Posts by Ian Grant

Microsoft's summer update will be called Windows 8.1

Windows for Warehouses

...where it deserves to rot.

Tablets BEAT DOWN laptops in 4-to-1 Xmas bloodbath - analyst

Windows 8: best advert for Apple ever?

I installed Windows 8 on my netbook (Asus dual core Atom with 2MB) but 'Metro' doesn't support my screen resolution so I have to use the Desktop mode. I was very disappointed. So I hooked my netbook up to my desktops 21" screen and bingo I could use Metro. And...its awful. And my mouse stopped working properly.

Will be backing it off to Windows 7 Starter asap.

I bought my first PC in 1984 and nowadays build my own. I have always disliked Macs (how do they comply with accessibility legislation?) and Unix (like all escapees) should have been confined to the test lab.

Tablets are no good because I need Java support in the browser; the iPad may be pretty but is it any real use?

If this is the future of personal computing then this retired SysProg (Unisys) is a Dodo.

2012: The year that netbooks DIED

netbook v windows 8

Very happy with my eeePC for use on the road. However the maximum screen resolution is insufficient to launch from 'Metro'; have to click through to the traditional desktop in order to run anything. Bit annoying.

Lenovo iPad-smiting Windows 8 slate slips out

Browser+Java

If this runs a proper browser with full Java support then it might actually be useful.

The iPad is just a toy.

So, what IS the worst film ever made?

Bonfire of the Vanities

Should have been burned before it ever saw a cinema.

Samsung NC110 matte-screen netbook

give us something useful

Like a sensible lump of RAM, an SSD and a DVD drive.You can then have £350 of my money.

Ten... wireless keyboards

Cherry Marlin

More than happy with mine.

This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours

Suitable for government use

Maybe government depts can use them for sending peoples personal details by snail-mail; at least they'd be able to stop looking for them after a couple of days...

In the beginning, there was the flowchart...

design tools are needed

Of course you don't need them for piddly little programs of a few hundred lines or the odd web page. Any idiot can see that.

However, you sit down and start writing the code to control an Airbus, on your own, with no design. Not so easy is it? A good design methodology simply gives you the tools to express your ideas on paper in a manner that another engineer can understand. It is very difficult to carry the details of a large complex system in your head; it is impossible to discuss it sensibly with someone else because they will have a slightly different picture in their head.

Keeping the design up to date during the build can be difficult but is worthwhile. Some of the problems you encounter during build and testing will be design related; it is essential that these problems are resolved as a design issue, so you need an up-to-date design. That way you can make sure that when you resolve the "won't take off" problem you don't introduce a "crashes on landing" problem.

The original article is amusingly written and is a good lampoon. However, using design tools for the tasks depicted is a bit like using a JCB to bury a hamster,