Posts by Mark Land 20 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2007
So Firefox/Chrome/Opera runs on Windows X, Apple, Linux and IE9 doesn't run on all Windows. Maybe MS should ask Opera and Mozilla how to make their browser run on XP, what a lame excuse. I am willing to bet, Opera or Chrome running on my old Celeron Ubuntu laptop will outperform IE9 on a dual core Win7 machine. DirectX lol
I am .NET software developer and I always go back to Google to search for MSDN articles. I don't even think to chose, I just know it works so I use it.
As a real example, try "addwithvalue", it takes Google 0.15 secs, it takes MSDN from the addwithvalue page -> 0.5 secs and much longer to render the results page.
Now I see why I use google. If im on MSDN, I click Home (Google), search, click then im there quicker than if I use MSDN's own search box.
So im my opinion, yes it's poor....
Seems to be going the way parking is at the moment, segregating it, so that only the well to do can afford it. I live in North Devon and now only the well off tourists can afford the £5+ to park at the beach in summer. What kind of society is it where you can do what you like to planet if you can afford it? It should be equal access to all (based on ability to pay), and fix the root of the problem - our dependance on oil....
My Old OS X Tiger has preview built in that opens PDF and a PDF printer built in that allows, for instance, to print Word docs into PDF format. Very useful. I wonder which version of PDF reader achieves the standard. I prefer the older versions as there were more lightweight.
I think PDF would be more widespread if quality tools to create PDFs were available and free. You can create web pages with any text editor...You can create Word docs with OpenOffice.
"Had it been left to companies like DEC and IBM, computing today would likely be a different, analogue, green-screen world."
That's why my computer of choice today is a Mac Book Pro, running a Unix almost identical to that which was on the Multi-user Dec Vax system I was using at Uni in the 80's?!
At the time of MSDOS, I remember Apple and Sun having a GUI. I really doubt we would have a green screen world today...
btw: I tried to buy a magazine in a shop today, but had to wait while they control-alt-del the thing, only in hung up with an "End now" box, they tried another terminal, but user was already logged in. Now tell me that would not happen with a Dec or IBM cash register - it was running Windos duh!
I thing Gates legacy to us is CTRL-ALT-DEL and Norton 360. lol.
I tried the link from the letter on the free scanner....
It would not work under my Firefox as I didnt have flash....
So i try it with flash, now it tries to download an MSI...so i guess Mac and Linux clients are not copyright infringers lol
And obviously, all copyright pirates have flash installed.
Avira, I found was a very effective free and lightweight virus scanner for PC. Now I have a Mac so don't need one, but I think it is a much better product than AVG.
Those AVG guys seem so arrogant, time to switch....
Not sure what I can do to block the scanner from my website(s) now, please AVG, tell me exactly what I can do? I am sure a lot of Reg users would also like to know.
where is the proof/data of actual virus or trojan in the wild on a Mac? There is none, this is all hypothetical based on a Trojan that requires a user to actively download and run something. Sure there is a vulnerability in privledge escalation. At this time I still choose to use my Mac for online banking rather than a Windows machine....and that's all that counts for me
I would hope that reduction of demand due to efficiencies and a shift of focus from consumerism may reduce our energy demands long term significantly.
I agree that turning TVs off of standy is dumb, but that doesnt mean there is not other ways to use a lot less. For example, the article makes it quite clear that EU residents use a lot less energy per head than US at the moment, but I imagine there is still improvement to be made.
I am very impressed with the article though, addresses the problems with real possible solutions. I have big doubts that any government would actually use science and numbers in this way, as historically they tend to rely on "common sense", and "interesting science, but, we know best"
I have some optimism that economics will actually sort the problem out in the end, the higher cost of energy and hence consumables, will mean we will have to use less. For example, buying food from local farms or co-ops will become cheaper compared to the motorway/supermarket model that exists today, as requires less fuel to deliver the goods.
"Leaving aside issues about proprietary versus open on the web" - for me that's the crux. Even if Silverlight makes it to Linux, to trust MS to not again try and subvert the web aka. ActiveX, JScript, JavaVM and IE6? I feel the future is with Open free Software, whether it's on Linux, free BSD, OS X. Anything that is closed is (i hope) doomed to fail. Most of the Web is still run on Apache, interesting that Silverlight runs on Apache, but cannot run on Linux on the client - there is a clue there somewhere!
I have done some experiments to block windows update on XP and I can tell you that blocking the update Url in hosts file does not work, MS bypasses it as the IP addresses are hard coded in the DLL. I blocked mine on the ADSL router.
But now I use a Mac and VMWare fusion (for ie6 testing of my websites)
for @ Robert Harrison, yes OS X does tick most/all of the points you make. I have not tried Linux for a while, i used to develop on it, oh correction, i use it as my web server!
I think its ironic that I graduated in Computer science in the 80s using BSD Unix on VAX, and that's pretty much what OS X uses today and Linux is not far off the same technology. We did not ahve PC's back then, the only Windows was Sun Solaris workstation. It's funny that Vista is touted as new tech, and yet the multi-user systems i was using at Uni in 1984 are far in advance of that rubbish.
I switched to Zen internet as I pay a rolling one month contract for a fixed download limit. I can see an accurate up to date pie chart of my monthly usage, get alert emails if i am near my limit and pay for extra bandiwth in chunks. If I exceed the limit I get redirected to an online top up screen. It is never limited by "excessive use", as I know exactly how much use I have per month. The speed is excellent and the support is excellent, friendly and quick by a person in the UK.
Compared to my previous Tiscali which operated in the way that "Sayonara BT" describes, this is heaven.
I quite liked Windows XP, it generally worked, even if it had lots of security problems - well one main one IE. I have no experience of Vista, but have switched to an iMac based on what I have read. How can Apple produce an OS that you can install and work with in 20mins, runs faster than XP on the same hardware and is easier to use and more secure than Vista? I guess that's what comes of not being a monopoly. It is sad that the general public associate what is the Windows nightmare with computers in general when Mac gives such a different experience.Vista is sold to us as somehow "new" technology when it is not as good as OS X which is based on BSD Unix that has been around even before I used it at Uni in the early 1980s. Who needs a UAC? Cannot MS look at the Linux or BSD source code and work it out for themselves how to create a secure OS?
I agree with most all posts. I install XP, then Avira and Zone Alarm. Avira is just what you want compared with bloaty Norton et al. But in the long run, I got so fed up with the cycle: clean -> install -> lock down -> firewall & AV -> update , that I got an iMac. Just turn on and use it :)
That's right we are old Europe, we probably need to be bombed 'just in case' as we like to actually talk to other nations and view them as real people. OMG we have been infiltrated by terrorists, that is why we are anti-Bush, definitely have WMDs, obviously need a new brand of Democracy - send in the US Marines. Oh yeah, in case you forgot, your country has the single most destructive capacity of any nation, what is more scary than Iran/Korea is that you are all so ignorant, paranoid and trigger happy.
Linux/Unix is still majority web server technology fact. I guess OS X is strong within design/publishing community. It is a big generalisation to say "we all" when that is obviously not true. But as for the abundance of Windows on the Desktop, that is probably due to Bill getting lucky with MS-DOS and Microsoft's anti-competitive nature locking us in to closed standards like Office, DirectX etc. (luckily not ActiceX). Then after a time we all got used to rebooting, applications locking up, viruses, malware, annoying wizards, unhelpful blaming error messages etc being the norm and forgot that 20 years ago secure, robust multi-user systems were widely used all be it in large organisations. It was called Unix.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
