[Dave Rice]

Here you go John https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/accessibility/windows10upgrade

[Dave Rice]

Here it is. The * just goes to a footnote about eligible previous Windows and general flim flam.

My assistive technology provider (Specsavers) confirms my product is W10 compatible, but only with the optional non glare coating (£20 extra) ?

[Dave Rice]

We’re into the if’s again, it could be a killer chip if this or if that.

Ed, “server” is such a generic term. The Synology’s I buy use ARM processors. My own x86 server is a lowly AMD dual core aimed at the mobile market. All do their job admirably for SOHO or SMB general workloads.

I guess you may be talking “big iron” type servers for specialist workloads or multiple VMs in which case things like the I/O you mentioned can become just as important as number of cores etc.

As far as multi-threading games go the developers will code to their user base so it’s the old chicken and the egg. There are still plenty of (big name) games where single thread grunt is the key and Intel still rule that roost. Why would you hit sales by making the required significantly hardware higher than your market owns?

My take on it is AMD are at least back in the game but still 3 goals down. The team isn’t bad in parts (good penalty taker) but needs to get the cheque book out so next years team can be a winner. But as Jason mentions we need to reserve our final opinions until the lower down range is out. Who knows? There may be a killer chip waiting there, but I have my doubts and think if there was we’d know about it by now. Why would you keep it a secret?

[Dave Rice]

Not thick John, we’d have all fallen into the same trap.

It makes no sense. I can only assume that MS think if you’re connected it’ll see if there’s another solution available online.

It’s this sort of behaviour that drives me wild.

[Dave Rice]

If it’s anything like the quality we get from PC – VGA – SVideo – Modulator – TV you won’t need a filter to make it look ye olde tyme.

[Dave Rice]

It wasn’t me, it was delivered elsewhere.

[Dave Rice]

+1 to that.

I’m surprised they don’t have dash cams or body cams, they are cheap enough. The problem I have is absence of footage!

On Sunday I was expecting a delivery so had the camera phone app on as it takes me a bit longer to get down the stairs to the door. Saw the car arrive and got to the door to find they had gone straight to the safe place and were about to put a “you were out card” through the letter box. I find it hard to complain too much about that sort of practice as I know they are under stupid time pressure. I suspect 9 / 10 if there’s no car on the drive they get no answer.

[Dave Rice]

I think that’s a very fair review.

Ryzen isn’t a stinking pile of poo but neither is it what it was hyped up to be. How much of that hype was AMD PR and how much it was fanboi I wouldn’t like to say.

But hey ho, if it got us the P G4620 and i3-7350K that’s good and it looks like they have an architecture to build on. I’m sure Ryzen will do well in the niches it appeals to.

[Dave Rice]

Just had a phone call, it’s “lost in transit” so a refund is being processed.

[Dave Rice]

Yes there could be, but it’s all still ifs, buts and maybe.

On the current showing it’s as before, cherry picked mutli threaded benchmarks and lacking in single thread. We all know there were some stupidly priced Intel chips that didn’t stack up against their own competition that no-one could work out who would buy them.

If the high end Ryzen struggles / holds it’s own against cheaper i3 and i5 in every day Joe type workloads it’s hard to see how the lower ones will fare better, but we’ll see. I really cannot see anything here that will have Intel quaking in their boots at the moment. Just look at what they’ve done with the Pentium G4620 and the i3-7350k Review: almost a i7-2600K and that’s a 60 watt.

Ryzen’s certainly a vast improvement and you can see where and how they can make Zen 2 more competitive again. But I’m afraid we’re in the reverse fanboi scenario from where we were in the days of the Opteron.

[Dave Rice]

Yes you do.

Ryzen 7 1700 = $329, i5 7600K = $242, i3 7350K = $168

Average Gaming

[Dave Rice]

Well the benchmarks are out and single threaded is the Achilles heel again.

If you have the right workloads to throw at it (unsurprisingly the same sorts as the leaked benchmarks) it is certainly a competitor. For mere mortals it’s still work in progress.

I think this headline sums it up pretty well “An i5 in Gaming, i7 in Production”.

But it’s a hell of a lot better than what’s gone before that’s for sure and that is something to rejoice.

[Dave Rice]

Might be an idea.

[Dave Rice]

Search me John, try googling and see if anyone knows why.

[Dave Rice]

When you’re doing the diagnostics just keep the mouse plugged in, it shouldn’t affect the synaptic track pad.

[Dave Rice]

Well it’s all in. The HDMI extenders add some thin yellow vertical bars at 1080P but they’re just fine at 720P which is indistinguishable from 1080P as far as the presentations go.

Customer is happy and that’s what counts. Now I wait for the money…

[Dave Rice]

I suspect there has been already and hushed up. What can’t be kept quiet is when the bank batch jobs fail or the ATMs go out.

These systems were largely kept bodged together by people like me who once they reach 50 have the redundancy target painted to their backs. I was supposed to take place in knowledge transfer sessions but none were organised in time for my departure, despite pressure from the customer who knew exactly what was (and wasn’t happening).

With the Cloud, as you know I have always been skeptical for small business (big Corporate is different). I have seen what an enthusiastic amateur with a Dropbox account can do in a 7 person 2 branch setup. He had bought a Synology off me but just couldn’t get his head around permissions and wouldn’t let me help. I later found out why (several sets of books and holiday calendars, he actually had 70+ days leave one year). Anyway, Dropbox is gone and Cloud Station has been doing the business for nearly 10 months now and no dramas. The Cloud is still involved in that there is a weekly (differential) archive to Amazon AWS via Glacier. But that is encrypted before it leaves and in transmission.

All my business data and that of the other small business I look after is treated in exactly the same way. Synology Cloud Station on the PC / laptop, daily backup of the NAS to a USB drive and a weekly Glacier archive. My total Amazon bill for all of us is still <$2 a month.

Cloud Station allows you to go back 32 versions of a file and Hyperbackup lets me go back 10 days, some of the others are 30 days (depends on size of backup vs size of storage), and if the place burns down I can get back to where I was on Saturday morning.

[Dave Rice]

I’m finding small businesses very skeptical these days about Cloud storage.

[Dave Rice]

I honestly have no idea, but once it’s gone if there is any free space we can do something about it.

What we don’t want to do is what others have done and upset the booting by doing it themselves.

[Dave Rice]

It was the previous car, a 1.6 petrol Zafira “A” model and 3 years old when we bought it, 13 years when we traded it in for the Meriva.

During that 3 years it got the Mrs to work, the weekly shopping, did the taxi duties for 3 kids, including getting 2 of them to and fro from Uni with all their worldly goods. 3 or 4 times a year there was the trip to Cornwall to see the family or a similar holiday run on M and A roads, usually stuffed to the gills but never any luggage in the cabin – the boot was that big.

10 years total spares cost was 1 exhaust, 1 battery, 3 or 4 sets of tyres and a coil pack. IIRC the total cost of 10 x MOTs was a couple of bushes. As a family car it was absolutely fantastic. The only place it struggled was up and down the hills in Cornwall on fast A roads.

The Meriva is proving to be the same for our now smaller 2 + 1 family (but can take the 2 + 3 on short trips when the “boys” are back) with much reduced fuel, insurance and tax bills. But the petrol 1.4 commuter orientated engine needs real driving on the A roads which the Mrs wasn’t used to. That means you have to use the gear box rather than just being able to put your right foot down. Keeps the revs up and it’s fine but she isn’t used to planning ahead.

[Author]

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