Re: Can't Believe...
Surely that was Windows XP, so it's not been as long as you think.
(willing to be corrected -- ooer missus)
Posts by John 110
658 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Aug 2009
Start Me Up: 25 years ago this week, Windows 95 launched and, for a brief moment, Microsoft was almost cool
Space station update: Mystery tiny but growing air leak sparks search for hole
As hospital-based infections set to rise, best not change the vendor behind the system that tracks them, hm?
Ever wonder how a pentest turns into felony charges? Coalfire duo explain Iowa courthouse arrest debacle
Doctor, doctor, got some sad news, there's been a bad case of hacking you: UK govt investigates email fail
Tuesday 4th August 2020 20:42 GMT
Re: manifesto pledges aren't binding
Actually the real problem is that the word "English" is taken to be synonymous with "British". Now I don't really mind being British (although I would feel better about it if I didn't think the term actually meant English nationalism) but I don't think my community's views are being upheld in a system that favours English nationalism. I don't feel English. Brexit is a case in point. I don't know anyone who wanted to leave the EU. A quick glance at the electoral map shows that pattern right across Scotland. I know that there are communities in other parts of the UK where the opposite is true, but hey it would be boring if we were all the same.
PS my constituency hasn't had a tory MP since the 1930's.
Tuesday 4th August 2020 15:06 GMT
Re: manifesto pledges aren't binding
"...have a referendum of the English asking us whether WE want Scotland to be independent..."
Just to clarify, so you're saying English nationalism is OK, but Scottish nationalism is -- what? traitorous or something?
You don't have to answer, I already know what you think.
Dutch national broadcaster saw ad revenue rise when it stopped tracking users. It's meant to work like that, right?
E-scooter fanboy so hyped for Teesside to host UK's first trial
Beware the fresh Windows XP install: Failure awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth
Segway to Heaven: Mega-hyped wonder-scooter that was going to remake city transport to cease production
Paging technology providers: £3m is on the table to replace archaic NHS comms network
Release the pressure: Win16 support arrives for version 3.2 of Free Pascal
From unmovable boot screens to dead certs, neither are what you want to see in a hospital
Wednesday 17th June 2020 10:44 GMT
Re: i don't know why...
This is healthcare software. When only two manufacturers make the stuff you want and neither of them wants to play ball, you take what you can get. I've been involved in specialized software deployment at a coalface level, and honestly the bottom line is that you take what's available and shoe-horn your processes to fit that. And that goes from patient admin software to the tools required to mine data from the lab system. I could expand but I don't want to go further off-topic than I have already.
Monday 15th June 2020 19:54 GMT
i don't know why...
...anybody's surprised at "dear old Internet Explorer" in the NHS. A large number of expensive browser-based applications only ran on IE of a certain vintage until recently. I believe manufacturers had to be threatened with losing the business before they would upgrade their software to run on more recent (read more secure) versions. Some still required IE (not Chrome or any other pretender) when I retired at the end of 2019.
Developers renew push to get rid of objectionable code terms to make 'the world a tiny bit more welcoming'
Logitech G915 TKL: Numpad-free mechanical keyboard clicks all the right boxes
Publishers sue to shut down books-for-all Internet Archive for 'willful digital piracy on an industrial scale'
Tuesday 2nd June 2020 15:34 GMT
Re: It's really quite simple
"... if it's out of print then tough..."
I was going to just downvote you, but decided to do this instead.
In this age where storage is cheap and plentiful, there is no excuse for anything to be out of print (read unavailable). Yes, there was for print editions, they are bulky and expensive to store - authors of my acquaintance have pallets of their books in the garage that they rescued from publishers who otherwise would have pulped them - and have a shelf life unless they were printed on acid free paper, but digital versions of books should be eternal. An author going out of fashion is no reason to prevent interested readers from obtaining a copy of the book.
Out of print isn't tough, it's negligence.
Monday 1st June 2020 23:28 GMT 
But what about...
...books that are unavailable any other way than as unlicensed electronic downloads? Surely authors should welcome the exposure (yes, I know about the "for the exposure" scam) if their publisher is no longer making the work available, I have often chased a book by a favourite author only to discover that the only way to get a copy is to download it.
Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution
Outages batter UK's Virgin Media into wee hours as broadband failures spike 77% globally
Fright at the museum: Bored curators play spooky Top Trumps on Twitter over who has the creepiest object
Getting a pizza the action, AS/400 style
Feeling hot, hot, hot... in British Columbia? In December?
Ever dream of being an astronaut? Now’s your chance. NASA wants new people for the Moon and Mars
Good folk of Forfar: Alan Hattel would like you all to know he's not dead despite what it says on his tombstone
To catch a thief, go to Google with a geofence warrant – and it will give you all the details
Sunday 19th January 2020 13:19 GMT 
Smokescreen
Does no-one else remember Bob Shaw's "Light of Other Days" where the authorities know who committed the crime due to mass surveillance, but didn't want to admit to that, so they ask a sleuth to solve the crime for them.
They already know who did it, they just don't want to admit how they know, so...blame Google...
Help! I'm trapped on Schrodinger's runaway train! Or am I..?
A Notepad nightmare leaves sysadmin with something totally unprintable
Monday 6th January 2020 21:59 GMT
Re: rewarded for failure
A month after I retired, I went to our group IT Christmas night out. I was persuaded to trundle along to the Trust IT night out after the meal. Most of the Trust guys, I knew by name or had phoned/emailed. A disconcerting number came up to me and said "oh YOU'RE John110"
Monday 6th January 2020 21:45 GMT
Re: That triggered a memory...
I naively told someone who should have known better "you've inherited this computer, so just delete files that aren't yours..."
That was when I worked out how to retrieve the operating system from a windows 95 recycle bin when windows wouldn't boot... (well it was either that or explain to IT support how dumb I'd been)
Y2K? It was all just a big bun-fight, according to one Reg reader
Close the windows, it's coming through the walls: Copper Cthulu invades Dabbsy's living room
Saturday 23rd November 2019 00:22 GMT 
I feel your pain...
...regarding people's housekeeping habits. I worked in a teaching hospital (before the retirement fairy visited), the practical part of a medical school -- Training the next generation of doctors, nurses etc. They have had to replace the carpets in the foyer three times because of chewing gum embedded in it (finally, they just tiled the stairs and they get somebody in in the summer to steam it all off). Who spits chewing gum onto a carpet!! Especially who with the levels of intelligence and qualifications required to be a Doctor spits chewing gum onto a carpet!!!
And as for tea-rooms. My particular place of employment was a Microbiology lab. Every six months, a nice lady would go through the fridge and empty out the hairy sandwiches and vastly out of date yoghurt and juice cartons and send a group email reminding people to wash the stuff in the sink, don't just dump it there. (She's retired, so goodness knows who does it now)
Email! HUH! Yeah. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing...
Just take a look at the carnage on Notepad++'s GitHub: 'Free Uyghur' release sparks spam tsunami by pro-Chinese
Oh dear... AI models used to flag hate speech online are, er, racist against black people
The safest place to save your files is somewhere nobody will ever look
Watch out! Andromeda, the giant spiral galaxy colliding with our own Milky Way, has devoured several galaxies before
It's possible to reverse-engineer AI chatbots to spout nonsense, smut or sensitive information
That time Windows got blindsided by a ball of plasma, 150 million kilometres away
Time for another cuppa then? Tea-drinkers have better brains, say boffins with even better brains
Magnetic cockroaches, dirty money, wombat poo and posties' balls: It's the Ig Nobels 2019
Are you who you say you are, sir? You are? That's all fine then
I have no mouth and I must scream: You can add audio to wobbles in latest Windows 10 patch
Fairphone 3 stripped to the modular essentials: Glue? What glue?
You know what the NHS really needs? Influencers, right guys? #blessed
Sunday 8th September 2019 21:43 GMT
Re: Influencers?
"But I thought the NHS was trying to cure cancer?"
Off Topic:
Biomedical research cures cancer. But it's not in the interests of companies who manufacture anti-cancer drugs that cancer be cured, but just in case a cure is found, they charge as obscenely much as they possibly can for the drugs while there is still a market for them. They also cancel research projects that might help the human race, but eat into their profits if they succeed.
The NHS is trying to cope with toxic capitalism.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
