Posts by Jurassic.Hermit

Microsoft sets Copilot agents loose on your OneDrive files

Re: Windows' Search

Copernic is excellent too, albeit paid. Been using it for well over a decade, finds everything whilst MS search especially Outlook search can't find anything relevant.

France to replace US videoconferencing wares with unfortunately named sovereign alternative

Re: "Allo, allo!"

That's as good as my French language level, here where I live in their "Jurassic" mountains...so no wonder I've become a hermit!

Re: Viso

Équipes would be even better.

Just wait until they have a French version of Office 361. Thinking again, they won't get sued for that if they name it in French as Bureau 365 (and it WILL be 365 unlike MS' 361 and falling...)

The word processor: Mot

The spreadsheet: Excellez

The consultant slides app: Point d'Appui

...and all run on a new OS called Fenêtre...

Concorde at 50: Twice the speed of sound, twice the economic trouble

Re: HS2 then

Nonsense, Concord introduced a myriad of breakthroughs and innovations, here’s just a handful of:

First Fly-By-Wire in an Airliner

Variable Engine Intakes

Advanced Thermal Management

Supercruise Capability - no afterburners required

Fuel as a Trim System

Re: HS2 then

No comparison. Concorde was a rocket ship that more than halved the time to around 3 1/2 hours between London and New York.

In fact, it was so fast that it allowed me to do something once in my life, which is impossible on any other passenger plane, that’s a day return LHR-JFK-LHR, and spending a couple of hours in the Concorde lounge at JFK drinking Krug and trying caviar for the first time in my life.

12 minutes LOL

Amazing memories

I had the fortune to be in the right place at the right time and got to fly this remarkable feat of human capability three times, all work related, I happened to work for the airline.

Once was a totally unplanned upgrade to the jump seat in the cockpit sat next to the flight engineer and his myriad of dials.

Asking the captain after a while when his workload tailed off as to when we’d go supersonic, he replied “about 20 minutes ago!” I didn’t notice the transition to supersonic, it was so smooth.

I was also glancing occasionally at the speedo which had topped out around “600”, I couldn’t see the units, I was too far away. When I mentioned the speedo indicator and my surprise we were supersonic, he replied with a laugh, “oh that? It’s the subsonic speedometer, the supersonic one is over here to the right!” I looked, and sure enough, we were whipping along at Mach 1.5 at 40,000 ft and slowly increasing speed to almost 2,0 and an eventual altitude touching almost 60,000 feet, a couple of hundred lower.

A quarter of the way into the flight the flight engineer remarked that one engine was indicating a temperature a few degrees higher than expected. He used a programmable scientific calculator to predict if and when the engine would fail. He checked over the radio back to base. He concluded that they could safely continue to JFK, and that once the engine was turned off it wouldn’t be able to restart and would need a thorough service.

Memories that I’ll never forget, especially since it wasn’t even planned to happen.

Rackspace tests customer loyalty with brutal email price hike

Re: Proton ?

I don’t want my emails hosted in the EU, too much snooping, not that I have anything to hide, but it’s the principle. Proton all the way.

Re: Plusnet is dropping their ISP email service

With POP you can still set up your email client to keep a copy of the mails on the server for x number of days so that you can also view recent emails with several devices.

Linus Torvalds: Stop making an issue out of AI slop in kernel docs – you're not changing anybody's mind

Kraj

Kraj means country. This implies there is a border, but the word for that is granica.

Trump spectrum sale leaves airlines with $4.5B bill for altimeter do-over

Re: YAM

The stupidity of the Trump administration is not restricted to him or his party. Greed rules in the US of A.

Re: Older designs

Incorrect. You're referring to the Boeing 737 MCAS system.

MCAS was not part of the Autopilot system. In fact, one of the most dangerous aspects of MCAS was that it ONLY operated when the Autopilot was turned OFF !!!

(the FAIL icon is for Boeing grey suites, not you)

No, they will be retrofitted, same as any other aircraft operating in the USA.

Humongous 52-inch Dell monitor will make you feel like king of the internet with four screens in one

Pilots

Apparently no pilots here, I can imagine this monitor being popular for use for flight sim. Gamers too. And watching pron.

Re: Nah, I'll take the bezels

Did you enjoy the review of the 132 cm monitor ?

Re: Nah, I'll take the bezels

This review is for a 52 inch monitor (rather than 132 cm) therefore the reference in pounds weight is consistent.

Even Eurometricland refers to screen sizes in inches. And aircraft altitude in feet.

Brit lands invite-only Aussie visa after uncovering vuln in government systems

Re: moving to Sydney ?

East coast? Melbourne is on the south coast, directly facing Tasmania and Antarctica.

Waterfox browser goes AI-free, targets the Firefox faithful

Re: I write this from Waterfox

Perhaps the one man has a dog?

JLR: Payroll data stolen in cybercrime that shook UK economy

Clay tablets and papyrus

Sod IT, too insecure, time to revert to traditional methods.

Lloyds Banking Group claims Microsoft Copilot saves staff 46 minutes a day

In one of my employers we didn’t have any middle managers, they were all middle manglers, wrecked the place.

Nadella hands Microsoft money machine off to new commercial CEO so he can visioneer the future

Beta Windows - or Alpha?

What will this mean for the beta of Windows / 365 versions that we receive as production version, without adequate if any UAT? Strip out even more costs and become alpha versions?

Network scans find Linux is growing on business desktops, laptops

And Android. And Chrome OS. And iOS. And Mac.

Everyone out there using everything but Windows in their daily lives, they eventually realise they don't need to put up with all of the crap and inconvenience which bored Richmond marketers and devs decide to throw upon them just to justify keeping themselves in a job.

Windows 11 is a shitfest, I'm going to Mint permanently next year.

Japan discovers object out beyond Pluto that rewrites the Planet 9 theory

It's Planet X

...as in ten in Roman numerals, and iPhones.

Pluto was recognized as the ninth planet for many decades—until Earth's overzealous scientific authorities, evidently lacking more pressing concerns, reclassified it as a 'dwarf planet.'

I have filed an appeal with the United Federation of Planets, and my Tellarite lawyer assures me that victory is not only probable—it’s inevitable.

Open, free, and completely ignored: The strange afterlife of Symbian

Re: Ah, Symbian

Not me, but some pros and semis record an awful lot of 4k 60 and 120 fps video on their iPhones whilst they are out and about.

4K at 120fps (ProRes 422 HQ) on the iPhone 16 Pro uses approximately 7 GB of storage space per minute of footage, so a couple of hours needs 840 Gb….

Microsoft dangles extended Windows 10 support in exchange for Reward Points

Re: Meh

Let me guess, you’ve also disabled Windows Defender? What are you using instead?

Danish department determined to dump Microsoft

Re: Replacing Office is the easy part

Indeed, SoftMaker is a great alternative, it looks very similar to MS Office, unlike LibreOffice.

I use LO, in fact I used its granparent StarOffice back in the 1990s, but it's ideal for IT enthusiasts and professionals, NGOs with no money, students and academia. It serves a great purpose, but there's a much steeper learning curve than SoftMaker Office.

Given that it's a German company, I am surprised that the Danes appear to be ignoring it as an option, or at least evaluating it. Or maybe the Danes are not only not so keen on the USA / Trump, but also not keen on their German neighbour, the latter also having a habit of invading their territory.

Microsoft dumps AI into Notepad as 'Copilot all the things' mania takes hold in Redmond

Re: Smells of snooping

No, smells of even more snooping for me.

Notepad is where I write down ideas, temporary even long term passwords, all manner of brain dumps. Some are saved but most are just there as temp files which reopen every time I restart Windows / Notepad. Then when no longer needed I just close the tab and it's gone from view, then removed from the disk time to time. Now it'll be permanently sitting somewhere in Microsoft's vast cloud network by default.

M4 MacBook Air keeps ports modular, locks tight – still a headache to repair

Bananas?

I recently bought an M3, high spec. Almost did the same, but rather than tossing it in the bin I sent it back.

Why?

Because: despite the genuinely lovely and long-lasting Apple hardware (like my iPhones), it's shocking software (unlike my iPhones) and workflows for a dude who has spent his working life of decades locked into the Gates ecosystem...but also spent considerable time playing with Linux.

With hindsight, I would have stood a chance if I'd escaped to Apple / Mac in the 1980s, I'd be a well-trained Mac Monkey by now, rather than a well-trained Microsoft Monkey by now...

I need another banana, cousin...

Microsoft trims more CPUs from Windows 11 compatibility list

Goodbye Windows 11

Yet another reason for home users and SMEs to install Mint or Ubuntu.

Then install Edge for Linux, and run Office 365 online version if they can't / don't want to use the lastest incarnation of StarOffice. This will probably be enough for 80-90% of users.

WordPress war latest: Ploy to trademark Hosted WordPress, Managed WordPress derailed

Gulf of Wordpress

Mullenweg seems to be a bit of an imperialist, trying to expand his footprint on the world.

I've had numerous WP websites that have been hosted and / or managed by all manner of companies over the past decade or two. On the occasional occasion that it might be more appropriate / easier for Wordpress.com / Automaticc host it, that's what I set up.

But for Wordpress to now, after all these years of huge and healthy choice of WP hosters, to try and claim the trademark on these generic terms of hosted and managed, well, perhaps Mullenweg works for Trump and is advising him on renaming the Gulf Of Mexico....?!

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

Re: All you need

Indeed Excel is poor at opening CSV and similar files, it struggles with internationalisation and bank formats in my experience.

Although I used Excel as my main tool, all CSV files open by default with LibreOffice and in years I have not experienced a single glitch.

Microsoft to kill off Defender VPN this month

Re: Well there's your problem

It was integrated into the Edge browser, might still be there.

Want Intel in your Surface? That’ll be $400 extra, says Microsoft

Well said. I don't have a Surface, but they've certainly raised the bar on Windows hardware.

Stranded in space: Starliner crew to remain in orbit even longer as SpaceX faces delays

Re: If...

If...Boeing had not messed up Starliner, these astronauts wouldn't have been stranded in the first place!!

And why isn't Boeing rescuing them with another Starliner, instead leaving it up to a competitor? What, only one Starliner built so far with that massive budget?

NASA are culpable in this too, they shouldn't be sending up astronauts without a backup plan. More to the point, there is a backup plan and it's called Soyuz, and which is more or less permanently attached to the ISS, but for political reasons the US would probably only use that in an emergency.

US military grounds entire Osprey tiltrotor fleet over safety concerns

Re: so loud...

Yes, but they’re designed for defence and attack optimisation, not for keeping the neighbours sweet!

Unfortunately the two goals are often mutually exclusive, and unfortunately for you in this case. You have my empathy, but needs must…

For the record, I have to personally endure Swiss Airforce F-18s screaming low over my mountain “retreat” on a regular basis, together with the occasional sonic boom from an overly enthusiastic trainee fighter pilot, which is akin to a bomb going off next door!!

…But at least I feel “safe and secure” by it all. Honestly…

Re: An interesting concept

Excellent insight, thanks for sharing!

Windows 11 market share falls despite Microsoft ad blitz

Re: Getting better all the time

It's not only that most people prefer W10 to W11, they're tired of the forever changing, "improving" of the OS by otherwise redundant MS developers, marketers, etc.

Let's never forget that MS also loudly declared that W10 will be the "last ever" version of the OS. Let's not only hold them to that assurance, let's encourage some smart lawyers to sue MS for breaking their assurances and wasting our time, resources, forced upgrades to 11, etc...

Microsoft admits Outlook crashes, says impact 'mitigated'

Re: Hardly a surprise

Take a look at eM Client. I have 10 mailboxed connected.

Ryanair faces GDPR turbulence over customer ID checks

Re: I never fly Ryanair

I have plenty of legroom

Are you a dwarf?! BA's leg room on shorthaul A321neo is shocking these days, a mere 29" but it seems that I have a good 1" of extra space with easyJet's 29", must be the overall design of the seat and the positioning of one's arse in it.

Office 2024 unveiled for Microsoft 365 refuseniks

Re: Office 2007 \ 2010

Good idea, but isn't WordPad enough for that?

It's a great pity MS got rid of MS Works, 80% of users didn't need more than that.

They put everyone on Office, but now they dumb it down because they no longer have Works, and end up alienating pro users.

Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here's why

Re: Five year old PCs need replacing :o

Time due for many organisations who use 365 to consider installing Mint or Ubuntu for certain user types, and adding Edge for Linux, then running 365 within Edge.

No need for Windows 11 whatsover for very many workers out there. Obviously not for everyone.

Also better for the environment by doubling the life of the PC.

Oh...and it's good for the bottom-line too.

LibreOffice 24.8: Handy even if you're happy with Microsoft

Parsing

"Handy even if you're happy with Microsoft"

Yup, that's me using Calc specifically as the default opener for .csv files because in my workflows, especially with banking files, Calc parses the data correctly 99 times out of 100 whereas I get very frequent problems with Excel with European bank files.

Also very helpful is that Calc also automatically defaults to UTF-8 and so no weird squiggles on European names which have accents, etc, which is excellent when I am needing to parse names from an event registration system.

Re: If only there was a replacement for outlook...

There is, it's called eM Client, built in Europe.

There a free and paid versions. I used 3 Exchange / 365 accounts on it without problem, it works better than Outlook 365 also with IMAP accounts of which I have 6 connected.

Lots of themes available too.

Not crashed on me in over a year of using it on the awful Windows 11 Pro.

iPhone kicked out of China’s top 5 smartphone brands as domestic market bounces back

Re: Apple already *is* mosly Chineese/Taiwaneese

Yes, it certainly is under Cook. There really hasn't been any true innovation at Apple under his watch...speaking of which, the iWatch 9 that I bought a few months ago is basically not better than competing products and its battery life is appalling. Some competitors have a 4 week battery life, but no, Apple had to choose an unnecessarily powerful chip because of...supply chain considerations.

I used Android for a decade and I hate it, unfortunately, but I haven't bought any brand new / current iPhones, just getting old version excess stock at half price. The only new iphone I may buy will be the SE4 if it's no more than $/€500. Otherwise, Apple are massively over-priced, even if the quality and longevity is very good.

Julian Assange pleads guilty, leaves courtroom a free man

Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"

There's only one person telling lies on this thread. It's all on the public record that Assange was allowed to leave Sweden. Only some weeks later was he called back, by the new prosecutor put onto the case. Ultimately, he wasn't charged with anything.

Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"

Wasn't a certain UK newspaper called the Guardian responsible which released the unredacted files ?

Re: Traitor?

There's zero proof that anyone was harmed.