Posts by nematoad 1857 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Sep 2009
"cut down on the admin rights..."
Yes, that's one thing that has always puzzled me about Debian based systems. Why is it that sudo is used instead of su? To me that looks like an invitation to meddling and the chance of doing serious damage to your system.
I use PCLinuxOS and their forum has a piece on the potential abuse of sudo and why sudo is not recommended for use in PCLOS.
"Dark versions of interfaces are reckoned by some to be easier on the eyes..."
Not if you are my age. I struggle with dark themes and avoid them where I can. Physiologically your eyes let less light in the older you are. The cornea of a person of 60 will only pass a certain percentage of light to the retina compared to that of a person of 20.
Lack of contrast on some sites, I'm looking at you EVE Online, makes my life a misery. Black on white is definitely easier to read than white on black, or in Eve's case grey on black. Bah!
"the UK fined Facebook half a mil (how they must be laughing now)"
That was the maximum the ICO were allowed to fine Facebook under the regulations at the time. Now with the GDPR it's a percentage of the offending company's turnover. 5% if my memory serves me correctly.
So no, it wasn't because the ICO went easy on FB, they had no other choice.
All this shuffling around, requests to be half-in half-out of many of the EU agencies like Europol and Euratom. Convoluted schemes to prevent a hard border in Ireland, admissions that we will all be worse off when the UK leaves, not to mention Galileo, makes me wonder why we should bother if all we are going to do is lose out.
What I want to know is what's in it for the likes of Nigel Farage, Arron Banks, Boris Johnson and the rest of that scurvy crew? Some like Lord Lawson are openly showing that they are hypocrites having recent applied for a a 'carte de séjour' so as he can remain in his luxury abode in France. There must be something really big in it for the others to sell the country down the river like they are.
" Make them the same colour, its going to be far to confusing if the user can tell where one control ends and another starts."
Ah, you must have been playing EVE Online. There everything is either white or pale grey. You can't see a bloody thing and have to rely on muscle memory to work out where the controls should be. It drives me mad and all I got when I mentioned this to CCP was that it was an attempt at "unifying" the look. The result is cold, impossible to read and a complete disaster, just as you have described.
"When I'm on a plane I will take a safe and boring pilot over a dynamic agile guy with edgy haircut any day of the week."
There is a saying in aviation circles: "There are old pilots and bold pilots, there are no old,bold pilots."
Looks like IBM missed that.
"Could always use PlayonLinux"
One problem with Playonlinux, there is very litlte help available. I've tried without success to join their forums and have tried to contact them directly. Nothing heard. Also don't try asking for help with POL at WineHQ. I made that mistake and got a very dusty answer. It seems that the people at Wine don't particularly care for those at POL.
The short answer is: POL is fine if it all works. If not you are mostly on your own.
A sensible decision, much like the "polluter pays" doctrine.
If the content companies cause this process and the process costs money, and with lawyers involved it will, then those seeking to enforce their rights should pick up the bill.
Or are they so entitled that they feel that they are justified in asking third parties to pay so as to protect their revenue streams?
"... not being able to volunteer a social media profile can make someone the subject of suspicion in countries such as the US."
It's a good job then that I have absolutely no intention of visiting the USA. Alternatively they might try the only "social media" account I have ever had and checkout Friends-reunited. Good luck with that!
"...that can be problematic because they don't want their data going anywhere else"
OK, I get that, but with their increasing use of "the cloud" and off-the-shelf GPUs and processors how are they going to make sure that the stuff stays safe? They will have to trust in third party security and we are all aware that things can and do leak or are just plain broken.
If I was in the market for such assets I would want to be certain that all the data was under my control rather than spreading it all over the internet.
"I wonder if the eventual outcome will be a paid-for (with money) service?"
That would indeed be interesting. Then, perhaps, we will see just how much people value the services provided by Facebook for "free" as opposed to the punter having to pay real money to use FB's stuff. Another benefit would be that the user would become a customer and not the product.
Interesting times!
"...the users who will find a new operating system."
Sadly, the truth is that most users don't even know that there are alternatives. As far as they are concerned Windows is the only way due to the bundling of Windows with a new PC. Remember the bullshit being spouted when it was said that buying a PC without Windows was illegal?
So, much as I wish people would go out and get an alternative, due to the brainwashing and FUD most people won't/can't get off the MS treadmill.
Oh, I agree that MS's execution leaves a lot to be desired but when did that ever change?
Strangely enough I was watching that yesterday, and I thought that what Rossmann says about customers coming in with broken iThings and still keep coming back for more. "That's not rational, that's religious."
Apple are a quasi-cult. No matter how badly Apple stiffs the customer with shoddy build quality, poor customer treatment and extortionate prices the true-believer will always return no matter how much they are out of pocket.
With a base like that you could be the worst company in the world to do business with and yet still turn a hefty profit.
I'll have what ever it is the government are smoking.
They are living in a fantasy land where £13Bn projects can be conjured out of thin air and along with the "magical thinking" over topics like the Irish border I seriously doubt that this bunch are capable of negotiating their way out of a wet paper bag.
If I had the chance I would take Old Bill's* advice and "Find a better 'ole to go to" as I can see the train crash starting to happen here in the UK.
* A popular cartoon figure from the Great War drawn by Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather.
This article has to be the biggest "statement of the bleedin' obvious" ever.
We have suspected for years that domestic laws preventing the surveillance of citizens could be by-passed and it appears that this is only too true.
The people drawn to the "intelligence community" seem to be devious manipulators with the attitude of "the end justifies the means", so of course they will collude and find ways to get around any attempts to rein them in.
The real scandal is in the failure of those people we elect to run our countries to hold these agencies to account and control their wilder inclinations. It make me wonder what's in it for the politicians or if, like J. Edgar Hoover, the spies have enough dirt to actually control their theoretical masters.
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse."
No, but not being gifted with telepathic powers that allow you to see what's in the documents before reading might be.
The people who are presumably breaking the law in this case are those who failed to redact sensitive information before publishing it. If I were one of those affected by this I would be taking aim at the bureaucrats not some teenager.
"MPs (the government) have voiced serious concerns about NHS Digital (a public organisation which is beholden to the Department for Health"
Not quite. Members of the government are members of Parliament, Commons or Lords but not all members of Parliament are members of the government. Otherwise you would have Jeremy Corbyn in government as well as May, Gove, Hunt etc.
It's really a case of the right hand and the left hand not agreeing with each other.
@ Lars
It would appear as if someone not only got out of bed on the wrong side but also, like Worzel Gummige, forgot to put on their thinking head.
An ad hominem attack is no answer to the points I was trying to make. What you seem to have failed to grasp is that I was not claiming that Britain is solely responsible for all the great discoveries, inventions and developments in the world. The point of my post was that the UK is very good at coming up with clever new ideas but pitifully poor at turning them into a source of revenue.
As for the state of my children's minds that is irrelevant. They are long grown up and now responsible for the moulding of their own children's characters and minds.
You may gather from the above that I am annoyed at the tone of your reply, and you would be right. When I was at University I was trained to attack the other person's ideas not them. It seems as if this idea has somehow passed you by.
We see this time and again in history.
Britain develops new technology and someone else comes along, takes what we have found, commercialises it and makes a killing. Look at the Comet, the first jet airliner. A brilliant project that was damaged beyond repair by design flaws that allowed Boeing and others to take the lead and look where we are now. Then there's computing. Colossus was years ahead of everyone else, and yet where is the British computer industry today? Nowhere. I could go on and on.
It seems as if we are an inventive nation but when it comes to making money out of our discoveries and inventions we are nowhere to be seen.
"...if it's 2018 on the mainland, it's 1918 on the Island."
Close but no cigar. The trains are from 1938 as Hans Neeson-Bumpsadese says, Ex Northern Line I believe.
I did notice that at least some of them have been given a new lick of paint recently so not quite as shabby as in the picture.
And yes, that is a shot of Ryde Esplanade station and what that has to do with the London to Southampton route is anybody's guess.
"Fans, Vacuum Pumps and Air Compressors".
Well, what's wrong with that? Fans move air about whether they are hand held, mechanical or electrical, don't they?
OK. I take your point, but you know Customs agents are devoid of common sense or imagination. Though they do seem to have had a sense of humour.
",,,they are complex investment portfolios that rely heavily on dividend income..."
OK. So that makes them the owners of the company. If they are willing to accept the benefits of ownership it's a pity that they don't seem so keen on the responsibilities. Like keeping the management under control and waving through the so called "incentive plans" the people at the top use to line their pockets whilst letting the rest of the company go to the wall.
"You scratch my back etc."
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