Posts by Too old for this sh*t

Microsoft Windows Media Player stops serving up CD album info

Re: consumers are returning to physical media like CDs

My LP collection grew +2 for Christmas as presents, plus wife had an LP and I brought her a single - Hill Street Blues!!

Not listened to a CD in years.

Amazon axes 14,000 desk jobs in AI-powered slimming plan

no shit sherlock

Hope the UK Gov are watching. They were all for the UK being the leader in AI. Well look what happens - jobs are lost

Microsoft puts Office Online Server on the chopping block

typo...

"modernizing productivity experiences" should read monetizing productivity experiences

Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night

Re: Untested workarounds

flyby11 has been brilliant on unsupported machines. some dating back over 10 years. I actually drew the upgrade line where the pcs were dual core and so far only two out of 80 or so have been proved to be difficult to force an update but have been earmarked for replacement. Whilst i'm aware that a future update could cause issues, it does mean that the clients computers have been given a lifeline and once prices fall to reasonable levels again, will be replaced.

Sky plans to ditch up to 500 staff in the Technology Group

Ties in nicely with ringway Manchester's latest YT vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Qg6exDBAI

After deleting a web server, I started checking what I typed before hitting 'Enter'

wordpress

Not quite the same, but I once took up an offer to do a wordpress inline update but wiped a custom template and made a terrible mess of the layout. I'm not into WP sites so only had a very light understanding how to make basic text changes, Fortunately the hosting company were able to restore a backup, but for a few hours I was working how much money I was going to have to pony up for a rebuild.

So can happen to anyone

Hanging up: AOL to pull the plug on its dial-up service after 36 years

Ahh, now I feel old

I was a GuideUK for a few years, they paid for all our calls so I had to have an itemised bill. Anyway, I tied up the phone line one weekend solid downloading a full ISO. Imagine, 650Mb odd via 56k modem. No doubt I was using resuming ftp software.

Whilst AOL had it's issues, the chat rooms were often great to be in and the meet ups, which, to be fair, was a glorified sh*gfest. Hell, I used to chat regularly to Miss Whiplash both on AOL and on the phone (actual nice chats, not sex related stuff. She used to talk about her husband a lot as I think he was ill at the time)

I was also on Compuserve before that, but on a 28.8 modem.

Funny the stuff that The Register makes you recall

Microsoft offers vintage Exchange and Skype server users six more months of security updates

Maybe it was due to MS dragging their heels over releasing the costs that slowed the migration to SE.

Smartphones in the doldrums due to crap demand and tariff woes

Spent a small fortune in an S9+ only for it to stop receiving updates about 18 months later. I went to Lineage but when the battery life became poor I went to Argos and brought a Moto. does what I need without costing a fortune. little moto might not have the bells and whistles but it's still getting official updates.

Microsoft's on-prem Exchange and Skype for Business Server go subscription-only

I only now have a single client on Exchange, they are happy to take the risks and remain on that version for as long as the clients support it. Others have migrated to imap already rather than cough up per month

Before I get downvoted, it's their decision, I offered the imap option and that is still under review as thre's only a couple of users that use shared calendars / contacts

Japan set to join the re-usable rocket club after Honda sticks a landing

Bound to work, it's a Honda

Techie fixed a ‘brown monitor’ by closing a door for a doctor

When I supplied CRTs I would always tilt the screen down slightly due to reflections.

Odd the weird stuff you remember but can't remember what I had for tea two days ago

'Once in a lifetime' IT outage at city council hit datacenter, but no files lost

I had an IFA client that was brought out by a much bigger company. The outgoing client had a pretty good DR plan in place which I helped develop and tested over the years and often did mock testing. However the incoming company had DR on a whole different level. They actually had a separate office in a different location, fully kitted out and I mean everything, right down to a kitchen. It was just sitting there unused. They tested it by sending staff over, just take milk, coffee and lunch.

The amount of money that room must be costing the company 'just in case' must have been eye watering

Microsoft's final Exchange Server 2019 update still missing as support deadline ticks down

Heel dragging

Just tell us what the subscription costs are going to be, ideally before October 14 so I can present options to clients

Windows 11 stages a comeback – still miles behind older sibling

Whilst I hate the settings element of W11, eg, the poor logic of the networking section etc, once the context menu reg fix is applied and the common shortcuts added to the taskbar, users rarely notice the difference. They spend little time in the start menu or do anything other than emails / office apps / file explorer / chrome so a slow upgrade hasn't been too much of a problem.

Even Windows 10 cannot escape the new Outlook

New Outlook

But still doesn't support on-prem exchange

Exchange update refusenik? Consider yourself warned by Microsoft

I have yet to have a discussion with a client on 2016. I know 100% they will not go to 365 nor will they be keen on a subscription model plus having to buy a new server that requires a motherload of ram. I can see them going, like all my other smaller clients, over to imap

Sage Copilot grounded briefly to fix AI misbehavior

Talk about downplaying an issue.... Tis but a scratch

New Outlook marches onto Windows 10 for what little time it has left

Not supporting PST could be problematic for some companies. My clients use software that tap into PST files, hence being forced to use Outlook (classic) rather than any other alternative email client.

Tech support world record? 8.5 seconds from seeing to fixing

Got a call from a client that their server was beeping. I could hear it on the call. Asked them to remove what ever had been dumped on the keyboard.

Windows 11 continues to creep up behind Windows 10

needs a dose of Gov

Governments around the world need to step in and force MS to drop the restrictions else (as the article says) there will be masses of unnecessary WEEE.

I have been upgrading via rufus just to see what happens, but I suspect the better solution will be to image, install a free-for-commercial-use hypervisor and restore the image to a VM. That way it still complies with the licensing terms and run with that until the end of the life of the PC

Voice-enabled AI agents can automate everything, even your phone scams

what if...

Morgan Freeman calls to offer computer support, I would stay on the line and have a proper chat

AI 'bubble' will burst 99 percent of players, says Baidu CEO

Finally found a good use for AI....

A3 sized AI generated Halloween themed posters for the village hall's kids party this Saturday. Some were meh, but some were really good

Windows 11 continues slog up the Windows 10 mountain

Bad timing?

The next 12 months are not an ideal time to be forced into replacing perfectly functioning computers as business money is tight. I have started to slowly roll out new PCs to clients but it's a dribble and the prices are noticeably going up.

I'm seriously tempted to suggest imaging the old-but-decent PC, spin up a hyperV gen2 then upgrade that to W11. Then get the end user to live in a vm. Most don't need sound or USB access but might be enough to carry on until the PC expires naturally - especially on their AiO PCS which cost a bomb to have got in the first place.

The Windows Control Panel joins the ranks of the undead

Sounds like the utter disaster that Networking has become. I really struggle to find anything, but in the old days, I could walk a user remotely through the screens without even being in front of a PC, now I get as far as open networking settings, and the settings I want to change could be anywhere. There's no logic to it.

And MS wonders why people are not moving to 11

Windows 11 is closing the gap on Windows 10

Re: Countdown to the end

I have a client that runs a £100k CNC machine, it needs netbeui to get the files onto it so still runs XP. Another client runs an ancient vinyl cutter signwriting machine which requires W98

In both cases, it's considerably expensive to replace the equipment so stand alone computers still do the job just fine