Posts by Shingo Tamai
69 posts • joined Tuesday 8th July 2008 13:24 GMT
Posted in Apple MacBook Pro 13in
>> If you're a power user, it's nice to use an operating system that plays well with unix-y OSs, open source, and also has an attractive and unobtrusive user interface.
>So, one of the Linuxen then.
Yeah, you can choose between Gnome and its moving panel icons in the top bar (a 2 years old unresolved bug) or its overlapping icons on the desktop (1.5 years) or the dumbed down Gnome 3.
Or maybe you like KDE and its and its "I'll give you the option to change this as well" philosophy.
Oh, oh and let's not forget the spinning cube... :)
Posted in Apple MacBook Pro 13in
It's not about the price...
I am writing this from an HP NC6400 which is now 5 years old. It is a wonderful business laptop, but after five years it started developing cracks on the case near the hinges, not to mention the various creaking noises on the top fascia.
You mentioned you could buy a Dell for less money? Good luck wit that too...
I've bought a Dell M101z which I have carried around like a sacred relic, yet the plastics around the bezel cracked in 6 months.
When the laptop came back from the outsourced repair service centre, the arse in charge of the repair managed to break or chip every single piece of plastic on the laptop, almost perforating the back screen panel after using the wrong screws. The webcam module was also destroyed, and the screen assembly was poorly... reassembled.
The end result was so sub-standard that Dell sent a technician onsite (not a standard option on this class of product) to replace the whole case and screen (the only original pieces I was left with in the end were the keyboard, and the inner electronics and hard drive).
Even if you do not want to consider Apple's build quality, after all metal does not disintegrate after 6 months of light usage, you may want to consider that some users, me included, would very well spend 150£ more just to be able to run OS X over the bloated Windows 7. Apart from the fact that I dislike Lion because of features like "autosave" and "versions" (I also own a Mac Mini late 2006 which I have updated to Lion and later downgraded back to Snow Leopard).
Cisco doesn't sue...
...because Apple licensed the iOS name from them.
Posted in PlayStation 3 code signing cracked
Well done Sony!!!
Removing OtherOS was really the way to go (to involve the only one that was best not to piss off).
Posted in Channel Five to air Walking Dead
Booooring
Two episodes of action and entertainment and four episodes of pure boredom.
I hope the second season is going to be better than the first one.
Posted in The year's best... laptops
The M101z...
...is not a netbook.
The dual core CPU wipes any Atom processor away.
Posted in Blu-ray barely better than DVD
Casino Royale
Funny thing is that the Quantum of Solace DVD is degraded on purpose to push the HD version.
Posted in Dixons warns of tough Christmas
Put some lipstick on it.
But a turd with lipstick is still a turd. :)
RE: Give us a break #
Scenario 1: put your son/daughter into a potentially dangerous machine and risk their health
Scenario 2: have a total stranger touch their breasts and genitalia
Which one do you prefer Tony?
Posted in Rethinking the iPhone
Don't forget...
...to put the $149 you need to pay for the MI-FI device into the equation.
Not to mention that the ridiculous monthly fee.
Next time...
...go for "The player" mask, it comes with matching gloves.
Look for SPFX masks and look for yourself.
Are we still in the sixties?
No, seriously...
And Steve replied...
"Our goals do not include helping you(r people) get a good grade. Sorry.
Please leave us alone."
Posted in Hands on with the new Apple MacBook Air
None of the other 11.6in notebooks on the market have a Core 2 Duo inside.
Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T
To be read as: not all the notebooks are available in the UK.
1K325 to be read as...
K325 Dual 1.3 Ghz
Yaeah, Let's compare...
Dell M101Z
1K325 Dual 3 Ghz
4 GB RAM
11.6" 1366x768 LED display
It does not come with a SSD but with a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive.
Anyway since it costs 618EUR including 3 years warranty, I guess you could buy a decent SSD and still spend less.
The MBA is a nice machine, but boost the RAM, boost the SSD and you will spend slightly less than buying a MBP 13".
Posted in Dell Inspiron M101z 11.6in notebook
Point is...
>Yes, the fan is going, but it's not noisy, certainly not audible above the clack of keys and the hum of other computers
When you are on the couch on in the bed the fan suddenly it's there.
If you are in a quiet environment is audible as well.
The HP NC6400 I am using at the moment in comparison is silent, with the fan that spins up when it's needed, changing speed if it is the case and then going almost silent when the job is done.
The CPU runs at 50-55 degrees on idle.
If I have to buy something that is half as powerful, I would like it to be at least on par with the noise, otherwise I would be buying something with a core i3/i5 with an extra £100/200.
Posted in Dell Inspiron M101z 11.6in notebook
Avoid
I am returning mine today.
- The fan runs constantly even when the system is idle.
I would say at 2500RPM since during reboots/diagnostic it spins considerably faster
On the plus side, even maxing out the CPU the fan did not spin faster.
Since I use it in a silent environment this is an annoyance.
- The touchpad is unreliable.
No matter how I set it up using the synaptic manager, there are always problems: cursor is jumpy, tap does not register
- Vertical vieving angles are a problem
Put it on a table you will have lo move your head like a pigeon. The screen cannot be tilted at will because of its design.
So, 85% is really unrealistic.
This guy returned his because of the noise.
From "maybe":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEC52sDB5DA
To "WTF" in one week.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew_OSjCdts4
Posted in Undiplomatic tweet from French diplomats
Every country...
has the right to expel unwanted people.
The UK could expel and ban anyone as "undesirable", so I really do not understand what te fuss is all about.
You want to stay in a place? Get a job and pay taxes and apply for citizenship.
If you cannot sustain yourself or if you want to be a parasite living by illegal means you are not welcome. Since you are NOT a french/british/italian/german citizen, SURPRISE, you are sent back to your own country.
Posted in Dixons to do app stores
Because...
...selling hardware at ridiculously high prices is not enough.
Simple solution
Ban India and the problem will solve overnight: same happens on Linkedin.
Posted in Dixons sales ain't all that
Dumb as ever
In "RipOff Ireland (tm)" they sell Dell laptops with inferior specs - compared to Dell website - at 90-120 euro more a piece.
Then they complain that sales are flat. :/
Nonsense.
Posted in HP hires headhunter to replace Hurd
@kain preacher
Oh, and by the way it's PEDANT, not pendant.
See how many things you can learn on "the internet" ?
Posted in HP hires headhunter to replace Hurd
@kain preacher
Still the real person was called VLAD, not Valid, Vilad, Vladi, Ganesh or James. <This is humour btw.
Paris because she likes to be impaled by her friends herself.
Posted in HP hires headhunter to replace Hurd
Not even the basics
VLAD the impaler, also known as Dracula.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_III_the_Impaler
Bugfixing is slow
Some time ago I wrote a detailed report on a regression related to spam filtering.
It was severe (data loss) and needed to be fixed as soon as possible. Even if I was reporting the problem at every milestone release, and even if the bug report contained everything needed to reproduce the bug, it took the developers NINE FRIGGING MONTHS to agree on what to do and fix the damn thing.
There is also this philosophical matter where your own email gets hidden if your own address is in the address book and the To: field gets changed in "To: you".
This would enable someone very smart to usa a recipient like "The idiot <user@domain.tld>" without you noticing.
A report for this was onoened 1.5 years ago. There are new discussions oone week on and one week off, but NOTHING has been done.
I have identified another bug that leads every time to data loss, but this time I will use my time in a more proficient way, like not giving a shit about reporting it.
Windows WAS familiar
Windows 2000 is familiar, Windows XP is familiar.
Windows Vista and Windows 7 are too different, too flashy and, IMHO graphically painful to use.
There are some good things, like automatic drivers download, better support for sleep and hibernation, you can rename a file without affecting the extension, but...
- The GUI seems to target idiots and people with sight deficiencies (I cannot explain otherwise the need for an 80 pixel tall icon in an alert box that says "Do you want to delete this file? OK/CAncel")
- The control panel is huge and you need to search what to do (problem is that you do not know what to search for)
- Handling files is slow by design. Windows 7 must "discover the files", and think about it for several seconds before actually starting doing the action you wanted to.
- The file manager sucks badly
- UAC is still a pain in the ass with added problems with files ownership
People are generally happy about Windows XP, they are used to it, so why not just build on that without radically changing things?
Oracle is like Midas
To bad they have the rare ability to turn things into shit.
The magic charger...
@RichyS
...isn't that magic at all.
Note how they avoid telling you what the batteries capacity is and how much time you actually need to charge them.
http://www.apple.com/uk/battery-charger/
Oh, and it's "only" 25 quids...
Magic carpal tunnel syndrome for everyone at "just" 59 quids.
If you thought the mouse was bad, try to move your hand for 5 minutes on a raised block-notes and see how much strain this thing is going to put on your wrist..
With a body made of glass...
...why the hell didn't they put a frigging large antenna panel INSIDE?!?
Posted in Dell Streak Android tablet phone
About the price...
...WTF?!? For 400£ I could buy Apple stuff.
Clueless...
@Pascal Monett
>stopped when I got to "so-called social web browser" and understood that this Flock thingy is just another "social network".
No it is not.
In the same way as Google is not "the internet".
What is the problem people?!?
It's a browser for users that are into social media.
It provides access to social media and collaboration sites "on the side" of regular browsing, without the need to have 1 tab constantly open for facebook, 1 for flickr, 1 for twitter and so on.
It was nice to use for me, but I did abandon it because support to extensions was limited at the time.
Instead of criticising it without knowing what it is all about, try it. Maybe you will like it.
Posted in Apple MacBook Pro 15in
General Pance
Actually...
- Canon does have software for Macs
- There is a right click
- Still lighter than an Acer
CrapPlan
If you decide to backup your entire hard drive, CrashPlan will hash all your files on a regular basis trashing the hard drive.
Also every removable file will be "infected" by several index files/BDs.
Not really nice.
Doesn't work for me...
I need to write something on paper in order to have access to visual memory and remember it.
Drawing balloons or lines just creates a mess that cannot be re-organized.
Some time ago my manager was thrilled by the idea of having a document expressed through mind maps. The result was the usual: doubled effort compiling the actual document AND extrapolating a mind map for him to be happy.
So, not for me.
Posted in Double-Take takes on Citrix and VMware
Short sigthed...
Cost or the re-installation of the system : £150
Business cost related to the above activity: £35000
Business cost related to data loss and lack of backup: £2M
Gnome/KDE have the appeal...
...of a transvestite.
You can take a look at the inconsistency of the GUI since the first boot clicking on the envelope and on the IM icons on the upper right and... surprise, same options!!!
Posted in Britain's bingers out-boozed by Irish
That's because...
...in other European countries - for instance during xmas - there are no huge queues of people "assaulting" off license stores struck by the fear that the place could close before they had the chance to buy 36 cans each of whatever booze is left on the shelves.
Or in simpler words: not all the European countries are obsessed with drinking as Ireland and UK are.
And the cherry on top weas an idiotic question by a colleague of mine while we were working in paris for a couple of weeks: "Hey, isn't it strange that it is friday and at 3PM I haven't seen drunk people yet?"
Doctired code
What about it they provide a patched source code but the software installed in the radar is faulty?
Posted in Airport scanner staff object to vetting
What pisses me off...
ONE idiot straps a bomb to his ass on a US flight and as the result the rest of the world is forced to harass and stress travellers to make the US government happy.
Also now we are in a situation where any terrorist could just collapse economies all over the world by just opening a door of going past a security check without folliwing "the procedure" and without the need to kill anyone.
Imagine the Newark accident happening every single day in any western airport one day on and one day off...
Pathetic.
Posted in LG releases Android smartphone
No SW upgrades
I foresee 90% of probability that this will never get a firmware upgrade.
LG never cares about fixing anything in their mobiles.
WTF?!?
Firefox and Thunderbird were created because the developers said that the Mozilla Suite (that offered a browser and an email client in a single executable) was too bloated and unpleasant to use.
I really do not understand the reasons for going back with a project like Seamonkey.
Unless it is like for the soap for the washing machines where one year they sell you the one "just for the whites" and the one "just for the colored" and then they sell you the one "for the whites and the colored" one year on and one year off.
Posted in Apple dumps Sun's ZFS
Re: Do Apple Inc sell servers??
Yes they do.
http://www.apple.com/xserve/
Posted in Apple dumps Sun's ZFS
Licensing problems indeed
See link:
http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/zfs-discuss/2009-October/033125.html
Posted in PC repair shop caught trying bank fraud
Gentlemen you are missing the big picture here.
It is not about shops not being able to diagnose the problem, is about fraud and privacy infringement.
One of the shops after pushing the memory module back on the laptop called offering a motherboard replacement. Then the offer was refused, they short SOLDERED some memory pins together to replicate the fault.
Problem is that the source used for this article is not a good one.
Here:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262978/exposed-the-pc-repair-shops-that-rifle-through-your-photos-and-passwords.html
Posted in Russians offer hackintosh netbook
Boot132
Thanks to Boot132 it is possible to store a set of kernel+drivers in the EFI partition created by OSX during install in order to conform to the EFI standard.
Everything loaded from this partition takes precedence over any other driver (or kernel) present in the OSX partition because the initial install or because a system update.
