Posts by OpenSauce

Vodafone's software-defined silicon bet signals a biz model shakeup

What goes around comes around...

Reminds me of what mainframe manufacturers apparently used to do in the 1960/70s.

If you wanted a speed improvement, for a wad of cash an engineer would 'upgrade' your system - by removing line(s) of wait code!

Linux may soon lose support for the DECnet protocol

Reminds me of the related phrase...

How does a Decnet network work?

;-)

Happy with your existing Windows 10 setup? Good, because Windows 11 could turn its nose up at your CPU

No worries until 2025

As mentioned above Win10 EOL 2025, so plenty of time to wait until forced to upgrade hardware or install Linux or move to Mac.

Hopefully mobo & PC manufacturers will soon be pumping out hardware with TPM built in, since a requirement.

On the other hand, if there's enough backlash from end users, maybe M$ will back track on mandatory vs recommended specs.

BT promises firmware update for Mini Whole Home Wi-Fi discs to prevent obsessive Big Tech DNS lookups

I logged the following with BT on 12th Feb this year:

I have noticed my firewall getting connections to AKAMAI every second

and hogging firewall resources.

The disc is trying to connect to various Internet addresses:

23.40.113.217

23.56.184.216

104.78.177.250

104.121.137.246

Got a reply on 3rd March saying BT were investigating and believed would be fixed in the next release of firmware, and they'd inform me when it was available.

Heard nothing, problem still exists.

Welcome to life in the Fossa lane: Ubuntu 20.04 let out of cage and Shuttleworth claims Canonical now 'commercially self sustaining'

Are we there yet?

Not on Ubuntu download page or any mirrors as yet...

Microsoft adds Internet Explorer mode to Chromium Edge, announces roadmap

Oh noes, undead zombie brower

MS caused the problem by have non-standard superset features that it actively encouraged devs (and effectively end users) to embrace.

MS and the sheeple have a lot to answer for.

Post-pub nosh neckfillers: Reader suggestions invited

Re: Au contraire. mon brave, have an upvote...

http://www.tampopo.co.uk/

Been a few times, now I know where they got the name from (actually on their about us link - never checked before).

Used to do a good deal on Ramen soup-noodle dishes if a cinema ticket holder at Trafford Centre in Manchester. Sadly no longer.

Ballmer: 'We made more money than almost anybody on the PLANET'

Re: BALLMER: 'WE MADE MORE MONEY THAN ALMOST ANYBODY ON THE PLANET'

"GOOD versions of Windows (98SE, XP w/SP>2, latterly Win7)"

MS have a history of releasing unfinished products which the masses have rushed in sheep like droves to buy. Usually a Service pack or two down the line, the product is what it should have been on release. A least with a Linux desktop, you know it's work in progress, and now regular "Service Packs" from the commercial players.

"PC Gaming means Windows Gaming, too- Linux isn't there yet"

There has been no alternative to the defacto standard until recently. Valve & Steam are changing that for good. Most casual gaming now done on tablets/phones, so PC gaming probably peaked.

"At no point has it been as tekky as Linux"

Only because it's been a black box & the internals not generally available.

One trawl through the Windows registry & it's tekky enough.

All depends on what you're doing on each system I guess.

"Without Microsoft, we'd be in a far bigger mess."

Really? Say IB/M with OS/2 had won the day - IBM had a reputation for well engineered stuff.

Or, if Linux had been out earlier & got commercial backing sooner, it might be the standard desktop, just as Android has become the defacto standard smart phone O/S.

Apple granted patent for ebook page-turning

Re: Erm...

http://www.20thingsilearned.com/en-GB/home

Computer Games help docs, web catalogues, many many prior examples, proving it's an obvious

visual route to take in emulating real paperwork.

They shouldn't have been allowed to patent, as it's obvious/done.

The Dragon 32 is 30

Re: Harris mainframe

Give yourself a Lanch star. ;-)

More fond memories

My final year degree project was building a hardware terminal emulator board for the Dragon 32.

It emulated a Wyse terminal with RS232 connectivity.

The idea was the Dragon could be used for teaching programming as well as accessing the college Harris mainframe, unlike the expensive dumb terminals.

The devs at Dragon were very helpful with coding when I hit some issues with the inbuilt procedure calls.

Microsoft's MS-DOS is 30 today

DOS hackers can still play...

thanks to the FreeDOS project.

http://www.freedos.org/

Windows Phone 7 gets 'goodie' update

Have they learnt nothing?

"The update won't be sent over the air – you'll need to hook your phone up to your computer using a USB cable, then..."

Standard smartphone charger to dominate in two years

Old nerws?

I could be wrong, I thought I read about standardisation of smart phone chargers at the beginning of the year?

Image recognition – defense against a Lampard replay?

KISS

Putting tech inside a football is not required and certain to FAIL!

The answer is already here - the TV footage clearly showed the ball across the line.

No other tech is required, TV cameras at the correct positions will do the job.

KISS

US unveils planet-hugging London embassy

Planet 'hugging'

read 'destroying' - it's a Borg Cube!

;-)

Dell's order status website wobbles at knees

That old chestnut...

The disk was full ;-)

"an application service running on the database server of the website hung and failed to start automatically

We are now implementing further monitoring solutions to prevent similar situations arising in the future."

Paris, 'cause she knows a big disk when she sees one ;-)

Microsoft tells UK schools: buy our software, save money

Indoctrinated

I have tried to raise charity/school awareness to Free/Open Source Software, OpenOffice.org included.

The most common answer I get to why it would be a problem is that they/teachers are only familiar with MS products. The fact they could run off totally free software doesn't interest them, as there is perceived higher support cost. That cost would likely be less than the cost of their existing software licences!

When I did Art at school, we didn't have to use a particular brand of pencil or paint for our work.

As stated, shouldn't be geared to one software product.

MS act like a drug dealer, getting the kids 'hooked' on their products, which they will pay (or pirate) when adult Sheep.

Rather than just bitching here readers, write/visit you local school and raise their awarenes to F/OSS possibilities.

Microsoft tosses Windows, Office discounts at XP holdouts

OpenOffice.org still cheaper than Office

And, I have yet to find a customer, business or home, that can't do their work in OpenOffice.org.

A no brainer IMO if you currently have Office 98/2000/XP/2003.

Plenty of online documentation now out there.

And you can contribute to the community directly to help improve it, rather than spend the time/money on a product you have little influence in.

Spirit rover clocks up six years on Mars

Time for roach propulsion?

Maybe the next rovers should try using the current darling propulsion of the robot world - Cockroach legs?

Or maybe jump up to a BigDog, if enough power could be generated.

As regards being designed to last months, I doubt that - designed to last a year or two, with the expectation that it would fail after a few months more like. Still, a fantastic achievement in data gathering.

As for sending humans to Mars, I'd rather see a proper moon base first, like scifi expected long ago.

Windows 7 lessons - the must know before you buy

Windows now only for PC gamers and business lamers

The main Linux distros are good enough these days, and KDE4.x can look similar to Aero with the right hardware.

If you are a PC Gamer, mostly stuck with Windows, although some mainstream now supported under Linux and Linux/WINE.

Businesses tied by 3rd party applications in a chicken & egg situation. Roll on browser based apps please!

Try the upcoming Ubuntu and openSUSE first. Chances are you won't need Windows. Then, make (paypal) donations to the main Free/Open Source projects you use the most. The dosh you'd have spent on Windows.

MP urges Royal Mail rethink on postcode site takedown

Google maps

Seems to point you to the right area if you put in a post code, and in reverse will give the first part of the code if you know town and street.

Ten of the best... noise-isolating earphones

Philips too

I have a set of in ear Philips ones, with active noise cancellation.

They are great for outdoor/travel locations, as you don't have to crank the volume up, so saves your hearing.

They cost low £20 range; bargain IMO.

Windows 7 fast track alarms technical testers

This is the safest most secure Windows yet.

... and that's what they said about Vista, XP, Windows 2000...

As we all know, Microsoft operating systems are always rushed out of the door before production ready, as they have to get revenue in. A service pack or two will see it right.

This is where Linux is winning - it's always work in progress, with evolutionary releases every 6 months from the major players.

The fact that less than 10% of businesses have 'upgraded' from XP to Vista, and Linux on netbooks hasn't had any impact, obviously ;-)

Opera sings praises of Microsoft-browser statement

Bundling isn't the problem

It's the fact IE implements non standard features and encourages their use thereof.

If MS had stuck with the standards, I.m sure there wouldn't be so much fuss.

As mentioned above, if you bundled 3 or more web browsers, customers would probably be confused.

It saddens me that even today, if I have a customer on the phone & I say open up a web browser, they don't know what one is... Closely followed by open up an Explorer window, and they of course open Internet Explorer.

In the ditch with DAB radio

DAB+ or leave well alone

Through a decent Hi-Fi system, you can clearly hear DAB is inferior to FM.

Similarly, the digital radio on Freeview through the Hi-Fi sounds superior to DAB.

I believe DAB+ and the Freeview CODECs are similar spec.

When listening on a tinny portable radio, it doesn't matter, however any digital system must cater for Hi-Fi use (since FM to be killed off).

Most enlightened countries are going DAB+ and that's what I'd like to see in GB, not DAB.

I have a Roberts WM202 which is firmware upgradeable to DAB+, has FM and Internet radio over Ethernet or WiFi and can stream audio off a PC. Sound is fine & have used as a tuner for the HiFi. Some Internet radio at 128K sound perfectly acceptable. All that's missing is AM/LW.

It was over a ton, but will hopefully have a long life through firmware.

Sounds like an ideal candidate for an online petition to 10 Downing Street.

Paris, because even she would know to go DAB+

Pioneer DVR-116D multi-format DVD rewriter

Some SATA optical drive benchmarks

would be good, especially as SATA burners have come down to near equivalent IDE burner prices.

Comparison of SATA vs IDE drives with otherwise identical specs and SATA vs SATA etc.

Thanks.

OpenOffice.org overwhelmed by demand for version 3.0

Try Filezilla FTP client and a UK mirror, such as:

ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/pub/openoffice/stable/3.0.0/

GM shows off production electric car

re: Recharging source / @ Webster Phreaky

Even Greenpeace state that charging a vehicle from electricity produced from a (very efficient) large power station is better than from small scale electricity generation plants.

Windows XP SP3 sends PCs into endless reboot

OK on 8 systems so far

3 AMD 64X2 (one in a network domain)

1 AMD Athlon XP

4 Intel P4 variants

Guess it's luck of the draw just what other hardware/software is installed.

Royal Mail sites hit by downtime cock-up

Not been right for 2 weeks

I have sent a dozen items in the last fortnight by Recorded Delivery or Special Delivery. None of the tracking numbers have appeared on their website (but luckily have been delivered).

Hannaford cc data thieves planted malware on 300 servers

Inside and/or Windoze

The article implies the systems are Microsoft based (comments from Sophos and regarding anti-virus). That would explain why the servers got compromised.

As per previous comments, no matter what O/S, it does look like an inside job.

Adobe opens Photoshop for freetards

Already obsolete

Google's Picasa for beginners.

GIMP (gimp-win) as a Photo Shop alternative.

UK to fly the flag for OOXML

ODF format IS an ISO standard already, no need for more

True Open Standards such as ODF which is already an ISO standard are all we need.

No vendor lock in and long term document support makes it a winner.

The UK is not flying the flag, only those with hidden agendas.

Anyone who can be bothered to read up on ODF/OOXML will understand.

Microsoft rolls out Vista SP1

Here's the 64 bit link

Here's the 64bit version link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

No point going with 32bit Vista...

Digital TV sales soar as Brits flock to Freeview

Freeview HD

There are already plans to trial Freeview HD (High Definition) as mention on The Reg not long ago.

What they are keeping quiet about it the fact that existing Freeview tuners won't work with the HD broadcasts.

You could always try Free 2 Air satellite as a free alternative to Sky.

Maplin have some deals on kit until 18th March.

I'm just glad I don't own a TV.

Pink Floyd - The Wall - Nobody Home - showed us the future with "13 channels of sh*t on my TV to choose from".

Seemed a lot of channels back then 30 years ago. LOL.

DAB: A very British failure

Too much for too little

The two main issues with DAB uptake as I see it are:

1. DAB radios too expensive

2. DAB bit rate too low, needs to be 192K or higher (VBR based say).

Whilst DAB might be hiss free, it also sounds dead.

Traditional FM sounds more open and alive.

I have tested a dedicated DAB 'HiFi' tuner through a quality Hi-Fi and stations sounded worse than via TV Freeview equivalent.

DAB+ is the way to go by the sounds of things; just do it.

HD Freeview is already being mooted and existing Freeview boxes not compatible...

CERN completes 'world’s largest jigsaw puzzle'

Looks very familiar

Crowbar? Straight to the Gravity Gun I say ;-)

Microsoft dropped Vista hardware spec to raise Intel profits

Go AMD Go!

and take out another lawsuit; add to the growing list.

Microsoft re-assures partners on Vista compatibility

Deja vu

It's easy to forget when XP was released, it needed a much beefier PC than for 9x/Me or even 2K. Similar to Vista vs XP hardware now.

XP did not have good hardware support for many 9x/Me devices & if you chased h/w manufacturers, they often had no plans to update drivers. Shareholder value has seen to that - only enough resources for new products, not enough to support older - also forces you to upgrade your h/w, which is in their interest.

Building an XP PC recently, one install splash screen stating it is the most secure Windows yet made me chuckle - look how many security patches there have been - SP2 was when the product was nearer to what it should have been at release. Vista is in the same position.

Microsoft have made Vista support more difficult by releasing 32bit as well as 64bit versions. They should've just released a 64bit version only (which is what they'll do with the next o/s apparently). Then Microsoft and all hardware manufacturers would have their development/testing/support cut in half and not be in the situation of 64bit taking a back seat.

I use (64bit) Vista for gaming only (AMD64 X2 4600+, 2Gb RAM). runs fast and stable for me & most games work (Unreal 2 fails due to audio).

As my work o/s I now use Linux almost exclusively (OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, Firefox etc.). Stable and secure and no Genuine Validation nags. Try Ubuntu/kubuntu first (live CD version to evaluate) and you might be pleasantly surprised!

Humans, not tech, are the greatest security risk

As stated by Kevin Mitnick

Humans as the security weak link was slated by Kevin Mitnick all those years ago.

That's how he got much of the security information needed to break into systems.

Wi-Manx launches WiMAX...nearly

Community alternative

Not breaking Manxnet broadband T&C's AFAIK.

http://www.fon.com