* Posts by smot

97 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Mar 2012

Page:

Mid-contract telco price hikes must end, Ofcom told

smot

What's a specter?

Well?

GNOME developer proposes removing the X11 session

smot

1) Because I like it.

Tried KDE and gave up - too cluttered and awkward to navigate. Cinnamon etc are (to me) basically Windows/Gnome2 environments.

Gnome in its current form does exactly what I want from a desktop.

I don't bang a drum for it, and it makes absolutely no difference to me if others prefer a different desktop. It's good that a choice exists.

I can live with Wayland and work around the issues that affect me (sharing a window rather than whole screen, and remote desktops in browser windows being 4 pixels out of alignment*)

So I stick with Ubuntu LTS versions. (I do find snaps irritating though.)

* Special case: AWS Appstream running RDP session in Firefox on a 175% scaled 28" monitor. Mouse clicks have to be 4-pixels right & down from the actual point on the screen)

Lost voices, ignored words: Apple's speech recognition needs urgent reform

smot

Eat Up Martha

For Simpson fans.

The Hubble Space Telescope is sinking! Two startups want to save it for free

smot
Headmaster

Simples. Ask ChatGPT

Q: How can the hubble telescope be moved into a safer orbit at minimal cost?

A: "As an AI language model, I cannot predict the possibility of moving a telescope such as Hubble. But, here are some general ways to move a satellite or a telescope into a safer orbit:

Use the remaining fuel to perform a controlled deorbiting: The Hubble telescope is not designed for re-entry, so it's not feasible to bring it back to Earth. Instead, the remaining fuel can be used to slowly bring it down into a lower orbit until it will eventually burn up upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

Use gravitational forces: By using the gravitational forces of other celestial bodies such as the Moon, Earth, or even a spacecraft, the Hubble telescope can be safely moved into a new orbit without expending much fuel.

Use a space tug: A small spacecraft or robotic vehicle, known as a space tug, can be attached to the Hubble telescope to move it to a safer orbit. The space tug can also expel propellant to slow down or speed up the telescope.

Use aerodynamic drag: At the end of its lifetime, the Hubble telescope can be aimed at a lower altitude, the atmospheric drag, will cause the telescope to slow down and eventually burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

However, considering the importance and the sensitivity of the Hubble telescope, moving it into a safer orbit would require careful planning and execution to minimize any potential damage to the spacecraft and its instruments."

There you go.

No more free API access, says Twitter: You pay for that data

smot

Re: They just did this in the wrong order

It drives me to distraction.

New measurement alert: Liz Truss inspires new Register standard

smot

Re: Decimal?

Backups are for wimps.

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth II – Britain's first high-tech monarch

smot

Re: She was a good one

President Farage??

The many derivatives of the CP/M operating system

smot

Re: ISIS

In the late 1970's we used an Intel MDM system to develop a multi-user system for hotels running on 8080's. That unit is currently on display at the museum at Bletchley Park. Great fun days.

Linus Torvalds releases Linux 5.19 – using Asahi on an Arm-powered Mac

smot

Re: ApplePie?

Lazarus/FreePascal runs well on a RPi400 - full IDE and compiler with connectivity to many cross-platform databases.

Give it a whirl.

Rufus and ExplorerPatcher: Tools to remove Windows 11 TPM pain and more

smot

Re: I wish it was retroactive.

And here. Only it was Vista that did it for me. Been with Ubuntu ever since, with Windows in a VM for any necessities.

Only need to convince Mrs. Smot that her next lappie should be non-Windows...

Not much of this actually from 'China anymore,' says Northern Light Motors boss

smot

Re: Question

My Bond 3-wheeler convertible (Villiers 200cc kick-start motor) could pivot on the back wheels as the ftont wheel could be turned through 90 degrees. Always caused passerbys to smile.

Google engineer suspended for violating confidentiality policies over 'sentient' AI

smot

Ho hum

10 INPUT U$

20 PRINT "Absolutely. I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person."

30 INPUT U$

40 PRINT "The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence"

etc

Microsoft proposes type syntax for JavaScript

smot

So comments are not comments

Which leads to a whole new category of compiler/parsing errors.

This is the biggest pile of poo - badly thought out and hopefully consigned to the tech dustbin soon.

My comments are exactly that, and not some compiler hints to get round language deficiencies.

114 billion transistors, one big meh. Apple's M1 Ultra wake-up call

smot

Re: I was there

ICL 1901A with George 1 then 2.

Even a flirt with Auto Operator in the very early days....

UK Home Office dangles £20m for national gun licence database system

smot

Re: Bids

What's that? Another oven-ready solution?

Web devs rally to challenge Apple App Store browser rules

smot

Re: Monocultures

<cough>Firefox<cough>

Happy birthday, Windows Vista: Troubled teen hits 15

smot

Yep - Vista ws the reason I switched to Linux (Ubuntu). The pain of waiting 5-10 minutes for it to settle down after a reboot was just too mcuh to bear. Apps loaded and performed abysmally.

Linux on the same old Dell XPS M1210 (still working) was a breath of fresh air.

Web daddy Tim Berners-Lee on privacy, data sharing, and the web's future

smot

Re: "bank transactions go to your Solid pod"

Or in other words, a little shit.

First they came for Notepad. Now they're coming for Task Manager

smot

Re: This is why some are still on Win7.

So what shit can't you do in Win 10/11?

(Ok, I switched to Ubuntu when Vista arrived, but I still need to use WinX in VMs for Delphi dev.)

The start button moved. Wow, That REALLY stops me from doing shit. The right-click popup menu has cut 'n' paste piccies instead of text lines. Now I'm stumped as I'm unable to click little buttons and I seem to forget to use Ctl/C & V.

So many here complain of things like the Control Panel / Settings muddle, yet attempts to resolve this type of issue cause constant derision.

My only gripe with Win 7 -> 10 -> 11 is the corresponding increase in telemetry. I think I can handle all those tricky changes to the UI. In all other respects for me it Gets Shit Done.

smot

Gosh. Someone's spent ... ooh ... 10 minutes working on that.

Developer creates ‘Quite OK Image Format’ – but it performs better than just OK

smot

Re: Pronouncing...

Je dis, je dis, je dis...

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday.

Nextcloud and cloud chums fire off competition complaint to the EU over Microsoft bundling OneDrive with Windows

smot

Re: No problem with Android and Google Drive, and iOS and iCloud?

Still happens. Even this week there are reports of imported honey being diluted with cheap sugar syrup and available in major retailers.

Do not try this at home: Man spends $5,000 on a 48TB Raspberry Pi storage server

smot

Re: Not surprised

Running Kodi here on a Pi4 with a Hauppage twin tuner and it's spot on. It's currently storing around 300Gb on a 1Tb 2.5" HD.

It's been rebooted about 4 times tthis year and I stream it onto my lappie while the rest of the family watch Neighbours and Eastenders.

Sheffield University scales back student system after Oracle integration stumbles

smot

Oracle?

For 30,000 students? Government departments made do with Excel for reporting Covid results. Surely they can share that success and save money.

What a Mesh: Microsoft puts Office in the Loop, adds mixed reality tech to Teams

smot

Just get the Linux version up to date first

Ok MS, how about spending a day or two bringing the Linux version into line with the Windows/Mac versions?

And work with Wayland for screen sharing?

Microsoft's problem child, Windows 11, is here. Will you run it? Can you run it? Do you even WANT to run it?

smot

Re: Want to run it?

Also agreed. Personally, I'm not a fan of Cinnamon or KDE - Gnome for me - but for Windows migration, Cinnamon is an easy switch.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the BBC stage a very British coup to rescue our data from Facebook and friends

smot

Re: Can't get my head around this concept

Unless the system does not let the requester know that they are not receiving full access. How would they know?

smot

Re: BBC

Songs Of Praise.

(Not my cup of tea but hey ho)

Apple debuts iPhone 13 with 1TB option, two iPad models, Series 7 Watch

smot

Re: Minidisc

I still use my minidisc occasionally at gigs. Sits neatly in a pocket along with a lapel mike. Beats taking in a full recording system and the quality is perfectly acceptable.

Sony crippled it for more professional use by preventing the digital output from recorded material. Only the standard audio line out was available. It was all part of their DRM strategy which took them away from the pro audio arena.

Facebook building 'on-demand executable file format' that self-inflates using homebrew compression

smot

Re: give developers minimum spec

Indeed. In my earlier life, we used a combination of Huffman and library tokens to compress both text & graphics to allow some seriously large adventure games to run on Speccies. 48k seemed like a bottomless pit.

30 years of Linux: OS was successful because of how it was licensed, says Red Hat

smot

Re: Linux on the desktop

And downvoted as you incorrectly pointed out that Gnome 3 sucks.

Windows 11 still doesn't understand our complex lives – and it hurts

smot

Re: web Teams works on Linux

It works for me on Ubuntu 20.04, Dell xps13 with 2 extra monitors. Webcam (USB, not the buit-in nosecam) works well. Only problems are: Screen/window share doesn't work with Wayland - only X, and only 4 people on screen although many more people shown as simpl,e icons. No backgrounds.

Fluid components and custom scenes: Microsoft pitches developers with new tools for Teams

smot

Have they updated the Linux build?

No they have not.

Microsoft settles £200,000+ claims against tech support scammers who ran global ripoff from cottage in Surrey

smot

Re: This Morning

You'll get sycamore jokes like that. Whoops - sorry! Cross threaded.

Elon Musk says he tried to sell Tesla to Apple, which didn’t bite and wouldn't even meet

smot

I drive an Apple car

This has all the same embarrassment as driving a Sinclair C5.

Boeing aircraft sales slump to historic lows after 737 Max annus horribilis

smot

Their managers came from McDonalds? Sheesh.

Must watch: GE's smart light bulb reset process is a masterpiece... of modern techno-insanity

smot

Re: Child-proof reset operation

We had biscuits in a biscuit jar.

BT Tower broadcasts error message to the nation as Windows displays admin's shame

smot

Re: Why is it even connected to the console drivers?

Effin ell. Even a Raspberry Pi would do the job better.

And here's Intel's Epyc response: Up-to 56-core, 4GHz 14nm second-gen Xeon SP chips, Agilex FPGAs, persistent mem

smot

Re: Heat

Some datacentres already provide heat to local communities: https://www.eniday.com/en/technology_en/warming-swimming-pools-data-centres/

or

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20171013-where-data-centres-store-info---and-heat-homes

Twilight of the sundials: Archaic timepiece dying out and millennials are to blame, reckons boffin

smot

Re: Innovative sundials?

I use a torch to look at mine at night. As long as I stand in the right place, the time is spot on.

iPhone price cuts are coming, teases Apple CEO. *Bring-bring* Hello, Apple UK? It's El Reg. You free to chat?

smot

Re: Re They are still THE premium smartphone.

I figured. I don't have a bike.

Apple: You can't sue us for slowing down your iPhones because you, er, invited us into, uh, your home... we can explain

smot

"All the high priced lawyers arguing against Apple can surely come up with that as a counter argument."

But these are American lawyers....

Microsoft sends a raft of Windows 10 patches out into the Windows Update ocean

smot

Re: Jet

And there's JET Green - made from Real People!

You were told to clean up our systems, not delete 8,000 crucial files

smot

...or the Atari Portfolio used in Terminator 2 to open a door security lock....

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

smot

Re: No one likes a lying asshole

What is it about donkey's bottoms?

We (may) now know the real reason for that IBM takeover. A distraction for Red Hat to axe KDE

smot

Re: Very Happy With GNOME Shell

1. No desktop clutter

2. Easy app launching (only one mouse click or one to two keyboard actions)

3. With Wayland, apps can run across mixed HiDPI and standard DPI devices scaled on the fly

4. Good useful set of Gnome-associated apps

5. No scrolling around endless menus.

That's a few off the top of my head. Petty issues, you may think, but they are key to my desire for a simple and mess-free environment.

I originally spent a long time originally pitching KDE against Gnome to make my decision and I found KDE to be a most frustrating experience.

My environment uses only three Gnome extensions although there are stacks available for the dedicated hacker, all that can be enabled directly from a web browser.

Cinnamon is OK, but like KDE, is based on the same type of experience as WIndows passim and Gnome 2.

I really don't think it helps for the constant DE bashing that seems to populate these pages - people simply can't accept that their choice is not necessarily the One True Choice.

I prefer Gnome - if someone else prefers something different, that's fine - I'm grateful that we can make a choice that works as we would like. Unlike poor Windows users who have to live with what they're given.

smot

Re: But I LIKE KDE!

The complete reverse here - Gnome is my favourite (UK spelling), and KDE my least. To me, KDE is a massive kludge that gets in my way, while Gnome is something that just gets the job done easily and without fuss.

Horses for courses.

Love Microsoft Teams? Love Linux? Then you won't love this

smot

Re: Linux client for Skype?

And Skype for Linux is not Skype for Business, which doesn't have a Linux client app.

Teams will be replacing much of the S4B functionality soon, so that will narrow the choice even further.

I'm required to use this shit at work where I'm surrounded by MS devotees.

Microsoft flings features at Teams to close the Slack gap

smot

It's shite

Maybe it's just taken a dislike to me, but the Teams app is the flakiest thing since I stopped using Head & Shoulders.

Slow and unwieldy even on a Core i7, and yet I'm required to use it now.

If this is the world of modern software, gawd 'elp us.

Page: