Posts by Jeffrey Nonken

Re: It's Used, not abused.

Hmm. If they picked the lock, though, it could be considered abuse of the normal function.

Or perhaps, since we're doing home break-in analogies, that would be climbing in through a window accidentally left open.

Re: "hard-coded no-fly zones in drones"

"While squaring a negative does result in a positive, cubing a negative results in a far larger negative."

Unless it's a negative 1. Or between 0 and -1.

"In all the nuking I've ever done, "give or take" 10 seconds on that would not be an issue. There's variation in the amount of ${food}, there's variation in composition of ${food}, there's variation in where on the plate ${food} is put, ..."

When I use the microwave to soften butter, 10 seconds is easily enough for most of the stick to go from hard to liquid. Sometimes having precision is useful.

If you never use it for that particular task, I can see why you wouldn't care.

Re: So it's now a crime to have a USB device which doesn't look like a USB device?

Ipod nothing, it's now illegal to own a smartphone.

Back in the 1980s I managed to spill tea into the open top of my printer -- an old Centronics dot matrix printer with some fairly hefty motors. At the time I took my tea with milk and sugar. A friend helped me find replacement fuses, and advised me to carefully wash the electronics in water, not alcohol -- alcohol doesn't dissolve sugar.

It really doesn't.

The tip was a good one, the printer worked for several more years afterwards.

Fast forward into the 1990s when I spilled a sugary drink into my keyboard at work. I went to IT for a replacement keyboard and talked to them about washing the old one; they said they always washed them with alcohol. I pointed out that didn't dissolve sugar, but took the replacement with me. At the time computer hardware was a bit more spendy than now, so there weren't a lot of spares hanging about; I didn't like the new one, so I took the old one apart, washed it with water, rinsed with alcohol (dries faster) and used compressed air to dry it. When I brought the replacement back they asked why, I said that I'd fixed my old one and didn't need the replacement. The response? "How did you do that? We can never get them to work again!" "That's because you wash them in alcohol!"

I don't have a 100% success rate (last keyboard I dumped a sugary drink into works 99% -- for some reason I can't get the numpad + to work) but, generally speaking, washing with water > washing with alcohol. Once the contaminants are washed off, however, alcohol makes a good rinse. Best combined with disassembly so there are no trapped pockets of liquid. Take a photo of your keyboard before pulling off the keycaps, if you do that, so you know where they all go back. :)

Re: Right

I generally like Apple's phones, don't like their walled garden and their blindfold dartboard approach to app management. Prefer a phone I can put into my pocket, and pick up with one hand, so IF I were to but an iPhone today it would probably be a 6E.

Meantime I have four Galaxy S4 phones (including my daughters') that are working OK. Wouldn't mind an upgrade but don't feel a strong need. Mine's running CM13 for a multitude of reasons. The kids are running apps that don't want rooted phones so they're on Lollipop stock ROMs.

One of the drawbacks of running old Android phones that aren't Google brand is update support. But we can Skype and stream and send MMS and do phone calls and for now it's Good Enough.

Also I can read and comment on El Reg while on the can. :)

So maybe there's some market saturation going on. But when I think about new phones I also think, maybe Chinese next time. We'll see. Keeping an eye on them.

Re: 3-4 weeks is in still time for Christmas...

It's not December yet.

Re: Say whaat?

I took that to mean that the clock didn't start immediately on the next attempt, but they had some time between attempts to consult their notes, tweak their tools and gird their loins. That amount of time is variable.

Re: Alternatively....

"I just can't see any advantage to a wireless keyboard or mouse anyway"

I prefer them. Especially the mouse, no cable to drag. Takes less space in my backpack. *shrug* That's just me.

"liable to run out of battery at awkward time"

It is a drawback.

"the stupid keyboards sleep and miss your first few keystrokes"

Huh. Haven't noticed that.

Re: Windows NT

I've heard the same thing many times. I've actually found DDS to be quite reliable, but with a major caveat.

When our HP drive stopped reading the tapes it had written, I called support and was asked just how many hours a night I was running it? I answers 14, and was scornfully told that there was a 20% daily duty cycle limit on the heads. After that the heads would heat up enough to soften them and they'd experience excessive wear.

I asked where I could find that in the manual... At which point he admitted it wasn't there. So I said, ok, I get warranty on this unit, and afterwards it's up to me to keep the wear down on the next unit, now that I'm informed.

Next time we bought (non-HP) DDS drives I proactively asked about the duty cycle and was told 15%.

So I very meticulously scheduled backups to limit the duty cycles, and after that the drives worked pretty well.

If the manufacturers were not bothering to mention the little detail of the heads smoking after 3-5 hours of use, no wonder DDS has such a bad rep. I don't actually know if that's the case, I haven't exactly been doing surveys, but so far nobody I've talked to has admitted to knowing about the limit.

Re: AI?

One science fiction author called this sort of construct an "artificial stupid", or AS for short, in one of his stories. (Or her. I don't remember which author, could be either.)

Re: future?

My daughter reports getting an update of stock Lollipop on her Galaxy S4 L720. Still says it's 5.0.1 but shows a September 2016 security patch level, same as my CM13 phone. FWIW.

Huh?

Re: Using an Iphone?

Yes. I remember the days of computer printout ASCII porn.

Re: Awesome, truely awesome

In that case, suck, don't blow.

Re: Ouch

I'm just an old fart who never saw a reason to change since 1999. :)

P.S. I had to add "fart" to the phone's spelling dictionary. Pfeh.

Re: Numbers in the title and article look a bit off...

Eh, what's a few decimal places between friends?

I always thought that a triangular display and spiked corners made more sense!

Re: Disagree with general consensus here...

Already did a longer post on this earlier, on a different article, but... I like the options a removable battery gives me. Pull the battery and my phone is instantly untraceable and cannot be turned on remotely nor spied on. And I can replace a worn battery in 20 seconds using a fingernail, instead of an hour of meticulous disassembly and reassembly using a spudger, suction cup and jeweller's screwdrivers. And torx drivers.

I don't think that's religion. I think it's personal preference. Can't speak for others, ofc.

Re: WileyFox

Cyanogen is not the only custom ROM in town. There's always AOSP, as a non-random example.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/android

Re: A lesson to be learnt

I can turn my phone off in seconds by removing the battery, and it cannot be tracked, traced, monitored, recorded or remotely turned back on no matter what is running on it, even if hacked.

Not that I'm particularly paranoid or engaged in any activity that would require such measures, but it's nice to know I have the option.

I can replace a bad battery in my Galaxy S4 in less than a minute. Using my fingers. My iPhone requires at least half an hour of meticulous work using special tools (... OK, not VERY special, but not everybody keeps a set around... spudger, anyone?) and constant reference to ifixit.com. The battery has an adhesive backing so it has to be carefully pried out, and there's a significant chance of rupturing it in the process.

I suppose if you just buy a new phone every year, battery replacement isn't a problem that comes up very much.

"It looks like Doctor Syntax is in trouble."

Sued for malpractice, probably.

Re: Possibiities

"So he's had two phones and they have both caught fire? That is either incredibly unlucky or altogether too convenient."

I missed the part where his first phone caught fire? I thought he merely exchanged it.

Re: Android OS

My biggest problem with Apple is the walled garden. I actually like the iPhone, but Apple likes to keep too much control. It might be forgiveable if they did a better job, but their apps curation has the consistency of throwing darts blindfolded with their backs to the dart board. And if you jailbreak the phone, instead of merely washing their hands of you, they've been known to actively try to destroy the phone. Control freak much?

Anyway, mixed feelings. Not sure what I'm going to buy when I go for my next phone.

Re: Despair

I keep thinking about Iceland.

Re: @Kurt Meyer Doom I tell you

"The US Government is not representative of anybody but its citizens."

...And they do a pretty piss-poor job of that, too.