Posts by Chris Evans

Maker fight! SparkFun cuts ties with Adafruit in harassment dispute

FYI LadyAda

Limor Fried is frequently known by her moniker 'ladyada', a homage to Lady Ada Lovelace.

Soup king Campbell’s parts ways with IT VP after ‘3D-printed chicken’ remarks

Re: I have one question

"..how on Earth do you get to VP status in a company if you don't believe in its products ?"

Nothing new: CEO Gerald Ratner's 'crap' comment about the jewellery his company sold was in 1991

GPUs aren't worth their weight in gold – it just feels like they are

Pricing per gram please

It is many decades since I measured anything in ounces. I expect that will be true of many/most readers.

Postcode Lottery's lucky dip turns into data slip as players draw each other's info

Can they be sure who's details were exposed?

I can see how there logs would say who had logged in and seen other people details and if it was just one other persons details shown (out by 1? error) they could know who was exposed but as it was changing (randomly?) each reload it gets more complicated to be sure who's details was exposed.

The Chinese Box and Turing Test: AI has no intelligence at all

Re: So much hype

"Even comparison to the massive fibre optic overbuild of the 1990s is too generous; the 2% utilisation today of all that excess fibre built back then, at least theoretically can be of use in the future."

Please provide a source for this statement.

The cottage I stayed in last month had a Smart TV its 'live' TV source was the Internet, it made me realise what a waste of bandwidth. If all TVs switched from Aerial/Satellite dish that would use up a lot of bandwidth.

I also remember being told about 20 years ago about how they had started laying more fibre.

BBC probe finds AI chatbots mangle nearly half of news summaries

Re: A splinter in your eye?

"I can't decide whether you are being ironic or just fat-fingered."

I'm not sure what you mean. There is a minor typo in the fullstop "reports.are". I never did pass my O'Level English so grammar/syntax is not my forte!

A splinter in your eye?

I'm not surprised at 50% as about 20% of BBC news reports.are mangle in one way or another by humans.

Royal Navy sharpens claws on Wildcat choppers with anti-drone Martlet missiles

Q. Who makes Martlet missiles?

A. Thales in the UK!

With impeccable timing, AWS debuts automated cloud incident report generator

But did it work on Monday?

If they've announced it now they must have been testing it for some time. So the big unanswered question is did it work on Monday?

'Fax virus' panicked a manager and sparked job-killing Reply-All incident

Re: Early On-Line Shopping

I suspect it is an urban myth but about thirty years ago there was a story going round that one of the latest colour photocopiers was so good it was being used to counterfeit Canadian? bank notes one group of the perpetrators were only caught when the photocopier was repossessed for non payment and a sheet of banknotes was found inside which had only had one side copied!

ASML shrugs off China slump with faith in AI-fueled chip demand

Re: Backfire!

Yes I wondered why myself. Everyone is free to downvote postings but no one has put forward reasoning as to why I was wrong.

Backfire!

In the long run I'm sure that the export restrictions will backfire and China will end up exporting similar machines to that which ASML make. The only gain will be for the US, be short term and political.

Slack threatened to delete nonprofit coding club’s data if it didn’t pay $50k in a week

Why?

"It drove me mad." Why?

"I vowed to never shop in Mothercare... and I never did." Cutting your nose off to spite your face, springs to mind.

Why Microsoft has the name of an old mouse hidden in its Bluetooth drivers

Re: Eh?

More probably no one has been tasked with tidying it up. Also tidying up often has unintended consequences.

Overmind bags $6M to predict deployment blast radius before the explosion

ci/cd pipeline ?

For those not working in that field:

Continuous Integration (CI) involves frequently merging code into a central repository and automatically testing these changes to catch issues early. Continuous Delivery (CD) takes it a step further by automatically building and testing code to ensure it's always in a deployable state, while Continuous Deployment (CD) automatically releases these validated changes into the production environment.

Monty Widenius 'heartbroken' at the extent of Oracle's MySQL job cuts

Significance is unexplained.

The significance of 70 being made redundant is unexplained. Is it 70 from a team of 80 or 700. I see this sort of poor reporting very frequently even on the BBC (e.g. Company X closing 30 shops, but out of how many is not given). I do realise that for each of the 70 people losing their job it will be a big blow. Getting a new job in the Trump era is not going to be a walk in the park.

Why Windows 95 left a handy power saving feature on the cutting-room floor

Confused!

"The problem, Chen explained, was that "it was a brick until restart, but it restarts into a brick! The OS boots into a brick.""

Surely there is a way to stop that. It's year since I did any programming but...

Set a test flag saved to disc that you are about to use HLT

Use HLT

If you are able to restart you will now know that HLT can be used and set flag so HLT is used and you clear test flag.

On subsequent boot, look for test flag if set then you know HLT can't ever be used.

Apple iOS 26 set to dump 75M iPhones on the e-waste pile

It sounds like you know a cheap VOIP number provider, please let us know who? I think I'm currently paying £6 a number a month.

Google tweaks Play Store fees to keep Euro watchdogs at bay

Re: Demonstrably unfair

Yes as with many news stories I read here and elsewhere (Including the BBC) I'm left with fundamental questions about the situation.

IBM, NASA cook up AI model to predict solar tantrums

That poses various questions

To me it immediately raises the question what if anything can they do when they know a solar flare up is about happen? Being prepared for disruption is great. They talk about satellites being knocked out! Can it be fatal? Turning satellites and ground equipment off might reduce the risk of damage but wouldn't that cause massive disruption, power cuts etc.?

Ebuyer website bought by Fraser Group plc

Maybe o.k. if they ship what you ordered!

CCL maybe o.k. if they ship what you ordered! I needed a very particular USB PCI card with a specific chip on it, they sent me boards with another brand of chip on it (which was of no use for our purpose) and refused to take them back.

Mistakenly sold NASA command trailer could be yours – for $199K

Re: "Trailer" ??

We are talking about Americans using English here. They have, shall I call it an 'interesting way' of using the language"

Selling your digital soul to use Bluesky's DMs isn't just a bad idea, it's the law*

Re: Proof of Age

Even worse than that, many businesses NOT selling "non child-friendly" products will get caught up and the process to prove their products aren't "non child-friendly" will almost certainly be so time consuming and difficult to do, that some companies will give up and fold.

Retailer Co-op: Attackers snatched all 6.5M member records

funeral parlors!

I've never heard of Undertakers in the UK being called "funeral parlors" we've enough Americanisms already thank you. Funeral Directors.

Double-detonation supernova could explain why the universe is full of candles

Type ia supernova,

At first I thought it was: "Type LA supernova" but it is "Type ia supernova" With my default browser font upper case 'i' is indistinguishable from lower case 'L' : e.g. IlIlIl !

I hate fonts like that, I should change it. Any recommendations for a similar easy to read font with distinguishable upper case 'i' and lower case 'L'?

TUPE or not TUPE? How AI and cloud are rewriting the rules of supplier transitions

Unclear!

e.g. "Smart suppliers and customers are already adapting their contracts" I suspect this is the contract between the old and new employer. Employees just need to know are they being transferred as per their current contract, offered a revised contract[1] or not transferred.

[1] AIUI if the revised contract is significantly different the employee can opt for redundancy. From which employer old or new would depend on the contract between the old and new employer. If the old employer sold a subsidiary that they were contracted to they would have no choice but the new owner would have to honour their contract, offer a revised one or make them redundant.

Microsoft dangles extended Windows 10 support in exchange for Reward Points

Cheaper than $30 a year?

If "OneDrive storage... costs $19.99-a-year plan gets you 100 GB of OneDrive space" why not buy that rather than pay the $30 a year. Presumably you don't even need to use it! Or have I misunderstood?

Microsoft testing PC-to-Cloud-PC failover for those times your machine dies or disappears

Cloud PC costs?

I'm interested to know what 'Cloud PCs' prices start at. I'd guess the will charge over 10% of that for 'Cloud PC Reserve'

Doomed UK smartphone maker Bullitt Group finally liquidated

Creditor hierarchy

Secured creditors, those with a claim on specific assets

Administrator/Liquidator fees

Preferential creditors like employees for wages and certain HMRC debts,

then unsecured creditors.

BUT employees preferential entitled is arrears of wages is up to a maximum of £800, and holiday pay!

Re: At least PWC were paid!

I suspect it would be more accurate to say "PWC were paid part of their fee!" given that all liquidators I've heard of, charge hundreds of pounds an hour I expect they actually made a significant loss. My heart bleeds for them!

NASA to silence Voyager's social media accounts

Re: No tears children ..

"It's all part of the dismantling of the state and it's agencies the people voted for." Not all Americans voted for him! 77,302,580 49.8% did but 75,017,613 48.3% voted for Kamala. They have my sympathies!

I've realised Trump has done me one favour. I often buy goods priced in US$ they are now about 10% cheaper thanks to his undermining of the dollar.

Odd homage to '2001: A Space Odyssey' sees 'Blue Danube' waltz beamed at Voyager 1

Disappointed!

I was disappointed that the film didn't show the final stages of docking. I was looking forward to comparing it with my abysmal record of docking in Elite!

Torvalds' typing taste test touches tactile tragedy

Re: Strange keyboards are the bane of IT support

This left (both) handed keyboard is a bit more reasonably priced.

https://www.cjemicros.co.uk/micros/individual/newprodpages/prodinfo.php?prodcode=A4T-USBKBDLH-BK

Tab key on the right please

I often have to input a lot of numbers and then use the tab key at the other end of the keyboard to the number keypad. I've yet to see a keyboard with a tab key near the number pad.

Re: Strange keyboards are the bane of IT support

"What I wish I could find is a keyboard with the number pad and/or function keys on the LEFT side". Left or 'both' handed keyboards are readily available. I've been selling an a4tech one for well over 10 years.

If you can learn to use the mouse with one hand and a numeric keypad with the other I'm sure some data entry could be much quicker!

HMRC's Making Tax Digital scheme also made tax more expensive – by £300M

Re: Keying is not compliant

Please point us to the regs that forbid keying?

The overview document at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital doesn't seem to have any regs!

When?

When is this quarterly account submission coming in? I've not heard anything. (VAT has always been quarterly for most businesses)

Re: Small business VAT

I've heard no suggestion that mytaxdigital.co.uk will start charging, they told me several years ago that they had to write the submission software for their own use, I think they see it as publicity for their services.

Re: Small business VAT

For VAT returns I use the free service available at:https://mytaxdigital.co.uk/

It only takes a couple of minutes to enter the 9 boxes!

There are other similar sites I believe.

HMRC have just sent me a letter saying filing Ltd company accounts is changing next year. I've always submitted on line via the web but the suggestion is I'll need to buy software.

For the partnership I'm in I use Andica.com software, about £25 a year.

Google says it's rolling out fix for stricken Chromecasts

Chromecast alternative?

I have a 2nd generation Chromecast which I don't use much so didn't know of the problem. Looking longer term if they are now discontinued what can I replace it with when it dies?

I only use it to 'cast' video from our laptop!

ESA cuts the ribbon on 34,000-core Space HPC center tailored for space workloads

I wonder if it will run a spillchecker!

The link to send "expressions of interest to has "The ESA Space HPC will allow you to boost your projects by performing complex computations and processing massive datasets more efficiently and rapidely"

It also says "We will come back to you shortly to 'exchange' on your needs." what’s wrong with the word discuss?

Troubled French outsourcer Atos finds pot of gold at the end of UK state bank Rainbow

Where is all the money going?

With contracts like these how are Atos not making vast profits but instead are being bailed out by the French government?

SpaceX has an explanation for the Falcon 9 bits that hit Poland

Batteries toxic?

"...venting all propellant and discharging the batteries..." so what happened to the batteries?

They'd be dense so less likely to break up totally during re-entry and won't they be toxic?

Your days of driver sync via Windows Server Update Services are numbered

Implications?

What (if any) are the Implications for home and small business users?

Most of whom (including me) have just let Windows Update do its thing.

Remember it'll cost ya to keep the lights on for Windows 10

$30 Option for consumers

From ElReg's first posting on this subject: "The ESU program for consumers will be a one-year option available for $30." https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/31/microsoft_windows_10_support/

Intel pitches modular PC designs to make repairs less painful

Re: WTF

Only the A3000 was an all-in-the-keyboard Archimedes. The A300 and A400 series had separate keyboards. For the later all-in-the-keyboard A3010 and A3020 the name Archimedes had been dropped.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

Interface that looks a lot like Windows 10?

With most? Windows users on Windows 10 what is needed is an interface that looks a lot like Windows 10

Also I use 7+ Taskbar tweaker to let me reorder my Firefox windows, is there anything that would do that on linux?

First all-Indian chips to debut this year, 25 more local designs in the works

40 years out of date, they were making chips in India back in 1984!

In 1984 SCL were making 6502 CPUs and building them into an authorised BBC Micro clone the 'SCL Unicorn'! I bought and sold one a few years ago. More details and photos at:

https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/Computers/SCL_BBCB.html

In 1984 6502 weren't that far behind the curve I expect India couldn't keep up with the vast investments needed for chip manufacturing.

Tech support fill-in given no budget, no help, no training, and no empathy for his plight

Re: Prejudice in fiction

Wikipedia lists no 'Biggles in the Sud'. Biggles in Africa & Biggles in the Gobi are the closest I could see.

BT unplugs plans to turn old cabinets into EV chargepoints

Re: the Wi-Fi connectivity challenge surrounding EVs

Many people will sit in their cars whilst they are being charged, they will want WiFi