Posts by Mage 9270 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007
Pi is a success. If you want something closer to bare metal, then the PIC18F family and JAL to program it. Direct I/O and access to all HW directly, but a nice high level language that accepts in-line assembler.
There is even a board that takes Ardiuno shields. Though I'd rather knock up a PIC on veroboard (stripboard) with the I/O better laid out than the shields. USB only needs a socket. Libraries for GLCDs, text LCD, SDIO, FAT etc.
I had Modula-2 and Prolog on mine. Upgraded to have DS 720K 3.5" floppy as second drive, extra ram, centronics + serial port for my modem. A REALLY slow 1 bit scanner using the printer. Also a mouse and a bit map graphics based pseudo DTP program, NewWord & Cracker (WP & Spreadsheet), Brainstorm and Circuit modeller, a sort of filter simulator that wasn't Spice.
I had a Spectrum and an Apple II (UCSD-pascal) + Z80 card (CPM & Z80 assembler), + Microprofessor when people had BBCs and Research Machines. Later I had a Jupiter Ace and wrote some forth, before I got the PCW.
I never really used Basic till after I did C++, then C. It was VB5 (briefly and then VB6 with Option Explicit and sometimes calling DLLs done in Modula-2 or C++). Early microcomputer BASIC looked like ForTran without the card punching to me. Macro Assembler and Pascal seemed more interesting after learning Fortran at College.
No, it wasn't little more than Win3.x with Explorer shell, updated Win32s, replacement for VFW and bundled 32bit drivers. The 32bit TCP/IP was optional, and essentially the same.
NT 3.1 was MS's big change. The Explorer shell was even available as a tech preview for NT3.51.
The NT3.51 & Win3.x File manager was superior to Explorer's file manager and still worked on NT4.0 even without Progman shell.
Explorer's file manager got worse with Win7 and is horrible in Win10.
The issue was GDI moved to Kernel to speed up video & animation and Direct X. Really stupid. With decent GFX hardware & printers and good drivers, the BSOD was very rare on NT4.0. Non-existent on NT 3.5 & NT3.51 unless faulty HW.
NT 3.51 was just the fake extra APIs added to NT3.5 due to MS deliberately ensuring MS Office 95 wouldn't run on WFWG3.11 etc, Many 32bit NT apps ran on Win32s on WFWG3.11. Like Win3.1x, Win95 & Win98 couldn't create Named Pipes, only connect as a client. So the same NT3.5x apps that didn't work on Win32s, didn't work on Win9x/ME.
Nonsense. Only if you wanted games or software incompatible with NT.
Win 95 only advantage over WFWG 3.11 (properly installed with Win32S, VFW, 32bit TCP//IP and 32 bit disk drivers) was the Explorer desktop. NT3.x was best MS server OS in that era and NT4.0 in 1996 was what Win9x should have been. Win9x no security AT ALL. Cancelling login screen only blocked you from LAN server. Win9x encouraged a rash of bad software that on NT4.0, Win2K, XP and Vista could only run under Admin log in, or didn't work at all.
Success of Win9x for other than games held back security & decent program development for nearly 10 years.
It was a games console. So was Win95.
We used NT4.0 Workstation for real work and NT 3.51 server with WFWG 3.11 clients before NT4.0 came out.
It was shameful the way MS and businesses promoted Win9x/ME to BUSINESSES on NEW computers from 1996 to 2001.
I still have a laptop from 2000 that multiboots DOS 6.2, WFW3.11, Dos7, Win98SE and Win2000, though till about 2005 it had NT4.0 and Red Hat Linux. Win98 needed for programming old Sat boxes and DOS for Motorola Radios. Though I have neither of those now. 1400 x 1050 screen and mobile PIII 450MHz CPU. The Win2000 runs better on it than Win10 on Linx1010.
You can pretty accurately assume the typical user from what's sold.
The only data that's useful is the small percentages of systems. Even then it's of dubious use. This sort of data might be useful to say Apple or Microsoft, but not to linux which ought to be user focused and not bottom line "which systems can we ditch" focused.
1) Should not be opt in by default.
2) Only collects Internet connected gear. Not all installs are used on Internet.
3) Pretty much pointless data unless you are purely commercial wanting to only support 90% of users and force people to upgrade hardware.
Why are such acquisitions allowed?
Even assurances are not enough. See Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp.
Amazon: Goodreads, IMDB, Abe books, Book Depository and the two companies they bought and merged to make Createspace (now being rebranded Amazon, making it useless for non-Amazon sales).
Fitbit and Pebble?
I've nothing to hide. I'm doing nothing immoral, unethical or illegal.
However I have no wish to share Location or ANY other personal data with anyone, except the minimum:
Card info & name to make a payment. No you should NOT store my code on back of card. I want to have to type that in every time. I do not want one click ordering unless I have a trade account and 30 days credit.
Address to deliver to.
IBAN if you are paying me.
I do not want Direct debit forced on me. It should be a choice.
No third party scripts, resources or cookies on your website.
No tracking at all.
I want the Internet to be as anonymous as me listening to Radio, Watching TV (an unconnected) one, off line game, video etc.
I do not wish to have all my preferences and activities harvested. It's like something a dystopian Police State would want. It's incompatible with freedom and democracy.
Court order to find out user of a phone number, IP address, SIM, Domain Name or hosting account.
You mean stupid.
The audio jack removal is pure marketing. Degrades the product.
Only "wireless" charging is stupid (can't charge in your hand and charger needs a cable & PSU and more space to carry).
No physical data port is less secure and limiting.
No physical SIM puts Apple or Operators in control. Less flexible. No anonymity.
!!!
I'm not the market for this overpriced style more important than function stuff anyway.
As well as drilling holes.
No plumbing involved. It was CCTV installing. 12V car washer type pump on the plastic tank, supposed to be topped up by hose occasionally.
He was less competent at wiring.
He was employed to fit stuff on walls and wire it. He could do neither. Nor did he have qualifications or references. The accountant liked to save money.
Sorry for not explaining.
He wasn't a trainee or apprentice. He was supposed to be a proper assistant experienced with wiring.
Many disasters before he was sacked.
One was fitting the 25 litre water tank on a steel frame high on the wall. He was supposed to wire the pump and fill the tank. I completed the control console wiring and operated the pump. He said it was all done. No water.
I went to look, up the ladder. The frame and tank fell off on my shoulder as I climbed the ladder. The screw heads smaller than holes in the bracket.
He'd neglected to put ANY water in it, so I was only bruised.
Two other horror stories involving him come to mind, but I'll save them for another day. I've lost count of the overall disasters and accidents in that company.
I don't mind heights, but depths worry me. I didn't join to do that sort of work, so I started my own company and left.
Also illustrates why you want uMatrix + Firefox on phone, tablet, PC. DNS drive-by poisoning can use browser too.
Obviously Javascript needed.
Do always change default passwords on Admin pages and WiFi SSIDs.
§
Google Home IPs finished/started: 0/0
Roku IPs finished/started: 0/0
Radio Thermostat IPs finished/started: 0/0
Phillips Hue bridge IPs finished/started: 0/0
Sonos speaker IPs finished/started: 0/0
§
I don't intend to have any of that. Nor Amazon Echo or Dot. Also no uPNP. Nothing with Android TV on it connected. No intention of IP based/BT cameras or security or locks.
PDF stinks for that. The ONLY plus of PDF is maintaining appearance of paper printout. So it's useful to electronically proof books, manuals, magazines and papers as well as other documents intended to be printed.
If the goal is immediate reading and portability, then eBook formats win. Or a responsive HTML document (Save As Web Page Complete). Except you need two, Mobi and ePub. Because Amazon are nasty. Calibre is your friend to convert Doc, RTF, HTML, ODT and SOME PDFs to ePub/Mobi/azw. The AZW format, like ePub, supports publisher fonts (mobi doesn't), but the publisher fonts etc only work well on newest Kindles.
PDFs need a giant screen unless they are designed for smaller than Letter/A4 documents. Also really slow for larger documents.
Adobe version of ePub readers that are age of Kindles with only basic mobi support work very well with publisher fonts. Some very old eInk and LCD readers.
PDF is now only of use for people preparing & proofing documents for paper publishing, not ordinary users. It needs to DIE as a document distribution method to the public. HTML or ePub is better for that.
PDF is primarily for paper, hence fixed layout. Now with people primarily reading on screens, (over 50% of eBooks on phones) and no standard screen size or resolution, like Letter and A4 on paper, layout needs to be "Responsive" and work with user selected rescaling (sharp vs poor eyesight).
A totally anarchist society sounds nice, but only works for perfect people. We need to regulate companies and have laws.
Internet is simply a delivery/distribution medium. The same laws as for printed material, bill board ads, TV, Radio content, and Mail Order must apply, as appropriate to content and/or service. Also similar oversight & regulation as postal services, telephone, telegraph, radio spectrum and satellite slots & frequencies.
There is no sense whatsoever that the Internet should be unregulated in terms of access, infrastructure, privacy, content etc.
Perhaps this explains a little? Unlike the EFF and other rants on Twitter that claim this HELPS Google and extends YouTube Content ID to the "Whole Internet".
Google owned YouTube is one of the largest violators of copyright, because Google wants adverts. What ever this "YouTube Content ID" is, it doesn't work.
No doubt this has flaws, but probably not the ones claimed on Twitter. "It's going to kill all our memes!"
No, it won't.
Also some memes are not parody of the content being adapted, but simply taking unrelated copyrighted content to illustrate a meme.
I doubt any automated content filter will work properly because they don't work now.
Really I've no idea what this means, but the EFF aren't explaining it.
Perhaps when it was called Windows CE.
Trying to give desktop & Mobile the same branding and UI was madness.
The tablet ARM vs x86 versions even crazier. The only compelling reason for Windows is x86 legacy application compatibility. Also applications like Sage at one end and Adobe Creative stuff at the other end.
Or full fat Outlook for meetings etc (stupid for eMail only) with corporate Exchange server.
I've never seen packages offering higher speed on Mobile. Not since GSM dual channel use. It's not really feasible to partition like that. There is no assurance on 3G that a cell won't shrink as more users stream and then you can't connect. Unlike real broadband, the fact that it IS mobile means a mast can be fast (only you) or pig slow (10 other people in same sector). Public mobile essentially has no control over contention. They only offer packages which offer more data, or more minutes etc. That actually reduces the speed if it's used up. Read how mobile and fixed wireless contention works.
That's why decent quality (=good speed) fixed wireless "broadband rural extensions" might have only 60GByte 30 day limit compared to nearly unlimited on cable, fibre and DSL. Unlimited on broadband is in practice 500GByte to 2TByte regular usage. Cable use contention is number of users on a segment, what they are doing and backhaul. With migration to HFC and segments being a 1/4 of a street instead of a neighbourhood the cable is now able to be easily > 150Mbps at peak time. DSL speed is limited by cable length and multipair cross talk. DSL contention is set by backhaul capacity.
Why swiitch?
The problem is economics 101 and Ofcom (or Comreg in Ireland.)
It costs money to build and run more masts in areas with poor coverage. It costs MUCH more to increase speed (capacity really) as you have to split a cell into many more smaller cells (3 to 9).
Why would any operator do that if it doesn't bring extra revenue? Extra capacity won't and extra coverage only added where they think they'll get enough new customers.
It's MOBILE. Make it illegal to have deals that undercut fixed broadband. Fixed users make performance and coverage worse for real mobile users.
Mandate USO for fixed broadband and Mobile.
Ban "Up to". Peak time average and minimum speeds should be quoted on all adverts of Broadband and Mobile,
The problem is that the regulators want to maximise the income from selling spectrum licences, not provide universal coverage at decent speed. So licence conditions are lax. In many cases the regulators only use operator supplied data on coverage and speed (capacity).
The greed of Governments to have the licence revenue and lip service to regulator independence created the problem.
In many cases there is no value in switching Mobile, Broadband, Electricity, Gas, Banks, Credit Cards or Pay TV other than misleading "Introductory offers" paid for by the other subscribers. Ban introductory offers and below cost offers (Hello Three Data plans, esp. in Ireland!).
The issue isn't Windows as such, but the entire philosophy of Industrial control. The equipment even in 1980s might have had no passwords or security, relying on being in a secured plant, All communication was assumed to be on internal networks or on direct point to point links.
There are so many issues that basically:
a) Only computers with dual interfaces and firewall and security should connect to the industrial or SCADA gear.
b) Those computers need dedicated external firewall(s) to rest of networks and/or internet.
I do like YYYY MM DD HH MM SS. Not sure what the standard way to store is. The US printed format MM DD YYYY is a broken idea.
XKCD Standards
I think year 0 on computers should have been end of last Ice age in Ireland, or date of founding of first town in the world.
Two sizes of date / time object?
Big: Heat death of Universe with resolution of Planck time
Regular: Expected death of Earth due to Sun + 10 million years, resolution 1 millisecond.
Yes I know 2 digit year was to save storage and existing start dates are compromises. Many/most run out in less than possible existence of human species.
Three main issues:
Start date of storage
Format(s) of storage
Human readable formats, not just in Latin script, but all languages.
Am I misunderstanding this? They removed points people earned?
Loyalty points on say a Tesco card are really payment for losing privacy. They are tracking what you personally bought, where and when.
XKCD Customer Rewards
Apple's stuff may be overpriced, but it usually does what it claims. It's libel to compare these to iPhones.
It seems worse than those cheap 4 digit combination locks on chains for bikes, the ones were you tension the chain and you can feel the rings.
How long does the charge last and how it is charged?
I had one of those on an Apricot. I don't think Mouse Systems were anything to do with Sun?
Two colours I think and it was an aluminium pad, slightly too small, though maybe my memory is faulty as the wikipedia shows a single colour. Maybe there was another version.
Isn't there a handwriting capture/mouse pen that uses paper printed with a very fine grid for a similar reason?
GCHQ, CIA etc need to monitor inside your ISP.
Except maybe they do already.
Then even if you use Signal or Telegram or encrypted email, perhaps the laptop or phone is compromised.
Wonderful boffinry. Maybe a colo server in a suitable data centre can take advantage of it.
I like the idea, the devil is in the end to end details. Meanwhile, MS, Google, Facebook, Amazon etc are trying to make encrypted fibre irrelevant for ordinary folk.
Decades of lies from Labour, Tory, Media, BBC etc about EU come home to roost.
In some cases Foreign owned media.
Russia wanted Brexit.
Commonwealth and Obama didn't
No-one wants a British Empire 2.0 either. Most countries didn't want 1.0 either.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
