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lproven

8,650 karmajoined 13 yıl önce
Tall dark black-clad atheist skeptic biker SF fan; writes, mainly about computers, for a living.

# Work

Currently the FOSS & cloud correspondent for the Register.

https://www.theregister.com/Author/Liam-Proven

Work email: [email protected]

# Personal

Comments here (or anywhere else, unless otherwise stated) are personal opinion and not on behalf of any employer.

Based in Douglas, Isle of Man.

Quick info:

https://about.me/liamproven/

Personal blog:

http://lproven.dreamwidth.org/profile

Tech blog:

http://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/profile/

Socials:

https://social.vivaldi.net/@lproven

https://bsky.app/profile/lproven.bsky.social

https://x.com/lproven

https://meet.hn/city/im-Douglas

Submissions

LisaFPGA: The Apple Lisa computer implemented inside an FPGA

github.com
4 points·by lproven·3 gün önce·1 comments

David Potter, founder of Psion, dead at 82

opendemocracy.net
7 points·by lproven·8 gün önce·3 comments

Adding BASIC09 front end tool to LLVM

discourse.llvm.org
3 points·by lproven·16 gün önce·0 comments

The Attack on Competence

deadsimpletech.com
5 points·by lproven·geçen ay·0 comments

TimeCapsuleSMB: Hacking the Apple Time Capsule to Run Modern Samba

github.com
2 points·by lproven·2 ay önce·0 comments

[untitled]

1 points·by lproven·4 ay önce·0 comments

4-post blog by Brantley Coile on going flying with Niklaus Wirth

coraid.com
1 points·by lproven·5 ay önce·0 comments

I compared WinApps and WinBoat, which integrate a Windows VM to desktop Linux

theregister.com
1 points·by lproven·5 ay önce·0 comments

Containers, cloud, blockchain, AI – it's all the same old BS, says RH veteran

theregister.com
2 points·by lproven·5 ay önce·1 comments

OpenSlopware deleted, forked, and revived – by me on El Reg

theregister.com
5 points·by lproven·6 ay önce·3 comments

Unix V4 tape recovered: first ever Unix written in C runs again

theregister.com
11 points·by lproven·7 ay önce·5 comments

Announcing Vojtux – Accessible Linux distro which is almost pure Fedora

freelists.org
1 points·by lproven·7 ay önce·0 comments

ComputerAid: Dispose of old IT kit in a safe, secure way

computeraid.org
1 points·by lproven·7 ay önce·0 comments

2025 is a mast year. That's an opportunity

bbc.co.uk
4 points·by lproven·10 ay önce·1 comments

Can Nouveau be used for GPU offloading on Nvidia Optimus systems?

2 points·by lproven·10 ay önce·2 comments

A CEO's Guide to Emacs

web.archive.org
2 points·by lproven·10 ay önce·2 comments

A New Compact: a magical new license for open sourcerors

opensourcerer.eu
4 points·by lproven·10 ay önce·0 comments

comments

lproven
·7 gün önce·discuss
I've been occasionally helping a blind friend of mine with his PC since 2005. His screenreader talks at about 600wpm or more and after 20 years of practice I can't understand it.

I speedread and can read text faster than his computer's voice -- but not by much. It is very impressive, and very hard to use.

But I am the only sighted person he's met who can use his PC. I navigate Windows mostly by keyboard, and he has no mouse. It slows me down slightly but I can still use it.

(He does have a screen on his family computer, so sighted family and friends can watch films with him. His work one has no screen.)
lproven
·8 gün önce·discuss
I have also written my own obituary for him, but I did not want to be accused of spamming HN.

https://www.theregister.com/personal-tech/2026/07/03/david-p...

Colly Myers, former Psion MD and Symbian CEO, who died in February, was his half-brother.
lproven
·8 gün önce·discuss
WTAF?

> If it was true

Of course it is true. That is why I explained the length of my relevant experience.

> you could explain how and why

Why bother to an annoying troll?

ELI5:

My job is to understand complicated computer stuff and explain it in easy words.

My editor's job is to write headlines that will get people to read what I wrote.

I know the tech. The editor knows the readers.
lproven
·9 gün önce·discuss
Dude. You are demonstrating, repeatedly, that you do not know how publishing works, have no idea what the different jobs are and why they are different. You display shock and anger at the notion that different people have different roles in which they do different work. This offends you for some demented reason that I do not care about, and you are repeatedly attacking it with insults and invective -- and then when I point this out to you, you are hurt and offended.

This is how the job is done, and there are good reasons, and it works. Since you are a random angry shouty man with a made-up name on the internet, I am not going to waste my time trying to explain it to you, as you will just shout insults at me from behind your silly offensive pseudonym.

You don't understand and it is very clear that you don't want to. You prefer to hide behind a made up name and throw insults.

I am not playing your childish game.
lproven
·10 gün önce·discuss
As I understand it, Hatari is mainly aimed at running classic ST games. I think its emulation core was the basis of the Amiga PiStorm and similar projects.

There's another all-software ST emulator out there called Aranym:

https://aranym.github.io/

It has its own all-FOSS ST-compatible OS distro, AFROS:

https://aranym.github.io/afros.html

Aranym is aimed at running ST GEM as well as possible on modern machines, for productivity apps and so on -- so it sacrifices absolute hardware compatibility in favour of performance and features like high screen resolutions.

I would love to see a bare-metal Raspberry Pi version of Aranym, to turn a spare Pi into the fastest maxed-out Atari TT030 ever. :-)
lproven
·11 gün önce·discuss
No.

It is not bad.

The problem here is your lack of understanding, and also your hostile confrontational attitude... and in addition, apparently, poor reading comprehension.
lproven
·11 gün önce·discuss
You seem not to realise that Brooks did not write or direct The Princess Bride and as far as I know has no role connected to the film.
lproven
·11 gün önce·discuss
Er, what? No, neither.

I am a reporter; I write the articles. The editors write the headlines. That is how most publications work: it is completely normal and plain and standard.

I've been both a reporter and an editor, and in some roles, combined both. I have done paid writing for nearly 20 different publications in Britain, Europe, America, and Australia, starting in 1995. This is standard industry practice.
lproven
·13 gün önce·discuss
> swype was so good before it got destroyed by Nuance.

100% this. THE best text-entry method for touchscreens. Nuance enshittified it and then Microsoft killed it.

https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2022/06/06/microsofts-sw...
lproven
·13 gün önce·discuss
Never heard of that one before, so I looked it up & watched a demo vid.

Aieeee!

I don't think I could ever learn to use that. I am from the 1990s fast-T9 entry era, and my thumb dexterity is poor. (And I'm left-handed with a badly-damaged right hand.)

I think this is a text entry method solely or primarily for the 2-thumb console-gamepad generation. (I find gamepads really hard to use, too. Give me a joystick, or mouse+WASD.)
lproven
·13 gün önce·discuss
If you want something modern connected with OS-9, then I have good news!

https://www.theregister.com/personal-tech/2026/06/25/foss-de...
lproven
·13 gün önce·discuss
Yes, I have one too. Mine has an external HDD and between the 3 of them it triple-booted OS X, the last PowerPC Ubuntu, and MorphOS.

TBH neither Ubuntu nor MorphOS was a patch on OS X, IMHO. Never re-set the machine up after emigrating in 2014.

But now, I badly want to get MacOS 9 running on it.... Sadly the machine is in my basement in another country, 1000 miles away, though.

Last time I was there, I managed with great effort to find my iBook G4. It runs fine. But it needs a new reed switch and the replacement process looks horrendous...

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iBook+G4+14-Inch+1.42+GHz+Reed+...
lproven
·13 gün önce·discuss
:-)

Thank you!

(And for the implicit acknowledgement that, as a mere reporter, I don't have much influence over the headlines at all, and most often the editors don't use my proposed headline, subhead, or often intro paragraph.)
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
> posts that slander GraphenOS.

FWIW, as someone who is not in the phone OS development world at all but has been reviewing phones with alternative OSes for about the last 4 years...

My impression is that everyone else in the phone-OS and deGoogled-Android world hates the GrapheneOS folks, and it's mutual. They seem to be borderline impossible to work with, very arrogant and protectionist, and the project's own support lifetime is "when Google no longer supports your phone, we don't either."

Personally, I'd choose something else. Anything else, in fact.
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
I put that together. Any problems, do please let me know.
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
Thanks for the plug! :-)
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
> The 6.0 graphic mode just gets in the way.

You can just turn it off.

WP6.2 on DOS on a 21st century machine screams along. I run it occasionally under IBM PC DOS 7.1 (the FAT32-capable version) on bare metal and it's wonderfully rapid.
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
> I grew up using WordStar on the Apple ][.

I don't think you did. AFAIK it never ran directly on 6502.

Perhaps under CP/M using the Microsoft add-on card that DOS creator Tim Paterson designed for them?
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
More to the point and much more complete, WordTsar:

https://wordtsar.ca/
lproven
·14 gün önce·discuss
> I wonder if his views and toolset have changed since then and he might be amenable to sharing more.

No. He uses WordStar 7 for DOS and made his own installable bundle of it and shared it.

https://www.sfwriter.com/ws7.htm

I incorporated it into my bootable DOS USB key:

https://github.com/lproven/usb-dos

He likes this and thanked me. :-)