* Posts by david 12

2774 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

Apartment living to get worse in 5 years as 6 GHz Wi-Fi nears ‘exhaustion’

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Just....

It doesn't matter what my neighbors are doing -- when I had 6 users in the house, each with phone, ipad, desktop computer and whatever, the system didn't work. I put in wires for the desktops, some of the family moved out, and the network works now.

Virgin Media O2 patches hole that let callers snoop on your coordinates

david 12 Silver badge

Emergency caller location

One of the methods used by emergency services for locating mobile phones was cell identification. Was that not used in the UK? Is it still used in the UK? Will blocking cell location on this network have any effect?

Torvalds' typing taste test touches tactile tragedy

david 12 Silver badge

Re: You're not entirely correct

Is there a comparison of M to PC/XT models? I've got an early computer magazine with a review of the IBM PC, which reports that the computer itself is nothing special, but that the keyboard which comes with it categorically superior to anything else available.

Microsoft revives DOS-era Edit in a modern shell

david 12 Silver badge

Re: "superseded Edlin"

In DOS 5, QBASIC and EDIT shared the same IDE/Editor. In DOS 3, the BASICA/GWBASIC IDE/Editor was included. Files are normally saved in tokenized format, but the option to save in ASCII format was available.

LastOS slaps neon paint on Linux Mint and dares you to run Photoshop

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Magazines

There was a golden age of publishing before the introduction of broadcast radio. Then the bronze age before the introduction of broadcast TV.

But at least in Aus, there was an inter-glacial period after the ban on TV advertising of smoking, when all that cigarette advertising budget went into magazines.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Bloatware Linux

Around here, the dominant CD Burner for WinXP was the MS CD Burner for WinXP. No, it wasn't part of WinXP, it was just the MS CD Burner for WinXP.

It wasn't particularly pretty, but it was from MS, so if it wasn't dominant, it was certainly a contender.

Aussie rocket foiled by premature fairing pop

david 12 Silver badge

Rocket science was cutting edge science working with explosive / poisonous explosive chemicals. The art of engineering was hard too, but the rocket science earned it's reputation.

No-boom supersonic flights could slide through US skies soon

david 12 Silver badge

Re: With This and America Today...

Garrrr --- This is the country that invented the leaf blower. The reason supersonic flight was banned in the USA was because the Concorde was not an American airplane.

FWIW, I lived in a town with an airforce base. Sonic booms were normal. Sometimes people got cracks in the ceiling or windows -- as they have in every other city I've lived in since, without the sonic booms.

Some English hospitals doubt Palantir's utility: We'd 'lose functionality rather than gain it'

david 12 Silver badge

Re: No!

Italian passenger trains never ran on time, and will never run on time, as long as that society thinks that waiting for a little old lady to get on or off is more important than running on time.

A contrast to the Nordic countries, where a little old lady would be deeply offended by idea of having a scheduled service delayed by her inability.

These cultural ideas run deep. Much deeper than political convulsions.

Linus Torvalds goes back to a mechanical keyboard after making too many typos

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Wish I knew what kind....

I wish more people were making the PC/XT keyboard layout. I don't do enough numeric entry that I need a separate numeric keypad, and I've used the typewriter numeric keys since the days of manual typewriters, so the PC/XT layout works for me.

Yolk's on you – eggs break less when they land sideways

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Lilliput and Blefuscu

Lets not bring identity politics into it.

He was a good egg by whatever name you know him.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Amazed people get paid for this nonsense

Egg-drop experiments have been a staple of engineering design courses for the best part of 100 years. This research speaks directly to every engineer that has ever participated in, or watched, or read about egg-drop exercises, and to every student doing the egg-drop design exercise, now or in the future.

As US scientists flee Trump, MP urges Britain to do more to nab them

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Americans and Brits speak dialects of English that are almost mutually comprehensible

My own state -- Vic.au -- is broke, due to overspending on capital works. That does not have much effect on research grants, but does have a big effect on research infrastructure, (which is not normally covered by grants). There are half-a-dozen research groups that I know of that are cutting back or looking at closure. Even if they could grab researchers -- good researchers often come with their own grants -- they wouldn't have anywhere to put them, with all the lab space defunded (cleaners, IT, payroll etc)

Microsoft to preload Word minutes after boot

david 12 Silver badge

It was already faster than the competition. I've use FF for 20+ years, and it was always slower to load than Explorer, and is still slower to load than Edge or Google Chrome

Open Document Format turns 20, but Microsoft Office still reigns supreme

david 12 Silver badge

Re: That UK Gov Manadate thing

Likewise BSE. I strongly suspect ESR falls in the same category.

Even the popular science press was outraged at the damage done to egg sales cause by the (true) statement that (raw eggs aren't safe to eat if you are immune compromised, and should be avoided by the very old and the very young).

When BSE happened only a couple of years later, I blamed publications like New Scientist. Both for failing to support the politician over the temporary Egg Sales Collapse, and for failing to correct later.

BSE was clearly a political failure, but if it wasn't also a Civil Service failure, you're going to have to convince me that the Civil Service wasn't also traumatized by the Egg Outrage .

david 12 Silver badge

t you had to be running buy the current version

Or download the compatibility updates. For example:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100314133818/http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466

https://download.cnet.com/microsoft-office-compatibility-pack-for-word-excel-and-powerpoint-file-formats/3000-18483_4-10648733.html#:~:text=Microsoft%20Office%20Compatibility%20Pack%20makes%20files%20created%20with,version%20of%20Office,%20this%20download%20will%20fix%20it.

Artist formerly known as Indian Business Machines pledges $150B for US ops, R&D

david 12 Silver badge

Re:focused on American jobs and manufacturing

Focused on reducing American jobs and manufacturing for that long? I knew that they had offshored important parts of their business by the 1930's, but I didn't realize it went back to the very start of the business.

Microsoft mystery folder fix might need a fix of its own

david 12 Silver badge

:"and rolled everything back"

Just to be clear,

If you have not yet run this patch, you can block it, by creating a dodgy c:\inetpub, which will cause the update to fail.

The odd thing is "So you just go without security updates," he noted."

Failing one update causes all security updates to fail?

I'm no longer doing enterprise updates. Is blocking all updates now this easy?

From PlayStation to routers, you've probably been using FreeBSD without knowing it

david 12 Silver badge

Re: PS5, Nintendo Switch...

MS SFU was BSD, before it was removed and replaced with WSL (linux).

Back online after 'catastrophic' attack, 4chan says it's too broke for good IT

david 12 Silver badge

Re: What does hardware have to do with it

Yes, that's right, it was a distraction. As explained, so great a distraction that they didn't have the time to patch and upgrade their software.

AI-driven 20-ft robots coming for construction workers' jobs

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Solving the Wrong Problem?

So it's a good thing that this a generic building robot, suitable for Japan?

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Solving the Wrong Problem?

If you want a robot to lay bricks, they already exist (Hadrian, SAM). This looks like a generic manufacturing robot, scaled up for heavy loads.

When Microsoft made the Windows as a Service pivot

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Lessons skipped and still not enough paranoia

ability

And then you've listed three things that have restricted by security and malware limitations.

Of all the many useful things you can do with a Windows system, many (like those listed) are disabled by default, or have since been removed.

Asia reaches 50 percent IPv6 capability and leads the world in user numbers

david 12 Silver badge

In IPv4, the addresses are so densely allocated that (ignoring the multicast and experimental blocks) we probably are using more or less every one.

Not disagreeing with your argument or conclusion, but as I recall IPV4 is around 50% utilized. The other individual values are allocated-but-unconnected.

Microsoft hits Ctrl-Z after Teams trips over file sharing

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Odd behaviour

WTF?

There are different versions of software all the time. This was not a version you all use. It's a pre-release version. "Breaking" is one of the reasons you have pre-release.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Odd behaviour

This was for people using the beta-test version, so perhaps you're right. Does the beta-test version break often?

VMware revives its free ESXi hypervisor in an utterly obscure way

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Not a good option for much

VMware used to have a commercial product called vSphere, which you could use to manage ESXi virtualization, including moving objects around. Without it, ESXi was fairly pointless, just a way of putting all systems on a single point of failure.

What is available now that it equivalent?

Infosec experts fear China could retaliate against tariffs with a Typhoon attack

david 12 Silver badge

Respect is earnt*,

NYC, and Trump, are not part of the "South", but a lot of Americans are. In the South, respect is not something earned: it is something enforced. Curtesy and Respect are the default.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: China only needs to wait a few days.

"N'interrompez jamais un ennemi qui est en train de faire une erreur."

Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call

david 12 Silver badge

Re: It's the nuts

probably based on the client's embarrassment...

Oil platforms are full-price customers. They value quick and complete solutions, and aren't embarrassed to pay providers that make problems go away.

UK officials insist 'murder prediction tool' algorithms purely abstract

david 12 Silver badge

Re: What a waste of money

solution would be to put boots back on the ground,

Is that where the boots go? "our institutionally racist police "

Windows Server Update Services live to patch another day

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Is "driver update sync" the same thing as monthly patches?

Yes, messy article that only makes sense if you already know what it means.

WSUS is scheduled for breaking sometime in the future. MS has extended support for WSUS, which is scheduled for breaking sometime in the future.

The extended support takes the form of not breaking driver update sync, which was scheduled for breaking now.

Dev loudly complained about older colleague, who retired not long after

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Differently-competent developer

Any object-oriented language is "interpreted" by some definition. It's why "exceptions" come with "object oriented". There is a meta-process which handles dynamic code redirection for objects, and a meta-process that handles dynamic code redirection for exceptions.

Writing for humans? Perhaps in future we'll write specifically for AI – and be paid for it

david 12 Silver badge

"You actually do want a citation"

OpenAI -- "DeepResearch"

I haven't used it, but apparently that's what it does -- topic research with citations.

david 12 Silver badge

write specifically for AI – and be paid for it

I've got a job offer (on Seek) to do that. Code examples, python, c, rust etc.

Tech trainer taught a course on software he'd never used and didn't own

david 12 Silver badge

Re: See one, do one, teach one.

Or sometimes, while the Surgeon is doing more surgery in the other suite. In either case, the registrar marks time, the anesthetist continues to ventilate the patient, the clock ticks while they wait for the "supervising" surgeon to dash in and fix up the problem the registrar has.

$16B health dept managed finances with single Excel spreadsheet. It hasn’t gone well

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Ayup

No surprise there, but it does put the process ~35 years out of date -- that's when I was fixing this problem in paper spreadsheets by migrating to automatic consolidation.

I wonder if their immediate problem exists because everybody who understands spreadsheet automation has reached end-of-career and has retired?

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Just Stop with the Effin' "Spreadsheets-for-Everthing" Mentality!

Accounting software is the software you use for book keeping. Book keeping is not, and never has been, the point of management tools like spreadsheets.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Maligning Excel

Can't we use Python now? You can, in OO, and it has the advantage that it's a pain in the butt to edit or test, as well as being more obscure.

Where Python shines vs VBA is with multi-dimensional analysis. So if they decide they want to expand their organization into the 5th dimension, python in OO will be the way to go.

Meanwhile, in Japan, train stations are being 3D-printed in an afternoon

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Erm, but why?

We've got precast apartment buildings like this in Melb.vic.au, dating from the 1950's. The advantage for apartment buildings is when you can make many identical copies of the same casting. Using "printed" formwork may actually make precast concreate more attractive for residential houses like this station hut, allowing more variation of form.

But pre-cast concrete is still more expensive and less attractive for most residential buildings. It has poor thermal properties and is not water proof, and there are problems with windows. I mostly see tilt-up used where the factory has been cut into a slope, so no windows are required, water-proofing membrane is protected, and earth provides thermal insulation.

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Erm, but why?

But the formwork was not set up on site.

As the article describes, the precast concrete was cast offsite, then transported and erected.

Offsite casting and transportation is cheaper than tilt-up construction, which is much cheaper than in-place construction. Tilt-up construction also requires a large on-site footprint, with security and site security.

For all I know, offsite casting may be a rate technology in Japan. But certainly the headline can only be explained by poor translation and editorial carelessness at TheRegister.

The passive aggression of connecting USB to PS/2

david 12 Silver badge

DE-9 serial connector ?

That's a bit of an anachronism, and not something written by Raymond Chen.

For those kids too young to remember, about 20 years ago Wikipedia discovered that the common DB9 plug/socket, used on PC's, manufactured by 100's of different manufacturers, available at 1000's of outlets and in their nascent online catalogs, used the Canon DE9 design. And Wikipedia set out on it's mission to correct the world. With considerable success, as can be measured today by searching the internet for DE9 and DB9 manufacture and supply.

Indeed, most doublespeak is the product of clear thinking and is language carefully designed and constructed to appear to communicate when in fact it doesn't. www.good-words.fans

Datacenters near Heathrow seemingly stay up as substation fire closes airport

david 12 Silver badge

“To maintain the safety of our passengers"

Perhaps, should have had more natural lighting at terminal?

Recent Nottingham power outage. https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/19/nottingham_outage_sitrep/

"We're told a risk assessment has been carried out and it was deemed safe to hold the meeting as the room is on the ground floor and lit by natural light,"

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Questions will doubtless be asked

Microwave links can provide better latency than fibre

Direct fibre beat dark microwave channels with 13ms Chicago-NYC in the early stage of the speed war -- which has since been driven down to 4ms direct microwave links. Almost all of that has been the effect of better routes and low-latency repeaters, wave speed hasn't changed that much.

NASA's inbox goes orbital after email mishap spams entire space industry

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Two obvious problems here

I guess you use a different version of Outlook than I do, because I don't have any problem seeing nested replies and who I'm sending to.

'Once in a lifetime' IT outage at city council hit datacenter, but no files lost

david 12 Silver badge

Re: a risk assessment has been carried out and it was deemed safe to hold the meeting

The whole "risk assessment" thing is derived from the risk assessments done for the WWII uranium enrichment plant at Oak Ridge.

It's interesting to read the original documentation, and see risk assessments that start with actual identifiable end points ("plant explodes and everybody dies"), and compare that with the bogus "risk assessment" requirements of modern safety regulations, which start at the other end and try to work forward ("it's dark, what could go wrong?")

User complained his mouse wasn’t working. But he wasn’t using a mouse

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Stress ball != Mouse

Worked (hot desk) at a desk that had a computer-mouse stress ball. Size, shape, color.

It was stressful.

Microsoft wouldn't look at a bug report without a video. Researcher maliciously complied

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Just confirms what we all know

--And as an instructor and manager, "confirming what we all know" is part of what we do. As any parent (should know):

"Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them."

david 12 Silver badge

Re: Just confirms what we all know

I am not functionally illiterate. The written text is still my preferred method of communication. And yet, I have sometimes been significantly helped by a stupid little video demonstrating the written instructions.

Flang-tastic! LLVM's Fortran compiler finally drops the training wheels

david 12 Silver badge

EM fields and complex numbers

I was electronics, not mech, and we didn't do FE at the time. But while my cohort were doing their prac work and assignments on their TI and HP calculators, I did all my calculations (and graphing) in F77 on a time-share terminal connected to the CDC Cyber.

(The Comp Sci department had completely misread the direction of Comp Sci, and had lumbered the institute with a batch-processing megalith before going off on their own with a unix mini-computer.)