Posts by VicMortimer

Wine 6.0.1: For that one weird app on that one weird Mac

Re: It's not an emulator

So with 6.0.1 on the M1 does that need to change to WINE is now an emulator?

Unfixable Apple M1 chip bug enables cross-process chatter, breaking OS security model

Re: T1 - anyone?

You're missing something. A T1 is a legacy connection, the telcos don't want to provide it. There's no up/down split, it's the same speed both directions. And it comes with various regulated service level obligations. Also, it's not 1.54MB/s, it's 1.54Mb/s. They're very uncommon now. The legacy 2Mb/s E1 is the rough equivalent in Europe.

The cheapest connection here is a $10/month 25Mb/s connection, not sure what the up speed is. Yes, that's a government subsidized low income price, but it's real and not uncommon.

In many places in the US, gigabit is available for about $100/month.

Prices and speeds vary wildly depending on where you live, cities tend to have better connectivity and lower prices, rural areas may have limited options.

The last T1 I personally dealt with was just shut down a few years ago, it was put in a few years before that because it's a regulated service that the telco had no choice but to install to the middle of nowhere, and having it installed accomplished the goal, it forced the telco to upgrade equipment and DSL became available not long after.

Refurb your enthusiasm: Apple is selling an 8-year-old desktop for over £5k

Re: It is Apple.

Eh, I'll run into one for my collection eventually.

After all, it took me well over a decade to get a 20th Anniversary Mac.

(It was the same price as my G4 Cube - free.)

Indian government says 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19. Also points out India has no 5G networks

Re: Hmmm

Obviously.

I mean, it lines up perfectly with the first widespread use of radio in warfare, doesn't it?

Samsung stops providing security updates to the Galaxy S8 at grand old age of four years

Re: planned obsolescence

It doesn't. Android as it exists in Samsung devices isn't FOSS. It's a locked-down encrypted bootloader proprietary OS that has some open source components.

What runs on Samsung phones out of the box is no more FOSS than iOS is. Here, have a kernel: https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu

Court snubs Microsoft, US govt's request to throw out Amazon's complaint against JEDI cloud contract decision

Neither of them should get it.

Government services should be provided from government data centers operated by government employees.

Private companies should NOT be involved at all.

We seem to have materialized in a universe in which Barney the Purple Dinosaur is designing iPhones for Apple

Huh? You can get a 16" MacBook Pro right now.

And you REALLY should, before they release one with that stupid M1 garbage chip. You can get it with 64GB RAM, far better than the 16GB you'll be limited to on the M1.

Seriously, if you want a Mac, buy an Intel Mac now while you still can.

Home office setup with built-in boiling water tap for tea and coffee without getting up is a monument to deskcess

I've got a very lovely home office desk, L shape, solid wood, room for my six screens (not counting the 50" on the wall behind me). And all for the lovely price of free.

I suppose I could add water taps and a fridge if I wanted.

But the reality these days is that if I don't have to go to a client site, I'm typically working from bed using a laptop or three.

IBM's CEO and outgoing exec chairman take home $38m in total for 2020 despite revenue shrinking by billions

Re: That thud

Let's not be silly here.

It's not like there was actually any actual work involved.

Asahi's plan for Linux on Apple's new silicon shows Cupertino has gone back to basics with iOS booting

Re: Serious questions

Yeah, it's a completely ridiculous statement.

Not only does installing the OS of your choice not void the warranty, it would be illegal for it to void the warranty. Apple couldn't void the warranty because you installed Linux even if they wanted to.

I have to question the motives of someone spreading disinformation like that.

Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

Re: Smoking

American here, it's still possible in my state to smoke in a bar. Bars that are 21+ in my state can elect to allow smoking.

I mean, they could in the before times. No idea now, maybe I'll find out in a month or so (my first shot is tomorrow).

Re: Keyboard covers are 'mandatory' in the healthcare sector...

In these days of COVID?

Every keyboard, mouse, x-ray button, and anything else tech-related has been wrapped in plastic.

A lot of things will have changed with Biden as US president, but an easier ride for Huawei is not one of them

Re: Cisco and/or NSA ?

Cisco is just pissed because they're not getting the contracts to continue the buildout on the Great Firewall any more.

A word to the Wyse: Smoking cigars in the office is very bad for you... and your monitor

Re: Don't think there's anything worse than the motherboard of a smoker's laptop...yuk

Good thing it wasn't cabbage soup.

I once dealt with a PowerBook 520c that had an encounter with a bowl of cabbage soup. The user managed to pull the battery and power pretty quickly, but it was already too late. Several traces on the logic board were just gone, and there was a lovely layer of green corrosion on quite a few more.

House Republicans introduce legislation for outright ban on municipal broadband in the US

What SHOULD happen is a ban on private companies providing broadband service and nationalization of all ISPs.

For-profit business should not be allowed to supply critical infrastructure.

Of course what we need even more urgently is for that to happen to healthcare. The state of healthcare in the US is abysmal.

The Fat iPhone, 11 years on: The iPad's over a decade old and we're still not sure what it's for

Re: Phone for the living room

I watched the keynote when it was released.

Shortly after, I had a discussion with a friend. I said something like "This is useless and stupid. It's hopelessly crippled, and outside of a few niche applications it's utterly pointless. They're going to sell like hotcakes, it'll be a huge hit for Apple."

I was 100% correct.

Oh, and my friend agreed with me about it being useless and stupid. He insisted it would be a flop. He still owes me a beer.

That's it. It's over. It's really over. From today, Adobe Flash Player no longer works. We're free. We can just leave

Re: Indeed

I'd say that depends on the value of "used to", I'd pretty much guarantee that things are worse now than they were in 1995, but probably better than 2010.

Anybody know what the last version of flash player without the logic bomb is?

(And even better have a download link?)

Boeing confirms last 747 to roll off production line in 2022

Re: Who rides the top deck?

That's a military plane.

Since UPS and FedEx generally convert old passenger planes, there's no reason to use anything but passenger seats or crew jump seats since they've already got them and they're already FAA approved, and the FAA doesn't really have much to do with military planes so their seats... aren't.

I understand FedEx leaves the 1st class seats installed in their 747 upper decks.

Realme 7 5G: Parents, this is the phone you should have got your kids for Christmas

Re: Battery

Dual SIM? Sorry, who needs that exactly?

Everybody's time is precious, pal: Sometimes it isn't only the terminals that are dumb

Ah yes, the days when many types of equipment actually had a "stop working" switch featured prominently enough that a user could flip it accidentally.

I'm not going to put the blame completely on the user for this one. Particularly if the user hadn't been allowed by management to move the modem, and by having IT show up and move it he actually got the problem resolved in a more durable fashion.

Windows might have frozen – but at least my feet are toasty

Re: ... their ability to understand why they should not do it.

Small space heaters in the US come with a label attached to the cord warning not to use them with an extension cord or power strip, but to only ever connect them directly to an outlet. It specifically warns of fire risk. The label also has a warning not to remove the label. It's placed very near the plug end of the cord.

The labels rarely get removed. But I frequently had to unplug heaters from power strips, and have even found a few connected to under desk UPSs.

The second time I had to do that for a particular user, I'd confiscate the heater until the user got a lecture.

(And no, the offices were almost never actually cold. But if it wasn't heated to 80F the users frequently claimed to be. Yes, many users would run the heater in the summer while large amounts of money was being spent to cool the office to a habitable temperature.)

Hong Kong's Hutchison Group, which runs mobile carrier ‘3’, protests as USA puts it on new China ban list

Re: we'll be ejecting his slimey kiester out

He left DC for the holidays yesterday. I suspect there's a good chance he'll never go back.

CentOS project changes focus, no more rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux – you'll have to flow with the Stream

Well, that's good timing.

I was just about to start testing CentOS 8 for a server upgrade I'd been planning. I've been using RH since... a really long time ago, back when there was just Red Hat Linux. I've still got RH 4 CDs somewhere, I think.

Just downloaded Ubuntu server to start testing.

NOT in the mood for this today.

For every disastrous rebrand, there is an IT person trying to steer away from the precipice

Ok, I've got to try this place once the pandemic is over:

Brother Z's Wang Shack

1407 Dickerson Pk

Nashville, TN

https://www.facebook.com/Brother-Zs-Wangs-116203635074436/

I work therefore I ache: Logitech aims to ease WFH pains with Ergo M575 trackball mouse

I hate these things so much.

Before remote access to user workstations was a thing, I'd carry a real mouse as part of my 'goes everywhere' kit just in case some f-ing asshole had a f-ing trackball. These days I will pull out my laptop and remote the asshole's computer from their desk before I'll touch one of these things.

I'm convinced the real purpose of these is to make putting the mouse pointer where it needs to be such a pain in the ass that far less work ever gets done.

And carpal tunnel? Seriously? These things are FAR less comfortable than the worst mouse I've ever used, and I've used some bad ones.

Elon Musk's ancient April Fools' gag about 'Tesla Tequila' made real in lightning-shaped bottle

Lightning bolt, or S rune?

Those are very popular in the Twitter Nazi crowd, they'll incorporate them into their usernames.

Elon has been taking a nasty turn toward right-wing politics lately. Did he just signal that he's gone even further?

Right to repair? At least you still have the right to despair: Camera modules cannot be swapped on the iPhone 12

Re: That's what you get

"That's what you get for buying current technology. Proprietary connectors and accessories, intentionally hard to repair, and artificial obstacles being put in the way when you do decide to repair despite the difficulty."

Fixed that for you.

This is NOT an Apple problem. This is a problem with the entire industry. The only fix is right to repair laws. Boycotting Apple won't do anything, and you'll just have equally unrepairable gear from Huawei instead.

Japan testing sandwiches that discount themselves as they age

Re: Surely the wrong approach?

Nothing happened to it. At least not here in America.

In fact, there's less plastic in sandwich packaging now than there was 30 years ago. You're going to get a sandwich wrapped in paper or on a plate virtually everywhere. You may get a drink in plastic, but not a sandwich.

Much is made of how horrible our fast food is (and a lot of that isn't wrong), but at least the sandwiches are made when you order them. I'm not even sure where I'd find a pre-made packaged sandwich if I wanted one.

If you suddenly can't print to your HP Printer from your Mac, you're not alone: Code security cert snafu blamed

Re: HP

It's 2020. Why are you still buying HP printers? They've only built garbage for over a decade now.

Re: HP problems

Huh? That reputation for good printers was based on hardware that was last built nearly 20 years ago.

Their reputation now is for complete garbage printers.

The old ones were built so well that most of them still work today. The newer ones are landfill.

Congrats, Meg Whitman, another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the CV: Her web vid upstart Quibi implodes

Yeah, I've heard of it. Kept getting "sign up for free" from T-mobile, most recently two days ago. Never bothered.

I just looked at the Wikipedia article to see WTF this actually is. Yeah, what an absolutely stupid idea, no one wants this crap. "Hey, you know how people are binge-watching entire series on Netflix? Yeah, let's give them the opposite of that and break shows down into 10 minute episodes. They'll love it!"

Short media gets watched because an entire concept is handled in a short video. Whether it's LPL showing how worthless a lock is as he picks it in 10 seconds or Techmoan giving us a bit of audio gear history, the whole concept fits into a single video. There are no "episodes". Oh, and it's free. Not free trial, no signup, just free.

There ain't no problem that can't be solved with the help of American horsepower – even yanking on a coax cable

Re: Never work with children or animals?

There is an actual product for that, and has been for many years.

https://www.greenlee.com/us/en/cablecaster-06186

Apple, Epic trade barbs in App Store brouhaha while judge pins July for jury time

Google and Apple are NOT similar here.

Apple blocks app installs from anywhere but the Apple app store. Google does not.

Apple has a monopoly. Google doesn't.

As far as I'm concerned, either one of them can charge 30% or 90%, doesn't matter as long as people aren't locked into only getting apps from an app store.

Happy Hacking Professional Hybrid mechanical keyboard: Weird, powerful, comfortable ... and did we mention weird?

Re: I've tried to like these over the years ...

Yes, it's good we have choices. Just be sure to take yours to a soundproof room before pressing a key.

I have always hated the Model M. Not only was it too noisy, it was just - ugh, never felt right to me.

Back in those days, the Apple Extended/Extended II was about the best we had. At this point I'm absolutely addicted to Apple's thin USB keyboard, the one they discontinued recently. It's absolutely perfect, quiet with exactly the right amount of key travel and feedback. The new Bluetooth one is too shallow.

Frames per second? Windows Terminal brings back text animation with the VT100 blink

Re: Non-Windows options

I actually had an ADM-3A at home. It came with the PDP-11. As did my DECwriters.

The DECwriters at school were only used by the administration, they set up rooms full of them for drop/add week. To change your schedule you filled out a form, stood in a long line, and handed it to somebody sitting at one of them. The resulting printout was your new schedule.

Re: not that f*&%@# piece of s*$% VT100...ahhhh...

I fortunately never had to use one for long. Most of the terminals at school were VT220s, there were only a few VT100s left. And the VT220 keyboard wasn't bad for the time.

By my second year of college I'd gotten a PowerBook 140, so I'd go to the Mac Plus lab (which was usually empty, and never completely full) and yank the LocalTalk network out of one of those and plug into my PowerBook. I'd just pick a random IP address somewhere in the university's subnet, which was so empty back then that the chances of me picking a duplicate were tiny.

TikTok seeks injunction to halt Trump ban, claims it would break America's own First and Fifth Amendments

Re: All Data Belongs To Us

Bullcrap.

This isn't about the US. This is about Donnie. It's purely personal.

This is about trying to destroy a platform where kids regularly post videos insulting the cheeto-faced, tiny-fingered, ferret-wearing shitgibbon.

Re: Sue

They don't care about government money.

They only care about what goes in their pocket.

She was praised by the CEO and promoted. After her brother and mom died, she returned from compassionate leave. IBM laid her off

This IBM is still weird to me.

I remember an IBM that was a bunch of stodgy old guys who wore suits every day. And that's everybody, even the guy they sent to crawl into the mainframe was going to show up wearing a dark suit and white shirt.

Age discrimination at IBM was against the young, not the old. People retired from IBM and got pensions.

Now they're just full of young idiots.

Re: What the Hell Has Happened to IBM?

Capitalism hasn't existed that much longer than 200 years. So no.

Woman dies after hospital is unable to treat her during crippling ransomware infection, cops launch probe

Re: Time to hit ransomware criminals

And when the attacker is sitting in Iran or China or Russia or North Korea? What then, go to war? The last three have nukes, you know.

You can't solve computer security problems with guns, not unless you want the whole world to burn.

Patch it or airgap it.

Virtually no ransomware in the wild will work on a patched-up system. It can't get to a properly airgapped system to f it up.

That CD you had may well be the result of things right, if burning a CD is the only way to get the data off the CT scan system, malware is going to have a hard time getting on.

Re: Why?

That's great and all, but if your systems can't be patched they need to be airgapped.

And if it can't be airgapped, any manufacturer putting a notice like that in the manual needs to take full liability for any hacking incident that occurs, including being charged with manslaughter for situations like this where a system not being patched caused a death.

Paragon 'optimistic' that its NTFS driver will be accepted into the Linux Kernel

Re: Whatever for?

Exactly.

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Hold on to your hats, Net Neutrality version 2 is on its way courtesy of Trump and the FCC's moves on Section 230

Re: Equality for online platforms and social media

Someone clearly has a fundamental misunderstanding of the law.

Chromium devs want the browser to talk to devices, computers directly via TCP, UDP. Obviously, nothing can go wrong

Re: Trustworthy?

Not Sure would definitely be more trustworthy than Trump.

You *bang* will never *smash* humiliate me *whack* in front of *clang* the teen computer whizz *crunch* EVER AGAIN

Re: With great power comes great incompatibility

At what company does IT have hire/fire authority over the janitorial staff?

Because I've never seen that anywhere.

'Get out of my office, you're being a pest!' Yes, son. Toymaker releases work-from-home-themed play sets

Is what gonna be forever? This virus? No. Working from home instead of having to go to the office? You bet your britches. We're never giving that up.

Beer, because drinking at lunch is a thing again.

Whoa-o BlackBerry, bam-ba-lam: QWERTY phone had a child. 5G thing's newly styled

A physical keyboard? On a phone? In 2020?

Does it get much stupider than that?

Seriously, there are maybe 10 people who want that garbage.

Physical keyboards are great on computers, where they're big enough that you can touch type. I'm using one now. But they are utterly pointless on a phone. You get to hunt and peck anyway, there's no advantage when you can't put both hands on the home row. It's just more crap to break.