Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Geekstuff

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  • andrew llewellyn,

    "Ditto. I signed up about a week ago, but so far there's no sign of my Gravatar here. :("

    Robyn, mine turned up reasonably quickly after that - suggest you check back & see if you associated your chosen picture with your email - it's easy to miss.

    Since Nov 2006 • 2075 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Read the first post in that Slashdot thread I linked to ..

    that was hilarious:

    Delete this file, Cancel or Allow?

    Cannot delete file 'File 47'
    It is being used by another person or program. Close any programs that might be using the file and try again.

    Undoing modifications, 35952 files restored.

    I just checked the stats on the sites I'm involved with and Vista is just hitting 1%....not good for Redmond surely, after a month or so. The overwhelming attitude I've encountered is "why bother, what does it offer", and the hardware specs are off putting for most. Releasing a new OS doesn't excite anymore in the way that, say, a new phone, or even a natty website does. The geeks have moved on.

    And YouTube?? We can? Images?

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • matthewbuchanan,

    Why do people get so abusive because a free service isn't working very well?

    I agree, although there are some paying customers too (premium accounts) and I could see why they might get more irate. Still, mostly out of order.

    And YouTube?? We can? Images?

    Yes to YouTube: been happening in the Monitor and OurTube sections since launch, but actually supported site-wide. No to images at present, as that's more difficult to police.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 163 posts Report

  • matthewbuchanan,

    And YouTube?? We can?

    For YouTube, just paste in the clip's URL, don't bother with the "embeddable" code they offer, we do our own take on it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 163 posts Report

  • Kyle Matthews,

    I just checked the stats on the sites I'm involved with and Vista is just hitting 1%....not good for Redmond surely, after a month or so. The overwhelming attitude I've encountered is "why bother, what does it offer", and the hardware specs are off putting for most. Releasing a new OS doesn't excite anymore in the way that, say, a new phone, or even a natty website does. The geeks have moved on.

    I think also (and related), people have discovered that with XP, Windows at least had a moderate operating system. It's not OS X 10.4, but it's significantly ahead of the mess that was 95, 98, and the joke that was ME. I have XP home on my computer at home, and it works OK, and my software doesn't crash all the time like it did with my computer before, which was 95.

    And given that some of the stuff that they've put in Vista sounds like stuff I don't want, I'll probably look at installing XP on my next PC computer, assuming I can't afford a mac (dual boot... *drool*).

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    Longhorn = not Vista, but the new server OS to replace Windows Server 2003. Gather some people are using it as their desktop OS, just as with WS03 (which is the code-base Vista was keyed off from) as it's nice and fast and secure.

    I'm probably seeing more Vista hits in my logs because I write about the OS on the blog. Should've pointed that out...

    PressReader looks very nice. I've been using the NYTimes Reader for a while, and like it a lot. Microsoft recently announced that other papers have come out with Reader versions of their own - it's a nice concept that keeps the design of the newspapers in question and makes it easier to read than a traditional webpage (no scrollbars! Huzzah!)

    The standalone PressReader app doesn't seem to work too good. It's built on the older MS .NET 2.0 Framework, unlike the NYTimes Reader that uses .NET 3.0. PressReader won't let me read anything without "authorization" but... it hangs on "Please wait until the authorization completes".

    Vista is in some ways better than XP but you'd have to try it to appreciate why. It's kind of annoying to see all the "expert opinion" being served up by journos who haven't done that...

    Give up on Gravatar. Didn't work last time, doesn't look like it's goer now either. I tried to upload an image, but the webpage hung at the cropping stage. Useful. Mauricio at Geekzone got so fed up with it that he wrote his own Avatar thingy.

    There's Explode as well, which may or may not be coaxable into providing Avatars... haven't looked closely at it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    OK, too much multitasking here... I was talking about PressDisplay and PressReader above, not just the latter.

    Of course, if I had had an edit button... :)

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    Actually, can I take the nice words about PressDisplay/Reader back? It costs money, is slow and doesn't render things as well as the MS/NYTimes Reader. And they want you to pay for that? Nah.

    Curse of the Dead Donkey has been placed on it.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • Peter Darlington,

    Vista is in some ways better than XP but you'd have to try it to appreciate why.

    I've been using it on and off for a couple of months but in a VMWare environment Aero is out of the question as the VMWare graphics driver gets a Vista performance score of 1.0. So I think I'm missing out on some of the cooler features. From what I've seen, it's actually very similar to XP in functionality but does some other cool-ish stuff as well.

    Haven't got to know the upgraded Search feature very well yet but in a corporate network with network drives, Sharepoint Intranets and Exchange 2007 it could prove very useful.

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report

  • Alastair Thompson,

    Heyho chaps..

    Not a word hereabouts about scoopit. But hey... its generating traffic and thats what matters. Thanks Russell!

    What amazes me about vista is that it is not showing up in logs even thoough it is getting so hard to buy a computer without it.

    All Dells now comes as standard. Ditto dick smith. Seems to me that if computer manufacturers and retailers start to find it hard to sell hardware then we will see Redmond pushed into reconsidering some of their dafter ideas.

    For my part I will start using Vista only when the DRM is removed and it actually works.... ETA March 2008 or later.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 220 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    Vista SP1 should be cool, but so will SP3 of XP be.

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • Hadyn Green,

    ignore me
    just testing my gravatar that I signed up for a little while ago

    ps. I will NOT be upset if it doesn't work

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report

  • Hadyn Green,

    I lied I'm a little upset

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report

  • Gareth Elliott,

    I signed up a few weeks ago. My account works and I have associated an avatar.. i guess now......



    i wait....

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 7 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    I think we should have avatars editable by everyone, like wikis. Wakatars? Wavatars? Wikitars?

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • David Hamilton,

    I think we should have avatars editable by everyone, like wikis. Wakatars? Wavatars? Wikitars?

    Wikatars?

    That would be great, except for the inevitable arguments about how to most correctly represent someone. Expert opinion would of course be ignored in favour of that guy who sat behind you in high school maths scribbling dirty words on his desk.

    Hamiltron • Since Nov 2006 • 111 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    but so will SP3 of XP be

    it seems to be a way off

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Heyho chaps..

    Not a word hereabouts about scoopit. But hey... its generating traffic and thats what matters. Thanks Russell!

    Can you offer the option of having story links automatically open in new tabs, so I'm not going away from Scoopit? I find that very pleasing here.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    CY2008?

    Whazzat?

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • matthewbuchanan,

    I find that very pleasing here.

    Russell, if you're using Safari you can hold down the Apple/Command key when clicking a link to achieve that effect. Not sure if Firefox has a similar keyboard shortcut.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 163 posts Report

  • merc,

    It does and I now feel like a cyber geek...

    Since Dec 2006 • 2471 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Russell, if you're using Safari you can hold down the Apple/Command key when clicking a link to achieve that effect.

    Dude, I'm not a total n00b. But having open in a new tab as a default you don't even have to think about seems right for Scoopit. If there was an option box that said "have all story links open in a new tab" I'd totally click it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Juha Saarinen,

    Russell means add target="_blank" or similar tag :)

    Since Nov 2006 • 529 posts Report

  • JP Hansen,

    "i t0tally pnwed u. u r so a n00b and i am so 1337."

    That's complete gibberish. It should read;

    "i t0tally pnwed u. u r so teh n00b and i am teh 1337."

    Waitakere • Since Nov 2006 • 206 posts Report

  • Russell Brown,

    Russell means add target="_blank" or similar tag :)

    Yes, that's what we use over on PA classic, where us kids are still allowed to fool around with real HTML ;-)

    But I've just realised that links in these forums only open in a new tab in Firefox. In Safari, it's a new window. Any one know why?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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