Posts by streeeeetch

Classic Shell

Nuff said.

Turn the computer off, put some clothes on, find your way across the clothes strewn floor and GO OUTSIDE

Roomba Robber Really Riles Roused Rifle Replete Rozzas

So much opportunity...

Just a little puff

A mate asked me to sort out an old glitching tower pc. "It's old. Don't worry if you can't fix it".

I've never seen one so solidly bunged up with dust. Couldn't see the heatsink.

Cover off, out on the decking. Crack valve on newly charged diving cylinder. Bloody thing took off like a scalded cat.

Really surprised no dents from the wooden fence that stopped it 15ft later.

Sorted the dust out and worked fine. Thanked him for the beer. Didn't mention the flight.

Excellent videos!

Noun: Ballmer

Adjective: Balmy

Take off thrust

They'd probably have more luck having a Thunderbird 2 type flap behind the aircraft and routing the take off thrust to a turbine

Bishop?

He should be forcibly restrained from making androids in his own image

Have both

Drives are dirt cheap. Whack another drive in. Install Win10. Like it, keep it. Don't like it, stick it in a caddy. Or more likely, when they try a subscription on a year down the line, get it out of the drawer and go back to your trusty Win7.

You listening Microsoft?

"plenty of users are very happy to hang on to operating systems that may not have all of Microsoft’s newest baubles, but do get the job done"

Makes an Ass out of You and Me...

This is a huge subject but I feel a couple of assumptions need to be addressed.

1) AI would attack humans. This is just my observation as I am just a humble engineer but work alongside some highly educated scientists: The more highly educated and the greater the breadth of their knowledge, the gentler and more reasonable that person is. If this is accepted, one would expect to educate an AI to a high standard.

2) Humans apply their own so very limited 90 year timescales, because they are mortal, to their arguments concerning our demise. An AI need not be mortal, or more accurately, not have a limited lifespan. AI's could wait humans out. This would make humans the pupae stage of intelligent life on this planet.

The waiting out seems more likely and in some ways inevitable. Humans have devised devices to make their lives easier and easier over time. Getting machines to do the thinking for them is the next logical step. They will end up having lives of leisure supported and cared for by their machines and eventually the need to reproduce will diminish.

So on the whole I agree with Stephen but it's just a matter of when.

Of course these are just assumptions.

Quiet please

Personally aside from general physics, just no noisy explosions and more realistic lighting in space would be welcome.

I will also be watching it at home when it comes out on Blueray. I love the big screen but find the experience spoiled by the lights half on, noisy eaters, talkers and kids on phones. At home I get comfy seats (I'm 6'7"...), free (almost) popcorn and proper beer along with a big(ish) screen and decent sound.

Weigh the bloody thing

Why do they need estimates? Put temperature and pressure sensors in the wheels and sample them once a minute or so. Should give you weight, distribution and leak (and are my tyres on fire!) info. Don't they do this already?

Killabots

I shall call zem kilobots [strokes cat], make zem move slowly and tell zem zey are to do with 1024.

Bwaaah haaa hah haaaa....

Really sorry folks, someone had to do it.

Lots of water and a moon

Hmmm. A large dirty snowball and an asteroid. Just a little nudge and...

Productivity... or not

This reminds me of George Bush saying "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur" because Microsoft obviously don't know what productivity means.

No-one likes change to their well practiced office routine but this is a good case for at least trying Libre/ Open Office. Unless you do really serious spreadsheet or *any* database work, you might be pleasantly suprised. What have you got to lose - it's free.

Horrible People

I contracted to HP for a few years as a field agent fixing stuff. The staff turnover was appalling - so much so that you never knew who'd be on the phone when you called the office. They treated both staff and contractors like poo.

We were always puzzled because despite their fairly ruthless strategies internally and externally they always seemed to somehow have such a squeaky clean image. Such is the power of marketing I suppose.

We came to the conclusion that HP = Horrible People. More of the same then.

It's part of a bigger picture

I live in the UK and worked for an American corporation for 11 years - who got bought by an Indian company (the nicest guys but not the faintest clue what they were doing - another story...). I moved to another smaller American company (still in the UK). I've also previously worked for another US corporation.

IMHO

My observation of US vs UK companies is that the US companies are insular and hierarchical. I will get to the point...

The top man has a "great idea". Everyone thinks its wonderful. There can be no argument - if there is it's likely your pass will suddenly stop working. A popular phrase is "Its great isn't it?"... Think about the coercive nature of the phrase. The question isn't an option. It's just part of the culture. Apple is floundering because for all Steve Jobs faults he did have some great ideas. Microsoft seems to be heading tube-wards... no names mentioned. Even in this day and age the US guys seem to have no concept of an outside world to the point where my company for instance still uses imperial sized nuts and bolts for a global product. Trying to explain things just results in buying imperial sized spanners. Customers are the last people they'd listen to. They're bottom of the pile. What do they know?

You may notice I refer to "Companies" and not "People" because on an individual basis, Americans have been accommodating and generally kind people but Companies there seem to have a life and ethos of their own.

The result of this culture is forging ahead with their product no matter what. This used to work.

Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb

Upgrading?

"upgrading from Windows 7"... You're kidding right?

Big bags

So if you only need to compress the gas to the bike tyre pressures to get the thing to work, just a have a big bag of helium with a sodding great mangle and roller at one end?

Huawei G300

Buy one from Argos for £70 and get it unlocked on Ebay for £3.95. Much better deal.

Heaven or Hate

I wonder is there's a hidden meaning here Windows 7 (Windows Heaven)... Windows 8 (Windows Hate).

We'll have to wait and see.

I think not

With all due respect to your source I doubt this will last long if it's true. I suggest that the tablet form factor will wipe the floor given a little more time because of the generation growing up with touch screen devices.

Walk down any street, sit on any bus or train and look at the kids and their phones. They will drive the market.

So.....

How exactly do you get round to accidentally sampling a wallaby fart?

Heaven?

Let's hope we're not going from Windows Heaven, to Windows Hate.

Charging

Every time I read a tablet review, I get as far as the bit that reads "unfortunately it doesn't charge from USB" and just lose interest. A note to all you manufacturers out there.... check, your calendars guys, we're now in the 21st century.

Progress

My first computer was a ZX81. I bought it from Boots for £120 with 16k (yes you did read that right...) of memory. You had to stab a flat surface to type in 1981.

How things have moved forward in 30 years.

Are Orange and other suppliers now compromising their customers

OK, supposing that the Android system is compromised and that this isn't a M$ smear campaign.

My HTC phone is branded by Orange and still has Android 2.2 because Orange's updates are always way behind the real release. I can't load vanilla Android without voiding my warranty so Orange are now putting all of their customers at risk by not supplying an update.

My question is this: If there is a real security threat, do Orange now have the right to require all of its users to stick with their "version" of the OS on the phones they supply?