Re: Rather than like buying a BMW
"16 valves?"
Most Radios only need four or five, though stereo needs a few extra. Look at how many valves (tubes) a Scott radio used! Mad.
9265 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007
Because no teen could afford a real HiFi, in real terms about x2 the price of an HDTV today ... which reminds me, 1950s TV sets and radios have far better audio than HDTV or table top radio today. Laptop speakers in the 4K res 48" TV! Gah!
Most of the home cinema has like 1995 PC speakers in plastic boxes.
256K MP3 isn't bad and 320K OK, but less compatible. Only my laptop and Tablet will play AAC.
I only buy CDs, rip and archive. I use decent wooden cabinet speakers on TV, but very many films on DVD, BD have terrible sound balance. TV drama too has the music and effects too dominant.
The earliest used a piece of film, so were static. I first saw one in 1969. The hologram surface is like a window. You can see anything you could have seen at the original scene, so you can see all of a chessboard by moving your head, even though the straight on view might show only a few pieces.
We have no idea how to do images like the original Star Wars projection done by R2D2.
Holography needs a huge bandwidth. We can do "real" 3D computer generated images by scanning an angled ground glass disk rotating fast enough, with R, G and B lasers. It's not holographic, full colour 3D viewable inside a clear cylinder. The effective Z resolution increases the normal flat X Y bandwidth considerably for any decent resolution. Another problem with the rotating disk method is that if there is a wide viewing angle the view is very translucent.
I've no idea what this is or how it can create an image above the surface (but caption does say a fake image!).
An artificial distinction invented by MS for mostly 16bit Win95 and mostly 16 bit Office 95 so that Office 95 wouldn't run on Win3.x. So Office 95 didn't work on true Win 32 NT3.1 or NT3.5, it wasn't a limitation of Win32s. Many users of NT3.5 got the NT3.51 upgrade free, which had the extra APIs purely invented for Office 95. There was later even an explorer shell preview on NT3.51, then we were horrified on that on NT4.0 they moved GDI (graphics and printer drivers then could blue screen) into kernel. Many organisations thus continued to install NT 3.51 server.
So really nothing to do with Win32s
OS/2 was out marketed by a gaming console and MS dishonest lock in of PC makers. Both NT3.5 and OS/2 warp were far better than Win9x, which killed the excellent Pentium Pro. But that's another story.
"Has it got a TCP/IP stack and internet browser as well? yes and yes"
OS/2 had both of those in 1994. More import is that it supports USB, which wasn't on OS/2 or Win95 in 1995.
I remember MIcrosoft OS/2 Server with LAN Manager (sold in 1989 after IMB and MS parted ways).
Is OS/3 the reason that NT starts at Version 3?
MS inflicted Win9x, not much more than Win3.x with the VFW & Win32s bundled optimised for gaming on businesses that would have been far better using NT3.5 or OS/2 Warp. A burden for them and business till XP (Win 5.1, Win2K was the unfinished Win 5.0). Idiots, though commercially sucessful, it was the source of most of the stupid design decisions and badly written SW on NT after 1995.
therefore Google's revenues which on Android remain half of that generated on iOS
Considering iTunes (30% to Apple?) and inability for most users to transfer files without it and also Apple's massive "brand" fuelled obscene rip off profit margin on the HW sale (which Google gets almost nothing from), it's hard to see how Google can even be doing as well as half.
Google & Facebook profits almost entirely rely on [illegal in EU and other countries with close ties to EU] exploitation of privacy rather than actual sale of services. Yes, there is the Google Play Store, Google's legal equivalent of iTunes. So I expect Google profits to fall unless they get very clever. The EU is waking up and soon won't have UK disrupting action against USA businesses ripping off European privacy.
Where do you store it if there is no SD Card slot and the Flash memory is full?
Some cheaper phones and tablets only have about 1/3rd storage free when there are NO user files!
The only solution would be a small separate bootloader OS that can erase all of existing OS and update via USB from either PC (slave mode) or external USB reader (USB2Go host mode). A software stack / USB simulation of JTAG. Some embedded systems do work this way. Most phones, TVs, Setboxes, Tablets etc today store a full copy of new OS on board and then overwrite the old copy.
Eh?
Been on desktop OSes since, well before 1998 (when Smart Phones started). Hardly innovative.
Updates on phones have always been a problem as the HW is so variable and till recently performance changing like PCs from 1982 to 2002, when it slowed down.
Not a problem unique to Google. Inevitable that mostly only new phones have the new OS version. It's likely that now as HW features have stabilized there will be a more standard specification and easier Android updates to exist phones, made after 2016 / 2017.
I can't see Sony or Google releasing updates for four year old Xperia Android phones.
There are sill new tablets on sale with ancient versions of Android. That's tantamount to dishonest marketing.
Most have no choice and would rather have better legacy compatibility than telemetry, ill thought out changes, itunes, lack of classic GUI, windows store etc.
MS still don't get it.
> So... What is a sustainable business model for Microsoft?
Sell businesses stable version of windows, with better reverse compatibility. XP, Server 2003, Office 2003 and SQL7 and Visual Studio before .Net were the high points. Chasing the consumer and One Windows for Phones, Tablets, Workstations and TV has killed the quality, security and experience.
Sell ONE version, not the crazy multiple versions. Make difference between Server and Workstation purely a licence key for any server services. NO Workgroup file/Printer sharing. An absolutely stupid idea released same time as MS OS/2 Server!
At the minute Linux is MUCH superior as File Server, Web server, SQL, Email Server, Cluster. Linux and Libre Office is now a good bit better than Windows Workstation & office unless you locked into Exchange Calendars/Schedules on Outlook and Macros.
Frankly even in 2004 Linux couldn't touch MS Client SW for ease of use and stability, it's better now.
Visual Studio.net and .net is a mess.
Forget the consumer market. It's gone for laptops. Maybe even ditch Xbox. It's just a drain on R&D resources for very little or no income.
Business are the only people locked to Legacy Windows applications and few consumers need a laptop (writing, video editing, photography hobbyists is a small market).
They should split in three:
Windows (ONE product, simply licence keys or on high end a dongle for Laptop, Server, Cluster). NO tablets, unless really a laptop with detachable keyboard and Wacom as well as touch. Main emphasis on WIMP interface, touch is useless on a workstation screen or regular size laptop unless it's a single use scenario (Medical tablet, POS, ATM etc)
Tools. These should work on Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Applications. These should work on Windows, Linux and MacOS (that includes stuff like MS SQL which they have on Linux now). They should NOT also work on set boxes, TVs, Phones, Tablet.
They should open source the file formats and network APIs so iOS and Android developers can do mickey mouse apps / Widgets. I've used "Full featured" Spreadsheets on an Android tablet. It's a garbage experience for real work. A simple app that lets you open file and type some small change is limit to practicality.
GUI
Ribbon was / is absolutely stupid
Aero, excessive eye candy, depreciation Win Forms etc in favour of Direct 3D was stupid.
Excessively flat is stupid
MRU Menu items are stupid. Menus need to be unchanging and have everything.
Tiles are stupid.
Forget phones, consoles, gaming. Concentrate on 100% stable, secure, private and backwardly compatible for business laptops/workstations, or else there is no reason to buy Windows at all.
I bet I could double MS income and stop the griping. Almost everyone now hates the stuff, but has to use it. It really used to be better than Mac or Linux. (I used OS8 and OS9 and OSX is just a more Unix style prettier sideways move).
Canonical / Shuttleworth has seen the light and ditched ABSOLUTELY STUPID Unity.
All "wireless" security sensors / cameras are pointless. Only use wired.
Perimeter Access denial is better even than professional alarm gear.
Home DIY "security" gear is mostly junk. Maybe suitable for watching calves in real time.
I've been brought warehouse security recordings where the thieves were less pixels than a 1980s video game.
"Can you enhance it?" says cop1
"Who you would you like it to be?
"Don't tempt us," says cop2
"A disposable film camera tripped by the motion sensor would be better than this. Even HD Video would be useless for this amount of area"
"So it's useless?" asks cop1
"Yes. Better shutters would be more effective."
Most crashes are due to drugs, alcohol or youth aggression. Some due to fatigue or texting at wheel. Sane, sober, rested humans are pretty amazing and can cope with the unexpected, but not self driving cars as they are not real AI (that's marketing), they are huge data bases, massive expensive arrays of sensors and basically "Expert System" software, with about zero ability to cope with scenarios the human programmer didn't envision. They also have massive security and privacy issues.
On/Off disable system coupled to alcohol and drugs sensor. Sensor for "head droop" etc due to exhaustion. Let's solve computer aided driving first.
Is it even really viable in the real world?
A) Easily jammed or spoofed?
B) What if every vehicle is using it, interference?
Also GPS doesn't work if there are tall buildings etc and only Galileo might be accurate enough. But is response time fast enough?
There should be more off road testing in simulated environments. It's just cost cutting and irresponsible to test this embryonic tech on public roads.
It's not AI that companies want but (in no particular order):
* Security
* Privacy
* Uptime
* Backups
* Clear costs
* Blocking DDOS traffic
* Automatic increase in capacity at peak times (or else why have cloud?)
Curiously so called Cloud [Hosting] providers are cagey about such details. Priorities vary.
I've a bridge for sale.
Facebook entirely make their income from mostly illegal (in EU and other related countries) exploitation of private data. Do not post and tag / label / identify photos of anyone other than yourself without permission. Do not post what your friends and relatives are doing. Give them no extra information. Ideally don't use it at all, share via email, or if public, use a blog. Facebook provides nothing of value to users that can't be done better elsewhere, free.
This is so ancient. Ever since wireless mice came out. I can see the value of one on a tablet (only one port and on most even a splitter can's charge while using it as USB host). But I can't see the value of a cordless mouse (or keyboard) on a laptop/workstation. Likely too the battery will go flat at a critical time.
DAB *COULD* be better than FM, if there was about x6 as many fill in relays (coverage in UK poor forget Ireland, it has less than 50%). Problem is that most DAB is 128k MP2, and DAB+ (AAC) is often 64K to give nearly same quality at 1/2 cost.
256K MP2 and 256K MP3 are not much different and pretty good. But does anyone anywhere transmit 256K DAB (MP2)?
I used to rip at 256K MP3. I think I might have done some at 320K, but some players won't play more than 256K. For archive, I think FLAC is the way to go.
Also BT earphones or speakers involve re-encoding. So I use analogue plug earphones and HiFi amp. The speakers / earpieces / ears are analogue.
Except only my Laptop/PCs and Tablet can play newer formats.
These only play MP3 or worse:
Phone, smart watch, Kindle DXG, ancient Archos PMP, anonymous cute credit, both my TVs (even though they do a load of fancy stuff on broadcast reception), FM Radio gadget with USB, SD card and BT, CD-ROM mp3 playback on DVD player and Car radio.
So like AM Radio, FM Radio, CD Audio, 33rpm and 45rpm discs, cassette tapes (yes people still selling new ones!) the MP3 format needs to be still supported both by gadget makers and download providers.
Storage for audio is no big deal on my server or laptop, so FLAC is probably best. I should re-rip all my CDs, Vinyl and tapes (reel and cassette) to FLAC.
Google is a totally inappropriate partner.
Also no evidence that any such "AI" actually does much. It's no different from 1980 "Expert Systems" for medicine, just more data.
An American hospital got into trouble doing a project with the arguably more expert IBM "AI" system, Watson. It never delivered.
My ancient Sony Z1 connects to mouse, keyboard and HDMI HD screen. But it's just like a big android tablet then. Not very useful compared to Linux / Mac / Windows laptop.
This is the important bit.
"with apps that rescale smartly to landscape format, overlapping windows and window management."
Though really Android apps are mostly too limited or trivial. What would be more use is Android Apps and true desktop apps able to seamlessly share the app settings, bookmarks, dictionaries, data etc when you dock.
I can only see this succeeding for desks that don't need real desktop applications. But ordinary consumers and some business users only use Web, apps/widgets and email anyway.
Niche market.
The point is that only the phone is mobile, the rest is only on one desk.
It is as simple as that. Though not just obviously "exes".
Anything not sent on internal mail / VPN (i.e. from the public Internet) should only be passed on as plain text. Original quarantined.
Anything suspicious ditto, even if internal.
Switching to Linux, non-Adobe PDF readers and non-MS Office Office applications would only be a short term solution. Once popular they would be targeted. The problem isn't inherently Adobe (though they are bad) or Microsoft. It's training and system configuration.
(Even though here we switched to all Linux etc last December).
"It's not as simple as people clicking on things that they obviously shouldn't."
It pretty much is. Coupled with absolutely rubbish IT / Workstation configuration that lets stuff AUTOMATICALLY spread when the first poorly trained user opens it.
1) In an organisation this size, such attachments should never be delivered
2) The users should be better trained.
3) The IT / Network configuration is poor.
I see people are in denial about the value of AV etc. IT DOESN'T REALLY Work:
a) It's always behind.
b) It's rubbish how it works
c) Does as much damage with false positives
d) Gives false sense of security
I admit it works sometimes. But most of the machines I cleaned in 15+ years of IT support of malware did have AV. How many stories of it even stopping computers booting or slowing them to a crawl? One here in last week or too.
Fundamentally most of the industry is in denial about how workstations should be configured, on site email servers and user training. One step would be to acknowledge that most courses on MS SW and MCSE etc are just marketing the features and selling the products. Very little real world value.
No, because very few organisations and users will learn the real lessons.
Patching and AV inevitably often is bolting the stable door after horses gone for the first hit. Yet proper user training and proper IT configuration mitigates against almost all zero day exploits. I struggle to think of any since 1991.
Firewalls, routers, internal email servers (block anything doubtful), all superfluous services and applications removed, no adhoc sharing. users not administrators, and PROPER training of users.
Actually technically they haven't stopped. (Vista yes).
BUT THE PATCHING IS NEARLY IRRELEVANT!
Like most other spam borne "attacks" this would be totally mitigated by
1) User training and common sense.
2) Better configured systems.
XP use by NHS is a red herring.
Even if EVERYONE used Linux* and it was updated daily, it will NOT stop this until the USERs are better trained and use email properly.
[*Because all the spam based attacks would be aimed at Linux]
Even better, users really need training. Stop opening stupid attachments/clicking links etc in email and then clicking OK!
Any business user ought to have their OWN on site email server/Gateway (even if it's only using POP3 & SMTP to an ISP pretending to be a client). Then:
1) Internal email isn't on the Internet and works if you lose internet.
2) Links & attachments can be sanitised, deleted, quarantined).
3) Disable all <a href="http://www.wattystuff.net/2014/03/dont-panic/>Server related services on Workstations</a>. Yes, that's XP but basically relevant to Win7, Win8 & Win10. There are some extra services to disable now and some are renamed. REMOVE file & Print sharing from every network interface on every workstation. Use a NAS, cheap Linux box, print server or whatever to share printers / files if you can't afford a Windows Server.
I was setting up stuff like that with cheap SW on a Windows server 20 years ago, then even better quality on Linux 12 years ago with free software.
It
Every so called Smart TV running Google TV and connected to Internet. Far "worse" than Samsung's early effort.
Every "Official" Android phone with WiFi or Mobile Data enabled.
Every Google web service and API and Analytics and YouTube
Google Chromebooks
Chrome Browser.
MS Windows 10
Samsung is far from most evil tech company
Same reason they have autorun (even on USB sticks and Network shares), install stupid toolbars on browser, click on links and open attachments in email, and click OK on dialog boxes without reading them.
Using Noscript and disabling third part cookies is harder.
No.
A "shrink wrap EULA" isn't visible till you buy the SW and open the box (or even install it). Hence the more recent on screen message, "if you don't want to use this, return it and get a refund"* (Dell has refunded for unused pre-installed MS SW).
1) You can read the GPL before you download.
2) You are not "buying", so if you don't like the GPL or the SW, you can delete with only loss of some time and download cap/cost if metered.
[*No chance in most retailers without legal threats]
No, no, no!
"Lost of revenue" only applies to civil claims for damages. It's separate from copyright as such. Copyright has "default" very strict conditions, but the copyright holder define the use, such as it must not be distributed in a different cover, or must not be used in advertising, or not in politics, or you can copy freely for education etc. Or MS saying you can even give people a copy, as long as they licence it!
MS says you are quite free to copy windows, in any fashion.
However they want appropriate licence fees according to what VM or HW you actually run it on.
They also used to have per seat or per machine/connection licences for server software.
MS don't care if you have one copy or hundreds. It's the installed instances, mostly.
Nothing unusual about spam based ransomware
" Forcepoint Security Labs reports that malicious emails carrying Jaff are being cranked out at a rate of 5 million an hour on Thursday"
"The sprawling Necurs botnet went dormant around the start of the year before returning to spread Locky and more recently a pump-and-dump stock price scam. It's unclear if this week's switch to Jaff will be sustained but this likely depends on the success of the ransomware's "opening run"
The one that was opened in various NHS trusts just had the added "spread by network share bug" uncovered by NSA.
People are not only clicking on link or opening attachments, but ALSO at LEAST once clicking on OK.
Patches can be good (sometimes bad), but Training and decent IT, almost all the time is the best solution.
Mitigation:
1) Don't click on links or open attachments in email ever, unless expecting them. Hover mouse on links to see where they really go. (Training)
2) Switch off/disable/uninstall all services not used
3) Use properly configured on premises mail server appliance (free linux box and open source POP/SMTP/IMAP no need for Windows Server + Exchange) if more than three users. Mostly strip/textualise links and quarenteen attachments.
4) Only open document attachments with software that can't run macros or Active X or VBS
2 to 4 are basic IT skills. Most MCSE/MCP courses are useless. I was an MCP with over 80% score in four MCSEs. They are rubbish. Microsoft marketing.
If a close friend etc gave me ANY of these "home spies", they would mysteriously fail and go to recycling centre.
These things, and Google TV in present form, ought to be illegal because they are not stand-alone. Corporate spies.
Ten years ago the voice recognition performance was as good on standalone. The claim that Cloud is needed to process and improve it is distortion. They want to collect all your private information for advertising income.
AFAIK, (Am I wrong?)
It's odd because Uber makes a loss and is part funded by Google, is part owned by Google (not majoriity) and supplies all their passenger, trip and driver info to Google (which is illegal in EU, but EU law is slow).
Is it just that Google doesn't want them to do "self driving" vehicles?
No one is an "Internet Company"
Uber has drivers, that can't work for self or anyone else. Internet only used to book.
Amazon is a retailer of books, tat, a Library subscription service, video streaming services and Hosting company (hosting pre-dates Internet by 20 years, Cloud = Marketing speak for hosting). Internet only used to connect.
AirBnB is rental agency
Lyft is a taxi company like Uber
Google is an Advertising agency that uses virtual billboards. nearly an "internet company."
I can't understand how Uber has got away with the fiction they are not a taxi company for so long.
Hopefully this will renew pressure on NHS IT to find a solution to upgrade those ancient os's.
MS does still support, if you pay, I believe NHS was paying. Besides the problem in most infections is NOT lack of AV (More often cripples due to false positive) or OS version but training. Win 10 was just as vulnerable anyway.
Moving to Linux would only be temporary respite if the users are not properly trained and IT infrastructure isn't correct (Per site mail server with good rules and better firewall / proxy rules).
TWENTY years ago I was training people to avoid these attacks.
Training is more important than AV.
Why are big orgs not using internal mail servers that filter stuff to the minions. Why are critical files available to users that don't know how to use email.
I know Outlook doesn't help. But it's TRAINING.