Posts by David Hicklin

Re: OneDrive panic

Was the email *really* from Micro$lop?

If you have a local account how would they know your email address ??

> There are very few shortcuts in science and engineering and AI isn't one of them for the foreseeable future.

But..but...but....we were told it would solve all our problems , and look - everyone else is doing this and are able to lay off workers so it must be right !!!

Re: Actual work

But the regime that they work fro want to destroy everyone else, so that is never going to happen

Re: Twas ever thus

> If the shareholders don't kick up a fuss

They don't care either as long as they get their dividend and the share price goes up.

Re: The horse has bolted

Agree totally, OpenRetch if it is going to provide the backbone services should have been an organisation like RailTrack as a separate, publically owned not for profit company - and all ISP's should have then had the same contract with them to provide services.

For too long it was (or still is?) joined at the hip to BT

Re: Linux Security Roundup for Week 11, 2026 Reveals Critical Fixes

> Downvotes are certainly the Linux fans who can't/won't accept their beloved penguins can also have bugs

Nah we fully accept it and I see updates/fixes arriving almost *daily* here in Linux Mint world.

The downvotes (including mine) are for crowing about it on an article about Micro$lop patch issues.

Re: Where's the time saving?

>: presumably because proofing is hard.

Proofing is hard as your mind constantly auto-corrects some of the wrong words and spelling. There are many examples of really 'badly' written text that we can still understand but look like letter salad.

Re: The cycle

> AI underperforms -> Slash headcount to reduce costs -> Panic

-> The race to the bottom is complete and the business no longer exits -> exit

> But politicians and a lot of economists seem to think deflation is a dirty word,

You never lived through the 1970's then, when I started work I remember the company I worked for increasing it's prices 3-4 times a year to keep up with inflation.

Re: Won't help at all

Indeed, the Great Blackout of 2029 as mentioned earlier gets closer every day, I do wonder how much it *would* take for the public to say Enough ! and rise up.

Re: BS meeting

I think my brain has an automatic self preservation mode as as soon as this stuff started at work I would promptly start to feel very sleepy.

Re: Selection Criteria

> They would just ask the Chinese for a copy of the data!

Or one of the other 3 letter organisations.

> Would we be better off just taking a plasma feed direct from the warp core?

Just don't stand in the way when it fires up....

Ditto, you beat me to it !

Re: Do we know what to search for?

I thought it had been worked out that a FTL drive would require so much energy that it would fry the destination planet when you arrived.

Again, even if they did pick up a signal it would probably be digital and encoded at that, so just noise.

Re: A bit of devil's advocacy here

Had to think long an hard there but a downvote it is.

1945 onwards was a very different world to what it is now and the cold war dominated just about everything, so getting the German scientists* was essential to kick starting what was in those days very much Rocket Science. They RUDed a lot as they were all still learning but in the end it paid off with the Saturn V and as you say the rest is history.

SpaceX has succeeded despite the efforts of Musk, however I can't see Starship going anywhere soon unless the rate of RUDing is drastically reduced. I still think the idea of orbital refuelling is crazy when they can't do it 100% reliably on the ground.

*remember that they were ensnared in a brutal regime where it was do what we tell you ..or else it could go badly for you.

Re: Nintendo and Lenovo

> refunding distributors who will go on to refund to retailers who will then go on to refund customers...

By the time each stage adds an administration cost in there will be nothing left by the end...

Re: RFI?

< Anduril to deliver an upgrade / replacement called Roadrunner

Is it manufactured by ACME by any chance ?

Re: From my experience most bus services everywhere…

Try changing the settings from 24Hr to 12Hr .....

Re: QA not OK

As I mentioned earlier it was a different era when we trusted users to use software correctly (unless looking for Easter Eggs of course !)

Re: Reality Bites!

Mars is also nearly all carbon dioxide with Oxygen being a trace element.

The surface dust is a real problem and dust storms can screw up your Solar panels for months, so you would need a really big UPS.

I also remember reading somewhere that they is stuff in the surface materials this is hostile to Earth life, oh and no magnetic field to protect from the solar wind.

Oh oh and not moon to stabilise the planets tilt, so one pole can end up tipped over pointing towards the sun.

Other than than I think it has a reasonable gravity and a day close to 24 hours

Re: no mention of radiation

Not to mention that the lifetime on the surface is measured in minutes

Re: television was the origin of enshittification

> However, baked-in, unskippable, ads at the start of DVDs

Which is why you rip them of course.

Re: What a shame

The events in the middle east should give the bubble a good shove on the inflation caused by energy prices pushes up the costs even more along with a resulting recession if it goes on long enough.

Re: They're finished

> Bahrain has a major naval facilities, UAE host a major US military air base

According to the reports I have seen, they were mostly evacuated and the Arab states are not allowing them or their airspace to be used for attacks on Iran.

So a really stupid move for Iran to upset their neighbour's although I suspect the attacks are aimed at causing an energy crisis in the world which is seems to be succeeding at. Where the off ramp is for this war I have no idea - unless Trump does a TACO leaving Isreal high and dry.

Ah yes, static carpet. I working in an office like that where you would invariably get a shock from the door handles on the way out, I think they sprayed the carpet with something periodically to keep it at bay.

> In fairness, in this day and age so very few people are out standing in their fields

And cover your mouth just in case a lip reader can see you.

Re: "so you don't lose context."

Yeah, and AI is the same as you never knew that you needed to summarise so many documents and emails like you do now, like we have only had email for 30 years....

Re: Frauds

But the problem is that power generation is no keeping up - so something is going to have to give.

Here in the UK it is getting a connection to the grid that is throttling DC building, the National Grid wants to beef things up *just to keep the lights on* never mind powering DC's but the NIMBY's are fighting them every inch of the way.

> I definitely think I picked the right time retire

Yup, same here, glad I am also retired and enjoying it !

Re: Using both sides of 5.25" floppies

I think they were all made the same but if one side failed testing then it would be sold either as Standard density and/or single sided.

In practice they usually worked fine on the same floppy drive!