Posts by Teiwaz

OTHER EARTHS may be orbiting our Sun beyond Neptune

Re: Nibiru!

You went off-Topic (damn, that's another bar)

This could be a case for Mulder and Scully: Fox 'in talks' to bring back The X-Files

Re: Just don't...

Writers have very little to do with the decisions on what gets made.

I expect lots of really great things get written, just not made into TV/Film because the plots are too intelligent and execs think the public won't understand them, and surmise if the public don't understand what it going on they won't like the show, therefore the show won't make money.

Read a book sometime, books cut out the idiot to more of an extent than film or tv.

‘Whatever happened to Vladimir Putin?’ and other crap New Year prophesies

Re: Y2k

No doubt at the time the Mortgage final payment date issue was encountered in Financial IT, the budget was allocated to fix that issue, but non-affected date procesing was left as is according to the maxim 'if it's not broke, don't fix it', thus reducing testing requirements and the risk brought on by additional changes to critical systems.

The Year of Living Danishly, The Internet is Not the Answer and Classical Literature

Helen Russells meisterwork

No danger of me reading this book after this review. IT also makes me consider that it should be a crime to kill a tree just to print such a book, and possibly that the author should be lobotomised to prevent them perpetrating another.

Might buy a copy for a friend if he gets offered a job with lego after he completes his Phd.

Scary code of the week: Valve Steam CLEANS Linux PCs (if you're not careful)

Truth is in the eye of the beholder

Just checked my steam version (Ubuntu 15.04 - updated this fine morning) the code is still there under ~/.steam/steam.sh, line 468 of 756

A quick look at the fix shows the addition of an if $STEAMROOT != "" encapsulating the rm -rf comand.

Boffins: It's EASY to make you GRASS YOURSELF UP for crimes you never did

Re: Confession as evidence

And a few samll number of centuries before that, it was ducking stools, trial by fire, trial by combat and the 'Spanish Inquisitions' favourite interrogation methods, and this is only a few hundred years after the Romans (who I beleive had at least the rudiements of a fairly sensible legal system).

Up a ladder, down a snake. The defintion of 'Progress' depends on the madness of the 'man' in charge.

Microsoft's Xbox TV studio OBLITERATED

Re: Not mourning

Agreed.

Re-makes almost always suck. Very very few exceptions. Batlestar Galactica comes to mind as a good exception in my view. Real shame about Caprica, that had real potential...

Blakes 7 I've loved since I was barely old enough to watch it on first broadcast, I was too young to apreciate The original Tomorrow People.

The audio version of Blakes 7 is good too.

Saudi govt pauses flogging dad-of-3 for Facebook posts – after docs intervene

Support and legitimicacy

I think having nations that carry out this sort of brutal punishments and excessive sentencing on a leading Humna Rights council deligitimises the whole council.

I think no one in this country would think it wise (to pul a blackadder reference out for no apparent reason) to put the 'baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells' on a comittee running of a nursery or creche.

Prez Obama snubs UK PM's tough anti-encryption crusade at White House meet

"the Whitehouse's fact sheet on the security joint effort neglects to even mention the Tory leader's crusade on strong encryption."

It's only polite to ignore the ravings of a ignorant lunatic, after all, at least in public.

I hope he at least got put straight in private.

Go Canada: Now ILLEGAL to auto-update software without 'consent'

Re: No, you can't

Then there's all those fake windows dialogs on many webpages claiming the system detected that there is a virus/registry error and you need to click a button to fix it.

As a linux user I laugh at such naive attempts, but less knowledgable users are vable to such underhand behaviour.

You'll get sick of that iPad. And guess who'll be waiting? Big daddy Linux...

Re: I am inclined to agree

Wayyyy, to many anonymous cowards on here today.

Probably way to young to reach daddy's keyboard, or spell their own names yet.

Away and play with the duplo bricks, snot nosed brats 'cause even lego is way to above your level.

I am inclined to agree

Before computers, if you were writing a letter, you might use some sort of book or hard surface on your lap while seated a sofa or 'chaise lounge' (prolly spelt wrong). However if you wanted to write well, you'd find a desk and sit at it.

Same today, in order of best suited for best writing/typing/studying concentration..(in order of effectiveness, least to best)

phone -> tablet -> netbook/notebook/laptop -> desktop

What you should really use is the best orientation for the job at hand. Texts and emails (including whatsapp etc) can easily be done from a phone, comfortable reading and light editing from a tablet, more detailed work needs a laptop or desktop/laptop (at a desk or workstation).

Most people will find a phone sufficient, with maybe a tablet, a smaller number of others will find they need a better working infrastructure.

Re: Linux on mobile.

Funnily enough.

I bought a N900 second hand two years ago or so, having always wanted one, but never having gotten around to it. Odd, because I bought a Sharp Zaurus (a linux based pda) from the US quite promptly when that came out.

Switched to the community ssu a year ago, and it's really brought it back to life.

After several years of use...

I love the skype integration (not a fan, but contacts use skype a lot)

I don't bemoan the lack of apps.

I dislike the hildon desktop ui, it's clunky. Thee app list is too long, have hunt to find anything.

The app manager is slowwww, with long waits to any operation.

Have 'almost' decided it's time to replace it, probably with an ubuntu phone, and probably a BQ, depending on reviews.

I've even been playing around with the Unity8 session on desktop ubuntu, it's coming on, even on a Radeon embedded graphics card (many, many glitches due to this)

Come now, don't be beastly to cellphone giants, Supremes tell America's town halls

a very 'ublic school' headline there.

'don't be beastly'...

Someone was reading Stephen Fry's the Liar before bed.

US and UK declare red-team cyber war – on each other

cyber war, yeah

I had a 90's anime flashback when I read this headline, and thought...

Giant mecha and modified humans, cool.

Then I read the article, and thought, Britain are going to get squashed.

This moment inside UK C&C...

"We have a chance sir, we've cloned Carol Vorderman a thousand times, the yanks don't stand a chance."

Poor deluded bastards...they needed to hire the Knight Sabers.

Google unleashes build-it-yourself 'Ara' slablet phones (in Puerto Rico)

Puerto Rico...

There are a lot of tinkerers and people interested in unsual amd innovative design and willing to spend a couple of hundred on an 'experiment'?

This is the kind of device that would be better suited to test marketing to a segment of the population not a region I'd say.

It's hacker jihad: Islamist skiddies square up to Anonymous

'the' Muhhamad

Maybe they meant it as in not 'Muhhamad Ali' or any other, but the one they took the name of or were named after.

Funnily Jesus has never been that popular in the christian world (apart from the latin countries, where it's VERY popular, oddly enough).

Though in Ireland you can't walk two metres without tripping over a Mary or two. Then there was all those apparitions appearing to schoolgirls, not to mention middle-aged wimmin having visions of 'herself' then subsequently setting up prayer halls and buying mansions.

Windows 7 MARKED for DEATH by Microsoft as of NOW

Re: A definative date

Been happy with linux at least at home where I have the choice since 2000.

What users want is highly subjective. For some its a full 'desktop', for others something more minimal laptop, netbook, phone, tablet works just as well.

Desktops will evolve, they are still the workhorse of the user world. If you have a desk job you need some form of computer that operates efficiently in that context. Or do you believe office workers will all be sitting on sofas with mobile phones/tablets in hand being as productive?

For most people a tablet or phone (or even something through the TV is sufficient for web/email and other casual use.

Currently the ui is fragmented between phone through desktop, increasing the learning curve on moving from one to another. It's sensible to try to unify that so that a desktop shares some of the traits and common cues of the ui on smaller factor devices. This is what Microsoft were attempting (and got wrong) and what Gnome, KDE and Canonical with Unity are alse aiming for although all in different ways.

Peers warn against rushing 'enhanced' DATA SLURP powers through Parliament

The twits twit

I found Camerons tweet darkly amusing

'not crush our spirit or our values'?

I find my faith in thiis country taking a hit every time he announces more ill-concieved snooping legislation, and I've found this countrys values getting increasingly questionable of late.

There will come a time when any communication that steps outside the bounds of ever vague social acceptability will result in arrest, detainment and prosecution (which will be probably skipped for efficency). If you're lucky you might be allowed to be re-educated.

The perpetrators of this future are already in control, and charliehebdo is just another in a long line of 'reichstag fires' that will give it birth.

It's 4K-ing big right now, but it's NOT going to save TV

A womens story?

Only the wimmin watch tv in this household. The tv is a CRT from the 90's.

All the males game.

I might be the market for a new monitor in a few months...something around the 19-24' inch range will be fine, and no 'smart' anything.

Paris terror attacks: ISPs face pressure to share MORE data with governments

Again, the answer seems to be 'we need more powers'

You'd almost think this latest inciident was the latest in a long tine of such either orchestrated or 'allowed to happen' to further the goals of some shady global dark agency with an agenda and a detailed game plan.

Either that or the politcos have so little clue they think if they pump all the information on everyone in the world it will create a computer system that can predict the who when and where of any crime like in Minority Report.

Perhaps accurate for Cameron, who seems to think CSI is a docu on real policework.

Siri, are you afraid of Facebook's new speech recognition tech?

Wit.ai to become drivel.ai in facebook snapup.

Another potentially cool company snapped up.

Of course it's service will still remain free, the cows can eat as much grass as they wish (would have said sheep, but that's a tired old metaphor).

And linux, couple of good projects recently, palaver, google2ubuntu, but they use the google api. Simon-lisitens has been around for a while, but last time I tried it, it was still in much the same state.

The most important point, however, is that all these speech recognition systesm, seem to be marketed on the cool/mostly useless factors. How good are they from the accessibility point of view. Do they help the visually or movement impaired to operate their devices?

Renault Captur: Nobody who knows about cars will buy this

'drive like a christian'???

I used to know a 'born again' who drove like a lunatic and professed to not adhering to any law but gods law...

He was scary to be in the car with (if he was drivng) and just annoying otherwise - throwing tapes of Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds out the window 'cause they were anti-christian...probably causing people to take the lords name in vain as bits of plastic hit their windshield at speed.

Google unveils Windows 8.1 zero-day vuln – complete with exploit code

A poke with the shit-stick

I hope microsoft have learned a lesson here..

Deal with any open sores quickly otherwise Google will poke it with a shitty stick.

All the same, I think we know Now why Google are called the 'Chocolate Factory',...

World, face Palm: PDA brand to RISE FROM THE GRAVE

Is someone buying patents?

It may just be another round of 'feed the lawyers'.

A couple of patents and the palm brand might well 'convince' some courts to start awarding money.

I may just be paranoid (and I've been up all night playing LA Noire).

Apple in 2007: Who wants a stylus? Apple in 2010: We want a stylus!

The pen is big

"As soon as you have a 'polo neck', you're dead."

Too soon?

The stylus should more proven tech than touch for applications requiring productive work, after all we have been using such a device to interact with tablets for thousands of years,

And no I'm not either grossly exagerating or suggesting that Ancient Aliens had prior art on feature phones or PDA like devices, I am referring to recording information on clay tablets.

Of course wit hthe 'ipadification' of education these days, perhaps people will not be taught to write. I see too many people whose handwriting looks like a six year olds. Mine is bad, but bad from the perspective of four years of taking lecture notes bad (so basically, G.P. bad).

I miss the quite good handwriting input on my old Sharp Zaurus linux PDA, and certainly find the stylus on my Nokia N900 damn useful when doing more than quick lookups or short messages.

Personally a smartphone/tablet without a stylus that can be slid out of the case to use when needed looses a lot of points on my device scorelist.

YEAR of the PENGUIN: A Linux mobile in 2015?

Re: Gateway drug

I must have switched around the same time.

I bought a book on Linux that came with Suse 6.3 on a CD. It took you through installing from the disk including compiling the kernel. After I'd run through that i obtained a copy of Suse 7.0 and kept with Suse until the Novell aquisition. Can't recall which release, but suddenly started having issues with sound after several releases of it working out of the box with no issues so I switched to Mandrake on the assumption Suse was now aiming for servers at the expense of the desktop.

I burnt my safety net (kept no windows partition) to force myself to switch and had losts of fun getting DVDs to play on Suse 7.1 by compiling xine from scratch.

Parliament: All's well with RIPA snooping, no problem here

Re: UK Politics

When the Revolution comes?

Everybody, and anybody, eventually....

Then some more, come the Counter-Revolution.

It's why it's wise to keep Authority in check while things are still stable, and before people get it into the heads that the best way of dealing with people is linng them up before a pit and putting them at the 'mercy' of a bunch of lads with guns and without the imagination to question orders.

Euro Parliament VOTES to BREAK UP GOOGLE. Er, OK then

I they wanted to do something useful...

Make a ruling that the EU switch to Linux and Open Source exclusively, promote open standards and declare that all EU member governments do the same by a certain date.

This at least they have the power to do.

All else is bullshit political manourvering, breakup Google indeed, I think this is just about thumbing noses at the US.

Blade Runner sequel might actually be good. Harrison Ford is in it

Funnily enough...

In one of the 'sequel' books (the first, I think, it's been sooo long since I read them), the template for the Roy Baty replicant 'breaks' the Blade Runner who was shot at the start out of hospital for a new heart and lungs and dispathcing him on some mission.

I seem to remeber quite enjoying the 'sequel'* books, although they were quite dark, many of the characters had lost hope, however I had just finished reading the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant at the time, so the books would appear rather upbeat after those.

* Sequel to the movie, not the PKD original, which bears about as much resemblance as does Pierre Boules Monkey Planet does to Planet of the Apes the movie.

I still don't understand the concept that it 'migh't be good 'cause Harrison Ford 'might' be in it. Story first, then 'good actors, good director then (finally) special effects. Hollywood seems to think Special effects are first and the story can just be made up as they go along.

We have a winner! Fresh Linux Mint 17.1 – hands down the best

''Best' Desktop, (derisive laughter)

"Mint's flagship Cinnamon desktop, fast becoming the best desktop in Linux, has been updated to Cinnamon 2.4."

Popular, quite possibly, the desktop of choice for trolls who can think of nothing more cogent to post but 'Unity is shit, cinnamon is the best' or somesuch... (you don't see such posts as coomonly from XFCE, LXDE or even Mate users, and often, Mint is also mentioned, you wouldn't see a Cruchbang or an Arch or Debian user post such useless drivel. *

However, the best desktop in linux''??? Sir, I disagree most venimently.

Apologies to all Mint and Cinnamon users who do not (and have never) trolled linux sites with such useless trolling, but it's just what I've observed the past year or so.

Security seals clobbered ahead of Black Friday bonanza

Certified and Certifiable...

Need to be sealed away somewhere, preferably in a locked filing cabinet, in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door reading 'Beware of the Leopard'.

Google Contributor: Ad-block killer – or proof NO ONE will pay for news?

Best Ad-Blocker - the Human Brain

The same ability that allows you to single out a single voice in a crowded room comes into good use for most ads.

This has been well trained over the last half century with regards to conventional adss on radio then TV, and works much the same for ads on web pages as well.

Web pages that play ads with audio get closed immediately, those sites are not worth reading anyway.

Forget the climate: Fatties are a much bigger problem - study

McKinsey Global Group should be included in the own graph.

For producing this steaming pile of wank. Social burden my arse., they're no doubt getting paid from the taxes of people who do something useful all day to come up with this drivel.

Mind you, I actually had to plod through the local Shopping Center today as the out-of-town outlets let me down. Gawds, it was closer to Day of the Living Dead than I remember, a Lot of them looked like denim blamange, but at least they were spending.

Far, Far too many shoe shops too.

VINYL is BACK and you can thank Sonos for that

There's something to vinyl... Don't know what though

Spent an evening with a mate a couple of months back going through his LP's with a fairly basic player (I think we plugged it into the TV's analogue in for lack of any better speakers.

He had Waayyy too many 'Top of the Pops' albums though, seems he had a 'thing' for Legs Eleven.

I think Vinyl makes you lisiten more, with digital, you can flick 'next' way to easily at the slightest glint of risng boredom, with vinyl, you've gone to all the effort of carefully getting the LP out of its sleeve and onto the plate, lining up the spindle with the hole, then carefully lining up the needle and lowering it (gently) onto the surface. I think 60% of the 'pleasure' of vinyl is relief at having managed that task.

I kind regret giving away my old albums, but not too much, I have too much fun with Music Player Daemon.

Chinese coder's got 99 problems and getting hitched is one: Huge iPhone woo plot FAILS

Re: he just had to gimp on the last one, didnt he

Yeah, I recall something about that in a refernce in Crying Freeman OVAs. 9 has the same pronounciation as in 'ever lasting' so it's used a lot in weddings etc. The more 9's the better.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/lucky-number9.htm

Got a STRAP-ON? Remember to TAKE IT OFF at WORK

"Time is an illusion, Lunchtime Doubly so." - Ford Prefect (HHGTTG - Douglas Adams)

No longer own a wristwatch (they just feel weird now), rarely remember to bring my mobile anywhere.

If I just guess, I'm usually not much more than 15 minutes out*. We evolved on this planet (or at least been here long enough to adjust to its rhythms to just 'know' what 'time' it is.

* Unless I've just woken up, in which case I don't know if it is bum or breakfast time.

The late 2014 Apple Mac Mini: The best (and worst) of both worlds

Re: Just what were you running exactly???

You'd be crazy to run one of the more demanding DEs on a machine from the XP era anyway.

I found Gnome-shell the hardest resource-hit of Unity, KDE and Gnome. Mostly usable on a 2010 single-core AMD custom with 4GB Ram, except with video playback, which saw system struggle, may be due to underpowered embedded graphics, but KDE and Unity did not have the same issues.

14.04 / 14.10 Unity runs great on an Atom N450 netbook with 2GB Ram, not quite so well with 1GB less though (dash,hud,workspace activation delays hampered its usability).

If you don't have the whack for these three (or the several newish OSX-ish Gtk3 shells), theres, LXDE, XFCE, or Openbox, Blackbox, Fluxbox, WindowMaker, Pekwm, FVWM, JWM, Awesome, XMonad, i3, Herbstluftwm, Subtle, dwm, Scrotwm, Sawfish.......(or CLFSWM if you are really adventuresome).

Windows 8 or nowt: Consumer Win 7 fans are out of luck

Re: Bezo's Bozos,

I get the impression the Wiindows 8 disaster, despite it occuring at the end of life for XP will still not be enough to break the dependance of biz customers for Windows.

For the consumer, mobile phones seem to be perfectly ok for most things, and a tablet for the rest.

Microsoft now licensing Windows by the user, across multiple devices

Re: It's 2014..

Recently bought a Compulabs Fit-PC. Nice to be given the option to either buy an OS to be installed on it or not (Not, they were only offering MS 7,8 or Mint Linux).

Haven't seen that option since 1991 when I had the option to buy MS-DOS or DR-DOS with a 486.

BBC clamps down on illicit iPlayer watchers

Re: Smart TVs are stupid

I knew buying a Smart TV was a stupid idea.

I knew Smart TVs [Full Stop] Were an even stupider idea.

Stopped watching TV ten years ago.

It's a dying medium, but stoopid mucking about by the BBC and others invested in it is going to kill it faster. Once it's irrelevant, they are.

Guess Star Trek might be right after all. Good news for trombone sales...

TV was a good idea at the time, crack to the cocaine of the Radio that came before it. Kept most people indoors in the evening (at the expense of some extra pub and cinema revenue) but at least theere were less people getting drunk and getting into fights.

Weekend reads: Russell Brand's Revolution and Joy Division's Ian Curtis gets lyrical

"“All desire is the inappropriate substitute for the desire to be at one with God.”"

A perfectly sensible sentiment, and not scary at all, replace 'God' with any other focus of belief, or 'Universe' for those not brought up with monotheism ground into their character to some degree.

As a spiritual lesson, its one of the clearer ones, and certainly better phrased for the modern world than the bibles 'thou shalt not covet thy neighbours ass' (or somesuch). My neighbor has a big ass, and I certainly wouldn't want an ass that big...

Words and thoughts tend not to be scary, what is scary is how some nutters twist them to say what they want them to say, then go out and enforce that interpretation on others as 'the true word of God'.

Re: Crap

At £20 a 'roll' that would be damned expensive toilet paper.

I'm sure all Reg readers would have some off the wall views they could spin into a suitable manuscript for publication in book form. However since most of us are not TV personalities, no one would be interested in coughing up any cash to read them (or even hang in the bathroom).

I guess his agent put this idea in his head, to realise another revenue stream or somesuch.

We all know modern society is deeply flawed, and other models exist, but such models are also flawed and too many are too deeply invested in the current status quo to consider advocating change (even when things go completely tits-up and the flaws become blindingly obvious to everyone), and those who are not have not the influence or the insight to imagine another way.

Computer misuse: Brits could face LIFE IN PRISON for serious hacking offences

Falling in line with the EU (excuse) again?

"necessary to overhaul the Computer Misuse Act 1990 so as the British government could fall in line with the EU."

Don't the government want to opt out of some EU legislation that isn't convenient?

I personally think the whole UKIP thing is right-wing political maneauvering in order to get support for dropping most of the socialist directives of the EU, such as Human Rights.

"prevent individuals from obtaining tools such as malware with the intention to personally commit a cyber crime."

As Malware is often delivered unsolicited, all they'd need additionally is a thoughtles tweet, blog post etc that criticises the current status quo of modern society in some way (and it won't matter if it's tongue in cheek as law givers and enforcers don't have a concept of a sense of humour).

I notice also 'individuals'. So their intent is that corporations/governments are allowed to obtain Malware then?

Life Imprisonment is a ridiculous idea as well, have they forgotten that the prison system is (a) flawed as a reformation system, (b) not up to dealing with more long-stay detaines, (c) We are a small landmass. unlike America, which still has plenty of space. I'd remind the 'Empire remembering' establishment that Australia is picky about it's immigrants these days, and all you've left is the Falklands, which also has finite space.

'George Orwell was an optimist. Show me a search history, I'll show you a perv or a crook'

Re: corollary

A really intelligent comment.

Unfortunately, we're no longer in the 60's. Idealism is mostly dead, and the collective population can generaly be convinced that only terrorists and perverts have anything to fear.

My main concern is tha the current mentality punishes curiosity. What is the point f having access to the largest encyclopedia humanity has ever asembled if you have to be wary what you look up.

Rebellion sees Chromium reverse plans to dump EXT filesystem

No chrome for me, ever then...

I've only got one 'popular' drive (i.e. FAT) left (it's likely to die soon). The rest are all Ext2.

I wouldn't buy a Scanner that could only scan documents in Russian, or a Printer that only printed in Mandarin.

I feel the same way about FAT and NTFS.

Not my language.

Look ma, no hands! The machines are speaking our language

Is there a non-proprietary 'app' for this?

Is Dragon the only viable option for Voice & Speech Recognition?

Seems to me this is a key technology for the future, forget your touchpads, mice, keyboards (although all have their uses, and 'best tool for the job' moments), but speech recognition is more important as it is our natural method of comunication.

Siri, Cortana, (whatever Google call theirs), are all great as another way of mining us for our information, but for personal control, a minimal workable package is needed for local processing of voice recognition and speech input.

There hasn't been a lot on handwriting recognition recently, but judging from the handwriting of younger people recently, I guess they don't do a lot of writing at school anymore. (first photocopy handouts, then e-mailed text at schools in the last twenty years I guess, photocopies were expensive when I was at school, cheaper to get everybody to copy it down, aids memory rentention too).

CONSUMERISM IS PAST ITS SELL-BY DATE: Die now, pay later

Excellent article

Great article, reminded me of Douglas Adams and the 'Shoeshop financial collapse' We're probably heading there, only it'll be mobile phones.

I seem to remember that we only got through two TVs in twetnty years when I was growing up. Of course, the upgrade to digital and higher resolution had a lot to do with higher turnover now. (That and 'Smart' TVs - yeughh).

I also think the TV age is almost over and it's popularity will wain in the next decade or so.

TV Repair places used to often also sell Tv's and the fact that most people get their Tvs from large stores now has a lot to do with the smaller shops with skilled staff dying out and being replaced with formal guarentees, return periods and mass-produced shoddy customer service.

Once a way of producing cheap (relatively) safe energy is discovered, we really won't have any reasonable excuses for consumerism.

French prez mulls mobe, fondleslab tax for telly

We're all heading to Hell in a basket-case

In the news tomorrow.

Large Coffee-shop chains seek to have a tax imposed coffee granules, cups, teaspoons and milk because people are now able to make their own coffee and we're (think) we're seeing a lost sales opportunity.

What’s the KEYBOARD SHORTCUT for Delete?! Look in a contextual menu, fool!

The Cult of the vi Eloi/Moorlock

The mouse isn't the best input device ever invented, (for that matter, neither is the keyboard, the commonest keyboard in use still has its keys laid out in order to constrain the users speed lest the mechanical parts of almost forgotten typewriters get jammed.

I learnt wordprocessors and spreadsheets on Worperfect and Lotus 123 on DOS, and recognised when Windows 3.11 came along the advantage of applications having the same basic menu layout and shortcut key organisation

Not that this has always been adhered to, some programs insist on breaking these conventions in some way or other (i.e VLC's use of Media instead of File, forcing me to Alt-M for the file menu rather than Alt-F, my learned habit, luckily they didn't change Ctrl-O, there are other examples, not least the crap peices of s/w that came with scanners/printers etc on windows over the years with non-standard dialogs and non-standard behaviour and no key shortcuts whatsoever... fumes.

And I do wish we could decide on Ctrl-q or Ctrl-w for close, I keep using Q on Gnome image viewer (which uses 'w'), so I'm constantly doing emacs like double keys, ctrl-q-ctrl-w every time.

I prefer key shortcuts over mouse, and touchpad over mouse for most things. In my expereince somebody who isn't familiar with at least the common key shortcuts is not someone to ask for advice on computer issues, 'cause if they haven't managed to learn the commonest key binds, they probably don't know enough to be of any help.