Posts by Synonymous Howard

Re: Black mirror: it's either genuine over-the-top woke-ness or parody

Careful now.

Macbooks memory

M1 comes with 8 or 16GB RAM

M1 Pro comes with 16 or 32GB RAM

M1 Max comes with 32 or 64GB RAM

The real-world testing I have seen shows that the difference between 16 and 32GB is subtle and probably not worth the extra.

I would normally go for more RAM over disk space to reduce chance of swapping/thrashing but in this case I chose the later on the new MacBook Pro based on the testing I saw and I have not been disappointed. Video editing, compiling, massive spreadsheets, photo mangling all work a treat.

Also got 10% discount at a local dealer for Black Friday.

‘Better Than Life’ ?

Re: Something Else

Any company that >only< has a facebook/insta/whatsapp presence does not get my money as my DNS blackholes all requests for those varied domains.

Re: Z88?

I still have the wonderful Z88 that I bought to type up my CS PhD on … I wrote a unix utility to send/receive files over the serial port to a Sun workstation, it is in the Z88 user group software library somewhere.

The Z88 was a great machine to just pull out and start typing on, A4 in size, about 15mm deep, with EPROM storage, AA batteries and a dead flesh keyboard (dust attractor!). A ‘cambridge topper’ was an absolute must to protect it though.

It meant I could work from anywhere in the early 90s … I still have an acoustic coupler that I have used with the Z88 to dial in to university systems from a pay phone on a busy street.

Re: I see a phone platform driven by Fachobus is on the horizon.

They tried before, admittedly nearly 10 years ago so maybe corporate memory might fail long enough for them to waste more money ...

https://www.cnet.com/news/heres-why-the-facebook-phone-flopped/

Would probably be cheaper for FB to buy Samsung.

Re: Cambridge Z88

I wrote up my CS PhD thesis on a Z88 back in the early 90s whilst sitting in the back garden and even wrote a serial driver for SunOS to let me upload the typed up LaTex to be able to render it 8-) It was bought from new and got pimped out a bit and still works along with the Rangerdisk floppy drive add-on. Lovely dead-flesh keyboard.

I actually wanted to buy a PSION MC400 but could not afford it back then ... got a lovely one years later, magic kit and sits alongside a Psion 7 netboot nicely. Still miss Psion, sniff.

Re: NHSX devs apparently superior to Google devs

I view COVID-19 just like ionising radiation ... keep as far as away from it as possible, for as long as possible. Oh and wash those hands.

Re: Male and female connectors..

AbEnd perhaps.

And the connectors are obviously plug and socket.

Re: And what about the people ...

And because nobody knows where they are all are.

Re: victims of own success

Armbian Linux is very usable on the Orange Pi 3 as mine can testify even though it is currently marked as a "work in progress". The OPi 3 makes a rather fast firewall with native GigE, USB 3 .. the PCIe port is not supported under Linux because the "Allwinner H6 has a quirky PCIe controller".

I use Armbian on the various Orange Pi models I have deployed .. PC2, +2E, Zero and One

I had sprouts today .. wifey boils them perfectly and they taste lovely. In fact today's lunchtime meal was Quorn 'steak' pie with boiled potatoes, petit pois, broccoli, sprouts and veggie gravy. Lovely stuff.

And I've just made myself hungry thinking about it.

Re: Object Oriented Computing

Bit like NeXTSTEP on the NeXT Cube then in 1987 (30 years) .. oh wait, who created that and then sold it to Apple and was welcomed back as CEO in 1997?

Its a natural progression by Apple who have been using NeXTSTEP originated technology since then in OSX and iOS.

Re: It can happen

I think this is a non story. The expired cert is not even for the given website ... I believe this is a 3rd party webhosting error. A default config on the frontend load balancer / SSL reverse proxy probably.

The website just appears to be a marketing site rather than a banking service site and as such should not HTTPS to be configured.

I'd love to say this is the bank's fault and is a result of outsourcing but I can't see any direct evidence of that.

Re: How much kit is possible?

It might pay for a few hours of an installation guy and his ladder I guess.

Re: Encryption is not made "illegal"

TCP runs over the top of IP ... IP (typically in the U.K.) runs over the top of MPLS etc ... so where the line gets drawn will be up to judges.

Re: Dragon 32

Yes a clone of the later Tandy Color (sic) computer ... 6809 cpu IIRC.

Re: Numbers

Measure twice, cut once.

Re: Four kilos in a fortnight?

Lacking in calories rather than vitamins/minerals I guess.

How to lose weight; eat less calories.

Re: Black Mirror

Or even the BBC's 2008 "The Last Enemy" which had Cumberbatch trying to escape the Total Information Awareness database.

But the first one I fondly remember watching was the "IT Thriller" in the eighties, Bird of Prey, with the late great Richard "uncle monty" Griffiths ... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/07/monitor_bird_of_prey_retrospective/

Or by a user installing a free security / oversight tool 8-)

Re: how the hell are they losing THAT much money

Toss a coin .. AWS or Azure?

Re: Democracy

Switzerland's Direct Democracy seems the closest to true democracy ... However any form of true democracy would surely implinged on everyone's rights due to the implicit suppression of minorities .. For are we all not in some form of minority at some point in life?

Re: I'm all for online banking...

You can make EASY MONEY by switching and taking advantage of savings offers (bank tarting).

[http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/compare-best-bank-accounts]

First Direct pay £100 to switch (and they are very chatty in the customer service department and their mobile app on iOS can use TouchID).

Co-op pay £150 to switch (I've had an account with them for 20+ years)

Halifax pay £100 to switch

M&S pay '£100 M&S gift card' to switch (if you need a new suit, shirts, ties, ladies underwear)

If you don't want to switch then why not open a new account somewhere put a couple of direct debits on it and then after a month or so switch that account to one of the above and make some money .. rinse and repeat.

Also works for credit cards .. cash back on purchases and 0% interest for over a year (hint: put the money you would have used to pay off the credit card each month in to a regular savings account and earn up to 6% [firstdirect], 5% [nationwide])

TSB pay 5% on up to £100/month in transactions using contactless or apple pay .. money for old rope ... you even get 5% on up to £2000 when in balance .. just pay in £500 per month (standing order it around from another bank and then back again).

Remember money makes money but only if you make it work for you and not for the Banks.

Re: That DER is not good

I CER what you did there.

Re: Cheeky bastards.

Try changing the headlight bulbs on a previous generation smart car .. unless you have very skinny and long arms you have to take the whole plastic front off.

Re: The day I'll delete my account...

Better still .. don't delete it, instead change ALL your details to something weird to help poison their well.

And change your email address to a specially created yahoo or hotmail one of course. It won't stop linkedin spam to your original signup address but you can redirect that to /dev/null

Re: Tiz the future!

You really want to look at the upcoming Pebble Time 2 which is on kickstarter at the moment (nearly $10m so far).

I have an original Pebble (B&W but a bit ugly/utilitarian) and a Pebble Time (colour, nice styling and a comfortable fit) and I've ordered a PT2 because of the bigger display and pulse-meter (as its nice to know if you are zombie)

I also have an Apple Watch 'look-a-like' which is, umm, just a red LED digital watch inside but definitely looks and feels like an AW .. fun for hipster baiting 8-)

Re: NHS Digital

What? Your MP is a digital proctologist? At least we would know he has his finger on the problem.

or even Trams

Re: Amazon Echo

Just give it a feed from BBC Parliament

Re: real dinosaurs remember acoustic couplers and 300 baud.

I still have the 300/75 acoustic coupler that I used with my Cambridge Z88 in the early nineties. I remember having to use it to connect back to some Unix systems I was managing whilst away and hanging around in BT phone boxes.