Recent content by IlluminAce

Quite, us end users are not likely to suffer much as a result of this - unless you do much compilation on DragonFly BSD ;) (but, seriously, I do like its tenents and the work that's gone into it. I might give it a spin soon). Perhaps on the odd occasion us 24/7'ers might encounter this bug...

Quite right, the errata lists are surprisingly extensive (or unsurprisingly if you consider the complexity). However, this fault was previously unreported in the errata, and will exhibit as a segfault given the right conditions. Moreover, it's almost impossible to track down. It's far from...

AMD's CPU range has a problem updating its stack pointer. Ouch! Read all about it. This has been confirmed on one of the Phenom II X4 range's CPUs and even on a high-end Opteron. AMD's confirmation indicates it probably affects a nice range of their CPUs. The problem comes to light only in a...

Sad to hear it q - I know many of us will continue to follow your articles in your new home. It's a real shame that this became necessary, but I'd have done the same thing under the circumstances. Oh well, time to change the RSS configuration...

To summarise, half the people will say the iPhone - it's slightly more "user-friendly" - and half will say Android - it's more open, ethical and "free" (in Stallman's freedom-not-beer sense). I'm part of the group that generally recommends Android. I dislike being told what I can and can't do...

One solution is to place the commands in one of the rc. scripts - where they are depends on which distro you're running. However, the recommended solution is to use hdparm's configuration file, which is executed at boot, and intended for just this kind of purpose. You'll usually find it at...

Load (unload) cycle count is the number of times the drive spins-up (spins-down). This is a configurable setting for drives with power management features (all modern drives). Under Linux, use hdparm -S<spindown timeout - see the man page> /dev/<device name> Under *BSD, use...

First things first. Contact your ISP! In my experience, they always try to resolve issues like this, as they know you'll just take your business elsewhere if they don't. Typically it's just your router - overheating, or buggy firmware, or whatever else - all the usual causes. If your ISP...

Corsair. HardwareSecrets (.com) does the best PSU reviews I've seen on the net - well worth looking at some PSU reviews there to get the idea what each manufacturer's range is based on. Of course, TPU reviews are good too :D

I highly recommend the Asus DirectCuII 6970. If you want quiet, this is it.

Hard drives are truly incredible pieces of equipment. Inside those unassuming boxes are a collection of platters thinner than CDs, piled high; one on top of each other, each packing incredible densities of bits. By the grace of their ever-ready stepper motor, they all spin anywhere between a...

Thanks Chevalr1c; you're quite right of course. For most people, 99% security will never be a realistic prospect to aim for - in many cases a 60-80% confidence range seems like a more appropriate target! (And this is not to "put down" those to whom this may apply; I guess some people have better...

This is an ancient topic of discussion, but in summary, there aren't that many in the wild Mac "viruses", since it's crafted from a BSD base. The nature of software installation practices in the *nix world versus the MS world plays a large part here. As for the natively superior security of *nix...

It's good to hear Mint is working out for you. I have installed it for a couple of people recently, for whom the direction of Ubuntu post-11.04 wasn't quite what they wanted. Mint offers an out-of-the-ISO experience which is more familiar to them than what Unity provides. So far, it's been...

Excellent point, I'd completely forgotten! Thankfully my interactions with the Windows world these days are few and far between. Given that, I'd suggest mirroring 2TBs.