Posts by 45RPM

Cache-astrophic: Why Valve's Steam store spewed players' private profiles to strangers

Re: Good idea.

At the risk of being downvoted into a smoking hole in the ground, this problem seems to be particularly prevalent on Windows - and I'm at a loss to see why consoles (other than, perhaps, Xbox) are similarly affected.

Taking one (admittedly small) example, when I installed Trine on my Mac I was able to start playing immediately. I installed Braid and the gameplay experience was the same. I did the same on Linux (with Trine and Braid) - install, and then play. No further messing.

When attempting the same on my Windows 7 PC, I needed to update DirectX (and a load of other stuff - it was a while ago, and I can't remember the specifics) immediately after installing Trine before I could play. I installed Braid and, despite just having done a major update of shared components, I had to wait while more components (often the same ones) got updated again. Wtf!?

Now I concede that Windows is the better system for gaming in terms of variety and performance, but in terms of user friendliness and immediacy Microsoft can learn a lot of from Linux and Mac OS.

Adobe: We locked our customers in the cloud and out poured money

Re: There is an alternative…

@Steve Davies 3

Fanboys everywhere on el Reg. It's a very partisan site.

I know that there are people who still swear by Adobe - my sister's business for one, and she's happy with the subscription model. I'm not even saying that the subscription model is bead for everyone - just that it's bad for me. I like to have a perpetual licence.

I like the way that JetBrains do it - you buy a subscription and, after each year, your license changes to being perpetual for the major version that was current when the year's subscription started/renewed for you. If Adobe did that too I'd have no quarrel with their subscription model.

There is an alternative…

If you don’t like being locked into the cloud, there is a viable alternative - and I speak as one who not only once used Photoshop and Illustrator, but was also paid to teach other people how to use it.

Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are both viable alternatives, and they require remarkably little in the way of retraining in order to use. Sure, there’s some functionality missing - but since the missing functionality is largely in the field of automation (building panoramas and so forth) it’s stuff that you may be able to do without. Personally, I’m happy to make do without and abandon the subscription model at the same time. I’m sure that Serif will be adding in the missing functionality in future versions (fingers crossed).

Adobe does still have one worthwhile tool - Brackets. That one’s free. Download it now.

Apple finally publishes El Capitan Darwin source

Re: Job's the marconi of his day!!

@Simon Hobson

With regard to Microsoft's views of the GPL, I think that mainly applies to Steve Ballmer. But Ballmer wasn't the smartest tool in the shed (which explains Microsoft's precipitous decline in his tenure). Now that Nadella chap is an entirely different kettle of cleverness - and we don't know what his views on the subject are.

My problem with the GPL is that it explicitly states that the source code must be published - and there are times where that might be undesirable for competitive reasons. Attribution, I have no issue with - but source code publication? No - that's not for me. LGPL 'fixes' GPL - but I tend to prefer the BSD license (which didn't need 'fixing' to begin with.)

That said, I can also see the point of GPL for some - and so isn't it wonderful that we have a choice of license, and we can choose the one that suits us best?

@kryptylomese

I was looking at Darling just the other day - but this probably doesn't make their work any easier.

You see, this isn't really anything all that new - the source code for Darwin and the kernel for Yosemite has been out for a while now - and, if you go back as far as Leopard, you even used to be able to download an image of the full built OS. So, as you can see, this doesn't give Darling anything that they didn't have already (it just gives them a newer version)

I used to use Darwin on my PC, and I liked it a lot. Scarcity of software, and lack of time to build for myself from the sources, pushed me into the arms of Ubuntu - and there I've stayed. The CLI isn't quite as nice (there are tools and ways of working on Darwin that I prefer), but the overall experience is a great deal better.

Donald Trump wants Bill Gates to 'close the Internet', Jeff Bezos to pay tax

You shore do have a purty mouth. Fer a city boi.

Seems to me that you can gauge the IQ of a merkin, to some extent, by the party that they support. If it's GOP then you might be looking at someone called cletus who screws pigs and whose idea of foreplay is to say "wake up, Ma". An evolution denying moron whose only talent is the ability to play the banjo very quickly. In short, probably not the sort of person you'd want to trust with the biggest economy and military in the world.

Hello Barbie controversy re-ignited with insecurity claims

Hi! I'm Barbie. I love you very much.

Question is, will this new cutting edge technology be resistant to the best efforts of Mr. Snodworthy? Better yet, will it be able to get one over Mr. Snodworthy with, perhaps, a carefully placed arm?

We should all watch these developments most carefully.

Top Android app devs found exfiltrating mystery stealth packets

Re: Comparison of android, iOS, Windows

The trouble is that when research of this type is published, concentrating on only one platform, it doesn't provide enough information for purchasers to make an informed decision. At worst, it provides more grist to the mill of adherents (fan boys) of other OSs that theirs is somehow better. Safer. And it may be - but there isn't enough data here to make that kind of judgment. Equally, it may not be - it may be worse.

I would genuinely be interested to see this research but covering all the major mobile operating systems.

How does this compare with Windows or iOS?

Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail

Err… Yes. But you also need to have a certain number of upvotes - and this isn’t a great way of getting those.

Must try harder, I’m afraid. Quality as well as quantity.

I visited a friend in chokey once. I got frisked and x-rayed for drugs - which I, as a tweedy kind of a bloke, thought was hiliarious. I don’t do anything stronger than whisky, tea and bacon.

They took dabs too. So presumably I’m on record somewhere.

GCHQ 'smart collection' would protect MPs from spies, says NSA expert

Re: Who has more power?

@strum Since Parliament is supposed to be democratic, our politicians must be subject to the same protections and laws as the rest of us. That includes encryption and privacy on the net.

The ideal solution is just to forget about this whole sorry mess, and permit hard to break encryption.

The next best solution is to educate everyone how to use Tor, and write off the public internet as a sorry fucked up mess.

Finally, if we must have broken encryption, politicians must have broken encryption too - and whistleblowers will have to fall back on the old, non electronic methods.

Hi, um, hello, US tech giants. Mind, um, mind adding backdoors to that crypto? – UK govt

Unfortunately, the security czars and special advisors to HM Government are unqualified in mathematics or cryptography - in fact, one wonders how they got the job at all. Cameron and Co appear to be somewhat brainless (it's not as if people who are qualified haven't been clamouring to be heard), and the Queen isn't taking her responsibilities seriously (she should dissolve parliament and require an election before Cameron n Co make us a complete laughing stock).

It's a sad state of affairs when we need to rely on massive corporations to stand up for us against our government. I'm not certain that I trust the massive corporations- but I definitely don't trust our government.

Raspberry Pi grows the pie with new deal allowing custom recipes

Please may I have a Mini ITX Pi, and two SATA connectors onboard. That would make a sweet homebuild RISC PC.

GCHQ starts hunt for tech-savvy apprentices

Prospective recruits (who need to be 18 and above) need a strong interest in programming and technology and questionable morals when it comes to respecting other peoples privacy.

Fixed that for you.

Bacon as deadly as cigarettes and asbestos

Re: Wouldn't be worth it...

@CarbonLifeForm

Queues? Depends on the severity of the condition.

For a non life threatening problem, like a broken bone, you'll be waiting hours.

For a serious or life threatening problem, they'll deal with you to the point of stability immediately- and then you'll have to wait for whatever is needed next.

For a non essential operation, where essential is defined as you can life without it (albeit not necessarily very well), you could wait months (depending on the area)

It also depends on your age and general health. Ain't triage wonderful? All of which explains why I think the NHS is wonderful, and I'm happy to be taxed for it, but why I choose to reduce the load and go private when possible (only once so far, thankfully)

But we seem to have strayed far from the topic of bacon.

Re: Call it correctly

@Voland's right hand

Es kann nicht sein "Beobachter" genannt. Das ist "The Guardian" am Sonntag.

Re: Wouldn't be worth it...

@Anonymous Coward

I've been seeing too many people who've swallowed up the divide and rule and have a 'fuck the fatties/smokers/anyone who partakes in something I don't' crowd who seemingly know the cost associated with every behaviour ever and the value of none

Yup. And I did rely on the NHS earlier this year - they patched me up a treat when I spilled from my bike. And if the NHS should stop treating smokers because they brought it upon themselves, or treating bacon eaters for the same reason, then it should also stop treating cyclists who have spills, climbers who have tumbles, walkers and runners with sprains and so on. Pretty soon they'll have no eligible patients at all.

Wait a minute… No eligible patients? That means no queues! Lower costs for the NHS! We might be onto something here…

Re: Wouldn't be worth it...

@sabroni - smoke on, my friend, smoke on. As long as what you’re doing doesn’t harm me, why should I object to you doing it? It isn’t any of my business. And although I’m lucky enough to be able to go private, I’m delighted to pay tax for an undiscriminating* NHS that will look after whoever, whatever they’re suffering from, whenever they need it.

And, in the mean time, I shall go on enjoying the occasional bacon sandwich, vindaloo, rare roasted meat and all the other goodies that might be bad for me but which I will continue to stuff down my gluttonous gob.

*in the sense of not judging the patient and saying ‘ooh, well you’re not from round these parts’ or ‘ooh, well you brought it upon yourself…'

Laid-off IT workers: You want free on-demand service for what now?

Yeah. Thing is that Programmers are way worse than operators. You know the Iron Maiden cover with Eddie controlling Satan controlling Man? Well the BOFH is Satan. The Programmers are Eddie. BOFH can make your life miserable for a period of time. A programmer with a grudge can make you wish you’d never been born.

Don’t piss off the programmers. ’t’ain’t worth it.

Future civilisations won't know how the universe formed

@Spiracle

Surely, unless you subscribe to Orwell's idea that the national lottery is a hoax to placate the proletariat (1984), it's statistically likely that someone will win the lottery this week. It's just not statistically likely that it'll be you or anyone that you know.

GCHQ to pore over blueprints of Chinese built Brit nuke plants

Re: At the end of the 1960's the UK had...

D'ya reckon he'd have forgone the pint in favour of his name being spelled correctly?

I believe he preferred "Brian Trubshaw". And at least he's been spared the sellout cockup that is 21st Century Britain

Re: At the end of the 1960's the UK had...

@John Smith 19

Yup. We got rid of the stuff that we can use, and we kept the stuff that we can't. We could be a global superpower again - not in terms of land, of course, but in terms of influence and value - if we had great technology and owned our own infrastructure. Sadly, that would require bravery and a greater degree of selflessness from our politicians. Actually, perhaps not even selflessness - merely the ability to resist the temptation to rapaciously line their own pockets at the expense of the country's greater good.

I'm not sure that the tense is wrong. We still have brilliant physicists. Brilliant engineers. Brilliant people of all disciplines. Maybe some have gone abroad - but they'd come back with the right incentives.

The only stumbling block is our spineless bumbling wally politicians.

Gotta love the way our government is opposed to state ownership - except, apparently, when the state isn't ours. We can't be trusted with our own infrastructure, apparently, but other countries (even ones which could conceivably harbour less than beneficial intentions) can.

It's especially infuriating in fields which we invented. Railways, nuclear, telecoms, high speed flight. We're really good at this shit - so why not invest in our indigenous capability - and sell it instead of buying it from others?

Terror in the Chernobyl dead zone: Life - of a wild kind - burgeons

Re: @45RPM: "Lewis Page has very little scientific knowledge"

@Chris Miller with regard to Mr. P's master's. Bully for him. But since it's in engineering, this no more qualifies him to pontificate on climate change, biological systems or pollution than Roger Harrabin's degree in English. The difference is that Roger Harrabin has listened to scientists from many eminent institutions who are qualified in these subject areas.

Lewis, on the other hand, bangs his ignorant drum like a demented Duracell bunny and waits for his fan base to say "Ooh. Shiny degree. He must be qualified."

Re: Nuclear power: safe for humans, great for the natural environment

@phuzz a nature reserve doesn’t make a good comparison because it’s still a managed environment - managed by, and impacted by, humans. Culls take place in nature reserves (please don’t think that I’m arguing against culls, by the way, I’m not - culls are necessary to ensure a healthy population). Similarly, humans abound in nature reserves - with all that that entails. It’s not a bad comparison - better than nothing - but not perfect.

Besides, and as I said originally, some life has been more seriously affected than others. Fungi are doing very badly, for example, and that might be a better indicator since funguses lack the ability to migrate from outside the zone.

Re: Hmmm

@James Micallef

I see that you have selected yourself as being part of the 1/10th to stick around…

Correct. But if I’m the selector, I’ve also selected you, and Lewis Page, and everyone else here. For good measure, I’ve selected everyone else on the planet too. What I suggested is widespread and compulsory contraception as a way of reducing the population. If the birth rate falls then the population will necessarily fall too. No need to do it in on day - or even in one year.

Re: Hmmm

@Omgwtfbbqtime

Now can we remove an entire useless third of our population?

Best point here! Because I can’t see anything much wrong with enjoying gadgets, driving cars, flying in jets, eating meat, drinking milk or doing any of the other million and one things that we’re told we mustn’t do. Yes, there’s a problem with resource scarcity and pollution - but it’s putting the cart before the horse to say that we must now all eat muesli and quorn and walk everywhere, before going back home to our yurts. The problem is overpopulation - fix that and we’re golden. 1/3rd might be enough, but I’d rather see a 9/10ths reduction - and then we can enjoy peace and solitude, without all this stress about our environmental impact on the planet.

The church must play its part. For years it’s been crapping on about how bad contraception is - and the gullible have lapped it up. Now’s the time for religion to show that it’s a force for good in the world and mandate that all adherents are prohibited from sexual congress on pain of hell, unless they use a 100% effective contraception. No exemptions.

Re: Nuclear power: safe for humans, great for the natural environment

@Dewix

Quite. But Lewis Page is a troll, and has very little scientific knowledge. What he is good at is shouting loudly and mobilizing group think - he’s pure link bait. An empty vessel makes the most noise. What he ignores is that there are plenty of deformed animals in the exclusion zone and some parts of the food chain have been so badly damaged (particularly fungi) that dead matter isn’t being broken down properly - this presents the very serious risk of wildfire (all that dried, undecomposed, matter lying around) which would redistribute the radioactive material over an ever wider area.

It’s true that there has been significant recovery of some wildlife in the area - but only because humans aren’t competing for resources. If the recovery of wildlife in the exclusion zone were compared with a virgin, unpolluted, abandoned zone* then the recovery figures for Chernobyl would seem far less impressive.

In fairness, I am pro-nuclear provided that we can make reactors much safer (tick - we’ve done this) and provided that we can deal with the waste such that it doesn’t continue to be a highly dangerous problem for future generations (cross - we haven’t done this, and it will take significant investment in future generation highly efficient reactors before we can do so).

* which doesn’t exist because, if it did, why would we abandon it?

The Steve Jobs of supercomputers: We remember Seymour Cray

From the stories on Folklore (which don't mention a Cray), I'd guess that the Apple Cray was used in the design of the Power Macintosh (but I'm far too lazy to find / cite any sources). Seymour Cray, on discovering this, reputedly laughed and said that he was using a Macintosh to design the next Cray. Which only goes to show what an incestuous (and possibly full of bullshit and myth) business we're in.

Apple CEO Tim Cook: Email keyword sniffing? We'd NEVER do that!

Re: If I paid £600 for a handset

@LDS

What about Paris in a hotel? How much would that cost?

iPhone 6s and 6s Plus: Harder, faster and they'll give you a buzz

Re: FFS

…Probably not saving significant cash. All the comparisons I’ve seen end up with the Mac costing pretty much the same as the PC - if not a little less. True, you can buy a PC for less than a Mac - but only because Apple doesn’t compete in the low-end of the market. In the high-end market, Apple is very competitive…

…or, at least, it would be if they’d update the damn Mac Pro a little more frequently. Nevertheless, I specced up a Dell to the spec of the 3.5GHz 6 Core model Mac Pro. The Dell came in at $6,080 albeit that ‘instant savings’ were applied to bring the price to $4,560. The Mac came in at $3,999.

FOUR STUNNING NEW FEATURES Cook should put in the iPHONE 7

Re: @ 45RPM

Sorry @Joe Gurman. I wasn't clear. You are quite correct - and for this use case, replacing an iPhone battery is a doddle. I was referring to the articles premise that users might want to carry an additional battery around for on-the-go replacement.

@James Micallef

Thank you for a well thought out and well argued response. Have an upvote. My thoughts:

* True, but the question is, is this a broken paradigm, something that is done this way because that's how it's always been done?

Actually, it's only since the iPhone that it's been this way. All prior phones had replaceable batteries - and still no-one, outside a tiny minority, carried spares. I often thought about buying a spare - but I never did (even when I actually got a spare given to me, I always forgot to charge it / bring it with me).

* But whatever the storage capacity I actually DID need, I would rather not be totally ripped off for it, as per massive price difference between 16GB and 64GB iPhones.

No argument. What's really indefensible though is that the 16GB iPhone still exists - it should be 32GB as a base. Of course, by the time 32GB is the base the world will have moved on and 64GB should be base. I wouldn't be shocked if the 16GB phone didn't make substantial profit and only exists to make it look as if there's a (relatively) low cost device.

* I prefer a model where there are multiple App stores that compete with each other on security, price and availability of apps rather than have a take-it-or-leave-it monopolist who charges monopolistic prices.

How gloriously utopian. The problem is that every utopia is flawed and ends up as dystopia. By dystopia, in this case, I mean toxic hell stew of malware. Don't get me wrong - I love the idea, but I don't see how it can work. Other dreams (my own) are that no one would write malware, advertising would be unobtrusive and Ops would know their damn place in the priesthood - which is underneath the Programmers and Sandbenders ;-)

* stop pretending that Apple aren't gouging their customers (and the iOS developers), or that their products are better in any way except style and branding.

I don't think that Apple are gouging their customers - but I'm quite content for others to think otherwise. It seems to me that it's a matter of where the profit comes from. Apple explicitly makes its money from hardware, and hides the cost of software development and (some of the cost of) running cloud services. Google makes its money from advertising - which most users are fine with. I'm not. But isn't it wonderful that we have the choice? I can choose to pay a little more, because (maybe) I wear a tin foil hat. You can choose to pay a little less because you don't consider that the privacy issues are anything more than paranoia.

As for better quality, I can't really speak in terms of phones. HTC seem to be as good. Samsung seem a little worse. Vertu seem a lot ridiculous (in terms of 'style' too). In terms of computers (I have a Dell laptop, a Lenovo and an Apple) I can say unequivocally that Apple hardware is better in my experience - and not just in terms of styling. I haven't seen a desktop computer as good as my old Mac Pro tower either. Of course, that's for my use case.

I have to say that I object to the whole style thing though - Apple has been very fashionable since the iPod came out. Popular with sheeple (wankers) who buy a device because everyone else is rather than that it's best for their use-case. It really gets my goat when people buy something for reasons of fashion (or, for that matter, when people object to a device on the same grounds) grumble grumble grumble.

They do innovate. They just don’t invent. A common mistake.

innovate (verb) - make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products

invent (verb) - create or design (something that has not existed before)

The English language is damned tricky, even for native speakers, which makes it easy for corporations to use words in the most weasily way possible.

Unix. So if you’ve got Android or iOS then you’re onto a winner. But I suppose you’d like me to say Apple. So okay, Apple. But which point do you disagree with? Do you disagree that:

a) Most people only ever have one battery and never swap?

b) Most people never upgrade their storage?

c) It’s probably a good idea that to enforce that malware doesn’t get onto what could be an important safety device (and, lets face it, Apple aren’t having much luck with that at the moment - but think how much worse it could be if unrestricted installation of apps was permitted?)

d) Software developers should be paid, and paid well?

e) You have a choice and that you can have an Android device instead

Maybe you think that no iOS users are wankers? Or perhaps that for Android to succeed, Apple has to fail? Perhaps you want a monoculture (which, personally, I think would be a bad thing), and would prefer not to have a wide choice of both software and hardware platform?

So, to make it better…

…you want to make it worse!?

A parable. My wife had a Saxo once. She was suckered into buying it. It was loaded with toys - but, ultimately, built down to a price (and, as any Saxo owner will be able to confirm, shit). The cost of all those toys further reduced the money in the pot to make a decent car. The situation is worse with a phone because the toys in the Saxo, whilst not necessary, did have some utility. So she did use the sunroof - although it wasn’t necessary for the core functionality of the vehicle. And she used the CD player - although a radio, or even nothing at all, would have been just fine. But, ultimately, she swore at the damned shoddy and unreliable thing and then sold it for a fraction of what she paid for it (damn, those things depreciate!)

* The majority of users never replace their battery - they just recharge.

* The same applies for SD cards - hardly anyone uses them to upgrade the storage on their device. When I say ‘majority’ I mean the vast majority of users - not just geeks and techies who are a minority use-case.

* Unlocking, and going outside the app store is a bad idea. Jesus - it’s hard enough to keep the App Store free of malware without letting every Tom, Dick and Muppet install software any old how. And given that the phone could well end up being an important safety device, having malware on it would be A Bad Thing. Worse than having malware on a tablet.

* The prices aren’t outrageously insulting when you take into account development costs - and don’t forget the cost of developing the software. Android devices don’t have to worry about this - hence they can make their devices a bit cheaper. Some of them could even make the hardware out of compressed mud (or something similarly cheap and common-place) - saving costs further. Others make the hardware out of gold and diamonds - and run the same OS, leading to Apple Watch like pricing and pointlessness.

If you want the geek gizmos then theres a phone for you. It’s an Android. You don’t have to have an Apple you know - all you have to do is stop looking jealously over the fence, especially when theres a perfectly good platform which already caters to your requirements.

Still, a flesh light might be a useful addition to the iPhone - there’re an increasing number of wankers buying them these days. It’s a growth market.

Microsoft has developed its own Linux. Repeat. Microsoft has developed its own Linux

Credit where it's due

Nadella is a technology man - he understands, and is passionate about, this stuff. So far, he seems to be making the right, and sensible, decisions. His is a new, invigorated, Microsoft.

Ballmer was just a soap salesman, and reminded me of Stan from Monkey Island. He didn't understand the technology, and must have been fearful everyday that he was about to be found out. All we got from him was flannel.

Hey, remember Zune? Zune's dead, baby. Zune's dead

Plays for Sure was deep sixed. Zune has gone to Davy Jones'. Buying media on Groove seems rather like pissing money up the wall at this moment.

Win a free new car – just show Intel how you'd hack your existing one

My existing cars are 51 and 48 years old. To hack them I'd need to use an axe. Not gonna though. It might scratch the paint.

Look! Up in the sky! It's letters on a plane read with a 250MP camera

Re: With what lens and what atmospheric conditions?

And what was the text? There's a considerable difference in size between, for example, the No Step signs on a plane (already pretty large) and the registration number (bloody massive).

Half the Fanbois in your office are unpatched ATTACK VECTORS

Re: In other news

@Steve Davies 3

Agreed and, looking on the even brighter side, it's POETS day today. Only two and a half hours until I can get on with the vital job of ensuring that the bar doesn't topple over.

Yup. That's me that is, right there. My preferred iPhone (I have two, for software testing) is maxed out at 7.1.2. I'd upgrade it to a newer iOS if I could - but I can't.

I'm still not keen on my iPhone bendy - it's just too damned large for my tastes.

'A word processor so simple my PA could use it': Joyce turns 30

Good points. I was thinking more of the thunderous racket that they made, far louder than their contemporaries, because of all the soundproofing that was omitted to save on cost. That and the speed of the mechanisms, or lack thereof.

In fairness, in terms of quality, the daisy wheel units where as good as any other you might care to mention - and preferable, in my view, to the dot matrix units that were also on offer.

I’ve given Amstrad stick in the past for making shit computers (PC1512, take a bow), but the PCW8xxx and 9xxx were the finest CP/M computers ever made, and a fitting epitaph for a great operating system. The problem with them was the crappy printer mechanisms and dreadful keyboard. The printer situation could be fixed with an RS232 connected* printer (and third party driver) - but I’m not aware if anyone ever made a better keyboard. I didn’t have one myself, but everyone else seemed to.

*The number of peripherals made for Joyce was astonishing, especially given its ‘closed’ nature. There were sound cards, interfaces of all flavours, memory upgrades, hard disks - and even an adaptor to turn it into a 286 PC (charitibly - IIRC it was more a case that it turned the PCW into a keyboard and monitor for a 286 PC).

As for the Amstrad Treatment, you’d get (in order):

Low quality, low resolution parts that crumbled at first use. Like the Disney printers in Cory Doctorows ‘Makers’

A splitting headache.

A massive explosion.

Another headache, possibly fatal depending on the size of the drone.

Russian regulator bans PornHub for its ‘illegal pornography’

Truth is, you don't have a worthwhile website until you've been banned by Russia. It's a recommendation dontchaknow. Personally, I haven't visited Pornhub - but you can be sure that I'll be taking this Russian plaudit most seriously.

Dell CEO: Very few will survive the PC bloodbath

Is the same Michael Dell…

…who recommended that Apple should be broken up and the money given back to the shareholders? Seriously, dude, this prediction malarkey is tough - and you suck at it.

The other thing you suck at is making decent computers. I ought to know - I've had three of the feckers (a Dell Dimension 486 (which I was given), a Dell XPS (which I bought because I didn't learn after the Dimension debacle), and a notebook (from work, which I still have - but which I relegated to a drawer after a week and didn't use again because it was so vile.))

I think that there will always be, at the very least, a market for carefully designed, well thought out and beautifully constructed (and often bespoke) PCs for users who demand quality hardware but don't, for whatever reason, want a Mac. This is the raison d'être of many of the small PC manufacturers- and I'll wager that some of them will still be around when Dell, at long last, has been broken up and the money returned to its investors.

Black and blue: The rise of the riotous Richard Pryor

Re: In the 80's

Agreed. I still think Superman I and Superman II were the greatest superhero films ever made (to date, at least) - but the subsequent Superman films, with the exception of the excellent Returns, were deeply flawed - the latest utterly unwatchable (I know, it's an unpopular opinion).

Superman III would have been unwatchable too - except for Richard Pryor, who made the whole thing rather entertaining and rewatchable. Not Superman, but a passable spoof of Superman at least. And the freebie promotional transfers from boxes of Shreddies where great too!