It has happend.

My year 2000 High End NT4.0 laptop is horribly limited and slow.

My april 2002 Laptop out performs most new laptops under £500 and the original XP and Office are still on it. The latest version of Windows & Office goes more slowly on more powerful Laptops.

It's a 1.8Ghz P4 desktop CPU based laptop. I could have paid a premium to get a 2.2GHz CPU. But that would eat more battery.

Unless you are encoding, 3D rendering, decoding HD in SW etc you don't need more CPU and the Memory, Motherboard, HDD and Screen is not much faster on a new laptop nearly 7 years later.

The examples in the article aren't needed by most people. Current applications could be written better rather than more bloated and slower on each release.

Firewall

Quote: "There should *ALWAYS* be a hardware box between your system and the modem. With dial-up modems, that wasn't possible (and quite frankly, not necessary)."

Yes there should.

And it was very possible and needed on Dialup & ISDN. I ran Firewalls on many sites from 1995 to 2002 for dialup connections (analogue & ISDN). These usually provided a Proxy to share and autodial the connection. It also made rogue premium rate auto-diallers toothless as the actual PCs all used ethernet. on 192.168.0.xxx

Satellites

I think Sky only rents satellite space in Europe. From Astra and Eutelsat.

They don't use the Satellites for Internet delivery thankfully, unlike the unconnected SkyDSL that uses dialup and Satellite Download.

Incremental?

The 3G version might be interesting with a suitable data plan, but I don't see any reason to upgrade from my 605 WiFi 160Gbyte, which with current firmware (May 2008?) is fine. Unlike iPhone/iTouch the browser works without having to zoom in/out (800x480) and supports Flash9, Java and Many non-605 Opera Widgets.

I like having the buttons. Easy to skip or change track while driving without taking eyes of road.

Very stylish and I would get it if I didn't have a 605WiFi 160G. Can't see any reason to upgrade.

Mobile FraudBand

Broadband*:

-> Always connects

-> Always at least 512kbps download, 128k upload

-> Always low latency, typically < 50ms

-> session preserved if momentary loss of connection

3G FraudBand:

<- May not connect: Cell sector easily filled up

<- Can be GPRS (50k), EDGE (240k) or 3G (350k), the "up to " 7.2Mbps HSDPA can easily be 150k down and often no more than 70k up.

<- Mid to high latency: 120ms to 1000ms

<- Usually Dialup type connection, loss of signal means loss of session.

*Real Broadband is not just DSL/Cable/Fibre but is on Wireless too.

The FCC and OECD don't count 3G/HSDPA as Broadband.

This should be outlawed and called "Mobile Internet" or "Mobile Midband"

3G/HSDPA/HSUPA will never be broadband.

Fixed Width

on my 1600x1200 it's nearly OK (But stupid). But for all those 800x480 devices inc. my Archos it terrible.

make it flow or else 800 wide.

OpenVPN?

Well you can use it to create VPN I suppose, but been using VPN without it since 1996.

The MS Built-in VPN client sticks up a ruddy big ReDial dialog if it disconnects.

Indeed with a Open-WRT based router at home and a portable one on your travels you can connect to Internet or whatever via the home network with no server or client software. Handy if the client is not a PC.

XP Pirate

A copy I re-installed was flagged as "pirate" They offered the option of a licence for about 70 Euro, or ring and argue.

It was 2am and their WAS someone to ring and argue (may not have been a real person).

"Is this installed on any other PCs?"

>> "No the previous PC (laptop) was sat on and broken"

"Did it come with the PC"

>> "No we bought it in a box in the Shop"

"OK here is a key to enter...."

All true BTW.

Android?

The Linux is incidental. It's just there to run Google's proprietary version of Java.

This a Google version of iPhone. More closed than Nokia Series 60 Symbian. It's a closed proprietary Java phone. No Thanks.

I'd rather have a decent extendable WinMo or Symbian phone.

They had Racal hopping radios

Over 20 years ago. Encryption by hopping.

6hrs talk time on Racal syncal 300 1MHz ..30MHz radio, 25W. Hopping encryption option.

Bowman is rubbish. Scrap it and start from scratch based on Digital Radio Mondail for HF and OFDMA (WiMax) for VHF/UHF.

It all depends

The Samsung ARM11 chip maybe used in iPhone and the Texas ARM Cortex and many others usually have built in TV and LCD controllers with on chip MPEG and AES engines too.

Some 266MHz ARMs SoC can do SD MPEG4 with no CPU overhead at all.

This could be rubbish or quite good depending on which SoC it uses.

Also if Linux can be loaded (almost certainly via JTAG, but that's not trivial).

My friend has Debian running on an ARM that came with Windows CE.

I don't want a DVD player

I want a replacement for my 6.5year old 1600x1200.

I don't care if it's WS, I want more pixels high so I can read PDFs & Word & DTP A4 100% and have space at sides for toolbars, Menu bar, Desktop Icons etc.

1080 is a retrograde step. If you watch 2.35:1 Cinema content there will be black bars anyway.

WS on a Laptop is STUPID, unless you can rotate the screen to Portrait.

Anyone no if any good 1600x1200 or larger resolution Laptops still made?

And GLOSSY is marketing hype. Decent Matt is Far Better. As long as the process is not cheap texture reducing resolution. With reading glasses or magnifying glass you can see the individual pixels on my 1600x1200 15.4" Matt screen. It has almost no reflections at all, which give you headaches.

I use a TV if I want to watch Video.

Solution

PVR, and Broadcast.

Bottleneck of Interwebs bypassed.

Several Gbps per user and no cap. Any number of terminals.

What do you mean we've had that since 1936 for video?

Android

Android only happens to run on Linux. It's essentially a Java platform using Google's Java engine and APIs instead of Sun's. Unless performance is at least x2 better, it's a pointless re-invention, like much of open sauce.

One speaker..

Actually it DOES use two speakers, but just not the same way as Stereo.

Do they have a Binuaral source to Spatial processing option as well as Stereo? (The 3rd & final method of better than Mono, that is designed for headphone only listening).

I experimented in a similar fashion on how to record surround sound for 4 to 8 speaker playback with only 3 channels, back about 1974.

Mathematically You only need 3 channels to drive a 5.1 sound system.

Kwil

I don't even speak Irish and I knew they spelled it wrong

Cuíl *might* be Kool. cuil is Kwil

ban and bán are different. One is woman and one is white. the / on a letter very important.

I tried it for a few things that came on 1st few hits on Google, and found not all on Kwil.

HD

It's invented for 50" to 60" TVs... At normal viewing distance on 37" only 10% of people will see much difference, most will see none.

If the TV is any good it will accept 576p or 480p progressive DVD and upscale as well as any BluRay and handle 576i nearly as well. USA 480i and 1080i has the 3:2 telecine issue, hence progressive and 720p modes more important in USA/Japan than Europe.

Most UK/Ireland "HD ready" TVs already sold and most in shops now are either too small, or 1366x768 or both. Unless it's at least 50% bigger than your current TV (32" WS --> 48"WS, or 28"4:3 -> 54" WS, height is the issue) then you won't see much value in HD format vs upscaled or even native DVD (assuming 576 line part of world, not USA/Japan).

Actually my PAL S-VHS looks better than USA DVDs as it has really 576 lines vs 480 and at 4:3, the 500 equivalent pixel is close to 720 16:9 !

Most Europe/Australia DVDs look much better than the S-VHS thought we have had a few poor quality titles. (I'm comparing off air recordings as pre-recorded VHS are not as good and not S-VHS).

Still no change

Originally they pushed the eye candy.

Still they push the eye candy.

There is Nothing on Vista anyone would miss. There is nothing extra it does over XP. It in the real world of social exploits is no safer.

My 6 year old laptop with a never re-installed XPpro outperforms all but the insane spec high street laptops running Vista.

I upgraded original 512M to 768M RAM and typically it still uses less than 512M. Peak today so far is 313M.

I run Visio, MS Project, SQL, IIS, Word, Excel, Skype, Bluetooth, WiFi, SCSI scanner via PCMCIA, Civ Beyond the Sword, Settlers Heritage of Kings, TurboCAD, various filter design, Schematic/PCB, Video Editing, paintshop pro 7, Google Earth, 3 versions of Linux via VMwareplayer (That eats more RAM!). Filezilla, Pigeon, Firefox, IE7, Thunderbird, nero 6.1 (upgraded built in DVDROM/CD writer to dual layer DVD writer), DSP based Software Defined Radios using internal and USB sound devices simultaneously, VB6/C++ also studio.net, Netbeans/Java IDE programming, SharpDevelop. MS Services for UNIX AND Cygwin .... And much much more.

NO AV, but MSClient disabled on any direct Internet connection and periodic check with "silentrunners.org" tool.

15 different connection options / device etc in "Network Connections"

2 hardware profiles to allow boot with alternate network configurations.

Upgraded 30Gbyte drive to faster 120GByte drive with out reinstall of anything by putting both on a desktop via adaptors and boot with Partition Magic. Is that possible on Vista or does DRM/security trip you?

1.8GHz P4 CPU Dell Inspiron 8200 "laptop"* with Ultrasharp 1600x1200 screen and GeForce 4 (440 Go) 32M graphics.

*Well it looks like a laptop.

MS has passed the Event Horizon. I've used NT since 1994 and MS has gradually broken it. They seem to have people that only understand Win3.x ->95->98->ME and candy driving the Development. Vista was the inevitable outcome. Win7 will be no better and offer nothing of value.

MP3

256k is better than 192k, not just frequency but distortion. Anyone that prefers 192k to 320k,MP3 has got trained to like it that way, like someone listeing to 78's for years on a wind-up gramophone finding live orchestra disturbing,

265k is ok for headphone buds in noisy envirionment or car. But on 4ft colums and decent amp in a good living room for more than background listening, I'd want CD or Flac.

Anyone know if Archos 605 does Flac? I have a 160G disk.

Yesterday saw a German court throw out Qualcomm's claims

Yet the settlements look to be in Qualcomm's favour.

Nokia pays them

Nokia gives them Patents (for Qualcomm to harass others with?)

Nokia agrees to leave them alone

Looks like a "win" not a throw out. What am I missing?

Burning?

Well kept pressed CDs /DVDs should last for a VERY long time and are friendlier to environment to the blanks (which & cases are same shipping CO2/resource)

Local burnt copies less life

Delay to download over Internet

Delay to burn Disc & test it

Some stores can't get Internent or fast enough

Printing cover fades faster than preprinted.

Buring costs x10 more than pressing

One off Printing costs x100 more than bulk.

Sorry, I'm not interested in standing for 10mins to get a poor quality store burnt copy.

I'd rather wait 2 days for the post. I can be doing something else.

If I'm in Zavvi/HMV etc I might impulse buy a bargain, if the music is not too loud to put off browsing and there is no big queue at checkout.

So Symbian is rubbish

But the other platforms are worse.

OS X : evil poorly documented Mix of BSD UNIX and Apple Goo

Linux: Documentation is optional. You have the source. APIs are not pretty or consistent. Which C libraries / APIs depreciated.

Win CE/Mobile. It only can look like Windows. Well documented, but rubbish compared to Embedded NT. You need your own UI as the Windows look and Feel needs a stylus and is designed for a much bigger screen than ANY phone has. The successful WinMo products have their own GUI. It is not really related to Desktop Windows at all. Designed for Sega DreamCast?

I forgot

Android is Linux running proprietary version of Java. You ever tried using the mechanisms to access system APIs outside the Java sandbox?

Buy an Archos 605 WiFi and write some apps for it. That's what Android is like. Closed. Proprietary and limited to Java. (The Archos will run Flash 9, Opera Widgets and Java on a web page, but you can't install anything else on it, though it's Linux based. In a sense that's the aim of Android, not native Linux apps.).

Style

Pity it looks like it was designed for someone that thought it was FisherPrice ? Tomy?

Aerial:

Detachable like a Security Radio "Rubber Duck"! Why not retractable. Stupid.

If it's for the outdoors, is there a shoulder strap? (Too big for a belt clip). Is it shower proof?

Solar power a lot of the time for a bedside / kitchen / indoor radio makes not much sense.

Poor Ergonomics and Package Design.

Stick a solar panel using foam sticky pads on a non-Solar one.

There are better value, better styled radios. Roberts used to do nice solid table top radios. But this isn't one of them.

I'd go for one with MP3, SD card Recording, DRM (the Radio system, not the Rights) and DAB with Analogue. Amazinly Alba does one.

Do they own Roberts now as Marque to sell higher priced stuff?

Why?

Why not use the Sky+ & Sky HD disk content via the Skybox's USB port? The PSP is USB2GO so with a suitable cable can be a host or a slave.

Stupid.

If people has Broadband and any sense they won't install any of these Broadcaster P2Ps that eat their cap and clog their upstream.

1336 pins!

Didn't they ever read Ivor Catt?

How about 3 pins per bus, data in, out and clock?

Easy to make the buss tracks all the same length and 400GHz data clock is possible (= 80GBytes / second duplex)

Three pins for 64 bit PCI @ 66MHz is only 4.224GHz clock

MUCH cheaper packages and motherboards.

No reason not to have serial DDR3. It (serial interconnect) was done with PATA/IDE/ATAPI and Wide SCSI.

Admittedly you might need teflon PCB, but two layers (signal/power on top, ground plane on bottom) would do.

Win95? Bah!

Windows 95 was rubbish in comparison., By then we where using NT3.51 for Servers and Workstations or WFWG3.11 on older workstations, then in 1996 NT4.0.

I have WFW3.11 With 32bit TCP/IP and Win32S on CD. and a number of copies or Word 2.0a

Really you want about 8M when networking, Or 4M without Networking!

I have a NT 4.0 Workstation the attic with "Program Manager" on it instead of Explorer to save RAM and CPU.

I still hate Explorers Filemangler in comparison.

Client

So there is nothing sensible to design the client with?

Flash

My ARM based Archos 605 WiFi has Flash9

At 4.3" and 800 x 480 it's perhaps the smallest useful screen for web browsing. A 2" phone screen is fairly rubbish no matter how good the browser is.

Texas, Nvidia and Samsung have ARM cored SoC that in various applications are better than Qualcomm Snapdragon. You can get in a single ARM SoC/Module what Intel needs 5 chips for.

(Modules have Flash, RAM and SoC as a three chip sandwich in a normal size SoC package with no heatsink. Not possible even with Moorestown due to heat).

Icon demonstrates Intel package temperature without a heatsink.

Stupidity

Boycott AVG.

Actually ALL the PCs I have removed Trojans, Adware, Viruses etc from HAD AV software installed.

AV SW gets false sense of security and encourages users to learn even less about safe use of PC. The issue is User Education.

Social Engineering attacks will ALWAYS defeat ANY security scheme or AV/Anti-Malware.

Prescanning sites in search results is really really meaningless, eating peoples cap, eating servers bandwidth, slowing browsing and is doomed to fail anyway.

Android

Android is primarily a platform for Java applications. It's possibly not at all easy to code for.

Linux has never been good at stable, consistent, well documented APIs. Try porting PCMCIA code across 2.4x, 2.6.9 and current Kernel?

Unless Symbian and the UI is cleaned up, OS X may become the most popular to write for. (Though it's not great on APIs either).

Most (all?) OSes are pretty bad API wise.

Blocking

I find blocking Flash only is the most effective. I can ignore static adverts and if I WANT to watch flash I click on the ¦> Arrow

Stupity

These will cause interference. Because a yagi on a TV set will pickup the TV and the WS unit, which due to its small portable aerial(s) won't hear the TV channel.

This is part of the "Cognitive" radio movement which if allowed space to grow will destroy predictable use of bands for long life equipment.

Mobile?

It doesn't matter how good the technology is, 3.5GHz is NOT suitable at all for mobile use.

It's too near LOS and very poor building penetration.

Easily blocked by every truck, tree and building.

Even 3G at 2.1 is much poorer than 900MHz GSM for coverage.

This will be an epic fail, tarnishing an oversold but quite good technology.