* Posts by Andy Non

1695 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jul 2014

Why do younger coders struggle to break through the FOSS graybeard barrier?

Andy Non Silver badge

Re: Style

I'm a long retired coding fossil now, but just during my own career, the conventions changed more than once for how you name variables, functions and subroutines. I've no idea what the conventions are now. It can be a little disorienting reading code written in a different style. Lack of suitable coding comments can be a real issue too with complex code.

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

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What LibreOffice really needs

is an AI infusion of LibreClippy and a ribbon menu that takes up half the screen.

Only kidding... nurse, where are my dried frog pills?

James Webb Space Telescope to size up asteroid 2024 YR4 before it rocks our world

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Re: It's OK..

Failing that, Trump will have a wall built in earth orbit to keep out unwanted foreign objects.

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Re: The way things are going

Sounds more fun than team-hemorrhoid.

Oxford researchers pull off quantum first with distributed gate teleportation

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Re: Physics A Level

In case you are handed a dead cat.

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Re: across two meters of optical fiber

Think of the fibre link as background, but necessary infrastructure. While entangled particles need to separate via the fibre link, they are not what is being "teleported". What does get subsequently teleported is the quantum entanglement state of one of the particles to the other particle, and this happens instantaneously and doesn't use the fibre link.

Andy Non Silver badge

I'll just add that you are partly correct. The speed of light would be a limiting factor in setting up the initial quantum states and the physical separation of the entangled particles. This is the equivalent of loading a calculation into RAM ready to be processed. But the actual execution of the calculation by the quantum computer would be done instantaneously.

Andy Non Silver badge

I may be wrong as my knowledge of quantum physics is limited, but I suspect that the speed of light isn't the limiting factor with quantum entangled states. It is a hugely complex and counter intuitive area. I think that the "quantum state information" is transmitted instantaneously between quantum entangled particles, but if you try to use that for sending faster than speed of light communications it wouldn't work as you would effectively get random noise out at the other end.

Andy Non Silver badge

I think the essence of it is more about getting enough hardware together to do the computing, unlike traditional CPUs/motherboards where all the components are very close together to maximise data transfer speeds. The quantum computer components don't need to be rammed tight together.

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Re: Physics A Level

Even with degree level physics, it is tough going. It is very much a highly technical and specialised area requiring true boffins.

Ignorance really is bliss when you’re drowning in information

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Re: Big problem requiring serveral partial solutions

Teaching checking, proving and information sources are sound training for pupils to become scientists.

Teaching lying, deception and fraud are sound training for pupils to become bankers and politicians.

UK government using AI tools to check up on roadworthy testing centers

Andy Non Silver badge

Bollocks!

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Your statement is very testing.

Sri Lanka goes bananas after monkey unplugs nation

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The monkey

wasn't the brightest spark.

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Re: Monkey need probonobo lawyer?

He's wary of human lawyers, last time he interacted with humans he got his fingers burned.

CentOS Connect conference announces return of Firefox

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I bet it turned up down the back of the sofa.

NASA solar mission data recovering after server room flood fiasco

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Sounds like they weren't quite expecting

that type of torrent from a fat pipe.

Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why

Andy Non Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Not really a time to be owning a Tesla

There was an article the other day that someone in the UK drove their brand new Tesla around 100 miles and the front suspension collapsed, due to a manufacturing fault. This caused lots of other damage to the vehicle but the owner is landed with a £10k bill as Tesla more or less say "tough shit". Doesn't inspire anyone to buy a Tesla.

Remember it'll cost ya to keep the lights on for Windows 10

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Re: If you decide to purchase the program in Year Two, you'll have to pay for Year One too

Year 4 the heavies visit to break your kneecaps.

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All this pressure

from Microsoft to push Windows 10 users to upgrade to Linux.

Privacy Commissioner warns the ‘John Smiths’ of the world can acquire ‘digital doppelgangers’

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FAIL

Boots opticians

I got caught with this a while back at Boots opticians. They found my record on their system with my old address on it. The optician started the eye test based upon my previous prescription with them and I couldn't even read the single big letter at the top of the chart. He checked my details, yes it was my record on the computer with my old address, date of birth, land line number etc. But the medications were wrong as were some other details. He compared my new retina scan with "my" previous retina scan and it was obviously that of a different person. Boots had somehow merged my old record with someone else's record. Not been back to Boots opticians since.

Microsoft vet laments a world where even toothbrushes need reboots

Andy Non Silver badge

Re: My local hospital rebooted me!

Pretty sure it does run an OS as it also records lots of stats about my heart + breathing and communicates them wirelessly to a box of tricks next to my bed which uploads them directly to the hospital.

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My local hospital rebooted me!

My ticker was permanently in afibrillation so they stopped my heart and started it again with a bloody great electric shock. Unfortunately it didn't work. I got additional hardware in the end... a pacemaker. Just hope it doesn't run on Windows.

Windows 10's demise nears, but Linux is forever

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Facepalm

It shows that Facebook have some real morons in the moderation team if they don't understand what Linux is and are banning anything to do with it. Duh.

Andy Non Silver badge

It is much closer to the mark to say that Facebook is malware.

Andy Non Silver badge
Happy

Lots of cheap windows 10 computers

I noticed on Amazon the other day, lots of refurbished Windows 10 desktop computers from around £60 upwards. Possibly even cheaper at local 2nd hand tech shops.

I've used Mint Cinnamon for over a decade (since Windows 8.1 came out) and no way will I ever go back to using a Windows computer, despite earning my livelihood (now retired) writing business software for DOS then Windows computers. I'm happy to be rid of the bloated mess that Windows has become.

Fitbit pays Uncle Sam $12M to sprint away from claims of burning-hot smartwatches

Andy Non Silver badge
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So Fitbit's customers got their

fingers burned and Fitbit received a slap on the wrist.

OpenAI's Operator agent wants to tackle your online chores – just don’t expect it to nail every task

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Arriving at the restaurant...

Sorry sir, your table for 12 is booked for 2 pm.

But I asked the agent to book a table for 2 at 12.

Tool touted as 'first AI software engineer' is bad at its job, testers claim

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Maybe Devin is

working so badly because its codebase was written by... Devin.

Meta, X sign up to Euro Commish code of conduct on hate speech

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Re: "platforms should respond in 1 day"

"...Participants must commit to review at least two-thirds of hate speech notices received from monitoring reporters within 24 hours or to make their "best effort" to do so."

Musk "We are doing our best, our moderator needs to take a couple of days off a week you know."

AI pothole patrol to snap flaws in Britain's crumbling roads

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Sorry mate,

we can't afford to fix any potholes this year, we spent our entire pothole budget on the AI pothole detector kit.

Copilot invades Microsoft 365 Personal and Family for an extra three bucks a month

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It looks like you are writing

a letter to your boss, asking for a pay rise. Would you like me to insert a paragraph saying what a di*k head he is for not promoting you yet?

Megan, AI recruiting agent, is on the job, giving bosses fewer reasons to hire in HR

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Re: The Ultimate In Computer Says "No."

Joe put his foot in it.

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Re: The Ultimate In Computer Says "No."

Young developer, in 20's required with 30 years experience in LLM development.

Pastor's divine 'dream' crypto scheme indicted by Uncle Sam

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Re: When running a Ponzi scheme ....

Maybe he was hoping to launder his ill gotten gains, or at least pastorise them.

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" launch his own cryptocurrency"

Give it up, the idea is dead and buried.

Tesla recalls 239,382 vehicles over rearview camera problems

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I bet Tesla didn't

see this coming.

Mail-out madness as insurer offers refunds to customers in error

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Mushroom

I used to have

Hastings car insurance a few years back. Their website was dreadful. It wouldn't let me paste in my password insisting it was typed in instead. As I always pick very long, complex passwords this made logging in quite irritating. Then their site was difficult to navigate and if you found yourself on the wrong page and clicked the browser back button it automatically logged you out and you had to start from scratch again. I didn't renew with them the following year.

Short-lived bling, dumb smart things, and more: The worst in show from CES 2025

Andy Non Silver badge

Re: Nobody asked for this...

I general I agree, but there are some useful things, like the pacemaker keeping me alive as my heart no longer beats on its own. It has a battery life of 9 years which is probably more than my dicky ticker has left in it anyway. The pacemaker is crammed with sensors and talks to a box of tricks at the side of my bed and automatically sends a vast amount of data to my local hospital. I am summoned for checks if anything untoward is detected. At a larger scale, the Mrs has a light weight mobility scooter powered by a Lithium battery with a range of 20 miles and it disassembles / assembles in less than a minute and fits in the boot of my car.

Andy Non Silver badge

Re: If we are living in the Matrix...

Just take this little red pill... and you'll wake up in a huge sewer being grappled out of the water.

The ultimate Pi 5 arrives carrying 16GB ... and a price to match

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Re: Viable as a desktop replacement?

Can't say I trust the US or the Chinese nowadays. China in particular has been caught so many times lately hacking into systems around the world, particularly in the US, they have shot themselves in the feet from a credibility and integrity perspective.

Andy Non Silver badge

Thanks, I just had a look on YouTube and there is a good demo of someone using a Pi to run Ubuntu quite successfully. Granted he used an overclocked version, which I'm a little uneasy about, and he still wasn't able to play video's back at higher resolution / frame rate. But for everything else it seems fine. I wonder how well it would cope with a screen full of Zoom participants?

Andy Non Silver badge
Boffin

Viable as a desktop replacement?

Would a Pi be any good to use for routine simple tasks as a desktop replacement? I would only want to use it for browsing the internet (with an adblocker), POP3 email, LibreOffice? Zoom?

Since dumping Windows and switching to Linux Mint more than a decade ago I've used relatively cheap, small, fanless, solid state computers from China via Amazon. They've worked great, but I'm getting more suspicious of such items from China as I don't know what nasties may be lurking in the firmware etc nowadays.

Japan's wooden satellite exits International Space Station

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New opportunity for IKEA?

Assemble your own flatpack satellites.

Eutelsat OneWeb blames 366th day for 48-hour date disaster

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Someone's

days are numbered.

Brackets go there? Oops. That’s not where I used them and now things are broken

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Crashed an IBM 360 mainframe

I once accidentally missed a full stop at the end of a line of COBOL and the compiler didn't handle it gracefully, crashing the computer.

Usually such syntax errors would be picked up but there must have been something about that particular line and what followed that wasn't catered for.

How the OS/2 flop went on to shape modern software

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Companies finding their feet

back in the early 80's. As I mentioned above my company at the time tried one PS/2 computer but ditched it after a short time. In the same office we were using DOS, early Windows, Commodore PETs, DEC Rainbows, an Apple II, Husky handhelds (for data capture) an ICL mainframe and the CAD dept had their own mini system. There were no real standards. Eventually Windows became dominant due to the availability of software and ease of development in house. The mantra became "is it Windows PC compatible?" Originally we used IBM hardware (20 mb hard drives and 5 1.4" floppy) then lots of cheaper Windows compatible kit mass produced in Asia.

Andy Non Silver badge

I remember a colleague

having a PS/2 which he was excited about at the time as the rest of us plebs just had DOS / early Windows computers. I remember him having compatibility issues of varying sorts though and the PS/2 was allowed to quietly die.

CAPTCHAs now run Doom – on nightmare mode

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Mushroom

Re: CAPTCHA's days are numbered? PROMISE???

I really struggled with one the other day on the UK land registry website, I needed a copy of title deeds for my property and it took ages completing multiple captchas before it finally accepted I was human. So fracking annoying. I'm sure a bot would have solved them much quicker. When it asks you to click on all squares with traffic lights, does that include squares that have only a tiny corner (a few pixels) of a traffic light? Then it got me looking for bicycles then sidewalks. Then it started swapping out some of the squares as I clicked on them, which caught me out further. A pox on the land registry.

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

Andy Non Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Dyslexic delivery drivers

Our postman has similar issues, we sometimes receive mail addressed to our house number, but the wrong person, wrong street name, wrong post code.

I recently had a phone call from a company baffled why an important letter addressed to me was returned as "not known at that address". I'm guessing the postman put my mail through someone else's letter box - probably the correct house number, just a property in a different part of town.