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* Posts by Steve Davies 3

813 posts • joined Wednesday 24th June 2009 09:17 GMT

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Steve Davies 3
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Re: Multi User PDP11

RSX-11 was in no way a multi-user version of RT-11.

Their internals were like chalk and cheese.

the VAX Architecture used a new instruction set. Ok, there were a number of similar instructions but it was all 32bit and 15 General Purpose Registers instead of 8 plus hardware separation of I & D spaces.

The VMS Operating system had (until at least V4) the ability to run RSX-11M/M-Plus binaries. There was no way it would run RT-11 binaries. The image activation procedures were totally different.

I've written device drivers for RT-11, RSX-11(D,S,M,m-Plus) and more latterly, VMS and Ultrix/Tru-64 on VAX and Alpha Hardware si I think I do know a little bit about how they all operate. I still have all my engineering notebook for the period 1978-1999 when I worked at DEC plus a full set of PDP-11/45 schematics.

The Interrupt processing of those really nice bits of hardware (and a whole lot more besides) made them a real pleasure to work on. X86 on the other-hand is a total disaster.(IMHO). I'm so glad that I don't get anywhere near the hardware these days.

Oh, and the BA-123 cabinet made a fine seat. The prototype versions had wooden tops covers. how neat was that.

(Design Engineer of the VAX-11/730 Compact Vax (the one with the TSU05 front loading Tape drive in the top))

Steve Davies 3
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Holmes

Re: As they don't pay their taxes...

I'm sure Apple pay their business rates for the shop. AFAIK, that is what goes to pay for the met Police.

Now, if they don't pay their business rates then the more they are robbed the better.

The rates for that shop on Regent St will be pretty high so they might well be paying a lot of money to Westminster City Council and subsequently Boris (the Spider)

Steve Davies 3
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Alert

Exactly my point

As someone old enough to remember the 'Mods' vs 'Rockers' bank holiday events in the 1960's there is no way any self respecting Biker would be seen dead on a scooter.

Mind you the definition of a scooter these days is a far cry from that of the Li-150's that most of the Mods I knew rode.

As a biker I also resent the implication that Bikers are somehow criminals (as portraied by what supposedly passes for the Press these days). We are not.

Now I'm going for a run on my Tiger-1050.

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

Pah

Quote

while VMS was born of the multiuser version of PDP.

Ths seems to imply that PDP-11 systems were not multi-user.

This is so far from the truth that it really shames me the level to which accuracy of the El-Reg hacks has sunk to in revcent weeks.

Can't you get anything right? A few google searched would have told you the real facts.

The PDP-11 range of computers was sold with a number of different operating systems

RT-11

RSTS/E

RSX-11M/M-Plus

and a few older ones such as DOS.

RSTS/E & RSX-11M/M-Plus were most certainly multi-user operating systems.

One RSX-11/M-Plus customer had 128 users logged in to one PDP-11/70 with 256KWords on memory doing Transaction Processing (as we used to call it in them far off distant days)

Yes, I worked for DEC (20 years).

Steve Davies 3
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Pirate

Just say No!

To putting any of your data on a sever owned or operated by a US Company.

Forget the Cloud, be it Amazon, MS or pretty well anyone else for that matter.

Say Yes to

Encrypting anything sensitive on your emails

use HTTPS instead of HTTP for as many web pages as possible.

Use Google or Bing searches via a TOR proxy.

etc

etc

And with the latest webcam exploits, just stick an image of giving someone the finger with 'That means you USA' beneath over the lens.

Then pull the plug on your internet connection, put your phone in a lead lined box and relax with a smile, they can't track you (for a few minutes that is)

Steve Davies 3
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Black Helicopters

Who watches the IWF?

Just asking you know?

They seem to be a bunch of self appointed unaccountable <redacted>.

What happens when they decided that even Teletubbies is far too racy for us to watch? What then?

Black Choppers naturally. you can't have anyone write a crit on the IWF now can you?

Steve Davies 3
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WTF?

Telegram from the Queen?

WTF?

didn't you know that the world's last telegram is about to be sent (well, next month) somewhere in India?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/indias-last-telegram-will-be-sent-in-july/276913/

Come on El-Reg please join the 21st Century or are you all stuck using 110 baud dial-up modems and ASR-33 Teletypes?

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

so how cheap is cheap?

Instead of telling us the costs of these devices we get 50% approx of the text talking about the management musical chairs being played. Pah.

Fail for totally obvious reasons

Steve Davies 3
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Alien

Sorry...

I think they are on the wrong track here.

People fiddling with their phones is a sure-fire way to stop any conversation (at least in Men who apparently can't multi-task).

The more people rely on their smart-device for their communication fix the more socially inept they will become.

Asimov described it perfectly when he envisaged a society where people never actually met 'face-to-face'. That is IMHO the way we are going.

Put down your frigging iDevice/Android and actually speak to people and interact with them directly. We (well those of us who are human that it) need social contact. Buy this I mean proper interactive contact and this half-arsed communication called Facebook/Twitter etc that so many seem to rely on these days.

Yes, I got out of bed the wrong side this morning.

Steve Davies 3
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Thumb Up

Some good (awkward) questions here

for example

and if they required employees to put down a monetary deposit with the company when they joined.

I am sure that a few well known Indian Companies could not answer this with a NO. At least one uses this to keep their employees from leaving mid-contract.

Steve Davies 3
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Slow news day then?

Any company worth its salt would be 'looking at' a whole range of different size and form factored phones. They may even make a few dozen prototypes of a few sizes just to see how the work in reality.

This is a frigging long way from actually putting the beasts into production.

Can't El-Reg hacks understand even the simple principals?

Nah, all they want to do is write some crap bit of fluff just to get a few ad page loads.

Fail

Steve Davies 3
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Re: I explain the graphs as MS making a much more secure browser this month

Shame that IE-9 is so fragile.

It regularly crashes and asks nicely if it can search the web for a solution. IT sometimes happens just when it is sitting there open on a page that is totally static HTML.

THen there is IE-10. Half the sites I visit don't render properly and some WebMail accounts that I have don't even work with it.

No wonder that IE-6 is still out there in the wild.

As a result, I have relegated IE to use only when I visit MS sites.

Firefox with Adblock-Plus, FlashBlock and NoScript is my main browser. There again I got do visiting Pron sites that I know (from a friends experience) are loaded with malware.

I am beginning to wonder in these graphs should also have % malware by site time included.

That would give another view on the problem.

Steve Davies 3
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Thumb Up

Loved the DSOTM Cover

Would go well with one of the more recent covers of it by the Flaming Pips. (or something)

All that needs to be said about DSOTM is

20th January 1972 Brighton Dome. First night of their 'Tour 72'.

The start of an era. I still have the ticket stub.

Steve Davies 3
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Unhappy

Nearly made it

I started programming on a PDP 11/40 in 1974. Now I'm nearing retirement age it is really sad to see such a wonderful O/S pensioned off.

Add to that the fantastic 20 years I spent at DEC in Reading then you can see that VMS was a big part of my working life.

Pretty well everything else since then has been downhill.

VMS Clustering still takes a lot to be beaten if you ask me.... Introduced in 1983, dies in 2013 RIP

Steve Davies 3
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Coat

Oh No....

Not him. Mr Blobby can't be far away then. (Better it than Cheggers)

That colour scheme would blow a few people's mind all right.

Mines the one with a psychedelia print 'T-Shirt' in the pocket (yes I am old enough to have bought it the first time around)

Steve Davies 3
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Facepalm

Hollywood does not make gobs of money

The studios always report a loss on every picture they make. This is all down to the frankly silly accounting rules they are allowed to get away with.

AFAIK, all the Harry Potter Movies didn't even break even according to their rules.

Steve Davies 3
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Mushroom

Another reason

To avoid LinkedIn and MS-Exchange then?

<-- To both of them

Steve Davies 3
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Facepalm

Re: $100Bn cash pile

Isn't that what Apple have proposed? They proposed a scheme whereby they raise $$$ in the US with a bond sale. Then they use that cash to give the stockholders a dividend. This way that can legally pay a dividend without bringing even $1 onshore to the US and paying the 35% tax on it..

Now that $100bn would go a long way to getting rid of Eire's nation debt. That must be tempting for the politico's in Dublin.

Steve Davies 3
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Coat

It ain't cool

quote

Little advice for the fanbois... if you can buy your cool phone at the same time as toilet cleaner potatoes... it's not cool!

Then it ain't cool to be able to buy the latest Samsung 'shiny-shiny' device at Tesco's then? They are on sale at my local one (As of Monday)

I guess that buying any phone at Tesco's is a sign of being uncool then.

Mines the one with a Nokia 6310i in the pocket.

Steve Davies 3
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Joke

Re: Plesase stop using the term 'Landfill' android

Didn't you get the memo that tell you in no uncertain terms that you have to keep spending money that you don't have on stuff you don't need simply to keep worked in some far off land in a job?

Think of all those workers you are going to put out of a job buy NOT buying more 'stuff'.

Your Mobile Phone producer needs to in order to keep out of Bankruptcy. The Wrath of Samsung will be upon you if you don't buy a new one every 6 months.

Being serious for a moment, people are quick to complain about the release schedule of Apple but isn't a one per year (or thereabouts) and with 3-4 year software upgrades a whole lot better for the environment than the seemingly endless new releases from the likes of Samsung? I really don't know but I am sure to get downvoted for not slagging off Apple at every opportunity and no, I don't own an iPhone/iPad.

Steve Davies 3
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Joke

Te-he

Obviously you will need at least one of these in order to use Windows 9.0. Otherwise the bizarre colour scheme will confuse the living daylights out of you.

Next, MS approved stokies. They will phone home before the let you light one up. Won't someone think of the children!

Steve Davies 3
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Coat

You can tell that this is a really bad idea

when (and using a little imagination) you could replace 'Motorola' with 'Apple' and the reactions are the same.

Mines the one with a boxed set of 'The Prisoner' in the pocket.

(And yes, I am old enough to have seen it when first broadcast on UK TV)

Steve Davies 3
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Happy

Cars with a HUD

Sadly the ill fated 'new SAAB 95' had one.

I know a dealer with one '10' plate going for £18K.

not a german car but just as boring and I'm a SAAB driver.

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

Still on message then

Probably hoping to be asked back when Mr Balmer is ousted.

Steve Davies 3
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Black Helicopters

The next step

in Samsung's plan for world domination of everything that uses technology in your home or on your person.

When they have done with Apple, watch out Microsoft you will be next.

Steve Davies 3
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Facepalm

Re: Digital signage?

Think Advertising signs that show different ads on huge screens

Think Airport/Station departure/Arrival displays

Think Bus Stop dynamic timetables

etc

etc

Steve Davies 3
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Alien

Balmer is transforming MS

into an NPE.

Remember that pretty well every Android Phone gives MS possibly in the region of $10 due to patent licensing deals.

Soon they will wake up to the fact that they can make more money out of the competition than they can from their own phones. $10 per device and no R&D expenses. The Shareholders will love that. Far better ROCI.

Eventually the won't need the droves os Windows or Office devs. I'd estimate that they could shed 50% or their staff. Thet will keep the shareholders happy.

I look forward to seeing Balmer retire. His (& BG's) shareholding will keep them happy until they kick the bucket even if BG keeps giving millions to his charity cronies.

This post has been deleted by a moderator

Steve Davies 3
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Happy

Re: Rich rewards...... OH YEAH!!!

Didn't you know that EADON is nothing more than a 'bot' programmed to dis MS at every opportunity. Sadly the devs have yet to fix a bug in their code that capitalises the last line of every post it makes.

Still, for me BING == BLING and no, I'm not from Essex.

Steve Davies 3
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Holmes

FoxConn also makes stuff for other companies

But that would be worth reporting now would it?

If it has the word Apple in it then you are bound to get a lot more hits thus Ad views and therefore $$$ ££££ etc for EL Reg funds.

sigh.

TGIF, only 9 and a bit hours to beer time.

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

If this was /.

There would be a good few replies using the word

Slashvertisment

Move along there, nothing to see.

Steve Davies 3
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Boffin

Re: An open letter

The next question is to see what the VAT rate is.

~If they are charging you the Irish rate then fine

If they are using the UK rate then they are in deep shit with the HMRC.

Just like Adobe.

Buy a download and it is fulfilled form Eire. Buy a boxed copy (cue funeral march music) and it is fulfiled from Scotland.

One attracts the Eire VAT rate and the other the UK's 20%.

Steve Davies 3
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Boffin

Foxit in a corporate enviroment

http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1041

There you go. Plenty of other Corportate Lockdown beating apps there.

Steve Davies 3
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Holmes

Re: Slow

Quote

"This document has changed ..."

Much like MS Office then.

Steve Davies 3
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Re: Hmm....

Shh, your IP address may well have been harvested by some Blackmail merchant (see Prenda Law case in the US) who will no doubt be asking all your neighbors if they have downloaded any Pron using your BB connection.

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

Re: 1366 x 768 screen ?????

No it does not. The <redacted> ribbon in Office takes up far too much real estate on the screen when it is 768 high.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9600 that dates from 2004 (or thereabouts) that has a 1600x1200 screen. That replaced and Inspiron 8100 from 2002 that used the same size screen. Where is the progress in screens?

None if manufacturers keep using this stupidly sized screens. (Written on an HP Elitebook with a 1366x768 screen thankfully connected to a 1920x1200 monitor)

Steve Davies 3
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1366 x 768 screen ?????

Come on manufacturers toss these silly screens into the obsolete parts bin and use something better. I'm sure we wouldn't mind paying a little more for a better screen.

Otherwise, these just fall in to the same category as all the other cheapo laptops out there. The only difference is that they don't run TIFKAM or similar software

Steve Davies 3
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Mushroom

Meanwhile...

The Samsung Tractor/Trailer arrives at the USPTO HQ loaded with 10,067 patent applications and ties the whole schebang down so hard that no one else will be able to build anything more than a 4G phone for the next 19year + extensions.

Nuke for obvious reasons.

Steve Davies 3
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Linux

Re: But they'll fix it...

Then more and more people will realise that MS Office is not really vital to what they are doing.

If I worked for MS in their Office division, I'd be trying to put it on more and more platforms. That would be the only way to keep the revenue stream up if the volumes of windows sales was declining. Sadly and after a few chairs had been thrown the politics of MS would prevail and the head honcho of the Office division starts to think seriously about giving it all up and growing garlic for a living (Garlic to ward off the MS Ghouls)

Steve Davies 3
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Coat

When I were a lad,

Hipsters were Jeans worn on the 'hips'....

Coat with a pair of Loon Pants on underneath.....

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

And when revenues drop?

Because of all those casual, upgrade every other version users stop paying Adobe a cent,penny etc?

What of the shareholder return then?

could this turn out to be Adobe's footgun moment?

for this user it is. I won't be spending another bent penny on Photoshop with them. I know that I'm not alone here.

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

Re: Come on wintards get rebooting your servers!

you might be very true in your statement but what really pisses me off with Windows patching is the reboots.

With some Linux Distros even kernel changes don't always need a system reboot. Yet windows....

Patch, reboot, patch, reboot

Just install .Net V4 and go through the patch reboot cycle if you don't believe me. Patches on top of patches on top of patches.

If they fixed this then I'd be more of a fan. Until then... sorry it is a broken toy. Sadly I have to use the sodding thing (server variant) for work.

Steve Davies 3
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Black Helicopters

Where is Eadon when you need him?

I would have thought that this article would have been much too hard to resist for a rant or two.

Only joking.

MS are doing a really good job of messing it up themselves. Many of us are waiting to see what the 'New' version holds. Will we get a proper 'Classic' UI?

Stay tuned folks for the next thrilling installment of the 'Battle of Microsoft'.

Steve Davies 3
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Holmes

Just remember 'The Last One'

Full of hype like

The last computer program you will ever buy.

Nuff said.

Steve Davies 3
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Economical with the Truth

to use the words of a former senior Civil Servant

Steve Davies 3
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WTF?

Or Alternatively

Not any more even the die hard Samsung fans are seeing that the new Nexuswhatsits are only small iterational improvements on the old models rather then " zomgs amazing best thing since slice bread ,revolutionize the synergy" type products.

There fixed it for you...

There is always two sides to every story.

Now to break the Eadon downvote count :)

Steve Davies 3
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FAIL

Then there is the 'going off grid' situation

Many Photographers go out in the field for long periods of time. Sometimes this is in places with limited ot no internet connectivity.

Imaging the situation where you are out in the field for a few weeks and you want to edit some images.

Then you get the message

'Adobe Says No'

And you app won't start simply because the app has been unable to phone home to verify that your subscription is still valid.

MEGA - MEGA Fail all round.

{as an amatuer photographer this applied to me a few years ago. I spent time on Kergulen Island in the Southern Indian Ocean. No internet for more than a month unless you were willing to pay the $20/min for a slow satellite connection}

Steve Davies 3
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Coat

What about 'Shadow Rabbits'?

giving the two 'ears' salute to all Patent Lawyers out there.

Ok, Coat. gone.

Steve Davies 3
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Thumb Down

Included in the Box

A set of DVD's (or download links) showing how you can get arms/shoulders like Mr/Mrs Universe. You are going to need it if you use one of these things for any length of time. Unless you happen to be an actor on CSI.

A solution waiting for a problem.

Steve Davies 3
Bronze badge

Re: BE

As a PlusNet FTTC customer I have to disagree with you about their evening network speeds.

I don't see any real slowdown in the evenings at all.

Where I live, most of the street are on Virgin. compared to my connection, that really crawls in the evening.

so much so, my neighbors switch over to my WiFi network in the evenings.

250Gb cap (unlimited 00:00->08:00) though but I've never got above 60Gb per month.

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