* Posts by robynsveil

7 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Apr 2013

Windows 8.1: Here at last, but is it good enough?

robynsveil
Facepalm

"Touch screen devices are the future like it or not."

I certainly hope not, at least, not for desktops. If so, RSIs are the future... I'm speaking from experience. We use WinXP on touch-screen devices in post-op recovery... a third of our nursing staff have come down with RSIs (sick leave, cost of replacement staff, etc). And the reduced productivity of trying to _make_ _do_ with these screens is horrendous. Typing on a tablet's virtual keyboard is awkward and slow, which is why people buy those bluetooth keyboards for them... typing on these miserable screens is a *massive* pain. Not to mention that the screen sensitivity reduces over time -- the machines in our high-volume recovery bays are noticeably less responsive than the ones that don't see as many patients.

Months and months on, tech floggers still waiting to feel Microsoft's tool

robynsveil
Linux

Actually, really good point...

I write software I use myself - sort-of, if you can call an Asset Manager written in VBA (using forms and validation code, accessing Excel data) for our department 'software' - and at this point, I'm the only one using it. And constantly debugging it (I'm not a very good programmer :-/ ) ... it is close to the multi-user phase, now. When you write software for others, the testing is going to be hampered by 'your way of doing things'. However, if you actually use the software yourself, a lot of that problem diminishes with *time*.

This is the neat thing about Gambas - a GNU/Linux-based flavour of VB - the IDE is actually written in Gambas itself. And of course, it's open-source, so you can change the IDE to be what you need. And runs HEAPS cleaner than Excel 2000-2003 VBA.

'No discernible increase in piracy' from DRM-free e-books

robynsveil
Mushroom

Once again, we can vote with our dollars

I *choose* to shop for my tech books (programming, etc) at Oreilly Media because they are a drm-free publisher. Yes, it is more expensive. And they don't have the selection other publishers do. But it is worth it - freedom always comes at a cost. The only way those publishers will get the message that drm != customer-service is to vote with the dollar. Enough people do this, they'll get the message.

Microsoft: All RIGHT, you can have your Start button back

robynsveil
FAIL

Re: Sigh

IOW: "that'll teach ya to tie in some vendor's product as a cornerstone of your business."

This flagrant disregard and disrespect for business workflow is pandemic: I see the same thing in FOSS, unfortunately. Fortunately, however, there are more choices. Thank YOU MS for giving us the opportunity (by pulling off our OS-security-blanket and leaving us businesses in the cold) to actually seeing there *are* choices.

Ubuntu without the 'U': Booting the Big Four remixes

robynsveil
Happy

Looking forward to...

... the Raring Ringtail sortie of Mint. And a review on the same.

As CosmoGoblin pointed out: one really runs programs... the OS should just do its thing in the background like a butler, oozing in and out as needed, but never demanding of attention, and *certainly* never interrupting what the user is doing. (The way Windows 7 updates -possibly previous versions too?- were set up was beyond rude and annoying... if you're focused on what you're doing and happened to have "Auto-Update" on -default- and that "rebooting-in-10-minutes" notice doesn't get your attention, you will lose work. This has happened to me. And yes: this is the default setting.)

I still run Windows apps in VirtualBox/Win7 but they are the rare ones (like Photoshop CS3): most of what I need, Mint and the Software repos provide handily.

Got a Windows XP end-of-life plan? Neither does anyone else

robynsveil
WTF?

Re: My plan?

But that's *it*, isn't it? Aren't we *assuming* that all legacy machines running XP-specific hardware absolutely HAVE to get online??? Why do we assume that? And why can't a layered solution be applied here? I really think people aren't creative enough.

For example: me. I develop software for Excel 2003 (VBA) which I need to tweak and debug at home. (I know, don't take your work home with you. Whatever.) And at home, I run Linux Mint nadia. Simple solution: VirtualBox. Run Office 2000 in XPPro in VirtualBox... done and dusted. There's a lot more options available today than when these businesses first invested in their OS and hardware.

The big thing lacking isn't options: it's creativity.

Windows 7 'security' patch knocks out PCs, knackers antivirus tools

robynsveil
Happy

Re: Hard to do

Simple answer: VirtualBox. Free and easy.