Posts by TechHeadToo 60 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2020
I really, really, hate seeing my CPU cycles being stolen to animate a F**ing advert for something I will never, ever, have an interest in.
Bring back text only and being able to navigate from the home keys.
OK, Yes, I have a number of browsers installed here. I can take my pick of them, but every time I turn to one of them, it feels the need to 'update' and deliver some shiny feature that adds complication to my life.
Simple is efficient, and should be the default. If you want to run some sort of sparkly this week's 'thing' then turn it on and pay the sponsor - in power, in adverts, in plain old subscriptions - but stay out of my interface.
Microsoft was a lost cause years ago, and Android started with the obvious intent of being rabidly commercial. Linux is the way to go, but still mostly needs user input to refine and tune it. Apple is as simple as the power supply. You plug in and it works, and works reliably and consistently across releases. Almost as if they test stuff before release. But you pay. My time and involvement versus the money. My time nowadays is used for stuff that doesn't involve IT (mostly) or only uses it like a real user - just doing what I want to do without all the config and debugging.
So I'll stay with Safari (mostly)
Lots of people make lots of money by doing it cheap and 'maintaining' it and redoing it every other year.
And if you're a chum of the PM - what's not to like about the arrangement and the contracts? The public don't ever seem to care about what is done in their name.
Well, now I've read most of the comments, and my life is shorter than it was.
And the takeaway is still that
Thought and requirements and code and testing is cheapest done at the design stage.
having to correct a bug in production will always cost more than fixing it before release.
People who think they know about these things, quoting from experience, will sit and argue the minutia of whether it is 87x or 100x or 273x more, and completely miss the point that the root cause of increased costs of whatever type (reputation or dollars) is always going to be poor requirements or poor coding.
All else is mere avoidance smoke.
I think that's the point.
The internet as a source of information (facts, that is) and a resource for learning,
Instead of 'free speech' ruling and any nutter is able to propagate any idiot, anti - social ideas.
I'm all for free speech - and reasoned debate and criticism, but the www as currently encouraged by The West is removing all hope of an intelligent society.
Sad but true.
"but with a bit of effort can be made into a useful application launcher,"
That says it all for me.
I don't expect an OS to need effort to make it useful. I expect to turn the PC on, and start doing whatever I came to do. Windows long ago lost its way. I hate to use the A-word, but I have 20 year old machines with a desktop recognisably the same, with the same options, same descriptions, as those on this PC. Under the desk I have a similarly competent OS from IBM - the newer ones are glitzier, the icons fresher, but the essential of being able to do useful stuff without needing to spend a week tuning and re-learning is the same.
The pile of dead Windows PC's goes all the way back to XP - one or two applications only run on something quaint.
But then, I'll never get to be a billionaire holding views about making it easy (and secure)
WorldPay
Bunch of charlatans. 2 years ago we had an account. Closed it. Have the records to say it was closed. Suddenly they invent a £150 debt under the heading misc, with no invoice or backup.
Not for the first time, either. Totally incompetent back office systems. Not able to blag money from me, they turn to outright fraud.
Might also add that despite them using paper mail with all manner of threats and legalese, they never, ever, respond in print to letters, evidently preferring the anonymity and deniability of phone calls and emails.
Bunch of charlatans.
"Since when is it in a user’s best interest ."
Well now. The readers here are a self selecting bunch of folk who know way more than the average purchaser.
So come on - think back to reality - those of us who have had to take support calls - all those funny stories we read elsewhere in Reg about the terminal stupidity of users. Most of that is because computers are not vacuum cleaners - all the systems need a constant effort to understand, to make them work, at all, let alone the way you want.
So the more someone makes computing into a reliable user tool that just works when you turn it on, the better. The dumbest devices will win, because dumb people can use them. Those of us who have the knowledge and the desire, to deal with arcane sequences of key presses, and resets, and hidden configuration settings, and the myriad of pseudo programming languages, will always be disatisfied with dumb machines. But there are few of us, our needs are costly to provide, and we're always complaining - as this thread is doing.
So if Apple can take more money from the masses by giving them fewer options, I'm OK with that. When MAcOS no longer does what I want, then I'l take a breath and use Linux mainstream.
Meanwhile, MacOS gives me a stable system for everything office like I need to do, which is 40-50% of my time.
For other things I Use another box or two. Avoiding Windoze.
When I saw
"Privacy creates agency. When you can communicate privately, your potential actions grow. Someone who cannot communicate privately cannot reach out for the assistance of others."
I expected an argument showing how BAD people are given free rein to organise, to share information about how to be more Bad, and so on
then the quote
"The ACIC went on to state, “These platforms are used almost exclusively by SOC [serious and organised crime] groups and are developed specifically to obscure the identities of the involved criminal entities and enable avoidance of detection by law enforcement…"
Bad grammar. Try reading it through more squinty eyes and you get "SOC [serious and organised crime] groups use these platforms almost exclusively..."
which is (almost) clearly what they meant to say.
And my point is...
Very bit of tech we've made has a dark side. Our desire to keep our conversations private is reasonable - until BAD people also want to keep their conversations private. Citizens want to be safe from these bad people, and in the past, the GPO operator could listen in, and track down bad people and forestall bad things happening. Not so now.
And the authors assertion that law enforcement still functions is a bit laughably naive. I can sit here being a criminal mastermind, using all that free and available encryption, and the globalisation that is the internet, and the law won't ever find me. A click here, a click there, and the proceeds move between national boundaries, into and out of crypto currency and the paper trail is shredded. My location defined by IP and mac addresses is unfathomable. My lifestyle is not ostentatious.
For the benefit of GCHQ, I am NOT a mastermind, but I accept, if not welcome the idea that everything on the 'net should be transparent and available to police (and bent coppers) for the sake of cleaning up the Bad people in society and preventing them getting the oxygen of privacy. (and to stop them breeding - but that may be a bit radical until 2057)
Now, where did I leave the cat?
has Boris even considered that a phone is not surgically attached?
Just cosy up to someone with a good record and use his/her phone.....
or does the NHS application know whose hand it is in. I refuse to use it. I did download it, I looked at what it offered, considered the likelihood of it being hacked, considered the capability of the people coding it (World leading Track n Trace, remember)
and I deleted it.
Roughly speaking, anywhere that won't let me in I don't want to give my money to, and this is all about the moeny. to the venue, and to Boris's chums who wrote it quick and cheap for only a couple billion.
If you call me a sceptic, you'd be telling the truth.
And the sad part is that it is all true. Though maybe not ll in one place.
Coming from a discipline where we created unique error codes for each situation, and a full explanation of causes and correction had to exist and be referenceable the ability of Windows to say 'error' and no more has always been a cause for me screaming and sobbing over the years.
Security is now the all purpose get out for sloppy coders. "We can't tell you anything because even admitting that there is a password would reveal too much to bad people, so we're just letting you know that we think you are an idiot"
Well, that seems like a really good idea for ... each of the following to use. They'll have way plenty spare boxes to run DoW attacks on their clients. Silently, insidiously.... profitably.
" Google Cloud Functions cost the most, followed by AWS Lambda, IBM Cloud Functions and lastly Azure Functions."
I've read the comments, and the tirades, and the frothed up righteousness below.
The net of it all it seems to me is that harassment is a Bad Thing.
'We' don't know if someone os being harassed or bullied unless there is evidence beyond the words of the parties.
It's a good way to tarnish someone by inventing a story. Blackmail even. Or preferences 'unless you give me a pay raise I shall claim.... '
So the law needs to prevent NDA's and only accept affidavits from more than 1 person regarding another person's behaviour.
And the idea that society could come up with a better way is perfectly valid. If we make the media responsible for what they punish, then of course society can change. We have stopped slavery. We have mostly stopped the idea of invading the next village and stealing goods and cattle and people.
And yet 'we' can't track down spammers, psycho's, paedophiles, and the rest of the bad stuff on the 'net.
Everyone here knows that nothing you do is private unless you are physically disconnected.
Me? I'm expecting some sort of major shakeup and a 'new net' to appear with built in traceability dictated by government (so they can track voters and influencers)
Well then, that's two of us that are strange.
I no longer 'Have' to use windows on a daily basis, and I'm so much happier to be able to use PC stuff that just works, doesn't install crap or updates without asking me, and doesn't install drastic interface changes. When I have to use W10 to support other people, I find I'm increasingly annoyed by the absence of standards across the user interfaces and the weirdly unintuitive and confusing hidden configuration settings.
Apple stuff just works.
An old mac mini that must be a version 1 still works - no updates available for anything of course, but it just keeps going, doing what it does. Bit like my IBM as/400 - way past end of life as far the OS is concerned - but it keeps doing what it does.
It's all only 0's and 1's - so until a 0 or 1 wears out it should all still work. Eventually I'll maybe want the extra speed of the M1, but until then..
So moving on - if software packages were secured against tampering, and websites were made responsible for the quality of what they allow to be downloaded, ( Responsible as in 'go to prison and have all assets confiscated') then the more careful members of society could feel a bit more assured about computing devices.
It really isn't beyond the wit of man to create a secure operating system, and a secure comms network which only move traceable objects which are themselves secure from contamination.
If only we could end this nonsense about the internet somehow being special and free of the need for society to regulate it....
Oh no, not the lads employed to prove that they need the job. No chance of getting heat back if you do that.
My daughter. disabled, was well brought up, and so understands many of the potential hazards around the place, though she cannot fix things herself.
So when there was a cause for concern at her flat, the lads were called, they visited as a gang, agreed there wasn't any immediate danger, and insisted on the main supply being turned off until the head honcho could come and sign it off. Not the same day.
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Amusing - because I own neither car nor shares in Tesla.
Young people today eh? Not enough real world experience to think through ALL of the usage cases when they design a new thing. 'Get it rapid prototyped and out there, and we'll fix it on the go... Everything is thrown away after 5 years....'
But no - it seems that when you rush stuff to market and put software out early on the basis that users will do the bug finding, there are real consequences.
Victorian cast iron engineering is the way to go. Everything replaceable, re machinable. Lasts 'forever' with some rebuild maintenance.
All the stuff in our industry that has gone wrong - Year 2000, Windoze as an OS..... yet still people believe us and but more stuff to throw away. If you keep running fast enough you stay ahead of the mob.
(Only Star Trek tells the truth - any alien even looks at a starship and smoke and flames come out of the control panels)
That may be correct, but the internet is unique in being a media with no governance. Newspapers, books, election leaflets are all covered by laws of libel and defamation and the rest. The internet is not, so views and comments and incitement’s are allowed unchallenged.
Witness the USA where many people have been allowed to claim absolute untruths as until even twitter - a major culprit for spreading untruth - has taken to placing a warning on some items.
Then, separately, is the issue of how much financial damage this activity is causing to the law abiding organisations in Europe and elsewhere.
Way past time that google ‘do no evil’ and chums were made to be responsible for their actions to some degree, like any other media outlet.
I once worked for Capita, last century, when they were smaller, and relatively new. Their sole ethic was to make the council pay for as much as possible, and do the least possible.
I've watched their corrupt (remember the CEO who had to leave due to a bit of 'bribery' of officials?) greed driven expansion over the years, and can only hope that this may mark a significant fallow period coming up.
And Word for Dos was ... what.
DOS was text based. Text input, text menus (love those) text screen. So it was never possible to create a wysiwyg display. As with 'word processors' of the day. The output was in a font, and probably spacing that could not be shown on screen.
I still support WP - my (now disabled) daughter learnt how to use its format code editing panel, and still uses it. The only Windoze PC in the household, except for a wee laptop I had to buy to see what the F*ck Microsoft had done with W10 and where they'd hidden required settings, again.
And remember
Bill Gates got rich by selling goods that would fail the requirements of the Sale of Goods Act and by extinguishing all and many businesses that made better products.
I'm just a simple soul.
The USA has Facebook and twitogram and access to everything anyone who uses anti social media places on line. Trump has seen and benefited from the mass misuse of such things. If China makes all the kit, and the CIA and its cronies can't make them bend over to install acces to all the traffic. His world domination plan could be threatened. China did have Zoom, and that came close, of course. Our very own dear Boris'nDom running cabinet meeting through chinese servers, and continuing to promote the channel... Not just James Bond any more.
Can any of us be sure that chinese kit doesn't have the ability to provide some access? If Trump had brains enough to think it up, he'd have insisted on a similar wheeze for US makers to install. A golden packet that trips in? How would testing pick that up? New firmware download in 3 or 5 years or 'when required'
There is SO much about the DARPA created internet which is a security risk anyway - DDOS and all its friends... and don't get me started on Mr Gates's non-operating system.
On the bright side though, When we and the chinese have eaten all the animals, burned off all the trees, and died out from the Chinese invented plague that led them to briefly be 'top nation' we will all get a good laugh of all this.
We are fortunate to be able to judge over several decades. The Apple founders were not alone in the world of people making Pc's
Whilst we're saying all these things, I think I should add my oft-repeated prophecy that when the world looks back on the rise of computing, Bill Gates will be judged by history as having held back the progress of computing by about 25 years.
- the above comment about USB and NT4 (new Technology, aka 'written by IBM') reminded me that on my desk here I have laptops running MAC OSX and W10. I have needed to use a USB stick in each. OSX accepts 'eject' and closes the device, and the window it was visible within. Windows10 current edition does nothing. After closing everything that could possibly have the device in use, it still ignores an 'eject' command.
All this time, and Microsoft still haven't managed to make the most fundamental of operations work in a friendly way.
And don't start on the rest of the windows ecology
Woz genius was in leading the way on the tech, Jobs was a genius in demanding that stuff worked the way it should, be consistent across the entire UI, and by crikey, be beautiful doing it.
Let's just say - it takes two to tango.
That was the one co-engineered by IBM wasn’t it? Or the one the guy from DEC? Created. Proves the case about native Microsoft being a bit, well, lacklustre. Maybe mor so since Bill ripped off the original versions
But hey, I’m used to serious boxes that don’t fall over. At least they seemed to fix that problem eventually.
Whilst I agree with all the comments saying 'serve them right' I believe we should also keep at the forefront of our mind that
It Is The Criminals Fault.
In just the same way as It Is The Criminals Fault if your unlocked house is robbed.
Equally, the fact that such activity can take place is down to the design of the comms. It is no longer beyond our capabilities to run comms and Operating Systems which are intrinsically secure.
Bt I have no idea how you could implement same whilst the USA, China, Russia, etc want to have access to all information, everywhere.
Me? - My fountain pen still works for secure communication.
My memory (the organic one) stretches away back in the fourth dimension.
When email was new...
It was often the case that 'important' emails were being keyed in so quickly that an occasional error was proof of its urgency....
No time to spare to correct it before sending.
Now we have automated spell checkers that can put in the mistukes for us.
I worked for Capita, briefly. The organisation was driven from the top to be utterly unscrupulous and blind to users needs, to the point of deliberately luring them into bad specifications so they could charge double for changes.
I have watched them since - the departure of the Chief Exec as a sop to be able to say they were all cleaned up. The give capitalism a bad name. It seems that every system they 'somehow' acquire (WHY was he thrown out?, oh yes - suspected bungs to toady politicians)
Disgraceful. As I get older seem to get more right wing. The only answer is really to bring back capital punishment, and asset stripping, as for drug lords.
Only in America
Where it is a Good Thing to make handguns and pass them out like sweeties, and makers are not sued for providing weapons that kill people.
as opposed to a company that makes software.
Why then, is Facebook not being sued by all the people who have suffered at the hands of material posted on it? The incitements to self harm, to suicide, to hate speech and acts?
One rule for the Feds, one rule for for the peasants.
I left Windows behind, thankfully, when I retired. Solely Mac or Linux on home built kit.
The I had to have W10 to support my daughter.
I had expected that W10 would be a big improvement. But no. The arrogant way in which MS insist on installing its junk. My daughter is disabled. She cannot cope with changes to screen designs or workflows. I have Macs over 20 years old with a UI which is instantly recognisable from the one on this machine.
Also - the email has been working, continuously, without interruption, (as has the OS) all that time too.
Regardless of the technicalities,
If the 'man on the Clapham omnibus' (A legal simile to indicate ' an ordinary man in the street ' ) is led to believe that he is buying a Mazda by all the advertising and print and signing. Then it seems reasonable for the judge in the case to take his part in saying that Mazda should have taken more care about their relationship with their supplier, and what that supplier does with Maxda's customers. For more years than Mazda has been selling to this country pre-installed entertainment equipment has been a part of the vehicle, and the vehicle manufacturers' warranty covered it. Not so with 3rd party equipment. IN the days when we took our radio less car to a fitter and chose our own, the radio was the responsibility of the fitter, and through them, to the radio manufacturer.
Mazda therefore has the primary relationship, and nowadays, their relationship is to TomTom. I don't see that the requirement for the customer to register, post sale, with Tom Tom, negates Mazda's responsibility o the affair.
We are still a moderately major economy, so being able to pull some strings and influence policy by having ministers and officials in debt - actual or moral, or even unethical, is all to the good. We seem to be heading towards being a failing country, so plenty of opportunity to extract profit. All those foreign investors in steel, cars, universities knowledge, smashing our high streets are not in it to keep a few jobs afloat, they're here so they can take their money home.
And they're here because they come from a culture where NOT playing by rules and laws is normal, so they have an advantage.
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I listen to Radio 3 or classic FM in the workshop. I'd like DAB quality for both of those - but no DAB signal.
Who is going to pay for all my kit that will be instantly redundant?
Same scam as promoting cars, then stopping petrol.
Where does the money go? - are we propping up the makers - Bush, Roberts, Armstrong, Philips - unnamed Chinese Dab makers - and which MP's and party backroom string pullers are the ones making the money from all these unwanted changes.
Not that I'm paranoid or anything.
'Community Radio' - was there ever anything of value broadcast on 'community radio'?
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