* Posts by Mondo the Magnificent

553 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Mar 2011

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Argentina eyes up laser death cannon testbed warship

Mondo the Magnificent

Operation Malvinas

Yup, Argentina want the islands and want them bad

They have also been taking to Israel about buying 16 Kfir fighters, which are based on the Dassault Mirage 5 airframe, a very capable aircraft, irrespective of its age.

Of course our government is not happy about this and have whinged about it to the Israelis, but Israel will probably ignore our government just like our government ignore the violence that Hamas reigns down on its own people and Israelis

But of course the biggest threat of the UK losing the Falklands comes from within, because Mr Jeremy Corbyn would quite gladly hand these over to the Argentines.

Perhaps there will be some space for Corbyn on Ponce, that way he can appease the Argentinians and annoy the f*ck out of the Falkland Island residents, as this seems to be hist forte

Google building firebombed

Mondo the Magnificent
Mushroom

I reckon...

..it was the Garmin Gang..... part of a virtual turf war...

Venezuela tops world lightning conductor league

Mondo the Magnificent
Mushroom

Zap!

When I worked in South Africa we also had a massive "storm damage" (say lightning) issue

With the Highveld area being 1700M plus above sea level, Zeus often struck hard...

Many a modem was lost to lightning, even with all the surge protection devices we fitted including surge protection plug tops, that had beefy ceramic capacitors within them. (We fitted special plug sockets with protected plugs that had a special "half moon" earth pin to prevent kettles, heaters and the like from being plugged in to them)

Often I still hear of people who's homesteads get zapped by Zeus rendering all their everyday electronic devices (TVs, Digital Receivers, HiFis, desktop systems etc) useless..

Lightning can be a truly amazing spectacle but it sure as hell don't discriminate when it strikes nearby.. watch S.A. comedian Trevor Noah's "Death at a funeral" sketch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXsZ5bydFT0)

Aluminum-wrapped robbers fail to foil bank

Mondo the Magnificent

Bloody lightweights...

Galaxy S7 sales slay S6

Mondo the Magnificent

No surprise

Strangely it's the little things like the Micro SD card option that draws punters to a mobile

Samsung obviously realised the error of their ways with the S6 and reverted back to their winning format

Most people I know with S6 handsets were happy with them, they had ample storagem but the lack of removable media devices was a bugbear to some..

It just proves that it's the little things that keeps punters happy.....

LaCie bigs up 5big array: Desktop hot storage box gets fatter drives

Mondo the Magnificent

Re: Big POS?

Lacie have had some questionable products out in the past.

However, according to the article, it seems as if they've upped the ante: "There is a five-year warranty too, covering drives, enclosure and spare parts"

That's a lot better than some are offering on similar products...

Personally I like enclosures sans disks, I use an Akitio Thunderbolt and a few Taurus (rebadged as "Storiva" here in France) USB3 desktop enclosures and they do the job, but I tend to stuff them with Enterprise class HGST or Seagate spinners, solely for the decent warranty on the disks and shopping around on HDDs makes it a little cheaper than a majority of desktop storage products that come stuffed with disks..

Surprise! British phone wins Best Product at Mobile World Congress

Mondo the Magnificent

Re: Back on track...

Oops... I misread the RAM spec... epic fail... *note to self* do not speed read on a mobile screen

Mondo the Magnificent
Pint

Back on track...

Great product, I looked at the specs and the only 'flaw' in my eyes is the 1GB RAM, but I'd expect at least 2GB system memory

The thermal imaging is ideal for my line of work as a data centre ops engineer, especially when some zealous NOC member emails me in regards to a storage array is "overheating" because Controller B hit 33ºC

My "British designed" Marshall London phone is probably Taiwanese built (I cannot for the life of me find out who manufactures the Marshall London) but again, it's a British design and brand and I love it.. (oh that has 3GB RAM) and although it's not as glitzy as an iPhone or Samsung S6 Edge, it's got some unique features, a Marshall "amplifier" type look and feel on the exterior to the nice lean and clean Lollipop distro.

Eurocratics and Eurosceptic politics aside, the British manufacturing industry is far from stagnant, it's not as vibrant as some of the Asia Pacific countries, but one thing the British can do well is design, hence Tata keeping both design and manufacturing of Land Rover/Jaguar here in Blighty as a simple example.

I just wish more British brands would commit to manufacturing within our shores, but everyone loves a bargain and it's all about the price tag... sadly!

Feds look left and right for support – and see everyone backing Apple

Mondo the Magnificent

Collaboration?

I worked extensively with the UK high tech crime and counter terrorism units when I was in the UK

My position was nothing more than a consultant engineer who liaised in putting methodologies in place to speed up investigation time

One thing I was aware of was the collaboration between the police, well know mail providers and Telcos All these companies were very cooperative when it came to the police needing info or access to a suspect's mail.

I understand where Apple are coming from on this and reading Tim Cook's "Blog Entry" doesn't seem to match up with what the FBI are saying and visa versa..

National security is what it is, it affects the nation, especially in relation to terrorism.

Now this case seems to focus on a radical and his partner who are now both deceased, but playing the "BOFH's Advocate" here, I have ask what if the situation was more dire? Let's say a nuclear or chemical threat that jeopardised hundreds, thousands or even millions of lives and the Feds needed to access an encrypted iDevice, would Apple still hold the moral high ground?

What if another event took place that could have been prevented through access to encrypted phone data, how would Tim Cook react to that? Would he wash his hands in apple juice and absolve himself and Apple from any responsibility through lack of co-operation?

It's a nasty situation to be in, but then again, Apple don't want an "NSAKEY.DLL" situation within their OSes, they want and need to be impartial because it's good for consumers.

Sadly this fracas which has now become a buzz of public debate doesn't resolve the issue of accessing the data of those who pose a threat to individuals or a nation. Sure the suspects may be deceased but phone records and mobile data are an absolute goldmine to investigators.

Profits and product integrity are a goldmine to manufacturers who have shareholders and loyal customers to appease.

To me this is a lose-lose situation irrespective of who wins the hearts and minds of the general public in this case.

Hold the miniature presses: Playmobil movie is go

Mondo the Magnificent
Coat

But I ask....

..will the storyline be original or based upon commercial cartoon characters like we've seen in the Lego movie?

I guess we'll have to wait and see how this "squares up" to the Lego Movie

Fleet of 4.77MHz LCD laptops with 8088 CPUs still alive after 30 years

Mondo the Magnificent

Quality versus quantity?

I had one of those very T1000's in the late 80's for work use.

My belief is that in the early era of computing, these things were not as mass produced as they are today and the combination of manufacturing and QC levels made these old systems very reliable indeed.

Airbus, Boeing aero parts maker loses $54m in cyber-stick-up

Mondo the Magnificent
Mushroom

No surpirse...

In fact, a majority of data breaches are still committed from "inside" organisations..

You can invest in all the data security you want, but if a company doesn't vet its employees properly, it can cost them.. we often read about this in the news when it's £10K here and £50K there, but when it's $50M, then it draws massive attention,,,

What do Angolan rebels, ISIS widows, Metallica and a photographer have in common?

Mondo the Magnificent

Jonas Savimbi

UNITA's Jonas Savimbi was a competent leader and respected military commander who was a devout anti-Communist.

He fought staunchly against the Marxist MPLA government's FNLA army and their thousands of Cuban and Russian support troops in Angola.

In fact, the U.S. Reagen administration funded and equipped UNITA, providing them with Sidewinder missiles to bring down Cuban MI-24 choppers and MIGs, thus restricting the FNLA's air superiority in many areas.

Enter democracy in South Africa and the U.S. Clinton Administration, who signed an oil deal with Angola's Marxist despot government headed by Jose Eduardo De Santos.

With the Cubans now out of Angola, Dos Santos' rule was in jeopardy as UNITA were better equipped and trained and stated they would not respect any mineral treaties signed by the MPLA government

The Angolan government then hires "Executive Outcomes" (EO) a private army of former South African and Namibian troops (who were once upon a time Savimbi's allies and foes) to help eradicate UNITA

South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela gave his blessings for Eeben Barlow's EO to help train and aid the Angolan government eradicate the majority tribe in Angola

EO trained and aided the MPLA government's FNLA army to crush UNITA, even with ex SADF servicemen flying MIGs and choppers sorties.

There are many rumours around Savimbi's demise, but those "in the know" (ex EO upper ranks) eventually stated publicly that Savimbi was executed while unarmed as there was a "no prisoner" clause in the EO contract with the Angolan government. They wanted him dead....

An FNLA soldier took the credit for killing Savimbi and was hailed a "national hero"

Thereafter UNITA fell apart, was disbanded and their former foot soldiers were disarmed by the UN and placed into Angolan government "re-education" camps where tens of thousands of these former UNITA foot soldiers were systematically starved to death before Angola's first "free and fair elections" All this while the world turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to UNITA's politicians who protested these actions...

So, call Savimbi a "warmonger" if you please, but his demise was also the demise of his tribe in the African tradition of clandestine African ethnic cleansing.

NB: I served in the SADF as an immigrant conscript and was in Angola. I've been in Jamba (which was UNITA's HQ) and he was a giant of a man, well educated, well spoken and respected by those who were fortunate enough to meet and speak with him in person. I didn't speak with him, but he was always waving, greeting and very accommodating to those who helped him in his quest to prevent Angola turning into another Soviet Union puppet state

The bottom line, there are no losers and winners in war, only those who die or survive...

Kids' tech skills go backwards thanks to tablets and smartmobes

Mondo the Magnificent
Childcatcher

The "shrink wrap" era?

Years ago kids were sat in front of PCs they often built themselves by shopping around for the relevant components then banging it all together.

These machines had to be set up from scratch, load the OS, the drivers, make the tweaks and changes to suit one's requirements..

Internet access was via dial-up modem and social media was the likes of Internet relay Chat or IRC

Then came ADSL, but ADSL modems weren't offering WiFi connectivity as a standard option in those days.. so a WAP was added and manually configured.

In fact, to connect to ADSL we had to buy NICs and install them into our PCs, because very few offered integrated LAN, then came the CD's, CD-RWs, DVD upgrades...

I recall setting up LAN parties, where we'd all meet up at a friend's house, connect up and play Doom, Quake III Arena and Starcraft to name a few.. this was our era of "social networking"

Today we live in a world where kids prefer the likes of tablets over PCs, social media is Facebook, Adium, WhatsApps BBM, and all the other easy to set up software.

Kids now enjoy shrink wrapped solutions, open the box, power on, charge, register the device, do some basic config and it's ready to roll...

DSL in commonplace in almost every homestead nowadays, wireless networks are everywhere as is 3/4G connectivity, Facebook, Google, MySpace is the social networking of today, and it's also spawned an era for "TXT TLK" which annoys many...

This, in my opinion could be the root cause... things are just too easy....

£2.3m ZANO nano-drone crowdfunded project crashes and burns

Mondo the Magnificent
Coffee/keyboard

Risky business

The BBC News Tech page has been following this story..

Kickstarter campaigns are a calculated risk, I've ventured into some projects with success, like the "Bike Balls", which is a testicular shaped under saddle bicycle light... and they delivered!

Many are furious with Kicksarter who commented "Creators on Kickstarter have a remarkable track record, but there are no guarantees that a project will work out."

Sadly some do crash and burn, like the Zano has, but the strange thing about this project is that it's one man's exit (Ivan Reedman) from the project that caused it to wrap up

Unfortunately n the world of new ideas and calculated risks some backers will and do get burned

Apple's design 'drives up support costs, makes gadgets harder to use'

Mondo the Magnificent
IT Angle

Agreed...

As a long term OS X user, I cannot disagree with the sentiments.

IOS and even OS X itself has become bloatier, with added features that are no longer intuitive and beyond RTFM resolution for the average user.

It's the niggling OS X changes that frustrate me too, but I get by...

More people are jumping ship to Macs due to the belief that it complements their iPads and iPhones and the learning curve can be quite steep.

Apple do offer a course for Windows users that provides basic tuition on how to get the Mac to do what their Windows machines can, but it is a basic course. (I have a few friends who have paid for these courses here in France)

Sadly this tuition doesn't cover the under-skin fundamentals that seasoned OS X users are familiar with and often use.

That's where Apple Support comes in, when users who are outside of their 12 month support are prepared to pay for a talk through resolution to their OS X support woes - the exception being my friends who tend to call me for help :¬P or those astute enough to dig through forums to seek an answer to their issues.

Cement company in sacks out for the lads rumpus

Mondo the Magnificent

PC = Portland Cement?

Political correctness gone mad?

I await the day Ikea face the court's wrath for using flat chested women assembling flat pack furnishings...

Also, the dolly bird in the Spanish cement advert was rendered, so if the Judge was a Tomb Raider player, I suspect they may just get away with it...

Huawei who? We probe the sleeping storage dragon's brains

Mondo the Magnificent
Holmes

Crouching kitty, hidden iguana.....

We could class Huawei globally as a potentially equivalent storage supplier to Dell, EMC, HDS, HP and IBM, with a roughly equivalent set of hardware platforms, minus tape

Perhaps in SMB/SME, EU markets, but the corporate and government sectors just doesn't trust Huawei...

Of course the growing Chinese market, who are fiercely loyal to Chinese goods and brands is a massive driver in Huawei storage sales.

Where Huawei really does well is the 3rd world and emerging markets where price dictates everything and it's in those markets where they really do excel...

So, as the 3rd world countries continue to wake up to the likes of centralised storage and Cloud, the Huawei brand outsells the likes of Dell, EMC, HDS, HP and IBM, after all, cost is the driving factor here

MacBooks are so hot right now. And so is Mac OS X malware

Mondo the Magnificent

Re: Just an observation

I don't remember "malware" being so widespread on OS X until Chrome came along...

And strangely enough, many OS X users flock to Chrome and Firefox as 'alternatives' to Safari..

I am no Safari fan, but it's the Apple bundled browser that does do the job... just saying...

Mondo the Magnificent
Go

It was just a question of time...

I've been a Mac user for over a decade and most traditional "malware" attacks were self inflicted crap like "Mac Defender" which fooled the naive, non-technical and uninformed into installing this crap onto their systems, but times are a changing....

More people I know are switching to Macs because they own iPhones and/or iPads. All of a sudden, having a shiny Mac to compliment their IOS devices has become a trend, as have my after hours calls from our friends who often ask me questions like "how do I do..."

Sadly most newer OS X 'converts' are under the false belief that they are "safer" using a Mac than they are using a Windows system.

As the Mac Pack grows, those who author malware will adapt and try and find ways to exploit OS X systems. Malware has always been a cat and mouse game between OS security and exploitable areas that are unpatched.

The golden rules of common sense apply, never install a .DMG file from an untrusted source and do your security updates...

Hold on a minute, I have reboot, my Mac has just installed Apple's EFI security update...... fuck!

What the bleedin' Dell is this? IT giant mulls unit selloffs – report

Mondo the Magnificent
Terminator

This is......

...nothing more than corporate de-duplication ...

When the new toys outshine the existing.. time to move them to someone else's toy box...

Why was the modem down? Let us count the ways. And phone lines

Mondo the Magnificent
Thumb Up

Dial in, handshake and work....

When I was in the mainframe business, we made use of dial up modems

It started with a few Paradigm FDX2400 modems on a shelf to allow data capture staff to work from home..

They would either connect via their PC's serial port, or we'd happily provide a "dumb terminal" to those who didn't have a PC - in those days, RS232 ASCII FIFO menus were leading edge..

It also got expensive as we had to pay the remote workers; phone bills and many didn't have itemised billing... so we could have been paying for private calls too..

Enter the Octocom Modems, rack mount card type units with a dial-me, connect, verify and I will call you back configuration...

These were great and fast at 9600BPS with a unified management interface and it lowered our phone bill reimbursement costs greatly.

We never bothered to exceed 9600BPS for remote workers because our menus were ASCII based, so as modem speeds improved, only those of us who accessed IOL, BBS systems and undertook remote system admin needed 14.4K+

Today the modem is a relic, but I recall how we were blown away by 19.2K speeds, then finally 56K, before companies started making "double barrel" modem products that had two modems in one box and required two phone lines...

The modem, gone, but never forgotten and certainly not missed....

The battle of Cupertino: Jailbreakers do it for freedom, not cash

Mondo the Magnificent
Thumb Up

The "Jailbreak game"

When I got my mitts on an iPhone 4, the first thing I did was jailbreak the fucker!

Enter Cydia, the Pandora's Box of Apps.. it was great, I could change the entire look and feel of the phone as well as run Windows 95, Telnet, Bluetooth file transfer, and play Quake (original) on it too... to name just a few of the great Apps that were for offer on Cydia.

Then came the updates, then a new jailbreak, then an update... and the war went on between the jailbreakers and Apple.

In the end, I had to settle for a "tethered jailbreak" where the cable had to be connected to the computer in order to invoke the jailbreak, but if you power cycled the phone.. back to Apple's ring fenced IOS..

I have to admire the jailbreak teams, endlessly committed to their debauchery against Apple's IOS factory offerings. It's great that these guys and girls still tirelessly continue to find a workaround to Apple's "limitations" but, jailbreaking isn't for everyone.

Most people I know with Apple handsets / tablets have never done a jailbreak, the whole process of updating the OS with 'modified code' scares the bejezus out of most everyday iPhone users.

It's the younger and tech savvy people who embark in this process, even ignoring IOS updates, pending a jailbreak solution being available for the newest IOS release.

The jailbreaks do offer the "freedom" some seek from Apple's App Store Apps and Cydia's offerings also require a level of common sense, as in: Beware of what's out there!

All I can say is: Keep on jailbreaking guys and girls!

[Confession: I am now an Android phone and tablet user. My other half still owns and lover her iPhone dearly, but she will not let me jailbreak it.. ]

Ireland moves to scrap 1 and 2 cent coins

Mondo the Magnificent
Devil

Re: Finland did this ages ago

So did The Netherlands...

It literally takes Dutch courage to pay with anything smaller than a 5c piece there...

Playboy drops the butt-naked ladies

Mondo the Magnificent
Devil

Marketing....

..they did so it'd be removed from the top shelf.. thus encouraging a generation of new readers who didn't have the balls to buy any "top shelf" publications... because there was more to Playboy than tits and asses

Dell buys out EMC in mega-super-duper $67 billion deal

Mondo the Magnificent
Meh

Valid points..

The reason Sun couldn't mae a success of StorageTek is because the channel was the foundation that StorageTek was built upon. Sun ignored this and even pushed resellers out of deals that Sun believed they (the resellers) were not qualified to close.

Dell does understand the channel though and have made a success of it with Euqallogic, although to be honest, Dell did approach Equallogic end users 'after the deal'

Dell then bought Compellent Storage, heavens knows why,because at that stage Dell were working quite closely with EMC in the UK, but the Compellent purchase resulted in the Dell/EMC partnership grinding to a halt...

Let's see how this pans out in the long term, Dell are a lot more savvy than Sun Microsystems were and this could be the difference, but I wonder if the "EMC" name will be retained in the long run?

EMC is an old and trusted name in the Enterprise storage game, let's hope Dell don't follow Sun's piss poor example and make a cluster fuck of things...

332M Kick Ass pirates get asses kicked by scareware ass-kickers

Mondo the Magnificent

Re: Kick ass fake links

Yea, I've seen those redirects that 'suggest' you install their little client to "Enjoy a faster download experience"

Anyone who's tech savvy will ignore that crap.

However, with downloading being so fast and simple, rest assured there are millions of downloaders (say "Leechers") who are not that savvy and when the 50-something does a Google search for "my favourite TV series episode that I missed" there candles draw the moths to the flames...

(BTW I am a 50-something... but more than a little tech savvy than many I know)

They enter Kickass and bang! The scareware popups do their job, scaring these types into believing there is legitimately something wrong with their PCs...

Nothing comes free and like any site KAT have to pay their hosting fees and I am sure they don't exactly vet those who throw money to banner advertise on their site...

PETA monkey selfie lawsuit threatens wildlife photography, warns snapper at heart of row

Mondo the Magnificent
FAIL

PETA pitter patter...

It's bullshit incidents like this that steer me away from charities and animal rights groups, the cost of the law suit is funded by donations given by those who believe that their money is going to a good cause and will be put to good use.

Suing a photographer for the royalties of a photo taken by a smiling simian is NOT a good cause.

Ouch! Microsoft sues recycling firm over 70K stolen Office licenses

Mondo the Magnificent
Alert

Re: But why?

Often the COA is attached to the side of the chassis by means of a label. This is quite common on Dell and HP systems.

Perhaps they removed these labels or noted them down?

Apple hypegasm countdown. What will the new, big iPad ACTUALLY be called?

Mondo the Magnificent
Coat

It will be called:

The MaXiPad... and should be resistant to liquids and spillage....

Administrator tries to squeeze blood out of Stone Computers' parent

Mondo the Magnificent
Mushroom

Chasing tails....

I worked for Stone through a buyout.... held a good position, made some good money and decided to flee the rockery when the company "knee jerked" over Cameron's austerity actions in 2010 and decided to lower salaries between 5 to 15% depending on one's pay grade.

It seems to be a cycle of madness, James Bird forms and runs the business that eventually became Stone and it's profitable and full of happy staff...

James sells Stone, heads to Spain to soak in the sun and things at Stone go to shit...

James Bird flies back to Blighty, buys back in to Stone, buys in, sorts it out and it's whistling a happy tune once again..

Stone buys two companies, an integrator and a portable systems specialist and the staff from these acquisitions leave in droves... the [former] Directors of these companies included, there goes the skills sets out the door... but the iron fisted HR lady and [most] directors don't see this as an issue...

James Bird leaves Stone "due to internal politics" instigated by the "we want to be at the top" directors..

Stone goes back to shit and the company's bleeding money and in more debt that Greece...

Simon Harbridge and his merry do not have the aptitude, mettle or industry knowledge needed to run an IT company. Period...

Let us watch and wait... (again)

French woman gets €800 a month for electromagnetic-field 'disability'

Mondo the Magnificent
Alert

Johnny Mnemonic named this syndrome in 1995!

Known as the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS) is a fictional disease in the film, which is not present in the short story. NAS, also called "the black shakes", is caused by an overexposure to electromagnetic radiation from omnipresent technological devices (Source Wikipedia)

So, now we've identified the (no longer fictional) disease, let's see what label the WHO gives it, although I quite like the "NAS" and "Black Shakes" labels...

Vodafone adopts hydrogen fuel cells to dodge African outages

Mondo the Magnificent
Holmes

The bigger issue at play

Sure, copper theft is a major issue in South Africa, but "load shedding" is the main issue for power outages that affect communications and businesses

The state owned electricity supplier ESKOM is in a world of shit, they are generating almost 40% less electricity than they were in 1994, when democracy came about

This is caused by under investment in the infrastructure, loss of expertise (as in replacing the predominantly white engineers with a workforce that is more representative of the population) and massive delays and billions in additional and non-budgeted costs on their new Medupi power station.

To counter the shortage of electricity on the national grid, ESKOM "schedule" load shedding, although this is mainly aimed at residential areas, it also causes businesses pain and inconvenience.

Home owners and SME/SMBs are relying heavily on solar/inverter/battery power and petrol/diesel systems to ensure they have power 24/7.

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get a phone signal, fill your car with fuel, or pay for your groceries at the local supermarket when the power is down for long periods.

This also effects the cellular networks, especially when towers are based in the residential and commercial areas that often suffer these long, 4 hour plus power outages

Kudos to Vodacom (as Vodafone is known in S.A.) for coming up with a solution, after all, phone and data services are key to homes and businesses and shouldn't be affected by theft or incompetence. It reassures subscribers that they can be in touch with friends, family and emergency services when power is out.

Toyota recalls 625,000 hybrids: Software bug kills engines dead with THERMAL OVERLOAD

Mondo the Magnificent
Alert

Meanwhile....

..up above the clouds Henry Ford looks down and shouts "Damned hippies, this what you get for driving an abomination!"

Who wants a classic ThinkPad with whizzy new hardware? Lenovo would just love to know

Mondo the Magnificent
Go

Shut up.....

...and take my money... a trip down memory lane, I loved my old ThinkPad , but go one step further: Add the pop-out "butterfly keyboard" for those of us with "sausage fingers" as well as the metal hard drive trays to allow us to swap drives without having to perform surgery..

Vauxhall VXR8: You know when you've been tangoed

Mondo the Magnificent

Aussie cars FTW!

I have to admire the Aussies, they do make some fantastic muscle cars

The Vauxhall (Holden) V8s are such well designed beasts and they sound fanbloodytastic, a pleasure to drive and hear, if one can afford to own and run such a car. I recall reading how the GM in America took a page from Holden in Oz by using the Aussie suspension design in their U.S. market cars, opposed to the old "live axle" design that the Yanks seem to slap under any car with a V8. The Camaro was one such recipient of this suspension and was praised by motoring journalists due to the fact it could hold its own in corners.

When we lived in South Africa, my dad bought a Ford Sierra XR8, it too was an Aussie design and not just a "normal" Sierra with an oversized lump shoehorned into the front either

It had bigger, wider wheels, uprated diff, gearbox, suspension, brakes and if course that lovely V8 with a big Holley carb and Edelbrock headers.

It's good to see that V8 muscle cars are still available and when they are designed from the wheels up as a right hand drive car, it makes them even more appealing to those of us who drive on the left.

Force Touch tweak: Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Mondo the Magnificent
Meh

So, we play the waiting game...

I still use a MacBook Pro 13" non-Retina model, I managed to source this new last year, even though the Retina/SSD model was available at a much higher cost

Since then I installed a 500GB SSD and upgraded to 16GB and it does the job, but lacks physical resolution and graphics performance

I do want a larger screened MacBook Pro, but I do like gaming, I not a real big fan of Intel's Iris graphics, the GPU does the job, but I do game on my little Mac too and Iris just doesn't hack it

Run a thermal monitoring application like TG Pro and you will see first hand just how hot that integrated GPU can become when doing/playing anything graphic intensive, and I mean hot, as in 95ºC+, when I looked into it, Apple Support Forum states "MacBooks are not designed for gaming" and the temps are acceptable.. well, okay then...

Another little bugbear is why are Apple so anal on BootCamp nowadays? I mean, us sysadmins like to run more than one OS, and I am happy enough with Windows 7 to run it as a bootable OS, opposed to a VM, but I am forced to use VMware/VirtualBox and create VM's, for my Mint Linux install because BootCamp will no longer support "generic" Linux, so again another VM for Windows 7? Please....

As much as I yearn for a larger MacBook Pro I cannot justify the costs versus the mediocre "improvements", plus anyone can stuff a decent SSD into a MacBook nowadays and fall slightly short of Apple's latest and greatest offerings, unless you have a non-Retina display, but at my age, Retina is not the deal maker, my middle aged eyes are happy with non-retina offerings..

MacBooks will never be cheap, but I do like OS X and the fact I have a functional CLI that I often use to access our LINUX hosts, but in a way I wish Apple would churn out another cheaper [white/black plastic] MacBook, even if it lost the "Pro" moniker

Equinix moves into Europe by slurping up Telecity

Mondo the Magnificent

Telecity...

We use Telecity in the EU. I look after 54 racks in the mainland Europe area

On Tuesday I met with one of Telecity's high level sales bods and he hinted coyly about something going on in the background.. so reading this article it came as no surprise, but the timing was somewhat quicker than I expected.

Hopefully this will bring some changes at Telecity because the operating procedures at the various DC's do vary quite a lot. Telecity are a very good bunch to do business with, it's a slight lack of uniformity that can be frustrating at times.

Who's the big Swiss bunch that wants to take Sir Jony's lunch? It's... SWATCH!

Mondo the Magnificent
Coat

Being Swiss.....

...it will be released on time then?

Swatch this space...

Hordes spaff cash on Chip titchyputer to rival Pi (maybe)

Mondo the Magnificent
Go

Cheap as...

Chips?

Looks good from the onset and as an owner of two generations of Pi, this would certainly be added to my little collection

The deal maker here are the built in WiFi and forthcoming "Pocket Chip" add on, something the Raspberry needed in my opinion, a small but functional keyboard and monitor combo, no ribbon cables, USB, HDMI connections needed, an all-in-one add on to get it going anywhere.. come November when the "Pocket Chip" is scheduled for release..

Sure the VGA and HDMI interfaces are optional, but it's a small price to pay..

It seems that these "hipsters" have thought things out, this seems to tick all the boxes in regards to power options, portability and power (LiPo battery option)

Meet the man who inspired Elon Musk’s fear of the robot uprising

Mondo the Magnificent
Terminator

Well...

Musk, who's in the long life battery research and development business could well be part of the sceario that he fears so very much....

A robot uprising only lasts as long as the power and batteries do... just saying...

Take the blue pill Elon...

Synths you've been gone: Vintage tech rules at Musikmesse 2015

Mondo the Magnificent
Pint

Excellent!

That was an ace article and it reminds me just how far keyboards have come...

I recall being mesmerised by the likes of Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, Rick Wakeman of Yes, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michelle Jarre and all those stalwarts of the analogue and very early digital keyboard era

Then the keyboards started changing, advancing and with that along came the wizzkids like Thomas Dolby, Vangelis and the synth era bands like Depeche Mode, the Human League, OMD and the brilliant productions of the Art of Noise with their extensive use of the Fairlight CMI (Something I endeavour to own one fine day)

In this era of Logic Pro and Midi compatibility, where instrument sounds can be sampled, purchased and reproduced by any Mac, PC or Midi compatible keyboard it's nice to see that some companies are still developing synths that stand out from the norm, the Seaboard is a prime example of that.

Some of the kit is simply quite amazing, but what was really great to see and hear was the old school synths in the "Analogue Ghetto" video. Those old school oscillator driven devices that look like old telephone exchanges (or badly cabled data cabinets) kick out that absolutely unique sound, man it sent shivers down my spine..

El Reg, you've outdone yourselves with this 5 pager, absofuckinglutely amazing!

So why exactly does almost ALL tech live in Silicon Valley?

Mondo the Magnificent
Alert

Question:

Why does the U.S. place all these blue chip tech companies in the heart of the San Andreas Fault?

Just an observation....

Apple Watch: We ROUNDUP the ROUNDUPS. Yes, Roundup-squared

Mondo the Magnificent
Thumb Up

Wristjob

Couldn't be a more fitting title for these fandabulous smart watches that last an entire day or so without the need for a recharge..

I am old school, and confidentially my "wristjob" happens to be a Fossil too

Ford: Our latest car gizmo will CHOKE OFF your FUEL if you're speeding

Mondo the Magnificent
Meh

Oh...

..it can be overridden then?

Well, there's another useless feature my future car may come with as "standard equipment"...

Seriously now, being alert and paying attention is what prevents accidental speeding.. unless of course you want to speed and you can even use your cruise control to "help" you speed.. or maintain the legal speed limit

It's just more sugar coating from the automotive industry that will make fleet managers believe they are doing their road warrior employees a favour by choosing a vehicle with this "nanny feature"..

Apple boots Windows 7 out of Boot Camp

Mondo the Magnificent
Thumb Up

Re: Apples values.

I have to agree with that, it seems as if Windows 7 has got what I call "XP Syndrome" with users being quite satisfied with every element of it and sticking to it.. while MS would rather have us "upgrading" to the newer Windows revisions..

My 10.9.5 "Mavericks" MacBook still supports Windows 7 via Boot Camp, but I also opted to VirtualBox, it's just so much more convenient seeing as Apple also abandoned LINUX support in Boot Camp some while back.

Mature mainframe madness prints Mandlebrot fractal in TWELVE MINUTES

Mondo the Magnificent

Zzzzzzzzzt!

Ah, my early days in the pre-Windows era of IT! Mainframes!

I remember how the programmers used to carefully write code to facilitate the oh, so limited memory these oversized, basement situated systems used..

We had a room dedicated to our noisy band printers and dot matrix printers, which were connected via Centronics or Serial (RS232/422) interfaces.

I recall getting ASCII art on 1200ft reel tape and printing it, whoop! Dot matrix art of a Manga-esque girlie in a bikini...

Life was so simple back then... when multimedia was using a Walkman while in the computer room and gaming was trying to beat the mainframe at "hangman" and "tic-tac-toe"

Fanbois: We paid $2000 for full satisfaction but now we have SPREADING STAINS

Mondo the Magnificent
Devil

Re: Rubbish

No excuse given Apple profit margin.

My laptop anti-reflective screen is MUCH older and perfect. So old I won't divulge the model

Oh, please, please, please do... I've a fresh pot of coffee and popcorn on hand and your revelation could turn this smouldering discussion into an inferno...

Mondo the Magnificent

Eventually...

I am sure that somewhere Apple is tracking the reports to see if this is just noise or a real issue. If it is a real issue Apple have a reasonable track record of eventually getting around to fixing things and also reimbursing people who have already paid for a repair

But I ask, as a "far from cheap brand", why does it take a digital lynch mob to get Apple to "eventually" respond? It if was half a dozen users over three months complaining, sure, but this is literally hundreds of [now disgruntled] MacBook owners highlighting the issue under discussion!

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