* Posts by Craig100

73 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jul 2015

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Microsoft offers SQL Server 2022 release candidate to Linux world

Craig100

If it ran on Linux LTS's it would be an improvement

Since SQL Server for Linux came out I managed to switch my Umbraco development to my main Linux Mint desktop, which was great. However, upgrading to latest Mint LTS (21.0 - based on Ubuntu 22.04) it's all gone to rats as MS are WAY behind keeping their offering up to date. You can't install SQL Server 2019 for Linux on Ubuntu 22.04, only on 20.4! This is SOooo frustrating. I mean they'll have had industry knowledge of the LTS as they come out like clockwork. It's been out now for 8 months and they're still stuck on a version over 2½ years old. Wish Umbraco would finally make it possible to use a native Linux DB. Don't care which, just one that's kept up to date and pref not M$.

Intel ‘regrets’ offending China with letter telling suppliers to avoid Xinjiang

Craig100

Reminds one of the old adage "No one ever got fired for ordering IBM". In other words, "No one is too big to fail"! Intel better stick to it's guns. If your profits from China are dependent on genocide then you better look out. i.e. Just tell the bad guys to fuck off! Unless of course you believe evil wins out in the end?!

What you need to know about Microsoft Windows 11: It will run Android apps

Craig100

Re: What . . . why?

I wouldn't call them "authoritarian". I'd call them "arrogant and naive", as they always have been IMHO.

Prince Philip, inadvertent father of the Computer Misuse Act, dies aged 99

Craig100

Re: Bad greek

Not to mention Lake Windermere!

Google and Microsoft's public squabble over who's the worst is giving us life right now, not gonna lie

Craig100

Devs to the rescue?

So you have a site that you invite people to put content on but you want "some" people to pay to put content on (News outlets).

Then you have Google, the master manipulator (or so it thinks!), switching from 3rd party cookies to what are effectively scripts disguised as 1st party (because you redirect a subdomain to point to them) so they can still thieve whatever details they can via your browser.

Wouldn't it be amazing if developers just refused to comply?

Google's 'privacy-first' ad tech FLoC squawks when Chrome goes Incognito, says expert. Web giant disagrees

Craig100

Interest-based doesn't work anyway

When will Google and all their non-questioning acolytes realise that personalisation of ads just doesn't work? All they do is make people expend tons of effort trying to get "sales and marketing" out of their faces and behind their shop fronts where they should be.

Google's methods are akin to walking through a bazaar getting stopped at every step to be shown some other piece of crap you've no interest in. Not because you might not be interested but because you're not shopping 24x7, some of use have other stuff to do! Most of the time they're just plain wrong in their suggestions because they don't appreciate that we're actually intelligent and curious. Just because I was curious as to how an item was made and looked it up doesn't equate to wanting to buy one. I'd much rather be shown non-personalised ads so I have my horizons broadened. Not shown the same old tat all the time.

IMO Google are just stupid, stupid, stupid. Oh, and evil.

Dell CTO shares his hottest trends for 2021: Four interesting technologies, one of which is still borderline sci-fi for now

Craig100

Put the "Personal" back

I'd just like them to put the "Personal" back in to PC's. As a Linux user on latest Dell kit (XPS15 i9 + TB16 Dock), I find that what they actually produce are "Windows Appliances". Oh yes, with some wrangling you can get Linux Mint running but by Christ don't ever think you can upgrade the dock without Windows. Yet their reps are very happy to flog you the stuff in the full knowledge of what you're going to run on it. Just wish they'd stop tuning the hardware design to a particular OS.

They have a wonderful next business day onsite engineering service. I've had them out 4 times in 2 years. Friends and colleagues, many times more. I'd rather buy kit that didn't need it tbh. And don't get me started about swollen batteries.

'We've heard the feedback...' Microsoft 365 axes per-user productivity monitoring after privacy backlash

Craig100

Half baked

In my book Microsoft is a byword for naive arrogance and a great source of half baked ideas and terrible UI's. "We all think it's great, why wouldn't anyone else? Let's do it!"

The GIMP turns 25 and promises to carry on being the FOSS not-Photoshop

Craig100

Re: 25 years and still a pain to use

Surely they could change the UI "features" that users find problematic. The point of engineering, software engineering included, is to solve problems. If a UI is buggy, it means the Humans are being mislead. They need the path making clearer, so change the bleedin' UI :)

Fancy building to-spec PCs for the Bank of England, and more? A £46m end user support contract is up for grabs

Craig100

Wonder who'll get it

I'd be very surprised if it doesn't end up being of the Serco, Crapita, G4S et al kabal.

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?

Craig100

Re: Why are sockets switched?

Er..."Lower voltage means higher current" is nonsense I'm afraid. Stick your finger in a 120V socket and you'll get Y milliamps flowing to earth. Stick same finger in a 240V socket and you'll get Y x 2 milliamps flowing to earth.

Lower voltage means you'll need to pass a higher current to get the same power output. You'll get that with a lower load resistance. Therefore you'll need larger, more expensive conductors in your 120V installation. A 3KW kettle will pull 12.5A on 240V (hence a UK socket is rated at 13A), whereas it'll pull 25A on 120V, requiring larger conductors and also greater transmission losses as heat is I²R. Hence why power is transmitted across country at such high voltages, to keep the current and therefore losses AND cost of infrastructure down.

Craig100

"verifying the voltmeter is functioning properly (check a known-good outlet!) before performing the test."

If I'd have done that as a young electrician I wouldn't have blown the arse out of a perfectly good AVO when I selected A instead of V and tested across two 440V 3 phase fuses. I still have them varnished in a box somewhere. They were quite impressive, as was the flash!

Craig100

Re: Failing switches?

They are also a concession to the pins themselves. Any arcing on disconnection will occur in the switch which has appropriate arc quenching devices. Quite often see black marks on EU/US sockets where plugs have just been yanked out live.

Craig100

Re: Failing switches?

Ahem.... Bulbs?!!!! They're called lamps. Bulbs go in your garden. ..... Old electrician's joke. I'll get my coat.

But before I do, UK 13A sockets have switches on for added safety. We like to take it seriously as it's a lethal force ;) They also have integral live and neutral pin/cocket guards, lifted out of the way when the longer earth (ground) pin goes in. Again for added safety. AND you can even buy plastic covers for them so little ones can't try to stick things in the holes.

At least we try. Now where's my coat?

Adobe updates Creative Cloud: Pushes out Illustrator for iPad and full sky replacement in Photoshop

Craig100
Holmes

No Linux version still?

Still no Linux version though. Adobe must be M$'s best friend. So many could ditch Windoze if Adobe could squeeze out a Linux version. Luckily I can make do with GIMP, Inkscape and Blender, but Adobe's suite would be nice.

What a Hancock-up: Excel spreadsheet blunder blamed after England under-reports 16,000 COVID-19 cases

Craig100

Er, JSON

Why not use JSON with an API feeding a database or am I missing something? Pretty standard n'est pas?

Proposed US fix for Boeing 737 Max software woes does not address Ethiopian crash scenario, UK pilot union warns

Craig100

Re: Is it safe?

"Maybe they should have got Microsoft to develop it. They know all about crashes. Just fit three new keys on the instrument panel (Ctrl-Alt-Del)"

They're the last people you want interfering in critical systems. They'd try and be trendy and hide the controls rather than help you in an emergency. They can't design a UI (MMI) for toffee.

Ports in a storm: The Matebook 14 won't set your world on fire, but it's still a half-decent laptop

Craig100

Dell TB16 Dock Madness

<rant>I've been struggling with a Dell XPS15 i9 and a TB 16 dock with Linux Mint. The dock has a mind of it's own. Often doesn't wake up the displays and often loses partial USB connectivity (i.e. function keys stop working on MS USB keyboard). And all because everything goes through the damn Thunderbolt connector. Also you can't upgrade the software without doffing your cap to some other XPS user that has Windoze installed. Dell really have messed up their designs, not to mention the nostril cam and vicious fan noise. </rant>

Angular framework support brings Microsoft's Visual Studio into line with its way cooler little brother, VS Code

Craig100

Re: I just wish they'd.....

Agreed, Angular is probably not an edge case but there's plenty of stuff recently that is. I've seen Rider, probably just need a bit of time to give it a proper go. I know plenty that have made the switch.

Craig100

I just wish they'd.....

Sick and tired of hearing what edge cases that I bet hardly anyone asked for or use keep getting shoe-horned into VS. I was at it's predecessor's launch in the UK in 1997, Visual Interdev, and have been using it and all it's derivatives ever since. ALL I want is for them to fix the bleedin' text editor. Is that too much to ask? I build web sites so constantly using CSS, JS, Razor templates, etc. and if you ever try to cut and paste a bit of code from here to there, the whole page goes tits up. I've learned to Ctrl-Z pretty quick which reverts the auto-formatting, but it's just a PITA. You expend way more key strokes getting back to how you wanted it than their "intellisense" ever saves. In the options they give you myriad ways to switch formatting aspects on or off but not the whole thing for all languages.

Can't they just get the basics right first and THEN see about adding functionality? I've been ranting on about this for more than a decade but no one from MS is interested. Obviously not conducive to promotion to say your boss made a mess and left it, lol

Hey, Brits. Your Google data is leaving the EU before you are: Hoard to be shipped from Ireland to US next month

Craig100

Do No Evil ?

Google, being nasty (evil) every chance they can. Hard to think which of the US tech giants is the creepiest. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook? They're all pretty bad.

Contractors welcome Lords inquiry into IR35 before tax reforms hit private sector but fear it's 'too little, too late'

Craig100

Re: With Typical Reg Thoroughness...

Well we all know "Government can't do IT" so don't hold your breath for the page to be fixed. There'll be no one to do it now all the Contractors have left, and there's no chance of getting an outside agency to do it. I mean, would you? :)

Brave, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla gather together to talk web privacy... and why we all shouldn't get too much of it

Craig100

Re: Online advertisers are pretty stupid

"I'd ban all online POLITICAL advertising that uses personalisation and make it a serious criminal offence to practice it." I should have said ;)

Craig100

Online advertisers are pretty stupid

1) I search for and pay for a hotel room in Copenhagen. For the next 6 months I see loads of ads for hotel rooms in Copenhagen. How is that a clever use of advertising? Utter idiots. I'd much prefer to see random adverts so I can look at stuff I'd never have thought of, you know, widen my horizons. Online advertisers are idiots.

2) Personalisation risks democracy. Democracy works because we're all told the same couple of stories. We each pick one, then the winner wins. If everyone is told a different story, how the hell can you know what you're getting? That's just manipulation of the populace to get you into power at any cost. I'd ban all online advertising that uses personalisation and make it a serious criminal offence to practice it.

Just my two cents/pennies, whatever :)

Microsoft's on Edge and you could be, too: Chromium-based browser exits beta – with teething problems

Craig100

Re: Finally, goodbye Chrome!

What about Brave? Isn't that Chromium without Google snooping. I hope so, I've been using it for 13 months now and love it.

Dell slathers on factor XPS 13 to reveal new shiny with... ooh... a 0.1 inch bigger screen

Craig100

Re: I guess I'm not the target market.

I have one of those too (XPS 15 4K) with the i9. Bought it as a desktop replacement), given it's power, and run only Linux MInt on it (wiped W10 on delivery). Awful temperature/fan problems. Because the screen hinge blocks the fan exhausts when shut, have to run it with the screen half up while driving two 27" displays via the very unreliable TB16 dock. I also hate the fact you have to either have a dock or dongle extension. Def won't be buying another one when this one's time is up. Bigger with ports, good ventilation and a camera in the TOP of the bezel not by the keyboard next!

Otherwise it's a nicely built machine I suppose.

If there were almost a million computer misuse crimes last year, Action Fraud is only passing 2% of cases to cops

Craig100

Chocolate teapot

It's a joke. My builder's email account was compromised so in reply to my email asking for bank details to send him a 2K deposit, I got a sensible reply with someone else's bank details (so it turns out!). Money went missing. My bank and his bank were pretty useless. Action Fraud just said basically they get a report like this every 11 seconds so what did I expect them to be able to do about it!!! Well, for a start, requisition logs from the email providers, work through the IP addresses, match up the receiving bank account with an individual. If you can't do that then the receiving bank is at fault as far as I'm concerned and should have refunded the amount as they'd obviously opened an account without checking ID, etc. The same thing happened a few weeks later with email, no money went this time as I was wise to it, but could I get them to get on a very hot trail? Absolutely not interested and VERY difficult to get to talk to them. Waste of space if you're expecting action. I think they just collect data and that's it.

Microsoft Teams: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Craig100

Unified Comms

Once upon a time there was just the phone. We could all talk to our clients and suppliers. Then there was Skype, we could all talk to our clients and suppliers on both. Then M$ bought Skype. Those that aren't Windows users are now cut out of the loop. I've been a Linux Mint user for about a decade now. Never had any problem till my last contract where they used Teams. There's a browser based version that's suddenly stopped working on Chrome-based browsers and will only work on Firefox or the Android Teams app. I just despair with M$. All the M$ employees I know never fail to tell me "we're not the same company we used to be", but they are to Windows users. I reckon it's marketing led. Releasing software the devs haven't finished, etc. I just despair with large corporations in general.

Microsoft buffs its rings, emits Code and goes global with Kaizala

Craig100

Skype behind

I noticed Skype was mentioned, albeit quietly. It's a disgrace what MS have done to it and it's army of users. Communication is now so fragmented. When there was just Skype it was fine. You could pretty much talk to anyone. Now, it's a total dogs breakfast trying to communicate between Windows, Mac and Linux users and again between what's laughingly called Skype for Business and Consumer Skype. I believe they scraped the code base when they bought it and re-badged Lync. Wonder if anyone here knows if this is true or not?

It's alive! Hands on with Microsoft's Chromium Edge browser

Craig100

Re: Privacy? We've heard of it,

I've been using Brave as my default for 5 months now, including for web development. Hasn't put a foot wrong so far. Anyone else?

They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7

Craig100

Re: Best virtualisation options?

I've been running Win7/10 in a VirtualBox VM for nearly 10 years. Now on a Linux Mint host and across two screens. It's fab. 2D and 3D accel. YMMV though of course ;)

2 weeks till Brexit and Defra, at the very least, looks set to be caught with its IT pants down

Craig100

Scrap the parties

How about scrap the parties and have multiple choice ballot papers with policies on them instead? Then parliament enact the policies. No more tribal time wasting. Just a thought ;)

Skype for Web arrives to bring the world together. As long as the world is on Chrome and... Edge?

Craig100

Re: So that's Microsoft's attempt at WebRTC then?

Just installed Wire on Linux Mint. Nice. Now I just have to convince all my Skype and SfB contacts to do the same :(

Lenovo kicks down door of MWC, dumps a stack of sexy new ThinkPads

Craig100

Re: XPS 13

I wouldn't say Dell are cleaning up. I've been waiting 3 weeks for them to get their shit together enough to actually get parts and engineer together at the same time to replace a loose trackpad on a brand new XPS15 i9 custom build I ordered. 1st engineer tells me it's meant to be rattley when you touch it! Since then, total incompetence from their logistics dept. Last chance this Friday or it's going back for a refund. If it's fixed I'll be running Linux Mint on it. Takes a bit of wrangling but can be done :)

Home users due for a battering with Microsoft 365 subscription stick

Craig100

Re: Never guessed...

I just bought a Dell XPS15. Said they wouldn't sell it without Windoze so had to pay the tax. Of course I've wiped it and put Linux Mint 19 on it. Their QA is awful. The trackpad rattles when touched, the display stands are about 4" too short with missing HDMI cables as well. It's like they're a start up. Don't think I'll buy from them again. Nice machines, but have cost me a lot in time due to poor service and waiting in for engineers. Still not using the lappy 2 weeks after delivery. AND my 3 year old M3800's battery has swollen for which they want nearly £300 to fix!. So not a good track record Dell!

Dratted hipster UX designers stole my corporate app

Craig100

Incompetence rools

All the Big Corps that can't be bothered to think seriously about their products other than the share holders' dividends seem to be going the same way on UX/UI. All Google and Microsoft UI's are utter garbage. And I'm guessing they've employed UI/Ux experts. From their results, it would appear they're actually just graphic designers trying to be clever, have no experience of life, no empathy wrt the end user and should never have been engaged in the first place. The whole shit show is going to hell in a hand cart. We're just drowning in a sea of incompetence.

UK transport's 'ludicrous' robocar code may 'put lives at risk'

Craig100

Written by a politician

Reading the article it would appear a responsible engineer has been nowhere near that document. It appears to have been written by a politician or HR specialist. They should be kept as far as possible away from this stuff until it's ready. Engineering trials are serious business and media specialists have no experience of life and death decisions. Quite shocking, but then if you have a politico in charge, with no life experience, what can you expect?!

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Craig100

Re: Waterfox, my Brave friend

I agree Brave WAS bad 6 months or more ago but I've been using it as my default browser on Linux Mint and Windows 10 for the last two months and am loving it. As a full time, freelance web dev, I'd notice if it misbehaved, and it hasn't (so far).

Dutch boyband hopes to reverse Brexit through the power of music

Craig100

Anyone remember EuroTrash?

I do! ;)

Microsoft flings untested Windows 10 updates to users! (Oh no it doesn't!)

Craig100

Chrome the Brave

The Brave browser has finally come of age for me. I'd been using it very occasionally over the last year but have just switched it to be my default browser. Must say, I'm quite impressed. Chromium based browser, X platform, good privacy and cookie controls. Using it on Linux Mint and Win 10.

Question: How fast is the Windows 10 October 2018 Update rolling out? Answer: Not very

Craig100

Re: Whats with all the masochism

My "line in the sand" was Vista. That's when I realised M$ were a bunch of fratboys playing with poorly thought out, but "new" ideas. Instead of standing on the shoulders of giants and improving things. Said goodbye to Windows as the OS on the metal in 2009 and haven't really looked back. Even though I earn my living from .net web sites, can't wait for my CMS of choice to run on .net core so I can ditch the Windows VM and Visual Studio.

As for the alternatives being worse. They're slightly different certainly, and in some ways much better, but I take your point on current office integration. Just needs a bit of investment ;)

Microsoft points to a golden future where you can make Windows 10 your own

Craig100

Re: Windows Insider: Hustle as a Service

"Hassle as a Service" surely. Or just plainly "a disservice" ;)

UK.gov agencies told to drop fancy tech or risk 'reinventing the wheel'

Craig100

HMRC AI

I was paid £20 compensation by HMRC when I blew a gasket at their ridiculous voice activated phone reception. So they spent millions implementing something no one asked for, and did it so badly they're paying compensation to it's users. Utter crap. People SHOULD be fired for that sort of nonsense.

Sur-Pies! Google shocks world with sudden Android 9 Pixel push

Craig100

Predictable my arse

I really don't get this predicting game. Windoze tries it all the time. I expend more mouse clicks undoing what it thinks I want to do next than if it just pissed off and let me do my own thing. The arrogance of these system designers astounds me. We're free thinking, creative humans, not machines. Give us stuff that helps, not hinders. Just get out of our way.

I thank you ;)

Some of you really don't want Windows 10's April 2018 update on your rigs

Craig100

Re: Use Linux...

Sorry, but I couldn't disagree more. Linux Mint (for instance) is quick extremely easy to install. If you agree, it will even import all your Windows documents for you. As for support, there is loads of friendly community help out there. Nothing like the arrogant Microsoft technosphere. As it's open source, you CAN actually fix stuff if you have to. It's not all in proprietary, locked DLLs.

I was a dyed-in-the-wool Windows fanboy from Win3.x to Vista when I totally lost faith with MS and moved to Ubuntu (and then to Mint). It was a move I had to think about seriously, ran both together for a month and Windows just died naturally. That was in 2009. 9 years later, I'm still happy with my decision. I'm a web dev and build Umbraco sites on .NET. I have to use a Windows VM in Virtual Box. Works absolutely fine. Try it, there's nothing to be afraid of (as long as you're not stuck in an Office365/Teams/Project/Skype for Business/Planner/SharePoint/etc/etc nightmare of a company ;)).

Google Chrome: HTTPS or bust. Insecure HTTP D-Day is tomorrow, folks

Craig100

Shared hosting licking their lips

I'm with the guys who say not all sites need HTTPS. It's all very well if you're running your own servers or VM's but shared hosting ISPs charge a fortune for certs and hardly any use Let's Encrypt. Why would they when they'd lose so much money. A few of my client's are micro-businesses or charities and wouldn't stand the extra costs. They're on share hosting cos it's cheap.

Google should pull it's neck in. All for security where it's needed, otherwise, piss off!

Navy names new attack sub HMS Agincourt

Craig100

It was either Renown or Revenge, the Polaris boats built by Cammel Lairds, that had an unplanned for step in it's foredeck and was therefore named "The Birkenhead Banana Boat" in Barrow ;)

Craig100

Reminds me of the story of Churchill planning his funeral. After the trip up the river, where the crane drivers were bribed to work overtime to lower their jibs, he was then due to travel North to his final resting place. So rather than landing on the North bank of the Thames and leaving by some station like Kings Cross, he insisted on being landed on the South bank. This was apparently because he knew General De Gaulle would then have to attend Waterloo station for the farewell from the Capital :) Love that story.

Domain name sellers rub ICANN's face in sticky mess of Europe's GDPR

Craig100

Why bother

Why does a company based outside an EU entity even have to bother? If the EU wants to fine them, surely they can just give them the middle finger?

Brit retailer Currys PC World says sorry for Know How scam

Craig100

Re: Sharp Practice

Dell do lappys with Ubuntu. I got a great one. Wiped it immediately and put Mint on it :) Didn't have to pay the M$ tax.

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