176901287
submission
simpz writes:
VFX company JangaFX has posted a very interesting article on the poor stare of Linux Binary Compatibility and how containerization isn't helping them with with this. They go on to discuss what could be done with GLIBC to help.Link to Original Source
135254673
submission
simpz writes:
The Guardian is reporting that Bletchley Park Museum is planning to make a third of it's staff redundant. This, of course, the museum of British wartime codebreakers, including famously Alan Turing.
I personally think Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Twitter etc should all chip in to stop this from happening. Without Alan Turing and others, they wouldn't have a business, and to these companies this is small change.
112942048
submission
simpz writes:
Does anyone know of a fairly inexpensive webcam that doesn't depend on a cloud service?
A few years ago you could buy a cheap webcam (with the usual pan/tilt and IR), for about $50, that was fully manageable from a web browser. Nowadays the web interfaces are limited in functionality (or non-existent) or you need a phone app that doesn't work well (maybe only working through a cloud service). I've even seen a few cheap ones that still need ActiveX to view the video in a web browser, really people!
I'd like to avoid a cloud service for privacy, and to allow this to operate on the LAN with no Internet connection present. Even a webcam where you can disable the cloud connection outbound would be fine and allow you to use it fully locally.
I guess the issue is this has become a niche thing that the ease of a cloud service connection probably wins for most people, other considerations don't really matter to them.
Also had a brief look at a Raspberry Pi solution, but didn't see anything like a small webcam form factor (with pan/tilt etc).
Or are there any third party firmwares for a commercial webcams (sort of a OpenWRT,DD-WRT,LineageOS style project for webcams), that could provide direct local access only via web browser (and things like RTSP) ?
109923996
submission
simpz writes:
Actor Paul Darrow, who played the greatest antihero in Blake's 7, Kerr Avon has passed away. Avon was one of the few (only) computer experts in SciFi to not be portrayed as a stereotyped geek. He also appeared in Doctor Who.
107247370
submission
simpz writes:
The register is reporting that the EU is looking to block users changing the firmware/software of RF devices. This seems to have been very under reported, with a fairly short consultation period which has now expired. But would likely force manufacturers to lock down phones and routers etc to stop you installing the likes of Lineage OS or OpenWRT. The way this is written it could stop devices like laptops or Raspberry Pi's having their software changed.
This looks similar to the FCC regulation in the US that was proposed a while back.
83843689
submission
simpz writes:
The Register reports that Microsoft has changed the Windows 10 update dialog and no longer shows the X close button. They say once agreed to there is no obvious back out method and it is now out of step with Microsoft's own documentation on this. They have a screenshot of this.
76247917
submission
simpz writes:
Which country is best to choose for hosting Internet services and locating VMs to avoid government surveillance (both NSA and local)?
It should be a country with good connectivity to the US and Europe, but have strong legal protections from mass surveillance. People talk about Switzerland, Norway and Iceland (even Spain). Anyone worked through the pros and cons of each of these? I'm not concerned about legitimate (with court order) surveillance, just the un-targeted mass surveillance most governments seem to do. I don't believe this bad behavior should be rewarded or made easy.
47298843
submission
simpz writes:
The register is reporting that "the ancient but trustworthy server operating system" OpenVMS has been discontinued. A sad end for a truly great OS.
9991748
submission
simpz writes:
Will the serial port as a console connection esp for devices switches, routers, SAN boxes etc ever be displaced? Okay in one sense it's an simple connection, but it is the only current port you need to know about wiring/baud rates/parity etc to use, has non-standard pinouts and is now becoming too slow to quickly upload massive firmware updates on dead devices. And it is rapidly being removed from new laptops where you really need it in data centers. Centronics, PS/2, Current loop have mostly passed on. Any sign of a USB console connection?
