Posts by Stuart 35 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Dec 2007
Simon, Simon, where have you been? The world needs public service announcements like this one more often:
"Here. The car stops, then backs up for 6 metres, forward for 6.5 metres, back 7 metres and then continues on it's way."
"Oh, that," the PFY says. "We noticed our Symantec reseller walking along the footpath."
"It was a gimme," I say. "We had to take it!"
Such a sweet and happy way to end my day. Thanks!
When I read the headline my first thought was, "FINALLY, partial search". That headline was cruel teasing of the lowest kind, promising real improvements and instead delivering only cosmetic tinkering of trifling worth and less merit. Shame of Google for NOT really improving tGMail search and shame on El Reg for sadistically misleading hyped headlines.
"but as for "Windows is just for games. If you want to do some real work done, get Linux." that's sadly risible. "
No more than the screed yelled from the rooftops about how Linux is NEVER ready for the desktop (and GIMP is a stupid name, and you'd never use it 'cos Photoshop is the only program, and, and and...)."
I agree entirely. I really LIKE Linux, and would prefer to use it, but lack of what is for me indispensable software prevents it. The same pettiness that motivated Christian's infantile potshots certainly thrives in devotees of all OSes. I generally ignore them, regardless of which OS they are worshipping, but occasionally respond. BTW, speaking of the GIMP, I can highly recommend www.meetthegimp.org for tutorials
Yep, it is a "quesiion of software", but as for "Windows is just for games. If you want to do some real work done, get Linux." that's sadly risible. I've been using Linux since 2000 and am STILL waiting for speech recognition software. As my use of and dependence on Dragon Naturally Speaking, continues to grow, the total absence of any usable Linux alternative keeps me stucxk in Windows. It does at least give me the chance to laugh at comments like yours, of the "Linux does everything Windows does, only better" variety. My physical need for speech recognition is now such that my current PC is the first I've had since Mandrake 6.2 came out that is not a dual-boot Windows/Linux setup.
To paraphrase you, "What's the use of a computer where you can't control your wordprocessor, spreadsheet, email client and browser by speech"?
Fascinating thread, especially Adam Williamson's valiant (if not entirely successful) efforts at breaking centuries of Linux tradition by trying to initiate civil and reasoned discussion. I'm still not going to try Fedora though. Or Ubuntu, the distro that treats KDE like some sort of inbred cousin-child, to be neglected and shunned. I'm guessing all the Ubuntu worshippers have seldom if ever suffered the misery that is Kubuntu. Only 3 weeks until OpenSuse 11.1 goes gold, and hopefully a stable KDE4.x at last.
Kiwis have long been at or near the top of the list for the rate of vasectomies, maybe this is a Jedi version - "these are not the sperm you seek".
Oh, and fwiw, to whoever it was who said :"Nearly everybody lives in or near Auckland." PUH-LEEZE! Three-quarters of us have the good taste and common decency NOT to live in Auckalnd. To those of us (the majority of the poulation) outside of that soulless cesspit, Aucklanders are JAFAs.
If start saving my NZ "money" now, then thanks to the effects of compound interest, I should just about be able to buy one of these the day before Ragnarok. Does anybody know if it's Unicode-compatible? If I could load this up with Hindi tuition materials and reading practice, I'd sell a kidney now for one.
I'm surprised that Google let this be the first Android phone. To Joe pub, this is the googlephone, and it looks cheap and fugly. I hope that others will pick up and run with Android, but the first cab off the rank is a bit of a lame duck, it seems. Perhaps there'll be something better available by the time I've finishes mixing and mangling metaphors.
"maybe DA's widow is running short of funds?"
I'm sure that's the only reason. It's a ghastly idea, so stupid it could have come from the mind of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal itself. I bear the would-be author no ill-will, but I hope that this abomination ends up rotting like a pair of fetid dingo kidneys on the desk of the Complaints Division. To the would-be publishers, all I have to say is SHARE AND ENJOY, or at least the top half of that phrase.
to love our new Google overlords. No crashes so far in this Chrome thingy, and neither lightning fast nor molasses slow either. Just another browser, except that it is of course being produced by people who do no evil. Maybe if I say that often enough I can convince them that I believe it.
"In the last 2 years though, FF has done a very poor job of impressing me. ..The biggest issue though is that FF is buggy and crashes all the time. And when it crashes it takes down every FF window you have open,"
I've noticed this too. FF3 has fixed the insane memory leak problem of older releases, but now seems to crash without warning on a whim. Very annoying. It is a rare day for me when FF3 doesn't go down at least twice.
Paris, since she could probably relate to that last sentence.
Re: Question is, when's the PFY getting Simon back for the job reference?
I was wondering the same thing myself. The last few BOFHs have been back on form, so maybe fortnightly updates give Simon the time to craft his best work. Which is perhaps a little suprising given how little else there is to do in the Waikato.
"What I want to know is how the show's script-writing manatees feel about this move."
One of the best South Park story arcs in recent times. I guess it might be because its airing here in Zild coincided with the astonishingly rapid collapse in the quality of Family Guy, but it was the first time I was 100% behind one of Cartman's schemes, and I was gutted when it failed.
I thought the first series of Family Guy was funny and inventive, and after that, it seemd to be nothing but pastiches and rip-offs thinly disguised as parodies or "homages." If McFarlane's come up with an original idea for maknig money online, then at least it proves he is capable of having them, something you wouldn't know from watching Family Guy.
@Bloody Yank:
Re "SUSE 10.3 couldn't handle Nvidia drivers worth a shit -" What was the NVidia card you had trouble with? I've had 10.3 since October last year, and found the 1-click install of the NVidia driver worked flawlessly. Ditto for the 1-click install in 11.0RC2, which I've had for the last week or so.
Paris because she needs new drivers.
Having long ago outgrown the "my distro is my religion" phase, I am hugely entertained by the aggressive posturing of the Ubuntu hit squads. I really don't like Gnome, and since Kubuntu is possibly the worst KDE distro out there, I've never bought into the Ubuntumania that seems de rigeur in the FLOSS world.
That said, chacun à son goût, and if Gnome and Ubuntu rock your world, go for it. Why that compels you to wax rabid and froth at the mouth over other distros is beyond me. It's interesting to see the contempt for factual reality that this canonisation of Ubuntu generates, such as in the claim that one is "forced to use YaST, like it or not". That's simply not true, as the many satisfied zypper users will verify.
I'm an intermediate Linux user who started with Mandrake 6.x, and I think that OpenSuse 11.0 comes closest to the "just works" status than any other distro I've tried. It's also obviously very much better for my emotional and spiritual development,.It leaves me calm, serene and happily able to welcome the use of other distros by other people, wheras it seems that ranting angrily against the evil inadequacies of all distros is required by the Ubuntu EULA.
@ Stuart Castle
"Meh..
Never could get on with Firefox. Don't like having to install addons just to get a decent browsing experience.
Much prefer Opera"
Exactly the inverse of my reaction. I have tried Opera several times, and just can't get over my revulsion. It's bloated, unimpressive and no faster than FF. YMMV of course, and clearly does, but whenever I read endless paeans to that nasty noxious norwegian nightmare I have to speak up in defence of FF. I even prefer IE7 to Opera. For me, opera is to be seen and heard, not used on the Web.
One of the main reasons I ditched Kubuntu for OpenSuse was the feeling that the Ubuntu mob treat KDE as 2nd-class or worse. So any distro that favours Gnome, as it seems Fedora does, loses for me. I look forward to your review of OpenSuse 11, though - not long now, maybe just long enough for KDE 4 to be almost usable.
What a great way to start a Saturday morning! After years of flames in various Usenet groups and FOSS software fora whenever I dared to opt out of genuflecting at the mention of his name, today's BOFH was absolutely hilarious. Literally spork material as it happened. Keep up the very good work Simon, kia kaha!
The idea of killing people for mixing karaoke and John Denver, two concepts which separately are evil incarnate and together a horror beyond thought, put me in mind of a similar musical murder story from the giant penal colony on the wrong side of the Tasman. Apparently not liking Springsteen can be a terminal condition.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4438227a12.html
There's a contradiction in your article. On the one hand, you say "a great big earthquake had happened, somewhere in Britain.", but otoh, you go on to say it was 4.9 (I've seen it listed as 4.7 through to 5.4).
I hate to rain on your Pommy parade, but 4.9 is not "a great big earthquake". It's a moderate shake and might be mildly thrilling in the right circumstances, but "great big earthquake" just doesn't seem to fit with anything under 6.5
I'm a Kiwi too, and like many of us, not particularly patriotic. Sir Ed though, makes me very proud to have shared citizenship with him. Especially because of the way he used his fame. He got his (literally) 15 minutes, and parlayed it into an enduring legacy in the lives of thousands. NZ has not produced a finer son, and likely never will. I hope that others will honour his memory by supporting his charities.
With an arch over the onramp reading "We Apologise For The Inconvenience". As for the ZZ9 Beeblebears, does anybody else still have one of the original ZZ9 towels, the ones with the Guide entry on towels printed on them? Mine's still in pretty good shape for a 23-yr old towel.
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