Posts by halfbaked

Should we teach our kids how to program humanity out of existence?

We haven't got a decent programming language yet

I noticed all the recommendations on getting kids to code. I have coded (but many decades ago), and I had been messing about with Libre Office Calc to help my 7 year old grandson with his times tables. I noticed that it supports Visual Basic Macros, so I thought that sounds like a fairly simple language, and in the context of Calc, a lot of things should be already set up. To start with "Hello World", I assumed I would just need to write a statement very like the pseudocode:

Write "Hello World" in Cell "x" in Sheet "y"

No such luck!! the tutorial tells me to write the following gobbledegook:

REM ***** BASIC *****

sub hello_world

dim document as object

dim dispatcher as object

document = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame

dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")

dim args1(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue

dim args2(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue

args1(0).Name = "ToPoint"

args1(0).Value = "$A$1"

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:GoToCell", "", 0, args1())

args2(0).Name = "StringName"

args2(0).Value = "Hello World!"

dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:EnterString", "", 0, args2())

msgbox "Completed!"

end sub

No way am I going to try to explain this to my seven year old grandson. What have all these computer scientists been playing at for all these years?

Pirate MEP: Microsoft's walled garden is no consumer pleasure park

Re: Earth to Microsoft

Surely there is an opportunity here for some company to make a small charge for Linux, make whatever changes are needed for the general user, and publicise it. Perhaps Dell or HP who could thus reduce the price of their PCs

Smartphones are ludicrously under-used, so steal their brains

They also serve who stand and wait

Call me old fashioned, but what if I receive a call or text, or need to send one while the phone is busy printing or whatever. I could dock a phone and use it as a laptop, but I tend to get up and walk around, and prefer to have the phone in my pocket, in case I need it for its primary purpose.

Firefox hits prime time as version 37 manifests

Browser features

This release, like most, doesn't seem to add much functionality of interest. Perhaps some Reg reader can enlighten me on why the following don't seem to be available:

1. The ability to work out how much space is needed for pics and video windows to that the text on a webpage doesn't have to jump about for a while after it is opened.

2. The ability to note my screen size and offer paging rather than scrolling through 'webpages' of text. Everybody accepts that paging is best for text and all readers do it.

France bans managers from contacting workers outside business hours

Re: Up the creek without paddle...

MU - Un-ask the question

Because your question implies that working and living are distinct and incompatible activities.

I am sure that is true for some. But for many work is an avenue for self expression, exercising their talents and benefiting society. That does not mean that they should be enslaved to it for 24 hours a day, However individuals should have the right to put in out of hours effort when a crisis arises, to help out their customers or their colleagues.

Can the iPad save newspapers?

Must it be subscriptions?

I have no problem with paying for a newspaper or an article online. But why does the only method have to be by subscription? I can walk into a newsagent and buy a Times,or Guardian (or Economist or Viz or New Scientist) as I please. The internet is supposed to be a step forward, why does it have to force me to sign up to monthly charges?