* Posts by Bill Norrie

18 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Dec 2007

Dixons celebrates shiny Christmas

Bill Norrie
FAIL

Great News ???

Quote "...The company expects the year ahead to be tough, especially in the UK, but has high hopes that its shop upgrading scheme will continue to boost sales. "

'Upgrading' the shops will do nothing to increase their profit margins - get some staff who know what they are talking about and have a genuine interest in their job and their customers. Then maybe they can improve their dreadful reputation.

Oh! silly me - it costs money to employ intelligent knowledgable people, so down go the profits again - or am I just being a tad cynical??

Windows 7 lessons - the must know before you buy

Bill Norrie
FAIL

WHY................

...should I 'upgrade' to Windows 7? I have a perfectly good laptop and a Desktop PC which both run XP Pro and all my Applications, but according to the compatibility test, neither is capable of running Windows 7. So, I would have to buy newer models, just to 'keep up to date'.

No Thanks - I'll stick with XP which works fine and I'm sure there are many more like me..............

PC World punts Windows 7 £100 trade-in promotion

Bill Norrie
Thumb Down

No Chance!

Wouldn't buy anything from that mob - good to see they are struggling.........

NASA iceberg-finder prangs into Moon's south pole

Bill Norrie
WTF?

One has to ask WHY?

.........what was the point of the whole exercise? So there may be ice on the moon - so what? Surely the money spent on this 'mission' could have been directed to better use, considering the current crisis.............

Most expensive RAF aircraft ever takes to the skies

Bill Norrie
Thumb Up

@Semihere

Now that is one post - even if slightly off topic - which makes total sense...........

Philippine fury at text tax

Bill Norrie
Pirate

I Wonder.....

...if Darling Alistair reads The Reg ? Might give him and Gordo some ideas....... Another easy target like the motorist

Apple loses students to netbooks and Windows

Bill Norrie
Happy

Made my Day !

I hate anything with the 'i' label..............and wouldn't touch their overpriced stuff with a barge pole!

Microsoft doubles quarterly revenue drop

Bill Norrie
Linux

No surprise there then......

Put a crappy operating system like vista on the market and word will get around very quickly, about just how 'good' it is, followed by a huge lack of sales. Will windows 7 be any better? I for one, will not be installing it on any of my PCs. XP is just about stable now but they are still releasing fixes for it, nearly 8 years after its release. I'll stick with the Penguin..........

Mandy promises end to illegal staff blacklists

Bill Norrie
FAIL

Something Missing here

Quote" Thats... First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Lord President of the Council, Lord Mandelson to you. I think"

What you forgot to add was "Unelected Prat who has no business being in any government position" and who has failed miserably on two previous occasions!

Ballmer backs away from 'Vista Capable' legal row

Bill Norrie
Coat

No change there then...........

What's that sound? Oh! its just the swish of a large umbrella being opened by that guy with sloping shoulders...............

Mine's the one with the very smooth surface so that nothing sticks to it!

Dope-crazed Canadians sledgehammer iPhone

Bill Norrie
Coat

Yeah !!

Best thing that could happen to an iphone - why not add all the other 'i' things as well - could be a real party and even an 'i' opener..................

Mine's the one with the bulging pockets - full of 'i' products for reshaping.

El Reg celebrates 10th birthday

Bill Norrie
Happy

Happy Birthday El Reg!

WOT a Motley Crew.....................

Vista SP1 customers get free support

Bill Norrie
Thumb Up

Easy Solution......

......Dump Vista completely - stick with XP which is now a fairly stable OS - or go with Linux. Why put up with all the hassle, just to be 'up to date' by installing a bug-ridden, bloated piece of software full of eye-candy.

Install vista on any of my PCs? NEVER!

BBC Micro creators meet to TRACE machine's legacy

Bill Norrie
Happy

Not just a 'Home' Computer

.......Fond Memories............

I used the BBC B computer and later, the Master, for some quite serious applications, including North Sea diver monitoring programs, process control applications, mini and micro fermenter control and monitoring, pressure vessel control and monitoring etc. The computer was connected via the 1Mhz bus to custom designed interfaces, based on the 6520 PIA, 6522 VIA and Analog Devices 12 bit ADC / DAC chips. Some of the systems used networking and also connected to other types of monitoring instruments, via the RS432 port. The software was a hybrid of assembler and BBC Basic.

The 6502 and later 65C12, had a super instruction set and were a joy to program in assembler. Calling discrete machine code routines, from BBC Basic was so easy, when operations were time critical or easier to control, using low level routines. The machine code routines were burned into an EPROM and inserted in one of the ROM expansion sockets, to save program space in the RAM.

Most systems also used a 5 1/4 Floppy disk and the Microvitec monitor.

I also used a BBC B+ at home with a custom built MIDI interface, to control a Yamaha musical keyboard - endless fun..................

Patricia Hewitt joins BT as non-exec director

Bill Norrie
Flame

Huh?

That absolutely STINKS !! Talk about conflict of interests...............

C'mon people of Leicester - Boot her out at the next election and get someone who really has YOUR interests at heart - that is - if you can find one

Apple on the lookout for one million unlocked iPhones

Bill Norrie
Happy

@Gavin Taylor

I'm in total agreement with the comments made by Gavin - never owned anything "i" and never will !

Dixons shares spanked after profit warning

Bill Norrie
Happy

.....Not surprised !

It would seem that 'Joe Public' has woken up to the fact that DSG stores are a bunch of rip-off merchants, staffed by people who know little or nothing about their product range and provide dreadful after sales service.

It does not surprise me that their profits are down - probably a combination of Vista and people voting with their feet and buying their electronic products elswhere.

At every opportunity, I advise friends and colleagues to avoid DSG like the plague so in a small way, I'm doing my bit to help DSG along their way............

Public says no to ID cards, No2ID says 'starve the beast!'

Bill Norrie
Unhappy

No change there, then.......

Irrespective of the amount of public opposition to the ID card scheme, our 'Masters' will go ahead with it anyway -their past performance confirms this. They take absolutely no notice of the people who put them where they are, to serve the public - Huuuh !!!