* Posts by Richard Plinston

2608 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2009

Height of stupidity: Heathrow airliner buzzed by drone at 7,000ft

Richard Plinston

Re: Theory A: Stupid people...

> The signal has to stand out. DF should be do-able with some effort.

Only if the particular frequency is known. Which of the several hundred signals of various frequencies will you focus on ?

Richard Plinston

Re: Cue loads of people saying...

> Li-Ion Battery. Not the most stable of things, tend to go boom

They may tend to catch fire but they don't explode. Inside an engine they would be no more explosive than the gallons of fuel being poured into it.

> the same sort of forces you would expect from a regular bird ingestion.

Birds are also mostly made from combustible materials (which is why we can use them as our fuel).

> then how about we shoot out one of your tires going down the autobahn at 120kmh? Its basically the same thing.

Not at all 'the same thing'.

Windows 10 Anniversary on a Raspberry Pi: Another look at IoT Core

Richard Plinston

> but there are some attractions. In particular, you can build applications in Visual Studio

That is not an attraction, not for me at least. For a start it won't run on the Pi, not even on a Pi3. In fact no development system (that I know of) does, it needs a full Windows 10 desktop PC.

With Linux on the Pi the development can be done directly on the machine using many different tools and languages to suit your needs. There is no need for additional computers. The Pi can even run development for Arduino.

> you can easily connect IoT Core with Azure services for processing data.

But you can't connect to any other service, it is a lock-in to Azure, even if you don't want any external services.

Richard Plinston

Re: "Store"

> they'll just ditch the whole thing and move on to the next thing the marketing department has latched on to.

In the IoT world they already did that with the Galileo.

Richard Plinston

Re: Indeed both pointless.

> MS can't make it a full desktop OS running on a Pi...

FTFY

Richard Plinston

Re: We should use neither

> Its too low powered for most proper computing tasks

A Pi2 or 3 is far more powerful than most computers that ran Windows 98.

> and too "fat" for serious controller tasks where you don't usually need or want a full blown OS with all the apps and your program running in Python.

Develop on Pi2 or 3, deploy on Zero or Compute Module. You can't do that with Windows IoT. Linux can be cut down to much less than 'a full blown OS'*. You can develop in many other languages if you don't like Python.

In any case, a Zero is $5, how much less "fat" can it be ?

* There are many Linux distros that can (or could) boot up from a single 1.44MB diskette and run on a 80386 with 16MB of RAM.

EU verdict: Apple received €13bn in illegal tax benefits from Ireland

Richard Plinston

Re: What I don't get...

> Seriously, what have I missed? Pay tax in the UK or ...

Just about everything about how businesses and tax laws work.

Tax is levied on profit. Profit is the difference between revenue and costs. If a company arranges things so that they make only a tiny profit then they pay an even tinier amount of tax.

For example: They buy iPhones for $400 and sell then for $500 so there is a gross profit of $100. From this they subtract salaries, rents, and other expenses. If the 'other' involves paying a 'licence fee' to an Irish company of, say, $60 per phone, then the UK company makes only a tiny profit on which they pay the full amount of the tax that is due.

Of course the Irish company is hugely profitable. They pay the tax as assessed in Ireland.

Microsoft’s Continuum: Game changer or novelty?

Richard Plinston

Re: Compromised experience...

> all about providing a traditional UI experience

Both Ubuntu and Mint, and most others, provide several DEs and Window Managers. All that is required is to select the appropriate Live DVD that has the preferred DE (Lubuntu, Kbuntu, ..., Mint Mate, ...) and/or install others (KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Gnome, Mate, ...) using the software manager (apt-get or equivalent GUI). Then whichever you want can be chosen at the login screen.

Richard Plinston

Re: 16x

> Is an octocre chip sixteen times better

Generally, an Octocore has 4 fast cores (for speed) and 4 slow cores (for battery life) and switches between these sets so that only maximum of 4 run at any one time, and some of those cores are shut down if not required.

As it only runs one UWP at a time, plus the UI, it may be that not all 4 cores are kept active.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update completely borks USB webcams. Yay.

Richard Plinston

> avoiding having multiple pieces of software unpick a mpeg stream.

I can't think of any reason why _I_ would want multiple applications looking at the same camera. Maybe some want to feed their CCTV out to the web for others to view, but then that is one application because locally a browser could be used to view the same stream.

If I were to be suspicious I might think that perhaps MS wants to load its own app to send the stream to its own sites, perhaps so that it can use face recognition to verify that a particular registered user is the one using the computer, if another person was at the keyboard then a second _per_user_ licence would be required for Windows, Office and Office365.

Nokia taps former Rovio man Rantala to market relaunch

Richard Plinston

Unique Brand ?

> to work with this unique brand

I am not sure that 'Nokia' is 'unique', it has been used by Nokia itself, by Microsoft, and under license by Foxconn.

Business users force Microsoft to back off Windows 10 PC kill plan

Richard Plinston

Re: 'Fraid not

> stop Microsoft from wasting billions on failed acquisitions like Nokia and Acquantive

Microsoft have, for decades, bought companies for the sole reason of killing them. They may have done that with Nokia because they would not resign the agreement to keep with Windows Phone and already brought out Nokia-X (Android). Better a dead WP than a live Android from Nokia.

Russia tells Google to cough up some loose change in Android monopoly probe

Richard Plinston

Re: Forced to Install Apps

> Result: Google monopoly.

Meego on the N9 could have been a competitor, but Microsoft killed it (or made Nokia kill it). Nokia-X could have been a competitor - Android using Microsoft and Nokia services - but Microsoft killed it.

Amazon FireOS is a competitor with its own services, so is Cyanogen. In China there are alternate services so many don't use Google.

But all Android gets lumped into being Google regardless of what services are being accessed and then Google is accused of being a monopoly. The point being that Google isn't a 'monopoly' because users have no other choice, it is because Google provides some of the best services.

Richard Plinston

Re: Forced to Install Apps

> And with Android it's an all or nothing thing.

You are obviously confused by your own dogma.

Amazon (FireOS), Nokia (and Microsoft) and many others have Android without being forced to use Google services. Of course the users _can_ access Google if they wish, or just use Bing or others.

It maybe that if the _maker_ want to install Google services by default then it must follow certain rules, but there is no requirement to do so. This doesn't lock the _user_ out of those services.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update crashing under Avast antivirus update

Richard Plinston

Re: Ahh yess

> Of course, you tell them that they're doing something else (like getting something for free), but the malware gets in there all the same.

The thing about Windows is that there are (or were) designed in 'convenience' features that mean you don't even have to get the user to do anything other than normal operation. For example: simply inserting a CD or USB could run software on that media. Selecting an email could cause it to load an attachment and execute code (eg Excel macro or Javascript), downloaded files can be executable without further action, file types are hidden so knickers.jpg.exe looks like knickers.jpg and clicking on it executes code.

Other systems just aren't that convenient for malware. The user must do something out of the ordinary.

Breaking 350 million: What's next for Windows 10?

Richard Plinston

Re: What's next for Windows 10?

> I don't see how ...

No, you don't, but never mind.

> go back to paid versions of Windows 10 after the free period.

I wasn't entirely free. You had to have paid for Windows 7 or 8 previously, and it wasn't free for enterprise.

> Difficult for an OEM to create a $300 PC and stay afloat when MS is asking for $199 for

Windows.

That is easy, MS don't ask OEMs for $199.

Richard Plinston

Re: Another lazy hardware bod looking for someone else to do his job

> Windows 10 will run on phones for gosh sakes,

A _subset_ of Windows 10 will run on _some_ phones. There are many things in desktop Windows 10 that are not part of 'W10M' (nor of 'W10IOT'). The desktop for a start, most of the device support for PCs, most drivers, and most of the guts of the kernel.

It says nothing about what the full W10 requires.

Richard Plinston

Re: Deja Vu

> Hitting almost 20% in one year is pretty good going for Windows 10, but it's hard to paint it as a resounding victory.

Especially as it was hard to buy a PC without Windows 10 and that was 250 million of them.

Richard Plinston

Re: Deja Vu

> 350 million is for downloads/installs to all device types.

The PC sales figures indicate that around 250 million PCs were sold in the last 12 months, the vast majority with Windows 10. Only 100 million were downloads/installs.

Microsoft: You liked Windows 10 so much, you'll get 2 more in 2017

Richard Plinston

Re: Happy with anniversary update

> a CSV file that needs to be reformatted

I am sure that many Windows users would load it into Excel or LibreOffice and point-and-click their way to a different format.

> grep is very usefull for a large variety of tasks. And of course vim

Both of which have native Windows versions.

> WSL enables users to run a whole new ecosystem of tools on Windows.

It may be a different ecosystem, but most tools already exist for Windows. Not that I care either way.

PC pioneer Gary Kildall's unpublished memoir revealed

Richard Plinston

Re: Interesting indeed

> how they lost their way completely

It may well be that 'your way' was different from 'their way', but DRI were not 'lost'.

DRI had released MP/M multiuser/multitasking system by 1978, networking by 1979 and went on to produce Concurrent-CP/M and Concurrent-DOS, multitasking with virtual screens, which were demonstrated prior to the toy MS-DOS being released as version 2 that added hard disk support (which CP/M had in 1976).

DOS+, DR-DOS 3.x, and especially DR-DOS 5 and 6 drove MS to improve their products, though it took them 20 months to catch up.

Windows 10: Happy with Anniversary Update?

Richard Plinston

> they don't wear out, they're not mechanical.

SSDs wear out.

Richard Plinston

Re: So why do I prefer linux mint ?

> Wasn't Mint designed with the intention to be Ubuntu, but without the GNOME 3 crap?

Standard Ubuntu never used Gnome 3 as a default. There are, however, several remixes of Ubuntu that default to different DEs: Kbuntu, Xbuntu, ... With any of those you can still install various DEs and Window Managers and even choose which one to use when you log in.

Richard Plinston

>> 1) No need to defrag > There's no need to defrag an NTFS drive either

There may be less need than for FAT.

"""It is impossible to say that NTFS prevents file fragmentation. On the contrary it fragments them with pleasure. NTFS fragmentation can surprise any person familiar with file system operation in half a year of work. Therefore it is necessary to launch defragmentation. But here all our problems are not ended, they only start."""

http://ixbtlabs.com/articles/ntfs/index-p3.html

>> 3) No need for virus checkers > This is nothing but urban myth

Actually, running a virus checker on a Linux server can perform a very useful function: it can check the email flowing through its mail server to detect and clean Windows viruses.

While there may be a few viruses that can affect Linux computers there are far fewer attack vectors compared to those designed into Windows (though many have been closed): downloaded files are not executable, selecting an email doesn't execute the attachments, inserting a CD doesn't execute code on the CD, having a share link in a web page doesn't send your password overseas, ...

>> 4) Better GUI and more productive. I can add a dock, workspace switching.

> Personal preference only

Maybe, but with Windows it is the "personal preference" of someone in MS.

>> 6) All software updated centrally. > Not sure I understand this one

He said _all_ software. If all your software has been bought from Microsoft, then sure, yours will updated from one central point.

Windows 10 grabs 22 per cent desktop market share in a year

Richard Plinston

Re: hey I'm a "0.0015%"-er

> By taking El reg users as representative,

According to 'RequestPolicy' Firefox addon El Reg doesn't subscribe to Statcounter or Netmarketshare so no visits here will be part of those stats.

My machine would block them if they were here.

Richard Plinston

Re: Bit Miffed..

> As for hiding from the stats only using NoScript, don't most browsers reveal their version and OS independent of Javascript?

Browsers do send their useragent to the website where it may be stored in the sites' weblogs. But Statcounter and other stats aren't collected from logs, they are collected by the sites sending some javascript to the browser which then collects whatever it can and sends the data directly to the stats collector.

Looking at the logs would give different results. For example: computers can use a different IP address each day, handed to them from the ISP; several computers may be connected using a single IP address and these may be indistinguishable. Loading the script into each computer allows it to be uniquely and repeatedly, identified.

The stats are only recorded for those self-selected sites that choose to install the scripts. I have 'RequestPolicy' installed which tells me how many trackers are being blocked. The Reg only uses Google-Analytics, it may be that many sites that use Statcounter aren't of interest to Linux users and are thus under reported.

Richard Plinston

Re: Great Table

> small percentages of people visiting who use OpenBSD, or Linux,

They may be visiting sites, but they have enough clues to use NoScript or similar to avoid having their data gathered.

My machines will not be in those stats anywhere.

Windows 10 pain: Reg man has 75 per cent upgrade failure rate

Richard Plinston

Re: Boils...

> ClearOS is a very specific distro aimed at headless installs.

It still can run WebMin for remote GUI (browser) administration.

Richard Plinston

Re: Boils...

> no version of Linux seems to be able to nail this one.

Just get WebMin.

Microsoft buries the bad Windows Phone news: Mobile sales collapse

Richard Plinston

Re: Kinda confused as to what businesses are using for mobile now

> I am pretty confused as to how Windows phone tanked so badly. ... They were cheaper models but I was impressed by what was delivered at the £100 price point.

Exactly. They were selling them below cost because no one would pay enough for them to make a profit. Eventually the losses mount up sufficiently for Nokia to dump the products and try something else (Nokia-X), especially as the agreement runs out.

Richard Plinston

> WinPho looked like it had a viable future whilst nokia still existed separately.

No it didn't. Nokia's phone division made a loss in every quarter that it made WP in spite of a $billion a year from MS. The agreement made by Elop was ending and so no more $billions from MS. Nokia was dumping WP and already released Nokia-X Android phones.

Windows 10 Pro Anniversary Update tweaked to stop you disabling app promos

Richard Plinston

> if you get it without paying for it (i.e. free)

But you don't get Windows for free. You are paying the OEM for the computer, part of that is going to Microsoft. Whether that price you pay is higher or lower because of other subsidies is irrelevant unless the whole product is free - you _are_ paying.

Alternately you may claim that 'the hard disk is free', but you have to pay for Windows.

Richard Plinston

Re: You should go right ahead and upgrade

> Linux and its relative lack of graphical UI for administrative tasks

Just get WebMin.

Richard Plinston

> So if your PC comes with crapware, dealing with removing all of that is the price you pay for Windows... or you could say that if Windows was free,

The OEM paid money to Microsoft for Windows and that cost is added to the cost of the machine. Even if crapware pays the OEM and subtracts cost from the machine that does not make Windows 'free' in any sense.

Richard Plinston

Re: "PROfessional" or "PROsumer"?

> The GNU license

You are probably referring to the GPL.

> when all of the developers are volunteers writing code in their free time,

Many FOSS developers work for large companies and are paid to do that development, many as their full time job. For example in IBM, Red Hat and (sometimes) Microsoft.

Richard Plinston

> you pay nothing for Windows (almost). It comes with your machine,

Actually, in most cases*, you do pay something for Windows that comes with the machine. Or specifically, the OEM has paid Microsoft and this is included in the cost.

* Sometimes there are versions that are free to OEMs, such as 'Starter with Bing' that was locked

into MS services.

Microsoft axes 2,850 more Windows Phone, sales staff – a week after Justin Timberlake sang on stage for them

Richard Plinston

Re: Also a name change-

> I think that the 2% figure for general use

The stats that give 2% are based on browsers visiting particular sites that send Javascript to the client which then sends data directly to the stats collector. I would suggest that Linux desktop users are more technical than the average and are much more likely to run Javascript and ad blockers. The Linux users may also be less likely to visit sites than run stats collectors. In particular my computers _never_ record in those stats.

In any case, desktop usage is falling, as is sales. Users are using more personal types of computers and Linux/Android has more than 80% of those and this is 3 or 4 times the desktop market.

Richard Plinston

Re: Also a name change-

> We have a 3% marked share by end users in Windows phone as a failure.

Actually the most recent figures had Windows Phone at 0.7% of the world market.

In 2006 or so Microsoft had 42% of the US smartphone market. It has been steadily falling since then with only a few blips of mild recovery.

The main reason that it has been a complete failure is not just that it has only had a small market share, but that it has lost billions of dollars. Nokia phone division made a loss in every quarter since making WP in spite of being given a billion dollars a year by MS. The agreement ran out and Nokia was dumping the loss making product and switching to Android so MS paid out $7billion for it then wrote that off. It has cost MS and Nokia more than $25billion - THAT is why it has been a failure.

On the other hand several Linux companies actually run at a profit, granted that is mainly from servers and support, and thus are a success.

Cortana expelled from Windows 10's new school editions

Richard Plinston

Re: K12? Google Docs

> They teach how to use a computer in the same way that kids are taught to read and write. After that, the computer becomes the pens, pencils, exercise books and library.

It is no wonder, then, that they can only scrawl, can't spell, and can't even add up a column of numbers.

Richard Plinston

> Office for Windows or Mac

Using Windows and Office for education is like teaching 'ordering at Macdonalds' in a cooking class.

Give them RaspberryPis.

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

Richard Plinston

Re: Linux myths

> Linux myth #1 - no viral worries - malware and viruses can infect Linux machines

While it is true that potentially viruses can infect Linux machines, they don't have the _designed_in_ 'convenience' features that Windows has that make it so easy to infect those machines. While many of these are being disabled now on Windows, such as executing code when a CD or USB is inserted, such as downloaded files can be executable, such as merely selecting an email can execute an attachment; these do not occur on Linux.

> Linux myth #2 - no file fragmentation - fragmentation will occur over time, just not as fast as on Windows.

Of course fragmentation will occur, it just doesn't affect performance much due to the inode structure of the file system.

Richard Plinston

> Aaannnnndddd, what about the OTHER issue - ie: 900lb gorilla in the room? All new CPUs will ONLY run Win 10. They will not boot Win 7. How is this not total collusion between MS and Intel and AMD? How can they get away with this? Why shouldn't you be able to run your older versions on newer processors?! I can't believe that this hasn't generated more buzz here and on other forums!

It hasn't generated 'more buzz' because it simply isn't true.

Microsoft stated that 'only Windows 10 will support the new CPUs' but this only means that the new CPU _features_ will not be backported to older Windows versions. Older versions of Windows (and of Unix, Linux, BSD, MacOS, etc) will still boot and run on the new CPUs but won't use new features.

Richard Plinston

> I wish people would stop saying "All new CPUs will ONLY run Win 10."

> The truth is Windows versions preceding 10 will not run on new CPUs ...which is not the same thing at all...

Neither of those is true, in spite of Microsoft fans wanting it to be.

New CPUs will run any x86-64 OS including old versions of Windows. However, only Windows 10 (or Linux, BSD, etc) will use the new features that the new CPUs will have. Microsoft will not update pre-10 Windows for those features.

Richard Plinston

Re: What wasn't said

> 1. "For the lifetime of the device". What does that mean?

It was "for the _supported_ lifetime of the device". The warranty is the device support.

Richard Plinston

Re: Windows8.2=10 is a fraud and a scam!

> for the supported lifetime* of the device

They have never explained the term "supported lifetime of the device". The device (PC, phone, ...) is supported by the warranty. If you buy a new PC with Windows 10 then the warranty is 12, 24, or 36 months depending on supplier, laws, and/or extended options. After this period, it seems, you will no longer be covered by the 'at no cost' part of the assurance and will be required to go on subscription.

With existing machines that have taken the 'free' upgrade but are out of the OEM's warranty* then perhaps you will be charged starting next month.

* it may be a requirement on the OEM to supply identifying information and warranty expire date to MS, they can then match this with the telemetry data gathered by W10.

Microsoft silently kills dev backdoor that boots Linux on locked-down Windows RT slabs

Richard Plinston

> It's not like we'll be seeing an ARM edition of Windows 10.

What CPU do you think that Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 IoT (on RaspberryPi) run on ?

Windows 10 a failure by Microsoft's own metric – it won't hit one billion devices by mid-2018

Richard Plinston

Re: Bet they assumed Windows Phone contributing a few hundred million

> The Nokia brand was by far its best ticket into the phone market.

It may have been 'the best ticket' but Nokia phone division made a loss in every quarter it made WP in spite of getting a $billion a year from Microsoft. The agreement with MS was running out and Nokia was going to dump WP. In fact they had already released an Android phone the Nokia-X.

Microsoft bought Nokia's phone division to prevent 90+% of the WP manufacturing being dumped and replaced by Android. The only reason that some countries went into double digits was because the phones were being sold below cost and leveraged into Microsoft centric businesses.

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

Richard Plinston

Re: The penguin struggles to reach 4% market share with a free product

> Most users are not even aware Linux is involved in their product at all.

And that is exactly how it should be. Most MacOS and iOS users are not even aware that BSD is underlying their systems.

People buy computers to solve problems, not to follow a particular cult.

Richard Plinston

Re: analysis of the CEO and management style

> 'Business 101' "The CUSTOMER is always right."

Business 101 should have told you that the users aren't Microsoft's customers. Their customers are the OEMs, the retailers, and the advertisers.

What the OEMs want is new software that requires more resources, and new gimmicks (touch, VR, 4K screens, ...), and thus users will buy more hardware. What retailers want is the ability to upsell and add more profitable options to every sale. What advertisers want is to be able to target those who are likely to buy.

Windows 10 is changing the ground to make the advertising customers happier because eventually Microsoft want to replace the OEMs and retailers with its own products (Surface) and stores so that it can be more like Apple as well as more like Google.