* Posts by Bod

634 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jan 2009

Page:

Time to party like it's 2002: Acura and Honda car clocks knocked back 20 years by bug

Bod

Re: 2008 Honda Accord EX With Satnav

2008 Civic EX and noticed it was an hour out. After messing with the settings I realised it was showing Summer Time. Changed to Winter and clock is fine. If I hit reset it goes back to summer.

Hadn't checked the date as didn't realise this was the probable cause until now. I thought it might have a messed up timezone. Even if it thinks it's 2000, surely it should still think it's winter?

Curious about the August reset though.

Official: Microsoft will take an axe to Skype for Business Online. Teams is your new normal

Bod

Re: Teams (and Slack etc.) have a terrible signal-to-noise ratio

On the other hand the most annoying thing about S4B is lack of conversation history in the same window once you've closed it and worse if connection drops, and hideous of there's more than one of you. Offline, it's in emails itself and god help you trying to find it in the app.

Teams, you could just not join the team chat. Stick to one to one.

Just a shame the Teams app is so clunky.

Bod

Re: Out of the frying pan into the fire

It's slow and clunky but still better than S4B. Been waiting for that to die for ages.

Court orders moribund ZX Spectrum reboot firm's directors to stump up £38k legal costs bill

Bod

The Vega+ was little more (or a lot less) than running a Spectrum emulator on your phone for the handheld experience. And with a phone the games are easy to acquire or may come with some Speccy apps.

Part of the problem from the start was the Vega+ was not a recreation or modernisation of the Spectrum. It was just a box running Linux and a Spectrum emulator with some buttons (no where near enough to play a lot of the games) and a promise of bundling games.

The Recreated Spectrum was at least more useful, if only a USB keyboard really. It had the full case and keyboard and hooked into a emulator running on any iOS or Android device, and bundled games.

Still not a patch on the real thing or a Spectrum Next which takes it to the next level. Though pushing the graphics to the level they have with the Next is making it feel less like a Spectrum in my opinion. As a progression to what the Spectrum could have been replaced with, ignoring the QL, really it would have been a full 16bit machine. But then the kids had moved onto Amiga/Atari anyway.

Microsoft polishes up Chromium as EdgeHTML peers into the abyss

Bod

Re: Microsoft middle(nuisance)ware.

Settings change from control panel is intended to move from the 90s application UI and Win32 dependency to UWP which can run platform independent and in theory is more responsive to work on any device. It's great for tablet use. Was great for mobile, but they missed that boat so we've got ever changing confusing settings on Android devices instead ;)

Bod

Some people I know don't know what Chrome is and only know it as Google, because they have a G icon it goes to Google home page. They disliked Edge because it wasn't Google, because it went to Bing and the icon is an E. Change the home page and, "oh, so it's Google then".

Bod

Re: Begone foul beast :o)

Don't really get the complaints about the UI. It's a browser. Mostly it's showing a web page, and looks like any other browser. UI for changing settings I'm not fussed about. Favourites are largely dead with the ability to type a letter or two and jump to a favourite page.

That said in tablet mode the UI or rather UX becomes important and Edge is better than Chrome there. Chrome remains a windowed application but Edge behaves as a UWP app, adapting to tablet mode properly.

The engine, isn't really a problem these days. Changing it to Chromium won't change opinions which are based on image with most people still thinking Edge is IE and sheep like hype that says "install Chrome". Why? "because".

Not that fussed,though if this means we get a UWP Chromium based app, then good.

Talk about a cache flow problem: This JavaScript can snoop on other browser tabs to work out what you're visiting

Bod

Re: JS - just for a change

Let's go back to static pages where you have to keep clicking next page to scroll through thousands of items instead of dynamically loading them then.

Back to Web 1.0

Roughly 30 years after its birth at UK's Acorn Computers, RISC OS 5 is going open source

Bod

Re: A bit too old now.

Or build a new kernel that supports multi-core and pre-emptive multitasking, which would need a fair rewrite of the OS, or gradually migrate modules and apps and run the older stuff in a subsystem layer. New drivers for new hardware.

All possible. A lot of effort. Though if fully open source and get away from god awful CVS, it may go somewhere if there's enough interest.

RISC OS on Linux just seems incompatible with the 'RISC' in the name, unless it's restricted to ARM Linux only.

Astronaut took camera on spacewalk, but forgot SD memory card

Bod

Re: A few years back..

" It turned out that DVD playback wasn't possible on the Windows laptop and there was no way of fixing the software."

Even if it did, what region would you set it to as you pass each of the regions in the world rapidly?

Another ZX Spectrum modern reboot crowdfunder pops up

Bod

Re: Why not go further?

"Why not go further? I understand the C64 has already had this treatment. What about the BBC Micro? Dragon 32? Oh.. yes, maybe that it going a bit too far."

Reboot C64 was the Amiga. Reboot BBC Micro was the Archimedes.

Bod

Re: Rick Dickinson

"So will it run OLD games with no colour clash?"

Not without modification I think. The Next adds additional graphics modes that given the memory allows a finer resolution of colour which means you won't get colour clash and get a full colour palette. This would be use for new games (and there's an active community developing new games and supporting enhanced modes provided by the Next and other similar products). Potentially old games could be patched or rewritten to update them.

Bod

"Surprising to see so many..."

"it is surprising to see so many people funding yet another ZX-themed crowdfunding product appeal"

Because this one is an actual implementation and enhancement of a Spectrum by people who care, not a limited button gameboy gadget with an emulator that plays a handful of games on a vapourware device pushed by egomaniacs who just want to throw toys out of prams.

It also looks awesome.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Bod

Re: What the fuck do we expect from this joke company?

"The whole thing stinks. It's not so much an OS, it's a platform for selling stuff. This company surely deserves to crash and burn."

Damn them for being a commercial business trying to make money.

Bod

reddit hype

So how many really are having problems out of the 300 million or so users vs a thread on reddit that's being picked up by the online "news" sites as obvious evidence that it's "borking" everyone?

Bod

Re: Windows 10 1607 is the road to corrupted Files.

"Select a few files, drag the to an external USB Flash Drive, start copying and then, shutdown the machine."

Suggest you try that on a few other operating systems too.

A 'sudo shutdown -h now' isn't going to wait. You told it now, so does it now.

Proper use if you have multiple users would not be the 'now' however and schedule a shutdown with notification. Funny enough, Windows has that exact functionality and on server versions you are required to specify a reason for shutdown and can give users a chance to log off or even force a log off which will initiate the log off process per user (waiting for certain tasks to complete).

Desktop Windows shutdown has never waited for such things to complete by default.

Still, I think you should blame Microsoft for also corrupting the files when you pull the power lead out of the computer.

"This is basic stuff Microsoft - Utter Shite."

Basic stuff is don't shut down the computer while copying files to USB.

Windows Phone users beg Pokémon Go creators for attention

Bod

Re: no chance on win mobile

"& the way ingress & pokemon go are resource hungry (external battery vital for any amount of extended play) and lots of win phones low spec, then if it was ported it would probably struggle on low end hardware anyway"

Except Win Phone frequently perform better on far lower spec hardware than their Android counterparts. Android is bloated and resource hungry. Breath of fresh air to use Windows Phone and be back to old Nokia style days of battery lasting days instead of hours.

A game is another matter of course, but for those games that do exist on WP (more than you think), they still generally drain the battery slower and yet show no sign of struggling on the hardware.

Microsoft hops onboard bonk-to-pay bandwagon

Bod

Re: So Windows Mobile has a future?

Been declared dead for years but it's still there and very much being actively developed.

But yes, in terms actual phones being manufactured, Microsoft has essentially ended the Lumia line (Nokia phones). Lumia's were/are quite nice but too many very similar phones at the budget end. That doesn't stop them developing the OS, especially as it's the same core as desktop Windows 10 and others.

The only phone hardware from MS will likely be a Surface phone next year which will stand as a reference or single top end phone.

MS aren't looking to compete in the consumer market. They have no hope. That doesn't meant they can't still release a nice phone though, plus it may appeal more to the Surface market of professionals and corporates who are tied to MS.

TeamViewer: So sorry we blamed you after your PC was hacked

Bod

Hackable centralised server services vs standards

At least with VNC & Remote Desktop they are not based on a centralised (or cloud) service as a single or common point of attack. (Okay VNC needs extra security on top, plus it's a poor protocol).

I generally refuse to install third party clients if I'm asked if I can use them. LogMeIn especially as it's hard to get rid all traces of when uninstalling. To me it's a Trojan or at least malware in that it gets its hooks into things it shouldn't.

If all that's needed is remote access, I use Remote Desktop (via VPN). If it's desktop sharing for a meeting, Skype for Business will do.

From a Windows point of view, anything else is just duplicating what is already built in or available as a standard part of Windows or Office.

LinkedIn mass hack reveals ... yup, you're all still crap at passwords

Bod

Genuine accounts?

How many of 117 million accounts are genuine or serious accounts?

I mean, a lot of people just knock up an account on sites to get access to view something they can't without an account. Then there are developers and testers who create many random test accounts to test an app using their API and such, and most likely use 123456 as a password.

A lot of people also probably just sign up out of interest, put in no details and never really use it. Half my address book comes up showing people with LinkedIn accounts but half of those have empty profiles and are unused.

I wouldn't be surprised if accounts created by recruiters and businesses that basically aren't personal accounts, also have weak passwords.

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Bod

Re: Feed this into MS' Agile development methodology...

Into the backlog, reviewed with stakeholders, given lowest priority. Low priority in backlog are the ones you never do unless they become high priority.

Still, though Win 10 desktop experience really is not far off Win 7. I was very surprised that my parents went with the upgrade and adapted to it quickly and like it.

Bod
FAIL

Where are the facts no one likes Win 10?

I'm not seeing it, and where are the facts to back up the claims in the article?

Most I know who've gone through the process upgrading to Win 10 have said they like it and I'm not seeing any opinion that it's anywhere near as bad as Vista or 8 (though 8 was actually good, just with a flawed approach with the Start menu). I'm seeing corporates who are happy to upgrade from 7 to 10 that refused to touch 8.

There are rough edges now Microsoft is doing the continual beta approach. Only real issue is with Edge being incomplete in released version, but there's always Chrome.

Now as for PC sales, well that has nothing to do with Windows 10. The market shifted dramatically towards tablets, phablets and phones. A lot of people thought they have no need for a large box under a desk, or even a desk. There's a sizeable shift towards convertible tablet/laptops now though like the Surface and Microsoft are doing well in that market and I'm hearing nothing but praise for the Surface and Surface Book. Comments on hardware being restricted by the software seems odd given the software is extremely smooth on decent desktop hardware. Seems the other way round to me, which is the general experience I've had of all tablets, Windows or Android. The consumers may some day realise they're actually no where near as powerful as a desktop and go back, although many seem content to jump to Apple where the whole experience is tailored to prevent anything powerful from running to ensure it looks silky smooth, even if you are actually being restricted in what you can do.

Devs ask Microsoft for real .NET universal apps: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android

Bod

Re: "The C# language has been a big success for Microsoft"

No, smart money is on the job ads, and sorry I see bucket loads of C#, and even JavaScript, all paying extremely well.

C++ is there and in demand, and yes pays well though I get far less job ads for C++ compared to C#. It's becoming legacy code and will end up like COBOL. Fantastic that you can be paid a lot to maintain dead systems that corporates can't get rid of. In the real business world, if you want to get ahead you have to get out of the pit.

TIOBE, I'm seeing C# at 4.1%, C++ at 5.9%. Hardly a massive difference. It's a Mickey Mouse index though. It measures popularity off search engines, talk and academia, not real jobs and business.

Still, though, the massive risers on TIOBE... Java and Python. Both have more in common with C# than C++.

Bod

Re: Qt great idea! Also wxWidgets

MFC, good god! Someone contact the 1990s, there's a developer they want back ;)

Qt though, last I messed with it, it was as bad as developing for X Windows.

Monolithic code and projects that are equally epic in development time, probably in academia or government. Meanwhile real business who need to get things done are churning out applications in a fraction of the time with modern languages.

At last we know for sure. Blighty's 'best mobile network' is ...

Bod

Rubbish prices, best coverage

I'd go with Three as their pricing for data is miles better than everyone else (though getting more expensive for unlimited now), but coverage is key for me especially in the more rural spots and in buildings and EE still rule there for where I use it. Plus 4G is rather nippy.

Customer service is rubbish of course but they all are.

Other attraction of Three however is they believe in Gaining Provider Led switching, i.e. where you sign up with a new provider and they do all the switching work for you without you spending hours or days battling with the existing provider's retention department just to get a PAC and then all the faff involved in the meantime switching, assuming you haven't been conned into taking a new phone contract just to keep you on their expensive tariff and as a customer.

Three were even promoting contacting your MP about it. I did and I got an obviously prepared copy'n'paste answer effectively saying the Tories have an interest in keeping it Lost Provider Led in the UK. I would assume because they have interests or investments in some of the major operators in the UK. All wrapped up in some fluff about how the UK is a unique market, blah blah, and they don't believe it's good for the UK to change it.

Bollox. And Ofcom agree with me... http://hexus.net/mobile/news/service-providers/85013-mobile-network-switching-easier-proposes-ofcom/

SourceForge staggers to feet after lengthy STORAGE FAIL outage

Bod

Malware

Given the attitude of forcing malware into installers for a lot of SF hosted software I'd say this is a big hint that people should be moving their software elsewhere to something more reliable, reputable, and not commercially driven, at least not enough to force malware on people via fake download links or messing with the binaries.

SF is now a dodgy download site and should be blacklisted.

Microsoft's magic hurts: Nadella signals 'tough choices' on the way

Bod

Re: reminds me of visiting an MS store near SF

"Certainly the world has not benefited from a Windows/Apple duopoly. Any 'benefits' went to making Bill the richest man in world"

Yeah the world's not benefited at all from Bill's charitable foundation, him being the top philanthropist in American with donations of some $28 billion between him and his OH, and dedication to donate 95% of their wealth to charity.

;)

"with a corresponding cost to all businesses and their customers." - a vast amount of businesses and people have made a lot of money out of Microsoft. My career and finances certainly has benefited thanks to Bill (and to some degree Sir Clive and Furber & Wilson).

Bod

Re: Apps

Oddly, the games market on Windows Phone is actually very good. The only downside perhaps is the games your friends have for free on Android you might have to pay for on Win Phone. Is that any different from iPhone though?

But a Windows Phone like a Lumia generally is just a different market. A lot of people seem to like it, even those who have an Android or iPhone but have tried a Lumia in a shop or that a friend has, but few can be tempted away from Android/iOS.

Those that aren't interested are the ones obsessed by apps and moan that there aren't any decent apps (which isn't true). The people who buy them are those who want more of a stable and easy to use device to actually use as a phone, text, email, browse, check the weather etc, i.e. do the basics, and have a consistent interface not cluttered or confusing due to being a little different from each other Android device thanks to fragmentation and operator & manufacturer customisations / bloatware, or don't want to spend a fortune on an iPhone. Then there are those who want a cracking phone camera, or something that integrates well into the Microsoft and Office ecosystem, especially for business.

I would (and did) recommend a Lumia to my parents over Android as it's easier to use and more intuitive, plus I wouldn't be having to deal with support calls because they've changed some setting, deleted something they shouldn't have, installed malware or even just installed a Google update that's now killing their phone (as I was getting with my old Samsung). Then there's the classic "not enough space" you get with a lot of Android devices due to the bonkers way some manufacturers partition the things. A Lumia is just less hassle if you don't want to be faffing with it to keep it running sweet.

Bod

Re: Apps + Windows Phone

The SDK and API restrictions plus cost is pretty much the same as developing for Apple iDevices, but with a benefit you don't have to learn a proprietary language like Swift or bonkers language like Objective-C, that no one else uses. Win Phone needs either HTML/JS or C# which is a doddle to anyone who knows Java and also to the millions who develop already for Windows full fat.

Coming in Windows 10 we have universal app support, allowing easy targeting of any Windows 10 device, and on top of that support in Visual Studio 2015 for Android & iOS (on top of the already existing Xamarin).

All the tools are there and they're dead easy to use, and have become cheap.

The only thing is it's not as simple for script kiddies to knock up the 90% of malware crap (or just plain crap) that fill the Android store ;)

Sadly, Microsoft may have to bite the bullet on the financials and could kill Lumia and even Win Phone, despite it being in many ways a really good product. Yes indeed, the Betamax of the smart phone world.

Could even go as far to say that Symbian was getting there as a decent product, though it was much harder to develop for.

MS have themselves to blame though. They pushed Tojan Elop into Nokia to kill Symbian, generate loads of Windows Phones and deflate the price enough to buy it. Elop may be hated by Nokia employees and fans, and rightly so, but MS sacking him is harsh given it was all of their own creating.

Microsoft sez soz over Windows 10 'freebie' balls-up

Bod

Anyone running Win 10 Preview as their full day to day OS only has their self to blame.

I always run previews on a VM or separate machine. Never goes near my main OS. It's always been like this. Upgrades to release from previews are rarely or never supported, and personally I'd do a full wipe and install regardless of licence issues just to be sure it's clean of the bugs from the preview.

That said, it might be the full Win10 install will accept a Win 7/8/8.1 key as qualifier. Can't be certain.

Bod

Except it's not hard. The confusion here only applies to techy folk messing about with the preview which is a small minority.

Normal users currently on a valid win7, 8 / 8.1 install get a release version of 10 as upgrade for free if they do it within a year of release.

Nothing had changed there.

KABOOM! Billionaire fingers dud valve in ROCKET WIBBLE PRANG BLAST

Bod

Parachutes

I still don't get why they're bothering with a costly system with loads of fuel to land it rather than use parachutes, inflatables and recover. Or at least as suggested above, parachute to slow and then rockets enough to avoid it slamming down hard, though I'd still go for landing in water rather than explode crashing into a deck.

Erik Meijer: AGILE must be destroyed, once and for all

Bod

Re: TDD

I've experienced a situation of a test team being assigned to write unit tests, and their coding knowledge is often not so great. The tests (with the likes of nunit) miss a lot of things that a developer knows to check for. They also aren't concentrating on the architecture, just the higher level spec, but unit tests are individually wrapped around internal structures that the testers may not know or care about. When it comes to TDD they'd only be able to write the high level test for a module, not a unit test for a class they haven't thought of and thus under TDD that class would not get written (for example).

That's not to say that non-coding testers shouldn't write tests also, just not the low level unit tests. Another developer could write them though.

This is where BDD comes in. TDD focuses the developer on the architecture and implements a series of regression tests. BDD focuses everyone on the requirements.

Bod

TDD

The most important part of TDD to me is what TDD actually is supposed to be, Test *Driven* Development.

Write the tests to the spec for the module. In the process you think of pass and fail scenarios that you probably wouldn't have just by writing the code. Then write the code. The developer should write the test and code in my opinion as it keeps their mind focused on how to write the code bearing in mind the things they were thinking about writing the test. The resultant code will be better quality than jumping in to write the code or having different people write code and test. And for the love of god, don't let a tester write unit tests!

Then, unit tests aren't TDD, though they can be used in TDD. The main benefit outside of TDD for unit tests is as a regression test. So long as you run them. Ideally run on every build.

Anyway, as for Agile, the problem isn't the original principle of Agile, but that anyone tried to control it with processes and meetings. SCRUM and the like are exactly what Agile was trying to avoid. That said, I quite like the Sprint approach, at least in that you agree with everyone, including stakeholders, what will be in the next sprint release. Once agreed, no manager can say "we must have this quick change now, drop everything! Though I still want everything else". It's not agreed, tough. Next sprint you can have it. To me it's a way of developers keeping control, not managers.

Where I've seen Agile fail is with too much process and management, and a lack of involvement by all stakeholders, which should go right to the top. That and people who just say "we're agile now" but don't do anything agile at all.

MELTDOWN: Samsung, Sony not-so-smart TVs go titsup for TWO days

Bod

Re: Smart TVs Suck

My Samsung woks rather well. As an Amazon Prime subscriber I use Amazon Instant Video a fair bit for the inclusive content, and the HD content is really quite good. A lot of stuff I've watched and won't bother now buying on Blu Ray.

Though I do have a 76mbps connection ;)

Oh and I use the Plex app a lot which talks to my NAS media server. That thankfully worked even though the TV was showing no Internet connection.

the iPlayer app is not the best, but adequate. I prefer iPlayer on Sky HD, especially as it can download the content.

Bod

Dependency on a server

I had the same problem the last couple of days but I'd assumed there was an issue with the TV or maybe my router had blocked it for some reason. Left it and was going to fiddle about resetting this and that, but turns out it's fine today.

It did make me think though that all the apps that need network access to work, while independent of Samsung, won't work unless the TV can talk to a Samsung server. Stuff like Netflix/Amazon should be able to work talking to their own servers even if Samsung's are down. Okay it won't be able to check for an update to the app, but fair enough.

It does also signify an end of service at some point when Samsung pulls the plug on the hub service, as they inevitably will when they come up with something new and old TVs become unsupported. While some people do buy TVs every couple of years, some keep them for 10+. Though these days they do tend to break down within 5 years. I remember TVs that used to last 20 or so and know of people still running 20+ year old CRTs.

Vodafone didn't have a £6bn tax bill. Sort yourselves out, Lefties

Bod

There's an annoying ability for HMRC however to decide taxes are suddenly due if there's a rule change and apply that retrospectively for many years and insist you've now broken the law and owe the tax, even if the law previously said you didn't. Utterly crazy.

Bod

Tax and the EU

Under the utopian dream of a European super state, we are all one country in the EU. As one country it should matter not where you pay tax.

Problem is the media in the UK drives the public into a frenzy saying "OMG, they pay NO tax!", but they do and they pay what's due according to the law in the UK and the EU where the company uses a different EU state to pay the tax.

I am entitled to work where I like within the EU, move where I like, set up business anywhere within the EU and trade within the EU with no barriers. I can pay my taxes within the EU where I like if the law allows also.

Now the taxes differ between states. Well, if people aren't happy, then go ahead and flat rate the taxes across the EU. That's the dream of some anyway, centralised taxation. Great, and good luck seeing that money then be distributed fairly to your individual state rather than being swallowed up in Brussels or bailing out Greece.

Another way of looking at it: you may say it's not fair to pay cheaper taxes in another state within the EU (but perfectly legal), but yet most people would say it's perfectly fair to buy a product from another EU state where it is cheaper (and it's also illegal for anyone to try to block this, i.e. there is no such thing as a grey import within the EU and companies cannot try to control the market in one state by blocking an import from a cheaper EU state. Noting that they can and do however try to block imports external from the EU where they are cheaper).

Oh, and as a side point, there's the rants about companies not paying tax where they have just deferred the tax and paid it later, or may have even paid more tax earlier. So what? They ultimately have paid the tax due.

And as already quoted from Lord Clyde, you should never pay a penny more than is due.

Elite:Dangerous goes TITSUP

Bod

Re: I'm not a programmer.

"Its quite funny that some of you think its easy to have a database containing 400,000,000,000 star systems and their associated celestial bodies on a home PC. If each system contains 10Kb of data, that's potentially 372.5TB of data. Yeah, SQLite can handle that. Add in market data etc... and your game database is gonna be pretty huge!"

Bell & Braben got the BBC Micro version procedurally generating a huge (for the time) universe and crammed it into 32K with a fun space trading arcade style game. Braben went his own way with the sequels and tried to create a space simulator and slap the name Elite on it. The results weren't great. Now he's done the same and wants to simulate the entire universe rather than make a fun game. The backers want to play an updated Elite like they remembered as kids. A copy of the real universe is nice, but it's nothing to do with Elite. Had he continued to do a wholly procedural generated universe he could have 400,000,000,000 star systems and their associated celestial bodies on a home PC in very little space. They just wouldn't map to real stars in the universe, but the game would still be fun to play.

Bod

Re: not standing up for the game but

"They have said that if they ever have to shut the servers down they would release the server-end daemons and databases so you aren't cut off from the game. They announced this before release and I can only think of one other game company that did that (and that was well after they shut down)."

If there's no DRM aspect involved, then why not offer a local server download option now so people can run the game privately, solo and/or just with their own friends?

The very fact you cannot play it without the server active, under Braben's control, makes it by definition DRM. Anyway I'm sure there's a licence check involved in communicating to the server.

"They could have bodged some code in for commodities, ship and module availability but it would be very static and bland compared to the online version."

No bodge, just code AI for computer generated players that does the same job instead of real players. Playing solo you don't see the players anyway so it makes crap all difference who's generating the "dynamic" data.

Besides that, the original Elite was static and bland, but didn't stop it becoming a massive success and highly fun to play. That said though, kids today who know nothing about the original Elite or the satisfaction of the effort you had to put in to play it, demand games more suited for their short attention spans so that style of game is of no interest to them. The backers though wearing rose tinted glasses expected Elite in the style than Bell & Braben. What they've got is another solo Braben mess. Albeit nice looking.

Frustration with Elite:Dangerous boils over into 'Refund Quest'

Bod

Enough of the "they"

It's Braben behind all this and the decisions, and this is my problem with buying into the game as I still have a beef with his treatment of Ian Bell and it seems Braben still has the same attitude. From one of Bell's rare interviews more recently he makes a simple reply to the question about what he'd do differently if he had to do it all again, which basically was, don't trust Braben.

As for the offline, I'd much prefer it to be offline playable, and as in another comment, playable forever. Like the original Elite, I can still play it and I'm not limited by the existence or otherwise of a server somewhere to make it work.

I don't mind if it's updateable by the online servers and even if the universe is updated through that. So long as I can play it with no internet connection and forever once those servers have gone. Plus as also mentioned, I wouldn't want my mission progress to be erased by not being online for a while, or things being unachievable because other players have already achieved them before me, or missions removed to expire them. That's not what the original was about. Anyone could make the game whatever they wanted, but also could play the same missions, achieve the same statuses, and it didn't depend on other players. They could start it all again and do it all the same, or different as they liked.

Problem also with online games is they have a habit of being changed with rules changing, core game play changing, content removed and users can end up leaving the game on mass. Star Wars Galaxies I remember was wrecked by such changes.

Other concern I have is Braben has form with incomplete games being released, and from what I hear ED is incomplete even ignoring the offline fuss.

Gigabit-over-TV-cable spec DOCSIS 3.1 passes interop test

Bod

Still though in the UK the coax part of the hybrid coax/fibre system, the last stretch to the house, is frequently the same old shitty cable installed in the 80s for analogue TV and is noisy and leaky as hell.

Plusnet customers SWAMPED by spam but BT-owned ISP dismisses data breach claims

Bod

Re: no proof

@AC - Very wrong.

I get plenty of other spam, but all of these have followed a pattern.

They are *all* addressed to a unique address only used for PlusNet (e.g. mynamemangled.pn@mydomain etc).

They *all* have a subject that starts with "(mynamemangled.pn@mydomain)"

They are *all* are sent from the same "spammer"*.

They *all* have this footer...

"To stop all future communications from this sender, please go [link here]

You may also write to us at 237 S Delsea Drive #302 Vineland, NJ 08360"

Not just mine, but everyone else too.

* - I say spammer, but unlike random garbage spam looking for active mailboxes, this to me this looks like PlusNet/BT have released addresses to a third party for marketing use, which is in breach of their policy where they say they will *never* do this without permission.

I have blocked the address in question and changed my PlusNet registered address to something else unique. Guess what? These mails have stopped.

If this was random attacks guessing addresses, I'd have tonnes going to random addresses testing them. I don't.

So yes, it's entirely an issue with PlusNet and/or BT. Remembering that BT have leaked addresses recently, and PN is owned by BT.

Bod

Been doing this for 15 years or so. *@mydomain goes to my main mailbox and I just register on each site with an address specific to that site. Makes it a doddle to spot where the spam has come from, and block the spam address, change the registered address to another one.

Better still as I run my own mail server and can have it reject an address at source so it's seen as dead, though for non techies it doesn't matter. Most ISPs and mail apps have some form of blocking so at least they'll never receive the spam. Dead easy to do.

On top of that I can also report the spam occurrence to the site in question and tell them to sort out their servers! ;)

Behold the Lumia 535 NOTkia: Microsoft wipes Nokia brand from mobes

Bod

Re: Lovely hardware

Nokia did put Android on the same hardware with the X series. It didn't set the world on fire.

Bod

Re: Meh

Seen plenty. Not the majority, but I know many who have them (all Nokia) and reasons being are...

* Cheap

* Reliable

* Great build quality

* Better battery life than Android

* Excellent camera

All depends what you want from a phone really. Some are not fussed about having millions of utterly garbage apps available to install, or want to bling their phone up with Bieber customisations. They just want a phone to actually, you know, call people, and that has a few of the social app bits, email, and not much else.

Typical customers are people looking for cheap, students, kids, but also a lot of older folk who find Android just a bit overwhelming with too many features and customisations or differences between each brand. I recommended a Lumia to my parents for this very reason.

Not saying I'm a fan, and I'm on Android myself at the moment but it's only a few apps missing that stop me from switching. I was a long time Nokia fan and still much prefer their build quality and battery life so I'd love to switch back. Except they're not Nokia any more.

And can't say from what I've used of Windows Phone that it's bug ridden. Plenty of bugs in my Android phone though.

Ice probe peers at hidden BOTTOMS of oceans from SPAAACE

Bod

Re: Volcanos

There's a blob about the area of Snowdon and that was a volcano millions of years ago, but long extinct. No idea what the other one in Wales is, as I can't see there was ever anything there.

Seismic activity is another matter and there are small faults dotted all over, and we do get minor quakes in places, but then again the dots should be all over the place.

Revealed: Malware that forces weak ATMs to spit out 'ALL THE CASH'

Bod

Re: "32-bit Windows-powered ATM"

Would be just the same vulnerability had it been running 64-bit Linux, or whatever you like.

But besides that it's a robust Embedded Windows running most of them, and has been for a long time. Since XP at least in fact as most are, yes, running Windows XP Embedded. And that is still supported by Microsoft while ATM vendors migrate to another solution.

Anti-virus, not required as they run on their own private network, with no link to the Internet, and the theory was that there was no physical access to ports on the machine to load anything onto it without permission. That's where the vulnerability actually lies when the criminals have found they can get physical access and get away with modifying the machine and keep it in service without anyone noticing. The flaw there is in the physical security, and utterly down to the ATM vendors & banks and absolutely nothing at all to do with Microsoft.

Bod

"That said, using Windows as an OS seems to be an invitation to disaster."

Makes no difference what the OS is. If they can reboot the ATM with a CD, they can install whatever they like or just run their own cloned ATM software bypassing the OS itself.

The flaw here is simply vulnerability through physical access. It shouldn't have a CD drive, or a USB port (which most apparently do have). Simply needs a dedicated port that uses a secure key at the hardware level to ensure only authorised devices can connect to it to talk to the ATM to do updates etc. Plus a BIOS that doesn't let the machine boot of any connected media, or better not use a standard BIOS at all but roll their own proprietary system.

UK reforms on private copying and parody come into force

Bod

£58m lost revenues

£58m lost because a few people are ripping their CDs or hell even from vinyl instead of paying yet again for the thing they already own to get it on MP3 or whatever?

I call BS.

What irritates me though is when certain artists fall for the crap that the industry spouts about loses and then start ranting about how copying is evil and denying them of a fair income. No, the industry is ripping you off, not the consumer! They give you a fraction of a penny for every CD/MP3/whatever sold and keep the rest themselves.

Page: