Posts by Will Godfrey

Need to switch from Windows Server 2003? Here’s a workshop just for you

What is this "Windows Server" you speak of?

... the one with "Linux From Scratch" in the pocket.

Sway: Microsoft's new Office app doesn't have an Undo function

Confusing

Nobody knows whether it goes thi' sway or tha' sway or 't-other sway.

... not even the people from Swale

Deutsche Telecom's BRATTY OFFSPRING earns parent €38m fine

So when is it BTs turn?

Finnish PM: Apple has DESTROYED FINLAND

On the contrary

With all the court papers Apple have filed, I would think they've made a major contibution to the industry worldwide!

Lies, damn pies and obesity statistics: We're NOT a nation of fatties

A personal experience

I'm 5ft 11, and until a couple of months ago was 14.5 stone. I was getting plenty of exercise, but was eating too many doughnuts (brought in for all of us by a well meaning secretary). Just cutting those out and making no other changes has brought my weight down to 13.5 stone, which is what I used to weight about 30 years ago. The only downside is that I'm going have to buy new, slimmer, trousers.

According to the BMI stuff, that still leaves me about a stone 'overweight'. I disagree.

Shoppers shun slabs to give Gartner's Q3 PC numbers a rosy glow

I did my bit

I bought one real computer this year

Linux systemd dev says open source is 'SICK', kernel community 'awful'

As only a moderately capable Linuxian, when things started breaking for no apparent reason, it was quicker and easer to go back than try and work out why apparently unrelated things were no longer working. More recently when I tried to uninstall the wretched thing on a different machine there was a laundry list of programs that would also be removed :(

As an 'ordinary' user, systemD creeping into debian (virtually unannounced) has caused me major problems when trying to keep machines up-to-date and secure, such that on two of them I've had to go back and do a complete re-install of squeeze. I don't really want to move to another distro - it's a whole new learing curve - but I'm teetering on the brink.

It's not you, it's Three. Mobe network goes titsup across UK

Re: remember for a lot of people

Oi! Us South-Easters don't want to be associated with that London mob. Sooner they build a wall round the M25 the better!

Ofcom chief exec Ed Richards to step down in December

He's leaving. So?

Will anyone notice?

UK reforms on private copying and parody come into force

The real issue.

They don't want you to have a permanent copy at all. Even CDs have a finite life, but if you can make multiple private copies, purely as backup, then that, to them, is a lost sale. Even worse if you originally got a 'soft' copy.

Leaked: Mobile operators' SCARE campaign against net neutrality

What more can you say, when you already have utter contempt for these greedy bastards?

DVLA website GOES TITSUP on day paper car tax discs retire

Something not entirely clear

If you got your tax + disk near the end of September, do you still need to display it?

New EU digi-commish struggles with concepts of net neutrality

There is no hope!

The man hasn't got a clue.

That glass of water you just drank? It was OLDER than the SUN

Re: Stunningly obvious 'discovery' - H2 verses H2O

Downvoting my downvote comment too. Clearly I'm rattling some cages.

Good ... any advance on 3? :)

Re: Panic! - you're bunch of arm chair chemists

Downvotes? Can it be we actually have two DM readers here?

Panic!

We are literally awash with an alien substance. Tell the Daily Mail.

Reg hands portable Sinclair ZX Spectrum to lucky compo winner

Re: For the full authentic experience...

... and it should have a horrible metalic key??? (not going to call it a keyboard)

FBI: Your real SECURITY TERROR? An ANGRY INSIDE MAN

Scare Tactics

So how much are they after this time?

'In... 15 feet... you will be HIT BY A TRAIN' Google patents the SPLAT-NAV

The only good thing about this is that it just might stop some innocent driver being traumatised when he runs down one of the brain-dead saps.

Will Europe's ISPs unmask anonymous IP infringers?

A thought experiment

Let's suppose the media maffia get their way here.

Let's also suppose that nobody finds an alternative way to distribute files.

What will they do when they find their business is still going down the tubes?

I sold 10 MILLION iPhone 6es at the weekend, says Tim Cook. What did you do?

Re: Minor note

I think that when you've untangled all the 'creative' accounting and tax evasion it's closer to 90% profit.

Did something important happen on Friday?

Yes, actually. I was able to sign off a three week project.

Bono: Apple will sort out monetising music where the labels failed

Load of codswallop.

If you wander off to the SOS website, and dig around a bit, you'll find an excellent article on digital audio, that goes into the science in great detail.

Short version -

16bit is a greater dynamic range than your ears can stand (taking into account room background).

44.1kHz will definitely resolve up to 22kHz perfectly accurately.

So, to just play your music, a well mastered and recorded CD is all you need. Higher bit depth and sample rates are only needed if you're intending to go into music production.

Cracked it - Vulture 2 power podule fires servos for 4 HOURS

So, onward and (hopefully) upward then.

As bankruptcy looms for RadioShack, we ask its chief financial officer... oh. He's quit

Contrary to what 'Just call me Dave' claims, we haven't exited the last recession. If anything we're barely marking time.

Alibaba: Just kidding about that $21bn IPO ... we actually want $25bn

The IPO also gives them more credibility, which will benefit them when selling goods ouside Asia, and in itself will increase the stock value.

eBay DROPS DEAD AGAIN - tat bazaar says sorry, scrambles to resurrect site

Tinfoil Hat time?

Is it my imagination or is the Internet in general getting steadily more flakey?

In a spin: Samsung accuses LG exec of washing machine SABOTAGE

Not really taking sides here, but all the washing machine doors I've seen could take a considerable amount of force.

Oh noes, fanbois! iPhone 6 Plus shipments 'DELAYED' in the UK

Zzzzzzzzz {ploink}

Someone call? Oh, Apple sold out 1st day.

zzzzZZZZZZZZ.

Stonehenge's HUMAN ABATTOIR was just a prehistoric Burning Man hippyfest site

Re: Hurrah for the rule of law, we say.

Shouldn't that be 'underware of' ?

Re: Now now...

... and how many were even archaeologists?

Let XKCD's Randall Munroe satisfy your curiosity in this excerpt from his book, What If

Been following XKCD for yonks, and 'What If' since it started., Always interesting, fun and zany.

Couldn't read the link above - I'm not prepared to enable the laundry list of javascript :(

It's official: LOHAN's arboreal avoidance algorithm is PANTS

I've just had a thought

... it desn't happen too often these days.

Has the gender or LOHAN been establised?

The reason I ask is that if male, then PANTS are undergarments and maybe a wee bit rude for ths Fine Family Friendly Forum (hmmm, 16 bit) whereas if female then the undergarments would be panties and we'd be OK.

This seems to be a most important issue that should probably elicit a substansive response.

Cops apologise for leaving EXPLOSIVES in suitcase at airport

dog-gone it

Intellifridge terror: Internet of Stuff kit must fend off hackers of the FU-TURE-TURE-TURE

Re: the lifespan of a fridge is 25 years

Says Me - That's at least how long my last one was going for.

Apple's SNEAKY plan: COPY ANDROID. Hello iPhone 6, Watch

Re: That side-on picture of the phone looks just like...

Nah. Common as muck.

Forget silly privacy worries - help biometrics firms make MILLIONS

Re: > Biometrics are usernames, not passwords.

I would say biometrics are a password, and a username at the same time.

Smart meters in UK homes will only save folks a lousy £26 a year

Smart people can manage quite welll enough with dumb meters. Dumb people can't manage whatever you give/sell them.

BBC Trust candidate defends licence fee, says evaders are CRIMINALS

I wonder what it is she's been smoking.

Hawking: Higgs boson in a BIG particle punisher could DESTROY UNIVERSE

Re: Hmm,

I would have thought the fact he said the particle accellerator would have to be bigger than the Earth, and he also cast doubts on available funding suggets he wasn't being entirely serious.

Heavy VPN users are probably pirates, says BBC

How low the BBC has sunk

There was a time when it was a champion, now it's just a lap dog.

Snowden shouldn't be extradited to US if he testifies about NSA spying, says Swiss gov

Unfortunately, it's not 'most' that are in control.

Drones swarm over bearded Brit billionaire's island getaway

Sour grapes much?

See title.

Shitty what? Almost half of MPs have never heard of Tech City

Re: I thought I'd seen silicon roundabout once.

Indeed they do. Most of the CMOS range is still in production, and cheap as, err, chips. Also some TTL is, although that has largely been replaced with CMOS duplicates of the older 74 series.

In fact, only last week I got a bunch of 4040s from Farnell to quickly knock up pre-scalers for pulse counter/comparator thingy-whatsits.

I thought I'd seen silicon roundabout once.

... but on closer inspection it turned out to be a dead 4011B in the middle of the road.

Scared of brute force password attacks? Just 'GIVE UP' says Microsoft

Re: SOME password strength validation still useful

Not sure if I mentioned this before but...

Allowing unlimited printable ASCII (including spaces) -> 95 possibilites

Insisting on a capital -> 26 possibilities

Insisting on a digit -> 10 possibilities ... utter lunacy!

So, they are already trying to weaken passwords as much as possible.

Bright lights, affordable motor: Ford puts LED headlights onto Mondeo

Very many years ago (1960s I think) there was a proposal to use polarised light for headlamps to deal with dazzle. I wonder if now is a opportunity to revive the idea. The downside is it needs co-operation between car manufacurers. Also it would be a long time beofre the full benefits would be felt.

The proposal was for all car headlights to be vertically polarised, and windscreens horizontally polarised. The result being that scatterted light reflections would be more-or-less full brightness, but direct light from oncoming traffic would be much weaker.

The police are WRONG: Watching YouTube videos is NOT illegal

Re: The police are WRONG

I believe you get put on the list of domestic extremists and dissidents. You will them be randomly stopped and harrassed for the rest of your life.

BOFH: We CAN do that with a Raspberry Pi, but think of the BODIES

I really needed this

I'm working from home today 'cos one of our cuntstomers wants a control system modified on a PLC type I've never seen before, with no code comments and programming software that 'goes funny' on Windows 7.

... and can we have it ready by Friday?