Posts by AceRimmer

Re: @DrXym

"But your warranty will be invalidated and the SOGA won't help you."

Dell don't (or at least didn't) invalidate your warranty for opening your own equipment and swapping components.

Of course if its the new component that causes the problem then you're on your own.

They even supply manuals on how to take your stuff apart. Here's the OWNERS manual for mine direct from Dell, notice the emphasis on owner not engineer.

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop /esuprt_xps_laptop/xps-15-l521x_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

Re: @AC, whatever. (was: whatever.) @h4rm0ny

"I though that Mint might be a possibility, but it feels too parasitic to be regarded as a distribution in it's own right. This is true of all of the Ubuntu derived distributions."

Correct me if I'm wrong (not uncommon) but if Ubuntu is itself based on Debian then surely Ubuntu is a parasite too.

If you don't like Mint because its based on Ubuntu then try LMDE - derived straight from Debian

Re: @asdf The desktop deadend.

I was shot down for this the other day, here is the method for upgrading:

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/04/09/windows_8_1_update_review/#c_2160410

Not actually used it myself. I'm on Mint 16 ATM having started on 15 and then reinstalling from scratch (had a new laptop anyway). 17 will be my first upgrade

Re: @janimal Windows 8 was built for one reason only

"I personally use mint on my laptop, the only thing that annoys me about that though is the upgrade process (at least the last time I updated)."

I have Mint too and although I love it I can see the lack of a clear upgrade method being a major issue for a lot of people who decide to ditch windows for Linux.

In my (very humble) opinion, every linux distro I've seen still lacks the completeness of product you get with Windows or OSX and they just aren't yet ready for the very casual user who wants something that works. Even I, a reasonably competent IT pro, managed to completely break my first Mint installation and had to reinstall from scratch.

FWIW here's the upgrade path from windows 1 upwards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14

You're somewhat missing the point

The use case for this is a possible replacement for the CORPORATE desktop PC for people who computing needs are relatively low.

Chrome warned me about running as a background service and asked me permission to do so.

You can turn it off in the advanced settings, it's not difficult to find for someone technically competent

Re: Underlying meanng of the data ...

"So what exactly was your point ?"

Only 10 down votes ... people are starting to warm to jake's opinions.

Re: Brave or Foolish?

"SO Reg readers don't want to see new tech?"

Correct

One just has to witness the wailing and gnashing of teeth on here from the bearded sandal wearers any time anything new is introduced

Re: A lot of common sense there

"So what actually is your concern?"

I just posted a comment with links which will probably take a few hours to be moderated.

There was some recent news about Three scrapping unlimited tethering. As its a feature which I too make a lot of use of I'm justifiably concerned about it being limited or scrapped.

Edit: This comment is also being moderated! Why?

Re: @intrigid

"276 TB is small in the database world."

I'd wager that more than 99.9% of databases in existence are smaller than 276 TB

Ahem

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2143005

Did you read the comments?

Generally tech people I know are empirical, logical thinkers and will investigate things and make their own mind

I can only presume that you don't frequent these comment boards

Re: @ lesession (was: Whatever.)

" is there anyone well known you think did do anything good, or useful, or maybe just a wee bit better than you, in the history of this stuff?!

Al Gore! It was him and Jake what invented the internets

Re: @ Michael Habel

"Does Linux come with spelling and grammar checking options?"

Some do but not for his distro

Re: browser restrictions

MS had a browser monopoly

Emphasis on HAD. Their share is down to 10% now

They've lost out to Chrome

Personally IE is my favourite browser... for downloading chrome

Re: Great Article.

http://www.nocaptionneeded.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/eddie-adams-icon.png

"Like most people my PC is at a desk"

Define most people!

Most people outside of the techie circles are ditching their PCs in favour of tablets and laptops. Just look at the sales stats. The desktop is dying

The only significant people left buying PCs are enthusiast gamers and techies who market wise are in the minority and should know how to fix an OS to suit their means anyway.

FWIW I can count the people I know with a desktop PC on one thumb and personally,as a travelling contractor I've relied on laptops for the past decade

Re: Too much choice for the average desktop user

Too much choice:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Gldt1009.svg

It's a shame, linux has the capability to be an amazing OS but the fragmentation comes with 2 major problems:

1. It puts off new users in a big way

2. Duplicated efforts. Instead of everyone trying to make a small number of distros better they decide to break off and do their own thing.

Re: RE: service charge

You seriously need better clients if installing firefox (or anything else) for 10 minutes is going to piss them off

8 years of contracting - 6 of which at top rate (based on itjobswatch.co.uk) and 12 clients and I have never ever had a client complain about their time/money being wasted.

Re: Road Colours Still Wrong

"True, but you could make the same argument about traffic lights too. By custom and practice we've come to expect that red means stop and green means go."

Look up the Vienna Convention which sets international conventions for road signs and traffic lights

Re: 236kbit=2g?

How do you know if they are working?

Bin them

External drives are cheap and so much quicker to back up to that you'd be wasting your time backing up to DVD or CD.

There is a reason they are being phased out of laptops - slow and low capacity!

I've also had problems with the reliability of data DVD's, although it was 10 years ago when I stopped using them for backups.

Just remember to have an "off site" solution of some type if not for everything then at least for critical/valuable data

Re: 1000's of years to measurable.

Let me explain it for you.

The lower friction was due to the grounding line - the point at which the glaciers weight is carried by the sea rather than rock - moving backwards a few km's

The grounding line is moving backwards because the glacier is thinning and becoming more bouyant.

The decrease in friction is NOT due to the bedrock being "worn down"