
Re: I am not surprised at all that such a mission is still in flight after 19 years
I'm sorry. You think humans have civilisation?
47 posts • joined 12 May 2017
I won't have anything Alexa related in the house - I just don't trust them.
And that goes double for a robot that will, once the novelty has worn off, end up (a) back in its box, or (b) in the cupboard under the stairs, or (c) dumped on some unsuspecting pensioner ("This'll help you through the day Gran"), or (d) set up in the back yard to be shot at.
Maybe in ten years the technology will be useful, so long as the reporting back/cloud computing/spying has been sorted out, but now it's simply not for me.
Have they found any secret messages tucked away in the depts of Pi, maybe from the Creator to us Subjects?
"This is a Beta version. Please report any problems..."
"Hello to mum and dad. Told you I'd get to 32 trillion..."
"Congrations! You have just discovered the secret message."
"I think I made an error back a few digits. Better check..."
So Microsoft prefers "bugcheck" to 'death'-type words/descriptions. That's playing loose with the English language - something MS are very good at - but I prefer 'crashed' or 'knackered' as a description. They're not offensive words and are more descriptive of the problem compared to "bugcheck" which is another MS non-word.
I'm sure others can come up with other synonyms...
The next step is macro programming your car to go to the shops for you (emailing your shopping list to the shop) or, even better, order your shopping online and have someone else deliver it to you.
More time for you at Beer o'clock, while the technology does what it's always promised to do/deliver - which is great until the adverts (that will inevitably appear in the system, just like Smart TVs) mean your car will detour to get some Free Samples You May Like and then runs out of fuel a mile or two from home because of its abysmal range.
Yes, these retro computers aren't up to much compared to a good PC and a good graphics card etc, but they're fun; simple, nostalgic fun.
Also it's nice to have a computer that doesn't need an anti-virus or some complex OS to boot it. Yes, I know the Pi is almost that, but my The C64 and the Next (oh so tempting) behave in a different, and simpler, way. If you're interested in just playing a few games, get an emulator, but for the whole physical experience a solid machine you can touch (and even "ooh" over - oh, hang on, that sounds rude and even... um, ewh!) and appreciate (like an LP compared to a download music track) knocks emulation into a cocked hat.
Plus, for the average IT worker, £300 isn't much - it's a round of drinks, a filling up of the Porsche's tank, a weekend away for drinking and sex, or even... Well, hopefully you get my humorous point :-)
More bloody security issues - don't people have procedures in place to catch this sort of thing?
Plus, considering the piecemeal Android updates (often, none at all) these vulnerabilities will last the life of the product. It's like footballers in an Aberdeen bar all over again...!
We need software like LibreOffice, partly to try and help keep M$ honest (note I used 'try' and 'help' - I don't have a lot of faith). If I didn't need MS Publisher to handle my homemade booklets (I just don't get on with PagePlus) then I wouldn't pay good money for my Office subscription, plus I need to know the basics of Word, Outlook etc to have a chance of teaching/helping others - it's what I sometimes do...
I still advise them to get free (and Free) software, when it's of good quality and suitable, so stuff like Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice (plus Avast) are always high on my Recommended list.
Sorry, but stating that Android updates dribble out slowly is being generous! The fragmented update scene is more like an army of snails, all with a severe limp, advancing towards the besieged and vulnerable phones and tablets. Most won't make it, and those that do will be too late; the war will be over and the device will either have been hacked, rooted or bunged in the bin.
Say what you will about Microsoft's attitudes concerning updates, but at least you can get them (whether you want them or not). Google's method of giving updates to manufacturers instead of directly may result in better update testing but can result in vast delays and in a lot of cases no updates being issued at all for even slightly older devices.
I don't know the solution to this, but then again what do my views matter? I'm just a user. I'm not making £millions.
Having an assembler built-in to the basic machine was a bonus, such as the BBC and Commodore 16/Plus 4. OK, so a purchased one, especially with a good manual, was also grand, but having one in ROM meant fewer re-loading hassles - so long as you saved before running of course!
If you haven't surely it's time to remove Flash from your system, if you can. OK so some old programs may still use it, but it's just a security liability these days, and these programs should be retired as well, or at least updated/re-written not to include Flash.
...and as for Microsoft saying Edge is secure - well, patch after patch after patch suggests otherwise...
I've written stories, using Word and Publisher, that contained naughty/adult words in the past. Have Microsoft been spying on me and my stories all this time?
So, is it tin hats at twenty paces, or (and more simply) switch to LibreOffice?
My main moan is the continual re-release (often with 'extras' that you may listen to once and then never again) of old stuff. I have Rumours by Fleetwood Man on CD, vinyl and SACD. Now why should I have to pay for a high resolution download? I've contributed enough to FM's Peruvian Marching Powder Fund over the years I think!
It's similar with Kraftwerk's 3D Blu-ray box set - no high resolution digital download voucher; I'm expected to pay again to hear the same music on my high res music player (a Fiio X3 2nd Gen which plays just about everything). Well, how many Blu-ray players have either phono outs or headphone sockets? Talk about milking the customer who feeds you and making them/squeezing them pay until there is nothing left. OK, so having Rumours more than once suggests I need therapy, I can't argue too much with that...!
However, I still have physical media because it doesn't need the internet (with its ways, means and general other quirks) to authorise my playing of the music that I paid for.
I'd lovingly bake the Yorkypizza in the over until lightly golden brown, then I'd get one of those lovely ex-F1 grid girls to lie naked for me on the kitchen table while I place it on her belly (on a heat-retardant mat - I'm not a monster!), and then we (she and I) would slowly and lovingly devourer it - with some Mayo and a bit of tomato ketchup on the side, just for that extra spicy and stylish touch.
A nice idea, but what happens if we get a bug like this in the DRAM processor? Hopefully this DRAM/CPU hybrid would be as cheap as chips and being socketed it would be easy to update/replace.
Also, what CPU architecture would you use in the DRAM CPU? Something based on a current chip or some wonderful new architecture? Oh the design teams would have fun - a completely new design blank sheet! Then there's the design time, followed by the debugging time, and the bugs discovered after releasing the new wonder CPU. Me cynical? Nah...
Good grief! This sort of thing is exactly why only a few have advanced security! It's too complicated or too involving or too long winded or simply 'what?' for the average non-technical user. No, there has to be a better way then faffing about with a bloody mobile (no, I'm not in a cell) and getting a resend because the first one hasn't arrived. The tech just isn't good enough yet.
And as for reporting stuff to the tech giants - again why bother? It almost certainly doesn't get read, let alone acted upon, especially if you're outside the US. No, unless you're reporting from some whizzbang tech company in California you're just used as fodder to help pad out numbers for the advertisers to read; they don't really care about you.
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