Re: Out of Date

I use VS day in day out and agree it's pretty good to use. In fact I'd go as far to say it was my favorite IDE until I came recently across IntelliJ for Java/Android development. IntelliJ showed me how things could be and I have to admit VS hasn't seemed quite the same since. IntelliJ is significantly more intelligent. I believe adding ReSharper by the same company would help matters but that will have to wait for the next IT budget (since I've spent this one on new hardware to run VS).

For reference IntelliJ circa 300mb installed.

Do I really care how much space it takes up? No not really. What I do care about is having to upgrade my computer every few years just for Microsoft products and very little else.

Re: Out of Date

You're missing the point. You shouldn't need to buy a quad core 3ghz machine SSD, with several gb's of memory just to open a text editor though.

Microsoft products never cease to amaze me with their bloat.

Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 the ISO file is 1.5GB.

Seriously... what is in there!

Textpad 6 is still happily using < 10mb.

I'm fairly sure in all MS products there's lines of code like:

//We need to slow down our product to make Intels latest processors look better

if (processorDoesNotHaveLatestSuperHybridCacheExtensionsInstalled)

{

startHardDiskCrunchingDelay( versionOfProduct * delayrate * monthsSinceProcessorProductionDate^3 );

}

Re: 3.2 Million reasons to love speed cameras

A number of cameras near me were placed there when they built the road so that's no true.

50mph on a nice stretch of straight dual carriage way, far from houses with no junctions. Go figure.

Re: Worth the money? Depends

I absolutely hate Office on the whole for years it's been in my humble opinion the worst pile of junk I've ever come across. Unfortunately for me it seemed to be the only product I could find that actually fit with what I need to use it for. I've tried Open Office a number of times and each time it just didn't work for me (It would really help if they added a full fledged email client). It might just be me... The learning curve to use it properly whilst doing my job may be too high... it may just be trying to use it whilst everyone else is using office around me. I can't remember precisely. It's about a year since I last tried it.

Despite having about 10 different software software development suites on my machine and two major graphics packages I've always been of the opinion that word processors are actually the most complicated pieces of software to use 'properly'. Most people seem unaware of half the things they can actually do for you. I'm probably still one of them.

For the time being I've never found an alternative I like to office. *However* I've been using Office 2013 for about 4-5 months or so. It is undeniably the best one they've released in a long time. I think what makes it better for me is the number of long term bugs that have been fixed in 2013. The irritation factor has definitely stepped down from 'I'm close to hanging myself here' putting a simple design document together too 'hey this is almost usable'. Even Outlook doesn't have that wrist slitting feel to it anymore.

It's definitely worth it for that. It does need a more beefy machine to work nicely though. I think it makes use of hardware acceleration in places.

Re: It makes sense to tax the rich

Only so long as they stay around to tax

Re: Not True.

I have a Corei5 Win7 Laptop with 6GB of Memory and a Samsung 256GB SSD - encrypted with whole disk encryption which does slow it down - at a guess maybe 20% performance degradation.

I ran a quick test. It takes 21 seconds to hibernate. (Yes definitely hibernate not sleep)

It resumes from hibernate in 30 seconds to the desktop with all my programs running.

That's roughly the same time the same machine takes to boot with none of my programs running.

Definitely worth it in my opinion. I always use it. Have used it with various machines for about 10 years. Never had a problem with it. It's just nice to start off where you left off, and also means the machine isn't sucking juice when you don't need it.

Maybe once every couple of months I give it a reboot simply because the up time starts to become quite ramp up significantly quickly .... probably isn't necessary but kind of a habit.

Subsidies

Should we stop subsidizing all the research in to Nuclear Fusion too?

Will something better come along if we don't put money into it? Would we even have fission if it weren't for massive government research budgets?

Where would Rolls Royce Trent engine have been without subsidies to get them off the ground?

Re: @ Mr Chriz 12:17

I took antibiotics once in my life. Had a severe reaction to them and have never taken them again.

That said modern medicine is I believe a fantastic thing - and I wouldn't want to put anyone down who is involved in the research of such medicines . You can (with a bit of luck) live or at least have a life without it though and billions have done so before.

Industrial Sewage Systems are also undoubtedly one of the best inventions known to man. That said there's a again a hell of a lot of people managing just fine without. In places that are not over populated this is not such a big problem. Where the mud hut was shown I doubt they'd have a problem. Fresh water is more of a problem .. something i am always happy to help see resolved. Some of the large cities like in India where sewage is more problematic... I wouldn't like to live like that. Maybe much of the reason for that population density is possibly where they are pushing for western ideals.. (I'm no historian though so feel free to point me wrong).

I don't have all the answers for sure. It's sure good to know everyone else is so happy in their box offices and houses and the constant rush. That the endless supply of goods from slaves in China or where ever is enough to keep everyone going.

To start pushing our consumerism on other cultures though does scare me.

When these light devices break who will recycle them? I've visited one village who were making significant money from travelers. They started buying mobile phones and other electronic items. When they stopped working they'd throw the phones on the floor - expecting it to decompose like everything else in their lives.

Before long these places could become a dirty plastic dumping ground...kind of like around here actually...

The gravity light on it's own does sound like a great invention - simple and effective. Maybe on reflection such devices do have a place - where interference has already been too great. On the edge of Cape town there's people connecting their own power cables up to live electricity pylons to pinch electric for their televisions (probably donated innocently by someone thinking it can't do any harm (KZZZRT?!)

Maybe with a few years of dev they can produce a gravity powered TV?!

I stand by my original comment though... you don't need it in a mud hut.

Get down voting :-P

Re: @ Mr ChriZ: bye!

Actually a family and friends.

To start a new life you must give up an old one.

Everything else I couldn't give too hoots about!

Having been out to some of these cultures I would love to live a different life in a mud hut without all the western technologies. Many of the people in these cultures look at the way we live with pity.

If you live in a mud hut or similar as the people in the video did you don't need a gravity light to attract mosquito's harboring malaria or such like. You simply go to bed and get up when the sun comes up.

Re: I'll try and phrase the question carefully, but....

I find all these in ear headphones transmit the sound of the cable moving around. Drives me nuts - as a result I can't use them. Give me a pair of ear bud style ones any day.

No Meerkats - No Telly

Then the advertisers won't be willing to fork up ££££ to advertise - since no one will be watching their adverts, and the TV stations won't be able to afford to broadcast the shows. Soon followed by no TV Stations - or only TV Stations where you pay big bills in advance.

Re: "Chip level" is not an answer

It probably will work like Lojack/Computrace which is already built into most laptops now a days - but supposedly not actually turned on until you set it up as so.

Re: Breaking up something large is PATENTED?

Long a go people used to write something known as letters on something called paper.

Often one piece of paper wouldn't suffice so you sometimes had to send multiple pieces of paper in one letter!

Re: These have their flaws, too...

I've had this on a bike too. Once I even had it in a Nissan Micra. Had to move back and forward until the sodding thing detected me!

Re: iPad?

I don't see why your comments need to be quite so offensive to be honest. Welcome to the world of forums where people have different views to you. Just because you've a preconception in your mind as to what a PC is in your mind doesn't mean it's correct. Open your mind a bit.

For reference at least one edition of the Commodore 64 had "Personal Computer" stamped on the front of it and yet it bares little resemblance to what is currently considered a PC. It definitley didn't run Windows or Linux! Nor was it very upgradable.

A smartphone is a personal computer. A home computer used by different members of a family is obviously less personal but I guess it depends on how encompassing you want to make the word 'personal'.

Many of these tablet and phone devices you can plug into large screens, attach a wireless keyboard too - and do pretty much everything a desktop machine can do...Why does form factor or the type of memory it have suddenly affect whether it's a personal computer or not?

Re: Resolution

Agree with JDX.

I'm currently sat in front of a 23" widescreen with the same res as this 17" laptop.

I've got 20 / 20 vision so they tell me but I have to get within 10cm of the screen in order to see those pixels!

Re: It's been obvious for years that punishment does not deter;

"It's been obvious for years that punishment does not deter;

If it did, there would be no crime."

That is an absurd statement.

For all we know the amount of crime might be 4 or 5 times higher if there was no punishment.

All this proves is that it punishment does not deter everybody.

Would there be a reason to make examples out of people that were involved in the London Riots otherwise?

Re: Too late.

To be fair he did say pays the interest.

Not pays the difference.

Imagining there was £100 difference per drive and that there were 4 drives - £400. Interest at I dunno lets say 6% is £24 a year.

Not sure what that's supposed to mean but he is technically in the right ball park!