Posts by happygeek

A member of Skype staff posting in the Linux support forum there seems to have taken a course in customer relations from <insert your least favourite company here> if his responses to criticism of the lack of real world development of the Linux version of Skype, compared to Windows development, are anything to go by.

It all started when a fed-up Linux user posted a comment suggesting “sadly, today Skype for Linux finds itself behind the eight ball, still working on problems of reliability and functionality with basic hardware that has been around for years. Its playing catch up with consumer demands from 3 years ago while simultaneously trying to "pretend" that its developing next year's cutting edge requirements” which might be a little harsh, but I’m sure will have many nodding theirs heads sympathetically.

The immediate response from staff member ‘berkus’ (if ever there was an apt username) was a sarcastic “you must be one of those Skype managers… But the reality is, you are not. And your statements are very far from The Real Truth.”

Another user chirps in with an accusation that Skype treats its Linux-users like unloved stepchildren compared to Windows users, and warns that offending us with ignorance and arrogance will only make people give up on Skype.

Now you might think that this would bring out the customer relation side in Skype staff, eager to assure its users, its customers, its paying customers that Skype take Linux seriously and care …

'From the lab to the fab' oh dear oh dear oh dear. ;)

It started with an email from a worried satnav user, Lloyd Reid of Trichromic LLP an IT consultant who knows his way around a computer and knows a virus when his AV software flags one up. The cause for his concern being a newly purchased TomTom GO 910 satnav unit that, once connected to his PC, immediately caused an anti-virus software alert. Not one, but two alerts in fact. The win32.Perlovga.A Trojan and TR/Drop.Small.qp were identified as being resident on the satnav hard drive, within the copy.exe and host.exe files.

That’s worth repeating, two Trojans resident on the hard drive of a brand new, straight from the shop, satnav unit.

Worth repeating, perhaps, that this was a unit connected to a PC already protected by AV software, a clean PC, a PC belonging to an experienced IT consultant. It was for this reason that I believed him, that I did not simply assume it was a case of mistaken identity as is so often the case with such reports where the infection was already there, or came via a route unconnected to the accused party.

Also worth repeating is the response that this particular chap got from the TomTom support line, which was simply to let his AV software delete the virus and move on as these ‘are not dangerous’ Trojans. Upon pressing his point that the tech support guy was missing the point, he was told to submit a report to the …

Rackspace Managed Hosting has today sent me the formula to create the perfect website, and being a nice chap I felt I had to share it with you, so here goes:

Pwebsite = { ((14.14* EaseNav) + (13.56*Speed) + (13.11*CleanDes) + (10.89*Func) + (10.89*Up)) – ((12.63*Pops) + (10.32*Ads) +(5.21*MultiM)) } / 6.26

There, now you can all go and create the website of your dreams, guaranteed to pull in the punters, monetize your investment and allow you retire a happy bunny sometime next year. Or maybe you require just a little more of an explanation? I did, and here’s what I got.

Apparently the key differentiators within this perfect website formula are ease of navigation, high speed of page downloads, a clean and simple design, functionality and the site always being live with excessive aggressive advertising seen as a detractor.

Rackspace came up with the mathematically unfriendly way to perfection after commissioning research from the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC) which incorporated a YouGov nationally representative online survey of 2,500 adults, in-depth interviews and in-house qualitative research. Or put another way, 50 participants were sent on a virtual treasure hunt that asked them to seek out specific pieces of information from a variety of websites, all the time SIRC recording their comments and preferences as they tried to navigate the various set sites before them.

What this revealed was that 83% saw ease of navigation as being the most …

Melvin, we will all miss you - but then you know that :)

Thanks for all your hard work here over the years, it really has been appreciated. Not just by your fellow mods and us admins, but by the members of the community who have been inspired by, and benefited from, your knowledge in the forums.

Did you just say 'cluck' a link, AD? Is that avatar of yours really a chicken then? ;)

While we would love people to post on DaniWeb, people are quite welcome to participate by reading and learning as well. This community is about sharing knowledge, we do not exclude lurkers. Participation does not have to be vocal, people with zero posts contribute by becoming better coders and hopefully coming back and saying something when they have something to say.

> -What are the skulls most important for a position in this field?

The bigger the better, preferably without fractures.

You need to leave this active thread, go to the forum you want to post in by using the drop down navigation menu at the top of the page and when you arrive there the 'start new thread' button will be very clearly visible. Hope that helps.

Forget the ho(e) debate, I am more interested in the suit thing. Quite funny really, considering I currently do not even own such a thing let alone wear one. I am more a jeans, t-shirt and tattoos man myself. :)

happyjeans?
happytats?

Rashakil Fol was not banned for flagging a blog post by me, or indeed for anything to do with me.

He was banned because he posted an offensive comment attacking another DaniWeb member in a way which broke the rules. As Rash had already received numerous warnings in the past about such things, and already had an active 5 point infraction on the system, the new infraction took him to the 10 point ban threshold.

Simple as that.

It was not a decision taken lightly, and was discussed at length by the moderation team. However, all members have to abide by the rules and they apply equally even if you happen to be a long-time member and former mod as is the case with Rashakil Fol.

The Dude was banned for posting spam which again took him over the 10 point limit.

Done, Kebab Man.

If that book is still in print and copyrighted, then the simple answer is go buy a copy!

>Uhm, I think its quite obvious what my name is supposed to be, would you mind changing it

You are a Hemswort no more :)

Are they professional bots? ;)

When I saw the thread title I thought "at last, I can find out how old that tree in the garden is" - imagine my disappointment when I discovered we were not talking about radioisotope carbon-14 dating at all...

I'll get my (lab) coat.

Big fat nerd, 44, bald, no social skills - seeks young dolly bird for a good time.

Somehow, I am not expecting a deluge of PMs... ;-)

In fact, I have edited to be even less offensive now - and would restate what others have said: tone it down in future please.

My experience of people asking for account deletions, in general rather than this specific case, is that someone joins up - asks a question - does not an answer they like - then throws a hissy fit demanding everything about them is removed. Either that, or almost as common, asks a question regarding homework or a problem they are having with a work project, gets an answer, then does not want anyone at college/work to know where they got the help from.

There is no option to delete an account because doing so, and removing postings associated with that deleted account, would create huge holes in the DaniWeb database - support threads would become meaningless. You can, however, unsubscribe to admin emails and posting notifications etc via the control panel, and then not log in anymore...

I just found out that my wife has been using this site but she says she isnt. Can anyone tell me what use she could be making of it that she needs to keep it from me. (please only serious replies)

Nope, but I can tell you that you really should trust your wife a bit more, and be a lot less paranoid or the relationship is likely to take a nose-dive. Especially if your wife is using this site as she will be able to see you are asking these questions about her if she reads this forum...

What she said!
I can think of no reason why you would get any spam as a result of visiting DaniWeb. If that happened we would not be the thriving community that we are today...

Anyway, isn't reviving long dead things kind of in keeping with the subject matter? <runs away>

As has been said, you just have to live with it. Reputation, both good and bad, is given at the whim of the person giving it, it is their opinion, and as such we cannot say they are right or wrong.

However, they can only give you the one bit of rep a day, and rep given in the lounge does not impact upon your displayed score.

Just ignore it...

Indeed.

A quick reminder folks - please do not bump threads that are this old, and certainly not with unrelated questions that should be asked in their own right (this is for your own good as much as ours - you stand mopre chance of getting help that way.)

Talking of which, please use code tags as this also makes it a lot easier for people to help you with your code problems.

Many thanks...

OK, enough is enough, I am closing this thread as it appears to be heading into pointless and mindless flame territory...

It has been tried before. We even had our own team, the London Monarchs (I used to drink in the same bar with them) and it never caught on.

Of course, I would take issue with one small matter: football is already huge in Europe... :)

Hmmm, sense of humour and Gordon Brown?

Nope, don't think there is any danger of the two meeting up at any point.

A big mug of fresh brewed Brazillian blend coffee and a couple of McVitie Digestive biscuits. My little midnight snack as I bash a few more words out and get ever closer to finishing writing this book...

Very happily married here, to my soulmate, lover and best friend all wrapped up in one gorgeous former classical Russian ballerina.

We have been married for 12 years now, and I am as happy as I was back then. Probably happier actually, as we have a couple of smashing kids to add into the family mix.

My first marriage also produced two kids, now both grown up (20 and 18) but was something of a youthful mistake I fear.

She left me when I came out of hospital, paralysed and confined to a large electric wheelchair, following nearly a year recovering from viral encephalitis. I don't blame her, I was not the same man she married in many different ways. Not least my identity and personality had changed, I was a totally different chap and she couldn't hack it.

Cannot say how I would have reacted if it had been the other way around. But it was hard at the time, what with losing my job, home, dignity, marriage and kids all at the same time - not to mention my mobility.

Funnily enough Yvonne, my second wife, and I met while I was in the wheelchair - albeit a lightweight carbon fibre model by this time as I had regained the use of my arms by then and was actually quite 'fit' as long as you only looked at my upper body :)

She must have really loved 'me' as she left her …

hi...i m unknwn to ths sit...n i m rltd to cmptrs n sftwrs so i joind it..cn u hlp me to sugst abt ths sit hws it wrk..or tht...u r d frst prsn whth i snd msg...bye

Please use professional English here, not this text message shorthand which, frankly, nobody is going to bother to take the time to try and decipher.

See the rules, especially the one relating to 'Keep it Clean' regarding this issue.

Thanks.

BTW, welcome to DaniWeb, even after all that! :)

One shoebox, 3 elastic bands and a copy of Windows 95.

Dani works miracles under the circumstances!

I agree 100% about not wanting to scare away newbies, hence the concept of sending a polite PM suggesting they look at the code tags as this will increase the chances of them getting help.

Of course, if AD and the other mods are happy with correcting the missing code tags - then it really isn't an issue at all :)

The Rash repbot reputation will be reversed as soon as Dani works out the best way of doing so.

I am looking for suitable candidates to interview as case study material for a new book I am writing for the Science Museum here in London, to be published globally by Wiley early next year.

The book, Being Virtual: who you really are online, will be an exploration of identity in the digital age. The particular focus will be virtual identity, how we expose or disguise ourselves online in places like DaniWeb as well as immersive 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, social spaces like MySpace and so on.

If you have an interesting story to tell about your life online, please PM me ASAP. I want to get all my interviews finished by the end of the month.

You will get a credit in the book if you do not want your real world identity to remain secret, if you do that is no problem. DaniWeb will also get a credit of course.

I want the book to be shaped by the very real adventures that people have had in the virtual world, and the real world consequences of the same.

For those who do not know me, as well as being an admin and staff writer here at DaniWeb I am also a freelance writer with 20+ books under my belt, a Contributing Editor of the biggest selling monthly IT magazine in the UK (PC Pro) and a former Technology Journalist of the Year and IT Security Journalist …

Yeah, well, we have to give even 'mespamyoulongtime' the benefit of the doubt :)

My own cousin as well asmy father claims to have had a couple of encounters with creatures from nguni myth.

I think I might have married one...

It was deleted because the piece was cut and pasted, word for word, from another site. The original being part of an editorial at WServerNews

When writing a blog entry feel free to quote from another blog and reference it, but you still need to actually be writing something original, adding your own opinion, putting your spin onto it. You can't just copy something wholesale that has already been posted elsewhere.

The WServerNews site, owned by Sunbelt Software, has an all rights reserved copyright notice at the bottom of the page...

I have not had a girlfriend for 12 years now, on order from the wife...

Well I didn't retain the UK IT Security of the Year title, that very deservedly went to Paul Marks from The New Scientist.

However, I did win the Best IT Security Feature award for the second year running, so I am happy enough.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes...

Tuesday is the 2007 (UK) IT Security Journalist of the Year awards ceremony, and I seem to be up for the gong in 4 out of the 6 categories including the overall title which I was lucky enough to win last year.

I can't see me winning it again, to be honest, but it is free posh nosh in a very nice restaurant in London so I will not be complaining whatever. You never know, I might pick up one of the smaller awards such as 'Best Security News Story' or 'Best Security Feature' which will be nice enough as they come with a £500 ($1000) cash bonus :)

Anyway, being a superstitious soul, wish me luck why dontcha?

Welcome aboard the DaniWeb express :)

OK guys, point made. Let's not turn this into a bash raj1234 thread.

Anyone who is curious as to what happygeek really looks like can see the real me, tattoos and all, on Channel 4 News in the UK tonight, starting at 7pm.

They are interviewing me about the breaking news story which was posted exclusively here on DaniWeb yesterday.

For those outside of the UK, the broadcast should be available at the Channel 4 News website later.

Tell your friends, or perhaps warn them to keep the TV off...

I'm really just about to quit Daniweb altogether. I'm sure all of you will be happy if I did that.

Please don't do that, I want you to stay and value your being here. Others obviously feel the same, looking at the comments here.

Let's all just take a deep breath and calm down a little. Life is too short :)

Welcome to Daniweb, MiniGWeek. Glad you have found us to be so useful already, as you have discovered we really are one heck of a helpful (not so little) community.

We are not a bad bunch, even if we can seem like moody old folk sometimes ;)

Hi Scudzilla, welcome to DaniWeb even if you have been here a couple of months now. :)

Mike, jbennet has been a member since 2005!

Hi Jeff, welcome to DaniWeb.