* Posts by Ian Johnston

2586 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Sep 2007

Uber Australia to pay $178M to settle cabbies' class action

Ian Johnston Silver badge

From my jaundiced viewpoint - the whole gig economy nonsense is fundamentally the unalloyed exploitation that reformers in civilized states tried to eliminate during the late C19th and early C20th - so the whole uber-gig monstrosity can bugger off back to the looney tunes lands where C19th laissez-faire captalism still rules.

The gig economy seems to be very popular with those who see no pressing need to pay any form of tax on their earnings.

Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Coincidence...

I'm not sure why you are having to do that unless you installing something not in the package manager.

Developers are increasingly avoiding package managers by distributing as, for example, AppImages.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Gnome

Whoever decided that two buttons on a window was better than three...

Not to mention the genius who decided that having two identical "gear wheel" icons doing completely different things was a good idea.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Coincidence...

Neither does this Linux user. What he likes about Linux is that it Just Works unlike Windows which all too often only just works except when it's just not working.

I would like to use the latest version of Musescore. It comes as an AppImage only. Which doesn't work - let alone "just work" because my fully updated latest release of Linux Mint doesn't contain the right C library.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Coincidence...

The reason Linux isn't "seen as a replacement" is down to legacy applications and long standing stubbornness of the only application in the world that can do a job must be a Windows application.

The gamble which is any attempt to print or use sound in Linux doesn't help. I write as one who has only Linux installed on the five computers I have in regular use. I'm currently using, for example, a Thinkpad with Linux Mint on it which absolutely will not print to my Brother laser printer, whether I try to connect by USB, directly over the network or as a shared printer. The same printer works fine with a desktop running the same Linux.

Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Vandalism By Cable Companies: Poles in Hull

I have the greatest sympathy with people tempted to take direct action against these poles.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

That does not mean you can identify a genetic predisposition to violence nor, even if there were, would it ever be strong enough from you to deduce criminality from genetics.

How do you know? Has this been studied?

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Using phrases such as "Genetically predisposed to violence" ...

Only if you believe that a genetic predisposition to violence correlates with a genetic predisposition to darker skin, and there is certainly a name for that.

Intern with superuser access 'promoted' himself to CEO

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: All those were the days

Many years ago I set up my research supervisor's Atari Mega ST (we used them in the lab) so that its error sound became "It can only be attributable to human error.This sort of thing has cropped up before and it has always been due to human error." and any attempt to use ctrl-y (we used them as VAX terminals too) got "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Dave." His name was David, which was handy.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Seems more common than I thought

Most HR people couldn't spell "sent". Four letters, all different?

Year of Linux on the desktop creeps closer as market share rises a little

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Linux Mint

Windows really does seem to be written by a bunch of complete amateurs now. I am amazed at how often they manage to break things.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Linux Mint

I'm using Linux Mint on two desktops and a laptop now (successor to Xubuntu, successor to Lubuntu, successor to Ubuntu with which I replaced OS/2 in 2006).

Linux Mint is shit. Sound is a gamble. The two identical desktops are attached to identical printers; one can only print using wifi and one can only print over USB. One will tile windows left and right, one won't. And so on.

However ... Windows is even shitter and Linux Mint doesn't use snaps, which is why I put up with it for now.

Linux for older phones postmarketOS changes its init system

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Interesting idea, but having had a look at the PostmarketOS website it "supports" a tiny number of phones, and I write "supports" because none of them, as far as I can see, have a full set of working features, or are even close to it.

Ruggedized phone group takes the Bullitt, calls in PWC as administrative receiver

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Alternatively ...

"Buy our product. It's full of security holes, but we'll send you fixes for them every time criminals discover one."

FAA gives SpaceX a bunch of homework to do before Starship flies again

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: payload ?

The concept of "ballast" might be useful here.

Apple's Titan(ic) iCar project is dead as self-driving dream fails to materialize

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: I don't get it either

Work hired me a brand new (8 miles on the clock) VW just before the pandemic. It was supplied without a manual and it took me twenty minutes just to work out how to start the bloody thing.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: I don't get it either

US drivers are barely trained and in some states not trained at all. Happy sixteenth, here's your licence. They couldn't possibly deal with manual gearboxes, which is why they make pretty effective theft deterrents.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: I don't get it

Assuming I'm alive long enough to see Lvl5 cars become commonplace, what will happen to all the people who love to buy performance cars?

They'll still buy performance cars, just as they do despite the existence of SUVs, automatic gearboxes and SUVs with automatic gearboxes.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: I don't get it

Why would an OEM pay $1 more per car to Apple for this versus a competitor who also markets Level 5 automation software?

Why would Apple charge a dollar more?

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be coders, Jensen Huang warns

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Steve KIRSCH

Covid vaccination killed 10x more people than it saved.

It's at times like this that I wish El Reg had an "Ignore User" button, because otherwise I have to remember just who can't be trusted on anything.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

How often do you check the output of $COMPILER?

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: That's not what he said

a compiler will not accept "sort the list of helicopter parts by vendor name and within that larger search order the list of parts for each vendor by part number" as input.

Whether you put it that way or

sort(HelicopterParts, "Vendor", "PartNumber");

or

"rendezze a helikopter-alkatrészek listáját a gyártó neve szerint, és a nagyobb keresésen belül rendezze az egyes szállítók alkatrészlistáját cikkszám szerint" (thank you, Google translate - I know no Hungarian)

is merely a matter of syntax. You're still using teh compile to go from concept to code.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

I remember reading about that in - I think - PC World. And now I find that it even has its own Wikipedia article.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: That's not what he said

that's basically rote translation of a concept into code.

Which is what a compiler does, after all ...

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Computer programmers will be replaced by software? Where did I hear that before...

When real coding was replaced with high level languages which let you specify in what you want to happen and a backroom system decides how to get a computer to do it?

Starting over: Rebooting the OS stack for fun and profit

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Hit-and-Miss

That's application level detail. VAX/VMS let you have different files with the same name in a clear order.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Hit-and-Miss

VAX/VMS was versioned at the file system.

Twenty five years after I lost my last VAX account I still really miss machine::drive:[directory.subdirectory,subsubdirectory]finename.extension;version

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: In the absence of files...

Both Linux and Windows NT support the concept of links.

OS/2 - or perhaps Presentation Manager - was good at this. The same file could be represented by different objects simultaneous. As a corollary, the name of an object did not have to be the same as the name of the underlying file, so you could rename a file without changing how it (i.e. its object representation) appeared in a folder. All very freaky and I suspect most users didn't explore these areas much.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: In the absence of files...

How do you differentiate between the zillions of pages of deathless prose you have composed, and scratch notes that can be deleted?

As I recall, one of the many, many failings of the original OLPC machines was that they had no directory structure or, effectively, concept of files. Instead it was all tasks, sorted in reverse date order. As with everything else in the project it all seemed to derive from a very privileged and patronising American view of what children in the developing world should want to do.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Our main memory can be persistent, so who needs disk drives any more?

How does the cost of NVRAM compare with the cost of an SSD (or even with spinning rust) and how is that likely to change? The rather old ThinkCentre on which I am writing this is currently using 2G out of 8G of RAM and approximately 1TB out of 2TB of disk.

And I really can't see the link between NVRAM and the author's interesting and traditional stamping group of LISP, Smalltalk, Oberon and so on. Would a new hardware paradigm not deserve more than a rehash of a different 70's OS than Unix?

AI comes for jobs at studio of American filmmaker Tyler Perry

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Piss poor planning etc

once Trump gets back in and declares himself POTUS for Life

He is 77, at which age life expectancy for American men is 10.00 years so at least it wouldn't be for too long. And remember, whoever comes after him will be worse ...

Google Maps leads German tourists to week-long survival saga in Australian swamp

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Danger maps

Google Maps very rarely knows about footpaths; its walking routes are almost invariably along roads. In Milton Keynes, for example, it doesn't know about the extensive "redway" (pedestrian and cycle path) network and instead gives walking routes along the verges of roads.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Unless I'm mistaken...

Well spotted!

Google co-founder Brin named a defendant in wrongful death complaint

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: More than surprising

Rich people assume - correctly - that they can usually buy their way out of any problem. "Risky" is a relative term.

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Being polite is great

Also, advice from the BoFH, remember the janitorial staff. They empty the waste bins of the high ups...

"Ladies Who Do" is a great film on that very subject, starring the wonderful Peggy Mount.

City council megaproject mulls ditching Oracle after budget balloons to £131M

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Part of the council's financial troubles stem from historic equal pay claims

It's the woke culture, innit?

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: What would it cost ...

Governent bodies seem utterly incapable of properly specifying big IT projects so that they actually work.

Or to put it another way, the IT industry seems utterly incapable of properly delivering big public-sector IT projects so that they actually work. The kneejerk response of blaming the customer is a major part of the problem.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Why?

Passing exams demonstrates competency only in passing exams

I got an A in A-level maths, so I am clearly good at passing exams. I should therefore have no problem with Grade 8 piano, right?

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: So, continuing the follow-up of the disaster

The horrific project management and meddling by the council themselves is what's created this mess.

What about the possibility that the £1,000 per day consultants are simply Not Very Good?

Staff say Dell's return to office mandate is a stealth layoff, especially for women

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: "sexist in favor of females"

There are lies, damn lies and statistics.

Everybody should read "How to Lie with Statistics". In particular it should be a central part of school maths teaching. Very few people need to know the equation of a circle in Cartesian coordinates but everybody needs to be able to spot when graphs are trying to mislead them.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

What you're *actually* saying is that people who work remotely can slack off and work several hours less than agreed upon without their superiors being any the wiser ...

If it affects the amount or quality of their work then their supervisors should know. And if it doesn't affect either of these things it means that flexibility is keeping god employees on board, which is a good thing.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: "sexist in favor of females"

in the second case it says that only 2 people in a team of 31 are male.

Erm, no. It says that only 2 out of 31 affected people in the team are male and absolutely nothing about how many unaffected people there are.

Cutting kids off from the dark web – the solution can only ever be social

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Children aren't idiots....

Children are ignorant which is an entirely different thing, and ignorance is totally normal.

Well said. Children - from toddlerhood upwards - generally make well-thought out and considered decisions based on very incomplete information, and it's a common and huge mistake for adults to interpret this as stupidity.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: The law is not everything

It's worth noting that around 1/3 of ALL sex offenders are under 18

Before I worry overmuch about that I need to know what the offences are, and whether it refers to offences or convictions. For example, it's not really surprising that a lot of young people in relationships which straddle the age of consent do things which the law doesn't like but which in practice are entirely consensual and cause no harm to anyone.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Chilling Effects

The idea being suggested is that there will be special phones for young people, because there is no possibility at all they they will get their hands on the adult versions, the market in second hand stuff being as tightly regulated as it is. No, me neither.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

It is a shame - but understandable - that the media takes the suggestions of the bereaved seriously, even when they are completely unworkable. Desperately unhappy children sometimes do terrible things; it would be better to reduce that desperate unhappiness than to look for technological impediments to their expression.

Forgetting the history of Unix is coding us into a corner

Ian Johnston Silver badge

No link to the UNIX-HATERS Handbook yet?

It's time we add friction to digital experiences and slow them down

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: THIS!!!

If CPU's are so fast why does it take 10 mins to log into windows 10?

Linux Mint takes about 30 seconds to start on my old Thinkcentre. It has two 2.8GHz cores and a SanDisk SSD with transfer speeds of ~0.5GB/s. So, what combination of doing 168000000000 things and reading or writing 150GB needs done to get the system running?

Damn Small Linux returns after a 12-year gap

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Moved on

People simply expect certain features to be present and they aren't on a small Linux distro like DSL.

DSL is now much bigger than Ubuntu (let alone Lubuntu) was ten years ago. I really can't think of any features I use now which I didn't use then.

Ian Johnston Silver badge

Re: Cool, a new toy to fiddle about with.

I'd like a Linux that runs acceptably on a Thinkpad X32. In Ye Olde Days it ran - at various times - Windows XP, OS/2 (eComStation) and Ubuntu quite happily and is now crawling along with AntiX.