Not even Bill Gates wants to be Bill Gates any more

Subject: Wi-fi banned in Tottenham

/rant on

So, you have cash strapped schools, normally spread out over multiple sites and buildings, and not only are they being forced to drop their current networks, but now they have to have them hard wired? and on the same budget! How are kids supposed to work at the school desks, that quit frankly can't be disconnected, and re-patched in on a whim, like many classrooms have to be.

And the biggest one?

what about freeview signal?
What about phone masts?
What about electric pilons?
What about surrounding Wi-Fi?
What about Solar Rays?
What about Bluetooth?
What about Radio signals in all their different incarnations?

Seems to me this really hasn't been thought through at all. They may wish to stop the wind blowing in the wrong direction, as a child could actually get blown over.

/rant off.

Craig.

Subject: aceshardware.com

It seems logical to me that TheInq would simply take over the forum, as probably most would have to visit one site, and the bona fide role of TheInq as the industry crystall ball is certainly commensurate with technical discussions from all the luminaries we saw on aceshardware. Granted that Groo attracted some heat lately, but I think the Inq community might balance comments pretty well.

Cquarksnow

Subject: AMD does Nvidia

so.... whats supposed to be news about this? amd has been offering and probably always will offer nvidia solutions.

i see what your getting at, they now bought ati and are thus recommending a competing product, but so what? a company that claims its product is the best for all segments of the market is obviously lying.

what REALLY freaks me out is intel making mainboards with sis chipsets! now THATS news as intel has never done this before afaik.

Saschakrohn

Subject: George Ou gets a cyber kicking

Seems like that George Ou said what had to be said and is in fact a good guy.

And perhaps Theo Valich should make a little 'sorry' statement in this regard, especially since he reportingly works for 'inqtel' and yet was unduly praising AMD ;)

W.

Subject: I'll bring the sausages

"Sony claims its PS3 console stock is much more reliable, that might have something to do with the fact it sits on a store shelf and never gets plugged in."

Yes ! Another searing flash of wit that made my day. Kudos, dear Nick, I love the way you stick it to the bloated.

So then, now that you've got yourself a barbecue in the making, I'll just invite myself over and bring some vittles, hmm ?

Cheers,
Pascal.

Subject: MPAA sets up P2P sites

Rules of entrapment notwithstanding, isn't it illegal to do something illegal? I mean the police allow themselves some latidude when it comes to breaking the law in order to nick the (really) bad guys, but so far as I'm aware the MPAA haven't been deputized by any level of law enforcement, anywhere, to go around deliberately breaking the laws they purport to uphold and enforce. So... wouldn't they be as liable as anyone to fraud and copyright infringement? Just, you know, wondering.

Regards,
MJH

Subject: George H.W. bush tossing cookies

Never gonna let that die are ya? :)

Wolveryne

Subject: Ace's Hardware is a goner

I'd like to invite Ace's readers to read SysOpt.com and participate in the forum, SysOpt is over ten years old and still small ;)

Tom Strom

Subject: Carbon trading

There was a very good article in the MIT technology journal about this concept not too long ago (within the last year).

One of the issues is coming up with the right overall volume to set the market. If the government sets the amount of Carbon credits incorrectly (which apparently has happened in some cases) it completely nullifies the theoretical trading benefits.

If for example the government gives out too many Carbon credits, the credit become seriously de-valued. This lead to an excess supply of credits to sell on the market - and guess what - the price drops like a rock. This then enables heavy polluters to buy cheap credits rather than investing in infrastructure to decrease Carbon emissions.

If the credits are set too tight you then either risk putting businesses out of business (especially smaller ones) or risk having them simply pass the added cost onto the consumer.

So now all you have to do is ask yourself - how likely/unlikely is it for a government to get the estimate on total carbon credits wrong? This is a potentially good idea in theory but a wise man once said:

In theory, practice and theory are the same, in practice, they are not....

Larry

Subject: MPAA sets up file sharing sites...

You see... i thought there was this little american law about entrapment. I think there's a film and possibly a book about the practice but basically it boils down to the fact that you are not allowed to tempt people into dubious businesses.... instead they have to approach you.

Seems to me that this practice of hosting servers to "entrap" people violates this principle...

Kind regards,
James

Subject: Apple accused of amassing data on Iphone customers

Nick,

I don't disagree with you, but this is the way things are done. With most cell companies, if you do not provide your SSN for a credit check, you will have to pay a deposit (some times up to hundreds of dollars) to get a phone contract. In addition for other things you must often jump through many hoops if you do not give one. Example: In NY state if you want a driver's license you must provide either your SSN or a letter from the SSA stating you are not eligible to have one. In the US people who know your SSN are your employer, your bank, your credit card companies, and your insurance companies (life, health, auto, home). Others such as your utility companies and your cell phone company ask for it to establish credit, but should then discard it. Personally, I don't like it. Generally, I am not a fan of Apple. However, don't add to the already ridiculous amount of iPhone press with something that is the norm. With a quick search I couldn't find anything about the use

of SSNs but I found this from Cornell University that explains SSNs to foreign students (who can apply for them). It happens to mention the use to get a cell phone, and was updated last year.

http://www.isso.cornell.edu/students/ssninfo.pdf

Josh

Subject: Mapping it out

Hi Mike,

This is an out of date map from before the acquisition of ATI. None of the ATI offices are on it.

Note that Marlborough, Orlando, Markham and Santa Clara are all missing. Cheers,

Chris

Subject: Herr Jobs and his Nazis iSheep

Hi Nick

Of course Herr Jobs is recording all your personal information. How else can he send his Ipod-Iphone-Imac gestopo goons out to hunt you down and send you off to the iGas chambers? Steven Jobs is the biggest "I wanabe Bill Gates" psycho on the entire planet (not even Bill gates wants to be Bill Gates anymore). Jobs maybe one hell of a advertizing guru, but has absolutely no other bussiness skills or sense whatsoever. Thank god for that, since he would enslave everyone onto his OS, hardware, and software programing despite what anyone else wants. Remember the old "1984" commercial where everyone lives in a gray world and apple comes to the rescue? What a lie!! that is the world Steven Jobs wants to create. He already has his following of iSheep out there, ready to burn books and enslave those who do not bow to this Nazis regime. And still Apple creates nothing new, simpling stealing all tech they can from linux and now windows, and building software and technology only

After all, what factories, machine shops, construction people use apples? Even big bussiness use them only in limited fashion, depending on MS for the majority of the work. How many schools still use apples, or POS systems use apples? Who wants to waste the money on uncompattible, overpriced, and 100% proprietary systems that have no other suppliers? The OS doesn't matter, the hardware doesn't matter - only the price. One of the last line in the "Priates of Silcon Valley" illustates the one lesson that Jobs is to arrogant or idiotic to ever understand. Thats when he states windows will never be as good as apple, and Bill Gates States "Who Cares?"

Thankfully Steven Jobs has no bussiness sense and lives in his own dream world (the 4th reich?) or he might actually be dangerous.

Brian Martinez

Subject: We offered

Thanks for the write-up--maybe AMD/Intel/Sun will get smart. We forum posters did offer to pay. I understand from Brian that something may be in the works. One diligent poster (P4man) setup a temporary site...(with the requisite smiley faces etc...):

http://aceshardware.freeforums.org/

None the less, spot on that we all hope the forum community will remain-- this was one of the best sites for technical discussion (despite some of the stupid flame wars).

Shukla

Subject: Which is worse?

Which is worse an Apple fanboy or a Wikipedian?

Liam

Subject: Tory leader, Cameron wades in on web pirates

In short the music companies and its CEO's are responsible for the violence in this world according to cameron and should be treated as terrorist and put in jail I assume?

Incidentally, does he know it's 2007 and not 1807?

W

Subject: Dell is still unmoved by Vista

There will be training. There are things to learn, he ejaculated. I love that use of the word ejaculated in the article. That meaning is great to get a particular section of prose attention, because people associate the word with masculine sexuality and forget the meaning that is associated with speaking.

Willard Lecroy

Subject: Apple, iPhone and SSNOs

My experience with AT&T years ago is that they wanted your SSNO so that they could use the last four digits as the password/pin. And you couldn't change it to anything else.

D'oh.

No idea if they're doing it still, but wouldn't surprise me.

Plovell

Subject: Mice prices

That 'Logicool' is actually a just Logitech MX revolution, the Japanese are getting stiffed.

Dhinshin

Subject: God vista sucks!

Installing Vista Home Premium Upgrade on an Acer Aspire 3680 laptop with a genuine Windows XP Home install turned to an 8 hour ordeal that ended with going back to installing XP Home anew.

Once Vista was installed nothing worked as it should:
-Built in Bison Webcam with updated drivers showed fine but did not work
-Built in Realtek HD Audio showed fine but did only work from time to time
-USB devices would only work if plugged before power up (even the MS wireless mouse)
-Pinnacle USB tuner install took 2 hours (10 minutes on XP) and the device failed to work
-Seamonkey mail would crash the system trying to register as the default mail application
-Yahoo mesenger 8.1 would only use Seamonkey as the browser even if IE was set as default and would crash regularly and could not even be terminated using the task manager
-Unicode character in the restored address book came up garbled
-Restoring data to application was a nightmare as for some reason MS decided to set as system restricted the user data folders!?!?!
-Finally the install gave up the ghost refusing to start at all

I pass on the cute but resource intensive Aero and its mindlessly stupid gadgets. A huge windows 3.11 clock when the task bar also has one?

How can any company release shuch a piece of CRAP and not only hope for people to buy it, but force them to do so. Anyways, this laptop will run XP Home and Mandriva and my kids are getting a used iMac G3. The Vista box and CD is in the trash as I would not even sell it online and infect someone else.

Mirko

Subject: orbo

Pure marketing genius. Now we know what this is all about.. it is about a PR campaign for the Kinetic Art Museum.. you know, human fascination with the perpetual motion machine which is a centerpiece of all such museums. They show us how even today, with the right PR, we can be moved to listen to a group who claim that 2+2 is actually 5. Love it! It really gets the point across.

Andrew