1 hour ago, evildictait​or wrote

*snip*

Really? That surprises me. Loads of people at MS have MacBooks - apart from anything else, websites and software that Microsoft makes needs to be tested on them. I also know several MS FTEs who primarily use Macs at home. Sure they probably take minor digs at each other for it, but MS doesn't force you to use Windows. Use the best tool for the job.

Yep your right, this was quite a few years back though and in the UK campus.

I went through a phase of Apple laptops when they was was way in front of the competition in terms of hardware design.  I had a MB, a MB Pro and a MB Air.

However I think the competition has caught up somewhat and no need to pay the premium for Apple hardware anymore.

I just purchase a Dell XPS 15 fully specced with IvyBridge Core i7, 512 SSD, 16GB RAM and a very decent 2GB Geforce 640M grpahics card.  I probably couldn't get that kind of spec with a MB Pro and if I could it would cost the earth.  

The XPS is very nicely designed as well with brushed aluminium case, feels very solid and well built.

In terms of tablets, I still think you can't beat the iPad. Recently debated purchasing the Surface but compared to the iPad 4 it doesn't come close and at the same price it was a no brainer.

17 hours ago, jinx101 wrote

I have my fair share of complaints about Windows 8 that I feel are warranted and reasonable.  I gave it a fair shot, it frustrated me a lot.  That said, I have found 3rd party utilities that add or change the behavior of Windows that have taken away most of those frustrations and allowed me to use Windows 8 like it was Windows 7 and STILL have the ability to get into the Metro apps if I want (which is rare, but there are a few I do use).  In fact, some of the utilities are customizable enough that they allow me to pick and choose to do more easier than Windows 7 (I love the ability to choose and not have something I don't like forced on me if I want to stay current).

I'll leave the "Microsoft should have and still should" rant out, but there are software packages that have at least made Windows 8 work like I want it to work. 

Seriously you find hitting the windows key and typing an application name confusing? Righto!

Your always going to have to have stuff forced on you, it's called progress. Software gets updated from time to time, deal with it.

Yes Microsoft has introduced a touch interface on top of their desktop but for my personal everyday use this acts as a fancy start menu, it really doesn't bother me at all.

Do I use the "Metro" interface? Not really, but then again it wasn't designed for my traditional use, it was designed to bridge the gap to touch interface devices like tablets.

As a UI interface on it's own "Metro" isnt all that bad I mean it works great on Windows Phone and works fine on a touch enabled desktop, I really don't see why people are getting confused here.

Now the confusing part comes with the RT version, I really think Microsoft HAD to act and build a ARM version of the OS.  I really don't think it will be around for long as Intel will eventually catch up and everyone will forget about this ARM thing (just my opinion).

I think Windows 8 is a great OS just as good as Windows 7 if not better. The Metro Start Menu doesn't bother me or get in my way and I appreciate the need for a touch enabled interface.

To be honest I think as an engineering feat MS should be applauded for taking the bold step and creating a full fledged version of Windows on ARM, bringing the Metro interface to the desktop, 

When was the last significant update to OSX or iOS that took a step to push the boundaries and move software forward?

It's been years since Apple innovated with software, all these "analysts" predicting the downfall of MS due to Windows 8 MUST be on another planet to me.

14 hours ago, cbae wrote

Well, damn, I was right the first time. Having 5 users requires no CAL purchase. Having 6 users requires purchase of 6 CALs. Having 10 users requires purchase of 10 CALs. That's a huge penalty to go from 5 to 6 users.

You get 5 users with TFS and the 6th user requires an additional CAL. So you only have to purchase 1 CAL for the 6th user.

When I took it apart I realised that I might not have replaced every screw last time I opened it up.  This may have been the cause of my native camera app not working anymore (although a third party app worked) Also my headphones remote stopped working.

Anyway after putting it all back together again I realised I have failed to replace a small piece of metal which I seem to remember came from where the battery connects to the motherboard.

It seemed so small and insignificant and I had already spent a couple of hours on it, I threw it in the bin.

Well the consequence is that now unless I am about 12  inches away from the wireless router I am unable to get a signal.  

I'm guessing this may be to do with battery interference of some sort. I am also now worried about brain tumours, and I can't keep the phone in my jeans pocket anymore.

Oh well, roll on the iPhone 5

Add a $1 refund = $9.33

$9.33 * 3 = $28 

$28 + $2 = $30

Just in case anyone was struggling

Although I preferred my original answer of the hooker's tip...

I have a central NetGear ReadyNAS box with 4 x 1TB disks raided to give 2.7TB worth of storage and redundancy.

For media content I use a Mac with iTunes pointing all content to the NAS box. I use iTunes to centrally manage all media and serve it up to two Apple TV devices. iTunes on Mac is pretty good software and I've not found the same seemless experience with any other product out there.

I have two low end Dell Poweredge servers, one for a domain controller and web server and one for public facing TFS and SharePoint 2010, that I use for work.

Backup of my work Dell Laptop is done with Windows backup, which takes all my Documents folder and creates a system image every night and plonks it on the NAS drive.

I have a Time Machine drive for backup of the Mac also.

Every important bit of data is stored on the Raided NAS drive which gives me some comfort, the only thing missing at the moment is off site backup which I need to sort out. Problem is I have around 2TB of data on the NAS drive that ideally I would need backed up.

Get a kindle for reading books, and an iPad for magazines, simple as that.

I just want to see an out and out war between the two biggest tech companies in the world. Winner takes all no messing about.

I reckon with their resources MS could crush Apple from existence.

5 minutes ago,vesuvius wrote

@Dr Herbie: The Police are clearly being beaten technologically, which is why things have gotten out of hand. The only response will be a more visible Orwellian nightmare, which is how things are going anyway.

Lets remember that Students (W3bbos kith and kin)  were behaving in a similar fashion a few months ago, so it is almost certain that Labour will win the next Election. Looking at the Crisis in America and the state of the markets, it is the poorest that lose out the most and they lack the candor or intellectual faculty to express their discontent in any other way.

There is a certain honesty (though abhorrent) that I am coming to enjoy the older I get. People that wear their hearts on their sleeves, and tell you what they are upset with (in ways that are embarrassing at times) tend to be more dependable in the long run, than the more duplicitous "smile but don't mean it" type folk. These people only stab you in the back the minute you turn your back anyway.

Seriously, what are you talking about? Get some perspective man!

These people are walking around the streets of London, looting shops, stealing from vulnerable innocent people and generally causing millions of pounds of damage that hard working people like me will have to pay for with our tax money.  These people don't care because they are not afraid of police or lenient sentences and a high majority will almost surely not pay any tax, instead will probably still continue to claim benefit from the very state that they are attacking.  

This is a democracy and we all have the right to vote and change the way this country is run, I bet a high majority of these rioters didn't even vote in the last election.

Don't even try to condone these people actions.

Instead of complaining, moaning, thieving and being violent, I worked hard and made a career for myself.

These people are nothing but jobless, bored scumbags that get looked after and fed by the very government they are supposedly rebelling against.

London has so many of these deprived areas and it always had the difference is back when I was a kid everyone wanted to do well for themselves and get away, trouble is nowdays nobody has to do that because they get looked after too well by the state.

I don't understand why the army or the TA hasn't been drafted in yet to sort this out, it's the only option. How brave is a 16 year old going to be against a soldier carrying an assault rifle?

The police don't have any respect in London especially from people that have nothing to lose.

Any Herbie I don't agree that this is to do with spending cuts etc, people in these areas have had a hatred for police for a long time. It's a culture thing a gang thing were the police are seen as the enemy so any excuse to riot for them. They are annoyed by stop and search of black youths but these areas are mainly black or Asian areas so this is bound to happen.  Alot of the crime in these areas are carried out by this element of society it's a fact, what are the police supposed to do just ignore them?

And as for the guy that got shot dead by police, he was carrying a gun and a known gang member, what are the police supposed to do?

One was the default .Net serialization XML, the second was JSON, the third was custom XML. 

One client of the service was a standard HTML JS application where the devs didn't know .Net so I chose REST services so I could use a simple address based API but allow querystring parameters to control which format is returned.

WCF REST gave me the ability to use the same URL string i.e. /Posts /Topics etc but by appending ?format=JSON or ?format=XML I was able to service different clients.

The power of WCF here was that I could use different contract methods mapped to the same URL.

So for my custom XML methods I basically used the same domain objects but had a XML conversion layer that used XmlDocument to build up my custom xml then I just returned this document as a XmlElement. 

[OperationContract]
        [
            WebInvoke(Method = "GET",
                        ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
                        BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare,
                        UriTemplate = "Topic/{topicName}")
]
XmlElement GetTopics(string topicName);

For instance I could build up the XML manually and return a XMLElement.  This is what I had to do for my service.  Using these attributes:

ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,

BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare

Obviously it's more work than getting automatically serialized objects but it's still doable.

I have built WCF applications using the rest services that return pure XML and I can output any XML I want or I could just send back plain text or JSON etc. 

1 hour ago, elmer wrote

Can't you just buy them?

I get emails all the time offering me authentic certifications and degrees for anything I want from my choice of school etc... I was thinking of buying degrees for a rocket scientist, or a brain surgeon, just to hang on the wall.

I'd rather spend my money on Russian brides and Viagra

4 days ago, spivonious wrote

How long are the tests? Are they web-based or would I have to go to a training center?

I've done 4 MS Certs now and I tend to complete them in around 45 - 60 mins, there are between 40 and 50 multiple choice questions and you need to go to a Microsoft Certified training centre to complete them.  They are not web based.

I largely feel MS Certs are worth it if not to go over material that you might not come across in your day to day job.  But it also give you more credibility to a certain extent against someone who hasn't bothered to do any at all.  In fact I see no reason why any serious MS developer shouldn't be constantly taking exams.  

I'm a bit of a hypocrite because its been ages since my last one, but I have a SharePoint 2010 one coming up in a couple of weeks and I really haven't done enough revision.

I find 90% of the training material to be utterly boring to read and alot of the questions on the tests are obscure and stuff you would likely never want to know again.