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* Posts by Geoff Campbell

1879 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2008

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Microsoft resurfaces Surface kit alongside Windows 10 update

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Windows

Re: "The prices are still an issue"

I disagree on the keyboard. Back in the days of the SP3 or 4, when there were many fewer out in peoples' hands, I might have agreed, but now?

I'll probably buy an SP6 to replace my SP4. The keyboard and pen I own are still in perfect condition (after pretty close to three years as a daily driver, which is pretty impressive of itself). I have no need to buy new ones, even with the price hidden in the price of the tablet. No, I'm very happy to have them as separate accessories.

GJC

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Holy smokes! US watchdog sues Elon Musk after he makes hash of $420 Tesla tweet

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Re: Just another imature tech billionaire

You do realise "that diver bloke" wasn't actually involved in the cave rescue, beyond providing some information on the cave layout and a couple of phone numbers of other divers who then went in?

I mean, that doesn't justify any spat Musk then subsequently had with him, but I dislike the way his part in the process has been inflated by certain media outlets.

GJC

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2TB or not 2TB: Microsoft fiddles with OneDrive as competition offers twice the storage

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Thumb Up

Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

<bows>

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Happy

Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

Brevity is the soul of wit, dear boy. I felt mine was better balanced than the over-wordy and flabby original.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: To a point, Lord Copper...

Yes, Publisher is included, I think (I don't use it myself, but it's listed in all the subscription plans).

"PC Only" just means it's only available as a locally installed application under Windows, not as a web service or mobile device App, all of which platforms are covered by the core application like Word and Excel.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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To a point, Lord Copper...

Office365 Home is £80/year headline price, often discounted to below £50/year, for which you get 5 accounts each with 1TB of OneDrive, and full Office licences for five users on a bunch of devices each. Cracking value for money.

For the best discounts, wait for Amazon Prime Day, buy a licence, and add it to your existing subscription. It's fully cumulative, mine currently expires in 2021.

(Can we have a "To a point, Lord Copper..." icon, please?)

GJC

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Hoping for Microsoft's mythical Andromeda in your Xmas stocking? Don't hold your breath

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Maybe it’s just me, but ...

Similarly blissfully happy Surface Pro 4 user here. Had it for over two years, and had no urge to ever use anything else, as discussed in other threads hereabouts recently.

I think the ZDNet article on Andromeda is being massively overblown. The project hasn't been cancelled, and hasn't ever had a release date so it cannot have been put back. You can pretty much summarise the article as "rumours and whispers that we made up nixed by official software release cycle".

GJC

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Uh-oh. Boffins say most Android apps can slurp your screen – and you wouldn't even know it

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Re: Purism (real linux based) phones cannot come soon enough

Might be nice, but I'm not forking over six hundred bucks on a startup that may or may not deliver. Come back to me when they have a product.

GJC

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Who fancies a six-core, 128GB RAM, 8TB NVMe … laptop?

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Re: What does it run?

Multiple boot drives? What is this, the 20th century?

GJC

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Ready, get Sets... no? App-grouping whizzery for Windows 10 killed

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Re: Why tabs? @big_D

I have no idea how the function will work, which is why I said I'd take a look before passing judgement. I mean, I know that's not a popular approach to life, but it seems to work out OK for me, most times.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: How come nobody's mentioned running multiple VMs on a desktop?

Yes, I do that for some projects, especially the ones that require a big selection of tools installed directly onto the machine. Helps corral projects, as you say, and also stops the build-up of cruft in the base OS.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Desktops

No, I mean since XP (and probably before, my memory fades...)

They haven't always been available to the casual user, older versions required MS utilities to enable them, but they were there.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Boffin

Desktops

Windows has had virtual desktops since forever (WinKey-Tab, New Desktop). Sets is not virtual desktops.

If KDE Desktops is something else, please tell the class - Google was not forthcoming.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Why tabs?

Per-project related files, I guess. I'll take a look at it before passing judgement, it seems like it could be potentially useful.

GJC

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USB-C for Surface owners arrives in form of a massive dongle

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Re: Display port

Oh, and I forgot the main use for the mini-DP socket on the Surface - connecting it to hotel TVs to watch Netflix stuff in the evening :-)

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Display port

Ah, one of my non-negotiable requirements when we bought this place (back in the late Jurassic some time) was a spare bedroom that I could convert into a dedicated office, which I've been very careful to keep devoid of any stuff other family members might want to come in and use.

Also, our teenagers are just moving out. It's amazing how quite the place just became...

GJC

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Re: Display port

I spend most of my weekdays on customer site one way or another, normally juggling 3-4 clients at any given time. I sometimes get customers I can work on from my (home) office, in which I have a dedicated desk.

Then I get to spend the weekends working on company admin, speculative development, and so on. Not every weekend, of course, but enough to be noticeable.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Boffin

Display port

The mini-DP port is absolutely standard, and so can connect to most monitors without any form of dongle, using cheap cables. I'm typing this on an SP4 connected to an HDMI monitor with a cable that cost about £8, from memory.

Personally, as a highly mobile user, I find the SP4 the best mobile computer I've ever owned, to the extent that I've had it for over two years and have felt no urge whatsoever to replace it. I have also stopped using a separate desktop PC in the office, replaced with a docking station for the SP4 with a big screen, and keyboard and mouse. Loses some CPU grunt, of course, but there's always AWS or Azure if I need some temporary big processing power - thus far I haven't needed that.

GJC

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Amazon staffers protest giant's 'support of the surveillance state'

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Re: Hmmmmm @JohnFen

You missed off the "(or some analogue thereof)" from the bit you quoted, which says what you tried to correct me on, in four words rather than four paragraphs.

Until a principle has cost you something important, it's just an opinion, and everyone has a shedload of those puppies.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Facepalm

Re: Hmmmmm

You don't feel strongly enough about it to post under your own name, I note :-)

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge

Hmmmmm

"We refuse to do <list of stuff>!"

"...can we have our pay now, please?"

Remember, a principle is not a principle until it has cost you money (or some reasonable analogue thereof). You don't want to work on strategic projects that your employer has identified? Leave. Make the world a better place by your actions, rather than by bleating on pointlessly.

Yeah, downvote away. You know you want to.

GJC

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By gum, that's chewy: Samsung's NF1 fattens M.2 card capacity with wider gumstick format

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You say that like it's a bad thing.

GJC

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Ailing ZX Spectrum reboot firm kicks crisis meeting into long grass

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<peers over glasses>

Oh? How so?

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Black Helicopters

Re: Shredding

I managed a complete (and replete) four drawer filing cabinet in two fairly lazy days, including time to scan and file all the stuff I wanted to keep.

It is a very therapeutic pastime, which I recommend for anyone.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Licences

That sounds exactly like they made the assumption they could just use the games ("because they're old and nobody cares, right?"), until one of the Directors spoke up and pointed out this wasn't the case.

Highly amusing to watch, if one doesn't have any money riding on the outcome.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
Holmes

Licences

First time I saw this, and regularly since, I have posted questions in various places as to how they were planning to obtain licences for all the bundled games.

Never got an answer, at which point my interest in giving them any money at all evaporated.

GJC

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Keep your hands on the f*cking wheel! New Tesla update like being taught to drive by your dad

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Boffin

Re: Does tesla collect system records or incident information?

Very much so. The autopilot collects and reports detailed information every time the driver over-rides it.

There's also a second neural net that is constantly operating in "ghost mode", observing the road and making decisions just like autopilot (but without actioning them) and comparing those decisions to what the meatsack is doing at the time. This is used to train the primary software, over time.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Boffin

Re: Auto-crash-pilot

It should be noted here that setting the following distance is a meatsack function. There's a control with a range 1-7 (from memory) which sets the time interval to follow behind.

This one looks to me like it's set to closest follow distance, which is pretty damn stupid. I always use any intelligent cruise control on maximum separation, personally.

Now, if you want to debate why the meatsack is able to set the following distance, I'm right with you - prime evidence that the people designing these system don't quite grok safe driving, to me.

But then, the group mostly involved in cutting-edge programming are also the same group most over-represented in collision statistics - young males. Go figure...

GJC

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This HTC U12+ review page is left intentionally blank

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Holmes

Re: Review it.

The logical conclusion to that is to only ever review units bought in the normal retail channel. Which, actually, is a pretty good idea on a whole bunch of levels.

GJC

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Judge on Microsoft gender discrimination case finds 'flaw' in class grouping argument

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Re: A salient lesson

@Blank-Reg

Sorry, I failed to read to the end of the thread. There's probably a law for that, too...

GJC

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Re: A salient lesson

I think that's got to be the quickest Godwin's I've seen in 30 years on the Internet.

GJC

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FYI: Qualcomm hasn't given up on Arm-based Windows 10 slabtops

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Re: Hitching their wagons to Win-10-nic

That reminds me - anyone seen amanfrommars recently?

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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@Wade

Windows on ARM has a full x86 emulation layer, so it should run any 32-bit x86 Windows apps seamlessly. Early reports seem to show that the performance hit isn't hideous, either - Windows Central said that the Snapdragon 835 based HP Envy X2 was "kinda like an i3 running native applications, and kinda like an Atom running emulated applications". Or something, quotes from memory of a podcast I listened too whilst driving a few days ago.

The Snapdragon 845 and 850 should be even nicer, in theory. An interesting couple of years ahead.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Windows

Re: But can it run Linux?

Linux generally lags a little behind the leading edge of available hardware (yeah, I know, your downvotes fall upon me like a gentle Spring rain. Now ask me if I care...)

Given how compelling these devices look, I suspect full Linux builds will be available soon enough.

GJC

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RIP to two 'naut legends: A moonwalker and a spacewalker

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
Boffin

Only four left

I note that of the twelve people who have walked on the moon, only four are still alive. All in their 80s.

How on earth(*) did we let it get this bad? I mean, I know we have had a few orbiting space stations, but really. Time to step up to the plate again.

GJC

(*) Sorry.

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Dixons to shutter 92 UK Carphone Warehouse shops after profit warning

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Boffin

Re: notably National Living Wage

Indeed.

Here's a radical idea for Carphone Warehouse - pay your staff 20% more that the industry average, with generous bonuses. Make them happy to work for you, and happy to be at work.

This will result in increased sales, at increased profit margins.

GJC

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BT to slash landline rentals by 37%... for the broadbandless

Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Mmmmmm, thanks, BT.

It's a local mesh servicde using 5GHz point-to-point directional antennas. I wasn't referring to the house WiFi.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Mmmmmm, thanks, BT.

I ditched my landline years back. Internet comes via WiFi, the old house phone number was ported to a VOIP provider which runs nicely over that, and we all have mobiles as a fallback anyway.

So, thanks, BT, but I'm good.

GJC

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Tesla crash investigation causes dip in 'leccycar firm's share price

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Re: Electric Car Production Futility

But quite justifiable on a statistical basis.

GJC

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Chin up, SMEs. You might get crumbs from Big Tech tax clampdown – UK MPs

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Re: could be handed hundreds of millions in tax cuts

Lord Lucan, riding Shergar, pulling Santa Claus' sleigh at 15,000 feet, is the sort of level of probability we're looking at, I would suggest.

GJC

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Facepalm

Re: could be handed hundreds of millions in tax cuts

s/probably/definitely/

FTFY.

GJC

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Software gremlin robs Formula 1 world champ of season's first win

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Re: Hmmmm, were I more cynical...

I see I've upset the Ferrari fans.

Good.

GJC

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Hmmmm, were I more cynical...

...I might ponder on which cars caused the VSC that handed Ferrari the win. Haas, you say? The only team on the grid to owe Ferrari a huge favour?

Nah, can't be that, could it?

GJC

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Samsung’s DeX dock clicks the second time around

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Re: Casting

(Sorry, that was perhaps badly phrased. I mean that it required the same standardisation that any other docking system does. It's the standardisation that I need, to give me confidence I can use my pocket device when I turn up. I don't really care what that standardisation encompasses, so long as it works.)

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Casting

That still requires particular hardware to be available on site. If I have to carry my own keyboard/mouse/casting receiver/cables, I might as well just stick with my Surface Pro.

I want to ditch my briefcase completely, rather than ditching my laptop in favour of other devices to carry in it.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
Go

Excellent idea...

...but not yet, I think.

As someone who travels around lots of offices on business, I yearn for the day when I can pitch up on site knowing that there is a docking station into which I can plug my phone, giving me full desktop access to all my documents and other work in progress.

But we're not even close to that level of standardisation yet, sadly. USB-C might help here, but that's just one layer in what is required.

GJC

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A ghoulish tale of pigs, devs and docs revived from the dead

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Boffin

Re: Lesson

For the record, I've been working in and with large IT projects for over three decades now.

I understand that testing is frequently done supremely badly or not at all. Which is why the lesson I pointed out should be learned by anyone who have been involved in such a clusterfuck.

Yeah, I'm an idealist. So sue me.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
Boffin

Lesson

Surely there is a lesson to be learned, and it is the remarkably simple one of "Test everything thoroughly before you go live, and don't go live until you know it works"?

Call me naive if you will...

GJC

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Jupiter has the craziest storms seen yet, say boffins

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Re: Yeah

Hemel Hempstead and Swindon both have Magic Roundabouts, which are groups of mini roundabouts around the outside of a central one.

GJC

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Geoff Campbell Silver badge
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Re: Nah

Bit of both. I tend to use the HH one in these comments because it has six orbital roundabouts rather than the five that Swindon has, and if I recall correctly they are rather more tightly packed, too.

GJC

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