Posts by billse10

Re: Self-powering?

"Does /any device/ generate more energy than it consumes?"

A Northern line tube train fitted with the new "passenger frustration : electrical energy" conversion unit ....

Re: Perhaps..

i like this overall idea: £16 plus full retail cost of software to install it, therefore they should discount machines by £16 plus retail for software you don't want ...

£299 Inspiron 3000 (base model)

-£16 McAfee Live Safe remove

-£40 McAfee Live Safe 12 month subscription (approx avg of UK retail)

-£16 MS Office trial remove

-£16 MS Windows 8.1 remove

-£110 MS Windows 8.1 (PC World price, saw it yesterday & still laughing)

brand new PC for £101, with free shipping offer?

Oh OK, go on then Mr Dell, you've twisted my arm ....

Re: I dispair

"Is there no end to their lies, deceit, arrogance and ignorance?"

Conversely:

Is there no beginning to their honesty and competence?

Re: call me a cynic

"(As I understand it, this second factor is the official reason that folks like ATI don't just document their hardware and let the experts write the drivers.)"

At a guess, you could probably remove the word "just" from that sentence, so the rest of it couldn't really apply anyway? As I said though, a guess ....

Re: Database file compatibility

try MySQL

http://www.clusterdb.com/mysql-cluster/mysql-cluster-running-on-raspberry-pi

"who runs windows on Itanium these days?" Well, certainly no-one who wants to run Windows Server 2012 ;-)

Re: Probably because it is wrong

"PAEs should be branded, right down to the individuals running or supporting or enabling them, and banned from related activities"

More fun - if it's a non-performing PAE (ie one which does no R&D of it's own, just tries to make money off the efforts of others), then the accussed infringer should be allowed to choose random members of the PAEs management, staff and/or subcontractors, and make them explain under oath what a random patent clause means. If they can't, case dismissed and PAE required to pay all costs plus a huge punitive, with all claimed patents owned by that PAE granted a new status of "free of charge for any use whatsover", Oh, and it's lawyers disbarred.

Re: Avoid the commodity

"I'm not saying that all workloads can have their power significantly reduced, ...... running simple data processing workloads, and running web sites are hugely inefficient because of the way they have evolved and the tools used to write them."

Very true: why, for example, in a system specification I recently reviewed (it had come from a reasonably sized consultancy) have things like dual-socket x quad core boxes just to run caching in front of a web server farm? Surely that's the sort of job crying out for lower power boxes with lots of RAM, not big (ok, relatively big-ish) tin with RAID5 for the O/S (!) and SAN access for the cache data (again, "!") Surely a small (maybe 32 bit, maybe 64, does it matter for this task?) ARM server can do something as simple as a static file cache, with the correct software and configuration?

well if Mr Obama does, why shouldn't NASA? At least this is a more appropriate place .....

Re: Outrageous

"Firstly such a generic term should never have been granted as a trademark in the first place."

Next we'll have patents being granted for obvious ideas for which there are loads of examples of prior art that even the most cursory search would reveal.

Wait, the USPTO already does that. My mistake.

"every ISP for every big of dodgy / copyright infringing material they transmit"

under a strict interpretation of some of the half-dozen Home Office proposals on this over the last few years, that is EXACTLY what they would like to introduce, at the behest of the lazy organisations (like the FA or most of the music industry) who simply can't be bothered to identify actual infringers and proceed with evidence of infringing acts by named parties, but just want blanket bans.

Re: M$ again

that is possibly unfair.

One thing is definitely true, however: the only monopoly that is completely legal and is actively enforced across the EU is the EU itself

Re: This problem was solved in 2003

problem with that is most politicians will never have heard of RFCs - those that can spell it, that is.

Re: I thought it worked like this...

that highlights the stupidity of the tax rules, not whether or not someone should do it ...

Re: making it up

"Bit cheeky really, making something up and conning lots of gullible people into believing it"

Yes, that sort of thing should be left to the professionals, aka political parties

Re: Virgin Media tried this

a genuine AUP that just says "so long as you don't bugger up our network (or do stuff that's illegal), we really don't give a shit." would be good to see :-) Wonder if El Reg readers feel like starting an ISP?

Re: The term 'innovation' has been eroded beyond meaninglessness.

it's a terrible shame.

It's even more of a shame that USPTO knowingly and actively facilitated that erosion by granting patents on completely nebulous concepts that actually require little invention or research.

Next they'll do a patent on "politician spouts nonsense".

It's not non-obvious and it's not innovative, it happens all over the world.

:(

Re: Consequencies?

there won't be any consequences for the individuals concerned, will there though .. there never are. When was the last time that a govt department / local council actually named the individual(s) responsible and made them pay the fines themselves?

You're right, it's about time the people who accept the salaries for the jobs also accept the responsibilities, and face consequences when they do not, and are not allowed to use public funds to pay fines.

In other news, Southeastern have managed an entire week with every single train on time, and a squadron of flying pigs has been spotted.

Re: @billse10 and @Steve FOster

B) seems like Quebec doesn't want you doing business there. Can't go doing things for people who don't speak the right language, can you, wouldn't be right ... (although one of the funniest things I've read for ages is Stephen Clarke's "1000 Years of Annoying the French")

Maybe they should just have a vote on changing the constitutional make-up of the entire nation of Canada and not give a vote to anyone outside Quebec.

Oh, wait, Alec Salmond's already patented that idea in scotland ....