Posts by Vic

Re: Tested a drivers skill...

> Talking on a hands free kit is as dangerous as talking to a passenger

I've seen research that states exactly the opposite; things like the round-trip delay mean that phone conversations are significant;ly more distracting than local ones.

> Eating and drinking (non-alcoholic drinks) at the wheel - that's legal, afaik

It's not. It may be lawful under some circumstances, but the Highway Code Ruile 148 specifically mentions eating and drinnking as a source of distraction, and thus such behaviour may well lead to prosecution for driving without due care and attention or worse.

For example, a nursery nurse was fined for eating an apple while driving in 2003. It was one of the most incredible examples of misuse of police resources in history (they used a helicopter, FFS).

> Sometimes the law really is an ass.

Frequently so. But more often, IME, what is actually an ass is someone's (incorrect) belief of what the law actually is...

Vic.

> Ipones have docking stations evening the galaxy tab have but not seen one for the phone.

They're pretty cheap...

Vic.

> Contractors are unlikely to be cheaper.

I always thought that, but I was assured by a manager for my current customer that when you cost the work produced against the cash paid for it, the current crop of contractors[1] work out quite a bit cheaper than the permies...

Vic.

[1] Including me :-)

Re: Getting into Contracting

At the risk of sounding like a Grammar Nazi(tm)...

> Im a young professional

*I'm* a young professional

> and well I feel I

If you must, "and, well, I feel I ..."

> why the hell not but not sure what the first steps should be?

Learn to punctuate.

I know this'll sound old and crusty, but if you can't put the effort into initial contact, there's a strong chance you won't put the effort into your work. Typos matter insource code...

Vic.

Re: Totally missing the point

> sometimes nobody knows how to answer a question, or the right person isn't reading that day

What gets my goat is the number of times people feel the need to reply to a question just to tell the world - explicitly, in most cases - that they don't know the answer...

Vic.

Re: Wha?

> 21:02:28 up 171 days, 7:14, 6 users, load average: 0.52, 0.40, 0.44

[root@hobgoblin ~]# uptime

21:01:30 up 738 days, 4:31, 8 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

[root@goliath ~]# uptime

21:02:37 up 726 days, 8:32, 8 users, load average: 0.18, 0.22, 0.24

:-)

Vic.

Re: Windows isn't all that if you install it yourself on a laptop

> completely specific hardware for which you need to obtain the driver *from the laptop vendor*

I've had Sony Vaios in for repair where even the driver that Sony's site claimed was for that machine would not work...

> Yes, in such cases you'll often struggle to find a Linux driver for the same devices

That's not been my experience for a very long time.

Vic.

Re: Semi-tech

> However if I struggle with which distro might be best

You don't need the "best" distro[1]. You need the one you like. If you've got something that works in the way you want it to, you've no need to change.

If you *choose* to try other distros, there are plenty around with both proponents and detractors. Almost all of them can be tested without even having to install anything on your machine. If you find one you like better than the one you're using, change to it. If you don't want to be bothered trying out alternatives, don't.

Vic.

[1] Arguably, there cannot be such a thing, since we all have different preferences. Many will tell you that Ubuntu is the dog's danglies, but personally, I hate it with a passion. And we're all right, because we're all interested in slightly different things...

Re: Wait...

> darpa has had a few autonomous vehicle challenges over the years

TRRL had a self-driving car running in 1967. Build out of a Citroen DS.

Probably not much use for widespread passenger vehicles - ISTR it took some road modifications to make it work - but interesting nonetheless.

Vic.

> doing a reported 300 mile trip for, say 4 GBP

Won't happen in any meaningful way.

If a substantial number of vehicles could do that, the revenu from fuel sales would fall dramatically. That means the government has a reduced revenue stream.

So they'll find another way to tax those vehicles to restore their cashflow.

Vic.

Re: What is the real problem here?

> "knowledge worker" (arguably positive)

"Morlock"

> minded-by-machine drones, barely thought capable of clicking an icon.

"Eloi"

Vic.

Re: Horizon of 35+ years ago

> the only reason they are still sitting up front is to install confidence in the passengers

There's an old joke about the Cockpit of the Future. It will have two occupants - one pilot and one dog.

The pilot's job is to feed the dog.

The dog's job is to bite the pilot if he goes anywhere near the contriols.

Vic.

Re: Supprised companies on XP

> stuck on IE6! Thats as far as IE goes on Xp as far as im aware.

That's not the case.

I have IE8 on this machine. I'm running XP SP3.

It's a client's machine...

Vic.

Re: Really?

> I doubt that'd be a popular move with anyone involved.

Well, he did say "One customer" :-)

Vic.

Re: It's clearly a PR stunt

> "Near" was what I meant.

We all know what you meant. That's why you said "breast"...

Vic.

Re: If Microsoft.....

> You can buy a laptop with Umbuntu - if you want?

You might like to look up the legal definition of "monopoly". that's the one they're using for all this. Whatever might be in your head does not change that.

> It's blatent Microsoft bashing on the face of it.

It is not.

> MS had an agreement with the EU

Yes - and that agreement was a *settlement* for a previous conviction. By not fulfilling it, they were not paying the penalty for breaking the law beforehand. It's very much akin to someone absconding from an open prison.

> having to have an iTunes account to drive an Apple device for instance

Until and unless Apple become bound by monopoly legislation, that is perfectly legal. Apple is not a monopolist, in the legal sense. Microsoft is. Different rules apply.

Vic.

Re: Support

> I mean, what's the best they can do?

The first thing they can do is to raise the fine to its maximum level. That's 10% of turnover - someone mentiond the figure of $7B, which is probably about right.

And then they can prevent Microsoft from doing business in Europe. that will cost significant sums in direct income, plus a whole load more in loss of influence.

Telling the EU to fuck off would be a monumentally stupid thing to do. Microsoft will not do it. They're already making placatory overtures; they'll pay up the fairly insignificant amount of money they've been fined, and everything will go away.

Vic.

Re: The very simple point that everyone has missed...

> Is it appealable, I wonder?

It is, I believe.

But as the fine could have been as high as 10% of turnover, Microsoft got off *very* lightly. I doubt they'll be appealing anything...

Vic.

Re: Ironically .....

> how are the Reg, funded by advertising, supposed to run if everyone uses adblock?

This is why I don't block ads on this site.

But that bloody Sim City ad is getting on my pecs today. It kept locking up my work machine & I had to kill the Flash process :-( I think I might be about to start blocking ads...

Vic.

Re: I've mentioned this before.

> to someone who wants "yank the plug" to mean "forget everything and start again", it's awful.

If you've got enough RAM, just build a bastard great initrd and roll a known image into RAM every time you turn the power on.

I do embedded boxes like that...

Vic.

Re: Gosh, people get to leave el Reg

Nah.

You can check out any time you like...

Vic.

Re: Slaves to convenience ( and Intellectual Property)

> but not the patents for the 3G/4G/LTE connectivity and the other chips inside the phone

Sure.

But that has nothing whatsoever to do with this story, which is about the Chinese government trying to get Chinese companies to build an independent software stack.

Vic.