Posts by Anonymous Cowherder 118 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Feb 2010
Thanks El Reg!
A large number of us comentards and reg readers are experienced IT geeks but I'm sure a similarly large number of eyeballs hit these pages who couldn't differentiate a scsi cable from a ide cable.
A home PC is a significant investment for a large number of people and the recent cycle of windows upgrades from XP-Vista-Win7 with associated advertising has firmly planted the idea that PCs can be upgraded. Many people are put off doing this themselves for several reasons, cost, lack of technical skills and fear so any articles that put out a step by step guide that encourage people to get more involved with the gubbins inside their pc is a very welcome step.
Anything that also removes the mystique of linux is always to be commended. I'm a full on linux evangelist, after solely using windows for over 10 years I was exposed to linux, fought it for a bit but then grew to love it and haven't looked back. I use what ever OS is right for the task I need to do, dual boot at home, have a linux server at home, and my main work pc is linux with XP & Win7 in virtualbox.
All OSes have their pluses and minuses, there is no wrong or right way of computing (except use linux heh heh!) and everyone is free to try what they like, they might find a combination that is right for them.
It is time to get the technology to work for us, not for us to be fearful of doing the wrong thing.
"media studies" "worthless degrees"
I've got a history degree, a "proper" subject. Absolutely worthless, I work in IT. Although I did once use my in-depth understanding of the regency economy to fix a baffling dns problem and my knowledge of the rise of fascism in early 20th century Europe is the cornerstone of our managed desktop strategy (thinking about it, that one might actually be true?)
What a degree does show is that an employee is capable of performing to a certain level, able to meet deadlines and shows evidence of independent thought. Even if the degree they took contained modules in Madonna's pointy tits, the student would have picked up transferable skills that can be applied in the work place.
Plus in many (not all, granted) doing a degree does equip a person with the drive to succeed, they've put 3 years in and don't want to get stuck in a bloody call centre taking crap from people on the phone and battling the incoherent IT systems they are forced to work with.
Had my Desire about 3 weeks, it does everything that I need from a pocketsized device.
Text my boss to say I was going to be late, used the sat nav to try and cut down the lateness, checked my calendar to make sure where I was supposed to be, checked my village on pocket empires, tweeted about traffic jams and checked my email to see whether there was anything urgent I need to know about.
All from my phone!
Plus I am not tied to Apple either, it really doesn't get much better.
"Has anyone noticed that whenever the tories get back in power the country is fucked? They fix it and get kicked out again? (repeat as needed)."
The country was fucked in '97, the country at the moment is suffering during a global recession.
Granted, without the recession Labour would still have lost this election but to say the country is fucked far from the truth. There is more to a country than a balance sheet and economics, there are people, societies and communities - these are the parts of the country that the tories dry-fuck.
This time with Incompetent George they will fuck up the economy and the society, Yay! Go team!
Even Tebit has said he regrets that the tory policies of the 80s and 90s created the society that we now all inhabit.
Yes, this is a pseudonym, but I am a "labour apologist" under my own name on many other sites.
Is it just me who only plays a game on a a phone when I am sat on the, er...."special chair" at work and have a few minutes to kill? Tetris or a blockbreaker type game does this perfectly. I have a DS in the bathroom at home but despite staying longer than really necessary a quick game is all I need really.
I could not live without my mail client. I have Thunderbird with lightning sync'd with my google calendar setup on my work pc, my laptop and my home pcs. I access my work and my personal mail accounts via imap and I may shortly migrate to the dark side and get an iphone which will be set up with imap on there too.
I have my filters on a pc that is constantly on and my mail is handled just how I like it. You will get my client when you prise it from my cold dead hands.
Too much power being placed in the hands of too few companies. They own the hardware, what you can do with the hardware, the software and what you can do with the software, they dictate which carriers you can use, how much you pay for it.....
5 years down the line we will all be using propriety hardware running function specific "apps" that are fully licensed and delete from our hardware if we do something inappropriate.
Welcome to the future! Looks worrying like the past that we left behind.
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