* Posts by Stefan

14 publicly visible posts • joined 9 May 2008

Conspiracy theories fly around Norton forum 'Pifts' purge

Stefan
Unhappy

No love for Symantec, but...

Anyone given thought to the possibility that Symantec do not want this talked about because it potentially reveals an as-yet unused tactic for detecting and removing malware? 'Rootkit-like behaviour' could indeed indicate Symantec moving into using such technology against malware.

I actively despise Norton product line and campaign (in my own small way) against its use, but I don't let my hatred cloud my judgement. It's a shame so many others do.

Jacqui Smith ecstatically ignores more scientific advice

Stefan

I'm undecided

Keeping ecstasy as class A does have a deterrant effect, surely? OK, it didn't deterr me one damn bit, but then I have a moral baseline derived from common-sense rather than common law.

Keep it class A. Maybe some young folk will treat it with a little more respect than they do weed or speed. But then... speed is class B? Holy shit. That stuff will not only kill you, it will turn you into a raving paranoiac by dint of physical damage to your brain structure.

Wow. I'm realising the whole classification system is in a bit of a tangle.

License the whole swathe of recreational drugs. People take drugs, let's give them at least a fighting chance of not becoming dead through allergies to, for instance, warfarin (which E gets cut with unnervingly frequently).

BitTorrent net meltdown delayed

Stefan
Thumb Up

Just very quickly...

Without putting a great deal of brain-time into it, if uTP became the universal p2p transport layer, wouldn't it lessen congestion (which ISP's are trying to do with throttling methods) if ISP's then dropped *all* throttling activity?

Man buys $1,000 worth of iPhone pixels by accident

Stefan

Epic

Fail.

There's nothing in this world more pitiable than a fool with money.

US customs: Yes, we can seize your laptop, iPod

Stefan
Alert

Who will be the first

Legal firm to suggest to their clients that their next laptop purchase is made by the firm. Firm 'loans' laptop to client on a permanent basis. Client then claims to customs "this is my attorney/solicitor's laptop", thereby preventing a search.

I may trademark this ;)

The PSP: what's its future?

Stefan

Flash instead of UMD.

Flash, in the form of game cartridges, seems the logical step to me. 1 or 2GB flash modules are not expensive. I'm quite sure Sony could bring enough bargaining power to the market to make this a workable idea.

I'm sure most games wouldn't even need 1GB of storage. Judging from a very few that I've seen, 256MB would probably suffice.

Dell's dinky designer desktop

Stefan

@ Simon: HDMI

A Celeron will happily decode MPEG2 at 1080p. Or it will with some help from a capable GPU. If you want to watch heavily compressed H.264, forget it. Not even 720p.

My dual-core 2.2GHz Dell M1730 can play 1080p Matroska packaged H.264, *until* it gets to very complex scenes. This is with me using not-so-intuitive (and one not-so-free) software products to bring as much efficiency as possible to the process.

Hi Def can be a costly business.

Nike pulls Air Stab trainers

Stefan
Flame

Oh dear - the PC brigade are back.

Kona have been making mountain bikes for some time and have not (so far as I'm aware) had any complaints about the naming of their Stab model (which is quite a nice bike).

I'm guessing this is another case of mass hysteria; people who just cannot avoid flapping their gums on the assumption that they have to in order to prove to other people that they are keeping up with the "what to be offended by" zeitgeist.

Obama bloats Vista by 11MB

Stefan
Dead Vulture

That's not the half of it.

I had slightly less than 1GB free space on my C: partition before Tuesday's patches showed up on WU.

I applied a few of them (the security ones, but notably *not* the dictionary update).

I ran out of space on C: within 10 minutes. I don't even have a paging file on C: (it's elsewhere).

3 of 5 updates failed to apply due to lack of disk space. I freed up 200MB (temp, net cache etc) and the updates completed. I now have 200MB free space on C:.

I'd love to learn how updates weighing in at about 70MB managed to use almost 800MB of disk space.

O2 buckles under 3G iPhone demand

Stefan

Glad I didn't bother.

My 16GB iPhone is on order with CPW. I toyed with the idea of taking the morning off to brave the queues at the local store, but I imagined it would be a nightmare.

How right I was.

I'm considering cancelling my order, due to this debacle. The inference being that if O2 can't even run an ordering/activation system competently, what hope of receiving quality ongoing service?

Also, my housemate turned up this morning with a brand new, just released, touch-screen Windows-mobile based phone on Orange which impressed the hell out of me. Then there's the impending deluge of Nokia N96's to consider (which I could upgrade to whilst retaining my current provider). Even the phone from Openmoko is an attractive offer.

Sure, the interface on the iPhone is slick, connectivity is excellent and features are good, but it doesn't yet seem to be worth going through all the hassle to obtain a unit.

O2 starts 3G iPhone stampede - and runs away

Stefan
Pirate

CPW to the rescue? Time will tell.

After not being able to order a 16GB phone through O2, I went to CPW. They've accepted my order and sent confirmation emails but I don't even know if I've passed O2's credit check yet.

I'm going to exercise a lot of patience, or wait until I can upgrade my N95 through my current provider (Three) to an N96 and pretend that I *never wanted the iPhone in the first place*.

Stefan
Alert

No 16GB?

OK, I saw all the fuss about the site being down and went to look for myself. I thought I was in for a treat, because it was working.

Then I discoverd the lack of 16GB availability. I had to show a lot of restraint to not just make do with an 8GB model.

One possibly worrying (though minor) consideration is O2's statement that the 'black 16GB iPhone' is not available. I was under the impression that the 16GB model was exclusively in white.

Damnit, I want the bragging rights of a white iPhone!

Prius hybrid to get rooftop solar panel

Stefan

Solar powered air-con?

I can see the logic of using solar energy to power air-con (when it's sunny, you need air-con) but surely there are better ways of harvesting solar power for the purpose of providing cooling?

MPs say shared service sums 'don't add up'

Stefan
Thumb Down

Shared Services - An exercise in futility.

Not only are the brainless dolts on the end of the shared service telephones inept, they don't care that they are inept. They are responsible for nothing, can help with nothing, can resolve no problems and even their most basic tasks (scan the invoice, confirm the invoice will be paid) are not guaranteed to be enacted in a correct or timely way.

Most shared service employees could be replaced with a very small computer program.

Them: "This invoice does not have purchase order number, we cannot process this invoice without a purchase order number".

Us: "We have never issued a purchase order number on our invoices in the past and our client states that they do not use them".

Them: "I am sorry, we need a purchase order number and this invoice does not have a purchase order number. You need to get a purchase order number because we cannot process this invoice without a purchase order number."

Us: "You paid last month's invoice and that didn't have a purchase order number".

Them: "I am sorry, we need a purchase order number and this invoice..."

Us: "So who can supply a purchase order number?"

Them: "I am sorry, I do not have that information. Is there anything else I can help with?".

This happens daily.

So what we have with this wonderful scheme is a *possible* reduction in costs for the NHS departments we were used to dealing with, but an increase in costs for *all* of their suppliers. Great scheme. Let's just transfer all the time, energy and money involved in competently administering an accounts payable department to the fools trying to supply goods and services to one of the most important sectors in the UK.

That we have to *constantly* rule-bend and contact some very put-upon staff at each of the NHS trusts to get things done is hardly good for business. Staff turnover at some of the trusts has noticably increased.

Not only this, but the trusts themselves recognise the poor service we are receiving. I have one very nice lady at an NHS trust I will not name referring to shared services as "those idiots in Bangalore".

That I now read about the lack of cost savings really makes me quite mad.

Grr. Arg.