* Posts by Mark Chapman

13 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Nov 2007

When Pornhub meets the Internet of Fridges

Mark Chapman

Re: Home Depot salesman:

Do you mean Frankie Boyle, or are you suggesting the easy listening singer likes a bit of porn?

Surface Book nightmare: Microsoft won't fix 'Sleep of Death' bug

Mark Chapman

Yes it was an issue, maybe hardware now.

I think there could be a hardware issue, although initially a more widespread software one. I bought the SB (also top of range) when it became available in the UK in Feb to reports of the Sleep of Death, and initially yes it would come back from suspend either totally zombied with low battery of a full BSOD (had never seen a BSOD in win 8/8.1/10).

However after a regular series of firmware and driver updates, it's now rock solid (for at least as long as it was failing), there must be another common denominator, either faulty hardware or some common crapware like Adobe reader (a doc application that installs a SERVICE to check for updates?)

Lottery IT security boss guilty of hacking lotto computer to win $14.3m

Mark Chapman

Re: Proof of purchase

No that can't happen. Shops only payout up to a certain small amount. For a bigger win they'll be directed to a lottery office without indication of amount

Google blames Flash for hobbling Chrome, says it sucks (too much power)

Mark Chapman

Uninstalling Flash wouldn't be noticed, Chrome has its own Flash runtime so doesn't rely on it. I run Flashblock in chrome , it was one of the first extensions I installed, and Chrome is still a power and memory hog, so doubt it'll help. I read it's down to the code base not using native performance enhancements, so it grabs memory etc to do its stuff.

So run on a Chromebook and it's great as it's built for it, (even my 2gb samsung does well). Worst machine was the developer work laptop I had, quad core i7, 16gb, 1tb ssd, running chrome would require me to bring up task manager to kill other tasks that had become zombie as chrome was using 12gb of memory to display gmail in 1 tab.

Gwyneth Paltrow flubs $29 food stamp dare, swallows pride instead

Mark Chapman

No wonder

This will be the same Gywneth Paltrow who published a family cookbook in 2013 featuring muffins costing $5 each to make and a salad that ran to $120?

Worst … commute … EVER – Surrey to Sydney

Mark Chapman

Re: That would be telling...

A possibility, interestingly most of these articles have talked of making local friends, and avoiding the expat community, although work in this case was 95% expat so maybe that was a factor?

Mark Chapman

Re: That would be telling...

Yeah been a very interesting series. I'd like though to find out what brought him back, he only went out in 2012 and seems to have fond memories, but what prompted another 55000 move within 2 years?

Mark Chapman

That would be telling...

"but went back to Blighty for … well that'd be telling wouldn't it" - I guess it would, it doesn't actually tell us why he did?

Blade Runner sequel might actually be good. Harrison Ford is in it

Mark Chapman

the short life span isn't a problem

Harrison Fords age isn't necessarily an issue. If you assume Batty died young due to physically pushing himself as a combat model, you could set the film a year or so after the first, have Deckard as an aged person rapidly going old due to the short life span (not being so active he doesn't just drop dead like Batty), it, would however answer the ambiguity of the unicorn.

Still likely be awful though...

Computer expert and broadcaster Ian McNaught-Davis dies at 84

Mark Chapman

The Computer Programme, MAC and the live prestel hack were definitely big influences on me choosing IT, so much so that 30 years or so later, I knew instantly who you meant by MAC, will be sadly missed.

Google to refund some pre-price drop Nexus 7 buyers

Mark Chapman
Trollface

Re: Thing is....

I seem to remember buying an upgrade kit for my spectrum in 83 (16-48k) which was pretty much that...

Don't buy your iPad in a McDonald's car park

Mark Chapman

Influenced by Dilbert perhaps?

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-09-21/

Creative Zen media player

Mark Chapman
Thumb Up

Actually the bundle's not bad

It integrates with Windows, converts from just about anything to a format the Zen can play (even the MS-DVR files on my media-center box), quick to transfer, and has never crashed even after transfering a couple of thousand tracks to it. Once you have the drivers on your PC, you can also use mediaplayer 10+ to do the transfering as well (and if mediaplayer has embedded the cover images in your audio files, they'll show on screen when playing on the Zen as well).

Previous player was a Creative Zen Xtra, so I know of the pain you talk about, but this just does what it's supposed to.