Posts by AndrueC

Re: Did These Spies Actually Leave There Names And Addresses?

did it really take two spies to make the phone call?

One to hold the conversation and another to listen in.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

:)

Re: Were they lost from a catainer in the Pacific?

What do they use to trace sultanas?

Whilst I loathe and detest the fact that Microsoft-era BillG (and his successor, Monkey-boy Ballmer) got insanely rich by pushing sub-standard products

It might be sub-standard but it has powered the PC revolution and even the wider IT revolution. Could something better have done that? Sure. Might it have turned out better if another company had been the major driving force? I doubt it. Who were/are Microsoft's competitors? Oracle? IBM? Lotus? Apple? Novell? Sco?

I think we are where we are (which for the most part is pretty damn good) because of how humans develop and exploit technology. Microsoft just happens to have managed to hang on to the beast and even direct it better/longer than most.

And for all that I struggle with MS software (one advantage of working from home is that I can rant and rave at Visual Studio as loud as I want) it has kept me in gainful employment for 30 years and provided me with all the computer fun I've ever wanted.

Re: @Richard 12 - Question for those who might have the knowledge

At the least - I am not a scientist - if the shape of the curve follows a known pattern (eg; linear, exponential, bell) you work on 'educated assumption'. But I'd also guess that a lot of things can be backed up and predicted by the mathematics (which is sort of the same thing).

As an example if they've measured the output from 100k to 1000k and the emitted wavelength is 150*<temperature in Kelvin> then it's not unreasonable to assume that the frequency emitted at 10000k is 15000000hz.

Of course it won't be that simple but science is all about deriving rules based on observation and then testing those rules. If you can't prove a rule then it doesn't invalidate it. It just makes it more of a theory. Lots of science is theory.

Re: Red triangle programs

Plus some Russ Meyer stuff.

Re: Personally...

..and eventually it becomes a sea of troubles.

Re: Can it reduce the time spent at airports

I mostly feel the same. Sitting in a tin can for a few hours is slightly boring (but a Kindle and music player sort that for the most part). But queuing and standing/sitting around in the airport is stressful. Reducing the flight time is tackling the wrong problem for me.

Re: Tell us the story

The way I hear it they didn't have a leg to stand on.

I see no reason to bother AAISP about this.

Data takes different routes through networks and just because the route between you and YouTube is fine doesn't mean that the route between you and an iPlayer CDN is. At some point after where they diverge there could be a problem - it's unlikely to be the iPlayer CDN. Now it might not be AAISP itself, perhaps one of its partners but either way it's something AAISP can probably control and based on their reputation I'd expect them to be interested in resolving it.

Re: Just what we need

A friend of mine had one of those. He called it a Monty-No-Go :)

Re: The current Windows dev process is horribly flawed...

I mean what the hell is Microsoft doing to break printing?

Has anyone mentioned Visual Studio yet?

* Sometimes takes a couple of seconds to respond to basic cursor commands.

* Sometimes loses the ability to respond to the keyboard (or retains that ability while losing the ability to render to the screen).

* Randomly changes the names of document tabs to '%2' and then sometimes leaves you unable to close a document that has changes.

* Fails to Rebuild until you've done a Build (had that one today).

* Doesn't always clean things properly even when you've asked it to.

An application that loads really fast..but then it turns out you can't actually do anything meaningful with it for <insert random delay here>.

Now granted only software developers use VS but farking 'ell it's like the VS development team don't care or assume that as fellow programmers we are more tolerant of crappy applications.

Re: Master copy

But if we're going to go down that route, 'git' itself is fairly problematic since it originates from beget and is a related insult.

Indeed. Calling a stranger a 'git' in a British pub would prove that point.

Re: I keep trying...

Who is your ISP? Because when I switched to IDNet IPv6 'just started working' and as far as I can tell continues to 'just work'. I had to get to grips with it a bit because I run a mail server but that's my 'fault'. I have Thinkbroadband quality meters set up for IPv4 (pings my router) and IPv6 (pings my server) so I can see what kind of uptime I have. And it's 99%. The only time I see a glitch on the IPv6 side there's a similar one on the IPv4 side.

I am willing to criticise the complexity of IPv6 and bemoan the imminent death of NAT but IPv6 as a protocol (in my experience) 'just works'. If that's not your experience then it's either your ISP's implementation or a flaky router.

Re: It isn't just code that can be wide

If you're a programmer you can spring for $2000+ in screens, no problem.

That depends who you work for. In 30 years of programming I've never worked anywhere that would spend that kind of money on me. And in any case - what about the rest of the team? £2k+ per seat is a very expensive way to run a team of programmers.

Re: Question (not a Merkin)

Yes, no, maybe.

Or, more likely, only when it suits the authorities.

Re: simple shit so much easier with cmd

.\example-script.ps -PowerShellSuckage=doesnot -VeryMuch -ButCanResultInCommandLines=VeryLong

..and safe but sometimes quite annoying.

Re: Disgusted

There's more to computer networking than the final mile, you know. Something has to connect head-ends/exchanges together. Something has to carry signals between ISPs. Something has to carry data between countries. Those somethings have to be high capacity because they carry the data being consumed by end-users such as yourself.

If every residential property in the UK had 50Mb/s (which on average it probably does) that's over 140Tb/s. Now as it happens no-one gets or needs 1:1 contention so there's a lot of sharing of bandwidth going on. But still, cables such as these are going to be very useful over the next few years.

It's unlikely they will ever be used to connect to your property but they could end up being used deeper in the network.

Re: re: should be self-isolating

Ale Elatey was a nice chap. Let's see who gets that reference without using Google. :)

Not a bad book that and quite prescient. Although the title of the book could give one pause.

Re: Milk consumption?

Flour does not keep indefinitely long. Especially wheat flour (the really fine, white one).

I thought it was whole grain that doesn't last long because of the oils remaining in the husk. I was under the impression that white flour can last a year more even without refrigeration.

How long does flour last?

Re: Why stop there?

Because it's annoying.

> What's wrong with top posting?

Good grief that is so creepy. I'm almost beginning to wish we could return to the 1980s.

Re: Seems to me ..

Of course it is also worth pointing out that EU consumer protection law shields consumers for 6 six years from inbuild faults.

No it doesn't. EU law requires member countries to implement a two year guarantee but that is still subject to various forms of redress. It also allows for the burden of proof to shift from retailer to consumer. For example in the UK if a good fails within six months it is assumed that a fault existed and it's for the retailer to prove otherwise. After that period of time the onus is on the consumer to prove it. In addition the retailer has various forms of redress they can attempt and they are allowed to take fair wear and tear into consideration.

There is no legal requirement for a retailer to replace a hard drive that fails after seven months with a new one. Legally the customer would have to find an expert that would attest to it being an existing fault and then retailer could replace it with a refurb, or make a partial refund. Of course most retailers have more sense than to get embroiled in all that so most will just replace it for free with a new unit but that's going above and beyond what the law requires.

UK law does extend the time in which you can make a claim to six years but that's not a guarantee. It just means you don't have to make a claim immediately and can therefore make one after the fact. In effect it's a statute of limitations.

I bet you're feeling a bit sheepish now.