Posts by Mage
1793 posts • joined Friday 23rd November 2007 08:43 GMT
Page:
Posted in Ten four-bay NAS boxes
Raid0
What sort of useful test is that?
I'd only buy one of these if it was good for Raid 5 or 6.
Also
Shows that Thorn was wrong company to sell Inmos too and why Thorn owned "badges" making TV & Radio ended up as labels on uncompetitive & poor quality Asian stuff.
Why?
Why do I read this meandering rubbish.
1. Office built into Windows? Craziest idea ever.
a. Bloat
b. Cost
c. Most people don't need Office
d. Security
e. Competition issues would make IE story look tame.
2. Seemless?
Such drivel. You have an OS, a GUI and Applications. Good design, ease of debugging etc means these 3 layers should be separate and swappable. Applications shouldn't try to do everything, but one kind of thing, so that they are easier to use, freer of bugs, smaller, faster, easier to design well. Sharing information and "Seemless" use between applications of data is not about a Monolithic system but about good modular design and open standards. Exchange can be realtime via TCP/IP local host sockets (extendible across a network), Named Pipes or persistent via open standards files (which need not be bulky XML).
LESS should be bundled and integrated. About the ONLY thing that should be "bundled" with the OS is a lean DB engine for OS use and optionally for applications, with no clash or restriction on adding your own, so it should NOT use the default SQL ports. IBM thought this was a good idea 30 years ago. The "Registry" is an interface to to a bunch of separate files. It and Filesystem should have been using a real database since 1993.
Yet another totally pointless Matt article. Is he trolling us?
Re: Perhaps a different brand of tablet would of been better?
But the French executed their Royals. England only infrequently and mostly by other Royals, but after Cromwell it seemed a good idea to have them back.
Excellent
That is on a platform with a future. Maybe HTC should wait a while and buy it up at fire sale prices. The Blackberry IP at least.
Re: Wow
So, your car goes great without Road Tax and Insurance too.
It's NOT just about Radio Amateurs. But ALL Radio users. Broadcast radio is a unique irreplaceable resource. Satellite and Internet are complementary delivery mechanisms. Not a replacement for Terrestrial Broadcast.
Radio is used by ordinary public, Marine, Aeronautical, Emergency Services, Telemetry and Control of remote equipment by Water, Gas and Electricity Distribution infrastructure. RFID/NFC can also be jammed by PLT. Remote controlled "Toys". CB, Mobile Radio on Trucks, Taxies etc is impacted by the newer high speed units.
Aeronautical and Marine also use HF band as well as the VHF 110 to 137MHz and 156 to 162MHz approx bands. The land based stations will be gradually degraded on HF by ANY PLT ethernet in the Home and VHF links by the higher speed newer units. It's cumulative too as more units are added.
People pay for licences on a Non-Interference Protected Primary basis.
Captive Market?
Well, duh, due to difficulty of buying a new PC with XP, Win7 or nothing pre-installed, what ever sales of "new" PC kit that would have happened is going to happen anyway.
What if NO Apple Mac or PC had an OS pre-installed and you could SEPARATELY chose OS X, Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu, Solaris, Suse, XP, Win7 or Win8?
Mine's the one with a 4G SD card containing RiscOS in the pocket.
Re: Not in Northern Ireland it isnt...
Not in Mid Western Ireland.
Gee = Horse
However
Overall a good article and highlights the biggest issue in UK and Ireland about Radio Interference in General
1) People don't make an official complaint
2) There is no simple mechanism to make a complaint.
3) Even when the Regulator comes on site and proves the TV, phone charger, CFL lamp or PC PSU is creating 100s of times more interference more than legal limit and completely blocking Radio even 30m away, nothing is done, even if it's just faulty and could be replaced. Perhaps they might talk to maker. They will NOT get involved with Retailer or SOGA. Also the neighbours can't go to small claims court over SOGA. Only the Purchaser
The Regulators in UK & Ireland have forgotten why they were created. NOT to serve narrow commercial interests but ALL consumers of Radio Spectrum.
much to the annoyance of the UK amateur?
They are trying to help EVERYONE using radio from 1MHz to 200MHz.
This technology isn't compatible with any form of radio. It will get worse.
Each generation of Networking over mains uses more Radio spectrum. Amateur Radio will suffer the least. as it implements "notches".
These are really wide band transmitters that happen to plug into the mains and where the wiring assists the signal.
Re: WP8
My 1st NT machine was a 16MHz 386 with 12M bytes RAM. NT3.51
Re: Why do I get a feeling of Deja Vu ?
And that one was bunkum too.
Prior art is earlier than 1987
Call me a sceptic
But doesn't this somehow contravene the concept of conservation. What next? A Perpetual Motion machine?
But
It's unlikely that Jobs will be back again.
Sherry
Sherry seems bad for keyboards.
Just sayin'
Radio 4
They definitely called it an iPad App on R4 "Today" at breakfast time.
Colour vs brightness
Since the colour is by a filter, inherently the better the colour the less light there is. If the filters perfect you'd lose 2/3rds of the light as the Red filter blocks all the green and blue parts of spectrum to get the red colour.
Hence if you have pastel "weak" colour the filter blocks maybe 10%.
So they can't make it much "Better". It's physics. If you are using passive filters and ambient light then maybe 50% to 60% reflection with very pale colours and no better than 28% to 33% with good colour.
Mirasol can achieve the brightest passive colour display as it's mirrors, not pigment/dye filters and LCD.
The LCD polarisers also lose light.. The LCD itself can be pretty clear.
Re: DAB should not be more expensive
DAB+ Ha!
They would just use it to have slightly lower quality and twice as many stations to reduce the costs.
Re: Blowing air
Yes, DAB needs about x6 more TX sites and double the number of multiplexs or half the channels. 256K MP2 is fine.
Currently online streaming is higher quality than DAB. Current DAB suits a 2" loudspeaker. With enough TX and Muxs so as to have coverage and Quality DAB could be OK. DAB currently is a waste of spectrum and electricity.
Re: Blowing air
Far more people are always affected and object than the number that complain officially.
Besides will the BBC tell honestly how many complain? Will they have a dedicated freephone number advertised in the local "freeish" papers, A clear link on website with Form. a dedicated email address etc?
Will there be a well publicised consultation.
Or is the procedure and information gathering designed to give the answer they want?
Answers on back of a stamp.
Re: What about Long Wave?
I heard the BBC had reduced R4 LW power by half.
I know it has been much worse at dawn and dusk than it was and there is interference more often. But is this the season, more chargers or the BBC reducing power?
Also
There is a problem with CE mark and lack of policing:
1) The EMC limits are too high
2) They are not properly tested in terms of radiation from the house wiring
3) Radiation from Lighting wiring is worse as often it's loops, not "Twin and earth"
4) It's self certified, so often the product doesn't really meet CE
5) The capacitors in CFL /LED lamps "dry out" with age and the interference rises due to heat from lamp
6) Powerline/Homeplug adaptors are not realistically tested. All basically would fail CE if "real life" testing used.
7) Individual models of TV or charger can lack filter components (deliberately or accidentally), but neighbour has no idea why the Radio is poor or who to complain to.
8) Ofcom (and Comreg in Ireland) are trying/have offloaded Spectrum protection/complains to others and it's nearly impossible to get them to investigate. Even though it's one of their primary roles and ordinary Domestic reception is protected by Wireless Telegraphy Acts, EMC directives signed into law, EU and International Treaty.
You have no "absolute" right to have a newspaper delivered every day. You do have an Internationally agreed right to receive Broadcast without jamming, even from another country if it's not on a frequency allocated to your more local national transmitter.
Mines the one with a Spectrum Analyser in the pocket
Re: Then there is Radio 5: Mobile?
Actually if you are streaming at 100kbps approx (can be more or less) then one mast can reliably manage about 30 to 90 connections at best. It's not actually possible at all as there are only usually 3 sets of 3 channels and so the masts would interfere if more than about 20 (generously). Can't see how you can have more than 2,000 users no matter how much money you throw at Mobile.
FM level of coverage needs about x6 as many DAB TX. AM level of coverage maybe x20 (lots of small fill in due to it being 200MHz Band III)
DAB vs AM/FM
Lots of places need the "Whip" up for FM. The AM is convenient and gives coverage to small number of places not reached by AM.
Battery costs
1) Old AM Valve Portable Radio using replicated battery packs: 60 to 400 hours and 6p to 12p per hour depending on model. The 1953 to 1960 models only used 25mA @ 1.4V per filament and 6.5mA to 9mA HT depending on model
2) Decent 1965 to 2000+ AM/FM portable transistor or IC set: 60 to 250 hours and typically 1p to 8p per hour depending on Model and loudness.
3) DAB sets : 4 hours (4 x AA some current models) to allegedly 120 (latest Roberts using expensive Alkaline D cells) 5p to 75p per hour. (Lower price assuming cheap supermarket Alkaline, not Energizer/Duracell/Panasonic and Roberts are truthful about consumption).
Posted in RISC OS comes to Raspberry Pi
Re: Great News
I bought a pair of SD cards in Tesco marked to 1/2 price for this purpose. I must find them
Posted in RISC OS comes to Raspberry Pi
Re: And
RiscOS was ARM Archimedes, not the 6502 based BBC Micro
It just happened to have the similar BASIC.
Old Country?
Ireland has a load of eVoting machines for sale.
One suggestion was to sell them to Irish Themed pubs abroad.
Shhh!!
Don't wake the Kraken
Posted in Apple iPad Mini 8in tablet review
Price
You need to be seriously deluded by the Reality Distortion Field to pay what this costs.
It's for people with more money than sense.
Certainly Contemptible
They are like a naughty Child.
Will the tell the Judge that the Dog ate it?
A problem
So called "White Space" is a myth and will simply cause interference to other (non-whitespace) users.
However the standard and Protocols may be of use on bands licensed for it.
It's not as if they have many products.
Next
Will be PCWorld/Currys. Maybe they need to get back to selling bicycles?
Internet competition? Maybe. But also Tesco and Argos.
Harvey Norman still has a big Electrical, AV and computer section here, but I doubt if they make money on it.
Posted in EE 4G LTE review
High Speeds?
Only because hardly anyone is using it.
Ten people on a mast sector and you get 1/10th or less speed.
Ice?
Ice in any drink is a modern abomination. Certainly for Whiskey, Whisky, beer or Wine.
Maybe OK in vodka served with raw fish above the Arctic Circle?
iFad?
The new iPad mini needs to be either 1/2 the price or twice the spec. It's like the spec of a no-name tablet, made in same country but x3 the price.
Only fans or people doing no research into subject will buy it. Cook better hope that Jobs really is dead and not faking or Forstall won't be the only one looking for a new job.
If you have no intention of buying Amazon content then a Samsung might be better. If it's Amazon content you want (and hardly any is eBooks), then the Fire looks best.. If you only want Amazon eBooks then the "paperwhite" is best.
Re: Confused
They have Matt Asay because he is popular with all the other writers. Many may hate what Andrew Orlowski writes sometimes, but he can write coherently most of the time. When do follow what Matt is saying, is usually seems like nonsense anyway.
92%
About 92% of TV watched by those with Sky Sports is Free TV. Sky gets only about 1.5% viewing time.
Sky Movies? Better value to buy the BD/DVD films/Box sets if choosy or use Netflix if not. Makes no sense to pay to watch repeats either..
Most of the channels on Sky don't make 0.1% viewing time. When you first get a sub there is a certain novelty to the Clarkson & Hitler channels (History is more than WWII you know). Or Animals. Or Mythbusters.
But a lot of filler and repeats.
large screen size
Ah ha!
So they admit it. Win8 is only any use on Tablets.
Al-in-ones don't have particularly high resolution, Monitors surpassed 1920x1080 TV's HD over a decade ago. Physical size is not relevant to SW, only number of pixels. So what about 150dpi & higher Tablets?
Russian Military Rod Pentodes
Made till 1991
1j24b
1j37b
1j18b
1j42a
1j29b
1p24b
1j17b
Superior to Germanium transistors
Ah Ha!
Where is the "invention", novelty and lack of obviousness in this?
It's just a software implementation of an accounting method?
It's too general too.
Realistic
"Realistic speed of the dual-channel HSPA+ flavour 3G will be about 12Mbps, while realistic speeds of LTE range from 13.8Mbps at 10MHz to 30Mbps 20MHz."
Only if no-one else is connecting to those channels.
This report is really old now, but still valid
Extremely Compelling
If you browse more than create.
“It is already extremely compelling for many customers to choose a tablet, in particular an iPad, over a PC,” he said. “When you look at the PC market, there is an enormous opportunity for Apple there.”
He means Mac Market converting to iPad, they have almost no growth at all.
They will release 13" & 17" or similar iPads with keyboards and call them Macs. As soon as they are cheaper to make as x86 ones and can be sold for same price as the x86 ones.
Re: Boring
yes, this is a bit meh ...
Unless it totally tanks. That would be amusing. But as yet I'll largely ignore it.
RiscOS release for Raspberry Pi is more interesting.
The Data party
The reality is that when you analyse use and traffic there is a about a 100x to 300x difference between voice and data. Voice is over priced. Data is hugely subsidised by voice on existing Mobile. This is why "3" makes little or no money (I think none ever in Ireland) as they don't have enough voice customers.
Mobile data ought to be more expensive. The mystery is why the 4G isn't x5 more expensive, unless in reality the GSM & 3G voice charges are unbelievably excessive.
50 minutes voice at less than 16kbps each way costs the operator how much compared to 1G of data (all of which is is outside their network).
Some voice calls are on their network (no data leaving)
Other Calls:
if you get as many calls as you make, then the outgoing termination costs for operator are similar to incoming Revenue.
Re: Works for me
Ah... Amazon copied that did they?
I see in reviews the Kobo Glo has transreflective LED lamp and 1024 x 768.
I don't much like the idea it reboots when you load a new document.
Re: PATENTS MUST BE INVENTIVE and NON OBVIOUS!!!!
Actually capacitive screens about same vintage as resistive. But low resolution. People wanted handwriting recognition and stylus operated shrunk desktop GUI.
Capacitive is inherently very low resolution.
The ideal is capacitive AND resistive (or some new tech that has light touch finger and stylus, ideally reporting pressure and angle too). They existed before any Apple iThing but after Apple Newton (which was deliberately resistive for handwriting).
The only change with iPhone was smoother better thought out GUI and less buttons. Otherwise no new technology at all. No Apple developed HW.
Re: Obviously they lack buttons
I agree, the patent unfortunately was not invalidated, but it should be.
