Posts by Roland6

Re: Does rust not have a definition problem

The language specification is the compiler… thus if it compiles the source must be valid Rust…

Re: I must be a bit thick

But C was intended to be used by people who were professionals and so knew what they were doing…

Plus given the platform constraints of the time, there was a natural expectation that programmers and systems programmers specifically, were more capable…

Obviously, with decades of hindsight we know that even experts make mistakes, but additionally, much code is written by “more normal” people (for want of a better expression to cover self taught through to those of us who may have degrees in computing but didn’t major on formal programming, programming calculus etc.) and thus programming aids such as provided by Rust serve a useful purpose.

Re: Capability

Not disputing Pascal has been wildly used, however be aware:

“ Pascal, a computer programming language developed about 1970 by Niklaus Wirth of Switzerland to teach structured programming, which emphasizes the orderly use of conditional and loop control structures without GOTO statements.”

Ie. It was intended to be a teaching language, just like Basic …

Perhaps it gives the truth to the idea that you should give children real wood working tools as they will quickly learn the correct way to handle them and not touch the blades… however, when having this discussion we need to step back and ask whether as a first language we should be teaching procedural programming or non-procedural programming as people’s first computing language…

And standardised APIs and libraries, part of C’s portability is down to the work done by X/Open (now The Open Group) on POSIX.

Re: Capability

> We used to have such a language, Pascal

Real programmers use Algol6-68 or Ada, Pascal was just a teaching language intended to replace Basic…

There were “application programming languages”: Fortran and COBOL being the two majors; swept aside in the rush to C.

Re: Can see that

For my Lenovo L15’s I’ve used these usb power only adaptors, which are a tight fit and seem to slow the wear.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CONMDEX-Magnetic-Converter-Compatible-ChromeBook/dp/B07GHZC8FN

I have also trialed a similar specification full function connector:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELECJET-Magnetic-Transfer-Resolution-Compatible-Silver-Gray/dp/B07TV5W2CY

but it was not such a snug fit etc.

But like you note, suspect a laptop attached strain reducer would do much to solve the cable pull angle.

Re: It's here

The post was a little ambiguous, I’ve seen some appalling multi-joined cabling between the BT/OR master socket and the outside world.

With my own house (2003 build), the OR engineer discover the internal cabling was joined on the OR side of the master socket, once disconnected FTTC speeds and line stability improved.

Re: It's here

>” I worry about how resiliant the fibre is”

Much I suspect depends on the cable clamps used to tension the overhead fibre.

The ones Openreach used on the overhead line for one on my sites incorporate a cable cutter that triggers if the cable becomes over tensioned, such as would happen if a tree fell on the line (or youths decide to swing on it).

I think the issue is as you note, access to the house. Internal splice boxes seem to be normal in commercial premises and leased line installations. Okay they are within a few metres of when the line enters the building.

Also you can specify where the fibre enters the house, so it doesn’t have to be next to the front door or where the copper cable entered the house.

Re: Dude, you're getting a Dell!

So the real question is whether it is worth getting a place in the queue and the selling at a premium Dell servers to those who can’t wait….

Re: "due to supply chain constraints"

Mass market AI will be what ever Microsoft decides to require for Windows, also it will be integrated into the CPU package.

Re: Charge

> It's ridiculous to be pushing EVs without public charging infrastructure in place.

But that would be government encroachment on the free market…

Remember this government policy has been driven by its backers, EVs provide an opportunity for them to extract even more money from people to put into their pockets…

Or perhaps you are suggesting the taxpayer should pay the upfront infrastructure costs, so that the Tories can hand the operation out to a tea or even sell it…

Re: So, Brexit means Brexit, except when it doesn't

Sunderland is not inside the EU…

So cars manufactured in Sunderland would incur the tariff if exported to the EU…

Nissan took a gamble and potentially will get a payback.

Re: So, Brexit means Brexit, except when it doesn't

>” The European Commission yesterday proposed a three-year delay”

Yet another example of taking back control…

Good thing Mogg et al no longer have as much influence as they would reject the proposal and then blame the EU for the introduction of tariffs…

Re: Need the EU to step up…

From all the data MS collects via WUP etc. MS should have a very good idea of the variety of processors and platforms Windows (all versions since XP) are being run on.

So it should be relatively easy to set a bar that only impacts a small minority.

Re: Need the EU to step up…

> but what's the alternative?

Relabel Windows 10 as Windows 11 “possible less secure” which doesn’t have the TPM 2 mandatory requirement.

> i'd allow consumers ESUs for free/low charge for a period of time

£20 for five years of feature updates and 10 years of security updates? Ie. The price of a Windows 11 Pro MAR licence.

> This dependency on hardware support for security features is relatively new

Expect with all the AI rubbish being included in MS products now, for Windows 12 to require AI coprocessor…

Re: We are overdue an adult conversation about immigration

>” We can't pay them enough to make it attractive in the first place, or to retain many of them.”

This is the worlds 6th largest economy - as measured by nominal GDP we are talking about…

Re: I live in a former Council House. I bought it in 1980 for £13,500 and still live there.

>” I would hazard a guess that not having to do this saved the council a lot more than the discount on the sale in 1980.%”

Which the government took back by cutting funding to local government… hence why so many councils are now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy; the logical conclusion to strict adherence to Conservative core beliefs…

… and it only benefits the rich, i.e. tory voters.backers

As only 3% of the population earn over £104k [ https://moneysprout.co.uk/percentage-of-uk-that-earns-over-100k/ ], ie. Circa 2m

And the Conservatives received nearly 14m votes in 2019.

there are Insufficient rich Tory voters to elect a government.

A bigger contributor was the introduction of the financial transaction levy; it gave the government a slice of the financial services market that previously it (and thus the taxpayers) weren’t directly benefiting from. Remember, the UK economy is still highly dependent upon financial services.

Re: You know this immigration policy does work...

About time!

UK middle management are far too greedy and lazy, with WFH etc. there is no need for the manager to actually be in the office or UK, so can use cheaper and expendable foreign workers, leaving more in the pot for the executives and “investors”…

The laugh is Tom Peters back in the 1980s, from his observations, had sussed how little (positive) value executives actually contributed to a typical Fortune 100 business. In my decades of consulting, I found the 80:20 rule (which businesses like to apply to customers) helpful in identifying which board members actually contributed, those who were out of their depth passengers, and those who were adding negative value…

Re: the old rules

>” about 61 percent of postdoctoral researchers are non-UK nationals”

Looks like many here have missed this point.

It would seem to suggest UK universities haven’t learnt the lesson of the 1980s; the brain drain is still in full flow, as can’t see US universities now paying less than the UK.

It also raises a question about what the real benefits of having so many non-UK national researchers (and their families) in the UK on low wages and thus are more likely to also be claiming benefits et al.

I also question the mindset of the Universities, as it would seem they have been submitting research funding bids with insufficient allowance for staff costs. When I submitted bids (okay way back now) for EU funding, whilst the staff costs had to be at “cost” ( ie. We could not directly profit from the funding), the funding did not prohibit us from paying full market rates to those engaged to deliver the R&D project.

Re: The UK is over for a generation

Born a US citizen, always a US citizen, all that has been revoked is that Johnson doesn’t need to renew his US passport or submit tax returns to the IRS.

>” Reducing the personal tax burden would act to increase inflation (greater spending power).”

Given the causes of inflation and just how far some living costs have increased, only a few would actually be better off, most will still be struggling to pay the monthly bills even if their personal tax rate went to zero..

So reducing the personal tax burden is simply a sound bite treat to the faithful rather than doing anything practical.

>” Your other option is corporation tax”

Which seems to be pointless, given it is a largely voluntarily paid tax, and the UK has one of the lowest rates for corporation tax.

The change to tax rebates for investment is along the right lines, but what is needed is a total change in executive and “investor” mindset about business investment ie. It is something they need to finance and not the taxpayer.

>” For instance currently we have the highest taxes in living memory and literally nothing works and we have zero growth.”

Swallowed the b*ll*cks of the IFS report which if believed effectively claims the government could increase the base rate of taxx and reintroduce the 98% tax band and the UK would become a low tax haven…

The reason the UK is receiving higher tax revenues is because more people, particularly on the higher income levels, are actually paying tax…

Additionally, more people are earning higher incomes because the economy has been doing well and so has been able to pay more…

>” ultimately come from gov funding - i.e. taxpayers. Us.”

As does all the money the government has been throwing at the banks…

The only difference is with government employee wages, the monies go directly to individuals in the real economy rather than via the banks who can leverage and multiply (typically by a factor of 10) the money they borrow.

Re: My twopenn'orth (if inflation hasn't already increased it to thruppence)

Long piece…

The trouble is with the main causes of “inflation” being beyond the control of the UK government and BoE, recovering the economy is going to be difficult because an improved economy will require more of the products that have been causing the “inflation”, which given part of the problem is there are buyers for these products with bigger and deeper pockets than the UK, we can expect traditional supply-and-demand to push their prices higher still and so increase the rate of “inflation”….

So it would seem what the UK actually needs is a smaller economy which is much less dependent upon imported energy etc. …

Re: HP and Linux

>” But they do at least provide reasonable drivers”

Just had to deal with an MS update that involved HP printers = the update kept failing, the recommended solution was the total removal of HP print drivers - HP does not seem to provide a “clean” utility these days, so a fully manual process…

Update then installed followed by HP drivers…

So yes “reasonable” is a fair description.

Re: Since then it has banked double-digit revenues.

>” did you know the instant ink cartridges are much larger than the retail ones?”

All they are doing here is playing catch up with the third party cartridge suppliers.

With a subscription, it is in HPs interest to incur as little cost as possible, which effectively means sending out the minim7m number of cartridges…

Re: There it is

Why do (UK) pension funds invest to such a large extent in commercial property?

I suggest it’s because that is the way the UK market is structured, so we’ve manufactured a property boom and now need to maintain the fiction. Without property, there would be more being invested in real innovation ie. Creates jobs and products people want to buy.

Re: There it is

That’s not IR35, it’s why HMRC dislikes small single person Ltds.

However, if “your” company was a multi million turnover PLC et al, this arrangement wouldn’t get a second glance.