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User: hawkinspeter

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Comments · 1,930

  1. Re:Actually read the book! on Ridley Scott to Produce Philip K Dick's The Man In the High Castle · · Score: 1

    I found the book kind of slow going at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the book-within-the-book recursion whereby there's a book written about an alternate reality where the Allies won World War II.

  2. Re:TCO on Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro · · Score: 1

    I often delete the relevant /etc/udev/rules.d/ files if I'm installing a virtual image as the changing MACs and UUIDs can be more complex to manage. Sometimes, you know that the machine will only ever have one disk and one network card.

  3. Re:TCO on Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro · · Score: 1

    You're right. Most of the updates I've done on a variety of Linux boxes have not caused any problems - even upgrading from different OS versions (e.g. Ubuntu 12.04 -> Ubuntu 14.04) have proceeded fine. There have been a few occasions where Grub has got confused or distribution upgrades have failed due to LD_LIBRARY_PATH being set etc. However, every OS has had issues with bugs and updates.

    You shouldn't need to make a bootable USB as typically, you'd have the media that you originally installed the OS with (DVD or USB or network install). If not, then it's easy to borrow someone else's system long enough to download and burn another copy of it (unless you're in Windows OEM hell).

  4. Re:TCO on Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro · · Score: 2

    It's a shame you didn't persist as most boot/grub errors are generally quite easy to fix. Most of the time, you can boot from CD/usb stick and repair the grub install within about 5 minutes.

    Still, if you don't want to use it, use something else. Choice and competition are good.

  5. Re:Will they invest any of the savings in Linux de on Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro · · Score: 1

    Huh? I've heard of commercial companies getting criticised for not giving back code changes even though they're making money from OSS, but I think you're very mistaken.

  6. Re:TCO on Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro · · Score: 2

    My experience is the opposite of yours with installing Windows/Linux. I've found that ghosting Windows installs requires that the hardware be virtually identical. Having a different disk controller, or switching between ATA and AHCI modes usually causes blue screens and failure to boot. Any modern Linux distro, however can quite happily run even by putting the installed hard disk into a completely different machine.

  7. Re:Robo-Polygraph? on Researchers Design Bot To Conduct National Security Clearance Interviews · · Score: 1

    That actually sounds interesting as they'll need to get a machine to be able to repeatedly interpret polygraphs when the current usage depends entirely on the examiner's judgement (or guesses).

    It should be relatively easy to fake a robotic polygraph - just clench your buttocks at the right time.

  8. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    In general, though, aren't the speeds increasing rather than decreasing?

  9. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 1

    And, if it's put to the public as '100 spying incidents on members of opposition parties or a document format that is completely free and belongs to the people', then I imagine you'll get a different response.

    I'm curious, you seem to have a strong pro-microsoft agenda here. Why is that? (or are you just getting a bit old and are afraid of new-fangled technology)?

  10. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    Sorry, I might have been using too much irony for you. Do you not find it amusing that a person complaining that "privacy violation is complete bullshit" is posting that as an Anonymous Coward? They obviously do care about privacy whilst also decrying it.

    I'm a big fan of Anonymous Cowards in general and I'm not attacking the messenger - it's just funny considering what was said. Personally, I do use a PS3 and I'm not concerned about what code is running on it largely because Sony is too incompetent to be truly evil. However, open BD code would be useful as I stream from Linux using PS3MediaServer.

  11. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 1

    Yes, that as well, but I didn't want to get bogged down by details as logically his argument is specious.

  12. Re:Super-collider on China Plans Particle Colliders That Would Dwarf CERN's LHC · · Score: 1

    Anecdote accepted. Snappy comeback not found.

    AWKWARD

  13. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 1

    Your argument about not wanting to change something due to the length of time that it's been unchanged is laughable. I don't get why you are so opposed to such a sensible, intelligent change. I bet you could have used the self-same arguments for keeping government documents on micro-fiches (or similar old-time technology).

  14. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 1

    Also, I don't get why/how Apple are more predatory (I'm not a fan of them, by the way) and I fail to see why a school buying iPads will lock up the content that, as a tax-payer, I have paid for.

  15. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 2

    The obvious tangible benefits are that the documents will no longer be locked into some stupid proprietary format that can never be converted due to ridiculous macros and scripts (quite why a static document needs to have macros and scripts is beyond me).

  16. Re:"Compatible" on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    Seconded! I use PS3MediaServer on a Linux box to serve media to a PS3 and it works well. Recently my old fat PS3 overheated again (YLOD) so I started looking at replacing it with a PS4, but the two requirements I had were that it should be able to play my PS3 games and to use it to watch media. Somehow Sony have managed to make a PS4 utterly useless to me, so I ended up buying a cheap second-hand thin PS3.

  17. Re:"Compatible" on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    She was hot in those skin-tight pants!

  18. Re:"Compatible" on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 2

    So, do you actually pay more if lots of people "freeload" the same film? I suspect that you're not paying for it to be made, you're just being sold the content at whatever price they think the market will bear. If you feel so hard done by, just stop buying it - you don't have to whine to us about it.

  19. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    Very interesting, Mr Anonymous Coward.

    Care to explain why you didn't login to an account to say why "privacy violation is complete bullshit"?

  20. Re:this is great news! on Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java · · Score: 1

    I don't know about the US, but here in the UK our broadband speeds keep getting quicker (for the same price). My cable connection gets doubled in speed every couple of years as otherwise, I'd go somewhere else. I don't see why streaming will get less popular over time.

  21. Re:This a wheeze to get Office 2013/ 365 cheaper on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a UK tax payer, I welcome the move. Finally, someone in government is looking further ahead than just the next election.

    I would imagine that someone at GCHQ could easily convert the documents for a tiny fraction of the budget that they've got. In fact, they've probably already got conversions of everyone's private/secret documents already.

    Plenty of money for spying on UK subjects, but no money for protecting their interests in not being tied to a predatory US company.

  22. Re:Why ODF? on UK Cabinet Office Adopts ODF As Exclusive Standard For Sharable Documents · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That doesn't make much sense as this particular change would be welcomed by people who think that principles are important. In fact, a lot of changes are brought about by people who stick to their principles (e.g. abolition of slavery).

  23. Re:Illigal or not? on For Now, UK Online Pirates Will Get 4 Warnings -- And That's It · · Score: 1

    A lot of the quicker internet packages in the UK are "unlimited", so people are paying for whatever bandwidth they use. I'm with Virgin cable and they do specify that they throttle "excessive" usage during the day (which they count as peak time) after you use too much. However, outside of those times, you get full speed with no limits, so it's pretty easy to specify bandwidth limits for torrents during the day so you don't get throttled.

    If we can't download quick enough, then we can always pay more for a quicker connection, which is why heavy users are good customers for the ISPs.

  24. Re:Warnings are discoverable ... on For Now, UK Online Pirates Will Get 4 Warnings -- And That's It · · Score: 1

    Well, the 4 letters show a history of alleged infringement, but I'd be surprised if they count as anything more than hearsay unless there's a reasonable process to go through to contest the letters.

  25. Re:Illigal or not? on For Now, UK Online Pirates Will Get 4 Warnings -- And That's It · · Score: 1

    Getting the ISPs to do the enforcement is not the way forward as the "pirates" are the ISPs' customers (after all, they're the ones who are more likely to pay for the fastest connections).

    It'd be like getting car manufacturers to enforce traffic violations.