smart-shoe-phone-sold-3900000-ebay-566960.html

If I remember correctly, one if its many drawbacks was that Max had to carry a suitcase around for the batteries, which was funny because everyone got the point about personal mobile communications being impossible because of the battery size problem.

High school student expelled for dropping F-bomb in tweet

gerryg
Boffin

Re: fuck off

not so, I'd have to track the case down but someone took the issue to trial and the Judge (Magistrate?) returned not guilty because fuck off is now part of the vernacular

Extended software support 'immoral and indefensible'

gerryg
Linux

Re: Will it be cheaper / safer to use Android and Linux

A 12 yr old version of the Linux desktop will be using KDE 1.something (I was there... yes, it was an act of faith) you wouldn't want to be running it today.

However, I've chuntered along the upgrade path gaining _reusable_ experience in everything along the way moving from kernel 2.2 to kernel 3.1 and from KDE 1.something to KDE 4.8.1 (yes 4.0 was a well documented speed bump)

I've got it running on 2003 yr old homebrew hardware as a standard desktop, an MSI WIND and AAO both as netbook interface

And of course I've moved from Star Office -> Open Office -> Libre Office with all that experience reusable

All as a user and as technical support for those that made the mistake of asking me which computer to buy.

PS I think you mean "damn" if you meant "damned" what curse did you apply and why and if you did mean dammed - check the log file...

gerryg
Facepalm

A 1970s car is...

...such a wrong analogy. Software is not hardware.

There would be a healthy after market for any half decent 1970s car. After all it's not impossible to get parts for cars decades older than that.

Of course if you are using proprietary software it's like owning a car with the bonnet welded shut.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/19/ms_in_peruvian_opensource_nightmare/

HMRC snatches back £200m in Aspire outsource rejig

gerryg
FAIL

this "saving" has alreay been dismembered

http://ukcampaign4change.com/2012/03/16/is-francis-maude-starting-to-spin-without-realising-it/

iPlayer repeat fees threaten BBC earthquake

gerryg
FAIL

Re: One flaw

Fail doubleplus

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

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