Re: Erratum

I'm running Ubuntu and haven't seen any performance issues or graphics problems. I'm not even using a graphics card nor an up-to-date CPU. I don't seem to be the only one.

Transfer speeds are about 10% better than I see on my Windows PCs and graphics seem about the same.

I don't mind Ubuntu too much and certainly prefer the interface to Windows 8. I'm not a Mac owner nor an Apple fan but I'd say that the MacOS interface is a little nicer although there are some areas where Unity is better. This is, of course, just my opinion.

"I have taken frequent stands in the face of strong opposition."

Well I took a couple of other peoples stands when we were setting up in the market the other day. The others didn't like it and it's not the first time I've done it!

Upvote

Have an up-vote, Scouting is certainly something my kids love and something which is helping them grow. Obviously I'm all for things IT related, being a bit of a geek myself but I don't think this sort of thing is going to help anyone. In fact Scouting seems to teach more relevant skills for IT:

How to work in a group

How to relate to others and see others points of view.

How to look at problems in a different way

A certain level of pragmatism

....and probably many more.

Re: Progress is good

I take your point but you really ought to read up on F1. V10 engines haven't been used for quite a while and.... well read up on it and you'll see.

Re: Obscure, vague and I wonder; more expensive?

I got co-location for 80 quid a month for a half rack, enough electricity to run my servers and once or twice a year I had to pay a little extra to cover extra network traffic.

I built the servers for 600 quid a go and I change them every four years. I've never had any downtime since I start ten years ago..

What I like is that everything is under my control, the prices are good and the performance is very good. I have used AWS to knock up a prototype a few times but generally it's just as easy to create a temporary VM on my own hardware.

Re: Anyone can recommend a better browser?

Can't say I've ever had a Firefox crash on either Windows or Linux and I've used it on many different machines over the years. I don't really like Chrome but Opera seems OK. Think I'm going to stick with Firefox for now though.

Perhaps

he's talking about my 6 year old Intel SSD which is still going strong and a pair of 3-5 year old spinning rust disks which failed in the last six months?

On the other hand I don't think we can say that SSDs last longer, mostly the opposite, although they react better to being dropped whilst being used... well in my experience :-)

Re: Insufficient data in the question...

I think that if you're Google you look in the bag and pick the colour you want. That would explain a lot about how ads work on Google:-)

Re: @Jolyon Smith One can only presume...

The "maximising profit" excuse doesn't really work. There are many things companies have done which weren't illegal but most people would accept were wrong. There are also many companies which don't do these things because they see them as wrong.

Re: Monkey Shit For Brains

I mostly agree, except for the last part about stressed people being able to calm down on command. That's simply not true, the whole problem for people with stress problems is that they can't calm down.

Re: Which problem is The Problem?

The biggest secret they've got is that they haven't got any secrets.

Re: SPARC lol

I have to say our lot have moved away from SPARC. Over priced and under performing is ho I see it. It's a shame as back in the 90s Sun held so much promise.

Re: "a stupid person's idea of an intelligent person"

Conceited cow or not she's got a point. Having a good memory is not the same as being smart and the comments about GPS and the internet show this well.

Stressed, late for the plane, had an argument with the Mrs, pissed off with the kids larking about, just seen some young thing in a short skirt bending over to pick up a bag, dropped your case on your foot etc. etc.

Re: Dangerous territory...

When your cows get sick it can spread to all of them and they all die.

Re: The customer defines value

'"Intellectual property is a monopoly" is a child's logic. IP is in international treaties and national law, because it's the least-bad way we have come up with of encouraging new work. "'

I disagree and you certainly offer no evidence to support that claim (that it is the least-bad). It seem to me that it in law because big business in the US pushed for it and no other reason.

I feel that the prices for films and music are artificially inflated with stupidly long copyright periods. This aggravates people who jump at the chance to download it for free.

I personally am prepared to accept that new films shouldn't be downloaded but anything which has been on TV or I've already bought on other media seems fair game to me. I know the law says differently but it appears the law doesn't match the majority of people's moral values in this area. Everyone I've spoken to about this feels they're being ripped off and that the film and music industry are being given special treatment which is costing the rest of the population.

Re: What is wrong with you all?

OK, sometimes you have to use a cup and a tea bag but every opportunity I use a teapot and tea leaves....... it tastes so much better!

PS. Milk in first of course :-)

Re: With a bit of CGI...

I believe she mentioned this phenomenon, "who seriously wouldn't give her one just so they could say they shagged Princess Leia?" as one of the reasons she had trouble having a lasting relationship. Can't remember where I saw the interview........

Re: What a joke!

Well I managed to write "your" instead of "you're", so none of us are perfect :-)

Re: What a joke!

I can only assume your American and don't understand how the EU works. You can easily find out the salary levels if you want to.

This is nothing to do with EU civil servants this is to do with an abusive company who chose to sign an agreement in order to avoid a fine..... and then decided not to keep to the agreement. The fine they've now got seems entirely fair to me.

I don't think you can really compare a fine to a kick back as the fine doesn't go into the hands of those who issued it.

While I agree that we are lacking in off the cuff remarks I think this guy was paraphrasing someone else..... I just wish I could remember who....... that's the problem with age!

Re: Too little, too late

Not sure I agree as the fine and the choice window were both part of the punishment. Nicking a car was probably not a good analogy however :-)

I suppose I feel that the point of the fine and the conditions is that they are there to put others off similar behaviour although it seems the fine wasn't big enough, given that other like Google seem not to have learnt a lesson.

Any regulator is in a difficult position here as they can't know in advance how long it will take to break the monopoly by pushing choice and even if market share dips they can't know how long it will be before it recovers, if it does.

All in all I think MS got away lightly given what they did and that if the regulator is to have any chance of putting others off they've got to go through with the punishment and ensure that the company being punished keeps to the conditions imposed. I've seen from my own children that idle threats don't work!

Re: Too little, too late

I think it may hep you to read a bit about the history of this issue. You'll find that the original fine was given before Chrome, for example and that the fine would have been given earlier had MS not fought it tooth and nail.

Arguing that it is no longer relevant is a bit like saying that the person who stole and smashed up my car should be let out of jail because it was two years ago and I've got a new one now.

Re: alas,

You've got a point. In my experience the basic difference is closer to 18% but the VM option suffers even more if there are other workloads active at the same time. In some cases I saw a performance hit of 30%.

I think the bottom line is that if you care about database performance you don't put them in a VM.

Re: that and

You may have a point but my PS3, PS2 and PS are all still running, years beyond their guarantee period.

Re: Questions Questions

To quote from the EU web site:

Right of residence for more than three months

The right of residence for more than three months remains subject to certain conditions. Applicants must:

either be engaged in economic activity (on an employed or self-employed basis);

or have sufficient resources and sickness insurance to ensure that they do not become a burden on the social services of the host Member State during their stay. The Member States may not specify a minimum amount which they deem sufficient, but they must take account of personal circumstances;

or be following vocational training as a student and have sufficient resources and sickness insurance to ensure that they do not become a burden on the social services of the host Member State during their stay;

or be a family member of a Union citizen who falls into one of the above categories.

Re: dedupe

Calculate a hash key on the client before encrypting?

Re: Question: @Network67

I think you mean Martelange on the N4.

Re: All seems very sensible @Graham Dawson Silver

I don't think you can be right as I'm currently working in another EU country and here boxes must be unticked.

I also have to agree with the other commentator who pointed out that the UK is part of the EU and involved in making decisions. It was interesting that Cameron recently threatened the veto, thus showing that the UK could have done that all along but chose not too. Basic policy for Labour and Tories is, unpopular policy, blame the EU.

Re: Brits are so outraged by Amazon,

Exactly. France seems able to go after the money so it can't be an EU problem.

Re: State intervention may well result in de-civilizatory effects

Charles: Your argument seems to indicate that democracy is doomed to failure..... you may be right but who is this elite who should be making decisions for us? I hope you're not suggesting it should be the politicians!

Re: maybe ..... just maybe ......

Wasn't it three and sixpence...... I am getting old so maybe not!

Re: What are they on?

True for MySQL, not true, in mly experience, for Sybase, Oracle or DB2.

Re: What are they on?

What a brilliant insight... it should have read RDBMSs scale well.

Re: Cuts both ways.

Not really, they screw up their bit and then tell someone else to buy something based on dodgy info thus losing the company millions.......

Having worked for a few banks where that has happened I noticed that most of them were banning spreadsheets or bringing them under version control.

Indeed

.......anybody who's tried to watch TV in the US can see why we don't want to go further down the product placement route.

Re: Any bets

I don't think that can be right as France has recently started taxing the big companies a more appropriate rate.

Re: Why not diesel?

Doesn't the article say that the volume of cooking oil used is actually higher than that used for aviation?

To add to the point

MS were found guilty at the time and ordered to take certain actions which they haven't done (not in full). They also appealed and did everything they could to delay things in the first place.

So, while it is true that IE market share is fairly small today, the "punishment" is in response to MS actions and IE's position at the time of the case.

As for accusations of the EU taking US money...... hello Mr Pot, this is Mr Kettle, are you aware of your colour?

Re: Gold Corgi

He was Korean I think.

Re: "Dalton was given crap films so I can't vote for him"

I'm not sure Quantum is the worst, did you see "View to a kill"? It wasn't that great though. I suppose I'm willing to give him time as he has done another one and I think he's signed up to do more, plus I liked "Layer Cake" :-)

I like the idea that he (Craig) is trying something different. It worked fairly well in Casino Royale, it was so so in Quantum so I'm looking to Skyfall to see if the character matures and finaly builds on what they've started.

Re: Difficult choice

Well Moore was my favourite as I saw him playing Bond first. However, once I was in my twenties I grew to prefer Connery.

Lazenby wasn't in long enough to be sure.

Moore was... well Roger Moore although the bad guy's line in Moonraker almost saved it "I'm going to put you out of my misery Mr. Bond".

Dalton was given crap films so I can't vote for him.

Brosnan was good in his first two but gradually went down hill.

Craig... hmmmm... difficult to say. I liked him in Layer Cake and if you accept that he is trying something new I think he's quite good.

So, Connery first followed by Craig/Brosnan as joint second.

BTW I think the film Ronin has the highest number of Bond bad guys in it without being a Bond film.