Posts by Edward Rose

North American cities go green under LED street lights

Good on 'em

Nice to see it.

Reduced 'lit' times would be good too.

@Richard

The old lights weren't free.

Ubuntu goes 3-D

Modern day PCs

@Graham Lockley

PC retailers would only ship one flavour of *nix pre-installed. If they give you a choice they will go broke. Plain and simple. By all means sell COTS boxes, but don't install.

@'But XXX had it first'

Big deal. I read an article on the Beeb yesterday on what made books sell.

10 things which makes technology sell.

1) Advertisement

2) People believing it will put them 'above the Jones' '

3) Advertisement

4) Believing everyone else is using it.

5) Advertisement

6) Well, you get the idea....

7) Advertisement

8) ...Random lying key-phrases.

9) You can't live with out

10) You want to buy

If people don't hype a technology product the flock of sheep (new unit for XX average consumers, 1 flock?) just won't be interested. So, just like MS lie through thier teeth about what Vista brings (XP with glitz...) every distro producer should - to some extent. Honesty doesn't win this game.

GNU/Linux doesn't support current CAD software. True, it's a shame. So for designing a house with your current software won't work. Mind you, winXP is absolutely useless unstable twoddle. None of my software compiled for *nix will run on it.

People work on projects that interest them. When they have time. When they don't have time they are typically holding down a full time job.

I can also ensure you that MUCH MORE work is going on on the boring stuff than on the glitz. It's just that people don't brag about it.

Met used 'dum-dum' ammo on de Menezes

Shoot to kill

I believe the rules are based on...

Unless you are intending to kill a person, do not under any circustance point a firearm/weapon at them.

Shoot to kill and screw up, boy done good.

Shoot to incapacitate and screw up. Well, you can figure the rest.

Hence, 'if you are going to shoot a person, make damn sure you want them dead'. Not 'if you are going to shoot a person, make damn sure they are dead'.

I feel sorry for all involved in this one. Me thinks it is just one very sad set of mistakes.

Red Arrows Olympic 'ban' causes online furore

Good ol' Sun

Hats off to Sun. Before the inevitable ban is declared they preempt it and get a mass petition going to let the government know just how British we all are.

Glad it wasn't done just to try and make a sensational headline.

TV giants lock horns with Microsoft and Google over white space wireless play

Internet TV

For the impatient in the world, adverts fund new material. Without adverts networks couldn't pay producers to make new shows.

When TV dies and gets replaced by the internet, adverts will be thick and fast, probably not much better than most of the dodgy junk which comes down today. Failing that, innovation will completely die off.

What we need, is companies to start making *decent* adverts. Like the old Hamlet ones, or Wheatabix (sp?), or more recently, Honda (domino rally) and Skoda (now I'm hungry). They'd benefit from more buyers too. I hate this 'everyone else buys it, go out and buy it too' adverts.

Personally, I reckon the initial use of these systems will be fine. But, as the userbase increases the problems will increase. I'm with the network broadcasters for once.

Dutch Consumer Association declares war on Vista

Re: 1953

The 4004 was released in 16-pin CERDIP packaging on November 15, 1971

'Nuff said. (Okay, from wiki' but Intel will tell you the same). IC's aren't much older.

I use gentoo, not the easiest to get around unless you know what you're doing. Easy to learn though.

Debian, that bit more simple.

Ubuntu, a doddle to install.

Can't stand Suse or Redhat, both have very nearly put me off using it.

Don't mind winXP

Modern *nixs will run on old hardware, you just need to cut out the 'bloatware' like openoffice (no offence to the team, I use it quite happily). ie up-to-date kernel and light apps work fine. Try Debian.

My mate had a vista ready PC according to the MS tool. Gave up trying to install it because MS lied. Is the tool any more accurate these days? Or are people still told the software should install fine.

Either way, the consumer has a right to money back if the product does not work as it was sold to. So if the machines should be able to run the product, then money back if not perfect. Not quite the complaint, but that comes down to monopolies.

Preterite peter-out: How the end beginned

@Andrew

How about teaching them the word 'broken'.

"Broken it, please ....... You did what? Now I'm going to be broke."

Not sure how long 'broke' has been accepted for broken, but it's one of my pet hates. (nowt personally, and I guess I seem pretty sad here as it is does seem to be accepted, but grrr! I hate that word in that context).

;)

Ballmer: All open source dev should happen on Windows

Should have purchased....

If MS bought SCO, they'd have 500 odd patents to sue the GNU/Linux community over. Do I have to think of everything?!

Please remember folks, good advertising will (almost) always win over a good product.

People flock like sheep, the past few years of tech have shown this time again. It's high time we get more movies and TV shows showing *nix on the desktop instead of MS stuff. RH/Novell/whoever, should look to make a school tailored distro (different for each country) and make a big advertisement campaign telling the world how great it all is - provided it is tailored for the job first.

Making people believe everyone else is using it is key. Get schools using it (like MS did, very clever) kids take it home. This time legally ;)

Pilot sacked for footie star on flightdeck shocker

Safer now

Again, the Red Tape has saved us from a terror attack.

I'll sleep more soundly now.

Terror police lock down Soho to smoke out 9lbs of chillis

Disgregard for other people....

Good, hope the police lock 'im up for good. How dare he do something like this. It's well known that chillis give off rather dubious odours when cooked. Especially if burning them. Idiots like this should be locked up.

(Not sure if el'reg should put a big sarcasm tag here or something).

Bet the police et al were glad for the breathing kit.

And, on a more serious note: can't wait 'til I burn the toast next.

Dawn on its way to the asteroid belt

The true story?

"It is also possible that it has frozen poles."

So, really the Yanks sent a load of Polish up as cheap labour to mine the asteroids and they have found that the people aren't as productive as here on Earth.

It's either send up some coats to keep them warm (and therefore productive) or they should have just sent the British up to begin with.... :)

Japanese to patent transparent frog

What is being patented?

See through skin? Apparantly been done, by good ol' evolution - cheers Simon*

Selective breeding? 'Nuff said.

Artificial insemination? I dread to think who came up with this creative trick. But, it's an oldie.

* don't trust wiki? Try google images. They look kind of transparant on some of them. I think.

I can only assume they have been successful in nature for the following reason:

"Damn I'm hungry, oh, look a frog - tasty. Oh wait, not enough meat, I can see its bones from here."

Magazines go online in iTunes-esque move

Range of products

I wonder if they'll sell Linux Magazine......

;)

Microsoft: New Live Search 'as good as Google'

Tesco?

Hate them. Nasty theiving little shts who offer an appalling service, no community support and when you complain about anything (like a lack of bike park) you are told you are a) lying, b) obviously blind because there is a sign for the bike park. Over a blank space, but the sign proves it exists doesn't it. Scum! Not the only complaint I've made either - always the same response.

I'm not bitter.

Anywho, as to the huge number of hits on live search:

On the work machine, every time I make a typo in IE I'm sent to an MS search engine, not sure which one because I'm gone quicker than a crash.

Free-market think tank urges EU to unbundle Windows

People seem to miss the point.

Haven't read all the posts, but unbundling MS Win does:

not equate to supplying alternatives.

not mean the customer must pay retail price for MS Win (still pay OEM)*

not mean that the store can't install it for them. **

not mean the customer must /install/ the OS. ***

mean customers can see the true costs.

mean they can opt to buy a PC and do what _they_ want with it.

mean that other OSs will slowly start to gain a /chance/ for a foothold.

*If buying certain (amounts) of hardware, OEM software can be purchased. Else, you would never have it installed. You are buying it either way.

** A free 'after sales' service. "Would you like to buy Win? Would you like it installed free of charge?"

*** When prompted put disk in drive. Hit enter. Damn it man, even I could manage that one.

I fully support the move until I see a sensible argument.

US patent programme must be compulsory to work, says project leader

Current system works perfectly...

...if you're a huge company paying off the government.

Venezuelan man survives autopsy

El'reg and the weekend.

Friday, midday:

Pub.

I thought this was obvious. News just doesn't happen on the weekends. Everyone stays at home. So el'reg stay at the pub.

Insurance, they have to pay up one way or the other. Either for the medical side or the life in/assurance side (not quite how it all works before y'all kick off). Ah, who am I kidding, insurance firms don't pay up either way.

Firefox hits 400m download milestone

Opera...

Firstly, Randy.. Retards? You can read I take it.

'How many?', not 'some are'. Curious to exact (ish) figures, and not stating the bleedin' obvious.

To the opera crew, point taken, but last time I used it it had one fault. Very space consuming adverts. Okay, they have been ditched now I believe. But, why?

Great browser, but old habits die hard (IE isn't a habit by the way).

Curious

I wonder how many are repeat downloads, and if they take into account downloads from GNU/Linux mirrors?

Software developer sues to muzzle website users

Business, not toy throwing

2Clix isn't throwing it's toys from it's pram. It has made a very sensible business choice.

Make a hopeless attempt at suing.

1) You succeed.

2) You fail, at which point the company starts going downhill forcing the need for it to be sold. Company sells and the upper echelons of management get golden handshakes.

Sony loses privacy complaint over Unfit Kids

Tax

Sod it!

Sony have every right to refuse sponsorship. Mind you, given what was said in the article Sony shouldn't have complained as it just seemed to be a person's opinion and him saying that the project would still go on. I didn't see the show though.

That said, Nintendo and MS etc should have been approached to. I don't like MS but I bet they would have ponied up a good amount. They understand PR.

I say put a tax on the games (yes I buy them, yes I'd be _happy_ to pay). Just a small amount. Then spend that income on skate parks and free sports fields. Not entirely logical or fair, but it does give people somewhere to have fun. Might even encourage them.

I'm staff with a youth charity group, we have to pay for them to do any sports because there are no free local emenities. Despite plenty of open ground.

I'm pretty sure they have directly linked doing sweet FA/eating too much and obesity. Now, not putting on weight whilst partaking in such non-activities is more likely to be caused by genes than what Ian (above) suggests.

Your body can't store fat you don't feed it, and if you are burning the calories they must come from somewhere. Simple thermodynamics I believe.

Bad diet is the biggest culprit though.

Dell's Linux sleight of hand

Dell's not all that bad ;)

Provided they offer Linux on a range of PCs (low end, mid range and high end) then they are being quite sane in what they are doing.

That said, if they are only offering it on high end machines they are clearly trying to cut out the Linux market to 'prove' it's not viable. Foolish - if they let things run the natural course they will make the most profit, either way.

Remember, Dell really is best for large companies looking to roll out XX PCs, it's not the cost of the system at this point. Companies will generally care more for the support provided.

Used Debian and Gentoo for years. Nope, knew nothing about them to begin with. It's called learning, same with computers. Learned about them from piecing broken ones together. Nope, don't and have never worked in IT.

*nix is great for gaming (OK you need WINE/Cedega for a lot of them), but for the games that do work, it is great ;) Lots of brilliant kids games for free too.

With the exception of specific software (Autocad, MWO etc) then IMO *nix has more benefits than an XP/NT machine for work. Used NT, now XP at work, use *nix at home.

I know only one person who doesn't use Linux and can install WinXP etc. Everyone else has the annoying need to phone me to install anything like that. I try to explain to them to just get on and give it a try, but meh!

Dell UK dances with Linux

People forget the organisations...

Good to see.

Dell's a popular one with companies and organisations which just want a cheap, cheerful wordprocessor. This is just perfect for them.

Okay, *nix has faults, but it isn't beaten on networking as far as I'm concerned. And 'office' productivity is pretty darned good.

That said, I've tried Ubuntu, wonderfully easy to install. But I found support and getting stuff working for Deb is actually more simple. Face it, Ubuntu is Deb so both can ultimtly look the same. Interesting choices made by these companies. Wonder if it's down to the sudo (XP style) setup in U.

Sacked PlusNet boss blasts BT sale 'stitch up'

Not that bad I thought.

I've been with them two years. Very good service, and yes, the p2p throttling keeps the pipes clear for me to download huge chunks from gentoo.

Before you think I don't use p2p so think banning it is a good idea, nope. I use it, just slowly is all. It would be nice to be quicker, but face it, there isn't much on p2p that is legal. So no complaints here.

BT, however, are scum. BTW (wholesale) s/l/r/ decided that they didn't have enough BW and so cut my connection to 1Mb/s earlier this year. Didn't tell anyone, didn't want to know. Plus net sorted it out with lots of apologies. Shame about the buy out.

And, ANY company on the stock market is not interested in the customer. There's no two ways about it. If you have share holders the only thing you can do is milk the customer to get the share holders money. Else share holders kick off. All this customer abuse from companies is our own greedy fault. Can't wait 'til that market crashes. Society gets it's just deserts.

Gmail: a short, sharp rant

Customer (Dis)Service.

There are very few companies left which provide customer service. Some do, but they are few and far between.

To be fair, complaining about the service you received is a bit harsh - yes the arrogant waste of space on the phone shouldn't have a job dealing with people - but take it from her point of veiw, how many idiots does she have phoning her for complete crap.

GoogleMail isn't free, google make revenue from it by the virtue that you use a tool they advertise on. Without us Google would make no revenue because people wouldn't advertise on an empty site. So, Google should try and keep customers a little more sweeter than they did.

But, again, for no monetry cost for you, you should just get on and say "Meh!" If enough people want the service they will complain and it may happen - so 'complaining' is good. Bitching like this about it is a waste of your health.

BBC Trust backs calls for Linux iPlayer

Just a little bemused

Firstly, Speccies won't have the capability to decode full frame rate DRM'd video. Video out isn't the best, but should be good if it could happen.

OSC aren't saying make it available for Linux. Or GNU for that matter.

They want it available for Win98, WinVista, Mac, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, BSD, oh the list could go on.

The complaint is that the BBC are using a DRM that will be ported to a non-MS system the day hell freezes over (although I believe this did happen when Sun started selling AIX, or was it IBM and Solaris?).

BBC should use a DRM that is proven to be tough (nothing against DRM in this case) and have a binary that is widely available. Most of us couldn't give a t'penny piece for the software, we can write that.

Also, the complaint comes in because I reckon in a couple of months time I'll be an illegal user of the service because this wonderful MS DRM will be cracked so everyone can enjoy the media. Why can't I use it legally.

And the final point....

3 users? 11500+ more like. And, thats just the complaints in the UK not the world remember.

Dutch police arrest 111 West Africans in 419 clampdown

Darwin indeed Diane.

'Tis evolution.

People who are greedy (smuggle money out of country), and gullible (lottery) will end up too poor to afford the interweb. Sooner or later they all leave the net making the scams fruitless. All the scams stop. One less bout of spam to put up with.

Now we just need to get really cheap 'Viagra' in the chemists to stop the rest of the spam.

Okay, it'll never work, but the hope will never die.

Humans above evolution? Not a good thing. Evolution is removing the weak genes from the species given the environment. Keep all the weak genes in and sooner or later you'll see the effect.

YouTube - uTube showdown stays alive in federal court

Erm?

"Ok so let me get this right utube opens its website after Youtube and they are claiming damages?"

I'm guessing a little on this one Rick, but I think 1996 comes before 2005.

So, I don't think you've got it right.