Posts by David Beck

Clearly mod has limited language skills.

Re: The days before memory protection WAS (less) necessary...

I would like to call BS, at least on the Burroughs comments.

The B5500 and all of its children including the current lot, had/have hardware protection at the word level. Each word in memory has a a number of tag bits which tell the hardware what can be done with this word. Protection from over-write or read is at the segment level and again done with hardware segment limit registers which contain the storage limits accessible by the currently executing code. All code is marked execute only and data are separated into different segments depending on the compiler based definitions.

I think Bell and Newell cover this design but I'm old and can't remember the real technical stuff, just the fluff level I wrote above.

Re: Also works the other way round

They ask this question so they can determine if they have mis-dialled or if they have been given the wrong number. This is to avoid assuming a mis-dial and ringing you again because the problem was they had been given an incorrect number or transcribed incorrectly. How would you make this decision?

Agreed, I'd like NFC and a removable battery like my G5 too.

Ask a Bosnian how that's going.

Re: Great

Before smart meters Eon gave these out to customers. I still have one in the box as there were too many spiders in the electrics box for my taste so it never got fitted.

Re: Given the cost of a Windows 10 Pro license...

More likely part of a second hand licence deal usually but not always associated with companies going out of business. see-

https://www.itassetmanagement.net/2014/02/13/yes-you-can/

Re: F1 KERS flywheels

That would be Univac and Fastran drums. The Fastrans weighed about 5000 pounds and were about 8 ft long. I believe the problem was the bearings in the drums failing with the subsequent havoc, assuming this is all true and not just urban (naval?) legend. The Fastrans were real but were they ever deployed on a ship?

Re: Don't listen to naysayers

Thank you, saved me writing the same comment.

The DNA tests are fine, the interpreting for "ethnicity" is dodgy and different for each company as their databases differ.

What is not in question is the ability to match DNA for families whose members are tested. In what amounts to thousands of blind trials family members who did not know their cousin/brother/sister had the test got a resultant match when their results were returned.

Re 32GB RAM

Maybe not 32GB but I've no problems with my X220 (real keyboard) and 16GB of RAM. You may need to update the BIOS to a modded version.

The big stuff can run on the desktop (HPxw6600 with 32GB RAM and 2xXeon (8xCores). The RAM was £40 when I bought it but it's on eBay for £26.00 just now. The chassis with two CPUs was £189.

I haven't anything but used for 15 years.

Re: BT FTTP

I have a similar situation, not BT fibre but only fibre to the house. In the cupboard there is a small UPS, cost of about £50, into which is plugged, router, ATA and PoE switch needed for wifi. I get about an hour from the UPS under the current (excuse pun) load. ONT has its own battery but I think it only gets about 20mins. I could have gone for a cheaper UPS with less reserve time but I liked the one I bought.

Re: Banks too big to fail ...

The old system worked. It was the new shiny one that went all to crap.

wireless charging

If you use a silicon case you can put the charging coil between the case and the phone back. Been doing it for years.

Re: £14 billion

It's £180 odd million a week nett. That means after all the items you listed as "money coming back". And why develop another GPS, without the French involved we can use the US one.

KPMG did the due diligence

And even if the Autonomy accounts had been perfect there was no way they were worth $11bn. This was all vanity using the shareholders money.

Re: F1 is a Car Crash

You got the wrong cars. What you just described is Indy racing. Circular track, IC engine only, ...

F1 uses sports car track, like VIR or Sebring, "engine" is hybrid, bodies are to the formula but not at all similar (only in the sense that all aircraft are similar). Regarding the electronics, the average F1 car has about 120 sensors reporting to the pits and on to the factory during the race. Admittedly quite a few of these are temperature sensors but if you are going to fly a 600 kilo car at 1 cm above the ground at 320 kph using a 1000 horsepower engine, temperature is a big deal.

As for Brundle's aborted interview with the AMD CEO, it was nothing compared to when he attempted to interview Maria Carey.

Applies to primaries only. Does that explain it enough?

MB have had it for years

My 2009 reg A-Class has it. Works okay. Has a mode that detects if a space is big enough to fit as well as actually park the car. The driver controls petals and follows instructions, car handles steering. Only really useful if you are crap at parallel parking.

Re: I wonder how WhatsApp will cope with that

For me WhatsApp used the SIM number of SIM1 (dual SIM phone). What goes out as caller ID depends on dialer. So even though my phone rings when any of four numbers are called, two UK and two US, WhatsApp only cares about the one.

Re: Thank you for a thoughtful article

I'm surprised the call didn't start with the disclaimer, "For training purposes this call may be recorded". I consider this permission to record, if they didn't mean it as permission there are many ways to express the alternative meanings without confusion.

Re: Military-industrial 101

Thanks, I was waiting for someone to give the Poles's their due. You might add the French lot as well as they did quite a lot of work.

The English contribution (Bletchley Park) was to solve the problem quickly enough to be useful. Most of that work was done by the PO engineer Tommy Flowers with direction from Turing.

Don't consider films, even English ones, as a reliable source.

Re: We all need less stress...

LBJ also said of why he didn't fire J Edgar Hoover -

“It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”

An often appropriate assessment in the political (and corporate) world.

Not a problem in the UK because it's poorly serviced by cable and most internet is delivered by copper from the local cabinet. In the US the concept of LLU does not exist.

Re: Love the EU again?

Did "Murdoch" write -

http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/your-meps/what_do_they_do.html

I believe you'll find this enlightening by what it doesn't say the MEPs do, initiate legislation.

Re: Just switching from next day to some time delivery pays for the subscription.

They pay you to not use the next day part, in the form of vouchers for books & music. If you buy lots the vouchers can generate a net savings on the other purchases.

Re: Whilst I don't disagree with the thrust of the article...

Potatoes are harvested by machine. There is almost no manual labour involved, at least this is true in countries which do not have access to a supply of cheap labour. If the cost of labour moves the UK into the 20th century in farming methods it can't be all bad.

My Lenovo A3000 just needed a factory reset and app reload to fix a similar slow down, also clean SD card. I found thousands of orphaned files on SD card. Appears Android not to tidy.

Re: Post-brexit UK trade deals with individual EU member states

Given that no EU country can make a trade deal, this would suggest the author of the article is clueless.

Given that no El Reg editor noticed this suggests that ...

Try to stick to what you pretend to know about.

Re: It's not about fair, it's about the law

Correct, the people most unhappy if Apple pay up will be the Irish Finance Ministry. No company in its right mind would commit based on the Ministry's legal position since that could be over turned by the Commission using anything they happen to have a "competency" in, in this case monopoly. The Commission doesn't have "competency" in tax, yet, I but can imagine Junker licking his lips now.

Not anonymous since I don't really care what a bunch of whiners think, I raised a teenager to adulthood without killing it.

Re: Really ....

So true, but conversely, if you want to replace MB and BMW as the premium brand as has happened in the US, you make a trade agreement with one country, Japan, and Lexus becomes the premium brand as it has there. It's only magic when you don't know how it's done.

Re: CF-53 Toughbook....

At least 10 years of mobile data in ThinkPads.

My X60 built in 2006 has a Sierra 3G card but it has an external plastic bump on the lid which I suspect contains the 3G antenna. The X220 I use daily has 3G but the lid has a plastic edge at the top of the screen. I never buy new, I always buy ThinkPads and for the past five years always with 3G support.

Re: Really?

The UK just voted to leave the EU. If the negotiations for access the "Common Market" are acceptable to the UK it would remain a favoured trading partner, if not then it will just have to deal with the rest of the world instead. Lexus not Mercedes, Dyson not Miele, UK milk not Polish. Exports to India, China and the other BRICKs as well as the US. The EU has had 6 years to make a trade treaty with India and hasn't. Do you really think the UK cannot have a treaty ready for the day after exit?

Re: Register's list of Brexit Impacts

You don't need to pass a law. All EU regulations and directives are UK law. That's what being in the EU meant. Does no one here know anything about the EU?

Re: UK Energy Market

Energy Efficiency Directive, a government but not yours.

Re: Interestingly, there's a free "Express" edition for download

The OS2200 package can be downloaded to a UK IP. I know because I have it installed. I was surprised to find it included a pretty full set of software as well as the OS. For the Unisys/EXEC8 aware, you get the UCS compilers, no CMS but mini-CMS is included, DMS, TIP, ... all the normal stuff. This is the "Express" edition.

I feel like I'm in 1980 but my hair is still grey.

Why haven't Amazon released a smart-phone version?

Uhm-

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-com-Amazon-Alexa/dp/B00P03D4D2

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.dee.app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-alexa/id944011620

USA only

Re: From the linked report

Sure, the developer makes an exclusive agreement with an infrastructure company like IFNL (who retail as Seethelight). No other supplier can install kit, including Openreach, Virgin,... Money is involved.