Posts by Len Goddard

Spammy Google Home spouts audio ads without warning – now throw yours in the trash

Re: "...when it’s least likely to irritate the user,"

The only time it won't irritate me is when I'm not there.

Microsoft nicks one more Apple idea: An ad-supported OS

Never seen this

Maybe because I replaced the start mess with Classic Start Menu, File Manager with MultiCommander and both M$ browsers with Palemoon.

And I don't have an M$ account, I use local login.

Firefox 52 kills plugins – except Flash – and runs up a red flag for HTTP

Palemoon

You could try Palemoon. It is a firefox fork with the old firefox UI and seems less intent on making life difficult for its users.

Or there is always Vivaldi ...

Ad men hope blocking has stalled as sites guilt users into switching off

No guilt

I have no compunction on using adblockers on sites which do not offer me an alternative way of avoiding the ads. I would rather pay real money (in small amounts) for content I wish to view rather than have my enjoyment of that content spoiled by ads.

I don't know how much sites get for just displaying ads - certainly from me they never get click-thru payments - so allowing me to make a small donation for a period of ad-less viewing would probably put them ahead of the game.

IBM to UK staff: Get ready for another game of musical chairs

Consultation?

Is that like the consultation on pensions a few years back where they told the staff what was going to happen at the beginning of the "consultation" period?

Want to come to the US? Be prepared to hand over your passwords if you're on Trump's hit list

What happens

... if you don't have any social media accounts?

Obviously an anti-social sociopath - send him home.

Hard numbers: The mathematical architectures of Artificial Intelligence

Not AI?

It seems to me that most of the examples of AI around (such as this one) are far better described by a term which seems to have gone out of fashion:

Expert Systems.

Stanford boffins find 'correlation between caffeine consumption and longevity'

Danger, Will Robinson!

The most dangerous thing about any food is the tension and fear induced by the conflicting reports of the medical fraternity.

Just give up: 123456 is still the world's most popular password

Not a terribly useful list

Without any sight of the raw data, you can't tell if there is any real improvement.

123456 might still be the most popular, but how many people actually use it. On the whole, only obvious and/or finger friendly passwords will be used by many people. Hell, you would get the same "winner" if 123456 were used by 20 people and all the other passwords were unique.

Putting the 'Port' in Portal: Old-school fan brings game to Apple II

Time to dig out my old Apple II?

I still have one in the attic. It worked when I put it up there ... 20 odd years ago.

Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death dead in latest Windows 10 preview

Useful?

Lets see:

Edge - don't use it

Shell changes (realy startpage?) - don't use tiles

OneNote - don't use it

Cortana - disabled from day 1

Accessability - fortunately I have no need for these changes (but they may be useful to the target audience)

Defender - don't use it

Settings - Would have been useful when I first installed Win10 but I've managed to achieve something I can live with despite the M$ straitjacket

So, I'll pass on this one. Oops, can't do that but at least win10pro lets me delay installation by some months so that other people can find all the new bugs they have introduced.

Oh, BSOD colour - in the days of PC or MS DOS you could get a TSR (terminate and stay resident) utility which allowed you to set the BSOD colour to anything you liked.

Don't believe the 5G hype! £700m could make UK's 4G better than Albania's

Required for what?

AFAICS the only major benefits that 5G brings in the immediate future are streaming 8K TV and extra connections for the Internet of Sh*t. So we only need 5G to support other tech that we don't need.

Folders return to Windows 10's Start Thing

Re: Does anyone even use the Win 10 start mess?

"Why don't you just get youself a nice Linux distribution and save yourself from more grief?"

Well, I use linux Mint XFCE on a NUC for all my serious computing needs. The Win 10 box is a gaming rig and runs some AV stuff it is still difficult to do on linux.

As for the start menu, most of my commonly used programs are started as icons from the desktop. The cascading menu system classic start menu gives me is basically there for little used programmes which I can't remember the name of. When I was using Win 7 the whole system looked like Win 2K which is how I like it but Win 10 amongst its other faults is far less customisable. Generally I find that the less dependent I am on MS programs and utilities the more stable the system remains.

Does anyone even use the Win 10 start mess?

Dumped that pile of shite for Classic Start Menu - first thing I put on the system after the Win10 install finished.

Then a decent browser and a proper command shell.

Government calls for ideas on how to splash £400m on fibre

A few grand could be used to run FTTP up to my door. Even replacing the crappy aluminium wiring on the FTTC link would help.

Amazon files patent for 'Death Star' flying warehouse

Reloading

So, how do the drones get back to the mothership? They're not likely to be able to do a 45k vertical assent. Does the mothership have to land to get another droneload or do they stuff all the used drones into a big bucket and send it up under a balloon?

Oracle finally targets Java non-payers – six years after plucking Sun

The only device I run java on is my bluray player.

The fact that my bluray player runs java is the reason I rip all my blurays to .MKV files and play them back with kodi.

Microsoft quietly emits patch to undo its earlier patch that broke Windows 10 networking

Emergency boot partition

Just goes to show the initial windoze installation process is borked. It misses the step at the end :

"Now install a linux dual-boot partition so that you still have access to the internet to find out why your windoze system won't do what it should"

This is supposing you have some really good reason to be using Windoze to start with, like gaming or perhaps gaming?

Busted Windows 8, 10 update blamed for breaking Brits' DHCP

Confused

So confused that this post was nonsense. I realised that in time but I can't figure out how to not post so I offer this abject self-abasement.

Qualcomm, Microsoft plot ARM Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones

Games

If it runs PC games better than current intel-based windoze I'm for it. Otherwise I don't care as all my serious computing runs on linux.

Everything at Apple Watch is awesome, insists Tim Cook

Another useful gadget

Smart watches - almost as useful as smart meters!

There you go Apple, you can have that slogan for free.

Information on smart meters? Yep. They're great. That works, right? – UK.gov

Honest

There are no benefits and the government has said nothing about them. Can't get more honest than that.

Ofcom fleshes out plans to open up BT's ducts and poles

Re: Alternatives

Nah. Satellite broadband is crap for gaming - the latency is too high.

UK.gov was warned of smart meter debacle by Cabinet Office in 2012

Nope

All suggestions, special offer of free fitting, talk-ups about advatages etc go straight in the bin (virtual or real, depending on delivery medium).

I figure if I wait long enough and the project goes ahead they will mop up for free to catch the stragglers - hey, I got a free digital phone that way when they turned off the analog net - and if it doesn't go ahead then everyone will have saved time effort and money. More likely I will be a blip on the smart meter at the crematorium before they get around to me.

Microsoft's Neon project to redesign Windows for nerd goggles – reports

Re: Facebook Flat Web Design.

I don't really care who was responsible for Flat Design. I just hate it.

Three certainties in life: Death, taxes and the speed of light – wait no, maybe not that last one

scrap inflation?

AFAIK inflation is an explanation for the way in which the early universe evolved into what we see. It does not emerge naturally from the standard model or general relativity. The possibility of a variable-over-time speed of light can offer alternative solutions to the horizon problem. However, there are several predictions which emerge from inflation theory and have been confirmed so as well as the proposed test variable speed would have to generate some explanation for those results. If not we could have two incompatible hypotheses and a lot of astrophysicists pulling their hair out.

Allow us to sum this up: UK ISP Plusnet minus net for nine-plus hours

Seems OK here

Midway between Winchester and Southampton

Google declares victory for its Wifi router before it's even shipped

Nope

I'll stick to wire

Microsoft's cmd.exe deposed by PowerShell in Windows 10 preview

Missing function

Although not commonly used Windows does have symlinks which, to anyone used it 'ix OSs, are an almost essential feature. The windows mklink command is over-complex but does, for the most part, work ... from cmd.exe. Unfortunately it is not accessible from power shell. There are workarounds of various degrees of complexity and nastiness but nothing as easy as the simple command line mklink.

Google's new VR Daydream View will cripple your phone

You have to be kidding

AFAIC this headset is usable with just one phone - the Pixel - from the manufacturer of the headset. So how could this not come out in testing?

If they did any.

Google makes it to third base with Home digital assistant

Useful?

About as much use as an intelligent lightbulb, which is to say not at all

No spin zone: Samsung recalls 3M EXPLODING washing machines

Precautionary principle

I searched my house and the only samsung device I could find was a small laser printer.

So I buried it at the end of the garden.

UK prison reform report wants hard-coded no-fly zones in drones to keep them out of jail

GPS

My el-cheapo no-name drone delivered to my direct from China doesn't even have GPS. It would have just about the lifting power to take a small phone or bag of marching powder over the wall, though, if only I were a good enough pilot to stop it from zooming under the sofa and refusing to come out.

What should the Red Arrows' new aircraft be?

Raptor Drones

No more worries about accidents at air shows and we can use schoolkids to fly them instead of expensively trained pilots.

Arch Linux: In a world of polish, DIY never felt so good

I love arch

I don't actually use it because I am lazy, but whenever I encounter obscure problems I seem much more likely to be able to find helpful info on the Arch wiki than anywhere else.

Long may they prosper.

Smart Meter rollout delayed again. Cost us £11bn, eh?

Free?

My supplier offered me one for free. I told them it was too expensive.

WebAssembly: Finally something everyone agrees on – websites running C/C++ code

Apps

So, if this is running at near native speed, can I get away from the mess of individual "apps" on my phone/tablet and get back to simply using a web-browser as nature intended?

Is this the worst Blockchain idea you've ever heard?

Surely the daftest idea for blockchain would be to base an electronic currency on it?

US reactor breaks fusion record – then runs out of cash and shuts down

120 years away?

I have 40+ year old books promising fusion reactors in 25 years. It stayed 25 years for decades. I might last another 25 years but 120 is pushing it. Come on, guys, get your fingers out!

Location boffins demo satellite-free navigation

Maps

I generally still rely on maps. The only problem is that I no longer get given an updated road atlas as a regular Xmas present.

One-way Martian ticket: Pick passengers for Musk's first Mars pioneer squad

Definitely all of them

If there isn't room inside, tie them to the outside.

Actually, tie them to the outside even if there is room inside.

Apple seeks patent for paper bag - you read that right, a paper bag

Prior art?

I've got one of those from the chilli oil company. Handles, gussets etc all in exactly the same place although the proportions are different. The only significant deviation from Apple's patent is that it is brown.

Microsoft Desktop Bridge opens, Win32 apps can now cross into Windows Store

Too late for me

I managed to delete the windows store from my copy of Win 10 some time ago.

Delete Google Maps? Go ahead, says Google, we'll still track you

Not just google

I deleted my banks app when an update demanded access to my address book (and other irrelevant data)

Ice to see you! Windows 10 fix for freezing PCs finally flung at folks

Re: Windows 10 was "free"

and not worth what you paid for it ...

Dodged the bullet

Judging by the somewhat hazy description I would have fallen foul of that. Fortunately I have Win10 Pro set up not to take functional upgrades for 3 months. Gives time for all the poor saps using Win10 Home to beta test it for me.

Labour election 2FA fail

What's new?

Voting register update forms have been doing this for some time.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update completely borks USB webcams. Yay.

Optional behaviour

A change like this is bound to badly impact some users with older/more obscure hardware/software (or home coded stuff). The solution is easy - when you make a change like this you provide a way of falling back to the old behaviour. Toggle "legacy_usb_video". Even if the new behavour is the default, you just need to document the fallback.

Oops, sorry, I forgot M$ doesn't do documentation.

Microsoft to overhaul Windows 10 UI – with a 3D Holographic Shell

They have to be joking

Even when I am engrossed in what I am doing on the PC there are a lot of things I need to see - reference documents, my phone, my keyboard & mouse, my coffee cup or even the cat trying to walk over the keyboard.

This will go down really well until the first time you reach for your coffee (or tea) and throw it over the desk or into your lap.