Posts by lsces

Japan serves Google a cease and desist order over its Android bundling deals

Off Button!

It would be very nice if android got the same treatment as windows did over browsers and gave the option to switch off default programs completely. I use openstreetmap and have google maps disabled, yet I still get 'redirected' at time to google maps and while a do have a gmail account, the client is never used. Firefox is working perfectly for me across desktop, tablet and phone and I think the next target should be for thunderbird to be as transparent, treating messages in the same way as emails. Uninstall 'rather' than 'disable' should be the standard requirement on these base functions where there are very good alternatives?

Museum digs up Digital Equipment Corporation's dusty digital equipment

Takes me back

I worked for a while at Macro Marketing back in the 80's and they ran the entire sales floor on a PDP11/70. 100 dumb terminals. I had my own VAX with just one graphic terminal on it for custom silicon design which probably spent more time running rogue than design software.

The PDP11/70 was eventually replaced by a pair of Amhdal towers (I think), but the software was never as good as the original suite.

The recent outage at Heathrow brought back an interesting incident where the emergency generator was religiously tested each week and fell over and back without batting an eyelid, until that is a real event occurred. The generator kicked in ran for a few minutes and then spluttered to a halt ... you need the fuel feed switched to 'main' and not 'reserve' ...

Datacenters near Heathrow seemingly stay up as substation fire closes airport

Re: Really...?

Having driven around Heathrow many times while living and working in that area 50 years ago, I find it no surprise that all of the power comes from north of the airport. There is nothing south that could supply the power and I can remember that discussion when planning other projects in that area. 50 years on we should have solved that problem? Probably, but given they have now been given the go ahead for a large increase in the load - also to the north of the airport - it will be fun find THAT power ...

Privacy warriors whip out GDPR after ChatGPT wrongly accuses dad of child murder

Re: However ...

"will it then "learn" from its previous hallucinations?"

That personal data is being served up as fact even ignoring the 'disclaimer' just shows that NONE of these systems are safe to use for any purpose. The 'models' that are being used live NEED to be able to learn when they are told something is wrong. Until that time any output is simply a best guess based on the crap that has been input so far?

Spent yesterday trying to get a section of my own websites working again using a combination of Mistral and raw search. That Mistral simply rewords the same wrong information just highlights another recent story about faulty output. Until I had a combination of facts so I knew just what questions to ask I was unable to fix the configuration so not sure that using Mistral is ACTUALLY improving productivity. Most of the questions were correcting it's mistakes trying to get at a correct answer and I suspect I would have solved the problem quicker had I just skipped straight back to raw searches of CURRENT information.

US government reportedly ponders crimping China's use of RISC-V

Does a china based version need to worry?

"reducing it's effectiveness as an alternative processor that China can use."

Since they have a large local market, are they worried if their version evolves in a different way to the rest of the world? I am sure other external users would not find it a problem either?

Windows 7 lives! How to keep your favorite fossil running

Didn't have the option

The sole windows desktop machine here has W10 but with classic shell after it was forced onto me by Microsoft, but the XP CNC boxes are still as stable as ever, and not going anywhere ... except perhaps to linux is the hardware finally gives up the ghost. NONE of these would ever take W11 anyway. Windows 7 could not be 'restored' to the machine despite all attempts at the time ...

London is bottom in Europe for 5G, while Europe lags the rest of the world

Does 5G actually exist?

Being tied into a contract with Vodafone for unlimited 5G broadband and in an area where Vodafone advertise 5G I have yet to even see a reliable 4G connection and when that is working it's pig slow! I'm having to pay for fibre as well and can't get out of the useless mobile one for another 17 months! Worcestershire County Council are currently investigating the large number of complaints about all mobile providers around here.

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

Re: All you need

And how many perfectly functional computers will be running Linux once M$ kill off W10 without allowing those machines to install W11? My token Windows machine will just stay with the last working version of W10 ... and LibreOffice is all it's ever had Office wise anyway which I presume WILL still take updates. My main desktop has been Linux from before LibreOffice appeared :)

Re: LibreOffice was nothing to do with Sun?

"Er... not exactly, but studying the closing para, yes, I see where you got that impression. I will ask the editors if they could maybe insert a couple of words to clarify the closing paragraph."

The summary is the sort of thing I am seeing in my playing with the current generation of Advanced Idiots. It is the subtleties such as this which then get fed back into the 'training models' and distort history? I think I AM right with the title of this post, my mistake was with the "when Sun stuck it's oar in?" forgetting that by then it was Oracle who was 'in control', or rather not hence LibreOffice ... Sun only sewed a seed in that development.

Re: LibreOffice was nothing to do with Sun?

"So they quit, forked it, and set up The Document Foundation and LibreOffice."

That is what I said, so SUN never release LibreOffice as the article claims ... It was an independent project.

LibreOffice was nothing to do with Sun?

"and finally releasing LibreOffice"

My memory is that LibreOffice was created by those who walked away from OpenOffice when Sun stuck it's oar in? Am I wrong?

Judge says US Treasury ‘more vulnerable to hacking’ since Trump let the DOGE out

What constitution

So when will Trump follow Putin and campaign to change the constitution so he does not have to step down in 4 years time?

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

Re: There is no reason for Windows 11

And if the machine that is running Windows 10 can't be upgraded to 11 then I'm not going to change it. Heck my CNC machines still run Windows XP via a real parallel port and they work fine for that job. I'll just take the W10 machine of the internet and all the problems are solved :) The main desktop machine has been Linux for years.

Brit competition watchdog takes aim at Google, Apple's mobile ecosystems

Option to delete google apps

It would be useful if one could delete google ( and Samsung ) apps when you have suitable alternatives installed. It's like Microsoft's insistence on using edge rather than the default browser, Android does much the same thing and the history of some actions is lost as it is not on my central Firefox archive, which today works almost seamlessly across all devices. I would prefer that I was always taken to Openstreetmap for my map information but can't stop Google maps still being accessed.

My medical applications are an utter mess and the NHS needs to standardise on one non-proprietary base to make all of them work seamlessly.

UK tax collector's phone service 'deliberately' bad to push users online, say MPs

Can't solve critical tax stuff on-line.

As someone who has had to deal with tax problems and not being able to do so on-line, talking to a real person was essential. I will have to do the same thing next year to finish off the transition to retirement. THAT is something that the 'AI system' simply could not get it's head around and asking for help on-line has never taken me to a page that could actually help!

UK floats ransomware payout ban for public sector

Require that the likes of Microsoft and Google ensure core data is protected?

That ransomware finds it easy to propagate networks is the first problem. Personally I have always had all information duplicated on machines that are protected so even if a machine is compromised by any problem it can be rebuilt at any time and the material such as 20+ years of emails are still stored safely away.

I've been running Linux for many years now and that helps keep content isolated from software and my websites use Firebird as the underlying database which backs up all the content on those sites to a safe area on the directory tree and not in a messy area that other databases use.

OK IF someone downloads ransomware then it's the time to rebuild that machine, but the Windows box here refuses to upgrade to Windows 11 and will have to be replaced ... isn't that just another form of Ransomware?

We told Post Office about system problems at the highest level, Fujitsu tells Horizon Inquiry

Re: Time to produce the audit trail

"Public responsibility should have taken precedence over responsibility to a client, otherwise they're risking charges of conspiracy to perverting the course of justice."

And that should extend to the prosecution solicitors who MUST have been aware of the sheer volume of cases. That all of these seem to have been dealt with in isolation just shows how bad the whole legal system is today?

Both KDE and GNOME to offer official distros

Fixing 25+ year old problems?

"The GNOME project was created in response to KDE, and in important ways they continue to influence one another still, after more than a quarter of a century."

I am currently sitting looking at a computer screen with OpenSUSE Leap 15.6 running KDE 5.115.0 with a miriade of other components required to make the various applications I use work. Just which version of Python is running I am not sure, but elements like Calibre need a different version to that shipped with OpenSUSE and by some magic I now have it working again.

BUT the main problem I am finding is that using a nice high resolution monitor, in many cases the icons being used by applications are NOT being scaled properly so that, for example, the copy of Firefox I am writing this in has three incredibly small icons in the top right-hand corner as do many of my main goto apps. Not a problem in this case as I know which is which, but on applications like eclipse there are whole rows of icons that are even difficult to hover over to see any toolhelp to find the right one.

After quarter of a century one would have hoped that the simple basics actually worked properly? I did try a switch to Gnome at one time, but that just adds more new stuff to learn ...

Calls for 'right to repair' electronics laws grow louder across Europe

Require manufacturers to repair for at least 5 years?

Having recently taken another 2 HP printers down the tip because they are out of warrantee I think is about time all manufacturers should be required to offer a repair service? I did try to repair one of them using a replacement new print head, but without success. Since it was an A3 all-in-one machine is grated having to throw it away, and at the very least HP should have collected it to recycle themselves if they refuse to repair it?

Did I or did I not ask you to double-check that the socket was on? Now I've driven 15 miles, what have we found?

Been there ... done that

But the problem was that we kept loosing data! Machine was working fine, the days statistics printed off, but next morning they were missing.

After several days of the same problem I went on site to monitor things. A bit longer run to get to site. Daily stats run off everything fine. The machine was left on so it was still accessible remotely to allow managers to check anything they needed, and shut down later to restart in the morning.

7PM a hand appears around the corner, pulls out the plug and plugs in another plug - without even looking - then the vacuum starts ...

The real irritation here was not so much the hand of god, but the fact that while 'write to disk' was activated on the machine it turned out it only happened when the program shut down! Fixing that fault help a solve other site problems where electricity was an equally mystic provision.

Yahoo! Groups! to! shut! down! completely! on! December! 15!... Tens! mourn!

Re: I wonder

"A shame, as there's a lot of technical information that's going to be lost."

Not just technical ... a lot of historic groups fall into the same hole and information is lost. I've managed to archive a few sites that marry in with my genealogical archives but others will not be so lucky.

egroups?

Didn't this come into existence following the takeover of egroups? I am fairly certain I only gained a 'yahoo' account when that happened. And it's been going down hill since the day yahoo took it over :(

IBM repays millions to staff after messing up its own payroll

So which software company wrote IBM's payroll system in Australia?

Angry 123-Reg customers in the UK wake up to another day where hosted mail doesn't get through to users on Microsoft email accounts

Send letters

But even that is not as reliable these days :(

Having had my own and client emails bounced by M$ and the like, the ONE thing that should be a legal requirement IS a bounce message, rather than simply handling the traffic as if it HAS been delivered. But then the whole internet is just built on lies?

Near-instant game loads, richer graphics, low CPU use promised with DirectStorage API coming to Windows PCs

Back to where we were before intel got a strangle hold?

Digital video handling systems I was building even before IBM messed up the hardware had high speed ports that bypassed any CPU paths and now they are talking about adding it as if it's some modern improvement? So are we going to see patents claiming it has just been invented?

Party like it's 2004: Almost a quarter of Windows 10 PCs living with the latest update

But it bricks dell computers!

Spent yesterday winding back another Dell Optiplex computer that had been bricked by the update. All the machines have now had the feature updates disabled until next year. At least THAT facility is available now. The update screws up the USB mouse and keyboard so they are unusable. One might be able to recover with a PS2 keyboard except the motherboards don't have a PS2 port. Boot from a USB stick and repair allows removing 2004 and makes the machines workable again, but it's a bloody waste of time having to do that after machines have been unusable while the update was applied as well.

It's been five years since Windows 10 hit: So... how's that working out for you all?

Can I bill Microsoft for today?

Just spent several hours trying to get a clients machine working again after it allowed 2004 upgrade through on Monday. Mouse and Keyboard don't work once the windows logo page appears. On a machine that has been running W10 for some considerable time. Third attempt at creating a boot disk finally worked by using a USB stick and once I could actually get to the repair options WITH the mouse and keyboard working we managed to kill the upgrade and everything is working again. Upgrades killed for a couple of months, but both mouse and keyboard have the latest driver both the wireless version and wired. Of cause if the pigging DELL computer had a PS/2 keyboard port then we would probably have been working a few hours quicker? Next problem is what happens when the block times out ...

Nominet shakes up system for expiring .uk domains, just happens to choose one that will make it £millions. Again

Re: So we do have to keep the .co.uk domains?

New sites we have set up in the last few years have all been .uk, but we had the .co.uk simply to forward to the .uk one ... now probably should not have bothered and save a few pounds?

So we do have to keep the .co.uk domains?

Having switched many sites to a simple .uk I'm now dropping the .co.uk versions ... and I'm getting daily emails from the registrars AND Nominet about needing to renew them ... this con sounds like another reason to HAVE to continue paying them even if the .co.uk domain IS our registered trade mark?

Rip and replace is such a long Huawei to go, UK telcos plead, citing 'blackouts' and 'billion pound' costs: Are Vodafone and BT playing 'Project Fear'?

No control over network traffic?

The only thing that comes to mind over this is that in order for a third party to access information from inside the providers network there should be SOME log of that activity? Or are these mobile providers providing free bandwidth to some third parties that they do not bill? Independent of who provides the kit, there should be no back doors that can't be blocked by proper traffic management although the crap way the whole system has been built does mean that even American suppliers seem to have unmonitored access to everything anyway? And if all the content is properly encrypted no-one can read it anyway ... unless we get stung by back doors in the encryption process. So is China any more of a risk than any other country in the world?

Microsoft to pull support for PHP: Version 8? Exterminate, more like...

Reality check?

While production hosting of PHP may well be essentially Linux based, and benchmarks will tend to show that is much faster than a windows hosted solution, the DEVELOPMENT environment may well currently be running on a windows powered desktop/laptop, and that is where provision of a suitable platform may be sensible. The only looser if Microsoft try pulling the plug on a PHP development platform is Microsoft as it is yet another reason for dropping windows completely. But personally I think any developer would already be running on a Linux desktop anyway? Nowadays the applications that will only work on windows are getting less and less so the need to put up with a second class operating system is waning nicely :)

LibreOffice community protests at promotion of paid-for editions, board says: 'LibreOffice will always be free software'

Re: Remember Open Office

LibreOffice came about because Oracle tried to seize control of OpenOffice after acquiring it from Sun. It was that money grab that resulted in most of the developers walking. It only became Apache OpenOffice because Oracle would not back down and simply pass the name to the original developers. The RIGHT thing to do now is to merge the two back into 'OpenOffice' ?

BoJo buckles: UK govt to cut Huawei 5G kit use 'to zero by 2023' after pressure from Tory MPs, Uncle Sam

And we have already given ARM to the Chinese so little chance of developing the core components. America seems to be under the impression that IT is the only country that designs the integrated circuits we all rely on, but in reality the major producers are all in the far east. How much of Apple's product is produced in the US? Could they afford to build kit if China shut the door ...

If you're appy and you know it: The Huawei P40 Pro conclusively proves that top-notch specs aren't everything

Aad if you don't use Google Crap ...

My problem has always been NOT wanting the machine crippled by the google bloat when I have perfectly acceptable alternatives. OSMAnd replaces Maps, and other real open source apps provide email, browser and the stuff that run THE SAME as those on my Linux desktop ...

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

Punched card rather than paper tape ... it was a step up from the ICL1900 machine code I'd been using before going to Warwick ...

The end really is nigh – for 32-bit Windows 10 on new PCs

But 64 bit windows trashes physical interfaces to the processor.

Legacy systems that still rely on access to ports such as a real parallel port do not work on 64 bit windows and many 32 bit applications will NOT reliably work on 64 bit installs! Yes you can completely replace all of the hardware and re-write 20+ year old applications to work, but many applications HAVE been proven to be reliable and starting again from scratch will also start the clock on re-testing every aspect of a system that IS currently working perfectly stably. The volume of systems does not justify the cost of a complete rebuild and many systems have diverged over years exacerbating the problem of rewriting each version. Maintaining systems which may well involve moving to a new computer is a valid way of saving money although simply switching off any access to 'windows updates' and ensuring older builds of windows are maintained is the only safe way to maintain these systems anyway. Security is not relevant since in the vast majority of cases they are not networked anyway.

Current planning is to move these legacy systems over to hardware that is not reliant on Windows at all and any removal of 32bit builds completely will simply reinforce that path forward. 64bit Windows does not allow the level of real time operation that these systems rely on ...

Even on older processors many of these machines manage 99.9% idle time so 'faster versions' do little except increase the idle time further, but one needs the instant response when something does happen, not having to wait for some cloud process to wake up seconds later.

Something a bit phishy in your inbox? You can now email suspected frauds straight to Blighty's web takedown cops

Report email scam ...

Report email scam has been a feature in Thunderbird for a long time and using it where the link is not already providing a 'deceptive site' block usually proves effective when checking follow up messages. That this is now implemented via google rather then the original Mozilla service is more of a concern and I trust GCHQ more than I do google! What SHOULD change is that international law enforcement actually deal with the people carrying out the fraud, rather than google simply 'giving them a slap on the wrist' ... so getting GCHQ involved in the process makes a LOT of sense to me, but has to be a coordinated international framework. And direct access to those fraudsters details where they are using 'money laundering services' like bitcoin should be a first step in bringing down internet fraud?

Microsoft puts dual-screen devices and Windows 10X in the too-hard basket

Re: Dual Screen Woes

Why is it such a problem these days to do multiple screens? I started using Windows98 for a project simply because it simply worked across 16 screens OUT OF THE BOX. Even Linux seems to have lost the plot in handling just two monitors today. I can't run my 4 screen wallpapers across the monitors which used to work perfectly. Just what is gone wrong with any 'improvements' these days ... nothing seems to improve at all?

IBM veep partly blamed Sopra Steria for collapse of £155m Co-Op Insurance Agile project

Poor user documentation?

ONLY a quarter of bug reports being 'bogus' sounds pretty good to me. On a new system a lot of the time is spent explaining just how it works and if the bug report system is the only way of managing operational questions then the 'triage' is to make sure that the user documentation is brough in line with just how it does work?

It’s not true no one wants .uk domains – just look at all these Bulgarians who signed up to nab expired addresses

Should we just be phasing out .co.uk

There was never any point making .uk available without also phasing out .co.uk, but of cause that then penalises .org.uk ... You either have one or the other and THAT is the main problem here and always was.

The sale of .uk domains to anybody other than legitimate UNITED KINGDOM companies is just another example of how the internet was broken from day one? And creating millions of phantom domains with billions of phantom links is yet another example of the utter mess the whole system is in today.

We are not creating 150 new UK business entities every minute so there is no need to allow any registrar to do that! The whole system is just another imaginary money creating activity. The sale of .org confirms that as the only way that sale can be justified is if the .org doamins are going to be shafted year on year for something that adds NO value to the organisation using the domain.

Next year's Windows 10 comes bounding into the Slow Ring, which means 19H2 waits in the wings

Re: Can't even update Windows!

The machine is more than adequate for the job it was bought for and certainly the only limitation is the crap broadband connection. It's sitting next to me doing everything it needs to and it's only the continual harrasment of update warnings that provide ANY problem ... If 32Gb disk is too small for W10 then why was the machine even in stock at PCWorld anyway?

Can't even update Windows!

I have a 3 month old laptop supplied with W10 installed and currently it will not start up without complaining that there is not enough memory to update ... Need an external disk, but it can't even use that. The on board 30Gb disk does not have enough free space to install 1903 even after wiping almost everything I've installed that I need to use the laptop. The annoying thing ... ALL I need it for is to use a browser to access client sites for maintenance purposes and after I get back in it does that job without any problems! SHOULD I be able to return the laptop as unfit for purpose simply because W10 will not update on it?

Delphi RAD tool (remember that?) gets support for Linux desktop apps – again

Builder6 apps still run fine ...

Prior to all of my main applications becoming browser based, everything was written in Builder6 and despite a couple of substantial payments to Embarcadero for later versions of the development platform, those parts have never been successfully moved to anything newer. They are still running quite happily live in the field, although they do need a 32 bit version of Windows to run. However that is probably more for the parallel port access that the programs use for external control then specifically the software. Perhaps it is now time to recode the remaining modules, but Embarcadero is the last place I'd start these days ... no way I can justify the cost even if it had worked ...

Pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy: Run Huawei, Google Play, turns away, from Huawei... turns away

Re: Isn't this a good thing finally

https://f-droid.org/en/ has considerably fewer dross applications and all of the key actually usable components and is open to everybodies inspection!

Isn't this a good thing finally

Personally I'd prefer to be able to switch off the Google crap so I could use the better free alternatives without wasting so much space on apps I've never used! Although I'm stuck with the crap Samsung ship with the device as well. If Huawai come up with a 'google free' phone it could be very attractive as long as they don't replace it with their own junk? I was currently debating if I bother with the update program from the S9 to S10 but give all the current crap I don't see any point. I may get even more apps that simply refuse to work in portrait mode or like the shit Facebook push - they change from portrait to landscape for no reason! So I am hoping this will be a push for Huawai to come up with something that actually works properly ... none of the American companies do anyway!

Banhammer Republic: Trump declares national emergency, starts ball rolling to boot Huawei out of ALL US networks

American kit just as crap at security?

I've just returned a Netgear hub purchased to replace the BT Hub6 which continues to cause problems with reliable access to broadband. The Netgear has major faults with port forwarding which apparently they are not going to fix ... obviously they don't even know how to? It's not who sells the kit that is the problem it's that none of them actually understand what they are selling ? Just who does own the core IP that is fundamental to the simple functions of the internet anyway ?

BT to up targets for FTTP rollout 'if the right conditions are met'

Where do they actually offer FTTP?

Having been battling continual dropouts on the 'fibre' since it was installed a couple of years back , and attempt to get an answer on how much 200mts of fibre from the cabinet I can see down the road to replace the problematic copper has just been blanked. HOPEFULLY they have now finally fixed the the problem with 30cm of copper around the top of the pole. But the MAIN complaint is why does it have to take 10 or more minutes to reconnect after a dropout the analogue broadband would be back up in a minute at most? Or in the case of a Hub6 ... not reconnect at all until you power cycle it the next morning!

A quick cup of coffee leaves production manager in fits and a cleaner in tears

Do not unplug!

In the early days of computers in the office serving several processes ... before there was even a thought of a 'server room' in a small office ... the technique was to use red plugs and signs for the power socket saying do not unplug! It was also a time where we were still working out just how things like Windows did work, but one site we were having problems with loosing data. The daily reports were printed after close of play, but by the morning all the data was missing, without any obvious explanation. After a few weeks of this problem we decided to visit the office and monitor the system over night. Around 7PM a hand appeared around the corner, unplugged the red plug and plugged the vacuum in - all without even looking. Mystery Solved? Plugged back in the computer fires up and returns to running state ready for the next morning, but all the days data is missing! Turns out that the 'speed up' to only write data to the disk when the application closed does not work very well when the power is pulled :) One needs to ensure that 'forced write' is enabled even if it does have an impact on performance ... and these boxes also sprouted a newfangled device called a UPS ...

Is this the way the cookie wall crumbles? Dutch data watchdog says nee to take-it-or-leave-it consent

Dutch take is right ...

I keep hitting these sort of 'walls' and when you look under the cover there are hundreds of third party sites listed and all selected by default, and no way to unselect except one at a time. I just go elsewhere so the choice is obvious - they lose any chance of my accessing their site :) This mainly seems to be media services and news sites often linked to from my main news feed the BBC so perhaps we should be flagging this back to them so they can provide better third party sources?

Shocker: UK smart meter rollout is crap, late and £500m over budget

What was the point!

Had the visit to fit Electric and Gas ... already £30 up because of missed one ... but now we need one of the 'new' electric meters when they arrive as the one fitted can't access the gas meter, so they did not change that. I've still got to manually read the gas meter and the smart display is showing a blank usage quite often during the day. I'd had to wait for this meter as the previous ones did not support dual rate and one can see the joins where even this one has no concept of tracking day and night usage! SO as I say what was the point! Perhaps they should have built something that worked before they started pushing it out?