* Posts by Mage

9252 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

Set your alarms for 2.40am UTC – so you can watch Unix time hit 1,500,000,000

Mage Silver badge
Joke

I may have a problem Huston

perl -MDateTime -lE'say DateTime->from_epoch( epoch => 1_500_000_000 )'

Can't locate DateTime.pm in @INC (you may need to install the DateTime module) (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.22.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.22.1 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl5/5.22 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl/5.22 /usr/share/perl/5.22 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/perl-base .).

BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.

The life and times of Surface, Microsoft's odds-defying fondleslab

Mage Silver badge

Re: spend all day everyday changing your settings?

No, I want to change them ONCE, when I unpack it.

Or change metering on WiFi if I move to a place using capped broadband.

Some things I'd like to change I can't

So now the w10 stuff has either been wiped (to an OS where I CAN change the stuff once!) or gathering dust.

Mage Silver badge

Settings and Control panel

At least FIVE places on Win10 to go and change stuff. Some "settings" vanish according to window mode or how you navigate to them.

It's a mess. It's not even stable. Basic GUI aspects customisable for the last 25 years are gone.

Things are tucked away in inappropriate places. See setting Metered connection on your WiFi and setting and exception for driver downloads. Or ALL the GUI privacy settings apart from Policies or Services. Is that text a description or a setting? No GUI clues.

Anyone that thinks W10 is any good at all is only doing trivial stuff with default settings and doesn't care about privacy, stability, performance. productivity. If I wanted a chrome book, I'd buy one.

Mage Silver badge

MS gave up on the universal Metro interface?

Sadly NO. UWP is the same thing except worse. Because now they sell less phones and it's stupider graphics style and less customisable. It's designed for a market that MS has lost and alienating desktop users. Where MS MAKES money.

it's a fact too, that an application is either designed for keyboard & mouse OR Touch or Stylus. Widgets are OK with touch. Serious application are crap with touch and tiring and slower with a stylus. Unless they are sketch centric.

The Win10 is a horrible mix of touch and mouse/Keyboard GUI, with a Tablet & Desktop mode that is stupid. MS touch has really improved since XP Tablet edition, if you have ONLY "modern" AKA Metro style apps (widgets) and Tablet mode on a 7" or smaller screen.

MS Stylus has hardly progressed for REGULAR applications on Windows since XP Tablet edition.

You have a few flagship surface stylus programs, the phone style tile based apps and then the bulk of productivity software needs keyboard and mouse for day long use. It's attractive in showroom or the first few days, then it it's crap compared to Windows 7.1 or Linux or XP or older OS X versions on laptops or ultrabooks.

Nice HW, but where is the widespread innovative application support and a consistent GUI? Changing the things you still can change in Windows 10 is mess. You sometimes even have to run powershell scripts to re-fix edge after updates.

People that think W10 is good obviously have little experience PROPERLY setting up computers or using alternate versions of windows (properly installed), never mind OS9, OSX, Linux, NT4.0 etc.

Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Still no.

The can't make up its mind if it's for a phone, tablet or desktop OS kills it.

The appalling lack of GUI customisation for user kills it.

The appalling updates model kills it.

The default slurp everything to MS kills it.

The increasing emphasis on turning Windows Cloud based like Chrome OS and unfinished and more for consumption than creation like Android kills it.

A nice idea staggeringly badly done.

I have Lenovo Tablet/laptop with Wacom stylus & touch screen. It was garbage with Win 10, almost reasonable with Linux Mint + Mate + Redmond theme etc.

I have Linx x86 1010 tablet with Keyboard and Win10. No doubt the surface is far superior HW, but can the Windows 10 be that much difference. Worse than Vista or ME. I've used EVERY windows since 2.0 and Windows 286. Windows 3.1 was first usable, In many ways Win 10 is worse.

WD gets court order: Toshiba can't block access to shared database

Mage Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: That's an Imperial Gb not the fancy metric Gb

It's nothing to do with Metric and Imperial.

RAM and ROM from the beginning used binary addressing. Thus 10 wires = 1024 addresses. "Proper" k, M, G is 1000, 1000 x 1000 and 1000 x 1000 x 1000. Floppy drives and Hard Drives didn't originally use fixed physical address lines, but cylinders (basically tracks x heads) and sectors per track and then what ever number of bytes fitted into a sector. Floppy disks might even have had a hole to mark each sector, or start of all sectors. Density was thus lower at outer edge. Later they varied the number of sectors upwards as you moved out from hub, but the controller mapped the old system to the real geometry.

So spinning disks count actual number of usable bytes and use multiples of 1000.

RAM and ROM and CPU address line capacity are more naturally counted as multiples of 1024

see Wikipedia Mebibyte a largely ignored attempt to end the confusion.

So nothing to do with Metric and Imperial, but simple convenience for semiconductor addressing.

Mage Silver badge

If it's miniaturised to SD cards ...

Already people are putting 256 G SD cards in stupidly under-provisioned Win10 x86 convertible tablets.

Sure there is a market in ultrabooks and HD video cameras too.

The silicon vias may be cheaper than wirebonds once yield is up.

If at first you don't succeed, you're Microsoft pushing its magical white space broadband

Mage Silver badge
Devil

white space broadband

So called "White Space" transmission is greed, interference producing and should be illegal forever, everywhere*. It shows a fundamental disregard for mathematics and physics. Ultimately Thermodynamics.

It's Spectrum theft from legitimate users.

It can ONLY work if (1) EVERY receiver of EVERY application in the spectrum is reporting in real time to the Internet and (2) no so called "white space" transmitter uses a channel without real time Internet interrogation of the central database.

(1) Isn't possible, nor practical for existing spectrum users.

(2) is open to abuse.

It's corporate greed, as is proposal for LTE on ISM bands (WiFi bands etc).

[* Though if MS pays Ofcom enough they will allow it after 2019 even if illegal under ITU rules.]

Dell gives world its first wireless-charging laptop if you buy $580 extra kit

Mage Silver badge

Re: I've never understood this

The charger pad adds extra bulk for longer term travel / multiple locations and SHOCK still needs a PSU and wire!

Mage Silver badge

Pedantic ...

A) It's not wireless, it's inductive.

B) It makes it LESS portable.

C) The so called "Wireless" charging plate needs a cable and PSU brick or wall wart identical to a direct connection.

Adds extra cost, less reliability for dubious advantage compared to a dock or direct cable. It's mere hipster fashion.

Trump tramples US Constitution by blocking Twitter critics – lawsuit

Mage Silver badge

Or

Options:

Ban Trump from Twitter.

Ban Twitter.

Ignore his tweets

Ubuntu Linux now on Windows Store (for Insiders)

Mage Silver badge

Re: Fast Startup, corrupt NTFS.

Disable prefetch and fast startup if you can. Both evil, especially for SSD, Flash, SD cards etc, any system not using single OS and spinning disk. Even then your OS may be better without them.

Mage Silver badge

Re: new fangled Windows Subsystem for Linux

Essentially 21st C version of the old MS Services For Unix, slightly updated.

if you want to dual boot, or run Ubuntu in a VM on Windows (the reverse is better), then get Ubuntu or any other Linux distro (or BSD etc) in the normal way.

Windows Store is like a copy of Nokia's pointless store for Symbian (which resulted in REDUCED functionality -- widgets killed -- and making it harder to download S60 apps from random websites. iTunes only worked because it existed before iOS and there wasn't a pre iTunes method. Practically the same exists for Android). Windows Store is a broken concept for x86 Desktop PCs. The phone and ARM Tablet MS OS should NEVER have been called Windows (It was Windows CE originally). MS attempt to take control of distribution sucks.

Their new EVERYTHING is 365 will piss people off too.

Absolute morons.

Mage Silver badge

Faster by using Windows download?

Ha!

I have found MS downloads very slow compared to the Linux distro mirrors.

I found that trying to install ANYTHING from Windows Store breaks the Store App -- and all other "metro/modern" apps on Win 10. Attempting to repair Store app: This app can't be repaired please download an updated version from Windows Store.

Sorry MS, but you are now rubbish. I prefer to install Wine, Mono, MS Fonts etc from LINUX distros on Linux for the legacy Windows Applications I still use.

Win 10 is a bad copy of Android now. At least with Vista you could customise it! ME was better than Win10 and Windows Store.

GSM gateway ban U-turn casts doubt on 7.5-year prosecution in Blighty

Mage Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

He broke the law?

Really?

He's been charged, but the case isn't proved. Ofcom has been in bed with major telcos for years (Regulatory capture). Ofcom opposed the end of the Roaming Charges (which had no real basis in costs). Ofcom's regulation was probably illegal.

He's not broken the law till it's proved in court. The CPS taking a case is not proof of someone breaking a law!

Is this a hotdog? What it takes for an AI to answer that might surprise you

Mage Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

So where is the AI?

You tell a database which are pictures of hotdogs and which are not hotdogs. You need a lot of pictures.

Maybe you better also show (store / process) clip art too. Children's drawings. Where do you stop?

Then at run time you have some image matching / analysis. Unless you are Humpty Dumpty this isn't AI. Marketing and the Tech industry can call it AI, but it's not.

How does a child recognise a hotdog and a not hotdog, maybe after seeing only one? Also somehow we must have a conceptual 3D model as we don't need (usually) any particular viewing angle.

The described project is interesting and I think an example of what so-called AI can achieve today. Machine Learning = Human curated database.

See Computing Tasks

Do read the mouse hover caption

The so called AI task might not be achievable, or it may be fragile. Cyclists and Kangaroos.

While USA is distracted by its President's antics, China is busy breaking another fusion record

Mage Silver badge

Re: let me guess...

However ideally co-sited with fission reactors as the excess neutrons can be absorbed by radioactive waste, generating heat, then steam for electricity. The waste is converted to less radioactive materials. So the main fusion reactor doesn't have to have net output if paired with a fission reactor.

Microsoft offers cloud to Baidu, gets autonomous car in return

Mage Silver badge

Hype

or Fantasy?

MS thought a chat Bot was a good idea because TenCent

MS thought slurping people's privacy and making Windows like a partially finished phone OS was a good idea because Google, Facebook and Android.

I'm not sure where MS got all the other stupid it's been moving into since 2003.

European MPs push for right to repair rules

Mage Silver badge
Happy

Re: Battery Capacity

It can be 50% after 18months. It's number of cycles and temperature. A sealed in battery will not meet SOGA requirements for all customers.

An eInk Kindle or Kobo may use same sealed in LiPoly cell as a phone, but charge cycle can be week to a month vs daily for a smart phone with unlimited or high data cap. If your signal is poor and you use WiFi and and BT on all day then you may charge when you get home and again going to bed, and some users will only see 1 year battery life. But an eInk reader with same cell might last 5 years or more. Screens get broken.

I use my ancient Soiny Z1 with WiFI off, BT off and only about 1 or two calls a week, so I often only charge once or twice a week hence replaceable battery is ironically fine and nearly four years old? (The original).

My Inspiron 8200 was used from 2002 to 2016, so no surprise it's on fifth battery pack, it's on 3rd keyboard and I replaced case once by buying a scrap compatible model.

You can buy replacement NEW casings for 2 way mobile radios. Quite old models. Also Yaesu is very good for replacement parts for Amateur and Vertex Radio gear.

Most consumer Electronics companies don't want stuff to be repairable. There is also the issue that a new TV or BD player is cheaper than a repair. Repairs need to be subsidized to reduce scrapage, so called recycling. But most expert repair people have retired. Most places you'll only get a screen on popular phones replaced. Forget eInk or anything uncommon.

Fridges and microwaves are rarely fixed, even though they are very repairable. The parts are too dear and to pay proper technician with training, tools, insurance etc is more expensive than a new one. Forget kettles, coffee machines, toasters. Unless you learnt all this stuff 40 years ago and have an attic full of stuff you never threw out to cannibalise for parts.

So this is worthy, but we need something more radical to have real repair and reuse rather than so-called recycling, were much isn't. Though car batteries are a success. It would be even better if the case was re-usable. They currently are not.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Related topic

Though there is the fire issue if toy dropped and there is a short. Even Alkaline cells won't set the wires on fire. NiMH will. I've tested this out of curiosity as the toy actually had a warning label not to use rechargeable batteries. I worry about the Lithium Iron PP3 9V replacements, I must get one and test.

Tesco sells, or has sold DAB radios / Alarms that work on 5V external or 4 x AA cells (less than 6 hrs listening!) They don't work with even fresh NiMH. They can't be fully utilising the Alkaline cells as the end point is 0.9V, so that''s 3.6V. Four charged NiMH are about 5.4V fresh on load and recommend end point of 1.1, that's 4.4V in series to avoid reverse charging a cell.

Mage Silver badge

OLED screens

They are short life as they are only LED like, it's really electroluminescent. They wear out.

Most "LED" TVs are LCD, with various kinds of LED backlights (from ghastly to good). Real LED TVs are either the size of large exhibition hall wall, or nearly as expensive if room sized (Sony Crystal).

Over-run edge lit LED backlighting does fail.

CCFL LCD backlight can last 15 years, but goes a little yellow. Cheap LED backlights go purplish and tend to be very uneven.

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

Mage Silver badge

Re: Following the trend

I liked the long gone IRC style text chat on Skype. Current design is ghastly,

Mage Silver badge

Re: "This new app is absolutely terrible"

Products where next version was worse:

Office 2003

Visio

Windows XP

Visual Studio (Various times)

VB6

Skype

MSN Messenger

SQL Server 7.0

Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Win98SE -> ME

NT 3.51

Windows 7

Windows 8.1

Mage Silver badge

Re: Hangouts

Google makes MS look sane and honest.

They have the attention span of a mayfly. Any Google product might be gone next week. All spy on you to monetise you for their main business, selling adverts.

There are other problems with Hangouts too.

Mage Silver badge
Unhappy

Skype Alternatives?

I tried QQ, but the Linux version is only Chinese and and the Android version seems intermittent on Play Store. It seemed OK on Windows (even old versions MS doesn't let Skype on, or that use 100% CPU with Skype), but persuading others to move is a problem.

What about Ring see ring.cx ?

Also I use text message on skype and file transfer more than calls and rarely use video, so a SIP or Video only is no use.

Why is Skype now insiting it's web based and transferring files and images to skype.com and wanting a web browser log in even when both people are online?

Mage Silver badge

Office

Last decent version was 2003. The Ribbon and now deleting little used but important features killed Office for me.

I never used Access or VBA or Macros (all evil) so changing from Office XP to LibreOffice was easy (do edit all the defaults).

Why does Skype now create cookies on Win10.

Why does Windows Skype have stupid "Home" screen and adverts (both removable).

Why does a new install of skype destroy your existing account profile avatar.

Why is Skype on task bar like an open program and not in Notification area like it used to be (and still is on Linux).

Why are they killing Skype Phones, Skype on embedded stuff and killing Linux skype to replace Linux version with a nastier one?

Because MS are obsessed with phones, where they have < 2% market and are determined to abuse desktop users.

Windows Insiders with SD cards turn into OneDrive outsiders

Mage Silver badge

Re: Uninstall OneDrive

Or your own hosting / server / whatever.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Sky blue, water wet, MS fucking over customers...

You left out AUTOMATIC Win10 update that updated FIRMWARE and bricked Win10 x86 Tablets with keyboards used as Netbooks.

Not recoverable without special programming hardware and original firmware.

All of the MS "Cloudy" stuff seems to be a broken menace on a laptop / net book / x86 tablet used in traditional windows fashion to create / edit content.

Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Sky blue, water wet, MS fucking over customers...

Indeed. The entire philosophy of making Windows into a bad copy of Android is crazy. Windows 10, Windows Store, One Drive etc are stupid and possibly illegal too.

Bonkers call to boycott Raspberry Pi Foundation over 'gay agenda'

Mage Silver badge

Re: Rainbow

Resistors ...

Black (oil underground), Brown (Earth), Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, Grey(clouds), White (light).

Mage Silver badge

Re: "pushing LGBTQI"

AZERTY! Quellle domage!

Mage Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Rainbow

Newton "picked" seven colours (most people only clearly distinguish 6) because of Greek philosophy, music (seven notes, then next octave) and alchemy. He'd originally listed six! There are very many more colours than 7 in a rainbow if you have a good list of colour names, or a pantone chart. I think the limit is about 10,000 hues for humans viewing spectrum of sunlight on very narrow slit and prism.

Asimov thought Newton's choice odd

Mage Silver badge

Re: "pushing LGBTQI"

Intersex, of which there are about 30 conditions, some unrelated. Essentially many have been surgically altered, in some cases without even parental consent or parents being informed.

No-one should be bullied or discriminated against for what they are or believe. Nor for believing differently.

Mage Silver badge
Alert

Rainbow

Very old symbol used for thousands of years in many cultures.

Does not automatically mean someone is pushing LGBTQI at "expense of" Heterosexuals.

However the petition is bonkers anyway.

For all the chaos it sows, fewer than 1% of threats are actually ransomware

Mage Silver badge

Things like Wordpress

In my experience most of the issues with Drupal, Wordpress, etc are badly written plugins (REALLY think, do I need this?) or badly configured installs or badly configured hosting.

Why, Robot? Understanding AI ethics

Mage Silver badge
Terminator

Re: Asimov's three laws

Originally NOT a blueprint for Robot Ethics, but a maguffin style thing to set up plot of "Robot does harm, but it's impossible" type detective story, a variation on the Locked Room idea.

Mage Silver badge
Happy

Good Article

One of the best on so called AI I've read in 30 years.

So. A cross-Europe cyberwar simulation. Of ransomware

Mage Silver badge

Cloud?

Did they simulate:

1) Almost all POS, Banking, Mobile Billing and corporate stuff outsourced to Cloud

2) Cloud being simply hosting of maybe six big companies

3) Some vital part of Cloud being a mono-culture, such that ALL of something goes down when a patch is rolled out (Pick any of: DNS, Edge Routers, Load Balancing, IP stack, SQL server, PHP etc)

And/or what happens if all terrestrial clocks using GPS (or alternate Satellite) are lost due to war, solar flare, SW bug on satellites. Such DVB, DAB, Mobile base stations, High Speed Trading, etc.

There is a book just out "No Silver Lining" that has this (a patch and monoculture, too much outsourcing and to few hosting). Though it concludes death from Flu is more in a typical year.

Photobucket says photo-f**k-it, starts off-site image shakedown

Mage Silver badge

Why it's an issue

After 8 minutes to a day a post can't be edited.

So people might have thousands of old posts that are not "useless". They can only continue using their images by paying the $400.

Alternate better solutions only work for the future. I decided an ISP solution was bad about 2001 or 2002 and realised I needed a bunch of domain names. They still work when you change provider.

But for EXISTING posts on 3rd party websites, people need to pay the $400 to keep the images. It seems a bit greedy and counterproductive, surely they would have more than 8 times as many customers at $50 p.a.

Unless maybe they are flogging the business next week and don't care.

Dead serious: How to haunt people after you've gone... using your smartphone

Mage Silver badge

Or

Small computer in a ceiling in a large company. suitably wired into their networking. Or maybe a box on a roof or hillside somewhere with solar panel charging, suitably hacked into a network.

I can't see the point of an app.

In touching tribute to Samsung Note 7, fidget spinners burst in flames

Mage Silver badge

Re: Fidget Spinners: The Movie

Sounds better than all the reboots, prequels and sequels coming out of Hollywood.

Have you a website?

You missed out bringing ME peace, allegedly one purpose of original invention was to occupy the hands of "stone" throwing Palestinians.

Mage Silver badge

Re: There's an opportunity here

Needs to have built in mains sockets as the plug top chargers (USA Wall warts) are a major cause of fire now.

May need to be large enough for Whirlpool tumble driers and hotpoint fridge / freezers.

Obviously the certification schemes (which MUST include random in shop / etailer sampling and tests) are rubbish.

It's the iPhone's 10th b'day or, as El Reg calls it, 'BILL RAY DAY'

Mage Silver badge

Or

Perhaps with OTHER smart phones you paid per Mbyte or per second and with an iPhone ordinary consumers could afford the data, subsidised by ALL the voice customers, which was either a large cap or all you could eat (fair usage in fine print).

That more than bought in Fingerworks GUI and Samsung SC6400 ARM was what made it a success. Plus Jobs' reality distortion field.

Nokia had lost the plot 3 years earlier, but even if they hadn't the "traditional" billing was strangling smart phone use. I know, as I had one from early 2002 and only it was paid by the company, I couldn't have afforded the data.

Search results suddenly missing from Google? Well, BLAME CANADA!

Mage Silver badge

Copyright

If these products infringe copyright in Canada, it's likely they infringe worldwide.

See Berne Convention and later UN conventions on copyright.

I agree RIAA/MPAA tactics and the USA Millennium copyright act break international law and are morally wrong.

Facebook hit two billion users today and SugarCRM reminded us you are Zuck's product

Mage Silver badge

I call it misleading.

Two Billion real users isn't believable.

The World's population is 7 billion. A proportion are too young or sick to use the Internet or Facebook.

The approximate Internet users is 3.7M. But this almost certainly includes people appearing multiple times (phone, tablet, laptop. In the west many better off have more than one smart phone, penetration over 120% in many countries).

China (731 million users) doesn't have Facebook, so 3Million, not 3.7M.

How many Facebook accounts are sockpuppets (I have three accounts so as to validly, honestly and morally separate completely different activities)? How many Facebook accounts are bots selling stuff. The coffee bean weight loss scam with millions of automated accounts is no isolated incident.

Facebook isn't independently audited and has more than once inflated figures.

Their business is NOT providing a social media platform or news or information. It's selling adverts, so they have no incentive to remove fake accounts, bots, fake likes etc. Those increase revenue.

Their use of cookies, trackers, javascript on suggested F button for websites etc is probably illegal under EU law and certainly abusive. Their privacy settings are obtuse and can't be trusted.

So 75% of possible Internet "users"? I doubt it. No doubt too they count all accounts, irrespective of activity, even if their claim is remotely real.

Much of the criticism of abusive corporate behaviour also applies to Google. They are both the biggest parasites on the Internet (there are others) as between them they appear to have 98% of Internet advertising revenue.

People are conned into using Facebook when email would be better. Or their own blog, especially companies. Shame on large companies that promote Twitter & Facebook, yet often have a decent web infrastructure, or other bushiness that use Facebook instead of $100 a year hosting.

The 'DUP' joins El Reg’s illustrious online standards converter

Mage Silver badge

Re: Let's not ask who really benefits from the Union

OTH, The UK is determined to keep some islands that ought to belong to Mauritius, they have deported the natives and leased part to the USA.

Then there is Bermuda. UK controlled but one of the biggest tax havens / money laundering centres in the world.

Ireland (the Nation) now only wants N.I, if the UK & EU pay the running costs for at least 20 years.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Ulster Scots

Ah, the Kingdom of Dalriada.

Long before Rome, Angles, Saxons, Norsemen etc, the Ulster folk fought everyone else, then Ulster was split, like today along the River Bann, with the East in the Kingdom of Dalriada which also ruled western bits of Scotland.

I think Welsh is simply Anglo-Saxon for Foreigner.

Great Britain, because Little Britain is roughly Brittany (a somewhat Celtic part of France with some affinity to Cornwall).

Mage Silver badge

Re: didn't stick in your craw.

You misread my post.

I'm pointing out that the majority of the Assembly and ALL the Westminster MPs elected in NI DO NOT believe in peace, tolerance, honesty, integrity and democracy, WHATSOEVER. Yet, bizarrely the majority of voters claim that's what they want. Obviously they don't understand how to fill in a ballot paper, or lie to pollsters.

Mage Silver badge

Re: invaded by the Normans

Who later became almost Irish, but that's another story.

It was Henry II that cemented British rule, because there was no Celtic Primogenitor, he offered the clan Chiefs membership of the English Feudal system, so not only would a son inherit but a chief could no longer be deposed by a local council. Women also lost historic rights under Celtic laws.

I've never understood why "Unionists" celebrate William of Orange (a Dutchman supported with Catholic armies, congratulated by the Pope for suppressing the Heretic James, the actual English King) rather than Henry II. Or Elizabeth I. There is no doubt that Londoners didn't like James either and welcomed William, whose tenuous claim was that he married James's daughter Mary. William threatened to go home (rather than sack London) if they didn't figure how to make him King, which was an amazing reversal of the usual. They must have really disliked James. I think that he was Catholic was only part of the problem.

Mage Silver badge

Re: SF are nominally the party linked to the Catholics

Except it's only an accident of history that many Catholics are Nationalist (Non-violent) or Republican (Any means). The SF is not a Catholic party at all, they exploit Catholics. They are an old style socialist party that regards any means acceptable to achieve their ends. The DUP in contrast hardly has a political agenda other than opposing Republicans, Nationalists, Catholics, Irish Culture, Tolerance and Liberal secular viewpoints. No doubt they think UK has gone downhill since Cromwell's death.

SF non-involvement in Westminster isn't really to do with the Monarchy, it's a bankrupt 19th policy they are too arrogant to rescind.