* Posts by werdsmith

7096 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Feb 2011

Linux laptop vendor Slimbook updates its ranges

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Keyboard choices

If I can't easily use a keyboard for doing spreadsheet work, or even simple repetitive calculator work, it is worse than useless.

Worse than useless to you.

But it's not all about you.

US EV drivers won't be able to choose vehicle safety alert sounds

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I’ve noticed that lorries have varying reversing sounds. Some are just ordinary high pitched beeps, others are like raucous crows.

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Re: Darn...

The Jetson cars was a trill, would make an excellent choice.

But if you listen to a Honda hybrid in electric drive, they make a sound like the (SHADO) UFO flying saucer.

Twitter sues Musk: He can't just 'change his mind, trash the company, walk away'

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People who don't have very good impulse control often find themselves in court for trivial reasons. Musk is doing it on Texas scale.

FYI: BMW puts heated seats, other features behind paywall

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Re: "It is possible to pay a fixed, one-time fee to activate a monthly option permanently"

Not many people buy new cars these days. It’s all lease or personal lease. The final part is when they chuck the car in at the end of the deal.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: No economic sense

Most cars these days are on subscription anyway, not just the options, the whole car. Leasing or PCP is the most popular way to drive a new car, outright purchases of new cars are a small minority.

So what’s the difference? A variation in the monthly payment based on what options are enabled?

Currently, you can load up options or go through higher spec versions on PCP because the cost is lost in the monthly payment and the offset of the resale value vs the final settlement value.

The article doesn’t say if the car buyer will set the options permanently for the term of the deal or if options can be added or removed during the term. If the former then there is no difference to the standard PCP/lease buyer unless they want to pay the final settlement to keep the car (rare occurrence).

Used buyers are more affected.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Monthly?

Are you being tongue in cheek or do you genuinely not understand that air con is useful for more things than just cooling a car interior?

It is most useful right through the winter, especially on chilly mornings. This is the kind of discussion I have have to have with my grandparents.

First-ever James Webb Space Telescope image revealed

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The better alternative is to keep the politicians away from this stuff. Bill Clinton was in office when JWST was started.

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Very pleased to see the JWST online and working “nominally”.

I did watch the Joe Biden live reveal yesterday an it was quite the cringe fest.

Apple's new MacBook Air: Is the jump to M2 silicon worth another $200?

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Re: Inexplicable...

Widespread defects yes. But if one of your little PCB components decaps itself then you are on your own.

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Re: Inexplicable...

A possibility is all it is. In reality it is a consumer right rarely exercised as the onus is on the consumer to prove the problem.

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Re: Not the main issue

A single chip design as a workaround for semiconductor shortages in what will be the top selling version.

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Re: No horse race

https://isapplesiliconready.com/

Plenty of decent software.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Heat throttling

I think the examples of the CPU hitting 108 C was exporting Canon raw video footage, which is a task probably better suited to a desktop Mac, but still something a Macbook Pro user might be doing.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Inexplicable...

2 year warranty is for defects present at the time of manufacture, like those dodgy keyboard a while back.

If there is a unique case of a component failure after 370 days, you are going to have your work cut out proving it was a fault present when the product was manufactured.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Not the main issue

It maybe that there are problems sourcing the faster SSD in the 256GB size.

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That 1.2k M2 model with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD is not doing particularly well.

That's the Pro. This article is about Air. I suspect most Pros will have 512GB and up or in future won't even offer 256GB. It's still a decent performing machine with a very long battery life.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Inexplicable...

Not the only reasons, VAT, volatile currency exchange, cost of fulfilling Uk consumer protection laws.

People are also ignoring that these machine have a decent resale value so the cost is offset somewhat by that.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Heat throttling

It won't sustain performance, it's not expected to. Throttling will happen sooner on the Air - as it is built for lighter tasks. The pro is for the heavier tasks.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Inexplicable...

It's a dollar based company so there is also a cushion to absorb exchange fluctuation.

Nothing inexplicable about it, natural born whingers just love to whinge.

x86 Raspberry Pi Desktop is a great way to revive an old PC

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Re: "For a fat guy, you don't sweat TOO much...", and other examples of 'damned by faint praise'

I dunno what all this "serious" condescension is about but the article is about a lightweight OS for non technical users. Not serious OS for uber-nerds.

Visual Studio Code Server untethers developers from their workstations

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Re: Remote Desktop Connection

I didn’t complain about MS licensing, just pointed out a detail in response to a comparison between this software and RDP. I find It’s actually really easy to get along with 2 sessions,

Microsoft developed RDP from T128 protocol which came from Data Connection Limited of London, who became Metaswitch a long time ago. More recently Microsoft bought Metaswitch.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Remote Desktop Connection

RDP desktops or applications give you two concurrent sessions for free, need any more then you have to pass over some $$$ to MS. I don't know about the situation with this thing. But it's not the first of its kind so there is some demand somewhere.

werdsmith Silver badge

Personally I've used a lot of IDEs and Editors. Never actually settling because there's always something not quite right, from a bloaty nightmare of Eclipse right through to simple text editor and shell script build.

When I tried VSC I first thought it was awkward, until I found the right extensions, and I haven't looked back, it's ideal for me. Cross platform, relatively lightweight, not especially associated with a particular language and its 3p extension options are seemingly endless.

And I'm not alone in finding this, which leads to the availability of loads of tutorials in how to sites and videos that are standardised in this one environment. Which makes my communication easier too.

I know there is an underlying bias in some people because it's associated with Microsoft but objectively, for me and a lot of other people it has been the best thing to happen to our development situation for years.

Broadcom's VMware buy got you worried? Give these 5 FOSS hypervisors a spin

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Re: Beware the Oracle

Indeed I know of one company where the leech has attached because one member of staff download MySQL Workbench. So I don’t touch even with a barge pole anything Oralce. So no MySQL, no VirtualBox and definitely no Java.

FBI and MI5 bosses: China cheats and steals at massive scale

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: S IP mple gix

Remember Coca-Cola's and KFC's recipes are business secrets not patents.

Neither of them actually exist in reality, they are easy enough to deduce. The idea of a secret recipe is a marketing gimmick.

Boris Johnson set to step down with tech legacy in tatters

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Sub-sea nukes

The wind does not blow on demand.

Like it's always 5 o clock somewhere, the wind is always blowing somewhere.

So a power grid can always have a wind contribution.

Systemd supremo Lennart Poettering leaves Red Hat for Microsoft

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What are the chances of a rollback of Poetteringisms?

One of the first RISC-V laptops may ship in September, has an NFT hook

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Re: CPU

Special license? To do basic research? That’s exactly why people should just switch to RISC-V

That's idealism. Idealism is the place people consider first before they go with realism.

werdsmith Silver badge

I would be interested myself, but the way this is being done is a bit unnerving. I expect it will be US keyboard layout only.

I have a RISC V SBC and it’s fun to mess with but the Linux support is all a bit ropey, qemu on my existing laptop could have provided for my requirements just as well.

I’m way, I’ll keep watching for more information.

Windows 11: The little engine that could, eventually

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Re: Sliding down the hill - backwards

I put Windows 11 on one laptop out of curiosity, it is stable and lean as you say and the laptop isn't even qualified hardware, I had to use the hack.

Some less mainstream device drivers don't work with it, but that's the vendor of the device being the problem (yes you Yaesu).

The Raspberry Pi Pico goes wireless with the $6 W

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Re: Hear that distant rumbling getting closer and closer ?

I have a RISC V sbc. It’s good to try out, but it’s not ready in terms of using in projects unless you are prepared to spend the extra time getting all the software working reliably, because it’s all a bit flakey still. For any new project I need to get on with I will still choose established devices with solid support and community.

RISC V will come but as you say yourself, it’s still distant.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: I/O

It has 2 x UART, 2 x SPI, and 2 x I2C controllers, plus programmable PIO so you can make up your own IO interfaces if those don't do what you want.

Plenty sensible stuff gets done with it.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: While the Pi 4 Model B remains resolutely sold out at time of writing...

Don't tell everyone!

NanoAvionics satellite pulls out GoPro to take stunning selfie over Earth

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Re: Mmmmm....... beer.........

The MP42 has both reaction wheels and magnetorquers.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Did they build a little robot to yank the battery?

If it even has a battery. It should be powered from the satellite power supply, so it should be easy to power cycle it by remote command if required. Add your command into the next upload sequence. Easier than on a Kayak.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Satellite

Join your local AMSAT.

Arrogant, subtle, entitled: 'Toxic' open source GitHub discussions examined

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Re: Racist, Sexist, and Antisemitic

Thank you, vituperative added to my personal lexicon.

As for The Register, it’s actually a rare miracle of modern web discussion, such a civil place is actually to be cherished.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Eh?

A developer has to decide how to do something, and follow that direction. It is not possible to design a project to please everyone. If it was changed to follow the requirements of a particular user then they might then break the requirements of another user.

Arm jumps on ray tracing bandwagon with beefy GPU design

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Re: Ray-tracing on mobile phones

I do remember something where scenes were defined in a text files using some kind of ray trace scripting language and then left to render over night.

Spheres on a chessboard background with a light source, it was amazing for me at the time.

Google said to be taking steps to keep political campaign emails out of Gmail spam bin

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Re: Hint to Google

Having seen quite a lot of General Elections come and go, I have found it to be one of the truest things ever.

I learned about the stupidity of idealism a long time ago.

They are different in what they promise, but they are all the same in the constraints that they face when they achieve office. And despite how they try and present themselves, they are all the same self-serving sociopathic narcissists.

Whatever hit the Moon in March, it left this weird double crater

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Re: High angle of impact

Are you Bill of the Planetary Society ?

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The only salvage mission would be to sample to dust cloud after impact and analyse for trace metals.

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This should tell us about the angle of impact, as high energy craters tend to be round even when the impact is at very oblique angles. An object with a mass at each end, or a rocket booster engine instantaneously separated from its tank section. 16 metres base, simple geometry am very amused and nostalgic how the articles gives us the dimensions in yards.

Anyone here go access to iSALE and a spare week to set up a sim?

Startup rattles tin for e-paper monitor with display fast enough to play video

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Hmm

I’ll be watching this closely as I love working outside. My current arrangement is to use a Boox 13.3 inch e reader in HDMI mode. It works but it is a rats nest of cables.

A purpose built laptop with a e paper screen is a dream I never thought would come true because the market is so niche. I don’t even need video playback. Fingers crossed. Only 1241 responders on a 50,000 target market survey, I won’t get my hopes up.

ZTE intros 'cloud laptop' that draws just five watts of power

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I’m sort of interested to know more about it, to see if there was any possibility of dodging it into something useful.

Linus Torvalds says Rust is coming to the Linux kernel 'real soon now'

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Re: Seriously, are programmers that bad?

RUST is an excellent teacher, for bad programmers like me.

I attempt to do some coding in RUST and the compiler gives me such a bollocking that I am more careful next time.

Totaled Tesla goes up in flames three weeks after crash

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Re: Am I the only one

Yes, when loading the office lift in the morning, we politely hold the doors for anyone approaching. Unless it’s the sweat soaked cyclist, nobody wants to stand next to him so we pretend we haven’t seen him and let the doors close.

If you see him waiting by the lift, take the stairs.

werdsmith Silver badge

Re: Am I the only one

Yes, the current state of EV technology has room for improvement, it is in its early stage but as a bridge to the future it should be much better in time..

But there isn’t much further to go with improving the impact of the ICE, particularly when you sharing a high sided urban street with hundreds of foot-born air breathers.

RISC OS: 35-year-old original Arm operating system is alive and well

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Happy to read about this. I’ve been using RISC OS on a Raspberry PI 400, as the Direct version comes with useful software bundled, which it was necessary to pay for before. I use it when I want to do distraction free writing, but I also like the nostalgic charm.

Long may it continue to develop with the SMP etc, I wish I had the time and chops to help.