Posts by GregC 474 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009
Oligatory xkcd (though this is for Parker rather than SolO)
I guess the point is that while in absolute terms (ie millions of km) these probes may not seem to be going "close", relative to anything else, and in terms of the harshness of the environment they are going in to, it's plenty close enough...
As #3, LibreOffice UI is conservative, the commands are where they have always been, no need to re-learn everything at each release.
That one is my primary reason for using it (alongside my hate for the ribbon in Office). I have the MS option at work but use LibreOffice out of preference these days.
Trying to kill ad-blocking is surely a lost cause, ultimately. You can't force people to look at something they don't want to look at. Can you?
Not saying this is a direction we're being herded in or anything.
Anyway, Brave sounds interesting - hadn't heard of it before. Definitely going to take a look.
I recall back in the day that LEGO sets actually had suggestions for alternative things to build from the same parts, is that still the case?
Not in the box, but a few years ago me & my dad* bought each other one of the big Technic sets for Xmas (mine was the Volvo digger, he got the mobile crane) and there was at least one alternate build for each set available as a pdf from the Lego website.
*45 & 65 at the time, you're never too old for toys!
Suddenly glad I didn't splurge on the Gemini
Yep - I was thinking of getting a Gemini as a Christmas pressie to myself, but seeing this has changed that. Gemini is 90% of what I want, and none of the missing features were a deal breaker, but this looks like it covers all the bases and then some.
I see they've hit 99% of their Indiegogo target already, personally I'm happy to wait for the final product and the reviews - if it lives up to what they are promising then I'll be buying.
£500 to £700 gets a not bad laptop, though if you want gamer performance rather than email, web, wordprocess & a bit of spreadsheet, maybe £2000. Most SOHO and SME only add Accounts, Payroll and CRM to that.
Slight tangent, but I bought a 1070 based gaming laptop for <£1500 last year, that exact model isn't available any more but you can still get a powerful, VR ready laptop for similar money now. No need to spend 2K!
True, buy a decent machine from the right place and you won't get third party crap.
With W10 however, even Pro, you will still get a whole bunch of unnecessary bloatware, including shit like Candy Crush, installed automatically in the background. Most of it can be removed easily enough, but that's not the point, it shouldn't be there in the first place.
Then there's the crap that you can't uninstall easily, but have to resort to Powershell or cmd to get rid of.
1. Meh. If true then that's a bit less shit than the last big update I suppose.
2. Don't want, will be disabling
3. See 2
4. Whoop-de-fucking-do. Though "You can now use a two finger swipe gesture to dismiss all notifications in the Action Center." sounds entertaining, if only it was the two finger gesture I'm thinking of.
5. Oh, wait, there's only four really...
Unfortunately I finally had to cave and downgrade to W10 at work a couple of months ago. It's taken some time and a bit of googling but I've managed to get it to "bearable" now. Based on reading that ^^ list, the next update doesn't sound like it includes any actual improvements.
On the (long) list of "things I don't get", all these talkie speaker jobbies are right near the top. I love cool tech, but these things are just, well, meh. Add in the privacy implications of having something in your house that is potentially listening to everything that you and yours say, and could be transmitting it all back to the mothership just so they can try and sell you more tat (or worse) - yeah, I'll pass.
I know, deal with it grandad...
Timeline
...snip...
You are going to include a shutoff key for that, right ? And not make it on by default ? Yeah, right. And I'm winning the lottery tonight.
Given that as of the last big update you now need to edit the registry to disable Cortana and Game Mode, I think I can guess what we'll need to do to get rid of this new "feature".
I anticipate this to be the biggest iPhone launch since iPhone 4. That was the last time I went out of my way to secure one on launch day. This year, you'll see me in the queue... Because you can be sure of one thing: if you don't preorder or queue, it will be a lengthy wait for you.
Out of curiosity (I'm totally out of touch with what's rumoured to be in the new Apple stuff), what are you expecting to be so special about this years iphone to make it a particularly big deal?
Why do they do it? All I can think of is that it must be something to do with the very nature of computing itself. If I went around saying I was a proctologist instead, I'm quite sure they wouldn't all be clamouring for me to stick my finger up their arses. At least, not without an appointment.
I'm going to make this point next time someone asks me to "have a quick look at the computer".
Have a bonus internet point for the Rage Against The Machine video too.
If someone can stick a GUI on top that could even be a viable option
I did myself a basic one in VB.NET (yes, really) years ago - took minutes, still using it to this day. If I can do it I'm honestly amazed no one has done a proper one.
I gently ask my trainee to click on a menu. In response, she clicks her mouse frantically 279 times on random things all over the place before grabbing the title bar of her one remaining document window and dragging it four fifths of the way down her screen. Only then does she click on the menu I suggested.
I only have to do training a couple of times a year these days, but I always seem to get one of these people. Maybe I did something wrong in a previous life.
That paragraph did have me genuninely laughing out loud.
Your "incredibly boring" is my "all the features I need with no unnecessary gimmicks".
Horses for courses I guess, though I would be interested to know what you think the Nexus line is missing (apart from the perennial moan about a micro SD slot, which will never happen in Google's own handsets).
This morning I had the pleasure of hiding KB3035583 for the fourth time.
Only 4 times? I've genuinely lost count of the number of times I've hidden that fucker - and cheers for the reminder, just did a check for updates and sure enough, there it was again. Now hidden. Again.
Roll on August when it disappears for good. I just can't help thinking they will attempt to foist something else on us to "encourage" us to "upgrade".
"Nice computer you've got there. Be a shame if something happened to it....."
We don't want small phones, we want normal-sized phones.
Speak for yourself, you certainly don't speak for me. I caved in and bought an enormo-phone recently and now I wouldn't be without it. Yes, one handed use isn't possible, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages for me.
Nothing personal, I'm just really bored with people saying "we want x" on the assumption that they are speaking for the entire human race. No. You want it, and quite probably some others do too, but you aren't speaking for everyone. Here endeth the minirant.
.I'd hope that the official unit was Charlie Brookers
For me the perfect unit of rant would be the Kermode, as in film critic Mark. He doesn't do it often, but when he does they are magnificent. See his Sex and the City 2 review which brilliantly even starts with the phrase "you're not going to get a rant about this"...
All you can eat data is no more I think though.
No - AYCE data is still there, it's just the tethering that's capped, at 12GB as mentioned. I renewed my contract just before Christmas and got the standard unlimited data contract at £18/mo just before it went up to £20. As I get through 10-20GB a month Three still offers the best deal for me.
Don't really get this thing about data speeds being slow either - I get anywhere between 8-75 mbits download depending where I am, unless I'm somewhere with no signal at all.
People who use e-cigs have simply swapped one addiction for another (albeit a less harmful to the health one)
While this is undoubtedly true, I have tried various things (including the Just Stop option) and nothing has worked, the problem being with criteria A - I quite enjoy having a smoke, and therefore didn't really want to stop. In this scenario, e-cigs are the first alternative I have come across that actually works.
decent starter kit (Innoken Endura T18 is a decent option)
I'll second this, from personal experience - after trying one of the crappy cig-a-likes just to see if the whole e-cig thing would work for me, I ended up with a T18. That was over the xmas break, and it's been perfect for me - I haven't had a cigarette, or even really felt like having one, since - and for me that's been a massive deal. Until then I'd been on 20-30 a day for longer than I care to remember, and I can't see myself ever going back.
For anyone who's struggled in the past to stop, and I've tried various things, I'd hugely recommend the (decent quality!) e-cig option.
Pretty much spot on, but with one small adjustment for me. This part:
For most, it is not because they don't want to see ads.
Is not true, at least in my case. In an ideal world I don't want to see any ads, ever. However - I am happy to put up with unobtrusive, sensible ads in exchange for a free service, for those sites I am a regular visitor to and user of. Unless and until this type of ad replaces the aggressive, obtrusive and downright annoying stuff that is currently the norm I reserve the right to block ads, aggressively.
is that they've snuck the latest W10 ad in via stealth mode in a security update, so full on sneakyness, but then I read this:
The spokesperson who sent the missive went on to explain that “Users that have turned off the GWX app or disabled notifications in settings will not see this recent change, nor will Windows Professional users.”
Don't get me wrong, this bit qualifies as a good thing, or at least a not terrible one. And it appears to be true - having let this update through during the weekend on one machine and fired up IE to check, there is no W10 update prompt anywhere to be found.
It's as if Gollum is running the show for the most part, but occasionally Smeagol manages to take control....
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