Posts by Novex 363 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jun 2011
The two main dickmoves being telemetry and forced updates. I feel like the needle stuck in the groove when I say that if I could have verifiable control of all data within the telemetry (so I can turn it all off), and could have full control of updating back, then I'd like to try Windows 10. I'm not fussed about the interface so much though I know others are.
But MS seem to be intent on trying to turn Windows PC into Xbox PC where everyone gets updated or they don't get online.
...is to be able to click a button once and get their report, all formatted nicely and ready to go. They don't want to have to understand tables, fields, field types, functions, joins, primary keys, indexes, etc. That's what they (PHBs) ask developers to know and work with.
What is true is that this could be some kind of simpler tool for developers to be asked to understand (alongside all the other ones!) The amount of Excel spreadsheet systems in use as de facto database alternatives, and the problems inherent in keeping the VBA (or whatever) code that keeps it all working properly in some kind of decent shape, tells me that developers of underlying systems are, and in some way will always be, needed.
...of a sketch by John Finnemore on his Souvenir Programme:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mgyps 15 mins, 35 seconds in
(transcript of the whole programme here http://j-f-s-p.livejournal.com/5894.html, look for 'Chair Collector', but if you can, listen to the sketch as the delivery of the lines works better)
Leadballoon's idea to block unrated sites is absurd, and the issue of dynamic content is always going to be a problem. However, if all unrated sites are treated as '18', and any site that wants to be rated less had to go through a monitoring scheme then maybe something could be made of it. However, monitoring costs money, a lot of money, and I don't see the Government paying for it. Many sites, especially hobby forums that have under 18 viewers and contributors, are run on practically no money (needing donations to keep going as advertising is often not enough to cover bandwidth) so they simply aren't going to be able to afford to pay for monitoring. Also, should the ISPs police this, really, or should it be some form of age rating built into browsers? To be brutally honest, trying to classify websites is like whack-a-mole and ultimately doomed to failure, even if the reasons for doing so come from honestly good intentions.
So, the age of the earth is dependent on where you measure it from, because it's all relative. Measured from the surface, the centre is the same age as the surface. Measured from the centre, the surface is the same age as the centre. The difference between the two, which would have a single start point about 4.5 billion years ago, is down to the way atoms and particles and everything else in the centre are slowed down by gravitational dilation while at the surface they move just a little faster because there's less gravitational effect.
You can easily fix that in Firefox. Type about:config into the url bar, and copy-paste browser.backspace_action into the search field. Set the value to 2 and you're good!
Thanks for that. It appears that in the version of Firefox I'm using on Linux Mint it's already set to 2. I haven't experienced the backspace causing back paging in Linux, and maybe that'll be why.
But with Firefox at least, you can install an older version and keep it that way. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get hold of older extensions though, but once installed they can also be kept stuck at older versions, if necessary. There would be potential security risks of course if older versions don't get security patches.
...I've noted it's that people running businesses (especially smaller ones, the SMEs) don't like to have to keep adapting to change. They want their systems to remain consistent, reliable, and predictable. Windows 10 is basically saying 'f**k you, we don't care, we just want to keep shoving stuff down your pipe that you didn't ask for, and to grab all your data so we can advertise sh*t at you' (I'm paraphrasing, btw ;-).
If the business users of this type can find a different way of doing things which keeps stable desktops and servers that doesn't require mollycoddling to keep them running, then they'll take it. If that's Remix OS, or Linux Mint, or some other flavour of OS, then that's where they'll go.
Really, MS, do you think that you can turn all PCs into Xboxes, and particularly business critical systems? You need to wake up and smell the coffee.
...and I don't think it's reasonable to keep supporting what are now very old processors in current releases of operating systems. However, the older versions of the OSes will still work on those CPUs, so all is not lost. It's just that any patches might not be automatically available. But if someone is really determined to keep old PCs running and patched, with Linux at least they can (for the moment at least) add the patches manually.
Windows 7 has always been slow checking for updates.
Not on my PCs. It was always quite fast ('checking for updates' completed within five minutes) until the beginning of the Windows 10 bandwagon, and since then that initial check just got slower and slower. The rest of the update process is as per, sometimes slow, sometimes fast, depending on what was updated. But that initial check is where the problem seems to lie.
...seems to have become MS's way of trying to kick us into Win10 land. Well, not for me. I now use Mint for my general stuff, and keep a partition for remaining Windows stuff that won't run on Linux. Since most of that legacy use doesn't need internet, I've switched off updates completely. When I have several hours to spare in a month I might go for a manual update attempt, but I'm even contemplating stopping that. You've lost me MS, all because you loaded Win 10 with telemetry and forced updates, and have been trying desperately to retrocompromise Win 7. Bad behaviour means loss of custom. And no, I don't believe your 300 million install shit.
... so scuse me for being a doubting tommy, and as others have alluded to I bet the telemetry crap will still be hanging around, and I bet there will still be a paucity of details on what each update actually is.
And will they fix the crappy slow 'checking for updates' problem on Win 7? Probably not...
Whether the office has one PC or one thousand PCs, that doesn't change the need to retain corporate control. Upgrading to Enterprise edition isn't going to happen (is it even possible with a single license?)
Oh, and how long will it be before the PowerShell hack to remove the store gets blocked?
According to the UK site, there's a micro sd card capability up to 64GB. If it's actually an XD spec then it should take 128GB and larger cards as well, but that's not something I've read in their specs.
It also doesn't mention whether the SD card slot is shared with either of the sim slots, as happens in some other phones.
My biggest concern is that whoever takes this on doesn't change the basic layout and usability of the application. I don't want to see a completely made over interface, changed for the sake of change. Keep it looking and working as per its current appearance, and only add features that are useful into the existing design, and fix any bugs.
In my understanding, XPoint seems pretty much redundant in SSD form when connected via SATA, and is under utilized when on PCIe. With the best use case being on a DIMM slot on the memory bus, I wonder if consumer-intended enthusiast-class motherboards might get XPoint DIMM slots on them... (all I've heard re SCM is that it'll be on server boards, not consumer boards).
I started to get worried when I read the Tom's Hardware article about the presentation - which mentioned that the Optane memory was in an SSD being tested over Thunderbolt 3. I thought, "Why do a presentation in such a constrained setup. Surely a proper motherboard-based test would show off its capabilities better?" Then the penny dropped that they might be trying to hide something.
We'll have to wait for real product to know for sure, but my hopes for this new memory has been significantly lowered.
...that there won't be IoT repair men, there will be IoT replacement people who will come and simply take away the broken thing and replace it with a newer model at a price. Repairs seem to have gone out of fashion.
But, maybe your repair woman could have a go with my 'thing'. It could do with an MoT*. But if it fails the MoT I'll need a new one...
*MoT = Manipulator of Things
Remote build - does this mean the plugin takes my code, puts it onto a Microsoft server somewhere, and compiles it there? If so, what MS are asking is for me to give them my source code to whatever application I'm writing, sniff whether it's of any value to them, if so then 'nick' it. If I am working for a client, this arrangement is an absolute no-no.
I'll stick to writing C++ with Code::Blocks on an actual Linux system, thanks.
Agreed. However, the only things that make me annoyed in Linux is the lack of a fully working WINE that can run any Windows app without issues, and a way to install devices that only have Windows drivers onto Linux. I have some specialist stuff that simply isn't supported on Linux that means I have to keep a Windows option available - and of course, MS would use that as a way to keep me tied to them, rather than being able to jettison Windows once and for all. It's one of the reasons I have to keep one eye on any retreat to Windows 10 update and telemetry policies as it would mean I could use Windows without having to keep looking over my shoulder all the time with Windows 7.
This article seems to be a good one for crypto and hashing with salts:
I was originally looking forward to Win 10. But, I said it right when MS said the updates weren't going to be user-controllable: it's a deal breaker. That's why I now use Linux Mint as my general PC OS. Add on the data harvesting and the need to be connected to cloud for quite a few of the 'features' to work and it's going to be in trouble getting support in the wider world. Joe Public might not care, but MS must realize that businesses (of which many are very small, and not able to afford Enterprise licensing) aren't going to be happy with any of those three things.
Now, if MS can retreat from these three, at least as options for those users who want and / or need control of their PCs, they might get the sales they want. I know I'd consider a return to Windows in such a situation.
I can think of at least one practical situation where SQL Server would get rolled out on Linux regularly - and that's where an organisation has a web system based on Linux, and want a member of staff who knows SQL Server from their internal Windows systems to be able to code a database for it. Saves having to pay an additional wage to employ a whiz from the Linux RDBMS pool from outside their organisation. It would also allow standardization on one RDBMS, rather than having multiple different ones.
NoScript is pretty good at stopping a fair bit of crap from coming down the pipe, but I'd always have an adblocker and Ghostery in the mix as well.
JavaScript: yes, it shouldn't be able to do anything outside the browser window it's in (including not being able to do anything with other tabs or windows). It can be useful for helping in some application-style web pages where some level of understanding of the user's selections on a page are required. Also there are a few things that in-browser HTML and CSS don't do yet that JS can, though I can't think of any right this minute...
I'm also inclined to agree that sponsor advertising is likely to be where the internet will end up, but it might take a while to get there.
The problem is the IE engine is also used in other applications. So if you don't patch it, you may be vulnerable even if you don't use IE to browse the web.
Sneaking something like that into a security update it's truly a sleazy move. Nadella and the Bollysoft crew are utterly unable to understand the long term costs of their behaviour.
But, I can let the IE11 patches go in. Because I don't open IE11 to use it for browsing, I don't see how I'm supposed to see the advertising for Win10...
This seems to be to get around people who have taken control of Windows Update to prevent the crapware for Windows 10. But, in all likelihood, if someone is that savvy to control updates themselves then they probably aren't using IE11 (e.g. I use Firefox). So exactly how is this strategy going to work?
As an example, I've switched off all automatic updating in my W7 partition (which I use for one or two things on my laptop, the rest of my work is done via Linux Mint), and now manually kick off the update process and check through the available updates to deselect and hide anything I don't want. IE11 doesn't get a look in.
There's plenty of middle ground between scripting in VBA and close-to-the-metal C++, you know. If you have to produce Excel worksheets for people, there are some nice Apache Commons Java libraries.
I'm not learning C++ to do anything in Office with it, it's for server side programming. Producing Excel worksheets via automation is now a thing of the past for me (I hope!)
I have used VBA in Orifice over many years (though less so these days). My biggest problem was with automation between Access and other programs, particularly Excel.
If I had been asked to program a formatted and detailed output to Excel (with things like charts and stuff), often the 'easiest' way was to get Access to create an Excel instance in the background, create a workbook and output to that, without having to show the user anything.
Now, often such outputs to Excel would take a few minutes, and the user would go off and do something else while they were waiting, like check other Excel files.
So, cue problem: as far as I could ever figure out, Microsoft never made it possible to prevent the background Excel application from being visible to Windows Explorer. This meant that whenever a user used Explorer to find an Excel file to open and double-clicked it, instead of Windows opening a new instance of Excel, it would always seek an already running one, which would make the background Excel visible and all of the automation occurring from Access into the output file, often mucking up the process as well. Grrrrr.
These days I really try to avoid such things, and I'm trying to get into proper programming, like C++. It's safer than VBA.
Perhaps this is a sign that Microsoft is realizing it has to become a software company again, rather than a closed platform system that dominates everything? Sounds obvious now I type it, but during the Gates and Ballmer eras, they just couldn't see it. However, believing that everything can be linked to cloud and controlled from there could be mis-step.
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