Profile for steelpillow

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Email: guy@steelpillow.com ICQ: AOL: Yahoo:	Username: steelpillow Realname: Guy Inchbald About me: Freelance technical consultant, author and designer. Sometime architect, electronics engineer and proprietor of Holdfast Computing. Homepage: http://www.steelpillow.com Face/Logo: Comments posted: 28 (show all)

Recent comments

On BOFH and PFY do RISC OS:

What I don't understand is why In a gadda da vida is regarded as torture? Oh to be allowed to belt it out at even half volume! steelpillow on 30/9/07 10:47PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Could open source RISC OS bring back users?:

Sorry to follow one post with another, but I just found a relevant thought on the Xara forums (remember Xara?). By jedfrechette, about halfway down the page at: [link] Xara are also undergoing the opening-up process. The support they receive from the FOSS community is also underwhelming - the reasons why are interesting. steelpillow on 11/12/06 7:36PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Could open source RISC OS bring back users?:

In reply to Simon C: Yes, I think open sourcing would change that. It would reduce the cost of VirtualAcorn, and/or ROM images for the free emulators, down to a low enough level to attract users of cheap PC hardware into the RISC OS world. The other RISC OS market, embedded systems, is not famous for high-priced hardware. steelpillow on 11/12/06 7:05PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On Could open source RISC OS bring back users?:

Excellent thought, to promote discussion and awareness in the wider "potential new people" community. I agree with the open-sourcing sentiment in the main, but am aware that "TiVO-isation" and related system vendor lock-in of their own IP is an important part of the market which RISC OS cannot ignore. If there is one thing missing from the article, it is the thought that VirtualAcorn and other emulators provide a route to commodity hardware for the developer desktop, and form an important piece of the jigsaw. steelpillow on 10/12/06 12:35PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

On RISC OS 6 to power Select 4:

Great news all round. I can understand ROL being keener on customers like Ad6 and RPC users at the moment, rather than on having to work round the Iyonix compatibility issues without Castle's positive involvement. That's just being realistic. OTOH I have a sneaking suspicion that making the Select PRMs free has dropped the revenue stream on their sales from effectively zero to, er, much the same really. Possibly more a case of nothing to lose than a genuine understanding of its importance, but it's a start. Let's hope it's rewarded by renewed activity. Hopefully too, with the Select PRMs out there and RISC OS 5 becoming available to hackers, we might see a degree of OS re-convergence by adding Select/RO6 compatibility features to RO5. That has to be good for programmers, and hence also for users. steelpillow on 18/10/06 7:10PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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Adventures with a Lego-cased A7K web server
Having previously built desktop and laptop cases of out Lego bricks, model building Peter Howkins has turned his attentions towards crafting a slim box to slid his A7000 into a rack, alongside other rackmount servers. Having pieced together the housing, Peter puts a legacy RISC OS machine through its paces as an internet-facing server.
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