Posts by Davegoody

Stupid and inefficient

Look at the trailblazing performance of the 16” MacBook Pro which is an order of magnitude quicker than nearly every Intel-based / Ryzen machine, and even when running in our stupid temperatures currently in my office with two external screens (one 4K and one 5K) doesn’t break a sweat. Fans hardly ever need to spin up !

I will do the software update on-site….

Gladly claim back the mileage at HMRC rates ……

Time for a quick HOSTS file uodate.

Had similar issues years ago, used to run the IT for DVLA number plate auctions for my company. Temporary dial-up lines (long time ago) and the connections were often flaky. DNS caused much grief at the time and a few entries in the HOSTS file solved many potential problems

It's all great until somebody types "unleash all the nukes"

AI is just that, artificial. Having such a draconian view on what can, or can't be allowed seems counter-intuitive. Unlike the example in my title, I can't see much danger with it.

Anyone who refuses to put their hands up to something similar has never worked in IT...... Of course that's in the old "wild-west" days, these days change controls etc make this sort of thing very rare.....

YEARS of bottom-tier performance and people still use these clowns ?

I have posted on here MANY times in the past about my lack of confidence in 123-reg. After them losing my website, email and everything to do with my hosting a couple of years ago, I left. They restored from a backup but it was too-little, too late. They wanted to retain my business and offered me a year free hosting (realistically a year more incompetence) so said no-thanks. Not had a problem of note since, and have had better customer service with the hosting companies I have used since. I am with ZEN now, and they have been brilliant. I really can't believe that 123 are still in business. Anything so important as a website or email shouldn't be trusted to these guys.

These guys are true cowboys. I have posted on numerous occasions about how INCREDIBLY poor they are not at just providing a "service" - though I REALLY shouldn't call it that, but their customer support is beyond awful. When I complained (I left them after the last complete and utter f**k up), they offered me a free year's hosting. Second prize was perhaps two years hosting. I used 123-reg for a few years (they in turn acquired my original supplier and it went downhill fast). As a small photography business (mainly weddings) couldn't justify the cost of O365, so moved to ZEN internet hosted email and Web, FANTASTIC service, been rock solid, and great value (I have no affiliation to them I hasten to add).

Sad, end of an era.

I was a Toshiba qualified Service Engineer back in the day. They were amazing at the time (we are talking Orange Plasma Screens, so the word "Laptop" was rarely uttered unless you had a lap the size of an elephant, and mains-borne too if I remember. GREAT kit though, genuinely bullet-proof.

I did a three-day residential course down at their training / HQ down south. Then the TECRA range came out a good few years later, and they were world-beating. Things started to slip with the Satellite / Satellite pro. I like some of the other commentators here had a couple of Libretto machines, which were amazing for their time. Sad end to a world-beater. Same as Nokia though, you can't rest on what you did before, it's all based on what's current and next.

A very stupid thing to do.......

When I left an ex-employer a good few years ago, it was 18 months later that I realised I still had cached credentials to the email and hosting setup that I implemented during my time as their IT manager. They were a HORRIBLE employer, and anyone who knows me knows who they are, so I won't mention them here. I could have wreaked similar levels of havoc on their systems very easily, but didn't for a number of reasons:

1) They would know that it was me

2) I would end-up in prison

3) I am a reasonable human-being who bears no ill-will to the other employees at the business

4) Life is too short to bear these sorts of grudges.

5) I quite like the fact that I have moved-on to MUCH better and bigger things since leaving their employment, which would have been impossible to do with a criminal record.

As much as it's tempting (too tempting in the case of this guy) it's just not worth it. As anyone who works in IT knows, we hold the keys to the business, and if we screw-up, accidentally, or like with the above story, on purpose) there is often a lot at stake.

Happened to me, and Apple fobbed-me-off

Happened to me years ago, with my old MacBook Pro, contacted Apple support and they basically blamed me for mistreating it, saying that nobody else had complained about a similar issue...…. Glad it was not only me, but feel bad at how I was treated by Apple.

If there was a smartwatch that could be charged by “kinetic energy” there are people in my office that could power a small city .....

Unsurprising mauling (and mostly deserved)

So Gareth, giving this 4 out of 10 was not the only surprise, being told by you that it's FUSE based was the biggest surprise, not that we didn't know, but for somebody who has so doggedly followed the trials and tribulations of this project I am somewhat perplexed to find you didn't know this nugget. My 12-year old knows this.

It's a shambles no doubt, but the horrible buttons can be fixed easily (as my pal who has one can testify) - with a couple of quids worth of bits - of course it should never have been released like this in the first place !

I have Virgin Media 350mb and get .....

Typically 380mb...... VM are streets ahead of everybody else !

Sad, a real genius and an inspirational designer

As somebody that built their first ZX80 in kit form, then the same with the ZX81, when the Spectrum came out with the dead-flesh keyboard, it was remarkable that a "Real" keyboard could be included in a machine of the era for anything like the price..... When the Scrabble-key keyboard came out on the QL, which Rick also performed the industrial design for, it was amazing (and a huge upgrade from flat or rubber keys), and was eventually destined for the upgraded Speccy too......

His legacy lives-on, not just on the Spectrum NEXT which he has been heavily involved-in, but the keyboard I am typing-on now, on my MacBook Pro, is truly an evolution of Rick's designs.... Everything goes full-circle with design, and I do hope that Rick's Legacy is remembered not just for cheap-and-cheerful, but true innovation, he was yet another British Genius that perhaps has not received the recognition that he deserved. RIP Rick, you may have passed-on to a better-place, but I can't wait to receive my cased NEXT, and I will have a beer when setting it up in your honour.

After a particularly long liquid and curry lunch.....

I too have destroyed HDDs with a rapid expulsion of Noxious gasses...... I'll get my coat....