* Posts by AMBxx

2714 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jan 2014

Ordnance Survey to take a poke at Pokémon-style gaming with outdoorsy AR adventure

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

Offline is fine - you plot a route then download. Keeps the map tiles on the phone. If you can't be bothered to plot a proper route, just draw a line through all the areas you're likely to need. Not elegant but gives a full offline map.

Alternatively, buy a map and enter the map reference to download the entire map.

Zoom is fixed too - just change the layer from automatic to 1:25000.

Only area that badly need improvement is 'favourites'. Not possible to group in any way so have to scroll through a massive list of routes to find the one you're looking for.

Best £20 a year I spend.

United, Mesa airlines order 200 electric 19-seater planes for short-hop flights

AMBxx Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Unintended consequences...

It was just an approximate calculation. Please don't make me fly from Hull!

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Unintended consequences...

My nearest airport is Leeds. Electric connection to another UK airport or to Schiphol sounds ideal. Much quicker than getting the train or driving.

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: 250 mile range/19 passengers

Westray to Papa Westray. 90 seconds by plane, not much other option. Ideal for electric and on the way.

Microsoft extends security updates for Windows and SQL Server 2012 and 2008

AMBxx Silver badge

I've been working with MS SQL for 20 years. Switched to Postgres for a recent project. Very impressed so far, but I am missing some of the stuff in management studio, especially index recommendations. Performance is generally very good and the unnest function is a life saver at the moment.

Only thing I really hate about Postgres is the case sensitivity of column and table names - even mixed case needs to be qualified or it's assumed to be lower case. Driving me nuts as I've always used camel case.

LibreOffice 7.2 release candidate reveals effort to be Microsoft-compatible

AMBxx Silver badge
Windows

Re: "improve import and export compatibility with Microsoft Office"

Given Microsoft's dominant market share, why would they spend time improving compatibility with anything else?

Bit like testing a website compatibility with users of old browsers - they might make a lot of noise, but there aren't very many of them, so don't waste your time.

BT to phase out 3G in UK by 2023 for EE, Plusnet, BT Mobile subscribers

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Hmm...

I get 1 bar of 4G that disappears when I try to do anything. Instead, I have a little box that gives me 3G at full signal and routes over broadband.

Guess which service the phone connects to if I forget to turn off 4G.

Imagine a world where Apple shacked up with Xerox in the '80s: How might it look today?

AMBxx Silver badge
Happy

Lots of fun!

In my alternative history, Lotus buy Wordperfect and produce the perfect office suite. Better still, PowerPoint does not exist!

Google killed desktop Drive and replaced it with two apps. Now it’s killing those, and Drive for desktop is returning

AMBxx Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Google - great at search...

They're pretty good at gathering vast amounts of data on a large proportion of the world's population too!

Jackie 'You have no authority here' Weaver: We need more 50-somethings in UK tech

AMBxx Silver badge
FAIL

Re: See through

I'm over 50. Work for myself. 4 day week. From home for last 20 years. Make decent money (normally £100k+). Plan to retire well before 60. Pretty sweet.

Perhaps there's a shortage of over 50s because we earn enough to retire early? Maybe the statistic to compare us with is professionals over 50 rather than the general workforce over 50?

Microsoft patches PrintNightmare – even on Windows 7 – but the terror isn't over

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: It is about time

He's one of those Linux user experts who shouts about not using Windows since 1985!

Black screens in Windows 11? Bork has seen it all before

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: W11

Need to be an Insider on the suicidal Dev track

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: W11

It's worth a look just to see what horrible design decisions are made when you try and shoehorn new ideas into an existing UI.

Central start button that moves every time you start a new app. Doesn't even look central as you still have the clock etc bottom left.

New Window management stuff looks nice if you have a really big screen.

I'm sure it will improve before release.

Google Cloud poaches SAP exec Adaire Fox-Martin to run EMEA ops

AMBxx Silver badge

Poached?

You sure she wasn't pushed: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sap-se-results-idUSKBN29J2Y4

SAP have closed their global channel sales operation except for the major partners. Not sure if she was part of the decision to close it or just caught in the cross-fire.

Xiaomi my heart is still beating: Reg hack takes Chinese giant's new fitness band for a spin

AMBxx Silver badge
Windows

Re: I love mine

Pleased with mine too but the custom themes are only useful if you're carrying a pocket magnifying glass.

Openreach to UK businesses: Switch is about to hit the fan. Prepare for withdrawal of the copper-based phone network now or risk disruption

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: "Openreach owner BT will pay minimal tax in the coming years"

I guess you're not bothering with pensions or ISAs as you like to pay the maximum amount of tax possible.

AMBxx Silver badge
Coat

Re: 1987

When I were a lad, sometimes the phones would be out for years.

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: The future is coming

In the future, with all the green power, electricity outages will be far more common. To counter that, we'll all need big batteries to backup our household electricity.

Problem solved (sort of, in an extremely complex, expensive way)

AMBxx Silver badge
Boffin

Re: "Openreach owner BT will pay minimal tax in the coming years"

That's not how it works. Corporation Tax is due to increase. That give companies an incentive to delay capital spending as they might as well pay tax at the current lower rate, then spend to reduce taxes when the higher rate kicks in. By introducing the 'super deduction' the government has reduced the incentive to wait.

In the end it's a win-win. Companies spend sooner which boosts the economy now which is when we really need it.

I can't really benefit from the 'super deduction'. Instead, I'm paying little into my pension this year to max out the CT payment. When the rate goes up, I'll make pension payments to keep my little company in the 19% band for CT.

Cross-discipline boffin dream team issues social media warning: FIX IT NOW!

AMBxx Silver badge
Megaphone

A good start would be if MSM just refused to report on anything on social media. If Z-list celeb wants to make an announcement, let them use an old fashioned press release. Slowing down the dialogue and ignoring the nutters will soon help mitigate the problems.

Five words everyone wants to hear: Microsoft has 'visually refreshed' Office

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Custom ribbon?

Looks horribly like built-in chat in that screenshot too.

'It looks like you're trying to concentrate on work. Would you like to be interrupted?'

UK artists seek 'luvvie levy' on new gadgets to make up for all the media that consumers access online

AMBxx Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Oh the irony ...

It's 'only in Britain' because a lot of other countries have already been daft enough to implement.

The M in M1 is for moans: How do you turn a new MacBook Pro into a desktop workhorse?

AMBxx Silver badge
Thumb Up

Best you don't buy the Apple M1 then!

AMBxx Silver badge
Windows

I do similar but with a mere 3 monitors. It's also cheaper to have 3 monitors than 1 giant monitor.

Not sure how this will change with the snazzy new window stuff in Windows 11.

Bug at payments processor WorldPay swipes £2k+ per ride ticket from Brighton Pier revellers

AMBxx Silver badge
Windows

Cash please

I think I'll be using cash more in future.

Treaty of Roam finally in ashes: O2 cracks, joins rivals, adds data roaming charges for heavy users in EU

AMBxx Silver badge
Megaphone

Really don't care

I don't see why I should subsidise those who want EU roaming - it's not something I need.

If there's enough demand and it can be done profitably, someone will offer it.

Containers make life easier for the software vendors you buy from, and that's why they'll win

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Take a step back

>> It's like saying the phone you bought can be used only in your kitchen and you can only call five numbers.

Don't give Apple any ideas! Next, you can only call other Apple users.

Price of Microsoft's Surface Duo plummets to better represent middling hardware ... but only if you're in the US

AMBxx Silver badge
Thumb Down

MS Band Again

We saw it with band. First release misconceived. Second release nearly there. Third release looks good on paper, but never appears.

Similar with phones, just took them longer to get it right before abandoning.

VMs were a fad fit for the Great Recession. Containers’ time has finally come

AMBxx Silver badge
Facepalm

In any discussion like this, there are two opinions you should always ignore:

1) We should do everything like this

2) We should do nothing like this

As ever, the truth is somewhere in between.

How about we just choose the right tool for the job?

Windows 11: Meet the new OS, same as the old OS (or close enough)

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: What is an OS for?

All these posts and nobody tries to answer the original question.

The OS is there to provide an abstraction layer over the hardware and to provide the necessary services for applications to run. That's all.

If vendor bundles a new email program, it's not an OS upgrade (Apple, I'm looking at you!).

Yes, the window manager isn't strictly part of the OS, but it makes life a lot easier to have a consistent UI out of the box. What you choose to do after that is your problem, but should be a possibility.

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Eh?

He's half right. Crashes are now very rare. The problem with 10 is the update stuff.

UK tells UN that nation-states should retaliate against cyber badness with no warning

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Its largely irrelevant

I bet your one of those Southerners.

AMBxx Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: Its largely irrelevant

When did Whitby move to Scotland?

AMBxx Silver badge
Joke

Re: Battle-Ready Brexit Britain

If France and Italy went to war, would the French be able to move quickly enough to issue their surrender to the retreating Italians?

We've found another reason not to use Microsoft's Paint 3D – researchers

AMBxx Silver badge
Windows

Re: Paint can be messy

I don't have Paint 3D - one of the joys of running Windows Server 2019 as a desktop PC (I need hyperV to work with Veeam).

On the other hand, I still have Internet Explorer installed, so it's not all good news.

UK government bows to pressure, agrees to delay NHS Digital grabbing the data of England's GP patients

AMBxx Silver badge
WTF?

>> build a trusted research environment and ensure that data is accessed securely.

Shouldn't that have been done in time for July 1st rather than the new date?

I've now successfully persuaded 6 people to opt out. Now have another 2 months to work on a few more.

Lotus Notes refuses to die, again, as HCL debuts Domino 12

AMBxx Silver badge
Mushroom

allows business users to create apps and forms

>> allows business users to create apps and forms

Nuke it, now.

Just when everyone thought things might be looking up, Dido Harding admits interest in top job at NHS England

AMBxx Silver badge

Problem is that if too many people opt out, they'll cancel the program. Then restart it in a couple of years so that we all have to opt out all over again!

SAP's RISE 'yet to prove its worth in practice...' Key German user group offers giant a progress 'reality check'

AMBxx Silver badge

6 Years!

I can't believe it's been 6 years. In the words of my old SAP Account Manager, "SAP have bet the house on HANA".

Looks like they may be losing their house!

Lack of clarity on RISE: Transformation, implementation and data management all roles for partners. 'So, what's SAP doing?'

AMBxx Silver badge

Company policy

Lack of clarity has been SAP's company policy since they started. Just look at their awful website.

They shafted their channel partners, now they're working their way towards being a direct only business.

Huawei names first tablets, phones to run its Android-in-disguise HarmonyOS 2

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Forked it

I agree with all your sentiments. Problem is, all that matters to most users is the availability of Apps. Without the Play store, you've no chance.

NHS GP data grab: Royal College of General Practitioners urges health body to communicate better

AMBxx Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Right to opt out

Keep shouting this very loudly.

Your patient data is not anonymous. Each of us has a unique transaction history. You only need to know a few of those transactions to identify a patient.

I did some work for a company that does scans for the NHS. This was around the time that David Beckham was being scanned for his metatarsal. Wouldn't have taken much to find that in the data. If that had been part of his NHS data, it would have been trivial to have his entire medical history.

Give me a (tax) break: UK broadband plumber Openreach to almost double the number of rural premises to receive FTTP

AMBxx Silver badge

Nope - it just stops corporates delaying spending until the increase in corporation tax.

Jaguar Land Rover reaches for graph database in search of supply chain knowledge during chip shortage

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Solution looking for a problem

Doesn't matter. From my NHS experience, you do the work, roll out the product, then nothing. No users and it's quietly forgotten until someone else comes along with a similar idea.

Visual Basic 6 returns: You've been a good developer all year. You have social distanced, you have helped your mom. Here's your reward

AMBxx Silver badge

The right tool for the right job. Look how hard 'codeless' development keeps being pushed. VB wasn't that far off the mark, just plumb all the events and off you go.

For small applications fronting a simple database it was ideal.

The problem was when people tried to write stuff that should have been considered beyond the scope of VB.

Stuck in R/3verse: East Sussex County Council struggles to move forward with £25m SAP replacement

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Gone sapped?

I'm making good money using REST APIs to fetch data from cloud to proper on-prem databases. All because the cloud stuff is yet another data silo and has crap reports.

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: Gone sapped?

Compared to moving to SAP's cloud, their on-prem stuff is barely even house arrest!

Mayday! Mayday! Microsoft has settled on a build and Windows 10 21H1 is inbound

AMBxx Silver badge

Re: I love Windows - update are never an issue

You'll be one of those people who insisted Windows XP was better than 7 for years too.

Microsoft demotes Calibri from default typeface gig, starts fling with five other fonts

AMBxx Silver badge
Coat

Fun with fonts

Where's Brick when you need him?

PCs continue to sell like hot cakes and industry can barely keep up with demand – analyst

AMBxx Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Never buy brand new shiny.

Not for business use in the UK. The new 'super deduction' against corporation tax only applies to new equipment. My accountant tells me that to qualify I need to buy a complete computer, not components. That changes my normal calculations significantly.

Current plan is top of range but in a cheapo case, cheapo PSU and small HDD. Then use the internals to upgrade my 'proper' PC.

Looks like my old bits will fetch a good price on ebay!