Flatpackhamster

Is there any point in upgrading then? Especially since the 8.1 upgrade path doesn't transfer your programs, only your data. I think I'm going to stick with 7 until 8 dies a hideous, squealing death like Vista did.

Come on. An iPad is a good media consumption device. That's all. It isn't a replacement for a home TV system. Nor is it a replacement for a games system if you're an actual gamer. It's no good for writing documents or proofreading, you need a decent sized screen and a decent sized keyboard. What, a power one? Does your iPad run on moonbeams? Member of the Cult of Jobs, methinks.

Macmillan Cancer research want us to 'go sober for October' and we've got to grow beards for November. I'm not sure I like the idea of a million hairy teetotallers.

Who would you like government policy to be shaped by when it comes to agriculture? Presumably not the people who actually carry out agricultural activities. IIRC the NFU and farmers opposed the mass cull around foot and mouth.

I have to say I was REALLY surprised when I read it has a 5400 drive. I know it's to extend the battery life, but a 7200 drive makes such a huge difference to performance.

iTunes, which turns all your music, videos, podcasts etc in to Apple-only formats that'll only work on iDevices. Windows Phones, AFAICT (and I've only just got one) don't do that. So once you've gone down the Apple route, it's very hard to get out because all of your stuff is in formats that can only be easily read by iDevices. The transition back to PC is complex. Well, not really. If you're going to write an app for Apple store, first you have to be an approved developer. Then you have to have your app vetted. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Apple devices can only get apps from the Apple store.

They give students the discount so that they'll get pulled in to using Apple stuff for the rest of their lives. IMO it's hard to transition from PC to Apple but practically impossible to make the journey the opposite way. Not that the PC stuff is any worse for the same budget, but Apple locks you in. They give it to teachers because they're considered opinion formers, and if they're using Macs they're more likely to push for them in schools. The EU legislation is for a 2-year warranty, and isn't legally binding in the UK IIRC.

Surely flame-grilled whoppers is all Burger Kings though, isn't it? Isn't it though?

What you're forgetting is the amount of political capital the EU has invested in the Galileo project. It has to be seen to be a success. In this case the Commission has joined forces with the green lobby to achieve an end they both desire. The Commission gets a purpose for its $10Bn boondoggle, and the green lobby gets to leash motorists ever more tightly. Motorists will have to pay to have these GPS thingies fitted, although how they're planning to retrofit it to older cars, particularly those with carburettors, is beyond me.

I'm not sure I agree with the term 'sensible'. There are complex technical issues, civil liberties issues and serious questions about representation of the people. Actually, the Commission has been attempting something of this nature for nearly eight years. The speed control system wouldn't use onboard cameras or anything as simplistic. Every car will be fitted with a GPS tracker which is tied to the EU's Galileo satellite system. That will report, very accurately, the car's location and allow speed limiting to be managed. It also allows the EU to roll out its planned road pricing scheme. For those not in the know, road safety is an EU competence. That means that the EU makes the laws and applies them to member states. So even if we wanted to block this, we can't. It would be like trying to block laws on agriculture or fisheries.

Re: 'bendy' bananas - there is EU legislation which specifies the bend of bananas.

Since when did a lack of practicality stop the EU Commission from applying a de facto standard on something across 27 divergent nations?

It wasn't their fault, yerroner, they had a hard upbringing, so let 'em off.

Not really. I do change regularly, but I'm not doing fleet mileage and I'm doing an awful lot of around-town-pootling. Not saying the DPF stuff is wrong but it just doesn't gel with my experience.

This is odd. I'm now on my third Focus 2.0TDCi in 8 years. Each one has been brand new and I've done about 10,000 miles per year, at least half of which is short journeys around town. I drive economically and typically get just under 50MPG, and I keep the cars for around 3 years. I have never encountered this problem. I'm sure the Focus must come with a DPF.

So if intelligence indicates that someone entering the UK is carrying material that could be a credible threat to national security, are you saying that we shouldn't ever stop them?

Yes, the inclusion of a VGA card alongside the chassis from a Macbook pro is particularly wierd. The Guardian could be lying, of course, like it was lying when it claimed that the chap stopped at the airport was just the journalist's partner, when he was, in fact, another journalist as well.

You should take a look and see what 'smart' features are available for your TV. My Panasonic one offers Netflix but not Lovefilm, for example. If you've already got a subscription for one it can be a touch galling to find it won't work on your new TV.

That seems to be the argument being made by Apple, who are charging £85 for one. That does mean more desk clutter, though. Printer/scanner (or two separate units), leads for phone/camera, speakers, backup hard drive, external DVD drive... I suppose it depends if you have acres of desk space and like trailing leads. No reason, I'm sure. IME a full-size DVD drive lasts much longer than one of those dinky little jobbies but I'm sure my experience isn't 'proof' by any measure.

I also think he's wrong about DVDs being 'dead'. Apple think that they are, but Apple have an incentive to get rid of them, which is forcing the end user to buy everything they want to watch/listen to through iTunes. I'd expect a case I bought to have a DVD bay, and two 3.5" bays for hard disks. Many enthusiasts will have a pair of drives, with a SSD as a system drive and a high capacity platter for stuff. I've been using Shuttle XPcs for a few years now (well, about 8 years) and the one I'm on at the moment has that. I still need and regularly use my DVD drive.

How much knowledge do you need to do your job now? IMO, you need to know much less about the system you're maintaining. Win7 or Win8 - bung the install DVD in, it does it for you - drivers all sorted in a jiffy. Win98 or ME or 2K - you'd need to really know your hardware. Floppy drives and driver installations, God the misery. Same with server architecture IME. Same with switches, networking, etc. The job isn't 'easier' per se but the kind of knowledge you have to carry around to achieve the end result is very different. Admin tasks are a doddle compared to a decade ago, and they need fewer people with less complex skills.

At least our agonising deaths will be stylishly unaffordable.

Ironic indeed. IT is going to be one of the shortest-lived industries ever, and the main reason is that we were just too damn amazing at our jobs.

It's not just us. Take street cleaners. In 20 years' time they won't have a job. A robot will do it all. Fruit pickers? Machines are already taking it over. Farmers are now buying tractors which are slaved to a central console. GPS and automation allow a single farmer to control the precise movements of a dozen tractors across several fields. Nurses and doctors? You'll slap your patient on a bed, which will diagnose the patient more accurately than a doctor, provide medication more effectively than a nurse. Robotisation, and computerisation, is going to change whole swathes of employment, and will leave large chunks of the population unemployable. It already has in some fields. There'll still be jobs for some people. No matter how good a computerised medical bed is at healing it won't be able to hold a patient's hand or comfort someone who is dying, for example. But those areas which can be more efficiently carried out by machines will be. But so many areas will just disappear. I think it's a real concern because the way our lives are structured at present, we rely on work to better our circumstances. An awful lot of people are going to have to get used to not being able to better themselves because they don't have the ability or skills and they just can't learn them.

What you're doing there, though, is de-skilling yourself. I'm not saying that what you're doing isn't to the benefit of the user but you're making yourself redundant. Any monkey can reset and create accounts, it doesn't need an MCSE. Not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, just that the pool of well-paid, highly skilled jobs is shrinking, not only in number but also location. How long before it's all shoved out to India?