Posts by Adelio

Official: Office 365 Personal, Home axed next month... and replaced by Microsoft 365 cloud subscriptions

Re: "deepen your connection to the people in your life"

I am still running the "stand alone" office 2007 and see no need to EVER upgrade to a newer version or to start paying a "subscription" (read extortion) fee to Microsoft.

UK enters almost-lockdown: Brits urged to keep calm and carry on – as long as it doesn't involve leaving the house

Re: And use food delivery services where you can.”

The only thing I am going to be saving on is Fuel to travel to work, I still have everything else to pay for.

I have been GIVEN a 15% pay cut so that makes it a bit awkward!

Theranos vampire lives on: Owner of failed blood-testing biz's patents sues maker of actual COVID-19-testing kit

If that is true then it tells you all you need to know about the gun culture in the U.S. of A

IBM puts 1,248 frontline techies at risk of redundo, warns of data centre closures

IBM and profits

I seems like the ONLY way IBM make any profits these days is by laying off staff.

Not inovating, not providing world beating service, just keep cutting staff..... (not executives mind you).

America: We'll send citizens cash checks amid coronavirus financial hardship. UK: We'll offer £330bn in biz loans

uk 330Bn help?

Listened to one businessman on the radio this morning saying that the business loans (he was a larger business) would be almost useless. Basically if his wages bill is £100,00 per month and this lasts for three months then at the end he will have a loan of £300.000 to pay off. Better of putting his employees on unpaid leave, or sacking them than incurring a huge loan. After all for those 3 months he would not be earning much money (he was a Retailer).

Apple grudgingly opens up its check book, pays VirnetX $454m in patent royalties after a decade of wrangling

Intelectual Property.

Although I understand the principle of I.P. The way it seems to being used seems wrong.

More and more.. Actually companies have been abusing the Patent system for a very long time. Edison anybody. anyway, Patents seem like they only work for large companies. Small companies and individuals have very little chance of fighting a patent litigant.

And the patent of software, That definately seems like a way to abuse companies.

It does seem like the US patent systme is totally broken. Not saying that it is much better elswhere in the world.

Electric vehicles won't help UK meet emissions targets: Time to get out and walk, warn MPs

Re: Power Demand

I though off-peak tarrifs were long Gone?

Re: Power Demand

Do not forget converting all the central heading and cooker hobs from Gas to Electric!

Re: The ones calling for it first.

Fine, except that i travel about 45 miles as day so a bike is a nono. I looked a solar panels but they were expensive and I was told I had no roof tops big enough and facing the correct way.

European electric vehicle sales surged in Q4 2019 but only accounted for wafer-thin slice of total car purchases

I like the definition of "cheap"

I just had a quick look at the list of cars available in 2020 in the UK. only a couple were as low as£25,000 most of them were substantially more expensive.

If I compare an electric car with the equivelant petrol car the difference seems to be AT LEAST £10,000!

That is a LOT of additional money to find. And the cost of second hand Electric cars are equally as expensive.

When I look at my town (Huddersfield) there are only a few places to charge. most with only 1 or 2 charging points. all the OTHER side of town from me. For my Journey to work (Huddersfield to Tankersley, using A roads) there are NO charging points. Certainly None where i work!

Charging points for cars REALLY needs to be addressed, as well as distance per charge and time to charge and the cost of the cars when new before many people are going to buy new Electric Cars.

Now the TCO of a Electric car may be quite good. Assuming you do a lot of miles, but the Upfront cost will put off a lot of people.

I am sure when I look to replace my current car I will have a look at electric cars, I am pretty sure though that by the time I look I will probably have retired so will not be able or willing to pay the premium.

We checked in with the new Windows 10X build, and let's just say getting this ready for late 2020 will be a challenge

UWP

When even Microsoft seem incapable of writting proper UWP applications why would anyone use it.

Win32 apps just work, call me a luddite.

The last thing I want to use is a Microsoft Store (or UWP apps)

I do not use a tablet, I do not have touch screens, I do have dual screens. Tell me Microsoft, what percentage of PC's HAVE a touch screen and of those how many people actually use the "touch" stuff.

Appareils électroniques: Right to repair gets European Commission backing

Re: This jumped out:

Well the UK can draft it's own standards (Laugh!!!) but do not expect anyone to take any notice, they will just build things to the EU standard. Cos the UK will enact a more US friendly system (i.e. less strict)

Drones must be constantly connected to the internet to give Feds real-time location data – new US govt proposal

Re: You missed a bit

And what if there is no or limited celular connection?, or the cell goes down.

T.B.H a lot of drone owners probably should NOT be allowed to use one. But I see it as a fad that will eventually die out (exept for the few).

Sure, check through my background records… but why are you looking at my record collection?

Re: Contractor Testing

Writing proper specs. How quaint. In my recent experience people are given stories (5 words or less!) and told to write the dammed thing. After all who needs to design anything when you can just keep re-writing it untill it does something. (anything really), who cares of it does what the user neeeds?

Re: And if you don't do social media?

Well I do have a twitter account, only used it once about 6 years ago because that was the only way to get some software support.

Facebook, Humm. Yup I have one, promptly turned off as much of the tracking it as i could, probably look at it a couple of times a year. Not sure the last time i actually posted something on it though?

Crypto AG backdooring rumours were true, say German and Swiss news orgs after explosive docs leaked

Re: Spies gonna spy

T.B.H. I am not toooo concerned about spy agencies spying on me, as long as it concerned with terrorism, it is more about EVERY OTHER Goverment agency that would want AND get access to all that lovely information and then letting all their industry friends have it as well (for a price or free)

World Wide Web's Sir Tim swells his let's-remake-the-internet startup with Bruce Schneier, fellow tech experts

Re: You authorize granular access to that pod to whoever you want

I would be happy deniing acces to my data to anyone by default. ONly if I am haapy would i allow any access

Smartwatch owners love their calorie-counting gadgets, but they are verrry expensive

e-watches

The thing is i bought my current (non e-watch) 10 years ago and expect it to last for at least another 10 or 20 years. It is solar powered so does not need batteries.

Now given that most smart watches appear to last a few years either because they fail or the supplier goes broke so the smart watches loose functionality, why oh why would I wast money on one.

My Samsung S9 is neally 2 years old and was VERY expensive but i have no intention of replacing it any time soon. Phones have become too expensive and what exactly am I paying for in the next new phone. I Know, lets have 5 cameras, no 6, no, how about 10 and the screens are now really getting too large.

And now everyone seems to think NOT having a headphone jack is a good thing. Well Do I really want to spend £200 on some crappy bluetooth headphones that keep needing charging and will fail after a few years. my £20 wired inear headphones are 5 years old and will probably last another 5 years before I have to change them.

Have you ever tried to watch a fimlm on the tv with bluetooth headphones. Talk about lipsync issues!

Not a Genius move after all: Apple must cough up $$$ in back pay for store staff forced to wait for bag searches

Re: Why not have a locker in the shop staff room?

And apple would also "rent" the lockers to the staff as a benefit in kind!

25 years of Delphi and no Oracle in sight: Not a Visual Basic killer but hard to kill

Exept for being case sensitive!

Dual screens, fast updates, no registry cruft and security in mind: Microsoft gives devs the lowdown on Windows 10X

Always assuming you have a "working" internet

AMD really, really wants you to know its chips are doing OK without any help from Intel and its supply issues

Re: For once, its not just spin

MY oh My, "match core count" have they.

I think you need to open your eyes. AMD blows Intel out of the water. As stated by other people. Single core is comparable or better, core counts, forget intel. Power requirements, a win for AMD.

Remember the Clipper chip? NSA's botched backdoor-for-Feds from 1993 still influences today's encryption debates

Re: here we go again

Overall homicide rates are a different thing to total gun deaths and suicide by gun deaths.

so we have 800 homicides in the UK per year, the USA has for GUN crimes alone (2017) 23,854 were by suicide and 14,542 were homicides.

UK Homicides per 100,000 - 1.20 total = 803 (2017)

USA Homcides per 100,000 5.30 total 17,284 (2017)

However you slice it the USA is a lot less safe as a place to visit or live than the UK.

Note: I have been to the USA only once (Mainly N.Y.) and ALL the people were freindly and I will be visiting again. It is just the American obsession, because that is what it is, an obsession, with owning guns and sometime LOTS of guns that is unsettling. I have no idea how many people have been "saved" by owning a firearm in the USA but i am sure a lot more have died because of one.

Re: here we go again

Well the USA seems to have many times more gun deaths that the UK, taking into account the population size.

I think the UK has about 60-80 deaths for the WHOLE of the UK per year. U.S.A about 39,000. Now the UK has a population of 63 milion and the USA abour 260 million. So you figure the stats. The statement that guns saves lives seems to be a load of BS.

Now If Americans are happy with the death rate (at least it keeps the population down) then so be it. but NEVER try and make out that "Guns save lives".

I am not saying "ban all guns" but as people in the USA keep spouting "It not the guns that kill it's the poeple". True so why allow so people who clearly should not be allowed to have a gun the "rtight" to hold one. Being able to own a firearm, (which is a VERY dangerous weapon who sole purpose is to KILL) should be a privilege NOT a right!

Microsoft: 14 January patch was the last for Windows 7. Also Microsoft: Actually...

Re: it's all curable, and worth it

Well, My wifes laptop got a windows update that borked the wifi on it.

As I do not use it or normally pay any attention to it I assumed it was a hardware issue.

WHY is it that Microsoft cannot stop breaking things! It is almost as if they do no testing.

I Know that trying to support a LOT of different kit is a royal pain in the A**S BUT, ohhhh I forgot they decided that they could skip on most of the testing and just get the dammed users to test it for them!

If mycrosoft want to have adverts then it should be a "Click to Enable adverts".

And as for Windows 10 set-up. MICROSOFT, i DO NOT WANT ONENOTE or a Microsft LOGIN (Apologies for shouting) I have notices that Windows 10 is making it harder and harder to figure out hot to skip creating a microsoft account. I Personally DO NOT want it and never have. I t just for Microsft to try and make even more money out of me,

Re: it's all curable, and worth it

Well, My wifes laptop got a windows update that borked the wifi on it.

As I do not use it or normally pay any attention to it I assumed it was a hardware issue.

WHY is it that Microsoft cannot stop breaking things! It is almost as if they do no testing.

I Know that trying to support a LOT of different kit is a royal pain in the A**S BUT, ohhhh I forgot they decided that they could skip on most of the testing and just get the dammed users to test it for them!

This episode of Black Mirror sucks: London cops boast that facial-recog creepycams will be on the streets this year

Re: Police catchinbg criminals

It appears that for some (UK) police forces they are noe even going to attempt to catch people who break into your home or rob you on the treat or just beat you up.

It seems they are too busy playing with their new toys to actually DO anything useful!

Beware the Friday afternoon 'Could you just..?' from the muppet who wants to come between you and your beer

Spacing

Ahhhhh, the good old cobol days when you had to write the code in specific columns (for me the 1980's).

Why would anyone write a modern language(I presume python is modern) and have "meaninful white space" as part of the language!.

Judge snubs IT outsourcers' plea to Alt-F4 tougher H-1B visa rules: Bosses told to fill out the extra paperwork

Re: s/specific skills that are in limited supply/willing to work for peanuts/g

Too many companies looking to increase profits by driving savings i.e. get rid of all the skilled workers and employee cheaper staff with a LOT less skill, and then wonder why all the products are rubbish.

I do not think I have seem many (if any) werb or phone applications that i would not be ashamed of being linked to and would rather NOT have to use. A 30 year old thick client can many times still beat for functionality the hobbled mess that is almost ANY web application.

LastPass stores passwords so securely, not even its users can access them

Re: "Maybe the current outage is a sign"

Call me old fashioned but why do i want a password manager to host all my passwords on-line.

Just asking for trouble. Ideally the data should be stored locally only. or at least if you HAVE to hve it stored on the cloud, then once something is changed on the cloud (new user/password) then the revised details loaded locally (encrypted of course).

MI5 gros fromage: Nah, US won't go Huawei from dear old Blighty over 5G, no matter what we do

Re: Radio 4 morning JaN 15

Interesting comments for a US guy implying that we will ONLY get a good trade deal if Borris bends over really hard for mr Trump and does what he says regarding Iran!

Xerox grabs $24bn from banking titans to fund hostile takeover of HP Ink

Enought already

There are already too many large companies with too much power trying to gain even more power.

Competition law is just way to weak to stop all these stupid mergers.

What benefit to the customers of these companies will these mergers provide. Probably long term, poorer quality products at higher prices as they keep removing competitors. If you look at intel they spent way too many years where there was little competition and what happened. Token improvements, nothing more. Luckely in Intels case AMD managed to inovate and Kick Intel where it hutrs. And then look, intel starts talking about new stuff. (still not here, but maybe?).

When you look at most of these VERY large companes how much "inovation", I mean REAL blue sky thinking goes on. Not, lets replace this part in a printer with a part that costs 1% less to drive up profits.

Most of these companies now only seem to be growing by buying other companies. In other words they have forgotten how a business really should works. You make stuff that people want and sell it.

LibreOffice 6.4 nearly done as open-source office software project prepares for 10th anniversary

Re: PIM

I have been using outlook for many years, at work and at home.

Although we have "google" mail at work I refuse to use ANY web e-mail client I find the web interfaces rubbish and near to useless and since I can import the mail into Outlook I do.

In fact I feel the same about MOST web interfaces. Give me a good thick client that actually does what I want and does not treat me like an idiot.

I Know I am an old fuddy duddy (developer of > 30 years) and I know that web UI interfaces have got better but I am appalled at the lack of quality of most of them. And that fact the Web developers seem to need MANY different toolsets and languages to do sothing that I could do with just Visual Basic (thick client) code and a third part tool provider. It all seems to point to the fact that Web applications are still VERY imature and have a LONG way to go.

And whoever thought that I was a good idea to load "code", not binaries from random URL's and allow that code to run anywhere WITHOUT knowing it the code even worked. O.M.G how insecure can you get.

I like everyone else use and used third party tools. But these we always compiled and downloaded from the tool supplier. Even if we got regular updates for these types of tools changing to a newer version was always done infrequently with LOTS of testing, You cannot risk a customer getting a version that does not work!. and we have Hundreds of customers!

Google security engineer says she was fired for daring to remind Googlers they do indeed have labor rights

Re: Can someone please explain...

As someone in the uk I find it hard to comprehend how Americans cope with their poor working environment.

In the UK everyone gets at least 4 weeks PAID leave, plus 8 days paid national holidays and some sick pay and maternity pay,

Employees have reasonable employment rights.

Healthcare is provided by the N.H.S (despite all its issues it has it is still basically free)

Although I am NOT a member of a UNION and have never willing joined a UNION I understand the need for trade unions and would defend anyoned right to join a union,

In the 70's we reached the Nadire of UNION excess and that finally led to their downfall and reduction in influence. BUT they still serve a need,

Space Force is go, go, go! Because we have a child as President of the United States

Re: The new Space Force will get its own Chief of Space Operations

But how are they going to get any "space" training with nothing to get into space with?

Just in case you were expecting 10Gbps, Wi-Fi 6 hits 700Mbps in real-world download tests

Re: My Mantra

Or homeplug!

My router is upstairs (No WIFI)

TV etc all connected via homeplug including a WIFO router for phones , laptops and tablets.

Since the FCC won't act, Congress finally moves on robocalls by passing half-decent TRACED Act

Re: Author is clueless

I assume that no matter what phone number comes up on your phone when a robocaller calls the telephone company DOES KNOW who they really are as they have to bill them.

Google, Rockstar to bury zombie Nortel patent lawsuit

The life of a patent

Although I understand and appreciate the use of patents the whole system seems to be a total mess.

Where there were a few thousand patents deciding if you might have invented something that someone else had already patended was probably not too hard. IF you had money.

But today, with millions of patents and the USA allowing patents on Software! (O.M.G What a stupid idea) the whole thing has become an utter farce.

Only the largest companies with bottomless pockets can now fish in this pond.

I think patents should have a max term of 10 years to monetise them.

A Similar thing should be done with copyright. 10 years AFTER the death ofthe copyrtight owner. No more...

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: A quirky investigation into why AI does not always work

AI (Not inteligent)

All this talk about AI seems to be misleading. What wer are currently talking about at best is pattern matching. there is no inteigences with the current AI.

I think to say that the current AI are as smart as an earth worm is to denigrate earth worms.

We should STOP using the term AI for something as simplistic as what we can currently do.

ML or PM (Pattern matching) maybe but NOT AI.

Security giants line up behind push to stop stalkerware being used on smartphones

Just sell them an empty phone

That is about the only way no tracking software is installed. No OS etc.

Although The Phone companies will still know where you are!¬

Judge shoots down Trump admin's efforts to allow folks to post shoddy 3D printer gun blueprints online

Re: Why a 3D printed gun?

IF I recall correctly the TOTAL Guns deaths in the WHOLE of the UK in 2017 or 2018 was under 70. Remind me again how many gun deaths in the U.S.A. Please in 2018. (40,000) And that is ANY death, accidental, suicode or Other!

Re: Why a 3D printed gun?

"Protection" Stranger thing that.

If possessing a "legal" gun helps protect people they why is the death by guns figures so high in the ol' U.S of A

40 million emoji-addicted keyboard app users left with $18m bill – after malware sneaks into Play Store yet again

Re: The moral of this story is...

I am too set in my ways (Or just caucious) but I see no need to give my phone any payment details. The same as I would never (In a million years) install a banking app on the most unsecure device going (A Moblile phone)

Boffins blow hot and cold over li-ion battery that can cut leccy car recharging to '10 mins'

Not everyone lives in a city with subways

How bad is Catalina? It's almost Apple Maps bad: MacOS 10.15 pushes Cupertino's low bar for code quality lower still

Re: Funny....

T.B.H unless we are talking about a Major upgrade to the OS why should it break ANY existing software.

If it keeps doing that for every release I would suggest that Apple (Microsoft are NOT exempt) have a deliberater policy of changing things so that they break stuff.

£3bn Google sueball over Safari Workaround bounces through UK Court of Appeal

Tax.....

The main issue is that there are too many vested interests to tax laws to be substantially changed.

Politians and civil servants hoping to get on the corporate gravy trains.... Political contributions...

etc....

I doubly that ANY reasonable person can honestly say that the tax laws in ALL countries do NOT favour large companies (with deep pockets).

Tax is too complicated and seems to be designed so that the large corporations can avoid paying rates of tax anywhere near what a small company in the same country pays.

IR35 blame game: Barclays to halt off-payroll contractors, goes directly to PAYE

Re: I'll not hold my breath though ...

Well, based on the experience I have had with India contractors not a lot of them are any good.

Y.M.M.V

And although I am sure the India devs are being paid peanuts I am not sure that their contracting company is also being paid peanuts.

Consumer campaign to keep receiving printed till receipts looks like a good move – on paper

Re: Universal store card

Just never give the store your email adress. Simples!

UK.gov's smart meter cost-benefit analysis for 2019 goes big on cost, easy on the benefits

The "benefits of smart meters"

I do not belive and have never believed that there is ANY cost benefit to the consumer of having smart meters.

Sorry, there is one small benefit.

As I have a smart meter now i can just look at the display to get my meter readings instead of crawling around to get them from the actual meters.

B.T.W the meter was installed by EON quite a few years ago but since then I have changed supplier twice.

As soon as I moved from EON the new suppliers have to read the meters manually (or I give them a meter reading)

Justice served: There is no escape from the long server log of the law

Re: By the itching of my thumbs...

My wifes experience with Central purchasing in the NHS and Local goverment is that whatever she "purchases" is generally MORE expensive that if just goinf to Office depot or the like.