Posts by phuzz

You can usually get more context to his twitter rants by looking at what was on Fox News in the previous half hour.

In this case it was probably a segment on Fox Business.

Re: Hire immediately

I was looking for the option of "hire them, and then make them clean up the mess they just caused".

Re: At home

Back in the days of dial-up, I twice had a PCI modem die after the telephone line was struck by lightning. Both times the PC was fine, and all that was needed was a new modem.

I assume they had a special container of magic smoke on the modem for just such an eventuality.

Re: Surely...

"Us plebs don't get a look in..."

You've never accepted cash money from someone? If so, then congratulations! You've helped define the value of that cash when you said "OK, I'll mow your lawn for a fiver" (eg).

Perhaps NHS trusts could buy local flights for their patients, just so they can run them through the CT scanner?

Re: Do you HAVE to use Oracle?

As far as I can tell, most of their customers have been using them for a while, and it would be too much trouble to migrate to something else.

Oracle licensing are doing their best to make a long, complicated, difficult, migration look as good as possible.

Re: Looking through the wrong end of the telescope

I'd be surprised if they ever bothered obeying them.

Isn't that the reason behind this whole situation? China getting a bit uppity and doing things that the US thought was only allowed for them?

Re: Not just a pricing fail, but a PR fail.

"offering a similar non-pro (but "consumer pro") stand for like $199/$299"

Well, the VESA adaptor is $199 and you can get a really nice, fully adjustable hydraulic monitor arm for £50, so $299 is about right.

Hence, if Apple actualy did this the price would be $599.

Of the people I know who use one of these (or one of the similar rivals), most people stopped using it almost completely after a few days, and the only uses they get are:

The kids use it to play music etc. (until Frozen gets played for the umpteenth time as mum and dad are trying to sleep so it gets unplugged)

Using it to set reminders when your hands are full (handy when cooking)

Using it to do searches that for whatever reason they don't know how to do via a non-listening device (eg play a radio station. Easy enough to do on a phone or computer, but this friend prefers to just shout at their device, I dunno why).

That's pretty much it, although I can imagine if you had some kind of disability or impairment, one of these could be an absolute godsend, like having your own private servant.

Re: I thought the Firefox browser on a Linux VM was infected once...

Was that Mint by any chance?

I respect that by setting the default search to Yahoo they get a bit of extra funding, but it's still the first think I change on a fresh install.

Re: Mitigate?

"There would be an 18 km diameter, 700 metre deep, crater where London once was"

So, an improvement then?

Re: 1.4kW???

My home computer is running a medium spec i5, and a decent graphics card, and everywhere I've looked recommends at least a 700W PSU for that. (I'm using an 850 because I've also got multiple hardrives, ssds and even a DVD drive plugged in).

For a system that might be running multiple graphics cards, and potentially dual Xeons (They've not mentioned multiple CPUs, but it's something previous Pro's offered), a 1.4kW PSU seems a sensible choice. As everyone else has already pointed out, 1.4kW is the maximum power draw, most likely it'll be pulling a third of that day-to-day, but if it didn't have the extra head room, Apple would have to deal with MacPros suddenly shutting down when they're put under stress.

The idea is that when you read the hostname, you might realise you're about to shutdown the wrong machine.

Hey, if you don't think it will work for you, don't use it. I was just presenting the option for those that hadn't seen it. Have fun rebooting the wrong servers ;)

Re: No "El Reg" on that list?

It's a travesty!

Surely elReg deserves to be on the same list as ask.fm and qzone? Even myspace is on there!

Re: Admit it

I suspect many elReg readers would enjoy Hushkit. It's a fun blend of complete irreverence, and in depth geekery.

Re: airport security

My Utilikey has accompanied me on multiple international flights, which always seems like a much worse idea when I'm stood in the queue for security and I suddenly wonder how impressed my boss would be if I got pulled over for having a knife...

Still, it's got me out of so many jams I'd happily buy a new one if it got confiscated. Assuming I wasn't locked up/shot by a trigger happy copper/fired etc.

Re: CLI

Would I be right in thinking, that if the CLI isn't being passed, then it would be of use to spam callers?

Anyway, the idea of the spooks trying to keep a lid on GSM gateways for surveillance purposes, is pretty pointless in these days of whatsapp and skype etc.

Re: "the start of the working week"?

Is this the one that Scots don't get, because you have two days off for new year?

Re: Remember these?

"Wonder why I thought it was not a good idea to purchase FaceBook stock?"

I'm sure you could have made money if you bought and sold it at the right time.

That'll never take off.

Now, instead, if you bury a watermark into every frame of video, and sell it as a way to track people for surveillance and/or advertising, now that might get it spread widely.

(Or as an 'anti-piracy' measure).

Technologies usually get taken up because they make someone a lot of money.

Re: The man is a shit

Ditto. He's a narcissistic arsehole, who's only interested in himself, but this is clearly over-reach from the US government.

Let him finish his sentence for bail jumping, then hand him to the Swedes, and tell the yanks to do one.

Re: Dubious Honours

How about trains? We invented them (more or less) and we're rubbish at them.

You probably get fired if you drop crumbs in the Apple HQ.

"Oh, silly me, it's Windows software, so duh."

FTFY

Every desktop OS changes backgrounds and colour schemes from time to time (or pretty much every major version in the case of Mint). I think it's because they think you might forget that you've upgraded otherwise.

There's loads of things that a full 360 is better at than your mobile phone:

1) Being a doorstop

2) Heating up a room

3) Using enough electricity to keep a couple of coal plants running

4) Looking cool (it's got blinkenlights and reel to reel tapes)

5) Being somewhere to put your mobile phone. Hell, there's enough room on the desk for a proper rotary phone

6) Briefly causing every compass within 100m to twitch when you fire up one of the disk drives

7) Can be programmed using nothing more than some cardboard and a hole punch

"Brexit gets rid of the ECJ"

It doesn't, and removing the UK from it would be about as easy from within the EU as without.

Re: Changing Wallpaper can have career enhancing effects

IIRC it was an Intel display driver that mapped the rotate screen commands to those key combinations. Of course, because using the onboard Intel graphics was the cheapest option, they were used far and wide across businesses and schools.

Having the ability to rotate the screen is a useful, if somewhat niche, feature, but I never understood why they were enabled by default. Except perhaps to enable pranks.