* Posts by Chas

92 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jun 2008

Page:

Macs to Linux fans: Stop right there, Penguinista scum, that's not macOS. Go on, git outta here

Chas
FAIL

Look before you leap!

Actually it's perfectly possible to boot Linux on the new Macs fitted with the T2 chip:

* Start up in the Recovery Console (Command-R).

* Select Startup Security Utility from the menu.

* Enable or disable Secure Boot to taste.

There is nothing so satisfying as pricking the pomposity of the self-righteous with the poignard of truth.

Drug cops stopped techie's upgrade to question him for hours. About everything

Chas

Re: Entering New Zealand

Don't know about IT managers, but for electricians it's a shower of sparks.

<gets coat>

BBC extends Capita Audience Services contract to 25 years

Chas

The British Brainwashing Corporation in bed with Crapita? Who'd have guessed!

Boss put chocolate cake on aircon controller, to stop people using it

Chas

Re: Saw this as a giant mural on the wall of a pie shop once...

Bravo, sir/madam. Have a hot buttered crumpet and an upvote for your trouble.

Or perhaps you prefer muffins...

=:~)

Industrial Light & Magic: 40 years of Lucas's pioneering FX-wing

Chas

ILM were definitely badass

There was a story circulating, possibly apocryphal, about a bunch of union reps turning up to the studio where ILM were working on shooting with the Dykstraflex. They were complaining that the camera was being operated by a non-union member. During the robust discussion, one of the techs surreptitiously programmed a series of moves into the Dykstraflex. Suddenly, the camera rears up off the floor, performed a complex series of pirouettes in the air and came to rest inches off the face of the lead union guy.

The ILM guy then said, "Show me a cameraman who can do that, and repeat it perfectly time after time, and I'll hire him!"

Apple’s macOS Sierra update really puts the fan into 'fanboi'

Chas

Some years ago I was working on a three-day open air festival in Manchester. Most of the crew were camped in tents backstage behind the amp and dimmer racks. During the first night, some muppet snuck into my tent and pinched my wallet, a fact I discovered just after dawn had reared its ugly head.

My "revenge" was achieved by firing up the sound rig about 7:30am, plugging my trusty MBP into the desk and serenading the neighbourhood with the startup chime at a full-throated 25KW, followed by a full-mod recording of a pair of F16 fighter jets doing a low flypast.

NEVER mess with a noise boy :D

Must listen: We've found the real Bastard Operator From Hell

Chas

These guys should get the Nobel Peace Prize for their outstanding work.

I once had to engineer a band this bad at an open air festival in Docklands back in the 90s. I ended up pulling the master faders all the way down thus leaving only the spill from the monitors wafting out—nobody noticed :)

I was *this* close to going out the back and dropping the stage mains. Stairway To Heaven with the guitar solo played a tritone (!) away from the root key is truly something to marvel at.

The EU wants you to log into YouTube using your state-issued ID card

Chas
Unhappy

Seriously?

Over my fucking dead body, you arseholes!

Your mother has a smooth forehead, Klingon language lovers roar at Paramount

Chas

Although Marc Okrand developed the proper grammar and syntax for Klingon, the first words and phrases were actually created by Jimmy (Scotty) Doohan for the first ST film.

This perhaps explains the similarity between the sound of Klingon and the dulcet tones of a Glaswegian who, on reeling back from the pub after a marathon session, discovers 'er indoors has locked the front door thus requiring him to inform the entire neighbourhood—at full volume and in detail— as to his woeful circumstances.

iOS 9 kludged our iPhones, now give us money, claims new lawsuit

Chas

My 4S works fine on iOS 9 although Siri gets a little "deaf" at times.

Steve Ballmer praises Twitter job cuts after buying 4% stake in ailing micro-blab site

Chas
WTF?

Oh dear!

Expenditure, expenditure, expenditure, expenditure...

Oops, sorry: wrong meme (or maybe not!)

=:~)

Microsoft offers to PAY YOU to trade in your old computer for a Windows 10 device

Chas
Unhappy

I'm about a femtosecond away from removing Windows from all the public computers in the community centre where I volunteer as the BOFH and installing Linux Mint. Fortunately our public IT suite has more Macs than PCs, and very popular they are too. We are also actively seeking funding to switch the office machines to Macs.

I've worked in IT for 45 years: Windows has always been an utter pain in the fecking arse to deal with since the early 80s. OS X and Linux Mint, on the other hand, are an absolute joy to work with. Our usage patterns at the centre confirm that Windows no longer offers any advantages over other platforms and we could make significant cost savings by transitioning our remaining PCs to Linux.

Now if I could totally ditch Flash I'd be happy. Unfortunately, as we are a training centre for UKOnline, we still have to deploy Flash as the Learn My Way series of online IT courses is Flash-driven and it will probably take years before it's dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

YMMV!

=:~)

ALIENS on CERES? Nope – it's just dwarf's tucked away MOIST BITS

Chas
Facepalm

Aha!

So that's where I left my coke stash...

Microsoft: This Windows 10 build has 'NO significant known issues'

Chas

Re: Hallelujah - File Explorer's file path limit is not 256 any more !

I wouldn't use Microsoft's tool for all the tea in Whitehall, although I have heard that there are certain ladies around Portsmouth Docks who will willingly use your tool for suitable remuneration :D

=:~)

iPhone case uses phone's OWN SIGNAL to charge it (forever, presumably)

Chas

Err...

2nd Law of Thermodymanics anyone?

=:~)

RIP Leonard Nimoy: He lived long and prospered

Chas

The is a little bit of Unicode that is forever Spock

Lurking away in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs block is the Vulcan Salute: U+1F596. One font that has this character is the OpenType font Symbola.

Rest In Peace, my friend.

Trouble comes in threes: Yet ANOTHER Flash 0-day vuln patch looming

Chas
Unhappy

The govt's Learn My Way website, which people can use to learn how to drive a computer at their own pace. heavily relies on F***h. Until this kind of interactivity is completely rewritten, the abomination known as F***h will continue to exist.

Arse!

Microsoft will give away Windows 10 FREE - for ONE year

Chas

What about new computers?

The interesting question is, will MS give Win 10 free to OEMs for the first year as well?

I wonder where MS got the idea from...

Apple v BBC: Fruity firm hits back over Panorama drama

Chas
WTF?

Apple employ Pegatron et al to manufacture their products, Pegatron employ the labour, therefore it is Pegatron and, by extension, the Chinese govt who are directly responsible for working conditions, not Apple.

Furthermore, a metric shit ton of other companies use Pegatron's facilities, where was the criticism of them? At least Apple publicly and transparently acknowledge their part in the whole process and make efforts to improve the worker's lot, and do a demonstrably damn sight more than others.

Perhaps if first world countries hadn't pissed away their manufacturing expertise and capacity, focussing instead on dubious "financial services" (I'm looking at you in particular, neoliberal Britain), we might not have jejune and didactic journalism of this sorry calibre.

Expecting the inevitable downvotes in 3...2...1...

Happy 2nd birthday, Windows 8 and Surface: Anatomy of a disaster

Chas
WTF?

Re: separation of OS and GUI

Oh FFS, the old sawhorse that Apple "stole" from Xerox is not only tiresome, but totally wrong. Aside from the fact that Apple PAID Xerox $1 million in stock for some of the IP, there are vast differences between the two systems.

Here's an essay from someone who was actually there:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt

=:~)

Apple’s $700 BEEELLION market cap makes it more valuable than Switzerland

Chas

Re: Downfall ?

Try saying that to the vision-impaired person who, having spend years struggling with Windows and paying a fortune for accessibility software, discovers said accessibility software is included at no extra charge on all Apple devices and is invariably the cheaper and better option.

A single seat of SuperNova for a VI person is £695: add a cheap PC for £300 and that's the best part of a grand. You can get a mid-range iMac for that and software for not only the blind and vision-impaired, but also the physically disabled, is already there. You can even get an entry-level Mac mini, screen, keyboard and mouse for about £550 if you're on a serious budget.

I work with the vision-impaired and to see how the Mac transforms their lives after having used Windows is very satisfying.

As Tim Cook said recently, "When we develop software for the disabled, I don't consider the bloody ROI!"

=:~)

Mighty Blighty broadbanders beg: Let us lay cable in BT's, er, ducts

Chas

Back in the day...

I remember back in the 80s when an outfit called, I think, Videotron were laying cable out in South-East London like it was going out of fashion, partly because they'd sewn up a deal with local councils to grant access to council-owned land to lay the aforementioned cable.

As part of the deal, all council tenants were offered cheap access to this facility and so one day, we had a visit from the Videotron sales rep. In breathless tones, we were assured that this new service was carried entirely on fibre-optic cable right up to the TV set. Ever the salesmen, the paid monkey in a suit even handed me an example foot-long length of this wondrous "fibre-optic cable" as an example of what would soon be carrying a plethora of TV channels and other services into the comfort of my own home.

A cursory examination of said cable revealed it to be nothing more than yer bog-standard 75 ohm copper coax. When called out on this aspect, the little salesman ensured me that I was mistaken and that, in fact, it was proper fibre-optic. I then went out to my bits-and-pieces cupboard, pulled out a 50m cable drum of 75 ohm copper coax I had knocking around (as you do), plonked it in front of him and said (in the most sarcastic tone I could muster), "Oh, really!..."

I lost count of the various shades of red his face ran through over the next 20 seconds...

=:~)

Walmart's $99 crap-let will make people hate Windows 8.1 even more

Chas
FAIL

You'd have more entertainment value if...

...you took the cash, set fire to it and used the smouldering embers to light your farts.

=:~)

The late 2014 Apple Mac Mini: The best (and worst) of both worlds

Chas

Still a great little machine but...

I'm so glad I got my maxed-out 2012 mini a few months ago. This puppy punches well about its weight. As to the amount of memory it uses, well at the moment I've got 460MB free out of 16GB—that might seem like very little but in actuality, just over 7GB is being used by apps, there's nearly 7GB in the File Cache and when you look at Memory Pressure, Apple's nifty tool for consolidating the various kinds of memory into one easy to read graph, it stubbornly stays green. I've never seen it get to amber even when giving the box a righteous thrashing and the whole machine remains very responsive.

It's a pity that there's no longer a quad core option but I think that's down to the Haswell quad cores having a different socket, which would necessitate Apple building two different logic boards. All in all, it's a pretty good refresh of the line and the lower price points make it attractive for the first-time buyer.

DOUBLE BONK: Fanbois catch Apple Pay picking pockets

Chas

Looks like I'm right:

http://recode.net/2014/10/22/bank-of-americas-apple-pay-glitch-should-be-fixed-today/

=:~)

Chas

Since only BofA customers seem to have been affected, it would seem that logical that it's their fsckup.

=:~)

Britain’s snooping powers are 'too weak', says NCA chief

Chas
WTF?

Here's an idea...

If you want to snoop on people, get a fucking warrant like you're supposed to, you lazy bastards!

=:~)

That glass of water you just drank? It was OLDER than the SUN

Chas
Alert

Re: Panic!

Even better, tell 'em it's oxidane (the posh systematic name for Adam's Ale). That'll really confuse the buggers!

=:~)

Apple CEO Tim Cook: TV is TERRIBLE and stuck in the 1970s

Chas

Re: Try searching on an ATV

You do realise that you can use a Bluetooth keyboard with it?

=:~)

Apple's Watch is basically electric perfume

Chas
WTF?

Here we go again...

I love the way that the commentards leap all over Apple every time they bring out a new iShiny. It's not even been 24 hours and already people are kvetching about how it's too big/too small/ugly/pointless/expensive etc etc yada yada yada.

How about waiting until it's been actually released, developers have had a chance to see play with WatchKit and see what they come up with, and how actual users get to grips with it? All this pointless pontificating, vacuous verbiage and sneering sarcasm, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying absolutely sweet fsck all just smacks of the mewlings of the playground bully.

You don't like Apple—OK, we get it. Guess what?—I don't care! My computing choice is predicated on 44 years of using the bastard things, of all shapes, sizes and types. I use my Apple gear for both work and play because it works for me exceptionality well. YMMV.

=:~)

The police are WRONG: Watching YouTube videos is NOT illegal

Chas
Unhappy

Re: The police are WRONG @Wayland Sothcott 1

I once had the displeasure of being on a jury where the case was an alleged assault on a police officer inside a police station. There were three days of evidence, the three police witnesses gave wildly conflicting accounts of the incident and the judge spent one and a half days (!) summing up the case in excruciating and, frankly, unnecessary detail.

We retired, elected a foreman and held a vote—unanimously not guilty. We didn't feel the need to debate since not one of the police witnesses could agree and the alleged injury was so minor it was laughable. We were back out in three minutes, delivered our verdict and were in the pub before you could say "Not guilty, m'lud!"

I was frankly appalled—as were we all—at the astronomical waste of the court's time and money.

=:~)

Six of the best gaming keyboard and mouse combos

Chas

Re: No love for Mac gamers

Ooh, ooh! I see a G19S in my future! Just checked and it has Mac support.

Just don't tell 'er indoors—she'd give me serious verbals for dropping £150-odd on a frickin' keyboard.

=:~)

Chas

No love for Mac gamers

I'll lay money that none of the above have support for the Fruity One (stop sniggering!). Whilst only an occasional gamer, I'd love a decent keyboard/mouse combo that I could use. My son gave me his old CM Storm Inferno mouse (he knackered one of the buttons) which beats the pants off of a Magic Mouse for gaming but it's infuriating not to be able to makes use of those lovely extra buttons.

As for keyboards, don't get me going on Apple's keyboard, which is gorgeous to type on and use for my "normal" activities but is about as much use as Anne Frank's drum kit when it comes to mashing WASD. Playing Half Life 2: Deathmatch with my son is an exercise in futility. The bugger keeps sneaking up on me and shooting me in the back. I mean, what way is that to treat your old man?

=:~)

Microsoft: We plan to CLEAN UP this here Windows Store town

Chas

Gee, d'ya think?

Cleaning up the Windows Store is akin to the Fifth Labour of Hercules.

=:~)

YES YES YES! Apple patents mousy, pressure-sensing iVibrator

Chas

Re: It's that featureless mouse thing again!

Thirty seconds of instruction (remember RTFM!) and you'd have no problem. Or are you so averse to learning new ways because you're so mired in an ancient mindset? For the further edification of Luddites, Apple have instructional videos built into the mouse's Preference settings that show you how to use every gesture.

There was a time where we bashed away at a command line and the mouse was a new-fangled thing. We take them for granted now but that does not mean that there's no room for improvement. Personally, you can take my Magic Mouse from my cold dead hands!

Welcome (finally) to the 21st century.

=:~)

China rips Apple out of govt IT mail-order catalogue – report

Chas

Err, no!

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fcompanies.caixin.com%2F2014-08-06%2F100713823.html

=:~)

AV for Mac

Chas

1. Use a decent router with a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall.

2. Make sure Gatekeeper is on.

3. Don't run day-to-day on an admin account.

4. LIttle Snitch.

5. ClamXAV.

Rather than clean them up after they've got in, the idea is not to let the buggers in in the first place.

Tom Hanks NICKED my COPYRIGHTED PIC, claims Brit photog

Chas

Re: Humbug

From the British Legion's website:

"The official rules for wearing medals allow only official awards to be worn. Unofficial purchased medals and foreign medals which do not have the Sovereign's permission to be worn are not allowed. Standard Bearers, Parade Marshals and other officials on Legion duty are bound by this ruling and unofficial medals must not be worn when on Legion duty.The medals awarded to a deceased Service / ex-Service person may be worn on the right breast by a near relative (mother, father, sister, brother, wife, husband, daughter and son). Not more than one group should be worn by any individual."

Apple: REIGN OF FIRE coming to Europe courtesy of old iPhone chargers

Chas
WTF?

Re: Nothing simple with Apple

That's so the fruity ones can identify where in the production chain the faulty chargers were introduced. The charger itself carries no serial number so the only way to work out where the problem chargers came from is to look at the phone's serial number and backtrace the production paperwork from there.

Obvious if you apply a little thought.

The enemy of my enemy is my, well, temporary ally: Apple and Microsoft in pact against Google

Chas

Re: Next on Surface

Just a little fact correcting for you: Apple Computer Inc won against Apple Corp in the High Court on 8th May 2006 before Mr Justice Mann.

When in 1997 MS bought $150 million of non-voting stock in Apple (which was to fend off a bigger lawsuit by Apple) Apple had over a billion $ cash in hand.

Don't let facts get in the way of your delusions, though :)

=:~)

Chas

Re: Bing on Mac's

Gawd!

Not that old "Microsoft owns part of Apple" sawhorse. FYI, in 1997 MS purchased 150,000 shares of Series A nonvoting convertible preferred stock at $1,000 per share. They sold their entire holding several years later.

Ergo, Microsoft do NOT own any part of Apple and haven't done for over ten years. Go take a gander at Apple's 2003 10-K filing.

To quote F.E. Smith, you may be none the wiser but at least you're now better informed.

=:~)

Scientists capture death star in violent explosion

Chas
Mushroom

Pfftt. 'TIs but a mere firecracker compared to a pair instability supernova. These puppies really put on a good show.

I'll be the one orbiting R136a1 with a bowl of popcorn and Factor 20,000,000,000,000 sunblock.

Cloud computing is FAIL and here’s why

Chas
Mushroom

Expecting a Downfall-style Hitler rant in 3…2…1…

=:~)

Charity: Ta for the free Win 8.1, Microsoft – we'll use it to install Win 7

Chas
WTF?

Re: Why Windows in the first place?

You might not like charity organisations but there are many who provide a valuable contribution to local communities. Indulge me whilst I Illustrate with an example:

I volunteer at a local community centre, itself a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. It is located in the North East of England in an area the government acknowledge as suffering from a high level of social deprivation and unemployment. There are two full-time employees whose salaries are paid for through funding raised from other organisations who finance a variety of community projects. Two other people, the building's caretakers, are employed by the local council from whom we lease the building. We also have an Ofsted-registered nursery catering for 0-5 year old children.

As well as a wide variety of social and leisure activities for all age groups, we also have two IT suites which are heavily used for a variety of purposes, not the least of which is catering for unemployed people fulfilling their obligations under Job Search and a myriad of other things like applying for benefits of all kinds which the government now require to be done online—over 40% of the local population do not have access to the internet of a computer at home, so we provide a vital service in that regard.

We also provide IT services for vision and hearing-impaired people, those with low literacy skills and those for whom English is not their first language. As a charity, we have received our Windows licences free and we make use of many other open-source packages. We are also looking to move to a more heterogeneous computing environment incorporating Macs and Linux in the future.

In short, the cost of maintaining our IT systems pales into insignificance compared to the cost of maintaining the infrastructure: gas and electricity bills,insurance, interior fabric maintenance, yada, yada, yada. Every single penny of profit is ploughed back into serving the community's needs: last year, nearly 5000 people benefited from the centre. Put another way, over 60% of the local population directly benefited from the centre's activities. Therefore, the idea that such services can be created and run by an organisation staffed entirely by volunteers is both ludicrous and jejune: you need highly-skilled people in order to drive this forward and for that, you need to pay them.

We also are having to contend with the government's Community Asset Transfer program—an accounting con-job of monstrous proportions—which will mean us becoming responsible for everything while the council keeps the building as an asset on their books without having any responsibility for it. Many centres in the surrounding area will not be able to cope with the financial responsibility and will undoubtedly fold thus further disenfranchising people who can ill afford further social isolation.

So, before you decide to repeat your importunate and ill-advised commentary, I urge you to spare a thought for those less well-off than yourself and for those organisations who struggle daily against a sea of government iniquity to make a genuine difference in people's lives. To quote Whoopi Goldberg: "…he who is without shit on their shoe, take the first step on the white rug!"

=:~)

KCOM-owned Eclipse FAILS to cover up the password 'password'

Chas

Re: Can be useful though

No it isn't! If I log into my Eclipse account and pull up my details in My Users, my account login password is shown as stars.

Thanks for playing, though.

=:~)

Ban-dodging Mac Pro to hit Blighty's shops as Apple bows to fan fears

Chas
Happy

For sale

One Grandmother. Only one owner and with FSH.

Only went to church on Sundays.

£5000 ono

No time wasters, please.

=:~)

Sinclair’s 1984 big shot at business: The QL is 30 years old

Chas

Ah, the QL—fond memories!

I got a QL when Dixons started knocking them out for £199 and I loved it. For the time it was a great machine and I almost never had problems with the Microdrives. I remember I got an expansion board (can't remember what it was called) that bunged another 512K of RAM into it. After my ZX-81 and Vic-20, this was my first "serious" computer.

Psion's app suite was pretty damn good—I loved Quill— and all in all, I got two years of good use out of it before I moved onto the Atari ST. I wish I still had it: I've gone all nostalgic now (sniff, sniff).

It was flawed but it had heart.

Furious Frenchies tell Apple to bubble off: Bling iPhone isn't 'champagne'

Chas

They shoot horses, don't they?

Considering the propensity of the French for the consumption of our equine friends, they surely would have issue with the International Champagne Horse Registry? Personally I think anyone who can't differentiate between fizzy wine and a colour descriptor has been consuming far too much of the former.

The French doth protest too much. methinks!

=:~)

Happy birthday MIDI 1.0: Slave to the rhythm

Chas
Thumb Up

Very few people remember Doctor T and yet Emile Tobenfeld was a pioneer, producing what was arguably the first editable computer sequencer, KCS (Keyboard Controller Sequencer) for the Commodore 64 in 1984. In fact, Emile had written a paper for MIT's "Computer Music Journal" in the winter of 1983 outlining outlining the basic concepts of a computer sequencer and talking about potential concepts and features that would not be implemented until KCS Omega 5 was released around 1989.

KCS was always the red-headed step-child compared to sequencers like Pro-24 and Creator, with a quirky interface and a steep learning curve, but it had many features that even today have no equal. KCS's unparalleled Open Mode allowed sequences to be triggered in real time from the keyboard. These sequences could contain other data to in turn trigger other sequences or alter some other aspect, such as playing a sequence but up a Major 4th. There were even control messages that could be inserted into a sequence that allowed for the use of flow control, stochastic and aleatoric composition techniques: I once wrote a four-section work where, although the musical structure was tightly defined, it never played the same thing twice.

This, coupled with KCS's almost contemptuous regard for the "tyranny of the bar line", made KCS the perfect choice for composers interested in complex interlocking polymetre and nonstandard time signatures.

Doctor T's also produced editors for the major synths of the time, a score-writer and a number of other music composition tools such as Fingers and Tunesmith. Emile's own MIDI-Ax, essentially Fingers with a whole slew of interactive real time controllers and triggers was deemed far too complex for general release—in fact, Emile designed it solely or his own use, but would gladly give copies away to those brave enough to take on the extraordinarily rich musical landscape it engendered.

I can remember being at NAMM in 1994 demoing KCS Omega for Doctor T's and was gratified to see the reverence he was held in by his peers in other companies. They—quite rightly, in my opinion—regarded him as a legend.

=:~)

Boffins spot planet that could support life... just 12 light years away

Chas

what would Kirk say?

Khaaaaaaaannnnnnnn!!!

=:~)

Page: