Re: Nice stuff
A variation that my father encountered in rural Norfolk in the 1950s "Well sur, I wouldn’t start from here if I wuz yew"…
2000 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Apr 2008
One reason why I bought a near “poverty pack” Golf was to avoid the built-in SatNav - The extras pack that I did buy had everything I wanted, side and rear detection (my neck is stuffed) radar cruise control with traffic assist (useful, if you do actually monitor what the car is actually doing. I connect my phondlephone to CarPlay, and Apple Maps has improved to do pretty much what I want. The paid Sygic app is worth the money to me, as it has downloaded maps and still shows you where you are without needing a reliable phone signal (it can be pretty patchy here, and even Telstra only works well where people live).
As the roads seem to have changed a lot since I lived in the UK I paid Sygic for the UK maps just before COVID expecting to travel there, but our State has a tight lockdown, and travelling abroad is a no-no. In a population of 2.8 million we have 7 active cases, and have had 9 deaths in total. Currently there are almost no restrictions, other than travel, and masks are not required by the general population, but we expect that to change when we open up next year (90% of 16+ population inoculated?).
You know how we all hate a smartarse who says "I told you so"?:-
Link 1 a conspiracy by Canonical (2015); Link 2 Canonical to distribute a "premium" commercial product (like Red Hat) that will tend to limit user and developer choice (2015); Link 3 How can we make money? (2018 - Satire?).
Well, I told you so.
After the crap publicity, in February, Apple upped the credit note to $500 redeemable on any Apple product purchased before the end of the year MacRumors Link.
Mini computer suppliers did the same thing. In the early 90s I was offered a microVAX by DEC at ~10% of list, to do some Oracle development - Sun offered me a Solaris workstation at ~70% of list; which probably reflected how they were doing in the market at the time. DEC wanted about A$3,000, Sun wanted about A$20,000 (so both listed at about A$30,000). I bought a 486 and went with R:Base/MS Access and Sybase, switching to SQL Server when it came out on NT. Later we went with PostgreSQL for *NIX stuff, but the market was pretty much all MS by then. What happened to Sun and DEC? I suspect that other first-line developers also noted the price differential, particularly after the bubble burst.
A local joke at the time was "What's an optimist?" - "An Oracle developer who puts on two clean business shirts in a week"... (Its pretty hot here).
Probably because I've been around this stuff for ~50 years and like the Unix Philosophy - Systemd is the opposite of that. I posted this here 6 years ago:-
1. It breaks one of the main strengths of UNIX - That every component stands by itself and can be managed separately.
2. The use of interrelated dependencies of systems that should be kept separate encourages "standard" distributions and, I suspect, will allow organizations like, say, Canonical to distribute a "premium" commercial product (like Red Hat) that will tend to limit user and developer choice; and encourages loading unnecessary insecure cruft.
A satirical(?) post I wrote in May 2018 as to why I thought it was/is a bad idea is here: How can we make money?
Yes, thanks. I go back to the 70s with *NIX. After the ‘NIX wars, we standardised on Xenix for a while. Then commercially Slack, then Debian, some Devuan after I retired. For home use, macOS does what I want, possibly because it’s a certified UNIX, and it is still very similar to the BSDs I learnt 30 odd years ago (I can remember that stuff; breakfast this morning might be a different matter…).
Why do you think that they are worse? I too use a Mac everyday, mainly because the CLI *NIX stuff that I learnt in the 70s-80s still works. You can, if you want (currently), turn off System Integrity Protection; Secure Boot; etc;. I find that I can install almost anything that I want - Even if I had to write or compile it myself :-)
OK, the way I streamlined this for an urgent/important item in the public service in the 1980s was:-
1) Find the part number.
2) Handwrite part number on a piece of paper.
3) Trudge over to Stores/Purchasing.
4) Look slightly shifty until the clerk asked what you wanted.
5) Hand the clerk the paper and TWO MARS BARS.
6) Wait a couple of minutes, until clerk came back with item.
7) Under no circumstances discuss any paperwork, on the understanding that said items would go into a general black hole budget.
8) Return to base, and take price of Mars Bars from Petty Cash surplus.
As a (20 year old) junior civil servant, I was tasked with taking an important item to another establishment. I was chauffeured to the nearby railway station by a very pretty WRAC corporal (about 30+) driving the regulation two-tone green Humber Staff car. I (of course) sat in the back, very much Jack-the-Lad. My illusions were shattered when she gave me 4 pennies in an envelope to call from the public phone box (with the number written on the envelope), for when I was ready to be picked up; and insisted on seeing my travel warrant before she let me catch the train. It was just like being 10 again…
What are these ads of which you speak? I avoid Google and Microsoft - Although I have ancient mail addresses with both of them; mail from Google account is almost always sent straight to trash, most of MS mail is filtered. I use Amazon very sparingly and always log out; and we record live TV, and then run Comskip. I did work for government, so I am (still) in a number of databases...
Orwell thought it would be just government >>==========>
After an unpleasant and very expensive diversion via a AU$3000 LOEWE "smart" TV, I’ve found something that works for us. The LOEWE interface was pretty disappointing, and we found the built-in sound bar to be aggressively unpleasant.
Our new system is a 40" HiSense 2K TV (sorry folks, unless the set is >55” and you are closer than about 7’, 4K is not a real improvement). We have an AppleTV on HDMI1 which is networked with an HDHomeRun 4-head tuner, recording to our computer with "Channels DVR” ($80/yr) and Comskip - Adverts, what are they? A pair of HomePod Minis for sound output, all is good for about AU$1000…
OK, your power in an organization is proportional to your budget and the number of staff you control. Many senior IT types like Windows, it needs a lot of hand-holding staff, gets expensively updated, and breaks on a regular basis; and is "what everybody uses".
Plausible support for this idea is that IBM who, arguably, invented the PC (Wintel) ditched manufacture of PCs to Lenovo. IBM (Perhaps, as part of their cost-cutting slow amble to the bottom?) stated that they use a lot of Apple kit. They claim support costs are lower than for Windows. Here is my post from last year:-
----------------------------------------------
...At the end of 2019 they (IBM) had ~290,000 Apple devices of which ~200,000 use macOS. At the same time they had 383,800 employees, obviously some employees will use more than one device. I have a relative who is a very senior IBM techie who told me that in his (large) part of IBM far more techies use Linux than Windows - He was also of the opinion that a number of IBMers elected to go to Apple rather than move from Windows 7 to 10.
According to IBM, Mac users cost less to support with about 1/3 of the support personnel and are generally happier and more productive.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/ibm-cio-mac-users-perform-better-more-engaged-than-windows-users/
https://www.jamf.com/resources/press-releases/ibm-announces-research-showing-mac-enables-greater-productivity-and-employee-satisfaction-at-ibm/
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/IBM/ibm/number-of-employees
---------------------------------------------
The last link is probably incorrect (or very worrying?!), as it states that IBM ditched 92% of their workforce in 2020 - Other links suggest ~345,000 current staff - So unless COVID was worse that we believe...
In the early days of Windows, I wrote a software package that tended to be used by older people. Typically volunteers at local authorities who had little/no computer skills. Some support calls started like:-
Punter: "My thing won't work"; Me: "What thing?" - P: "I do it when I start"; M: "What does it look like?"
- P: "It's on the computer"; Me: "Where?" - P: "I need it to start"; M:"Is it a small Picture?" (an icon).
P: "Yes, its the thing I clicky!"; M: "Can you see it on the screen?" - P: "I'm not sure"; M: "Start looking at the top left hand corner, is there anything there?" - P:"Yes!"; M: "OK, now look further along to the right, is the picture there?" - P: "No" - M: "Are there any pictures in the next row down?" - P: "Yes"
repeat, repeat...
M: "OK, the picture (icon) has been removed, but don't worry - Everything else is there".
At this point I know that either the punter has inadvertently removed the icon; or IT has updated their SOE. Now comes the good part, where I take the punter down the rabbit hole of finding the icon in Programs, taking a copy and pasting it back on the desktop, knowing that the same punter will be back with the same problem later. I normally asked them to get in touch with their own IT, as they had probably caused the problem by either updating the screen; or more likely, not having the skill to keep said icon read-only; but IT always said something like "We don't know how it works, talk to the developer". That's when I introduced 12 months free support, and then every call after that needed a purchase order...
I’ve just realized that when I have to use Windows, it’s mainly XP with the "Classic" (Windows 2000) GUI in a Parallels VM on an iMac. I still occasionally use Windows 10 in a VM on the same iMac, but XP just seems more productive. No, XP is not allowed out on the internet…
In the early days of Wintel each Office update was perhaps every 2 years or so (95, 98, 2000, XP) along with MS Office (3, 4, 95, 97, etc.,). Each Office version was supported by the current, and the previous, OS… Generally meaning hardware was replaced every 2-3 years?
When my trouser waist band was about 6" smaller, SQL databases were very much the thing. Oh how we laughed when we found that that the OS (with swap file?) needed to be on its own smallish disk; the database was on a separate disk, and had been pre-allocated its own section covering most of the disk; the transaction/log file was on its own smallish and fast/expensive disk; and RAID was just becoming a thing; we generally got this stuff right (even if you were using Oracle). Structural integrity mattered, and almost everything involving data manipulation was "correctly" done by the database - Things "usually worked" (tm).
Then programmers got involved - Client Server and three tier systems - Dividing the presentation, application logic and data processing layers across client and server devices. Maybe it's a coincidence, but isn't that when everything started going to hell in a rapidly descending handcart? I may have been one of the guilty for a short while by incorporating C into stuff, to avoid some Oracle licencing fees (Reports and Forms!), but I started with FORTRAN, then learnt, Dartmouth Basic, SQL, and only came to C later - So I was a hopeless case anyway.
Haven't we just replaced this stuff with 2 apparent layers - The web and the data? Sorry folks - Don't mess around with important data with Java, JavaScript, and your 10 favourite frameworks, just learn SQL like civilized people... :-)
Sorry, this is a YoutubeLink: Daffy Duck - It was him or me... Relevent bit is at 20 - 30 seconds. Seems to be Google's business model?
Hear, hear. A long time ago, when I developed desktop applications I wrote them on a PC that was available to my customer base perhaps 4 years before, because *That Is What Most Punters HAD*. I learnt that lesson when running a business for someone else. I oversaw a project where we wanted a system to produce an application report for farmers based on chemical analysis of their soil and growing crops. It looked really impressive on the developer's Pentium. Unfortunately much of the intended customer base had a 386SX, usually without a co-processor that they used to "do the books". Something that ran in a few 10s of seconds on the Pentium took >15 mins on a SX, and usually finished by truncating the expensive report without the totals at the bottom (the bit that was actually useful). Much to my surprise, when I took took some of the design - VB4 with Jet and Crystal Reports (which was usually dreadful, and often applied badly) and bunged it across to MS Access V2 (not known for being speedy compared to the largely machine-coded Access 1.1), and using the Access band report generator produced reports in a couple of seconds, but did need a whopping 4-6MB of memory (we only warranted it to run on 4MB). When I asked the developer why he was using the latest PC, he said his time was valuable and that we weren't paying him to sit around while stuff compiled, and it wasn't his job to keep "obsolete" kit around! We didn't use him again, even though he was the acknowledged expert in that field... As I recall 2MB of RAM to add to the 2-4 that PCs shipped with back then was <$200 whereas the developer machine was >>$2,000.
The older lady or gentleman, who has reached sufficient gravitas may well be an OK Mercedes driver. I notice that our local "wealthy" suburbs are infested with young women who seem to enjoy driving their shiny new low-end Mercedes saloons aggressively, and without skill. Yes, I’m an old fart, I have had a Mercedes, but these days prefer to drive a bog-standard 7.5 Golf - Now I’ve thought about it, it’s my 4th Golf in 40+ years; and I probably have a soft spot for them, as the first was also my first new car (a 1.5 LS with the original "proper" steel bumpers). Yes younger drivers of BMWs and Audis can be even worse.
Maybe misleading? They do say:-
'Software Freedom Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on ethical technology, is filing the lawsuit as the purchaser of a product which has copylefted code. This approach makes it the first legal case that focuses on the rights of individual consumers as third-party beneficiaries of the GPL.
“That’s what makes this litigation unique and historic in terms of defending consumer rights,” says Karen M. Sandler, the organization’s executive director.
According to the lawsuit, a consumer of a product such as this has the right to access the source code so that it can be modified, studied, and redistributed (under the appropriate license conditions).
“We are asking the court to require Vizio to make good on its obligations under copyleft compliance requirements,” says Sandler. She explains that in past litigation, the plaintiffs have always been copyright holders of the specific GPL code. In this case, Software Freedom Conservancy hopes to demonstrate that it's not just the copyright holders, but also the receivers of the licensed code who are entitled to rights.
The lawsuit suit seeks no monetary damages, but instead seeks access to the technical information that the copyleft licenses require Vizio to provide to all customers who purchase its TVs (specifically, the plaintiff is asking for the technical information via “specific performance” rather than “damages”).'
It would seem that this is a deliberate act to test this part of the law, as elsewhere on their site is an indication that they could, and do, sue as a copyright holder:-
'In May 2012, Conservancy launched the GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers, which handles compliance and enforcement activities on behalf of more than a dozen Linux copyright holders.
The GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers is comprised of copyright holders in the kernel, Linux, who have contributed to Linux under its license, the GPLv2. These copyright holders have formally asked Conservancy to engage in compliance efforts for their copyrights in the Linux kernel. In addition, some developers have directly assigned their copyrights on Linux to Conservancy, so Conservancy also enforces the GPL on Linux via its own copyrights in Linux.'
I'm not buying anymore expensive TVs. Like other posts, I wish that there was a better range of TVs without "smart features". I too had hoped to buy a nice screen without the smart extras. One possibility was a good quality monitor, but they are much more expensive than a similar size TV.
Eventually we did buy an "up-market" set to put in a small room in our retirement village unit. The set that we chose was a 43" 4K Loewe TV for AU$3000. This turned out to be a massive mistake. The picture quality seemed good - but wasted on us - Even in a small room the viewing distance meant that we could not distinguish between a 4K and 2K signal unless we within a metre of the screen (I suspect even young people couldn't, unless the set was bigger than say 60". The sound quality was dreadful through the built-in sound bar, with a distorted mid-range (particularly on female voice). High frequencies and bass were unpleasant, and could not be adequately adjusted to turn them down. If one of us went to bed the TV's thumping bass set would keep them awake. I measured the frequency response of the set in the room, which backed this up. Putting a decent set of active HiFi speakers on the set showed an even worse response, suggesting that the audio output had been designed to match the built-in inadequate sound bar. (It was the set, not the room - Directly driving the speakers with an iPad Pro gave a pleasant sound with a flat frequency response). The manufacturer's agent and supplier both said that the set was "within specification", and suggested we "bed it in". Three weeks later we got our local Consumer Protection Department involved who said that they thought the set had been "miss-sold" and that we would be a "good test case" on the relationship between an importer's agent and a retailer, and expected that it would be resolved favourably (Only after it had been to court: COVID, maybe a year later?). Even offering a substantial "restocking" fee to return the set was not acceptable to the importer. Fortunately a younger friend came around a liked the sound, as they said it "was like being in the cinema" - They like to watch action movies and play RPGs, We sold it to them at a very substantial discount, and they are happy with it (it saved us having to put it on ebay).
In the end we finished up with a simple 2K 40" HiSense set at $450 The picture is good and the smart problems were solved by not connecting it to the internet. We have connected an AppleTV, so the rather strange remote is not used. Live TV is with a SiliconDust HDHomRrun 4-aerial TV head which also records through our existing computer (Comskip means we don't see adverts), and the typical small set, poor sound was fixed by purchasing two HomePod minis (OK, sounding like a fanboi here). Total outlay less than $1,000.
I've noticed that the US market now offers TVs without a live broadcasting TV receiver head, as "young people don't watch TV", so it seems little chance of the revival of the traditional TV...
What new monitors can't support the newer standard resolutions? Unless it was an old piece of kit, and the punter needs to support broadcast 1080i - It looks more like an expensive mistake when buying the monitor - I'd hope that anyone who needed 1080i instead of 4K, and 6K/or DisplayPort output over USB‑C Thunderbolt 2, DVI and VGA, would know enough to check before they bought new equipment...
We have two fire/smoke alarms in a long corridor going from an office to the bedroom. One was a bog-standard americium-241 ionization smoke detector with a 9V battery, the other was a photoelectric (sealed for life) wired to the mains supply. In the middle of the night (when the air got cold?) we were woken by a high pitch failing battery signal. The sound stopped when I was investigating the source. I found a new 9V battery and fitted it to the ionisation detector, because that was "obviously" the one that needed changing. I tested the new battery and all seemed well. The next night it happened again, I didn’t have a replacement battery, so I got out the stepladder and then noise stopped - I removed the "new" one anyway to avoid being woken again. The next day I bought two replacement batteries. When I came home the noise had started again. Obviously the photoelectric was the source, when I looked at specs, the "sealed for life", contained a backup battery with a shelf life of 10 years - The system was installed 7 years before, and required an electrician to remove the old one and replace it. I assume that air movement or heat from opening the bedroom door was just enough to turn the detector warning off…
What’s sadder is that I still have, and occasionally, use an Otis King cylindrical slide rule (Wikipedia). When I bought it new, I think it was about a day's wages (These days about £100, but now on eBay for ~£30).
I'm retired now, but an upvote for "I'd use Python and SQLLite".
If you want it fast and secure, this combination work well for small/medium use (i.e. 95%+ of all) websites on OpenBSD (other servers are available - YMMV).
The spelling "SQLite" would have got you a beer as well...
In the 1930s it was "Royal Society of Arts Manufactures and Commerce". My father was awarded two bronze medals by them (examinations in two different subjects - First equal, and second in the UK respectively); originally founded in 1754, Royal Charter granted in 1847, Albert the Royal Consort was the President 1842-1861 (his death) and is shown on the head of the medals. We still have them.
I was in MoD at the time, when I transferred to HO they were less flexible. This was before each Department was able to impose their own salaries and conditions; but in MoD I was told in an annual assessment that my "Career Grade" was likely to be stuck at PSO or SPSO, as I hadn’t been to "Oxbridge". When I went elsewhere in the public service I was offered the equivalent of SPSO to stay when I left at the age of 40…
A very long time ago I was a Scientific Civil Servant. There were "Special Merit" promotions - Techy people could get to high grades, and still do techy stuff, without having to be "Managers" (many of us were dreadful at management). I believe the highest grade was Senior Principal Scientific Officer (which is currently classified as being between the NATO grades equivalent to Colonel and Brigadier).
But that assumes competent programmers (old farts who can write stuff with uptimes of months) and systems that allow hardware to run indefinitely with adequate backup/dupication. Get with the (Cloud) trend - "When it falls over - Just restart it" (every couple of hours/days).
I nearly put a Joke icon, but I didn't >>=======>