Posts by ITMA

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Insider Preview, attempts to defend labyrinth of hardware requirements

Re: Silicon Valley's post pandemic recovery plan

My reply to the cartel involves sex and travel in bold capitals with day-glo yellow highlighting.....

Three things that have vanished: $3.6bn in Bitcoin, a crypto investment biz, and the two brothers who ran it

Can I come and plant my Tulips where your body is rotting down please?

No need to let good fertiliser go to waste....

Windows 11: Meet the new OS, same as the old OS (or close enough)

Re: Oh SH*T

The day I resort to getting my "news" via Microsoft is the day I book myself in to that clinic in Belgium to move on to the "next life" (if it exists).

Re: Windows 11 - Subscription only

"The first thing I want to point out is that the main reason why Linux is not on Desktop computers is just because of companies and marketing."

Nope. It is MUCH simpler than that.

95% of the software which we need to run as a business is NOT available for Linux. End of story.

Oh SH*T

If the most recent "here have it, YER HAVING IT WHETHER YER WANT IT OR NOT" addition to Windows 10 - the pathetic "News Feeds" is anything to go by. God Help Us!

What horrors must be waiting in Windows 11? "Please sign over your wife, kids, cat, dog, house and cars to continue using Windows"

UK urged to choo-choo-choose hydrogen-powered trains in pursuit of carbon-neutral economic growth

Oh great!

Not content with many of them (the ones not fitted with air-con) being ovens-on-wheels, they want to make them bombs-on-wheels as well.

I wonder how many supporting this happen to have "interests" in the very outfits that would be potential contractors in providing the infrastructure for "re-gassing"?

'Lots of failed startups came out of Campus': Google axes London hub because startup scene 'doesn't need' another 7 floors of workspace

Power????:

There are only two objectives when it comes to "power":

1. Aquiring it.

2. Once you have it, KEEPING IT.

Anything and everything else is pure "bum fluff".....

A hotline to His Billness? Or a guard having a bit of a giggle?

"They thought it would be interesting for the executive board directors to spend a day doing a job in their division."

That would be a brilliant idea for a TV series :)

Bollocks - some bugger has thought of it already...

I've done the same with the CEO of BT OpenReach and, after some carefully worded email interactions with the (very helpful) person assigned to resolve the problem, achieved what few others seem to have been able to do:

Have an EO (Exchange Only) phone line's copper, rerouted so that it goes through the nearest FTTC enabled cabinet and thus be able to upgrade a site from plain old ADSL to 80/20 FTTC.

Spyware, trade-secret theft, and $30m in damages: How two online support partners spectacularly fell out

Re: Call that "support"?

"Or, to be more precise, just trim 'er support costs' off the end."

Well that would definitely account for the utterly dire support on Outlook.com Premiun accounts (the one you pay for).

Re: Call that "support"?

Have you felt my cat's claws? LOL

Anyone who has would not even dare such an utterance as "Have you trie....."

Call that "support"?

"LivePerson provides online engagement technology, which takes the form of chatbots that corporate clients add to their websites to field questions, gather interaction data, and reduce customer support costs."

Sorry.... Well actually no I'm not sorry. It really pisses me off when outfits think a chatbot or any other sort of automated non-human "entity" is a substitute for a real live person.

Particularly when you try to get through to a person and all you get it that F**KING BOT!!!

If I want to "talk" to a non-human about a techinal or other issue, I'll talk to my cat. He's a billion more likely to respond with something useful.

We don't know why it's there, we don't know what it does – all we know is that the button makes everything OK again

Re: The knob......

"DFA" - isn't that a management term that applies to certain members of staff?

LOL

Re: The knob......

If there is one thing office "users" should never be allowed anywhere near or, even worse, physically be abel to touch, are HVAC controls.

Does't matter what you set it at someonme is too hot, someone else is too cold. It goes on and on....

And God forbid, someone is allowed to bring in portable heaters! They multiply like vermin.

I think anyone who has to deal with such environments would do well to consider some (of the few) words of wisdon that came (allegedly) from some NASA guy during a meeting with Hubble (telescope) scientist:

"I have had it trying to make you happy. I'm now just going to concentrate on making you all equally unhappy"

LOL

Microsoft releases command-line package manager for Windows (there are snags)

Re: Oh, the irony

No....

I just don't see the point in a GUI based OS where you have to resort to cryptic commands to do things.

Sort of defeats the object.

Re: Oh, the irony

There is the alternative GUI based view - and I just KNOW I'm going to get serious stick for this - but:

If a Windows user wanted to have to learn and use lots of cryptic commands on a command line do anything useful, they would be using Linux, not Windows.

Ubuntu, Wikimedia jump ship to the Libera Chat IRC network after Freenode channel confiscations

Re: By their actions you will know them

Is it necessary to insult honest, hard working, genuine toerags through such a scurrilous association?

Microsoft: Behold, at some later date, the next generation of Windows

Re: next generation?

And Norton *IS* a virus....

Lessons have not been learned: Microsoft's Modern Comments leave users reaching for the rollback button

Re: This is Google Docs comments

"MS have fucked up by pushing this out instead of letting people opt in"

Microsoft have form doing this. The reason I was given with the great "Focussed Inbox debacle" was to "encourage" users to try it.

The real reason, I firmly believe, is this - they are shit scared that if they made them "opt in", rather than force them on users (by rolling them out switched "ON") they would see the truth. Which is most of the "improvements" they laboured over developing are utter shite that nobody asked for and nobody wants.

"Focussed Inbox" was a bit of a rude awakening when the backlash of "how the F**K do I turn this F*****G poxy thing off and get all my emails back?" came.

On a par with their botched attempt at forcing users PCs to upgrade to Windows 10 whether they wanted it to or not. Not everyone's "estate" is of a size to justify WSUS and Gibson Researche's Never10 was a real Godsend.

Re: The best product doesn't always win

In my (longer than I care to state) experience, I've had to use (more had inflicted upon me) far, far worse.

WordPerfect for one - I absolutely loathed that software.

Another Microsoft screw up

Shudders when one thinks back to the horror of "Focused inbox".

Another crap feature foisted on users - not needed and definitey not wanted.

Patch me if you can: Microsoft, Samsung, and Google win appeal over patent on remote updating

Re: So far so good, as far as the court is concerned...

Sorry but I have "prior art" on right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top and several variations on Diagon Ally :)

Re: in a mobile unit

"Most LANs have no security unlike the WiFi you might not know the key. Even small offices now should have security on ethernet LAN."

Very true. Easily solved with a base ball bat.

Plug anything into the lan you've been told not to and the regular rogue device scanning grasses you up, expect your fingers and the wide end of the baseball bat to meet unexpectedly.

Not practical in most real world situations, but you get the idea. Security it great, but not to be used as an excuse for pathetic company IT policies or senior management that don't take "rules" seriously and treat them like toilet paper when their "company favourites" do what they like.

Re: in a mobile unit

So if I put my 20 yr old PC (yes I have some) on a trolley and update it using a floppy disk, do these f******* expect me to pay them a royalty?

I know what they can do....

Re: So far so good, as far as the court is concerned...

Particularly problematic when it comes to things like:

"I patent moving my finger across a screen left to right".

Re: So far so good, as far as the court is concerned...

C'mon - any "patent" system that allows patents on things in nature is ipso facto "shite".

Yes there has been a ruling:

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/testing/genepatents/

which just about covers it. But WAY too many patents have been granted in the US to things which are NOT inventions. Sorry but "discoveries" of things which already exist should NOT be patentable which tends to be the major problem in the US.

Yes it is also "sort of" covered:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-1/section-8/clause-8/patentable-discoveries

But way too many courts in the US have sided with those filing patents.

Arm freezes hiring until Nvidia takeover, cancels everyone's 'wellbeing' allowance

Re: Ah yes, the flexpot.

"Market Rate" and higher salaries can both be dangerous things in the wrong situations.

For instance - "Market Rate" is the usually trotted out excuse for why some nobody who is useless can demand a telephone number salary in a position such as "CEO" of some regional ambulance service despite being a total walking cluster f**k.

It is also a major reason why salaries in the "upper echelons" of many organisations have spiraled out of control. "Keeping pace with market rates" - he/she gets more as a CEO (because they are doing a genuinely superb job) so I want the same as a CEO (despite being pi** poor at it and ruining everything they touch).

As my experience in banking IT illustrated, high salaries can become a trap. They pay high salaries because, frankly, they are bloody awful places to work. You get used to the money and end up trapped working in "bloody awful places to work" where the only thing keeping most people there is the money - because their expenditure has risen to need that level of salary.

Not suitable for everyone's situation, but I'd rather have a bit of a less well paid job if I it is a job I thoroughly enjoy, than a rather better paid one which I loath and only do for the money. The latter is the sort of thing that leads to breakdowns and other significant mental health issues.

Re: So you can pretend to take over a company that is really a competitor

I'm not going to add to the "politicising" of this by giving examples of other parties monumental screwups.

But you are getting my down vote as well.

Besides, they have also had other things to deal with - perhaps you've not heard of COVID? - like any government.

Boffins improve on tech that extracts DC power from ambient Wi-Fi

Ah you've used some of BT's "discs"? LOL

BT and their WiFi

Who remembers BT's ad banging on about "UK's most powerful WiFi"?

Ignoring the fact it was banned as "misleading" (c'mon this was BT, what do you expect?), maybe one should encourage all of one's neighbours to switch to BT broadband, commence large scale harvesting "tests" and tell your electrickery company to take a hike and take their (now) useless "dumb" leccy meter with them as you no longer need their very expensive "juice"

UK data watchdog fines 'pandemic partner' biz £8k: It sent 84,000 marketing emails to people who'd given info for track and trace

The "real" meaning of ICO

Their TLA is always misinterpreted.

It is not, as many think "ICO" but in fact "IC0". Which stands for "I Care 0 (zero)".

ASUS baffles customer by telling them thermal pad thickness is proprietary

"Ugh, hit with rock"

Assuming they have evolved sufficiently to develop lanuage skills.

When humanity perishes in nuclear fire, the University of Essex's radiation-resistant robots will inherit the Earth

Will they be painted in Burberry pattern colour schemes and wear chavvy baseball caps?

How much would you pay me to develop a COVID tracking app that actually works? Ah, thought so: nothing

Re: How much would you pay me to develop a COVID tracking app that actually works?

Do you have a track record in running things you have absolutely no experience in and/or overseen monumental IT screwups (TalktTalk data breaches - plural)?

Internet Explorer downgraded to 'Walking Dead' status as Microsoft sets date for demise

Intriguing....

Two different machines, both running Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.

Both running 20H2, OS Build 19042.985.

Both running Edge Version 90.0.818.62 (Official build) (64-bit)

One has the "Allow sites to be reloaded in Internet Explorer mode" under Default Browser in Edge Settings, one doesn't.

The one that does has "Reload in Internet Explorer mode" under More Tools, the other doesn't.

Both have a Microsoft 365 account associated, neither has Edge as the default browser and neither has syncing turned on.

Both claim to be up to date on Edge version and WIndows updates.,

Well done Mickysoft. Can't even be consistent.

IF you can get it to work at all.

Followed the instructions on Mickysoft's Internet Explorer Mode support page:

1. The setting mentioned doesn't exist.

2. Going to More Tools and there is NO "Reopen in Internet Explorer Mode".

Spectacular fail.

10.8 million UK homes now have access to gigabit-capable broadband, with much of the legwork done by Virgin Media

Re: Gigabit...

"Nor if you run offsite backups to your friend's house..."

As Gandalf so succinctly put it - "Do not tempt me!" LOL

James Webb Space Telescope runs one last dress rehearsal for its massive golden mirrors before heading to launchpad

Shudders at the thought of a repeat of the Galileo Jupiter mission...

Are you talking before or after COSTAR and the various other fixes to address to monumental screwup of Perkin-Elmer?

China says its first Mars rover Zhurong has landed on the Red Planet

Hmmmmm

Does anyone else see undertones of some sort in:

"Red" China lands on the "Red" planet?

LOL

Which? warns that more than 2 million Brits are on old and insecure routers – wagging a finger at Huawei-made kit

Or more like 5000 went to their sheds to check if their bench mounted Black & Decker router was vulnerable...

(Checking the manual)

RPM - check

Took changing - check

Nope. Nothing about default password.

(Neighbour)

Mine is secure! It's a Makita!

LOL!

Mayday! Mayday! Microsoft has settled on a build and Windows 10 21H1 is inbound

I've only one thing to say to that..

Oh bollocks.....

For blinkenlights sake.... RTFM! Yes. Read The Front of the Machine

Re: Blinkenlights

Don't tell me - tell the morons who keep putting them in kit because blue LEDs are "the in thing".

Re: Communicating with only obscenities?

"I've just fucking got to get this fucking order to the fucking desk and then I'll fucking be able to help you."

Sounds like perfect Geordie to me!

It's part of the reason Geordies generally talk so fast - they (I should say "we" as I am a Geordie) have to get double the amount of words out in the same space of time. Think of it as "packet padding" LOL.

And that is without taking into account the additional throughput required to get in the obligatory Geordie vocalisation of ACK - "Bonny lad/lass".

Re: Blinkenlights

I absolutely *hate* effing blue LEDs - or more precisely I absolutely *hate* they way they have been stuffed in effing everthying with an LED in it

Most equipment that has blue LEDs fitted has no justification what-so-ever for using them and the are WAY WAY too bright.

This is design "fashion" gone stupid, pure and simple.

STOP IT!!!!

I'll give you a hint - why do most emergency services us BLUE LIGHTS?

So how monumentally stupid is it to use them everywhere. It's hard to find an LED bedroom alarm clock that doesn't have a blue display these days (most of the LCD ones are rubbish as bedroom alarm clock). I don't know about anyone else, but NOTHING with a blue LED is allowed in the bedroom. I just find it impossible to sleep because they are so attention grabbing and disturbingly bright.

Microsoft drops 64-bit OneDrive into the pool: Windows on ARM fans need not apply. As usual

A more important thing to look at...

A more important issue than - will or will Microsoft not producea 64 bit OneDrive client - is this:

When will Microsoft get it into their thick corprate skull - STOP TRYING TO FORCE IT ON TO PEOPLE!

They are OUR computers and OUR data, not yours Microsoft. Get and keep your grubby thieving hands off!

Yes, there's nothing quite like braving the M4 into London on the eve of a bank holiday just to eject a non-bootable floppy

Re: A near weekly occurrence

"It's shocking how people whose job it is to teach are so unwilling to learn."

That comment is a double edged sword. Is it that they are unwilling to learn, or just that you may not be as good a "teacher" as you think.

I used to work in education IT support back in the days of the BBC Micro. Had a primary school head teacher who just could not get a disk to "auto start". This is usually done using a key combination often vocalised as "<SHIFT> and <BREAK>". Four other people in the IT office tried to talk her through how to do this - all without success. All of them Advisory Teachers and Teacher Advisors (I never did work out what the difference is).

The problem was NOT the head teacher. The problem was none of the others understood HOW to tell someone to do the key combination. She was trying to press both simultaneously in a way didn't work.

They solution - very, very simple:

"With your left hand press and hold the left SHIFT key. While holding it use your right hand to press and release the BREAK key, THEN release the SHIFT key". Worked correctly every time she tried it and was over the moon.

Why did it fail for the others?

Easy - trying to press both simultaneously she was buy chance always releasing SHIFT a fraction of a second before BREAK which (as those familiar with the BBC Micro) did a "soft reset" when pressed on its own.

This has a modern(ish) day equivalent - the "three fingered salute".

I've always thought the optimal way of telling someone HOW to do CTRL-ALT-DEL is this:

"With your left hand press and hold both the left SHIFT and left ALT keys. While holding them use your other hand to press and release the DEL key, then relase SHIFT and ALT".

Ah but not all user "issues" are because users are "incompetent".

Take the situation where a very, very experienced secretary is trying to do something in (say) Word but can't get it to do what she/he wants.

On quite a number of occasions I've found it very beneficial to explain it like this:

"You're not being stupid. The person who wrote the software obviously never has to do this for a living and wrote it to work in this stupid way. So, to get it to do what you need you have to 'tell it' in this stupid way...."

Secretary can get done what they need to and feels good about themselves. They also remember how to do it next time.

Nothing annoys me more than "tech support" that believe in "get out of the way and let me fix it" without a word of explanation. This may be fine in some situations. However, in many it does nothing to prevent the same situation arising again. Help the user understand what has happened, why and what they need to do (not suitable for all situations) and you go a long way to prevent "ticket bounce".

Nothing wrong with "self-taught".

IT as a subject is too broad and fast changing to stay up to date with everything, unless one specialises in a very narrow field. Providing you have a firm grasp of the fundamentals, much of the rest one learns as and when you need it.

It's called "experience".

What always causes my "user empathy" to be drained rapidly is being asked for help and being provided with virtually no information. Then my requesst for more substantial information goiing unanswered.

It is this palpable attitude of "Just fix it!" with not even the slightly effort to try and help.

Oddly, this tends to come from users who are highly qualified in very specific areas (PhDs at times) none of which have anything to do with IT. It is almost as if you are just some "minion" on a par with the cleaners (no offence meant to office cleaners who do a wonderful job, my mum was one for years) who they treat with equal inequality.

As for stuff "just working" when the IT person turns up. It's called "influence". Almost as if the errant bit of kit knows you will take no sh*t from it and the game is up. So it behaves.

Carrying one of those organge plastic mallets than come with certain steel self-assembly warehouse shelving systems often seems to help. Particularly is waved about near the errant equipment in a threatening (to the equipment) manner.