Posts by Keith 72

YES: Scotland declares independence ... from the dot co dot uk empire

Was the article supposed to be humorous?

Or just plain offensive?

Regardless of the result of the referendum, there are many businesses - known throughout the world - that are proudly and uniquely Scottish.

Google Glassholes, GET OFF our ROADS, thunder lawmakers in seven US states

Quick - patent that my friend! It's obviously obvious, but a sensible solution. And that's the sort of stuff that gets patented these days, right?! ;-)

HUD?

However, if done properly, this could be a less distracting sat nav app as you don't have to look away from the road to look at or (god forbid) interact with a device on your dash board.

Microsoft advertises Surface, Excel with maths mistake

Re: Recalculate ?

Or perhaps it started as a Google Docs spreadsheet. When they realized that's not the best advert, they downloaded it as an xlsx file and modified the resulting spreadsheet in Excel. Unfortunately when you do the download all the formulas are replaced with values.

Windows XP folks: At least GOOGLE still loves you ... UNTIL 2015

Re: Migrate away from MS altogether

I've looked in lubuntu - but I can only get it to work on newer machines, where I'm happy to keep Windows. I'm sure I could spend time trawling forums to get it to boot, but if it can't boot the live disk, then I'm not really tempted to enter a world of pain.

Scottish leader splurged £20k appealing disclosure of EU membership legal bungle

What a crap article.

Why the hell was it published in The Register? Please don't post biased, abusive, political crap here.

'Kissing couple' Trojan sent to slurp fanbois' data... Syrian Electronic Army fingered

Re: Now that OSX is becoming

I haven't used UNIX in years (sadly), but I use Linux daily. And I'm usually logged in as root!

I haven't touched a Mac in years (happily). Doesn't the running user have, pretty much, root privileges?

Re: Now that OSX is becoming

Wow - Mac' are secure because UNIX was designed to be secure. That's funny. You realize that UNIX was designed in the 60's right?

PCs running XP and later are based on Windows NT which is a modern, server based OS.

Windows 8.1: Microsoft's reluctant upgrade has a split-screen personality

Re: Meh.

I thought I liked Win 8. I've often got thumbs downs on here for supporting it. But then I tried to help some newbies use it and I realized that it is truly, terribly broken. And it doesn't sound as though Win8.1 is going to be much less confusing for newbies than Win 8 - the start "button" and charms change will improve things a little for those that are used to XP and Win 7, but as a tablet operating system that Grandma can use? Forget it!

I think the Win 7 improvements like the quick start up/shutdown time and Hyper-V are great. But the apps suck ass.

Do you really want tech companies to pay more tax?

Re: Do you really want tech companies to pay more tax?

I love how you idiots think that it'd be great it companies paid more tax. Companies aim to make a profit; profit in it's simplest form is revenue less costs. If you increase their costs they increase their prices. So you cretins that bang on about how morally wanton these companies are just want to pay even more tax when shopping by forcing retailers to pay more tax, which they will then factor into the price. I guess the PAYE and VAT we already pay just isn't enough is it?

Ciseco Pi-Lite: Make a Raspberry Pi trip light fantastic with 126 LEDs

Re: There are many LED matrices

I'm still happy to shop at Amazon. I'd rather retail businesses didn't have to pay pointless taxes, or found a legal way not to, than have to pay (often excessive) P&P. It's just a shame that the tax loopholes are only open to multi-nationals. Of course, the easiest way to close the loophole is to scrap the tax. Courtesy of PAYE and VAT I pay enough tax as it is thanks very much and forcing retailers to pay more will mean they just pass it on and I'll be paying even more tax.

Apple TV 'close' to deal with Time Warner - report

And are these deals the reason that BT Vision and Talk Talk TV customers no longer get Warner TV?

Windows 8.1: Here at last, but is it good enough?

Re: Back to 1990 anyone?

For new-to-Win8 experienced Windows users the Win+R combination really does help get them through - until they've pinned everything they need! We use remote desktop a lot and many use a resolution smaller than their display which means they're not full-screen - then the hot corners are a real pain and you can't do Win+R. My solution to that problem was to to share a shortcut to "%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f3-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}" called Run. Run that and then you can pin "Run" to the taskbar!

Re: Back to 1990 anyone?

Regarding one application on-screen at a time - it's only the Modern (or TIFKAM) apps that are full screen, or 1/3 or 2/3's of the screen - you can run 2 of these at the same time.

But you also have access to the traditional Win7 Desktop where you can run as many apps as you like. You can also have Desktop plus one Modern app if you just have one screen, or you can have Desktop plus 2 Modern apps if you have multiple monitors.

Research indicates most Win8 laptop users are infrequently using the Modern apps at all and are just using the Desktop environment. Makes sense really as most of the Modern apps are just toys for tablets.

Re: Not really a U turn, more a wiggle in the road.

Not everyone wants a Start button that displays a start menu.

However for those that really, really can't live without one, you can get the functionality without any third party extensions - just click on your taskbar, add a new toolbar and enter %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu as your folder.

You're welcome.

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

Disconnect between Redmond and Real World "cannot continue"?!

Has the author not been inside the Redmond reality field before? Everyone on campus will be using Win8.1. I can assure you, for them Win8 is old. Yet many in the real world are still using XP and 2003. That's just how it is and it's been that way for years. MS live in the future, the present is the past. The model works quite well, most folk and businesses prefer to live in the stable, but dull, past. But more and more will catch up with Redmond - often reluctantly because the new hardware had it pre-installed for example. By the time the majority move to something newer it's rock solid and people are happy with it, the current realm of Win7 & 2008 R2.

Mint 15 freshens Ubuntu's bad bits

Re: VM ready

Win 8 Pro is VM ready straight out of the box too.

Re: @Keith72 - What about...

Well all the distros already have customized them. And then every user goes and tweaks it to. That's why the documentation's piss poor on Linux and the forums are often useless because your view of the interface is almost guaranteed to be different than most other peoples.

Re: What about...

I actually think the customisable nature is biggest weakness of Linux. There's tweaking and personalising and then there's obfuscating.

Re: WINE or VM?

Assuming that the Linux you've installed natively has all the drivers you need for your graphics, sound, video cam, bluetooth etc. Which is why I leave Windows installed and run Linux in the VM.

Re: Windows into VM

Whereas I run Linux in a Hyper-V VM and then never look at it again. Cygwin-X on Windows, ssh into VM and then I've got everything I need.

Windows 8 hype has hurt PC makers and distributors - Gartner

Re: I still wouldn't touch Win 8

I don't touch Win 8 either. I do use it every day without any problems however.

Three's Irish network goes titsup

Re: Taking a nap having after swallowing O2?

@Irongut: You've got a bronze badge and you're unfamiliar with point 12 of the house rules? Tut tut.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/01/register_comments_guidelines/

Making the case for upgrading from Server 2003

Re: You like hard questions? ;)

Server 2012's Storage Spaces and Data Deduplication are also good reasons to chose 2012 over the, still pretty brilliant, 2008 R2.

SACK MORE BRITS, Symantec UK told by US supremos - sources

Symantec's done more for PC sales than a new version of Windows ever has

I often wondered if PC makers gave backhanders to Symantec for making fast machines slower and slower until the poor user decided (prematurely) that it was time to upgrade!

When Apple needs speed and security in Mac OS X, it turns to Microsoft

Re: SMB2

And, of course, Microsoft are onto SMB3 now.

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

Re: "It's not a programming degree"

A good CompSci degree will cover hardware and software but allow the student to specialize in the area they are more interested in. The University of Edinburgh do a Software Engineering degree; I'd hope that you could switch to/from CompSci so long as you've done the required modules.

And btw, new compilers are still needed and developed these days, especially with a lot of development on DSPs and GPUs. It is a bit of a specialist field, but many of the techniques involved are still very useful to know for almost all developers, for example using parsing and tokenising input.

Author Iain (M) Banks falls to cancer at 59

Re: Sublimed? That was the theme of the Hydrogen Sonata

I wonder if George R.R. Martin's read any Culture novels, particularly Surface Detail. The idea of being able to kill a main character again and again would have him drooling I'd have thought!

Re: Public service announcement

You can count me in too!

So, who ought to be the next Doctor Who? It's up to YOU...

It doesn't even appear on the TIFKAM app!

Microsoft parades Windows 8.1, the version you may actually want

Having just one operating system is simply MS trying to gain traction in the tablet market by hoisting apps on it's dominant desktop market. Otherwise why would developers bother to write/port yet another app?

BT! dumps! Yahoo! after! 10! long! years! together!

I did get sucked into their disposable email address thing though. I have hundreds of email addresses - pretty much one for each website I use. Total waste of time though as it does turn out that you don't get spam from the legitimate companies that use your email address.

Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

Re: Aaaargh, why dont they listen?

Do you actually use Win8 I wonder? I get the feeling you don't, otherwise you'd probably have come around to the fact that it's really not an issue.

Beam us up! Upstart's Transporter whisks small biz from cloud madness

Sounds like an expensive version of pogoplug. The nice thing with pogoplug is that you add your own disks rather than pay through the nose for a built in one.

Review: Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch Ultrabook

Re: Have I missed something?

I think having a touch screen on a laptop is useless. Most of the time my laptop sits on my desktop almost out of arms reach. I use Windows 8 daily and don't find that I need to touch anything but my keyboard and mouse. On the occasions I do use it on the move I could see myself dropping the thing on the floor if I start touching the screen. Keep touch to tablets, that what I say.

I can see SP1 being gratefully received to avoid the newbie confusion of getting to the desktop and the start menu though.

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7

Re: You could call that a success.

You're quite right Ben. You get the pedant points and I get a slap on the wrist. I'd love to be a user that could just sit dumbfounded all day, but I've got important forums to troll! ;-)

Re: How long are these apps actually kept open for?

I was wondering that too, but from the opposite perspective. I don't use many TIFKAM apps, but those that I do use I tend to leave running all day long.

You could call that a success.

It's a hybrid desktop/tablet OS. These numbers show, unsurprisingly, that desktop users can clearly still use Win8 almost exactly as if it were Win7. So they're productivity won't have been seriously impaired by being forced to switch to a tablet mindset. Once you get used to a couple of different interface quirks, it's just Win7 but slightly better and it has a few new toys you can play with if you chose to.

Schmidt: Don't like our tiny tax bills? Google this... 'Change the law'

Re: "The law is what it says it is"

Yeah, "scientists and technical people" simply understand black and white and there's never any debate. That's why we all understand and agree the same position on climate change, right?

Is that the real reason they came last in the Eurovision?!

I agree. But if you want the business - and we do - then the rates have to be competitive in a global market. So that probably means scraping corporate tax altogether. At least then the small shops aren't paying taxes that the big boys aren't and also fewer accountants are employed to work out the best way to avoid paying tax.

A better analogy is that they turn up for the party with some top notch booze that they got duty free on the flight to the party. However, you're miserable because you stood in the corner refusing to have the good stuff because of some confused moral reason.

Fair enough

If it's not breaking the law, it's not breaking the law. No use whining about it. Whereas it really does sounds as though Barney Jones has broken the law if he's kept all those emails...

Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims

Re: I agree...

You could create a new Toolbar on your taskbar, select the folder C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and it'll give you most of you need, just not as easily/conveniently as a Start Menu!

TalkTalk bigwig parks knighted-rear in cursed YouView chair

Re: YouView sucks

The box updates itself - but there was another update this week so that I can now chose to have it confirm recording deletes, which is handy as I had deleted some in error. I only know this change because I read it on the Talk Talk website.

I've read the instructions - because I was looking for missing functionality. But of course as they're changing it every month my instructions are out of date! I know it's Linux based, but I didn't expect I'd need to trawl forums and rebuild the box myself.

The problem is that it's still playing catch up with PVRs that have been around for years. YouView was years late and when it arrives it's still "Nearly Ready" - as the box says every time you switch it on!

Re: YouView sucks

It sucks in so many ways it was easier to generalise.

The only thing missing is Netflix?! What about BlinkBox and LoveFilm? I seriously don't think they'll bother.

I've had my Talk Talk YV box since December. The interface sucks. It's a very poor PVR. They've only recently added functionality to search in the Guide rather than just for On Demand stuff (and that functionality hasn't made it to Talk Talk yet). You can't see a list of what series you have scheduled to record - either that or it just forgets them once there are no more episodes in the 7 day guide.

On Demand players are crap compared to recorded programmes - rewind, fast forward are painful and it won't remember where you watched to if you don't watch a programme in one viewing.

You search just for free content, or even content which won't require a subscription.

It takes too long to wake up - and that's from the non-eco mode. And then it's only a digibox. If you want to see your recordings or worse start an on demand player you have to wait again.

The iOS app is seriously limited in functionality (i.e. you can only add a recording to your list - you can't see what you have scheduled to record) and there's no word of when the Android app will be available.

YouView sucks

I'm not surprised that Sugar fired himself.

The universe speaks: 'It's time to get off your rock!'

Re: If you think living on planet Earth is a precarious existence

A massive underground bunker would be a better insurance policy and has the advantage that they could emerge to actually help the survivors. It'd be much easier to keep the equipment needed to rebuild (and repopulate) society in a hole under a mountain than it is to try and ship it to a remote planet that currently can't sustain life. Even in a worst case scenario we'd have a better chance of terra-forming a ruined Earth than any other planet in our solar system as it's the only one currently in the goldilock zone.

I fully support getting colonies on the moon and Mars, but not for the reasons given in this article.