Posts by Pahhh

Undiplomatic tweet from French diplomats

Stop calling people racists...

Would people stop making accusations of racism.

The French have been dismantling a lot of unauthorised camps around France. The "Roms" that are being expelled only account for something like 10% of the occupants of these camps. Most of the occupants in the camps were French.

Same as in England, we have "travellers" who arent necessarilly Gypsies or Pikies. These inviduals frequently have no trade other than theft and begging with vandalism is a hobby. Unfortunantly we cant deport UK resident, we can only "move them on".

What the French are doing is 100% right. Its pathetic that people are objecting on the basis of race. It happens that some of these people are "Roms" who have outstayed their welcome and can be deported. What the hell is unreasonable about that?????

BT's onshoring call centres scheme continues

Here is what I do....

... if when I get a cold call from some company offering me a service and I believe that they are based in India then I ask:

[me] Hi, sorry to interupt but can you tell me where you are based

[operator] Oh yes, COMPANYXYZ is an English company

[me] Yes I know where COMPANYXYZ is based, but where are you?

[operator] I work for COMPANYXYZ sir.

[me] Yes yes, I know that. But where are you located? Where is your call center?

[operator] I am in Deli

[me] I see. I'm sorry but our country is experiencing an unemployment problem so I am not interested in dealing with companies that offshore their services when our country is in need of jobs. So thank you for calling, goodbye.

[operator] Goodbye sir

Its not verbatim but its a close enough paraphrase of the conversation.

My objections appart from ethical grounds is that I find Indian call companies provide substandard service as I frequently do not understand the operators and they are so keen to please they say "Yes" to everything which often hampers a conversation further.

Saying that, I got a Scottish guy at DELL a few months back. Didnt have a clue what he was saying but at least he did resolve the issue super quick.

Apple TV: Third time unlucky, Mr Jobs

PS3 has this...??

Maybe I'm dumb but the PS3 has a film rental service already.

You can download standard or HD. It streams it and stores it on disk. So you can watch it as comes down or watch it later (sometimes necessary if the streaming speed isnt so good on your connection).

So what am I missing here that different?

Google Wave washes ashore in soggy cardboard Box

I still don't know...

I think, in a nutshell, its like a bulletin board with lots of flexibility where you can invite people.

Think of creating a bulletin board for a particular topic which you only want a select group to use but you define the access (no need for central admin). Then the board has ability to attach pictures and is fast response etc.

Dell accused of hiding incriminating evidence in defect case

Lot of crap written....

Every large company runs foul of their suppliers. It often has nothing to do with cost cutting. And even a previously reliable supplier can produce unreliable shit. Thats the way it goes.

Why dumb-ass generic accusations?

Dell make cheap computers. Their stuff aint perfect but generally pretty good. Who else is better? Uhm... HP? IBM (or whatever their Chinese company called)....

Heck companies like Toyota run foul of the components they used. Sure some smart ass will say they should have done more tests.

Well if you prepared to spend your budget on military grade equipement at 10x the costs and 10 years out of date, then carry on. Until then , get a reality check!

Oracle unrolls tape roadmap

The benefit of tape...

The clear benefit of tape is twofold: Cold storage and ability to offsite the media.

Note I havnt included the cost per megabyte. That is because cost of ownership of tape once you include a tape library, tape drives and increased administration make direct price comparison between disk and tapes very difficult.

Now you can achieve cold storage with disk through spin down but there arent many large scale solutions that do this. The troubled Copan I guess being the exception. Possibly ProStor RDX solution does also.

You can offsite disk with the RDX devices that basically emulate tape but store to a removable hard disk. At this point this isnt common that the time will come.

Both disk and tape have different environmental issues but tapes are more sensitive. In regions with high humidity or dusty, tapes dont last unless you keep them in environmentally controlled conditions. Disk being sealed units will function in places that tapes cant.

Tapes have very long load and seek times. Tapes can have great transfer rates BUT they need to be fed data at a constant rate otherwise additional wear to the tape and the tape drive occur as they have to reposition themselves. Disk solutions dont suffer with any of those issues.

Tapes, by and large, are a pain in the arse.

Tapes still have a purpose but there are compelling reasons to why people are moving away from tape in droves.

BCS Linux-baiting sparks flame war

Its the BCS ... who cares?

I was a member of the BCS for all of 3 years. I think i joined when I was a student. The fees went up when I got employed but for whatever reason, I tought giving them anything at all was a waste of money.

I read this article mainly because I was intrigued that the BCS still exhisted. I see no point in it at all. Cant see the point of being "chartered" either in this profession.

Been in software professionally 18 years and still dont see any relevance.

As for the topic of security. There are certainly two sides to the story. Obfiscation does help as it lessens the chance of a security flaw being discovered. On the flip side it reduces the chance of a security being discovered and hence rectified.

Solar plasma aurora storm to hit Earth tomorrow today!

@Whatever you do dont watch it! #

That was exactly my thoughts.

Gone right off astro phenomina after watching Day of Triffids.......

French operator pooh-poohs iOS4

Have a 3G ... my experience was different

Have a 3G and my experience of the upgrade wasnt great but not catistrophic. After the upgrade the phone was so slow it was awful. Scrolling was a dog, heck everything was a dog. I actually thought it was a massive downgrade.

BUT, I turned the device off and after a reboot the phone was ok. Actually I think it was better.

I have since done a complete clean reset as Ive upgraded to the 4G and gave the handset to the wife. Old phone is still running iOS4 and I really dont see any issues with it. Wife super happy with it and I dont see any issues when i use her phone.

I would 100% testify that post upgrade the phone is crud but in my experience rebooting sorted things out.

3D TV: Avatar or Ishtar?

@re: @3d without glasses #

Actually I didnt think it was that bad. I tried viewing the picture while off center and it was ok. Extreme angles, say more than 45% , yeah it didnt work. But frankly, you will find that 3D even with glasses doesnt feel right unless you within a certain angle from the screen.

That actually is problem for a lot of people , glasses or no glasses, the viewing angle and the distance from the screen needs to be within a certain range before the 3D effect just because eye wateringly painful. And that isnt going to work out for a lot of people in the sitting rooms.

To be honest, i wont watch a 3D film in the cinema if i cant get fairly central sitting position.

@any comments concerning 3D glasses

Lots of people are mentioning 3D glasses. I thought I would point that there are sets that actually dont require them. Check out "philips wow 3d".

I saw one of these sets in real life november last year and was quite blown away. 3D , no glasses.

Still it doesnt address the fact it makes you feel sick and that 3D is more hype than usefulness.