Posts by launcap

Boffins whip up SELF-WIRING chip

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

Super intelligent computers who keep us as pets?

See story referenced above. I remember reading it as a young and impressionable youth and the impression it left is probably why I went into computing..

Stallman: Jobs exerted 'malign influence' on computing

Walled Gardens?

If he thinks Apple invented walled wardens then he's on crack - what about Compuserve? AOL? MSN? Or even BBS dial-up in the (rally) bad old days?

Methinks the thing he most objects to is that the Apple walled garden is popular - because (as said above) the majority of people don't what complexity, don't want to have to recompile and (most especially) want simplicity delivered in a consistent and well-analysed way.

RS needs to realise that the vast majority of people don't share his libertarian, utopian dream. They just want to be able to download music, apps and films in an easy fashion. Or as the Romans used to say "panem et circenses"

I/O holds up the traffic in virtual systems

Mainframes..

.. still rule at I/O. It's about the *only* thing they rule at though.

So - can you run VMware on IBM Big Iron?

Apple victorious: Courts deny hackintosher's final plea

re: wtf?

"So Apple actually decides what hardware you can install their OS on?"..

Well yes. Because they design the hardware and write the software. If you don't like it, you are free to not use OS X.

Quite simple really.

Boffins invent miracle pill that counteracts effects of booze

re: Naloxone - Possible side effects include

"... change in mood, increased sweating, nausea, restlessness, vomiting, dizziness, fainting, flushing..."

<Looks at list of my prescribed medicines>

Yup. That lot appear on most of them as side effects.. especially some of the more powerful painkillers (Tramadol - I'm looking at you!).

Google+ chases MySpace for second place

Ancestry.com owned by Paul Allen? That would explain why they keep spamming me and why you have to pay extortionate fees for very little..

NASA: Beam me up some power, Scotty

And think what great..

.. orbital death-rays a laser that big would make! And you can blame any small.. incidents on hackers too!

It's a win-win I tell you. Pork ahoy!

Apple MacBook Air 11in Core i5 notebook

Au contraire

Battery replacement:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-MacBook-Air-Models-A1237-and-A1304-Battery/848/1

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-MacBook-Air-13-Inch-Mid-2011-Battery/6359/1

And you can get the battery from the usual sources.

So in summation: you can (if even vaguely technically capable) replace your MacBook Air battery.

Samsung preps anti-iPhone 5 lawsuit before it's even out

err...

"claims that Apple infringed seven Australian patents owned by Samsung related to wireless communications standards, with its iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products"

I thought that patents related to international standards had to be free or FRAND? In that case, how can they be asserted in a court case?

Malware burrows deep into computer BIOS to escape AV

Is it just me?

.. having flashbacks to the good old BBC Model B with sideways RAM? Putting 'borrowed' ROM images in and then having to wire in a write-protect switch because the sneaky ROM authors started doing write tests in case someone had 'borrowed' their ROM and loaded it into sideways RAM..

Microsoft touts Windows 8 fondleslabness

Oh dear, oh dear..

"Sinofsky promised, with each Windows 8 user getting a SkyDrive account to allow data to be shared between applications and devices"

Well - that'll kill it for use in corporates unless it can be switched off - is SkyDrive the new IE? ("The OS isna gonna take it Capn")

I know that any UK public body IT person seeing that is going to have heart failure - their nice documents living on servers outside the EU? Ain't gonna fly!

Cloud startup's business model defies laws of physics

And when you try to sign up..

They'll basically tell you to spam all your friends[1] in order to increase your chances of actually getting on the beta.

Fail.

[1] 'Tell all your Facebook friends and paste the following URL into your Twitter feed' - and what about people that don't have farcebook and twitter?

iRobot Roomba 780 automated vacuum cleaner

re: You mean there is a moment when pets *stop* moulting?

Yes. When they are out in the garden. And when they come back in, they hop on 3 legs up to the bedroom just so they can leave nice muddy pawprints over the duvet..

Maybe 6 cats *is* a little OTT. The 3 dogs don't seem to mind them though (although the small fluffy one is a bit nervous of the two male cats..).

And anyway - I'm told that the natural state of the universe is to be covered with pet hair.

Why modern music sounds rubbish

re: over comprssion

I certainly notice a real difference in audio quality between the 70's prog stuff (Yes, Genesis et. al) that seems to be much 'quieter' than the modern stuff from prople like Spocks Beard or Marillion. It also sounds much better at higher volumes (even in the car!).

I don't really listen to a whole lot of modern rock or pop for comparison though..

Groupon backs away from scheduled IPO

re: If only

Ghostery, Adblock Plus and No-Script are your friends..

Neato Robotics XV-15 vacuum cleaner

I forsee the cat proudly bringing this to me - dead.

After all, when you have sufficient cats they'll gang up on anything..

Apple Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Part Two

Airdrop..

.. doesn't work with *any* MacBook Pro - I have a mid-2010 model (AirDrop shows up in Finder) and a 2007 model (AirDrop *doesn't* show in Finder).

Not too much of a problem for me - I have a nice NAS that does AFP. Mostly :-)

Apple annihilates Wall Street performance estimates

re: @Marvin the Martian

You obviously don't seem aware of how capitalism (mostly) works.. and I assure you - smart phone prices didn't "shoot up dramatically" when the iPhone was released - the Nokia equivalents (n770/n800 et. al.) were *more* expensive than my first iPhone despite being a lot less capable (and, yes - I had one of each of them) - some of the difference was due to carrier subsidy.

So don't blame Apple for the fact that Android & WebOS tablets are expensive - they are expensive because that's what the manufacturers charge. I would bet that if the other tablet manufacturers would *love* to charge less (it would make their products more attractive!)..

Apple to release Mac OS X Lion on Wednesday

re: Don't do it..

.. you obvously missed the news about all the pre-release developer builds..

I've been upgrading my OS X machines for the last couple of releases and never encountered an issue. Doesn't mean I won't, just that it's very very rare.

Moto cold shoulders upgrade-hungry Xoom users

And children, this is why..

.. you should never buy stuff from Motorola. If it is designed it break easily (Star Tac phones spring to mind) then you will be treated with utter contempt by their support department which has all the attitude of Microsoft support without any leavening of usefulness..

Brussels acts to ensure arrival of new, unknown legal highs

Catnip..

Solve the problem by growing your own. Our 6 cats work quite well in defending their local drug monopoly. And now don't touch the shop-bought stuff after having got used to the stuff fresh from the plant..

And provide us amusement too when thoroughly nipped up..

Before 'the cloud' was cool: Virtualising the un-virtualisable

Re: Forgot DesqView...

Ah Desqview - I ran it on my old PS/2 50z (with a whole 12M or RAM in an add-on card..)

You could run the IBM 3270 emulator (a very fussy bit of code that required lots of keep-alives or it would disconnect you) in the background and various 'non-productivity' (games!) programs in the foreground. And toggle between them pretty much instantly when you team leader came into sight..

Kept me sane (ish) in the days I was a TPF programmer.. Before I grew up and went into support instead.

Dolphin Browser HD

The Dan Marino of browsers?

What? You mean slow-moving and unable to become a champion? Or playing in a style-challenged combination of colours?

:-)

Sophos says sorry over Google Analytics false alarm

re: Potentially malign?

NoScript & adblock are your friends. I have GA blocked on all my computers and (as you say) things load a hell of a lot faster. Especially if you block facebook and Twitter URLs as well.

Social media? As Worzel Gummidge would say: Garn.

FBI affiliates hacked by LulzSec

re: The problem is..

Herding cats is simple. You just have to make sure that they *want* to go where you want to herd them.

Of course, implementation is slightly more complex..

Red Dwarf to blast off on new adventure

One phrase:

Oh dear..

It's the oldest working Seagate drive in the UK

A real geek?

Uses hard-drive platters as mug coasters, then reassembles them and uses them in live servers.

Facebook Comments kill web freedom

Walled gardens..

>The whole walled garden concept has been around since at least MSN/AOL,

And before that there was Compuserve (I still have my old compuserve number recorded somewhere.

And before that was dial-up BBS (good old Almac - where are you now eh? Dial up on a 1200/75 baud non-autodial modem - my parents phone bill never recovered...)

Attack hijacks sensitive data using newer Windows features

Some people are hoping IPV6 fails..

For good, technical reasons!

See here:

http://apenwarr.ca/log/?m=201103#28

And (as an IT manager working with a large network I tend to agree..) And this vulnerability makes me even less enthusiastic..

Kinect blesses rescue robot with 3D sight

Looking at the picture..

Only one comment springs to mind.

Fives alive! No dissassemble!

(OK - so that's two comments. I was feeling generous)

UK Border Agency: Good at making cash, crap at making decisions

Stakeholders..

Is it just me that hates that word? To me it has the connotations of Labour era doublespeak. As in: "we are going to give you the illusion that you matter but we are actually going to make all the decisions for you that matter because we know best".

Maybe I just worked with the DoH for too long..

Latest boffinry: Feeding TNT to sheep

Is it just me?

Or is Jeff Minter going to bring out a new sheep games based on this? Anyone else remember Sheep In Space?

Or am I just too old?

Answers on an exploding sheep please. Delivered to somewhere far, far away.. (Jeff Minters brain!)

It's official: Nokia bets on Microsoft for smartphones

And what are HTC/Samsung et. al. going to do?

Since they now have one of their direct competitors (Nokia) having a major say in WP7.. I suspect they are going to drop it like a brick down a well. Which will reduce the number of WP7 phones coming to market and dely/stop it becoming a major platform.

I too remember when Nokia stood for progress and technology. Sad to see them becoming just another box shifter.

Cabinet Office claims major savings on ICT

I know we saved a bundle..

.. by not going with one of the big outsourcing providers (our current contract ends on Jan 31st) but going with a midrange one who is actually keen on providing a service rather than just milking us as a cash-cow.

It'll save us about 30% per year. As well as having *much* better SLAs and T&Cs than our previous contract. It's really, really worth going to someone for whom your contract is a goodly fraction of their annual income rather than less than the rounding error on their management accounts.

O2 blamed for iPhone's data sucking

It's not just pasg that sucks on O2

One of the major factors in going to Vodabunny for my shiny new iPhone4 was that I consistently was unable to get any sort of data connection on O2 with my old iPhone 3g (which works fine on my work vf SIM..)

It's a real novelty to have data connection happen immediately instead of having to retry three or four times like I used to on O2.

LPG lake on Titan evaporating in scorchio -180°C heatwave

It's all our fault

Obviously it's all our fault - our Global Warming is sooo bad that it's affecting the rest of the solar system.

We should immediately report to the reception centres for reprocessing and recycling.