Posts by Roland6

Re: and as of today, windows update

I suspect (would hope) that this last batch of updates are the fixes that were deep in the release system and so it was decided to let them complete rather than try and extract them from the system.

However, just because W7 has gone EoL doesn't mean that some of the things installed on top of it have also gone EoL. I was still periodically receiving fixes to an XP system for 1~2 years after it went EoL all because it was running MS software that hadn't gone EoL. So my expectation is that officially there will be no fixes/updates to W7, but if a fix to a supported MS application requires an OS fix...

Re: A better Idea would be to

>Sure, and it will die just the same way OS/2 died - no applications for it...

Well predicate that on mass market applications...

Arca Noae seem to have found a profitable niche for OS/2.

I think one of the lessons from XP/2K3 EoL and specifically the various versions of embedded OS's derived from XP, is that MS have little regard for markets outside of the mass market desktop.

Re: Piss It Down The Drain

>SAP would be at the bottom of my list.

Suspect it will be at the bottom of their's, particularly given the outstanding contract with Infor.

Given the size of the Infor product range, there is probably a suitable "proven, appropriate and simplified accounting system." that fits the requirement.

Re: We should just all use SCART

Given its 1080p, doubt the difference will be noticeable. However, you may find it not so easy to split out the audio for the sound system.

Re: We should just all use SCART

>HDMI - now there's a standard

Except when it is important to know which version HDMI a particular "high speed" HDMI cable is...

Re: "It'll stifle [..] innovation."

>If micro-USB had been mandated, there would have been no shift to USB-C

Bollocks!

Suggest you look at the successful network forums eg. IEEE802 (specifically 802.3), WiFi Alliance...

The challenge isn't having a Standard, but in maintaining it and moving it forward in line with technology advances.

>I think the problem was connected to music recording, through musical instrument interfaces, syncing the player with the other recorded channels....

Found a discussion on audiobus latency issues with using an iPad:

https://forum.audiob.us/discussion/22984/ios-11-roundtrip-latency-not-short-enough-around-20ms

Re: Thin client

>Do we need a phone that acts as a very thin client?

Well with the voice assistants we seem to be moving in that direction.

In which case the decision becomes do I use Siri/Alexa/Cortana/Google or convert to Alice/Xiaoyi/Mi.

Not sure if any of these services use Nuance's voice biometric authentication, but that does away with passwords and could lead to some interesting access problems; expect to be asked (nicely) would you mind doing the talking...

Mind you if you have a second language, you could probably run both Siri and Alice - to satisfy your two "remote boxes" criteria.

Re: He's not wrong

Your knowledge of Unix history predates mine :)

When I encountered Unix (mid-1980's), the tapes were no longer being sent out for free.

Thus I was referring to the period - circa mid-80's to mid-90's - when CD's were the distribution media of choice for various 386/PC Unix distributions and then Linux, and companies such as Walnut Creek were burning CD's of Unix/Minix source code and Linux distro's such as Yggdrasil. I seem to remember they charged a "rip-off" price of £5~10 per CD(circa £15 to £30 in today's money).

Yes, if you could afford a network connection (pre-Unipalm/Pipex days in the UK) then I agree anonymous FTP was the way to go. Mind you back in 1988, we regularly downloaded updated versions of Sun's complete OSI stack (including FTAM and X.400/MHS) as an SMTP attachment over whatever passed as 'fast' (for normal people) in those days.

Re: Whats the problem with unsafe code in Rust?

Whilst I agree AC was overgeneralising, the main thrust of their point is correct; C is a powerful macro assembly language.

Back in the mid-80's Unix became massively popular, especially with Universities so many graduates had Unix and C skills. Fortran, Cobol etc. were seen as 'dated''. Add into this mix the desire/need to develop serious programmes for the new microcomputer/PC platforms ie. requiring something other than Basic or Pascal. Hence why the company I worked with ported their programmer's workbench from Unix to the PC; becoming the first C language development environment on the PC for the PC.

However, all of these were difficult for the new generation of largely self-taught programmers, hence why we had Turbo-Pascal, VBasic, Delphi etc.

Re: Whats the problem with unsafe code in Rust?

But what is "safe code"?

Thread safety has been mentioned, however, unless I've missed something over the decades, writing code that is safe with respect to re-entrancy and accessing the same data structures/memory and other fun and games of parallel and multi-threaded execution, still requires the programmer to have the ability to write "safe code".

Another aspect, is that "safe code" is really only with respect to the module being compiled, You have to trust all other code executing within the runtime environment is also safe. I wonder if this is part of the complaint being made about RUST, namely, it doesn't go far enough in supporting runtime trust, ie. I should be able to set an OS parameter, so that anything running in 'user space' or outside of the OS rings has to be flagged as "safe code".

Re: He's not wrong

>"if something costs nothing, it has no value.

Open source isn't about being free at the point of use..."

That is a good point.

Years back (pre-www) you had to pay someone real money (ie. more than the cost of the media + p&p) to get your hands on a CD of open source code which you were expected to compile.

Now it seems everyone thinks that a ready-to-run distro is open source and should therefore be free, likewise the automatic updates.

Yes, I know about the marketing considerations and technology advances that have influenced the decision, but it is clear we have become accustomed to an unsustainable state-of-affairs. It would be interesting to see what the market reaction would be to an open source product (distro or application) that came with usage limitations (eg. 30 days limited trial, updates disabled etc.) that could be unlocked for a subscription... Wouldn't be surprised if MS are or have seriously looking at this possibility.

Re: I went to the bank on Saturday...

> I have done a free upgrade to W10 using a clean install. Two actually. All you need is the CoA from the original W7

Thanks - my sources were specific that it had to be the upgrade and keep option and not the full repartition the disk clean install option.

They were also specific that you shouldn't zap that newly minted W7 upgrade install until you had 'registered' W10 by logging on to your MS account.

Perhaps having discovered a path that worked, people were just sticking to it.

Re: I went to the bank on Saturday...

>You can still do it for free though... it accepts W7 keys

Just ensure you do an "update this PC and keep my files".

Bearing in mind a comment above about recovery media and boot issues, I'm tempted once having done this update to then do a full "reinstall" to clear out any undesired residues from the W7 system.

Re: XP compatablity

>Do you think this could be a parting, lock down sharing gift?

Definitely.

I suspect that MS have simply upgraded the default security settings for W10 on the basis that they don't need to out of the box support (out-of-the-box) settings that were appropriate when W7 was launched.

Having had to look at Office 2016 - which goes off mainstream support Oct 13th 2020 (same day as 2010 goes EoL), it is clear MS are using 2020 to further tighten things up and pushes everyone on to its cloud offerings. Additionally, from things happening in January and October 2020 they also want people to updated their standalone client installs of Office 365 software to versions that will be supported beyond October 13th.

In going through the details, I expect there will be many cries as people fall foul of MS's end of service support dates and discover things unexpectedly stop working.

Interestingly, W10 builds 1709, 1807, 1809 & 1903 also go EoL.

Re: But can you really disable icloud backups?

>If it has a SIM or a radio of any description ...

In the UK a mobile doesn't need a SIM to connect to a network and make an emergency call...

Re: That would not have gone over well

we could potentially see a totalitarian data-driven hegemony

Could?

Perhaps Bruce Sterling really did have a glimpse of the future.

Perhaps the intention post-Brexit is for the UK to become a Datahaven...

Re: I don’t see how USB-C solves the charger-zoo problem......

>Disingenuous nonsense.

Few devices will ever need 100W chargers.

You missed the point, whilst I agree the 100W is a little sensationalist, the principle being spoke of is totally valid.

Today I have a collection of "USB" chargers, gathered over the years from various phones and tablets. To tell them apart I have to get the magnifying glass out and read the practically illegible writing on the adaptor (remember the differing output ratings of the iPhone charger, yet all identically packaged?). So it is pot luck whether the phone gets paired with the "right" charger or not.

In some respects the variations permitted is making the USB charging environment look very similar to the environment that exists with other low voltage/current power adaptors. What is needed is some sensible operational standards and user friendly/obvious labelling:

Re: Tangle of cables

>It had got to the stage of needing to wear my reading glasses to ponder the end of cables to figure out which one was required for which device and to make sure it was inserted the correct way up.

Bright coloured nail varnish is a great help here. I've used it to great effect with both elderly parents and the kids when they were younger.

>Well, for one, a DB25 is larger than the bottom of most phones. Secondly, it's not very ubiquitous.

Well, it was pretty ubiquitous back in the days of VDUs and modems, it was a big thing when PC's went from having a DB25 connector to a DB9 and the widely used 9-pin DIN keyboard connector was replaced by the 6-pin mini-DIN connector... Backwards compatibility being gained through the use of adaptors, which is also how you connect a 6-pin mni-DIN keyboard and mouse to a USB port.

>However, the problem is that it will stifle development.

Standardisation can and does drive markets...

We only need to look a few years back to the time before USB to see the (mobile phone) market's normal response to to things: do very much the same thing, but just make sure it is ever so slightly different to both the competition and last year's connector. Result: the drawer of useless adapters, that people don't remember which device they go with.

Yes, it does introduce a hurdle to the rapid introducton of new technology, but that can be addressed by the creation of suitable forums, just as we see with the IEEE 802 committees and the managed evolution of the RJ-45 connector and associated twisted-pair data cable Standards.

Re: Microsoft Win10 Specs

>There's still a 32 bit version, if you want to try it. The flat UI should be less CPU demanding too....

Needs to be, as recent generations of Intel CPU's don't support Win10 32 bit drivers. [ Intel's easy to read table and Microsofts fuller viewpoint, which includes Win10 builds, AMD etc.].

Re: Microsoft Win10 Specs

>Someone used to be able to do it, but I haven't seen a recent example.

I suspect that was because El Reg didn't make "Anonymous Coward" and variants such as "Anonymous Coward " reserved Forum user names...

Re: Panic? What Panic?

>If you need to use file sharing with Windows XP, you only have SMB1

Out-of-the-box/vanilla XP granted, but there are still many third-party NFS clients around in addition to Windows Services for UNIX.

>it looks like Firefox is the most up-to-date option with support ending in 2018 assuming all the script blockers still work with that version.

There shouldn't be a problem with the relevant data files themselves, the issues will be firstly getting XP to connect to the relevant sources to auto-update the files, the second is for the blocker add-on to intelligently stop doing software updates when the next update is incompatible with XP...

Re: won't somebody think of the users?

Agree, whilst the upgrade to Catalina did warn that some applications were not compatible, the warning wasn't totally clear. So in my case it warned that Office 2016 needed an update, update was applied, on the other side, clicking on Word 2016 simply resulted in being taken to the iStore and being offered to install Office 365...

Now having fun locating discounted digital Office licenses that stand some chance of actually being kosher.