* Posts by BRAINPLAN

34 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jul 2008

Microsoft links Skype to Lync

BRAINPLAN
Meh

Re: What I don't understand

I think businesses are quite aware of what they are buying in to. There isn't a better UC system out there right now, just a hodge-podge of standards. At least MS have actually taken initiative and invested in unifying their products for the benefit of both corporations, and end users.

If your backend and frontend is Microsoft based then it is very likely you will stick with it due to the inherent costs of educating / replacing staff that can administer *nix or whatever else.

BRAINPLAN

Re: the headache

You can always decline the contact request that comes up in Lync - OR - create a contact group in lync that you appear 'Offline' to (i.e. by blocking them)

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

BRAINPLAN
Stop

Why, did the users no longer know how to shut down?

There are at least three ways to do it... can't be that hard.

Try redirecting your keyboard commands to your remote sessions for a start.

"What concerns me is that IT staff and developers hate it and avoid it. That could be storing up problems for the future if the people writing for the platform and the people supporting it rarely use it and dislike it."

What is that comment based on?

I can understand the frustration with Windows 8, but there is nothing wrong with server 2012 compared with 2008 R2 / 2003. It has been generally well received in the IT community and I can say definitely at our workplace.

Ten... two-bay Nas boxes

BRAINPLAN

Re: I went down the DIY route

How do you do hardware RAID on the HP microservers? As far as I've read, there is no dedicated RAID controller so any array is software based.

If I have misunderstood, a link would be helpful as I’m interested!

Android's Chrome finish comes too late for Flash coating

BRAINPLAN
Facepalm

actually

Flash works works fine - and natively - on ICS, I don't know what you are talking about.

It's flash for the beta version of chrome browser on android 4.x + that doesn't work, and that is because adobe don't want to develop it further.

Kiwis collar Megaupload kingpin, Anonymous exacts revenge

BRAINPLAN
Facepalm

Regardless of your opinion of the MU execs

It feels a lot of people miss the point... why should they be tried as copyright infringers or anything else for that matter?

They provide a service that allows people to upload files and receive a unique url to share that file, just as imgur allows people to upload an image and soundcloud to upload an audio track.

There is no traditional crime such as money laundering, human trafficking, extortion or anything else.

The onus lies with the user, not the execs nor the service.

As with the physical world, people will always abuse things. Just because thieves use a crowbars to break in to homes doesn’t mean you shut down the manufacturer.

A Farewell to Oates: Adios, El Reg

BRAINPLAN
Pint

All the best!

Best for the future, now go enjoy a cold one and enjoy your extended Friday.

Cheers!

MoD rejects Gaddafi low-flying aircraft complaint

BRAINPLAN
Alert

Exactly... wrong.

The whole point in enforcing a no fly zone in Libya is to prevent more deaths at the command of Gaddafi forces.

They can't do this by dog-tailing his fighters 'just in case' they decide to drop a bomb or fire a missile or two... It has to be a pre-emptive strike on ground-to-air positions and related command centres.

Unfortunately yes, there will be loss of life but so far it appears the operation has been executed with as must precision as possible.

Now most of those targets are defeated the forces should just be moving on to patrolling the airspace.

Personally I'm glad the world stepped in on this one, however, I to hope they don't screw it up.

Moving to Windows 7: Is it worth it?

BRAINPLAN
Flame

yes, you made a mistake...

You should have gone with 64-bit to utilise all of your 6GB.

Aside from that most of these comments are driving me nuts:

Aero - Is good if you have a reasonably modern machine, can be switched off for those that don't want the extra fluff.

Taskbar - Not to everyone’s taste however absolutely flexible to have it work in the style of days gone by (XP). Turn off combine, turn-off aero peek and it's the virtually the bloody same!

Search - leaps and bounds ahead of any previous incarnation of windows (obviously not of you turned off indexing). No worse and no better than any other OS in-built system.

Office - you can still run office 2003 if you really want to.

CAD compatibility - maybe it's time to upgrade after running the same version for the last 10 years! In all seriousness, there are old and legacy applications that aren't 'supported' however will work after tweaking with the various troubleshooting options.

Explorer - It's called innovation... have you actually tried using the dropdowns in the breadcrumb-ish address bar? Maybe you don't like that? Fine, your choice - if you want that more 'XP' feel go in to folder options and right there on the General tab there are two options for the navigation pane, namely 'Show all folders' and 'Automatically expand to current folder' - turn them on. No need for 3rd party software for that.

There are literally a hundred reasons corporations should look to upgrade to Win7 and any decent administrator that works at a company which runs windows would agree from a security & administrative stand-point.

Time to move on and stop being a luddite!

Apple under threat from ... Windows tablets

BRAINPLAN

RE: Can't see it in the long run, myself

"You sure as hell don't need a Windows machine to do that, with its inevitable proprietary client-side apps."

It depends on your perspective of proprietary really... In terms of applications and utilities Windows has a greatly broader market and their media player or the new IE9 are very capable at what they do.

Also, in terms of development there aren't many programming languages that you can't actually write and run in windows thus leading to a broader selection of apps.

The only thing they miss right now is a good 'App' store to help the people who don't want to/don't know how to find useful applications.

WTF is... wireless HDMI?

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

Dn't forget about brite-view

Good article but there is another manufacturer you didn't mention, namely brite-view... I use their AirSync HD product which is great (see: http://www.brite-view.com/air_synchd.php).

Uncompressed full 1080p and with LOS you get around 50-60 metres distance, with walls it's down to around 20-30 depending on composition but that is still good IMO.

The transmitter has a HDMI pass-thru which is fab... as an example, I have the xbox in the living room running through it and can either play on the TV in there or I can go play in the bedroom much to the relief of the other half.

Only problem is they are based in the US and while their kit is EU certified they have no EU disribution just yet so you'll have to get them to ship it to you... then you'll need UK to US plug adapters (or step down transformers) but the PSU's supplied are auto switching between 110 and 230 so socket adapaters work fine.

Anyway, go wireless!

BOFH: Who's been naughty and who's been nice?

BRAINPLAN
Happy

Absolutely fantasic

Best christmas present yet. Have a great one yourself!

Cheers!

Cloud music: Apple set to clean up

BRAINPLAN
FAIL

Oh, and you CAN carry it with you offline

"Spotify's crap interface, or worry about it being blocked by proxies / firewalls. Oh, and you can also carry it with you offline."

Actually if you have a subscription to Spotify you CAN carry it around offline - you can sync any track / album / playist locally to any supported device... that includes your jesus phone, windows/mac (not linux, yet!), android or symbian device.

Another nice benefit is that you can login to your spotify account anywhere - like a friends place - and access all your playlists and all music available to you on spotify. Goes down very well at partys.

In otherwords, get your facts straight before posting tripe.

Salesforce extends 'sympathy' to Microsoft on Office launch

BRAINPLAN
Pint

No collaboration?

Ok office can suck the proverbial nuts at times however, it is generally very good and what it was designed for. Yes we're sick of spending hours in powerpoint presentations but if we are talking collaboration then add sharepoint and you can have very good collaboration... add dynamics in to the mix and you've a full back to front-end CRM so I’m not quite sure where his point is... If it's in regards to cloud based services then yes, MS are late to the game but let’s see how it pans out in the next couple of years, after all, apple never used to make phones...

Author note: I hate apple and salesforce, so yeah I’m biased... whatever, time for a drink!

Apple iPad

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Down

Wasted money...

Then you sir have wasted about £200 - as a sole use for reading PDF's over-kill is the1st thing that comes to mind... still, I guess you're the kind of guy with a jag and rolex because you need to get from A to B and tell the time.

/facepalm

Apple prices up iPad for UK

BRAINPLAN
Jobs Horns

didn't see that coming

rahahahahahaaa!!!

Now seriously, think of what else you could do with that money.

Visual Studio 2010 - your chunky new friend dissected

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Down

Lousy intro...

"Microsoft is losing to Apple, Google and RIM on mobile, in cloud computing Azure is only just getting started, Internet Explorer is down to a mere 61 per cent market share on browsers, and there's been a slow but steady decline in web servers for Internet Information Server (IIS) from around 20 per cent of the million busiest sites in September 2008 to 17 per cent in March 2010.

In Rich Internet Applications, the Silverlight runtime has muscled its way onto over 50 per cent of web browsers but remains well behind Adobe Systems' Flash at over 96 per cent."

So tired of hearing things like this - it's 2010!!! There are hundreds more competitors in software markets - it is obvious Microsoft are going to lose market share!!

The rest of the article was good but i don't think journalists need to keep hi-lighting the fact that Microsoft aren't the complete global dominator they once were (although, they actually still are as long as the stats stay over 50% ;)

GlideTV Navigator

BRAINPLAN
FAIL

multi-touch.... and why??

"A zoom function means this isn't really a sticking point, but to zoom you do need to use both hands.... this gagdet is crying out for multi-touch: two fingers to scroll, three to zoom, for instance."

So how exactly would multi-touch enable you to use one hand (unless the device was on a table or some such) - I thought the purpose of the device design is to be placed in and used by one hand, thus multi-touch would be FAIL.

Apple blogger legally unlocks iPhone

BRAINPLAN

@ Prodigal Rebel

You can copy mp3s directly in mass storage mode... in fact, I think in PC suite mode you can also drag and drop to the music folder in explorer.

Either way the tracks will show but you might just need to do a library refresh on the device.

Also, Google maps works great. GPS takes a bit longer to lock on but works a treat for me in Stockholm and the AGPS it spot on over here (usually within 5-20 metres).

Unrelated: My N95 8GB is still going strong after nearly two years and countless drops... try that with a touch screen!!

Microsoft's Silverlight for mobile to muscle iPhone

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

RE: Jim in Hayward

Ouch! Wow Jim, that really told them now didn’t it... I’m sure your protest at purchasing anything Microsoft will really affect their bottom line.

/yawn

Google's email service goes down

BRAINPLAN
Flame

Exchange still has over 65% market share

...and if you know how to administer correctly it works a treat so quit your shoddy comparisons... cloud for buiness critical applications is FAIL as is marking exchange down as a bad product.

Gtards! *sigh*

Landmark copyright trial against Pirate Bay gets underway

BRAINPLAN
Flame

Re: I suspect they will have the book

Firstly it’s not 2 people it’s 4 people running the site. Secondly they themselves have not breached any copyright (certainly not here in Sweden), they have merely developed a site that facilitates the searching of torrent trackers – trackers which do exactly that.. they track. They don’t contain any of the original material, they point to no locations where a user may find the data they just allow a client to ‘track’ other torrent clients that are being run by users who are sharing the file themselves.

Lastly I don’t see how TPB can stifle creativity, if your creation is say a good song and you or your band are consistently good you have a free distribution platform and will get a following by word of mouth and other shared downloads... believe it or not some people will actually buy your music if it gets released, others will come and see you on tour and buy merchandise... there are many ways to make money from music you have created without a fat percentage going to a fat cat record producer/label.

Asus N50 15in laptop

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

re: fingerprint readers?

Well I can’t say much for this laptop but the one fixed in my vaio AW11 is a UPEK device and is bloody good - takes 3 readings of all your digits (if you choose to) which works for averaging out slight miss-reads... another point is the software - can use my finger to log on to El Reg, mail, windows etc so yeah it works IMO.

Apple's holiday Mac sales flatline

BRAINPLAN
Flame

apple do not make a proper computer

At the top level they make media powerhouses that come at a cost in a fancy package. At the low level they are good for email, surfing and watching youtube/DVDs.

A proper computer this does not make.

Anyone who buys a mac and doesn't do heavy image/audio/video editing should just go out and buy an SCC or similar.

The people that do buy a mac 'coz it's a mac' under the pretence that it is more secure, stable or flexible should have a full frontal lobotomy as they are disillusioned. If they chose a computer for looks alone then skip the lobotomy and shot them.

There's a reason MS own the mainstream and business computer market, whether you like to admit it or not.

Blockbuster launches set-top film-download box

BRAINPLAN
Go

would be good in sweden!

Quality arguments are getting very old - the various and virtually lossless compression codec’s that can be used today are quite suitable for providing a quality viewing experience - even on the most decent HD projectors or TV's.

As mentioned the bugger is the file size... not so good with a broadband network that’s not developing so fast, did I mention that I have 100mb connection here in Stockholm? :) (There are advantages to being in a country with less than 11 million people!)

I'm sure this service would work a treat here.

btw thats 100mb uncontented and unrestriced - There are advantages to being in a country with less than 11 million people!

Sergey Brin descends from Mount Sinai with Android API

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

Go Ted!!

Gotta love Ted's "tell it like you would to your mate at the pub" 'tactile' style of writing...

Simple solution, avoid Fail & You if you can't stand some profanity now and then.

More from Ted...!

Developers to get Windows 7 pre beta next month

BRAINPLAN
Stop

DRM - be realistic!

It's not EVER going away, EVER!!

I'm certainly no fan of it and avoid it at all costs by either a) downloading what I want b) buying the physical product - the reality is that it keeps too many industry fat cats and copyright enforcers happy, unfortunately!!

Vistas not great by a long-shot but the year is 2008 and hardware is a lot cheaper and more powerful than ever... I run it on a reasonably old HP nx8220 with 2GB RAM and it's pretty smooth and I'm happy (most days).

No one liked XP until SP1... then again no one liked ME...ever!

I'll save my judgement for the final version of 7.

Apple fans besieged by iPhone Trojan and iTunes attack

BRAINPLAN
Jobs Horns

hahaha

"mwahahahaha-ha!!!"

"...umm, oh, you mean this is a public forum!? uhem, sorry folks, don't worry we'll fix this one some time, just keep buying our stuff - by the way, have you seen our new nanos..."

"phew! that was close..."

BOFH: Back in the saddle

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

thats how you do it...

gonna get me an axe!!

nice one Simon, brilliance.

Glasgow tube gets phone coverage

BRAINPLAN
Happy

I'm with terry, bruno & allan!

I was fortunate enough to leave the pig hole of London and now live in Stockholm where their tube is clean and has had mobile coverage for years... oh, and air con - not like they need it much though...

VPN security - if you want it, come and get it

BRAINPLAN
Thumb Up

@phormwatch

I'm unsure on UK providers; did a bit of research and none of them looked that respectable and costs were quite high in comparison to what I currently get... as much as I wouldn't mind catching some shows from blighty there is no way I’d pay £30 p/month for it!

The American one I use is strong VPN from reliablehosting.com

Just checked and there is one I haven't seen apparently offering UK services, check vpngate.com - haven't looked for feedback but might be worth some more research.

BRAINPLAN
Paris Hilton

Free Vs Paid?

I pay for reliable hostings VPN quarterly and have no problems with hotspots or anything else for that matter, also, it was configured in seconds...

Reason, it gives me peace of mind, high availability and bandwidth with decent throughput - enough throughput for me to be living in Sweden and able to stream loads of HD yank TV for free perfectly.

Now I’m not saying that you should always pay, but sometimes it just makes sense.

Paris because even she'll pay now and then.

MetaRAM now pumping 288GB of memory into Intel boxes

BRAINPLAN
Paris Hilton

RE: SUN

"8 DIMM slots per CPU socket, choice of 2 GB and 4 GB DDR2/667 ECC registered DIMMs for dual-core and quad-core processors. Quad core processors support 667MB/s data transfer for all 8 DIMMs per processor. (2.4GHz and 3.2GHz dual-core processors are supported with 4 DIMM slots per processor) "

Thats 32gb p/processor to me - across 8 processors. Indeed, SUN provide nothing new.

- Paris, because even she can do the math.

Gadgets safe from global airport anti-piracy plan

BRAINPLAN
Black Helicopters

Missing the point...

It’s not a case of looking at everyone’s devices (an impossible process at an airport for example), and as correctly stated, how would they know what is legal vs illegal…?

The point with an act like this (if passed), it that it’s a green light for authorities to take anyone’s device for whatever period as long as they have ‘good reason’ – note: ‘good reason’ is as well defined as ‘reasonable suspicion’ in society today!

To quote “… “suspend import, export and trans-shipment” of suspected IPR-infringing goods. In most instances, officials must have good reason to suspect the presence of counterfeit or pirated content”.

Ok so ‘IPR-infringing goods’: another loose term however take this as an example: “Mr X, can you tell us why you are still using this application ‘unregistered’ as shareware while it clearly states that you have to register after 20 days?”.

Not a big deal right? Wrong, this is just a very simple example of a misuse of power and them clearing themselves of interrupting your family’s holiday departure whilst slapping you with a fine, caution, or whatever else depending how many other IPR infringements you might have...

Point is if you look hard enough you’ll find something; this is just a tool to let them do exactly that.

Black helicopter because they are coming to get you.