* Posts by DrFix

19 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

DARPA seeks self-aware AI robot mega-tanks

DrFix
Thumb Up

How rich...

"we care not who welcomes us, meatsacks - all shall die"... LOL! Thanks Reg for the many laughs amongst my tears. Reading articles like this brings rays of sunshine to my gray cubicled world.

Microsoft SKUs Windows 7 clarity

DrFix
IT Angle

Schizo...

It looks like MS suffers from some sort of multiple personality disorder. There was a time long ago when there was only one flavor of their Windows release. Where is the harm in simply making one version now, period, with all the heavy lifting apps etc. turned off by default and give the user the "option" of turning something on if they wish? If someone wants business grade support then bill them for that on some sort of tiered pricing structure but for goodness sake it's time to deep six this stupidity. And they wonder why users are wandering off to other OS platforms. I'm a firm believer that it is Microsofts own business to sell whatever they want even if they want to push a thousand different versions, that's called freedom of choice, but as a long time support technician it only muddies the waters for me. Maybe that's why I use a Mac at home.

Computer crash causes bad attitude on ISS

DrFix

"Start me up!...."

Considering how long its taken you may not be far off.

Apple's Safari 3: a crashing experience for non-US users

DrFix

Bada Beta, bada BOOM!

C'mon people!

We've been beta testing Windows and Mac software for years. Its called their operating systems!

What other industry on the planet gets away with the things they do? Ooops! I forgot. They're called politicians.

US lawyer ranking site raises attorney's hackles

DrFix

Nothing to see here...move along now, or else be sued!

James, I agree completely. Its bitterly ironic that attorneys will wail and bemoan a lack of honesty, openness, or some such emotional appeal, to point out anothers shortcoming, but THEY are not to have a magnifying glass put to themselves. Why the impudence of it all...! How dare anyone question ME! The cheek!

Jobs chucks Leopard titbits to Apple masses

DrFix

$129? We don't spend no $129!.....

Having spent over twenty years in IT I find the arguments between Windoze and Mac attack users quite funny. When I consider all the lost hours of productivity, and more importantly.... SLEEP, due to BSOD and virii, the added expense to purchase utilities to pull my users' bacon yet once more out of the fire, SLEEP, and the "frustration tax" generously buried into every copy of Windows (and its service packs too) since it unholy birth, not to forget.... SLEEP, I'm happy to use some non soul-sucking software even if on the odd occassion I happen to pay for it. Did I forget to mention I get to sleep now?

When I'm not selling my current mac, with its current OS...regardless of which release it is, and thus getting the latest version by default, I'll purchase an interim sealed boxed copy for around $90 and load it up (funny... no serial numbers or activation BS to deal with, just like Linux...kudos), and once I get my shiny new machine I'll box up that copy and STILL get over two thirds for it at a minimum. Hmmmmm..... So I might have spent around $30 to use it and not forbidden to pass it on? What gives! So, in retrospect, I "might" have spent about $100 over the years. Sounds pretty good so far.

If Microsoft were smarter they'd drop the price of their retail offering to more mortal levels and end the ridiculous tiered structure. I'm forced to use and support Windows, but thankfully its sandboxed as far away as possible.

Now in a nod to those who have eyes to see, and I too have them, there wasn't enough "meat" in this release to justify the hype. I wondered as well why we haven't seen ZFS incorporated. To me thats a hell of an addition that would put any OS into the spotlight. Fancy widgets and whatnot are correctly identified as meaningless eye candy. And to tout "spaces" as something wonderful I only have to look at Linux to see they've had that for quite some time now. Yawn! For your typical consumer this is all "pretty" and in the whole it works because they can get away with it due to more powerful graphics and processors. I'm not fooled by Jobs' reality distortion field but looking back over the decades and seeing what we get today, whether Windows or not, versus what we paid and got back then, I'm grateful it is "today".

Surface computers: debunking Microsoft and Han

DrFix

Give Clippy his due!

Honestly. Clippy and BoB were precursors to "Futurama" with its suicide booths. Every time clippy would spring up you'd be overcome with violent impulses. Just like every time I'm interupted with a new "update".

Dutch boffins tout green petri-dish synthetic meat

DrFix

I'll tell ya what'll kill ya...

Like one well know comedian said, "Red meat doesn't kill you. Greeeeen meat'll kill you".

Microsoft still just re-Surfacing Windows

DrFix

Shhhhh!...Hear That?.... Its the "winds" of change.

Memo to Mr. Anonymously-New-MS-Employee-droid. Put the crack pipe down and step away from the keyboard, you're only going tp hurt yourself. If you "think" its different or "uninvented" you've already lost the battle. Take some time for humble reflection, if thats at all possible, and do something else entirely, like dog grooming, and then later meditate on whether its all that "important" after all. Believe me... It isn't.

DrFix

Not again... please...

Windows, any Windows version for that matter, is like the proverbial scratched record that skips and skips at the same tired track. We've heard the tune so many times its sickening. That the same dog and pony show is trotted out for every worn out and cliched "product" or, gasp, "technology" is proof that they have nothing new up there sleeve, or for that matter up anywhere else (But I've the sneaking suspicion thats where they've been pulling this out of. Smells the same, too).

10 signs you're in a tech bubble

DrFix

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...!

The real estate market in the US is, albeit quite silently - and for obvious reasons, going down the tubes as we speak. Sales are down nationwide over last year... and in significant, though hushed up , numbers. Manufacturing is anemic. The US dollar is a fiction supported by mere faith, and thats fading daily, too. On top, or along with, you pick your poison, the hubris of people thinking that things will be "different" this time around because they "really really really" learned their lesson the last time. Not going to happen.

People are incredibly stupid and follow a herd mentality almost by instinct. Thats how conditioned they are to accept the "illusions" presented to them daily through the various Ministry of Truth venues such as TeeVee/entertainment-as-fact. Think about it. For the amount of money spent in Mesopotamia on a lie just how many refineries could have been built to take the load off the currently stretched worldwide system and provide enough energy to meet current and future needs for at least the near term? Answer: many! And all without having to bomb and maim anyone. The result would be a lowering of fuel expense, but mysteriously that point is never brought up. Why?

Certainly we can wean ourselves from a dependence on oil for "transportation use", I'm all for that, but don't fool yourselves into thinking that oil is all about automobiles and it can be done overnight. Global warming? Peak oil? All fear-mongering by vested interestes in keeping you poor and dependent on their hand outs. Just follow the money. Notice that its politicians - those that live and die by the sweat of others and never their own - are telling you how its going to be. All reasons enough to say its a lie.

There are smart people out there, especially in IT, so why not shut off the incessant lies of politicians, and money sucking corporate welfare recipients, and truly innovate something better than yet another version of Windows? Make a real difference and invent something useful for gods sake! Build something that brings true freedom rather than hand over the reins to your future to those who would put another political, and by extension economic, noose about your neck. Unless, of course, you like being a slave to "fate".

And, so to close the circle and not meander endlessly on an environmental "walkabout", the article is dead on in that we're at the verge of yet another bubble burst. Get ready for it.

Any port in a storm: the display tech battle

DrFix

To USB or not USB?

USB is indeed simple, but for the love of all thats holy why such a stupid connector that you're constantly having to flip because you can't tell one way or the other which way is "up"? Oh, it may be stamped on the cord itself, but the devices you may plug your memory stick in are another matter. There is no consitancy. Thats an annoyance I wish would disappear. Firewire400 at least made it clear with how it was keyed, but FW800 uses yet another type of connector.... AAaaaarrrrghhh!!!!

VGA connectors are tried and true, DVI for some mysterious reason doesn't get the respect it deserves, and along come HDMI and more.... Sheesh! I'm not even going to go near Blu-Ray or any other formats until the dust settles. There just isn't enough motivation, nor mad money, to get caught up in this cross-fire of dueling formats.

Bait and switch? Not us, says Best Buy

DrFix

Worst Cry

Best Buys practice of not updating their sales tags, where you end up taking a product to the register only to "discover" that its no longer on sale, has made me leave the store on more than one occasion. Another tactic that I've clued into is the habit of receiving coupons on upcoming sales for 10-12% off only to find out once I'm in the store that items I'm interested in have mysteriously risen in price by 5% comparable to other stores in my area. So what exactly are you saving?!!!

US Army funds Prius-style hybrid battlewagon

DrFix

Oh, for names sake!

Mike hit the nail on the head. Still, you only need to look at automobile names here to get an idea about the mentality that goes into the marketing and buying of said "products"

Ford Explorer, Expedition, Excursion.... They simply got bigger and BIGGER... I put forth that the next one in line would be (using the Ex..) either the Exclusion or the Exterminator!

Anyone for a 6000 SUX from RoboCop? Anyone?

Sin City director to remake Barbarella

DrFix

Say it isn't so...

Oh God, no! I was foolish enough to sit through Grindhouse, a movie where I fervently wished the trash talking dolts would just hurry up and DIE!

Antigua calls for pirates to return to Caribbean

DrFix

A pound of flesh... Not!

All the huffing and puffing the political talking heads made about internet gambling is simply a ruse, a smokescreen, to cover (or uncover in reality-land) the hypocrisy. They're either too stupid to figure out a way to TAX the golden goodies on operations that don't regularly grease the palms and wheels of the American political Mafia, so its just easier to cry wolf, shed crocodile tears for the "victims of gambling", and shut the whole thing down. Or it could be that the major gambling interests didn't like the competition and calling in their markers had their "enforcers" do the dirty work. (gotta love the metaphors).

Bible heads for Hong Kong's top shelf

DrFix

Get real...!!

C'mon people! Remember that this is coming from a people and a government that executes anyone it doesn't like, and will send you the bill for the bullet.

We should then ban every Hellenic, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist text because there happens to be "words" of one sort or another "mentioning" or "recounting" "episodes" of debauchery, murder, lies and the full gamut of human deceit?

Its certainly good to have an open mind but clearly not one so open that ones brains fall out or so sealed shut that one cannot see the forest for the trees.

'IE8 compatible' - the cure for web standards headache?

DrFix

Standards?.... We don't need no steeenkeen standards!

"....IE8 compliant"

Well, there you have it. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Haven't we been here before? I'm having to shake my head in disbelief at the comments spewed forth from this MS Code-bot.

Fungus fingered in US honeybee wipeout

DrFix

GWOB - Global War On Bees

Its something we take for granted. That plant life somehow muddles on with pollination but without these little critters its a whole hell of a lot more difficult. I would be more concerned about this than even AIDS. Because without "food"... well, you can do the math.