Posts by Tim99

EU plan to make big tech pay 'fair share' of telco fees reportedly weeks away

OK, another car analogy

As LDS has already used a car analogy on the use of highways and traffic fees - How about another one?

The damage a vehicle does to a road is proportional to the 4th power of its axle weight: A small car, say a 2023 VW Polo, weighs 1.15 tonnes - Axle weight factor = 0.109. A VW Touareg weighs 2.15 tonnes - Axle weight factor = 1.34. So if we do come up with some value to be paid by the original purchaser to maintain road surfaces the Touareg purchaser should pay about 12 times more.

It's more extreme with a lorry: Assume a car axle weight of 1 ton (2 axles) vs a 44 tonne lorry have a maximum axle weight not exceeding 8.5 tonnes (6 axles) the "damage" is 1,650 times more. If you based this on say half of UK annual Vehicle tax rates, the lorry would be £140,000 p.a. Obviously the road transport lobbyists would not accept that, and this "Modest Proposal" ignores any societal good of road haulage...

I suspect that telco costs are more linear, or more likely, come done as traffic increases, so how about the punter and big tech pay? I believe that a punter with the info they give for searches, maps, contacts, etc., can be "worth" about $35-100 US dollars p.a. to Google. Maybe charge say 20% of that? :-)

FAA grounds all US departures after NOTAM goes down

Re: "but which aren't known about enough in advance to publicize by other means"

PINOT Gris for older and more experienced flyers?

My late father said that when he was WW2 RAF aircrew: "Rules are for the obedience of fools, and to advise the wise".

First Patch Tuesday of the year explodes with in-the-wild exploit fix

I'm just a bit younger, but switched to a Mac as my main machine a few years after I retired (Possibly because I used some obscure BSDs in the 70s/80s?).

Occasionally I use Parallels VMs on an iMac to run Windows XP (not networked!) and Windows 11 - A Raspberry Pi 4B to play with; and sometimes, for nostalgia, an original Pi. If I ever upgrade the iMac to Silicon, my life will get simpler as Parallels and Windows won't be included.

Techies try to bypass damaged UPS, send 380V into air traffic system

So the manufacture had under-specced the power supply, or the (privatized?) power company supply was outside specification?

An IT emergency during a festive visit to the in-laws? So sorry, everyone, I need to step out for a while

A very long time ago

I was taught that there are no tested backups, only restores. Even in retirement, each week I still rename a different unimportant file and then restore its original with Time Machine...

When we asked how you crashed the system we wanted an explanation not a demonstration

Re: ... half a brain

I once had to throw myself across the room to physically restrain a colleague who was about to put the third (and last) copy of a Novell server backup tape into the drive that had just chewed up the previous two. Brain-fade can, and does, happen…

Server broke because it was invisibly designed to break

You’re not a BOFH then?

Re: A service provider that doesn't bill because their attempted fixes failed?

We live in a retirement village An elderly neighbour has a "care option" plan with a local supplier. It can be used for a range of things like, taking her shopping, cleaning the house; or in this case, providing equipment to help. She had broken her hip and was immobile, so the nice care options lady suggested an iPad to keep in touch with her family, many of whom lived interstate. The nice lady ordered a WiFi only iPad. When it was delivered they realized that she would need a WiFi base unit to connect to her existing modem router (used with her existing smart TV). The nice lady then arranged for a WiFi access point and an installer. I received a phone call saying that the neighbour and the nice lady couldn’t get the iPad to work. The access point had not been set up correctly, and was acting as a bridge, but without WiFi. A quick prod with a paperclip and 3 minutes later everything was working.

A few weeks later the neighbour got a bill from the installer for $490 for the installation - The access point was not included as it was supplied by the care provider. I asked the neighbour why the bill was so high, she said that the installer was there all afternoon. "What was he doing?" I asked. "He spent most of the time sitting on the floor looking at the paperwork, and on the phone trying to set it up. He seemed overwhelmed, so I gave him coffee and biscuits". It looked like he was learning how to do a simple install, and was charging her for it! All that was required was to unbox the item, check which port on the patch panel went to the wall socket, plug it in and turn it on; then connect the iPad to WiFi and type in the password. I wondered if the installer had spent time teaching her how to use the iPad - No, he said that was the care option providers responsibility. I phoned the installer’s company and the care options lady - After an exchange of views with the installation company, the neighbour didn’t have to pay…

Theranos' Sunny Balwani gets longer sentence than Elizabeth Holmes

A lesson?

Don’t take money away (steal) from the rich.

Programming error created billion-dollar mistake that made the coder ... a hero?

Re: Explosive demonstration

Some of us remember using "naked" centrifuges that you cranked by hand - One had exposed gears! I think you needed a couple of turns per second of the handle…

Re: Explosive demonstration

Quite a headache? At least there was something to ameliorate it. >>======>

Killing trees with lasers isn’t cool, says Epson. So why are inkjets any better?

Re: Hmmm...

Markdown does it for me, but for many (most?), I still have to print it...

Re: Microsoft beat them to it

One reason that we switched to Windows was finding software/printer combinations that worked with DOS.

If you stuck with Lotus 123, WordPerfect, and dBase you were OK, as most common printers had drivers. I had colleagues who had to buy additional printers to use an obscure but vital program. The promise made to printer manufacturers by MS was "write a single driver for Windows" and it will just work. I wonder how that went?

How do you solve the problem that is Twitter?

Re: "How bad will its fall be?"

Don’t forget the anvil drop immediately after…

Exchange Online and Microsoft Teams went down in APAC because Microsoft broke itself

Er, I don’t think it’s Tuesday…

Epson zaps lasers into oblivion, in the name of the environment

I nearly didn't buy a new printer

My 9 year old AirPrint Canon ink jet died.I have access to a shared B/W laser in our retirement village, and a nice receptionist who can be asked (very occasionally) to print small documents on a colour laser - So I thought I didn't need to replace the Canon. Just as well, because of Covid, almost nobody had a printer to sell. Unfortunately I was in a local shop, when they had a pallet of HP Inspire 7200s delivered. I bought one straight off the pallet. Three months later the power supply died. HP support sent me a new one 5 days later, and that has been fine - For casual printing "Don't buy the Ink plan", it is" very expensive. So far it is working well, and a significant improvement on the Canon - The main thing that I don't like is almost being "forced to connect it to the internet - Yes I have turned firmware updates off...

Aviation regulators push for more automation so flights can be run by a single pilot

Link to Flanders and Swan with historical railway video here: YouTube - barleyarrish.

Tesla reports two more fatal Autopilot accidents to the NHTSA

Re: "one hand on the wheel"

If I take (both) my hands off the steering wheel of my Golf 7.5, it gives warnings - Then if I do nothing, puts the hazard lights on and slowly comes to a stop (it is probably programmed to think I've died).

Just follow the instructions … no wait, not that instruction to lock everyone out of everything

I think that, on balance, I would go with the millions of lines of code - Current commercial passenger fatalities are ~1 for every 2.5 billion miles travelled. It seems unlikely that the descendants of the WW2 German and Italian armed forces would be actively trying to kill me.

The WW2 RAF fatality rate from flying accidents, etc., was ~8,000 out of >55,000. This compares to a total aircrew fatality rate of >44%. For volunteers, the casualty rate (deaths, POWs, seriously injured) was >60%. These figures are mostly for bomber crews, the total number of Battle of Britain fighter command casualties was ~550 out of 3,000.

You mean like Oracle Scott/Tiger? Yes, I went to a customer to tidy up a mess left by a previous contractor; and that was still in their production system. It contained customer personal details, discount structures, company financials, etc. All the staff used that login, and (as I remember?) it had been in use for about 5 years.

Re: Bah!

I heard a bit of a bang when I plugged a Nokia analogue mobile phone charger into my small desktop UPS - The charger was welded into the UPS. Yes, the circuit breaker tripped, but I also took out the 50A fuse under the power box, and the distribution cabinet in the street; leaving 26 houses without power. The electrician, and the nice man from the power company who he called out, were both quite understanding, under the circumstances.

Well, pilots have collectively been at it for roughly half a century longer than we have, so more of our hard-way lessons were presumably learned within living memory although, also presumably, skewing towards the older part of that range.

(I'm sure the aviation world still has its lessons yet to be learned, just as I'm sure we do too.)

Towards the end of his life, my father passed on advice that he was given in the WW2 RAF: "Do not leave an aeroplane by parachute unless the aeroplane is on fire". This would still seem reasonable to many of us. As a passenger, I have expanded this to only use large commercial aircraft, preferably in the nicer bit at the front, and I forgo the parachute completely...

DEC

I liked DEC VMS. MS DOS (and later, Windows and NT), not so much >>=======>

I wonder if the company mottos may have given us hints as to why that might be? Digital Equipment Corporation's was 'Honesty and respect for customers and employees'. Microsoft's, at a similar time, was 'A computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software’.

In about 1985 our Microsoft rep, over a boozy lunch, thought Bill had said "A hundred dollars a year from everybody".

Xiaomi reveals bonkers phone with bolted-on Leica lens that will make you look like a dork

Re: Camera makes little difference, subject is king.

The same teacher also said that much of the ancillary stuff that was carried about by (male) amateur photographers was "gentlemans’ jewellery", implying that it’s decorative potential outweighed it’s functional necessity, a bit like wearing an expensive chunky watch. I suspect that in my case, that may well have been true.

Re: Camera makes little difference, subject is king.

Many, many, years ago the professional who taught me basic photography asked me "What’s the best camera?" "A Pentax K1000?" I replied. They had just come out and we had bought a few… "No", he said, "It’s the one you have with you!" Which may be why almost everything, other than specialized work seems to be done on a mobile phone?

Windows 11 runs on fewer than 1 in 6 PCs

Re: Typically we wait for

After supporting this stuff for years, I think that for many users it could be called "Window". They use just one or two apps, and never copy/paste between them. Back in the day, when I asked them what version of Windows they were using they said "97", that's when I realized that they used MS Word for almost everything. These days it may be "Chrome" (the browser).

Microsoft mulls cheap PCs supported by ads, subs

Our new special offer

Welcome to our new, improved, rentier capitalism - You pay even more to rent what you have "purchased"!

Minecraft's 'first luxury goods collection' features real-world $3,000 Burberry coat

Re: "one of the most iconic fashion brands in the world"

You're right, senility and anomia have finally crept in. I could try the excuse that I now live in one of the hotter, drier, bits of Australia, so I only wear the jacket a few times a year, but...

Re: "one of the most iconic fashion brands in the world"

I still have a Burberry waxed olive green lightweight jacket I bought over 50 years ago. I think it was about £5? Rewaxed a few times, and a bit worn around the pockets, but still wearable. Fortunately with a detachable plain beige plush lining and no tartan at all. I bought it to keep warm and dry, presumably before they were "fashionable".

Data loss prevention emergency tactic: keep your finger on the power button for the foreseeable future

Re: The National Health Service

Perhaps you may not have enough political cynicism in your life? Conservatives tend to come up with ideas like "National Health Trusts" (1990 Thatcher/Major). This was to give "more local control" by bringing in internal markets encouraging purchase of services from local suppliers. It also allowed the Trusts to borrow monies; meaning that a significant amount of NHS funding is spent servicing debt, and has allowed the proliferation of private suppliers; both ideas are classic Thatcherism. Cameron continued this trend with the Health and Social Care Act 2012 which and transferred ~£70 billion of "commissioning", or healthcare funds, from the abolished Primary Care Trusts to several hundred clinical commissioning groups, partly run by general practitioners, but also a major point of access for private service providers. I suspect that the NHS long Term Plan and the Health and Care Act of 2022 will continue the trend of privatization. In the public sector we called this a "pre-sale overhaul" - With something as politically sensitive as the NHS this has to be done incrementally, like the mythical boiled frog.

A caveat: My cynicism may have been developed by my career - Initially as Scientific Civil Servant (including under Thatcher); a senior technical role in a very large public utility; the General Manager of science-based businesses owned by bankers; and the Managing Director and, later, owner of a technology company. I'm retired now.

Re: White box

A hinged/sellotaped piece of paper...

Re: The National Health Service

In 2002, twelve years after Margaret Thatcher left office, she was asked what was her greatest achievement. Thatcher replied: “Tony Blair and New Labour." Blair apparently agreed.

How ever much is spent on health "it will not be enough". Outcomes are unlikely to be improved until more is done on prevention, the current system can actually favour ill health, as most is spent on treatment. Maybe the alleged traditional oriental system of only paying doctors whilst you are healthy :-)

Re: The National Health Service

When I lived and worked in the UK, I paid "National Insurance" so did everybody who worked. If you were a student, it was normally deemed to have been paid; a married woman could pay what used to be called "the 6 penny stamp", meaning that if she did work she would be covered by her husband’s insurance, but she could pay the "full stamp" to get personal cover. I find it amusing that, according to most figures the US compulsory cost for health averages about $12,000 compared to the UK cost of <$6,000.

It might not be cynical to postulate that the US system does not produce a significantly better outcome, and that it may have been designed to maximise profit? Personal experience in the UK indicates that Conservative governments deliberately underinvest in the publicly funded sector so that they can be privatized and sold off…

White box

I had a customer who ran an early version Microsoft’s Small Business Server on a 486 desktop PC (I know. The boss preferred to spend the business’s money on his leased top of the range V8 Ute instead of the Server which was responsible for all of their income). It had a "Turbo" button to increase/reduce the clock speed. I sat down next to it to promote a user to a higher SQL Server group in our software, and noticed that the Turbo light showed the slow speed. I reached down to change it, and in the next ohno-second, managed not to release it when I realized that I had pressed the nearly identical Power button next to it. Fortunately all of the 12 or so users were within shouting range, so I asked them to save their work and log off. I managed to use the keyboard with the other hand to shut the Server down.

After restarting everything, and apologising, I went to my favourite coffee shop down the street and had 2 large flat whites and 2 chocolate Bouchees before I felt strong enough to go back and carry on.

Oz Apple Store staff vote to strike for better pay, settled rosters, clean shirts

Re: Award Rates

An element of truth, Perth and Melbourne are better...

Award Rates

Australia has legislated/agreed basic award rates for many employees. The Union’s claim is for a bit more than the award, which seems reasonable. The laundry allowance per shift is $0.25 more than the award - To put that in perspective the standard price for a decent takeaway coffee in Sydney is ~$4.00.

Millennials, Gen Z actually suck at workplace security

Re: "LEET"?

Don't you need to ROT26 it twice?

OpenBSD 7.2: The other other FOSS xNix released, runs on Apple M2 Macs

Early days

Most of my early work with *NIXs was with BSD types - Including some weird diversions into MIPS and Perkin-Elmer, so I am probably comfortable with it. Later, IBM PCs and then Windows paid much of my salary; the rest included Novell, Ultrix and Debian. I still prefer BSD to Linux, possibly because that is what I used first?

Now I'm retired (and in my dotage) I can still use much of the *NIX that I learnt back then in "Terminal" on an iMac. If I buy another computer it will probably be an ARM base Mac, and then the last traces of Microsoft (and Linux?) will probably disappear from my life...

Mormon Church IT ransacked, data stolen by 'state-sponsored' cyber-thieves

Wikipedia Link...

No, working in IT does not mean you can fix anything with a soldering iron

Re: Mandatory tech support

Name is a misspelling of Lola?

Cult leader meets the Pope: Apple CEO chats to Francis

Re: Pope granted a special audience to Apple CEO Tim Cook

Er, it was fruit from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis). It didn’t mention Apple, but may still be apposite…

You thought you bought software – all you bought was a lie

Re: "You own, at most, a serial number"

- - - - - - - - - (Part 2) - - - - - - - - - -

Over the years, MS had monopolized the computer business. Their products were everywhere, if you wanted to use a "standard" spreadsheet you needed Excel on Windows. Servers ran MS Mail and SQL Server, Windows networking was everywhere and held it all together. In my opinion, the success of Microsoft is partly down to their well known "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" tactics. In many case the standards that were embraced, like SQL, LDAP and Kerberos were from official international standards, or based on the looser FLOSS licences. I found this to be particularly upsetting as my science background had taught me to make knowledge freely available to everyone so we could all move forward.

When the world wide web became generally available, MS seemed to underestimate its impact. This, I thought, was surprising - One of MS insights seems to be that “good enough” is good enough. The best of breed does not always win - Ubiquity wins. We now have an opportunity to help people take control of computing for themselves.

I have been a volunteer technical assessor to a national accreditation and standards body for 15 years. During this time I have come to believe that open data and document formats are essential to all public organizations. Infrared and mass-spectral data are generated in standard formats. Raw instrument and sample data is transferred as CSV files of known formats. Whilst it is important to use FLOSS wherever you can to avoid proprietary lock-in - It is more important to mandate that a copy all important data is held in a standard format. All of this data should be accompanied by its relevant metadata. Metadata is “data about data” and describes how data is assembled. Examples include size, colour depth, resolution, creator and date of an image; “Markup and Content” for XML; the structure of raw data from databases, and the relevant schema (ASCII delimited/CSV data and Data Definition Language statements for SQL?); HTML structured documents and OS PDF. Currently we keep most of our data in proprietary formats and structures. We could all use FLOSS solutions for this, but this does not address the problem of when we don’t have access to the original developer or when a programme goes out of fashion. Perhaps the data is contained within an application that uses Java, C/C++, PHP, CSS/HTML and SQL - They are all standards - Can we find someone who can duplicate this if we have to move platforms?

Museums are dealing with this now - an XML file* containing:

<painting>

<img src=“image1.jpg” alt=‘Self portrait, by Artist’/>

<caption>The artist painted in <date>1997</date> </caption>

</painting>

gave us the data described by the relevant metadata .

Many existing digital items will not survive for future generations, but an eighteenth century hand-written letter might.

*(This has now been replaced by DublinCore).

Re: "You own, at most, a serial number"

Thank you Liam - Great article. Something that you touched on: I think that data freely published open format/metadata is more important. When the ECMA MS MSOOXML IEEE controversy was fresh in our minds. I wrote a long reply to correspondence from PJ in 2010, covering my thoughts on "Standards" vs FOSS - Some of which may now be moot because of HTML and "the Cloud", but I believe that the underlying thoughts still are relevant:-

- - - - - - - - - (Split into 2 posts because of 1000 word limit) - - - - - - - - - - - -

The main difficulty that I have with the LPGL is not necessarily part of the question “Why would releasing under the LPGL lead to a direct proprietary closing of a product, in your opinion? JBoss used LGPL, I’m recalling. So I am unable to understand that part”.

The LGPL generally deals with software library packages. The library is copyrighted and requires a distributer to give a user all of the normal GPL rights for that library. The normal GPL requires that any software that is distributed should follow the normal GPL freedoms. However the LGPL allows for proprietary code to be linked to the library. One of the justifications for this approach is that the widest possible use of a LGPL library could encourage a LGPL project to become a de-facto standard. Only changes made to the LGPL library must be made available to other users under the LGPL. If identifiable sections of the distributed work are not derived from the Library, and can reasonably considered independent separate works, then the licence does not apply to this sections - i.e. Changes made to proprietary code that uses the library do not have to be made available to end users. Aggregation of another work not based on the Library does not bring the other work under the scope of the LGPL. I can see scenarios where a commercial producer aggregates a number of different FOSS libraries with a reasonable amount of their proprietary code. This could give a terrific hand-up in being the first to market a new product - This product could then be extended until it has market dominance, during which time the FLOSS libraries are depreciated and replace with proprietary “work alike” modules (Remember that the PGL is a copyright licence and not a patent, so that the ideas and implementation are not protected). The LPGL prohibits the distribution of software that incorporates patents, but it does not prohibit you from gaining a dominant market share. In any case if you do not distribute the work, you do not have to distribute changes. A few years down the track you could have a dominant work that may (in the US) be patentable. If you want to find out more, look at “Why you should’t use the Lesser GPL for your next library” at www.gnu.org. A probable example of purchased BSD licenced libraries being used by a proprietary vendor to develop a struggling product was TCP/IP networking in Windows (Spider Systems and MS). This was quite legal, and within the intent of the licence.

Before I can explain my attitude to FLOSS licences, you probably should know my background: I am not a lawyer, any opinion that I express should not be used as advice in any software project. I am a (retired) scientist and software developer. My company has produced commercial software and a couple of successful small products used mainly by the public and community sector. After selling our company, it continues to be successful - My opinions are my own and are not necessarily shared by the new owners.

I first started using computers and programming (FORTRAN) when working as a scientific civil servant in the early 1970s. Later I became the computer advisor to the scientific branch of a (very) large public monopoly. Microsoft was then a small player in the computer business - Serious scientific computing was done on mini-computers like DEC VAX/PDPs or (proprietary) UNIX machines. When the original IBM PC was introduced, we quickly realized that much of the data manipulation and storage that was done with these $50,000+ machines could be done with a <$5,000 PC. The computing establishment dismissed these "toy" computers but, because they could bring the price of some scientific equipment down from $200,000 to $100,000, we quickly worked around their problems. The real revolution started when we could network these machines with LAN Manager or Novell Netware. This allowed inexpensive commercial software like WordPerfect or Lotus 123 to do a lot of heavy lifting. Necessary custom software was written with BASIC or C. Data was stored in SQL databases or inexpensive DOS databases like MicroRim's RBase (which you could purchase from Microsoft, who did not have their own product). Computing was heterogeneous - We used DEC minis and workstations; UNIX, Apple lls, SPARC, CPM computers etc., but mostly IBM PCs running DOS with Netware to connect everything together. The major problems that we had were finding printer, network and modem drivers for all of our mixed kit.

Then Windows 3.0 came out. We quickly found that (even the Windows versions of) Lotus and WordPerfect did not work very well on Windows, but Microsoft's Windows Excel and Word products did (Odd, wasn’t it?). The organization quickly standardized on Windows, Word and Excel. All major printer and modem manufactures quickly produced Windows drivers for their products and many of our support and integration problems went away. Networking was still difficult as MS did not use TCP/IP, so we continued to use Netware and proprietary drivers. We mandated that our users should, if possible, use DOS/Windows terminals. UNIX/minis were still used as servers, and workgroup members shared Netware servers. All of the major Unix manufacturers competed with one another and did not allow easy integration of one company’s product with others. DEC seemed to make integration of PCs particularly difficult and we started to move away from them.

I changed jobs. I was now running a small commercial science based business. The equipment was obsolete and the staff's level of computer knowledge was low. We expanded the business and replaced the obsolete equipment. Almost all of the new equipment was PC based. Data was stored in MS Excel spreadsheets or Access databases (MS had employed some of the RBASE team to help write Access). As we expanded the business our System Integrator (SI) asked why we were moving from Netware to Microsoft's NT. We told him that we only needed one skills set to run the client and server products, and that the main advantage that NT had for us was that it was an applications server as well as a file and print server. NT was just beginning to support SQL products including the new SQL Server (jointly developed by MS, Sybase and Ashton Tate). Our SI was dubious as Netware and the independent SQL products were technically superior to the MS products. It seemed that we were right because within a short time many small companies were using Windows networking, and if they needed a Server they used Windows NT.

I then became the part-owner and MD of a small software start-up. We wrote specialized custom software. One of our jobs was to produce a community heritage based product for government to be deployed in remote areas without adequate communications. We had produced something similar for a couple of customers using MS technology, and when we looked around we saw that our only option was to use Windows and integrate our product with MS Office. There was no infrastructure in place to even consider anything else - We believed what we were told - Which was that the only support you could find in remote regions was MS based. What we did not know was that this support was patchy at best. Everyone said that they "knew Windows", but in practice the level of knowledge was often poor.

- - - - Continued - - - - -

Re: Perfect fidelity

I volunteer for a national authority that assesses organizations' compliance with some primary ISO standards. My assessments are always written in plain text - No carriage returns, except for each list item, 2 for paragraphs breaks, and 3 for section breaks. Anything that I want to stand out **is delineated by asterisks**. I also strip the formatting from the punters' submitted texts if I have to include it in my replies. I convert it to PDF on the very rare occasions where formatting is required (tables, multiple-line equations, etc.,).

This is for self preservation. Typically, a Word file (most people use them) is created by a user, often opened by them on several PCs; passed around a committee, when each member adds their own tracked changes/comments; back to the boss, then to the original author; then changed again (repeat). During its travels it will have been through MS Exchange several times; in multiple Outlook PST files, and at least one will have put it in a DAT attachment.

One organization had a document in DOCX format - It was originally created with Word 97, and seemed to have all the (hidden) annotations from all of its biennial amendments - It wouldn't even print correctly, merging a couple of tables and throwing page breaks halfway down paragraphs. Sometimes I'm lucky and get the information that I asses as PDFs, but even then somebody may have left their subsequent annotations on it...

Re: switch to an OS OS

I'm retired, but have been around this stuff for >50 years. I volunteered as being the main "computer" teacher/support person for a retirees centre with 2000 members. At the time we had about 8 people who could help out, or teach. We learnt to ask a series of questions when we had a new punter:-

1. Do you know how to use Windows? No? Look at an iPad.

2. If you use Windows, do you have a relative who will *completely support it, including fixing it repeatedly*; or are you happy to pay someone $100 *every time* something doesn't work? No? Look at an iPad.

3. If you don't use/want Windows, do you have an Android phone? No? Look at an iPad.

4. If you have an Android phone, do you like it/understand it? No? Look at an iPad.

We found that to teach a novice how to use an iPad for basic tasks took about 3 afternoons. If they had used Windows, a bit longer because they were trying to complicate what they were doing. A Samsung Tablet, took people about twice as long to learn.

Is an iPad perfect? Obviously not. The subsequent questions we asked were things like: Do yo have lots of CDs that you want to rip? Have you a camera with interchangeable lenses? Do you need to write lots of long documents, or use large/complex spreadsheets? Generally the answers are. "No", so we showed them an iPad. Some of us in the teaching group used Linux, and a couple of photographers used MacOS.

Now I'm in my dotage, I probably use an iPad more than a computer. My only computer now is an iMac - I'm comfortable with it, most of the BSD stuff that I learnt in the 1970s/80s still works. I could certainly manage with my large screen iPad - If I didn't volunteer for somebody else where I need to read/create complex documents and spreadsheets. The iMac is also used to record live TV and automatically skip adverts (Thank you HDHomeRun, comskip, and ChannelsDVR).

Make your, older relatives life easy (and yours), show them an iPad. Passing on your old Windows laptop or Android phone is not likely to be helpful.

Fixing an upside-down USB plug: A case of supporting the insupportable

In the 1980s we had a very large electromagnet on an instrument that was driven by a bank of 50A MOSFETs. When they became unstable (mains power?), the bang that they made was similar to a close-range pistol shot. Pfah, health and safety - What do you mean that your ears were ringing for a few minutes afterwards? It only happens about twice a year.

Girls Who Code books 'banned' in some US classrooms

Re: Politics on mailing lists...

Have an upvote, my wording was not clear. I was thinking of Republics that have their names in bold on maps (like the Congos); and not the other 140 odd in this Wikipedia Listing of formal names.

If we look at this Wikipedia Democracy Index about three quarters of Authoritarian regimes are "Republics" compared to over a third of Full democracies, indicating a Republic is >2 as likely to be authoritarian [/Joke]. As a proportion of World population, only 6.4% live in Full democracies and 37.1% live in Authoritarian regimes. For those on the left and right side of the Pond, the same reference lists the USA as a Flawed democracy, and the UK as a Full democracy - Make of that what you will, my irony quotient is overloaded today...

Re: Politics on mailing lists...

You mean like countries that have any of the words "Democratic", "Socialist", or even "Republic" in their names, mostly aren't?

BOFH: You want presentation layer, but we're physical layer

Re: Mac Problems are easily dealt with

As a retired old fart, I phoned Apple to tell them that my iMac had a line of red pixels all the way down the middle of the screen. They checked the warranty and told me to take it to the nearest agent. I told them that I was elderly, and couldn’t easily transport it there - "No problem, we’ll send somebody to your home". A nice man came the next day and replaced the screen on site. Sometimes being polite/reasonable works.