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User: leathered

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Comments · 368

  1. Re:I'll take a stab at it... on Autonomy Chief Says Whitman Is Watering Down HP Fraud Claims · · Score: 1

    All the best bits of HP were spun off by Carly into Agilent Technolgies, and to me they are the true Hewlett-Packard and not the faceless box-shifter that bears the HP name today.

    I used to work in a lab a number of years ago, and almost all the instruments were made by HP. Whenever we were purchasing new equipment, we didn't even consider the competition because we knew we were getting the best. Also, whenever new instruments were purchased, they always came with HP workstations and printers.

    I suppose their only redeeming feature is that HP servers are still pretty good, but their volumes and margins must be suffering since virtualization became popular.

  2. Re:Why do I have to BE at a lecture? on UK Students Protest Biometric Scanner Move · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I worked in a UK university CS department for four years in the mid 00s. Foreign students turning up for a couple of lectures then disappearing was a huge problem. Not for the university of course, who didn't give a shit as long as the fees were paid. Even if the fees weren't paid they were simply kicked off the course but this was never communicated to the UK Borders Agency.

    Since then I've been told that the universities have had a royal boot up the arse from the government and are to inform immediately if a foreign student has poor or no attendance. What we're seeing here is probably an overreaction to this.

  3. Re:Damn shame. on AMD Hires Bank To Explore Sale Options · · Score: 1

    On the contrary. Their graphics division is what's keeping AMD's head above water right now, and is still turning out competitive hardware. Also we wouldn't have had Fusion, which is more attractive than any of Intel's offerings for cheap laptops.

    Despite this, sadly the end is near for AMD. People have always said that Intel needs AMD to survive to avoid any anti-monopoly action but I'm not so sure now. The battle lines have been drawn for the next chip wars and ARM is much better equipped to take on the might of Intel.

  4. Re:So what are they? on Australia's Biggest Telco Sold Routers With Hardcoded Passwords · · Score: 1

    I thought they picked something secure like *******?

    I don't get it, why would you want ******* as a password?

  5. Intel will fail at mobile on The Linux-Proof Processor That Nobody Wants · · Score: 3, Interesting

    .. and the reason is not efficiency or performance.. Intel enjoys huge (50%+) margins on x86 CPUs that simply will not be tolerated by the tablet or mobile device vendors. Contrast this with the pennies that ARM and their fab partners make for each unit sold. Even Intel's excellent process tech can't save them cost wise when you can get a complete ARM SoC with integrated GPU for $7.

  6. Re:First Intel, now AMD? on AMD's Hondo Chip 'A Windows 8 Product' · · Score: 1

    Which is surprising if you consider that AMD has been a victim of this kind of behavior in the past.

  7. Nothing new.. on Dutch Police Ask 8000+ Citizens To Provide Their DNA · · Score: 1

    Colin Pitchfork was the first person ever to be convicted on DNA evidence. That was as a result of voluntary mass-screening and suppose it's natural for the Dutch police to follow suit especially if they have no leads.

  8. Dedicated servers on The Rebirth of PC Gaming? Bring On the Modders! · · Score: 2

    Making mods or custom maps is only viable when you can run your own servers on which to play them. Nowadays most new games have servers that are run by the game publishers themselves, if this is the case how do you persuade the publisher to run the mod on them?

  9. It's not hard being Carbon Neutral on Microsoft Makes Ambitious Carbon Neutral Pledge · · Score: 0, Troll

    ..for a fucking software company. Wake me when a company involved in things like steelmaking, mining, transport and heavy engineering become carbon neutral.

  10. Re:current os vista - next os will not be M$ on Windows Vista Enters Extended Support · · Score: 1

    Minor cost? An upgrade to Win 7 would be half of the original cost of my netbook. And for what? A new browser that I don't use. Or maybe the a nice UI which is irrelevent when the only icons I use are the ones for Chrome and occasionally Word. I'd have a much better experience if I spent that money on more RAM or an external monitor.

    Believe it or not people are sick of the upgrade treadmill. The consumer operating system of the future is one that boots straight into a web browser from which all applications will be accessed. And people certainly won't expect to pay good money for it.

  11. Re:WTF? on UK Man Jailed For 'Offensive Tweets' · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What jury? He was up before the local magistrates.

    What's troubling is that magistrate said that his sentence had to "reflect public abhorrence". So he decided to play to the gallery and jail him instead of considering the case on its merits.

    It's one piece of Blairite legislation that should be repealed as soon as possible. How long before it's extended to religious or political opinions?

  12. Not much skill on Blackjack Player Breaks the Bank At Atlantic City · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There is little skill in playing Blackjack. Sure there's an optimum strategy that everyone should follow but I would hardly call that 'skill'.

    Of course you could say that he was card counting, but if there was any suggestion of that his ass would have been out of the door and he would have been banned from every casino in the city. The casinos have counter measures to this anyway, such as more frequent shuffling or stopping players from entering half way through a shoe.

    The only news here is that the casino offered a discount which negated the house edge. In other words the casino gambled and lost.

  13. Re:Now... on Judge Rules Pi-Based Music Is Non-Copyrightable · · Score: 1

    Damn you to hell, I even read that in a pirate's voice!

  14. And yet.. on Sweden Moving Towards Cashless Economy · · Score: 1

    Brits are using withdrawing money from ATMs more than ever. Let's face it, with card fees and lack of privacy, cash will never fully go away.

  15. Re:Looks like it's getting better... on HDD Price Update: How the Thai Floods Have Affected Prices, 3 Months Later · · Score: 4, Funny

    So I suppose a Quantum Fireball is out of the question then?

  16. Re:There's nothing to change on Aging U-2 Will Fight On Into the Next Decade · · Score: 2

    However, the paradox remains that the Olympus turbojets fitted to Concorde remain the most fuel-efficient jet engines ever fitted to an aircraft, though of course turbojets are probably better suited for supersonic cruise than high-bypass turbofans.

  17. Re:Look, all rockers age on Aging U-2 Will Fight On Into the Next Decade · · Score: 2

    You forgot the rest of the joke:

    Bono : "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies."
    Audience member shouts: "Well stop fucking clapping then!"

  18. Re:Nokia Lumia on Windows Phone Homebrew Hits a Snag · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well I'd trust the mainstream tech media to give some reliable numbers on Lumia sales rather than an MS astroturfing site.

    Let's see: El Reg, Grauniad, Gizmodo, and many others..

  19. Not unrelated on Merck Threatens Merck With Legal Action Over Facebook URL · · Score: 5, Informative

    Merck was a single German company prior to WWI, their North American assets were seized by the US government in 1917 and is now Merck & Co. What remained in Germany is now Merck KGaA.

  20. Make me wonder.. on Valve's Gabe Newell On Piracy: It's Not a Pricing Problem · · Score: -1, Troll

    Is his excess bulk a service problem or a food pricing problem?

  21. Re:Good? on AMD Layoffs Maul Marketing, PR Departments · · Score: 1

    Sadly for AMD I feel their time has come and gone, for a number of years they were well ahead of Intel but we all know why they could never press home their dominance. A billion euro fine; despite being a record, was chump change for Intel and in reality they profited greatly by shutting AMD out of the market.

  22. Re:Vigilances on Anonymous Hackers Take Down Child Porn Websites · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's fine until a pediatrician has her home attacked, like what happened in the UK. We may well complain about injustice at the hands of the authorities, but vigilantes are far more likely to target the innocent.

  23. mRemote NG on Essential Open Source Tools For Windows Admins · · Score: 1

    If you hate having multiple RDP, SSH, Telnet etc windows all over your desktop you should look at mRemote NG.

  24. Re:UltraDefrag (fail) on Essential Open Source Tools For Windows Admins · · Score: 1

    I've always liked O&O Defrag, with lots of options available to arrange files on the disk in the way you want. To be honest though I can't remember the last time I've even felt the need to defrag a production server. It seems that the performance penalty for fragmentation has become more or less irrelevent with today's systems.

  25. Re:I can do that. on Study Shows Dogs Can Sniff Out Lung Cancer · · Score: 1

    Tell that to the 20% of lung cancer patients who have never smoked.