Posts by 45RPM

Brit MPs to Apple CEO: Please stop ignoring our questions about repairability and the environment

Re: The easy solution

…and, with regard to the battery problem, Apple replaced the battery and serviced my iPhone 7 (service probably didn't amount to much more than giving it a quick buff with a micro-fibre cloth) for £50.

£50, and it feels like new again. It's got its endurance back, and it isn't throttling any more. It's got the latest OS on it and, honestly, I don't think that there's any phone from any manufacturer running any OS that does anything that my iPhone 7 doesn't and that I'd want it to do. Which makes £50 a bargain.

Re: Easy way to get a response.

Yeah, but if HM Government aren’t going to follow the rule of law then why should anyone else?

So, on that basis, the 30 second response is likely to be howls of laughter.

For the record, I think that it absolutely should be an obligation that all products are long lived, easily repairable (by third parties) and recyclable (by third parties). This isn’t about one company vs the other, its about doing what’s right for the planet.

Mate, it's the '90s. You don't need to be reachable every minute of every hour. Your operating system can't cope

Re: Self-Inflicted Silliness

Yeah, I did something similar once. In a bid to boost adoption of OS/2, IBM gave away a product called OS/2 for Windows on the cover of a UK magazine (PCW perhaps?). Excited to try the new hotness, and given that my computers at the time (an 8086 powered Deskpro or a Mac) didn't meet the requirements, I commandeered my dad's 486.

Er. Error.

To this day, I don't know what I did wrong. All I know is that after installation, and despite being well in spec, the blasted thing wouldn't boot. I booted up using an MS-DOS 5 boot floppy and…

…discovered that the OS/2 installer had, for some reason, flattened all of the system directory tree and splattered itself (and Windows) over the root of hard disk. What a mess.

The only bright spot was that the directories containing my fathers work were in tact. So I was able to backup to a 44MB Syquest disk and reinstall. Very annoying and a definite squeaky bottom moment. I didn't mess with OS/2 again. Clearly it and me were never meant to be friends - but I still have the installer disk on my desk to remind me of the perils of diving in without first reading the documentation and making a backup.

Back in those days I used to get my email using an old compact Mac. You know the kind - black and white screen, 512*342 resolution. Even though it was running a proper pre-emptive multitasking OS (A/UX), I didn’t much fancy bogging it down with email clients and whatnot. So I did what every other similiarly minded computer user did back in the day, regardless of the make, model and OS of their computer. I logged in to the email server and used its own built in pine (or elm - I can’t remember. Actually, I think that it was elm) email client.

Happy days, the days before email got all clagged up with pictures, emojis, html etc. Just, nice, plain, simple text.

Help. The political process is corrupted, full of lies and state-sponsored deep fakes. Now Microsoft's to the rescue

Biden, as most people have now seen, is a puppet who strings are tweaked by the likes of Jeff Bezos, George Soros and Ted Turner. You know that this is a QAnon conspiracy theory don't you? Belief in this nonsense is an indicator of seriously deficient critical faculties.

The BLM/Antifa movements BLM is a good thing. Black Lives do Matter. And for the record, its not saying that Black Lives Matter more than white lives - it's protesting to redress the balance that, sadly, they currently seem to matter less. BLM seeks equality - so don't come back with that All Lives Matter rubbish. White lives are not in any danger.

And Antifa is not a thing, not as an organised group anyway, outside the twisted conspiracy theories of Trump and QAnon. Unless you object to the concept that Facism is bad thing?

So you believe that a socialist/Marxist system would improve things how Wow. Seriously. That's not even the choice. Firstly because Biden is neither of those things, and secondly, because socialism and marxism are not equivalent.

Socialism is the sharing of wealth in society - the idea that if you work for a company then your labour should not be concentrated unfairly at the top so that you can't access a good level of healthcare, education, security etc. I don't think anyone argues that the founder of a company shouldn't earn more than its workers, but equally it shouldn't take unfair advantage of its workers.

Communism is the idea that wealth is held in common - that the state has the wealth, not the individuals. It is the practical realisation of Marxism (which, in fairness, is based around the unworkable idea that the state would act equitably - and, as we've seen, it doesn't).

Re: Muppet politics

Did you read that article that you posted a link to? Let me help:

Demonstrators are calling for an end to systemic racism. Seems like a good thing to demonstrate about, don't you think?

With regard to the shooting of Jacob Blake (a 29 year old, shot by the police - see my earlier point), Kyle Rittenhouse (far right, and a self confessed Trump supporter) shot and killed BLM protestors.

As you say, some of the demonstrations have been violent (and other peaceful) the evidence suggests that they were peaceful until the police, the secret police and far right militia weighed in. And would you call people in Nazi Germany who destroyed Gestapo property vandals, or would you consider that they had just cause? I think that if peaceful protestors are shot and kidnapped by the police then the analogy is fair, I'm afraid. And the article doesn't note which side the vandals were on. Carrying on…

Police responded with tear gas, stun and smoke grenades and plastic bullets. Federal troops were seen kidnapping unarmed protesters and taking them away in unmarked vehicles, and attacking observers and journalists.Remember I said Gestapo? Yeah. That.

There have been many groups of protestors, some unaffiliated with BLM. I think that we can take it as read that Patriot Prayer and other far right organisations are not their with peaceful intent - they have form for violence (they support Trump too, incidentally).

Is Antifa involved? Well, there are people with Anti Fascist views there surely we can take it as read that Hitler, Mussolini, et al were not good people, and that being anti fascism is a good thing? As for Antifa being an organised thing, it isn't. At least, not outside Trump's conspiracy theory fantasies

Matters are likely to get worse, with Trump supporters going to Portland and with Trump's support.Want to see peace in Portland? Trump supporters and his secret police need to GTFO

This is right - Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler asked those who wanted to come to Portland to "seek retribution" to stay away.

"If you're from out of town and you're reading something on social media - if you're reading any facts on social media - they're probably wrong because we don't have all the facts yet," Wheeler said. "This is not the time to get hotheaded because you read something on Twitter that some guy made up in his mother's basement."

So kudos to you to quote something that wasn't Fox News, or QAnon. Serious credit for picking a credible news agency. It was a ballsy move on your part. But remember, when you actually read the story with a critical head one, it might not actually support your narrative - as in this case.

Re: Muppet politics

No - he got that, and he provided facts that YOU can verify if you have a mind to. You seem to be more intent on presenting some kind of equivalence between Trump and his competitors, or worse suggesting that Trump is the right man for the job, and that you are being objective. You aren't. You're ignoring the facts to suit your own narrow minded narrative (yes, yes, I know you'll accuse me of doing the same thing. The problem is that the objective evidence supports my argument and undermines your - unless you decide that QAnon is a provider of objective evidence (which it most certainly isn't)).

As for statues being torn down, I think I'd be inclined to tear down a statue or two, no matter how artistic, if someone erected a statue of <insert name of person who committed crimes against humanity here *> in my home town.

You'll notice that we had quite a few protests in the UK as well in recent months. They didn't turn to the sorts of violence witnessed in the US though, because we didn't send in secret police or tacitly support an imbecile militia.

* There are plenty to choose from.

Re: Muppet politics

I don't blame Trump for all the problems of US Policing - the rot goes deeper than that, and has been going on for longer than that (right back to prohibition, in terms of militarisation, and right back to the foundation of the police in terms of racism and prejudice). Trump is certainly doing all that he can to make the problem worse.

As for 'The Riots' they started as peaceful protests - noisy, perhaps, but not violent, and in most cases they would have remained peaceful if the police hadn't barged in like a bunch of over-stimulated school boys. Trump then fanned the flames by 'offering federal assistance' - or, in other words, sending in a defacto secret police (faces hidden, no numbers, unmarked cars) where his assistance was not wanted. And if you aren't terrified by the idea that the police are armed and unaccountable, why aren't you? Do you think that the US needs to have its own Stasi, Gestapo, KGB, FSB like every other self respecting dictatorship?

Take a look at this list of countries, and tell me honestly if you think that this is a club that the US should be a member of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_secret_police_organizations

Re: Muppet politics - Stop it people

It's sadly relevant though - look at the article title again Help. The political process is corrupted, full of lies and state-sponsored deep fakes. Now Microsoft's to the rescue

And the biggest political stories in the western world where, I'd guess, most El Reg's readership is, are the corrupt US government, the disintegration of the EU - and, I suppose, the architect of this mess, Vlad the Destroyer.

"The overwhelming majority of people are not…"

Who said that they were? The majority of people are decent, and fair, and want to do what they genuinely believe to be best. A minority, however, do believe that some people are inherently superior to others - and that is where the problem lies.

Sadly, that minority, lacking in any moral fibre, are prepared to lie and cheat and do whatever it takes to grab hold of and retain power. This gives them an advantage over decent people - witness the fact that Trump lost the popular vote by a factor of 2.8 million, but through his dishonest machinations still managed to reached the highest office in the world - which will further amplify his power to repeat the trick.

Re: Muppet politics

No. It really isn't. The narrative from the Trumpists is a bit different (for example, that Trump is the least racist person ever, or that defunding the police means no-funding them*, the idea that global warming isn't a thing and that going full tilt on fossil fuels is a good idea, the concept that grabbing women by the pussy is acceptable behaviour - I could go on, and what's more there's evidence for all of it). Objectively, Trumpism is a disgrace and an embarrassment and it only weakens America in the eyes of the world.

*rather than much needed root and branch reform and a demilitarisation of the police. Seriously, I've been to the US several times. I've seen the police there. And whilst there may be a few good police officers, the majority act like a bunch of bloody children. They aren't approachable. They aren't trustworthy. I can't imagine that anyone would ever approach them and ask them for directions or help. The US Police, in short, are a hopeless bloody shower who give policing a bad name. The police in the UK are hardly perfect - especially in matters of race - but they're a paragon of restraint and helpfulness compared with what you've got in the states. Defund? Hell yes.

Re: Muppet politics

True enough. If you want to increase division in the world, foment racism, homophobia, sexism and violence, encourage nepotism, ruin the environment, and generally hold back the advancement of human civilisation as a whole then Trump is the perfect candidate.

Of course, anyone who has those objectives is a horrible human being, who should probably seek help for their considerable character defects.

I'm not saying that Republicanism as a whole is a bad thing (it isn't my cup of tea, but I know a few rational, sane, people on the (centre) right wing of politics). I am saying that Trumpism is entirely objectionable, and based on lies, prejudice and conspiracy theory. And there's enough evidence* out there to back me up in this opinion.

*you know - real, hard evidence. Not mere conjecture, conspiracy theory and stuff off of social media.

Re: Muppet politics

That's a fallacious argument if ever I saw one. No one is saying that Biden, Clinton, Obama or any other Democrat is perfect - but, objectively speaking (and if you put your critical thinking cap on for one moment), he's a hell of a sight better than anyone in the current Republican leadership - and consider that quite a few prominent Republicans think the same (https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/18/politics/republicans-supporting-biden/index.html)

Biden, it's true, has made problematic (to pick the euphemism du jour) statements on race, sexuality etc - but so have most people to one extent or another. But, and certainly in comparison with Trump, Biden is considerate (so no more exciting tweets or 3AM hate storms), he isn't racist, homophobic, misogynist, divisive or prone to gobbling up conspiracy theories. And I'd argue that if you can't trust someone not to cheat on the golf course (or any other game) you definitely shouldn't be trusting them with the most powerful job in the world.

So is Trump 'no less responsible than Biden'? That's bollocks. Trump is a disaster - a responsibility blackhole. Biden is several orders of magnitude worse than Trump. You could grab almost anyone off the street and they'd do a better job than Trump. And if you think that Biden and Trump are equivalent then you really haven't been paying attention.

We live in a world where the President of the US espouses conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon, and people still justify what he’s done and plan to vote for him - even people who read The Register, and should really know better (or, at least, be better at critical thinking) and should understand the catastrophic damage that he’s doing.

We live in a world where people shout loudly about how undemocratic the EU is (it isn’t), and spread half assed lies that they read on social media in order further the cause of European disintegration (when we know, from history, how dangerous that road is).

Social media and the internet, far from promoting harmony, peace and understanding, is just fanning the flames and making matters worse. I worry for the future. The penalty for promulgating lies and deep fakes, whatever your platform, should be punitive. I can’t think of a good reason why those at the top, those who benefit most, Zuckerberg, Trump, Dorsey, Murdoch etc shouldn’t face long prison terms and confiscation of assets if they allow this situation to continue.

Happy birthday to the Nokia 3310: 20 years ago, it seemed like almost everyone owned this legendary mobile

I remember marvelling at how small the damn thing was. Sleek, diminutive, dainty even - a marvel of miniaturisation. Well, compared to my Motorola anyway.

RasPad 3.0 converts Raspberry Pi 4 to a tablet – be prepared for some quirks

…and connecting it. If there was a usb keyboard available that fitted it, I’d be in…

It’s an interesting concept - but not actually interesting enough that I want one. It seems to me that, of all the cases on the market, the ones that are missing are:

One to convert a Pi to ITX form factor, adding SATA, internal USB, power management, RTC and ATX power. If that existed I could build my own power sipping rackmount server.

One to give it a nicely designed Amiga 500, Atari ST, or Commodore 128 like keyboard case. I’d really like one of those - I do miss the computer-in-keyboard form of the eighties (but I’d want something bigger than a Spectrum or C64). I seem to remember that there was a case a bit like this - but made of metal rather than plastic, and looking a bit too industrial for my aesthetic sensibilities!

Start Me Up: 25 years ago this week, Windows 95 launched and, for a brief moment, Microsoft was almost cool

That’s my understanding too.

I’ll never forget that The Times was given away for free, as paid advertising, when Windows 95 launched - marking the final destruction of any remaining illusions that it was a quality paper.

The Telegraph, perhaps in a fit of pique that Microsoft had passed them over, described Windows 95 as “the latest in a long and sorry line of make do and mend operating systems”. Which was nicely put.

And I stuck with A/UX, which was just better, dabbled with Linux - and wondered if Apple could ever recover from its malaise and come up with another decent OS - and, if they didn’t, whether I could ever afford a Sun computer.

Global network controlled by erratic billionaire Qracks down on Qanon Qranks

It’s notable that the people who are stupid enough to believe this rubbish are also the same people who are stupid enough to vote for, and enable, the likes of Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and believe in nationistic tosh like Brexit.

How did we let these cranks ruin our countries?

I can see my house from here! Microsoft Flight Simulator has laid strong foundations for the nerdy scene's next generation

Buckingham Palace, for example, seemed to have become a council housing estate

Seems like the best use for it.

US govt proposes elephant showers for every American after Prez Trump says trickles dampen his haircare routine

Re: Why assume he will win?

I tried to ignore this trollery. I was half way downstairs before thinking, no. I can't be silent. Trump is a vile, misogynist racist who impoverishes the poor, disenfranchises those who he doesn't like, devalues democracy and commits crime after crime with apparent impunity.

If you've ever wondered how the Nazi party rose to power in Weimar Germany, or how a failed artist with a Napoleon complex won power, look no further than modern day America. The parallels are there, and they are terrifying.

Make America Great Again. Don't watch Trump's greed and criminality in silence, or worse yet nod like a parcel shelf ornament and defend him. Shout. Scream. Rail against the injustice. Above all, get out and vote - and make sure that this tragic loser doesn't cheat his way into the Whitehouse a second time.

I would have thought that the Republican Party, in its current guise, and those who defend it and its indefensible actions, were a big enough shower without requiring any change to the current legislation.

Apple's at it again: Things go pear-shaped for meal planner app after iGiant opposes logo

Re: How about saying ‘Sorry’, Apple?

Quality ≠ Repairability. You can have something of appalling quality which is highly repairable - and vice versa.

In my view, a product should be of high quality, highly repairable, highly performance, and affordable - without causing harm to the environment or to any of the people involved in its manufacture. And now I’d like to have my beer delivered by a Valkyrie riding on a rainbow tailed unicorn.

Re: How about saying ‘Sorry’, Apple?

What were they doing acting on Apple's behalf? At some point the buck stops with Apple, surely?

How about saying ‘Sorry’, Apple?

It seems to me that Apple, as all huge businesses are, is deeply schizophrenic.

On the one hand, you have engineers, graphic designers, scientists and so forth who are genuinely trying to produce the best product that they can (it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not, there is no disputing that the quality is there).

On the other hand, you have lawyers desperately trying to justify their inflated salaries. I very much doubt that anyone in senior management signed off on this (and if they did, they should be fired immediately for bringing Apple into disrepute). I suspect a lawyer overreached and now senior management are trying to find the best way to extricate themselves from this mess with minimum egg on face (and fire the imbecile concerned).

Of course, the way out is obvious to anyone outside the situation. Apologise. Immediately. Make amends. And ensure that it NEVER happens again. Failure to do this makes everyone at Apple look like a dickhead, regardless of whether or not they’re the guilty party.

Virgin Galactic pals up with Rolls-Royce to work on Mach 3 Concorde-style private jet that can carry up to 19 people

According to the RAC, the average journey distance in the UK is a little under 10 miles. Granted, some people are unable to cycle for health reasons or because they’re carrying heavy loads - but they represent a minority of journeys - and even fewer people need a large vehicle (any vehicle bigger than, say, a Focus). So it isn’t the fuel source that I object to so much as the guzzliness of the vehicle - whether guzzling electricity, petrol or diesel. And a small car will always be more efficient than an SUV or a supercar, and a bicycle will always be more efficient than that.

Has ol’ beardy not heard that we’re fscking up the environment, and toys like this have no practical benefit - they only accelerate the damage?

That’s not to say that I won’t tolerate any damage. I’m not in favour of going backwards - but we need to weigh up the cost / benefit carefully. For example, exploration of space gets a tick from me, as does the building of solar, wind and advanced new nuclear reactors. I’d also be in favour of building advanced new sailing ships for the transport of goods which don’t need to be delivered quickly.

On the other hand, I’d put a tick in the ‘hell no, are you mad?’ box for nuclear weapons, fossil fuel guzzlers like supercars and SUVs, social media - and Branson's new toy.

VMware to stop describing hardware as ‘male’ and ‘female’ in new terminology guide

Re: Last time I checked ...

They could use ‘Stop’ and ‘Terminate’ I suppose.

Trump gloats, telcos weep, and China is furious: How things stand following UK's decision to rip out Huawei

This is what we voted for. If you voted for Brexit, if you voted for the Tories, even if you didn’t vote Tory but you failed to vote tactically at the last election, this is on you.

It isn’t just the UK that is populated by pig turd thick doofuses either - if only it was - you can tell a low IQ country by how far to the extremes it votes - although right wing extremism is the particular problem at the moment, and there’s nothing centrist about the Tories.

I’d apologise for the rant, but I’m bloody furious - and I will be for a while yet. And this isn’t about whether or not ditching Huawei is right or wrong - at this point I hardly care. What matters is our motivation - and that’s demonstrably on the cock.

Trump reveals US cyber-attack on Russian election-misdirection troll farms

Re: A friend in need...

What I look for in a friend is someone who’ll be consistently a) friendly but b) critical when necessary. What I avoid is someone who’ll be an obsequious kiss arse (and good god but Trump must love the flavour of dictatorial ring piece) one moment and then capriciously kick me, or my cause, in the pods the next.

Examples might be the way that he has variously been besties with Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un - and yet, at the same time, admitted to a cyber-attack on Russia, initiated sanctions against China, and rattled his saber at North Korea. In the latter case, it hasn’t made a blind bit of difference (other than to make Trump look like even more of an impotent toddler), and in the former two cases he’s left America markedly worse off - and especially in his trade war with China.

I wouldn’t mind as much as I do - except that the Brexiteers have blown a bloody great big hole in the good-ship Blightly, and it’s this doofuses sinking lifeboat, the rusty tub USA, that they want us to scramble into - when we could have been high and dry and enjoying a nice glass of champagne on the sun deck of the good ship EU.

Things that happen every four years: Olympic Games, Presidential elections, and now new Mac ransomware

I hope that you're right, but I don't think that that's entirely true - and especially not when you take into account proofs of concept which, of course, can become very real threats when they leave the lab.

Viruses like Macarena or Clapzok.A, Safari-get or OSX/Pirrit.

The thing to remember about Viruses though is that they still require human interaction to spread, whether that's the deliberate execution of an infected program, or the insertion of infected media. This is in contrast to a worm which can spread through a network without any human intervention beyond turning the computer on - and there really are no (known) worms which affect Apple devices.

Whether these continue to work on modern macOS like Catalina is, of course, debatable.

Seriously? It’s not a virus. And if you don’t know the difference between the various types of malware that might affect your computer, you’re probably in the wrong business. But don’t worry - MacDonalds are beginning to open up again and I’m sure that they’ll snap you up.

Besides, there are viruses for the Mac. Not many, but they do exist. As far as I’m aware, there are no worms though (another thing for you to look up) - and whilst I’m prepared to be proved wrong on that, I really hope that I’m not.

As for trojans (which is what this is, ultimately), well yes. Lots. They rely on human fallibility, and it’s not really possible to defend against that.

Apple said to be removing charger, headphones from upcoming iPhone 12 series

Chargers? Waste of money. The bundled chargers tend to be anemic, and most people have better chargers coming out of their ears or even USB sockets on their wall sockets in the house and also in the car. I’d like to keep having a charge cable bundled - and especially if Apple insists on retaining a non-standard port rather than USB-C.

Headphones? Double waste of money. Bundled headphones are nearly always crap. I’ve got a drawer full of the things. I don’t need more e-waste to get rid of. Headphones are a very personal thing - what sounds great to you might sound like crap to me. It would be better to include a voucher in the box redeemable against your headphones of choice. Unless you’re exceedingly undiscerning, the voucher wouldn’t cover the full cost - but it would be a start.

Other things that I’d replace with vouchers include saddles on bicycles. It’s the first thing that I replace since no two people have the same bottom, and so it makes no sense to include a one size fits all saddle on a bike.

So, El Reg, stop grumbling. This is a good thing - no one needs more shit to throw away. Especially if they drop the price.

Apple to keep Intel at Arm's length: macOS shifts from x86 to homegrown common CPU arch, will run iOS apps

It is fun and fashionable to laugh at hipstery Apple - and, certainly, their keynotes are risible (but not in a good way - to my mind they feel very contrived). I also object to the way that people buy a product for reasons of fashion, rather than function. It's the same reason that so many people buy BMWs, Audis, Mercedes etc. Sure, for one or two people they might be the perfect car - for most though, it's just the cool thing to do. Blegh.

But your use case and mine are different. For some people, gamers mostly as far as I can see, Windows is genuinely the best option. Linux is the best option in many cases. But, for what I need to do, macOS is absolutely the right OS - and, for my use case, it has been for thirty years, through the good times and the bad. Fashion has nothing to do with it.

Apple has been guilty of nicking its fair share of ideas over the years. Superclock! and Watson to name two. It's also been accused of nicking things that were, at best, only inspirations - like the Xerox GUI (Apple's use of icons, menus and overlapping windows hadn't been seen before Apple came up with them). It's also been first with other personal computer technology - modern multimedia (with Quicktime), password managers (with Keychain, first seen back in 1993 in System 7.1 Pro), multiple monitor support (some time before 1987), metadata filing system (even before the Mac, back in 1982). I'm sure if I thought about it I could probably come up with some other examples too, but those are just the ones that occur to me at short notice.

So, whilst fashion followers are always slightly irritating, it's unfair to characterise what Apple has done as brainwashing. Sometimes their technology is just better for a given use case - and, if enough people have that use case and if the competition can't copy the technology fast enough, brain washing isn't necessary.

Re: Yes and No.

In fact, IIRC, the first iPhone was described as running OS X - before they renamed it iPhone OS and then iOS.

When Apple announced that it was going to transition to PowerPC, I was nervous. I didn’t like it. And yet, when it happened, nearly all of my old software ran perfectly - and that which didn’t hadn’t worked properly since the move away from System 6 anyway, so it wasn’t the new CPU at fault.

When Apple ditched Nubus for PCI I was similarly concerned. Why? I have no idea. It’s not as if my Mac was stuffed full of Nubus anyway. But Nubus was a familiar old friend - and PCI came from that other place.

The move to OS X didn’t worry me too much. I’d been using A/UX. From my perspective, it was just the resurrection of a great OS which had been dead for a few years - not that OS X, being derived from NeXT, had any A/UX in it anyway - but the concepts are remarkably similar.

The move to Intel only worried me insofar as I thought that developers might concentrate on Windows only, and just wrap their software in a translation layer to support MacOS, resulting in a diminishing in quality. This happened with games, and not much else. As for buying a Mac just to run Windows - I still think that that’s barking mad. There’s some very nice Wintel hardware out there - you don’t need to buy Apple to get great hardware - you just need to be prepared to pay a hefty chunk of money (which you were going to do anyway if you buy Apple).

From what I’ve seen, the new Macs will run macOS software just fine - and that includes virtualisation and emulation software (so you can still have Windows if you really must). Docker is present, correct, and fully supported by Apple. You can have Linux too (although, and much as I like Linux - it’s on all my servers, and also on my media centre, why would you want to? MacOS gives you Unix and a nice GUI so, there at least, Linux isn’t necessary.)

My only concern now is that Apple might prevent users from installing software from whatever source they choose. As long as macOS hasn’t been locked down in this manner I think that all is still well.

It’s human to fear change. The intelligent thing to do is to put those fears behind you, make a rational judgement on whether the change is beneficial or not - and then embrace it if it is. In an age of climate change, anything that provides more CPU power per watt has to be a good thing. Intel has been as relevant as PPC for a little while now - I’m only surprised that this didn’t happen sooner.

MacOS on Arm talk intensifies: Just weeks from now, Apple to serve up quarantini with Kalamata golive, reportedly

I remember the transition from 68k to PowerPC (my SE/30 is sitting next to me, as we speak, awaiting a new hard drive). That went without a hitch, although I grumbled like hell at the time.

I remember the transition from PowerPC to Intel (my G3 and G5 systems are sitting in the loft, although the PSU on the G5 is a little on the noisy side). That went without a hitch, although it felt like the end of the world at the time.

I’m older now. Possibly wiser. Mostly mellower. I know that the switch to Arm will go smoothly, and we’ll all wonder what the fuss was about in five years time. I’m preparing for it already - by not buying a new Mac. I’ll wait until after the transition, thanks. Times have changed. Windows is an anachronism now, for all but gaming. The corporate cool kids all run macOS, the hipsters all run macOS, the server rooms all run Linux, those just want to get stuff done use Chrome. The only hold outs seem to be accountants and gamers (and Windows is very, very, good at gaming as we all know). The point is, who cares if you can’t run Windows on your Mac? You probably weren’t going to game on it anyway (I have a Ryzen powered Windows 10 box for the few occasions when I fancy playing games - and most people have a games console), so Mac’s ability to run Windows is neither here nor there.

'5G for Five Eyes!' US senator tells Parliamentarians the world would be better without Huawei

Re: Another nutjob hiding behind the flag

The people with their hands on those military weapons are also "the people" and may choose to not come down on the side of the repressive government.

Good luck using military aircraft, vessels or missiles systems without a support crew. True, there might be a full on revolt, Potemkin style, in which case you’re golden but…

…whatever happens…

…there’s still no reason to sell working military weapons to civilians (or, I’d argue, at all. But I’m a whinging liberal pacifist).

Re: Another nutjob hiding behind the flag

And isn't this precisely the reason for the second amendment? The right to bear arms against a repressive government

As I understand it, the second amendment is there to guarantee “the civic duty to act in concert in defense of the state”, and was made because the United States, at the time, could not afford a military of its own. Quite critical thing to have when you’re trying to do battle with an expansionist empire, whilst at the same time trying to take land off of people who’d quite like it if you buggered off and left them to their own devices, thank you very much.

The idea that it does double duty to support "rights of self-defense and resistance to oppression” is plainly nonsense since, in the first case, if guns are not freely available (particularly military weaponry) then you have less danger to defend yourself from (contrast gun crime in the US with gun crime in the UK) and, in the second case, the State has access to aircraft, a navy, missiles, bombs and even bigger guns - so good luck resisting oppression with your rifle, no matter how powerful it is.

It’s an inconvenient truth that the NRA would rather you forgot that the second amendment is an anachronism which is useful only to criminals and hillbillies.

The real resistance to oppression is peaceful protest - which is why Trump is unfazed by a mass-shooting but craps his pants at marches against him, civil disobedience and breaking of curfew - even when the protestors are unarmed.

Wait? What? So America doesn’t have our best interests at heart after all? It wants to ride roughshod over what our elected Government wants to do? And this is better than what we had when in Europe, where we had a vote and we weren’t being pulled left and right and every which way in order to beg scraps from the big boys table?

Wake up! This is the real world of Brexit. So thanks any treasonous Brexiteers who read this. You really f’d us. You’ve done irreparable damage to this country - I hope you’re proud. And yes, I know that my language could be more considered. More polite. But America is descending into fascism, is undermining free-speech and sending the troops against peaceful protestors, all at the behest of a tin-pot dictator. And we’re supposed to attach our cart to that horse? F that S! Now is not the time to be nice. Now is the time to be angry. And if you aren’t angry, with Trump, with Cotton, with the Republican party and its enablers on both sides of the Atlantic, if you aren’t angry with Boris, with Farage, with Mogg, with the whole sorry racist shower then you are part of the problem.

/rant

Boffins step into the Li-ion's den with sodium-ion battery that's potentially as good as a lithium cousin

What’s the stability of the battery like when damaged? How resistant is it to fire? These are questions which need to be considered given its likely application in cars and (eventually) aircraft.

Watch an oblivious Tesla Model 3 smash into an overturned truck on a highway 'while under Autopilot'

Perhaps if Tesla spent less time on easter eggs, gags and games and more time on safety issues like this could be resolved. In the short term at least, it seems to me that they need to put more effort into checking driver awareness and disengaging automatic cruise control functionality if the driver is not paying attention whilst, at the same time, limiting the top speed to something inconveniently slow.

They better act quickly though - Volvo, through Polestar, is coming to eat their lunch - and Volvo really does understand safety (and the build quality could teach Tesla a thing or two too).

You, Apple Mac fan. Put down the homemade oat-milk latte, you need to patch a load of security bugs, too

In fairness, I tried oat milk once. It was quite nice, kind of like a porridge milkshake.

I could imagine drinking it regularly if the cost dropped significantly and the price of cows milk became exorbitant. Not otherwise though.

Apple promises third, no, fourth, er, fifth time's a charm when it comes to macOS Catalina: 10.15.5 now out

Re: It's UNIX

I pulled out my old Mac recently (SE/30) and it still works perfectly. In fact, and much as I like macOS X, there are some things that the Classic Mac OS did better. Installing the OS on MacOS up to and including 9 is far superior for example, as is the experience of multi-booting (dual boot? pah!) where multiple versions of MacOS can even be installed on the same partition. There are all kinds of little conveniences that make it a pleasant experience to use, even today but…

…Yes, multitasking is almost non-existent (co-operative only), it really will need rebooting regularly (thanks to a lack of memory protection), and the network stack and internet support is now antediluvian.

Which is all a long winded way of saying, you can't make progress without going backwards sometimes.

Re: But.. but..It just works!

If anyone can claim to have seen software that works correctly all the time, even software from Apple, then I've got some primo quality snake oil to sell them that will cure all known diseases, both real and imaginary.

Glue? Okay - that is a pain in the proverbial. Does the glue soften with judicious use of a hair dryer - that's how I overcame the glued battery problem in an iPad (actually, it's how I overcame the glued-everything problem in an iPad)

To be fair, I’ve had no problems with Catalina either - other than the niggle that it took some hacking to get it onto my 2009 Mac Pro. The specification says ‘Go’ but Apple artificially says ‘No’. I get that they want to sell me a new computer, and 11 years of being up to date is pretty good run, but until they make an affordable version of the Mac Pro (sub £2k) that I can update to give it a similarly long life span, I ain’t buyin’. That said, Catalina has run without problem on my old beast.

As to replacing batteries, well true. Officially you can’t replace the battery - but, unofficially, in my experience, it’s a doddle. A few screws and the top (okay, bottom) was popped off of my MacBook Air, the battery came out easily and the new (NewerTech) one went in without trouble. All in all the work of a few minutes. Hardly onerous. And, actually, it’s so nicely assembled that it was a quicker job than relacing the battery (also fixed in place) in a friend’s Asus Zenbook.

The battery in my ThinkPad is ever easier of course - one sliding clip and off it pops - but it’s heavier, bulkier, and not as nice to use. So, for all the inconvenience of a few minutes every five years to replace the battery, I’ll go with the Apple. But you choose the tool that works best for you. No point in coming over all religious about it.

5G mast set aflame in leafy Liverpool district, half an hour's walk from Penny Lane

All those questions that I asked then I was a child. Questions like:

"How could anyone have voted for a weird looking racist psychopath with delusions of grandeur and a tendency to shout a lot and throw tantrums?"

"Why would anyone follow a lightweight nobody copycat of said fascist anywhere else?"

"Why would anyone try to harm the slightly dotty old lady who lived in the overgrown cottage at the end of the village, much less set her on fire?"

"How could anyone thing that other genders / other races / other sexualities etc are anything less than equal?"*

"Why would anyone worship a mythic being with a beard?" **

It's all clear now. The answer is stupid people. It always was stupid people. Perhaps my five year old self should have made it abundantly clear to the powers that were / be that I do not need a practical demonstration. Particularly not when I'm well past middle age, and I'm no longer interested in the questions that I asked as a bairn.

*My parents were very progressive

**God. We all know that Father Christmas exists, of course.

As Brit cyber-spies drop 'whitelist' and 'blacklist', tech boss says: If you’re thinking about getting in touch saying this is political correctness gone mad, don’t bother

I forgot that I’d posted in this thread - but it isn’t necessary to come up with ‘gender neutral’ connectors. It’s only necessary to use the correct names for the connector type. The correct names being ‘Plug’ and ‘Socket’. Perfectly clear.