Posts by Eeep !

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 struggles to take off

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

Why are you suggesting the quality of programmers is to blame for the decisions around product launch server provisioning?

Do you have any evidence it was a programmer that maded that sort of choice?

After fears that Europe's space scope was toast, its first images look mighty fine

Re: "Here's looking at Euclid"

You expect originality here ?

Sarah Silverman, novelists sue OpenAI for scraping their books to train ChatGPT

Re: Hmmm, I wonder..

Why not default to not scrape unless there is a <yes-llm-me> ?

Make your neighbor think their house is haunted by blinking their Ikea smart bulbs

Re: Why???

Do you stand by the machine at 2am to start it ?

Or do you mean stand by the machine to program the delayed start time ?

Xcel smart thermostat users lose their cool after power company locks them out

Re: Control issues

With a little Python script and spreadsheet magic it's possible to identify when power is being used regularly through out the day because there are 30 minute period readings - which over time helps build a picture of consumption rathher than just while looking at the mini-display gadget.

Re: Control issues

"sneaked" seems inacurate, didn't the users sign-up for a deal based on the fact the meter could control this ? How else did they think the deal would be enforced

?

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

Re: Living in a bubble?

Is it possible that others want different features beyopnd your use cases ?

Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? Consult our cynic's guide to desktop Linux

Re: Not be happy ... to reinstall my OS from scratch every year or two

Your housemate needs a change of career/lifestyle - or possibly to have mutliple machines - or possibly to see what VMs can provide.

Microsoft gives Notepad a minimalist makeover to match Windows 11 style

Re: Dark?

Nortel (Northern Telecom) used to produce monitors (in the Vienna range) that had black text on white background as the default, and my younger eyes preferred them compared to white text on black when coding for long periods.

ZX Specturm was black-text-on-white-background and I also liked the white or yellow on a blue background in one of the assembler editors (HiTech ?)

Does having a dark/black background mean that there is/was a significant power saving for the monitor ?

Where (I don't know it isn't there) is the evidence that lighter text on darker background it actually better than the opposite ?

Why are you using Notepad so much that it needs a dark mode ?

Notepad is a basic text editor for use in the most "I need the most basic editor Windows supports" - editing Windows specific config files.

Anyone using Notepad enough to request a dark mode has chosen the wrong tool for the editing they are doing.

It is a poor sign that Microsoft have caved to these requests rather than just point them to more flexible editors like Visual Studio Code.

Lenovo says it’s crammed a workstation into a litre of space – less than three cans of beer

Motherboard capability only, thought this was a computer savey place ?

Does anyone actually check the capabilities of their motherboards these days? Don't most (all) have COM 1/2 pins even now, just not connected to the case? It's a legacy thing.

Standard motherboard support with pins, but no actual connectors on back - if you need to use it, get a cheap motherboard pin connector to 9-pin D back plate thing - or whatever connecer yor device needs.

Article hack has just regurgitated the listed of possible ports on the spec sheet.

Nominet sets the date for extraordinary meeting where members could fire CEO

They are posting a video on the voting page - so who will believe the results if they win ?

Am I missing something other than the stupidity of Nominet in actively trying to sway voters on the voting page without providing a chance for others to have an equivalent video against the proposal ?

Who is going to believe the results are valid if the motion is defeated ? Who actually manages the voting, a third party ? If not, why not ?

Is it just a holding move to allow liquidation of relevant holdings and for people to scarper?

Raspberry Pi Foundation moves into microcontrollers with the $4 Pi Pico using homegrown silicon

Re: Annoyingly low on RAM

Agree with the scentiment (similar experiance with 8031/8051 devices in the past) - but if every chip came with 8GB (RPi4 max) then the cost of most embedded systems would prohibit actually implementing them.

From a software view that sounds like normal embedded development (or any to be honest), hitting a limits of hardware resources, trying to workaround the limitation in someway and then at some point (after an hour or a year of effort) deciding that the problem is better solved using different hardware - may only be the next chip up in the line.

Perhaps hardware is spec'd correctly for the original requirements - and allowed the cost of the device to cost only £1, allowing millions of the product to be sold. Adding another feature might only need an extra bit of RAM or an extra byte of instruction ROM, but if hardware doesn't have it then it won't be possible without changing the hardware platform. Upgrading the hardware platform might cause the platform cost to increase to £2, reducing the product viability. This is not an uncommon problem.

If millions more of the product are sold then it might be worth the developer time to maintain RAM/ROM optimised code. If not, then revise hardware and sell version 2 of the product with the extra feature + cost.

RAM is "cheap" as a stick for adding to a PC, in the embedded world it is not cheap compared to the overall manufactured part.

In your example either the platform is under spec'd for the intended use or a resource limit has been reached as extra features have been added.

Apple appears to be charging Brits £309 to replace AirPods Max batteries, while Americans need only stump up $79

Re: Apple! Earphones to make your eyes water

Not to be confused with Opal Fruits.

When you tell Chrome to wipe private data about you, it spares two websites from the purge: Google.com, YouTube

How did they think this wouldn't be noticed ?

It's like they want to distract you with little stuff so you aren't thinking how you are being exploited in the BIG picture !

No a conspiracy nut - just suggesting you read the words rather than follow the bouncing ball.

Surprise! Apple launches iOS 14 today, and developers were given just 24 hours' notice

Oh, just wait for the claim - the longer they leave it the more likely their users will believe - mist of memory effect.

Apples or the exteranl parties?

Class move, Java. Coding language slips to third place behind Python in latest popularity contest

Re: I Wonder...

Python generally has enough options to get a a lot of jobs done quite quickly/easily - proof of concept if not good enough for a production ready solution.

For a lot of people it is good enough to achieve what they want without worrying about the detail C/C++ requires - so unless there is a specific requirement for Raspberry Pi being used at ultimate optimisation then Python is probably fine. I mean it's not like handcrafted assembler handling execution pipeline sequencing for each possible CPU on a family with different hardware, but then if you are using C/C++ compilers for production systems perhaps you aren't worried about that level of optimisation either.

Horses for courses, and if people are using Python on RPis to get the stuff they want done then I'm more than happy they aren't wasting their lives re-writing the wheel for microseconds of un-necessary optimisation.

Also, are you sure most embeded systems use C/C++ for the user application layer, perhaps it's only OS/drivers/board support packages that are in C/C++ and Java might actually be more for the actual applications people integrate with?

Bill Gates debunks 'coronavirus vaccine is my 5G mind control microchip implant' conspiracy theory

Re: What if MS had not become dominant ?

CP/M would have evolved to be similar to MS DOS/Windows as soon as a CPM/<windows-ish-thing> was possible. Who knows, possibly a better more inclusive/accessible bunch of INTs?

And as for GEM - excellent compared with Framemaker and whatever drawing components MS Office supports these days. It wasn't the features it supported, just that it was obvious what the "click-to-select" would actually select, and Framemaker had a contextual menu that seemed to select the least applicable option, seriously, select a circle, click the menu, click three times to get the menu option you originally wanted from the list - it was like no-one actually had real usage patterms.

Utilitarian, long-bodied Nokia 5.3 has budget basic specs - but it does cost £150

Name the phones please

Any chance of naming the phones so we can all agree with the build quality ?

80-characters-per-line limits should be terminal, says Linux kernel chief Linus Torvalds

Proportional spaced fonts might be a better solution

These days isn't it about keeping code to a practical width to read on many monitor sizes when comparing code side-by-side?

Actually I'm surprised the suggestion isn't to use proportional spaced fonts.

O2 be a fly on the wall during BT and Vodafone's video calls: Telefónica's UK biz, Virgin Media officially merge

They'll have to get fizzical to take that.

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

Re: Hanlon's razor

Seriously, I'm sickened by the ideas and detail here and follow up posts - it sadness me that people like you are part of IT in anyway shape or form. And I can only hope that forum administrators aren't of a similar view.

Artful prankster creates Google Maps traffic jams by walking a cartful of old phones around Berlin

Re: Can't stop smiling

Only read the article in the expectation of some Etch A Sketch style art over a city - hoping someone can organise a Tempest snapshot somewhere.

'An issue of survival': Why Mozilla welcomes EU attempts to regulate the internet giants

El Reg less relevant to IT as ***** ** ****** * ***** ** *** commentards die off ?

Age appropriate eye sight loss related to f*ckwittery about female attractiveness?

Facebook mulls tagging pics with 'radioactive' markers to trace the origin of photos used to build image-recog AI

Does anyone at FB think about the language they use?

Now I can tell people that looking at pictures on Facebook is dangerous because they are radioactive - and it is Facebook telling us that.

Apple finally clambers to top of phone market again as spider-eyed iPhone 11 lures fanatics out of the shadows

Re: Already way too expensive

Actually you haven't debunked the value consideration, just said others might think there there is more value. Which you might want to back up with actual stats, purchasing isn't proof of those people thinking there's better value, just more "glam".

BBC tells Conservative Party to remove edited Facebook ad featuring its reporters

Guessing your problem is tracking the the occurences of the phrase is really with the number 0 - because your mention of this term is the first time it's been mentioned in any conversation (directly or overheard), radio broasdcast, TV, or web article or discussion, since the referendum.

Complete with keyboard and actual, literal, 'physical' escape key: Apple emits new 16" $2.4k+ MacBook Pro

Re: Trade in

Want to explain the reason for downvote? I don't understand your reasoning - enlighten me.

Re: Selective deafness

What is it that makes it that makes the MacBook Pro preferable to the other systems you have access to? Genuinely interested.

Bad news, developers: Apple Mac App Store tells cross-platform Electron apps to get lost

Private APIs - not learning from history?

Didn't Microsoft get into trouble over private APIs? How did that work-out? Could Apple have learned from that?

Socket to the energy bill: 5-bed home with stupid number of power outlets leaves us asking... why?

Re: priorities

Perhaps the compainers about grammar are hoping to prove themselves worthy of something? Supporting the shibboleths around grammar (which often adds little to actual understand) helps their self esteme in a computing/science forum that is about facts rather then arbritary rules?

Blood money is fine with us, says GitLab: Vetting non-evil customers is 'time consuming, potentially distracting'

If your code is important to you is GitLab the place to store it?

Title askes the question.

How do we stop filling the oceans with Lego? By being a BaaS-tard, toy maker suggests

Of all the plastic things Lego is probably the least single use

A recent BBC radio programme detailed the research Lego were investing in in reusable plastics and then had a reporter asking an unfortunate Lego employee about recycling. Which was unfair because all the Lego representative could really explain was that he had played with Lego his father had played with and now his son played with the same bricks - hardly a tale of rampant enviromental destruction - which appeared to be what their customers did. And that's the sort of thing I'm seeing in the people around me - parents passing their Lego down to their kids and then their kids.

Seriously, beyond drinking straws there was no serious questioning in the radio show of single use medical items or plastic single use hot drink/soup item packaging where you add hot water and throw away the packaging, or those cable ties and plastic blisterpack shells used for security. Have there been any studies on what happens to loombands, or Hama/Aqua beads and similar toys that are basically used once to create some sort of mosaic art?

Is there ever truely an unwanted Lego brick? (except the ones temporarily in a parent's sole) Does anyone ever throw away Lego on purpose, except out of ignorance or spite?

And by-the-way the Lego Replay initiative appears to be an awesome idea!

Overstock's share price has plummeted. Is it Trump's trade war? Bad results? Nope, its CEO has gone bonkers...

Re: A generation ago

Yes there are rememberers but it is not really relevant is it. Are you more than a bot commenting on "CEO" related topics?

Behold, the world's most popular programming language – and it is...wait, er, YAML?!?

How long have you been waiting to shoehorn that into a comment?

Especially as decent text editors have an option to display whitespace in some way.

Influential Valley gadfly and Intel 8051 architect John Wharton has died

Re: 8051: one of the most widely used

The 8051 architecture and the miriad of variation including the 8052 variations were used in things that needed just enough processing power and no more, especially for controlling simple display and button inputs. A couple of interrupts and a few bytes of memory can support a lot of functionality.

Things like corporate PBX handsets with a 2x16 display and 8/16 buttons almost certainly had an 805x controller, and less obvious things like petrol pumps had an 805x in them somewhere.

Even the Tini Java computer on a stick had an 8051 based core (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Internet_Interface)

Think it was a good enough architecture with enough scope for variations of features/expansions that it could be considered an industry standard, a developer and the tools developers just had to understand the variations to be able to use them effectively.

Tax me if you can: VMware UK tosses shrunken offering to HMRC

Re: Poor emotion driven article

"Most people think most taxes are wasted which is why most people wouldn't pay them were they voluntary."

Please can you provide a source that confirms that most people think that most taxes are wasted?

Especially if they indicate which of the NHS/police/fire/social services they consider the biggest waste of their taxes?

Chuck this on expenses: £2k iPad paints Apple as the premium fondleslab specialist – as planned

Re: 2000 quid?

What were the other devices?

Facebook names former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg head of global affairs

Are you suggesting he held out for the price of his values? Doesn't he have Facebook employees doing him a favour? Well, "favour" is probably not how it will be described in a few months.

UKIP flogs latex love gloves: Because Brexit means Brexit

Kitemark?

Assuming the UKIP purchasers would want to know it wasn't just CE.

Google Chrome: HTTPS or bust. Insecure HTTP D-Day is tomorrow, folks

Re: Yay... maybe?

Please explain how this is setting up a MITM attack.

US prison telco accused of selling your phone's location to the cops

Erm, have all those apps on my phone and can say that it's not the presence of those apps on your device that's the problem - why do you open them?

Regularly use Skype/WhatsApp/Instagram to communicate with people on the other side of the world and they improve my life - variety being interesting.

Want to describe what it was that made you think the apps were the problem?

And your comments about reading books; strangely know lots of people that complain they read less in this digital time - myself moved to audio books a long time ago (was always a BBC R4 listener) and find it annoying that those people that complain about being short of reading, and when challenged about listening time, haven't a clue about any of the books they have an opinion about - especially when particularly inaccurate.

Apple's magical quality engineering strikes again: You may want to hold off that macOS High Sierra update...

Re: Apple Update Time

You re-installed Windows 4 times before realising that installing iTunes was the problem???

Assuming you re-installed Windows (what version?) which must have worked and then installed iTunes which stopped it working.

My Tibetan digital detox lasted one morning, how about yours?

Is anyone actually interested in what Dabbs writes? Or just in up-ing their comment count? Or are replies to him just the only way they can register a smidgen of significance of a life before dementia means they and no-one else will be interested? Who cares about the details any of you have told us - guess 1 - and even you are probably bored by them.

Programming languages can be hard to grasp for non-English speakers. Step forward, Bato: A Ruby port for Filipinos

True, but is that really the point that was being made?

Surely having a way to tell the language parser that that the source matches an offical language translation version wouldn't be that wrong would it?

If various different computer languages can be used to generate byte code (at whatever level) that runs on the the same JVM and/or CLR (or whatever is "executing" the program) then that's already proved that the exact character strings in the program source files are not important to the program as it is executing - Javascript minified code is also a good example. It's how the program source text files are interpretted to produce the byte code.

Identifier names and comments are more problematic, and for these an IDE might be useful in supporting annotations/translations for these in different langauges. It might even be that comments and identifier names could be stored outside of the file and in something like a parallel part of source code control systems so that translations/clarifications could be added and tracked in a similar way, available to all viewing the source.

OK, who is shooting at Apple staff buses in California? Knock it off

Re: Nuts *and* no imagination

Perhaps it's all just a scheme to reduce the cost of running the bus?

Apple succeeds in failing wearables

How?

Please explain how you verify your assertion than "It very accurately monitors my calorie burn throughout the day".

TfL to track Tube users in stations by their MAC addresses

Why are they measuring?

Whenever I'm in the metropolis there are shed loads of Oyster card users. They are giving up info about entry and entrance to the underground system. And if you have an Oyster card I'm guessing you are fairly knowledgeable about the optimal routes through complex stations.

I don't know if 1 day travel/capital type and normal (single / return) type tickets can be tracked in some way so perhaps they are are only indicating general numbers through stations, not station to station journeys.

Perhaps this helping with measuring flow around large stations once you are outside the actual barriers.

Wonder if they are considering having coffee and sandwich shops inside the system (barriers) for those that are waiting, but only know they are waiting after passing through the barriers. That would suggest the possibility of trains being delayed until enough mocha-latte had been purchased.

Bye bye, booth babes. IT security catwalk RSA nixes sexy outfits

What's wrong with tank tops?????

The only thing I can think of against tank tops is that they appear to be all the same! Two people (female) in my office thought I had a tank top that matched the diamonded LEGO programmer figure - my only tank top is solid brown!