Posts by Waseem Alkurdi

Pixel 3, 3XL, Slate tab launch: Google emits swanky iPad botherer while tarting up mobes

The "Home Homie Hub" craze

Isn't it just like the Media Center (the type of M$-saddled computer) of yore?

Can't a Pi with a touchscreen and half a dozen of relays and a FOSS "dashboard" do the job?

Damn, even an old tablet can suffice.

The tablet is just par

But being frank, the keyboard is awesome.

And what's with the no-headphone-jack on a massive device? The 2011 iPad 2 had one, yet it looks even slimmer than this thing here.

Punkt: A minimalist Android for the paranoid

Re: Dazed and confused...maybe because I'm seventy....

But doesn't the SIM card require an activation process of sorts, where they collect personal ID?

Re: Do you have a Gemini - if so what's it like?

Great write-up!

I've recently seen an (original) Psion Series 5mx (as old as I am), and I liked the form factor, so I'm considering a Gemini.

But on the other hand, there's the equally awesome, but more "computery" GPD Pocket and its copycat One Netbook Yoga. It lacks the coolness of the Psion form factor, but is a "real" computer.

So which one would you recommend?

Microsoft yanks the document-destroying Windows 10 October 2018 Update

You made me laugh for two minutes straight! ^_^

This one is on me (non-alcoholic beer though xD)

Re: "Their management needs Linus to give them a lecture about not breaking things."

Yep, @bombastic bob takes down the house once more!

(How's that Windows 10 on your laptop going? ;-P )

Re: Not Cloudy Here

Or in other words: lock it up and throw the key

Never break luserland, they say.

The problem *is* *in* *the* *userland*. So perhaps Debian should teach them how to implement Debian Stable. When you measure solidity of rocks, they compare them to Debian Stable.

Re: Not Cloudy Here

Tell that to Average Jo{e,anne} who just lost all his/her data because Windows decided it was fit to auto-update.

Re: major business software for Windows were made available for other OS

I'm using Eagle CAD windows version on Wine (perfectly actually), because while there IS an excellent Linux version

Because the code relied heavily on APIs exposed by Wine, or because both versions share the same code base, not necessarily because there is a Linux version *only*.

Re: or a handy install of Linux.

Why not? Remember Microsoft Linux ( mslinux.org )?

On the seventh anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, we give you 7 times he served humanity and acted as an example to others

I totally agree.

But doesn't forgiveness require both? Good work that indicates one has changed, in addition to a serious apology, preferably in public?

Good question.

Two answers are possible. One is based on a strictly material worldview, and the other is based on the view that the material world is not the end.

The first possible answer is that no, his present actions do not forgive his past ones. This is likely the view held by a court of law, for example. A court of law wouldn't give a damn if he repented or whether he feels guilty and is never going to repeat his bad actions. His "inside change" doesn't change anything on the material level. It doesn't "wipe away" his past actions.

The second answer is that yes, his present actions do forgive his past ones, because he has changed on the inside. His change on the inside means that he won't repeat his actions, and God would forgive him in exchange for his past misdeeds.

Er, Most Revered Saint Jobs, not Steve Jobs.

It is irrelevant that he might've been good one day. Any criminal or other bad-behaving individual in this world might've been good in the past. What matters is his later positions and actions.

If we choose to judge apparently bad people based on their past good behavior, then criminals could well be forgiven by judges for being, one day, good members of society.

Anyhow, we shouldn't judge him ourselves, let's leave that to God. But we should definitely take his actions into consideration when we form our opinion of him, especially for people who, unlike yourself, did not meet him personally.

Re: "oh boy"

Shows you that El Reg really sticks to their motto, "Biting the hand that feeds IT", doesn't it?

But a question is to be asked:

Do his material contributions "cancel out" his moral attitude (or rather, the lack of it)?

Or to give an inflated example that shows the dilemma more, let's say Nikola Tesla was in jail for a bunch of serious crimes. Is he entitled to an honorable mention post-mortem for his work, regardless of his "dark side"?

but none of these things would have happened without him.

It could be argued with equal facility that another genius might've come along and invented these same things, just in a different fashion.

Phones might've still retained buttons BlackBerry-style (and Android would've continued as planned originally, an OS for BlackBerry clones), or Microsoft could've possibly introduced Windows Mobile to the consumer market.

Or Steve Wozniak might've invented the Mac et al on his own.

Exactly.

It becomes worse if you read the (paywalled) section of the article (described here: http://www.skeptophilia.com/2012/09/the-motive-fallacy-and-reincarnation-of.html), a Buddhist sect leader also claims that SJ is in a "tech nirvana", described as:

"After Steve Jobs passed away, he was reincarnated as a divine being with a special knowledge and appreciation for science and the arts.

Everything is high-tech, beautiful, and simple, exactly the way he likes it, and he is filled with great excitement and amazement."

And also from the article linked above:

"He then went on to say that Jobs now has a full head of hair, sleeps on a floating hover-bed, and if he wants to eat, one of twenty servants immediately brings him what he would like, and if he thinks about his favorite song, it starts playing."

Re: Rude

Reflecting back on what I read, I think that I need to downvote myself.

Too excessive and unfair on my part to wish that he burns without peace in his grave, especially that the man is dead, but that doesn't change anything from the fact that what he did was really, really unfair, unjust, and plain unacceptable towards his daughter.

Apparently not, according to these guys:

http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2012/08/31/thai-group-says-steve-jobs-reincarnated-as-warrior-philosopher/

Re: Jobs: "Yous get ought for nouht in't life!"

Is that what he really intended when he did this?

And even worse, does that justify what he did to his daughter, an act that verges on criminally inhuman?

It seems like he's having revenge on her because he was an adopted son himself (who denied his biological paternity as well).

Does she deserve being deprived of at least a proper life without living on welfare where her daddy makes millions?

Does she deserve being abandoned, this having a large part of her child self effectively destroyed?

Self-driving cars may not have steering wheels in future, dev preview for PyTorch 1.0 is here, etc

Re: No wheel is one thing

Yeah, there isn't one, because the control is already manual (as in: man not machine)

Re: No option of manual control might be

Provided that automatacars need not be monitored by a human.

Which is the issue at hand here.

Re: No wheel is one thing

Airbus is flying itself for perhaps 95% of the time.

In addition to what my fellow commentator said, what about the 5% of time when a human pilot is required?

Landings, takeoffs, taxiing, etc?

All these need high precision.

And let's not forget Air France 447: https://www.fastcompany.com/1669720/how-lousy-cockpit-design-crashed-an-airbus-killing-228-people (Not really directly because of the stick, but the stick *was* involved, in that it didn't provide enough feedback)

Re: No wheel is one thing

naive engineers

Delusional, wishful engineers, or ones with vested interests.

Fixed.

No wheel is one thing

It might look like when Airbus ditched the traditional yoke for the sidestick. I think Tesla might seize this moment.

But "no human intervention allowed" is a totally different beast. Shouldn't be at all possible.

First it came for your desktop, now Windows 10 1809 is coming for your Things

Microsoft has unleashed IoT, the Internet of Trolls?

No, that was the Russians.

Intel's commitment to making its stuff secure is called into question

Doesn't the article just show how really willing Intel is to bend to our wishes and bow before us?

Nah, they have more serious stuff to do, such as pushing half-assed Spectre and Meltdown fixes.

On the third day of Windows Microsoft gave to me: A file-munching run of DELTREE

Tried Mono under Wine?

Re: affected users have been scrambling for backups

I thought you said I can trust you

Big mistake. Caesar paid the price hard.

Re: Welcome to....

It's a little worse than beta testing mate. It's called testing a drug* on live human subjects without their express consent.

* In this case the drug's side effects are a loss of control over the voluntary nervous system after the upgrade fails for the hundred millionth time, rolls back, then starts over again for no apparent reason.

In addition to what was said above, why are all the reports magically constrained to the My* directories (and the user profile directory in general)? Coincidence?

Not WSUS (M$ might force an upgrade on you, in theory), but a firewall that doesn't run on M$ gear, which only allows access to WU domains every X weeks or on demand should suffice.

Re: No thank you

You're not being given a choice here.

... I'm afraid we can't do that ...

Re: The gift...

It sounds like the downgrade is not checking for available space correctly and thus deleting files to create enough space to install without advising the user. A rather criminal move by Slurp.

You've got a small problem though. If this were the case, it would be a systematic, and eventually, observable "feature". A tester could try with 10 GB free space under C: in a VM, take a snapshot, then keep going down, restoring the snapshot every time the upgrade does nothing, until s/he hits the "delete point". Then, sueball. Then, profit!

Would M$ like another sueball?

Re: Not a good look here.

And I swear to God that Windows XP Tour markets these My* folders as a feature. The female tour voice blabbers something to the effect of, "Windows XP makes it easier to organize your files. Put your music, letters, and videos into the convenient My {Documents, Pictures, Videos} folder.}

* Just "taken" the nostalgia walk in a VM today for a laugh xD

** Except that the My* folders were there before XP came out.

Re: This is affecting the enthusiasts ...

Windows enthusiasts, you rarely get to meet one in the flesh.

A former one here, whose first computer ran Windows XP and 98 in dual boot.

No longer one though, after Windows 10 came out, when I moved out to Linux for good.

So there, they do exist! ^_^

SAP bug beatdowns, Apple gets nasty with Mac repairs, Struts woe, and more from infosec

Re: Wonder what Louis Rossmann thinks about Apple's dick move

It's true that Apple's "ways" are grossly unethical, but is it ethical to punish unethicality by unethicality?

Or, as I asked, were Robin Hood's actions ethical?

Re: Wonder what Louis Rossmann thinks about Apple's dick move

Hackintosh isn't always a solution.

It is illegal (because you're violating an agreement, though this yet has to be contested for individuals) and unethical (because you're violating an agreement, again).

(My laptops all ran macOS as Hackintoshes until Linux took over).

Does the fact that they're asshole megacorps allow me and you to rob them, even if on a really small scale that doesn't harm them?

Pretend that Apple is yours. Think of the problem from their perspective.

Is it ethical to rob megacorps if they were evil?

Or in other terms, was Robin Hood a hero?

Decoding the Chinese Super Micro super spy-chip super-scandal: What do we know – and who is telling the truth?

Re: Superb reporting and analysis, Register!

I think I've just heard a robo-vulture's evil laugh being emitted from the stratosphere.

Uncle Sam gives itself the right to shoot down any drone, anywhere, any time, any how

If there's a big fat grenade sticking out of the thing, then blow it up.

If there isn't a big fat grenade, then hijack/reroute/buzz it away.

Or maybe set up a virtual no-fly zone and code firmware into drones accordingly to obey.

Tough nut?

Re: Inevitable

Is your flying car a drone if autopilot engaged?

Is yout civilian aircraft a drone if autopilot engaged?

Convenient switch hides an inconvenient truth

In the traders' room? Or is it beancounter central?

Microsoft's elderly .NET Framework shakes stick at whippersnapper Core while Visual Studio drops another preview

From the article:

Visual BASIC

Sirs, it's called Visual Basic. BASIC is a totally different beast, of which Visual Basic is certainly not a derivative.

On a different note, .NET Framework should definitely die. Too old.

Day two – and Windows 10 October 2018 Update trips over Intel audio

Re: I hate change and the Windows 10 model

It is indeed. Only Windows 10 Enterprise has a LTSB.

If you have Enterprise (say an activation server on-prem) then you do have Enterprise LTSB as well.

Where can I hide this mic? I know, shove it down my urethra

Re: USB Raid array

Interesting idea ... Done the Googling. It wouldn't be worth the bother as USB is far too slow, and if you mix 'n' match drives, the RAID array would be limited by the slowest element.

Further reading: https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=77186

I can't wait to be forced to unlock it at US customs,

This! All this!

Microsoft resurfaces Surface kit alongside Windows 10 update

Re: Going back to Thinkpad

@Khaptain, thanks again! ^_^

China's going to make a mobile OS and everyone will love it, predict ball-gazing analysts

Re: "Government approved" OSs ?

@JimmyPage

So what you're proposing is that we let pedophiles, muslimic [sic] terrorists hide their stuff?

Wait a sec, how do I know that you haven't got something to hide?

You're definitely a risk to national security. Poof, and offstage you go, to Guantanamo Bay or something equally democratic.

All hail Big Brother! Down with {Eur,East}asia!

Re: And you thought Google was bad?

Or, if you're not a government, rake in more $$$.

@jonha

Let me finish that mission for you.

dumb TV

Try something like MythTV or XBMC. Both are Linux-based and of course are runnable off a RPi or an x86 netbook + HDMI (to be really thorough, use Coreboot/Libreboot for the firmware and open-source GPU and Wi-Fi drivers).

MP3 player

Good. But if you want an upgrade or video playback capabilities, try an old Android phone with a custom ROM and the RIL and Wi-Fi ripped the hell out.

Or a Galaxy Player (a Galaxy S without the calling functionality)

digital camera

A DSLR, I assume?