Posts by itsallcrap

Hands on with the BBC's Micro:Bit computer. You know, for kids

The Model A of when?

Guys, I know it's horrifying but at this stage 1981 was a lot more than 15 years ago.

Happiness economics is bollocks. Oh, UK.gov just adopted it? Er ...

I attempt to maximise the length time I get to spend lying on my arse.

Having tried to relate this article to my own life and behaviour, this is the my honest response. Is there some way society can benefit from this?

UK gov rushes through emergency law on data retention

What's the emergency?

Are we suddenly under significantly increased threat of attack? I can't find anything in the news about it. Can governments really just introduce 'emergency' laws without having to state what the emergency is?

Intel prods PC market's corpse, corpse shouts 'I'M NOT DEAD!'

I really don't see how it could die.

I mean, why did they ever think there would be less of a demand for business PCs? Surely no significant percentage of companies is really having people do word processing from iPads. Or editing spreadsheets on their phones. Everyone uses PCs.

In recent years, a lot of kids wore those shoes with little wheels in the bottom. Turned out to be no threat to the automotive industry.

Ukrainian teen created in lab passes Turing Test – famous nutty prof

Don't forget, 30% of people are idiots.

I had a go at speaking with the web-accessible version before it got crushed under the weight of traffic. No one with at least half a brain would believe that was a human being. I didn't even think it was as convincing as Cleverbot.

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS: Great changes, but sssh don't mention the...

I've tried Lubuntu 14.04

... and I approve.

I don't like the default desktop (Unity), but if you are going to use it, make sure you run the script at:

https://fixubuntu.com/

... immediately after installation.

Mathematicians spark debate with 13 GB proof for Erdős problem

This is the way it's going to go, isn't it?

Affordable computers are now getting to have the sort of power where writing a program to try things exhaustively is easier than trying to derive a proof analytically.

So who needs the actual proof any more? Makes more sense to peer-review the Python script that generated it...

WTF is... IEEE 1905.1?

Hy-fi?

Did they not foresee any confusion when choosing that name? Like, when it's being spoken aloud in reference to a home media set-up, for instance?

Mobile gaming: battle of the gadgets

I think you've got that wrong...

"It's not a case of when Vita and 3DS will encounter indomitable competition, but just how soon."

You know that's the same thing, right?

Also, why can't a have the 'badgers' sign any more? Tsch.

Fedora 15: More than just a pretty interface

The trick is to type, you fools

If you're always insist on navigating your desktop with a mouse, you'll defiinitely find GNOME3 harder to use.

However, if you just tap the system key (the one with the Windows logo on it) and type what you want, it's frickin' glorious.

In many cases it will even match a rough idea of what you're after instead of the application's actual name - ie. type 'resolution' and it will return the Display settings program.

I like it, and it's really not that similar to a smartphone interface either - unless you insist on always going back to that big page with all the applications on it, which decidedly counts as Doing It Wrong.

Google donates a billion cores to boffins

This pleases me

It's nice to know this sort of computing power is up for grabs if something really important requires it.

What would be utterly magnificent is if we could get an annual 'No Google Day', in which ALL their resources were pointed at something like World Community Grid for twenty-four hours.

I guess the businesses that rely on Google Docs and suchlike wouldn't be too pleased but... um, I dunno, make it on Christmas or something.

Microsoft: 'No one cares about Google's dev cloud'

Well they're kind of right...

... but then again I don't care about MS's cloud ideas either.

My hard drive is faster than my Internet connection, you see.

Happiness: Yours for £50k a year

Ah! Earning lots of money is a good thing. Gotcha.

I see, well now you've proved it scientifically I guess I'll try and get a high paid job.

Whereas before I read this I was considering becoming a tramp.

Undead Commodore 64 comes back for Christmas

It doesn't have enough keys.

Does that not strike anyone as a problem? If it's going to be a PC then the keyboard will need more keys than the C64.

So, um, it won't be a C64 replica.

Intel debuts hella-zippy optical future

I can cope with measuring storage capacity...

... using 'Library of Congress'es, but as soon as a significant number of people start measuring transfer rates in tweets per second I'm binning my computer and going to live in the woods.

Southpaws up in arms over iPhone 4

This is way broader than 'handedness'

They've made a phone that doesn't work properly if you put your hand over a particular part of it, and then have the cheek to tell us that doing so constitutes using it wrongly.

I'm left handed, but can quite happily use a phone with either hand. The point is, every other phone in existence, you CAN use with either hand.

Google morphs Chrome OS into netbook thin client

I still don't trust it

Having just spent the whole morning and half the afternoon trying the restore network functionality through a load of switches that kept falling like dominoes, I'd say I'm not yet ready to be 100% reliant on an Internet connection.

Ubuntu 10.04 triumphs over GRUB bug

What they need to fix...

... is the bug whereby installing it for dual-boot on a system that previously only had Windows causes grub to get the Windows partition number wrong, meaning you can't boot Windows until you edit the GRUB config file manually.

This has been the case for years and you wouldn't think it would be too hard to sort...