Posts by Refugee from Windows

AMD's three new low-power chips pose potent challenge to Intel

Elephant. Room.

Power consumption, ARM, need I say more?

Telly apocalypse foretold for 4G arrival fails to hit London: Brighton next

Dodgy amplifiers?

So far they've deployed 4G in areas with good signal levels, where generally amplifiers are not needed. When they deploy in fringe areas away from main transmitters, that's when they'll find problems. As the signals are inside what has been the UHF TV band, it's in the pass band, even ones that are TETRA proofed. Pity the poor folk getting a free filter, but then it needs to be fitted between the antenna and the masthead amp at considerable cost.

All aboard the patch wagon! Next stop: Microsoft, Adobe, Mozilla

At least I've only 3 Windows machines to deal with, all the rest seem to manage this one their own ;)

It'll mean I get a pint off the lass for sorting the nag screens out for the updates anyway.

Ah yes

Another evening whittled away doing updates, at least it's not warm and sunny. I wouldn't mind all these updates, but if they didn't come all at once like no 72 buses.

If only they had some way of managing the updates. Wait a minute, there's a penguin pecking at my ankle.......

How smart does your desk phone need to be?

Not clever enough

Even as office phones go, the IP ones we were "upgraded" to a couple of year ago were less than appreciated. One missing feature is an adjustment for mic level, as it's always appallingly quiet and the noise cancelling facility does a good job in blocking everything else. Well placed piece of PVC tape solves this to a point.

Not helping either is the connection to the Cloudy CRM that fails to provide any call information at all, or kills the whole screenful of information you've typed in during a call. We hope you're reading this S****force !

I'd prefer a Heil Audio headset, so I could actually hear some callers, and a decent level of DSP (user adjustable) would help.

Go get me two cans and a bit of string.

Linux kernel 3.9 lands

Rolling development project

Just think of the Linux Kernel as exactly that. At least the new support will get tested by its peers (ie us in the IT world) and it's documented as to problems and tweaks to get it to work better than previous versions. It'll never be perfect, but at least its open development community keeps it, well, open. In contrast to maybe using paying customers to effectively beta test your products.

Also consider that although you may think Linux is somewhat fragmented, as it's the choice you can have in its configuration, it does have the edge IMHO in innovation terms.

Smart metering will disrupt weather forecasts, warns Met Office

Limited supply?

I could only see an advantage if they would offer me a much reduced bill for limiting my maximum load, but I doubt if this would ever happen. Commercial tariffs have been based on maximum demand but maybe they move towards doing this with domestic customers. Do I really need an 80A supply? Surely if I were to only have one limited at 40A they need less copper (or aluminium) in the ground, fewer power stations, smaller distribution transformers etc. However, unless they're going to downgrade the local supply, which isn't going to happen in the near future, the infrastructure locally is already in place.

I have known farm cottages with a mere 30A supply, and that really does mess things up if you put the kettle on at the same time the washing machine decides to heat up the water.

I think the phrase "over my dead body" comes to mind.

Ofcom: Parents, here's how to keep grubby tots from buying Smurfberries

Follow the money?

Whatever provider you use is quite happy to take the money off you, which seems to be the weakness of the "premium rate" system. It's not necessarily taking your card details, it may just be raiding your account or nabbing the PAYG credit. For some reason is they're quite happy to keep doing this, so they'll make you jump through hoops to try to get your money back. As used by scammers for a long time.

The solution would be an opt-in approach, but this would of course affect the revenue flow, so it 'aint going to happen in a hurry is it?

Windows XP support ends a year from … now!

Clinging onto life

I'm sure some of us have XP machines living on simply because they are still able to do the job they were bought for years ago. Mine lives on as print server and interface to the radio kit that's attached to it. Depending on the circumstances it'll either get retired, knocked off the network to become a stand alone machine or get some version on Linux installed on it. A couple of years ago it had its memory maxed up. I suppose I've had my moneysworth out of it then.

Thing is I've already eyed up its likely replacement, so there may be an RPi as print server, the SDR stuff will be used with the W7 laptop and something fairly simple to interface the radio with. None of these are likely to have W8 in them.

Watchdog warns UK.gov not to create 'them and us' digital divide

Re: Untermenschen

So suppose someone who the gov's been trying to get out of the country can only claim on line, but is banned from using the net due to a court order, then his money will dry up. Possibly he'd then have to sling his hook himself then?

BT pockets more gov broadband millions. This time: Lincolnshire

Sitting on the cash

"BT has inked a deal to roll out fibre broadband in Lincolnshire, scooping up yet more cash from the British government." What this means is after getting the cash they'll delay doing anything for as long as possible for accounting reasons, before grudgingly going ahead with rather less than was originally "promised" cos all the prices have gone up.

Next Windows 8 version can ditch bits of Metro

If it's ARMless it'll be dead in the water

Not much of a mention of what the processor support is here. I suppose if they leave ARM out they will find a lot of the Embedded guys (and gals) brushing it aside and using another platform such as Android. Seriously thinking that possibly M$ has lost the will to live.

Ubuntu? Fedora? Mint? Debian? We'll find you the right Linux to swallow

Sneaking in with the Raspberry Pi

I'd say that Debian has sneaked here in the guise of Raspbian. That's a million computers that will never run Windows sold, and to a lot of people who didn't know Linux existed before that as well.

Ready or not: Microsoft preps early delivery of IE10 for Windows 7

Making me sure to turn "auto updates" off then

Would it be fair to expect that the usual hype is to be ignored? It sounds very much like their idea of the internet experience is not one I'd like. My opinion of IE9 is "why did they bother" and no doubt of IE10 will be "why should I risk taking on this when I can use something else I'm used to?"

BT copper-cable choppers cop 16 months in the cooler

Off the net

May I suggest they are in cells with no electricity, might give a further disincentive to cable magpies?

Every single Internet Explorer at risk of drive-by hacks until Patch Tuesday

Note to Microsoft

For Windows 9, make the browser (which won't be called Internet Explorer no doubt) and application and not parasitically linked to the operating system, like it should have been since the end of Windows 98 a few years ago. Give the users a real choice, that is if you opt to not have it, none of its elements remain even in the registry.

Whereas open source browsers do have security issues, I would contend they are sorted out more efficiently ie quicker. Just remember that IE is just a piece of free bundled software with support from its vendor related to what you paid for it.

Phones 4U scrambles onto EE's back, flings out own virtual network

Re: EE Sucks

South Bank yes - near Teeside University, Thornaby on Tees?

This week's BBC MELTDOWN: Savile puppet haunts kids' TV

Re: setting a worrying precedent?

Sounds a bit like Winston's job in that George Orwell novel. Maybe the "Ministry of Truth" isn't a work of fiction after all.

Mega-res telly demand to boom, say ball-gazers

Non UHD peepers

Unfortunately my receiving hardware will not notice any difference with an increase in resolution, so they won't be getting any sales from this household.

2012: The year that netbooks DIED

Re: The real reason

Xandros was somewhat a turkey for me, my original 701 had it ditched after a few weeks in place of EEEbuntu, which was good whilst it lasted. My upgrade to a 901 was an improvement, the size meant you could use it on public transport sensibly using their free wifi. Storage was never really an issue - use SD card and work is transferable between desktop and portable. Likewise just how much music/pictures/video are you going to store on them?

I suspect the M$ turned the screws on the manufacturers to kill them off. Tablets aren't a replacement, they're not as practical as a netbook, a small keyboard is better than none. Currently using 12.04 with Unity desktop on it, it's much better than the W7 "severely limited" edition one of my firends has on his netbook.

Netbooks will be sorely missed.

Micro-computer bakers open Raspberry Pi shop

Re: That's very unfair of you.

I'd suggest Libre Office might be a bit of an overkill really - Abiword and Gnumeric I would suggest as more appropriate.

First suggestion is get a different browser from Midori, it seriously drove me up the wall, but installing Network Manager and Synaptic Package manager might just find you not needing to use the Pi Shop at all.

Sleepy North Yorkshire village is first to get gov-subsidised BT fibre

Suspicious

It's on a main road, the A684, so it's not that sleepy. It's also adjacent to a railway line, abeit the Wensleydale Railway, and there was the possibility a few years ago that it could have gained a nice fibre optic cable laid along it form A.N.Other broadband provider (*not Outer-Reach). So it's not actually that far away.

Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-TEST certification

What do you expect for free?

Given that most of the attack vectors seem to be through software nothing to do with M$, it's what I'd expect. Also, as a lot of the "paid for" products seem to hold you to ransom after the initial subscription* runs out and deeply embed themselves in so they are hard to root out, it's enough to drive you elsewhere.

*Year 1 is a special deal, we'll tighten the screws for next year!

Don't touch Sony, Panasonic's junk, says credit agency

Panasonic R&D

More of Panasonic is the bits to make things end of the market rather than the finished product. It's the general downturn in electronics that's been the problem. Panasonic components are in many other items, however they are still developing new products and technologies - if that stops it's usually the death knell for a company.

Assault on battery

Re: Back in reality

Security by obscurity. To stop your minions doing a crafty swop of the batteries for home, use some obscure brand such as the "industrial" versions of the well known brands, they'll probably save money as well.

Dogs would say: size is important, shape - not so much

Canine vocabulary

Definitely object based, words for various toys are understood well by my hound (a collie) but "rabbit" seems to be understood not as an object but as a command to chase small furry animals. Mind you, a few years ago when the outlaws were about, my previous one picked up commands in Chinese, even when the command "sit"* had different meanings depending on who gave them.

*As in place posterior on ground or eat.

Pocket Wi-Fi hotspots paralyse Chinese metro lines

Re: Idiots.

Maybe the phrase "safety critical" is the phrase being sought. I'd question the 2.4GHz band's status of being for ISM as well, with WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee (however rare that is) shoe-horned in there it should have been a no brainer. It's only the RF modules they need to change, it's not as if you have to redesign the whole lot.

UK digital terrestrial TV turns 14 today

Re: @ Dave Bell

Yes but there is a threshold below which the 1's and 0's can't be made into anything. So decent signal strength and data quality counted with the weaker signals. It showed up just how bad a lot of people's coax had become over the usually 30+ years it had been exposed to the weather.

Fedora 'Spherical Cow' delayed by bugs, Secure Boot

What?

Not releasing untested, unsecure and functionally deficient software? Come on, what are beta testers, sorry, end users for?

They should be commended for holding things back rather than just keeping chucking unfinished work out? No that any other software company would do this to anyone would they?

Adobe Reader 0-day exploit surfaces on underground bazaars

Acrobat Reader Lite

Hello Adobe, could we have a "lite" version of the reader that doesn't have all the bloat that seems to be the security issue? If it hadn't grown like Topsy over the years possibly these problems would be fewer and far between.

Sky squeezes even more money from customers, gets fewer new ones

Not surprising?

It's what they call a mature market, they're in the Pay-TV market and if you've no cable option then they're the monopoly supplier. There's no real reason for there to be a vast influx of new customers, in fact I would suspect that their customer base will stagnate in numbers, although there will always be some churn depending on their latest gimmick/

Skype for Windows 8 is coming: Always on, always in your contacts

"immersive and effortless"

Translates as a ruddy nuisance. We just want to be able to turn it off, or do we just do the default manner of having a user account you can switch to that doesn't work.

New Oz road rules forbid touching mobes

Re: "not be permitted to even touch their mobile phones while their car engine is running"

It seems that the law can't decide just how much degree of control is needed. You can be stationary, out of gear, with the handbrake on without the engine running and you're legal. Start the engine and you're breaking the law, even though you couild argue that you have exactly the same degree of being in control. In this case the law is a small horselike beat of burden.

It may of course fall into the "zero enforcement" zone, unless of course they decide to tag it on as an excuse. Police resources over here are stretched - they don't do "routine stops" any more other than to make their quota up for the week.

IE10 coming to Windows 7 sometime, maybe

One simple question

If IE10 were something that wasn't bundled (or should that be embedded) into the OS, would anyone buy it as a stand alone product?

Map law could see China confiscate mobes at Customs

Could we try the same here?

If their maps show the Falkland Islands as the Malvinas, whip their iThing off them!

'No cutting off people's internet based on secret evidence'

Just 'cos we say so

I see this more a question of denying a service to someone without there being a recourse to law. If they do have evidence of illegal activity then it would be correct for to present this to a court of law, not to just accuse and then force ISPs to remove their service. I would hope that this idea gets binned by the ISP's, and the MAFIAA get a suitable reply from their own legal eagles.

Jam today: Raspberry Pi Ram doubled

Re: Is there a way of telling which version you have ?

Kinda easy - if has two mounting holes and "Made in the UK" near the power connector it's a new one.

Raspberry Pi production back in Blighty

Re: Myths

Farnell and RS are distributing the final product, and have largely been responsible for bankrolling the first production. It's their retail side that doesn't make much, if any, money on it. As for suppliers, well when you're dealing with the production quantities of parts, having a foot in the supplier's pen does help.

Internet Explorer needs fresh dev infusion for a full recovery

Not my obvious choice

We're still landed with it - I can't say my experience of IE10 is a good one. I am only "forced" to use it as some websites throw a wobbly with FF, and I've never trusted Chrome. My opinion is that a lot of the improvements have made it even worse, it is annoying and still difficult to configure for the average user.

Low sunspot activity linked to rivers freezing: Mini Ice Age on way?

Drat!

I'll be snowed in at home, and they'll be no decent HF DX due to the low sunspot count. Never mind, snow cover, good ground conductivity, I'll have to concentrate on 40m then.

Boffins confirm sunspot-weather link

Re: Correlation and Causation?

There has been research into the interaction of the solar wind onto the upper atmosphere, that it tends to warm it up by causing the atmosphere to be more turbulent. Look at the Maunder Minimum, and although solar output may vary it's not by much, there's still a lot of research going on. It seems awfully coincidental that a lot of the coldest winters have occurred at sunspot minimums, and that we had a long cold spell, as mentioned, when the spots dried up. Spots may be good for us!

Ofcom vows to smooth out ISP complaint complaints

Simplify responses

Slow broadband - it did say up to, they never specified a minimum, so tough luck.

Unlimited - in our dictionary it means "up to we think is too much", no without actual limits.

I am sure there are more out there.

PLT chair: UK Radio Society is 'living in a dream world'

Re: Even if notching sorts the amateur radio folks

So in a while when data rate go up, they hit FM broadcasting, Air Traffic Control, PMR, DAB and finally they cause problems with DTT. Then it'll be noticed, but possibly too late.

For flock's sake: Scared sheep send SMSes to Swiss shepherds

Autumn failure

When the ram's out with the raddle waistcoat in the autumn the system will go mad! Raised heartrates indeed.

Curiosity success 'paves way for Man on Mars by 2030s'

Nice one

Good to hear it has landed safely, fingers crossed all the rest of the mission goes well.

Pint- because they deserve it.

MYSTERY as six people SURVIVE deadly VAMPIRE BAT BITES

Re: Survivors

It is likely that the rabies infection had become "attenuated" to some degree whilst in the bat, the same sort of process used in vaccination.

SHEEP NEED TWITTER, insist my noble Lords

Since the demise of satellite broadband, some of these areas lost out on a connection completely. Others that had initially had their own provision lost it when a certain large telecom company pulled the rug out from under them by bringing in ADSL to villages. However I have friends 14km of wet string from the exchange and their chance of getting broadband is basically nil - the population/subscriber density is too low for it to be economic.

Saying that, I'm 2km from an exchange and can't get broadband at all, nay they tried to get POTS working for 3 months and finally gave me my line rental back. Oh the delights of living in a "notspot"!

Freeview EPG revamp set for September

Nicely timed, eh?

For just a week after our region goes all digital. Obviously some joined together thinking being done here, two retunes in a week.

UK's thirst for energy falls, yet prices rise: Now why is that?

More concerned with the reduction of the supply side

Forget the "dash for gas", but a fair proportion of our electricity generation plant is getting long in the tooth and there's no real plan to replace it from the suppliers. Could be a new industry doing domestic UPS systems for the future power cuts. The drop in demand will nicely mask the reduction of capacity until we have a nice cold spell, cloudy and little wind, and then the lights will start to go out.

Fireplace - heating system of the future!

Microsoft unfurls patent lasso, snares Linux servers

Re: Tis all a bunch of BS

Of course how can we possibly find out what we are violating if we don't actually know what's below the bonnet? If perhaps they released which bits of code/ideas/magic smoke are being infringed then the Linux community would avoid treading on those bit and remove them. I do however suspect that it may go the other way round quite badly - would a trawl through the M$ kernel reveal any bits that have been snaffled from Linux or BSD perhaps, ones under the GNU licence.