Posts by Richard 12

Joe Danger rides to the rescue as ageing title tugs at the heartstrings

Re: Backwards compatibility

Apple remove APIs and even change hardware requirements very often.

There is a long trail of software and hardware accessories that no longer work on any Apple devices you can currently buy, and it's not because the developer used something undocumented.

It's because Apple changed the operating system and hardware platform out from under them, and it either wasn't worth it for the developers to spend the time or it wasn't technically feasible.

Software for Apple devices has a very short window in which it can be made to work. It's ridiculous.

Re: “It’s sad that games slowly rot and many disappear.”

Looking at previous examples - these games do stay the same.

For example, the Freespace Source Code Project lets you play that original game with the original content on modern hardware. As far as I can tell it looks and feels exactly the same.

There's also a pile of remastered models and a huge array of modded content, of course.

Windows boss Panos Panay talks up 'new era of the PC' – translation: An era of new PCs

It was forced on my sister

She didn't want to upgrade to Win 11, and it didn't ask. It just did it.

She now can't use that machine to access several of the "web apps" required to do her job*. Fortunately she has a laptop that's "too old" for Win 11 so can still work, but it's totally ruined her workflow and she is mightily pissed off.

* They're Silverlight. Presumably because some Government wonk hired a fool or a Harding to develop it.

Throw away your Ethernet cables* because MediaTek says Wi-Fi 7 will replace them

Re: Powerline?

Powerline is wireless over shitty waveguides.

So yes, you are sharing bandwidth with everyone else on your phase.

It's great as long as nobody else has it.

What data transfer physical medium are you suggesting for a user who can't run cables, use wireless or any preexisting power cable? Magic?

Re: 40Gbps sounds amazing, but...

There's no market for anything faster than 1Gbps but slower than "the fastest feasible"

Datacentre needs the fastest you can give it, but home and office usage is almost always practically limited by the Internet connection, which is currently almost always in the region of 40-500Mbps, and basically never faster than 1Gbps.

Dunno if that was solved for 10

As they're actually fallback symbol rates of 10Gbps, why sell at 2.5Gbps when you can sell it as 10Gbps

Power delivery adds further complexity, I know the 2-wire Ethernet standards committees are currently trying to figure out how to do that. Dunno if that's solved for 10/5/2.5Gbps though.

So, what are you going to do with 5Gbps?

Re: The answer is more power

Whatever happened to LiFi?

Microsoft's do-it-all IDE Visual Studio 2022 came out late last year. How good is it really?

Re: VS 2022 is 64-bit

WSL2 is pretty good, but there's a lot of vwry silly issues (eg RAM usage is crazy) and things you just can't do because of the way it's hidden behind Windows.

For example, it doesn't appear to be possible to send any UDP packets into a WSL2 VM - the Windows portmapper is TCP only.

So you can't test things like HTTP/3 servers at all.

Re: assuming they don't add more breaking changes with version 7

The Microsoft C++ redists are shockingly stable.

Backwards compatible all the way back to 2015 is an outstanding achievement. I don't think there is any other native code toolchain that's even tried to be half as compatible.

Or indeed any toolchain - Java is a hot mess if versions, after all.

Re: Most microsoft advice ever

VS Code is not Visual Studio

Just saying.

In my experience Visual Studio starts up very fast since the 2019 version, faster than most other IDEs.

The Perforce plugin then turns it into a snail, but that's Helix for you. There's a reason Microsoft don't use Perforce anymore...

Farm machinery giant John Deere plows into two right-to-repair lawsuits

Re: Pity the lawsuits didn't include

Always start with the slam-dunk case.

Then you've got precedent to win the rest more easily.

IPv6 is built to be better, but that's not the route to success

Re: in IT for 27 years

The "I can't remember it because hex" is simply bogus. The address space is far, far bigger and that's the whole damn point.

Here's three options for 128 bits. Which is easiest?

2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

2001:db8::8a2e:370:7334

32.01.13.184.0.0.0.0.0.0.138.46.3.112.115.52

There are other possible human encodings, but at the end of the day 128bits is a long number in any representation. Most humans aren't going to remember that no matter what you do.

Re: Won't happen in my lifetime

There was a heck of a lot of peer-to-peer in the pre CGNAT era

To name some really big ones, Skype, bittorrent and (I think) Windows Update.

European silicon output shrinking, metal smelters closing as electricity prices quadruple, trade body warns

Re: Not only that

You're insane, herman.

Not quite

The "free" market will always try to find ways to externalise their costs, even temporarily - if they get someone else to pay they make more paper profits today. Screw tomorrow.

- Government subsidies.

- Privatised profits, pile risk onto the taxpayer.

- Pollution, don't bother cleaning up, leave that to the taxpayer or some future other entity.

- Worker abuse etc

- Skip maintenance, leave that to the taxpayer or some future entity.

Preventing this requires regulation and enforcement.

Germany is dependent on coal

A very large proportion of German electricity is imported from Polish coal fired plants.

That was the immediate consequence of their panic attack.

Reserves

Have a technical definition - stuff we know we can dig up and how much it'd cost in terms of machinery and manpower. (Not actual cash of course as that inflates).

There is a heck of a lot more that we know where and how much, but nobody has yet done the figures for how much it'll cost to get it.

They haven't done those calculations because there's no reason to until the reserves fall below some level.

You don't get an estimate for (eg) replacing the roof until you're almost ready to start the work.

Re: Gas

The insane ones scream the loudest, unfortunately.

You know the ones. They tend to be large organisations with "Green" in the name, and push for policies that are actually "cull the human race", yet weirdly aren't volunteering.

APNIC: Big Tech's use of carrier-grade NAT is holding back internet innovation

Re: It's the mobile networks that seem to be stuck in CGNAT

Peer-to-peer video calling, for example.

Right now that's impossible for a lot of people, they must call via an intermediary - who then knows who they called and for how long.

I remember when Skype was genuinely peer-to-peer.

A business who needs their employees to VPN in cannot be behind CGNAT.

This is one of the reasons ISPs charge more for business connections - but they are running out.

Open source, closed wallets, big profits – nobody wins the OSS rock, paper, scissors game

Sueballs are a red herring

Has anyone successfully sued Microsoft or Apple for software that's not fit for purpose?

The key advantage of relying on something FOSS is that you can fork it and pay someone of your choice to fix it if it breaks or isn't the right shade of teal.

With commercial software, if it breaks and the supplier won't fix it, you're usually screwed - even if you have the source, the licence agreement often prohibits you doing much.

Not the only thing

There are many examples of publicly traded shares crashing because the company did something "morally wrong" (but not illegal), even though such moral turpitude arguably (or even clearly) did create larger profits.

Some of these have resulted in lawsuits, which makes them easier to find if you search. *cough meta*

Re: "Being commercial doesn't automagically do that either. "

How about web browser engines - all three of them are open source. Webkit, Chromium and Gecko killed the closed source ones so completely that even Microsoft couldn't justify keeping IE alive.

Web servers too. Apache is far better than IIS, for example.

Aside from that, FOSS is the glue that holds the world together. Commercial software tends to sit at the endpoints (user and hardware), with FOSS providing the interoperability and interconnectivity.

In a lot of cases, the commercial software is "merely" a skin around the FOSS software that actually does the tasks. Which is fine of course.

Bug in WebKit's IndexedDB implementation makes Safari 15 leak Google account info... and more

Re: Google Account part of the vunerability?

No, just an example

Austrian watchdog rules German company's use of Google Analytics breached GDPR by sending data to US

Re: Impossible?

GDPR allows data that is necessary to provide the service to be collected and processed in order to provide the specific service.

So you can have a login and payment processing, store and serve up said emails and documents.

You cannot do any data analysis or further processing on any of said login, payment details, emails and documents.

In other words, you can sell me a service, or even show advertising at me to fund a free service, but you are not allowed to be a creepy stalker or sell or otherwise permit someone else to stalk me.

Tesla Full Self-Driving videos prompt California's DMV to rethink policy on accidents

Swap 'possible' for 'feasible'

Better.

Video only relies on a huge amount of contextual information - bridges are made of these kinds of stuff and exist in these kinds of places (cuttings etc), Audi drivers will cut you up, Mercs are probably going to climb into your boot etc.

I'm certain that it's possible to make an autonomous vehicle that only has video (and perhaps audio) external sensors, because there are tens of thousands of examples of excellent ones.

However, it's clear that it's very difficult, because there are also tens of thousands of examples of abysmally dangerous ones - and many millions of mediocre autonomous agents.

They also seem to take about 30-40 years to gain sufficient training data. 17-20 years is borderline.

Scam, pyramid scheme, environmental disaster: Vivaldi boss shares his thoughts on crypto-coins

Some of us have morals

I don't invest in things that rely on fleecing someone else.

This does mean my returns are somewhat lower than the people running these ponzi schemes, of course, but I sleep better knowing that I have not pushed someone into poverty, even unintentionally.

Open source maintainer threatens to throw in the towel if companies won't ante up

Re: My admiration

All x86, amd64, and arm64 are little endian.

Most 32bit Arm is little endian too, though some older ones can select an endian at startup.

Big endian is almost non existent now.

Data centre outfit Interxion hit with outage at central London facility

Re: Too much power corrupts

Well, that doesn't comply with electrical safety standards in several jurisdictions.

Depending on exactly where this is, it may not be actually illegal but it is rather likely to invalidate insurance.

The wire is more likely to melt first, if that's any consolation.

Meta Platforms demands staffers provide proof of COVID-19 booster vaccine before returning to office

Re: I'm a vaccine

Most of what you just said is completely untrue, the rest is misleading.

The Covid vaccines are extremely effective. Far better than the flu jabs, in fact.

Vaccines have multiple measures of effectiveness. They do not need to achieve them all to be worthwhile.

1) Reduce the probability of severe disease

2) Reduce the length of infection

3) Reduce the probability of infection

4) Reduce infectiousness

(1) is the most important and the easiest to measure accurately.

You (and others) have been claiming that a vaccine that is ~90% effective at preventing severe disease, but only ~50-60% effective at preventing infection is useless.

That is an indefensible position.

It's like saying you won't remove the spike from your steering wheel because it won't prevent a crash, and you don't care that leaving it fitted means far more crashes will be fatal.

PS: There are several vaccines against TB. You may have heard of BCG? I had one. My daughter had a different one. The UK doesn't routinely use them everywhere anymore because tuberculosis is now rare - entirely because of the vaccines.

Vaccines are probably the single greatest class of invention that mankind has ever come up with.

Re: Good.

That's simply flat wrong.

The claim is based on a complete misunderstanding of the statistics.

The only thing I'm not sure about is whether this misunderstanding is wilful, or merely because statistics cannot be understood by reading a headline. You need background information too - what numbers are actually being compared.

Opine if you wish

You're still wrong. Reality doesn't give a damn what you think.

The actual evidence is very strong that the vaccines offer extremely good protection from disease, and some protection from infection.

Basically, you are talking utter rubbish.

Logitech Signature M650: A mouse that will barely emit a squeak or a clickety-click

Re: Sticky ?

Gods no. Those are a total ergonomic disaster.

Canon: Chip supplies are so bad that our ink cartridges will look as though they're fakes

Why aren't they re-using them?

The baggy they sent with the toner cartridge said they were going to refill it.

With the current work-from-home edicts, there is of course far lower than usual demand for toner, so surely there is a large pile of cartridges ready for refilling.

Or did Canon lie? Perhaps WEEE should find out what's really happening with those cartridges...

Re: It's' MY printer

To which one would respond "I'm a consumer, I refer you to Arkell vs Pressdram"

The James Webb Space Telescope has only gone and deployed its primary mirror

It wouldn't work

The thing about space, the colour of space, is that it's black.

A camera on the "hot" side of the spacecraft would only see the bus, radiator, solar panel and high gain antenna. Boring!

A camera on the "cold" side where the mirror is, wouldn't see anything at all. Because it's dark.

The cold side is intentionally designed to be completely and utterly dark. No lights at all, and there's nothing to scatter any light. Just imagine how horrific it would be if a light got stuck on and ruined all observations!

Apple custom chip guru jumps ship to rejoin Intel

Can't upgrade at all though

Gamers, those using computers for engineering work (CAD, software dev, ML etc) and actual proper servers need far more memory than beancounters, browers and general admin. They also need accelerator cards (usually GPU, but not always)

That's the reason for the split, it lets PC builders and end users fit as much RAM and as powerful an accelerator card as they want.

Apple just decided that they don't care about those markets - on macOS, gaming is dead, CAD is nearly dead, and there haven't been any servers for a decade. The Apple Arm switch has probably killed CAD on macOS entirely as it's now impossible to use accelerator cards.

And that's fine. Macs don't make any money for Apple, they could (and probably will) cease making them at all and make even more profit.

Less than PEACH-y: UK's plant export IT system only works with Internet Explorer

Re: I suppose what's needed is an HMBrowser

Also security fixes forever.

That's the real problem. They almost certainly aren't keeping up with applying security patches to the normal systems where you only have to run an installer, so asking them to apply a patch, compile it, test it works, fix the stuff the patch broke is just way too much.

Better to spend the effort on the actual "web apps", making them secure and standards compliant so anyone can use them with Chrome or Safari.

How can we push more chips, Nvidia thinks: Ah yes, free 3D metaverse-slash-omniverse tools for creators

Re: Wait, wait...

USD still only has one implementation. Yes, Pixar published their source but tying yourself to something that's so complex nobody else has even tried to follow the published specification seems... unwise.

I can understand Apple using Pixar's code, surprised that nVidia are.

Hauliers report problems with post-Brexit customs system but HMRC insists it is 'online and working as planned'

Codejunky

Sir, you are a fool. An imbecile who understands less than nothing about these countries and institutions.

You prove it further with every comment you make.

Please educate yourself. There are summaries for schoolchildren, start there.

Even Boris Johnson understands this better than you do - although it did take him several months, as he didn't pay attention in school either.

NI is a massive clusterf**k that Brexit makes worse by definition. The only way to avoid that would have been to join the EEA, but the extremists in the ERG refused that.

Every other possible option is going to piss off a majority of NI residents. The only question is who.

There is a reason why NI overwhelmingly voted to Remain. They saw this coming.

The current treaty is probably the best (albeit still pretty rubbish) option for NI residents, because most stuff in shops actually comes from Ireland, not Great Britain.

The Ghost of Windows Past haunts a street corner in Bermondsey

Re: What I want to know is

Raspberry Pis are now quite common in this application.

Dirt cheap, and trivial to repair by replacing the SD card or the whole module.

It's amusing when you realise the entire RPi costs less than a single Windows license.

Of course, existing units will be run into the ground before replacement.

Going round in circles with Windows in Singapore

Re: The dialog is censored...

Did it go down the tubes instead?

2021 in storage: We waited for a flash price revolution that never came. But about creativity? We can't complain

Re: Whither Optane?

What would that even do?

SD is limited by the bus, there's already plenty of cards that hit the maximum sustained data transfer rate.

Low on passengers, low on memory: A bad day on the London Underground

Re: Familiarity

It means an application has been allocating memory and not releasing it. After a "while", the page file fills up and boom.

Linux and BSD have the same thing - and the OS fixes it the same way, by forcibly killing processes and recovering all their memory.

The latest version of macOS leaks the pointer memory somewhere inside the OS. Which is interesting, as the problem is within Swift...

Re: Shocking Service!

To be fair, this Government is almost completely unpredictable.

Who's on first?

Re: Shocking Service!

There's a huge amount of maintenance and repair work that desperately needs doing but has been consistently postponed for twenty years or more.

Firstly to meet quarterly profit targets back when that part was privatised, and since then because it only closes for about four hours a day, five days a week.

Can't get very much done in 20 hours per week.

So I really hope they are using Covid times to get stuff done.

Sadly I suspect they are not.

It's leaking

My guess would be that it usually gets rebooted often enough to not matter.

It's the day before the grand opening but we need a firmware update. It'll be fine

Re: They had it running

I recall discovering that a major event was about to happen just after I started updating the system.

I discovered this when a security barrier and nice guard suddenly appeared, blocking my route back to the control room.

Fortunately he let me enter, and I was able to complete the updates and bring the system online half an hour before the Spice Girls came on to announce they were re-forming (again).

I don't know whether I could have saved the world from this fate by being a little slower or making a mistake, but sometimes I wonder...

Intel ‘regrets’ offending China with letter telling suppliers to avoid Xinjiang

Or any other former British colony.

FTFY

All the powers were doing it. Some still are.

While we can't change the past, we can and should try to change the future.

On Christmas night, a computer logs a call to say his user has stopped working…

Re: All I want for Crimbo

I believe one has to post sufficiently often and get upvoted a bit.

So have an upvote.

Wifinity hands customers bills for Wi-Fi services they didn't want but used by accident after software 'glitch' let 'fixed term' subs continue

Pissing off the people who have all the really big guns seems ... unwise.

OFCOM should be treating this as evidence wifinity aren't "fit and proper persons", and suspend their licence to operate.

It would seem that the contract is unenforceable. Also, their billing system is known to be broken, so all bills are suspect.

Fujitsu have prior history on that, the word Horizon springs to mind.