Posts by BinkyTheMagicPaperclip 1488 publicly visible posts • joined 11 May 2012
I echo the 'whoosh', you're missing subtext.
There is only one Matrix film.
There is one Highlander film (two if you're being generous).
One Hobbit film
Six Batman films
Two Terminator films
Three X-Men films (maybe four)
Contentiously I recognise five Star Wars films..
It's not really sensible to compare the PS4 to either the Rift or the Vive, and it's definitely off to compare it to a knock off Chinese copy. Rockpapershotgun recently reviewed a higher resolution 60Hz Chinese VR headset - the conclusion was basically that Oculus/HTC were correct in insisting on special 90Hz low latency screens, the cheaper system looked better when stood still, and caused motion sickness when moving.
Likewise Metro had a number of decent reviews, and it's not as if everything Rockstar have created is brilliant.
Bash Oculus for valid reasons by all means, but incorrect nitpicking is not on.
You can go back, you just have to be selective.
I would say that, personally, 8 bit games are getting on a bit. I neither use my real MSX or emulated 8 bits on a regular basis.
On the other hand I still play games from the late eighties onwards reasonably often : PC (DOS), Dreamcast, original XBox, bit of SNES, Gameboy Advance, etc.
You might have a point if the operating systems were unsupported, but they aren't. Vista is still supported until the start of April 2017, XP is technically still supported in embedded versions until 2019, but that's not for normal apps.
I still have a laptop with a Vista partition, because I have the license, it works, and is still supported. Admittedly recently I have moved the main partition to FreeBSD, with a Windows 7 VM for Windows tasks.
It's not that their partner is suffering, it's that their partner needs to *appear* to be scared so he can be turned on. That could easily be an activity between two consenting adults. It's only a douche move when it isn't discussed with your partner, or when you exceed previously agreed or implied boundaries.
If there's informed consent, it's not up to anyone to police behaviour. Far more effective to provide guidance on how to properly negotiate with a partner.
It doesn't seem like a huge problem at first, does it, even if it's the first Xen flaw in a while that has been an oversight rather than a very specific set of circumstances.
Unfortunately, if you can exploit the VM to manipulate the boot loader, and then reboot the system, it's game over - VM boots up in 16 bit mode, machine owned.
Xen is by no means perfect, but it's quite a decent product with unique virtualisation and manageability features.
This isn't the same, and Linux/BSD dropped support for 386s because :
1) It's too slow
2) No one is using 386s any more.
486 support will take longer to disappear, because there's still a fair bit of embedded kit using 486 processors. Anything above a Core processor is usable for modern productivity tasks (i.e word processing), although it'll probably chug for the most advert heavy webpages.
However, 486 support only applies to the base OS. A number of packages have assumed at least SSE (P3), and browsers have started enforcing SSE2 (P4). For text only, very slow systems are still manageable. Many X utilities seem to assume Qt these days and I suspect a pentium 4 is the minimum usable platform, I tried with slower and it was a bad idea.
Windows is much more strict with later releases, and running some apps, particularly games, is sometimes tricky. No Man's Sky shipped requiring SSE4.1, which is included in Intel chips from 2007 or later, but not in Phenom 2 chips, the last of which was released in 2011.. That got fixed rapidly.
Also probably quieter, cooler, and using modern storage that basically 'just works'.
In the near future I'm going to replace my home firewall, a pentium 3 system with compact flash card, and an ISA graphics card, with one of these : http://www.pcengines.ch/apu2c4.htm. Looks shiny, definitely works, with an AMD chip in it that doesn't suck.
Probably not, makes a fine firewall though. The only method I can think of is VirtualBox and a suitable OpenGL driver, but I'm not sure if VirtualBox is fine on OpenBSD, and there are no binary drivers due to OpenBSD's code policy, so OpenGL and general driver support is lacking a bit.
It will however run the open GTA 3 engine, if you're that way inclined.
Go on, it's Friday.
Average breast size in the UK as of late 2015 : 36DD
Weight of a 36DD breast as per a wikihow article : 36E (close enough)=1.7lbs per breast=3.4lbs for both, or 5.1lbs if you're Eccentrica Gallumbits or that woman off Total Recall.
Weight of a bag of potatoes=2.5kg
3.4lbs in kg=1.54221 (truncated at 5dp)
40 bags of potatoes=2.5x40=100kg
100kg/1.54221=64.84
So, 65 pairs of jubs, assuming an average jub quantity per person of two.
or 44 gallumbits worth of pressure on the lock.
Not buying it. Nexus 5 has a quad core 2.2GHz processor and 2GB RAM. Even if it downclocks to 1GHz, and the dalvik runtime is a bit bloated, sounds like a lack of optimisation rather than substandard hardware.
My 2012 phone happily runs Marshmallow courtesy of Cyanongenmod, provided I don't try Pokemon GO. I think I can live with that..
.gz and the app won't work? Sigh
aka it's going to be slow. This is a workstation processor without workstation features (except ECC). To impress me it'd need improved virtualisation features (Intel is undeniably the clear winner here), ideally dual socket support by default (which would of course eat into AMD's lacklustre server offerings), and an integrated APU (OK, maybe that should go in the server processor, but it destroys the lie that AMD is committed to HSA. Basic VDI built in would be useful)
Another site claims AMD underclocked the 6900K to 3GHz to match the clock speed of the Zen sample, which still didn't convincingly win. In AMD's current generation specific heavily threaded benchmarks offer the highest performance, so this test is probably a high point.
Zen will be repeatedly and embarrassingly trounced on any single threaded benchmark on release. The performance desktop market is not Broadwell-E - that's a set of niche enthusiast CPUs for virtualisation and rendering fans that can't stomach buying a Xeon. The target market for Zen should be the 6700K/4790K i.e. four high speed cores, eight threads. Very fast for most desktop apps, and the best choice for gamers.
Although it's not matching up to the initial claim of being akin to slow, non volatile memory, this is exceptional.
GPUs? The GTX1080 averages 20-30% faster than a 980Ti, and this is seem as exceptional.
CPUs? Using Intel's own (optimistic) numbers, a Skylake 6700K is '30% faster than a three year old PC' (i7 3770K)
20-30% is seem as decent, and the article complains about a technology averaging 5x to 10x improvement, depending on area?
Forever='as long as the equipment still works'
It's not a huge problem that e.g. when going from XP to Vista, various devices were no longer supported. XP still continued to work on the device, although at some point it was ideally sensible to stop using it to connect to the Internet, as unpatched vulnerabilities might be encountered.
That's ok though - the lifecycle was known well in advance, and was a particularly long one.
This is more like it not being guaranteed that your toaster will carry on toasting toast, because it's not on the list of currently sold toasting devices and what's guaranteed is only current toasting devices, not anything that worked with what was a previously fixed ToastOS. It probably will, but who knows? Additionally, the mandatory ToastPro(TM) update has added 16 additional browning levels, but brands 'Crumpets, it's the new toast!' on every slice where it did not before. The next mandatory update might burn in 'Buy crumpets or we'll eat your kittens' and the one after that '<your name> is a wanker. Paid for by <your enemy>. Enjoy your day'.
The important point is not what anniversary update offers, but that it can't be declined.
Windows 8.1 removed a few features, but not many, and it was an entirely optional upgrade to Windows 8.
Anniversary Update isn't optional, and is definitely changing features. Where does it end? Where is the guarantee not to deprecate application, driver support, or remove features essential for specific people, effectively bricking an old PC? W10 Pro can defer updates for up to a year, but I want my system to continue working forever, thank you.
There is no ideal solution here, a paid single user non subscription based version of Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB would help matters, but note that some universal apps will not be available:
'this is because the universal apps included with Windows 10 will be continually upgraded by Microsoft, and new releases of in-box universal apps are unlikely to remain compatible with a feature upgrade of Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB for the duration of its servicing lifetime'
In other words, Windows 10 will change significantly for the forseeable future. I'm not on board with that, only security fixes should be necessary, not driver and functionality fixes.
Longpath support has never been a problem in Windows, please see https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx
'In the Windows API (with some exceptions discussed in the following paragraphs), the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. '
...
'The Windows API has many functions that also have Unicode versions to permit an extended-length path for a maximum total path length of 32,767 characters. This type of path is composed of components separated by backslashes, each up to the value returned in the lpMaximumComponentLength parameter of the GetVolumeInformation function (this value is commonly 255 characters). To specify an extended-length path, use the "\\?\" prefix. For example, "\\?\D:\very long path".'
Although, as mentioned 'Starting in Windows 10, version 1607, MAX_PATH limitations have been removed from common Win32 file and directory functions. However, you must opt-in to the new behavior.'
Forget the camera, this is why it is essential to hold manufacturers to account otherwise they will never change. If you reward failure, there is no incentive to succeed.
Never mind 'it's fast, waterproof, etc' the review should read 'It's a fast and functional phone but MegaCorp's support policy means it'll be a £500 doorstop inside 18 months. 2/10'
Time to see where the latest Marshmallow Cyanongen builds for my 2012 phone are up to, because Motorola certainly haven't been patching it for years. It's not even on the list of devices for updates.
About the only thing it doesn't do is 4G outside the US, and it's a bit unhappy running Pokemon Go. Frankly I can live with that, and uninstalled it.
Failing that, the 'boot image to DVD/USB and install from that' option.
In the two VMs I updated (one with an architecture similar to a pentium 3 with a Core 2 Quad hanging off it (Xen's qemu-traditional), the other similar to a penryn Core 2 system (Q45 - qemu-xen), both using rombios rather than uefi) I upgraded a Windows 7 SP1 install (no patches beyond SP1) and it installed fine.
My Dad wasn't so lucky - his much more modern system (low end Core system) repeatedly blue screened, but at least it rolled back flawlessly.
Depends how you define 'remove'. Given that IE came with rendering panes used outside the browser, XML controls, etc the definition is arguable. Not to mention the fact any URL typed into an explorer window is effectively using IE.
To remove the main executable and stop any web related protocol being handled by the IE renderer would probably be sufficient, of course, leaving aside the fact most of the IE components would remain.
Bought a couple of cheap refurbished Windows 7 licences, used those in VMs to upgrade to Windows 10, so I can check it out if need be, and migrate it to other VM systems.
Not going to upgrade the computer driving my projector, because Windows 10 removes media centre - the main reason I upgraded to Windows 8.
Not going to update the gaming PC, as it doesn't have a DX12 capable graphics card, and Windows 10 (fairly sensibly to be honest) stopped Securom games working.
Definitely not going to update my working Windows VM on my main Xen system, with the shifting nature of what Windows 10 can and can't do. If they sold single user non subscription licenses of Windows 10 LTSP Enterprise I might have done so.
Laptop is going to go from Vista (working fine for years, never really needed upgrading), probably to FreeBSD. Will see if I can convince Virtualbox to run Windows 7 with Direct3D in a VM, and receive acceptable performance. Pity Xen/KVM don't support that yet.
I still like Windows, but I think I may start switching my main Windows VM from allowing it to accessing a reasonably fast passed through Quadro, to the slow Quadro normally passed through to FreeBSD, and make that my primary VM. This may be the year of de-emphasing Windows.
It's a persistent misconception because it's true. KVM cannot be run without Linux. Xen can, and is, run without Linux. There's the well known kernels (Linux, Solaris and derivatives, NetBSD), the in progress (FreeBSD) and the custom (MiniOS, shipped as an example with Xen, and third party options).
I've just checked the documentation for RHEV, and it's clearly a stripped down Linux. At one point KVM.ko did load under FreeBSD, but that's only because of FreeBSD's Linux compatibility, and even then it didn't work well.
Personally I think of KVM as an optional Qemu accelerator, coupled with some excellent pci passthrough tools. Xen's paravirtualised architecture means it can be quite different, and it's (in my opinion), considerably better integrated than KVM, plus has a (now free) turnkey system using a custom Linux distribution, looking not dissimilar to ESXi.
Obviously there's also the cost, and supportability issues. VMWare is excellent, but will cost a lot in some configurations, has a limited set of supported hardware, and most irritating keeps dropping support for perfectly functional hardware in new releases. At least with Xen/KVM, it's using standard OS drivers.
You'd be right there. There's plenty of workarounds for duff hardware, and at least on the KVM side (probably Xen too) some features are based on whitelists and blacklists. i.e. Intel and AMD have told the virtualisation project that a particular chipset supports this feature, but it's not discoverable, so it has to be enabled/disabled based on PCI IDs, etc.
The number of BIOSes with fully or partially broken ACPI or DMAR tables is huge, and outside server boards, vendors don't tend to care as VT-d has been a rarely used feature on consumer kit until recently, and ACPI anomalies can often be worked around. Solutions include 'buy a new motherboard' or workarounds such that the ACPI/DMAR tables work, but only when certain devices are enabled/disabled (i.e. the BIOS does not correctly modify the tables based on installed devices, as it should).
BIOSes have done a lot more than load a boot sector, for a very long time.
From what I can see the Qubes project contribute nearly sqrt(F-all) to the upstream project they depend on (Xen).
So they don't like Xen, either
1) Shut up and contribute code
2) Switch in KVM if it's so easy
3) Write their own hypervisor - both FreeBSD and OpenBSD have done this (although OpenBSD haven't shouted about it much, and it's a tad less functional than other implementations). These, and KVM, are type 2 hypervisors though, whilst Xen is type 1 (it will run on bare metal without a kernel, and there are a choice of dom0 kernels. Note that FreeBSD current is now dom0 capable, although there's no passthrough yet)
For exactly the same reason tape has always been useful, just go read the whitepapers :
low price : a 15TB LTO tape (6TB native) is a lot cheaper than either 15TB or 6TB of hard disk, although granted, the upfront cost of an LTO 7 drive is high
resilience : whilst tape isn't designed to be abused, it is a removable media. Hard disks are not.
encryption and compression by default
WORM capability
Long term storage : Any drive above about 3TB is helium filled. I'd have to check the lifetime on this, but wouldn't want to bet much on a drive that's been sat on a shelf for years.
Archival and storage. At the really high end, thousands of tapes available for retrieval by robot, with truly staggering amounts of storage.
Most of them refer you to a website to talk to rather than Tinder.
Several of them try to get you off Tinder and on to Skype
The most worrying one asked to meet up, right then, to a particular location nearby. It may have been a real person at the end of the line, but their picture was of a Russian model, so definitely fake. Not sure if that was either a prospective real life mugging/scam, or more probably asking you to send a 'deposit' of twenty quid so that you will 'definitely turn up'.
It's pretty much essential, if it's not obvious that the user is a scammer, to use something such as Flamite so their pictures can be checked against known scammers or model pics..
It's such an awful dating website, the algorithm has been broken recently for matching, and the app is poorly written. Unfortunately it's where the critical mass is, so it may still be worth using sometimes.
'The supported lifetime of the device'
Well, no point in bothering then. The server motherboard on my main system went End of Life in 2012, and that's running a 2008 processor (EOL again), and a 2010 GPU (which does have at least have Windows 10 drivers).
At least I know with Windows 8 it'll carry on working, but if W10 is a moving target there's no such guarantee.
One customer had (has?) SCO at their sites, years ago.
We were asked if we could interface the head office mail system with the store SCO systems (connected by dial up modems using a proprietary file transfer system, no IP, apparently no e-mail MTA).
Possibly the correct way to do this was UUCP, but I'd decided (not being terribly experienced in Unix itself at the time) to use Sendmail with a hand written set of routing/re-writing rules, the proprietary file transfer, and a custom written central routing program. Somewhat fiddly with just a loaned SCO box and the O'Reilly Sendmail manual, but it was an interesting exercise and was completed. Remote installation was required for Sendmail, too..
Just as the project was almost complete, the customer came back and said 'we've discovered that there is already a proprietary SCO e-mail server on the systems, so we don't need to transfer and install Sendmail. Could you use that instead?'
That'll be a 'no', then.. Buggered if I was going to rewrite all the custom routing rules, and the SCO mail system probably wasn't up to it anyway.
>>Virtualbox, last time I looked, was an app you installed which 'just worked'
>And whose performance at least for version 5.0 was terrible on Linux hosts.
Last time I tried it on Windows it wasn't great either, but that's not really the point.
>>On Windows there's also VMWare (works particularly well),
>Not free software at all (yes neither are some parts of VBox either) but yes VMware the superior >solution in general.
VMware player is free for non commercial use, as is ESXi.
>>and HyperV (built into Windows 8 onwards
>Which means if you will not see it at work for many years. Virtualbox is great if you want to create a >quick informal *nix VM on a desktop windows host and haven't bothered to hit up work for Workstation >(never like running supposedly "free" for personal use closed source stuff at work).
Windows 8 has been out for some time, and there are companies using Hyper V on it, such as ourselves.
Qemu is a bit of a pain to use, and KVM and Xen are a rather more involved solution than Virtualbox. Virtualbox, last time I looked, was an app you installed which 'just worked'
(although personally I found it less than reliable, so didn't bother).
I know there are various front ends that make Qemu/Xen/KVM significantly more turnkey, but they'll generally be less integrated than VMWare or Virtualbox.
On Windows there's also VMWare (works particularly well), and HyperV (built into Windows 8 onwards, as long as your CPU supports SLAT/EPT/RVI). It has to be better than both of those to succeed..
Yes - you're looking at downtime of a minute or so, in addition to ten seconds to swap the battery. Once done it's fine for several hours.
The alternative is connecting a power bank (roughly the same amount of time as changing a battery), no loss of service, but having to hang the powerbank off the phone for a number of hours whilst the damn thing recharges.
To me, having a small amount of downtime is a trade off worth making.
I'm quite surprised you don't find having to carry around a phone with a power bank attached to it anything less than a colossal pain in the arse. I've gone from a battery that can be removed and replaced in less than ten seconds, to a power bank, and I hate it. A clip to remove a battery is an acceptable alternative.
Powerbanks weigh more than batteries, they tend to fail faster than batteries, and they're unwieldy. I don't want to carry a rucksack all the time. Replacement batteries, and an external charger, are extremely convenient. A standard pair of trousers or a small coat pocket can hold enough batteries for several days charge.
No removable battery, no sale.
Presumably this is running Marshmallow with few additional apps.
Doesn't mention if the phone is waterproof - presumably not.
What's the support position on this phone - how long will it include Android releases for?
What are the company's record in supplying open source details of their hardware?
What is the availability of third party ROMs for prior generations of phone when the manufacturer becomes bored and decides you should waste a few hundred quid on their new shiny, when the last generation is still perfectly fine.
The lack of a removable battery really is a huge pain in the neck. External battery packs are unwieldy and need to be connected for hours to recharge the phone. I'm going to be taking a dremel to my Android physical keyboard phone, as the last one (had a removable battery) was just too slow, and the slightly newer one (2012 is the last pkb phone, other than BB Priv) doesn't have a removable battery. I love practically everything about the phone, other than that..
Last phone : 2011 Xperia Pro, shipped with Gingerbread, updated to a mostly complete ICS. CM support - up to Marshmallow.
Current phone - 2012 Motorola Photon Q with SIM card mod. Shipped with ICS. Now on Marshmallow.
Without CM both phones would be bricks without up to date security patches. Not all phones have as much support, but many do.
PDAs used to sell rather well in the days of the Palmpilot and Psion. Windows CE devices, a bit less so.
Of course what we were all using them for were functions supplied by any half decent smart phone these days. Basic calendaring functions, note taking, documents, e-mail, games, and the ability to create vertical applications. The alternative was a bulky filofax or a huge laptop.
Once phones functionality started increasing, it was obvious the days of PDAs were numbered.
Another ten years and you'll probably be laughed at for having a desktop. You'll either slot your 'phone' into a dock, or more likely it'll all be wireless. All that will be on a desk will be a monitor, keyboard, and mouse because a decent form factor does matter. Everything will travel with you, in addition to being stored online.
I was going to say a shock and waterproof Android fitness watch would be worth a punt, but I've just had a quick search on Amazon and found that decent running watches are much cheaper than last time I looked. fifty to seventy quid upwards, 8-10 hour battery life (GPS) or weeks (non GPS).
Can't see the point going for an Android or Apple option unless it's the same price, and integrates well with other devices.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need a replacement for my Timex Indiglo runner's watch.
Buy yourself a daylight CFL, they're generally instant on and incredibly bright. The ones I used to buy were Androv Medical, but it looks like there's a whole host of reasonably priced alternatives now.
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