Posts by Jim 59

Re: Yours will be for movies over ethernet?

I just don't "get" the reasoning being this Pi love-in. It's not an open system by any stretch of the imagination, and there are much better comparable systems out there. Heck,...

The Pi is an open system by the accepted definition of that term over the last 35 years. Viz, open systems based on Unix vs. the bespoke systems they partly/largely replaced. This doesn't mean that every single byte of software has to be GPL.

What makes the Pi/Pi2 better than almost all competing products is the enormous support base and user base that now exists around the world. Products like the Mintbox are technically great, but the support base is non existent by comparison. When OS upgrade time comes, this matters.

Re: Works for me, too

After 22 years of web browsing, I don't think I have ever intentionally clicked on an ad, paid any attention to ads or purchased anything as the result of an ad. Has anybody ?

Re: I'll take a look.

I've got an unused raspberry pi 2 sitting in it's box I'll give it a try over the weekend.

I upvoted you for being rich. Buy me a boat.

Re: Footprint

Just bloatware, surely?

Sitting in front of a Red Hat 6.6 box now. It's a full network server and runs a desktop too (via VNC). OS size about 5.5 GB, and that includes 1 GB of log files.

Just checked a Windows 2008 server here, OS size about 12 GB.

Re: Why now?

Home users replacing aged tower systems with "desktop replacement" laptops might have an impact.

...certain graphics intensive business applications, so aren't counted as workstations...

I would be interested to know what these applications are. Can't think of any except for high end CAD/CAM/CAE.

<What an idiot.</i>

Screw you pal. You don't even know how many Magpie annuals are worth a 1000 piece jigsaw of John Noakes with Shep.

Re: Give em' a break

Daresay the Reg would have done a few more checks if they were programming a spaceship.

Re: Stupids play now

Anyone wishing to hide payment "off the books" could hardly pick a worse choice than rigging premium bonds, which provide a clear and very public audit trail leading straight to the "winner". The plan would also require a large number of people to be in the conspiracy, with the accompanying large risk of one of them talking or blackmailing.

Rather like the flying car that the media has been guaranteeing for widespread adoption every year since about '94. The self driving car is getting to be the new "year of the Linux desktop".

One trend that seems more certain is the increasing buzzfeedification down at Reg Towers.

Re: Now that will upset people

How dare they encrust the creativity of engineers with some petty dress code. Dress codes are for those menials who-

...should avoid turning up to the office in ...shorts, baseball caps ...sandals and other open shoes

Oh ...er, yeah on second thoughts, ban it. Ban it all. Ugh, sandals.

Re: Very dangerous

The author should probably have mentioned Lenny Bruce earlier that the penultimate paragraph. LB's wikipedia page is a great read. Both blokes are fascinating. Not to my personal taste as it happens - I prefer my politics neat, without the satire/rage mixer. I hope they make that film of BHs life.

Lenny Bruce faced much higher levels of censorship in the 50s. So much so, he remained virtually unheard, but his name lives on today. Strange to think that censorship was fought against for decades, gradually reduced, then suddenly replaced by a much more virulent, PC derived censorship, out of all proportion to the original.

Now we seem to have the worst of both worlds. On the one hand we are downing in extreme hard core porn, while on the other you can't say what you think, and even muttering a single word can get you sacked and ruined. I hate to say it, but did Bill and Lenny (et al) unwittingly contributed to that situation?

Re: unintended consequences

"Historically I'm probably the last person alive to see a thermonuclear explosion with my naked eyes," he said. "The last explosion was a long time ago but for those that actually saw it, we all had the same experience, which was to turn us into peaceniks."

Leonard Cheshire VC was a witness to the Nagasaki bomb, after which he resigned, opened a hospice and spent the rest of his life in charity work and conflict resolution.

Re: Orbit?

If the object exceeded escape velocity, it would not enter any shape of orbit around Earth, it would just carry on until it hit something or got captured into orbiting another body (thinking about it, it probably would orbit the sun).

Not exactly, if I understand Wikipedia right (and it's explanation is not the clearest). The object would escape earth if launched directly upwards. After escaping earth, it would have to contend with the Sun's much greater gravity, and might start to orbit the Sun. If launched at an angle, the object would achieve "escape orbit" from earth, a parabolic path but not a closed shape, which I don't quite understand the sequence of events.

When a famous person behaves like this, the explanation is sometimes found up their nose.

FF is certainly a memory hog, and so are other browsers. I'm not a programmer these days, but I don't understand why an app that just interprets network traffic and displays it in a simple, standard format needs more memory than would have powered a whole city in the 80s.

My FF is currently using nearly half a *gig* of memory just so I can type this and have a few other tabs open. Absolutely barmy.

20 years from now, your desktop PC will have 10 TB of memory, and a simple browser will slurp half a TB of that just to display a couple of cartoons, and it will *still* be frustratingly slow despite the 10,000 core monster memristor CPU or whatever. Pants. Utter pants.

Re: Sorry...

What's even funnier amidst your accusations of shilling and demands for "transparency" is that I more or less quit systems administration...

Beg pardon Trevor but I did not accuse you of "shilling" or anything else. Perhaps you are confusing me with W.Anderson. I merely said that I thought declaring interests was common journalistic practice, and in my view your MS links ought to have been declared.

As it happens I don't think your article (which I agree with) was coloured by your MS partnership, which seems pretty trivial, as you say. But I still think any links should generally be declared, even if they seem trivial.

Now quit trying to drown people in the name of rooting out witches and go outside and socialize with other human beings

Well, charming.

...there is a reasonable community at the 8 Bit Acorn Webring...

Blimey msknight, the word "Webring" gives a blast of nostalgia even more potent than the BBC Micro.

Yes, I think the story is actually designed to remind chaps of a certain age that there are 80's home computers aplenty at Bletchley, and wouldn't it be nice to take the family there in the upcoming school holidays. If they really wanted Beeb experience, they could just contact one of the thriving online BBC Micro communities, rather then sending a press release to The Register.

I've never tried Linux but I know I don't like it.

Cool story bro! You changed my life!

Re: “serious emotional distress”

Any forum where punters are anonymous eventually turns into a hate-chamber. That's what parts of Twitter are now. There are armies of anonymous Twitter users who do nothing except pour bile over their chosen targets 24 hours a day. Sadly this appears to be something in human nature.

If people were themselves, instead of anonymous, they would be ashamed to behave in that way. Recall the sad case of Twitter user "Sweepyface". She attacked the McCanns ceaselessly. When she was unmasked by Sky News, she unfortunately committed suicide a few days later. I guess she could not stand that behaviour being associated with her name and face. If Twitter was not anonymous she would be alive today.

I am not sure what the solution is, but removing anonymity from certain areas might be part of it. Freedom of speech laws could operate, and people could critisize openly, as they always did through books and newspapers. At the same time, their targets would be given some level of protection through slander laws or whatever. Some kind of balance. For the record I am pro freedom of speech.