Posts by localzuk

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

A bit outdated?

Can't help but think the author of this article is a bit out of date with regards Windows.

Sure, things needed to run as administrator, back on Windows XP and some badly written software still wanted it on Windows 7. But now? With Windows 11? Not seen anything that wants that.

And Windows today is built on NT, which was built with the specific purpose of being a network and muilti-user OS. So, the claim that "Windows is still built on a standalone PC operating system foundation" is simply incorrect.

The reality for many organisations is that Windows is the easiest option to implement. There are more Windows admins out there than Linux ones. At least, in their price range. There are more turnkey solutions that work on Windows than Linux. You can turn to MS for 99% of everything that may go wrong with running a network setup of Windows devices. Not so easy with Linux when there's 4000 options on how to do something.

Re: Genuine Question

Companies like Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Twitter, Amazon, Ebay, Wikipdia will all have one thing in common - they will build their own tools to automate with.

They have the people to develop such things. Most businesses don't.

Google hit with lawsuit for dropping free Workspace apps

Except, they are offering it. Their marketing for the various name changes was clear over the years that these were rebrands, to better reflect the goal of the service changing.

The component parts are still there though.

Its a bit of a bait and switch.

US-funded breakthrough battery tech just simply handed over to China

Re: Big deal!

Not exactly paranoia, China is a hotbed of IP theft. Partly through this sort of behaviour, and partly through everyone sending everything to be built there.

Bloke robbed of $800,000 in cryptocurrency by fake wallet app wants payback from Google

Hate to break it to you, but all money is magic numbers these days.

HPE says $30m Solaris verdict against it didn't provide 'evidence' of copyright

The USA is such a strange place

You have copyright without registration, but you can't do anything with that copyright - ie. if you want to sue someone for breaching it, that is unless you registered it, which is voluntary.

So effectively, copyright still requires formal registration, and the USA doesn't appear to be compliant with its obligations under the Berne Convention.

British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

Re: I left my bomb is in my other pants. Soz.

It isn't arrogance. Why do you think they are so intent on forcing the big apps to back down on encryption?

Do you think Signal has been cracked by a state actor? That's an open source tool, but all indication at the moment is that is has not.

It just moves

As has been shown to be the case when you install CCTV in crime hotspots, it just moves to another, unmonitored place.

Bork encryption in mainstream apps, and criminals will move to their own apps, as it doesn't take much time to create your own, using readily available open source software.

The reality is the same as every time they bring this up, the goal is not dealing with child abuse or terrorist messaging. It is another mass surveillance tool. Gotta slurp that data.

Huawei under investigation for having tech installed near US missile silos

I'm sure

I'm sure Huawei will reply saying of course they don't spy, and don't share intercepted data with foreign entities.

The thing is, every company will say that. If you're spying, you're hardly going to give yourselves up due to a polite request are you?

Realistically, the USA needs to make its mind up. Accept Huawei are a risk, and force all their kit to be stripped out today. Or accept they're not a risk and stop bothering them constantly.

Honestly, if I were the Chinese govt, I wouldn't be using Huawei kit or Hikvision kit to spy with. I'd be using American kit that is outsourced to China to manufacture. Cisco outsource to China... But I bet there's no investigation into them?

Intel’s first discrete GPUs won't be a home run

Re: 3060

My thought too. I thought the GTX 16XX series was the low end one these days. RTX series starts at mid range and goes up to "I have a private jet to fly my butler to the shop" range.

Google, Oracle clouds still affected by UK heatwave

Re: Idling

That's not really how it works. "Spare" capacity will mostly be in a low power mode, aka switched off. As demand grows, batches of server swill be spun up in preparation for services to run on them.

So, only a small number, comparatively, will be online doing very little.

Compared to running it all in house, where you end up only using 10% of the resources 90% of the time.

UK government refuses public review before launch of NHS data platform

Consultation without consulting

So their plan is to tell people about these schemes, but not actually ask them for their views.

That's marketing and PR, not consultation.

IT departments often regret technology buying decisions

Regrets, I've had a few...

I think everyone has had a tech purchase regret in their career. But obviously they can be of different scales.

I've had a few - a few batches of laptops over the years that didn't live up to expectations due to poor build quality. Software that was sold as doing everything we needed but ultimately could not do what we wanted. Services that promised things, and then in the contract (which whoever signed it didn't properly read) excluded those things, so they became extra costs.

Nearly all the issues I've seen though, were caused by vendors overselling or offering poor quality kit. Frustration with how long things take to procure is an entirely different matter.

Twitter sues Musk: He can't just 'change his mind, trash the company, walk away'

Re: Why aren't Twitter happy

They're a publicly traded company with certain legal obligations. Simple as that.

"For a company that believes in socialism" - huh? Is this an American getting confused about what socialism is again?

Hive to pull the plug on smart home gadgets by 2025

Odd business decision

Why not sell the tech to someone else? They could then carry on supporting it, maybe for a small fee to keep it running in perpetuity? Rather than the rather un-green "bin all our kit" route? Hardly going to help net zero is it?

Choosing a non-Windows OS on Lenovo Secured-core PCs is trickier than it should be

It is inevitable...

The EU court case can be seen coming from miles away.

A software manufacturer requiring hardware manufacturers to make using other OS's more difficult, in favour of their own? Yeah, I can't see the EU accepting that one.

Twitter claims Elon Musk bailed from sale with 'invalid and wrongful' reasons

Re: Pay up + interest

Not only is the bot percentage claim not a surprise item, but he explicitly tweeted about tackling bots as being a reason for buying Twitter... So, Twitter have his own written evidence that he knew about the bot issues on Twitter in advance.

Microsoft resorts to Registry hack to keep Outlook from using Windows 11 search

Re: What about Windows 10?

Google's search algorithm developed over time from "lets show the best results" to "lets show the results we get paid most for"...

Florida man accused of selling fake, broken Cisco devices from China to hospitals, schools, military

Re: What took them so long?

Still, doesn't take 8 years to confirm that.

What took them so long?

The govt intercepted his dodgy kit since 2014, yet it took until now to arrest and charge him?

What took them so long to deal with it?

Vendors are hiking prices up to 30 percent and claiming 'it's inflation'

Re: just change supplier

How to let everyone know you don't have experience with changing suppliers for critical systems. It is not cheap nor easy to migrate systems.

Why do you think so many such changes go wrong and end up being contested in courts with customer and vendor blaming each other?

Scale

Does this not ignore one key part of any negotiation - who is the bigger fish?

If the vendor is critical, and your company is comparatively small? It is very difficult to make demands.

Calls for bans on Chinese CCTV makers Hikvision, Dahua expand

Where do you draw the line

At the moment, calls to ban these 2 companies seem at odds with the rest of trade policy in the UK.

The fundamental reality is China has a huge amount of control over all aspects of Chinese businesses. What would happen to a company like Hikvision if they refused to sell to their government for what is effectively a political reason?

We need, as a country, to take a step back and question much more than a couple of companies. We are happy to trade with China to a tune of £93bn a year. How is that OK if the issue at hand is the Chinese government breaking international human rights rules?

Surely it should be all or nothing? Stop trading with China? Or accept that we are OK with what they do to their people.

Re: All Chinese CCTV systems connect back to China

Really? The only country to lock up huge numbers of people for various spurious reasons?

The USA mustn't have 2 million prisoners then, and a criminal justice system that has repeatedly been shown to be flawed.

Israel mustn't lock up Palestinians for displaying flags or a list of lots of other spurious reasons.

Russia doesn't lock up anyone who dare talk in any way against the govt? Or Rwanda? Turkey?

The list is long and complicated.

Europe passes sweeping antitrust laws targeting America's Big Tech

Global problems

As far as I can tell, we're dealing with global issues, but trying to solve it with piecemeal, localised, solutions. Seems like it will never work properly.

UK tribunal: App Store class action seeking up to $1.8b can continue

Re: How did they come up with that value

Is it on a per person basis, or a per device basis?

Supply chain blamed amid claims of Azure capacity issues

Really? Many small businesses can't front the capital to buy enough kit to do it all themselves, they often don't have the staffing capability either. Even just having a small number of servers, the switch gear, routing gear, a room to host it (along with cooling) (or colo), critical warranty support, hardware tech specialists (either in house, or on contract) etc... and you're talking tens if not hundreds of thousands of pounds depending on what you need.

Vs using Azure/AWS/$OtherBigCloudService, getting a supplier to build it out for you and basically leaving it running with MS dealing with all the infrastructure maintenance seamlessly?

If you are operating your business critical applications in a single region of Azure, without redundancy, that is a design flaw in your setup, not a flaw in Azure.

NOBODY PRINT! Selfless hero saves typing pool from carbon catastrophe

That reminds me...

I must ask why the librarian at one of our schools wants to use 3 ply carbonless paper for something in their school... Especially when we are supposed to be "digital first", and use things like MS Forms etc...

Apple lets devs in South Korea switch payment providers – with a lot of legwork

Re: So ....

Those are some expensive hosting servers!

Misguided call for a 7-Zip boycott brings attention to FOSS archiving tools

Re: I like 7Zip.

You know Russia has banned a multitude of foreign companies right? Not just called for it, but have actually banned them. It has introduced laws effectively preventing foreign ownership of any media in the country too.

Lots of social media sites, banned. Foreign systems banned entirely from govt usage.

Vs one guy calling for a boycott...

Not sure what your point is, except continued misplaced whataboutery.

Re: I like 7Zip.

@VoiceOfTruth - did you know, it is possible to call out the actions of more than 1 nation?

For example, millions of people marched against the Iraq war? Over 36 million people to be exact.

That you think whataboutery is some sort of answer to Russia's actions in Ukraine show more about your morality than anyone who is against Russian aggression.

It's a crime to use Google Analytics, watchdog tells Italian website

No way round it

At the moment, data transfers to the USA appear to be illegal. Even data transfers within the EU, but to companies owned or operated by US companies would be questionable, as the USA's CLOUD Act renders that data within the jurisdiction of the US govt.

The main issue at play is that the EU is taking its sweet time actually coming up with a solution to this. And I think the reason they're taking their time is that there isn't a GDPR compatible solution - the USA doesn't want to improve its data protections to GDPR standards (introducing the CLOUD Act proves that).

Re: It's OK with the EU?

That's not the Patriot Act doing that, that's the more recent CLOUD Act.

Not enough desks and parking spots, wobbly Wi-Fi: Welcome back to the office, Tesla staff

Hopes and dreams

Tesla seems to be run on hopes and dreams. This is the same thinking that caused their earlier manufacturing issues. Their hopes and dreams were massively autonomous production, but it didn't work/couldn't work, so they had to go out and hire thousands more employees to work in place of the robots.

We're several years down the line, and the same thinking now expects thousands of people to return to offices without enough desks...

Maybe they need someone who is actually good at running a business (not a visionary) to run the business side of things, and let Musk do the vision side of things?

Intel demands $625m in interest from Europe on overturned antitrust fine

Re: Ban Intel from EU systems

You're forgetting AMD. Their chips are directly compatible. Stopping using Intel would not be a hardship.

Cookie consent crumbles under fresh UK data law proposals

Re: Straightforward solution

A rose by any other name...

Re: Straightforward solution

How does a browser maintain state without some form of client token to maintain that state?

Microsoft readies Windows Autopatch to free admins from dealing with its fixes

This would eliminate its usefulness in education settings too. Can't be having teacher laptops deciding to reboot in the middle of a lesson.

Being able to set a maintenance window at a minimum is a necessity.

Will optics ever replace copper interconnects? We asked this silicon photonics startup

Re: The medium is the messenger

Considering the speed we can transmit data through copper has increased year on year for decades, I think this point is key here. Copper itself hasn't massively changed, but the tech to utilise it properly has. Eg. compare USB 1 to USB 3.1. Massive increase in capability, but it is still just a copper wire.

Always read the comments: Beijing requires oversight of all reader-generated chat

Socialism?

Not sure the Chinese government have a good grasp on what socialism is? Socialism is itself not authoritarian and dictatorial. Having criticism of the government isn't not in itself anti-socialist.

But then, China isn't particularly bothered with actually following socialist values are they? They appear to be far closer to the Animal Farm version of communism - everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.

Tencent completes 50 million core migration of its own apps to its own clouds

Re: "30 per cent better than the industry standard"

You are technically correct. The best kind of correct!

Re: "30 per cent better than the industry standard"

30% worse than what Tencent has in place.

If you want to launch Starship from Texas, here's some homework, FAA tells SpaceX

Re: Not too bad/onerous

The USA imported 26.3m metric tonnes of steel in 2019, and exported 7.1m metric tonnes.

So, yes, steel can very easily be shipped.

Not to mention, China is the world's largest steel maker, followed by India, Japan, USA, Russia, S Korea, Turkey, Germany etc...

Raw materials are not going to be the reason SpaceX stays in the USA. They are a relatively minor part of the cost of flying their rockets.

Re: Not too bad/onerous

The FAA is also aware that it is an issue of competing on a world stage too. If the USA behaves in a way that discourages private space port operations, then companies are more likely to move to other countries. Plenty of countries would love that investment.

So, realistically, these mitigations are part of the process of ensuring things stay in the USA as well. They're certainly not to make it too onerous to implement.

Threat of cross-border data tariffs looms over WTO

Re: "taxing e-commerce the same way that [..] physical goods traded internationally"

Sure, spending keeps going up.

You know what also keeps going up? Population and inflation. If you measure federal govt spending against GDP, it has been fairly level since 1952 in the USA... State and local spending though? They've been increasing.

The UK, as a comparison, has been rather more all over the place, but if you draw a line through it (excluding covid years, but including financial crash, and the 70s version of the financial crash), it is fairly flat too. Averaging around 40%.

Re: "taxing e-commerce the same way that [..] physical goods traded internationally"

Less government has been tried. It doesn't work. Less government means more scams, criminals and frauds. It means more poor quality goods coming to market due to less regulation. It means more people getting sick or hurt etc...

We have the amount of government we have today in reaction to problems. Politicians didn't just wake up one day and decide "lets regulate XYZ market for no reason".

Intel details advances to make upcoming chips faster, less costly

Believe it when I see it

Intel have made so many promises over the years and have simply not delivered. We'll see if this is more of the same, or if AMD will keep their lead.

Whatever you do, don't show initiative if you value your job

Sounds about right. There was lots of software like that. Still is some of it floating around in schools that are unwilling to modernise.

Woman accused of killing boyfriend after tracking him down with Apple AirTag

Re: Ban cars?

Cars have a critical legitimate use - without them the economy would fall apart.

I suspect you're trying that argument as a way to say arguments about gun control are bad, except guns aren't necessary for the USA to operate.