Damm, that just made me smoking hot

As Astronomy boffins go, these folks are first rate when it comes to being human. I have personally checked out over 40GB of their images. Thanks for the link, I had no idea they needed help.

Robert B

Subject: Google..

Why is it that Google probably has more snooping capabilities than the government itself, yet nobody questions its authority?

Mataroo

Subject: BBC IT Hackery

Yes, the good old Beeb.

"The Server is the brains of the network" was one of my favorites. I can't find the exact copy, but it could have been this one:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4496901.stm

Keep up the good work!

Simon

Subject: First computer virus

Nick,

Perhaps the first virus that infected personal computers is only 25 years old, but computer viruses are at least 32 years old. You can find a description of an earlier computer virus here:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/univac/animal.html

Note that Scientific American published a description of this earlier computer virus in 1985. Institutional amnesia strikes again!

Keith Dick

Subject: geek squad

I felt so enraged reading that article. What I would love to do to those guys is go to work on them with a bullwhip, or at least a long chain an PU truck. Obviously that is a excellent point for people to learn to buy a small external to save their pics, and vids, and also while they are for sale a full copy of XP pro. When one takes their car to the dealer they clean it out. A company that is in a business of fixing computers should be held at a Higher Standard due to the nature of that business, because sometimes if it dies like the PSU you cannot clean it up first. This is a spy cam happy world as you in GB are finding out everyday it seems. Maybe the workbench area of these companies doing repair work should be 100% audited by that corporation, with a video file turned into a media file that can be viewed by the consumer when they get home to see what was done on their machine? Damm, that just made me smoking hot reading about those monkeys invading privacy.

Redwood

Subject: Oh dear

I hadn't realised that my chemistry knowledge had fallen so woefully behind in the years since school. Could you please let me know when gold stopped being a metal? Thanks.

Christi Scarborough

Subject: AMD caveman's power supply...

Hi,

umm, being a Californian, I can state unequivocally that the only thing I'm enraged at is Al Gore's quasi-documentary, quasi-fundraiser, quasi-jump-on-the-GREEN-bandwagon stunts.

I have to apologize though. This is terribly embarassing, to even be spending time on an email to somebody who -- unbelievably -- would rely on Al Gore's version of reality.

As for PSUs. I've had bad luck with Antec's so give 'em a toss for me too. I'm guessing from your article that chip-makers upping requirements on PSUs is a bad thing. However, CPUs that operate at low and ultra-low power are a hot market. Can you say HTPC? I have old PSUs that will work fine with such new CPUs. Unfortunately, old PSUs are not so efficient as newer models ... and they are LOUD.

Myron

Subject: XBOX 360 Repairs

I would love for you to write an article about how bad Microsoft's Xbox 360 repair service is. I am in the states and will a month and no update on whether when my 360 repair will be finished. I got the following deadlines, 3 days after recieval, then 10 business days, and now 3-4 weeks. I had one person tell me that i should look closely at my email, maybe they sent me a confirmation. Atleast before they outsourced customer to India, the techs could respond to you with accurate answers. Now they just repeat the same response, and refuse to transfer you a administrator.

Tim

Subject: AMD + ATI = Doomed

"The Dude" look "dude" if you paid 3000.00 for an AMD 3000+ and a x850 XT that would make your PC at least 3 to 4 years old. Unfortunatly the computer world works more like year to year. If your 3 to 4 year old PC is minimum specs now then you got a good run with that hardware and count your self lucky.

As for paying 3000 for this system I would have to say this from experience meaning I've bought a 700+ video card twice in my life and what did I learned, I only gained about 10 to 15 FPS at a cost of 700+. Now that you have this old rig buying mid range card for about half the price of the ultra high end is probably a good way to go.

Hell I just priced out a box for someone with AMD X2 6000+, 2GB Ram, 400GB HD, 8600GT 256MB, on a nVidia SLI mobo for about 800.00 CND. So there you go with tax less that 1/3 what you paid for your uber rig of yester year. Kinda sucks but hey one I wanted to have the fastest CPU that was being sold (cough cough Pentium 120MHz :(...) and paid over 1100 with tax for that POS and one month later that CPU went down to about half the price.....

In the Computer world patience and timing have a lot to do with getting deals.

Dan Bastianello

PS: DDR2 is great here in Canada for prices at the moment, thanks to Vista's failiures ;).

Subject: The BBC is where old IT hacks go to die

I have noticed the BBC's generally attrocious lack of understanding when it comes to anything computer or tech-related, in addition to their appalling bastardisation of the British English language. However, you aren't really helping the cause Andrew by saying "is comprised of", as I grimace whenever someone makes this mistake. Anything can "comprise something" or "be composed of", but nothing can EVER "comprise of". This is as bad as workman writing "apologise for the inconvenience" (bloody cheek if they want ME to apologise for the inconvenience THEY are causing) or the constant misuse of the apostrophe, implying that its (note: no apostrophe in its correct form) use is somehow difficult to remember.

But I digress. In any event, please keep up the good work for the sake of real tech people everywhere!

Kind Regards
Steven Ansell

Subject: Tanla Mobile - are COWBOYS!

Hi

I just read your story on Enquirer about the guy who was charged £22.50 for texts he didn't ask for or receive from Tanla Mobile:

These cowboys are doing it again and I recount my tale - use it as you will and please feel free to use my name!

Richard Hough

Subject: LED lights for the home

What are these then?

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&sati tle=gu10+led

I have lighting like this in my house and have had for over a year.

BTW, the plastic ends of a shoestring are called aglet's. My 16 year old daughter was reading one of your articles last month over my shoulder where an Inquirer hack stated he/she did not know what these were called.

Max