Ah joke wallpaper ...
(old enough to remember the site www.jokewallpaper.com - aliased as www.coporateexcellence.com, in case your boss was monitoring your surfing)
Not as good as the joke BSOD screensaver I used to run ...
Britain's new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will be Windows XP-free zones, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed to The Register. Readers made us aware that a technician working aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth itself, which is a year away from completion, had the famous Windows XP rolling hills desktop background used by …
What with Microsoft buying Sysinternals some years back it's available directly from Microsoft themselves: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx
Fooled one of my colleagues at work. Down having a drag and he came down to impart the news that my PC was in serious trouble and throwing repeated BSODs:
"It's a screensaver. I can't believe you fell for it."
"No it's not, I wiggled the mouse to check that."
"Well it wouldn't be any bloody good if it didn't disable the mouse now, would it?"
In the 90's there was a fad for free "comedy" screensavers, featuring badly animated sprites doing unfunny things. E.g. Bill Gates as a window cleaner - Pasta shapes dancing the "Macaroni" etc etc.
They all had two things in common: They were always described as "hilarious", and they were all as tedious as hell.
(Except for Johnny Castaway of course)
They all had two things in common: They were always described as "hilarious", and they were all as tedious as hell.
Mine consisted of strip tease artistes and they were far from tedious. For a few weeks at least...*
* Footnote for the do-gooderesses: as a self-employed person I could only sexually harass myself.
And you just know they unticked all the privacy invasion options on install, right?
"To improve your combat experience, Windows 10 for Warships sends application details to Microsoft which may include usernames, passwords, armament levels, crew compliment, readiness levels, fleet size, fleet makeup, fleet location, satcom transcripts, satellite imagery, radar contact and electronic intercept data.
Your privacy is respected at all times, but we will dump all this shit on a public server somewhere because we couldn't be arsed to secure it properly and figured we could make a quick buck off sale to carefully (yeah, right) selected third parties.."
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"Not as good as the joke BSOD screensaver I used to run ..."
Ah, yes, that one got me in trouble with the wife - her response when I explained it to her was "WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE THINK THAT'S FUNNY?!"
Wasn't even my fault, damn thing was part of the default Red Hat install back around 2001.
“The MoD can confirm that Windows XP will not be used by any onboard system when the ship becomes operational,” the spokesman added. “This also applies to HMS Prince of Wales.”
Note the bold bit. You can almost imagine after the spokesman got off the blower with el Reg, the frantic call made to the beancounters to get approval for a quick software retrofit before the thing actually goes live.
I visited a US Marine Corps base museum earlier in the year. The people there were against the F-35.
'Far too heavy', 'Far too slow', etc etc
Well, we were standing in front of a recently retired Harrier.
My new years wish would be for BAE/Boeing to restart production of them and scrap the F-35.
A new versio with composite mateirals etc would probably beat the F35 hands down
I am biased because I worked on the Harrier at Hawkers.
"My new years wish would be for BAE/Boeing to restart production of them and scrap the F-35"
You and a few others. I did read somewhere a few months back in a defence rag that the current owners of the UK's Harriers were looking for an engine upgrade, but the word on the streets was that RR had lost the instructions for making engines and ancillaries (e.g. the electronic control system, like the whole aircraft, originally designed in the 1960s).
Be a good boy next year and Santa may sort it for you in 2016.
It's probably a very sensible financial decision to prevent a free upgrade to the soon to be announced subscription version of w 10 (support for legacy drivers extra).
But on the other hand this is extreme political decision making /MOD procurement / porkie pies / pork barrels / the good of the country?? / etc etc, so I'm probably way wrong there.
El Reg - we need an "It's not funny "icon.
" the GR5 a (stainless) steel leading edge escapes me."
The AV-8B composite wing was designed by McDonnell Douglas and gave extended range and carrying capacity, but at reduced turn rate. The RAF would only agree to purchase the AB-8B if the turn rate matched the GR3. (Something which would have been provided by the UK designed but never built GR5K "tin wing" Harrier). As a compromise BAe designed wing root leading edge extensions which gave improved turn rate. These were eventually fitted to both the RAF and US Marine Corps versions of the AV-8B. They're metal because McDonnells refused to export the composite materials technology to BAe. They were happy to use UK technology, but would not share their own.
There was a fair bit of blackmail about this. The "tin wing" could have been retrofitted to the existing Harrier (and Sea Harrier) fleet giving a faster, more manouverable aircraft with more lift capacity than the AV-8B, but the US Government would only buy their own AV-8B design, and would only purchase if the RAF also purchased it. Essentially we were blackmailed into buying an inferior USA design instead of our own better product. Note that the eventual AV-8B/GR5/GR7 is actually slower than the GR3/FRS1
There was a fair bit of blackmail about this. The "tin wing" could have been retrofitted to the existing Harrier (and Sea Harrier) fleet giving a faster, more manouverable aircraft with more lift capacity than the AV-8B, but the US Government would only buy their own AV-8B design, and would only purchase if the RAF also purchased it. Essentially we were blackmailed into buying an inferior USA design instead of our own better product. Note that the eventual AV-8B/GR5/GR7 is actually slower than the GR3/FRS1
Ah, US blackmail. Plus ça change.
Well given the comment "Software based on XP is used to run the command suites of most of Blighty's major warships" it now becomes obvious, naturally the engineers will have XP systems to confirm the new systems are giving the same results as the old ones.
It is a shame I didn't take a photo at the time (back in the 80's) where we had a (then) modern computer suite and sitting amongst all of this were a couple of ancient frames containing obviously live valve and relay based equipment. The reason for these systems being there was because we were testing the digital-analog interfacing between the to-be installed computer system and a remote analog system that wasn't part of our upgrade project (and it would not surprise me if that interface is still being used and the ancient analog system's valves are still glowing and its relays clicking...).
'(and it would not surprise me if that interface is still being used and the ancient analog system's valves are still glowing and its relays clicking...).'
Of course: ElectroMagneticPulse-proof ;-)
Ah, valves - as used in Colossus and in the 1950s HMV radiogram through which I am currently listening to music.
Ah, valves - as used in Colossus and in the 1950s HMV radiogram through which I am currently listening to music.
Aaah, I hear the loudspeaker emitting the dulcet tones of the Harry Roy Orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWOdVdasGM
Isn't the Internet a wonderful thing?