Posts by jonfr 482 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jul 2010
Anything server from Microsoft is useless in my view. I only consider them good for Desktop and I only consider Linux* (*Your distro of chose) good for server work as it does what is expected of it**.
** Also applies to *BSD (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and so on).
The download speed at this distance is around 0.9Kbps at best. I don't know the upload speeds for the commands and software. Currently the lag time is around 5 hours one way or 10 hours both way. Voyager is around 15 hours out one way (I think).
I did find this information on New Horizon communications.
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2015/01300800-talking-to-pluto-is-hard.html
@ cork.dom@gmail.com
The EU is not the worst performing economy in the world. It is the second biggest in the world or the biggest (depending slightly on measurements, I don't know why that is). Growth is slow, but the reality is that growth is over-estimated by economists and economic growth as such is just a myth popular with the media.
http://www.edwardgoldsmith.org/851/exposing-the-myth-of-economic-growth/ (from 1992)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/myth-of-perpetual-growth-is-killing-america-2012-06-12 (from 2012)
Little reading material on the EU. I don't know how up to date it is and that means some of it might be outdated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/eu-position-in-world-trade/
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/The_EU_in_the_world_-_economy_and_finance
UK leaving the EU is going to tank UK economy. Start growing your vegetable and get chickens (for the eggs, if nothing else), you're going to need it.
The Channel Islands have never been inside EU in any shape or form. They just take part in freedom of movement for the British citizen living on the islands, it doesn't work the other way around. The Channel Islands also take part in the customs union of the EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territories_and_the_European_Union#Channel_Islands
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/eu-vat-rules-topic/territorial-status-eu-countries-certain-territories_en
I can also see on the EU list that I was wrong in part about Gibraltar. It's not part of the customs union so customs inspection applies to it (no change after March 2019).
@ Smooth Newt, This is going to get considerable worse than that once UK is out of EU. Once UK is out of the EU all persons living in Gibraltar are going to require a visa permit and work permit to continue to work in Spain and to travel over the border to Spain.
There is also going to be more strict passport and customs check on the Spain side (and UK side equally) once UK is out of the EU. Tariff on both sides of the border and other details that might show them self as things move along.
Due to Gibraltar and UK on whole not being in Schengen there is already a passport control on Spain/Gibraltar border.
Gibraltar status is protected by a treaty from the 18th century. That treaty name is "Treaty of Utrecht".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Utrecht
This is the same thing they sad about the PC at the time (1977).
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future Society meeting in Boston. This is widely quoted but Olsen claims it is taken out of context, that he was not referring to personal computers but to a household computer that would control the home.
Reference: "Ken Olsen", Snopes, includes bibliography."
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Incorrect_predictions
I got almost the exactly the same answer from my ISP (Stofa, DK). It is only when their IPv4 addresses start to run out that they might start to consider that option. That might *never happen*, short of programs just removing IPv4 support or limiting it to local IPv4 address.
I suspect that in this case its more about greed (somewhat) rather than anything else. Since they do charge money for the static IP addresses when people ask for them. With IPv6 that is impossible to do.
"Why do you think the Common Travel Area that includes Ireland and the UK will have to end? It already includes territories that are not in the EU."
Once UK is out of EU they become none EU citizen. That means they fall right into this group of rules regarding border travel into EU regardless of Schengen status of that country (different set of rules).
http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-nationals/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/immigration/what-should-i-avoid/how-to-enter-the-eu/crossing-the-eu-borders_en
There are going to be border post at the N-Ireland border with Ireland after 2019 when the UK leaves the EU formally (with an agreement or not). One travel zone is not a possibility under current EU laws that apply in Ireland. If Ireland applies to join Schengen area after UK leaves the EU then a whole new rules are going to apply, along with the requirement of Schengen visa for UK nationals.
@Jess, No. While UK can join EFTA a membership of EEA requires a agreement between EU commission and EFTA states. Currently new EEA states are only added on the EU side (EU membership does not mean automatic EEA membership, the EEA agreement is updated as new EU members join).
EEA members are also required to adopt EU laws in everything except.
1. Agriculture.
2. Customs union.
3. Euro.
4. Other issues that might not fall under the EEA agreement.
Everything else, this includes Schengen has to be adopted into laws of EEA member state. This does not happen automatically as is the case with full members of the EU. EEA member also don't have any say how EU set it's laws and makes decision.
For UK to re-join EFTA and then join EEA would making leaving the EU a pointless act for UK.
EEA requires an EFTA membership (UK was a founder member, but left for EEC membership). However, EU has sad that they are not interested in extending the EEA agreement to new EFTA states or update the agreement any more than needed to. No other EEA like agreement are going to be made in the future.
Either a country is a member of EU or not. That was the line Switzerland got to hear when they almost voted them self out of the 120 deal package they have with EU at the moment.
@ shade82000, The 12 hour window on upgrades is for the office environment. What it's doing on the home operating system is something I don't understand. Since it has no business is being there.
As I understand it, the best way to deal with this problem with update is set Windows 10 to metered connection setting and then all updates have to be done manually.
@ big_D, I don't know why Germany still has analogue cable. Wikipedia says its because of popularity and in part due to ancient agreements all over the country, that is mostly Kabel Deutschland problem as I understand it. I plan on setting up a flat panel satellite dish or a 50cm dish once I move to Flensburg (if I can). I'm waiting for the DVB-T to DVB-T2 change. It is going to be interesting to see what I pick-up over the antenna.
I still have to get the basic cable television channels over the cable due to an agreement the housing company has with cablesurf (or its parent company, Wohnen & Telecommunication) when I finally move to Flensburg. I think it is the type of deal that makes everyone pays for cable television, but having internet is optional.
This is going to be a major problem for upload speed as I mentioned before (lack of frequency bandwidth needed). It is also going to affect download speed, but since many are already at 400Mbps it is less of a problem. It only becomes a problem when speeds are pushed up to 1Gbbps due to frequency bandwidth requirement.
I checked and Kabel Deutschland (Vodafone) has analogue channels going. You can find the list here.
https://helpdesk.kdgforum.de/sendb/belegung-201.html
@big_D, You're almost next door to me (~200 - 800 km). I plan on moving to Flensburg (Schleswig-Holstein) from Denmark, I'm located 7 km from Flensburg, in a small danish town called Bov (or just Padborg to make things simple).
I guess the upload speeds on cable are around the same as in Flensburg. The main problem is as I understand it the amount of analogue channels still on cable in Germany (around 20 - 40, depending). They just take up bandwidth that might be used for internet, in Denmark YouSee has turned off FM radio and analogue television to increase internet speed up to 1Gbps down and I guess around 500Mbps up at best conditions. Other cable providers (local) continue to have FM radio, but all have turned off analogue television channels. DAB+ radio is now also offered over cable (not possible with analogue television channels on VHF 5 - 12).
I hope that once I move to Flensburg that upload speeds have gotten better. I got few years, until then its just a lot of trip over to Germany with the bus.
I also think, since I'll be living in a block apartment* (rented) that I can't really refuse cable and I'm not sure how good the telephone lines are in Flensburg. I think they are old that just gives worse internet speed. The good news is that I should get IPv6 (no static IPv4 for home accounts) according to cablesurf website.
* I think this is the right word. I'll be free of garden work.
I don't know about your location, but from what I've seen (I'm going to move to Germany in few years) the cable speed is decent down, but upload speed is rather bad. Where I'm planning on moving (housing company with a deal with cablesurf internet+tv company) are currently offering 400Mbps down and only 12Mbps up. I plan on taking that deal with minimal television package. I don't want or need the "premium" television channels.
I currently have fibre internet in Denmark, 100Mbps up and down.
This is not a surprise from Linus, bugs do happen and due to complex Linux is something A not working with something E, G and D is hard to avoid at all. Lack of quality of code happens due to pressure and rushing things along, even if its just in rc builds.
Disclaimer: I'm not yet a programmer, but I've been looking into it as a next step in learning more about computers.
It is a minimum requirement that phones today at least support 3G, since many mobile networks are going 3G only and soon only 4G. It is possible to make a 4G VoLTE only phone without a browser or anything else. A range of frequency bands would be required, resulting in a slight more drain on the battery.
I have two Nokia 301.1 feature phones and they have both GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and 3G 900/2100 (not U.S compatible, but I'm not going there anyway so it does not matter). The minimum requirement have changed since 2000 and feature phone makers have to upgrade their minimum requirement for those phones.
They have to change the basic phones in the future. Since closure of 2G and 3G networks is about to start in the world. Everything is going LTE-A with Voice support in few years times. Basic phones continue have their usage, we don't all want a smart phone. Just a phone that works without a big screen on it.
I don't have a company and I have backup of my backups. I never know when a hard drive fails. I only backup important stuff that I cannot replace elsewhere.
I would like to have double or triple sided backup elsewhere, but I have limited budget at the moment. I'll just work with what I got at the moment.
As for this company in question. I think lack of experience makes this type of errors resulting in large scale problems like this one. Also, bad attention in school when people learn about computers and how they actually work.
Just having NAT on IPv4 connections is a problem, specially when dealing with all the problems that come with it.
As I plan on moving to Germany in few years time, I was searching for a way to get static IP address since I need that for few things I run on my home network. No private IPv4 address to be had, few days ago I discovered that the ISP I'll be using once I move supplies an IPv6 to all new connections. That is going to allow me connect my own WAN router to the cable modem router and get a proper connection to the internet and allows me to run the services I want (I hope) without problems. My WAN router has IPv6 firewall, so that security aspect is good.
Currently my Danish ISP doesn't offer IPv6 at the moment. It has statics IPv4 addresses, but I don't know how long that is going to last.
NAT breaks your internet: https://blog.webernetz.net/2013/05/21/why-nat-has-nothing-to-do-with-security/
There is no IPv6 NAT: http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/blog/2015/01/ipv6-security-myth-3-no-ipv6-nat-means-less-security/
@ Chemist, I did go with lightdm in the end. It worked, but I can't say its user friendly. Far as I know, the "default" KDE Plasma 5 log-in manager (sddm) continues to be a buggy pile of not working programming problems.
See here,
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=193286
http://askubuntu.com/questions/776937/sddm-not-starting-after-upgrade-to-16-04-gnome-and-kde-both-installed
Some of the older bugs might be resolved by now (one can always hope).
@ BinkyTheMagicPaperclip
The problem in Linux/GNU are many, too many to list in this one or several comments. But one among those problems is lack of direction, even among the open source companies. Since they just take the vanilla packages and make small changes to them and send it along its way.
The reason for instance why I use Gentoo Linux is that at the time (2003) it was the most manageable distro of Linux/GNU to use. I had to learn it from start at the time, since I had not been into Linux or Unix environment at that time.
Then there are other problems, like unresolved bugs. Linus throwing tantrum at developers and other such issues (https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/05/torvalds_sievers_dust_up/). It does not help in the long run and damages the workflow (seriously, it does do that).
When it comes to *BSD the problems are different. Lack of direction is not the issue there, but as you mention, in part due to lack of manpower and support from hardware companies. There also seems to be, at least in part to be a lack of will of moving forward. Hardware development has moved forward and today's computers are based on UEFI standard that has made the old BIOS standard obsolete. That issue was not address until it was too late in Linux/GNU and it's still a major problem in some distros (I switched to Lilo in Gentoo Linux to in part avoid the problem with GRUB2 and UEFI). I don't know the status in *BSD, but it might well be that they have moved things more along then Linux distros.
For instance, there seems to be a growing problem in KDE development and it is only getting worse as the time passes (article: https://ask.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/0327239/ask-slashdot-is-kde-dying).
GNOME is not doing any better, I however had problems finding articles about it.
Sure, Microsoft has major problems them self, so does Apple. With all the mess that is going on in the world today, the major software companies are going to have issues and often they make policies (as Microsoft has done, http://www.computerworld.com/article/2878026/microsoft-to-business-dont-worry-about-windows-10-consumers-will-test-it.html), current polices on several matters are just plain stupid and dangerous.
Linux has great usage in many fields. For instance my router runs a Linux based operating system and so does my mobile. The thing about Desktop usage is that it is focused on one task, that is generally watching video, playing games. There isn't much else in Desktop usage for people, the nerds and the geeks have there own special usage that falls slightly outside of this category, but not by much.
I can also add, one of the problems with KDE Plasma 5 is that they didn't even bother to include a log-in manager as they did with older versions of KDE. Now I have to run lightdm log-in manager, I did try to run SDDM log-in manager but it is so buggy that is in fact useless. That's no good for the Desktop user or anyone making distros for desktop usage.
There is always going to be a market share for open source desktop. That is not going to change the current state its in. Things might improve in the future and I hope it does, but until then, this is going to be a big mess.
@ Doctor Syntax
Stability is one thing, stagnation is a different thing. Its easy to confuse those two together. Linux/GNU has somewhat stagnated over the years. I'm not sure who's fault that is, but it has happened for some reason and getting out of or attempts to do so don't appear to be going nowhere.
Anyone that is developing GUI for Linux. As for FreeDesktop website it says a lot about the current progress that the website hasn't been updated since 8th May 2013.
As for a list of Linux Desktop problems. It appears more people than just me are fed up with this nonsense. You can read the list here.
https://itvision.altervista.org/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.current.html (2017)
"Interesting. We're in the process of setting up a new company, but we too have this Linux vs FreeBSD debate, mainly because most FOSS things such as email servers and CMS work quite well on FreeBSD but the platform itself offers a far smaller attack surface as it's not as widely used. [..]"
For network use I really recommend NetBSD or OpenBSD (on corporate level). They are more secure then FreeBSD (a lot more secure then Linux), but has its own set of problems. Anything can be configured with FreeBSD, but the default settings is something to contend with for secure usage. FreeBSD can be made really secure, it just takes some work and I don't think mass deployment is a big problem. Updating it is easy compared to Linux.
@ Doctor Syntax
Yes and no. For instance with KDE they still haven't figured out a way to install program icons properly into the menu due a lack of standard way to do so. Not all programs that exist in Linux support KDE and so on. Making this a rather big problem.
Systemd is a security risk (from what I have seen of documents about it, I don't bother to switch to it), the reason why FreeBSD doesn't use it is for the fact that the base system (kernel, drivers) is maintained separately from the program base (Apache, samba and so on). It is far easier to use FreeBSD and to maintain it then to do so on any Linux distro I have used since 2003. That's why I'm going to continue to use FreeBSD for my server usage. Like Linux, FreeBSD and other like it are no good at Desktop. Why FreeBSD has not hit the mobile market is something I don't understand yet.
I don't have the money for Microsoft Office at the moment. There is also an other thing about open source is that, what is good today might not be good tomorrow. I'm a writer and I need good working environment to do writing and LibreOffice is decent at that *mostly*, there are few problems that I've been able to work around for the moment. But those problems should have been resolved ages ago. This is just basic spell checking problems I'm dealing with (just adding a dictionary is a massive problem), not workspace problems as companies have (shared documents and other such things).
Switching to Microsoft Office is something I might do if LibreOffice doesn't keep up with what I need.
The problem with Linux Desktop is that it sucks, it sucks so badly that most people that use it hate it with passion. KDE GUI is mostly useless, the kernel is a mess (I'm running kernel 4.9.5). FreeBSD compared to Linux is a heaven to use and update (just the base system, the rest is more difficult to manage if your lucky).
Just the time to solve problems around installing packages and getting software to run properly is Linux Desktop downfall and the main reason why it hasn't taken off. The only reason why Android is popular is that is just the Linux kernel, none of the other GUI mess that is connected to Linux.The rest in Android is just Java shell on top of the kernel to create the current GUI that people use on Android.
Linux Desktop is never going to happen because Linux and FreeBSD (and the "Desktop" versions) are never going to take off. Because they lack ease of use and all the element that make them simple to use.
I've been looking for a way out of Gentoo Linux for several years now. I now expect that I'm going to switch to Windows 10 soon as I got the necessary hard drive space to do so (I need to move ~2TB from Linux to Windows file systems, it is going to take a little planning and few extra hard drives). While Microsoft is difficult and often horrible, it is far easier to deal with on user based end than Gentoo Linux or any other binary Linux out there. I've been using Gentoo Linux from 2003, the reason I used Gentoo Linux is that its mostly easier to manage than other binary Linux that are available.
I am however going to continue to use FreeBSD for my server. That works great and I'm happy about it. After switching FreeBSD for my server I learned that Linux is not even good as a server, not even just for basic http service.
I understand Munich fully in this. They have just given up on the mess that GPL software is. There are few good open-source software out there, I for instance like LibreOffice and I use it a lot.
I use Amazon CPM ads, they do pay and you get a extra of people buy from you. I've found Amazon to be a less problem then Google, since Google is all about red tape that puts government to shame.
The only problem is that Amazon U.S pays with a check, not direct transfer and in Europe that is starting to be a big problem, since Europe is now busy phasing out anything connected to checks and the cost of getting them paid has gone up to the point it's not worth it to get small amounts (I got options at the moment, thankfully so I'm not depended on my Danish bank to get the check paid).
This is only Amazon U.S. Amazon Europe pay with a bank transfer, but they don't yet offer CPM advertisement and that is a problem.
The plan is to close the FM in Denmark in 2019, currently everything has been moved to DAB+ (making my old DAB radio useless). Denmark largest cable operator YouSee is going to close down its FM signal now in January 2017. It is going to be replaced by a DAB+ signal (and DVB-C for Tv).
Sweden plan to close its FM broadcast by 2022. I don't know about Finland and in Iceland there are no plans at all to close down the FM signal for any radio station. There is currently no interest in DAB or DAB+ broadcast in Iceland. Currently there is a experimental channel in DAB in Reykjavík, they also broadcast on FM 87,7 at the same time.
It is going to be interesting, since this means far away FM broadcasts are going to be heard in the correct conditions (known as FMDX). This is also going to make the use of private FM transmitter more easy, even at low power.
I do have standards. None of the current space endeavours set out by the human race meets those standards.
While I don't any experience in dealing with space (mostly because I haven't been there yet). I do have good experience in hunting down software and hardware issues in computers.
Why does this type of fundamental error happen? They can get quite good RISC space able CPU for this type of thing that doesn't choke on high inflow of information. I also wonder what type of software error makes the sensor read it altitude in a such way that its a negative value.
I guess the software was of bad quality since this happened. I don't think ESA is going to admit that tough. I suspect they have that type of a problem and that is going to be a bigger problem in the future, along with lack of experience in space matters in general.
Mark Zuckerberg is an idiot, a lucky one, because normally this type of people live in a card box somewhere. His regards for the social network that he created is mind boggling sometimes. At Facebook they are not doing anything to stop fake news. I suspect that it is only going to get worse as the time passes. I do hope that Facebook starts to get unpopular and die off like any other social network before it.
They are from Franco roots it seems.
Wikipedia info.
"[...] The People's Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People's Alliance (Alianza Popular, AP), a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of the Interior and Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco's dictatorship. The new party combined the conservative AP with several small Christian democratic and liberal parties (the party call this fusion of views Reformist centre). In 2002, Manuel Fraga received the honorary title of "Founding Chairman".[...]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(Spain)
It is clear that this idiot needs to be fired. Preferably soon, since this type of thinking is dangerous to democracy. As has been seen with the demonstration law.
>As a Brit living in the USA I feel your pain. I was glad I wasn't there now there's nowhere left to run when things get sticky here. Iceland looks pretty cool, in all senses of the word.
Iceland is currently in a wast economic bubble. It is going to collapse one day with all the problems that come with it. My advice is look elsewhere, at least that is what I'm doing and I'm a Icelander.
I only replace the motherboard, cpu and graphic card when a failure happens. That happened for me this April when the motherboard crashed (along with the dvd drive). Normal lifetime of a PC today is around 5 - 8 years, after that the capacitor and other chips wear out and just start to fail. Hard drives are replaced when they fail and that is normally every 3 - 5 years at the moment. It is not a surprise the unit sales of PC is going down, when its easy to just replace the motherboard and other hardware and keep the box. Most people don't want many old PC boxes in their homes.
If given the proper push, using a Desktop version of *BSD should not be a problem. I also like FreeBSD above Linux (I'm using Gentoo Linux) for many reason. The largest reason is that FreeBSD is far more stable then Gentoo Linux or any binary Linux distro that I've tested over the years.
The bugs and the general lack of stability in Linux distros is starting to annoy me. The problem I'm dealing with that the moment is lack of Desktop support in FreeBSD (or most of the BSD out on the market) and lack of multimedia support for the moment.
Norway, Sweden prostitution is illegal, using the odd logic that selling is legal but buying isn't. The real problem is that this has not stopped prostitution. It has only made life worse for those women and mean that are in this business. Only Denmark has prostitution legal, but its not regulated as in Germany or Austria.
France has also gone the way of Norway and Sweden. The problem with Norway is that even if a prostitution is legal in one country, a Norwegian citizen can still be prosecuted for buying sex abroad (where it might be legal) in Norway once it returns home. I find this a little bit fascist.
News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7806760.stm (On Norway)
Good thing I changed strategies on the Linux kernels, avoiding the mainline and going into long-term kernels is a better idea. As it allows for bug fixes to applied. I'm currently using Linux kernel 4.7.4 and I'm not going to update for a while now as the rest of the programs and drivers (mostly nvidia drivers) running on top of that have not updated up on the latest changes.
Mainline kernels are for those wanting to live on the bleeding edge.
This is going to make living in border areas interesting (mobile phones often connect to the nearby country mobile network on their own). Once the UK is out of the EU the roam price is going to go up. Its going to be like in Switzerland or any other 3rd country in Europe (whatever the price is in the UK for such service).
They could just write the launch codes on a wall with the operation board and hope for the best. Public anything and secure infrastructure do not mix.
Some people never learn and corruption and greed in the public sector is a big problem (hint, its never called corruption, just something else).
So the list of Google dead projects gets longer and longer. They are in a bubble now so they can do this, but bubbles are not forever and current IT bubble is going to end one day.
Also, on youtube there is a video called "If Google Was A Guy (Part 4)". It touches this fact about Google doing projects and then just ending them.
You can on many WLAN hardware turn the power levels down to minimum. It is not always possible. The other option is to turn off WLAN and just use LAN.
I don't pay a licence in the UK. But I do so in Denmark and if you own a computer or smartphone and have connection to the internet you have to pay a licence fee. You even have to pay a licence fee if you just own a radio.
Windows 10 doesn't need any special BIOS drivers, since the BIOS is the basic part of the computer and it doesn't require any drivers since it's a none interactive part of the computer when it comes to the operating system. Don't this people know anything?
It is however interesting that I did notice Windows 10 appear to interfere in the operating of and old 16bit BIOS that I was using with Windows 10. After using Windows 10 on that computer basic buttons to enter the BIOS settings did not work. I don't know what happened, but the motherboard did crash few weeks after I installed Windows 10 so it might just be that.
As for Windows 10 it's decent for games (older games might not work at all on W10), that is the only thing I use it for and I won't use it for anything else at the moment. I plan on adding few items later on. I continue to run Windows XP for things that are never going to work properly on Windows 10 or anything down to Windows Vista due to changes in how Windows works.
For servers I recommend FreeBSD/NetBSD or OpenBSD. The thing about BSD is that it's not really good with the desktop and it might never be good at it. If you really want to learn how to do Linux properly, install Gentoo Linux the hard way. Debian is fine, but it doesn't add new things quickly or allows much freedom (as is the case of most binary distros of Linux or any Linux distro out there). What distro of Linux works for the author of this article I don't know, he will have to discover it on his own.
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