Posts by UBF 16 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Apr 2012
A given lengthy operation, e.g. a large mail merge in Outlook, requires a specific amount of electric energy to be performed. If laptop A is plugged in, full power will be used and the operation will end quickly. If laptop A is on battery, the power used will be less (e.g. 30% less than when plugged in) and the operation will obviously take 30% more time. (Please note that in this scenario there will be no battery power "saved" - the amount of energy needed for the operation is given and constant.) Now, if laptop B, having a CPU comparable to A's, opts for say, only 20% less power used when on battery (regardless of CPU brand!), that laptop will appear to be 10% faster than laptop A. Therefore, the apparent "performance drop" or "performance gain" just reflects the different power management choices used by the manufacturers, and not any inherent advantage of a specific CPU brand. Intel, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Very nice backstory and very useful advice indeed for future parents. Lee, you are right about the crucial role of parenting, and Mike you are dead-on on the 'cultural' perspective. Unfortunately, kids going to school for the first time are not blank slates and have already firm convictions on what is boring and what's not, based on TV, preschool experiences and social interactions - in other words, the damage is already done. Therefore, what parents and teachers need is not just convincing verbal arguments but actual practical proof that learning is not boring.
This Elecrow computer is a very nice incentive, the modern equivalent of a BBC micro or even the '50+ electronic experiments kit' I got as a present when I was 10 years old. The latter was a present from my family some 50 years ago, the former was in every UK school in the 80's and my belief is that its contribution to the growth of IT in the UK (and in Europe) is still not properly credited for.
I ascribe to the learning by doing philosophy, i.e. that learning should be actively doing things in order to solve problems and not just passively listening to or reading 'stuff'.
I think The Register is the only place able and (I hope) willing to coordinate a plea to the powers that be in order to somehow intervene to protect this cutting edge and most precious British intellectual property. Perhaps an open letter, signed by Nobel laureates, academics and top financial and business figures, sharing the ARM co-founder's view that "the way you build companies like Apple is by starting with companies the size of Arm, not with a startup.” (see today's Guardian). Also, he said “They [Nvidia] can make more than $40bn by destroying it.” Can the UK afford losing its largest tech company to a US company that might well in the near future be forced to restrict its exports to the very country that generated its IP?
It's another tragedy for the history (soon to become paleontology) of UK's technological decline after WWII. And I say this having the experience (and honour) of setting up the first computerised Physics undergraduate Laboratory in 1986 in my country using Acorn BBC and Econet technology, and having vivid memories of the era of the design of the first Acorn Risc CPU (it was designed & simulated using plain BBC Model B and ran flawlessly the first time it was etched on silicon!). Still dreaming of acquiring an Archimedes...
I don't know why you got downvoted. I totally agree with the "I was always able to recover from a disk error" experience - I managed to salvage too many NTFS disks, even if it took dozens of hours of scanning. I even managed recently to salvage an SSD disk that wasn't recognised by Windows at all.
I consider repairability as the most desirable feature of a mature file system. Therefore I would be very happy if Linux integrated NTFS to the kernel just for the new pathways for HDD data recovery..
21st century existentialism: I'm on Facebook, therefore I exist.
I read that in the US people have a real hard time getting a job if they don't exist on FB. It's like traveling without a passport. Therefore, using Tor for FB means that you're either an activist or a terrorist.
Refurbished Thinkpads and Thinkcentres are one of the most wonderful and reliable pieces of hardware I ever had the honor to lay my hands on. They are compact, totally silent, effective, fast as a shark with an SSD, and very well documented. Dell are my second choice - too much customisation. When friends and clients ask me to purchase a PC or laptop for them, Lenovos are my go-to solutions. In addition, if you get up to 4th-gen Intel CPUs, you have the advantage of avoiding installing Windows 10 and offering a rock-stable hard/soft Win7 solution. I install once and never hear any complaint from my clients for years. This is how computing should be in the 21st century.
If you start from a 10-year old Win7 CD and try to update it, or if you are servicing a PC that had updates disabled for a long time, the process is likely going to get stuck around the March 2019 updates. Then you need the April 2019 Servicing Stack Update (KB3177467) to unclog the update process. This is a well-known issue that happened before and forced Microsoft to release the Convenience Rollup Update KB3125574, which essentially was a SP2 (500MB!). This is why you need to search for streamlined recent ISOs of Win7 (which MS never did) and the most certain way to find them is in the dark alleys of the net (just use your own legal serial number). However, after all these years of using and supporting Win7, I've never witnessed the catastrophic failures users of Win10 experience. That's why I personally consider Win10 not a mature product yet, and keep it away from me and my clients as much as possible.
Since most privacy-aware people would never accept carrying an NFC tracking device (e.g. on his ID card/passport), why not devise a way to have the geeks wear them and be proud of them? I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future all kinds of shops gave the socks (or other NFC-enabled clothing items) away as "gifts", since in the long term it would allow the global tracking the owner of the credit card that made the purchase.
An additional benefit is that sock NFC detectors can be embedded in the floor and not be visible. Sniffing socks has acquired a whole new meaning.
First thing Monday morning, I'm going to patent a new generation of shoes lined with tinfoil and gain millions by just licensing the patent!
Facebook's case is precisely like Greece's: Nobody dares to challenge it (i.e. order Greece to exit the Euro), or the "unsellable papers" bubble will bust .
In addition, the powers to be want to keep their free and undisturbed access to the infinite amount of FB user data/content, just like every country, oil company and their dog want access to Greece's vast gas, oil and mineral resources.
Now, won't everybody just kindly STFU, these are big boys' games and nuisances like antitrust claims (or upcoming elections) can't and won't scratch the surface of the big picture.
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