* Posts by Steve Davies 3

7136 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Jun 2009

Microsoft has crafted a switch OS on Debian Linux. Repeat, a switch OS on Debian Linux

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

so long Debian, it has been nice knowing you

A sad day indeed. I might have expected Ubuntu to sell out but Debian? Who'd a thought it.

Then there were the rumours last week of MS getting into bed with RedHat.

As has been said, 'hell has indeed frozen over'.

As a long term Debian user (desktop) and CentOS (Server) I may have to return to Slackware if Debian gets infected by MS.

US chap sharpens paradigm-busting scissors

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Simpler solution - angle grinder

Pictures or we don't believe you!

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: History repeats

Yep. Got some in my workshop. Bought for £1 at a car boot. The poor guy selling them didn't know what use they were for.

Cut some sheet copper with them only last week.

'Microsoft Office has been the bane of my life, while simultaneously keeping me employed'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

MS Orifice - so aptly named

I shall be glad when I dinnaly call it a day and retire. No more MS Office and no more 'ribbon'. Ugh! Personally, I hate the evil thing. It slow me down so much.

Then there are the projects that have their whole lifecycle in a single Excel spreadsheet. all the issues, hitsroy and fixed in on effing/sodding great spreadsheet. God how I hate this practice. Almost as bad as ***** powerpoint presentations.

roll on an Office free world.

Big-screen Skype gets small farewell note

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

As Roger Daltry said to Keith moon

"always on top of things"

MS do seem to have lost the plot a good number of times in recent months.

It is almost as if they know that their bid to take over the world is doomed to fail.

Shirley not?

Seriously, what is going on in MS Towers (aka Redmond)?

{sounds of tumbleweed blowing in the wind perhaps?}

FBI says NY judge went too far in ruling the FBI went too far in forcing Apple to unlock iPhone

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Does not set a precident? Are you having a larf?

When the Director of the FBI has said in testimpony to a Committee of Congress that it WILL set a precident please explain how you came to that glorious conclusion.

US Lawyers (90% of whom are scumbags who only want to get into Politics) love quoting precident. It is a foundation/cornerstone of their legal system.

Once the lid to pandoras box or as in this case, the iPhone has been decrypted then the flood gates will open and Apple and Google and anyone who uses PGP or bitlocker or anything else do encrypt anything will be open to being forced to let the Feds see what is inside and there will be nothing you can do about it.

IANAL but frankly sir, I think you are talking out of your arse.

Oracle tweaks exchange rate, hikes up database prices in UK

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Larry needs a new planet

Obviously a mega-mega yacht is not good enough for him.

Can we send him to Uranus {please}

Microsoft has made SQL Server for Linux. Repeat, Microsoft has made SQL Server 2016 for Linux

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Have an upvote for mentioning

System Z

Dead Steve Jobs is still a crook – and Apple must cough up $450m for over-pricing ebooks

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: hubris

Exactly. Amazon has/had a virtual monopoly on Ebooks expecially with B&N dropping the Nook.

Not saying that Apple did right but the anti-trust people need to look at Amazon's pricing. Why are they charging MORE for an eBook than a Dead Tree version.

Apple: FBI request threatens kids, electricity grid, liberty

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Time for a compromise?

You don't have to use iCloud to backup your iDevice. I thought any self respecting Fanboi knows that.

Microsoft: Ditch your phone biz and do crazy hardware experiments

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

It seems to me

that there is so much missing from the Windows 10 Mobile core that developing anything else is just a case of

Fiddling while rome burns

and/or

The Emperors new clothes

Until punters can move to a W10 platform from Android and IOS AND find that stuff they could do and have done for years on their old platform then it is a dead duck.

The Fanbois are apparently using Apple Pay in ever increasing numbers. Where is the MS Equivalent? One that is as simple to use and as secure? Even Google are struggling to make Google Pay as attractive (apparently)

Not having the major Apps on their platform will hit them hard.

It is almost as if Satnad and his team don't really care and are content to be a bit player.

But then they can say, look at me, I have 'Hololens'.

Blah Blah blah ... I don't care! To hell with your tech marketing bull

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Been there and done that

You forgot some other things

FINV - fixed in next Version

FIFV - Fixed in a Furture Version

THTF - Too Hard to Fix

You're fired! No – you're acquired! Reality TV hits Silicon Valley startups

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Can someone take this lot

The problem is that the Media get on the hype bandwagon so even ordinary news broadcasts mention non entity things like Big Brother, Ant & Dec, The voice, I'm a ***** etc etc.

There really is no escape from this crappyiness unless you live on a desert island.

French parliament votes to jail tech execs who refuse to decrypt data

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Les Frogs have a bit of thing about encryption

It used to be that the ONLY legal users of Encryption were the Banks. Anyone else was barred.

I spend some time working in France. We developed an encryption add on to one of our networking products. We could sell it to Russia (not that we did I might add) but not to French companies other than the Banks and the French Government.

Microsoft wants to lock everyone into its store via universal Windows apps, says game kingpin

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Holmes

MS are trying to out Apple, Apple

Not even the fruity firm could force their Mac Fanbois to do this.

A brave step ... into the unknown perhaps?

Only time will tell.

{posted from a Windows 10 free environment}

'$5bn for Slack?! I refuse to pay!' You don't pay – and that's its biggest problem

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Joke

Slack users are obviously

slacking off at work.

If NatWest texts you about online banking fraud, don't click the link

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Spoofing Numbers

is that the so called 'Microsoft Support Centres' called John use all the time

so do the PPI Claims scammers

etc

etc

etc

There seems nothing that Ofcom (them again) will do about it.

The Telco's (not only BT I might add) won't do anything because theyt get paid (possibly) to let the shitbags get access to the UK PSTN.

OFCOM are a bunch of toothless numpty's IMHO.

No more Nookie for Blighty as Barnes & Noble pulls out

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Another white flag is raised

after Amazon and its (IMHO) foopah by removing encryption yesterday the future for these devices seems limited. Rather a shame really the Kindle paperwhite is still pretty good for what is does best i,e, allow you to read ebooks even in daylight.

Is the tablet market in general doomed? I'm sure a lot of people will say so. After all does not everyone have a better device these days with their mega sized phones?

Personally, I think they are wrong. A letterbox sized screen is not ideal for reading books which, lets face it are more suited to a 4:3 screen ratio.

BBC telly tax drops onto telly-free households. Cough up, iPlayer fans

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: A solution

your solution is nice and simple.

Sadly, it won't work and the reason is not the fault of the BBC.

The problem lies in the 'Rights Holders' of the programmes being shown. The give the Beeb a license to broadcast it to the UK. Ok, so some parts of Eire, Belgium etc can get it for free by pointing their ariel at the nearest on on UK soil, They don't let the Beeb broadcast it to any other country. So using iplayer from say the USA to view any content that is licensed like that puts the Beeb in trouble with these license holders.

Sort of like DVD region encoding applied to TV broadcast shows.

10 Gbps fibre-to-the-home signed off, ITU eyes 100 Gbps future

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Deep Joy. This is pie in the sky as far as this country is concerned.

As the Chairman of the Federatino of Small Busisnesses said on BBC R5 earlier, Infrastrucure in this country is a sad joke.

IMHO, no one involved with it has the skill/commitment to even org a pissup in a brewery.

VM won't offer this except in one or two places (enough to satisfy the ASA) because much of their last mile is coax that was laid 20+ years ago. Like BT their network is only partially fibre (at least around where I live) YMMV though

Ofcom should be the BBC's ultimate overlord, UK.gov told

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
FAIL

Ofcom, as pretty well everyone here knows

could not organize a pissup in a brewery.

Their indecision over BT/Openreach has been well documented here.

Giving them the responsibility over the Beeb is sheer lunacy. Even the most minor action on their part will take months if not years.

See icon.

$17 smartwatch sends something to random Chinese IP address

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: U8 is bluetooth

Perhaps the U8 app can't get accepted into the App Store? There are apps for other wearables in the store. eg fitbit.

Gartner to FBI: Stop bullying Apple and the tech industry

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Falling on Deaf Ears perhaps?

I get the feeling that no matter what is said in support of Apple and even if you hate them you should applaud them for standing up for user privacy here, it will fall on deaf ears for those in the various TLA's inside and outside the Washington Beltway bubble.

As people start taking on board the proslect of a Trump Presidency (shudder and hillary is just about the lesser of two evils...) he will support the Feebs in their quest to get a back door into every phone sold in the USA and beyond, just in case it might be used to aid a crime somewhere on this planet and beyond.

Eventually, someone will have to raise the white flag and I really don't think (sadly) that it will be Uncle Sam that does so.

Flinging £700m at courts' IT won't increase efficiency, says NAO

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Lawyers get more efficient?

Yeah and pigs might fly.

As they are paid per nanosecond why would they ever see the need to smarte up their act? That's just cutting of their own income. As more and more people become qualified the less incentive there is to become efficient. Just string it all out as long as possible then you get more £££ at the end.

Unless you were the foolish firm to agree on a fixed price with SCO for their doomed glory hunt against IBM.

Microsoft releases Windows 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 3

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Why?

Why would anyone want to do it other than saying 'See it works' and then move on to something far, far better.

A bit of 'Me Too' from Microsoft methinks. As it is not proper Windows 10 does it still include all the spyware/teletary/phone home that the real one does?

We really should be told. Then there is the ironic fact that the Windows License costs a lot more than the cost of the hardware. How can MS Justify that one then?

Sorry, I'll pass with this (as I'm passing with anything to do with Windows 8/8.1/10 etc

Continuous Lifecycle: Early bird tickets leaping off their perches

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Yeah

Perhaps they should do a 'Di Caprio' and instead of flogging the dead horse, the whole of the El Reg Hacks might like to get inside it.

Any guesses what the 'Next big thing will be?'

A convention of Card Punch Machine makers?

Institute of Directors: Make broadband speeds 1000x faster than today's puny 2020 target

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: London ... poor ranking compared to other capital cities."

'On Yer Bike' Boris is not interested in that sort of stuff. His time as Mayor is almost up (Hurrah!).

He's more interested in taking over in No 10 from DC. IMHO, he has little chance of that unless we vote to leave the EU.

He will happily leave the little problem of network speeds to his successor.

GitHubber wants to revive the first Unix in a PDP-7 emulator

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: A ruguous yet squamous code revivla

What on earth are you taking about? Did you have one too many at your 'Oscars' party last night?

Can we have your post again please in plain English. It is Monday morning after all....

Donald Trump promises 'such trouble' for Jeff Bezos and Amazon

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: The Issue

Trump could not make laws if he was El Presidente?

Sure he could if is a likely both Congress and the Senate remain strongholds of the GOP...

Perhaps your quote should read

Hillary could not make laws

With both houses in GOP hands they would do everything they could to stop her doing anything even, from leaving the White House. A lame duck from the day she was sworn in.

Science contest to get girls interested in STEM awards first prize to ... a boy

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Separate competitions with the same rules and prizes?

Welcome to the murky area of separate development or shudder, aparteid.

That's why the old Young Scientist of the Year was one competition open to ALL, be they male, female or transgender.

As has been said, it is hard to get anyone (of any sex) interested in a career in STEM. STEM subjects are frigging hard when compared to the plethora of soft degrees (Hons degree in Stage Makeup? WTF?)

There are lots of Degrees being awarded in subjects that used to be a City & Guilds/BTEC course done at day release or evening class at the local Technical College. Now those Techs have become Universities.

Try explaining to an 18year old the relevence of 2nd Order Differential Equations to real life and their eyes will glaze over. We have to make STEM far 'sexier'. i.e. far more attractive and relevant otherwise it will be a losing battle.

Microsoft scraps Android Windows 10 bridge, but says yes to Objective-C compiler

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Could it be that the market has spoken?

The seemingly perpetual low sales/usage figures for Windows Mobiles seems to speak for itself.

Several of my local mobile network emporium (EE, O2 and Voda) all have prominent Windows Mobiles displays. But do they sell? That is the question. My guess is nope.

YMMV (And probably will)

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Who wouldn't want 250,000,000 potential new buyers?

Quote

customer base that'll be hitting a billion in short order seems a no brainer.

A billion Windows 10 Users? Let's rephrase that

A billion legal Windows 10 users?

IMHO, that won't happen in 'short order'. Windows 10 devices are in the main sitting on the shelves gathering dust.

MS Stores in the USA are more like Ghost towns.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Objective C ??

That's MS for you. always on top of technology.

It would be ironic if apple set a deadline where the stop accepting new apps into the AppStore unless they are written in Swift. I can't imagine them stopping support for Objective C anytime soon but it probably will happen at some time.

Competition? No way! AT&T says it will sue to keep Google Fiber out of Louisville, Kentucky

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Just the American Way

If you can't compete sue the comptition.

Lawyers, don't you just love them (not)

Official: Toshiba pulls out of European consumer PC market

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Ah, well

Ever heard of VM's? Apparently windows VM's run pretty well under OSX. Actually they do. I run two different one on my MBP under Fusion but you have other choices including Parallels and even Boot Camp.

If access to your ERP System is the only reason for running Windows then that seems to be a pretty good choice.

Think outside the box a bit and you might be surprised at what is there.

Building a fanless PC is now realistic. But it still ain't cheap

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Have an upvote

for mentioning the Fractal Design cases. They really help make a quiet PC.

I have an 8 core (16 threads) i7/64Gb Ram + 4Tb of SSD inside one of their cases under my desk.

My laptop makes more noise than this beast.

The above tower is running 8 VM's at the moment, including one Oracle DB and two different SQLServer DB servers.

One weekend left to save big on Continuous Lifecycle

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: DevOps is this the new SCS/DFS?

Like the aforementioned stores, in the DevOps one, is there actually anything worth buying (apart from snake oil/koolaid)?

Somehow, I doubt it very much.

My devil-possessed smartphone tried to emasculate me

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Something for the weekend?

IMHO (not that it counts) anyone wearing a BT earwig these days looks... so not cool. So 'dot com bubble'.

Do you really want to look like the dorks in the US secret Service?

Ok, it is Friday and we are joking.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Pint

Welcome to the wonderful otder of Luddites

too much technology today is too hard to use. Whatever happened to 'Easy of Use'? Back in the day, our functional spec template had a whole chapter devoted to it.

For thos us us with BIG hands and/or are lefthanded lots of things just don't work for us or at best, rather a faff. So called shortcuts are soon ignored as we follow a path that works for us. Often this is to much amusement and hilarity of those watching us. They are the smug gits who are (usually) not cack handed and have normal sized hands/fingers.

As to the phone in the pocket issue and possible castration... (the mind boggles)

1) Don't use a super sized phone (yes I know this is awkward if you have huge fingers)

or

2) Wear trousers that are not skin tight. most of us are not skinny things. Like men in leather trousers, unless you don't have an ounce of extra weight, you look an idiot, a fashion mistake.

Then there is this quote

utter bollocks will always make its way onto the Internet. It is the way of things.

And to this site on the odd ocassion perhaps?

Have pint on me this weekend.

The opinions expressed in this post are probably politically incorrect, I can almost hear the PC Police preparing to cart me away. At least that will give me something to do this weekend...

Standing desks have no effect on productivity, boffins find

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Facepalm

If you stand up at your desk

and blather to 'suckers' on the phone then the more of your colleagues (no not co-workers) you piss off due to you more like to be in line of sight to them who may well also be standing.

If you do have sit/stand workstations you must compensate for the sound deadening effect of cubicle walls or the lack thereof when standing.

Microsoft urges law rewrite to keep US govt's mitts off overseas data

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: But I want it . . .

I'd really like someone to ask for their miranda rights when they get arrested outside the USA.

The cops would probably die laughing.

Bleeping Computer sued by Enigma Software over moderator's forum post

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: "my opinion is that Spyhunter is a useless pile of crap"

Crap has its uses in Farming. Otherwise...

Oh, and there is such a thing as bad publicity. Not saying that this is (gotta protect my arse you know) but you the reader can make up your own mind.

Don't take a Leaf out of this book: Nissan electric car app has ZERO authentication

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: And...

That will be hacked and .... crash, bang, wallop. Opps.

Please.... Stop the world, I wanna get off.

Who hit you, HP Inc? 'Windows 10! It's all Windows 10's fault'

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

sigh!

The tepid reception (outside the IT Journalists that is) that Windows 10 has received was a sue sign that it was not going to be a money spinner... yet. (or if ever).

The fact that MS is giving it away for FREE (in return for taking your next born and selling them to the hightest bidder) means that there really is no incenting for people to buy 'shiny-shiny' new PC's and Laptops.

Putting all your eggs in the W10 frying pan has IMHO just tipped you out into the fire.

Heads should roll for this in HP.

And they won't be the last.

Got Oracle? Got VMware? Going cloud? You could be stung for huge licensing fees

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: Just VSphere?

come on, don't sit on the fence. What do you think? Do you think Pigs can fly? (Floyd one excepted...)

If they were not affected then Oracle would be on the wrong end of a very big lawsuit. IANAL but IMHO.

Apple fans take iPhone unlock protest to FBI HQ

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

You may want to guess why the FBI is not after Android users... YET

there fixed it for you.

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: RIPA

A small number?

How about most Politicians because they must have somthing up'em. How else would they keep on speaking so much crap. It has to leave the body somehow..

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

The Article is just the tip of the Iceberg

Go google

Windows 10 telemetry blocker

There are a number of results that will show you just how many IP addesses that your W10 installe wants to talk to even if you have set the Telemetry to OFF.,

Barstewards

Oh, and a report on /. yesterday seemed to indicate that the latest set of updates wlaks all over your user settings when it comes to default Browser and email client.

They really must be getting desperate for your data.

{Posted from a windows 10 free Environment}

Hijack wireless mice, keyboards, with $15 of kit and 15 lines of code

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

There is a reason for...

Not using Wireless KB's and Mice.

Other than the having to replace batteries just when you need to use the thing urgently.

Besides, I have yet to find a wireless KB that can stand up to the hammering I give them. I've had a couple of old DELL KB's (USB) that are build like the IBM's ones of old. Had them 7+ years and cost me £5 each at a computer fair. Still going strong.

Between you, EE and the lamppost ... this UK cell network is knackered

Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

Re: PDP

Have an upvote. I have an 11/73 System in my Workshop. It controls my NC Lathe.

Runs RT/11. The kernel is < 6Kb in size.