* Posts by Rob 15

25 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Sep 2010

Linux rolls out the welcome mat for Microsoft's Copilot key

Rob 15

It should open the pod bay doors.

Microsoft decides it's a good time for bad UI to die

Rob 15

IUI

It would have been good to have some discussion of different UI design methodologies piecing together Win10/11. The category view is derived from this: https://web.archive.org/web/20080828113751/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms997506.aspx apparently influenced by MS Money 2000. It includes what appears to be a prototype screenshot of the control panel.

There's still a version of that article on MS's win32 site, dated 2019. It would appear no one at MS has read it for a while.

Microsoft sends Windows Control Panel to tech graveyard

Rob 15

blinkin

I remember the Windows 2 version of Control Panel. It only did about 4 things, but you could change the cursor blink rate.

Curiously, one of the features that Google is promoting in the latest ChromeOS is being able to change the cursor blink rate.

Mozilla Thunderbird finally gets system tray notifications

Rob 15
Black Helicopters

I just found a bug I raised 23 years ago on Firefox 0.9.3. It's still open. It was about XUL (is that even used now?)

Japanese government finally bids sayonara to the 3.5" floppy disk

Rob 15

Vinyl storage

I've just recalled those flexi floppy-type records used for distributing games on magazine covers. Perhaps it's time for a comeback. Has anyone got a turntable with Bluetooth?

Mozilla CEO pockets a packet, asks biz to pick up pace the 'Mozilla way'

Rob 15

Moz Ad network

If Mozilla wanted to do something useful, couldn't they create a new ad network, non personalised ads only, with no cookies, data harvesting or consent popups? With Adsense about to force consent popups on EU visitors with no options for publishers to opt out (other than getting struck off) - it seems like there's a gap in the market, and it would be an extra revenue stream for Mozilla.

LG to offer subscriptions for appliances and televisions

Rob 15

Full of bugs

I've got an LG telly, it's the buggiest piece of hardware I've ever had. The EPG is slow, randomly reboots, UI inconsistencies, no design sensibilities, randomly loses the connection to the sound bar. LG support is 'do a factory reset'. They did a couple of firmware updates but it just added more crap to the UI instead of fixing anything. Not getting an LG TV again. The display itself is good.

Aside from that, TV reviews on AV websites always seem to be fawning and geared to promoting affiliate links. None of the reviews mention the speed of EPG or changing channels.

Samsung’s midrange A54 is lovely, but users won't feel seen

Rob 15

Budget phones

Maybe you could review one of those £85 from Argos. A friend got one, which I criticised, but actually for his purposes (casual web browsing and email) it seems ok. Apparently it runs Android Go, and it makes me think I don't need to get premium phones any more.

Another redesign on the cards for iPhone as EU rules call for removable batteries

Rob 15

Other devices

Not too bothered about phones as they get replaced anyway. More annoying are things like my Garmin watch, which is a sealed blob of plastic, so there's no way to replace the rechargeable battery unless you melt it. I also had a mains powered heat alarm with a sealed in rechargeable backup battery. The battery expired so I had to replace the whole unit. Deliberately designing these with no way to change the batteries, even at a service centre, seems short sighted.

Microsoft tackles SaaSy URL sprawl, dumping its dotcom in favor of cloud.microsoft

Rob 15

Cloud schmoud

Won't 'cloud' be a dated term in a few years, like 'web services' or 'network computing'. How about they come up with an original term. Like 'the fog'.

Chromebook expiration date, repair issues 'bad for people and planet'

Rob 15

Apparently you can put ChromeOS Flex on a Chromebook, which unexpires it. Obviously, Google says not to do that.

Why I love my Chromebook: Reason 1, it's a Linux desktop

Rob 15
Thumb Up

I approve

I do the same thing - using a Asus C434. I run VS Code and mess around with node development, Firefox is my main browser, occasionally use Inkscape, and run Google's calendar and Keep Android apps. I only drop in to Chrome if I have to, and use it for Google Docs. The OS updates are super quick and not stuffed with 'suggested apps' and other popups/nags. You can also raise bugs directly with Google and track them. The caps lock thing is weird but you get used to it after a couple of hours. Linux apps appear directly in the launcher. I recommend it.

Log4j RCE latest: In case you hadn't noticed, this is Really Very Bad, exploited in the wild, needs urgent patching

Rob 15

perl -T

Why doesn't Java have taint mode?

Good news: Google no longer requires publishers to use the AMP format. Bad news: What replaces it might be worse

Rob 15

Latency

I thought low page latency is something any decent web developer or organisation would strive for, i.e. the opposite of most news sites. Other vitals would include 'not covering the page in crap making it impossible to read' (take a look at the Evening Standard website). So because Google is asking for low latency and other metrics it's evil? Or is the evil bit that it has a way of enforcing that in return for exposure?

Beyond video to interactive, personalised content: BBC is experimenting with rebuilding its iPlayer in WebAssembly

Rob 15

Re: Independent R&D Subcontractors

Whenever it is so obviously failing so spectacularly, Rob 15, quadrophonic stereo for British Brainwashing would be more considered as virtually useless and somewhat gratuitous.

Not really. Most drama, sport and films already created and broadcast in surround. Some of the music does, like Jools' shows. Despite having created or acquired the surround mix for broadcast, the BBC then chucks this away and uses a stereo mix for iPlayer. Multiple streaming services use surround and promote it alongside HD/4K as a core part of their service.

Rob 15

Re: Independent R&D Subcontractors

Hmm, that's all a bit cryptic for me. It sounds like you're invested in it. Don't blow the cash on croissants. Good luck...

In the mean time, something like surround sound on iPlayer would be more useful. It's a bit more tangible at least.

Rob 15

R&D

I wonder how much the BBC spends on R&D, and is it still justified? Their hit rate seems quite low but maybe that's normal for R&D. But it seems like rebuilding iPlayer repeatedly isn't a particular problem that R&D seems to solve. If the BBC still need an R&D department it should be much more tightly focussed.

BBC have done interactive TV / branched narrative stuff before (see Attack of the Graske, Test the Nation and so on). It's fun and gimmicky, but has high production overheads and little use. And the technologies it was built in have all disappeared so there's no longetivity to it. At the time, the BBC hailed interactive TV as a new medium, after TV and radio, but they eventually closed the interactive TV team as a waste of licence fee money. In pursuing this again (but with shinier technology) it seems that the BBC tech departments have no accumulated corp experience and too much cash to blow.

UK's National Rail backs down from greyscale website tribute to Prince Phil after visually impaired users complain

Rob 15

Speaking of ads

Since you brought up the topic...

Why doesn't El Reg have ads that don't stalk your readers? Does such a thing exist? Presumably if you were a printed organ you'd manage to source ads that aren't dependent on tracking to work.

Venerable text editor GNU Nano reaches version 5.0 and adds the modern frippery that is scrollbars

Rob 15

Re: Tilde

Which MS-DOS editor?

The fullscreen one, edit.com from MS-DOS 5 onwards. Also used as the qbasic editor.

Rob 15

Tilde

I've just discovered the editor 'tilde'. It's a bit like the old MS-DOS editor. Features include (shock) ^S to save and ^Q to quit. It's a nano killer.

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Rob 15

how about

Zune Corp

The Patch Factory

Rob 15

Re: Bob

Microbob

Sony Ericsson: 'We dropped the ball on iPhone'

Rob 15

I used to have a string of SE phones, culminating with the C750. It had a beautiful camera and a reasonable battery life, which only now are the current generation of Android phones matching. Why did SE drop the Cybershot line of phones? I don't see how that had anything to do with iPhones.

I've still got it as a spare, since it can handily tether data via Bluetooth to my laptop.

Amazon browserizes Kindle book samples

Rob 15
Thumb Down

Not in Opera Mini

In Opera Mini on my android phone, the embedded book displays on top of the Reg article rendering it unreadable (on both the mobile and full fat versions of the site)