Posts by James Bassett

Bit late

Wish they'd mentioned this before we went an implemented an SMS based emergency notification system, in conjunction with th service provider, who can adjust the priority based on the message source (i.e. give US priority when we need) several years ago. We thought it had been working perfectly this last five years but apparantly not. We do have an entirely separate backup system consisting of receiving a pager notification - over a dedicated network - and then using Tetra radios to contact control but it has, thus far, not been needed.

Revenge

Looks like mamma got her revenge from beyond the grave by seeding that old Chapter 11 story on Google yesterday!

In fact

In fact, given the cost of Petrol, £40 of petrol is actually about 20% LESS petrol than it was before.

And don't get me started on the fuel duty thing. If Brown lowers duty, the price goes down. This means more people now can afford petrol. Supply and demand forces price back up. Voila, price is what it was before but the government now has less to spend on roads.

Retards!

Re: NAS Support

Cheers folks. Looks like SSOTS on a QNAP NAS is the way to go. Now I just have to convince the holder of the purse strings...

BBC Reporting

On the subject of BBC reporting on all things Climate-Change related, did anyone hear last nights "PM"? They were discusing US Vice-presidential candidate Palin's right-wing fundamentalist Christian beliefs. In particular we were told that she was a creationsist and, as such, believed (and here the reporters voice moved rapidly up through the gears of incredulity) "That the earth is just six thousand years old, abortion is wrong in all circumstances, even when the pregnancy is a result of incestuous rape AND" (and here his voice nearly went off the scale) "global warming ISN'T man made!!". Cue significant pause to allow the true nature of these appalling revelations to sink-in. "Is this really the kind of message the US wants to send out to the East?" he asked Carly Fiorina - The Republican spokeswoman chosen to defend these charges.

Flames Icon? Well, whilst the other two beliefs might be fair game, questioning the age of the earth will surely land that reporter in a fiery after-life.

Re: BatCat "The laptop now flies along"

That's simply untrue. Yes, XP would have been quicker than before if I had rebuilt it. However, no-one in their right mind would describe a Celeron 1.5GHz PC with 512MB RAM running XP SP3 with Office 2003, Media Player and Photo Editing Software as flying along. Acceptable? For the first 3-6 months maybe - maybe not.

Although, from my Wife's perspective (and I'm using her as a classic example of "Don't bother explaining it to me, I just want it to work") the "Suspend" is the main time saver. Under XP, she could suspend her laptop in seconds and bring in back in seconds. And then wait five minutes for the disk to stop thrashing before anything became usable. And then another five minutes for Outlook. A rebuild would have helped but Windows still thrashes like hell for ages after coming out of sleep mode and Outlook is just rediculous.

Under gOS she can suspend and restore in about 10s either way and everything is back at full speed.

Let me get this straight

£150 buys you a radio that;

"feels a little lightweight and on the ‘plasticky’ side"

"The carry handle also feels a little flimsy"

"The control array...also looks a little fussy"

" The aerial...also feels a little on the vulnerable side"

"Only 15 station presets are available"

"has a power consumption level - which damages the Stream's portability credentials"

"The user experience isn't an altogether a happy one"

"just feels a little more complex than it could have been"

"the text is quite block-like"

"once text starts to scroll...it becomes very difficult to read"

"reception isn't the best we have seen"

"sound quality is also a little disappointing"

"there's a lag time between turning the dial and the screen reacting"

"the price is a little on the heavy side"

So how in the name of Gates does it get a score of 75%?

Seriously, this is getting rediculous. Does a product actually have to decapitate the operator in order to score less than 60% or are you guys just worried that you won't get sent lots of free stuff if you give a product a bad score?

gOS

I'm afraid I can't comment on Battery drain as (my wife's) laptop is tethered to the mains. It's five years old so I doubt the battery works in any case. However, for ease of use you cannot beat the new Beta 3 of gOS. The underlying OS is Ubuntu and it is imeadiately familiar to Ubuntu users but it is even more user friendly and has nice touches like battery monitor and WiFi monitor displayed by default when installed on a laptop.

Even on my Wife's aging Dell, setup was a simple matter of;

Insert CD

Boot Laptop

Click install

Wait

Obviously you have to change the bloody keyboard language from US to UK along with the clock but that was it. Fully functional laptop in about ten minutes flat.

And whilst the apps in the Dock Bar largely point to Google Apps they can be easily re-directed to whatever floats your boat.

It flies on an old Celeron 1.5GHz with 512MB of RAM. I highly recommend it!

Javascript

Whilst I agree about the whole Flash thing (never seen the point, annoys the crap out of me and crashes the version of IE I'm forced to use at work) I think you'll find every Internet Banking site in existence uses Javascript.

So do all those wonderful people above, who claim Javascript should be bannished to hell because it is not a "standard", do all their banking in the high street or are we just dealing with the usual bunch of blinkered ass-holes who like jumping on band wagons and high-horses because it's "cool"?

Incidentally, I hate Javascript. But that's because I have to write Internet Banking systems using it and Firefox and Internet Explorer have a rather fundamental disagreement concerning what bits of Javascript should be implemented and it makes my life hell.

Re: Kobus Botes

Well done on missing the point Kobus. The guy said he had kids. You are a (former) MCSE. In what way do you NOT get the difference between those two things?

It's incredibly easy to take a PC or Mac and lock them down so that the damn kids don't kill it with the usual "curiosity".

Yes, if you have a few weeks to search around and play you can probably do something similar with Linux but....

"What do you mean Linux was too tricky for your children? I'm an MCSE with 20+ years computer experience and I found the switch quite easy" really isn't a point worth making!

Re: Weapons Possession rap?

Yep, in some States it is perfectly legal to carry a licensed gun, but illegal to carry a knife/Ninja Star etc. 'Cause, you know, that would just be dangerous!

Public Service

I don't have any problem with the BBC investing money in this sort of service. I have no idea who it was, but someone on the BBC a few months ago sugested a (to my mind) rather brilliant definition of Public Service Broadcasting. He suggested the BBC should only be involved in things that would otherwise either not happen or take longer to come to fruition were a large, publicly funded corporation not involved.

His examples of things that wouldn't count were Deadenders (there are dozens of identikit Soaps so why is the tax payer having to spend Millions a year on another?), Jonathon Ross (if the Beeb needed to pay X million to get his contract, presumably that is because there was competition. If there was competition, the public gained nothing by the BBC signing him because he would be on the telly anyway) and How do you solve a problem like Maria (the license fee should not be spent on 10 hour commercials for West End Productions).

Example of things that would fall into this category would be proper science documentaries, regional news, educational programming, local radio etc. Although it was never mentioned, I think iPlayer and a national content delivery system is EXACTLY the sort of thing the BBC should be doing and I have no problem with them investing large amounts of the license fee in it.

By all means, drop the generic shite available on any commercial station and invest the money in new technology and the sort of content you just can't get made commercially.

Asus's main mistake

Surely Asus's main mistake was to listen to Techno journalists and technology fans - like us.

It was the average - don't give a damn how it works as long as it does - consumer who made the Eee PC a sucess. Then Tech Journalists and us came along with our usual sucking of teeth and said "well, it's very nice, but imagine if that screen was just a tiny bit bigger. You'd be able to get a decent sized keyboard in and run windows on it. Oh, but you'll need just a bit more RAM and one of those fancy Atom processors for that. Oh, and a bigger hard drive..."

We talked them into ruining it!

The problem with Linux on the desktop

I've lost count of the number of times I've installed Linux on the desktop. Everything looks great. Almost all the applications and functionality I need are there. Almost. So, I start fiddling. I decide to install an OSX style App doc, a new media player, some MP3 tagging software, some Open Source mapping...oh shit. I've killed Linux again.

[so the problem with Linux on the desktop is me]

Re: Marc MacAllister

It's not the ones that died for us that bother me. It's the ones who survived and won't stop moaning about what a shit-hole the country has become that piss me off. Apparantly, it's all down to the teenagers, who've only been in the country less than twenty years and have no power to change anything.

Certainly it can't possibly be their fault, what with them having lived here for eighty years and having voted for government after government....

Re: shame by Aron

"we let such a complete clueless moron into power"

No matter what your views on his political competency, describing a man who, according to many, achieved one of the best degrees in this country of the last 50 years as a "moron" suggests rather a lack of reading on your part.

Moron!

Re: Barcodes at the supermarket

"How many times has the bar code reader at the supermarket checkout been unable to read the simple black and white stripe barcode and the checkout girl had to hand key it in herself?"

Erm, not seen that one for years now you come to mention it.

Oh, sorry, what was your point?

"landing on a cross"

Does this mean the Paras are offering to crucify themselves? Seems a bit harsh for a Saturday afternoon balls-up in a strong cross-wind.

*incidentally, I would like to make it clear I have nothing but the utmost respect for "The Devils". I've met a few of them. They could turn me to pulp and I suffer from a severe allergy to pain.

Nice to see

It's refreshing to see an employee who actually seems to give a damn about the products his company produces and wants to see them working as well as they possibly can. A depressingly rare thing.

Just plain wrong

I wish people would stop coming out with this rubbish about how fatties/smokers/drinkers etc are going to kill the NHS and drive the country bankrupt. It's just complete nonsense.

They are contributing huge amounts of dosh to the public coffers by paying for their disgusting habits. They are then contributing all over again by paying for fad diets, nicotine patches, gymn memberships etc. etc. THEN they are doing us another huge favour by keeling over with a heart attack at the age of 45, removing themselves from the pension pay-roll and massively reducing the amount the NHS has to spend on looking after them in their dotage.

The people who are costing us a fortune are the namby pamby bastards who insist we should treat them and keep the nasty fuckers alive!

Save oil. Burn a fat-bloke!

Maybe there is hope for America after all

Clearly, not having even the most basic academic understanding necessary to complete the course, these students were intent on disrupting the teaching with constant interuptions and contradictory statements so this is a victory for common sense. It's just surprising that it has come from the US.

You do wonder whether we would have had the same outcome in the UK?

I did find the title of the book amusing. "A US History...". If, as the article suggests, it is based solely on the Bible, I don't recall the US getting much of a mention!

Those specs don't sound like the video

Has anyone seen that HTC Dream video on YouTube? It's about the size of a TytnII - which has a 2.8" screen. The spec in this article says it has a 3"x5" screen. According to my maths that works out at nearly a 6" diagonal (the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides etc.). That's closer to an Eee PC than a smartphone. So either this "leak" is a complete load of bollocks or they are two completely different devices. I go with the former.

Inconsequential

I think you'll find the fact that it had confidential data on it was inconsequential. He just needed something that would play DVD's to keep the kids quiet for the long drive up to Edinburgh!

Sack him!

Clever thinking

Way to go Dell. Let's launch a device aimed at the emerging markets. And lets do it early afternoon in San Francisco with a live Linkup to New Dehli - where it's about 3am!

Joined-up thinking from Dell?

Are you sure it wasn't the Russkies?

Molotov Cocktails...

Fire-bombings...

Georgia...

Sounds like even the Russians got their initial bombing co-ordinates from Wikipedia and these poor kids are just the scapegoats!