* Posts by truetalk

49 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Oct 2007

BAE Systems tosses its contractors a blanket... ban on off-payroll working under upcoming IR35 tax reforms

truetalk

Re: Issues...

I certainly couldn’t fully specify electrical work for an electrician I hired, I trust him to be able to translate my desires (e.g. power socket here) into a fully specified job and deliver.

Don't think you've had to deal with the trades much. All the ones I've dealt with have needed a little more detail than a power socket. There's hundreds of not thousands of types and styles, not to mention what are you going to connect to it. A toaster or an x-ray machine. Big difference.

A full spec makes sure everybody knows where the blame and costs go when and if the shit hit the fan. Hopefully when everybody knows what's required that's less likely.

Remember that Sonos speaker you bought a few years back that works perfectly? It's about to be screwed for... reasons

truetalk

Pioneer

I'd recommend the Pioneer SX-S30DAB Network Stereo Receiver (Black) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01LZDQI3I/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QbnkEbBX9YDWV

Excellent bit of kit that you can hook your own speakers up to. I have it connected to eight yahama speakers. The sound is amazingly !

You can stream to it, has built in DLNA and chromecast. Optical input for connecting to you TV. And a lot less in cost compared to Sonos.

What's that? Encryption's OK now? UK politicos Brexit from Whatsapp to Signal

truetalk

Re: "Tinge of irony"

Or, will the trolls just down-vote this too?

By saying the above, you just asked to be down-voted. Instead of trying to think of some logical reason, sometimes there isn't one, I think the word 'mischief' sums it up. Yes some people just like to do the opposite of what you would expect..because... Isn't that a great thing though, having the choice to not conform to the majorities will.

Hinkley Point nuclear power station will be late and £2bn over budget

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Re: Jeez

My thoughts exactly.

Supreme Court says secret UK spy court's judgments can be overruled after all

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Re: Judges

Ditto

Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz: Car hire biz demands $32m+ for 'defective' cyber-revamp

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I object to the use of boffin in every context.

Europe's home PC buyers reach for their collective smartphone, sigh: We don't need a new desktop. This is a computer, right?

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Upgrade, why?

Brexit uncertainty ? I don't think so at all, it's for all the reasons given in the above comments. From a consumer point of view, my Android phone has taken over the bulk of what I do including being able to print documents to my Epson printer. I want to upgrade my I7 laptop, but not for any reason other than it has a dodgy hinge. I look at the specs of new laptops and there just isn't anything that says I must have that. My laptop will only probably get replaced when it becomes so obsolete that I can no longer get replacement batteries. As for my desktop system running KDE Neon, I can still see that running in another 10..15 years. Up until recently I was still running a Pentium 4 as a webserver. The only reason I changed it was to experience some retail therapy and have something shiny & new. The I5 system that replaced the Pentium 4 doesn't really improve upon the Pentium 4 in terms of the actual use the system was used for. E.g the bottleneck is the internet speed not the processor speed. Now if I could get a 1gbit (or even a 200Mbit) internet in a rural area that's where my money would go.

Only one Huawei? We pitted the P30 Pro against Samsung and Apple's best – and this is what we found

truetalk

Niche?

Seriously, ask yourself: how often do you need 50x (or even 10x) zoom? And how often do you need to take a photo in near darkness, compared to when you want to capture the feel and atmosphere of a low-light scene?

Well, maybe I'm an edge case, but macro and massive zoom is exactly what I want from a phone, I use it for work (engineering) and those two functions would be used at least 50% of the time. If I was concerned about image quality, in terms of whether the colour shading is faithful to the original, I'd lug my Canon 5D & lenses around and still do post processing. Huawei would certainly be on my list of possibles when I next change my phone. Currently HTC U11.

Home users due for a battering with Microsoft 365 subscription stick

truetalk

Re: Downvotes invited

For example, to replace things such as newlines and new para markers (a basic tool for tidying up other people's documents) you have to use regex: a real pita for the average user.

Maybe I misunderstand what you're trying to achieve, but to replace newlines I use Find & Replace in Libreoffice, it's as simple as selecting find and replace, expand other options, tick the regular expressions and type a $ (for newline) or ^$ (for paragraph) and then whatever you want to replace it with or alternatively nothing to remove the newline or paragraph, using either replace or replace all. At least that's the way it works in Libreoffice and according to this article OpenOffice too.

truetalk

Re: Downvotes invited

For example, to replace things such as newlines and new para markers (a basic tool for tidying up other people's documents) you have to use regex: a real pita for the average user.

Maybe I misunderstand what you're trying to achieve, but to replace newlines I use Find & Replace in Libreoffice, it's as simple as selecting find and replace, expand other options, tick the regular expressions and type a $ (for newline) or ^$ (for paragraph) and then whatever you want to replace it with or alternatively enter nothing in the replace field to remove them, using the replace or replace all buttons. At least that's the way it works in Libreoffice and according to this article OpenOffice too.

BT: We're stocking warehouses with kit ahead of Brexit to avoid shortages

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Re: Because Brexit

businesses outside the UK are finding non-UK suppliers. What would you call it instead of Brexit?

I'm finding quite the opposite, foreign companies that have a mainland EU distributer are setting up UK distributers so they can export directly to the UK rather than via Europe which makes sense to keep the trade flowing, the UK is after all a reasonably large market.

HTC U12+: Like a Pixel without the pratfalls, or eye-watering price tag

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Re: "Like a Pixel without the pratfalls"... and presumably without the updates

I have an HTC M10 and love it, never any issues and plenty of updates.

Hello, Dixons Carphone? Yep, we're ringing from a 2015 handset. Profits down 60%, eh?

truetalk

Go to a shop?? Are you kidding

Just did a quick check and of my colleagues and close family, all bought their phones either from Amazon or direct from the manufacturers website (HTC). Does anybody still go to a shop when it's far more efficient to do your research online and order online.

Google isn't saying Microsoft security sucks but Chrome for Windows has its own antivirus

truetalk
WTF?

Re: I will not have anything from google scanning my personal files. period

Funniest thing I've heard this morning so far.. Somebody trusts Microsoft Hahahaha!

Huge Apple news confirmed. Software deal with Accenture is official

truetalk
Linux

Re: Don't do much work then?

Should've bought an HTC M10 then.

Forget Iran and North Korea. Now there's another uranium source

truetalk
Stop

Boffins, I hate that word... Am I reading the Sun or what?

You know what’s not so throttled at O2? UK sales. They're up 2.6%

truetalk
WTF?

Amazed sales are up !

Personally I'm amazed sales are up, O2's coverage/maintainance of their equipment has not been great over the last few years, not fixing their stuff is certainly a quick way of reducing your debt. Despite many years with them I jumped ship and are now with BT/EE and it's certainly been an improvement in regards availability of 4G in the places i visit.

NHS WannaCrypt postmortem: Outbreak blamed on lack of accountability

truetalk

You have no idea, we still run Unix systems that are decades old and require next to no maintenance or virus updates. They cause zero headaches, where as windows is a pain in the butt. Why anybody thinks it's a good idea to use windows on a CT scanner is beyond me.

‪There's a ransom-free fix for WannaCry‬pt. Oh snap, you've rebooted your XP box

truetalk

Re: "the antithesis of a strong and stable operating system"

Same here.. 20 XP machines and none hit due to port 445 being blocked in the windows firewall. We use them for tasks other than file sharing.

Why Microsoft's Windows game plan makes us WannaCry

truetalk

"You can train the nurse to use Windows XP (which she has used for 10 years now), then you suddenly expect her to jump to Linux, OSX and Windows 10? That would cause issues at a hospital, where every job a nurse does is mission critical (btw, I love nurses, they have saved my life a fair few times now)."

Training is provided on the application not the OS. The OS sits behind the application causing no end of security woes (if its Windows). Most people I've met that operate CT/MR/X-RAY systems don't give two hoots what the OS is. They learn and understand the application.

And if a manufacturer of CT/MR/X-RAY/Nuclear had any sense that would avoid managements love affair with Windows and switch all such pieces of equipment to Linux. All the rest that use Microsoft Word and occasionally move a file around on their computer can live in blissful ignorance with their virus/malware infested pile of shite called Windows.

Kill it with fire: US-CERT urges admins to firewall off Windows SMB

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Re: Samba can disable SMB1 as well

Excellent comment. Most people are just thinking in terms of a bog standard PC. You Sir, have nailed it right on the head.

If it was up to me I would insist that all critical bits of medical equipment do not run Windows. Preferably Linux. Once upon a time the expensive kit always ran on unix. Even now 20 year old unix system is vastly more reliable than a modern Windows version and requires next to no work to maintain it.

Having to keep the system constantly patched and running the latest antivirus / malware detection. Unbelievable.

74 countries hit by NSA-powered WannaCrypt ransomware backdoor: Emergency fixes emitted by Microsoft for WinXP+

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Re: Linux as an option

Linux is used within imaging departments on some medical equipment. Unfortunately so is windows and it's usually windows that is high maintenance. GE's SPECT/Ct.. Linux acquition front end, processing stations Windows.. And you know what got infected by wanna cry, not Linux.

Windows Sir is a ******* pain in the butt and should not be used in mission critical equipment.

truetalk

Re: Risk Management

Let me correct that for you .. You mean using Windows (whichever version) is a known risk. This vulnerability is present in 7, 8, 10 ..

Why do GUIs jump around like a demented terrier while starting up? Am I on my own?

truetalk

Re: Microsoft time

Totally agree re the KDE default look, what are they thinking ?

Android users installed 2 BILLION data-stealing, backdooring apps

truetalk

Re: Agree about Samsung

I once had the first Samsung phone, a GT-I7500 and vowed never to use a another Samsung phone due to how buggy it was and Samsung refusal to upgrade the firmware. Every phone since I've had an HTC currently on M8 running Android 6, HTC do upgrade Android and as long as they keep doing the firmware updates, my next phone will very likely be another HTC.

Mozilla: Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Thunderbirds are – gone

truetalk
Linux

Kmail

Am I the only one that's been using kmail for the last ten years ?

Musicians sue UK.gov over 'zero pay' copyright fix

truetalk

Money for nothing

I'm also with the UK government on this. It's a shame we're going to leave the EU but unfortunately the EU just don't get how disillusioned many people are with many of their decisions. This is just another example.

UK digi exclusion: Poor families without internet access could 'miss out' on child tax credit

truetalk

Assisted digital support.

For those that are unable or incapable of using the internet "assisted digital support" is available which according to this government document "should" provide in person visits to home or hospital to help somebody fill in the online forms.

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/assisted-digital As to whether assisted digital support is appropriately funded & provided by HMRC that's another question.

truetalk

no friends with any computer literacy ?

Maybe I'm being cold hearted but I thought everybody knew at least somebody that has access to a computer/smartphone/tablet. Maybe I live in a different world but when somebody needs help and asks for it, people are usually more than willing to help. Especially when it comes to computers there are plenty of people to offer help & advice. I haven't looked but surely there is a charity that gives away used Linux PC's to the needy complete with an hour of training. Maybe the government should give free internet access for those that can't afford it. A bit like a free TV licence that the elderly get.

Stop ROBOT exploitation, cry striking Foxconn workers

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I can remember the same concerns about automation taking people's jobs being expressed forty years ago, you would think by the way people complained unemployment would be at 90% by now with just us engineers in work fixing the machines.... Yet those concerns don't seem to be reflected in UK employment figures. Currently 6.2%, in 1984 it was 12% and in 1973 3%. Seems to me automation just means goods get cheaper and most people always find a way of earning money to pay for it.

Huawei: There'll be BLOOD spilled in the smartphone sector soon

truetalk
Holmes

Long live HTC

I've had Samsung, Huawei and HTC phones and I've always found HTC to be the most reliable in terms of hardware and their implementation of Android. The M8 is a stunning top of the range phone. When I change my phone again in two or three years I hope HTC will still be around as that will most likely be the one I buy. Huawei were excellent value for money, Samsung were awful with software reliability. The Samsung phone was so full of bugs and Samsung never fixed them, just brought out a new buggy phone. Has put me right off Samsung phones for a long long time. Love their TVs though !

Schmidt 'very proud' of Google's tiny tax bill: 'It's called capitalism'

truetalk

Re: Can see

Actually, tax avoidance is legal. Tax evasion IS illegal. Like others say, it's the polititians job to close the loopholes. It's a companies job to maximise it's profits legally.

HTC profits lobbed off a cliff by rivals Samsung and Apple

truetalk
Holmes

HTC One X is a great phone.

Despite the fact it has 32GB built in and no microSD slot (which I haven't actually missed) I think it's an excellent phone. The best I have ever owned. I switched to HTC after owning an early Samsung Galaxy 9600 that was crap (dropped calls and replaced 3 times). The HTC one X was and still is a stunning phone.

truetalk
Holmes

Re: Phone manufacturers have one chance to impress

I owned a Samsung, it was the updates (or lack thereof) that put me off Samsung and onto HTC

Google+ claims 100 million 'active' users

truetalk
Holmes

G+ excellent social network

I prefer G+ to facebook and twitter. Many reasons but I would agree with somebody above that said it's a great place for meeting new people. And I love the way it integrates with other google products.

PC mountain accumulates in Blighty

truetalk
Linux

Pc or tablet

I can't comment on Acer's PCs or laptops but I do have an Android Acer A500 tablet and like its style and have no issues with its functionality either hardware or its implementation of Android. I'm impressed with it.

Baby Boomers committing suicide at unprecedented rates

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Black Helicopters

It was Murder !

Looking at it from a different angle. Maybe these were not suicides, they were just made to look like suicides. Perhaps all that C.S.I. stuff is a load of Hokum and in reality the US police don't actually have the time and resources to investigate suspected suicides... after all, these are rich baby boomers....

( I watch a lot of Poirot )

truetalk
Grenade

Perspective & locality, stats don't you just love em..

Whilst there is an increase in suicides, I believe it's double (although it's not easy to find any numbers in that article). The headline does make it sound like half the population over 40 are in the throws of topping themselves...

In reality, if I have got the figures correct (probably not) it's about 0.003%-0.006% of the population of the United States (ie not the United Kingdom or Europe). That's about 2500-5000 people amongst a population of 250,000,000 over a period of eight years. During the same period 28,000,000 people died in the US of other causes. (estimate).

As the article is a study of the USA, you can't assume this applies to the rest of the world. It's quite possible that us boomers in the UK are mostly happy (although we like a good moan) because we have a state that looks after us a bit better when we get ill (even if we are poor) than the US goverment looks after the US citizen ?. It doesn't matter if it's a labour goverment or conservative they both generally do a better job of looking after those who need help (most of the time) in the UK. But maybe that has nothing to do with why there is an increase in the suicide rate in the USA. You'll only know if you do a study of the circumstances of that persons life and death.

As 28,000,000 died of other causes during the same period perhaps the time and money & studies be spend on the biggest causes of death (which isn't suicides).

Microsoft smothers Sage and Intuit challenger

truetalk
Happy

Gnucash

Can't say I've ever used MS Office Accounting - Gnucash does it for me.

Microsoft, Asus launch anti-Linuxbook campaign

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Linux

A Proper Linux Supplier

Yes, ditch ASUS products and maybe buy the new DELL Netbook, preinstalled with Ubuntu. Having said that DELL don't seem to preinstall Unbuntu on any of their other machines. Makes no sense to me.

In fact, why not buy your systems from a company that actually supports linux (and multiple distro's) such as http://www.efficientpc.co.uk.

Mozilla mauls Microsoft on IE, Windows 7 bundle

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Linux

It's all about the bigger picture. Think about it.

Thanks Pheet, some sense amongst all the comments from the MS evangelists. Why is it that the MS crowd don't want to see the big picture. For MS it's all about item 3 in the list below. Make a browser that's got some non standard/non open feature. Get some high profile websites to use this broken feature. Hey Presto, it only works with IE and guess what MS only produce IE for windows. Result Sale of more windows operating systems because it only works with ... ITV.COM etc.... It's called tie-in. Wake up MS fan boys can you not see why this stifles competion !

Every time this story is covered there's always the same BS comments from the ms fanbois.

If anybody bothered to read Opera's original complaint for example, they'd know that it's

1) IE is bundled

2) IE con't be uninstalled

3) IE is NOT standards compliant

4) MS has a monoply position (which Apple & the various Linux distros don't)

_combined_ that is the problem. Point 3, which leads to all those broken "IE only" web site/apps (as mentioned in an albeit backward way by Adrian Challinor) is actually one of the biggest - even when the user installs another browser, they *still* have to use IE for some sites (often MS's own).

Also, anybody who thinks one needs a browser to download & install another browser shouldn't be even *reading* the reg, let alone make comments.

Open source closes gap on Microsoft's next Silverlight

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Linux

Please Let ITV.COM have your comments. Link Below.

I use the BBC Iplayer (based around the Adobe Air product) on Opensuse Linux which I find works pretty well now they have ironed out a few of the bugs.

However like the first comment it drives me nuts when a company like ITV use silverlight which does not work with Linux ( Moonlight does not work on the ITV.COM website) Even after you install moonlight the ITV.COM insists you install Silverlight which then redirects you to the moonlight download. Typical bloody Microsoft bullshit.

If you use Linux please visit the ITV.COM link below and comment on why you would like to see ITV use a cross platform ( windows/Linux/MAC..) DRM based media player such as Adobe Air like the BBC use and not a product like Silverlight which is only designed to keep out alternative operating system competition.

http://www.itv.com/ContactUs/itvcomfeedback/default.html

It takes only a few minutes to give ITV some feedback, you never know they may listen, just like the BBC did.

Mozilla calls for 'open web' in EU Microsoft row

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Jobs Horns

@Wolf

@wolf, who thinks it as simple as IE/Firefox/Opera being given away free. Luckily, the EU see the big picture.

1. Microsoft produce a non standards compliant browser.

2. As they are the biggest player in the market, a number of unenlightened web site developers write their code based on the percentage of users using IE. Of course, why wouldn't they it makes perfect business sense to go after the biggest market. However long term it's a huge mistake, as a monopoly is being reinforced. That's where goverments have to play a role in making sure companies in a monopoly position such as Microsoft, don't exploit that position by killing any competition before it has had the chance to blossom. Goverments level the playing field on behalf of the consumer by helping the smaller players by making sure the monopoly isn't restricting competition.

3. Monopolies are not good, because the monopoly player will almost always take advantage by overcharging because it can, because that's business. It overcharges for windows because if you want to access a non compliant web site based around anything MS then you have to buy windows because Microsoft don't produce IE for Linux. ie they use their free browser to increase market share of the Windows operating system.

4. The looser is the user, because Microsoft are restricting choice.

5. Some of the worse offenders when producing websites that they only test with IE are of course financial institutions, banks/credit card companies etc. I wonder why that is ?

EU - Keep up the good work.

Take the case of Silverlight. Microsoft produce something to compete with Adobe Flash. Microsoft appear to be doing the correct thing by working with opensource to produce an equivalent for Linux. ( Of course it doesn't work with ITV websites ) ( ITV is a UK TV station for our cousins across the pond )

Adobe do produce a cross platform version of flash, because they don't produce operating systems. They have no conflict of interests.

Microsoft do produce an operating system, so they have a conflict of interest in producing a version of silverlight for Linux. ( Moonlight ). They are doing there best to try to appease the EU by looking as if they are cross platform, but I don't trust them. The Linux version of Silverlight will never be as good as the windows version they will always be playing catchup, because it's not in Microsofts interests to have anything work properly with Linux or Apple. They want to keep people buying windows by tieing them in any which way.

Windows Vista stuck on single digit enterprise adoption

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Linux

Drag n' Drop from Konqueror to Konsole

My God, Thank you Mr B. I've used linux for years and thought I knew most things about it. I know there are so many things about linux that windows just can't do. And you Mr B have taught me another.

I never realized that in KDE you could copy, cd, create symbolic links, move files by dragging from the konqueror filemanager into the konsole. I assume this is the same under gnome ?

Pleasantly surprised once again by Linux/KDE !

Now Hollywood is chasing UK downloaders

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Linux

@ James - Nildram ( Tiscali ) - robbed me too!

Well, that explains a lot ..... Nildram owe me in excess of £100 that they robbed from me and although they have never actually said they won't pay it back, they never have payed it back, despite several phone calls ..

Guess what ! after checking Nildram's website I find that Nildram is owned by Tiscali. That Explains the bad service from what used to be a good independant company. !

Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2 tweak out now

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Linux

Linux@GTD TW

Maybe in your opinion vista has saved your more time, but for others they prefer to not be tied into Microsoft products or really don't like paying the retail cost of Microsoft products.

You mention you have worked on DOS MAC OSX, Unix, XP and Vista, however you don't mention linux. A modern version of linux (my choice is opensuse 10.3 however I also use xandros and busybox) and in my opinion after having used opensuse 10.3 I can never see myself going back to Microsoft in the foreseeable future. The reason being, it does everything I need. The KDE desktop is very powerful, Compiz Fusion, the 3D desktop is Amazing and very stable. It provides a stunning music player "Amarok" when used with the xine engine. Firefox & Opera for web browsing, It has an office suite, word processor, spreadsheet, database, Impress presentation, it runs skype, it runs Amsn so I can connect to up many chat networks. Xine and mplayer's capabilities exceed that of windows media player, but that's the tip of the iceberg. Opensuse and I would imagine all the other major linux distributions come with in excess of 1000 applications. Once you start making a little effort and reading about linux capabilities you will feel like you have just walked into Aladdin's cave. Another reason for using linux is that I don't feel Microsoft give me value for money, in fact I feel totally ripped off, especially when Microsoft report yet another profitable quarter. I don't believe they deserve it.

It's true that 9 out of 10 computers run MS windows but that's because the majority of hardware resellers are payed to promote MS windows by Microsoft and the majority of users don't know they have options that are often more functional and almost always at zero cost in terms of hard cash. The problem for widespread adoption of linux in the public sector is that Microsoft discount windows & office to such an extend that, for instance if you are an NHS employee you can get a legal copy of office for about £17 ( whilst employed by the NHS ), that you can use at home. Great for NHS employee's, no good for anybody else.

Dell selling linux on their systems is a total joke. I've never seen a company work so hard to not upset Microsoft. You just know Dell have either been slapped by Microsoft or Microsoft have made them an offer they just cannot refuse, so there promotion of linux is virtually non existent.

Somehow I don't believe you have made much effort to understand linux or the many free and open source applications that are available, it's worth the effort !

A few of the computer's I have programmed with ...

Data General, DEC (RT11), Perkin Elmer Mini computers, MSDOS, WINDOWS 3.11, 95, 98, XP, linux all either in assembly language, C or C++. Linux (opensuse-KDE) is by far the most stable, feature complete OS I have ever used and no I have not used Vista, other people I know have bought it on new systems then reinstalled XP. So I think I'll stick with linux. Thanks.

Computers in the house 11, 8 running linux, 1 running XP, 1 running win2K, 1 running solaris.

Computers at work ~150, 102 running solaris (unix), 10 vxworks, 30 DOS !, 4 XP, 4 linux.

Linux FanBoy and proud of it :)

Asus launches tiny PC

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Thumb Up

where to buy

Here http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=Asus_Eee_PC

Sun grabs patent for magneto-hydrodynamic heatsink

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Thumb Up

@Sampler

Processing workstations for medical diagnostic imaging is one application outside data centres that Sun hardware is used. However on more recent equipment linux (on Intel hardware) and M$ Windows seem to be taking over.