Posts by Dan 55

The 40-Year-Old Version: ZX81's sleek plastic case shows no sign of middle-aged spread

Re: Avoid if at all possible...

Why just wait for the errata in next week's Input when far more fun* was to be had looking at the listings for the other computers and porting the fix over to yours?

* I think that's the word.

Re: Retro-Wreckers

It's a shame they screwed up delivering the ZX83 (QL) because they wanted to continue the yearly cycle.

Re: "Some dealt with the RAM pack with..."

One does not simply cite an old home computing magazine in a forum, one has to post a link to archive.org as well.

I haven't bought new pants for years, why do I have to keep buying new PCs?

Re: When you say "pants",

Yes.

AdGuard names 6,000+ web trackers that use CNAME chicanery: Feel free to feed them into your browser's filter

Re: someone correct me but

Your system will make two requests, but unless your browser is Firefox your adblocker won't know and it'll still look like deviouscname.firstparty.tld.

Chancellor launches £500m business software subsidy in the UK. What's 'approved' software then?

Re: Sounds great

So how does this work with subscription software, which most stuff is nowadays. Are uk.gov subsidising the first payment or the first year's payment?

Sounds great

Just enough for SMEs to buy the software they need do the online VAT return for MTD, now that HMRC has knocked bridging software from spreadsheets on the head and turned it into a closed shop.

Google says once third-party cookies are toast, Chrome won't help ad networks track individuals around the web

Re: Once upon a time...

The amount of cookies being flung about on each individual page download made it impractical to continue having Yes/No pop-up for each individual cookie, but Firefox does offer cookie controls for many types of cookies based on what they are used for (tracking, social networks, etc...).

Re: Targeting

The dangers were highlighted a decade ago in a 2011 Ted Talk by Eli Pariser (9 minutes), about 7 years after Google started personalising search and 5 years after Facebook personalised their news feed. The speaker argued that extreme personalisation based just on what the user likes seeing should stop or we risk dividing society and the audience, which included employees from Google and Facebook, gave a rapturous applause at the end.

And then nothing changed and here we are today.

If Google and Apple won't help us, we'll sort it out the Linux way: 21 companies form Mobile Native Foundation

Seems an odd thing for the Linux Foundation to host

Android has a Linux kernel, Apple doesn't even have that, both are barely Linux as we know it. Shouldn't this be something the GSMA should be hosting?

It's not easy being green: EV HTTPS cert seller Sectigo questions Chrome's logic in burying EV HTTPS cert info

Re: Google made the decision?

If you've got a green padlock next to the bar, you'll notice it's there. But, if you've got a grey padlock (i.e. HTTPS with a non EV cert) there, will you notice and remember that it should have been green? Most (apparently) won't.

UI fail by Google. It should have been green for both HTTPS and HTTPS EV.

It's also the reason why they switched to not making a big deal in the UI about a site being HTTPS, but showing a big red "NOT SECURE" next to HTTP only sites. You don't notice the lack of a HTTPS notifier, but you will notice the big red warning.

That's because Google decided the new definition of security was more about not being open to mass data slurping, before it was more about being authenticated with the website you're supposed to be authenticated with.

As a theory, it sounds perfectly plausible, to be honest - certainly plausible enough that Firefox were also trying it (in fact, they might have done it first, I can't really remember)

Firefox had a better UI, it was green for both HTTPS and HTTPS EV and EV certs also had the business name in green next to the padlock as well. But Mozilla followed Google's lead as per usual ("Soon after Chrome's announcement, Mozilla also announced").

Didn't downvote by the way.

Re: Google made the decision?

Why would you need to click to check for the details, just the visible difference next to the address bar is enough to show you've landed on the bank's page instead of a phishing site and (hopefully) the real bank has taken the trouble to apply for an EV cert and the domain registrar has taken the trouble to verify that.

It's one more thing you check along with the address to make sure you're at the right site. Idiots are going to enter their password into anything, but it doesn't mean other people didn't find it useful.

As Silly Valley only measures metrics based on where the mouse pointer is or what people clicked on they missed the point. It only takes Google to do something for everyone else to follow suit like lemmings.

Hacking is not a crime – and the media should stop using 'hacker' as a pejorative

Re: In Japan it is

All of this because Nintendo still haven't managed to properly sign game save files.

Re: Too late

Now that's a problem, I want hacker to keep its meaning (and lifehack arguably uses hack from the old meaning), but I'm not really bothered about master/slave, blacklist/whitelist, and others being replaced by new words.

Perl.com theft blamed on social engineering attack: Registrar 'convinced' to alter DNS records by miscreants

It could have been worse

Instead of good old-fashioned domain flipping and taking the money and running, they could have made a copy of the website and loaded it with malware.

UK government may force online retailers to pick up e-waste from consumers

Re: A lot of kit is "designed" to be thrown away

It will only be economically viable because prices will have gone through the roof if you don't recycle. That's not quite the point of recycling. Still, the invisible hand and all that.

Re: Dreamer...

Unicorn-driven carriages available from Q3 2021.

Apple, forced to rate product repair potential in France, gives itself modest marks

Re: Apple motto

For computers, I can't think of any reason to chose the App Store over Steam for games, unless you updated to Catastrophe or Big Sur by mistake.

For iDevices Epic got defeated in North Dakota so maybe that's the end of alternative App Stores for iDevices. As Apple testified, a toggle switch to allow 3rd party installs would have been the end of the world as we know it.

Re: Is not an Imac but...

Louis Rossmann is optimistic about it, and the company answered some of his questions in the comments.

Palantir and UK policy: Public health, public IT, and – say it with me – open public contracts

Re: Nope, COVID-19 is not a catch-all excuse for backdoor deals

Don't worry, Labour can't be held accountable for empty promises, they're not promising anything.

If by some miracle they do get in by not promising anything, they'll have realised they need to add legal protection to parliamentary traditions. Starmer is a lawyer after all.

Re: Nope, COVID-19 is not a catch-all excuse for backdoor deals

You only have to look at the party positions in the AV referendum to work out who FPTP currently benefits.

The Tories and the DUP were against AV, Labour were split, the rest were for it, including the Greens which is a one-seat party so it's the very definition of a small party. The Lib Dems, the Greens, and the SNP all said that AV wasn't as fair as PR but it was an improvement on FPTP.

Re: Nope, COVID-19 is not a catch-all excuse for backdoor deals

By voting them out in next elections, if that's mathematically possible.

I think even Labour must have worked by now out that FPTP doesn't benefit them. Shame they screwed up by supporting the status quo in the AV referendum.

There was a way, but it disappeared due to reasons.

'We're finding bugs way faster than we can fix them': Google sponsors 2 full-time devs to improve Linux security

Re: 2 engineers?

If the gold membership is $100,000 then Google have got a bargain for two dedicated systems programmers at $50,000 a pop, or other companies are subsidising their work.

That's how important it is to Google.

Mozilla Firefox keeps cookies kosher with quarantine scheme, 86s third-party cookies in new browser build

Firefox reduced browser fingerprinting when they did the Tor uplift project and again in FF 72. And probably other times as well.

UK's Health Department desperately seeking service provider to run IT after 'cloud-first' shift

Indeed, but is Matt Hancock's mate from down the squash court with a nephew who knows PHP up to the job? Allegedly.

SpaceX small print on Starlink insists no Earth government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities

Re: What a surprise

Seems Musk is inspired by the East India Trading Company, but it needs more than writing it into the EULA to make it happen.

Does Samsung want you to buy new phones? Asking 'cos Galaxies now get four years of security updates

Re: Mandatory 5 year minimum.

Five years of security upgrades is good, but you really don't want to five years of OS upgrades, it just means the device becomes unusable as the hardware struggles under the bloat.

Doctor, I think I have an HDMI: Apple starts investigating M1 Mac Mini graphics issues

The 2011 MBP GPU problems were due to terrible thermal design (so often with Apple) which fried the GPU. If it fried you had to replace the GPU, if it hadn't fried yet then you could apply thermal paste and pads liberally. There was also a software fix for it which was to disable the GPU firmware and make it always use the integrated graphics or (not as good) delete the graphics driver from the OS.

The kids are all right... for Google: Web giant talks up 40 new Chromebook models, school-focused ChromeOS

Google hanging round schools handing out their accounts for free

But they're not trying to get the kids addicted or anything.

UK tax collector won't probe businesses for compliance with IR35 rules unless there's reason to suspect naughtiness

Re: "Trust Us"

"For my friends everything, for my enemies the law."

Recovery time objective missed by four weeks, but Parler is back online

Re: Who's the audience?

Social networks already an echo chamber because they prize engagement above all else so the algorithm shows you things it thinks you already like.

That aside, they still should have the final say on what views are acceptable and what aren't as they are private businesses and they can decide if they want to publish certain views or decide not to. If they decide that they don't want to be a cesspit like Gab, they should not be obliged to be one and people should not be obliged to use a social media network which is a cesspit like Gab.

what purpose do they serve other than as means for the owner to distribute the self interests or idealogies of whoever provides the finance

So, er, like all forms of media, then? Well, at least you've got there in the end.

In summary, private organisations are not forced to give anyone a platform, and people are not forced to listen to them. If nobody wants to listen to you, tough luck.

Now perhaps the Tory party's attempts to force a platform for only certain views is more worrying, wouldn't you agree?

Re: Who's the audience?

Nobody has to give you a voice. You can stand on a soapbox on Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and scream into a megaphone all you want but nobody has to stand there in front of you and listen.

If nobody is giving someone a voice, perhaps their voice isn't worth the time of day or is objectionable?

Re: Who's the audience?

Presumably you call it the Hard Left because you jumped out the Overton window a while back. But anyway, I'll humour you, please tell me what the Hard Left's current agenda is.

Thank you for not marking up your HTML, it means I'm not tempted to copy and paste the addresses of sketchy websites to my browser's address bar to open them. I'm as likely to open RT or Daily Caller as I am Breitbart.

Re: Who's the audience?

Cancel Culture

AKA the freedom of speech that other people have to tell you to stop being objectionable.

File alongside "Conservative voices are being silenced".

British owners of .eu domains given an extra three months to find a European address

Re: I wrote to an MEP

But only one one MEP (or if you live in the UK, none).

Re: I wrote to an MEP

We pretty much are third country nationals.

That really is not true and the UK was indulged a lot during the negotiation period given its proposals for treating EU citizens in the UK and for the multiple "bargaining chip" episodes. You have health, residency, work, pension, visa renewal, and other rights for life in that country that third country nationals do not and you can use your long term residency in that country to relocate to other EU countries with fewer requirements.

In the first month a Greek national was already held for a week when trying to visit the UK despite EU citizens having until July to apply for settled status and visa-free tourism still being a thing between the EU and UK (but not maybe not for much longer if stuff like this goes on) so I would pray that the kleptocracy in the UK don't fuck it up for you.

But if you've been here for less time

The WA guidance notes explicitely state that duration doesn't matter, you just need to exercising tour EU treaty rights by the end of December.

that old wheeze of telling the taxman in one country that you're paying tax in the other and thus don't have any actual tax declarations to prove residency

Allow me to find my atomic-sized violin. By the way, tax and residency are different things, you just need to prove residency. They might help prove residency but other things prove residency too.

Re: I wrote to an MEP

we can no longer vote in local elections, we can't vote for MEPs, nor are we represented by any, and over 15 years and we can't vote in UK elections or referendums.

I'll give you one guess where the politicians that brought about that state of affairs are based. With representation like that, it's a miracle that pre-Brexit Brits in the EU have a special status instead of just being treated like third country nationals (which was May's original plan that she found acceptable for EU citizens in the UK and therefore Brits in the EU).

Re: Good read

Yes, how about it? The UK had the most opt outs of any EU country.

If you've got a problem with fishing you should have brought it to the attention of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee. The UK's representative was Nigel Farage who turned up a grand total of 1 out of 42 times.

Re: Good read

The constant debate in government over whether we have to wear a mask (yes), whether we have to lock down (yes), when we can open up (when the numbers say so) doesn't help.

And neither does members of the ruling class going off to test their eyesight or go to their second or their third homes (don't do it), and the parade of clowns sent out to defend them doing that (it makes everyone who's making an effort look a fool), then the same parade coming down like a tonne of bricks on everyone else from other parties caught doing something similar because they're not part of the favoured few.

The fish rots from the head down.

It was in the draft but they didn't actually invoke it. But it seems some people in British government circles are milking it for all it's worth.

Re: And refund of the fees?

Presumably finding an alternative domain and arranging for a refund for the .eu domain was what the transition period (Feb 2020-Dec 2020) was for?

Sticking your head in a bucket and pretending it hadn't happen might work for the British government (for small values of work), but odds on the average British citizen is going to be left high and dry if they believe their .eu domain is going to work in 2021.

If this is a problem, take it up with your local government (for local people).

We imagine this maths professor's lecture was fascinating – sadly he was muted for two hours

Re: I'll be honest...

You mean you don't get some god-awful thing which makes you watch a video and click the answers and you can't stick it in the background or take too long to respond otherwise it decides you've cheated?

helloSystem: Pre-alpha FreeBSD project chases simplicity and elegance by taking cues from macOS

There is no shortage of desktops, but most are based on KDE and Gnome, which manage to fail spectacularly, as he convincingly argues if you read through it all (link posted above by another commentard).

You can use them but have to constantly patch them to make them usable and you are held hostage to their next crazy idea, or you can roll your own. I guess developing his own desktop on a BSD is in some ways a challenge to Linux to sort its act out when it comes to GUI usability.

Re: But it actually looks nothing like macOS

That is not a fail, that is a win.

The guy specifically states it's about returning to the simplicity of 90s computing, including GUIs which actually followed rules which were based on useability studies. You learnt the GUI, you could use every piece of software there was.

I realise this sounds like "old man yells at cloud" but I can't see how present-day GUIs are an improvement on that. Practically every piece of software is different today, huge areas of screen estate are used up for no good reason, the response time is abysmal, items in lists move around just before you click on them so you click on the wrong thing, badly contrasting colours and fonts hide information from you, not even the OS designers can follow their own rules. Bah humbug.

Re: Global menu bars?

Amiga OS -- but you had to right-click to open the menus

But it wasn't particularly difficult to do as you didn't need to click before moving the mouse or when the pointer was inside the menu bar, you could just push the pointer up and hold right button down some time before the pointer hit the top of the screen, choose the menu option from the menu which would automatically open because the pointer was over the menu bar and the right button was pressed, then release the right button. Easier than the Mac's OS at the time I think.

Microsoft issues emergency fix for Wi-Fi foul-up delivered hot and fresh on Patch Tuesday

In addition to the other well-known noob distros that have been mentioned, there's also Pop and Elementary.

Re: We used to be able to choose when we update

Marking the Wi-Fi connection as metered delays updates (I think).

Failing that, you can always install Linux which appears to have fewer Wi-Fi problems.

Nominet vows to freeze wages and prices, boost donations, and be more open. For many members, it’s too little, too late

Carry on grifting

Seems odd that Nominet are suddenly having a conscience when everyone else who can is part of the chumocracy. They should just be shameless and blazen it out with the rest of them, that way they'd be untouchable.