Posts by mdava

Re: investigating whether it can turn some geriatric laptops into useful tools once again.

I don't know why this is being downvoted - there come a point where all things are past their useful lives.

I have a netbook from around 2008. I *could* install even a normal linux os (say xubuntu or lubuntu) and it would run fine, but in 2024 day-to-day use means a browser and 2Gb RAM is going to make that slow and painful.

Or I could buy a laptop from a few years ago with 16Gb RAM and a hugely faster processor for under £200.

If you have a specific use case for an old, low-powered machine then have at it.

I have bought several Logitech M705s (they are a nice size and shape) over a decade - the weak link being the micro-switches which eventually become erratically responsive.

I did once watch a YouTube guide on how to carefully extract the switch and tweak the spring back to the right shape so that it would work again. Then I did that. Which rendered the mouse fully inoperative, then I bought a new one.

Re: Autoplay blocking

I tend to browse a limited selection of sites, but it does seem to work as intended (to the extent that I had to permit auto-play on Twitter, as that's one of the few places that I want videos to)

Re: As a dev....

This has reminded me that when I started work (in the 80s) I sat in a large room in which almost everyone else smoked. The hard line about WFH may actually turn out not to be that important if the alternative is no salary, but I absolutely *would* *not* work in an office where people were allowed to smoke.

(1) I appreciate that this is at least part of the OPs point - that they can smoke while working without affecting others.

Re: Workday is perfect for inHumane Resources

I can't upvote this post enough. Fellow Workday sufferer here - it must be the single least intuitive piece of software that I have ever had the misfortune to deal with.

Re: Tesla obviously don't use workday

Workday is the most utterly shit software imaginable. I cannot imagine why the firm I work for chose it - years after we transitioned it is still difficult / impossible to do the most basic things.

Re: Landscape mode

Why do you have to click through 4 "options" to do something that can be done automagically...if only Amazon put a sensor in the thing to understand its orientation.

I prefer it not to - reading in bed I don't want to have to tell it to show the text in portrait whether I am lying on my back or (either) side. I think the use-case for a Kindle is very different to a phone or tablet in this regard if you are reading novels (and it is probably not the best tool for anything else like comics, reference books etc).

Re: Goodbye LastPass.

I did the same - didn't take very long and now I am a Bitwarden user.

As an aside, I would much rather pay Bitwarden $10 a year than LastPass $3 a month. Both are essentially trivial, but one feels much more reasonable than the other in some way.

I disagree - I much prefer Vivaldi's approach - ad-blocking built in, mouse-gestures, tab-stack, tab-preview, side-panels and probably lots more that I use all the time but don't remember now.

Re: Sounds excellent all round

Fair point - I hadn't realised that TKL was a generic term (thought this was logitech marketing dept at work).

Re: One born every minute

I had almost completely forgotten about these "auctions"! They used to be a regular feature of Oxford Street but have now disappeared.

What happened or changed to make them vanish (as even back then they must have fallen foul of some legislation)?

Funny that, having the address bar at the bottom of a phone that most people use with their thumb seems entirely logical and sensible to me. Far more so than leaving it at the top where I have to move my hand to reach it.

Re: brought a tear to my eye...

In the 80s a friend's dad fitted a cut-out to the fuel line in his Capri as a safety device (in a country where car-jacking was a possibility). It was based on sound logic that the thieves would be half a mile away when it cut out and therefore unable to immediately turn around and beat the location of the cut-out switch out of you.

Re: Another quick question

Auto play videos are one of the worst things that ever happened to the Internet.

Re: US$2,579.00

Work laptops should have more USB ports and an RJ45 connector and don't need wifi, bluetooth, speakers, mic, video camera built in. Those are things that can be added as peripherals and carried in your laptop bag.

In 2018 work laptops absolutely need wifi.

Bluetooth you might argue against, but it can always be turned off.

Speakers, mic and video camera, in the days of ubiquitous Skype, Hangouts, Lync etc are pretty close to essential as well.

Re: So long...

embedded borderless PDF browsing

I don't even know what that means. Is it useful (ie, should I)?

Re: Leaving Thinkpad after 20 years

What are you going to replace it with? (Asking out of genuine interest)

I agree, but perhaps it would be simpler to implement a this-is-bullshit font.

Re: Disgustingly Evil

He's right that Google maps display far, far less information than the paper maps from OS that we used when orienteering as kids.

I agree entirely.

However, I don't use Google Maps for orienteering (and I'm certain that 99.99% of other users also don't). For that I would want a paper map (for anything "serious") or find another app that provides this (Ordnance Survey) for walks in the woods.

For finding addresses, finding businesses or restaurants, getting directions, sat nav with live traffic information, street view, traffic data etc etc etc Google Maps is streets ahead (apologies for lazy pun).

Re: Tab groups

Vivaldi

... even though its satellite imagery is often extremely out of date 10 years+ old.

I love this comment (to be clear I'm not disputing it or mocking the AC) but isn't it incredible that we can see unbelievably detailed imagery of essentially every single place in the world, zoom in and out, see changes over decades, Street View for ground level view etc etc?

My mum can remember the first radio that her parents bought!

Re: Copied the idiot's answers

Google's cars also turn across the bike lane illegally but they've been programmed to halt and cause a major traffic jam rather than hit cyclists.

For the avoidance of doubt: stopping, whether it causes a traffic jam or not, is always the correct alternative to hitting cyclists.

Re: Nope

I had half a TV once. I'm not saying it wasn't cheap but it was a bit shit all told and I don't think I would go for it again.

Well, it probably wasn't the best TV on the market, but for the price it was unbeatable. Both TVs are still in use after 1 and 3 years (approximately) respectively, so they can't be that bad (or maybe my standards are just low).

Re: Upload drives demand?

@ smartypants

I'm intrigued to know what sort of volume you are backing up to the cloud - and where to and at what price?

Re: 2fa choices

I don't really understand this - there are very few people left who don't have a mobile phone already (the only one I can think of out of everyone I know/meet is my mother-in-law) so why would you need to buy another?

Re: Spotify resets too

And Opera Sync too (email this morning).

"Personally I'm not comfortable with using something labelled "beta" at motorway speeds"

This is exactly my thought. It seems insanely reckless to do so.

Re: Why upgrade?

I upgraded (and was only able to because CyanogenMod exists) for various reasons:

- security

- ability to run some apps that won't run on old Android versions

- control: removing all the bloatware that comes pre-installed and unremovable

- control: better permissions and privacy management in latest android and CyanogenMod

This.

I am currently driving a Citroen C4 Cactus, which is admirable in many ways but not for its centralisation of all controls on a 7" touchscreen.

Where, for example, turning the heating and/or fan down could previously be done by reaching across grasping a knob and turning it without taking your eyes off the road the touchscreen requires touching once to activate the HVAC screen and again once / many times to adjust heat / fan speed, all of which require you to look at the screen (and brace your hand on the bezel) in order to achieve the required touch accuracy.

Touchscreens in cars are Really Not a Good Idea for most things.

Re: "Firstly, cognitively you can't keep 200 items in the stack"

@Frumious

I have often wondered why people want to keep hundred of tabs open in their browsers and yours is the first explanation for keeping 200+ tabs open that actually makes any sense at all to me (even if I probably won't take to doing it myself).

Ta

Re: Business model?

Which is a good moment to remind everyone of the wonderful http://traintimes.org.uk, which as well as providing clean, simple information can also do journey-splitting to find cheaper fares.

It helps that you can simply type an url like http://traintimes.org.uk/london/eastcroydon/1000/tuesday/ and it will show you the scheduled services.

Re: Non-cloudy thinking

To all the previous commentards:

Yes, I agree, Amazon / whoever having control of your purchased books is not great. On the other hand, for c.90% (or maybe more) of all the fiction I ever read I do not have an urge to read it again.

For reference publications, I am unlikely to buy those as .mobi files. They are more likely to be hard copy or pdf or something else I can access on multiple platforms.

Therefore not something I am losing any sleep over.

Re: Ditched for Linux ?

Only for 32 bit systems. Apparently this was announced ages ago, although I didn't notice until Chrome started flashing messages at me.

I've updated to a 64 bit install, not really sure why I originally went with 32?

Re: Down vote this

@ AC - No, I think everyone should pay the amount of tax that they are due to pay, and there is clearly a problem that has arisen from the globalisation of trade, but that still can only be dealt with by changing the "rules" and then applying them.

In terms of filling potholes etc, corporation tax is actually a very small piece of the funding - see here - and the bulk of the revenue comes from income tax, NI and VAT all of which are generated by the trading / employment of people in the UK.

Re: This news really made my Friday afternoon...

" I think I'm long overdue for an audit of which sites I have accounts with, but rarely or never use any more... and time to start closing them.

Maybe I might start with Touchnote... but the burglars are over the hills now with their loot, so what would be the point?"

There isn't any point re the data, but perhaps there is in the sense of "I won't do business with people who don't care about my data."