Posts by Fibbles

If you're appy and you know it, say five Hail Marys – cyber-Pope

"Technology is not a REPLACEMENT for life"

Speak for yourself meatbag.

All hail the singularity!

The web is DOOM'd: Average page now as big as id's DOS classic

Re: Yep

Search for kkrieger, it's a full FPS game in 96KB. Sadly the original download page appears to be gone so I can't link it.

Comcast stabs set-top boxes in the back, pipes directly into smart TVs

Re: The cable companies had already been trying to push this "app" model

My advice has always been to get a dumb TV and a smart box to plug into it. Smart services will inevitably suffer code rot or be deliberately made obsolete in which case it's a lot cheaper to replace a box than a TV.

This move by Comcast shouldn't be the death of set-top boxes, it's just going to allow consolidation of multiple services into one box.

FBI's Tor pedo torpedoes torpedoed by United States judge

I suspect if the FBI had gone to the correct, more senior judge they wouldn't have gotten the warrant. The FBI were effectively distributing kiddie porn 'for a couple of weeks' before they shut the server down.

Kent Police handed domestic abuse victim's data to alleged abuser – a Kent cop

Re: but... but..

Bring back the death penalty for numpties who demand we bring back the death penalty!

Oh bugger...

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives today complete with forbidden ZFS

Re: This is awesome!

You don't know that. Maybe his giant CRT has irradiated him.

European Union set to release anti-competition hounds on Google

Re: Thank goodness this is nearly over.

Your point is slightly undermined by the fact that both Cameron and May are members of the Remain campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

Linux-fight! Dev's plan to bundle kernel patches sparks debate

Re: Please stop reading their mailing list

I think your point about context is interesting; that maybe the Reg shouldn't portray two friends having a dig at each other as a massive argument at the heart of the Linux project. I wouldn't hold my breath though, no news org is above clickbait. That said, you can't expect the Reg not to report something from an open mailing list when it's likely of interest to a lot of their readers. It's their job to report this stuff.

The future of Firefox is … Chrome

Re: How about an explanation

Check out the Self Destructing Cookies addon. It lets you choose on a per website basis whether the cookies are permanent, blocked completely, or disappear when you close the tab.

Watch: SpaceX finally lands Falcon rocket on robo-barge in one piece

The landing was so smooth that at first I thought something had gone wrong with the media player so that I was watching the video in reverse.

How Remix's Android will eat the world

Revisionism

In a few months Gartner will have been seeing it coming for years.

Nest's bricking of Revolv serves as wake-up call to industry

Re: IPV6, TLDs, etc

Alternatively when IoT Lightning Co. go out of business you can quickly buy up their IDIOTS address and point it to your own server. A server which just do happens to be running a script which switches everyone's lights on and off in a strobe like manner.

Bonus points if you also get their wireless speaker system to play obnoxiously loud House music.

Bloaty banking app? There's a good chance it was written in Britain

Re: I worked at a place once where we got a bonus based on LOC

Compiled size?

Today I will mostly be including all of the libraries.

Microsoft lures top Linux exec from Oracle to Redmond

Re: Actually, not quite the case

As the multitude of cracked Windows installs show, bypassing Redmond's authentication servers is not hard.

Blighty starts pumping out 12-sided quids

Re: counterfeit pound coins

I'm amazed they're still touting the use of 2 different metals as a security feature considering the amount of fake £2 coins around.

Bash on Windows. Repeat, Microsoft demos Bash on Windows

Re: How complete will it be ?

I wonder if after installing WINE we can use that to install Cygwin.

Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes.

Let’s re-invent small phones! Small screens! And rubber buttons!

Re: Small != Small

Yes it is. Does anyone know where I can go for unbiased, HONEST tech news?

Found the Trumpet.

Do parody and satire strain your cognitive abilities too much? Let me induce a headache. Donald Trump answers one of the greatest questions of our time; what is 2 + 2?

I have to say a lot of people have been asking this question. No, really. A lot of people come up to me and they ask me. They say, 'What's 2+2'? And I tell them look, we know what 2+2 is. We've had almost eight years of the worst kind of math you can imagine. Oh my God, I can't believe it. Addition and subtraction of the 1s the 2s and the 3s. It's terrible. It's just terrible. Look, if you want to know what 2+2 is, do you want to know what 2+2 is? I'll tell you. First of all the number 2, by the way, I love the number 2. It's probably my favorite number, no it is my favorite number. You know what, it's probably more like the number two but with a lot of zeros behind it. A lot. If I'm being honest, I mean, if I'm being honest. I like a lot of zeros. Except for Marco Rubio, now he's a zero that I don't like. Though, I probably shouldn't say that. He's a nice guy but he's like, '10101000101,' on and on, like that. He's like a computer! You know what I mean? He's like a computer. I don't know. I mean, you know. So, we have all these numbers, and we can add them and subtract them and add them. TIMES them even. Did you know that? We can times them OR divide them, they don't tell you that, and I'll tell you, no one is better at the order of operations than me. You wouldn't believe it. So, we're gonna be the best on 2+2, believe me.

Computers shouldn't smoke. Cigarettes aren't healthy for anyone

Re: I'm sure we've all opened the box and found bits missing...

Can't really blame the aircraft for what the meatbags do to them. IMO, if after having been serviced by a drunk* an aircraft can still become airborne most of the time, then the engineering has to be pretty damn good.

*fnarr fnarr...

Re: Keyboard hell

Why go on ebay when you can buy a new one?

Atlassian finally gives users Bitbucket code search

They started "routine maintenance" today at 17:00, presumably to implement this feature. The whole service has been titsup since 17:30.

How very DevOps.

Error checks? Eh? What could go wrong, really? (DoSing a US govt site)

Re: It could always be worse.

That's hideous. Did his language not have goto?

New York senator proposes tax credit for open-source developers

Re: Stupid idea

I don't think the OP was complaining about supporting creators of open source code. Rather they were complaining that not all code is equal and we shouldn't be giving tax breaks because someone released a Hello World under the GPL.

Microsoft's equality and diversity: Skimpy schoolgirls dancing for nerds at an Xbox party

Re: Sex is a marketing way to sell stuff? What a news!

It's not the dancing women or their clothing I have a problem with, it's the context. If I go to a lingerie convention I expect to get an eye full of a gyrating, scantily clad twenty-something. At a tech convention? Not so much.

Irish shun beer, whiskey in favour of … wine

Re: MDMA

The only thing known to man to be worse than a whiskey hangover is experiencing a whiskey hangover and a comedown simultaneously.

Allegedly.

Re: Bizzarro World

If you say so. I've tried various blends and single malts from Japan, including something from Nikka which was 'critically acclaimed'. Some of it was decent, a lot of it tasted like it'd been in the cask for less than a year.

Data-thirsty mobile owners burn through 5GB a month

Currently consuming about 35GB per month on Three with an unlimited internet allowance for £23. I do a fair bit of tethering though. Had to start using an app called EasyTether when they 'upgraded' my plan from unlimited tethering to a 6GB cap.

Woz: World-changers to Apple Watches, why pay for an overpriced band?

Re: Who actually wears a watch anymore, and why?

Why would you go for a swim if you're so constrained for time that you can't wait a few minutes to dry off and retrieve your phone from your bag on the beach? Your example is contrived at best.

I can see that there are definitely some circumstances when having a watch is useful. However I think most people in Western society can, and do, get along just fine without one.

'Just give me any old date and I'll make it work' ... said the VB script to the coder

Re: Arrr -back in me day, we didnae have rocks!

Binary bandaids, brilliant!

Re: Finding dates and times in text

there are now functions numbered 1 to 7 - with awkward supplements of 2A, 5A, and 7A.

Who needs descriptive function names, eh?

Swedish publishers plan summer ‘Block Party’ to thwart ad blockers

A business plan for whoever wants it:

The Really Simple Ad Company

An internet advertising network focusing on delivering effective but unobtrusive advertising.

All adverts delivered by the network must not be animated or play audio. The total area of the user's web browser window covered by ads must not exceed 1/5. Adverts from the network may only be displayed alongside adverts from other networks if they enforce a compatible rule set.

Pitch to ad blocker makers and end users: We're helping keep your favourite sites online whilst not annoying you with loud flashing adverts. This is what you've been asking for please don't block us.

Pitch to websites: Loud flashing adverts may be more effective but only if the user actually sees them. If current trends continue most of your users will be blocking adverts entirely. Our adverts are unfiltered by all of the leading ad blockers.

Playing Devil's advocate...

Why should the publishers care about losing page visits from users who aren't "paying" by viewing ads?

Computer says: Stop using MacWrite II, human!

Penisland.net

The website for the island of Pen has the same problem.

Obama puts down his encrypted phone long enough to tell us: Knock it off with the encryption

Re: OMG

Am I the only one who gets annoyed by the American perversion of the term 'liberal'?

You say I mustn’t write down my password? Let me make a note of that

Fair point about physical access. Perhaps keep the notebook in a locked drawer?

German lodges todger in 13 steel rings

Re: Pedant Alert

I doubt whether he used the word "less" at all - given that he spoke West Saxon and not English..

West Saxon is also known as Old English. The Old English word for 'less' is 'læssa'. There is no Old English equivalent for 'fewer'.

First working Apple Mac ransomware infects Transmission BitTorrent app downloads

Not everything is Windows

AFAIK OSX, like Linux, uses mime types to determine which program to open a file with. The file extension is just there for the benefit of the meatbag at the other end of the keyboard. It is not guaranteed to be accurate.

Everything bad in the world can be traced to crap Wi-Fi

Re: Shit Wi-Fi?

Cant be, otherwise they'd be advertising rubber sheeting and enema kits.

Re: Shit Wi-Fi?

For all their claimed intelligence, I would have thought it would be relatively easy to work out which things are typically one-off purchases (wire clips, home router, things like that) and to say "you bought an A, so you probably don't want another," versus things like, I don't know, cabbages, which one might buy on a reasonably frequent basis.

Sometimes I perform random searches on Amazon just to confuse their analytics software. It's currently advertising king sized mattresses and photographic lighting equipment to me. Apparently it thinks I'm in the pornography business.

'Boss, I've got a bug fix: Nuke the whole thing from orbit, rewrite it all'

Re: polishing one

You evil bastard.

Computers abort SpaceX Falcon 9 launch

Re: Volcano Lair?

Wait till he finds out it was the chief exec of United Launch Alliance taking the weekend off for a well deserved fishing trip.

GitHubber wants to revive the first Unix in a PDP-7 emulator

Re: A ruguous yet squamous code revivla

I guess he forgot to switch accounts before posting.

Shame. I had hoped amanfromMars was an increasingly more sentient chatbot.

Intravenous hangover clinics don't work, could land you in hospital

Re: I've said it before, but...

I appear to be in the fortunate situation where I've never lost my awareness while inebriated

You're clearly not drinking enough.

Raspberry Pi 3 to sport Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE – first photos emerge

Re: Birthday soon!

The Pi3 news was on the front-page of reddit yesterday. I'm not sure it could be any less of a secret.

Humans – 1 Robots – 0: Mercedes deautomates production lines

Re: Oh dear Brits

As hard as it is to say, the Germans are, as before, better at producing things, as hard as it is to grasp. And that goes for the French too. Into where did you Brits push your head after the war. I am seriously concerned and not trying to "pull any legs".

The Germans are producing cars with internal combustion engines, meanwhile we're building advanced satellites and space planes.

/nationalism

Science contest to get girls interested in STEM awards first prize to ... a boy

Re: To Be Fair

The aim of the competition was to get more girls interested in STEM. If lots of girls entered the competition then that aim is achieved. The gender of the winner is irrelevant.

This program can detect if you're bored – which is going to make annoying ads, articles so much more annoying

Found this in their source

bool is_user_bored(const News_Article& article)

{

return article_subject_is_devops(article);

}

Lonely bloke in chem suit fuels Mars orbiter

Is the Croydon Travel Lodge designed to withstand that kind of 'g'? It could just end up as mankind's first orbiting rubble pile. Though I will admit that the difference between something from Croydon and a pile of detritus is not an easy distinction to make.

'Kalamazoo killer' gave Uber rides in between shooting six dead

"I kind of jokingly said to the driver, 'You're not the shooter, are you?'

What kind of weirdo randomly accuses their driver of being a murderer? I mean, sure, he was right this time but it's still a really weird thing to do.

Black Monday: Office 365 down and out in Europe

Re: A message to all who thought Office 365 was a good idea

mine has been fine all day.

A whole 24 hours of uptime? Impressive.

Helpdesk? I have a software problem. And a GRIZZLY BEAR problem

Re: A problem with a text editor?

Maybe it responded to the call to be Vi-olent!

I don't gedit...