Posts by pctechxp
1010 posts • joined Friday 11th May 2007 19:41 GMT
I hear
they are planning to change it to cif
I'll get my coat
Re: machines that go ping
That'll be the microwave in the staff canteen.
Simple answer
Paint the cabinets black and fit them with a stereo system playing a repeat recording of a Bentley/Mercedes or Rolls Royce gently idling over the fan noise.
Max Headroom
Now now now that would be ca ca ca cool
Good news for IT then
As there won't need to be vast spaces taken up by cooling equipment.
Posted in 20 years of GSM digital mobile phones
@Tanuki
My first mobile was a circa 1998 Ericsson S868.
That thing held onto a signal like a dog to a bone, it had buttons, a two line monochrome dot matrix screen and great sound quality.
Today's touch screens are all about gimmicks and not functionality, bring back functional phones please, I can't stand touch screens and phones that can't hold a signal.
Why not
Just add a keyboard.
And there was I thinking
Google now had a tentacle into every ISP in the world.
History repeats itself
The cable might be free once its laid but its unlikely that providers in the the US will give him free rack space, power and peering and transit.
Arab investors may fund it for a time (as for the moment they have little else to spend their caverns of cash on) but they certainly aren't stupid and are unlikely to fund it forever if it doesn't make a return.
Here in the UK plenty have tried to make free Internet (or free after an initial fee) work as a business model, all were shortlived after telcos withdraw support after usage outstripped estimates by an order of magnitude.
Anyone remember RedHotAnt or LibertySurf?
Turning its back on system builders?
MS has seen the success Apple has had when it controls both the hardware and software and has had quite a bit of success itself (after the Red Ring of Death issue) with the Xbox 360 console and Xbox Live service.
It thinks at least it can repeat this success in the tablet space and take 100% revenue, cutting out the system builders and maybe offering a subscription model to finance the device and ongoing service charges, this is probably why they are offering direct discounts and not doing this through the channel, they'd much rather people buy a Surface.
Many readers will say 'I'll just switch to Linux' but the problem is Linux DOES NOT drive hardware innovation, like it or not standards are still dominated by the demands placed by Microsoft software on hardware.
I don't want to see the demise of the desktop but If MS succeeds in what it is trying to do I see a lot of small system builders going out of business and the big companies relegated to selling printers and hosted services,
Sad but true.
The only tablet I'll consider
Will be the Surface Pro.
Why:
1. It'll have a proper CPU so will run a full fat version of Windows meaning I can run the applications I need/want to when I'm away from my desktop.
2. I'll no doubt be able to link the peripherals I need from time to time to it such as an external DVD or hard drive.
3. It's lighter than a laptop/Ultrabook so transportation is easier.
4. It'll have a mouse and keyboard so I can actually do meaningful work on it unlike the iPad posers that can only post short messages to facebook and twitter because its too annoying but hey they feel good because they shelled out 500+ quid on it so it must be good.
Initially at least LTE will be for the moneybags like the Salesforce CEO and as others have said, smart business owners won't want the vendor lock in.
We already have the tools we need, that is VPN for offsite access to customer records stored on server cluster or if you really must use the marketing term 'the private cloud'
Other Netgear kit too
I have a DGN2200 v1 ADSL modem/router which I purchased from PC World and it does exactly this.
I went back to PC World and they swapped the router and exactly the same thing happened, went back a third time and was told this was normal for Netgears.
Router itself is rock solid though
@Irongut
It was found they were B-b-bad to the bone
Mine's the leather one with the fake beard hanging out of the pocket
Let's hope
They don't make them speak with that annoying synthesised American accent their old speak and spell/maths/write education toys used to use.
Posted in Hardware fault?
I could make a gag about PC versus Mac but i won't
What version of the Mac OS is the machine running? (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion)?
Virtual queuing is best
For stuff I really must have on launch day (Alan Wake was the last game I craved this much) I just preordered it.
Back to the future
The old TACS and ETACS phones (analogue 1G phones used in the UK) did not have a SIM, they were programmed with the associated number, if you lost it your number went too as far as I'm aware and number portability was writing it down in your diary and putting that in your pocket.
Now this would rely on the operator releasing control of the phone so you could switch, bit of a retrograde step methinks which is why Apple likes it.
Apple will tie you to an operator that pays them the most money.
apple buys up all tier one connectivity providers
Prevents none Apple devices from connecting unless hefty royalties are paid, renames it the AppleCore
Not a reality now but I bet that's what they;d love to do.
Posted in Raspberry Pi production back in Blighty
Great news
I'll wait for them to exhaust the chinese stock then I'll buy one.
Mine's the coat with the Union Jack on the back.
Oh joy another touchscreen
Just like every other phone.
The market is about to be flooded by
lots of cheap servers.
Blackberry not dead yet
There are plenty of people that prefer a physical keyboard.
Only device I know of that provides a complete encrypted connection over the manufacturer's own IP backbone.
Encryption has not been cracked.
Nice lady, shame about the lack of technical savvy
While this lady has my respect for quite a few things she has done to help people like setting up Childline or presenting consumer advice TV pieces her comments show complete ignorance of the technical practicalities of what she is asking for, its a tad different than ordering 500 phone lines from BT.
As others have said, responsible adults should not leave their kids in front of the computer unattended, it is not a baby sitter and any technical measures will be circumvented by the unscrupulous and just lead to legitimate non adult material being blocked when the filter code malfunctions which causes aggravation for the rest of us.
Better still keep them off the net till they are 18.
tough choice
For me though it has to be the spud based dish FTW
Utelus
'cos we're buggered if we know.
Hmmmm thought about this myself
But has been said, if any man, woman or machine screws up your eyes there's no going back
I'll stick with glasses or contacts.
Posted in Assange calls for help from … Quakers?
How will he get to Ecuador?
As Hague has said he won't have safe passage out of the UK.
Here's hoping a helicopter arrives and rope ladder descends that he has to clamber up.
That should make interesting news rather than just showing the front of the embassy with cops outside.
Or
It could just mean any USB device so that could include a USB optical drive.
Proof that
greed will be your undoing, unless you are a banker of course.
The ultimate bacon sarnie
Get some lean, good quality unsmoked back bacon.
Fry it to your particular opinion of done in olive oil
A nice fresh baguette dipped in the essence, lay on the bacon and enjoy.
Get good quality bacon and you don't need no stinkin' sauce!
What if
It gets stuck in a reboot loop
Fair play to her I say
She's obviously got more guts than a lot of people that have posted and certainly more guts than I would have but then again I'm no fan of heights.
All the best to you, donation coming shortly.
@squilookle
Good luck with getting your employer to pay you in cash.
outages will happen sometime but these do seem to be occurring a little too often to be routine failures.
Posted in Cockfighting Reg hack cursed with cancer
senseofhumour.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close
Obviously the flamer's sense of humour process failed.
While I'm definitely not in favour of animal cruelty I can determine humour from genuine intent which the flamer obviously couldn't.
Love the poster.
Really funny stuff as always Lester, keep up the good work.
Re: @AC The Beatles thing
Sorry the domain is www.applecorps.com which redirects to http://www.thebeatles.com/
Re: Iceberg dead ahead...
Couldn't agree more.
Small businesses might take this up but I doubt corporates will.
Apple is
Just better at marketing bullshit than Microsoft.
How many Apple servers do you have in your data centre versus Windows or even Linux ones?
AC flameproof mask as the Appletards will try and flame me.
If we have to be federated with anyone
I'd rather we become the 51st State
Mine's the leather one with the stars and stripes on the back.
Posted in Nokia after the purge: It's so unfair
Alas poor Nokia
You used to make phones so well.
I used to be a huge fan of Nokia phones, they were solid and dependable.
I love what I do for a living (if I didn't why would be a reading an IT publication) but I don't want my phone to be anything other than just that, my mobile phone, I don't want a mini replica of my desktop.
I've owned a Nokia 3310 (Excellent phone) 3510i (not bad but screen looked a bit washed out) 6230i (superb phone I'd still be using if the service provider I was with at the time hadn't given me the wrong unlocking code when I wanted to move)
I then switched to Sony Ericsson and came back to Nokia when I bought a 6700 Classic which was good but the keypad build quality wasn't the best.
Then switched to HTC (which was useless), SE and now am using a Nokia Asha 300 which is ok but does not have the solid build feel of Nokias of old.
Why don't they just go back to making phones as they used to as I'm sure there's others out there just like me that think that one Android Smartphone or Windows Smartphone is much like the next one.
Vista 2.0
Tried this on a test PC at work and could only stand it for 10 minutes its so bad.
May-Jo Foley's blog entry here http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsofts-windows-8-release-preview-whats-in-and-whats-out/12826?tag=mantle_skin;content indicates Microsoft intend to stop hacks to bring back the Start Menu.
While some can draw parellels with the demise of Program Manager in favour of the Start Menu this really is a retrograde step.
With Vista the interface looked nice but the 'engine' of the OS was neglected while with Windows 7 they fixed that but with this they've just got it all wrong.
Will they never learn
People don't want an OS that just looks cool, they want one that WORKS.
MS refocus your efforts on making it work and leave the UI alone.
@Irongut
Simples, he'll just need a second laptopmabob and a lorrylad of Proplus
Posted in Hands on with the Motorola Razr Maxx
remember
The quoted battery times are 'under optimum conditions' which means they've probably tested it right next to a test cell antenna
Result, you won't get anywhere near the quoted times.
And a fixed battery these days?
Oh wait, like HTC and the late Sony Ericsson, they've got Apple envy.
Freesat/Freeview streaming support
Standard def requires 2 MB downstream at least and HD a minimum of 3.5 MB and preferably 4 or better so if your line runs at 1.5 your out of luck, chuck unless you want to watch constant buffering.
Posted in Host recommendations.
Zen
Would agree with the above, the broadband and landline is terrific too.
Happy customer for nearly two years.
Posted in Ten... Ultrabooks
An important question no one appears to be asking
How do you go about backing up the software images on these things or are you in the Apple situation where you are dependent on the manufacturer continuing to host the image for your particular system or are you expected to purchase a USB flash drive/HDD to back up the image onto.
Or is it dependent on a useless recovery partition?
@AC - So you can sell software you have acquired...
Not sure whether you have seen the story elsewhere about the patent M$ has filed.
Somewhere in the not too distant future Windows will stream from the cloud as will Office I'll bet, why do you think the new Windows has an app store?
And then of course there's apple with Lion, Mountain Lion and their app store with no disks.
