Posts by Matthew Malthouse

This needs testing?

Why? Aren't they sure it'll work?

If the need some pointers I'll show them round this building where we managed it.

EU Shmee Moo

They'll be insisting that we put meat in sausages next.

A review with TOC and oomph

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7.ars

Granted that I only got to page 7 before nodding off.

You've got to be

"Mac Mini. ... aimed at the budget buyer"

<- There, right icon for that line.

Um... no one mention the bottom to top passive venting so you could stack them... or was that a myth?

I wish I could

just say no.

But the PHBs have got the cloud bug.

When the bills come in exceeding the annual hardware budget I expect a Bean Counters vs PHBs spectacle to rival the best Godzilla movie.

We tried, honest...

Spend a load of time and effort setting up application virtualisation because while dozens or even hundreds of users might need a particular app over the course of a year only one or two needed to run it at any given time.

Then the application vendor changes the licensing terms to prohibit this.

Thank you Microsoft.

There's an App for that

but how do you install in on a leaf?

Where is my data?

When Aggrieved and Litigious rock up to my cloud provider's head office or data centre with a writ of seizure in their sweaty hands will the law in whatever jurisdiction it happens to be support them or me?

Or will it never be put to the test because the cloud provider caved in at the first sign of a suited shark?

Money spinning

Been looking at a quote this morning: memory upgrade fitted by Mac shop £350, memory from Crucial and fit myself £75.

Adequate explanation of why Apple don't want our grubby little fingers getting into their shiny kit.

One plan

But not one I'd like. Too many layers, too many switches. And where's the structured cabling?

El Reg, either this should be done in much more depth or not at all.

Less noise please

I've sort of got over the megapixels excitement. (And never was about video.)

What I wish for would be much less noise at higher ISO's So far while there are improvements nothing I've seen makes me want to rush out and spend lots of money of a replacement camera.

Surprised...

That the weight of "tubmlr dwon" tweets didn't take out that service too...

Distance no object...

to failure.

90 ft across a road with 18 inch dishes still failed unpredictably. The weight of snow they collected could bend them out of alignment. After a while the £50,000 asked to put a conduit in the roadbed started looking attractive.

safety blanket for the insecure

Advice that doesn't sit well with the company doesn't get into the plan.

Advice that does, does.

The plan goes to steering committee where people who think they understand technology try and improve it. Then finance committee which thinks its sole purpose is to knock zeros off the bottom line ("if we're not filling these racks immediately can just cable the ones we need and do the rest later?").

Once the danger of a little knowledge and the danger of no knowledge have been negotiated you end up with what you knew you were going to get before spending 000's on consultants but somehow those in control now think it's acceptable.

Consultants aren't there to give advice that will be taken seriously. They are there as a big baby-blue safety blanket for the management who don't understand what they're managing and don't trust those who do.

What a way to run a business.

refinemnets for Floyd's Law

1.) Appropriate use of capitalisation.

2.) More than one successive exclamation points.

What's it's market?

80 squids might have been tempting but all those interweb toys yet no 3G? No sale.

What of other landlines?

Like Virgin Media who charge 11p connection and 10p per minute to 0845 where BT's landline rate is 4p?

Dab on wheels... or not.

DAB's oaky...

Unless you want to go abroad - and 3K of the 4K miles I've driven in the last 8 months have been in continental Europe.

So no DAB car replacement for me.

Brainless in every possible way

The SORN online facility isn't the only one that's functionally brainless.

You can declare as a disabled driver and get your tax disc discount.

But if you buy a vehicle from such a driver and want to change the status - ie pay them the full amount - you have to go to one of their so-called "local" offices.

Apple doesn't allow interception

"Vodafone tells us it's working on an iPhone version, but Apple doesn't allow interception of outgoing calls so we can't help thinking it's going to take them a while."

But Voda owns the cells. For many large corporate accounts a pico-cell in the basement. So it might not take them as long as you think

Back in the day....

Does no one feel even the slightest awe at what is produced these days?

Tried a rough comparison with the first data device I ever owned, an Apple HD20SC. If you could put enough of them together (which you couldn't, but this is a game) to equal this storage you'd have to have 1,639 of them, that'd make a cube just over 2 meters on a side and if running would consume 10 KW.

Try putting that in a phone. :)

Yeah, mine's the one draped over the Zimmer frame, thanks.