* Posts by Vic

5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007

Young Frenchwoman desperate for fat pipe tumbles out of window

Vic

Re: It takes all sorts.

> did she expect to be able to use the laptop while extended out at arm's length?

I had to hold my phone at arms' length out of a plane door the other week[1]. And it worked fine :-)

Vic.

[1] I needed to get a GPS fix for my tracker application. A clear view of the sky tends to mean a faster lock...

The hoarder's dilemma, or 'Why can't I throw anything away?'

Vic

As all the hoarders are gathered here...

... I'm looking for an ELF II.

Anyone got one they'd be prepared to part with?

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Vic

Re: Just to be different ....

> I remember the Atari ST lived on well past its sell-by date in musician's studios

I know someone still using one for exactly that purpose. And you will have heard his music[1], even if you don't know his name.

He was *delighted* when I showed him a HD floppy could be used in a low-density drive if you formatted it. He'd been paying £10 each before that...

Vic.

[1] When you hear something introduced as "$this_weeks_face's new single", it's extremely unlikely to be "their" single at all. They might have sung some bits of it. Or sometimes not.

BBC Watchdog crew sink teeth into dodgy PC repair shops

Vic

Re: What else do you expect

> Of course something like CompTIA should be a minimum

Why?

I was a professional software engineer before CompTIA was formed. Why should I need to pay them to carry on with what I do?

My business is built upon trust on both sides. If a potential customer equates trust with having a piece of paper, I think I can do without them this month.

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Re: I work for a computer refurbishment/recycling company...

Jamies'?

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> It does cost £120.00 to run a company in the UK that sends technicians out

No it doesn't.

I have a minimum call-out of 1 hour for such jobs - as do most of my colleagues and my competitors. I'm towards the more expensive end of the scale, but I'm nowhere near that sort of cost.

Vic.

Chinese 'Thunder God' plant could crush cancer

Vic

> The placebo is strong in this one

The placebo is strong in most things.

I was reading an interesting article on drug trials a while back, which explained that proving medical efficacy was usually not difficult for a drug; the tricky bit was proving it was statistically better than a placebo.

Vic.

Ay caramba, Ubuntu 12.10: Get it right on Amazon!

Vic

Re: ubuntu rip

> Ubuntu only recognized 3G. I had to patch the kernel to fix it.

I don't believe you.

To recognise 4GB on a 32-bit kernel, you just need the PAE extensions. If you'd installed 12.10 (as you claim), you've got them by default.

If you install an earlier version, you don't need to patch anything - just install the PAE kernel. That's a selection in the package manager, just like any other software.

Ubuntu has many problems, and 12.10 really isn't great, but making up shit that's easily disproved doesn't actually help anyone.

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Vic

Re: A PR failure?

> Think of a website with a Donate button;

That's an inapproprate analogy; this is more like a website that automatically takes a donation unless you opt out...

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Re: A PR failure?

> Is that such a big deal?

Yes.

The problem is not so much that the lens exists, it is that it is installed by default.

If it were opt-in, it would be fine. But it isn't, so it isn't...

Vic.

Microsoft plans big licencing price hikes, shifting to per-Device model

Vic

Re: Think this will affect you?

> Can you give me a quote for converting all our databases

Yes, if you like.

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Vic

Re: Think this will affect you?

> It's not economical or practical to retrain those IT people

But you *are* retraining those people.

Think about the Windows skills you use today. How do they compare to what you were doing 5 years ago? 10? 15?

I'm still doing pretty much the same stuff I was doing 20-odd years ago. Under the covers, the Unix was of doing things doesn't change very much.

> given the retraining costs and the huge dip in skills we'd suffer for several month

There's no need to suffer; you can get outside help in to deal with the transition, and if you're not trying to switch over before a hard deadline, there's no reason not to sort things out over a period of time.

> One could argue that we're trapped and hostage to Microsoft's will

I'd say you're hostage to your own belief that *nix is somehow "difficult". It's surprisingly easy to become really quite proficient...

Vic.

Nokia earnings pain masks intact war chest, brewing counterattack

Vic

Re: Strange coincidences

> Whatever you might say about Elop, at least he's come to a decision and stuck to it

That's really not something to be proud of, when you're clearly making a total arse of everything about you...

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Ofcom probe into telcos jacking-up charges halfway through contracts

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Re: This is actually about whether OFCOM can be bothered to do its job or not

> I just went to the County Court and took T-Mobile to the cleaners.

Good for you.

If more people took the same approach, we might not get shafted quite so blatantly, quite so often...

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Vic

Re: Hmmm

> the phone is "free" with an n period contract, if you want out of the contract it works both ways.

ITYF that's not the case.

The phone is "free"[1] with the contract. If the vendor breaks the contract, he has no right to reclaim the phone.

If they didn't do it like this, it would be HP, and they'd have a lot more hoops to jump through (and be regulated under CCA etc.)

Vic.

[1] For small values of "free"...

Canonical flings out Ubuntu 12.10 – now with OPTIONAL Bezos suck

Vic

Re: Has there been a paradigm shift and nobody told me?

> Typing "music player" or "video editor" or "PDF reader*" does the job

So what happens when they type "the orange thing"?

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Vic

Re: Has there been a paradigm shift and nobody told me?

> I think the first time I launched it I had to type KDen

I have trouble educating users that it's called "Firefox", rather than "The orange thing"...

Running programs by name is the domain of CLI jocks - and that's my preferred way to run stuff I know well. But it stinks from a discoverability perspective.

How exactly is a novice user supposed to know that his video editor is called "kdenlive", his music player is called "amarok", or his PDF viewer is called "acrobat"?

Vic.

Virgin Media's blighted SuperHub NOW comes with extra squeal (oink)

Vic

Re: transformer hum - an anecdote

> I handwound the transformer

Why?

COTS stuff is readily available, and likely to be more efficient. And quiet.

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Vic

Re: Hum

> I would probably buy a better quality stabilised switch-mode supply from any number of suppliers

It sounds like you could buy a better-quality PSU from eBay for £3...

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> And power supplies, I *know*, make buzzing sounds

A modern switch-mode supply should be as close to silent as makes no difference.

There is a little circuitry at the front end running at mains frequencies - but a decent design will keep the noise from that to a minimum.

After that, it's all at *very* high frequency, and you won't hear the fundamental. I've got excellent top-end to my hearing[1], and if I can hear a PSU, I know it's shite.

So any noise you hear will be something vibrating in response to excitation from the fundamental - i.e. at a sub-harmonic. And that usually means something's physically loose, which is one of the principle signs of it being utter shite.

Vic.

[1] Shame about the mid-range. It turns out that I didn't know more about the effects of big speakers than my elders after all...

Air China passenger arrested for in-flight phone abuse

Vic

Re: @ Graham

> airplane mode too - which would make it impossible to talk to anyone with it.

You've not met my missus, have you?

She talks to her sister in Swansea every Saturday morning, and I've no idea why they bother with the phone...

Vic.

Man files FCC complaint over AT&T FaceTime blocking

Vic

> I wouldn't expect to be able to send a fax over the internet

If I had paid for an Internet device that sent and received faxes *and* a friend had done the same, I would very much expect to be able to send him a fax over the Internet.

Such is the case with FaceTime between two iPhone owners; both have paid money to do the conversion of images/sound into data and back again; all they want is for their carrier - who has sold them a package promising to carry their data - to carry that data. IOW, they want what they were sold.

> at least one article I read implied FaceTime has to be "supported" by a carrier

No, it just needs to carry the data. The phones make sense of it...

Vic.

'Hypersensitive' Wi-Fi hater loses case against fiendish DEVICES

Vic

Re: Inquiring minds... look harder and stop falling for corporate propaganda via the MSM

> recent studies have shown a clear link

[Citation needed]

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Vic

Re: Think of the Children!

> they were just ordinary vans with a wooden structure on top.

Bah. Next, you'll be telling me the Cat Detector Van isn't real either.

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HP prosecuted by Australian consumer regulator

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Re: Like a fool...

> I bought 2 HP laptops for my children about 4 years ago and both suffered failure

I have a pile of HP laptops in my "BER" pile.

They have all suffered from overheating GPUs, leading to a "won't boot" situation (the lights come on for less than a second, then go out...)

I can get them going again - it involves stripping the mobo out, taking off everything that can be taken off, and baking it in the oven. Several hours of labour, and the "repair" only lasts 6-8 weeks, after which it will need doing again.

There's no way I could recommend an HP laptop to anyone at the moment.

Vic.

Skydiver Baumgartner in 128,000ft plunge from brink of space

Vic

> is replenished with LNO2 tanks.

LNO2? I doubt Nitrous would do much good. But an O2 tank would be easy to strap to the capsule - particularly if it's closed-circuit.

> 8psi of 100% O2 is ok for a 3.5 hour trip.

But that's not what he had if he was breathing the capsule atmosphere; the graphics showed around 8psi at around 26%, IIRC.So rather than having a ppO2 of about 0.54, he would have had a ppO2 of about 0.14. The former would be fine...

> that way you don't need any CO2 scrubbers

Given the rate of expansion of the capsule air - especially at altitude - you're not going to vent much CO2 that way. I, for one, wouldn't risk the problems of hypercapnia for the cost of a scrubber and a loop pump...

> you can gradually off gas the N2 to prevent decompression sickness.

If DCS is a real risk - I haven't done the calculations - it would be much easier to off-gas before the flight.

Vic.

Vic

Re: No, he was on the cabin system

> there were two steps that switched his oxygen from cabin to suit.

That's what I thought - which means that my ppO2 calcs earlier were appropriate.

That cabin had too little O2 for my liking...

Vic.

Vic

> Suit is pressurised to 3.5psi with 100% O2. So ppO2 =0.24 atm

Yes, but was he on the suit breathing system for the ascent?

I noticed when he jumped that they counted down his breathing gas from 10 minutes; that would appear to have been some brinksmanship if he went for 2.5 hours of ascent on the supply, then jumped when it had 10 mins left...

The capsule also measure FO2, and it was higher than normoxic (26%-ish, IIRC). Again, this would be an odd thing to set up if he were doing the ascent on the suit system.

And one of the checklist items was to check the visor seal. This would make no sense if he were already on a closed, internal system.

From the above, I surmise that he performed the ascent on the gas in the capsule, and then qswitched to his suit breathing system just prior to opening the door. And that's why I wondered about the capsule ppO2...

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Re: Sound barrier?

> the simplified model used by aerospaceweb.org

I suspect the aerodynamic calculations are somewhat complicated by the effect of the large spherical objects between his legs...

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Vic

> was scary watching during those check-lists.

He seemed to be struggling to focus. I wonder if there was enough oxygen in the capsule - my in-my-head calculations during the ascent gave a ppO2 of about 0.14, and that's hypoxia territory. Baumgartner seemed to be exhibiting symptoms diuring the checks.

Cracking flight, though. I hope I'll get the opportunity to buy him a beer sometime :-)

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Thumb Up

Cool!

This is excellent. I wish him every success.

Vic.

Swiss photographer sues Apple for pilfering her eyeball

Vic

Re: I know the photographers won't see it this way

> Some of my software has been in use for near on 40 years now ... somehow I only got paid the once

Do you own the copyright on that software?

If so, you have to right to be paid every time it is reproduced. If you decided to sell that copyright to someone else then you have been paid all you are going to get for it.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Storm in a teacup

> that's how grown-ups play these days.

They're not grown-ups, merely over-21s...

Vic.

Take away bad drivers' mobile phones, they still crash their cars

Vic

Re: Same goes for speeding

> but what they can't weed out are the drivers who don't concentrate

Yes they can.

Go driving with a P1 some time, and marvel at their observation skills.

That you or I might find it difficult to spot a driver who isn't concentrating does not mean it's impossible to do so - just that we are deficient compared to people trained to do this.

> Hence my comment that there is no easy way of weeding these drives

Yes, I understand why you said that, but it is based on a false premise. There *is* a way to weed out such drivers, but it involves skilled people. The Government would much rather introduce unskilled technology, becuase they can *claim* to be doing something without actually scratching the surface.

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Vic

Re: Bananas

> An apple is ok, there's no distracting peeling involved in the process.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4788910.stm . Look for the paragraph entitled "Discretion".

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Vic

Re: double standards

> minimum of 45hrs flying, pass 8 exams and be re-tested yearly and fly regular,

For a single-engine PPL, the re-check is every other year. The requirement to fly regularly is just 12 hours, with at least 6 of those as pilot-in-command. There needs to be at least 12 take-offs and landings in that time. Then you need to get a certificate of revalidation from an examiner. All this needs to take place in the 12 months prior to the licence expiry date

> you cant go away for 6 months and get back in without a refresher

Yes, you can.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Same goes for speeding

> Good drivers (probably) don't use the phone in the first place

Moreover, a good driver who *does* use the phone in such a way as not to cause a problem is unlikely to be caught...

> there is no simple way, once the test has been passed, to weed out the morons

Hactually, there is. A police patrol seeing someone driving inappropriately can report the offence, But that sorta presupposes a patrol car being there - and patrol cars are so much more expensive to run than speed cameras...

Vic.

Apple to drop chip-baking partnership with Samsung?

Vic

Re: Hey now, get your facts straight!

> OSX was built atop the Mach kernel, not BSD's

BSD is more than a kernel. I'd say the OP's point wasn't far off...

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'Stop-gap' way to get Linux on Windows 8 machines to be issued

Vic

Re: @HMB - let me get this straight

> The irony of the downvoters is that they think they are championing linux

That's a bit of an assumption, unless you've got access to the vote database.

IME<, downvotes occur whenever you make a firm statement here, no matter how reasonable or accurate it might be. Announcing bad news is guaranteed to bring out the downvotes...

Vic.

Boffins baffled: HUGE EYEBALL washes up on Florida beach

Vic

Re: Or it could be ...

> The crabs built it to look back at the Eyeball In The Sky

That'll kill their insurance industry...

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Woz labels Apple 'arrogant' over iPhone size inadequacy

Vic

> Booming economy, best beaches in the world, friendly people, great mix of cultures.

Shit beer, though...

Vic.

Why will UK web supersnoop plan cost £1.8bn? That's a secret

Vic

Re: Starting to think 'Person of Interest' here...

> Do you really think that, if they really wanted to, they couldn't break most encryption quite easily

Yes. Use a large number of bits, and the numbers get real big...

> it is a criminal offence to not hand over your passwords/encryption keys when demanded to do so

But as soon as they ask for the keys, you know they're watching.

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Re: Political terrorists?

> a very focused party that only cars about getting enough votes to stay in power with no other aim.

What an original idea. It's a wonder no party has done this before...

Vic.

Judge goes postal on Kim Dotcom extradition appeal

Vic

Re: "foreign corporations can commit crimes in the United States...

> if a US citizen buys something from a business in another country

Moreover, what about when a non-US person gets something from a US server that happens to be illegal in that person's country?

If the rest of the world is subject to US laws if the end-user is in the US, it must therefore be the case that US businesses are equally subject to the laws of every country which received their packets. Ho look - US companies are now subject to Saudi law...

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New British tax-cuts-for-patents scheme criticised

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Re: Isn't it lucky ...

> I'm working 100+ hours a week trying (and failing) to keep my business afloat.

Have you not noticed the correlation?

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Crazed Microsoft robot accuses BBC kids' channel of Win8 piracy

Vic

> They should really start dealing out a flat rate for this.

Sliding scale.

The first false accusation costs you $100. The second $200. Then $400, $800, ...

In a short while, stupidity can no longer afford itself.

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EU green-lights 'copyright land grab' law on orphan work

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Re: Strangely I can see the logic in this

> In this case recovering the use of these orphaned works is a good idea.

The problem is that they're treating the symptom, not the illness.

"Orphan" works become so because the copyright protection period is so bloody long. If it were a more reasnoable duration - less than twenty years, for certain - then the very worst-case situation would be a work orphaned for a couple of decades. That's very unlikely to disappear from public view. And in most cases, the time for which a work could be considered "orphan" would be very much shorter.

But we don't have reasonable coyright duration. We have "life of the author plus 70 years". So it's likely that copyright will last for over a century, and, once the bloke who likely cares most about the work finally dies, the copyright still lasts a further 70 years, during which time his (probably uninterested) descendents allow the work to pass into obscurity and orphan status.

And that's insane.

Vic.

eBay frets as right to resell comes under scrutiny

Vic

Re: There is a difference...

> a software company shouldn't have to allow the license to be sold to a second party

Why not?

Vic.

Oracle Linux honcho 'personally hurt' by Red Hat clone claims

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Re: Oracle Might Save Linux In The End

> Oracle may be positioning themselves when RHEL stumbles with the release of RHEL 7

You're presuming that Oracle won't jkust pick up the RHEL sources and do exactly the same - which is kinda what they've been doing so far...

> grub2 is the fubar version of grub. It is not an improvement nor is it user friendly.

That depends on how you define "improvement"; grub2 is far more extensible in the long term, so you won't be painted into a corner. That said, it is *supremely* user-unfriendly, and I hate it with a passion.

> systemd is an ego trip

No. systemd can give you much, much faster boot times. It is actually rather good.

Where systemd falls down IMHO is that it would be a trivial matter to wrap the systemctl start/stop in a SysV-like script, which would keep everyone happy, but no-one wants to do that :-(

> And gnome 3, OMFG

Yep. With you on that one.

> You don't have to agree.

For the most part, I don't.

> Oracle Linux just might save Linux by giving people what they want

It won't. Oracle is just a RHEL rebuilder, just like I am. Oracle is bringing nothing at all to the party.

Vic.