Posts by Mikey

Given the already apparently fragile state of US power grids, I'd wager that the Chinese would rather go for a target that isn't already prone to falling over en masse by itself on occasion.

However, it does go to show that industry still seems to be lagging somewhat on security implementation, even if the resources are out there to do so. Maybe the US could divert more of its grotesquely huge war budget to securing it's online presence? Cyberpace could be the new Wild West, give em a chance to feel all pioneering and brave again! ;O)

How is this innovation, exactly?

Ahh, the new Apple 'iDecide' channel-hopping mediabox. Now with NEW patented One-Button remote, for all your lazy-arse needs!

Hmm, not much of an issue... A bic lighter, the end of an old biro, and presto! Custom screwdriver. Or Dremel it, sure. Oh, and for the wag who mentioned untra-sonic welding... well, for THAT, I have a sonic screwdriver...

Time travelling entangled particles, eh?

You know, I've got the strangest feeling I've read this before...

Let's see... 100k a pop, to a German arms manufacturer, several thousand mines... Isn't this just a sneaky way to financially prop up the failing euro?

All I can hear...

... is a load of freetards moaning about some restrictions in some hardware they probably wouldn't even buy in the first place. I mean, come on... would you lot REALLY buy a W8 tablet JUST to put linux on there? Would it even be worth it? Christ, you lot moan about MicroSoft enough as is without comitting the irony of buying something with their software on, even if it's to make some kind of hipster point about changing the OS.

Let's face it, does anyone really buy up-to-date machines to run linux? I was under the impression that it works best on older hardware anyway. You know, the kind without all the shite you lot are moaning about? Do yourselves and the rest of the FOSS community a favour, and cease with the whining. Maybe even go develop some alternative open-sauce hadware that can run everything you want, all for free. Maybe an arduino or something. But please, stop with the dribbly diatribe about things that in all likelyhood will not, and never affect you while you're on the open-everything bandwagon. It's old, it's been said a million times, and has accomplished precisely sod-all.

Yes, I use window. I'm a gamer, and I like my stuff to work without endless faffing. Yes, I've tried linux and found it too faffy. No, I don't care what you might wish to tell me about it. And please see the other comments about how the goddamned bootloader thing isn't mandatory. You lot seem to miss that quite often.

Right, it's 01:02, and I'm tired. Cue the inevitable downvotes from those who realise I've had a go at their evangelistic OS viewpoint, and goodnight!

Open-Source Space Program?

Why does this concept make me think of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer gets to design his own car... Scary indeed. Design by comittee has pretty much always produced a final product (if it gets that far) that is generally nothing like the original vision, and more of an epic fail of compromise.

Let's put the geeks into space, and see what happens. Preferably in an orbit inside the Kupier Belt...

Clearly they're only MAN-eating, and therefore the bikini-clad lasses will be perfectly safe. Simple, logical steps...

With stories like this...

I guess the reporting on El Reg has finally hit rock bottom...

The REAL reason for this...

...is that its one of the few places you can use it properly without getting wrist fatigue (stop sniggering back there). Lie back, bring your knees up and prop it up against your legs.

Mind you, I never had that issue on my little Eee ;O)

Whyfor there need be titles?

Its all quite funny reading this (on my rather capable, flash-enabled N900), because its making me laugh at how venemous the anti-mac brigade are, and how rabidly defensive the macolytes can be. Its a giant TV remote capable of checking email and twitter, but cant actually make the telly change channels (even this tablet can do that, theres an app for that ;O)

Given that its got the same underlying CPU architecture and general system design, I wonder if we can get Maemo/MeeGo running on it? That might satisfy the OSS brigade.

There is no such thing as bad publicity...

It does seem that the appstore checkers have been a bit lazy recently, they must have had the 'incentive' of being whacked with an iPad if they didnt buck up.

I do wonder though... if there are undocumented APIs on these devices, is there a reason they cant be hidden from developers, rather than leaving them there for people to use, whether intnetionally or not? It does seem a bit... lax. I dunno, I'm not a coder, so these things just baffle me whatever the case.

Anyway, I'll be over here with my N900, messing with my wifi scanner :O)

Its finally real...

Retina-scan door locks? Particle beams of ludacris power? Boffins playing with the very fabric of space and time? Bloody hell, and we all though tBlack Mesa was fictional!

I have a goatee, and I can swing a mean crowbar... wonder if they'll let me have an HEV suit...?

Don't forget...

...with the addition of post-it notes, its also capable of multi-tasking, and by adding one of those doohickies from musical birthday cards, its also capableof playing music while you work too.

So it just proves that building your own machine is better than buying an Apple ;O)

You what?

It would appear the ideas monkies at Apple have finally run out of imagination. This is essentially an iPod Touch for the hard of seeing. Or the 'My First Mac' line of kids toys.

Aside from the bigger screen and itunes, show me something it can do that my N900 can't.

I can just imagine it now...

Hmm, so WDW will now contain an exhibit with a few speed cameras, some clone-shops, a concrete station, FGW headquarters and maybe a steam loco or two? It'd have to have a fog machine to provide the permenantly overcast look too.

I cant wait...

I would imagine Milton Keynes was another contender, but got rejected on the ground that it looks just like what they already have in the states, only far more depressing, and no-one there known how to use a roundabout ;O)

The picture gives it away...

...the rather poor quality and crap colour balance indicates it could very easily be an iPhone ;O)

Besides, why would you actually steal something other than a much sought after expensive jobsian status symbol?

Doesnt look overly amazing...

...but I'm sure a fair few of the apple bourgois will comment otherwise.

Its certainly interesting that the top is touch sensitive, but why does it have to cover the entire mouse? Surely the area that the buttons would normally occupy would be enough, as caressing the entire thing might only be something weird people will do.

Other than the somewhat gimicky touchy-feely thing, I would imagine its a fairly standard bluetooth mouse, with average DPI and no wired version available. I wouldnt mind much, but for the same price, I can get a nice Logitech G9 with more actual buttons and adjustable DPI. For less I can get a decent wireless Intellimouse that does just about the same job, minus the gestures. But then, I dont own a mac, so I dont worry about these things :O)

I'm surprised though, they went with user-replacable batteries...

All is well again

Yup, there was a chunk of time when everything went tits up (around 1am-ish last night till about 11am this morning), but everything is back on again it seems. I guess the net addicts were screaming at mummy becayuse their precious WoW link was down in the wee small hours, but the rest of us sane users (all 3 of us) simply turned the computers off and went to sleep.

Living about 4 miles or so from the Winnersh Cluster(fuck), I have to say service around here is pretty damn reliable, and all these clowns who whinge and moan about crap service and whatnot evidently live in isolation in a cave on dartmoor or something. Been with this lot since they were NTL, and never had a major complaint against em.

Besides, when ANY ISP can garuantee 100% uptime, then you can complain. Until then, put the dummy back in, stop crying, and go do something useful.

One thing everyone forgets...

...Is who this product is actually aimed at. New users. Who are, these days, very thin on the ground, as even schoolkids have a fairly good grasp of how to use a computer. So I can see the target market for Win7 SE as very small to begin with, which will only get smaller.

99.9% of the people (or trolls) who leave comments here will never consider buying such a product, so slagging it off seems rather petty and cheap. If it is indeed as dire as people make it out to be, then sure, no-one will buy it. But maybe thats the point? There IS a cheap option, but it might not be the best, so everyone will avoid it anyway. You patys yer money, you takes yer pick.

So far, the whole 'No DVD software' argument has made me laugh. How many netbooks has anyone seen with a DVD drive, and how many people will bother to lug a USB one around with them? If you're going to rip your existing media to a portable format, you dont need specific DVD software to play it back, just anything capable of MP4. So yeah, thats no problem, unless you WANT to make it one.

No customisation of the interface? To be fair, if you're going to make a netbook choke with extra detail then fair enough, I cant see many people wanting to slow their already underpowered machine down even further, but there are some people out there even stranger than apple fanboys, so who knows? And no Aero? Hooray! Again, less baggage for the already underpowered Atom to have to carry and burn battery over.

Ok, onto the more recent stuff... no XP mode. Hmm... as long as your browser works... and your media player works... then is there a problem? Is there? Really? A netbook is not a desktop replacement, nor is it even a serious laptop replacement. Its for basic apps, and the internet. The sooner people stop treating like its a 'proper' machine, the better.

No word processor... Go get openoffice, you numpty. Or use notepad. Or even wordpad.

And no web browser? Nah, cant actually see that happening, not on something thats very reason for being is net access. You'll have one in there somewhere, even if its basic and utilitarian. And c'mon, if you're worried by any of the above points, you've already got linux or something lined up and ready to go on there, or at the very least Firefox on a USB stick, so what ARE you whining about?

So there we go, its not hard. I get the impression people like to whinge about these things because they think its actually a big deal. Its not, and never will be. Not unless you actually WANT to buy one of these things with SE on it. In which case you're not allowed to complain EVER.

Does everyone REALLY use Adblock?

Heh, am I the only one on the net who really isnt phased by the presence of adverts in any form? Are people these days really so twitchy that anything that isnt content puts them right off? Or is it the whole concept of 'Adverts are evil' that makes people just on the blocker bandwagon?Just curious, as its something I've never really been bothered by, and probably never will be.

Popups, however....

Can we all haz battery now plz?

Hmm, already have an Eee 1000H, I wonder if they'll do the battery pack as a seperate upgrade for the rest of us?

@PReDiToR - Funny, when I got my Eee (the Xp version), it was actually cheaper than the linux version on dabs by around a tenner, and has considerably more storage (160Gb HDD Vs. 8gig SSD + 32Gig HCSD card).

@Kieran Tully - The Power brick for it isnt that big or heavy, and fits nicely into the small top pocket on my bacpack when its out and about. At the very least, its no worse than a normal lappy PSU.

@ Cameron Colley, and the Zune

If you have some way to get music or indeed ANY sound to playback through any digital media device without some form of Codec, then I'd get out there and patent it as soon as you possibly can, because what you've found is a way to miniturise and replicate the original band small enough to fit inside a nice small portable case.

Otherwise, the rest of us will have to go back to listening to our music quite happily and leave you fuming about your own audiophillic shortcommings.

As for the issue about the Zune... eh, these things happen. Nothing that uses software is immune to bugs, and just because it happens to be a Microsoft product doesnt mean its any worse than any of the other million products out there that all do the same job? I'm sure if the unwashed masses that make up the linux zealotry can whip up a media player thats open source, free from DRM, and free in general, no? Oh, and free from any and all software bugs and flaws that seem to happen in just about everything else? Apple seem to be having problems doing just that, as do pretty much all the other media player makers.

Still, its funny reading the vitriol and bile comming forth from people who seem to know that these problems were inevitable, yet did absolutly nothing to prevent them from happening. Strange, if I had the power of future prophesy, I'd make SOME use of it, after all :O)

Why all the complaining?

I love how people burble on about how MS rip off everything and anything to include in their OS. Isnt that called 'picking what works and what people like, and utilising it for the users benefit'? It would strike me that very little in the OS work these days is truly original, and most of the time, that which is generally doesnt tend to work as well as people hope it will.

And it has to be said , that most of the complaints and whining does seem to originate from people who dont use windows anymore, and take every opportunity to spew bile against it instead of just getting on and using whatever it is they use now. If you've changed, why keep railing on about something that has no impact on you anymore?

Remember, for every complaint here, there are probably 20-30 users who have had little or no bad experiences with the same product. Its a shame they arent as vocal as the Macolytes or the Church of Linux members.

@ Dan Paul

Nah, we dont get taught the US constitution, we have plenty of other, more relevant and more interesting history to learn instead.

The best iPhone beater....

...has already been in existance for ages. The Nokia E70. Proper keyboard, 3g, wifi, decent camera, clear screen, bluetooth, generally good battery life.

The iPhone is still more fashion accessory, than a must-have.

I'm guessing the reason for XP is...

...that people who want to move from a box bog to something smaller like this can make that transition more easily as its something they're used to. This would be a smart move, as it should result in a high volume of initial sales. Then, once the intial demand is out, they can then ship the version everyone else wants. At least thats my guess on why.

Personally, I wouldnt mind an XP version. Would slot right into the network here without fuss, and could easily add programs I use to it without having to find an OSS version that does the job in a similar way. That, and it means I can leave the main rig off when I dont need it. To each their own (As long as they stop whining about it, anyway ;O)

And here we go again...

Well, so far this has been a veritable mix of vitriol and bile, coupled with a few calmer statements and a total nutcase with a penchant for the NSA.

Question to the Linux and Mac users... why does this even bother you so much? I mean, surely it doesnt threaten you or your chosen OS in any way, so why go out of your way to rail against it? Has it achieved anything so far, or is it merely an attempt to badmouth a piece of software that you might not have had success with in the past?

Every OS has updates, every OS has bugfixes, and every OS needs attention from the maker. SP3 is just that, an update. As with any update, there will be a fair share of things that might go wrong, but these cannot be tested for on a platform with an almost infinite number of hardware and software combinations. If you'd like to volounteer to beta test all those configurations, be my guest.

So calm down, wipe the spittle from your chins, and go quietly back to your own machine, and by all means praise it in the comfort and solitude of your room. But dont try and convince other users of your chosen platforms supposed superiority by ranting and dribbling about bugs and crashes when your own OS isnt 100% stable.

Oh, and the 'hilarious' misspelling and 'outrageous' accronyms like 'M$' and 'Windoze' just make you look even more childish and foolish than ever. Please do yourself, and the English language a favour, and talk like adults. We might listen to you then.

Horses for courses...

Heh, love reading all the comments from indignant people defending their pet browsers, and inventing reasons not to use anything else. I for one use IE. Why? Because in the years I've been using it, I've managed to keep it fairly stable, keep it toolbar and gadget freee, and I've been careful with my browsing. Its not down to which broswer is the best at everything, its about how you use it, and how you browse.

That said, I do get tired of all the OSS crowd telling me bullshit about why IE is the devils own sputum, and why I should switch to FF. The main reason? Not really interested. Not fussed with all the fiddly bits and bobs, not botherd with it being free and all, not concerned about how big or small it is. All I want is something that works. I could switch. But then, theres no need.

So I'm going to toddle off now, and finish my browsing. I'm going to assume that anyone who complains about IE is either a web developer (In which case you're justified to some extent), or an overly zealous OSS advocate, in which case thats fine, you know? Just dont peddle it to the rest of us like some batshit insane fundie. Or a scientologist, even ;O)

@ Charles Manning

"How did you poms ever get an empire together with such thickies on board?"

Easy, we just shipped all the thickies out to the colonies, and got on with taking over the world.

As for copper theft, its always amusing to see the evidence left behind when the gyppos try and theive the copper power cables from the railway in 3rd rail areas. 650-750 volts DC, at 2.4KA does quite a number on a human body...

@Forget Cyber Terrorism

"Maybe it's happening already. OMG! Let's nuke them before it's too late!! Or take the simpler solution - ditch Windows."

That sounds great. Will you be paying for all the re-training of the sysadmin and users, software replacement and downtime needed for all the 'upgrades' and changes?

Despite the anti-windows seniment you get everywhere from overly-vocal linux fanatics, windows is still everywhere. And it will continue to be, as its what people know and can use easily. So unless you're happy to dress linux up EXACTLY like XP, and have it function EXACTLY like XP, then its easier in the long term to stick with what people can already use.

Linux aint free when it comes to upgrading corporate systems. The hidden costs are still there.