Posts by BenM 29

Re: Kyocera

>>Pro tip - safe mode

All well and good if you can get to safe mode without booting Windows 10 in the first place (I'm looking at you 'Secure Boot'). Oh wait, if you reset/power off the machine 3 times as it is doing the whirly icon it detects there is something wrong and lets you get a little further - which of course assumes you get a chance to see the whirly icon.

Once upon a time there was perfectly good way to get at safemode, which didn't rely on you spamming the power button, but it was removed as an improvement. Bring back my f8!

Windows seems predicated on the (misplaced) belief that it won't break before you can log in... shame the people who dream up these things don't actually live in the real world(tm).

Re: can't or ca'n't

Apparently not....

cannot --> ca[n]n[o]t --> ca'n't ;-)

Personally I like the idea of multiple apostrophes indicating every missing letter but each to their own :-)

Re: Well it's a start...

>>the computer is 'told' what model it is so as to only expose the features available in that model.

c.f. Tesla Cars.... and they can be updated to enable or disable features on the fly! I am quite surprised that no-one has, to my knowledge, hacked them yet.

yes we do - about £22bn.

>>Why not just the antenna with the "terminal" squirreled away in the boot, or built into some other cubby hole?

the article says "...electrically identical to its previously authorized consumer user terminals..." which your proposed modification would not be.

Not saying that they couldn't design a Starlink receiver for the Tesla, just that it isn't anywhere near as simple as just yanking the antenna off and separating it from the rest of it. IMHO, the number of users would probably be fairly small (I guess most Tesla drivers don't drive in the boondocks) making it hard to justify.

u sure about that?

DT4 9BP can get FTTC of all varieties. You must be somewhere near Weymouth rather than in Weymouth... though that postcode is Wyke Regis so not really Weymouth...

/mine's the one with a map to South Wales, via Surrey, in the pocket...

Re: Windows and Storage space

>>One of my charity customers got duped into buying a set of HP Stream laptops, with eMMC 32GB Hard disks

lubuntu works just fine on them; you get 22Gb free after installing it (including LibreOffice as well)

Sauce: installed lubuntu on an HP Stream here just the other week, for a member of the user comminuty, becasue Windows borked owing to disk space issues.

The child, for whom the notebook was intended, is, apparently, most happy that he can do whatever it is youth do on these things nowadays (said loin-fruit is male so probaly well.... you know.... given the laptop is small and easily concealable in a hurry!)

/mine's the one with Easy2Boot on a USB pen in the pocket

Re: Safety?

>>They would "drop the pilot, engage the satnav and put their feet up on the console" (his words)

Yup. Got a relative who used to, in his words, "get paid for putting his feet on the desk and looking out of the window". He was towing oil rigs across the Pacific at the time.

So I too am not sure what the new bit that Samsung Heavy are offering is - perhaps displacing the need for a pilot?

>>after I wrote a review expressing my...

More correctly "after I libelled them whilst expressing my..." as established by the outcome of the case..

>>It'll likely have an even greater detrimental effect on their bookings

Indeed.. and open Mr Waymouth to a potential claim for damages. As Hizonnor said "He is a litigant who tends to shoot wildly from the hip.." - in this case, IMHO, he should retreat from the fray!

Mr Waymouth would do well to take a few deep breaths and count to, i dunno, lets say, Graham's Number before taking any action he may later regret!

Edit: spelling

Humour? I have heard of it....

>>Thnakyou UK for a patient system which now china has learnt to play will make ya all pay royalties.

As opposed to the USA patent system which makes ya all pay lawyers....

#USE "course.lib"

PROC hello.world(CHAN OF BYTE screen!)

out.string("Hello World!*n", 0, screen!)

:

Re: ...and unlocked doors

>>Of course the real aficionados buy the raw planks, bark and all.

Planks? don't the real afficionados (man bun sporting hipster crafts people) just buy the trunk and have a sawmill in their workshop?

Re: Even if the price is right

SIMS doesn't come in Comic Sans - about the only thing right about the UI.

/mine is the one with a SIMS installation guide in the pocket, the other pocket and in the lining alongside scribbled notes that appear to be tear soaked beer mats.

Alpha Micro...

Back the day, Tomorrows World transmitted, as part of the program, what was said to be the whole of Alice in Wonderland (might have been Through The Looking Glass) from a computer on a crane to another in the studio.

The feature was talking about data transmission/exchange (IIRC) and used the micro/mini Alpha Micro as an example becasue the machines used to do system backups, or transfer data, using VHS tapes and a standard VHS recorder; you might even have been able to boot from VHS as well if you really wanted to.

We recorded the transmission (no, not using Betamax), and played it back into our Alpha Micro - they cheated! it was only the first couple of chapters.

We rang Alpha to complain and the chap responsible fessed up to getting bored after typing in a few chapters....

So yes, transmitting the boot code in the RF spectrum can be made to work, if you try hard enough.

Re: "after a troubled launch of Oracle Fusion"

>>whether simple files

CSV perhaps....

>> or perhaps something more sophisticated like Biztalk).

Surely you mean Excel...

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

Aeons ago - I ran a building controller network - set up using an RS432 or something ring (it was a while ago) suddenly found I couldnt talk to one of the devices.

Tried everything remotely (1200 Baud modems FTW) that could be done and, sadly, had to attend site (an art college.... shame about the cable routing through the roof space over the studios... I was young!!)

Nothing wrong with the cable in the buildings, however whilst crossing the site where they were building new blocks, I noticed a footing trench across the cable run.

Unsrprisingly, upon peering into the trench, I saw the ends of the cable and, on closer inspection, mashed condiut on the spoil tip. 1-0 to the JCB I guess.

The digger driver (who was sat in his cab) even had the audacity to claim it wasn't him!

N.B. the cable run was clearly marked on the plans the groundworks guys were working with...but some architect decided he wanted a trench there anyway.

Re: DEC Terminal Memories

>>LA36 DECwriters

I remember... 6th form (year 12 in today's money) college had an LA36 as the console and a teletype to slow everyone else down (RSX or was it TSX can't remember)... we used to reprogram the characterset on the LA36 for fun... the pdp11-23 had rk0 drives the first year and actually got a non removable disk the following year (half the case width white front.. cant remember the DEC name)

On three years and I was working for a company that had an 11/750 which, of course, had an LA36 as the system console...

Nostalgia...innit great?

>>Ahem, excuse me, when I'm walking down the high street, that is also a private situation as far as I'm concerned,

Legally, in the UK, a person has no expectation of privacy in a public place; anyone can take pictures or record you for any reason they like.

This https://www.supremecourt.uk/docs/speech_100825.pdf goes ito some detail....

Re: Who was the priority?

your problem is in the use of the word modern. Police kit was old tech.

The UHF (Hand helds) system worked exceptionally well (for specific values of exceptionally and well) but was old kit and therefore bad.... apparently. PTT, local comms, local area interconnection by a simply twist of a knob.

The VHF system (generally vehicle based) enabled forces all over the country to talk to each other from anywhere simply by changing frequency.

Of course both could be snooped, and were, which was the biggest problem.

/mines the big black tax payer funded Goretex-alike jacket

Re: International Standards Organization

Spelling in the US of A was deliberatly broken afteer the rebels dumped the tea in the harbour - it was intended to show that, although they spoke, nominally, the same langage as us original English speakers, they were no longer us.....

IIRC S and Z in Engerlish English reflect the Latin or Greek origin of the word (in theory) - which again was largely a "we aren't them" type move on behalf of the Romans (though between aristos and peasants)!

plus ca change and all that... language is fun.

/mines the one with publications by Cawdry, Johnson and Noah Webster falling out of the pockets

Pedant alert...

"unless it is part of a commissioned assignment or project carried out by a professional photographer, in which case I believe whoever puts the money down and makes the contract for the work has the copyright."

Not in the UK (I don't _think_ the putative republic of Alba has different laws yet). Unless the copyright is specifically assigned, copyright remains with the photographer regardless of why the picture was taken.

For example I pay the Bounty photographer for pictures of my crotch goblins in hospital... unless Bounty specifcally give me permission I cannot legally get copies of those pictures made by a third party. As it happens the last lot came with a 'here are the pictures as full resolution JPG (yes... I know), you have permsiion to do with them as you will' letter as well as the download link.

coat becasue who needs to know about crotch goblins in an IT thread?

Re: Press F1 if you hate the Snap Store

Yup. I hate the snap store.

My personal bugbear is that Snap Store/Snap update, in its default configuration, does not like network proxies despite Ubuntu 20.04 apparently having a "system" network proxy setting. It's not like a network proxy is a surprise in OS utility terms (>20 years , to my knowledge, since they became a thing)

<snip> rant about how much effort I needed to expend in order to make snap update/snapstore work on a proxied network and how much easier apt is to configure to use the proxy</snip>

At least Windows only has two places you need to set the proxy to make sure everything works.....

Re: Trolled?

not necessarily - Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are drawn through the water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolling_(fishing)

Re: Sounds like a night out in this hack's often less than fair city of Brighton

>> 4th July (nothing at all to do with USA Independence Day BTW).

Hmmm - I wonder if the timing of reducing the lockdown measures is entirely coincidence?

Never attribute to conspiracy something that can be adequately explained by cock-up... but with this shower in charge the difference is Rizzla green thin!

A conspiracy nut might suggest that the first May bank holiday will be moved to July 4th as a preparation for becoming USA 51 (contd. p.94 ed.)

Re: I called the cops

>>A small example,of course, is the London dial codes.

Which are actually fine - and a great logical growth from operator connected calls - complete with BOFH hacks at the exchanges to make it all work. Its all to do with how exchanges handle dialled numbers.

Tom Scott did a good YouTube 5 minute rant about dialling codes - at least he thought it would be a rant but ended up saying (not an actual quote this) 'actually, given how it all came about.... its amazing that they work as well as they do!'

If you prefer something less casual than Tom Scott then visit lightstraw.co.uk for all your geeky telecoms history (including the evolution of STD and the London area codes) needs.

/mines the one with the "all round geek" manual in the pocket

Roger was indeed prescient...