Posts by Siv

After four years, Rust-based Redox OS is nearly self-hosting

Re: 3 seconds boot time?

Excellent comment, I hadn't realised that you can run diagnostics like that. My system takes 21 seconds to get to the GUI and I have discovered 19.582 seconds of that is vboxdrv.service which does make me wonder whether I should uninstall Virtual Box as I assume that is what vboxdrv.service is and maybe I would boot to GUI in a few seconds. I use VMWare Player for running Windows 10 as I still support Windows 10 clients, but all I have in Virtual Box are an old Windows 7 and Windows Vista VMs which I haven't needed to access for years as no-one is running Vista any more and I suspect after January's end of life I will have no-one running Windows 7.

Siv

Apple’s macOS Sierra update really puts the fan into 'fanboi'

I am glad I am not the only one.

Who had this bright idea that talking to devices was a good idea. Ok it was on Star Trek, but we are a billion light years away from that kind of AI understanding of what we mean and putting what we say into context of other things that are going on around the speaker who is instructing the computer.

I personally do not want to talk to machines I much prefer gathering my thoughts and then typing them out and then refining again before hitting GO/ENTER/WHATEVER!

It's the same thing I got when I first tried using a dictaphone, I spent more time winding back and redoing the recording than productive work. I am much more efficient on a keyboard. I like the idea of write your initial thought and then re-read and edit before committing.

I think if half of the World who use smartphones did that before posting to Twitter or Snapchat Facebook email or whatever, the World would be a better place. Expecially if they are under the influence of some driug that reduces their inhibitions.

Bad idea!

Hackers pop 6000 sites on active 18-month carding bonanza

The link to the list of affected sites has been removed from Github

I wanted to see if any of the sites I use have been compromised and when you follow the link here or the one on Slashdot both end up with a github 404 error.

Can someone re-instate the page with the affected sites as it's votal information!

Linus Torvalds fires off angry 'compiler-masturbation' rant

I think this tired argument about Windows being "undeniably insecure" is wearing thin.

In reality Windows is now pretty secure, sure it was insecure 10 years ago, but now as each vulnerability has been patched the malware writers are having to attack things like Java and Flash as it's increasingly difficult to attack Windows itself.

The old claims about FOSS being inherently secure because it is open and that means more eyes were able to look over the code has been debunked lately. I am thinking of the likes of OpenSSH/Heartbleed and TrueCrypt and the number of viruses that are appearing on Android.

The truth is, (shock horror), that whilst few end users were using Linux and thus it was not worth the malware writers attention it seemed secure. Now that finally it's going mainstream in its Android form and there are substantial amounts of end users with Bank Accounts to hack, suddenly we are seeing the true facts that Linux like Windows is written by mere mortals and there are just as many bugs as Windows had.

LASER RAZOR blunted by KickStarter ban

Re: Now restarted on Indiegogo

I was a backer and I was getting more and more disturbed by their videos. 1. none of them were clean shaven which made me concerned they were taking the piss. 2. The videos seemed more like pranks done by students than real scientists. When the notification came that it had been discontinued I was relieved as I was beginning to think the whole thing was a scam.

Microsoft sets end date on Windows 10 support. Hey, wait, WHAT?

Updates

I would have thought that as your version of Windows 10 morphs into Windows 11 as it is continuously updated (which you would probably only know about if you reviewed the internal version number) you will automatically go onto that products end date and then as that version morphs into Windows 12 the same occurs again ad infinitum until you replace your hardware. Which in turn will morph via updates into Windows 13/14/15 until it needs replacing??

Norton for Windows 10 is NOT a box-borking beta, insists Symantec

Re: I don't understand

I thought exactly the same thing when I read this, Norton/Symantec should be avoided at all cost. My experience is their AV products are so resource intensive that they cause more problems than the viruses they are supposedly protecting you against.

I used Norton stuff back in the days of Norton Utilities and they were excellent and very tightly written and extremely light on system resources. With the takeover by Symantec things went downhill fast and I no longer use or recommend Symantec products for this reason.

Run Windows 10 on your existing PC you say, Microsoft? Hmmm.

If you are going from Vista, 7 or 8/8.1 it will work

I can't see why people are worryng about Windows 10 working from an upgrade perspective. Each successive release since Vista the actual real world load imposed by the O/S has gone down. Windows 7 was all about refining what was done in Vista and making it much lighter weight so that it could be installed on the fad at the time which was netbooks. I clearly remember Sinofsky waving his netbook around and showing off how it ran Windows 7 in 1GB RAM and very limited spec.

After that with Windows 7, the focus was on getting into tablets running either ARM or Intel Atom chips with great power saving and great battery life, so 8 was much lighter than its two predecessors. It was just a shame that its interface just did not work for PC and laptop users using a keyboard and mouse.

Windows 10 is designed for the same low power scenario, so will run happily on older desktop hardware if that previously supported Vista, Win7 or Win8/8.1.

You might struggle if you have a low RAM and CPU version of XP but anything beyond that will work unless you have some very strange setup that just happens to use a CPU or Graphics version that isn't supported. If that is the case you will be warned by the Windows 10 setup program and it will back out of the upgrade so there should be no reason why anyone should get into troubles.

Also people like me who are on the Insider Preview have already whittled out the vast majority of bugs before you even get anywhere near it and there are over a million insiders so with that number of testers pretty much all hardware combinations will have been exposed to it and any issues reported and by now fixed.

As long as you don't try and hack round the Windows 10 installer and pay attention to what it recommends in terms of not running Windows 10 if your system is not compatible you should not hit any snags.

Windows 10 is going to be what WIndows 8 should have been, like Windows 7 was to Windows Vista and Windows XP was to Millenium and Windows 2000.

Microsoft giving up on phones? Naaahh ... Windows 10 Mobile lumbers toward release

Re: Reset the Spin Dials

I wish you Apple fan boys would stop spreading doom about Windows phone. The message from Nadella quite to the contrary is positive, he's changing tack slightly. The key bits of his speech were (after descrambling CEO banter) that theyare focusing in 3 key areas:

1. High end enthusiast phones in consumer space.

2. Business phones.

3. Budget phones.

Within that they are getting out of the "throw millions of Nokia models with confusing numbers at the wall an see which ones stick" to focus in on just the above three areas and make best of breed phones at each level. These will then be example devices that OEM's can follow as they have done since Surface tablets were created. Since then we have seen XPS 360 from HP and the XPS 13 from Dell and various excellent models from Lenovo.

So for business we will see great quality phones that can be secured and managed by IT.

For Consumer High end we will finally see top flight phones like the Lumia 1020 and HTC 8X were in their time frame.

For budget you will see competitively priced phones that will have a very usable subset of Windows 10 features that will compete easily with the lower priced Android phones.

If you think about it for a CEO who's mantra is "mobile first, cloud first" it would be pretty dumb to not have a mobile ecosystem!?

The END of WINDOWS EVERYWHERE! Is that really what Nadella wants?

I think too many journalists are Apple Fan Boys

I see a lot of people claiming that Windows Phone is dead from Nadella's last announcement, where I read it as a positive one for Windows Phone as to date he has not said much about phone. There was talk on the internet that he wasn't enamoured with Nokia at the time of the purchase under Ballmer's stewardship but went along with it reluctantly.

Given that his mantra on taking over was "cloud first mobile first" I would have thought that would be difficult to do without a mobile phone O/S brand, even if he feels quite rightly that Microsoft don't actually need to make them, surely to be all in on that mantra you would have to have a strong phone O/S offering to put you in that marketplace.

His other thing has been to focus on Microsoft's roots which is software development and it is very clear he sees Microsoft as a software company hence the opening of the floodgates when he took over releasing apps for Android and IOS and in particular Office on those platforms.

I think they may have a flagship Surface Phone waiting for the Windows 10 launch, probably a direct descendant of the 7" Surface mini tablet device that he scrapped a little while ago, perhaps they didn't send them to landfill and they are set to re-emerge as the Surface Phone!? Elsewhere in his announcement he did say that he was in on producing best of breed devices that show other hardware manufacturers what Microsoft sees as a best embodiment of their platform as the Surface tablets and in particular the Surface Pro 3 have done.

I think it's way too soon to be writing off Windows Phone. My other bet is that somewhere down the line we will see a very powerful phone device that goes with a docking station and can run full Universal and Win 32 Windows applications that really will embody the mobile first mantra as you can carry it about in your top pocket and use it like a phone nowadays and then when you are at work or at home dock it and turn it into a full blown desktop/laptop PC. To me that is what the Windows 10 vision is leading to!!

Looking forward to getting Windows 10 the day it ships? Yeah, about that...

Re: Ferfuksache

You won't ever see an SP2 or whatever from now on, you will just get continuous updates for the rest of time. Some of them might be quite large updates, but they are saying the model has changed with Windows 10, basically from now on they are staying in Windows 10 for ever and it just constantly evolves over time. Like Apple, Windows is a platform that allows Microsoft to sell you other services like OneDrive and Office 365.

ISOs will be available and even if they weren't you can make your own from the Install.esd that lands on your system when you get the update. Search for ESD Decrypter or get it here:

http://www.chris123nt.com/2014/10/21/make-an-iso-for-window-10-9860/

I have been doing that procedure for each version of Windows 10 I have updated to since being on the insider preview and it works like a charm.

Re: Be the first in your street to own Windows 10!

That was what the insider preview was all about, people like me have been lying in the ditch with arrows in our backs since October last year so you don't have to!

Smaller footprint than its predecessors, faster start-up and shutdown, enhanced security, allows you to run Universal apps and brings you into the 21st Century.

Microsoft's new mission statement: It's all about doing MAGICAL THINGS

Re: We really have a plan...really

I think Nadella has shown some good ideas:

1. Focus the teams on working together and avoiding the stupidity of the Sinofsky era where you had the Windows team writing crap apps for Windows 8 when they had talent and apps already in say the Office Team they could have used but wouldn't as they were under a different MS VP.

2. Focus in on what MS is; a software company and lose the mantra of it can only be on Windows and expand to other platforms. It's a business and if other platforms are beating yours accommodate them to sell more product. The only thing I would differ on currently is make sure it's done FIRST and BEST on Windows.

I wish they would stop focusing on mobile and cloud and understand that there are millions of small businesses around the world where cloud is not possibe, a) for simple technical reasons like really poor internet access speeds like we have in great swathes of the UK. Most of my clients are struggling along on 8mbps, you cannot run an entire company in the cloud through one 8mbps connection. I looked into a 1gbps connection in the centre of Gloucester via BT and it was going to cost £30,000 per year! WTF! Cloud my arse!

Review how you deal with Business - You cannot do any serious work on phones and tablets unless you turn them into a laptop like the Surface Pro with a keyboard and then you must be saying to yourself, "why am I spending so much cash on a device that is a poor representation of a laptop".

Business needs desktops and laptops. Except for a few very narrow areas like warehouses where you need a device to tick boxes on a form or TV presenters who need a device they can read from (rather than write on) and it's easy to carry around. Every other use case is Home User and should be kept spearate from what you offer to businesses. I think as usual too many people at Microsoft look admiringly at Apple (who are full square a home user organisation) and they are too simplistically applying what Apple are doing to their business, which in the main is a Business Focussed business. Sure create tablets and mobiles and stay in the Home User Arena for that. DO NOT shove a tablet interface on Windows Server? WTF were they thinking.

If I was Nadella I would focus on defining the two areas separately. Home gets tablets and XBox and Windows Store. Business gets good old fashioned desktop oriented Server and Client Operating Systems and they recognise that not all businesses want cloud and go back to creating really good systems like Small Business Server that are designed to give a great experience to small businesses who don't want cloud either from a cost, limited broadband connectivity perspective or just a strong desire to keep their business away from prying eyes.

Also I would take a long hard look at the damage that has been done to developer relationships pursuing these pointless Cloud first mobile strategies which are not what everyone wants and foster a stable long term future clearly stating what technologies will be used for the next 20 years. So that developers like me know where we are going instead of flitting between C++, C#, HTML 5, Javascript, Silverlight etc etc. Because too may times after you have gone to great expense in time learning a new language or platform and cost buying training materials in what you believe to be MS's strategy going forward, only to find that they have decided to throw that out and head off in a completely different direction and all you have done is a conplete waste of time.

If they wonder why developers migrated to Android and IOS this was a big part of it. That's why now they are struggling with mobile as it's just too unstable a future and people decided to stick with platforms like Java on Android and Objective C and now Swift on IOS that are likely to stay stable for a long time and you won't be wasting your time focusing on a language or platform that some bright spark at MS decides is not "cool" any more and chucks it out!

At least under Gates leadership he was focussed on looking after developers and for years you could get good at a language and know it would be supported and used for years to come and you felt confident investing in that platform to develop for. Now everyone in the Windows development community is scared of what's coming next!

MOUNTAIN of unsold retail PCs piling up in Blighty: Situation 'serious'

The channel is talking itself into a panic - Stop it!

There is plenty of demand for new PCs a lot of consumer who I deal with who bought Windows 7 boxes are now waiting to get a new machine and are waiting for WIndows 10. Sure the canny ones will just upgrade their WIndows 7 for free, but a lot of my clients are combining a desire to have something new and shiny with a jump to Windows 10 as 8 was such a failure and so anti-desktop user.

I have recommended all my clients to hang fire and purchase their new PC/laptop once WIndows 10 is out and only if they are running Windows 8.1 to upgrade to the free WIndows 10.

So stop panicking or it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Siv

Cortana threatens to blow away ESC key

I am so pleased it's not just me, the Fn key in the bottom left corner causes me so much grief!

Let's hope you can re-map the Esc key as serious users will hate that being used for Cortana.

New Windows 10 will STAGGER to its feet, says Microsoft OS veep

Re: Why bother upgrading from Windows 7?

Actually ever since Vista the horsepower required to run each successive Windows version has gone down! Mainly because they were moving from PC to Tablet as the device it would be running on so it had to be much lighter.

ONE BEELLION Windows 10 devices?! OH REALLY

Re: Clarke classics!!

Here, here, the Apple fanbois bias in the register is diabolical!

Re: What reason is there to upgrade from Windows 7?

There is no new version of Windows after 10 as after that point you are on a continuous free upgrade path, you will just get the latest set of updates.

Windows after 10 is a service as MS want to use it as a vehicle to sell their other products such as Bing, Azure, Office 365, etc.

Also because in the first 12 months after release users of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 get a free upgrade to Windows 10 and then the continuous updates thereafter, why would you not upgrade. If you wait beyond the free upgrade Window of 12 months from W10 launch you will have to buy that last version of Windows. So I expect everyone on those three O/S versions will upgrade to 10 and it will only be the diehard XP and Vista users who really need to think about it. Don't forget also, each subsequent realease beyond Windows Vista has been much lighter weight than its predecessor so you won't suffer a slow PC if you upgrade, in fact it will run much better and will actually be much more secure.

This is why they are predicting a billion Windows 10 users. Also XBox one will be automatically updated to Windows 10 so that will bring in additional users and all the Windows Phone base can upgrade as well to 10 so it will be easy to hit 1 billion.

Loose lips slip when Windows 10 ships: 'End of July' says AMD CEO

That sounds like a Mac Fanboy spouting off. The reality is that Windows is probably the best protected O/S, (because it has been hit so much with malware over the years) the virus writers will always target the biggest user base and until the rise of Android, Windows was that. It is so well patched now the virus writers are turning their attention to Android and Mac OSX and only trying to attack Windows via non-Windows O/S components like Java and Adobe Reader/Flash. The other tactic is to use social engineering to get users to allow the virus in, as most modern Windows Anti-Malware can keep the vast majority of viruses out.

I am amazed at how Android and Mac users believe that they are immune to viruses. These links suggest otherwise:

http://www.welivesecurity.com/2014/03/21/10-years-of-mac-os-x-malware/

http://blog.kaspersky.com/mac-viruses-are-here-to-stay10-examples-of-mac-viruses/

http://clamav-du.securesites.net/cgi-bin/clamgrok?virus=osx&search-type=contains&case-sensitivity=No&database=daily&database=main&display=virus&.submit=Submit+Query&.cgifields=database&.cgifields=search-type&.cgifields=case-sensitivity&.cgifields=display

https://www.lookout.com/resources/reports/mobile-threat-report

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-apps-one-ten-affected-malware-viruses-states-new-research-1459576

As the Mac becomes more popular so it will be attacked as it represents a worthwhile target for the virus writers. I really think you should lose your blinkered view that only Windows gets viruses and get real.

EMEA PC market circling rim, headed for U-bend plunge

Could it not be that people are waiting on Windows 10's release rather than decline in PC sales. Also factor in that as each successive release of Windows seems to require less horsepower and a generally depressed economy is it any wonder PC sales are down when money's tight you mend and make do!

Review: McAfee Endpoint Protection for SMB

Re: Fellow commentards - help needed pls...

All products seem to have weaknesses, if they are very good at catching everything they seem to slow your PCs to a crawl and if they are fast they seem to miss everything. I am with another commenter here in that my experience is that McAfee/Intel just misses too much stuff.

I recommend VIPRE by ThreatTrack security. They do both standalone and corporate versions. The corporate AV solution has a server console that communicates with the client PCs and is pretty easy to manage. It seems pretty good at catching most of the viruses that normal (as in non-porn site visiting

business) users encounter, however it seems to miss a lot of the PUP (Potentially Unwanted Programs) type annoyances like ASK, Conduit, Alot and so on, so I tend to also have a copy of Malwarebytes free loaded as well so that if a user thinks they have been hit by something they can run a quick scan with that and it will shift the PUPs. The free version does not include the real-time scanning engine so it won't conflict with your main AV program.

Between those two you get pretty good coverage.

ThreatTrack also do a product called VIPRE for Exchange which sifts out malware and spam and is quite configurable allowing you to create custom rules to block spam with certain words in the body or subject and add people to allowed or blocked senders.

The good thing about VIPRE is that it's very lightweight and doesn't slow your PC down whilst scanning unless you have a very old single core processor PC and most AVs will clobber them.

Microsoft leaves the Rooms. How will Windows Phone OS users make to do lists?

I am the same, I have used Windows phone since that feature was added and never felt the need to use it, I suspect neither have all the other users hence why MS is killing it off. I think us Brits are more reserved than the Yanks who seem to like to share every f@cking moment of their lives. I'd rather not waste time posting things to my family on my phone I can just walk into the front room and tell them in person!

Developers, developers, developers! But WILL they support Windows 10?

Windows 10 Development

I have been developing for Windows desktop since the original VB and still use VB.NET for writing database applications. I really don't like the metro app, sorry modern app, sorry Universal app look. It just seems too clumsy compared to a desktop application. I need rich controls, using Metro apps just seem childish by comparison. It feels like the whole World is dumbing down and we are all becoming children.

Trying to do anything productive on a tablet just doesn't work. I feel when I am on my tablet or phone that I am using boxing gloves to tie a knot in fishing line. It really feels like we are going backwards.

As a developer I am sick of the constant change for change's sake, I need Microsoft to settle down and keep their programming languages and design environments the same and to clearly state which programming language they are settling on and which screen design paradigm they are going to use.

I find XAML and WPF as mind-bogglingly complicated compared to the simple drag and drop I am used to in Windows Forms. They need to make it as simple as the Windows forms UI and hide all the XAML nonsense in the background.

I have seen too many things come and go that were going to be the next best thing eg Silverlight. I need to know that if I invest time in learning it that it will still be around in 10 years and still be usable.

Consumption, yes you can do that on a tablet, as all you are doing is tapping to click something, or swiping to scroll something and that's about it, you can't hover a pointer over a button to see what it's tooltip says with your finger, click and drag is difficult and ham fisted if you want to grab multiple things.

As long as we can keep desktop, keyboard and mouse for real work all is well in the world. It was very noticeable in the video you have elsewhere on your site Paul showing a guy demonstrating the touch version of Office that he doesn't actually enter any text in Word or Excel he just changes the formatting of existing things that I am sure were created on a desktop style PC with a keyboard and mouse.

I wish we could get away from touch other than for consumption and not try and do things that clearly are not suited to touch. Even Microsoft's own tablet comes with a keyboard and trackpad and has a USB socket for a mouse, deep down we all know touch=consumption, mouse and keyboard=real work.

Anyway, now the great unwashed have bought the latest fad which is tablets and the fad is now dying, why persist with it. It was a fad like netbooks, they are just companion devices and the real work gets done on clamshell laptops or desktop PCs.

I think tablets are here to stay as a type of device, but I am pretty sure all the spreadsheet, database and accounts people in the world will want a desktop box with a keyboard and a mouse plus all us developers and writers who need a keyboard to produce reams of text.

The last PC replacement cycle is about to start turning

Apple air-head

I cannot believe the register publishes this rubbish.

This is exactly the mind-set that led to Windows 8 and a "touch first" world. Look where that went!

Grow up, real productive work will always be done at a desk with a mouse and keyboard and a desktop operating system.

Windows NT grandaddy OpenVMS taken out back, single gunshot heard

Bye VMS

Just thought you should see this:

"HAL" as in the the 9000 in 2001 a Space Odyssey, Shift letters 1 char to right = IBM

"VMS" shift one letter to the right "WNT"

Is that not where the name Windows NT came from ??