Posts by Altrux

The UK's bad encryption law can't withstand global contempt

Re: making it a crime to use strong encryption

Anyone remember Fortify for Netscape? Those were the days!

How to get the latest Linux kernel on your Ubuntu box

Re: Latest Kernal

I stopped doing this years ago, after finding the process way too much faff, and it becoming impossible to build a kernel that would even boot, on Ubuntu. I'm now running Liquorix, which works fine, but perhaps what I might try next is custom-building, using their config as a starting point and stripping out more unnecessary stuff. Interesting that the vmlinuz image, and the modules dir, are much smaller with the Liquorix kernel, compared to the 'canned' Ubuntu kernels.

Would love to see how quickly a kernel compiles on my 12-thread Ryzen, compared with the old single-core Athlon 64 I used to use, way back in the day!

Arm co-founder: Britain's chip strat 'couldn’t be any worse'

Re: oxbridge

And your 500k house will only have 2 bedrooms if you're lucky. (I'm from Cambridge but found it a very difficult and unfriendly place to operate in, so I left many years ago now).

Well, no - arguably it's a good thing. He's not doing this job for the money.

Results are in for biggest 4-day work week trial ever: 92% sticking with it

I've done it for years, since my son was born. Though on 80% pay, not 100% - am I a sucker? But companies large and small are quite open to the idea now, so it's not really been an issue. I love it, and it brings life back into balance again. The cost is minimal (assuming 80%) during the childcare years anyway, and I use my day off to do all my chores and appointments, and extra things like helping with a code club at the school. Never going back to 5 days!

What you need to know about the real-time capable edition of Ubuntu 22.04

LTS

Just a note to add that 5.15 LTS has now been extended to Oct 2026, with 5.10 and 6.1 also running to late 2026.

End of an era as the last 747 rolls off the production line

Re: From a different era

The 777 was indeed an incredibly successful programme. And they've not managed one since, really. The 787 was a fiasco (got there in the end, perhaps), the 737 MAX, the 777X, etc. Yep, the engineers have been sidelined and look what happens!

Not the A320, surely? Plenty of crashes of those, inevitable since they've built so many thousands of them. 48 hull losses and 160 incidents. Which is still pretty good after 35 years and thousands in service.

Quite a few actually, including the A340 and A350...

Singapore to phase out checks for businesses by 2025

Lost in translation

s/checks/cheques/

Didn't think Singapore was really getting rid of checks! I mean, laissez-faire capitalism and all that...

UK facing electricity supply woes after nuclear power stations shut, MPs told

Re: Lack of energy policy for 30 years, nuclear costs

What does China do with its nuclear waste?

Linus Torvalds suggests the 80486 architecture belongs in a museum, not the Linux kernel

DX2

Fond memories of my 486 DX2 50MHz, in the early 90s. Fastest thing on the block, until my friend got the 66MHz version!

Linux kernel 6.1 will contain fixes, features. Useful Rust modules? Not yet

Re: Linux remains an unmade bed

Hello, how is 1998 over there? Over here in 2022, you'll be pleased to hear we don't have these problems any more. Oh, and Linux now runs 100% of the world's supercomputers, 3+ billion smartphones and pretty much the rest of the planet too!

UK govt launches multibillion procurement for tax agency application services

Erm...

What could go ... right?!

Fortinet warns of critical flaw in its security appliance OSes, admin panels

Security by insecurity

We had a related organisation do a cybersecurity audit on us recently, and they want us to install a magic 'security gateway' to magically improve everything for our office network (which already has all the 'usual' firewall stuff). Fortigate would be one of the potential options for this. Ho hum, I'll sit smugly and delay implementing the recommendation a little longer, then...

More than 4 in 10 PCs still can't upgrade to Windows 11

Why?

...would you want to? Win11 may be slightly less eye-bleedingly ugly than Win10, but it's a bug-ridden mess. There are some quite serious bugs in the initial setup wizard that can make it take 2-3 attempts to even setup a new machine and get to a usable desktop. This has bitten us a few times recently, with brand new factory-fresh machines. Never had any such issues with Win10, hideously ugly though it was.

USB-C iPhone, anyone? EU finalizes charging standard rule

Finally

Good move - Lightning was getting rather old and cranky anyway, and USB-C (esp on the USB4 standard) is hugely superior in capability. Now, can we standardise video connectors please? Half my life at work seems to involve users trying to find random weird cables to cope with everything from VGA to DVI, HDMI (micro, mini, standard), mini DP, standard DP, and DP over Thunderbolt...

Re: Lint Magnet

Lightning by name and by nature, etc!

Arm founder says the UK has no chance of tech sovereignty

Selling Britain by the shilling

Foreign corporate raiding of our remaining tech and engineering jewels can only accelerate now: the crashing stock market and tanking pound makes everything an easy and cheap takeover target....

UN's ITU election may spell the end of our open internet

Why Russia

Why does anyone from Russia get a say? They should be immediately thrown out of the UN and all its bodies, probably for quite a long time.

Mozilla drags Microsoft, Google, Apple for obliterating any form of browser choice

Re: Chrome on desktop

Oh yes, I saw many similar examples back in the day. And helped one family friend whose ISP was threatening to disconnect her account, because her Win98 machine had been taken over by so many botnets that it was causing issues on their network!

Warning: That new AMD Ryzen 7000 laptop may not be as fresh as you think

Power to the processors

Surely power consumption will become more of a focus, in our current (no pun intended) climate? Of course, the Americans aren't really affected, but for us Europeans, building a machine with low idle power draw is surely a priority? I'm thinking of building a PC based on the Ryzen 5600G with integrated graphics, as I don't need a gaming monster, and that will hopefully be more power-efficient over all (with a decent PSU and no spinning drives)?

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

Too much choice

They already have a ridiculously overblown product line with too many options, as does AMD. Why does there ever need to be more than, say, 5 CPU models on the market, for any given generation?

But at least AMD has cool names like Ryzen and Threadripper. Intel is rubbish at naming: I mean "Core" is bad enough, for a thing that contains, erm, cores - in varying numbers. So now there will be a "Processor", with cores, but not Core cores. But the Cores with all their cores are also processors, funnily enough. Honestly, do people get paid for this stuff?

Demand for software experts pushes tech salaries higher in UK

Imbalance

I've worked in tech and engineering jobs for a couple of decades now, in many different fields, for companies large and small. Engineering is still 80% male, IT still more like 95% - or 100% in my current company. They're hardly imagining it. But nobody knows why. Self-perpetuating imbalance (women don't apply as they don't want a male-dominated environment) or some deeper reason?

AMD refreshes desktop CPUs with 5nm Ryzen 7000s that can reach 5.7GHz with 16 cores

I'm pretty likely to plump for one of those. Looks like a great all-rounder and presumably a much better overall 'power envelope' than the plain 5600 CPU and separate graphics card. In a couple of years I can disable the graphics and whack in a big phat Nvidia card if I feel like it.

And as, like you, I intend this new system to last a few years, I'm not worried about buying an 'end of life' platform. My next machine after this will be an AM6 socket, presumably!

Energy crunch

Was planning to line myself up a nice Ryzen 7000/AM5 system to replace my 5yr old Intel box. But honestly, given current events, I'm prioritising energy efficiency and this new platform seems not to tick that box. TDP and power draw seem to be ratcheting up, which is not a good sign.

Will probably stick with a Ryzen 5000 APU with integrated Radeon (it's not a gaming rig), all SSDs, gold PSU, etc. Any other tips for building the most power-sipping desktop PC possible?

Google Play to ban Android VPN apps from interfering with ads

WireGuard

OpenVPN? Proper old-skool - worth an upgrade to WireGuard, I would suggest?

Airbus flies new passenger airplane aimed at 'long, thin' routes

A greater choice of toilets to queue in front of!

Re: Stress that wing!

Airbus is re-certifying the shorter A320 for 194 passengers now. Seat width is locked in (18", 3+3, still better than a 737), but they reckon they can get away with 28" seat pitch for another row. Mind you, other long haulers are already doing that. Grim - Malaysia Airlines used to have 34" economy pitch on their old 747s!

Stress that wing!

Amazed they've extended the 1980s-era platform so far, but it was a good forward-thinking design. It can fit proper new-generation engines under the wing (unlike the 737), and even has real undercarriage doors (unlike the 737 with its exposed 'light aircraft' wheels). So well done to Airbus - and all on the original wing, albeit with those giant winglets. Surprised they've managed to roll this one with no actual increase in wing area.

As for comfort, that's all down to the airlines and how much they are prepared to screw you by reducing seat pitch and fitting in an extra row. No reason this can't be a comfortable machine - but whether it /will/ be is another question.

How did you mourn Internet Explorer's passing?

Silverlight

Our real-time control system platform still depends on IE and Silverlight. Which is tricky to even install in Win11 now, whereas it was a couple of clicks under Win10. Yes, I know. We're working on it, but dependent on the upstream proprietary provider to move into the 2020s, one day...

Sick of Windows but can't afford a Mac? Consult our cynic's guide to desktop Linux

Re: Control Your Own Upgrades

Installing is quicker than upgrading these days (assuming you keep your separate /home partition intact, and have a nice little Ansible playbook to do the post-install extras). I've just done a stack of Ubuntu 22.04 systems: a fresh install takes ~15 mins, an inline upgrade maybe 30. OK, the latter theoretically leaves you less to do afterwards, but I love the freshness and speed of the former!

Linux since 2002!

Been on various Linux desktops since 2002 - a whole twenty years now. Initially Red Hat and its puppies, mostly now Ubuntu/Mint for the last 10 years. Yes, occasionally it breaks, but very rarely. Whole system meltdowns are rare on the desktop, unheard of on servers. Now I'm on Kubuntu (i.e. KDE desktop) 22.04, which is looking nice these days. A few visual customisations and it looks really stunning.

At work, we have 3/4 of people on Ubuntu Linux desktops (a few need Windows-specific software). Support requests are minimal, once we've setup silly things like the cranky old scanner and properly configured their e-mail client. Everything just runs, month after month, with zero hassles for us - important as a team of only 1.5 people.

Some of your characterisations are a little unfair, Liam. Mint is probably the go-to for most people (with Cinnamon) coming from 'doze, and as for Debian, it deserves credit for its legendary reliability. A bit too conservative for a desktop, but if you want ultimate solidity, you can't go wrong with it.

Russian media watchdog bans Google from advertising its services

Muppetry

Absolute imbeciles - do they actually think we're falling for Vladolf's nonsense at this point? They should be embarrased. Peskov is the new Comical Ali.

Russia bans foreign software purchases for critical infrastructure

Re: Best of luck with that mate

I'm claiming credit for that one. I did actually dream it up a couple of weeks ago, but it might well be a case of 'simultaneous invention' with others... :)

Next versions of both Fedora and Ubuntu head into beta

Re: Here we go again

It's a development release - of course there are piles of updates, every day. Once the final release goes out, it'll calm down to be more like Windows. Wonderful, eh?

The first step to data privacy is admitting you have a problem, Google

Re: Hey Google!

Listening not, they are.

GNOME 42's inconsistent themes are causing drama

Guh-nome

GNOME = Gaaah, Needlessly Obtuse Mindf*ck Environment

Wheels to Reinvent

Modern UIs feel like they've gone backwards in the last 20 years. The Linux desktop I had back in 2003 (early KDE) was very pretty: easily themeable, nice 3D effects, usable and powerful. Now we've all just spent 20 years constantly reinventing wheels, changing things, changing them back again, then making a square wheel and reinventing that. The overall effect is that we've gone nowhere, or backwards. So much wasted effort on this nonsense, and a complete lack of genuinely fresh and better ideas.

SAP wins competition to replace own ageing system at UK council

You're optimistic!

Samsung updates its most popular smartphone range

Big Up the A!

After deciding to avoid any Chinese-made phones, I basically had to go with Samsung (made in Korea, India or Vietnam). I've been on the A-series models for a couple of years now, and can't really complain. Excellent value for money, still some Samsung crapware (though less than there used to be), regular software updates (I am running the Feb 2022 Android security patchlevel), and a camera system that has made several iPhone owners jealous. There are some niggles, but overall these are excellent phones for a sensible price.

Boys outnumber girls 6 to 1 in UK compsci classes

Bring back the girls!

My fledgling Raspberry Pi Code Club, at my son's primary school, has 11 attendees and 4 more on the waiting list. 100% boys. Seems we've achieved almost nothing on gender balance in the last 30 years...

Microsoft slides ads into Windows Insiders' File Explorer

Year of the Linux Desktop

It's now 20 years since I switched to Linux as my sole desktop OS. Brave at the time, an obvious move now. My "Year of the Linux Desktop" was 2002 - when is yours?

Lapsus$ extortionists dump Samsung data online, chaebol confirms security breach

Cr4pware

Yeah, Samsung is better than it used to be, but still lots of unremovable junk. I have a Galaxy A, because it's an excellent phone and because it's not made in China, but I still wish I could have one with 'pure Android' on it. At least I would only have to sell my soul to Google, not Samsung too...

Linux distros patch 'Dirty Pipe' make-me-root kernel bug

RH kernels

Red Hat kernels apparently bear little relation to their headline version number. They backport and tweak an insane amount of stuff, so that kernel is probably no more 4.18 than my hamster's brain firmware is.

Re: Linux Bias / Android kernels

My Samsung A52, running Android 12, still has a 4.19 kernel. I've yet to see a phone running anything newer than 5.4, but I don't doubt that they're out there. Luckily, Samsung is quite good at rolling out monthly Android security updates for all supported phones. Many others are not so lucky.

One decade, 46 million units: Happy birthday, Raspberry Pi

Chip crisis

The Pi is a wonderful project to be proud of. But it's a shame you haven't generally been able to buy them for months now. That 45 million figure could have been a fair bit higher but for the chip crisis, which seemed to start almost overnight but which drags on and on....

Users sound off as new Google Workspace for Education storage limits near

Photo archiving

I just go to photos.google.com, download a great stack of them (which arrives as a ZIP file), then delete the same stack from the web interface. Job done. They go into trash then get auto-deleted after 30 days. But photos in trash don't seem to count towards your quota, which immediately goes up when you press delete!

HPE has 'substantially succeeded' in its £3.3bn fraud trial against Autonomy's Mike Lynch – judge

Comeuppance

I worked for these clowns back in the day (circa 2005). Serious culture problem, really grim atmosphere inside those shiny offices in Cambridge. Was very glad to escape, as just another sysadmin from the "burn them out like matches" disposable team. Lynch may be reaping what he sowed...

For first time in nearly 17 years, stable Linux kernel version has over 999 commits – but not everyone heard about it

Not quite 31 years

The kernel has existed for (almost) 31 years, but the -stable series as we now know it has not, I believe! Of course, on the regular Linux -rc releases, it seems there are frequently far more than 999 patches.

But, turning to the broader question, is this huge patch bomb a good or a bad thing? Have the kernel maintainers become highly proactive and super-productive, to find and fix this many issues in a fairly new 'stable' kernel? Or is this an indication that we have a quality control issue?