Re: As long as they don't remove the workaround
Does Rufus still work?
2794 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jan 2014
Rural is what it's aimed at.
I get 20Mb broadband and very sketchy 4G. All our mobile calls have to go over WiFi.
5 years ago, 20Mb was great. Now, more and more websites are assuming you have more and are becoming slow. I also struggle with the dreadful 1Mb upload speed.
Broadband contract is up in 11 months. I'm seriously considering switching to a satelite service.
There's some interesting work being done with Alexa-like devices. Monitoring temperature and movement etc, useful for emergency alerts. Some even do chat stuff to give the illusion of not being alone. That's all great when it's done in addition to having a human carer. Never instead of.
The thing that concerns me is when this is done to replace human care rather than to augment. Bit like a personal visit to your elderly parents being replaced by a weekly phone call, then a weekly email/facebook post.
FWIW, I do a lot of work in analytics with home care providers. Not much with care homes, so different environment.
I have a Nokia (by HMD) in a drawer somewhere. Nice phone unless you want to use if for WiFi calling. Calls dropped after a random period of between 20 seconds and 20 minutes. As we have very poor mobile signal, this is a killer.
The N21 tablet on the other hand is a nice piece of kit. However, I don't use any messaging apps, so unaffected. We're only playing music from a Moto Defy (actually Bullitt) and Samsung so no problems there.
I started with a ZX Spectrum. There was a very steep initial learning curve but you very quickly became proficient in standard tasks.
That was a start for writing your own programs no matter how poor.
Then move to a Beeb an took to 6502 assembler. It's beauty was the simplicity of the code.
Then DOS and QBasic.
Windows 3, then 95 with VB 4, 5, 6. I learnt VB from the videos that came in the box.
Compare that to now. Windows 11 or latest favourite variant of Linux. Throw some general purpose programming language on top (C#, VB.Net, Java etc). All of a sudden you have this massive amount of knowledge needed just to get started - OO dev FFS. Then you have to work out how to make the Linux firewall open ports.
I'm glad I'm at this end of my career. It's been a fairly steady increase in knowledge over the years.
Out here in the countryside, you can land on any open piece of land provided you have permission. While our neighbour's house was being renovated, they used their garden as a helipad quite frequently. Major limitation is that the helicopter can only be there 30 days per year. That includes any days when it's just parked.
On the plus side of the helicopter racket, it was the one from one of the Bond films. This led to a rumour that Daniel Craig was moving in next door. Cue brainless BBC interviewing the local shopkeeper (lots of no comments!).
How widely is this a problem? I saw the update appear on one of my servers but just ignored it. Seemed odd but it didn't auto install, so not affected.
Granted, I'm not using a 3rd party update service, so I'm not one of those who would expect to be affected.
Anybody on here?
I used to have a dumb timed light switch to turn the lights on and off when away on holiday. It stopped working. No problem, I thought.
Turns out they're not made any more. Everyone's gone 'smart' involving downloading dodgy apps to control a light switch. Then, to use a timer, I'd have to buy an expensive hub.
Solution was to use a dumb socket timer.
That was my initial reaction but I've gone through the list again. It's not all that bad.
It's just me, so just need a bunch of dev stuff. Looking at the 'Launch':
The good:
Still get VS Professional subscription (though drops from 3 to 1). That comes with Windows licences (server and client) for test/dev. I've no need for a full server licence. PCs mostly come with Windows licences/
PowerBI Premium - 4 users. Good news for me as I'm a BI developer and want to do more PowerBI. Odd that you only get 4 licences when it's mostly 5 for other stuff.
The bad:
Azure credits cut to $700 per year but they're 'bulk' so I assume I can pay up front for the production server I use for a web server and get the discount.
Office licences via 365 Business Premium - means a cut in storage from 5TB to 1TB per account. Pain as I've uploaded a load of ripped DVDs that now need a new home.
More effing change - this stuff makes work for very little benefit. Wish they'd just leave alone.
the basic 'Launch benefits' has no Windows licences - odd decision. Big leap in price to Core. Nice to have PowerBI Premium though. Guess I'll start doing more with Linux server or just have not quite licenced Windows servers for dev.
My renewal is end of September, so good timing. With a MS doing this and a Labour government about to increase taxes, could be a good excuse to retire.
I share a name with:
A bankrupt from Watford (nearly cost me a mortgage in the 90s)
A shoplifter from Bolton (worryingly, I was born in Bolton, so easy to confuse)
Bloke who runs a naval museum
An Australian artist
A wedding photographer
Some bloke a friend of my old boss went to school with
On the plus side, with the exception of the last one, I am the most obscure of them all. More worryingly, what happens when hapless HR decide to use CoPilot to decide who to interview.