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Comment Re:Horray for Taylor Swift. (Score 1) 368

Why doesn't Apple offer to pay the royalties for the 3-month trial period?

Consumers get their free trial, and many, if not most will sign up for the service.

Labels/artists will get their royalties, and maybe even see an increase in income afterwards when the service really takes off (assuming that it follows the success of iTunes music). Ditto Apple's income.

After all, who paid U2 for the free copies on everyone's iTunes?

Comment Re:I wonder... (Score 4, Insightful) 277

The toshiba laptops in my supplier's catalogue nearly all come with "Windows 7 32/64bit pre-installed. Also supplied with Windows 8/8.1 media"

Now, why would Toshiba go to the extra effort to pre-install what is effectively a downgrade, unless 1. customers are demanding it and 2. it's a selling point - "you don't have to downgrade, we've already done it for you!"

Comment Re:Meh... (Score 1) 255

If I was interviewing someone for a job, and they were able to show me examples of their work that were superior to any of the other interviewees, but executed in a different toolset, e.g. we use Adobe, but the applicant used Final Cut Pro, Vegas, or even ffmpeg, I would offer that person both the job and training.

It's not about the tools, it's about the result.

Comment Re:'bout time. (Score 1) 90

My storage tanks are also the settling tanks - the pickup for household supply is about 5cm above the floor of the tank, all the dust and bird poop just settle to the bottom, and I have that cleared out every couple of years. No other treatment. It sounds icky, but I prefer to think of it as keeping my immune system active and healthy, plus I'm getting lots of minerals. My last blood test showed all mineral levels good, except for slightly low calcium - so I have to east more cheese, dammit.

Seriously, though - we don't tend to get sick, and we HATE the taste of treated town water when we've had to buy it in.

Comment Re:'bout time. (Score 1) 90

I understand there's different rules in different states about rainwater harvesting, but surely if you have a "dry" cabin, i.e. no piped water supply from the local mains, you'd want to catch the water falling on your roof?

If you're in a rural area, and not near any other major source of air pollution, surely the rainwater is potable?

I've been living on rainwater for almost 20 years, we only buy a truckload when the dry season lasts longer than usual. We could overcome that with another tank or two (currently have almost 50K litres of storage).

Comment Re:VPN (Score 2) 45

Only getting fixed wireless to your house, huh?

I'm in the same boat, only I've too many trees in the way, and I'm not about to cut them down.

OTOH, I saw a fiber conduit being installed only a few streets away - for FTTN/VDSL. I'll still get high-speed internet, it just won't be FTTH, or fixed wireless.

BTW, Malcolm Turnbull is just about the only politician in the current lot with even an ounce of brains. Yes, he's toeing the party line, but he's the only one that understands even the basics of the technology.

Comment Re:Vinyl (Score 2) 260

I've done the water thing - well, if it's the water thing I'm thinking about.

A long-lost post from some group on usenet told of how the ABC radio jocks would play vinyl: mix up a litre of 50/50 water and alcohol, add ONE drop of dishwashing liquid, and apply to the surface of the vinyl - not dripping-off-the-edges wet, just enough to make the surface thinly covered. Now play the record. Make sure you dry it before putting it away, of course.

I tried it, and it works - it's not perfect, but it seems to eliminate or at least reduce lots of the usual unwanted noises. Probably reduces wear from friction, too.

But who plays vinyl these days? I get nostalgic about once a year and trawl the collection, maybe listen to one or two albums before going back to CDs or streaming.

Comment things that seem to help (Score 4, Informative) 208

Tweak firefox with:

new tab, type "about:config" into the address bar.

find "network.http.pipelining" and set it to "true"
find "network.http.pipelining.max-optimistic-requests" and set it to 8
find "network.http.pipelining.max.requests" and set it to 32 if it isn't that already. Don't take this one too high.

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