* Posts by Ed Gould

73 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Dec 2007

Page:

'I can see dinosaurs from my back porch'

Ed Gould

Palin's Beliefs

Look, as long as she keeps her beliefs to herself she can believe pretty much anything she wants to. Its when the people start wanting for every one to believe that "her" version is the only right version is the problem I am having problems with these people. I do not agree with her (or any of the other religious people on this issue) which is fine just do not "assume" you are right and insist that it is the only version. I am really mixed about having religious items taught in public school. If they want to teach their version in their schools that is fine, just do not expect the US Taxpayer to pony up with *ANY* money for supporting such teachings.

I would be extremely surprised if any student that was only taught the religious people's version could be capable of getting a college degree (from any main stream college). If they want to handicap their own people by teaching them incorrect information it is *THEIR* issue not ours.

Newegg plays chicken with New York 'Amazon Tax'

Ed Gould
Alert

NY TAX

I think I must be missing something in this discussion.

Why on earth should *ANYONE* care about collecting sales tax (from NY or any other place)? The consumer is the one paying the tax NOT the company. The only difficulty might be is figuring out what the sales tax is. I am not pro tax so don't get me wrong. If every other state handles it with a mutual agreement with the sending state (seller) why should any retailer care?

*IF* the retailers position is that they are not located in any state thats one issue but to say they are not doing business with NY people is ludicrous. *IF* the issue " real presence", take it to court and fight it out like everyone else, meanwhile collect the tax and do what every other company does pay it to the state treasurer.

Cloud computing lets Feds read your email

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

No Expectation of Privacy

I would suggest that *EVERYONE* encrypt *EVERY* Email. No matter how many PC's the government could buy there would never be enough to unencrypt every email.

Dell hit by class action over unpaid overtime

Ed Gould
Coat

Overtime

At a Chicago company it was no unusual for me to work 100 hour work weeks and NO OT. I can also sympathize with Dell people.BTW I was laid off from the same company because I made the other people look bad because I put in so much OT.

In the end I was glad as I got out and the people who got rid of me ended up getting fired (or laid off). I got a nice severance package but not even close payment for all the OT. I was taken to the cleaners.

Oh yes in a right to work state you cannot dispute for getting fired unless its race or similar issue related I believe, so Dell could have sacked the people that did not work OT and really did not have to worry about it.

MS takes Windows 3.11 out of embed to put to bed

Ed Gould
Dead Vulture

3.1 I was still using it...

I was still using it at a international bank about 12 years ago and it crashed regularly (2-3 times a day). It did not like to do multitasking IIRC. After complaining for 6 months my boss upgraded us to XP. One good thing about XP it only crashed once a week. I kindly(?) reminded the boss that OS/2 never crashed, but he was not amused. Still we got used to the BSOD, luckily it seemed never to happen at a critical time.

Of course on the mainframe we went a year without a "reboot" but who is counting.

Microsoft urges resellers to play it straight, beef up revs

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

re: Tried buying a legit copy of Office 2003 recently? Or Windows XP?

Yes I bought a copy of XP last week. It is still available (and legit).

The basic question as other people have stated are the MS numbers valid?

My guess is that the MS numbers are somewhat inflated. How much is the real question. I would really seriously doubt any numbers spouted by MS. Does it occur, absolutely and just not only in third world countries. I would suspect quite a bit just in the US alone. There was a TV court case (yea I know) that indicates the problems is wide spread and the so called experts are less than honest themselves.

The expert had really not a clue as to what is allowable for installation. Putting that aside it is MS's fault for having so many exceptions to the rules that it is all but impossible (even lawyers disagree) as to what is a licensable copy. If MS could honestly draw a line (and stick to it) it might be feasible. MS would probably be the first person(company) to violate what ever rule they come up with and I am talking a common sense enforceable rule. No special rules for people who buy 10,000 copies etc etc.

The PC and Mac were not fully thought through for the licensing issue as the INTEL CPU has no way of burning in a serial number so it can be retrievable. Some of IBMs do and there is lot of grinding on teeth because of that (usually money is the first gripe). So even if Intel did have a serial number "burnt" into them it would play havoc with the PC industry and I am sure the government would exempt themselves . That would be the only way to stop copies AFAIK.

EU still greasing IBM antitrust probe despite PSI withdrawal

Ed Gould
Paris Hilton

Dinosaurs?

Mr Bjoernsvik, I think you had better reread current publications. The idea of the mainframe being a dinosaur is at best a cheap shot or maybe be a better word is "Changing with the times". If you are saying that IBM mainframes can't run MS's flavor of the day OS then that is indeed the case. But it can run LINUX and UNIX and at least 3 flavors of IBM's OS's, which btw has been around a lot longer that LINUX and any of MS offerings and possibly UNIX (but it may be arguable which flavor of UNIX you are talking about). Does age mean "bad?" if so I think you might have a lot of AARP (Association of Retired People) to come to blows with over than comment. The age of the typical US citizen is going up and IIRC in a few years going to out rank the number of people under 60. Old age (OK I am 60) is not a bad thing nor does it mean unable to do the job, nor does it mean someone (younger) can do the job better (or cheaper).

Most IBM operating systems can (and do) out perform any and all current OS's (UNIX,LINUX,MS flavor de'jour). There have been conflicting opinions on which is the cheapest. That is somewhat up for debate, for every one you can come up with I can come up with a different opinion) There are many many items that come into TCO. It is a complex subject that really needs almost a few chapters to argue one way or the other.

Yes IBM is monopolistic when it comes to their hardware. But it is similar to Macintosh's in a way. When you buy the hardware and use IBM's OS it runs PERIOD. The same can't be said with MS's OS. And to a lesser extent UNIX and LINUX are dependent on the CPU being run on and then it gets a little sticky because as we just witnessed MS Vista was tied to INTEL CPU. AMD should not be called Plug Compatible because of that (but I am digressing). If UNIX (or any other OS for that matter) uses a(n) "special" instruction(s) that works differently on the cpu it is running on chances are it will not run correctly. The idea here the OS is designed to run the best in the manufactures CPU. IBM's OS(s) runs best on IBM MF's. PSI probably reversed engineered a lot of their code to emulate IBM instructions. That may or may not have been legal and I will defer to the legal experts on that issue. PSI was a definite competition to IBM in the extremely small world of maybe a one or two person shop. IBM IMO does not offer a small developer like system currently, they did but I believe it was discontinued a year or two ago. IBM may have pulled the plug as a step in the PSI lawsuit, I don't know and I suspect IBM won't tell either, but there was some (I think legal?) reason why they discontinued it. Possibly IBM will offer it again once this whole PSI issue is forgotten. IBM did not put forward its finest foot in this PSI fiasco. This is the new IBM and it isn't like the old IBM at all. IBM may be changing to shake off its old image but it will be a few years to come up with its new image (maybe its like a lobster that discards its old shell before growing a new one). IBM is changing and its not for the better, unfortunately.

UK civil servant leaves Top Secret Iraq war intelligence documents on a train

Ed Gould
Stop

What is Secret ... Depends

I was in the US Army in the early 1970's and was told I had to get a top secret clearance if I was to help debugging programs that used top secret files. That took about 6 months and I was given a top secret clearance. Two stories pop into my mind about security. The US Army considered the information about how many rolls of bathroom tissue they had in various warehouses over in Germany. Now I can see it being top secret the number of warheads (and the like) but bathroom tissue?? The other bit which is halfway funny was the number of tanks at several bases. One time I counted the number of tanks as I was driving down the autobahn and came up with a similar number that was "Top Secret". So, just beause something is top secret it may not truly be that really important piece of information so just don't clump every piece of information to be really secret. The government is famous for over classifying what is secret and what is top secret. Before being all up set about the incident it might have been information on how many times a day the president sneezes.

Icahn laughs at Yahoo!

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

Yahoo selling out to anyone

I personally think it will loose its entire customer base and those will go over to GMAIL. It will be some work on the Yahoo group side but it will be doable, if YAHOO doesn't pull the plug right away.

Ed

Time Warner gives America metered internet

Ed Gould
Paris Hilton

Limits on traffic

I am kind of curious on how other companies did the limit of downloads.

I am using comcast which is a cable system AND I live in a building that has a bulk contract with comcast.

We have a multi year contract with them. I am *GUESSING* they cannot change an existing contract to do limiting, would that be correct. IOW they can only alter the terms of the contract at renewal?

I am not a legal person but that would seem to me that is correct. Am I incorrect?

Paris for changing contracts in mid stream

MySpace fraudster indicted in teen's suicide

Ed Gould
Thumb Down

re: Mmmm... jail...

Well you have a point but remember a teenager (in most US places) is NOT an adult and is treated differently under the law. Teenagers do not have the same reasoning facilities as an adult and the lady took advantage of that. Having said that I would agree that the woman has broken a few laws but I will not guess as to the ones stated in the story, that is for a judge/jury to decide.

I honestly don't know if there is a law covering the reprehensible crimes of the other mother in this. To me this sounds like a manslaughter charge of some type. I am not a legal expert and will defer to them.

I would suspect the only way to treat the other mother is to make her do 20 years of mandatory community work. Say 4 hours a day or so. Maybe as a real twist have her serve it in a suicide call in service.

Build a 1TB MacBook

Ed Gould
Thumb Down

1 TB for $900????

Gee I just got a 1 TB for less than $300 (US) of course it is using firewire which I believe the Macbook air does not have. Let see 2 500mb HD's and a Mercury controller for less than $100 ... I think I got a better deal.

MySpace wins record $230m judgement against spammers

Ed Gould
Alien

@Anthony

Don't put too high of a price on the rocks. Otherwise inmates will sink the entire island of Cuba and then the taxpayer will have to pay to create a new island (give them Manhattan) .

Microsoft slams OEMs over XP SP3 install cock-up

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

re: @Ed/off target

OK, I admit I am coming from a mainframe background but..... with IBM processors the OS figured out at (IPL) boot time how many processors are available there is no need for a "special" file to tell the OS what and how react. It essentially "learns" how many processors are available and then creates the environment needed for execution and continues. It is no different (in my mind) than having to tell the processor how much memory there is ahead of time. Its an extremely simple process and well known besides on how to do this. *IF* AMD is not 100 percent plug compatible then it should say so, simple as that. On the other hand if its simply an issue of MS not understanding how to program (there really should not be any difference between AMD & Intel Processors) the OS to boot up without any extremely fancy programming, then MS should be brought to court and blamed. If IBM can (with no special extra code or changes) boot up on 1 to 50 processors(with no special file) there is something basically wrong with either INTEL or the MS programming staff. There should NOT be a special file that is needed to run on a AMD processor. If they are 100 percent compatible (PCM)compatible then either they should explain to the public why they are not or go out of business. The public has a right to know if they are not 100 percent compatible. Oh yes, crossed fingers behind the back does not count. I keep hearing how the PC is taking over the MF but when I hear these arguments I know it will never happen.

Ed Gould
Gates Halo

re: Windows Update vs ISO theory

OK maybe I am off in this but I will try anyway.

I would be extremely surprised that you would have to have different drivers for CPU types. They *SHOULD* be all the same PERIOD. It should not make a bit of difference what type of CPU you are running on. They should all be to INTEL spec or what ever spec everyone agrees on. Not one for AMD one for INTEL or whatever. Also it should not make a bit of difference how many "core's" any CPU has. MS should program their way (in WINDOWS code) to figure out how many cores it has and run the OS to that spec. *IF* AMD and others are really the same as INTEL that should be the end of the story. I suspect they are not so that is why the extra code is needed. No matter what the case it is an MS issue. If the cpu's are not Plug compatible then either MS should declare it isn't certified or make some statement like we are not responsible if you choose to run on a non intel system.

Personally Its a toss if its an MS issue or a OEM issue but I would question the issue of compatibility if I were MS and lay the blame there. Then either the OEM has to make their systems INTEL compatible or drop out of the market. I am not saying INTEL is completely free of culpability, they should be saying its not to the OEM people as well.

Seagate lawsuit targets solid-state drive maker

Ed Gould
Stop

re: @me >> prev post should read @Doug

I take exception to your statement about Seagate knowing everything there is to know about storage. There are at least 5 corporations that do know a *LOT* more than Seagate. I wouldn't think they are even in the top 10.

Apple MacBook Air Early 2008

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

Comment made in a MAC Forum

People who would buy a Apple MacBook AIR have more money than sense.

A third of online shops undermine consumer rights

Ed Gould
Thumb Down

In The US we have hidden fees called shipping

Example 3 weeks ago I attempted to order 2 tubes (8 OZ) each of a medication.

The price was reasonable and everything was fine till I got to the check out and found that shipping was going to cost more than the product. I wrote a note to the web site and got back $12 shipping was cheap. The 2 items cost (total) $11 (US).

I wrote back and suggested they rethink shipping charge, I have a drugstore down the block that had the items and no shipping and for less money.

It pays to shop around.

FBI screwed up, spied on entire email network

Ed Gould
Joke

Lets all encrypt every email

Lets all encrypt every email we send. Let the government spend gazillion dollars trying to decrypt "Hi Mom hope you are OK, ps the u235 capsules are out back"

Ed

Leaked email reveals civil service laptop rules

Ed Gould
Black Helicopters

Personel Data

I have seen claims where the User address is *PERSONAL*

ie userid@theregister.co.uk

Is considered private and confidential. Telephone numbers are iffy(IMO) as they are published in the telephone book or they can be found at your local white pages (in the US not sure about across the pond).

I am not sure that the privacy rules for the EU are the same as the US.

Ed

ER thesp joins Doctor Who

Ed Gould
Stop

re: Moffet

Now now get over your gay angst and go out and kiss your boss.

Showdown over encryption password in child porn case

Ed Gould
Gates Horns

What if.....

What if someone came up with an absolutely fool proof cryptographic program (for the sake of naming it called it quantum crypto.

Some how this program was linked directly with your brain. The program would ask your brain what the key was and zip the file(s) would be unencrypted. Using some if the people's postings here the government could ask and would have to give access to your brain to decrypt the file. That is about as basic government infringement can get, access to your brain. So, if I am understanding some of the points is that of course if you don't give the key to the government you have every right to commit suicide.

Torture is always an option and I would not go near any water boards for the next 100 years. If you were over on the other side of the pond couldn't you just claim a stroke?

Tesco to start flogging Dell computers

Ed Gould
Stop

Who would buy a DELL?

Approximately 10 years ago I worked at a LARGE hospital. I had a DELL (don't remember what model #) and I needed to increase the memory on it. My boss called in the order (to DELL) and they requested the date the computer was made as apparently they change the memory type on a day to day basis so they didn't have a clue as to what type of memory to send out. Even with a serial number they didn't know themselves.

Would the unwashed public put up with that type of service? I sure would not and especially not with Dell moving their support line overseas to (I believe India).

Page: