Posts by rlightbody

Japan serves Google a cease and desist order over its Android bundling deals

Given that the iphone is *enormously* dominant in japan, its surprising that they're going after Android/Google.

It looks like IBM is cutting jobs again, with Classic Cloud hit hard

Indian Business Machines

All you'll end up with is wealthy senior management in the US, and everyone else employed cheaply in India.

If I had children, I'd be telling them to work in any sector except IT. A trade would be good, as someone in India can't fix your broken pipes.

EU gave CrowdStrike the keys to the Windows kernel, claims Microsoft

If I was Microsoft, I'd be pushing their own Defender endpoint protection platform. Microsoft have more to lose if they accidentally crash millions of Windows servers!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/business/endpoint-security/microsoft-defender-business

Re: Linux only had problems if the Linux admins were stupid

What it needed was a few machines around that weren't running Crowdstrike - thats the problem here. Some machines running the Defender endpoint instead wouldn't have been impacted at all.

The chip that changed my world – and yours

We got our ZX81 around 1982. I was 9, and was blown away. I learned basic programming (because the tape drive didn't work, so if you didn't programme it, it didn't do anything). The BASIC books that came with it were an excellent introduction to programming. I'm sure it led directly to my career in IT. The wobbly 16K RAM pack that would reset the computer if nudged, taught me lots too!

The ZX Spectrum + that followed it in 1985 was, by comparison, mostly used for games.

Tesla slashes vehicle and self-driving-ish software prices as shares plummet

I dont think the rest of the car industry have caught up at all.

In terms of energy efficiency, and charger infrastructure, Tesla is untouchable just now.

Whistleblower cries foul over alleged fuselage gaps in Boeing 787 Dreamliner

I recently changed my plans, at my own cost, to avoid flying on a Ryanair Max 8. I was concerned that when confronted by the plane at the airport gate, I wouldn't be able to make myself get on board.

However, if you look at the statistics, even the "crashy" Max 8 is far, far, far safer than your drive to the airport in your car/taxi/bus.

Google flushes cached search results forever

I use this quite often, its sometimes incredibly useful and retrieves information that isn't available elsewhere (not even the wayback machine).

What a shame.

The home Wi-Fi upgrade we never asked for is coming. The one we need is not

Modem mode and Google Wifi - easy life

Couldn't possibly agree more with the conclusion of this article.

Years ago, I switched my awful Virgin Superhub 3 into model only mode, and added 2 Google Wifi 'pucks' in mesh mode. I've never looked back. Consistent. reliable wi-fi through the house and better understanding of what is going on when required.

Amazon to shutter Digital Photography Review

Really, really sad. As an amateur photographer, I will miss it very much. It has been a huge help to me, including very recently.

Seems like a lazy cop-out just to close it down. There are obvious ways where it could have made money but still retained the valuable content.

iPhone 14 iFixit teardown shows Apple's learning on repairs

At some point in the future, we're going to look back on this era of smartphone, and wonder why on earth we ever used glass for a case on something you hold and drop, and why we all put up with it. Its madness.

A slippery, fragile highly expensive device when there's other materials that would work so much better.

My Google Pixel 6's glass back is so incredibly slippery it will slide off a flat sofa onto the floor.

And a device thats designed to be mobile, shouldn't be rendered irreparable by a fall from a stool.

Apple Silicon takes a back seat at iPhone-heavy launch event

I thought that too, but the Pixel 6 that I'm using has genuinely surprised me with the quality of its photos, especially in poor light. Its a real step forward from the previous phones that I had. Battery life is still rubbish though...

I want a rubberised phone that doesn't need a case, and has genuine 2 day battery life, even if that means its a bit thicker.

Google hit with lawsuit for dropping free Workspace apps

I setup 3 of these accounts for relatives families, which was one of the use-cases that Google gave originally.

My sister's family has one based on a domain name from their surname, then they've all got their own google account under that - its a great solution. I never convinced them to actually use it this way, but they could have had family calendars so they could all see what each other were up to for planning things.

It works brilliantly for a family, I don't understand why Google don't have an equivalent product now.

Software issues cost Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess his job

Re: Stand by for subscription services like the ones BMW recently announced.

My 2017 Golf has a button marked "Voice" that when I push it tells me I need to buy the service.

Every single review of the VW Golf mk8 has heavily criticised the on-board electronics, and compared them negatively to the previous version of the car, which is just incredible. Here are some of the issues noted in the software :-

Slowness - apparently the software was written for more powerful hardware than the car is actually equipped with...

Crashing of the infotainment completely, with a subsequent delayed reboot.

Crucial Features buried under layers of slow menus

Lane keep assist and speed warnings that read speed signs as KPH instead of MPH, and mix up left hand drive and right hand drive - has caused to brake at the wrong times, and to take lane actions incorrectly.

But the final straw for most people seems to be the almost complete removal of physical controls, which then means the electronics have to work faultlessly.

So much to learn from this about how not to do things...

End of the road for biz living off free G Suite legacy edition

Re: "option"? what "option"?

I Googled it for you...

https://support.google.com/a/answer/60217?hl=en

Re: I thought they had backed down

They did, for personal use.

Thats not true. They backed down.

Microsoft: You own the best software keyboard there is. Please let us buy it

Swype was AWESOME!!!

I LOVED Swype.

After years of using GBOARD I have not come close to the accuracy I achieved with Swype in a month. I've tried Swiftkey and it was hopeless too.

Couldn't believe it when they stopped it, and I think of it every day when gboard gets a word wrong.

IBM adds side order of NLP to McDonald's AI drive-thru chatbots

Doesn't make sense

You'd be better off driving up, then just using the app on your phone...

Google keeps legacy G Suite alive and free for personal use

I set one of these up a long time ago for my sisters family (6 people) and that was going to be a lot of pain to sort out, or expensive and turn the family into a business for some reason...

And for myself I set it up but I only have one user, and would love nothing better than to be allowed to convert it to a normal google account - if I could keep using my own domain. Would be happy to pay a reasonable amount for this.

Re: Not if you registered to upgrade...

As mentioned in the support documents, you can use the chat box to reverse this - I did and it took about 30 seconds - its one of the pre-defined responses under "contact support" from the admin panel.

Only 29% of techies truly want to stay in current job

Trust your staff to work from home, flexibly, in a way that suits them.

Possibly say that you'd like to see them in the office once a week, but not more than that.