* Posts by Roland6

10572 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2010

Claims emerge that Citrix has doubled price of month-to-month partner licenses

Roland6 Silver badge

Is that your server?

Trouble is it is a well known charactistic of remote solutions that they use the computing power of the remote server rather the local client machine. So if you purchased that 7950x system just to run Citrix/Remote Desktop, you’ve either been had or believe a Ferrari is a good choice for around town…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Recipe for a low cost virtual desktop

There are better RDP thin clients than running a full Windows desktop with all its update and antivirus needs.

Or are you actually suggesting users use RDP to connect into these desktop systems from home etc.

Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary

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Re: Coincidence...

> NirSoft … often end up blocked by the Antivirus Industrial Complex

“Blocked” makes it sound simple, downloading a working file can be challenging and if you manage this expect the AV to nuke it if you attempt to run it. Basically (with Kaspersky) you have to do quite a bit of work before it allows you to download some Nirsoft utilities and run them, just remember to always run them from the same folder/usb drive next time. However, powerful tools that can help when you really need them.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Coincidence...

>” You may have to download and run the installer on it from the command line.”

However, the distribution under discussion is “ non-techie friendly Zorin”

The only thing that isn’t clear is whether the original poster was trying to install packages that were part of the Zorin bundle or some other packages intended for a generic Linux install.

NASA missions are being delayed by oversubscribed, overburdened, and out-of-date supercomputers

Roland6 Silver badge

> The IG thinks NASA should centralise all its HEC infrastructure

If this was the UK, that would make sense, as the IG would be a political body (ie. Too many conservatives with outside business interests and mates), as then the centralised facility could then be sold off and run by Microsoft…

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Re: It's just one site

You could investigate becoming a GPU provider to NASA and associated researchers…

Securing open source software: Whose job is it, anyway?

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Re: Contributing Back

Agree it’s a tricky one, as the solution is a bit “hippy”/counter-culture, in that it expects people to be honest and fair and voluntarily put their hand in their pocket, rather than explotative.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

> I'm not alone in disagreeing with Stallman

I also disagree with some of the things he has said.

> his position is political rather than philosophical.

It’s both, remember he is an academic who has never had to earn a living from being a software developer, this combined with a hippie mindset has poisoned open source and our ability to charge anything for it, hence why we have all the open source funding problems we currently have.

> No strings attached is how I like my open source.

That’s BSD then :)

There was an ElReg article in the last year or so about “open source”, where we noted what is generally regarded as open source, is more akin to public source and development, where development is readily visible to all on say Github, at no cost (*).

(*) I am expecting at some point services such as Microsoft’s GitHub will start charging: want to use our platform, buy a developer’s subscription; want to view a project, buy a user subscription. Obviously these would be tiered on the number of projects you wished to be able to access. As this is Microsoft, don’t expect any of those revenues to actually go to the individual projects, but the subscription will allow the projects to be harvested by CoPilot.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

> No, we don't need to break the idea: open source is free without any kind of qualification.

Err no!

Stallman has always maintained “free” means libre, not free as in free beer. There are plenty of reputable sources that discuss this in detail.

Remember if you want quality software, software developers need to be paid at rates above subsistence…

> I'd argue that the commercial pressure itself is likely to provide solutions.

I suggest the need for improved security is a commercial pressure, so either we can start thinking about solutions and lead the market, or let “the market” ie. Others with a vested interest in minimising (development) costs, to define the solution, which will probably result in something akin to a consortium owned BSD fork (ie. Closed sourced based on open source that does not credit the original developers)..

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

Agree we have some major problems with current business culture and executive sense of entitlement…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

GPLis satisfied by open source being freely available to customers/service subscribers, you want a secure supply chain then pay the subscription to be a user of that service.

> but it does make a large, and in my mind important, change to what open source and free software have meant which has its downsides as well as upsides.

Yes, having a source of secure open source and an improved software supply-chain security are important changes to what has gone before. You want it then there is a price, you can have open source from other places, but without the security guarantees…

I think we need to get away from the free beer which many are acustomed to….

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

Understand the problem, however, we need to break the idea that Open Source is free to all.

A “foundation” needs to be not for profit, although it will need to be commercial so as to generate the revenue’s necessary to maintain the quality of Open Source people are demanding.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Contributing Back

Probably need a foundation to sit on top of the secure open source supply chain, so they can charge a usage fee that can go to maintaining secure open source development. Yes, you are free to buy from elsewhere, but caveat emptor…

Caffeine makes fuel cells more efficient, cuts cost of energy storage

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Nope, not sharing

> They can use Starbucks for it :)

“ A medium cappuccino at Costa Coffee contains a “massive” 325mg of caffeine, almost five times the strength of the Starbucks version with a modest 66mg.”

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coffee-shops-caffeine-levels-costa-starbucks-b2274145.html

However, caffeine is abundant due to the amount of decaffeinated tea and coffee now being sold…

Developers beware, Microsoft's domain shakeup is coming soon

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But they could drop the .com and use the .microsoft TLD…

Can AI shorten PC replacement cycles? Dell seems to think so

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Re: "shorten PC replacement cycles"

I’m a bit old school and like being able to flip off the back cover and gain ready access to: memory slots, drive bay(s) and other accessory slots.

Also if the device has a second drive bay, I expect the cabling, caddy etc. to be there (or readily available) so it can be used (a problem I have encountered with both HP and Lenovo laptops).

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "shorten PC replacement cycles"

Thankfully the accountants will not want to see the replacement cycle fall below 3~4 years, so as to maximise the write down tax benefits.

What is going to be interesting is the leasing companies; given a lease generally is Opex, there is no real benefit to their customers in forcing a refresh every 3~4 years, in fact there is greater profit potential for the leasing companies to switch to a subscription, so PCs could be on the books for many years and potentially being resold like cars.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: "shorten PC replacement cycles"

> Have Lenovo done that as well?

Need to look closely at specs as it varies between the Thinkpad ranges and whether the system is using DDR5, which tends to be soldered…

With my L series, keyboard etc. replacement isn’t as simple as it was with my T60… Also the increasing use of clips instead of screws, means you don’t really want to be taking the system apart too many times…

Microsoft: Copyright law didn't stop the VCR and shouldn't stop the LLM

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Re: Mere snippets

Need to get a LLM trainer to read your existing Windows install then use the resulting LLM to generate a Windows install on your new system.

The you will be able to sell your LLM to anyone who wants to solve the problem your model has been trained to solve.

That definitely, according to Microsoft’s current lawyers, won’t infringe MS’s copyright…

Roland6 Silver badge

You are overlooking. Key difference: to make a VCR you don’t to use copyrighted content. Okay I might use copy of say Pirates as part of my factory testing, but the receipient of the VCR would never know this. However, a LLM needs to be trained, ie. have “read” potentially copyrighted material.

So for equivalence to the VCR, MS have to sell the tools (and only the tools) that allows someone to create their own LLMs, using content within their collection, which if for personal use is covered by current law, if for commercial use or sale then the laws require you to get a licence etc.

Interestingly, this reminds me of compiler licences, where (back in the 1980’s) you had to check the licence as the basic licence typically allowed for development and private use of the output, but not for commercial exploitation ie. resale. The other licence trip up was the libraries, whether they could be included in a commercial distribution or not. I’ve not had reason to review the licences companies such as Microsoft attach to their compilers in recent years - would not be surprised if there are more favourable terms for software that’s intended to run on Azure or only available through the MS store.

Network Rail steps back from geofencing over safety fears

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Beeching's revenge

A quick check indicates the video either doesn’t cover the entire stopping time or the stopping distance is misstated.

Whilst TGV clearly comes to a halt after 38s of video, a quick calculation shows that a train travelling at 320 kmh would cover 3378m in 38s.

Counting gantries (26) and assuming typical distance between is 50(*), gives a total distance of circa 1300m in 38s.

(*) typical spacing of overhead line gantries for 140mph(225kmh) in the UK are 64~73m. Eurostar (300kmh) it’s circa 50m.

Some additional searching provides a calculated stopping time of under 90s, based on a number of assumptions, which seem more reasonable.(in the event of total power failure it might be slightly faster).

This thus gives a distance covered of 8000m (5 miles) at 320kmh. Thus that 2.5 miles forward visibility is an understatement..

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Beeching's revenge

> a fantastic idea if it could alert the driver of an obstacle 2.5 miles away around a bend...

320 kmh to 0 in 38 seconds…

“ Emergency brake test on a TGV: 3389 metres to stop from 320 kmh!”

3389m = 2.11 miles

However, for maximum safety, it would need clairvoyant powers so as to apply the brakes 2.5 miles before anyone stepped into its path.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: because...

Interesting they tested it at Milton Keynes, perhaps taking a train down to Euston and walking it through Euston throat - no skyscrapers but deep cuttings and multiple levels of track, would be a good test.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: because...

> But the gist of the article is that they want a system for use while the lines (tracks) are still in use.

Which requires location accuracy of 1ft or better and warning/alarm notification within seconds, combined with real-time update as the worker moves towards (or more importantly away from) safety.

However lower level of accuracy can be useful, if used in conjunction with other railway safe working practises. From memory one of the big (and easy to make) safety mistakes workers make is to step the wrong way of a line with an approaching train, only to encounter a train travelling in the opposite direction…

British Library pushes the cloud button, says legacy IT estate cause of hefty rebuild

Roland6 Silver badge

> So now they're paying two ransoms?

Three, software licensing for cloud verses on-prem licensing…

Roland6 Silver badge

But cloud is just pushing that CapEx expense onto someone else, who will charge the cost of money plus some on top of everything else for the customers OpEx subscription price.

Just having this problem with a client, because they failed to purchase new kit the last two plus years they now have a much larger CapEx to pay out, ie. They are looking at having to purchase 400 new servers this year rather than 100…

Linux for older phones postmarketOS changes its init system

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Right to Repair

Perhaps the time has come to lobby (the EU?) for manufacturers to unlock their end of support phones(*) and provide documentation, so enable users to repair them with a supported OS such as postmarketOS.

(*) Define as a phone that has not received an Android update within a rolling 12 month period.

Linux 6.9 will be the first to top ten million Git objects

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: a billion?

> Numeric punctuation is the one thing that imperial and metric should have agreed upon

Let’s take the first step: SI should have agreed a single form of punctuation rather than permit the continuation of different national conventions.

> decimal-comma countries misreading "3,000km"

Interestingly, The recommended solution is to use space, so that becomes 3 000km, thus leaving the only dot/comma in the decimal point position. Only catch is the space gives rise to parsing problems…

Is Russia using Starlink in Ukraine? Congress demands answers

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Re: Should be (relatively) simple...

> Newsflash: Starlink is a broadband Internet access solution. And in other breaking news, so are smartphones

Newsflash apples are different to oranges.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: More BS from politicians.

>” the only way to be 100% secure is to close the borders and turn off the internet”

Doesn’t stop the Chinese weather balloons…

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Should be (relatively) simple...

> Starlink probably can deliver maps, or be compelled to deliver maps, but other nations might not be too keen on this and just make the service illegal.

Doesn’t really matter, Starlink is a US HQ’d telco, it will do whatever the US government asks it to do and it will keep its mouth shut on such matters. This relationship between governments and their telcos goes back way too many decades.

> you sure about that?

It is straight forward to set up an iOS or Android phone without an Apple ID or Google account. Okay it’s a bit like setting windows 10/11 up without a MS account they don’t make it obvious but the facility is there. There are (thirdparty) guides on the internet that explain how.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Should be (relatively) simple...

> But terminals are supposed to transmit their location, so Starlink should be able to produce a map showing active Starlink terminals.

I expect they are already delivering a real-time map to the NSA complete with intercepts, if not Musk deserves everything being thrown at him.

> Nobody is using Apples or Androids inside Russia, or Russian held Ukraine? Sanctions apply to those devices as well.

To use an apple or android device you don’t need the active support of, and subscription with a US HQ’d service provider.

Nano a nono: Pixel 8 phones too dumb for Google's smallest Gemini AI model

Roland6 Silver badge

Gemini AI optional?

I suppose it will be highly unlikely that Gemini AI will be a user initiated download from the Play store and part of the pre installed bundle and thus wasting much of a phone’s limited storage.

It is also going to be interesting to see what impact it has on a phones battery life.

All these unknowns would seem to make the Pixel 8 an attractive phone…

IBM lifts lid on latest bid to halt mainframe skill slips

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Re: Where is the demand?

There is still an important role for batch processing in today’s business computing world, and mainframes are very good at doing largescale batch.

Plus a Z-Series does pack a lot of processing power (and I/O capability) into its datacentre footprint; something that might be important to cloud data centre operators.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Encourage z/OS and z/VM on Hercules

Agree having access to an “mainframe”, particularly “free” might encourage more universities to give mainframe computing more coverage, and maybe help rehabilitate (modern) mainframe computing amongst Computing undergrads who may be under the impression that Windows/Linux and x86/Arm are the only system platform options worth working with.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Ironic

> Why would you invest years in learning certain skill and then you'll be binned at 50

Well for some reason for several decades people have been learning certain Microsoft skills, only to have them binned with the next release of Windows etc.

Basically, I suggest you should looking to develop skills so you can have a career post 50…

UK finance minister promises NHS £3.4B IT investment to unlock £35B savings

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Re: Cynical? Me?

It’s a government project, so that £3.4B is likely to be the total contract cost ie. Initial Capex spend plus 5~7 years of Opex.

The savings figure is more suspect. I anticipate it will include theoretical savings, for example efficiency improvements (reducing number of unfilled appointments) enable the avoidance of additional spend rather than actually reducing current spend.

Roland6 Silver badge

The NHS needs its own health open systems profile, which mandates open standards for medical data interchange, obviously, a fast way to achieve this is to make various proprietary standards, Standard essential and thus subject to FRAND; this being a contractual condition of supply.

Once the NHS effectively owns its own data formats, it become possible to interchange data and thus create the opportunity for people to write compatible software, some of which might be open source.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: automating the writing and clinical coding of notes, discharge summaries and GP letters

> Time to give the Lib Dems another chance?

Suggest they do need to get back to having 62+ MPs (2005 GE) before we think about government forming potential.

Copilot can't stop emitting violent, sexual images, says Microsoft whistleblower

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: @Roland6 - “Gemini was caught by netizens producing pictures of people of color...

> I don't quite understand your point here.

As you observe history, is not PC (politically correct), so a PC AI automaton with no “understanding” of history is going to have problems with historical accuracy when asked to produce images set in a historical context, as it is likely to generate images based on todays multi-ethnic standards.

EU users can't update 3rd party iOS apps if abroad too long

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: Why does anyone buy Apple?

Ignoring the "stupendously expensive" iPads, there is value in giving kids and especially those with learning difficulties "normal" iPads instead of Android tablets.

Manageability is always a problem when dealing with very small cost constrained user groups... Once you are into a few dozen devices, MDM tools like JAMF are a no brainer.

Having investigated and used both Android and iOS tablets with children and adults with learning disabilities and/or are deaf, my preference is for Apple. Okay with this user group you do need to go for the more rugged cases and lightning/wireless charging rather than USB-C (or the old 30-pin spade connector), otherwise you will see a higher level of device failure.

Reminder: Infostealer malware is coming for your ChatGPT credentials

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: If they don't contain username/password pairings, how are they used?

From the linked blog:

“ more than 225,000 logs up for sale on the dark web containing compromised ChatGPT credentials”

It seems they haven’t analysed the logs to determine how many are unique and how many unique credentials (username/password pairs) they contain, hence why there could be more (or less) than 225,000 compromised sets of credentials.

Agree the language used in the article could have been clearer.

Tiny Core Linux 15 stuffs modern computing in a nutshell

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: investigating whether it can turn some geriatric laptops into useful tools once again.

> there come a point where all things are past their useful lives.

Whilst, I get the issue over “ancient” systems, however, there are still a large number of low performance systems being sold on the high st. Something that enables these to be useful extends their useful lives.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: investigating whether it can turn some geriatric laptops into useful tools once again.

> what could be accomplished by a Pi3 sipping a mere handful (including an SSD of course).

And what could be accomplished on the same hardware running a less thirsty OS…

IP address X-posure now a feature on Musk's social media thing

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: NAT

>Peer B etc

Both ends of the VPN connection need to run the same “brokered” VPN client.

> Why do ordinary people have to pay to get a service provider to connect a peer-to-peer communication?

Operator connected calls have always carried a premium…

> And, of course, maybe the "internet_server" is saving…

There will be a saving due to the connnection not having to be trombones via X’s servers.

Roland6 Silver badge

Re: NAT

Totally possible, this is effectively what products like Draytek’s VPN Matcher do.