Posts by Blue Pumpkin

Smart glasses are only smart if we train them to be good. Then they'll be fantastic

How smart ?

Do they go black at the first sign of danger?

FOSS smashed one Microsoft monopoly. After 20 years of failure, it's time to smash another

Re: Remember the Approval Process for OOXML?

But the issue is that OOXML is only half the problem.

Yes OOXML is bloated, underspecified in many places, over-engineered to extreme complexity (numbering and styles I'm looking at you) and inrinisically linked to the platform it runs on - how do you work out the default fonts - well that depends on the OS, the language packs and the current locale - most of the time, except when it doesn't.

So yes there is supposedly a standardised interchange format - but this is not enough for interoperability.

Proper standards also have conformance suites and expected outputs - but there is nothing of that to see here.

But the other very real issue is the rendering - there is no interoperable specification of how to render a Word document - the rules for all of this are embedded in Microsoft's code. Many have tried to emulate what Word does with varying degrees of success. Even the most sophisticated OOXML processing solutions do not produce output 100% compatible with Word.

The number one complaint of anything other than Word is that the pages don't render properly - paragraph content is not exactly the same, page breaks are not in the same places. Again this comes down to specifying a not just an interchange format but a processing specification. Both Microsoft and ECMA knowingly sloped their Teflon shoulders on this.

IMHO the only way forward is to get off OOXML, and PDF for that matter, to formats that are semantically richer and much more independent of layouts produced for dead trees.

Books were a great invention - but now modern day electronic scrolls really need to make a comeback.

LisaFPGA brings Apple's magnificent misfire back in programmable logic

Re: Lisas were expensive AF

The only thing comparable (I use the term loosely) at the time was probably the Perq - available under other names IIRC - that ran a complete SmallTalk environment.

My recollection at the time was that these were about £20 000 a pop - and no snotty undergrad like me was ever going to get their hands on one.

At the same time I remember a Sirius PC and a Sun workstation appearing - also in the £3000 to £5000 price bracket.

So yes the Lisa was expensive compared to these but promised something else more akin to the Perq - though it took the Mac to actually deliver something usable for the masses.

Even though that something was not the same as the Lisa.

No more Java refills for Intel Macs after JDK 27, says Oracle

Who really cares ?

I mean Java 1.8 was the last decent release and it’s still going strong.. if it’s not broken..,

How the AI bubble could pop and take down the global economy, according to the BIS

Re: Wealth is a meaningless word

Except that the word “intelligence” never figured anywhere…

Google reimburses Register sources who were victims of API fraud

preferring to prevent service revenue outages over respecting users' budget preferences. FTFY

Brit mathematician lets AI agent loose with credit card – cue password leaks, CAPTCHA chaos and more

Re: Wrong woman

BBC Sounds also has a great collection of her podcasts which includes Pandora.

All very entertaining and enlightening.

Anthropic tweaks timed usage limits to discourage Claude demand during peak hours

Re: Easy solution though

She'll whip your code into shape ....

CERN eggheads burn AI into silicon to stem data deluge

Move along, no AI to see here

There is reference to machine learning

And in fact all the blurb talks about patterns, statistical analysis and learning algorithms and others with some very well known ones in there too, overview here

At no point does it mention AI … thankfully

While you're here, could you go out of your way to do an impossible job?

Re: "Security" bags

Though in the last case it is pretty big and visible from space if you were really serious about finding it .....

In the name of science: Boffins build fart-tracking undies

No contest - you need an audience with Monsieur Pujol - Le Pétomane

Some of the highlights of his stage act involved sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms, as well as playing "'O Sole Mio" and "La Marseillaise" on an ocarina through a rubber tube in his anus.

Britain turns up the heat on homegrown ceramics for hypersonic missiles

Re: Homegrown ceramics

All I can say is BS 6008 (now ISO 3103 ) as well as other indispensable Ig Nobel prize winners from 1999 : "Physics takes the biscuit : the optimal way to dunk a biscuit" and "Pouring flows : a teapot spout that does not drip"

Brit dual nationals grounded by border digitization drive

Re: What if....

Even if you do come in on an ETA and get let in you would still only get 90 days after which you'd have to go out and come back again - and then you only get 90 days in a 180 day period.

However, the UK isn't great at keeping tabs, only half the details (entries I think) get recorded.

If you request the details they will send them - well the half that they have - we did this when significant other was applying for UK nationality in order to avoid all this bollocks.

DVSA drives up online theory test contract value to £700M with no explanation

At one point - and I no longer know if this is the case - Pearson was running the theory tests - this was (at least) V2 of the theory test system. Which makes some sense as that's the kind of business they're in - I think they also do the wonderful nationality test - 'life in the UK' - I never learned so much about my home country !

V1 was a home grown thing, 1995 or 1996 to comply with EU regulations, run out of Crapita in Coventry on a couple of Sun boxes.

There was specialised hardware that would scan the test papers and work out where the pencil marks were (it had to be conductive graphite) on the test papers ... the failure rate was astronomical

Failure to read the test papers, not actually pass the test !

Attacker gets into France's database listing all bank accounts, makes off with 1.2 million records

Re: Let's parler Franglais!

"Kilomètres Kington" - MDR - prenez un vote up !

NetApp claims ex-CTO built a secret cloud platform then sold it to VAST Data

Re: Employment

Yes I have done this.

I have taken the PDF of the contract terms and conditions, edited it to strike out all of the unreasonable clauses, added my signature it and emailed it back.

Nobody from HR departments ever thinks that anybody would change anything, nor do they take the time to send back the copy signed by them - which they are supposed to do in order for it to be an agreed contract - so it then becomes something they implicitly agreed to and their problem not mine.

Obviously doing things blatantly on 'company time' and 'company equipment' ranges from questionable to stupid, but claims to ownership of "anything you might develop at any time" (which I have seen) are just abusive

Famed software engineer DJB tries Fil-C… and likes what he sees

Re: Type checking and compatibility

“ Dynamic languages such as Python defer such decisions until runtime.”

And there be dragons …. Memory safe doesn’t help if the code falls in a heap.

But of course it’s horses for courses, I much prefer a really strongly typed contract based approach for my nuclear reactor or anything I fly in, rather than some runtime error that may or may not occur.

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

"It promotes growth and is very powerful."

Apple goes all in on AI acceleration with M5 MacBook, iPad, and Vision Pros

Re: Illussion

57 channels and nothin' on ....

Energy drink company punished ERP graybeard for going too fast

Re: Oh really ?

Livestock management is closer ....

Workers: Yes, RTO makes sense. No, we’re not going to do it

Re: I completely get why...

Despite all the downvotes there are cases when you're absolutely right.

I participate on several international standards working groups. We have participants on four continents and in 7 or 8 time zones, We meet regularly, usually on a weekly basis via conference calls.

And usually we get together physically once, or if very lucky, twice a year for a day, possibly two.

What we get done in those physical meetings far surpasses anything that we do via conferencing.

But of course it is a special event - not RTO - and there is a different level of motivation.

Oracle gets to store US users' TikTok data, says Trump

Hobson’s choice

Impossible to say which is the least worst option…

The only real option is avoid

Techie ended vendor/client blame game by treating managers like toddlers

Upvote as it's been so long and they were very funny

UK government trial of M365 Copilot finds no clear productivity boost

Voltaire’s armchair and the mediocrity of Jerryisation

“Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien” the corollary of which is that “good enough” is sufficient.

My son has a robo vacuum cleaner and mopper, called Jerry. Jerry is not the sharpest tool in the box but is eager and enthusiastic.

Since the last software update my son maintains that Jerry has been lobotomised and his mopping skills are not what they were. However, I digress, suffice only to point out the degree of control that he has over Jerry.

We all know that Jerry’s vacuuming and mopping skills are average and that we could do better. We also know that what Jerry does is tedious and that Jerry can do it more often than we would ever want to. So we put up with mediocrity for the sake of convenience.

And so it is with Copilot et al.

Jerryisation : Mediocrity, Homogeneity, Banality - a fitting replacement for Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

But only if we allow it.

Junk is the new punk: Why we're falling back in love with retro tech

Re: Why?

C30 C60 C90 Go !

End well, this won't: UK commissioner suggests govt stops kids from using VPNs

Re: Whitehall has been trying to extend internet surveillance for at least 30 years.

There's a room ... it has 101 on the door ..though of course it doesn't need to physically exist to be effective ..

But you're right, something definitely does happen to newly appointed Home Secretaries that changes them permanently

Meta training AI on social media posts? Only 7% in Europe think it's OK

If I were writing an intergalactic travel guide, the phrase "mostly harmless" would probably cover it.

Banning VPNs to protect kids? Good luck with that

But Camping Paradis and HPI isn't going to corrupt my delicate mind.

Au contraire ... they will turn it into a gooey mess ...

UK VPN demand soars after debut of Online Safety Act

Along with the illegal possession of a nuclear device.,.

There is loads of good stuff on the statute books like

- slaying the lord chancellor - treason, from 1351

- adultery with the queen - same punishment

Though I don’t see possession of an offensive wife in there yet - but it’s only a matter of time.

Microsoft developer ported vector database coded in SAP’s ABAP to the ZX Spectrum

At least it wasn't an ORIC ....

Financial 'stretch' for UK to join Europe's Starlink rival, says minister

Re: I'm baffled...

"It will turn up in time" turned out to be 4 days once received - so 5 in total.

In fact my new passport turned up a day before the old one was returned.

Whereas the French passport took 3 months ...

You had a good experience in Germany, I'm happy for you, but don't believe the UK services are unilaterally really bad compared to everywhere else, it's just not true.. but, as always, YMMV depending on where and who you are and what you're asking

Proton bashes Apple and joins antitrust suit that seeks to throw the App Store wide open

So you’re complaining that

30% is too much to pay for someone else to manage

- app hosting

- distribution and download

- billing and payment processing

- VAT collection

- multi country access

- additional in-app purchases should you require them

- in-app advertising (not that I am a fan)

Other industry sectors would kill to pay only 30% …. Try working in retail

And before you say it’s all about choice, if the cost were zero you wouldn’t have a problem.

Mars may have vast underground oceans and enough H₂O to make it a water world

Underground oceans ....

.. sand on top .... just beware of the worms

Meta blames Trump tariffs for ballooning AI infra bills

Re: A bit of a worry...

Except it's turning out to be more than once in a lifetime ...

Google goes cold on Europe: Stops making smart thermostats for continental conditions

Re: Again

They are already mostly there ... and have been for some time

Under the UK’s Right to Repair regulations, manufacturers are legally required to make spare parts available for up to 7–10 years after a product is discontinued. This regulation ensures that appliances can be repaired and maintained, reducing waste and supporting sustainability.

Large Appliances: Spare parts like motors, pumps, and door seals must be available for at least 10 years.

For most heating equipment it is at least 10 years or longer, although have managed to source new parts for equipment discontinued for nearly 30 years.

Chinese carmaker Chery using DeepSeek-driven humanoid robots as showroom sales staff

Re: Cultural reference.

Sounds like they are catching up though

"In the year 2017, the United States has fragmented into post-apocalyptic wastelands with a few civilized areas. An ongoing economic crisis has led to the recycling of aging 20th-century mechanical and technological equipment."

Only about 10 years out if the orange wotsit keeps having "ideas" ....

Techie diagnosed hardware fault by checking customer's coffee

Re: Never heard of Romex cables?

Mine still is.

It’s a hang over from the 70s when everything was electric because the French nuclear program was going to make electricity almost free.

See how that turned out.

Though because of the phasing and the probably insufficient power delivery there are combinations to be avoided

Always have a torch in a well known place with working batteries.

Introducing Windows on arm. And by arm, we mean wrist

Prior art ....

I thought this had been tried before ... and didn't end well (according to some) ... also good for 1st April..... World without Sun

Apologies to Jacques Coustaud though ...

Windows intros 365 Link, a black box that does nothing but connect to Microsoft's cloud

Re: Surface Hub reboot?

Sounds like a SunRay but more expensive (IIRC the unit price was ~$250 with the monitor) and it would also remember your session from one place to the next.

It was kind of cool shoving your smart card in a machine in Paris and picking up the session you left in London.

Shirley all doable on Azure… but this was 25 years ago

But nothing beats VAXClusters and DECnet….. set host BONNET :-)

Microsoft tempted to hit the gas as renewables can't keep up with AI

Just harness Centralia

It's been burning since 1962 and could apparently continue for another 250 years ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_mine_fire

iOS users left refreshing in vain as Microsoft Outlook woes drag on

Re: You win some...

Had to do that to several accounts last night.

However it was not as bad as feared - if you're quick enough the Mac doesn't have time to delete everything before it starts to re-sync.

It was only about 10m on an account with a decade's worth of mail

Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes

Re: move to France

Move to Denmark .... well København at least.

Fibreby.dk ~125DKK / month for 1Gbs down / 1Gbs up - though usually around 950 Mbs but who's complaining ....

Wozniak: I didn't reduce chip count for manufacturing. I wanted to prove I was clever

Re: state-of-the-art silicon (6502 then...)

Have I got a project for you ..... https://pong-story.com/elektor0376.htm

Microsoft warns Trump: Where the US won't sell AI tech, China will

Re: Where the US won't sell AI tech, China will

Most of the globe doesn't speak English so it matters less to them whether they get bad English AI or bad Chinese AI - in addition they are all foreign corporations as far as they're concerned - and many do have a pathological desire to stay clear of the US and any other ex-colonial states.

But in the end it comes down to money and availability - if your US AI is either unavailable or more expensive than a competitor's, then you loose.

Are you cooler than ex-Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive?

Re: Design?

just pick up the pieces ....

HP ditches 15-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback'

If I've already exhausted those avenues I doubt that anybody in HP-land will be of help .... it's cheaper to switch vendors

Odds of city-killer asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth creep upward

Mostly harmless ..

Except that when it reappears in 2028 we'll have found it has sneaked right up on us while we weren't watching .....

Somebody will introduce landing tariffs to discourage it.

RIP Raymond Bird: Designer of UK's first mass-produced business computer dies aged 101

Re: Computers in the 1960/70s

The larger 2900 series of machines were heavily influenced and borrowed from the experimental work of the University of Manchester’s MU5.

Built in collaboration with ICL West Gorton which was just around the corner from the university.

Lots of wonderful historical information here from my old prof of processor architecture - https://ethw.org/The_University_of_Manchester_MU5_Computer_System