* Posts by Jim 59

2047 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Mozilla to ship Firefox 4 on 22 March

Jim 59

Beta Releases

Mozilla did itself no favours with so many betas. From the users point of view it was a bad experience. Eg. he Hotmail debacle - okay it wasn't Mozilla's fault - drive me to try Opera, when I have been loyal to FF for years.

FF has become slower and slower over the years. Perhaps they should fragment the browser market - have a slower app for devs and heavyweight use, and a faster, lighter app for "browsing".

openSUSE 11.4 rocks despite missing GNOME

Jim 59
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Heavy Horses

Debian is widely acknowledged as one of the most stable operating systems in history. The server versions of Ubuntu are not far behind.

ASA rules BT Wi-Fi service works with invisible routers

Jim 59

N

Given that the BT Home Hub 2 is enabled for "N" class wireless, and powers a large proportion of the FON hotspots, coverage should be pretty good, at least for "N" enabled devices.

Disappointing to read AC's comment that there is no hotspot amalgamation. Instead of uniting into a superhot spot, all the routers in a locality merely offer a large number of very weak spots ? Weak.

Samsung admits iPad 2 will be tough to beat

Jim 59
Happy

Manbag

It's important so that when I sit down in the coffee shop and take the Ipad2 out of my man bag, it is seen by as many people as possible, who will then know that I am clever, important and modern.

Lightness is important because I have carried this thing 2 miles on foot so that people can watch me working on it and know how cute I am. I had a bit of computing to do, so naturally I carried my keyboardless computer to a distant coffee shop rather than doing it all in 5 minutes at home.

My only complaint is that my arms get tired when I am holding my Ipad2 up in front of my face. I could lay it on the table but some people might not know I have an Ipad2 then.

Ten... fantasy swords you wish you owned

Jim 59
Grenade

@celticguy75

The "nerdy" accusation is just my prejudice really. Some people, like yourself, seem to be genuine collectors with an legitimate hobby. However, one suspects that for others, perhaps younger people, a retreat into fantasy is an easy option, displacing other activities that would be more likely to build their characters and help them socially.

The Lord of the Rings is the best book I ever read. But I don't want to fondle a replica of Anduril, or tell the girls how it shimmers blue when orcs are about. Now if I could get my hands on the *real* Anduril...

Jim 59
Pirate

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Not exactly fantasy, but Sharpe's cavalry sword and Harper's 7 barreled gun.

Jim 59
Grenade

Swords

I hate to be horrid, but acquiring replica "fantasy" swords is dangerous, possible illegal, and massively massively massively uncool. Nerds no longer need this kind of thing. They rule the real world now, they don't have to fantasize about ruling fantasy worlds.

And Prof Tolkien wouldn't like it either.

If you feel a fantasy weapon coming on, get down to the local rowing/running/football/rugby club and exercise until the feeling goes away.

IDC: Everything but Unix on the rise

Jim 59
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linux == unix

Agree with catweazle. Having worked in unix for over 20 years, I always thought of Linux as just another unix flavour, and one of the most unixy flavours at that.

Where is visualization in this story ? Aren't we all just buying blades now, or using vmware to provision Red Hat ?

Jacqui Smith 'shocked' to discover we're drowning in sea of porn

Jim 59

Manufacture

Could she tell us why (some) women are instrumental in the manufacture of pornography? And not just in front of the camera.

IBM answer machine makes chumps of trivia chimps

Jim 59

what is Jeopardy! ?

This hoopla would make more sense if IBM had chosen a subject known outside of the US.

Boffins demand: Cull bogus A-Levels, hire brainier teachers

Jim 59
Unhappy

The disicipline that dare not speak its name

This article does not contain the words "engineering" or "engineer". Whereas the RS report is peppered with them, El Reg prefers to talk like this:

"... science or technology undergraduates..."

"... sci/tech faculties"

"... sci/tech grads..."

The Reg perhaps needs to review its nomenclature for various levels of boffinry. It does not help us engineers that a leading technology paper does not know what we are.

Apple 'iPhone Nano' back in the game, says mole

Jim 59

Screen size

If the screen shrinks, so does the attraction of buying the phone.

Roberts Stream 63i

Jim 59

Appearance

It's a little disappointing the Roberts name on otherwise anonymous consumer kit like this. It should be covered in wood and leather, maybe even a little carpet, not chasing the shiny-shiny iPod design zeitgeist.

Generally, I am unsure about streaming. So you have 1 copy of your music that you can play in 3 different places in your home. Instead, I keep 3 copies of the actual music on separate players. All right, keeping them in sync adds a complication, but would setting up a streaming infrastructure and keeping a central storage unit switched on all the time. And with multiple copies, you can take one jogging or in the car.

Delete all you like, but it won't free up space

Jim 59
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dedupe delete

Eh ? Isn't that reasonably obvious to any storage techy? Deduplication is not new technology. Good on Preston de Guise, but this article does not make him "a clever guy".

de Guise envisages admins running round like decapitated chickens trying to reclaim space, only to haplessly delete a few block pointers. I doubt it. The OS (platform or storage) presumably will provide tools to see where the real reclaims can be made ? Am i missing something here ?

Jim

EC parades common phone charger

Jim 59

Next stop: common laptop chargers, please.

Er. I already share the same chargers across different branded laptops. So long as the voltage is the same.

Superphones: A security nightmare waiting to happen

Jim 59
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Superphone

You're proposing the term "superphone" to describe a high end smartphone. That seems to require a distinction which doesn't exist. A new term only works where there is genuine market divergence. The mobile phone market still has only 2 parts: the "feature" phone and the "smartphone".

Also, "superphone" is a bit of a tongue twister.

Yet another delay hangs over release of Firefox 4

Jim 59

Opera

I have been a FF user since it was launched. Confounded by the Hotmail bug in FF 4b10, I tried Opera. The experience is enjoyable - functionality is about the same as FF, the UI is slick and the speed is refreshing.

Funny thing is though, Opera seems attract fanboys of a particularly silly and irksome kind. Regular fanboyism is a bit of fun - Linux vs Windows, iPhone vs Android - it's all good clean banter.

But you dare mention "Opera" in any forum, and every 13 year-old in the UK immediately logs to berate us, repeating the party line ad nauseum. It's becoming the worst "feature" of the Opera browser - it is used by jerks - who wants to be in that club?

Paxo in second c-word shocker

Jim 59
Go

Nice one Paxo

Nice one Paxo. We prefer our telly programs without 36 layers pointless cruft.

Mexico demands apology for Top Gear outrage

Jim 59
Go

Jezza

Clarkson writes the script for Top Gear. Whoever spoke the words, he wrote them. Hence my calling it "Jezza's humour". And that bandwagon is outside the Guardian office, not the Daily Mail.

Jim 59

Bad

Even as a politically incorrect viewer, I was rather taken aback by the Mexico outburst. And what's almost as bad, it wasn't remotely funny, and terribly rehearsed. Jezza's humour is often great, especially in his books, but it let him down here.

I have been to Mexico and like it very much indeed. A bit short on British restaurants though. Funny we have plenty of Mexican outlets here.

Mozilla reaches for almost perfect 10 with latest Firefox 4 beta

Jim 59

@Steve Graham

You're comparing firefox to the default look and feel of Microsoft Office. They are very different products and Firefox has the more up to date UI. I agree the status bar seems like a change for the sake of it, but the search facility is fine

Jim 59

Hotmail etc

FF beta 9 made hotmail unusable for many, by constantly reloading the page twice every second. FFb10 still does it. Have been using FF for many years but tempted to give Opera a try if it does real ad blocking.

Gates, Woz, and the last 2,000 years of computing

Jim 59
Happy

cpc464 vs everything else flame war

It's great that our consumer bias has not abated in over 25 years, and the flames of fanboism still burn as hot as ever.

Can say the Amstrad cpc464 was home computing nirvana in '84. Unbeatable specs, bundled monitor, and Locomotive basic was the best and fastest out here.

Jim 59

Home computers at Bletchley

Another plug for Bletchley, where I experienced something like the author, seeing my old friend the Dragon 32 on display. Mr Gates (or MS) wrote the interpreter for that too, as some readers may recall from the wake up message: "Microsoft Basic Color Interpreter 1.0", copyright 1982.

The London science museum had a Cray 1 on display recently. I recognized it immediately from a photograph in the 1978 Guinness Book of records, where it was listed as the worlds fastest computer.

Online sync'n'store services

Jim 59

Security

Not being ready to entrust my digital life to strangers, even encrypted, I use the old 2 x memory stick routine. Both sticks contain encrypted backups, full and incremental. They are never in my house at the same time. One is always... somewhere else. Offsiting for cheapskates, but it works.

Man nabbed nude pics from women's email accounts

Jim 59

@JohnG

If the woman had "put those pictures on the internet", there would be no story. Instead she emailed the pictures. I agree she acted naively, but emails are not public domain, at least in the view of CHiPs.

Jim 59
FAIL

Shame

The issue is not shame of the body, but violation of expected privacy. A woman might happily send her boyfriend intimate pictures. She is not ashamed of her nudity. Obviously she is quite proud of it. That doesn't mean she would be happy for the pictures to become public property.

On the other hand, shame might result from the activity depicted. If the woman is shown performing a sex act or just posing naked in front of a mirror, does she really want her nephews to see that ? No. Is she ashamed of her body ? No.

Shocked mum muzzles foul-mouthed toy mutt

Jim 59

Bark

Defintely saying "bark" with a strong south-east England accent. In that accent, "Bark" and "F***" do have a similar vowel sound.

Lane Fox promises sub-£100 PCs

Jim 59
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Good cause

You are working towards a good cause but I must say:

- granny, in fact anybody, would much rather get a physical letter or card than a facebook update. One is thoughtful and caring. The other takes zero effort.

- some people, old and young, just prefer to walk to the shops, write cheques & use the phone than surf the web. It is still quiet possible to live like its the 1950s. They just don't get excited by the internet.

- Many older people are masters of the web. Many younger people just know Facebook, which is like the internet for thickos.

Synology USB Station 2

Jim 59

Speed

" ...if it’s connected to a gigabit network, data throughput will be governed by the speed of the USB 2 connection, usually a lot less than the 480Mbps maximum"

Most domestic nas devices are limited by the speed of the often feeble CPU in the NAS. At least that's the case with my Linkstation Live.

Spain grovels to penguins over 'Linux' anti-terror plot

Jim 59
FAIL

Naming

It should've been called Operation GNU/Linux, dammit.

Couch potatoes riddled with heart disease

Jim 59

VDU

Er. We all spend 8 hours a day in front of computer screens at work.

Speed-cam stats to be published, indicates gov

Jim 59

Revenue

The link between speed cameras and revenue was broken some time ago by the Coalition govt, I think. The use of speed cameras should now be being driven by the incentive to save lives - not make money. Given that, I don't see what we motorists have to complain about.

Stephen Fry security whoopsie leads to prank fart book order

Jim 59
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Computer

Whatever you think of him, Fry owned a home computer in the 80's and actually programmed it, and that makes him one of the brethren. Like many among the Reg readership he was formally a Laskeys lurker, and is probably the only BBC talking head who could write a computer programme. Over exposure leads to annoyance, and I disagree with his world view in many ways, but hey - solidarity brothers.

And what about another fellow enthusiast of ours, the Duke of Edinburgh - sending email in the early 80s, while you lot were watching Grange Hill and polishing your Polyvelts. Hero.

Man caught w*nking over Alan Sugar's autobiography

Jim 59
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Beardy

Yes the beardy one has played a blinder

McNealy to Ellison: How to duck death by open source

Jim 59
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Sun

Good article. Mr. McNealy, we salute you. Sun was a company that everyone liked - shareholders, employees, customers and users, and that is the best capitalism. I agree with McNealy's assessment of why Sun failed - they open sourced Solaris to aggressively, and too late to survive the 2008 crash.

Solaris is undoubtedly the best operating system today, in technical terms. Linux is catching up, and will close the gap sooner or later. Windows is years behind.

Ten... dirt-cheap voice phones

Jim 59

Small

On the subject of smallness, my phone is an LG225. Featureless, rubbish camera but one of the smallest phones out there. At least, it was back in 2006. Standby is about a week.

Jim 59

non-smart

Some call them "feature phones". Weak.

Jim 59
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Smallest

I could afford a fancy phone, but prefer budget phones for their battery life and smallness. Perhaps you could review the smallest phones available ? "Smart" phones are for girls and men who carry manbags.

Russia wins World Cup bid in parrot-sickening travesty

Jim 59
WTF?

Kids

"... it's hardly a place to bring kids either."

What is the basis for that comment ? I know nothing about Qatar, but I am sure they have children there.

BURNING LUST for SEXY BUSTY BLONDES - Science explains

Jim 59
Stop

Beauty

According to that logic, women should be getting constantly more blonde/beautiful, and must have been doing so for centuries. By 2010, we should be walking with angels. Not so. Kanazawa is a daft 'apeth, and to reach register "boffin" status, will will have to up his game beyond the perusal of sweaty and much-surfed internet pages.

Big iron, x64 refresh goose server sales

Jim 59

Unix

Why no a breakdown by OS, as well as these OS/architecture combinations ? Show us the numbers for Unix, Unix/Linux combo, FOSS vs other, blade vs rack, even real vs virtual.

As shown this story will interest IC manufacturers but not so much the general IT industry.

Ofcom slaps down ham botherer

Jim 59

Transmitter

Poor quality of trolling these days

Immigration caps won't touch tech transfers

Jim 59

ICT

The ICT exclusion and 40k threshold is disappointing. But it is better than no effective controls at all, which has been the case for several years. There is officially no shortage of IT skills now. Graduate unemployment is high among IT graduates - 17%. One suspects that the habitual ICT abusers will be only slightly hampered by these new rules. Heck they pretty much ignored the old ones.

Ten... sub-£50 budget MP3 players

Jim 59

Sumvision

Inevitably, there are a thousand players missing from this test. If you have a Sumvision, and it's good, say a few words about it here. From what I can see, the sub £10 Sumvisions seem to be 1 Gb only. That's expensive per gig, and too small for most folks. On the other hand, Technica are doing a 256 Mb model for £4.

Jim 59

Battery

My Clip+ battery lasts about 12 hours.

Jim 59
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Volume

For listening in noisy environments, eg gym, a pair of in-ear buds will block external sound, meaning you can actually turn the volume *down* and still hear the music perfectly, without giving yourself tinnitus in later life. Meanwhile the outer bud type are good where you want to be aware of other sounds. Eg walking down the street you can say "hello" and chat to people. (Only in the North, obviously).

I am very happy with my Sansa Clip+. At 24Gb, it is big enough to house a whole music collection at hi-fi quality, which is important for me. It's great. I use it at the gym, at home with the hi-fi, and when walking.

@AC: The Sansa Clip+ does voice recording, as do most MP3 players.

Microsoft reins in Windows server prices

Jim 59

Lock in

You are one of the legions of locked in "customers" keeping Microsoft afloat. It is situation that can't go on forever, and MS is doing the right thing by dropping prices.

Top Ten Arcade Classics

Jim 59
Happy

Graphics

I recall standing in the common room at Sunderland Polytechnic about 1987, not actually playing "Afterburner", but just gawping at the graphics, staggered by how *amazing* they were. That building has since been demolished, including my room on the 5th floor.

Christians vs metalheads in FB flame war

Jim 59
Stop

Tolerance

I count about 10 thoughtful, good quality comments here. The rest are decidedly of the Andrew Marr "foam flecked" variety. It is a sign of how far anti-Christianity, aided by Dawkins et al, has come in our society, that many of the comments are knuckle-dragging, ribald and incoherent, with many posters preferring even practicing Satanists to Christians who are, after all, a pretty mild bunch. Take the mickey out of Ned Flanders, but he makes a pretty good neighbor.

On a less pompous note, I like a little AC/DC before getting the Led out.