Posts by Phil W
230 posts • joined Wednesday 10th March 2010 12:39 GMT
Ask John Koenig what happened
Since this was presumably Moon Base Alpha, we better prepare to be moonless.
Re: Cloud != cluster
That's because people are abbreviating, and taking off the important adjective before the word cluster.
For instance Hyper-V clusters for the most part are Failover Clusters. The keyword being failover. Doesn't imply that there are shared processing resources, but does correctly imply that there is redundancy/failover.
That being said though NUMA spanning on Hyper-V clusters does mean resource sharing to an extent.
'THE' bigger problem with definition
Literally the problem is the word 'the'.
Saying things like "my data is in the cloud" is causing confusion among the end user, by which I mean office workers storing their files and using cloud hosted applications.
The confusion that it causes is, I've found, quite a number of them believe there is just one computing cloud that spans the whole world and everything cloud related is in it. They think Office 365, Dropbox, their Google Play music and our own internal servers are all part of this "The Cloud".
It creates unreasonable expectations of how they want things to work, and also feeds fears some have about Google stealing their work when they save it.
I know I'm asking the impossible but I'd like to see corporate marketing and advertising, particularly that aimed at the end user with limited knowledge, stop referring to their services as being "in the Cloud" and start referring to them as "Microsoft's Cloud services" (replace with relevant vendor name).
Re: @AC - Slow news day...?
Indeed, the argument that had this been a scuffle in a pub that it wouldn't of made publication is flawed.
Such scuffles do make news, just in relevant publications such as small newspapers local to the incident.
In this case the incident relates to geeky sci-fi types so The Register has quite good reason for posting it, given the nature of the majority of their readership.
Not sure why the BBC bothered though.
Posted in What is this white van with unusual antennas doing? Spotted in the City of London near St Pauls.
Purely guessing but I'd suggest it was an Outside Broadcast vehicle for a relatively small (i.e. poorly funded) TV or radio station.
Re: What's larger?
Hadn't heard of those 2, they are ridiculous, especially the Mega.
What's larger?
"up to Samsung Galaxy Note in size - the largest smartphones might have trouble though"
What smart phone is there that is larger than the Note? As a Note II owner I struggle to think how one would handle anything larger.
Re: Oh Dear
Except bounce back was recently invalidated by a US court wasn't it? Or at least Samsung devices were found to not be infringing.
Re: THere is no such thing as fair
Inflation, money supply and macroeconomics are irrelevant. They relate to the price of something varying over time as the economy locally and globally changes.
The point that was being made, that I was countering, was that the phone should be sold at different prices to different people at the same moment in time depending on the contents of their wallet.
Certainly the factors you mention will alter the price of the phone, but they would and should alter the price for everyone.
Re: Oh Dear
What they should of done is release the N950, as both a Maego and Android (with different product names to avoid confusion obviously).
At the time the N950 was a fantasticly spec'd bit of a kit. It looked great with it's metal casing and having a QWERTY slider was and still is an unusual feature that there is a market for. Especially if it can be done without increasing the phone to the size of a brick like the N900, and the N950 wasn't a bad size at all.
Re: THere is no such thing as fair
"It is unfair that these will not be given out on a whatever-you-can-afford basis. eg. $1 for a poor person, $1000 to a well employed person and $100k to an Evil Corporate Bastard."
What in the world is fair about that idea? Items have a value, the value of that item does not change depending on how much money you have.
The phone is not being produced as a charitable commodity to be given away. The organisation is not, and not aiming to be, anything like the One Laptop Per Child scheme.
No-one NEEDS a mobile phone many people, including those who could afford one, live quite happily without them.
This phone is only intended to be "fair" in the sense that it doesn't cause excessive damage to the environment to produce, and doesn't depend on or support forced/slave labour or fascist/totalitarian states. It seems to be making decent efforts in those regards.
Are you suggesting we also do the same for bread? 1p a loaf for the poor and £500 a loaf for anyone with money (convert to currency of your choice). Heck why not do it for everything, water, milk, gas, electricity, internet access. I can see one benefit to the last two in that it might keep fools like you from posting nonsense.
Re: Decisive action and commitment
To add to that....no UK government since Thatcher has really been able to make decisive actions and commit to them fully.
Decisive action and commitment
The success of a scheme like this is dependent on decisive action and commitment to the project.
If you're going to replace a current and working system, a system that has to be known about and recognized by global travel companies and international governments, then you need to commit to it and do it totally and ensure all of the aforementioned parties are aware of it.
Regardless of whether the concept of the ID cards was good or not, the only way it would ever have worked would have been to stop issuing passports and start issuing ID cards instead nationwide, phasing out passports as they expire. Anything less just leads to confusion and a system no-one is properly aware of or understands.
Re: I predict
"hind-lick maneouvre" what you and your check-in buddy get up to, and lick, in your own time is your business of course.
However I think the Heimlich Maneuver would be more medically advisable than any sort of hind licking.
Re: telnet
J.G.Harston, I'd point out to you that my reply was in response to "My Alter Ego" who said he needed to download putty on Vista. So holds no relevance to your situation.
If you can't add telnet to Windows then I doubt you can download and run executables either? Even if you could your firewall issue still stands.
Perhaps you could try this at home if it troubles you so greatly.
Re: telnet
Or you could have just gone to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows Features on or off and then ticked the Telnet client box. Same in windows 7 and 8.
Tinny shit
Mr Dabbs, I would contest your opinion that all music sounds like "tinny shit" on a laptop.
Certainly this is true for the most part, and as someone who enjoys both good quality heavy weight vinyl pressings and 320kbps MP3s through a fairly nice Wharfedale 5.1 system, I agree that no laptop can compete with a proper Hi-Fi system.
That said, try listening to some music on a Dell XPS. I have a Dell XPS 15 (L501x) which has some of the best audio quality I've ever encountered in a mobile device on the right side of £1000. This is probably due in part to the dedicated bass speaker in the bottom of the laptop.
Sigh, this time the pirates really have ruined it for everybody.
There are plenty of good reasons not to allow the EME. As is argued by those fighting it, it does go against the core principals of the W3C and an open interoperable standards based web.
I'm opposed to DRM anyway, because it just doesn't do the job its supposed to. But if they have to have it let them keep it as a browser plugin like they do now.
The FSF and other legitimate organisations might have been able to successfully win that argument, but as soon as the various pirate parties signed their names to it they more than likely ensured that the EME will be sanctioned and ratified.
Re: He'll probably/hopefully get sued
Ah, I haven't read the blog since it's marked NSFW and I'm at work. El Reg does not mention the ownership of the credit used for the porn subscription anywhere.
I'm still not sure it's an appropriate response but there is it at least evidence.
Re: Excellent!
Oh really? Which evidence is that?
As far as I can see all we, and the victim, know is that:
1) He has had his laptop and credit cards stolen
2) The person tagged 'Plumpy' is now in possession of it.
3) 'Plumpy' has a subscription to a sexual fetish site that he would/is embarrassed about the world being aware of.
There does not appear to be any evidence that 'Plumpy' is actually the thieve, purely that he has the device now. Signing up to a sexual fetish web site does not make you a thief.
He'll probably/hopefully get sued
As per title, the 'nerd' video game designer who is posting all this embarrassing material about the man he has named 'Plumpy' will quite probably, and in my opinion hopefully, get sued by 'Plumpy' assuming it turns out he wasn't the person that stole it.
Just because you know someone has your stuff doesn't give you the right to accuse them of theft, unless you know they took it and more importantly have evidence that they did. It doesn't give you the right to make public, their private information and personal interests or habits that may be embarrassing or compromising.
Look at the story in the news recently of that mac book which turned up in Iran.
The whole point of software like Hidden, is to either allow you to pass it on to the police or perhaps to locate and confront the person who has your stuff.
If the police are useless and you choose to pursue it yourself then the correct approach is to contact the person saying something like
"Excuse me but my laptop was stolen and I think you have it, I have evidence that shows you've been using it. Can I have it back please? It would be easier than contacting the police."
Rather than
"You f***ing t**t you've nicked my stuff you c**t. Give it back or I'm going to keep exposing your dirty secrets you sick f**k"
Re: The results for the 3rd quarter of 2013??
Indeed I was just considering that myself. Either the article is referring to projected figures or means Q3 2012. Who knows which?
I suspect that they would argue that rather than ripping you off on the cheaper airtime tariff they're giving you a discount on the phone on the more expensive tariffs.
Which is not a wholly unreasonable position.
Posted in Android in cars
Third Party
Manufacturers don't put Android in cars that I'm aware of, but you can get head units with Android on. All of the ones I've seen are double din so you'd need a car with that capacity, but there may be some single ones.
I've considered getting one, but having my phone or tablet in a cradle is just as easy to use, and less faff.
Pairs of letters
"which contain one of the following pair of letters in the serial number"
"J1, J2, J3, J4, J5, J6, J7, J8, J9."
I'm pretty sure that the numbers 1-9 are numbers not letters.
However perhaps I'm being realllllllly stupid?
Re: Alternatively
The best way around the problems of delayed updates or reduced functionality is to get a deal through Carphone Warehouse, Phone4U or similar. Get the handset you want on the tariff you want, but the handsets are always unlocked and are the manufacturer's version not some operator modified one.
Re: Wrong...
Depends how you define subsidizing.
What the operators are essentially doing is giving you a personal loan for the value of the handset, with what works out to a fairly good interest rate, which is a form of subsidy. Getting a personal loan for around £500 over 18-24 months with a comparable interest rate would be basically impossible.
Sure the handset is cheaper to buy outright with a SIM free plan, in terms of total cost. If I could afford to do that I would.
But as I pointed out originally, most customers including myself, don't have the capital to spend to do that.
Whether you call it a subsidy, or a handset payment plan or whatever, it's still a useful and necessary business model.
Re: Wrong...
Indeed, i think separating the phone and services contracts is great.
I was just criticizing what the article's author suggested, of it being a path towards not subsidizing handsets.
Wrong...
"With any luck for O2, this could be a clever step before the operator can drop subsidised handsets entirely."
That would only be lucky if they want to go out of business.
The vast majority of retail customers can't afford £3-500 on a new handset as an upfront cost. That's why the current system exists and works.
Re: Content should be free
It's all very well saying if the book costs £50 and the course is taught from that book, the course should cost £50.
But who's going to pay for the staff doing the teaching from that book?
Sure for the most part it may seem like they're just reading the book to you.
But what if you read the book, and don't understand something and need to ask questions?
Re: You can figure out if the person presenting the course isn't an expert pretty quickly
It depends, if we're talking about Uni students at 18-21 years old, then chances are if one or two start whinging they all will. Even if they don't really feel that way.
Also at that age they more often than not don't know what they need to learning, I certainly didn't even though I thought I did.
Re: FREE video Games Courses ONLINE...
"they're mostly general programming courses"
Yes, they would be.
Learning how to build a game using somebody else's game engine like UDK or Cryengine is not really a useful skill to bring to the industry. 5 (or less) years after you qualify most of what you learned will be irrelevant because Cryengine will have been abandoned and some new games company will have bought out a new engine.
Learn programming, so you can build your own engine.
Learn how to use OpenGL/DirectX, regardless of the language you program in, they're not about to go out of fashion any time soon.
Learn graphic design in some of the major software package used for creating textures for games.
Re: part time courses
Oh you can learn chemistry without a proper lab and safety kit, but you can only if you get everything right first time.
Get anything wrong and you + your house/garden shed will be left as a smoldering pile of rubble!
Re: Professional certification
Without knowing what field of IT you're in (since you didn't say) it's hard to suggest, what employers might like to see.
But CompTIA do a variety of courses in different fields.
Or perhaps Microsoft certs of some kind?
Re: You can figure out if the person presenting the course isn't an expert pretty quickly
These sort of complaints tend to come from people who are practical by nature, when studying on an academically orientated course.
For example computer science students complaining because they're learning all about binary maths and data modelling, but not learning how to build servers.
To some degree I used to make those sorts of complaints, although I did enjoy the academic study.
Now in my professional life, I appreciate the value of that academic teaching because when I get stuck with bizarre problems in practical work I have a solid theoretical knowledge to fall back on to help me fix it.
It's hard to appreciate that when you're doing the study sometimes though.
Re: Content should be free
As a continuation of the above rant, I would expand by saying that if your opinion is content creators should give content away for free and charge for actual face time and feedback from the content creators then look at it logically compared to other content industries.
I can't see it working well in TV/movie studios, or fiction authors, stopped charging for the films/TV series/books they write and produce and only charge for meetings and interviews with the actors/authors.
Re: Content should be free
Care to clarify why this is your position? Because it makes no sense to me.
Content of educational courses, be they academic courses or industry qualifications from vendors or standards bodies, costs money to produce.
Whether an individual writes the material or it is the product of an institution/organisation, and will have cost them time and/or money to produce the course content. So why should they give away for free something which has cost them money to produce?
You wouldn't expect the text books you need for a college/university course to be free. You either buy them or borrow them from a library. Equally, in house produced course materials should be either on loan or available to purchase for those who are not paying for actual course attendance.
As far as I see it, if the college/university or industry body I am paying to study with gives away it's course material for free to anyone then it's actually me as a paying student who is funding that. The money to produce the material has to come from somewhere.
Re: Not hacking...
Not really John.
If you don't do the pissing, and just leave a note saying "thank me for not stealing your radio/car" you're part way there.
But to make your comparison even more accurate, the car would also have to be locked, but with the key on the floor next to it.
Re: @Phil
It wouldn't be for the same reason that someone picking up the spare key from under your mat and letting themselves in wouldn't be 'Breaking and Entering' since there is no 'breaking' involved.
To qualify as hacking requires some level of technical work to defeat,bypass,override or otherwise circumvent security measures. Reading an unsecured file, then typing in the plain text username and password found within it, hardly qualifies as any of those I would say.
Not saying it's morally or legally right, anymore than someone letting themselves into your house with the poorly hidden spare key is.
But calling the perpetrator a hacker is like calling the person who used your key "a highly intelligent and elusive cat burgler".
Not hacking...
As per title, this can hardly be considered hacking.
It's like saying you hacked into someone's PC, using the username and password they kept on a post note hidden in their desk drawer.
Re: No no no no no no.
I never said that covering up war crimes helped promote peace, or that I condoned doing so. I don't.
I think what you'll find I actually wrote was that exposing them doesn't help bring peace. An opinion backed up by the fact the US has made no change in military policy or actions since Manning's leaks.
While I agree with your statement :
"One of the best ways to stop forces personnel being exposed to danger is to stop invading other people's countries"
Manning's actions have in no way prevented this sort of action from happening or continuing to happen.
No no no no no no.
Bradley Manning has done absolutely nothing to aid world peace.
What he has done is potentially expose his fellow forces personnel to danger by leaking classified material to someone he knew would make it publicly available.
You could argue that he helped expose illegal or improper activities on the part of the US military, but that's not really work towards peace.
Re: OFCOM. What are they good for ?
While I am not defending OfCom, since they're as useless as a chocolate fire guard, I have to say that I wouldn't have expected to get a decent clarification of regulations over the phone.
As with most organisations, the people that answer the phones are largely there to either point you in the direction of finding the information you want, or to placate idiots complaining about nonsense.
If you have a serious issue, I suspect you may get a better response by sending them a letter by snail mail. If you're lucky it might actually get handed to someone who knows what they're talking about and you may get a response more in line with what you were hoping for.
Re: Ofcom decided that Net Neutrality is a non-issue in the UK
The official body for communications regulation in the UK?
Deciding things like is exactly what their job is.
Whether it should be, and whether they're any good at it, is another matter entirely.
But that's an issue to be dealt with by writing to your MP, and/or voting for a political party that will change the situation.
In the USA, Trademarks must be actively enforce in order to remain valid and enforceable. So should you violate one then get sued but can prove the trademark owner has previously failed to prevent use/abuse of their trademark, then you will be safe.
That only applies in the USA as far as I'm aware, in other jurisdictions trademarks are enforceable for as long they are in use/owned by someone.
Copyright and patents are enforceable at any time up until their expiration, in all jurisdictions that I'm aware of.
Re: Doesn't he know...
"No, being infatuated with your 'girlfriend' is."
Eh? What?
Am I misreading or are you suggesting that no-one older than high school age should have a girlfriend?
By that logic all people older than high school age must be either, a) single b) married immediately upon leaving high school or c) get married at some point in there adult life without having any kind of relationship first.
Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear....
As per title. It's clearly the way forward.
Admittedly there is currently the problem of what to do with the waste. However the more money we invest in nuclear, the more people will work in the sector. The more work and research there is in the sector the more likely we are to come up with good ways of reducing and/or dealing with the waste.
Also, and I'm entirely speculating here, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the cost both financially and in carbon footprint terms of building wind farms etc and the infrastructure to get the power into the grid from them is actually the same or higher than that of gas or nuclear.
For reasons that I can't think of, other than stupidity, the 'save the environment' folk never seems to consider the total cost of building and implementing things. They only seem to see the CO2 and other waste levels it produces once in operation.
I'd be very interested to see an accurate side by side comparison of:
1) The cost, both financial and in carbon footprint and environmental contamination, of building a 500MW wind farm, and maintaining it to run for 40 years.
2) The cost, both financial and in carbon footprint and environmental contamination, of building 500MW nuclear power plant, and maintaining fueling it for 40 years. Plus closing it down after and securely storing the waste.
Re: you know,
Quite so.
It would be more accurate to say that, saying you were cruel and also unkind is akin to being accused of genocide and also murdering a lot of people of a particular race.
Unkindness essentially just being a lesser level of cruelty.
Children and contracts...
I was under the impressions, perhaps mistakenly, that you had to be above a certain age to have a mobile phone contract (not sure if this would be 16 or 18?).
That being the case, there should be no circumstance where a change in prices on a contract should result in a message to a child.
Unless of course a child has a mobile phone on a contract in their parents name, but if Voda are aware of that situation they should be sending the information to the bill payer not the user. If that situation exists but Voda are not aware they can't be held responsible.
Re: North-West not North Midlands
As a lifetime resident of Cheshire, I will say with certainty it is in the North West not the Midlands.
Also see the following pictures/pages...
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/heritage/lbsearch.htm
http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/maps/england/
Cheshire is the North West. The Midlands begins at the the borders of Shropshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
Also, while Lancashire and Cumbria and also technically in the North West, anything North of Preston or Blackpool may safely be classified as 'The Deep North'.
