* Posts by MotorcyclesFish

18 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Sep 2013

Using WhatsApp for your business comms? It's either that or reinstall Lotus Notes

MotorcyclesFish

Re: Confused

If you can accept the huge risk to data and productivity, that's almost sellable as a "user-led competition" method of discarding useless apps. Almost. It'd be interesting to know what's winning for the users, and what's winning for the sysadmins.

An AI system has just created the most realistic looking photos ever

MotorcyclesFish

Re: Unrealistic

Shot in a grim, stark black-and-white documentary style, like those portraits of grizzled civilians in warzones?

UK rail lines blocked by unexpected Windows dialog box

MotorcyclesFish

"Why a copy of Office is needed on a PC tasked with showing line information is anyone’s guess"

Because the pictured screen is a very zoomed out Excel spreadsheet with updated information populated by a 30,000 line VBA script.

Google fuels up Chromecast Wi-Fi flooding fix

MotorcyclesFish

Re: BT HUB 5

Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

There was a story recently of BT Hub TCP/IP implementation being so bad that Google issued a specific Chromecast patch to try and get their dear customers online through the Hubs.

Link

BBC Telly Tax petition given new Parliament debate date

MotorcyclesFish

This all seems quaint and amusing

From the perspective of one who has been disengaged for some years from the idea of TV watched when they want to send it out, rather than when I want to watch it.

With plenty of high-quality subscription streaming services and some cracking educational channels on YouTube (the likes of Tom Scott, Feature History, Ten Minute History and Minute Earth), I can't imagine why anyone would feel the need to still have a licence like that. The BBC is still chucking out quality content available elsewhere - one of my favourites, Orphan Black, is quite clearly announced as from the BBC before each episode starts on Netflix - and it seems to me that the broadcast delivery method and its associated tax are now obsolete, even if those engaged in it haven't realised yet.

Slack re-invents the extranet and shared Notes databases with cross-company teams

MotorcyclesFish

Re: Notes productivity

Argh, I get palpitations any time anyone mentions that hateful pile of cr*p. I'm glad it's been consigned to history in all but the most misbegotten organisations.

Nearly three-quarters of convicted TV Licence non-payers are women

MotorcyclesFish

Haven't had a TV licence in years

Netflix/Amazon/Youtube provide all I need on the occasion that I'm interested in watching something.

To me, it's a simple case of "vote with your feet".

I look forward to a time when houses don't have ugly antennae on top, too.

Canadian sniper makes kill shot at distance of 3.5 KILOMETRES

MotorcyclesFish

milliLinguine per furlong-metre

Pick a measurement system - metric, Reg or retro, and stick to it!!

Tim Cook signs SAP for iOS – SANA app pact

MotorcyclesFish
Thumb Down

Re: SAP

Not nearly as bad as SAP B1, their disruptive* small-business treacle-as-a-service offering.

Utterly horrendous bit of beta thick-client software with dubious data structure, inane security and archaic GUI choices, designed with ground-up obfuscation to support the network of idiotic consultants who happily fork over their cash for training and certification based on the unspoken agreement that SAP will continue to obfuscate as much as possible.

*disruptive to the implementing business, not the marketplace

Big Blue bloodbath: More IBM staff slashed in Europe, US

MotorcyclesFish
Coffee/keyboard

Perhaps a good time

To make Domino/Notes end of life?

That's probably tax deductible as charity work, being as it would improve the lives of countless thousands of people...

Esc as that's what Notes users will do anything to do.

Brits seek rousing name for polar research vessel

MotorcyclesFish

Re: ideas

RSS Ice Brexit

Shopping for PCs? This is what you'll be offered in 2016

MotorcyclesFish

I'd be interested to know whether Windows 10 was responsible for a surge in the purchase of Windows 10 machines or of Linux ones...

MotorcyclesFish
Pint

Re: "Nobody needs to load software from disc any more"

I think it's less that "nobody needs to load from a portable storage medium these days" and more that "loading from a portable storage medium rarely includes disc these days"

Beer because a glass is also a portable storage medium

After Burner: Sega’s jet-fighting, puke-inducing arcade marvel

MotorcyclesFish

Re: Happy memories

We'd have been there around the same time, as a family member was big into the Rec Ice Hockey scene then, although I was still too young to play the machines properly.

My favourite pasttime as a whippersnapper there was combing the vending machines for forgotten 20ps (once found 60p in the Fanta dispenser-type machine that was to the left as you came down the main steps to the rink level, at 6 years old I thought I'd won the lottery!)

Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows: The spirit of Clippy lives on

MotorcyclesFish
FAIL

Re: Why so few new features?

Hammer, nail, head.

I am one of those who loves the fresh feeling of a new version with new features to play with, and enjoy more the plaintive cries of the slow-witted around me in the office as they are reminded that the world requires you once again adapt or die, permanence being an illusion and all that.

However, I'm also one of those VBA hacky Excel management charty types and I'm continually disappointed at just how much they are reskinning Excel 97. They need to do a ground-up recoding and:

1. Add a modern, genuinely powerful charting engine with everything from sankey charts to network maps. Hell, even a stacked+grouped bar chart has been missing (and hacked in by various geniuses) since roughly Office 95.

2. Sort out pivottables, they are clumsy and missing some huge features and useability improvements. Nested (blank)s anyone for a column-defined pivottable? Only one label field allowed before hierarchical or report data? Neither are any use really.

3. Update the VBA IDE to something vaguely modern please. How hard can it be to take VS2013 Express for Desktop, rip out all of the extra bits, bung in some default interop references and let us poor sods take advantage of the IDE advancements such as

a. Dark theme (new eyes please)

b. Better intellisense

c. Contextual highlighting/colour

d. I guess VBA.NET is too much to hope for really (better object types/collections)

Rant over, how'd I do?

Mine's the one with the VBA-VB.NET cross reference guide in.

The Register Monopoly Pubcrawl Mobile Map: VODAFONE VICTOR in LONDON

MotorcyclesFish

So is it 3 FTW when outside of The Smoke?

So we think 3 for 3G/4G coverage then? Mulling ditching O2 for 3 in the next few weeks and would like to know if the grass is greener.

Are, I ask the jury, the 3 customer service gripes still valid? (Hard-selling, grumpy)

I am sorely tempted by their unlimited data (25GB(!) cap when roaming), 600 minute tariff for a promotional £18/month on a 12 month contract.

Assuming my iPhone 5 doesn't magically decide it's obsolescent and slow down 30ms after Apple releases the iPhone 6 or iPhone Air or iPhone 5SS or whatever next week.

Blimey! ANOTHER Bitcoin bleed brouhaha

MotorcyclesFish

Silly robbers

Hit a man too hard and you can only rob him once.

Hit a man just hard enough and you can rob him every day for the rest of his life.

Apple seeds Golden Master iOS 7 to devs, calls Sep 18 ship date

MotorcyclesFish
Facepalm

As long as they fix AES wifi problems

That's all I care about.