Posts by M. T. Ness

WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released for free

The DEC keyboards were like that. VT220, Rainbow.

No link between internet use and poor mental health, according to Oxford boffins

Only qualitative?

No difference between occasional users and heavy users? To me it seems they have been asking the wrong questions, and that their conclusions are irrelevant.

Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 just has this certain Macbook Air about it...

MXLinux

You might have a better chance of success with the Ryzen5-Radeon system if you used the AHS variety of MXLinux

"The target is those users with things like newer amdgpu hardware"

(https://mxlinux.org/blog/new-advanced-hardware-support-repo-ahs-for-short/)

CERN celebrates 30 years since releasing the web to the public domain

Re: Software vendors weren’t interested, so giving it away became the best option

Google had a more sustainable business idea. Alltheweb was bought by Microsoft just before the introduction of Bing.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-jun-17-fi-preview17.1-story.html

Should open source sniff the geopolitical wind and ban itself in China and Russia?

There should be room for common sense too, not only licences and laws. If releasing a piece of software to the bad guys would make the situation worse for someone, then that could be weighed against the benefit to the good guys before a decision is taken about releasing source code.

A unified policy in such matters would not IMHO cover all cases well.

But I'm sure this happens already.

Original Acorn Arthur project lead explains RISC OS genesis

The Rainbow

Initially the Rainbow ran CP/M86/80. 8088 for the 16-bit programs *.cmd, Z80 for 8-bit programs, *.com, like WordStar. Later on, MSDOS replaced CP/M.

Original killer PC spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 now runs on Linux natively

Re: Word Star

WS for DOS was specially nice when run from a RAM disc on the DEC Rainbow.

I wrote my thesis on the CP/M version, though. File plus .bak file on a single sided 386 k floppy. No room for wordiness. Printout on the DEC LA50. Low budget times for printers at the time.

AI-designed COVID-19 drug nominated for preclinical trial

A chemical substance is not a drug

It is the equivalent of the hardware of a computer. A drug has a dosage and a dosage schedule, which is the software.

The first thing to have a plan for is what to do when the substance doesn't seem to work in a living animal, or only works at doses that kill the animal.

Why the Linux desktop is the best desktop

Re: Linux "Desktop"

MX v 19 would or could not give me prints from my 3310ND. MX 21 installed it smoothly. I guess it's a Debian problem.

Academics tell Brit MPs to check the software used when considering reproducibility in science and tech research

Re: this is true

The importance of mediators is underrated. Fred Brooks (in Man-Month) highlights the essential role of leaders with broad knowledge and experience. Only with their help will there be fruitful communication between systems and people that do not communicate well unmediated.

Mediators will be very powerful, and my experience is that the tops of the hierarchy only rarely tolerate them.

A related question: How is it possible to recruit the right people, and how can their competences be maintained? I have no answer.

Seaberry carrier board turns a Raspberry Pi into a desktop PC with 11 PCIe slots

Re: Not a surprise

Nail soup

http://soupsong.com/snail.html

Theranos blood-test machine demos for VIPs rigged to hide any failures, court told

Arrogance of investors?

If I were to invest millions of dollars in a microfluidics system for in vitro medical diagnostics, I would have insisted to see the details of the working principles like pumping and detection, and trivially: the storage of the reagents.

The investors trusted their gut feelings, it seems, and did not ask the opinion of independent experts. Whatever happens next, serves them right.

Samsung: We will remotely brick smart TVs looted from our warehouse

Re: "In keeping with our values to the of technology to resolve societal challenges …"

Could you please wait until tomorrow?

Facebook sat on report that reveals most-shared post for months was questionable COVID story

Adverse events

VAERS are spontaneous adverse events reports from the public. Attributing a case of dying after vaccination to the vaccine substance requires elimination of all other possible causes of death. This requires evaluation by personnel who have access to and understanding of all relevant medical information. If relevant information is lacking, the case cannot be classified.

Using 'AI-based software like Proctorio and ProctorU' to monitor online exams is a really bad idea, says uni panel

Re: Online exams do not seem like a good idea in general

Open Web exams look like a good idea. Only: are the university teachers willing and able to take all the time and effort needed to make them? And are they capable?

China starts testing tech to harvest solar energy from orbiting panels

An exercise only.

It seems unlikely that such a system can be cost effective.

India makes a play to source rare earths – systematic scrapping of its old cars

Lanthanides

AFAIK there is cerium oxide in catalytic converters. In advanced magnets there seems to be praseodymium and neodymium - separating them apparently isnt cost effective.

Cerium is the stuff to get rid of first to get to the rarer ones.