Posts by James O'Brien

Did you buy a hot Asus Rog Strix notebook? Like, really hot? Like, super hot? Like, ow-ow-ow my lap's on fire hot?

And therein lies the problem

At the risk of sounding like I am calling out specific companies how is this any different that crApple and the Macs with the desktop chips in them? They rework the fan curves and voltages to allow the CPU to run at higher speeds for longer while sitting at 95°C or higher and if you have seen any of the tear downs of other "gaming" laptops the bloody heatsink designed for them is gigantic. I get the limited space but really? How is it that temps high enough to possible warp parts and cause thermal runaway (let's be honest because that's basically whats going on here since the cooling solutions suck at best) don't get noticed in development? Does making sure it works properly and as advertised now a days involve turning it on making sure it posts and then gets the stamp of approval with no further testing?

Sounds suspiciously like Corsair with the hardware/firmware/software they have been putting out as of late. To put it bluntly in Corsairs case I caught them bold faced lying to the consumers and ignoring issues (issues like ICue reporting the AIO pump and fans running at the normal speeds with a temp reading of around 34°C, except looking at said fans you could clearly see they were in the silent running mode of what I like to call "OFF" and the pump was not running either. When I checked the temps using something else watched my 2700X display a temp of 88 then 95 then off, about that fast.) Needless to say I have been roasting them hard on their own forums for the last several months, and I have not been nice about it at times seeing as my issue is not just with me but the fact that so many others are having similar issues with no sign of light at the end. I think they are afraid I will let out the timeline of what transpired because what I found would seriously cloud optics of how they have been addressing things. And result in way more money than what just fixing it would cost.

For the record they have till August to finish holding up the end of the deal they made with me otherwise I will go public.

Withdrew first comment as I put in 9900K without thinking and didn't catch till after window passed.

Anyone for unintended ChatRoulette? Zoom installs hidden Mac web server to allow auto-join video conferencing

Re: Side cutters?

Since you took the time to open it up why not just unplug the cables? Then went you let the machine go to some other home you can say it is fully working. Assuming you took the time to plug them back in :)

Not very bright: Apple geniuses spend two weeks, $10,000 of repairs on a MacBook Pro fault caused by one dumb bug

What? You mean shine a flashlight at the screen to see if your getting an thing on it incase the back light decided to pack it in? Hell got bored one day so I made something that spreads the light out and I can hold against the screen to do this easier.

User: "my screen doesn't work!"

Me: already opening the drawer I have it in if they answer the first question of, are you sure it's on, correctly.

Now Intel taken to US Supreme Court over retirement fund gripes: Ex-staffer demands right to sue over risks, losses

And this is why

I prefer to drink my checks away and stuff whatever I have left in the couch/mattress/closet/[buried 3 linguine NNE of the 2nd oak under the stone marked 'HERE']/or the tip jar for bartender Jesus...Seriously I love that guy.

Apple hits back at devs of axed kiddie screen-time apps

I can't believe I am saying this

Its been almost 10 years since posting but this article, specifically the responses to it about crApple being guilty of nefarious things, is bugging me this much. First for those that do remember, yep still alive. Just lurking here in the shadows.

Anyway, people who know me, know that I hate Apple with a passion. That say, I can't help but side with them on this. If the functionality is able to be maintained without MDM, as is the case, AND, that others that modified their program to work according to the T&C's and the apps are still on the store, how can Apple have nefarious means here? Believe me, I would not be willingly siding with Apple on this one if the facts were different, but some of the comments blaming them bugged me so much that I had to come out of the El Reg Protection Program. And made me take Apples side on this one....

Now that being said tell AMFM I said hi and im going to go bathe in bleach....*shudders*

Apple man found dead at Cupertino HQ, gun discovered nearby

First post in years and then back to obscurity....

I couldn't resist this comment.....

It was Steve Jobs in the conference room holding the iPhone wrong.

Did I win?

Cops think Mt Gox meltdown was an 'INSIDE JOB' – report

Sure you can

When you get your money for nothin and your chicks for free

That 8TB Seagate MONSTER? It's HERE... (You'll have to squint, 'cos there are no specs)

Re: have had too many seagate problems

WD Drive types:

Green = low power and in my experience QC is damn near non-existent on them

Blue = consumer level drives with about the same QC as Green so crap

Red = Drives made specifically for NAS storage, haven't bothered to look into what different about them and have limited experience with them

Blacks = Once you go black you don't go back. Nothing but praise for them myself.

I also hear they have a purple drive but I have no knowledge about it other than that.

Re: Now you can lose 8TB of data in one shot instead of just 4!

Ill join the band wagon here and say that I haven't used a Seagate drive in over 10 years myself. Absolute crap and I say that having seen them come in day after day after day having issues of one sort or another. Only drive I would want LESS than Seagate is Toshiba. I don't quite understand why Toshiba even bothers with HDDs if the QC is this horrible.

Prefer WD myself. Have had nothing but stellar support from them the one time I needed it (2.5 year old 1Tb Black decided it didn't want to spin up anymore. Luckily I had everything on another drive at that time in prep to setup a RAID5) that said drive BTW was replaced with a 2Tb Black as they were out of the 1Tb for replacement.

Also is it just me that feels old when they see terms like Tb and such being tossed around yet then can remember the days when 5Mb was the shizznit? Not to mention the (in)famous quote "640K ought to be enough for anybody." God I feel old.

Password manager LastPass goes titsup: Users locked out

Re: Working fine

Swear to god if eBay buys out LP I will find you and beat you with my keyboard for making that statement.... Nothing good ever comes out of eBay buying companies....

Google's mysterious floating techno barge SOLD FOR SCRAP

Re: Kids with more money than brains.

A better view is that the streets are safer.

Microsoft: IE11 for Windows Phone 8.1 is TOO GOOD. So we'll cripple it like Safari

Re: Irony can be so ironical

You had me at "So, to recap: Micros~1". Nicely done sir. Nicely done.

Re: MS crippling IE

While I agree 100% with them crippling it...well more like just saying to hell with the standards we are going to do it our way and screw what the standards actually ARE, I cannot help but agree with them on this. I don't like that they are adding yet one more thing to go wrong with the browser when there are so many other attack vectors already in the bloody thing, truth be told I cant fault them for this. Why not do what they need to do so that people can actually view the website they happen to be visiting and have it actually work. In this I have to place, at least, some of the blame on the web developers who cannot be assed to design according to standards and test against at least the top 3-4 browsers, at the most current version available anyway, on the market.

Im no M$ shill but the blame has to go both ways in some extent.

Now if M$ was developing all of the webpages then I would be not so much on the wagon train as driving it. Then again I wish someone would develop a phone, be it land line or cell, that I could reach through and strangle the person on the other end due to their utter incompetence and lack to bloody listen if I ask them to do something for me so that I can fix their damn problem instead of repeating myself over and over until I am blue in the face and at serious risk of an aneurysm.

Then again screw it, you know what I don't care as I don't have a phone with Mobile Exploder 11 on it.

Yahoo! Japan! launches! service! for! the! dead!

How did no one mention this?

But certainly gives a new meaning to a Happy Ending....

Mines the raincoat in the corner....thanks.

Insecure AVG search tool shoved down users' throats, says US CERT

"Will we ever reach a point where we no longer have to lecture. . ."

No.

@John Tserkezis

You mean those images of IE and all the tool bars isn't normal? Try explaining that to some of my....thicker.....repeat customers.

Wireless-controlled contraception implant is coming, says MIT

Dont even get me started

In how you might have to reboot it after applying a firmware patch to the device.....

Retiring Reg hack explains how bass playing = tech reporting

Well then Rik

While I know me and you have had our differences (Apple fanboi :P) It will be disappointing to see you go. Hopefully you will still contribute something from time to time. Hope you enjoy your retirement and have a good one. Thanks for the reporting over the years.

BTW I will be hoisting a beer to you tonight. Peace.

20 years on: eWorld, Apple's spectacular online 'portal' failure

Re: Rhetoric vs Reality

@John

You would be correct and then Microsoft made the fateful decision to give them $5 Billion in cash to prop them up if I recall in the mid to late 90's. I could be wrong though on this.

Apple settles ebook price-fixing damages lawsuit with US states

Careful with the Apple hating

It is libel to get you down voted even though you made a perfectly valid point. Trust me....I know

How I poured a client's emails straight into the spam bin – with one Friday evening change

Re: actually..

Or if you go by BOFH definition of "Assume' it makes an ass out of you and you

Agree with you Cash

Unless he is using his gmail account to sign up for anything and everything I would like to know how he gets them as I have had Gmail for slightly longer than you have and never see those emails.

One way I avoid that shit is to have a burner account like Hotmail. That is all I use on sites which want my email information.

Good news for gamers who don't leave the house: SanDisk debuts 24/7 Extreme PRO SSD

Only 5 years?

I have a set of 4 old 150Gb Raptors which I bought back in '07 which are still going strong. You get a well enough made product it will last a lot longer than similar product but cheaply made. Gotta love WD for their drives though I am in the process of switching out to the new(ish) 500Gb 840 EVO.

USB reversible cables could become standard sooner than you think

"how on earth are we supposed to fumble for this diddly little orifice to insert our jacks?"

The way I generally look for a little orifice to insert my jack is by generally using my fingers to feel around for it before I ram it home.

Cheat Win XP death: Your handy guide to keeping snubbed operating system ticking over

Re: One Question

You are wrong in a sense. MS announced that even that part will be disabled eventually:

"(If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive antimalware signature updates for a limited time,"

If someone want to clue me in on the reasoning behind this decision I would love to hear an explanation that doesn't make my head explode at the stupidity of it.

Judge strikes down Apple attempt to bar Samsung's 'untrue' patent comments

Since when...

Did Samsung have Siri on their phones? Reason I ask is because of this part from the article "deploys the Siri virtual assistant,". Don't see anyway Samsung could be in violations as they refuse to let Siri on their phones and be seen as giving up against Apple.

'Bank couriers' who stole money from OAP cancer sufferer jailed

Re: vs the 'Microsoft' tech support guy...

Out of curiosity do you have a link to anything about this "Microsoft" tech guy? Just want to read something so I don't fall asleep at work.

'Good job, NSA! You turned Yahoo! into an encryption beast'

Re: Was! Wondering! The! Same! Thing! Myself!

And about time you fixed your mistake dio :P Stop slacking around the water cooler telling stories about your night out with a lovely young blonde from accounting and get back to making sure these headlines are right :P

God I love these comments.

Facebook swallows Oculus VR goggle-geeks. Did that really happen?

Re: NOooooOOoooo

Well fuck me silly....

I was seriously considering getting one but after this news I'm not going to bother wasting the money. I have absolutely no faith that Farcebook will not screw this up.

Oh well I would rather prefer something I can plug into my head so I can REALLY experience the game.

Proof Apple is GOING BACKWARDS: It's trying to patent a Newton-ish touchscreen stylus

Re: Breaking News

Damn Don...Its been a while since I laughed that hard.

Just a little sad you beat me too it, otherwise, well played sir.

NSA spies recorded an entire COUNTRY'S phone calls for a MONTH: Report

Re: james 68

Don't forget the States as being one of those that is being recorded. Because we need to make sure big brother is keeping us safe.

Helis because I'm pretty sure I hear them circling like Vultures right now.

USB cuts the cord, again, with WiGig-derived wireless spec

Re: "(assuming the latter still exist after 2015)"

Dont forget about them draining your bank account before they run off to frolic in the fields with the other pumpkins.

Apple patent will see Siri remind you to keep taking your meds

What I dont get

Is how can it be that Apple would play the game this way. I mean they can make a whole lot more money if they implant a tracking chip in all the sheep^H^H^H^H^, I mean customers? They could charge a-lot more for the preliminary scan of people thetans, sell them informative literature about the process and why it will help with your thetan level, then claim that they are noticing blind spots in coverage (bathroom, your BDSM dungeon etc) for you they will then come out with "iMplant 2" (rinse and repeat this until your nose bleeds).

Seriously though I hope they do come out with this because I cant wait to see the "iMplant 5C" just so I can see someone running around in hot pink. Anyone who would allow this deserves whatever they get.

Privacy warriors lob sueball at Facebook buyout of WhatsApp

Re: the rich are consolidating their power

Did Webster Phreaky switch from Apple hating to just plain hating now?

Dell charges £16 TO INSTALL FIREFOX on PCs – Mozilla is miffed

Re: I need to re-think my charging!

Sorry but I wouldnt pay you anything if you were going to put Picasa, iTunes, Libre Office, Google Earth or Skype on my machine...If you were to do that I would charge you instead for the hassle I was about to receive.....

KCOM caught in yet ANOTHER customer privacy snafu

Re: The pot calling the kettle black

Yes you are correct on El Reg doing this, I was one of those affected. But it did not happen to ALL reg users, just about 10k or so IIRC. Atleast El Reg was upfront and did turn themselves in.

Dropbox erects sueball shield with new T&C and privacy legalese

Always reminded

Of a time I was bored at work and started reading the ToS for some program or another, been to long and I cant remember what it was now. About 5 or so pages into the ToS there was something along the lines of:

Your actually reading this? You didn't just click accept like everyone else? Ok good, just please don't pirate the program if you like it, we spent time making it and ask that you support us if you like the program other wise its free to do with what you wish

Then it went back to the normal legalese. Wish I could remember where I saw that now but its been a long time.

Pretty sure that companies would have less pissed consumers if they followed this tactic but then how would the Lawyers get paid?

DARPA wants help to counter counterfeits

Re: "SHIELD, Supply Chain Hardware Integrity for Electronic Devices"

Hmm....fair point. I probably shouldn't make posts when I'm half asleep :)

"SHIELD, Supply Chain Hardware Integrity for Electronic Devices"

Are we sure that it doesn't mean "Spying on Citizens Home, Internet and EveryDay life"?

A better question though is, how do we know that this wont be used to spy on....well everyone, who has a device with one of these embedded in it? I'm not normally one to cry wolf here but I can't help but wonder the implications of this if it were to be implemented.

-Does anyone else hear a helicopter?

Self-forming liquid metal just like a TERMINATOR emerges from China lab

Re: Mark 85

Yes, yes you should. I enjoy reading amfm comments but whenever I don't have to read it 3-4 times to get an inkling of what he is saying scares me. Either A hes making more sense or B I'm starting to lose whats left of my mind....Probably B

Help! Apple has snaffled the WHOLE WORLD'S supply of sapphire glass

Re: Yeah right Mark

I could care less if Mark is right or wrong, but I do wonder one thing,

"Apple has also started describing their latest-generation mobile CPUs as desktop-class."

Cause help but wonder how big the phone will be with the attached heatsink :)

Just like Elvis, dead Steve Jobs to appear all over America in 2015

Steve Jobs to appear...along with Science Fiction writers

Interesting, didn't know his autobiographers were so important......

Rotten to the core: Apple’s 10 greatest FAILS

Re: Why Do You Bother?

Apparently you are new here and don't know how things work. ElReg has been on crApple's shit list for so long that I don't even remember the reason why.

As for any other qualms you might have with how Apple is represented by ElReg, stick around, they tend to bash everyone and everything equally given the time. And the majority of it is pretty damn funny.

Dead Kim Jong-il's OS makeover takes a page from Dead Steve Jobs

Re: Anyone else....

Actually I'm pretty sure, while they may also be prime strike targets, those are to show how successful the NK missile program has been in placing things on target....oh wait.

Devs: We'll bury Candy Crush King under HEAPS of candy apps

Gotta love this

I really am starting to find this trademark business to be total BS and believe it should be abolished. The only ones getting anything out of this are the lawyers, seeing as the trademarks are being enforced on an "who can we screw" basis.

Think about it, Apple rounded corners, King with Candy and Saga and I could go on but pretty much everyone who reads this knows what I mean.

Its absolutely mad that they trademarked Saga and are going after the devs of Banner Saga which in no way is related to Candy Crap Saga.

Bah I need a beer.

Microsoft shops ditch XP for New Year as Windows market share expands

using something a little more "modern"

I see what you did there :P

JAILBREAK! US smut spam king Kilbride flees minimum security prison

Re: Hmm, Lompoc

I have to ask Tim, how did you manage to spend a MONTH there in one WEEK? If was chemically induced time spent there I want some of what you have :P and if it wasn't that I want the DeLorean you have stashed in the garage with the flux capacitor in it.

NSA alleges 'BIOS plot to destroy PCs'

Re: Holy christ....

Depends on the paper Gene. Was it something that painted MS in an attractive light?

Sadly Trevor

While the NSA *cough** claims to be listening to *cough** 30 "US Persons", in all likely hood there is a good chance you might be on that list. Can't recall but if memory serves you might have, at one time, in the distant past, mentions crApple in a post and that would automatically flag you as a person of interest. Seriously, you *MIGHT* have (choose one) said/thought/heard someone else say/been within a mile of someone whos used a Fleshlight on an iDevice, something negative about them. And we all know that anyone who might have done any of those things, by having certain views about an American company, that could be considered a threat to the USA.

Dont worry though, they only check the metadata so its all fine. *cough**

*is it dry in here or just me?