* Posts by Spoonsinger

797 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Mar 2009

A steam punk VDU ?

Spoonsinger

Sorry the whole 'do something in a "Steam punk" way' is just silly.

a) Victorians, (as previously mentioned), had electricity.

b) Steam punk doesn't preclude the use of electricity, and if it does and isn't using 'magic', (maybe something like Space 1889), it just changes the laws of physics anyway.

c) Just use a large pin art board with appropriate mechanics if you want to go the whole 'not quite Steam Punk VDU route) - maybe just call it Georgian Punk, (but then they knew about electricity as well - but still burnt witches, so will slot in with the whole fanaticism thing).

Why Bletchley Park could never happen today

Spoonsinger

"Can you keep a secret?"

Had to sign a piece of paper way back which say's I should. Not entirely sure it was necessary, but you takes the money, you follow take the creed. It's how things work.

Windows 8.1: Read this BEFORE updating - especially you, IT admins

Spoonsinger

Re: This is a new OS not an update.

Yes you are right with your comment "This is a new OS not an update", as it removed stuff from 8 rather than just fixing/updating it. What the feck happened to the search and where are the nice "art nouveau" start screen backdrops?

However the statement "Installing 8.1 will remove all your applications users etc from your PC leaving you with a vigin install, your original login and no apps." is just bollox's.

My o/s test laptop, (don't really care about it but nice to test install new windows stuff on it), is currently Vista->Windows 7 -> Windows 8 -> Windows 8.1 in place installs, which is really quite good as I haven't had to reinstall anything other than VMWare and MagicDisk thingy - and yes it is a working machine, (but not my main PC - main PC is Windows 7 with a very good image of the previous XP dev box as a VM).

Spoonsinger

Re Win 8.1 boots A LOT quicker than Mint and Ubuntu too

In my experience, It does get to the lock screen quickly, and you can then type your password/do squggilies into the login screen. Then you have to wait on that screen for quite a while before the start screen, (or desktop if that's you preference), actually appears, while it actually loads the o/s proper.

Spoonsinger

The new 8.1 search...

is just horrible. Which is a shame because the old one was really the only thing I liked about 8.

Cannabis can CURE CANCER - cheaply and without getting you high

Spoonsinger

Re: "Wasn't cannabis first banned because it was a threat to the profits of the pharmaceuticals?"

Nope the general urban myth is that it was all about Randolph Hearst, DuPont and the paper industry which forced it to be banned. (i.e. a cheaper way to make paper using hemp). However it basically got banned, (in the states at least), during their puritan prohibition thang after the first world war when there was a critical mass of people kicking around who like to moan about such things and hadn't actually got killed or maimed in the trenches.

Boffins spot LONE PLANET roaming interstellar void

Spoonsinger
Alien

Re: Moonbase Alpha?

or an Excession!!

Expert chat: The end of Windows XP and IE6

Spoonsinger

Re : Ignore the doom-sayers! Windows 8 is great!

So says the AC!

(Actually it's fine, wouldn't go far as to say it was great though).

Spoonsinger

Re: XP eveywhere

Yep, but they are probably XP Embedded, (a misnomer if ever there was one), and has continued support way after the 2014 date.

Brit inventor Dyson challenges EU ruling on his hoover's energy efficiency ratings

Spoonsinger

Re: or should I ask, how dirty is your house??

You obviously don't have a blue cat with a white carpet, (or something which isn't).

ps

They arn't that great for dog hairs on stairs either regardless if they are wearing a hat or not.

Techies with Asperger's? Yes, we are a little different...

Spoonsinger

Looking at the Wikipidia article for this disorder,

I would have thought that anybody who doesn't have one or more of the conditions associated with it, is basically a social, (regardless of gregariousness), and technical, (ability wise), cabbage in reality and probably shouldn't be employed in anything more taxing than chicken grading, sales or HR.

Billionaire dumps Apple stock because Steve Jobs was 'really awful' guy

Spoonsinger

So??

He didn't bail last year, at this time, when the stock was at 629.56, but after reading a book, (probably large letter small word edition), and watching a bad film, (probably), he decides to pull out, (like Wedge in Star Wars), at 486.56. I wish I had a public school sounding name.

4 Brits cuffed after shutdown of internet drug shop Silk Road

Spoonsinger

Re: temporarily at least....

Yes dumping them would lead to a loss of confidence, (i.e. increase the supply). However as it's a limited resource,in certain respects, (well until the math is broken), it will just climb back up. It's not like you can just print more of it like.

Apple iMac 27-inch 2013: An extra hundred quid for what exactly?

Spoonsinger
Pint

Re: I've climbed so far up Apple's butt in recent years, etc..

Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery. (or is that beer - can't remember).

Yo, mall rats: Facebook and Cisco in Wi-Fi hookup to track your retail, social life

Spoonsinger
Coat

"In a world gone mad, we will not spank the monkey, but the monkey will spank us. "

errm, ok different film. (Same characters though), IGMC.

Ubuntu 13.10: Meet the Linux distro with a bizarre Britney Spears fixation

Spoonsinger

Re : Meet the Linux distro with a bizarre Britney Spears fixation

So it's an agents/producer school girl fixation thing? - rather than being useful. Look pretty though.

Yahoo! Pays! Paltry! $12.50! Bug! Bounty! For! Nasty! Email! Vuln!

Spoonsinger
Coat

Re: And even that had to be spent on Yahoo! tat..

Let me fix that for you :-

"And even that had to be spent on Yahoo! tat!"

Valve aiming to take the joy(sticks) out of gaming with Steam Controller

Spoonsinger

Re: HL3 steambox exclusive

Probably the only person on the planet, but I actually thought that the story, (and execution), in HL2(*), was actually rubbish. (The engine, however, has given me hours, days, months of pleasure on other games which use it).

(*) CS/Source and DOD/Source are, gameplay wise, not as good as the originals) - will probably have to live in a cave after this statement.

Spoonsinger

Re: more like trackballs than joypads

So why not just use hi-res trackballs. Personally I hate touchpads, but having a trackball on the right would be awesome. (Obviously left handed peeps would not like this, so also a track ball on the left as well). Go spinny balls of doom, go. (erm it's a mechanical thing).

Thorium and inefficient solar power? That's good enough for me

Spoonsinger
Coat

Re: Fruit flies like...

a banana.

EasyJet wanted to fling me off flight for diss tweet, warns cyber-law buff

Spoonsinger
Holmes

Wow, EJ staff should man all airport security everywhere,

i.e.

Someone tweets something unflattering about them, and within minutes they not only detect that tweet has been made about them, but actually located the person responsible from all the airports they operate out of. Awesome detection work - unless, ermm, the story isn't quite as reported.

Circling the RIM: BB10 becomes chamber of horrors for BlackBerry

Spoonsinger
Coat

Re: The icon represents a toreador.

Always thought that icon was someone giving an impromptu prostate exam to the invisible man dressed in a hospital gown.

Microsoft SLASHES rewards for biz selling its kit to 100 'big fish'

Spoonsinger

Apparently...

You can sell coffee at 13% profit, (based on figures reported in the week). So maybe the resellers might want to refocus rather than taking that sort of hit as even with coffee selling franchise costs it's going to be more.

Great Britain rebuilt - in Minecraft: Intern reveals 22-BEEELLION block map

Spoonsinger

Re: Prepares you for the reality of work life.

I hope he actually got paid - you know like you did on old sandwich degree courses.

(I was very happy with the money I received on my placement year, but not sure it's like that nowadays. )

I, for one, welcome our robotic communist jobless future

Spoonsinger

Re: There'll be world war three in under 10 years.

Ahh that's what the kids need today - a looming threat of nuclear annihilation. It worked for me, and as far as I can tell, my parents. Tends to focus the mind. The whole 90's new world order thing was just a bit of a breather in doomsday terms - which lead to the eco bods creeping in with their "whole world is going to end due to weather" thing. However nothing inspires a person more than being able to earn enough to escape potential drop zones, (regardless of how meaningless that is).

Spoonsinger

Re: Still waiting for my consumer level jetpack and silver suite from the 70's.

Ok that might be suit. But just think with a silver suite and a silver suit I could be as invisible as a south Korean office block.

Spoonsinger
Coat

Still waiting for my consumer level jetpack and silver suite from the 70's.

IGMC.

So, Linus Torvalds: Did US spooks demand a backdoor in Linux? 'Yes'

Spoonsinger

So, he was joking then?

Well he has tended to open mouth/write in the past without thinking, maybe this was an example of that, and brain kicking into to say 'you really really really didn't want to do that'.

Final preview of IE11 for Windows 7 uncanned

Spoonsinger

Re: So is "candidate recommendation specification",

ok it's at the 'Candidate Recommendation' level, doh! Nothing to see here.

Spoonsinger

So is "candidate recommendation specification",

at 'Proposed Recommendation' level or actually at 'W3C Recommendation' level?

DRAMA at 75,000 FEET: Our Playmonaut's TERROR PLUNGE from EDGE of SPACE

Spoonsinger
Childcatcher

A big vanilla ice cream for the playmonaut!

What?, really?, urghhh!

Billionaire engineer Ray Dolby, 80, dies at home in San Francisco

Spoonsinger
Coat

"Westing (by Musket and Sextant)" - Pavement.

Dolby B and C did nothing at all to remove the hiss from that album.

Microsoft's 'We want a Mac look and feel' UK director splits after seven years

Spoonsinger

Re: You can't think of a better reason to despise Apple than the fact that everyone likes it?

Erm, well he/she doesn't like it, so that's not everyone.

Should Nominet ban .uk domains that use paedo and crim-friendly words?

Spoonsinger

www.groomers.co.uk

Stop this filth!

Spoonsinger

re: Another code word they use is "bush2bush pipeman"

But "Well, what about the juniper bushes over there?"

Enterprise storage: A history of paper, rust and flash silicon

Spoonsinger

I missed the punched card era, but....

I did get to experience the thrill of splicing batch codes onto old paper tape runs in the early eighties (i.e. in the days when secondary schools shoved us out into industry for a couple of weeks 'work experience' to see what it was like). Fond memories, but wouldn't go back. Mind I did like the whole big computer room setups with the air-con people working in that environment got back then.

Anatomy of a killer bug: How just 5 characters can murder iPhone, Mac apps

Spoonsinger
Coat

"-1is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

zero(*) can be as bad as -1

It's the loneliest number since the -1"

(*) ok zero is actually a number.

Beat the UK's incoming smut filter: Pre-censor your grumble flicks

Spoonsinger
Coat

Isn't this just.....

1980's UK Hotel pay per view style flicks, dressed up for the 21st century?

Acorn’s would-be ZX Spectrum killer, the Electron, is 30

Spoonsinger

Florists M2105's...

Cleaning them up, re-soldering keys, re-soldering the modem, sending them back. Happy day's with no stress and a shiny future leading to other better paid prospects. (ps they were crap and outdated as games machines even when they were released, rock solid in an industrial/retail roll though).

(pps M2105's are Electrons with bits bolted on - for informational purposed to people of a certain age - i.e. young).

BALLMER TO RETIRE FROM MICROSOFT

Spoonsinger

Not really that good...

Ballmer was old school who went to the femoral shiny side, (to mix metaphors). Sort of missed the plot, (but probably down to history). Shiny sells to the 'consumer', but familiarity sells to 'business'. If you have a strangle hold on one of those don't try and mix the two unless the end result is f**king top notch.

Lenovo to ship all new PCs with Start Menu replacement

Spoonsinger

Ok, (and this is just an observation on a new windows 8 user)....

a client I had to install a windows 8 PC for lately - a business women with no time for PC shenanigans - although sex shouldn't come into it - actually quite likes Win8. She likes the fact that the familiar start menu was there, (basically because I installed Classic Shell), but also liked that when she opened a pdf under windows 8, (thus using the inbuilt viewer), from an e-mail she just hovered over the right of the screen, went to devices and selected the printer she wanted to print from. I did enquire why that was better than in the "old days" on just selecting the print or menu option, and she said the option was just there and that's where I was supposed to click because it says devices and a printer was shown. (I said umm).

So in short, people like an old classic menu but people also like it when they just hover randomly hover over something on the screen and it doesn't crash the computer when they click the option which is highlighted even if it might not be the thing they want to do. (this is just an extrapolation of a 'users' thought process - absolutely no idea what they think about in real life).

Windows NT: Remember Microsoft's almost perfect 20-year-old?

Spoonsinger

DEC's VMS...

On the occasions I get a contracting gig at some 'big industry' site which still use it, I always get the same glow as, when at school, a sexy teacher leaned over me to show how to do something. Old NT installs just give me the feeling that that teacher was plied away by nefarious dubious folk and forced to work on a street corner.

Screw you, Brits, says Google: We are ABOVE UK privacy law

Spoonsinger

Will this apply to other 'laws' that have been suggested to be implemented recently?

IGMC, (it's the brown one with some stains just behind that ping pong ball).

12 simple rules: How Ted Codd transformed the humble database

Spoonsinger
Coat

Re: reminds me of the Soviet propaganda tracts I had to study at university

You have a point, but reading Soviet propaganda tracts at university probably wouldn't have help me pass the DB design modules. (I assume you went a different route).

Fear the JOBZILLA! 150ft STATUE of Steve planned 'lest fanbois forget'

Spoonsinger

Re: How much per degree does that work out at...?

LOL. You have a point :-)

Man is only 90% water, but On The Hour is 100% news..

Spoonsinger

Angle of the North cost £800,000 and....

is only 65 feet high.

YouTube Wars: Microsoft cries foul as Windows Phone app pulled again

Spoonsinger

Undocumented Windows: A Programmers Guide to Reserved Microsoft Windows Api Functions

Ahh, those were the days.

No distro diva drama here: Penguinista favourite Debian turns 20

Spoonsinger
Windows

Re: "I often wonder why some people have a problem with others"

Ahh!, because you are basically a passive aggressive type. Getting people to emote is potential leverage. The original poster went there, but you went there, planted a flag, and then down thumbed raped your way to up thumb success. I hope your flat is nice though, (honestly, it did sound nice because you said so).

There she blows! Mid-October release date for Windows 8.1 sighted

Spoonsinger

Re: It's like a bad movie with no review showing in advance

Actually, having noted over many year, bad movies adverts are always spammed on telestial TV in the UK. If it's being spammed you know it's bad, (but cheap advertising to the mass from the film makers point of view).

Spoonsinger

If they haven't removed anything it's a service patch...

however if they have removed some things it's actually a new release, (i.e. front end to image backup removal, plus probably other stuff). Not entirely sure what they are up to, but stop it!!!!!!!!!!