* Posts by gareth husk

5 publicly visible posts • joined 6 May 2009

Scientists love MacBooks (true) – but what about you?

gareth husk

Macs are old school

So my first gig as a post-grad 1984, macs. Only for doc prep but the other option was nroff. Two years later as I'm writing my thesis MS Word appears. WYSISYG huge docs (multiple floppy file linking), integration with MacDraw & MacPaint. Macintoshes saved our asses back in the mid-80s when the PC was basically random.

There was a really bad period when Apple lost the plot but when they finally came back we had same interface, same apps AND UNIX.

A long time later I'min a commercial operation, at work OSx is 1% of installed base... but we're a microsoft house, its .NET, SQL Server... At home though, in the interest of not doing the same at home as work we run OSX and android.

I spend way less time on IT support and ... durn that dubious game doesn;t run on Mac - tough cookies

Oh Em Pee! Giant Android tinkles on Apple in Google Maps graffiti

gareth husk

Re: How?

If your IT people use the word awesome in a work context I can guarantee that they are not IT people

Voyager 1 now EIGHTEEN LIGHT HOURS from home

gareth husk

Does not compute

Unless there's a burn happening this does not compute

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/weekly-reports/

Isn't fully upto date but taking the data for the last couple of months Voyager 1 is moving away from the sun at around 10,000,000 km/per week. 10^9 m / 3^8ms-1 = 33s per wk or about 30 min per year which seems more in-line with what it has managed so far.

Ten classic electronic calculators from the 1970s and 1980s

gareth husk

Re: Still working

The FX-180P was my 3rd calculator that I bought in 81 following a Rockwell 4 function for O-level and an SR 4912 for A-level. It's still on my desk at work and still used every week (normally to prove that my mental arithmetic is correct to the disbelievers). Every 6-7 years the display dims and I think it has died and then remember that it might need batteries.

Apple power brick sparks lawsuit

gareth husk

...and this doesn't happen to other power blocks?

As far as I can tell this is nothing to do with the MagSafe component but end user treatment of the power block. If the users pack their laptop and power block back and forth every day then you can reasonably expect the power-cord to get abused.

Personally I've had users return power blocks from all manufacturers that I wouldn't plug-in, and would only unplug wearing rubber soles.

Most road users treat the power block as if it is a bobbin, by the time they've packed it up 2-3 times a day for a year or so it resembles an old-fashioned phone cord stretched to its elastic limit.

(You can reduce the wear and tear by buying 2 blocks per machine so they never pack the one at home - just don't expect to get more than one back.)