Posts by Will Godfrey

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

Not a windows user^H^H^H^H victim

Thanks for reminding me I made the right decision very many years ago.

BOFH: When the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East, only then will the UPS cease to supply uninterrupted voltage

Sorry I'm late...

I was worrrrr. . Doing 'stuff'.

So nice to to now unwind to the continuing educational life of BOFH

Systemd 249 release candidate includes better support for immutable OSes and provisioning images

SystemD...

the gift that keeps on taking

NCSC chief: Ransomware is more of a threat to Britain than hostile nations' spies

Nope

Russia and China will say whatever they think will best deflect attention.

They will carry on doing whatever they like.

Seven-year-old make-me-root bug in Linux service polkit patched

Re: One of the many advantages of Gentoo

The way I deal with pulse audio is to delete the server, but leave the client alone. That way all the desktop stuff that thinks it is essential and that you want to hear random notify sounds in the middle of your fave music still talk to the client, which then has nowhere to send it :)

Re: Linux Alternatives

Yesterday, my last machine on Debian moved to devuan, thanks to system (apparently not quite) D screwing up.

Shhh!

Don't even think about it.

Do you come from a land Down Under? Where diesel's low and techies blunder

Re: Happened to me as well!

Electricians? Over the years I've come across an alarming number of them that have no idea what they are doing, both in industry and domestic environments. It seems they memorise just enough of the current regs. to get though their exams then forget everything.

Oh, including one who was muttering about the three phase motor he had to fit, as it was going in the wrong direction. When I said offhand "You've probably swapped two of the phases", his dismissive reply was "What difference does that make?"

Yet I'm not considered capable of adding a spur to a domestic ring main.

Flush with cash: UK utility Southern Water names 13 winners who'll drink up £50m application deal

Hmmm

I thought the idea was to remove wastewater, not provide it!

OKOK I'm going. No need to shove.

BOFH: Despite the extremely hazardous staircase, our IT insurance agreement is at an all-time low. Can't think why

Just once

... and only once (in mmmfty mmmf years) I had a really good response to an insurance claim.

Every other time it's been a rip-off.

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......

Priceless! Have one of these too :)

Linus Torvalds tells kernel list poster to 'SHUT THE HELL UP' for saying COVID-19 vaccines create 'new humanoid race'

Re: What does that mean?

... and some regions were using binary counting.

Re: What does that mean?

An endangered species

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The best time to build a semiconductor foundry is 5 years ago

Optimistic?

Not me.

Everyone in the industry with more than two communicating neurons could see this coming, but the people determining the finance are most certainly not in the industry.

How to use Google's new dependency mapping tool to find security flaws buried in your projects

Hmmm

I can't think of an organisation I'd be less keen to fondle the crown jewels. I'm nowhere near smart enough to be able to definitively ascertain whether they've hidden any 'interesting' bits in there.

Biden expands Chinese tech and military blocklist to 59 companies

Re: But of course

NINJAed

Just what I was thinking. Mind you, the disunited queendom is no better.

How many remote controls do you really need? Answer: about a bowl-ful

Re: Only Need One

Smart homes are for stupid people.

Re: Got rid of the TV several years ago

Another TV escapee here - from quite a few years back

Everything in my place has real buttons, switches, knobs and sliders that follow the UNIX principle: Do one thing, and do it well.

FYI: Today's computer chips are so advanced, they are more 'mercurial' than precise – and here's the proof

Re: Complexity: Another nail in the coffin...

I see what you did there!

Today I shall explain how dual monitors work using the medium of interpretive dance

Re: Examples...

DO...NOT...GO...THERE

BOFH: I'm so pleased to be on the call, Boss. No, of course this isn't a recording

Sorry I'm late

However, it seems that once again the boss finds he is in a maze of twisty turny passages.

UK's BT starts trials of new hollow-core optical fibre networks

Re: Scattering

Robert might not agree

BOFH: But we think the UK tax authorities would be VERY interested in how we used COVID support packages

Sneaky

So now the BOFH has got the head beancounter in his pocket. Fun times ahead!

The server is down, money is not being made, and you want me to fix what?

Many moons ago I got the sack for refusing...

Manger wanted me to interrupt a quite complex bit of fault finding to post a letter, even after I informed him I was going that way for lunch later, and the morning post had already gone. Was told to get out, so I did, and contacted head office. The guy there said while he agreed it was over the top, it was not company policy to reverse a mangers decisions (or something like that). Off the record I was then given the contact details of a similar company with vacancies - dramatically better environment and pay.

The Audacity: Audio tool finds new and exciting ways to annoy contributors with a Contributor License Agreement

Re: Peculiar move

There is a stair well in a hotel in Mainz with a metal handrail. It makes the most delightful (and long) boing. Sadly I didn't have a microphone with me at the time.

Debian 'Bullseye' enters final phase before release as team debates whether it will be last to work on i386 architecture

Re: i386 Support

No. The problem with floppies was brake dust. It gets in everywhere through the tiniest gaps.

The interim work round was to leave a sacrificial disk in the drive. Install, and run from a hard drive, then eject the floppy before doing software/timetable updates from a fresh one. At that time there was virtually no network availability, modems were quite unreliable in that environment, and they'd just started doing remote customer information via... pager messages!

What to do about open source vulnerabilities? Move fast, says Linux Foundation expert

I found a good way to test a program

Write a school timetabling suite and hand it over to the teachers. Make sure it has an accurate detailed user guide, as well as in-program help.

They'll still find a way to screw up - the most common one, finding multiple unique spellings for the same pupil's name!

Parliament demands to know the score with Fujitsu as Post Office Horizon scandal gets inquiry with legal teeth

Still

In spite of absolutely clear evidence, and yes dead bodies, the government continues to prevaricate and protect the guilty, all at our expense.

Fancy trying to explain Microsoft Teams to your parents? They may ask about the new Personal version

Re: I'm a 'parent'....

Nail -> Hammer.

Late to the party?

I think Zoom has pretty much gobbled up the market for personal users.

The UK loves cybersecurity so much, it's going to regulate managed service providers' infosec practices in law

A govenrment er... initiative

What could possibly go wrong?

Linux laptop biz System76 makes its first foray into the mechanical keyboard world with dinky, hackable Launch

Re: Way over the top price for me

TECHNET X705 dunno if it's still available.

It has colour backlights for the keys you can play about with if that's your 'thing' but I have it static, medium brightness and each row a different colour. I seem to find I hit the right row more often (not necessarily the right key on that row).

I liked it so much I almost immediately bought a second one!

Way over the top price for me

I got a nice backlit, clicky, and reasonably configurable keyboard for about 40 squids. Has a nice solid metal chassis, removable keycaps - even has a keycap removal tool clipped underneath. Does one job and does it well... and has done for about 3 years now.

P.S.

I don't use a thumb for the space bar - whatever finger is nearest.

Staying in the UK this summer? Good news: Temples of IT nerdery are reopening

On my list

but for later in the year. I'll let the rush die down a bit first, and for the err... bugs to get sorted.

'Biggest data grab' in NHS history stuffs GP records in a central store for 'research' – and the time to opt out is now

Re: PDF ?

There is an online website version that takes about a minute to complete.

Microsoft embraces Linux kernel's eBPF super-tool, extends it for Windows

Re: Microsoft embraces... extends...

Don't bet on it. I wouldn't put it past them to poison the well by sending back broken-by-design patches.

Besides they're not concerned about the bulk of the FLOSS community, only wanting to suck away as many businesses as they can - ideally enough to weaken the big distros.

Preliminary report on Texas Tesla crash finds Autosteer was 'not available' along road where both passengers died

So is the face of the driver

No

After a 60mph crash into a tree, at the very best, nobody is going to be conscious, let alone able to think rationally about their predicament and try to get out.

'A massive middle finger': Open-source audio fans up in arms after Audacity opts to add telemetry capture

Buggeration

I use Audacity a lot. It's my go-to for cleanups and tweaks on existing audio, as well as recording new material.

At the moment I can't think of anything that does the job as well, and with such a small footprint.

I guess I'll have to start a wider search.

Privacy activist Max Schrems on Microsoft's EU data move: It won't keep the NSA away

Remind me please

All the benefits we're supposed to get from cloud services.

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter cleared for further, farther, flying after landing on 117-second fourth flight

Re: Nothing there.

Please define your idea of 'nothing'. Those images look pretty full of 'things' to me.

Lifetime extended?

Going By NASA's past performance it'll probably last about 2 years

Some stayed in Croatian castles. Some hid in cars. We speak to techies who experienced lockdown in very different ways

Croatian Castle sounds great

Funny how these things can trigger ancient memories.

Unfortunately this bit reminded me of when I was a kid and the family were on a camping holiday in Scotland. On the second day mum had an accident and ended up with a foot in plaster and arm in a sling.

While still in the hospital, when we were visiting her an unexpected visitor turned up. This was in the mid 1950s. You know when some is pretty important when the arrive in full highland regalia and the staff are all giving discrete little bows and curtsies. The gentleman expressed sadness at the events and offered us time in his home as recompense. Dad declined. After the guy left, the staff told us who he was - a very big noise indeed, and his home was of course a castle. Us boys were devastated, and I think this is the only time I heard mum criticise dad in front of us, and boy did she let rip!

Terminal trickery, or how to improve a novel immeasurably

Re: Novel interference

This is because the discworld became Turing complete, along with the fact so many people wanted to believe in it that it spontaneously came into existence at which point the unseen university folk were able to reach across to Terry's computer and add details they thought were lacking.

Re: Novel interference

thankyou thankyou thankyou

All of you lovely people. You can't imagine just how reassuring these comments are to an 'elderly'

Can't get that printer to work? It's not you. It's that sodding cablin.... oh beautiful job with that cabling, boss

Re: Time was...

Indeed. It's not unusual to find cleaning staff consider their pay as their second source of income

The Fast and the Curious: Safety-conscious Red Hat eyes continuously certified Linux platform for motors

Safety?

Are they going to gloop the toys in with the safety critical control? Personally, if I had the choice (I don't of course) I'd want the two systems to be completely separate, with the only common point at the battery terminals.

UK government resists pressure to hold statutory inquiry into Post Office Horizon scandal

Re: Best way to start speeding this up

Erm...

I'm 'elderly' and white. I'm not a racist, and I voted to stay in Europe.

I could see clearly what was coming, just not the extent.

Re: If statutory inquiry takes too long, that is a fault of the statutory inquiry system

Principle and reality don't seem to have anything in common here

Don't cross the team tasked with policing the surfing habits of California's teens

Sometimes it backfires on the Unions

A print firm my old employer did some work for had a very heavy union presence. Most of the machinery was really ancient, and required an extremely high workforce to run. It was only kept running and not replaced with modern kit because of the union action to protect the members jobs.

We made several attempts to suggest quite small modifications, that would improve the quality of the output as well as taking some of the strain off the machines. All were of course blocked by the union. In a sense we benefited directly from this, as our company did all their machine repairs (including dealing with the sabotage, when some guy fancied a lazy night shift).

It will come as no surprise that the printers eventually went bust as the quality of their work fell further behind current standards, along with turnaround times - so not many jobs protected there.