Posts by Mage

Re: Company law

"It is the duty of the Directors to maximise returns for the shareholders, unless the company articles state otherwise."

Actually the duties of the Directors are:

1) Keep the law.

2) Supervise the "boss" to ensure what ever goals are decided are aimed for.

The Shareholders and originally the articles of incorporation decide the goals, the priority. There is no inherent obligation to short term bottom line or immediate or long term profit. Often too much of a focus purely on profit today is the mark of speculators and asset strippers, not responsible directors. Yes, a business must make profit, that's not always best to have as MAIN priority. Growth or survival can be more important sometimes.

Re:Wine

Wine is quite different to Drawbridge as it's not running an NT Kernel.

Useful for old Windows programs with no Linux alternative, and may run ones that won't work on Win7 / Win8 / Win10.

The only point to Windows was the legacy compatibility. They have badly broken it and also MS has emulated some APIs used by traditional "Forms" based GUIs in favour of GUIs written Direct3D APIs, which is crazy for ordinary non-media programs. Does MS think users only want video and games and force devs to use higher RAM resource APIs for "ordinary" applications? Mad.

Drawbridge is a proprietary way for MS to distribute to paying Linux users, it's not a good idea for users that want to run legacy applications.

Re: Not surprised.... More settings hidden away each release....

And on Linux/Windows: Classic Theme Restorer as well as NoScript.

Re: less effort indeed

NoScript is more protection and less damage than AV. Whitelist a minimum of scripts.

Re: Cars

The cars are subsidized by all tax payers for a rich elite. However the article is misleading in tone, though certainly hyperloop and some other Musk ideas are not practical, or in the case of "power wall" sensible.

The Energia + Buran was supposed to be more re-usable than US Shuttle. Time will tell how viable the Space X is. It's too early yet.

Supposedly Energia components are still in production use in other rockets and there has been recent talk of a new version, spurred by competition from China, Ariane (just signed off next version), India and indeed SpaceX.

There is already the OB2 project (SES-Astra partnered with others) with real satellites in orbit to avoid latency of the geostationary birds.

Re: Always back up your data!

I AM my own IT manager and I don't trust my backups. I make additional personal ones and tell users to additionally back up everything as well as having it on their laptop AND the server.

You can't be too careful. Fire, Flood, plague, locusts, rats, mice, rooks etc. I also backup "off site".

Re: Non-USA options may be better value

Not sure if I meant Black Arrow OR Blue Streak.

Both part of space program, but Blue Streak more for the missile programme. Many launchers later based on ICBMs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Streak_(missile)

Both applicable to the past glories of UK tech before bean counting pen pushers decided it was better to outsource.

Re: I like GUIs to be obvious

The start time doesn't seem to be affected on my Windows and Linux Mint (Mate Desktop).

Classic Theme Restorer works fine on Mint too to make it like the other windows. I had to use a different plugin to fix Thunderbird.

I do wish Mozilla would concentrate on bugs and performance and security. Fix stupid default settings (make 3rd party cookies blocked by default etc) and make it easier to access permissions. Stop fiddling with cosmetics and GUI.

I turned off search and auto correct/guessing on URL bar as that is a vulnerability. I have the search entry box working in the old style. Stupid change they made.

Automated Production

Even 100% automated production would not be economic, because of the supply chain. I think that's why hard drives are not moving from Thailand any time soon.

Poor locally produced component quality and prices as much killed UK Consumer Electronics as labour costs. Actually the Labour costs on some products are such a tiny percentage that it's purely supply chain and existing factory automation investment that dictates build location.

Re: misleading headline: NOT

"states there may be a problem with the drive (something fishy here)"

No, it doesn't

Something fishy = "BarraCuda inside"

"The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size, fearsome appearance and furious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus Sphyraena, the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, and is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide ranging from the Eastern border of the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea and Caribbean Sea. They are found near the top of the water and near coral reefs and sea grasses"

Re: You missed the case where it has already started.

Automatic Trading isn't AI.

Also it's actually an immoral type of speculation. Someone wrote a book exposing it. If small guys do it they are sent to jail.

Can we have a more useful example that's actually AI?

Re: This is deplorable at any level

"To place fake "remembrance" messages on unsuspecting people's FB pages is truly the lowest thing I've ever heard of"

--> Even if they are already dead

Re: problem is not a lack of competence

It suggests what good programmers know:

1) They are not given enough time

2) Most programmers have learnt a language and never actually learned to design/program.

Quality of code, from translating, reviewing and translating it is abysmal. Most of the reason for it is bad management, often due to pressures from highest level.

Re: Turkey is a godforsaken corrupt shithole

And Vestel (most UK branded TVs and setboxes?)

Still. Turkey might leave NATO and join with Russia?