Posts by hitmouse

Re: Software Testers

Agreed. There are issues which the Insiders flagged in volume from early releases which nonetheless ignored.

Most US software companies do a terrible job of testing non-US English language installs - developers and testers assume that US settings for keyboard, dates etc will apply for all English locales, when in fact it tends to be unique amongst the 15 or so in place)

Microsoft has historically been "least worst" in this respect, but has really gone backwards in respect of these settings for example, years of Windows 10 updates resetting English US for all users in UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, .... Office 365 barely pretends to respect non-US settings. It's not yet Google-bad or Facebook-bad, but it's headed in that direction. These companies do not encourage testers outside the US, so feedback is not heard.

A properly managed test team CAN make up for deficiencies in these areas, but if management has a mindset that doesn't allow it to cover "unknown unknowns" then it's started ceding the market to other players.

Re: Be much more interested in...

So you want to run an operating system that doesn't support USB?

Re: it is not the customer's job to adapt

The greater number of customers has come AFTER the ribbon was introduced.

The thing you have to remember in tech, is that with growing populations and larger deployments, you're at the shallow end of the curve.

For pretty much every tech feature that most Reg readers are familiar, the main customer audience is for those familiar with the succeeding feature. There are plentiful designers, support agencies and trainers for those new implementations. It's the older set who have to adapt or die.

(speaking as someone who has used Office apps for nearly 30 years, and still has adaptive muscle memory)

I bought a refurbished laptop via Amazon US a few months ago and they happily collected duty on it before shipping to Australia. They do have the means.

They even have a site filter that only shows items that can be shipped internationally.

Re: @hitmouse

It's normal enough in that it happened on every computer I used, cutting across multiple Windows versions, from the very first time that Chrome is installed and run.

Re: "Fall Creators Update"

Apple re-forgets the Southern Hemisphere exists with every release that breaks daylight-saving again, and again and again.

Re: Next up

That has also been looked at for many years. You could have finger set or chord modes appropriate to cases where tablets are being held. It's not far from having fingerprint sensors on the rear of cameras as a login mechanism - I actually find the current Samsung galaxy rear mounted sensor to be quite easy to use.

They can do it to all the spring-breakers heading to Mexico. You know, the ones who shout "build that wall" from the wrong side.

Re: Hmmm...

That's re-branded as Turnbull's 2020 Hindsight plan.

I'm pretty sure I signed up for NBN updates years ago but have never heard anything from them, so tried to sign up again. However after filling out all the fields, all I get is "We are not able to complete this action. Please try again later. Sorry for any inconvenience.".

"Later" being 2021 presumably.

They have gotten worse for me over the years. For the last year they've been advertising Kindle titles to me in the Kindle app that's already holding those titles. So they're good at picking what I like if it 100% matches what I've already bought from them.

Re: An assumption too far...

"Darwinian-yourself-out-of-existence-pedestrians"

Most of them don't even attempt to look when they cross the road. Having them attempt to discern vehicle-types is a couple of orders of magnitude of cognitive processing beyond "look left and right".

...or get elected president.

Re: Killing spreadsheets for fun and profit

People should just learn to compute in their head.

Re: "We're the Hakowi" - F Troop

I tracked a local business around the corner from me back to a current Yellow Pages listing. However there has not been anything there for a decade, unless the rotting premises of a long abandoned fish and chips shop qualifies as worthy of Yellow Pages relevance.

I should note that for the first two years after Ikea opened its flagship store in Tempe, Google Maps showed a vacant lot. But then again, most American companies can't put two and two together without an Allen key.

Re: Hiring laws

Generally people can make quick assessments based on surname of someone's foreign-ness.

This is something that has come up time and time again in France, which collects no statistics about race. Tests have been run against mailed-in applications to employers who claim not to discriminate on race because they're unaware of it - however applications from non-traditional French surnames are massively rejected

Re: Single version?

"..yet the Linux version Skype is Advert free."

Because advertisers recognise that once someone has Linux they yearn for nothing else but an opportunity to tell the world that they have Linux.

Re: xml to midi

Essentially long-established art. Most music notation programs (which themselves allow round-tripping of custom file formats with MusicXML) have export to MIDI options.

It is worth underlining the fact that MIDI provides performance/playback instructions and so opening a MIDI file in a notation program can show you a lot of jangly garbage unless you pre-process with a lot of heuristics regarding rhythm etc.

Re: OSX is just too far behind Windows

"MacOS (and Windows) were both designed for mouse & keyboard input." So you're going to rule out all forms of natural input forever?

For those of us who use computers for diagrams, music and other non-text-based endeavours, having touch/stylus + speech etc interfaces are essential additional tools.

"What idiot thought you'd have a touch interface on a server?" Lemme see, someone managing media with a push-button interface or otherwise "naturalistic" interface.

Can we please get more commentary from people not stuck in a 1970s mindset?

Re: licensing

So that gives you a mountain of ephemeral (but still enormously entertaining) radio content which the BBC was going to flog to the world before it closed down the BBC Radio Downloader service a few years ago, ... and then never got around to selling any content. Lose lose situation