* Posts by The BigYin

3080 publicly visible posts • joined 25 Mar 2008

Microsoft Surface slate: Acer, resellers predict a riot

The BigYin

Re: Go MS! - Actually customers should come first

Incorrect. A company such as MS should be looking after the shareholders; looking after the customers would mean having a vibrant marketplace with open competition to drive innovation and keep prices in check, something MS has managed to long resist.

I really don't care what MS does with/against it's customers, I just hope the "riot" which ensues will see some break away from MSs vice-like grip and offer alternatives.

You know, a choice.

Something that would benefit the customer.

The BigYin

Go MS!

Yes MS, please keep this policy up! It is the best new in years. Hopefully by screwing your OEM partners over they will start to offer hardware with an OS that isn't Windows.

Then we might actually get to see some competition in the PC market!

Apple plans extended iPad display through 'Smart Covers'

The BigYin

@DrXym

Having some data on the cover might be handy (esp. if low/bo power e-ink type stuff). But then that has been done too, hasn't it? Think of the flip phones with a second screens etc.

Apple could copyright this design, sure, but patent?

No. Not IMHO.

The BigYin

@dx

There is a difference between holding a patent on whatever trickery that allows one to manufacture a flexible display (and there may be multiple solutions, so multiple patents with competing holders), and quite another on holding a patent on simply using a flexible display.

Once you have the flexi-tech, using it on a cover is rather obvious.

Humax YouView DTR-T1000 IPTV Freeview PVR review

The BigYin
FAIL

No streaming

No streaming off the HDD? Fail. Not interested.

SHEEP NEED TWITTER, insist my noble Lords

The BigYin
Thumb Down

Ah, I see.

So the city dwellers (and lord, no less) have decided that the country bumpkins are incapable of deciding for themselves what they want and must be told. And we all have to pay for it. How nice. But, hark, what is this I see before me? b4rn

Maybe these peers are more concerned about local initiative hitting their share investments; are worried that the great unwashed may realised they can do things for themselves? Or could it be that the high-and-mighty just can't stream their grumble flicks fast enough when relaxing at their second mansion?

Microsoft: MED-V won't help you escape WinXP end-of-life

The BigYin

Re: And When I'm in Charge

It amuses me so much that MS's proprietary lock-in on IE6 is now biting them hard on the ass.

The BigYin

And...

...if possible migrate away from Windows altogether.

New Win8 kit may be locked down (UEFI).

Will it run Win9? Will Win9 even allow you to install it on non-Win9-locked-down kit?

Why take the risk?

Move away from the platform if at all possible.

Boy cuffed after Twitter troll's drown threat to Olympic diver Tom Daley

The BigYin

Re: Umm...

Sticks and stones, sticks and stone.

If we were to exact the full extent of the law for every infraction we would be living in Hell. I can't comment on the threats (probably not credible) as those tweets are not public, but one would have thought public ridicule is more than adequate punishment for the insensitive comment.

If you want people to be arrested for comments like that, time to put Frankie Boyle et al in chains. Time to re-try Paul Chambers and find him guilty again. Time to...well, you get the idea.

So what has this kid done? Made a rather repugnant comment and some (unverified) threat. He's a dickhead. We don't have prisons big enough if we were to gaol all the dickheads.

The BigYin

Umm...

...when did the UK outlaw being a dickhead?

Virgin Media nukes downloads after SuperHub 'upgrade'

The BigYin

Re: Not entirely true

There are a few issues with the SuperHub:

1) It is poorly designed. What is wrong with the idiot lights are the front and the cables at the back? Why is that blue LED on the front so freaki' bright? (I've tapped mine up)

2) Many "nice to have" features are missing (e.g. VPN) which could be solved by a firmware flash (which is what I would do, if it were my own router)

3) Provided router firmware is dreadful (needs a reboot after just about every change, PITA when trying to set-up a fine-grained configuration)

4) Updates are applied without prior notice or warning (ok, so that's more of a management issue)

That's about it really. The V+ box is pretty sucky and I don't think the TiVo would be much better to be honest (unless it allows streaming over the LAN; a feature that is sorely missing from the V+ unit). I don't like their bandwidth limits nor do I like the ridiculous OS-block they put on their catch-up service (they even block access to iPlayer via their catch-up service, even though it works perfectly; heck, they even block access to Help/FAQ!)

But you are right - by-and-large you get the advertised speed and the advertised service. The TV programming is largely terrible - but that is not really VM's fault.

The BigYin

Re: Why oh why

"Why oh why do people persist in using Virgin Media?"

Because by-and-large it works? I'd prefer it if I could connect my own router, but that is my only real issue with their Internet service. I know about "modem mode" but that still means I have to use their crappy Netgear unit.

UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

The BigYin

Re: UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

The train companies are isolated from the vagaries of demand, they just get the government (i.e. taxpayer) to cough up more to cover any loses (or "lower then predicted profits").

Demand for trains is relatively elastic despite the poor level of competition* as alternatives do exist (cycle, car, motorcycle, car, bus, car-share, taxi, foot; etc) and people will switch if they can.

Not so with energy. People might switch from one company to another, but the level of any reduction they can make is going to be slight unless they invest in insulation/more efficient equipment; so it remains easy to raise prices to cover the fixed costs without seeing much drop in demand. It's not as simple to just throw up a solar array and a wind generator as it is to change mode of transport. Thus demand for energy is relatively inelastic.

As I said - it's basic economics.

*Whether or not there should even be competition on the railways is a different question. In my opinion the experiment has failed and should be scrapped. It's not going to work in the NHS either - unless we are prepared to raise spending on health to the same levels as the USA (from ~8% to ~15%). Your MPs are working hard to impoverish you even more - but so longs as they get a fat directorship and the perks; they don't give a damn.

Cite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#Spending

The BigYin

Re: UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

Production falls. Static costs remain the same.

Sit down with a calculator and work out the new unit price.

The BigYin

Re: UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

It's not a scam, it's basic economics.

Big biz 'struggling' to dump Windows XP

The BigYin

Re: Legacy legacy legacy

I know. Business critical ActiveX controls. It's enough you make one cry.

Japanese fanboi builds FrankenPhone from 'bits of iPhone 5'

The BigYin

Re: Any phone manufacturers with the headphone slot at the bottom?

My old Nokia feature phone has the jack at the bottom.

Japanese giant sorry for Kobo launch balls-up

The BigYin

Re: Latest firmware removes Cyrillic text support

OK, make that the second complaint. Updates without user authorisation are a very bad idea.

Then again, it's what people will expect after being spoon-fed by Windows.

The BigYin

Re: What's not been mentioned..

Only complaint about the Kobo Touch I have heard is that the page-turn is over sensitive and that a swipe (rather than a tap) would be better. No idea if that is a setting, not bothered to look (not my Kobo - I am waiting for colour e-ink and then I am going to ditch all my dead-tree magazine subs).

Sysadmins! There's no shame in using a mouse to delete files

The BigYin

Re: @Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other.

A GUI is better (generally speaking) when a graphical layout is better able to display the current problem/fix/layout/whatever.

At other times, a CLI can be better.

You pick the best tool for the job.

Did you know Windows now has a CLI back? I've not had cause to use PowerShell, but it is there.

The BigYin

Re: The right tool for the job...

CLI? Real sys admins don't use a CLI. They use butterflies, stupid.

The BigYin

Tool for the job

A CLI is a tool.

A GUI is another tool.

The CLI is easily scriptable, a GUI usually not.

The GUI is often just a pretty wrapper on the CLI, but maybe not exposing all the features.

The GUI may not even be a desktop app, it could be in a browser.

The CLI is often backwards compatible, the GUI can change radically yet offer no new features.

Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other.

Learn both, their strengths and weaknesses.

Profit.

Leave the holy wars to the wannabes who think reading everything in hex makes them 1337.

Capita and pals get £500m for ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE call centre

The BigYin

Don't waste your time at B&Q, whenever you go you'll find that whatever you are after is out of stock/broken. The B&Q near me is so poorly run that they have buckets strewn over the floor to catch the leaks when it rains. Hardly a good advert.

Head to Wickes, Homebase (maybe not as hard-core) to a small DIY retailer.

The BigYin

Oh why, oh why, oh why

Does our government keep giving deals to these abject failures?

Seriously - we need private companies providing public services like we need Dracula managing the blood bank.

Actually, Dracula would be an improvement; at least he's honest!

Microsoft unfurls patent lasso, snares Linux servers

The BigYin

Is this really about the kernel

Do the patents really cover the use of the Linux kernel itself?

Or do they cover whatever data-mining/processing Amdocs is doing with those Linux servers

If the former - that is worrying.

If the latter - less worrying, but software/business-process patents still suck ass.

CO2 warms Earth FASTER than previously thought

The BigYin

Re: Relax...

But as the rest of your comment makes clear, you think humans are evil

And lo! A straw man did descend from upon high and claimed himself lord! The good people, knowing his form, did set fire to him and burned his fallacy unto the ground.

we mess up the one thing that matters, Mother Nature

Well now, y'see that's where I'm a bit of an agnostic on the whole thing. Is it AGW? Or is it just GW? Are we making it worse? Or better? Will it be as dreadful as for told, or just a bit uncomfortable? Either way, I'm happier to take steps that might just keep things in a zone that suits us best. Oh whoops - does that make me evil?

This worries you more than infant mortality rates or poverty - things that make human life crappy.

But behold! Upon seeing the ashes of the straw man on the ground; the great beast False Dichotomy did raise his head and roar! Only for the good people the rip out the beast's tongue and stab it to death.

You know what could cause a massive rise in infant mortality? Crop failure. Drought. Guess what AGW is being fingered for...oh my yes; that and more.

And by "[living] with natural rhythms more" I meant more eating locally (i.e. seasonally), wasting less, and generally reducing our footprint from all that (plus a bit more).

I put it to you that struggle of resources will cause more infant mortality and increase poverty more than trying to solve the potential problem. Why are you so afraid of option 2)? Is it because you would have sacrifice? Not some nameless poor bastard in Botswana? Is it because you (and if you are posting here, you are probably one of the richest people on the planet, with one the highest standards of living and life expectancy; i.e. you are a Westerner or in the developed East) might have to pay a teensy-weensy, ickle-wickle little more for that cafa-mocha-latte?

But it's me who some kind of human-hater simply because I don't want to shit where I sleep and mess up my only home.

The BigYin

Re: Two things are worthyof note.

"Carbon sequestration, carbon credits etc."

I think you'll find that "carbon credits" was just a ruse created by the rich so that they could enrich the rich even more. It's a farce. What are they going to do? Eat their money?

The BigYin

Re: Relax...

The first post? Flippin' hell.

I'm an AGW agnostic. I'm not sure if the science is right or not. I'm not sure if things will be as bad as they say. But neither am I an expert on stats, climate, ecology, computer modelling or any number of other related disciplines.

What is the risk of being wrong? What is the risk of doing what is suggested?

1) We are, as a species, dead. The environment is so loopy that we can't grow enough food and die off. On the scale of "Bad things" that's up around eleventy-billion. It's really is not good.

Or

2) We develop new technologies, better integrate public transport, create new jobs (lose others jobs), pollute less, live with natural rhythms more, stop exploiting people in the third world, reduce our dependency on energy imports, have cleaner water, less particulates in the air and thus less lung issues...the list goes on. Yes there will be problems and yes it might not be necessary. But in the great scheme of things - it's no big.

I put it to you - outcome 2) on it's own is a "Good Thing"(tm) regardless of AGW or not. So why are people so deathly afraid of option 2)? You don't have to go and live in a hut or anything. A bit of insulation, recycling, water-butt and other simple measures are a start. It's really not that hard.

You wouldn't shit where you sleep, yet that is exactly what we are doing on a global scale; and that simply cannot be sustained.

Transport Dept dishes out £1.9m rail database deal to Capita

The BigYin
FAIL

As if...

...our rail system wasn't screwed up enough.

UK.gov warned: Halt exports of spyware to brutal regimes

The BigYin

Re: @Piloti

Morality is a base human behaviour and does not require much definition. Time and again we see the same basic more appearing, transcending cultures and continuing to exist despite religion.

"Don't be a dick and help each other" just about covers it.

On a global scale, where we fall down is in supporting the "least bad" option when that option remains repugnant (e.g. supporting Saddam back in the day) or meddling for purely selfish reasons (e.g. executing/overthrowing democratically elected leaders simply because they disagree with us).

As individuals, humans are generally great and get along quite happily. As nations we are violent bullies hell-bent on nicking everyone else's sweeties. And IMHO this is because it's the socio-paths who float to the top, becoming business and political leaders.

The BigYin

Pfft

There is too much money in selling weapons of all kinds to oppressive regimes. And in politics, money trumps ethics every time. Which is part and parcel why the likes of Vodafone, Tesco, Goldman Sachs etc are continually permitted to get way with their, IMHO, overly aggressive tax reduction measures.

This is also why we allow the Turkish are allowed to keep slaughtering the Kurds.

Why we support the House of Saud and the Bahraini regime (up to and including teaching their forces how to suppress protesters).

Sold Hawk fighters to the regime in Indonesia.

Sell electro-shock weapons.

Are happy to allow the USA to commit acts of torture without censure.

Etc.

If we don't uphold morals and ethics, we are no better than the sub-human bastards spreading misery among their populace.

When it comes to spyware, however, that is an arms race the nations will probably lose. Why? Well you have a few spooks up against every angry, over-sexed and pissed off teenager on the planet. Teens with brains and an awful lot of spare time on their hands. Roll on Tor, Haystack and the dark-nets.

‘Printed boat’ places second in novelty race

The BigYin

A very interesting idea

Laser sintering would also allow much more innovative structures that would simply be too hard to manually build.

The BigYin

Re: How many students did they kill in the process?

You'll notice in the slideshow that one of the students is wearing a mask. My guess is that all those who may be exposed would be similarly kitted up. We are talking about intelligent engineering students at a reputable university here; not the plant in Africa or China where you e-waste goes to be recycled by children.

HTML 5 gets forked up

The BigYin

Re: Doesn't sound too scary.

It is very scary. Why? Because people with put the new-and-unstable into production just to get the new-shiney and then moan like all hell when it doesn't work perfectly.

It would be like someone putting ext4 on to their production servers before it was fully-baked, and then blaming ext4 when it goes on its arse.

The big problem we have with this is it won't be techies driving things (BTRFS, good as it is, is not production ready so no one uses it outside of dev/test) but happy-clapping meeja-type and designers who have no clue (and do not care) about the technical risks. They'll get is working on iOS Safari, and then blame the world when it doesn't work everywhere else.

BIG BOOBS banished from Linux kernel

The BigYin

0xCAFEBABE

Will this also be banned?

Dell readies Linux Ultrabook for autumn release

The BigYin

Re: Ultrabook with Ubuntu and Steam for Linux?

@h4rm0ny

"but really why not just install Linux on any other laptop?"

Simple - you pay the (non-refundable, depending on OEM) MS tax and it gets counted as a Windows sale (adding to MS's PR clout). Much better to buy from a GNU/Linux supporting company (such as ZaReason) or a naked vendor (such as Novatech).

The BigYin

Re: Ultrabook with Ubuntu and Steam for Linux?

XPS 13 - Would you like Windows 8 or Windows 8?

(Ubuntu is not an option in your territory)

The BigYin

What utter FUD

To counter the above I have a laptop which would blue screen every time it tried to use WiFi under Windows XP. Installed a GNU/Linux and it worked perfectly. Not need to tit around with video drivers either.

Now I probably could have got XP to work by spending 3 weeks downloading different patches, reading knowledge base articles and wasting my life. Or I could have gone with something that worked.

The BigYin

Re: Not this again

Seems I missed the like about it only being on sale in certain regions.

Epic fail once more from Dell. What are Canonical playing at?

The BigYin
FAIL

Re: will only be "available in select geographies" ?

Whoops - how did I miss that? So it's effectively not going to be on sale at all then. Good to know.

Dell? Screw you. Again.

The BigYin

Re: Not this again

And that is exactly what I mean. I am sick and tired of "X sells GNU/Linux computers!" when there are massive restrictions on the sale which means it's NOT on sale unless you are one of the lucky ones.

Hence why I'd buy from a company that genuinely sells GNU/Linux units before the like of Dell.

If Dell make this available globally, for the same (or lower) price as Win8; then I might be interested.

The BigYin

Re: ubuntu eh

And Fedora and....

But yes, one would expect any Ubuntu derivative to "just work". Debian? Maybe not so much due tot he patches Canonical apply (would depend on the Debian I guess).

The BigYin

Not this again

Look, we keep getting stories about "X will sell a GNU/Linux system" where X is Dell, HP, ASUS or someone else and you know what? They are only ever on sale in certain territories, to corporate customers, not linked correctly on the website and on shitty hardware or for an insane price.

I hope Canoncial can pull it off - but this is the same company who crowed about ASUS selling Ubuntu pre-installed, then couldn't tell me where I could buy one! So I will believe it when I see it frankly.

And I'll believe it when Dell list this on their UK site, allow UK Joe Public to buy it and have the XPS 13 with an OS option combo. Until then I'll go with a manufacturer/seller who actually supports GNU/Linux in a proper manner; System76, ZaReason, ThinkPenguin, EmporerLinux, Fit-PC (there may be others).

Firefox 14 encrypts Google search, but admen can still strip-search you

The BigYin

People still use Google?

Jeez. DuckDuckGo FTW!

Olympic Security cock-up was down to that DARN software

The BigYin

Still the CEO's fault

You scheduling software is crap? Who bought/design it? CTO?

Who appointed the CTO?

Too back-ended? What, you can't forecast? Who is responsible for that? COO?

Who appointed the COO?

The contract has an unmovable start date, who allowed for such a low-level of over-sight?

And is this CEO claiming that his company has systemic problems due to inept management not knowing what they need (in terms of software), not doing their jobs (de-risking things, planning ahead) and generally being incompetent?

G4S should be forced to pay-out to the public all costs the tax-payer has to now burden.

The shareholders should demand the removal of the entire board for the reasons above.

XBMC media player now running on Android, Nexus Q

The BigYin

They dropped the "xBox" bit a-g-e-s ago because it now runs on other platforms.

In fact, the xBox is no longer officially supported (due to problems with the developer system I believe) fortunately a spin-off keeps ye olde xBox up to date.

http://www.xbmc4xbox.org.uk/

Behold: First look at Office 2013, with screenshots

The BigYin

Re: Why - Oh Why waste so much money when Open Office & LibreOffice are free?

@AC Excel

No. I have to repeatedly demonstrate to our department (using LO Calc) that the data is correct and it is Excel that is wrong.

"Oh, but BigYin, how do we fix this?"

"Speak to MS and get them to sort it"

"Can't you just update the CSV/DB?"

"Yes..."

"Do that then! We need our spreadsheets to be correct!"

"...and if I do that, your productions system will be jaxxied."

Do not start me on how badly Excel's data handling sux balls.

The BigYin

Re: @The BigYin

@AC - I never said *I* did. But here are the two big reasons:

1) The document was originally in a proprietary format and an open format cannot guarantee identical rendering. The "identical" is important - similar is simply not good enough.

2) The open format is not widely supported, the proprietary one is the defacto standard.

Personally I use LibreOffice and hold my docs in ODF.

Professionally I use MS Office that that is what I am required to use due to aforementioned integrations that are not supported/possible in Open/LibreOffice.

The BigYin

Re: Why - Oh Why waste so much money when Open Office & LibreOffice are free?

Speaking as a LibreOffice user....the answer is simple; integration.

If I already have an MS Office plug-in of some kind that integrates the documents with me ECM system and is working well; why would I pay more to have that ported over to Libre/OpenOffice? If all my documents are in the proprietary .doc/.docx formats; why would I run the risk of Libre/OpenOffice not being able to display/edit them properly? It's simple inertia; nothing more. Same reason why IE6 is still the default browser in many place across the globe.

Now...if you look at smaller, more dynamic and innovative companies (or even government agencies) they may well be using Libre/OpenOffice and you might find that due to demand from them that in 10 years time some of the above problems have evaporated (e.g. software vendors will provide their plug-ins for MS Office and for Libre/OpenOffice).

Microsoft 'didn't notice' it had removed Browser Choice for 17 months

The BigYin

Re: Behind the facts anyway...

They dominate the desktop and regulation is the only way to keep their anti-competition practices in check.