* Posts by Jason Hindle

997 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

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Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

Jason Hindle

Re: Starlink

“ Speaking of expensive bills, Starlink in the UK runs around £450 for the dish & £75/month for the connection.”

Less than I pay per month for an abusive relationship with BT (and faster, and you can pick it up and throw it in the camper van if you own one).

Moving to Windows 11 is so easy! You just need to buy a PC that supports it!

Jason Hindle

Windows 11 Start Menu Changes Nothing

It's decoration. Power users search for what they want. Civilians either have desktop icons or pin what matters to the taskbar.

PiStorm turbocharges vintage Amigas with the Raspberry Pi

Jason Hindle

Re: a totally non-Unix-like system

It was the most Unix-like OS you could get for £400 (and came with Batman).

ANZ Bank test drives GitHub Copilot – and finds AI does give a helping hand

Jason Hindle

One intriguing finding…

“ One intriguing finding is that Copilot was the most useful to the most experienced programmers.”

Far from intriguing, I would describe that as a statement of the bleedin’ obvious. It has been pretty clear to me from the start that someone with a good foundation and experience in a given subject matter would benefit from the emerging LLMs. For those who lack foundation and experience, it probably becomes the crutch that stunts their development.

Microsoft's Notepad goes from simple text editor to Copilot conspirator

Jason Hindle

Re: All yur codes

Are belong to us. FTFY

Whether to move off Oracle is the $100M+ question for Europe's largest public body

Jason Hindle

Re: But guys, be reasonable

"There is an irony that land locked Birmingham is funding a mega yacht."

Does that make them a Bullseye winner?

Dell said to be preparing broad Return To Office order this Monday

Jason Hindle

Re: The inalienable human right of WFH.

I'm not a midwife, and this is not the Journal of Midwifery. What's your point?

Full-time remote isn't for every position; it isn't for everyone. Neither is a one-size-fits-all approach in a knowledge organisation.

Mozilla slams Microsoft for using dark patterns to drive Windows users toward Edge

Jason Hindle

Re: Teams/Outlook users driven over the Edge

“ Why wouldn't you use Edge anyway? It's a better Chrome than Chrome.”

Because Edge is being forced on me?

Microsoft seeks Rust developers to rewrite core C# code

Jason Hindle

Re: Quite a statement of intent

An intent to use better-performing software to extend the life of bloody expensive hardware?

It's true, LLMs are better than people – at creating convincing misinformation

Jason Hindle

More human than human?

We need Sirius Cybernetic Corporation to produce a paranoid LLM.

Web devs fear Apple's iOS shakeup for Europe will be a nightmare for support

Jason Hindle

I'm sure Apple will be fully compliant

Just not in a way that will make developers particularly happy. Still, I'm ever so slightly envious that people on the other side of the channel can now run Chrome and Firefox sans WebKit on their iDevices!

Microsoft's vision for the future of work is you trusting Redmond to get AI right

Jason Hindle

There are alternatives to Co-Pilot

I find Bard comparable, and Google isn't trying to force that on me at every opportunity. There are and will be less commercial alternatives to both.

So let Microsoft commit Antitrust two-dot-zero with Edge and Co-Pilot.

The real significance of Apple's Macintosh

Jason Hindle

Re: Before OSX, the Mac didnt appeal to me

And also vastly more complex. It's perfect for an engineering workstation and should mostly work for none technical users who don't know what the terminal is, but the extent to which it just works any more than Linux or Windows is open to debate.

Jason Hindle

Before OSX, the Mac didnt appeal to me

After OSX, the idea of an appliance that “just worked,” started to become a bit of a joke. The spiritual successor to the Macs of old? I'd argue it's the Chromebook.

Europe forces Apple to give its citizens some choice over iOS browser engine, app store

Jason Hindle

Re: I'm sure the UK will roll out similar legislation

Googled that. Concluded you were talking out of your bottom. Oh, and your empty rhetoric is incomplete. You left out towns, drivers and “hard working families”.

Jason Hindle

Re: I'm sure the UK will roll out similar legislation

"Brexit spoiled my life! Waaaah! Waaaah!"

It complicated my life while delivering not a single trace of any benefit to anyone who isn't a hedge fund manager/disaster capitalist/parasite. Get thee behind me!

Top Linux distros drop fresh beats

Jason Hindle

Re: Style is optional

Nothing wrong with boring OSs that do their shit without complications.

Lukewarm reception for Microsoft's Copilot Pro amid performance, cost grumbles

Jason Hindle

Sounds like Microsoft are trying to monetise too soon

Tools like ChatGPT and Bard are great while free, but subscriptions come with elevated expectations.

DPD chatbot blasts courier company, swears, and dabbles in awful poetry

Jason Hindle

Re: In training, you learn for life

And there was me thinking DPD is the least bad of a very bad bunch.

How Sinclair's QL computer outshined Apple's Macintosh against all odds

Jason Hindle

The right stuff; the wrong side of history - never made sense to me

Even by the time of the fire sales (and it was tempting then), the QL never made sense to me*. It was clear it was never going to get the software (especially games). It was all a bit too grown-up at the time! My move to 16-bit didn't come until the Amiga 500, which ended up making a great deal of sense given the many similarities to the grown-up OSs we used at University. That said, I'm rather surprised at the following the QL has to this day.

* I'm the classic 80s child. Got a ZX Spectrum for "homework".

How governments become addicted to suppliers like Fujitsu

Jason Hindle

I've been saying for some time…

It's not just computers. Certain large companies, in a variety of sectors, have become very closely intertwined with government at all levels. If you want better value for money, for large IT, infrastructure, education and health projects, then a way needs to be found to break that. We have a lot of very good SMEs who are more than up to delivering an awful lot of government-funded work and who, at the moment, would never stand a chance.

Windows keyboards to get a Copilot key – but how quickly will users jump?

Jason Hindle

Filed under oh FFS!

The post is required, and must contain letters.

What if Microsoft had given us Windows XP 2024?

Jason Hindle

By Service Pack 3, XP was very acceptable

At the time, I think it only really needed a decent desktop search option (though Google Desktop search could do this - albeit, I suspect, at considerable risk to your privacy). That said, I don't mind 10 and 12 either (I prefer the Mac, obvs), probably because I only use the search part of the start menu.

Microsoft floats bringing a text editor back to the CLI

Jason Hindle

Many have beat me to it.

Lots of options. Vim and Neovim* happen to be what works for me. Unless Microsoft brings something new and innovative, I assume their efforts are better spent elsewhere.

* Keeping it simple, though - you can expend much effort getting to work a thing that installs and works with a single click in VSCode.

How to deorbit the Chromebook... and repurpose it for innovators

Jason Hindle

I'm fine with Crostini

For my needs, Crostini allows me to set up my dev environment and run certain apps I use (including graphical apps).

The 15-inch MacBook Air just nails it

Jason Hindle

Re: Cost as reviewed?

Or you could look it up.

What's the golden age of online services? Well, now doesn't suck

Jason Hindle

100256.1230@compuserve.com signing in…

That was my first email address. I got my first proper, £10 a month internet account in August. Then September came… I would not necessarily have what we’ve got now any other way.

Chromebooks are problematic for profits and planet, says Lenovo exec

Jason Hindle

Re: chromebooks suck

“ It has and does all of those things, and has an i5 processor that lets me run a complete software dev environment - Xcode, eclipse, Visual Studio, git .... even VMWare for Windows if I'm desperate”

Having picked up Chromebook Plus for curiosity money, in the sales, I can report that Chromebooks do that. Well, not the Xcode bit, and Windows virtualisation is a bit new, but a dev environment is fairly straightforward.

UK immigration rules hit science just as it rejoins €100B Horizon program

Jason Hindle

Just the sort of joined-up thinking needed to achieve "a world-class science and technology superpower by 2030.". FTFY.

Jason Hindle

Technically, I think it's Wormwood Scrubs to Birmingham. I doubt the line will ever reach Euston (which, oddly enough, has been dug up already).

Small but mighty, 9Front's 'Humanbiologics' is here for the truly curious

Jason Hindle

Re: Applications

“Should” assumes very little. Either the makers of the OS want it to be more than an academic curiosity or they don’t. The wrong side of useful is often a footnote.

Jason Hindle

Re: Applications

The web browser (and by that I mean a very Chromium compatible web browser) should be a priority. That might make the development of many desktop applications unnecessary.

Jason Hindle

Re: As I wrote about something else a month or so ago ...

"OSX/Android/ChromeOS isn't Unix: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/unix/UnixIsGeneral"

Erm, OSX is certifiably Unix:

https://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/

Scribbling limits in free version of Evernote set to test users' patience

Jason Hindle

Re: $130 per year?

Erm, yeah - recently discovered I'd been paying for it. Stems from a free Pro account, via a customer, a few years back. Now looking at migrating it elsewhere before the next annual payment.

Mac daddy Woz hospitalized in Mexico over mystery malady

Jason Hindle

Elevation

“ Mexico City is one of the highest-elevation cities in the world, sitting at 7,349 feet (2,240 meters) above sea level”

Ouch - Nairobi was hard on me (seriously unfit back then though) and that’s a couple of thousand feet lower. Marginal if elevation was a factor in Woz’s minor stroke though. Time up there can actually be good for health.

Apple exec defends 8GB $1,599 MacBook Pro, claims it's like 16GB in a PC

Jason Hindle

I think the price point is more of a problem than the memory

Can you even buy a Windows laptop, with 8GB, at that price point? Of course, it would be a pleasant enough thought that sales figures might adjust attitudes but it's not about sales of THIS laptop.

Major telco outage leaves millions of Australians disconnected

Jason Hindle

“ So you have to scale your network to cope with at least twice as many subscribers as you have??”

Traffic shaping. Minimal viable service for emergency national roomers. Emphasis on reliable access to emergency services. Etc.

FTX crypto-villain Sam Bankman-Fried convicted on all charges

Jason Hindle

Are we taking bets on how long Bankman-Fraud will go down for?

The only thing stopping the prosecutor from asking for the Chair is a little thing called the law, and the prosecutor will have half an eye on their next political office.

Also, does the US do jail for posh people (like the so-called open prisons we have here) or is it next stop Super Max?

Apple lifts the sheet on a trio of 'scary fast' M3 SoCs built on a 3nm process

Jason Hindle

Until recently, some of my developments where on an 8GB machine

Think VS Code connected to a Linux Docker container, all running on under Windows 10 on a 2015 Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon. Worked like a charm for some of the development I was doing in Java.

Jason Hindle

Apple’s Problem?

M1 and M1 Pro owners, like me, who are sitting pretty with systems that are still overkill, for us at least, three years down the line. Unless I find I need more than 16Gb, there is no need for me to upgrade. If I do find I need more than 16Gb, I doubt I’ll buy new.

With these new releases, I think Apple is targeting segments it has already saturated.

Sorry Pat, but it's looking like Arm PCs are inevitable

Jason Hindle

Re: Apple's League

“ Companies that have their computers due for replacement get Apple products as they are now in another league, in very much every metric.”

So many misconceptions in this thread, so I’ll try:

- Is Mac a good fit in the corporate space? Most of the time. They do sometimes break SMB shares between OS upgrades, but that’s what IT departments are for. Office Mac is pretty good. Most of the time.

- Is the Mac more expensive? For users who need little more than a thin client, they are bloody expensive. For power users, high end Macs and PCs are pretty much the same.

- Is the Mac a good development platform. It’s great for many use cases but I always have a PC for when the Mac does not for. Docker in the Intel space is a good example.

- Is the Mac repairable? As others have said, the extended guarantee lies inside the buy/disposal cycle of a lot of big companies.

- Is that pretty despicable? Yes! Love my Mac but I can replace the battery in my corporate Dell 5590 with my own hands (not to mention upgrade the memory and SSD).

I know a couple of (infrastructure/software) consultancies who offer new consultants/developers the option of a Mac. It’ll be a good fit for some; not for others. In the pure corporate space, Office 365 is Microsoft’s smart move. It’ll work anywhere, but unlike Google the desktop apps are always a bit ahead of the web experience (which is actually very decent). I have no idea how anyone else would usurp that at the moment.

Microsoft seeks EU Digital Market Acts exemption for underdog apps like Edge

Jason Hindle

It’s the default browser for Windows

And as Microsoft beefs up Windows Co-Pilot*, users may be tempted to stick with that default.

* Co-Pilot only worked with Edge when I tested the latest Windows 11.

What did the VisiCalc fairy bring you for Spreadsheet Day?

Jason Hindle

Crazy days

I was tasked with making Excel the front end presentation tool for reporting, mid 90s. As I often feel the need to remind people, we were surprisingly advanced back then. VBA and ODBC were both things. Getting stuff from a database* and having Excel do the presentation work (including actual spreadsheet type stuff) was fairly straightforward.

Later, it turned out VBA was insecure, and Microsoft ultimately had to make it almost completely unusable to make it more secure. I like to think that VBA ultimately murdered Gates’s beloved BASIC, which is no bad thing.

* Paradox desktop databases, in our businesses, but the we’d experimented with Informix and all the developers got the bit about it being perfectly reasonable (with a fast enough connection - not ours at the time) to do the same stuff with a database on the other side of the world.

Not even the ghost of obsolescence can coerce users onto Windows 11

Jason Hindle

Re: Always amused...

"However, what amuses me is that when offering their opinions about exactly which version of L a Win refugee might plump for, it's usually either Ubuntu or Mint. I get the impression that they haven't really tried many different distros. Perhaps said refugees need to be pointed in the direction of Distrowatch to choose for themselves?"

Let them eat Arch (and RTFM).

Jason Hindle

As far as I can tell, the whole point of Windows 11 is planned obsolescence for old but otherwise very capable hardware. Until recently, I had a 2015 Thinkpad that still performed perfectly well but will not upgrade to 11. The happy new owner will likely bin Windows and install Mint. We reached a point of sufficiency, as far as hardware goes, a decade or more back - I suspect there was a risk of sales slowing down as people stuck with stuff that still works. Antitrust? Anyone?

UTM: An Apple hypervisor with some unique extra abilities

Jason Hindle

You might have better performance with a Docker container?

Docker on Mx does support Intel Linux containers, You might get a bit more performance. I find myself not quite able to do without a toe in Intel and Linux/Windows on bare metal.

Microsoft Bing Chat pushes malware via bad ads

Jason Hindle

Kind of underlines the drawback of artificial intelligence

It’s artificial. Often useful; always superficial. They just need to train those neural networks to spot malware. Typical of Microsoft not to think of that sooner. History, repeating, and all the rest.

Linux on the Arm-based Thinkpad X13S: It's getting there

Jason Hindle

I'm surprised something like Armbian is needed.

Running under Parallels on my M1 Pro MacBook, an ARM build of Ubuntu just works. I had (wrongly) assumed said same distribution would simply install on a (none Apple) ARM PC.

Software can be a problem... I don't think there is anything like Rosetta (or its perfectly decent Windows equivalent) for Linux. If a thing hasn't been ported then you don't get to have that thing.

Bombshell biography: Fearing nuclear war, Musk blocked Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

Jason Hindle

Re: So Musk has blood on his hands

"how does blood get on Musk's hand if he indeed achieved that explosive-laden submarines washed ashore harmlessly ? If Ukraine wants to fight a war with Russia it's fine (I suppose, or they wouldn't do it) but that doesn't mean we must take sides."

You seem to miss the point about the US and its allies picking an actual side (and most peeps are comfortable with that).

UK admits 'spy clause' can't be used for scanning encrypted chat – it's not 'feasible'

Jason Hindle

Re: Scanning just hurts the innocent

Erm, yes and no. Useless for things like spying and terrorism - you can hide a paragraph inside an misplaced apostrophe in a thankyou message for last night's lovely meal. OTOH, some people people really are thick enough to send illegal pr0nographic images using the likes of WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram. Tracking those down is fine in principle, but when I hear the tub-thumping, populist rantings of some of our politicians (I'm looking at you Cruella Braverman) I'm thinking I really don't want them to have that power.

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