Re: 20 years?
"Britain would take 20 years to do what France could do in six?"
Dang ...
Posts by Armando 123
1116 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2011
Minister blows away plans for more turbines
Microsoft to bake Windows 8 in three flavours
Tuesday 17th April 2012 12:48 GMT
Again wit de voisions!
Once again, MS is providing many versions which will confuse the consumer and create more overhead/headache.
Remember a few years ago when MS announced five different versions of their impending OS release? Steve Jobs, shortly afterward, was delivering a keynote where he explained that Apple had a basic version: OS X. They had a consumer version: OS X. They had a Professional version: OS X. They had ... It was one of those moments where even Apple's critics said "Boy, this is one place where Apple gets it."
So MS reduced, and now they're expanding again. Really?
Himalayan glaciers actually gaining ice, space scans show
Laptop computers are crap
New fake anti-virus shakes down frightened file-sharers
Friday 13th April 2012 12:55 GMT
Ways to contact
Have you heard about the "you've won tickets to a [TEAMNAME] game!" that some law enforcement agencies have pulled in the US? They've tracked down a lot of crims and deadbeat dads, though unfortunately the crims and deadbeats seem to have caught on by now. Brilliant idea, though, and it worked a treat.
So what's the worst movie NEVER made?
Chinese coders beat all-comers
Teens break up with Facebook
Thursday 12th April 2012 14:54 GMT
Ready to shutter
I've been on both since ... early 2007, IIRC. With facebook I stay in contact with college friends. With twitter I've met drivers at the Indy 500, local athletes, networked for dog fostering, learned about new bands and new technologies.
Guess which one I find more satisfying? (No offense to my college friends intended.)
Too small to fail: Obama signs Nontrepreneurs Act
Wednesday 11th April 2012 14:06 GMT 
Wait a minute
I thought one of the lefty mantras was that business was no good and deserved no breaks and needed to be watched like a cat watching a mouse.
Personally, I'm a libertarian and think government is way too invasive in all aspects of our lives, but the inconsistency on this is particularly rankling for some reason.
Iran's plan to UNPLUG the INTERWEBS back from the dead
'Unibody' iPhone 5 said to debut in October
Five charged after fanboi sells kidney for iPad and iPhone
Apple's stock price swells above stuttering Google
IT urine bandit fired and charged
Anonymous turns its fire on China
Adam Sandler's cross-dresser shocker is Razzies stonker
Steve Jobs biopic
Yes, Prime Minister to return after 24 years
Friday 30th March 2012 13:35 GMT
Still looking forward to it.
I know it will be different -- with the EU and no cold war and climate now the hot topic, the political landscape is different. But has politics really changed THAT much? When I was growing up in the 70s, politicians and bureaucrats were seen as lying self-serving toadies who were too smug and too clever and deserved a slap on the chops for wasting our tax money on whatever the lobbyists told them to. Whereas today, ...
Apple products now found in half of all American dwellings
Friday 30th March 2012 13:22 GMT
Re: figures
You may be right, but the market doesn't agree with you, apparently.
Personally, I liked the iPod: dead easy to use (even my technophobe mother, in her 70s, picked one up and used it without instructions), better made than competitors in the day, the firewire vs usb1 was a huge win, well made with few breakable parts, simple integration with the computer and iTunes and iTunes store, as sturdy as a brick chicken house, and felt good in the hand. It also fit into my shirt pocket when I wasn't using it, unlike some other MP3 players of the day. It wasn't perfect, but overall it beat the socks off anything else at that time.
The iPhone changed the smartphone game. Others have caught up, to an extent, and in some areas have moved ahead, but OVERALL you can use the iPod description above to describe it.
And IIRC, Apple generally scores at #1 or #2 in product reliability and product satisfaction in Consumer Report surveys of a particular type of product (music player, phone, laptop, etc). You can ascribe it to sheep, but the consumer today is pretty cynical and ready to qvetch about problems with anything. Maybe you need to step back and look at some numbers.
Extreme weather blown away from unexpected direction
This interactive wind map is a Big Data lava lamp
Apple's Cook tops Page, Otellini in 'Favorite Boss' survey
FLA, Apple and Foxconn shake on new deal for Chinese workers
Exploding dinosaur theory EXPLODED
Friday 30th March 2012 11:52 GMT
Re: I realise that the work is worthwhile and contributes to the science but.........
I think some guys were caught by authorities and one of them BSed their way out of it (we've all gone to school with that guy). So they got grant money, and I say the field of exploding corpses is one that needs funding. In fact, I'm tempted to add anybody associated with the Twilight series as test subjects.
Vote now for the WORST movie EVER
Security guards brawl over world's biggest Apple Store
Gov IT contractors hire staff in India to work on benefits system
High school student expelled for dropping F-bomb in tweet
Tuesday 27th March 2012 20:42 GMT
Ah, my home state
Consider this: Indiana is the must industrial of the 50 US states; it has the highest percentage of the workforce in manufacturing. However, the strongest union BY FAR is the teacher/education union. You can't win an election and even question things they're doing. The lobby is that powerful.
Which means they can do things like this.
Now, if he wrote this on a school computer, then a three day suspension seems fair if a touch harsh. But kicking him out for this? One of the foulest mouths I ever heard was from a principal on a community golf course; she swore long, loud, and colorfully enough to be a Baptist preacher. (I've played golf with my cousin who's a Baptist preacher, so I know whereof I speak.)
Force Google to black out searches in new privacy law - MPs
Tuesday 27th March 2012 16:51 GMT 
Well thank goodness!
Politicans are getting involved, so now all our privacies will be respected, you can bet that!
BTW, have they had such a vehement reaction to government people leaving personal information on lost laptops and thumb drives? Because I'm sure the civil servants were duly punished.
Mine's the one with the copy of Road to Serfdom in the pocket
'Ugly' MongoDB defies NoSQL death rumour
Tuesday 27th March 2012 15:42 GMT
In other words, grok your data
We are using and no complaints. Our data is such that a traditional relational database isn't the right tool and Mongo has been fine. We'll see how the scaling goes, but right now we have other bottlenecks so any Mongo issues are going to be in the future. Fortunately we've architected things so that switching DBs is going to cause minimal (though not minimum) fuss.
Mine's the one with my Oracle certifications in the pocket.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
