* Posts by billium

132 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Dec 2008

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Parents blame brats' slipping school grades on crap internet speeds

billium

Re: Whaaat...

I can't see why primary school pupils require homework. I don't remember doing any. My primary school was rural , four pupils in my class. (I am an electronics engineering graduate).

Patch alert! Easy-to-exploit flaw in Linux kernel rated 'high risk'

billium
Linux

re-booting

@Lost

Most Linux users have used Windows, or are familiar with it.

We all have seen "Windows needs to be re-started ... "

As a MS fanboy you may claim Windows is the best at everything, but not this. :)

Microsoft totters from time machine clutching Windows 10 Workstation

billium
Facepalm

Re: 4 Processors Chips which could be 88 cores, 6TB of RAM...

"One day not too long from now your phone will have 88 cores and 6TB of RAM, and Windows will pretty much work the same way it does today."

The users will still be complaining it is soooooo slow.

‪There's a ransom-free fix for WannaCry‬pt. Oh snap, you've rebooted your XP box

billium
FAIL

just being naive

This update failed to install ...

Why Microsoft's Windows game plan makes us WannaCry

billium
WTF?

I've had my Linux from 1999 and have still not had to pay for an upgrade.

Nobody fears upgrading or changing their Linux in fear of data slurping.

£5M of our tax payers money or $200 per PC only a monopolist with vendor lock in can do this.

It is a Microsoft problem.

Sometimes Windows will not update: KB4019472 failed to install error code 0x80832250

US visitors must hand over Twitter, Facebook handles by law – newbie Rep starts ball rolling

billium
Big Brother

Re: Glad the translation will be supplied by me

@bombasticbob

You have got to be on the watch list. Bomb in your name, allah's snack bar and boom in your comments!

'I'm innocent!' says IT contractor on trial after Office 365 bill row spiraled out of control

billium
Happy

Best of luck to him if he is in the right.

@Huw

Also impressed at a member of the Scottish Parliament doing it work in America.

Now that's a Blue Screen of Death: Windows 10 told me to jump off a cliff

billium
Happy

Re: If you're running Windows 10...

@ Lost

You do not need to place and move the mouse on the screen, you can move it around you desk and the little arrow type thingy on the screen, called a cursor, will move.

Microsoft just got its Linux Foundation platinum card, becomes top level member

billium
Happy

Re: Great news!

very good.

Great British Great Bake Off gets new judge

billium

graffiti

It doesn't have a red triangle does it?

Inside our three-month effort to attend Apple's iPhone 7 launch party

billium
Happy

great!

When you've paid the ransom but you don't get your data back

billium

At a company I do work for I always advise not to open zip, unless they are expecting it. I think the Win10 update reset hide extensions so a user clicked a link in an email, got sent to a onedrive site and downloaded an invoice pdf (.pdf.zip), then rang me and asked if he should have! The zip seemed to contain stuff for android, so I don't think it did anything.

@ Voland's right hand I think you have a great point there. I backup users Win10 machines onto a Linux server using rsync via DeltaCopy ... so I'll try and work out how to do this.

A USB stick as a file server? We've done it!

billium
Thumb Down

Re: Slow campfire

Don't think your S.O. ex-photographer would like their fine art being called 'snaps'!

Breaking 350 million: What's next for Windows 10?

billium

Re: Pacman & cancer

Yes ... missing the point entirely.

billium

Re: Pacman & cancer

@Timmy B

Unpinning does not remove the offending software of the computer.

Right click uninstall ... sometime later on the 'recently installed' list there it is again.

Use the command line it seems to stay away (this is not easy for general users), though I have not seen the sp1 update.

Be honest Timmy boy can you unpin from all apps XBOX ?

Are you simply regurgitating your Slurp script? ... be honest now.

billium

Pacman & cancer

Gates called Linux pacman

Monkeyboy called Linux a cancer

Here we have a PROFESSIONAL OS with Candy Crush and X-Box on the start menu. These cannot be easily removed and keep on coming back like a cancer.

I just got some HP boxes for a company and the extra cost, compared to no OS, for Win 10 Professional was ~ £80 each. The DVDs had no HP bloatware!

There are some good things about Windows 10, but the lack of choice / control and the telemetry spoil it.

Fortunately I don't use it.

Calling all Droids: BlackBerry’s giving away the Hub

billium

QNX firmware

I wonder how well they would at selling a QNX ROM installable on Android phones?

Microsoft ordered to fix 'excessively intrusive, insecure' Windows 10

billium

Re: To think that...

Pixie Boot ? :)

Tech firms reel from Leave's Brexit win

billium

Re: London Falling

upvoted you ... but decimation does sound bad!

Maplin Electronics demands cash with menaces

billium

first online shopping

I can't remember if it was Maplin or Display Electronics that was my first on line shopping experience. 300 baud modem to their BBS on DOS in the eighties. Seemed to work o.k.

Looking at their website, I don't think it is a geek store any more but I have not used them for a long time.

Dell's Ubuntu-powered Precision Sputnik now available worldwide

billium

That would be the ones that are lower spec'd and higher priced than the Windows ones then.

Microsoft adds 'non-security updates' to security patches

billium

Re: As many PC users think IE is the Internet...

@ Lysenko Yes but the damage is already done. Most software today only runs on Windows, e.g. try programming a PLC on a Mac.

@Tim Sorry I think I misunderstood you, I downvoted your first comment so I'll upvote your second!

billium

Re: As many PC users think IE is the Internet...

One cannot have a free market with a monopolist.

'$5bn for Slack?! I refuse to pay!' You don't pay – and that's its biggest problem

billium

Re: Speaking as someone who knows bugger all about Slack..

I think an advantage over XMPP is file linking or transfer.

I set up an XMPP server (ejabbered) a long time ago and the few users seem happy with it, but I'd love to add file linking or transfer.

The Windows client (Pandion) I use is probably dated now . Do you recommend any clients?

Thanks

Bill Gates can’t give it away... Still crazy rich after all these years

billium

Re: Are they really so charible?

Fully agree.

I wonder what terms conditions under which these donations are made.

Advertising for the monopolist.

Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe

billium
Headmaster

It is more arithmetic than mathematics isn't it?

Ransomware scum infect Tinseltown hospital, demand $3.6m

billium

Get the facts

Total cost of ownership includes removal of malware and restoring from backups, or paying ransoms.

Free and fair competition is always better than a monopolist.

Hiding known extensions by default must be a great idea.

Why do people send invoices and text in malware infested xls and doc format, if editing is not required? Can a virus be contained in a pdf?

Remember Netbooks? Windows 10 makes them good again!

billium

@GrumpyWorld even MS users here have some respect for Mr Ritchie.

@inmypjs Maybe they are trying to increase bing usage. In Win 10 bing and bing apps are all over the start screen. Also as has been stated, I know lots of people with Microsoft accounts now.

Google ninjas go public with security holes in Malwarebytes antivirus

billium

O.K. I'll defend them.

Every time someone brings an virally infected Microsoft Windows PC, I use Malwarebytes to remove the infection and most of the time it is successful. I always remove Malwarebytes after and suggest to the owner they buy the Pro version if they are more likely to get malware due to their usage.

It is part of the TCO of a Microsoft OS, as Lincolnshire CC have found.

Server retired after 18 years and ten months – beat that, readers!

billium

Can't talk about up time because I don't know. I made a computer in 1995 which ran DairyPlan on DOS in a milking parlour , not the best of environments, 24/7. It died last month. I don't think it was the computer's fault so much as a surge because each individual part was defective. I repaired it 5 years ago, all the fans were solid! I replaced the old AT PSU with a new ATX style by soldering the old plugs on the new. It was horrible to repair as it was covered in cow and fly shit.

Debian Linux founder Ian Murdock dead at 42

billium

What a sad end to the year.

Thoughts and best wishes to Ian's family and friends.

Debian Stretch user.

Google robo-car suffers brain freeze after seeing hipster cyclist

billium

I have a car ... I pay road tax, just like most adult cyclists. Is this too hard to grasp?

You do not stop paying road tax when you use a bike, if you have a car!

billium

It is funny to see idiots like Dan Paul using the tax argument. Most adult cyclist have a car and therefore pay road tax. Do you want to road tax pedestrians? Double if they are walking a dog? Bicycles are very light cf. cars and do not damage roads.

Microsoft releases free Office apps for half of all Android phones

billium

Re: "Hate fest"...?

I think Dogged wins the hate fest with his childish drivel.

REVEALED: The 19 firms whose complaints form EU's antitrust case against Google

billium

@acerimmer Fail, check the words decent and fair. (i3 for £460) This situation is improving now, it was only a couple of years ago when none were available. I am talking no OS with no support for chosen OS, like they do with servers. @ac Ignoring the patent system abuse then?

billium

monopolies

In the UK, one cannot buy a decent X86 laptop, at a fair price, without paying the Microsoft tax (they also tax Android).

The only place where there is true choice between Microsoft (Bing) and somebody else (Google), the competition win.

One can choose any search engine, but there is little choice with PCs.

As others have said thgis will only cost us, the consumers.

WHAT did GOOGLE do SO WRONG to get a slapping from the EU?

billium

@ test man the Microsoft monopoly's Windows Eight desktop is full of bing ... it is hard to avoid.

Microsoft chucks patent sueball at Kyocera over Android phones

billium
Coat

Yawn...

[Insert your choice of standard "Microsodt defence" comments from the usual suspects here]

C’mon Lenovo. Superfish hooked, but Pokki Start Menu still roaming free

billium

Thank you dogged.

I take your points, just as you would respect Eden's view. Are you trying to re-write history?

billium

I've just helped someone with an Acer Win8 laptop, he got at Christmas, it had pokki on it. Malwarebytes removed alot of spyware. He didn't know what pokki was and said he didn't click on it. The desktop was full of pups like Wild Tangent. He has just emailed back saying he is getting ads from Strong Signal ... anybody know that? This was an i3 with 3GB ram and it was slow. I don't know how people have the patience for the monopolist's OS.

Charles Townes, inventor of the laser and friend to both science and religion, dies

billium

1 on shark in fish tank

several mice

several ODD

IR thermometers

laser pointer

some laser diodes in the bits box, they are good to play with.

First time seeing a laser, was a physics presentation in the school assembley hall on the properties of light. when I was 13.

Thanks Charles

Lube company merger receiving second 'in-depth' probe

billium

I was looking for the market penetration problems.

Microsoft fires legal salvo at phone 'tech support' scammers

billium

I had a customer ring me up and say "I have just let this Indian chap on my PC, should I have?" This is an intelligent ex school head master.

What is the best way a "victim" can harm the caller cost wise? Presumably just extending the call. Any other ideas?

Windows Server 2003 custom support could cost MILLIONS

billium

Although some of those servers are specialised, I would imagine alot of those servers are just file and mail servers that will just migrate without problem. One of my new customers has one and probably does not even know what it does. I will just migrate his stuff to a linux server.

Why, hello there, Foxy... BYE GOOGLE! Mozilla's browser is a video star

billium

"Sadly, WebM never really caught on"

... because of patents?

Firefox decade: Microsoft's IE humbled by a dogged upstart. Native next?

billium

@ Anonymous Bullard IE is part of the operating system, that is to say you have paid for it just like you paid for notepad. Microsoft do not give.

Thanks to Firefox the Web is not owned or controlled by the monopolist.

UK government officially adopts Open Document Format

billium

Wonder if the EU will follow now.

It's a done deal! Microsoft-Nokia merger to close on Friday

billium

How Microsoft can keep Win XP alive – and WHY: A real-world example

billium

Get the Facts

Microsoft Windows has short limited lifetime.

"Amazing new technologies were pouring out of Microsoft, and Redmond appeared to be listening to its customers." :D

Romanian 'ransomware victim' hangs self and 4-year-old son – report

billium

@El-Fev ... you don't live anywhere near the east end of the A66 by chance?

I can't see how they can get payment without being traced. I know CryptoLocker uses bitcoin but I don't think the police ones do.

I also wish those horrible people at Microsoft would do an update where the default "Hide known extensions" is not ticked.

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