Lost in translation

Hello - English to Kingdom = qavan

qavan - Klingon to English = Hi baby

Can't imagine saying that to Worf without being "killed where you stand".

Backup Exec - DPM

In the education sector they've lost a lot of trade from schools ditching Backup Exec and moving to Microsoft DPM, as it comes free as part of the schools agreement.

or mentioned

Lens flare

The word "Infinity" already tainted

Thanks to BT.

Boulby Dark matter Lab

Although not as famous or glamorous as CERN, I can highly recommend a trip to Boulby:

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/boulby/default.aspx

Went a few years ago, it was fantastic.

Nothing new

This isn't a new phenomenon though. People have been hooking cameras up to kites and remote controlled helicopters for decades.

Charging in public areas

Obviously just a generalisation based on the photograph, but I wouldn't want to leave my car unattended while charging judging by the graff on the walls of that car park. Who's to say nefarious characters aren't going to arse about with the power cable for a laugh?

Local Heroes

The old BBC programme Local Heroes with Adam Hart Davis was a superb guide to where the best brains of Britain worked and lived.

21st cenutury technology on 20th century kit

The good thing is though, if you've still got your original kit you can still do fun things with them, such as all these CF and SD card adapters and virtual disks. Having a 256Mb SD card in my Beeb on a board that cost less than a tenner to make and having all those free disk images from the 'net on there is wonderful.

Joining drives

It was only the first drive that connected to the IF1 with a ribbon cable. Subsequent drives were connected by a connector like this: http://www.clive.nl/files/imagecache/detail/images/pict0840.jpg

and a plastic plate on the base of the microdrive was used to secure the drives together.

Still got mine, still working, along with the +D and various drives.

Microsoft Security Essentials and forced browser choice

On an XP machine I was working on this morning (I know, I know, but its old and only has 512Mb of RAM), it wouldn't allow me to download or install Microsoft Security Essentials unless I upgraded by browser to IE8.

Even though it wouldn't be used for web browsing, and if it were, Chrome would be used.

"different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work "

The author claims "Every single one I’ve encountered so far has a different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work "

Surely that shows why the whole thing is flawed if there's no standard?

Am I so wrong in wanting my OS to be "boring"?

The reason for an older couple....

is because Tito has seen what elderly couples in the UK do - drive long distances, stop (without getting out of the vehicle) to look at the scenery through the window while consuming a picnic, then driving back home again.

The new "Microsoft way"

Try as they might, nothing Microsoft does is encouraging me to give their devices a try.

They use awful irritating tunes in their TV adverts (The Lenka video and song is just too abstract for me), and the non musical ones use "celebs" like James Corden and Holly Willoughby.

Work colleagues who own Windows phones try and convince me that I'll "soon get used to the interface over time", and the lack of apps will soon change.

Sorry, but that's not a chance I'm willing to take when there's a brilliant, easy to use interface and app store already out there on the 'droids, and their phones are great value - such as the Orange Intel San Diego I bought last week for £70 from the Orange store (20% public sector discount and rest from my phone fund).

Power source

I've no problem with any power source (I just wish we'd use less of the stuff), but I get tired of the moaning about them being inefficient or useless when the wind isn't blowing. At least when they're sited the source of power (the wind) comes there naturally.

The same can't be said for obtaining and transporting all that coal or oil to the power stations, it doesn't just magically arrive there. A huge coal mound or spoil heap is just as unsightly as a wind turbine.

Low Cost?

Call me a tight Yorkshireman but when I see a "low cost" Android phone review I'm thinking more £99.

@Neil Morgan

Downvoted because you didn't know that Boddies moved out of Manchester years ago.

Plenty of other superior micro breweries in the NW though - and of course Hydes.

Bathroom issues

Lots of speculations about the bathroom / toilet issues, so as someone who works in education I'll offer some suggestions for "bathroom" tracking:

Toilets are the most common areas for vandalism, bullying, and general socialising - i.e. kids arranging with their mates from different classes to time their toilet trips so they can have a ten minute skive / smoke together.

Other kids bored of lessons ask for toilet trips and go for a general wander around the school, possibly causing disruption on the way.

"U turn" - or just listening to the people

Its interesting how Labour constantly ignored the people and pressed on with projects to suit them (wars, ID cards etc.), regardless of suitability or cost. But the Tories listen to feedback and its suddenly a "U turn" or "climbdown".

A better article

Would have featured things like those little remote control helicopters which are now a tenner at your local bargain shop.

Google maps not so perfect

For years Google put every suburb of Sheffield as "Norton".

Micro Men

I think I'll re-watch BBC's Micro Men, probably one of the best retro computer dramatisations ever.

@ "meh"

1. I've worked in various schools over the past decade and none of them have been "corporate Council driven". Academies are even further removed from council control.

2. PAT testing isn't always required, especially for new equipment.

3. No argument there! But I think the current curriculum is partly to blame. The IT teachers I've known have all been well skilled (mainly in software though)

Oliver Drage

Whatever happened in the case with Oliver Drage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11479831

Forget the past

One thing I see a lot of, particularly on here, is talk of life growing up in the 80s and programming on various computers, which "made" us the people we are today.

But things have changed spectacularly since that time, there is no evidence that a 21st century equivalent of what we had and did will work today, either with today's youth, or today's teaching practices and skills.

Is it perhaps Leshp?

Margaret Hodge - tax avoider

Excuse the source:

Multi-millionaire Labour MP's family business 'paid just 0.25% tax on its profits'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230915/Margaret-Hodge-Multi-millionaire-Labour-MPs-family-business-paid-just-0-25-tax-profits.html

Cambridge Z88

The Cambridge Z88 was also another portable that returned to how you left it after a power off.

Quatermass 2

QM2 had a couple of horrific bits - where they pulped the visitors to the site to block the tubes going to the big containers housing the "monster" when Quatermass was trying to kill it. No graphic gore needed, the screams were horrible enough when you were a child.

Even now when I drive in North Lincolnshire, seeing the signs for the real village of Winterton (the name of the town in the film) gives me a slight chill

Chiller

Chiller - Commodore 64:

http://www.commodorecomputerclub.com/images/103111/chiller.gif

Or how about the NES version:

http://www.gameclassification.com/EN/games/1930-Chiller/index.html

According to Frontier Elite 2.....

AC-B doesn't have any planets but Proxima Centauri has "Eden: World with weather water system and corrosive atmosphere". Nothing on the planet but Eden Station orbits.

Not fishy

Spidery. Or waspy.

Who's the ba****d in the black?

The Catholics?

Forth Vs Machine Code

FORTH may have been great at being faster than BASIC (if you didn't factor in all the extra time needed to learn Forth!), but any computer geek at the time would have been looking towards machine code.

The outstanding "Spectrum ROM disassembly" and David Webb's "Supercharge Your Spectrum" were the two treasured books to have & inspire you and are still on my bookshelf today.

2nd hand Grundig Opus (boxed) - £20 - Ebay

Great sound quality, works very well, worth every penny.

So who had all the tickets

for the women's football in Coventry and Cardiff on Wednesday, because the stadiums were barely a 1/4 full.

which was the first?

There were quite a few games of this genre. Atari's River Raid was very similar, and C64's Blue Max.