Posts by shd

Type-safe C-killer Delphi hits 30, but a replacement has risen

As @Knightlie said, game changer at the time. I came in at something like version 3; mostly used it to write various utility programs - initially for internal use, but they "escaped". Still maintaining them to this day. A big plus point was that the output was a single executable; so simple to "install" (just copy into an appropriate place). Then version 8 appeared to sell its soul to Microsoft - went all "dot net" and suddenly needed an installer and multiple files. So we stopped at version 7.

Still not sure what to replace it with; unfortunately we used a couple of non-Delphi libraries, so Lazarus isn't an easy way out. I'd also like to drop Pascal, if possible, and have the option of multi-platform support. QT seems the obvious choice, but I'm not sure how our distributing software at no charge in a commercial environment would sit with their free licensing tiers (I've not bothered to check), and there's no way we could afford or justify a paying licence.

Meta told to pay $175m to walkie-talkie techies for infringing IP

Re: Dubious at first blush, but...

Four-wire phone systems certainly existed (may still do) for special purposes - used internally at BT, I believe, and also for some very special phone systems in interesting places. We used to make 4-wire phones by buying a standard Tribune, stripping out the guts and replacing it with a board of our own design. Did a small telephone exchange for them, as well.

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

I'm working towards a move to Linux on the desktop, but not clear what I should use for the server (less than 10 users). So what's the equivalent server to handle a mixed Linux/Windoze environment? Having never used Microsoft on the server, it would be somewhat of a retrograde step to support Linux better using a Microsoft concept!

We get the privacy we deserve from our behavior

"...if our choice is to continue to exhibit insecure behavior, we surely cannot have high expectations of privacy" is all very well, but what about those of us who do take security and privacy very seriously (and they are two separate, although linked, areas). Too many websites make it well nigh impossible to use them without requiring cookies and some trackers enabled, and it's not always possible to vote with your feet (I've got one where a pensions website has started using the Google captcha/tracker, which I keep disabled. Their responses have skated round privacy issues, so I think we can take it that the Google thing does reduce privacy. So do I refuse to use the site, which causes all sorts of other complications?)

France says Google Analytics breaches GDPR when it sends data to US

Does this also affect the Google "Captcha" which seems to be springing up on a lot of websites? (Think it was initially served from recaptcha.net). It means that it's not possible to log into some web sites if you have google.com disabled in the browser - so they lose my business. They presumably also ship data to the US.

Spruce up your CV or just bin it? Survey finds recruiters are considering alternatives

Re: A CV can be a useful starting point

"....nor do I care what their hobbies are...." - a hobby can provide personal development; sometimes much broader than job-related development. And particularly beneficial for someone such as me, who has only worked for small companies. In my own case my main hobby (sailing) has taught me accounting - at age 25 or so I was thrown in as Treasurer when the previous incumbent baled out with a nervous breakdown - so no help, other than working things out from the records, pen and paper, no Internet.... But I learned everything up to creating the final P&L and balance sheet. Most engineer-type posts wouldn't teach you that. I learned how to persuade other members to do what was needed (as volunteers they could just walk away) and on practical tasks often learned quite a lot from them. As an instructor I learned some teaching skills, and I learned how to deal with outside organisations. Plus a load of other things.

So don't write off hobbies entirely - some can add a substantial amount to the person you're considering hiring.

Shocking: UK electricity tariffs are among world's most expensive

Re: Electric should be cheaper, gas more expensive

Not difficult (or costly) to use a car battery and an inverter to power the control side of gas central heating. (Or, for a bit more, have a small generator to power some light as well. But with the advent of E10 petrol, recommend LPG instead)

Power management IC shortage holding cars, laptops, hostage

Re: Have I got a deal for you...

Genuine second sourcing is quite unusual nowadays, as far as I can tell. Often a de facto second source happens because a second manufacturer produces a nominally compatible device with the same pinout - for varying degrees of 'compatible'. Or the copy has additional useful features, which then mean the original can't replace it.

Some manufacturers don't even pay attention to backward compatibility within their own ranges. I've got one chip (ordered April this year, now due October 2022) where the same manufacturer has a number of suitable alternatives (apart from all of them also being on long lead times) - all have different pinouts.

Which? survey finds people would actually pay the online giants not to take their data

With Google, there's also the issue of "aids" they provide to web site operators, which started with analytics. The latest is the Google "capture" which seems to be coming more prevalent - who knows what data that slurps without consent?

Normally I just avoid such sites, but its difficult when official and quasi-official bodies, who IMO should no better, start to use Google - then you are stuck.

Apple's privacy pledges: We sent dev checks over plain HTTP, logged IP addresses. We bypass firewall apps

This reads as if you can't run the program if you're not connected to the internet. If so, that's surely a bad thing - not everyone has a permanent umbilical cord connecting them?

Panic in the mailroom: The perils of an operating system too smart for its own good

Cheques can be very useful as proof of receipt of a letter they were attached to. For some reason it's usually utility companies that need this approach. And sometimes the money-catching department grabs and banks the cheque before anyone has read the letter ("By banking the enclosed cheque you agree that....")

Faxing hell: The cops say they would very much like us to stop calling them all the time

Re: Fax will never die!

I still use a fax machine to pay most of the monthly bills at my small company. Much more secure than online (only potential problem being between paper and dialpad), and I reckon it takes me a bit less time than doing it online as well

Microsoft tells resellers: 'We listened to you, and we have acted' (PS: Plz keep making us money)

As a small business, we also hate regular subscriptions or payments to anything - our business is extremely spiky, so we prefer to buy things outright when we've got money.

But we've got a worse problem, in that our aging Novell Netware servers are overdue for replacement - but I can't bring myself to move to Microsoft for them, yet haven't found a viable alternative path.

That's the way the cookies crumble: Consent banners up 16% since GDPR

+1

Might be coincidence, but since the GPDR I've also noticed an increasing number of web sites which are totally non-functional unless you have cookies enabled (as well as Javascript), whereas before they used to work well enough for my purposes without. And there's one where some kinds of search don't work any more.

Their loss, usually - because I go somewhere else first.

There's more to life than Windows

I agree with Steve Davies 3 (actually my namesake) - having never used AD, I'm sweating on keeping an aging Netware system going (it pretty much "just works") in the hope that I can find a viable alternative to Microsoft products on the server for a small business.

Given my push to have more Linux on the desktop (thanks to Windows 10) it would be ironic to have to use Microsoft on the server.

Samba looks to be a reasonable starting point, but I haven't found time to bone up on what else is needed yet.