Re: The sad, but perhaps quite probable thing
I think you are describing "Trigger's Broom" here - not a space probe....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE
Posts by Dr Dre
20 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Dec 2013
Voyager 2 receives and executes first command in 11 months as sole antenna that reaches it returns to work
The CIA's 'entire' collection of UFO records has been made available for you to sigh at
Microsoft has Windows 1.0 retrogasm: Remember when Windows ran in kilobytes, not gigabytes?
Wednesday 3rd July 2019 21:33 GMT
Re: Win3.0
> Am I imagining it or wasn't there also a little flurry of (dunno what to call them) character-mode GUIs? They would split up your screen into "windows" and you could do different things in each, eg calculator in one and a wordstar-y sort of WP in another.
>Is my memory playing me false?
You remember well Obi Won. Framework by Forefront (later Ashton-Tate) was one such office suite.
It could do all sorts of jolly things with macros, always impressed people seeing multiple frames opening and closing as if by magic as it worked away on converting a purchase schedule to a works order, then despatch note and invoice.
Cloud Printing from a Chromebook: We try it out on 8 inkjet all-in-ones
Thursday 11th December 2014 10:55 GMT 
Easier and Cheaper
You could just take the sensible approach - Raspberry Pi as a Cloud Print Server - takes a few moments to set up - very simple - and then you can print to anything - I've got a network connected Xerox 6600DN and a Canon 9200 connected to the Pi USB port - both work fine for Chrome Printing. If I want to edit and print high quality photographs I would use my Mint desktop for that sort of work - Chromebook screens are not colour calibrated for a start.
Broadband sellers in the UK are UP TO no good, says Which?
Tuesday 18th November 2014 09:21 GMT
Re: Not this bloody chestnut again
Replying to Stephen Jones - easy way to pay for universal fibre to the home is to cancel HS2 and use the estimated 50 billion to actually do something useful - by the time HS2 is finished will we really need to commute from Manchester to London in 90 minutes when we can appear virtually anywhere in the world, in under a second?
Whitehall and Microsoft thrashing out 1-year NHS WinXP lifeline
Tuesday 25th March 2014 15:39 GMT
"Keep in mind that, had you guyz had ANY CLUE or least listened, you would have gone the web standards route, like many of us freetards TOLD YOU as early as 2000"
I was busy pushing options other than MS long before 2000 laddy. Some of us have been in this game a long time, and the errors and problems you are seeing are because of a political decision , taken years ago - not because those of us responsible for the strategic direction of IT in the public sector were keen on Windows.
Our advice was ignored by our masters - and it has always been thus.
Thursday 20th March 2014 12:09 GMT
Hey - you're singing to the choir here.
To defend the indefensible a little though - part of the reason that all these old systems are in use is that we were told we mustn't spend on them as they'd be replaced by the National Programme for IT systems.
When that (predictably) didn't happen, there has been a semi-panic of trusts either buying new(er) systems (often properly configured version of the ones that failed during the whole NPfIT process) or starting work on updating the old ones. This often also means that the old PAS and clinical systems suppliers lost a lot of highly specialiased staff as NPfIT meant that a lot of them would be losing all their customers shortly, and the ones they had weren't spending anything with them.
But a PAS is a compex system and peoples live depend on it being right - and even where two Trusts run the same PAS, they will use it and have if configured very differently - so the updating, testing, configuring, re-testing process is slow.
Partly due to the budget cuts (more nurses fewer managers actually means fewer back room staff all round, and much less money for new PC's that will actually run anything later than XP) people are trying to do all this reconfiguration with too few staff, while at the same time trying to keep the old creaking systems running.
On top of all that, the government like to meddle, and the whole budgetary and reporting structure has changed 'to put GP's in control' and that mess has to be mopped up by the same people. It's not a good situation - but the people at the coal face are working hard to sort it out, despite what the press may say and what the general public think of this extended support deal.
This deal has not been made because we didn't want to upgrade to Windows7 - it's because we haven't been able to up to now.
Thursday 20th March 2014 10:38 GMT 
The reason so many NHS trusts haven't yet completed (or in some cases, started) their migration from XP is nothing to do with the PC's themselves.
It's the archaic systems they connect to and that are fundamental to the running of GP's surgeries, Primary Care organisations and Acute Trusts.
A lot of the clinical and patient systems are spec'd to run in IE on the desktop - and in some cases that still means IE6 or (at best) 7.
The Trusts can't gamble on using a later version as the systems suppliers can't guarantee that when you save a patient record that it will really happen.
So - it's lazy good-for-nothing PAS suppliers to blame for this putrid stinking mess - mostly.
Improbable: YOU gave model Lily Cole £200k for her Impossible.com whimsy-site
Tuesday 25th March 2014 15:09 GMT
Tip of the iceberg
This is almost certainly not the worst waste of public money that is happening,but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when a millionaire is given £200k of public money, to set up a website for which there appeared to be no demand, and if there was a demand, it could have been done for £200. It's not as if it needs to be hosted anywhere with a lot of bandwidth. Someone's bedroom on ADSL would seem to be plenty.
This needs to be seen against the background of disabled people being made homeless because they had a spare bedroom, of the same people being told they are well enough to work (including a friend of mine who died of terminal cancer 3 days after the letter telling him he was well enough to work was written), of cuts to the NHS, cuts in roads, education and just about everywhere you might need a service from the government. The only place not being cut is the government and their immediate support network. We are really not all in this together are we.
Booze and bacon sarnies: A recipe for immortality?
Microsoft chairman John Thompson: Redmond looks 'like IBM in 1990'
Top Brit docs wade into GP data grab row, demand 'urgent' NHS England talks
Tuesday 18th February 2014 15:13 GMT
NHS blocking the NHS
Trying to access the link to the care.data website in your article, from a PC on my desk on the NHS network brings up a series of dire warnings...
Warning: Questionable Internet use policy
UsrViewBlocked_warn
Reason: Downloads site
Site: https://dl.dropboxuserco...156524/caredata/index.htm
The organisation’s Internet access and usage policy suggests you should not be visiting this website. Transferring data to an external website may infringe the internet usage policy. Please think very carefully before proceeding. If in doubt, please contact a member of the Information Governance Team or refer to the specific policies on the intranet.
So - I'm not going to be able to opt-out from work - and neither are a million other people.
EU network tech boss: Europe to take the lead on 5G (thanks, Huawei)
Virgin Media's flaky broadband network turns Bolton off
Thursday 6th February 2014 17:03 GMT
Re: Virgin Media have lost the plot
I don't know how you can say that they throttle the bandwidth to the point that it's useless. I'm on their excellent 60meg service and it just works. I've never had a problem with the bandwidth being throttled - even when downloading large files (for example a Ubuntu image) - it all just seems to work merrily. Downloads seem to happen at the advertsied speed - apart from occasionally when the serving site seems to struggle for bandwidth.
I only use the superhub as modem connected to my own Asus router and I can't remember the last time I had to reboot it.
Coming to Virgin from BT is was like chalk and cheese - despite being less than a kilometre from the BT exchange the mix of aluminium BT wires and general lack of investment in the system gives me the option of 1 meg (on a good day) using the BT infrastructure or (if I wanted it) 120 meg on Virgin - plus a good choice of TV without defacing my house with large aerials and/or dish.
Virgin have their faults - who among us doesn't - but throttling their broadband to the point where it's useless isn't one of them. I can only imagine that you are downloading lots of very large files constantly to hit the limits where they apply a throttle (and then you still get 5 megs - which is 5 times what BT can supply to me) - I really don't need to fill the house with drives full of dodgy downloads to enjoy life.
Dell confirms Chromebook for Blighty
Monday 6th January 2014 14:33 GMT
What's a shame is not the rpice or the spec or the OS, but that people feel the need to comment without understanding the market for the product.
Chromebooks, some are nice, some are less so, are a product for a certain demographic - people who can think outside the need for Windows or OSX - or even Linux. They (Chromebooks) are small, fast, good on battery and can meet the needs of a huge number of computer users.
I find as I use mine, I need a 'Proper PC' ever less. Haven't booted my Ubuntu Desktop for some months now as I've just not needed to. OK - I use the Chromebook to read El Reg and browse the web mostly, but also manage and edit project plans, spreadsheets, documents.
If I played games or stole pirated content (more than usual) then I'd need a PC - but for 99% of the time I can just grab the CB and crack on without worrying about viruses, updates, licensing etc etc.
Wait, that's no moon 21.5-inch monitor, it's an all-in-one LG Chromebase PC
Thursday 19th December 2013 14:43 GMT
Re: How do you manage these?
To manage them is fairly simple: https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/chrome/business/devices/features-management-console.html. I've not come across a smart card authentication system for them yet - but I susepct that with a Bluetooth smart card reader something could be done. If you can do it on a Tablet, chances are you can do it on a CB.
I have the Google Pixel, that I bought on a whim to see what the hype was about. I sort of understand it now - I still have a desktop PC - running Linux - for heavy lifting jobs - such as backing up DVD's and BluRays to the NAS for convenient watching on the TV set using XBMC on a Pi - but for 90% of what I do the Chromebook is more than adequate.
I used Crouton initially to install Ubuntu so I could instantly switch to an OS I am more familiar with and use applications I already knew - Libre-Office for one, but after a couple of months removed it as I'd not used it... Which must say something about the flexibility of ChromeOS.
I work as a Project Manager most of the time - I've even found an app for the Chromebook that will open/edit/save MS Project files quite happily - both on and off-line. With Google Docs and Quick-Office I've not had any problems with Office files (spreadsheets, documents and Powerpoint stuff).
For me it was a choice between the MacBook Air and the Pixel - and I feel I made the right choice. Total cost of ownership is lower than either a MB or a Windows Laptop due to the cost of the applications.
I've become a bit of an evangelist for Chromebooks since getting one - but everyone should try living with one for a month. It's suprising how much you can do with them - assuming you want to use it for work/school stuff and not just to rip dvd's or mine for bitcoins.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
