Posts by RoboJ1M

808 lines of BBC BASIC and a dream: Arm architecture turns 40

I mean, he wasn't wrong.

Re: I would like an ARM 1

I got me a mint restored Master 128.

Gonna strap a PiTube and the SCSI to SD card to it and design me some cartridges.

Nobody ever did anything exciting with the carts.

I will fix this.

Quick maths refresher: Intel CPU shortages + consumer stock bottleneck = no computer sales growth in EMEA for 2019

AMD?

So, do school kids only settle for Intel laptops then?

Is it hideously embarrassing to take a Ryzen powered lappy in on the first day?

Same as, say, having an Android tablet instead of an iPad?

Another German state plans switch back from Linux to Windows

As a software engineer

Windows is toast.

Software has moved to the web.

Your os is a browser.

Microsoft has even ported it's languages to Linux.

They don't even want it anymore.

Elderly Bletchley Park volunteer sacked for showing Colossus exhibit to visitors

If I can't see the computing, I'm not going there.

In fact I'm now so worried I've missed the boat I may rush there at the weekend before they turn it into some ghastly chrome and glass visitors centre with an animatronic Turing.

Wozniak: Please, whatever you do, DON'T buy me an iPad Air

US Infrastructure Fail?

Wow.

That sucks.

We used to have lame broadband and data contracts in the UK but now they're awesome.

Glad I'm not there!

Congrats on MP3ing your music... but WHY bother? Time for my ripping yarn

Re: grip on Linux does a nice job

I like abcde.

It's a dream for the bulk ripper.

Setup your config file then start inserting CDs.

It spits them out when it's done, move onto the next one.

It really doesn't come any more bullet proof.

Also the names easy to remember.

You can even auto load it when you insert an audio CD with a bit of work.

Oh please, PLEASE bring back Xbox One's hated DRM - say Xbox loyalists

It's true that it would kill Xbox dead.

However I agree that due to the fact that Steam has not killed the PC outright, it's clear that it wasn't some kind of terrible idea.

No surprises though that Valve managed to do it better than Microsoft.

Hey what happened to my evil balmer icon?

Asperger's and IT

Re: A touch of Asperger's ...

So THAT'S who's on the other side of the bell curve...

Re: Asperger's and IT

Well at least awareness is increasing, my girlfriend was diagnosed late in her educational career and had a *VERY* unpleasant time before that.

From what I've learnt over the years it seems to be something like this:

It's a spectrum, or scale. Starts at zero (I guess?) and goes all the way up to Rain Man.

Everybody's on it and that's why EVERYBODY associates with it.

Now, a syndrome is defined as "The association of several clinically recognizable features, signs, symptoms, phenomena or characteristics that often occur together, so that the presence of one or more features alerts the healthcare provider to the possible presence of the others." (wiki) and I've read more (which I can't find ref to) which states that when dealing with autistic spectra and important criteria is that it "affects the individual's quality of life"

Got a few of the symptoms? Having a nice life though? Good for that person.

Wait, it's probably a bell curve isn't it?

Er, so if Rain Man's on one side who's over on the other side?

Some sort of person who can't focus but is some kind of empathic psychic?

There's a comment a few blocks down about Cancer Research UK.

That's makes me want to find those people give them the full Rage o'Clock.

Re: ?!

No, you're thinking of "money".

Re: Asperger's and IT

hehehehehe. Yeah. Sounds quite a lot like me.

The days and weeks I've lost to seeing if I can make some piece of code or script that much more efficient or easier to run.

Joy of joys my role now involves how the source control is arranged, used, the naming conventions, the change control processes, the release process, the testing process and the code auditing process.

And designing and writing the inter-process document exchange specifications and the user interface design (but not the styling because who gives a crap about what it looks like? Except I got to come up with a method of divorcing design and implementation of content from design and implementation of style) and database design and how to increase coding efficiency (can you believe that people don't understand why duplication is bad?!)

And how to get multiple developers to work on the same project AND talk to each other AND not try to kill each other! It's like herding cats!

Holmes because the devil's in the details and I don't care what you think about how long it's going to take

So yes, I may be somewhere on it.

Universities teach us a thing or two about BYOD

Re: Swings and roundabouts...

Cost perhaps?

Each RDP session requires a CAL on your windows server.

Last time I looked there were no open source RDP servers or Citrix servers.

Also last time I was at uni and everybody I know who works in educational IT departments use Linux based servers.

VNC perhaps? It's pretty awful though, even on a LAN.

OFFICIAL: Humans will only tolerate robots as helpful SLAVES

I would tolerate them.

Cos it would be freakin' AWESOME!! 8D

Windows 8.1: So it's, er, half-speed ahead for Microsoft's Plan A

I loath any OS's "Start" menu if it doesn't come with a Search First facility now.

It's such a massive improvement for me.

Win Key + type name + Return

Seriously, sod clickety-clickety-clickety...

Unity seems to have it best at the moment.

Shortcuts to most used apps + searchable "start" menu.

Partying, beer and C++: How to choose the right Comp-Sci degree for you

Re: No you choose your degree at 13

Indeed, I'm now at the stage of my programming career where I don't go anywhere near code.

I spend every day in Balsamiq, Word and XmlSpy designing applications, screens, APIs and architecture.

The docs I write then get spilt out amongst the the programmers, be they "front end, "back end" or "external" and they do the programming.

Graduated from Brunel University with Comp Sci in 2001.

Did 4 year sandwich degree so I could actually get a job

Took A level Maths, Physics and Music Tech.

Spent 4 years at uni breaking any computer I could find, drinking, clubbing, camping, bowling and living in the 24 hour computer room. Oh and we had lots of block-war water fights

Smartwatch face off: Pebble, MetaWatch and new hi-tech timepieces

Re: Usefulness of Pebble increasing

And I didn't see any mention of Pebble being e-paper?

No battery munching LCD or OLED. No wonder it lasts a week.

I was reading the article thinking, "why don't they use e-paper!"

Not now, Apple: We've got the Pi-Phone, the smallest mobe network

How about using it in small, remote and poor villages?

How about using it in small, remote and poor villages?

Just give it a big aerial and a bigger transceiver.

And everybody gets cool numbers like "1" and "2".

The fast-growing energy source set to replace oil: Yes, it's coal

Re: Renewable Energy

Mostly agree.

They take my money and spend it on glossy advertising programmes telling me to use less energy.

Get lost, I now use all the energy I want to pay for without being overtly wasteful.

It's up to the privatised energy industry to spend my money on getting more energy but not at the cost of future generations.

They shouldn't be allowed to take more money because they backed the wrong horse.

They should all be going out of business and being replaced by younger, hungrier companies that know how to undercut the opposition by using fancy new tech.

What I don't get it why we aren't all building solar concentrating towers in north africa and piping it all back here for pennies.

Android 'splits' into the Good and the lovechild of Bad and Ugly

Re: Shenanigans

Agreed, £110 gets you a 9" 1.5GHz dual core (ARM, don't know the type) jelly bean tablet with 1gb RAM and 8gb storage in our local tech shop. Not exactly breaking the bank there. Just a shame they don't sell equivalent phones too. I'm gonna go with smiley face. Because smiley.

Power-mad HPC fans told: No exascale for you - for at least 8 years

And for power mad HTPC fans, no exascale for you either because you're f****** bananas and keep dribbling into the fan vents and chewing on the cat.

Sony PS3 extends lead over Microsoft's Xbox 360 by a cool million

Not in the UK I don't think.

I own an Xbox 360. It's my 3rd one (First RROD, free replacement, Second traded in when the HDMI Elite came out)

It's the first console I've ever bought, leaving PC gaming due to hassle (Windows) and cost (GPU rapid obsolescence)

Things I have noticed over the last seven years:

1) I've only ever met 3 real people who have owned a PS3. Every other gamer I know is PC, Xbox or PC AND Xbox.

2) In our local exchange store, the Xbox has 9 shelving units, the PS2 has 4 shelving units and the PS3 has 3 shelving units.

3) This was the generation in the UK where Xbox replaced Playstation as the term synonymous with Gaming. In TV, print and general conversation, you go and "play xbox".

I'm a gamer through and through and in 7 years I've only ever seen an installed PS3 ONCE and I've never played on one.

Last generation? Everything was PS2. Everyone HAD a PS2 and everyone said "Playstation".

In my book, that's pretty meaningful.

J1M.

Stephen Hawking pushes for posthumous pardon for Alan Turing

Re: Hear, hear!

Although one wonders why the pressure is required at all?

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS: Like it or not, this Linux grows on you

Haters gonna hate

http://www.hatersgoingtohate.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/haters-gonna-hate-cat.jpg

Chinese coders beat all-comers

Re: ..one way street

Agreed, get one of them to design software that's powerful, elegant, reliable, maintainable and easy to use.

And then get them to organise a team of many programmers to implement it.

Then get them to document it.

THEN see whether an entirely different team of developers can maintain it/interface with it.

Generally any interface designed by a "programmer/hacker" looks like the dog vomited on the cat.

Atmospheric CO2 set to soar - OECD

Re: The solution is still nuclear.

*sigh*, no, we can't just bomb them. It gets you such *terrible* press... ¬.¬

Valve responds to Half-Life 3 grumbles

Christ, can people not read?

They were complaining about Valve's lack of communication, not the fact that it's taking so long.

Even Valve appear to have missed the point.

Black Ops has best videogame ending ever

Re: insert standard shock horror response

Well, FF7 was my favourite ending, followed by FF8 (and it's most epic battle of any game ever at the end)

IMO FF7 has the best nemesis (SPOILERS: killed your gf, killed your mum (sort of) burned down your home, throws a planet at you at the end) in Sephiroth so beating him was proper satisfying. I actually almost cried when the game ended because I knew no other game was going to feel like that.

FF8, with it's 4 sequential bosses and real deaths after a castle of bosses was just epic squared. Also the CG was (at the time) mind blowing. FF7 and 8 had the best soundtracks. Counts for a lot with me.

Course it's all just opinion, but regardless, I think the FF games have the best endings over all other games.

System Shock

Your crow bar would be no match for the army of lawyers that would descend on whoever tries to do System Shock 1 or 2 HD.

There's a reason they didn't do System Shock 3, too much legal red tape.

Huawei butters up Microsoft to avoid Android patent war

Yes, it's called a protection racket.

"prior to the UK launch of its Android devices"

Sorry, but I was under the impression that you can't patent software inventions in the UK.

Silly me.

J.

Minecraft upstages Portal 2 in arty game prize

Have fun watching Strictly Come X Factor

Aaaaah, it's at times like this I look at my own life and realise how lucky I am...

id Software's Rage

What's with all the "even on the Xbox 360"?

And what about PS3? Is THAT even as good?

Use of Weapons declared best sci-fi film never made

Use of Weapons

I read Use of Weapons first and it's been my favorite and most memorable first read of an author since.

But you can read them in any order.

Also...

I voted for this one!! WINNER!!

Elite coder readies £15 programming gadget for schools

I think I know how that could work.

"You might end up needing a Canonical sized enterprise just to provide the necessary support."

Like maybe, say, the BBC? ;-)

Mine's the one with a tape copy of Arcadians.

And Rocket Raid.

And Snapper.

And Painter

And...

IPCC report: Renewables can never meet energy demand

Build Proper Solar.

"The total solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. In 2002, this was more energy in one hour than the world used in one year. Photosynthesis captures approximately 3,000 EJ per year in biomass. The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the planet is so vast that in one year it is about twice as much as will ever be obtained from all of the Earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined."

The Answer looks simple to me.

You just have to accept it's not "cost effective"

Official: Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5bn

Embrace, Extend and...

Well that's the Embrace step out of the way...

ARM still raking it in, and not just in phones

I can has stock?

How on earth did you do that?

Much of recent global warming actually caused by Sun

CO2 causes other problems

CO2 causes other problems, like the acidification of the ocean, which is our main CO2 sink.

This in turn does horrible things to everything living in it, like the great barrier reef.

Killing the biodiversity of the oceans is bad news.

The sun don't do that, we do.