Posts by John Brown (no body)

Nah, the BOFH said they can do a serial port based firmware flash that takes hours to do because it usually fails 4 times out of 5 and is slower anyway, rather than the quicker network port based flash because now it's borked the port based flash is no longer an option.

RTFA, as they sometimes say around these here parts :-)

Re: Perfect timing

"2. Who says taxes are due in India? She is a UK resident, she is tax resident in the UK, and her status is "non-domiciled" - that doesn't mean she's an Indian tax resident. "Non-domiciled" is just a way of reducing a UK tax bill with a flimsy excuse, basically a hangover from the British empire that is still alive today."

Clearly you've not been reading or listening to the news recently or you'd know that being "non-dom" doesn't mean you don't pay taxes at all. You have to declare *where* you are domiciled for tax purposes. That makes it harder to avoid the taxes where you *are* domiciled. I don't agree with it, but I have bothered to listen to the reports of who the law works currently. And FWIW, Labour have been bleating about this for many, many years, but never did anything about it when they were in power for 13 years.

Re: Sorry Elon, but what's the point ?

Second Life. Myspace. Friendster. Google+....

Re: Sorry Elon, but what's the point ?

"On the one hand, Musk could start Mutter and fail to get enough users to make it viable."

I'm not sure the build fast, fail fast, learn, rebuild model works in this case :-)

Although to be fair, I'd much rather see a Twitter crash'n'burn rather than a Falcon or Starship.

Re: Strewth !.... How much more evidence do you need fed to you?

Maybe someone with a lot of money has bought the source code to amanfromMars 1?

Re: Money can't buy maturity

"That would be "cave emptor", I believe - Latin being very, very beholden to the endings of words (as any fule kno)."

I didn't kno that! Clearly I'm not a fule!! Oh, wait. You git! Now I know too!!!

Re: Solo a space-mano

Governments can print money when they need more. That works in the short term, at least. And if they haven't already, Russia is very likely to default on its debts (again!). Also, the USA ran a human Moon landing program while fighting an expensive war in Vietnam.

Re: The joys of Linux

Yeah, so rest have to suffer. The large paying customers have the option to use their own patch deployment servers and in the main do that, so can choose whatever patch schedule they want. They don't actually need MS to have a monthly schedule. Of course, it might be lawyers demanding the MS patch release cycle. If they get hacked while sitting on a non-deployed patch, it's their problem. If they are waiting on the MS monthly patch cycle, it's "out of their control" and "unavoidable" because it was MS sitting on the patch.

Re: One reason to stay with Windows - Outlook

"for others it Excel macros"

LibreOffice does macros too. Just not MS ones. So it's not a problem for people wanting to write macros for use on LibreOffice. It's only a problem for people wanting to run other peoples macros from MSOffice. But then those people on MSOffice can't run my macros because they probably never installed LibreOffice. That;s their problem, not mine. On the other hand, LibreOffice run on both Linux and Windows, so everyone can be happy running LibreOffice Macros, but not vice versa. :-)

Re: One reason to stay with Windows - Outlook

"And in my experience it's no less dysfunctional on the Windows desktop than in the browser-based incarnation I'm obliged to use on Linux."

I find the browser based version is very, very different if said browser is running on Linux and not Windows. Even when the browser, Firefox in this case, is the same point release version. Outlook web access functionality on a browser seems to be dependant on the underlying OS, which is something a web app should never do. I have no idea if this is a real thing or if MS are simply being bastards to anyone not drinking the correct flavour of KoolAid.

Re: The joys of Linux

LOL, at least one person didn't get the joke.

On the other hand, I told the scammers one time that I used Linux. They immediately switched scripts and tried to get me to install the Linux version of TeamViewer. I was quite impressed, but still managed to waste a good 20 minutes of their time "waiting for the download" :-)

Re: The joys of Linux

"And Linux has so many patches that practically every day is patch day. And don't deny it."

Worth bearing in mind though that the patches are for your entire installed system, apps, libraries, fonts and all, not just the OS. I'd be worried if my OS of choice only ever got patches on a specific day of the month instead of as soon as practically possible though.

Re: "Linux Desktop"

"Unless you can't run your application because of something weird."

They are trying. They are trying really hard. I still remember the days when I could sort the Start Menu into the order I wanted it, so even the less frequently used programmes were still easy to find, not just the most often used at the top and the rest buried miles down a long list.

Re: "Linux Desktop"

Windows used to have many different desktop configurations, not just from the options in Control Panel, but many 3rd party add-ons that could totally change or even replace the original desktop. That was back in the Dark Ages, before MS took away users choices. Remember the Themes Pack? Good luck trying even that basic level of customisation of a Windows 10/11 desktop.

Re: "Linux Desktop"

"And you still haven't accepted it. You keep finding any other reason rather than accepting the truth. In another post on this article there was somebody complaining that Dell stopped selling Linux laptops. I pointed out that nobody (in economically viable numbers) was buying them."

Strangely, when Dell first started doing that, Linux laptops cost more than Windows ones, despite the cost of the Windows licence. Maybe it was because of the all the other "demo" shit that Dell were paid to put on the Windows desktop that simply didn't run on Linux? Or also partly because those Windows licenses cost pennies when pre-installed by the manufactures 'cos MS REALLY want every PC to have Windows on them.

Re: "Linux Desktop"

"Windows+R type control hit enter."

Yes, but it used to be easy to find from the Start menu. Most average users have little clue about ANY short cuts. Many still type their password in then USE THE MOUSE to select the password box. No one ever told them about the TAB key. Never mind ALT-F-S (save), ALT-F4 (exit), CTRL-P (Print) to mention the most common shortcuts. I've been doing various levels and type of IT support for 30 years and I'm STILL showing the basics to users, both newly minted straight out of school, and users about to retire.

Re: re. Anyone who tells you Linux is hard to use wasn't paying attention

"And then, this: I plug any of my old (10 - 15 yr old) lenovo laptops that run, hell, I'll say it, run WINDOWS (7 and 10) - and the screens _just work_."

Odds are, that old Lenovo will quite possibly run Linux very well, with all default drivers from the install. Lenovo are pretty good with Linux support. Hell, their own bootable hardware diagnostics tool is a bootable Linux distro on USB stick so, by definition, there are Linux drivers for the hardware.

Re: re. Anyone who tells you Linux is hard to use wasn't paying attention

I've had similar issue here too. My wifes Dell laptop is a pain in the arse as to whether or how well it will work plugged into a large screen/TV. On the other hand, my Toshiba "Just Works" on the same large screens/TV. My rouble-free Toshiba is running FreeBSD, her problematic Dell is running Windows 10 and had no issues running Windows 7.

Hardware and software combinations are complex and mostly work, but when YOU are the one with the problem, in isolation, with a specific bit of hardware or software, it's easy to blame whatever is new and unfamiliar. For the non-techy users, that can be a deal-breaker because they don't know what to do about it.

In general though, Windows has fewer issues because most hardware is designed with Windows in mind and thus provides relevant drivers. Linux and FreeBSD often don't have drivers from the manufacturers, relying on open source reverse engineered drivers using the manufactures specs. That becomes an issue when the hardware has bugs which the manufacture resolves by working around the hardware issue in software, often without telling anyone or updating the specs. Not sure about nowadays, but GFX cards were well known for bits of broken hardware being bypassed by changes to driver software behind the API. ISTR a specific ATI chipset years ago that boasted various hardware accelerations, but some specific function was buggy. It came out later, when the v2.0 hardware was released, that at least one of the v1.0 hardware functions was disabled by the driver, which took on the job in software. Texel shading seem to ring a bell.

Re: I wonder if it would be simpler

Thanks for that. The Hadrian[1] is the sort of thing I was envisioning. The other one seems more like just a repurposed existing robot arm and very limited.

[1] hah!, nice name!, I live near Hadrians Wall, I can Segedunum from my window :-)

I wonder how many people will "get" the name of the robot system.

Re: WFH

"In previous lives I worked in the centre of Manchester,"

I'm with you on that! My job sometimes takes me to Manchester. I'm far enough away that morning rush hour is over before I get there, but sometimes I hit the afternoon rush hour on the way out. What a pig! Even with the completion of the M60 ring road, there are still significant bottlenecks on that motorway in numerous places all around it.

Once upon a time, being a "salary guy" was a badge of honour to aimed for. You got well paid, while being expected to take on extra work/hours when needed for the benefit of company as a whole and therefore yourself. Over time, this is degenerated into what we have today. An expectation of putting in many extra hours purely as a matter of course, and the salary isn't that great anyway. In many cases, being a "salary guy" is the last thing anyone wants!

Re: There s no way to buy more time

"let's see if In July they'll come up with a damage-control counter offer"

If it;s already a 2 hour each way commute, it'd make sense to maybe do a longer day 4 days per week.

Although I was a little concerned at the articles reference to a 40 hour week. I've not had a contracted 40 week for about 40 years. It dropped from 40 to 39 in the first couple years of my working life and has been 37.5 for at least the last 25 years. In one of my early jobs, a 4 day working week of 2x9 + 2x9.5hrs was negotiated with an "interesting" shift pattern based on 4 days out of 6 such that every 5-6 weeks the days off would be Fri, Sat, Sun of one week and Mon, Tues, Sun of the next, almost like having a week off every 6 weeks. Something weird with overtime rates crept in too such that if asked to work on days off (never a Sunday), day 1 was paid at double time and day 2 at time and half, which was nice, since about 4 out of 6 shift patterns included Saturday working which was paid at time and half anyway. I never did find out if the union made a great deal or if the Local Council were just crap at negotiating. No strikes, work to rule or other staff action involved.

Re: There s no way to buy more time

That sounds like a major failure on the part of HR. One of their primary roles is make sure the person the company is employing is who they say they are, live where they claim and have a "Right To Work" in the UK.

Re: There s no way to buy more time

I hadn't realised the EU "freedom of movement" was restricted in that way. In this day and age of computers for calculating wages and taxes, it really shouldn't be an issue. Of course, there's no EU-wide income tax system or tax allowances. On the other hand, I suppose the USA has had this problem and dealt with it years ago with various city, state and federal tax systems all wanting their "proper" share of the employees taxes, especially in State border areas and WFH happening.

Re: Never get the chance to do it again

I've done the occasional job that involved MoD computers and yes, they tend to err on the side of caution and assume anything with storage may have been used for "secret stuff" at some stage in its life. They even pay for manufacturer warranty parts because the faulty parts have to be retained for destruction rather than exchanged. Most parts have updateable firmware so could be used to exfiltrate data if allowed off site.

Re: Dodging a bullet

Well, when my plan to introduce the leaf as a global currency come to fruition, we'll all be rich!!!

(Thanks for the idea Doug!)