* Posts by Snospar

4 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Dec 2009

What are those Windows 10 PCs running? Several flavours from 2019, by the looks of things

Snospar

Re: I recently noticed

Don't be too quick to celebrate, I was in the same state, until recently, with Windows 10 repeatedly failing to do any full "feature" updates - always failing after a reboot complaining it couldn't find an EFI component that was definitely installed in the path it was searching. However, when I upgraded my graphics card I found that I couldn't install the required drivers from nVidia because my Windows was too old.

I have ended up doing a fresh install on top of my old windows and losing all my programs and settings as a result. Oh and I'm no longer activated - Thanks Microsoft, what a way to win more custom!

Jammy dodgers: Boffin warns of auto autos congesting cities to avoid parking fees

Snospar

Utter nonsense

The whole point of fleets of self-driving autonomous vehicles is that they don't have individual owners and you never need to park them (they themselves will need to find a charging or refueling station at regular intervals but that's another thing that is no longer your problem).

Ubuntu v iTunes: the music playoff for Applephobes

Snospar
Linux

Linux does play MP3

I was going to write "There are good reasons why Linux doesn't support MP3 out of the box" but luckily I spotted the error in that sentence. I'll try again:

There are stupid, legal reasons why Linux doesn't support MP3 out of the box. The same reasons cause issues when people want to watch DVD's they own on Linux systems. This isn't a failing on the part of Linux distributions, which are following the letter of the law, this is a failure of the legal system that allows patents on software routines that want to decode the media you're interested in. All modern Linux distributions will advise you of these issues and offer assistance on how to resolve them with a couple of clicks.

Update your article with a simple link to one of the many sites that fully explains these issues instead of glibly saying a non-MP3 playing PC isn't a PC at all. No one in my family uses MP3 and we get along just fine with our PC's whether they use Windows or Linux (we also use a variety of portable players too without problems).

If you meant to write an article supporting Linux then do just that, support Linux!

Devolo dLan AVplus

Snospar
Alert

Beware reliability problems!

I'd be very wary about the reliability of these devices. I have a pair of Devolo 200Mbps AVEasy adapters that work perfectly and I've been trying to add a third "plug" for most of this year. So far I have received 3 devices that have all failed after a short period (minutes in one case). Basically the plug works when first activated but after sending some traffic they get hot and then abruptly drop off the network. Allow them to cool and they work again but that's not much use.

I only want to stream SD video across them (MPEG2), so I'm looking for around 6Mbps performance which is exactly what they advertise on the packaging - I've never got close to the mythical 200Mbps, even 100Mbps is pure fiction for these devices.

By the way, if someone from Dabs is reading this, sort out my RMA please, it's been months now!