* Posts by John Bailey

811 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Google: 'We did not follow Apple into phone market'

John Bailey
Jobs Horns

So..

Who did Apple copy? Because I can distinctly remember seeing pre 2007 touch screen phones.

UK.gov scraps stop'n'search terror power

John Bailey
WTF?

I too disagree.

The previous government not only brought in these laws, but stalled wriggled and then did nothing to repeal them when told they were illegal. Made every effort to challenge the ruling, even in UK courts. And announced anything from consultations, to sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting lalalala. Mostly because they wanted to be seen to be "tough on the boogyman of the hour".

This government has at the very least, killed the ID card system. Has repealed section 44, and is actually making solid rational steps to undo some of the damage from some of the dafter stuff.

Hopefully they carry on.

Apple reckons light shines between iPhone customers' ears

John Bailey
Happy

Wait

Early days yet. They are still shoring up the antenna issue.

And the outlook issue.

And the iTunes store hack issue.

Busy people these fanboys.

Why we love to hate Microsoft

John Bailey

Slight correction

Meant to say "Linux, OSX, Anything else.

John Bailey
Linux

Basic psychology

It's not that difficult.

Windows is what you get when you don't choose. There is no emotional attachment to it. It sits on their computer and enables them to do stuff. At best, it's invisible. At worst, it's a pain in the neck.

Office is no better. How many people actually want to use Office? I mean really want to use it. To upgrade it every few years, for no real advantage..

Linux, Windows, anything else.. All deliberate choices. People get involved with their choices. They become to some extent, part of their identity.

Microsoft's past - the future to Android's iPhone victory

John Bailey
Stop

Not so much..

Scenario 1) Sees ad on TV, likes gadgets, buys iProduct.

Requires someone into tech enough to buy pretty expensive toys.

Scenario 2) Coming up to a year on the contract. Phone company calls and asks if you would like a new handset. Android phone with trial data plan arrives in post.

Requires existing cell contract. Not hating it enough to throw it away.

Which one gets their gear into more pockets over a given time?

Apple feels heat from Germany for geo-tracking i-customers

John Bailey
Happy

So how long..

Before Steve claims that Germany drains batteries and a hoard of fanboys claim Germany is dead...

Jobs tells iPhone users to get a grip

John Bailey

AHA!!!!

So his holiness is actually a Shinigami! I knew it!

The Reg guide to Linux, part 3

John Bailey
FAIL

If you value your sanity

As someone far wittier than I once said..

"Knife.. Fork.. Aargh.... "

Video calling impresses Brits, if it's Apple video calling

John Bailey
FAIL

Ahh..

So that would be because "Joe Public" hasn't had a cell phone with a front facing camera for how many years now? When did Joe get out of suspended animation?

Sorry to disappoint, but the level of stupidity is not quite that bad.

But hey.. Enjoy the nose hair POV that will be common the one time that you use the feature.

The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro

John Bailey
Thumb Up

Seconded

I've been using Fedora for 4 years now. I still have a Windows box. May as well use it, as I paid for the license. It works as an ok HTPC. But I only "need it" for one thing. Running the software for my Harmony remote.

Next HTPC will have Myth and all kinds of goodies.

If Microsoft folded tomorrow, the personal impact on me would be minimal. I might have top get a new TV remote. The horror..

Apple asks US gov to hide iPhone details

John Bailey
Grenade

Aww.. Did we diss your boyfriend?

Nope.. Sorry. Steve Jobs being an unpleasant and vindictive person is very well known. Has been since the early Apple days. So should not come as news to the faithful.

And come on.. Apple is renowned in the industry for excessive secrecy. Most will keep their designs and their plans secret, but shows like CES would be impossible without the rest of the industry showcasing their stuff to the world up to and beyond a year in advance.

Sun slips nips onto iPad

John Bailey
Go

Not just apps.

There was some German(I think) paper that got censored by Apple some time ago. Apparently, it had bikini clad young women that might cause a young lad' s thoughts to turn to less pure matters instead of saving up for the latest iAccessory.

I'm sure there will be a perfectly logical RDS surge along any minute to explain it to all us haters though. Remember, with iProducts, you are free from pornography.

Although if some poor kid lies about their age, they may read a Sun article.

Firefox 4 sneak peek flaunts Google open video codec

John Bailey
Happy

No big deal.

Out of the box, XP didn't support DIVX or Flash, or many other codecs. Not sure about 7. One of the first jobs on reinstalling was to get it codec complete.

First site you go to that uses this codec will most likely provide an easy download option. Worst case, browser restart. So nothing to worry about. Not being built into Windows hasn't hurt Flash one little bit. And if that is what it takes to see the funny video, so be it.

Firefox with it ready to go, Linux with it ready to go.. Chrome and Opera signed up.. Great. There are bigger things than Microsoft these days. And who can trust MS to keep their grubby little mitts off improving the codec beyond all usefulness.

Apple lifted 'make web go away' button from open source

John Bailey
WTF?

Or three..

None of the above.

I'm a Linux user, and quite like the whole GPL thing. But willingly accept that some prefer to use a BSD style license or keep the whole thing closed and locked down as tight as legally possible.

Anybody who complains GPL is bad is usually trying to freeload and sell someone else's work. Anybody who moans about anybody closing BSD type licenses is just as bad, and hypocritical if they are free software supporters.

The only person who gets to decide is the owner of the code. Not me, not you, not the community at large. And not some faceless corporation.

Apple have as much right to use open code as I do. No license infringement, no problem. IT would have been courteous to send a little thank you acknowledgement to the original authors, but not required.

The article was no doubt intended to poke fun at Apple. Poster boy for closed locked down "look at our products funny and we'll sue" mentality, and the fanboys who have got themselves convinced that Steve Jobs personally invented everything. . Not to suggest that there is any reason why they should not have the option to use open code within the license conditions.. .

Ballmer says Windows will shame iPad

John Bailey

Well... He has a partial point.

Much as I hate to admit it.. Ballmer is right. Apple does not really have a business presence. MS does, but technologically, nothing that any body else can't do, or do better.

iPads are not going to be good for non domestic applications. Little Stevie Jobs may do quite well in the domestic sector, but in the business sector, forget it. Even he knows this, and has not suggested that iPads are business devices

Can you imagine a delivery driver turning up with an iPad for you to sign? With what.. Your finger?

How about turning up with a low powered company configured android or win based tablet with GPS built in, and the time/date of delivery, route taken, signature recorded so they can track misdelivered packages better? I've even signed a few where someone was using a run out biro instead of a stylus. A capacitive stylus on the other hand.. Forget it. Cost of replacement alone is too much to make it viable.

Stock control? Rugged cased tablet with a replacable plastic touch screen instead of a glass one? Drop it and it keeps on ticking.

Palm (now HP) also has some pretty good patents on handwriting recognition. Personally I'd take a graffiti panel over an on screen keyboard any day.

And how about medical uses.. An operating theatre with a sterilised cover on an iPad might work, but it complicates things. A watertight display that can be doused in disinfectant, no problem.

And non Apple companies work as system integrators. Selling entire solutions from servers to POS units to companies. They can do their own branded generic units with their own software.

Apple can do pretty. Apple can do sleek.

Apple refuses to do generic.

Apple can't do cheap. So a nearly £500 device used in place of say a £200 or less device.. Do the math.

Many many others can do cheap. And many will. I can even see a £100-150 tablet coming to market within the next few years. And to be honest, a 6-7 inch one is much more practical for portable use than a 9 inch screen with a big bezel. Especially when the battery can be removable. Unlike some tablets I could mention.

If tablets are the future, somehow I doubt the future is Apple.

Regent Street blocked by iPad fanboi swarm

John Bailey
Thumb Up

Yes..

But at least the speccy could do something.

Microsoft: 'Using IE6 is like drinking 9-year-old milk'

John Bailey

Hehe..

It's a victim of it's own incompatibility. The big rush to make everything browser centric was not followed through by making an easy cheap upgrade path. Too busy putting "under new management" signs on the internet perhaps.

It isn't stubbornness that is keeping IE6 around. It's expense. No IE6, no database, no discussion. And fixing this problem will be expensive.

Can't wait until 2014, when Microsoft will either see a lot of rebellion, or be forced to extend support for the OS that would not die.

Non-Flash video surges onto the web

John Bailey

Religious grassroots meme

It's the fanboy effect.

Scientologists, Christian fundamentalists, Apple fanboys.. All use the same methods.

Flash is the latest meme.. A minority of drama queens trying to give the impression that they speak for a majority, while a non existent enemy is trying to silence them.

HTML 5 may work eventually. It may even be good. But in the meantime, Flash is doing a good job of making multi platform video streaming and rich UI implementation across browsers possible and practical.

If a handful of iProducts can't use it.. Too bad.

Nokia tops iPhone and BlackBerry (again)

John Bailey
Boffin

Or to put it another way..

Any statistic that shows the iPhone not at the top must be discounted.

Sorry.. Nokia sells more smart phones than Apple. Therefore more POPULAR than Apple. Deal with it.

Funny how numbers are a great way to measure popularity when the iPad has shipped a million units, but suddenly meaningless when not applied as a confirmation of the one true cell phone leading the way.

The RDS doesn't work on non iProduct owners.

Number of models not relevant.

Number of markets not relevant.

Profits not relevant.

Stock price not relevant.

Just the sales figures.

And no.. discounting figures until Apple comes out on top is also not acceptable.

iPad users are young, rich geeks

John Bailey

slight correction

Thinkpads have had accelerometers for years.. Way before the Wii or the iProducts. There is even a little applet that will allow you to see how much you are tilting the Thinkpad in what ever direction. My T42 has them, and that came out in 2004.

Internet Explorer drops below 60% market share

John Bailey

Shipped and sold are differnt

Yes.. Your Ubuntu install is still counted as a Windows sale unless you demanded a refund for the unused license. So get phoning the place where you bought the PC.

Microsoft have been able to account for pretty much every licensed and activated copy of Windows for ages. Just as Apple have been able to tell the exact number of iPads that have been sold to end users. But shipped figures are always much bigger, so those are the ones that get publicised.

Steve Jobs: mystery patent pool to attack Ogg Theora

John Bailey
Linux

Not quite

A few little problems with your assertion..

1) It's only in IE9. A browser that has yet to appear outside beta. IE's market share figures comprise of IE6-8 currently, and IE is not as quickly updated as other browsers such as Firefox/Opera/Chorme.

Not as big a threat as you think.

And will not be likely to see significant uptake until it is released as part of an OS. So what.. three-four years yet? A lot can happen in that time.

2) IE9 is going to be Vista/7 only. So again, a majority sector of the Windows platform left out. With full adoption today of all computers that are capable of using it.. 40% tops. So less than Firefox, but more than Apple's single digit browser share. Perfect adoption is however, unlikely. Because of all the people who use windows, about half or more use a non IE browser. So maximum number of IE9 users would be closer to 20% Add another 10%(being generous) for Safari,and you have a minority market share of browsers who will be compatible with the same codec. HTML5 compatibility on the other hand.. With these two?

3) IE's market share world wide is going down, has been dropping for months while others are all going up or staying the same. Chrome in particular is showing steady growth. If you check it by country with a site like StatCounter, the last month has seen pretty dramatic drops in IE use all over the world. And corresponding rises in Firefox and Chrome.

4) While IE as a whole may still have the largest share, depending on location, it is what it doesn't have that is still very important. Firefox started gaining significant share once it became too big to ignore. About 10%? So any site that decides to use HTML5 will not see it as a good idea to ignore 30%+ of the browser traffic. And as the sticking point is only the video aspect, not a huge deal. They can still use Flash or what ever for streaming video.

5) Silverlight.. Great success eh? How come it hasn't replaced Flash already? IE support is not nearly as much a guarantee of success as it used to be. Especially when some high profile Silverlight sites have gone back to Flash.

In reality.. this is a committee decision. And all the major players have representation there. Not a battle of market share. And the open internet side has a very significant presence.

MS and Apple agreeing should scare the hell out of everybody who wants an open web. So expect the iFanboys to forget who made it possible for them to use the internet without IE, and go for Mozilla next.

Boobquake fails to destroy planet

John Bailey
Thumb Up

Certainly

Right after we get rid of our own bronze aged numpties. And believe me.. They do exist.

One set of sky fairy worshippers is as bad as any of the others. So we either make them all illegal, take away their ability to speak out on behalf of their imaginary friend, or strip all religions of legal special treatment across the board.

Personally, I favour the latter. I'd love to see the pope arrested in connection with concealing information on child abuse from the police.

Adobe clutches chance to bury Steve Jobs 'hog' insult

John Bailey
Pint

About time

Glad I'm not the only one that noticed it.. Perhaps there has been a leak in the RDS generators, and even Apple employees are starting to believe their own PR..

Either way, fun to watch.

Pinhead Mac Trojan sticks it to fanbois

John Bailey

Wow...

That is an impressive abuse of statistics.

Apple leaves profits on table for 'huge' iPad future

John Bailey
Paris Hilton

Just out of curiosity

So let me get this straight..

People don't use Linux because it isn't exactly like Windows, and doesn't have all the programs Windows does.

So obviously they are borderline OCD, and will freak out if they move their mouse to an area on the screen and the icon they expect is not there..

Yet they flock to the iPad.

So that must mean the iPad is running Windows.. Yes?

Paris.. because even she would have trouble swallowing your argument.

Sony's PS3 firmware update shows how retailers can be exposed

John Bailey
Boffin

Slight flawin the analogy

So when you can't use cheques any more, the bank can refuse you access to your money yes?

Sorry.. Doesn't work like that. Cheques are being phased out yes.. But the money is still yours, and there are several ways of getting it out of your account, and into the hands of someone else.

The problem with using real world analogies to defend the down right consumer abusive practices of computer/media companies is that there is no real world analogies that fit. Nobody would have the nerve to pull some of the strokes they do.

With the Sony firmware update, as far as I know, they took away the ability to run Linux, and enforced the update by making it impossible to access already purchased content that plays through an on-line aspect of the console. So basically held the content hostage. This is not really acceptable. Even if only half a dozen people are inconvenienced by it.

You have a choice. Use it as a computer, or use it as a games console. Can't do both. This is why people are annoyed. The numbers don't really matter, and Sony was I'm sure, fully aware that this would annoy many people. But why would they care, they can't be touched by this..

Personally, I hope enough people kick up a big enough stink over this that Sony get a nasty little shock.

Me? Sorry.. Not stupid enough to rent content. So no console. And I use Linux, so my computer gets more functional every update.. Not less.

Online retailers cannot deduct delivery fee when making refunds

John Bailey
WTF?

Bendy Banana syndrome much?

Do you really think this is new?

How about all the "save the receipt" Christmas presents people get every year from relatives that can't be bothered to put some thought into the gift?

It's as old as the retail business. The DSR just extended this to mail order. And a good thing too. And no.. You can't send the goods back in any condition and expect them to be refunded. Try it some time.

Buy a pair of shoes that are uncomfortable, No DSR, no return.

Buy a computer part that is not compatible, no DSR, you often had to pay a restocking fee, even though the item had been unpacked carefully, tested and repackaged.

As far as returning goods this way.. Personally I have done it twice in the last ten years. Out of hundreds of satisfactory purchases. And I know many who use the internet for buying stuff regularly, know about this regulation, and don't abuse it. There will always be some who do, but this is true of just about any rule.

Last time I returned something, it was quite heavy, so cost about half what I paid to send it back recorded delivery. Hardly an approval purchase. I was about £17 out of pocket for a thing that was not fit for my purpose. The seller however, had a courier account, so had a much lower delivery cost.

Adobe man to Apple: 'Go screw yourself'

John Bailey
Grenade

Exsqueeze me??

Come on.. I'm a Linux user, so perhaps more aware of "lock in" than most. This is not it.

Adobe produce the number one image manipulation application. And truth be told, they justify a lot of pro users buying a Mac.

But how exactly do they lock anybody in. By making super complicated integrated applications that need a whole Adobe stack? No.. Sorry. Photoshop + Win/OSX and you are good to go.

By only outputting images that Adobe products and nothing else support? Nope.. Again, no lockin.

By providing functionality that nothing else does.. Ahhhh..

This is called functionality. It's what you are paying for you twit.

Lockin is a forced use because the application or platform deliberately makes it as difficult as possible to move to an alternative product for artificial reasons.. Closed unique file formats, closed superficially patented protocols etc.. Not features that nobody else has.

Strangely enough, I haven't heard many cases of Adobe suing other image editing companies for providing similar tools, or vice versa.. And I'm sure they have patents on more than slidy unlock controls and window decorations.

Something for the fanboys to chew on.. Apple is a tiny niche. Holding on for dear life to the little market it has carved out in graphic design agencies and as poser gear for trendy gits. . Not some incredibly valuable corporate market.

If Adobe decided to abandon Photoshop on Apple OSs, which do you think would survive in graphic design agencies.. Apple or Adobe?

So skip the whole Adobe whine. Not fooling anybody. If your iProduct can't use flash, get over it. They are low power devices that are not designed for heavy processor tasks. Nobody expects them to. And stop parroting everything that his Steveness tells you. He is a salesman. Not the messiah.

Times websites want £1 a day from June

John Bailey

Why exactly?

Put something on the net. Charge for it.

Result one. It is something that people choose to buy, and it makes a profit.

Result two, is that it is not something that people want to buy, and does not make a profit.

Result three.. It's available elsewhere, and anybody with sense will rout around the paywall and still get to the information they want.

Build it and they will come only works in movies, and that which is written in The Sun today is litter tomorrow. Usually sooner.

The whole pay wall the internet idea is nonsense, because there will never be a consensus among publishers.. Half the majors may switch, but that just leaves twice the traffic for the sensible ones who don't fall for it.

And no. The artists musicians and who ever else is producing something do not deserve to be paid for their work. They deserve a chance to try and sell their work to us. Subtle but important distinction.

Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?

John Bailey
Unhappy

Yep

So they can remain optional to use.. Like breathing.

Dell bars Win 7 refunds from Linux lovers

John Bailey
FAIL

Hmm

So what happens if you buy a car, and decide to install a nice set of luxury leather bucket seats?

Are you obliged to keep or destroy the original seats?

Or.. Can you whack em up on Ebay and get a few quid back.

Or.. Can you leave them on the kerb, free to a good home.

Or.. Can you put them on Freecycle, Loot or any other means of getting someone to take the things away and put them to some use?

Because this is the big difference between a car part and Windows. You can at least give the car part away. You can't do anything with Windows. Including giving it away.. These days, you don't even get a copy of the install disk.

Jobcentre ejects Jedi Knight

John Bailey

But..

It seems to be a job requirement for the DWP.

Microsoft embraces another Linux company

John Bailey

Well

They did have their own version of Unix at one time. But I think they sold it.

Funny thing though.. They seem quite keen on telling everybody who will listen about the deals, but keep quiet about the actual patents that are being cross licensed. Could very well be that MS are the ones getting patent coverage, not the target companies.

Windows 7 'genuine' nagware winging its way to OS

John Bailey

Yes.

Yep. About 3.5-4 years ago..that was when I switched to Linux.

Apple vs the iPad Bedwetters

John Bailey
Happy

But it is already taking over..

Postings on tech blogs that is.. And while the extra traffic caused by the fanboy army zooming around and making sure that any dissent is thoroughly squashed is pretty heavy, the internet will survive. It is fun to watch the old standard responses coming out.

The fanboys are annoying, but then they always were, and always will be.

My personal take on the picture frame with wings.. Big Meh..

What can I use it for that isn't already more than covered by other devices I own.. And usually done better for my particular needs. Nothing. And forgive my obviously barbaric lack of taste, but iPhone apps are not something that I see as a huge advantage.

I have an e-book reader. It's great. Fits perfectly into my favourite jacket's pocket, displays the text in the way I like for ages.. Ten hours.. Pfft.. Try weeks and we can talk. Cost me about £170 year before last. Not a single day of second thoughts.

I have a PDA. Have done for the best part of a decade. Differnt makes and models. Fits into the pocket of every pair of trousers I own, fits in any jacket pocket, and doubles as a wallet too.

I have a TV. Why the hell would I want to watch a movie on a titchy 4:3 display when I can watch it on a nice 32 inch HD wide screen (real HD) dispay?

Web surfing? No flash, no thanks. And my doddering old Thinkpad serves perfectly well as a couch side surfing device.

So.. A kind of portable-ish device that doesn't really offer anything beyond a netbook, which I also don't have, for 500 notes.. Give me a break. The only thing it does is provide a very fertile ground for feminine hygiene product jokes, and provide yet another way to may iFans cry.

The big fuss is already dying down. Give it a month, and a few days at launch for shots of the faithful queuing around the block, and it will go the way of the Air. A few will buy it and come looking for validation, the rest will shrug and buy a netbook or something.

Ofcom opens debate on Freeview HD DRM to punters

John Bailey
Stop

Oops..

Slight flaw in your argument.. Standard definition is still being sold in the form of DVD, which is if anything, a far far bigger market than HD. Surely the studio wouldn't allow it to be broadcast at all if it was cannibalising the sales of the much larger DVD market..

The whole "premium content" wibble is just marketing. How many movies are unwatchable in SD? Excitable videophile and drama queen responses excluded that is.. HD is nice, but not that nice..

A movie makes money on theatrical release, then makes more money at home video release, and finally, it is rented for broadcast by the various TV channels worldwide for the third slice. And people still buy the video.

Simple solution.. Refuse DRM, and if studios don;t want to show their movies, fine. How long do you really think the movie studios will hold out and miss out on all the money from TV broadcast of movies past their prime money making period?

E-book readers attract unwanted VAT

John Bailey

Not sorry at all

For the same reason that many people have a few days worth of music on an MP3 player that only has a day's battery life.

I have about 50 books on my reader right now. I'm still only reading one at a time, but if the storage is there, why not. And if I am delayed somewhere, and I have my reader with me, running out of book is not a problem.

Seriously.. The storage thing is nice, but not a huge advantage. The ability to carry a a big thick book in a device that is about a centimetre thick is nice too, but even that is not the killer feature.

The killer feature.. For me at least, is the ability to change the font size. Something you don't appreciate until your eyes start going. And the huge amount of free (and legal) books out there is not bad either.

Italians threaten suit over Windows pre-install

John Bailey
Gates Horns

Ahh The smell of astroturf

Funny how the whines of outrage seem to appear every time stories like this come up. Wonder why...

Simple solution.. Sell all bare drive computers. And for those who get too upset by the thought of people buying a computer without Windows, how about the people who buy computers without Blu Ray players, printers, scanners etc..

Stores and OEMs can provide a service to install it, or local tech places can charge a reasonable sum to install it. And you end up not only paying for, but getting an actual disk with the full OS. And the OEM can cut support costs right down.

It isn't just an advantage for us Linux users, but think of all the Windows users out there who could install the OS version they choose, and all the updated hardware drivers, no crapplets.. What could be better. And it isn't as if installing Windows 7 is a mensa level task.

Amazon Kindle International Edition

John Bailey
Jobs Horns

Something to remember...

Buy a Kindle, and buy books from Amazon, and you are stuck with Kindle for as long as Amazon decide to keep selling them. No other reader is going to have the ability to use Amazon e-books.

Alas.. No evil Amazon icon, so Steve Jobs will have to do.

iPhone anti-malware stuck in state of denial

John Bailey

Sensible?

Because if they get the malware detection BEFORE there is a problem, they can deal with it faster.

Apple's attitude. There is no countermeasure, because there is no malware, so no problem. Not too bright.

ISPA slams Mandy's copyright land grab

John Bailey
Unhappy

Hmm

Is it just me, or does "widespread support" mean that lots of ministers agree with what they are told to?

Microsoft unleashes Silverlight 4 beta

John Bailey

@Ed

I think they do get the point. Very very well.

IE is in decline right now, but if it ever surged, then we could see a return to IE only web pages again. Not possible if everybody gets used to writing one page for all browsers.

Microsoft have built an empire on introducing their own formats for their own reasons, and their own advantage.

BBC publishes Freeview HD timetable

John Bailey
WTF?

What the hell is wrong with people?

HD ready set = a video display unit that can display at least 720p resolution. look at the back of the TV. Does it have a HDMI, VGA,DVI orComponent connector? (most have more than one) Then yes. It is capable of displaying HD TV. So nobody has wasted money on a 1080p set just because the freeview tuner is DVB instead of DVB2.

So your set has a compatible connection that can take an HD signal and put it on the screen at HD resolutions. You just need to attach a source of HD signal. Simple eh? HD refers to the display. End of story.

The source can be a Blu ray player, a FreesatHD box, a sky HD box, a Virgin cable HD box, or a DVBT2 box. No need to throw away your set if you can just plug in a tuner.

Now go back to reading the Daily Mail. I'm sure there is an immigration crisis that needs your righteous indignation to protect us from.

US judge rules quadriplegic can bear arms

John Bailey

Right to bare arms.

As a wheelchair user myself, I feel qualified to point out that bare arms are pretty much a necessity. In a manually propelled chair at least, the sleeves covering the lower part of one's arms get grubby very quickly and the wheel rims tend to wear holes in any shirt or jacket that extends past the elbows.

Wintel 7 machines freeze out iPhone

John Bailey
Linux

So let me get this straight..

So let me get this straight....

Apple hardware and software "just works".

Windows has drivers for everything and is compatible with all hardware.

Intel makes the market leading processors and they also make the chip set for the mother boards that use the processors..

And the three together make a system that can't sync a phone.. BWHAAAAAA!!

Now you know how annoying it is for us Linux users when a hardware vendor mucks up a driver!

Realistically.. Give them a chance.

The OS has only been out a couple of weeks. iTunes possibly needs some tweaks to work properly with it, and new chipsets are always temperamental for a while.

Newsflash.. Never expect a new OS to be stable for at least a few months. Especially on fussy non standard hardware like the iPhone. Personally, I'd give it a year for things to settle down and the problems to stop.

Fedora 12 polishes Linux for netbooks

John Bailey
Happy

Yes!!

Tried the beta, and the volume slider is not cutting out at half volume like it does with F11. Roll on November. New distro version to play with.

Microsoft ropes in Family Guy to pimp Windows 7

John Bailey

Teh horror..

Just had a mental image of Steve bouncing around the set shouting giggidy giggidy giggidy..

Going got poke a pencil in my mind's eye now...

Does the Linux desktop need to be popular?

John Bailey
Grenade

Yet again

Wow.. Another " If this and this was just like Windows, then Linux would be everywhere" rant from several people. Never gets old..

Thing is.. It wouldn't. Windows is what everybody uses because it comes "free" with a new computer.

To get Linux adoption widespread, one thing needs to be done.

Make it illegal to sell a PC with any pre installed OS. Problem solved. Then people will have to make a choice. Scary eh..

If every PC came with a shiny new Epson printer, it would be next to impossible to sell people an HP printer. Exactly the same phenomenon. Most buy the cheapest, the nicest looking, the one that has the cheapest inks or whatever their personal criteria is for a printer. They do not pour over the spec and weigh up the pros and cons before putting their money down.

The vast majority of people do not buy operating systems. They buy computers. And as long as most computers come with Windows pre installed, they will continue to do so. They also mostly get a freebie/cheap home copy of Office, and use that because they don't even know anything else exists. And from personal experience, most don't even need Office.

If Linux was created to replace Windows, fair enough. It has so far failed. In the same way chocolate has failed to replace aluminium.

Think of Linux as an alternative, and the angst goes away. If it was a copy of Windows, then it would be pointless. £60 or so for an OEM license is a trivial amount for a pretty important bit of software you are going to get a lot of use out of after all.

Want a free copy of Windows. Great. Go for it. Try any of the torrent sites, or burn yourself a copy from someone who bought it. But please.. stay away from Linux. You will be disappointed. It isn't Windows.

You want to learn how to use Linux, great. It takes a while to get over the hump of the learning curve, but once you do, it's fun. It's free, and it works and keeps on working. It is also great for putting on the computer of someone who comes to you every six months to de crud their PC.

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