That's nice, dear.
Posts by Chika
1774 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Oct 2007
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'Personalised BBC' can algorithmically pander to your prejudices
Microsoft pitches lobotomized Cortana for iOS, Android handsets
Kaspersky, McAfee, and AVG all vulnerable to major flaw
I wondered how several products had the same flaw. Intel owns them. There's the answer.
Are you sure that was what you meant? I suspect that you probably meant that the code developed that way because of the product they were designed for, that being the Intel processor based system. Mind you, even that's clutching a bit...
Re: Here, have a fix
systemd? That isn't restricted to Debian systems either. And I'm not joking. Why can't they arrest the perp and have done with it?!?
Agreed. I use different systems to do different things. I may give Linux advice in some of these threads but each OS has its strengths and flaws and I prefer to judge them realistically rather than evangelise.
Besides, RISC OS kicks the crap out of all of them... ;)
Windows Phone won't ever succeed, says IDC
Re: late to the party
Apple didn't invent the smart phone or MP3 but they did reinvent it and made them both successful.
Strictly speaking, Apple didn't reinvent anything. All they did was use their experience of re-marketing existing technology that they successfully used with the iMac on devices that existed but didn't have much of an impact at the time.
Actually, MP3 was already pretty big back then but devices to hold and play back the files were all over the place, not to mention that certain media companies weren't very happy about the existence of the format, not to mention the various facilities around back then that could be used to... gasp SHARE these files!
Apple got these markets because there were no other big companies out there to oppose them. That's the difference. And Microsoft aren't the only company with this problem. Anyone remember the Pippin?
Re: Does anyone think this is a good thing?
Actually, I think SQL Server became popular because the only thing worse than Microsoft licensing is Oracle licensing.
Actually I believe that Microsoft and Oracle took tips off each other when it came to licensing. Each has been a nightmare over the years at some point or other!
Re: Does anyone think this is a good thing?
They've got successful products in the form of Office, SQL Server, Azure, XBox... does anyone see the utter lack of competition in productivity suites, databases, cloud services and games consoles?
True, but here's where I think this article is to be taken with a pinch of whichever condiment you prefer. If we look at all the products you mention, the dominance of Microsoft came at the cost of somebody else cocking up.
Office was an also-ran in the days of MS-DOS and only because the Perfect applications were such a pile of crap when taken to GUI did Office get a foothold. SQL Server only really gained its place because of the operating environment, the jury is still out on Azure and XBox would have been nothing without the disaster that was the PS3 release, not to mention the Wii U, especially when you consider the dominance of the PS2 and the Wii.
Microsoft have rarely ever produced anything that has succeeded in its own right, especially not in the face of competition from other companies and products, mostly because Microsoft have little original concept in them.
But for this reason you cannot completely write WinPho off. It will only take Apple or Google one slip and they could see themselves going the same way that Nokia did.
The only possible way that WinPho might go otherwise is if iOS and Android continue to dominate so that WinPho will eventually follow Zune into the pages of history, but the trick here is not to write history before it happens.
Mozilla: Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Thunderbirds are – gone
Microsoft Office 365, Azure portals offline for many users in Europe
Broccoli
A few weeks ago, I was taking part in an interview for a job doing support for a company that specialised in a particular software product (I won't name any names for obvious reasons). One thing that I noticed was that pretty much everything that they did was cloud based, so one question I brought up was what the company did to cover themselves in the case of an outage.
I'm not sure if they really understood where I was coming from but as a long term support operative for local based servers and for locally based SAN storage, I knew full well that a dodgy server had its effects on customers but that we could normally alleviate the problem one way or another, often without having to wait for somebody to sort out a system somewhere in the "cloud". More importantly we could pinpoint the fault and often give an idea of how long it would be before we could bring the affected system back online.
This was because the various points of failure that were likely to occur were onsite. With this whole business with Azure/O365, the various points of failure are out of the control of the customers' IT, whether it is an Internet fail, a DDoS or a malfunction at the farm. If your entire system is out on a cloud somewhere and that cloud suddenly evaporates, apart from fielding hordes of complaints from exasperated users, what do you do?
Oh yes, I also managed to sprain my ankle on the way to the interview. Suffice to say that I was not impressed at all (and have spent much of the last couple of weeks in bed trying to rest it, mostly because standing up was extremely painful.)
Booming Ballmer bellows 'bulls**t' over Microsoft's cloud revenue run rate
Re: Two finger salute
Microsoft told us it was not commenting on Mr B's comments.
Probably because he's actually right this time. Telling the truth is one of the best trolls you can do, especially to a company as big as Microsoft and especially when you have the benefit of inside knowledge.
It's a pity that he couldn't do this while he still had some influence!
Sued for using HTTPS: Big brands told to cough up in crypto patent fight
Re: Re stu 18
Or just put all patent trolls before a firing squad.
That's just a waste of perfectly good lead. Too quick too, given the long, drawn out torture that patent trolls put people through.
Hmm... drawn... now there's a thought! Fetch me four horses, some lengths of rope and a sharp blade!
Final countdown – NSA says it really will end blanket phone spying on US citizens this Sunday
Meet ARM1, grandfather of today's mobe, tablet CPUs – watch it crunch code live in a browser
BOFH: How long does it take to complete Friday's lager-related tasks?
Sneaky Microsoft renamed its data slurper before sticking it back in Windows 10
Re: As long as data-slurping is profitable...
Companies using Win 10 can probably be counted on the toes of your right hand.
For now, probably. No doubt some smaller companies that don't use domains and such may have "upgraded", possibly against their will as has been the case in some home environments.
The trouble there is that there are those out there that will, given the choice, swallow anything that Microsoft sends their way. When Vista came out, they were proud to have all their systems ready. Same with W7 and W8. Same with the server systems, though I should note that many of the server releases have been a lot better than the desktop equivalents, probably because the main part of a server doesn't really change that much from system to system and Microsoft knows better than to take risks with servers (hopefully!)
One of my previous employers is probably already feverishly peddling out W10 and is drooling over W2K16 Server as we speak...
Re: So maybe a bit of tinfoil is justified after all ?
To be honest, I'd cut them more slack if they hadn't previously been so vocal about other companies and their ID slurping activities. They made such a big thing about Google's Chrome, for example, that you could say that the whole thing is a blatant show of hypocrisy on Microsoft's part.
Having said that, however, I wouldn't cut them a lot of slack, especially not as it appears that renaming and reissuing highly unpopular "features" within the operating system, not to mention backporting these features to Windows 8.x and Windows 7 and forcefully downloading to users that have already expressed their wish not to "upgrade" shows that Microsoft are only interested in what they can get out of you. I've read items from apologists in various places (they seem to monopolise ZDNet at the moment, for example) but Microsoft's actions speak louder than any apologist's rantings.
Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings
Struggling to understand Docker? Let's start with a Minecraft demo
Windows Server and System Centre 2016 get fourth previews
Re: ????
Windows8.2=10 is a scam. Full of spyware. The Metro/ModernUI childish unusable mess is still there and the start menu is a silly pathetic joke.
Heard it all before. Yes, W10 is not what we wanted but it isn't quite as bad as that! The "spyware" aspect isn't that bad (though it isn't good either) and much of it can be overcome while the whole business of the start menu can be avoided with the use of a replacement such as Classic Shell or similar.
Just trying out W2K16 TP4 right now. To be honest, the front end is a bit like a cross between W2K12 and W10, and the system unfortunately has a lot of the problems that Windows 10 is often called out for including the telemetry and the forced update regime (not something that I'd be happy about if I were a sysadmin, to be honest) but it's hardly a finished product so I'm just going to play with it and see what it can do.
With the Windows Update service switched off, of course!
Rdio's collapse another nail in the coffin of the 'digital economy'
Re: the global income from music is less than .. wage bill of .. Premier League team
While I agree that the current state of affairs of pop music is, as you say, stuffed full of auto-tuned, tinned, pre-digested music for the masses, the problem cannot be wholly based on the content. Personally I have used various services online to find, download, even purchase all sorts of music outside the mainstream that I probably would never had heard otherwise.
The biggest problem, however, is the greed, lack of foresight and hypocrisy of the media companies behind the music, whether you direct your ire at people like Simon Cowell or at large corporates who still dwell in the era where they controlled everything and have little interest in giving it up since, when that system still worked, it got them a lot of money.
The point is that that system doesn't work anymore which is why I tend to facepalm when someone like Taylor Swift gets a bug up her arse because she thinks that Spotify are screwing her over or when artists start up their own streaming service because they think that people will pay to use it on the basis of the few names that sign up to it (Tidal, anyone?)
Remember Windows 1.0? It's been 30 years (and you're officially old)
Windows ME wasn't all THAT bad, personally I found it a better OS especially compared with the shite they called Windows 98. The one funny thing that would happen you'd unplug a USB device and BANG.... BSOD. I did have an eMachines back then so that might have also had something to do with it.
For me, that was the wrong way around. WMe on the various machines I had it on back in the day had a habit of "forgetting" devices and crashing badly - after all, that's where ME-Tan got her break! W98, on the other hand, was pretty solid, at least once we got the second edition. I can, however, understand the USB problems as W98 was only just picking up USB. I generally left USB alone until I was well away from the older MS-DOS based kernels - W2K onwards were a big improvement, IMHO.
Personally I never did try Windows 1. I did have a go of Windows 2.0 on a friend's second hand PC many years ago but I missed out on MS-DOS 2 and all the frippery that came with it. My first mouse-driven adventures were on RISC OS 2 (complete with its "Filecore in use" errors), then Windows 3.0 on an Olivetti system that my employers had brought in to replace Word-11 on the PDP-11s I used at the time. The person who specified the system, however, specified WordPerfect for DOS 5 so the GUI went unused for most of the time! I wasn't impressed....
Kids' tech skills go backwards thanks to tablets and smartmobes
Re: Technology Consumers
I got my first computer (Acorn Electron) in 1990 and I was 10. I started programming, guided by my uncle, and although I knew there was a lot to learn it did not seem impossible. This machine was clearly built by mere mortals, people like my father and uncles, and could be mastered.
But that was the difference back then. The Elk was based heavily on the BBC Micro and, like a lot of the computers of that age, they expected you to learn something to the extent that some systems, especially but not exclusively the various Acorns, expected you to have the basics of a language, even if all you were doing was LOAD, CHAIN, RUN, SAVE or EXEC.
To be honest, the generation that grew up around the various Acorns, Sinclairs, Commodores, yes even Dragons had a privileged view of the whole thing as the generations before didn't have as much opportunity and, more importantly, the generations since couldn't give a toss.
The computer is increasingly becoming a white good, much as televisions did toward the end of the last century. My father grew up when television was the incoming thing but by the time he retired, it was a thing that everyone had. It was treated as something ordinary, nobody knew how it worked or what they needed to do to keep it working correctly except for a small group, such as the one that my father worked for, that kept things running when they stopped working. It became the box in the corner that kept everyone entertained in the evenings. I can see computers going the same way.
Re: Consumption is not Understanding
Now we get to the crux of the matter.
We know that tablets and smartphones further remove their users from the muddy world of IT literacy, but how did we end up this way?
Consider, if you will, why these devices were developed. OK, I've used tablets and smartphones myself but mostly in the way they are meant to be used; consumption. That's why companies such as Google continue to develop Android; they get money back from the copious amounts of advertising they generate from your use of their system. Not really what Linux was developed for, is it?
So as Rick says, consumption is what these people use these devices for but consider why they are used that way and who is encouraging this. Not just Google either - Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and so on. They want your cash, they don't care how they get it, they will continue to make it easier to get at it and sod the IT literacy of the world.
(Typed from my home-built Linux based server)
Google bows to inevitable, stops forcing Google+ logins on YouTubers
Re: And here's how to delete your Google Plus profile:
If you delete your Google+ profile:
* Your comments and messages will be permanently deleted
This only affects messages and comments that were made using G+. If you made any comments under the old YouTube regime, they stay put.
* The following will be made private until you re-enable your channel:
◦Your channel name
Bullshit. My channel is still alive and well and unlocked.
* Other people's subscriptions to your channel "
Also bullshit. The only possible reason that might happen is where a subscription has been made to your G+ account rather than the YouTube account itself. Basically, this message was an obfuscated scare tactic to keep you on G+.
I've been waiting for Google to pull this pile of crap out of YouTube for quite a few months now, ever since they first announced that they would be removing G+ from YouTube. The only thing they did at that point was to finally stop nagging you every few months but still locked off the comment and flag stuff unless you signed up.
And yes, I just tried it again and yes, it still nags at you.
Emma Blackery's thoughts on Google+ (NSFW) (dates back to the original change a couple of years back)
'Shut down the parts of internet used by Islamic State masterminds'
Re: Well that's a good solution
What these stupid rednecks do not comprehend is that attacks on Muslims, and blatant hatred of all Muslims is EXACTLY what ISIS wants. How else can you approach other Muslims in these countries, except by pointing out that they are not welcome, and radicalize them??
Calm down, dear!
Actually, you are right. ISIS are effectively a radical Sunni faction who are trying to provoke the West into war. That was what all the beheading and the shooting at Charlie Hebdo was about too. The problem is how to detect a terrorist and how to deal with them. Consider that one imprisoned or executed terrorist in our eyes becomes a hero in the eyes of the radicals.
After all, these radicals are people with a firm belief in a teaching that dates back to the bronze age, further coloured by disagreements in interpretation. It's not surprising that a redneck would become somewhat angered by that since most rednecks, as far as I know (please correct me as I'm not American) tend to have a similar belief system, only using a different book.
Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail
Who cares for badges apart from those in the Brownies ?
You were in the Brownies too?
Windows 10: Major update on the Threshold as build 10586 hits Insiders
@nuclearstar
Good for you, you like to use Linux. I like to use Windows, it is essential to my job, puts food on my table, pays for my mortgage (so I dont live with my mum still) and pays for my social life, that isnt spent dribbling over a kernel.
Hmm, so it would appear. Mind you, the last post I saw from you didn't appear to be particularly forthcoming about what you found better about one version of Windows against another so why should anyone take any notice when you try to criticise a thread's contents, an operating system or whatever?
I've written a lot over the last few months, especially about Windows 10 and Linux, and I'm sorry for boring some of you if that's how it seemed, but I try to give my reasons for my views on a particular system and help if I can. Even if that means dribbling over a kernel (though I forget how long it has been since I last needed to do that!)