Posts by CorwinX

West Sussex's Oracle rollout pushed back again as costs balloon 15 times

SAP to Oracle migration...

City Council

Delays

Doesn't work

Costs spiral

Didn't that already play out in Birmingham to that city's cost?

Deja Vu all over again.

NUC, NUC! Who’s there? ASUS with a client device for Microsoft’s cloudy PCs

Re: Back to the Future!

The likes of Zotac have been doing this stuff for years, certainly over a decade.

Their Micro PCs - ZBoxes - come with a choice of a dozen CPUs, GPUs, Memory, SSDs, yada.

The one I've got is only 10.5x10.5x3cm and runs Win RDP, Citrix, etc fine for VPCs. With wired and wireless NICs, Bluetooth, HDMI, USB, eSATA, SD card slot, etc.

I use it as a multimedia hub but the company I worked for when I decided to get one myself had about 60 of them, booting into Linux with an RDP client to VMware VPCs and Servers for each user.

The only local computing was some financial stuff they didn't want to put in the cloud (it's an investment company) and local backups.

That was around 10 years ago.

Microsoft gives Windows laggards the 'gift of time' wrapped in licensing fees

The big issue here is the word "upgrade"

One of my bits of kit - air-gapped, no intenet connectivity - is a media server.

Music and video. Broadcasts to my TV, PC, Laptop, Phone...

Files copied to it via a plug-in drive.

It runs on WinServer 2003 with and does it's job perfectly.

Doesn't need no steenking "upgrade".

Cisco turns to titanium spoons and sand dunes to build a better … box?

Google Gemini says (so take it with a pinch of salt)

A Volkswagen Beetle's weight varies significantly by era: classic air-cooled Beetles (1960s–70s) are very light, typically weighing between 730–930 kg (1,610–2,050 lbs), while modern, water-cooled New Beetles (1998–2019) are heavier, ranging from approximately 1,230–1,450 kg (2,712–3,197 lbs).

Needs to have another comparison.

How many average badgers do they weigh?

NASA repurposes Mars Helicopter’s ancient Snapdragon SoC to help Perseverance rover navigate

The what now?

“During testing, the team repeatedly found the rover’s position was off by 1 millimeter"

On a bit of kit, millions of miles away, with shaky comms and nav.

And they flag 1mm as an issue worth mentioning?

Someone give these guys and gals medals.

Work experience kids messed with manager's PC to send him to Ctrl-Alt-Del hell

Can't remember the image file involved right now

But in Win7 (and maybe still?) you could customize the wallpaper displayed at startup *before* you hit Crtl-Alt-Del to log on.

Cue screenshot of a login prompt that wasn't ;-)

Hotel's rotary switchboard so retro it predates the concept of crashing

Re: who have not seen such a device in the wild (or at least outside a museum)

I'm old and decrepit enough to remember that.

As a kid I never walked past a phone box without punching the buttons to see if it paid out.

Which they did surprisingly often.

Flush with potential? Activist investor insists Japanese toilet giant is an AI sleeper

Have you seen a full-on Jap auto-loo up close?

They're scary enough with manual controls.

AI, in control of that many protuberances, is the last thing you need in the vicinity of your nether regions.

X users howl into the void as timelines fail to load

Emergency therapy needed

Users forced to experience Real Life for a day - the horror!

AI agent seemingly tries to shame open source developer for rejected pull request

I'm systems rather than dev

But I'd have thought the enjoyment to be had from coding was, er, coding.

What point getting an AI to pump out stuff that, at best, *might* be adequate?

Re: 24/7/365 automated harassment and bullying

There should be cooking lessons in schools anyway. Used to be at one time - domestic education I think it was called.

You could tie it into science (which it is) - eg the Maillard reaction is what gives steak a tasty crust.

UK names Barnsley as first Tech Town to see whether AI can fix... well, anything

"Barnsley will blaze a trail"

Yeah, I imagine a blaze of some sort will probably feature heavily at some point in the ongoing story.

I does'na know wha' happn'd officer. It just went on fire!

Windows fails to tip the scales in grocery store deployment

So El Reg's Bork!Bork!Bork article is ... errr ... Borked?

S Twatter: When text-to-speech goes down the drain

Standard test is...

to feed it Scunthorpe (an area in the UK) and see what it makes of it.

It's famous for getting email filters in a tizzy.

Lenovo has a hunch you’re about to try quitting VMware

What they just don't get...

... or more likely willfully ignoring is that vast swathes of their users don't need or want all the stuff they're bundling. No matter how much its theoretical "value" it is.

What use all the wizzie stuff if all you want is to virtualize a couple of mail servers and a webserver.

Or have all your users using virtual PCs.

It's like trying to sell a truck with a trailer included as a "bargain" to a customer who only wants a truck.

Linus Torvalds tries vibe coding, world still intact somehow

Re: Icons - enjoy the choice

As an ex-typesetter, I am highly aware of the correct useage of Em, En and hyphen/dash.

Only one of these is available on a standard qwerty keyboard however - so I don't get hung up about using it for everything informally.

BOFH: The Christmas spirit has run dry – time to show some chiller instinct

Merry Chistmas Mr Travaglia

Long may the BOFH and PFY continue to wreak havoc on the PHB's.

IT team forced to camp in the office for days after Y2K bug found in boss's side project

Re: Ah, the great Y2K scare

I used to specialise in Notes/Domino - mail not so much dev.

It was pretty bulletproof.

Y2K - not an issue - it had always stored full 4-digit years.

It had 2FA before anyone had heard of the term (User ID files).

It mostly disappeared because it wasn't flashy compared to Exchange.

It also introduced web access, which was pretty seamless compared to the full Notes client.

With full public/private key encryption fundamental to how it worked.

There's still some financial companies that use it because they just don't trust Exchange.

On the night when the clock ticked over

I was put up in a very nice hotel very near to the office of the company I worked for.

With remote access to all the systems from my laptop.

All expenses paid.

Spent most of the time raiding the mini-bar, ordering room service and reading a book.

And fielding phone calls asking me if everything was still OK.

They almost seemed disappointed that nothing whatsoever happened.

Still, a nice break for me.

Garmin autopilot lands small aircraft without human assistance

Water landings are incredibly dangerous

Only attempted in extreme circumstances when there's literally no other option.

There's plenty of disturbing YouTube videos of airliners trying it and breaking apart catastrophicaly.

Landing/crashing in open ground would be preferable every time.

Re: Nice job

I think that what you get with Musk is "unplugged", unfiltered by PR.

He has some controversial opinions but I think they're at least honest ones to him personally.

Do you want an honest guy with opinions you disagree with or a politician feeding you bullshit they think you want to hear to get them elected?

Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) ...

... have been used for decades.

Traditionally the autopilot has used triangulation from radio beacons at the airport to pinpoint the plane's position and descent.

GPS is only an evolution that be turned on or off.

There's also the backup of runway lights and ground radar. Not just the lights down the centre - there's coloured lamps at the side that can only be seen if you're on the right descent.

And the onboard radar tells you altitude, when you're close to the ground, more accurately than the analog altimeter.

Even old-style ILS could, in extremis, "fly to the ground" (land). But without the pilot "flaring" - raising the nose just before touchdown - the front undercarriage may need a bit of work.

Instrument landing sysyems (ILS)...

... have been used for decades. Garmin (and Avidyne) are gold-standard.

But remotely controlling them?

There's another thread in the last few days about cars being shut down remotely.

Any system can be hacked if it can be accessed remotely. Just don't do it - a plane's systems should be completely self contained.

Yes, in certain cases, it could save a few lives. But on the flipside, a bad-actor gaining contol of an airliner's nav system...

'PromptQuest' is the worst game of 2025. You play it when trying to make chatbots work

I remember the original Hobbit On the Spectrum.

And a variation of Colossal Cave.

Also Ship of Doom (Adventure C) from Artic.

And of course one of the gold standards - Hitchhikers.

Go, find, and try to get your hands on the damn Babel Fish! Took me days.

And don't get me started on the bloody "pocket fluff"!

One real reason AI isn't delivering: Meatbags in manglement

I may have mentioned this before

El Reg should start a lottery of some sort on when (not if) the AI crash happens.

Winner gets an official Reg t-shirt.

----

Sorry, can't help myself, runner up gets two ;-)

Sight of Clippy, Internet Explorer scares baby

His child was traumatised?

"I'm* currently self-medicating to try to get that image out of my head!!!

Electric cars no more likely to flatten you than the noisy ones, study finds

Re: It’s not the engine type that makes the car dangerous

Same as the problem being between the office chair and keyboard.

Re: Noise!

I've seen and heard a Vulcan taking off.

Don't know how.many decibels but no noise regulation on the planet covers it.

I was in a tent a tent and thought an explosion had happened (only around 12 at the time).

Call me old fashioned...

But I thought that was what horns were for?

Cars don't count...

... unless someone's done something monumentaly stupid with the vehicle itself.

Say a home-baked nitrous rig.

The DA are about people taking *themselves* out in especially creative ways. I can't offhand recall any stories that involved innocent bystanders getting hurt.

The Darwin Awards are based on self-selection.

They celebrate the sacrifice of brave individuals removing themselves from the gene pool before they procreate, thereby helping to lessen the prevalance of the Stupidy Gene.

Re: I'd have thought this would be obvious

Ah...

My mistake. I thought they did it all the time.

All I can say is that there's a lot of clacking when I go to my local high street - which now apparently indicates a whole different issue.

I'd have thought this would be obvious

We navigate by sight and sound.

It's why deaf people have to take extra care when crossing roads.

Electric car engines/motors are fundamentally quiter.

Artificially making them louder is just road safety.

There's a hire bike scheme in London - Lime - that makes their bikes emit a clacking sound when they're ridden.

Given that bike couriers (usually food/restaurant deliveries) often ride like nutjobs on pavements, it's essental.

Porsche panic in Russia as pricey status symbols forget how to car

There's also the Cut&Shut

Two mostly identical cars.

One's hit a lampost, the other's been tail-ended.

Hack both down the middle, weld the undamaged ends together and respray the resulting Frankencar.

Parts v whole car

This is a totally true story. I swear it in the name of the Goddess.

Liverpool in the 80s. Joyriders used to steal cars, razz them around, then leave them on Kirkby beach.

I was going out with a girl from a particular family.

They didn't steal cars themselves, they'd only strip them once abandoned.

Two trucks, one with a winch to take the engine out.

One crew exterior (wheels, engine, etc) the other interior (radio, seats, dash, etc).

Approx 30min to only leave the body-shell and exit.

Any law-enforcement reading this... 45 years ago - no, I can't remember names!

Why, in the name all that's holy..

... would someone buy a car that could be immobilized remotely?

Anti-theft is one thing. Having your car shut down while doing 70 on a motorway (or stranded miles from anywhere) is a whole different kettle of fish.

North American air defense troops ready for 70th year of Santa tracking

Re: ICE'd

Or shot down by an F16

Faith in the internet is fading among young Brits

I'd suggest that...

To younger people "the internet" = "social media". Faceplant etc.

It's most likely that its the latter they're souring on, not the wider ecology of the Net itself.

DVSA's clapped-out booking system gets bot slapped as new boss rides in

They could also request...

... the Reg Number of the car to be used for the test.

I did my later lessons and the test in a car I'd already bought.

By that time the instructor trusted me without having dual-controls for himself.

And, it should be a criminal offence to do the equivalent of ticket-touting. The only person who is booking the test should be verified as the driver

Re: When I did my driving test

Long time ago but it worked.

You showed the instructor you were ready and they booked you in.

I'd have thought that these days simple SMS/2FA should thin things out.

Only one booking per registered name/phone number with confirmation required.

That stuff is off-the-shelf these days.

As are booking systems.

Brit broadband grilling descends into farce over targets and definitions

Yes Minister is right

Sir Humphrey Appleby would have gazed on with admiration at a masterclass in speaking while saying nothing.

Apple blocks dev from all accounts after he tries to redeem bad gift card

Re: Local copies of, almost, everything here

True - the model is...

You don't own what you paid for - they do.

They just allow you to use it. Until they don't.

Re: Local copies of, almost, everything here

Regrettably true.

A mate of mine has read access to my personal music collection (extensive, very) on Gdrive.

But teaching you're average civvie about sites, drives, folders, subfolders...

Re: Local copies of, almost, everything here

Absolutely - my GDrive is an exact upload-mirror of both internal and external SDs on my main phone. Automatically updated six-hourly.

With a synced download-mirror that runs on my spare phone when I switch it on.

If I lost my current main phone - I'd just go home, fire up the spare and carry on as normal.

Most I could lose would be a few texts.

(Autosync/Drivesync does that BTW).

Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy

Many years ago...

I had a virtual server with a relatively small company whose name I can't recall right now.

It had (or has?) small datacentres *everywhere*.

You could create a VM in one country but move it somewhere else in half an hour (think similar to VMware VMotion).

I'm a Brit but the server usually resideded in Amsterdam.

It was very useful for accessing region-blocked websites.

Something not accessible from Europe? Just move it to NA for the day. ;-)

Affection for Excel spans generations, from Boomers to Zoomers

Of course they do

It's called "market advantage".

The problem here isn't, fundamentally, Micro$haft itself.

It's corporate investors who demand ever-increasing profit from companies.

Rather than being satisfied with a steady, rock-solid income, they demand year-on-year increased yields.

Hence the current AI bubble.

I await the inevitable burst/crash eagerly.

Re: When you need a spreadsheet...

Because I'm ancient and decrepit I remember, I think Visicalc, on the Spectrum.

Eye opener.

Re: Excel is not bad

Whatever you think about Micro$haft as a company, Excel (and Word etc) do the job pretty damn well.

I personally tend to use Libre because I prefer simpler and functional. Without fancy bells and whistles. But I'm admittedly old-school.

I just wish M$ would stop trying to shove "AI" and other "features" into everything.

To reverse the old analogy... When you've got yourself out of the hole - don't start digging again! ;-)

IBM touts progress on tech stack for AI-enabled airline with no passengers or alcohol

Just so long as they don't let AI...

... anywhere near the flight/nav controls of actual aircraft!!!

UK tech minister vows more whole-government megadeals after £9B Microsoft pact

This is probably pie in the sky

Contracts of this size should specify transparency on where every penny ends up and what it's paid for.

Annual Accounts of the contractor, or what they've allegedly supplied, aren't enough.

One of the biggest traps is "commercial in confidence" where the supplier can refuse to disclose a lot of business dealings with contracts.