Posts by blu3b3rry 961 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2024
Agreed. It's a shame hardware prices are completely crazy at the moment, otherwise I'd seriously consider supporting a company like Tuxedo (or Kubuntu Focus if I was US based) for the next upgrade.
Glad that there is finally a LTS release of Plasma 6, that said. Maybe its finally time to consider upgrading from Kubuntu 24.04....
05 Oct 2021 was the release date for Windows 11. Fast forward almost six years and the UI is finally starting to look like it could be somewhat usable with enough tweaks....
The most recent update I got changed the start menu around again, effectively to the extent that if you remove all the pinned/recommended stuff it resembles a overly bloated version of the W10 start menu. Rest of the UI is still crap though.
Someone at MS evidently has a fascination for mascots. Its nice and all but have any of them ever done anything useful?
Clippy was something you deactivated and removed upon setting up MS Office.
Rover couldn't find anything when it was the mascot for the search in Windows XP
Cortana was once again something to shut up and uninstall when setting up Windows 10.
Mico was so useful that the last time I heard about it was the register article about its introduction!
Oh gods, you're reminding me of the pain when my parents updated from PAYG dial-up to broadband in around 2013....mainly as their early G4 Mac Mini had started to die, and the replacement iMac didn't have a modem! BT kindly provided a Mac OSX compatible crapware CD in the box with the router.
Patient explanation that connecting to the wifi network and entering the provided password was enough to get online, no you don't need to install the software on that CD.
A few months later the router dropped the connection thanks to a power cut. Dad installed the BT software hoping to get it working....it took a good hour or two to unpick the network settings on the iMac and set them back to the defaults that worked perfectly fine.
It feels that is what MS are trying to do with Teams anyway, with the inclusion of an even crappier calendar than the one in Outlook. Maybe the superapp will present emails as chat bubbles?
It feels like the kind of dumb UI change that would fit perfectly in line with Windows 11...
I spent a while at a place where sales managers demanded lab training simply so they could get through the controlled access door that had recently been fitted into the lab spaces.
The reason why soon became clear when they "popped in" to the space with around six visitors, none of whom were wearing the mandatory PPE to enter the labs. Needless to say we were working with some quite nasty stuff that you really didn't want getting on bare skin.
I recall our department head had to usher at least two more visitor groups out during the next few weeks before we could finally persuade / bribe the ops manager to revoke sales' access again. This was met with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, but thankfully the company director backed us up and told them to GTFO.
Probably got an LLM to write the article that has hallucinated the existence of a 12-year-old iMac Pro.
I also don't understand exactly what the agents are solving here. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro (owned since new) that has been happily running subsequent versions of Ubuntu since Apple dropped support.
Getting WiFi and proper fan control working took 5-10 minutes of research, and as I did the work myself I know how to repeat it in the event I change the OS in the future. Certainly wouldn't trust an "AI agent" to repeat the process consistently.
I don't think the author has learned anywhere near as much as he thinks.
What do you mean you don't want your fridge, washing machine, coffee maker and mattress (yes, really) connected to the internet?
That's assuming it manages to update itself successfully, too. When updating a Win 10 machine that hadn't been powered on for a few years, not only did it streuggle heavily to pull Windows updates but "Classic" teams was apparently no longer supported. It auto-downloaded and installed something called "new" teams, which despite the name was also out of support. This software then attempted to download and install yet another copy of Teams from somewhere, which after failing to install twice then chirpily informed me that it was also out of support!
I wouldn't mind the "update" method even if they are a malware-esque self download and install if they actually bloody worked. Naturally this being MS, it doesn't.
$WORKPLACE is a bit of a Oxbridge alumni-fest, and is definite proof that expensive schools and prestigious universities can often add up to someone who is not only an unpleasant prick but gives the impression that their mother still does up their shoelaces at 30 years of age. It produces entertaining results when the arrogant pricks also lack any level of competency. I'm one of a handful in my particular part of the business that doesn't have a degree, I think there are perhaps two others. Needless to say you get used to pushing back at people who look at you with their nostrils. Thankfully they are now firmly in the minority as the business evolved.
Others meanwhile despite having clearly been born with silver spoons stuck in various orifices are perfectly pleasant and kind people who are happy to defer to your knowledge. I don't mind them but it is amusing how often you find yourself being the adult in the room....!
Quite. If all that additional traffic isn't for the benefit or use of humans, then what the hell is it for? Okay, some automated monitoring kit may well ping via a few servers before reaching a person.
LLM's spouting nonsense at each other sounds....pointless.
It's akin to having office workers have AI write emails for their bosses AI to read. No human is reading it, so if the email wasn't sent in the first place then nothing of value would likely be lost.
I look forward to watching one put in an appearance on a livestream, with the inevitable clown-car like progress as bits drop off en route to the rocket. Assuming of course it makes the full journey without breaking down or bursting into flames.
Definitely noticed a big drop-off in the numbers of newly registered Model 3's etc around here (Cybertrucks aren't legal in this country, guess we're too civilised).
>Power on new laptop
>Enter BIOS
>Disable secure boot
>Boot live linux USB
>Install
>Enjoy!
Any modern (2018 onwards) laptop, even with weak specifications is pleasingly usable.
I'll admit it's not perfect, and it's definitely not a solution for every user and every task, but if you're just using it for web browsing and the odd document something like Mint seems to be perfectly adequate.
Or did ClippyPilot hallucinate the 8GB memory requirement for them?
Spare work laptop lives in my desk drawer. Fairly new machine and I'd imagine pretty standard for a workplace (11th gen i5, 8gb ram). This one is a stock Win 11 install with no addons, and no "extras" installed by workplace IT.
All updates applied. Running Outlook, Edge with one webpage open (El Reg homepage), and Teams we are showing 6.8GB RAM usage. Open more than two webpages, one document and start a teams call and the thing starts swapping heavily....makes you wonder how long the SSD would last with heavy use.
Needless to say there's so much bloat here it effectively makes what should be a perfectly decent laptop somewhat unusable unless you're disciplined about what software you have open at any given time.
....but "reporting" the post as AI slop doesn't necessarily remove it? If anything, isn't this just going to have them train the LLM on the responses until its output is indistinguishable from the real thing?
Not that I can tell the business-speak gobbledegook bollocks apart from AI slop anyway. Place is full of twats that seem to measure their self-worth by how many hours a week they work for a company and manglement that doesn't give a shit about them. For some reason those types seem to think others will find this impressive.
Can only agree. I was able to to move off to LibreOffice Writer for all of my documentation and my goodness it's a breath of fresh air. Less of a learning curve than I thought and feels like it gets out of the way to let you do stuff.
Excel spreadsheets, especially two complicated ones with drop-down menu selection and pointlessly fancy macros, are a different kettle of fish unfortunately. If it wasn't for those and Outlook I'd gladly give Office 340 (we must be down to that now from 365 at least!) and its ClippyPilot infestation the boot. Still, at least its my employer paying for the licence and not me.
Depends how modern you want to go. I got XP SP3 running happily on a 1st gen Intel NUC (dual core Celeron 847), I think the build date on the underside is 2013 or so.
Driver support exists but is a bit limited, with only one HDMI port out of the two willing to function, however there is XP driver support for the iGPU and it will run a 1920 x 1200 display happily.
As weak as the CPU in that NUC is, It's entertainingly whizzy running XP. I should see about spinning up some late 90s / early 2000s games on it and seeing how it gets on.
I've tinkered around with a few "newer" systems but the driver support for XP falls off a cliff as you approach any hardware around intel core 4th gen.
Not seen the "upgrade" messages myself on Office, but if they're anything like the other splash screens MS has been using since Windows 8 or so then they're definitely in the wrong here.
After all, what's disreputable or dodgy about a big splash screen that has the "no" option or equivalent hidden in similarly coloured text to the background down in the corner, far away from the big blue "Accept" button?
They've been doing tactics like that to try and force people into online accounts for a long time, now. Ditto the upgrade banners for Windows 10 and 11 that appeared regardless of whether the PC was compatible or not. An excellent way to panic someone into signing up for stuff they don't need, using tactics akin to that of scammers.
Then again it's the Complicitously Meek Authority, so they'll probably let Microsoft off with a stern finger-wagging "Don't do it again."
Longest I've done recently was 8.5 and that felt like enough, even with the comforts of premium economy to lessen the pain a bit.
Can only agree with the poster above about a decent set of noise-cancelling headphones. And a nice big bottle of water to keep yourself hydrated.
I don't sleep well on aircraft (or anything else moving for that matter) so found the best way to ensure that was a drop of whiskey (other alcoholic beverages are available) before bedding down.
Also in relative ruralshire, with FTTC. Normally around 70mbps but we're not an enormous distance from a few big business parks that demanded fast internet connections to the area. The village got to piggyback off that to an extent.
Currently the speeds are enough for what is effectively three sets of streaming. Downloads / uploads for larger files (say in the tens of gigabytes) aren't exactly whizzy but normally I'll just give that job to a spare PC and let it chug away for the few hours it takes.
If I go upstairs and stand in the right room I even get treated to the luxury of a 5G connection!
I've been experimenting with Organic Maps and Mapy recently. You can also get them as apps on F-Droid, which work on Android Auto in my car.
Both seem to have decent enough navigation features and unlike Google Maps the GPS function can actually tell which way you're pointing. They're definitely not as polished but I can live with that for something that actually works properly.
I'll admit I just bunged the rough locations into google maps, which suggested around 3 hours.
I think you'd be brave to chance the M25 at the best of times - I'm not a million miles from Norwich and had the joys of a trip to Gloucester two months ago so can very much sympathise with the journey! In that case I decided to avoid the M25, doing A14, M6 then down the Fosse Way.
The M6 in particular on a hot Friday afternoon certainly justified a few of these upon arrival --->
Probably mentioned at some time before that I used to run a bank of autoclaves in a previous tech role. The machines we had were all compact ones, about the size and weight of a large microwave (the big heavy 80s ones).
Turned out no-one had ever enquired about their servicing, which is always wise when dealing with a steam-filled pressure vessel....
Anyways, we contacted the phone number on the machine and the supplier offered to send out their service tech to give the autoclaves a service and inspection to be sure they were safe. This guy turns up, I show him in. He begins taking the autoclaves apart, then turns to me and asks "Where are the parts?"
"What parts?" I reply.
"The parcel of parts you should have had delivered."
"First I've heard of this, was the parcel sent under your name?"
"No, don't know who it would be sent to."
I called up the supplier and they had just sent the box in the post with our company name and address on, with no FAO. Up until this point they hadn't informed us that the parts would be arriving separately without any tracking number. During this phonecall the service engineer meanwhile decides to continue disassembling the autoclaves and promptly drops one on the floor. At that point I had more than enough and chucked him out, although I think I exercised considerable self-restraint in not grabbing him by the collar!
This made the supplier, who it turns out were just a glorified sales house, panic.
They had contact details for the UK distributor of the autoclaves, who were based in Swansea (we were in east anglia, so on a good day a 3hr+ drive). Their service engineer jumped straight in his van (which was stocked with all the parts needed to fix these autoclaves and more) and called me from the M4 motorway with a promise that he'd be there at 9 the next morning, having booked a local hotel last minute. I very much hope he got paid a decent bung for that!
He's also surrounded by people who while dumb, aren't quite as dumb as he is and are far more manipulative. It's not exactly a secret that his decision making process is effectively agreeing with the last person he's spoken to. All they have to do is make the cheese puff dictator think it's his idea, which naturally is the best one ever because its "his".
Given that and "donations" from MS, OpenAI etc I can't see this letter getting anywhere.
That comment dated well.
Not sure how you arrive at the assumption of jealousy, if anything you seem to be showing off a lack of good judgement and responsibility with your money. Reads to me that you've more or less handed it off for Elon to fritter away on whatever idea he comes up with after yet another a ket binge. An idea that will always be "next year".
Until recently one of the newest portable machines in my little fleet was a very late model intel macbook pro, running Fedora KDE. The constant updates in Fedora were getting a bit much, and I couldn't get KDE's panel quite how I wanted it (no obvious way to get a small vertical left hand panel with separate labelled window buttons). Unfortunately due to the absurdly high resolution 13.3" screen, X11 desktop environments don't play well on it so Wayland it is I guess.
Ended up trying Debian 13 GNOME, and added a few of the Zorin extensions. Dash to Panel and ArcMenu have made for a very, very usable desktop, plus GNOME tweaks to get maximise/minimise buttons back on windows.
Putting the panel vertically works perfectly and I even get separated window buttons with titles if I choose. Likewise ArcMenu is pleasingly customisable and allows different layouts. As I understand it, Debian 13 will stay "locked" on GNOME 48 for the foreseeable future so shouldn't suffer any breaking changes to the extensions.
Admittedly that was around twenty years ago but can't say I've ever bought an LG product. That won't be changing, f$ck em.
That said I discovered the HP Z-series monitor mounted to the side of my workbench does a similar trick to any Windows machine you connected to it. Bastards.
You'd think by now that the accuracy would have gotten better, given the enormous amount of resources being vomited in the direction of LLMs.
Want a laugh? Just ask one to generate a electrical plug wiring diagram for the country of your choice. For example, a UK plug according to ClippyPilot has incorrectly labelled pins, two earth cables and an extra live cable connected to the earth pin. And a free-floating fuse.
Critical thinking is evidently less prevalent than most of us would like to think, if the sample group were happy to go along with confidently stated bollocks.
