Posts by jelabarre59 2005 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Aug 2013
I suppose if you're using a password keeper (because you're using separate passwords for every login/site, right? Right???) you could put your password locker password in a secure location, where loved ones could get to it if needed. I suppose the ideal place to keep it would be on a metallic strip hidden someplace inside your body, retrievable at your autopsy, but even that one might be a bad solution.
Back in my high school days in the 70's, before I had an actual tape deck, I remember lashing together a recording setup for a portable tape recorder much like the one in the article's photo. Stuffed the (monaural obviously) microphone in between the padded headphones (you know, the ones that were like holding a teacup over each ear, only 4x heavier), holding them closed by wrapping string around them. Truly a (non)Hi-Fi experience.
I'd already been listening to MP3s for a while when I got a CD burner circa 2002, and while I copied a couple of discs, but never really listened to them. I think it was more the residual appeal of something I'd have lusted after a decade earlier- the ability to copy and make my own CDs- but was already irrelevant.
My car stereo can play MP3s off of a data CD, but I haven't done that in a while because the player is being picky about them and doesn't play half of them. These days I use a USB stick, holds a lot more than a 700MB CD. Would like it if there were a car stereo that could use DVD data disks (but not a video player, don't want to pay for a function I'll never use); the problem with the USB vs DVD is the optical disks can be bought cheap by the spindle, and you could create music sub-sets (and you can write on them what they are, not so easy with a USB stick).
The customer experience will probably come down to how easily they can control their usage. I would hope that it has a hard limit by default and you have to enable running over you allowance.
The streaming services just need to have a setting to limit their resolution appropriately rather than saying "look, a big pipe, let me send mega-high resolution to your 17" laptop screen or 8" tablet..."
So what would be the Venn diagram for 'poor mobile internet' and 'crappy fixed line internet'?
Would probably be a good solution for my brother's place in the Catskills, where the wired connection sucks, but he's got a clear line of sight to a cell tower on the opposite hill. But that would require Verizon Worthless to be anything less than, well, worthless.
**That said, there could well be a case for using this technology to "cure" people of their porn habits. Sorry for this, but would you really want to watch porn with Ms Sturgeons superimposed onto it even if the true porn actress had a banging body?"
And I used to joke about Janet Reno porn... (for those on your side of the pond, think Margaret Thatcher after she went on an all-night bender).
If this had been put in openoffice or another open source application most of the nay-sayers on here would be applauding it - but Microsoft noooooooooooooooo
Its not on by default, you have to go find it, don't like it, don't look for it - simples
Doubt it's an issue for me anyway, as the email account that might (might) have access to Awful365 is not the same as the one I use for LinkedIn. So it wouldn't link the two anyway.
But as regards OpenDocument; I'd like it if sites would actually support ODT files (which my resume is formatted in). They're quite happy to use DOCX, even though DOCX is a sketchy, poorly documented, not-quite-open format, yet sites are all set to use it.
Now these local governments complain about the poor service provided by the cable-monopolies. Well, folks, who are the ones that originally *gave* monopoly power to these cable companies in the first place? That's right, those very same local governments. Should have *always* had multiple providers, even back when the cable companies were only TV and FM radio.
The problem is, the solution to prior government screwups is to implement yet another government solution they will screw up.
I would like to see a feature where you would leave mobile data disabled, but could do a "temporary activate" for some set amount of time (perhaps a slider for 5min-30min), after which the phone/device would automatically shut mobile data off.
Of course, I could see the rip-off cellular companies being very much in opposition to that (for the obvious reasons)
I write fiction in my spare time. I can do that miles from any 'Internet Connection'. This trend to always connected devices and 'cloud' makes that impossible. Thankfully, my old Thinkpad runs Linux very well and Libre Office does not need to send everything I do back to the mothership.
I've experimented with using a half-size (5.5x8.5", your side of the pond will have an A-something classification for it) ring-binder notebook for writing, something portable and free of *online* distractions (doesn't mean the squirrel outside the window won't distract me).
Everybody has been burned at least once. Everybody has said "never again". Even grandma who was wondering why the grandkids frown at a 70$ tablet from Tesco as a Christmas present.
Or the $99 Insignia Flex from WorstBuy... Oh, excuse me, "BestBuy". Guaranteed apps will crash on it 5 times a day, even if you've freshly booted it.
seem a bit daft. They had problems with their system that this drill uncovered - some of them sound like problems they might have predicted but still it's better to know about them than not.
That is my thought on it. This is why we test; not to fill out a checklist that says "we tried this, it worked", but to find where things break. If you haven't broken something by the end, you haven't really tested anything.
They look just like Isoliner Chips from Star Trek. Other than being green boards rather than crystaline. Perhaps they should package them in translucent plastic and complete the illusion.
I just remember my theory some 25 years ago that software would start getting supplied as thin storage chips, and you would have a row of slots on your PC that you would plug them into (merely keeping the settings and documents on the HDD). Granted, I was picking up the idea from the IBM PCjr, but these are more what I imagined them looking like. The advent of laptops & extra-small form factor machines would have destroyed the concept anyway.
Shoot self in the leg.
No, better make that both legs.
Far be it from me to speak on Microsoft's behalf, but perhaps they just figured anyone still on MSWin7 by then is either finishing up a migration, or simply not interested in migrating at all. And anyone in the second group isn't likely to be rushing out to get a newer MSOffice version either. So they're effectively cutting off a customer base that's not likely to buy newer product (from MS at least) anyway. Some may be insistently hanging onto old kit, others may have joyously made the L&L Upgrade (Linux & LibreOffice)
Would Zuck like to do something useful?
Perhaps he could **STOP** bribing county executives (and other county bureaucrats) to get them to tear up a functional tourist railroad so they can use taxpayer money to build a bike trail for Zuck and his cronies.
But no, Zuck feels he's better than the rest of us.
We have a Sears washing machine with a lid-switch held in with a u-shaped tab. *When* (not *if* it breaks, and you have to fit in a new one, the piece is so tricky to install properly, the tab on the NEW one breaks in the process of installing it. I can't help but think it was *intentionally* made that way to force you into paying for an (expensive) Sears "Service" Technician to install it for you.
So instead I just leave the top panel unscrewed, and just reach inside to pull the switch into position to start a load running. feck them.
Adverts aren't going away, no matter how much you hate them.
But, if the adverts can at least be relevant...
There have been plenty of items I haven't bought (that I had previously considered buying) precisely because the ads started following me around. Amazon and others act like creepy stalkers, and they need a court's "restraining order" to slap them a few times.
I have NO problem with advertising, I understand sites need to pay the bills too. I just despise loud autoplay ads, and the stalker advertising. Polite ads that don't blare in my face, and are interested in my particular "target audience" rather than me in particular, I might even click through to some. But you offend or piss me off, and you get the finger and close-tab button.
On a system where there are multiple users, how would you deal with duplicate passwords?
I'd expect the "account" would be determined by a username/password combination. You would have usernames with multiple passwords, each determining which subset of data could be accessed. Just set up a realistic honeypot of convincing data for the CopperPassword. All your videos are suddenly Rick Astley music videos. Your documents all have listings of Pokemon cards. Your pictures are all Photoshopped pictures of Janet Reno in lingerie (or Margaret Thatcher for you Brits).
Just wondered, but does anybody else keep the packaging? I have in my attic, every box for everything I've bought in the last 11 years. You know, just in case I need to return it to the manufacturer.
Yes, but I've become smart about it. I put the date acquired on it, and when the warranty has expired I put it in the bin/recycling. Gets checked twice a year (in the fall when putting things in storage, and in the spring taking them back out).
... and then we had a fire in the basement. We lost some useful stuff, but also a ton that was no longer needed...
The fire wasn't in the basement (the rest of the house was totaled though) but the fire was a very cold February, and the parts were stacked in the basement, right where a lot of water drained down. Lost some of the rarer/unusual Model-M keyboards there (one with a trackball, another with the extra PF function keys).
Back when I worked at an IBM complex, my afternoon exercise/walk involved me making the circuit around the 700-series buildings to poke through the electronics recycling bins. Have more than enough toner cartridges to keep my NetPrinter12 stocked until it dies (and well beyond). Although I find myself sometimes wanting the printer to die just so I can throw them out.
But what to do with the pile of T40 and T60-series port replicators and docking stations. And everyone in the family could have a USB floppy drive of their very own.
Unfortunately, right now I need a usable mid-tower case (the one I have is missing the HDD cage) for a working motherboard I was given recently. And I'll actually have to *buy* extra drive rails for my x3200.
But I think what I have most pride in is my collection of PS-2/USB adaptors for keyboards and mice.
Hah! I have some AT/DIN5 to PS/2 adapters. And PS/2 to AT ones as well. add in the USB-PS/2, along with a wireless keyboard dongle, I'm sure I could hook up a wireless keyboard to an IBM-XT.
Nobody cares any more because it's all s**t! Hardware, software, none of it does exactly what you want, there is always something about it that irks you regardless of brand.
EXACTLY. I have noticed that these days, ***ALL*** web browsers suck. Each one has it's own particular flavours of suckage, although all have common elements of suckage as well. You have to have multiple browsers installed merely to use the one that sucks less for any particular task. But any browser will suck no matter what you're using it for.
"keeping compatibility with a large user base on old versions of Windows restricts its ability to innovate."
I did wonder what was holding them back; but "users" was such an obvious answer I don't know why I didn't think of it before.
The solution is quite simple; MS just needs to adopt Wine as a compatability runtime under the newer MSWindows. Then they could remove the old cruft out of the kernel and port the removed pieces to the Wine-layer.
Heck, had they done it at the time of the Wine/ReWind split, they could have used the ReWind version under the X11 license (which I'm sure they would have preferred over Wine's GPL).
No, I think that the reason why IBM went with Intel was mainly cost.
I had been to a talk some years back (probably like 25 years ago) given by one of the original IBM-PC designers. The story I heard there was even more ironic, given the situation these days. IBM had been concerned at the time about having multiple sources for all the components. At the time the 68000 was only sourced from one location, while Intel had licensed the 808x processors to multiple manufacturers.
Ironic in that Intel has long since decided they wanted to be the only manufacturer of their chips. Had the manufacturing situation back then been like it is now, IBM would have gone with the ARM (OK, the equivalent would probably have been the Z80).
Has they been doing this for years knowingly for performance gain against competition?
It sounds closer to what I would call a "Pinto Defect" were I to make up a clever term (without all that nasty exploding gas tank business of course). I suspect Intel may have known, and hoped no one would notice (it was cheaper to ignore it tan to fix it).
They did, the problem was is they then destroyed them. I was with PwC consulting we were sold to IBM and from that point on they forced the borg implants on us. They had no idea as to how we actually worked with our clients, all they wanted was to get us to ship boxes and outsource everything to india.
There's the problem. What IBM needs to do is turn itself into a holding company rather than trying to be some monolithic vendor. When they buy a company they should allow the company to continue as an independent entity rather than trying to assimilate it into the Borg of Armonk. Because right now they behave like ill-mannered vampires, acquiring companies, sucking the lifeblood out of them, then discarding the husk. Instead they should just be buying, holding, and selling independent operations. Perhaps even picking up John Akers' original plan to break the company up (I think I understand what Gerstner was trying to do, but that would never have worked without purging out pretty much all the upper-management types).
I've even thought of a new name for them: "Computer Technology Resourcing" (CTR). Raise your hand if you understand the reference.
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