Posts by WakeTheGimp

If Dell's Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PC is typical of the genre, other PCs are toast

Re: Is it my age ...?

I still have calluses on my figertips from typing on my Atari 400 back in 1984.

Re: Function keys on a touch bar?

Maybe they don't have eyes?

Happy birthday, Putin – you've been pwned

Couldn't have happened to a nicer, dictatorially ruled country.

Office 2024 unveiled for Microsoft 365 refuseniks

I agree with everything you've said.

The only time I've had push-back about LibreOffice compatibility, is people freaking out that other people (that use MS Office apps) won't be able to open the files they've created in LibreOffice.

That is, until I show them that you can set the default save options in LibreOffice, to save docs, spreadsheets and presentations, automatically in the MS equivalent formats without having to manually do it when you save the files.

Viola.

Oh, and eM Client is an excellent (Windows or Mac) alternative to Outlook (free for personal use with less than 2 email accounts) but worth the money to buy a license if you need it for business (you can buy a lifetime license or subscription).

I run my IT Support business on both.

Hold up world, HP's all-in-one print subscription's about to land, and don't forget AI PCs

HP - Hell Personified

After 30+ years in the tech industry, and now owning and running my own small IT support business, I was an HP fan for a long time. But no more. I went off them a bit during Carly's shenanigans, but thought they'd learned their lesson, but apparently not.

I used to recommend HP printers and computers (desktops and laptops), as they used to be bullet proof and reliable.

I don't recommend either to clients anymore. Especially HP printers.

The printers themselves aren't that bad (physical quality-wise) but the software nowadays is total trash and their data harvesting under the guise of 'security' is bollocks.

Then there's the PCs and laptops. They used to just work and last for a long time. Their consumer hardware is now mostly cheap crap and a lot of the lower-end business machines seem to heading the same way. And don't get me started on their bloatware.

I have to admit, that I'm typing this on my 4 yr old HP Spectre 13" x360, which is a great 2-in1 laptop. But, HP have never provided driver or BIOS updates for Windows 11, so I just have to hope it'll continue to work with Windows into the future as well. For a laptop that cost so much when new, I was hoping they'd provide more than 12 months of driver/BIOS updates. If it stops being Windows compatible, I'll probably drop Linux on it instead.

I've now moved onto ASUS as my preferred brand of computers, as I've found them to be as good, if not better, quality-wise to the HPs of old. They seem to provide a good range of hardware, both in the consumer and business markets, at pretty good prices. When it's time to replace my Spectre, I'll be looking at something from ASUS to replace it with.

I have also completely switched my printer allegiance in the last 5 or so years as well. I used to hate Brother printers due to appearing to be flimsy and poorly made. And I used to love HP printers. Bit that all changed too. Their software/apps are very simple and easy to use as well.

Brother is now my preferred brand. Their quality has improved greatly, and I just find that their software generally just works. Not like HP, where, for some reason, they now have numerous different methods of installing the printer and it's associates apps etc. And I usually end up having to try at least two of their methods, before the printer will actually be installed and work. Then there's all the bullshit of needing an HP account and the other HP nonsense with the built in expiry chips etc.

Google veep calls out Microsoft's cloud software licensing 'tax'

Re: Would it not be cheaper for Google, AWS, Alibaba

Yeah, I prefer LibreOffice now too.

I even recommend it to many of my clients.

I own a small IT support business where many of my clients are small businesses or home users that don't require the overly bloated MS office apps so LO is a no-brainer.

Why pay MS an ongoing subscription for a product that includes so many features that most people will never need or use, when there is a perfectly good, free alternative that can easily do everything you average user needs to do?

Having been a Windows user and supporter since V1.0, but I am now becoming more and more disillusioned with the direction Microsoft are taking Windows and the Office applications.

I've really started liking using Linux. Zorin OS is my preference as it's very similar to use/navigate to Windows. Or at least the 'good' Windows versions (7 and 10).

I also recommend eM Client as a good (free and paid for) alternative to MS Outlook (on Windows or Mac, unfortunately not Linux) if someone really wants a good email application. If or when they do a Linux version of eM Client, I will probably go Linux full time myself.

I donate to LibreOffice and other FOSS software providers I use as I appreciate the good work they do and admire what they are doing.

BOFH: Ah. Company-branded merch. So much better than a bonus

Re: Ah, the company gifts...

I worked for DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) at the time they 'merged' with Compaq (1998).

At the office staff meeting to announce the merger, they also decided to give out prizes to staff that had been nominated by management for obscure reasons (this had never happened before, so was a bit strange).

I, somehow, had been nominated for something like 'being very helpful' or something like that.

My prize? A pair of sweat pants and a hoodie (without a hood) emblazoned with the now defunct Digital equipment Corporation logo.

Other 'winners' received similar DEC logo'd merch as well.

They'd obviously gone through the cupboards and decided they need to get rid of the old company branded stuff, since they wouldn't be able to give use it anymore.

I must admit, the clothes were both warm and comfy and lasted many years. The track pants lasted about 10 years and I only finally threw out the hoodie earlier this year since it was pretty much worn out and I haven't worn it for a few years.

Fancy trying the granddaddy of Windows NT for free? Now's your chance

Now I feel really old

I started my career in computers at 16 when I left school and scored my first job as a 'Computer Operator' for the head office of a large UK bank here in New Zealand in 1986.

I cut my teeth operating a VAX 11/750 (and it's 'backup' machine, a PDP 11) which ran the banks Foreign Exchange market trades, along with a Wang VS100 which handled the domestic money market operations.

We (my co-operator and I) worked rotating shifts. Day shift was 7am - 3pm one week, and night shift was 3pm - 11pm the following week and repeat.

Our duties were to perform backups (reel to reel tapes), run nightly processing jobs, print, split and deliver reports produced by the overnight processing and anything else considered 'computery' (changing printer ribbons, lineflo paper, setting up VT100's and Wang desktop workstations for staff, etc).

But our main task when on night shift was to babysit the overnight processing on both the VAX and VS100. Most days, it really only involved doing the pre and post processing backups and sorting and delivering the resulting reports. I remember the Wang being very, very reliable, hardware and software wise, as the software running the domestic money market application was supported in-house.

The VAX was also a mostly very reliable piece of hardware, but was let down by a dog of an application for the FX business that was supported out of the banks Sydney office at the time. Most night shifts did not finish at 11pm due to the FX system crashing and requiring over the phone support from Sydney.

Picture we operators (we were not 'programmers') with an old analogue phone glued to our ear in a noisy computer room, aircon blowing full blast, band printers screeching, etc. reading the error message from the LA36 DECwriter II to the guy in Sydney, then having to wait for him to read back commands for us to type back into the LA36 DECwriter II in order to try and get the processing started again. A lot of the time, the night shift operator was still at the office when the day shift guy would arrive for his shift at 7am the next morning. It was PAINFUL! But, for years, we earned a LOT of overtime from having to stay past 11pm to get everything done, that it was almost worth it.

The only time I remember there being any ongoing hardware issues with either the VAX or the Wang, was when we moved into a newly built head office building. During the first winter in the new building, there were mysterious problems with both systems freezing for no apparent reason. This took months to resolve and I'm proud to say I was probably the one that discovered the cause of the problem. I was called to the GM's office one morning, because one of the metal panels covering the heater elements in his office had fallen off the wall (yes, this was considered an 'IT' problem!)

When I looked at where the panel had come off the wall, I could see that there was COAX and Ethernet cabling wrapped around and melted to the heater element! Whoever did the cabling for the building when it was built had done this, so every time the heaters kicked in during that first winter, the plastic shielding on the cables melted a little bit more, until one day, the copper within the cables finally made contact with the heater elements which sent some strange signals back to the VAX and VS which caused them to crash!

Luckily, it turned out the only place the cabling had been wrapped around the element like this, was in the GM's office, but the whole building had to be checked just in case.

I worked there for 6 years, then moved on to a couple of other companies also using DEC and Wang gear, but I think the last place I used a VAX with OpenVMS was in about 2000.

Ah, they were the days!