Posts by Alex Read

The end of Microsoft-brand peripherals is only Surface deep

They had some amazing ideas... I loved the Arc fold down mice & the surface tablet/laptop combo... but the quality was just dire. I had many of those over the years but now avoid them ... more & more their software nowadays too. So nearly had winners, just poorly executed for me.

Check your bits: What to do when Unix decides to make a hash of your bill printouts

"money was no object"... so, they suite wasn't coded in smalltalk then?

I'll get my coat...

Rogue ex-Cisco employee who crippled WebEx conferences and cost Cisco millions gets two years in US prison

He still had his account, remote access AND all his (deletion rights). The accounts & VMs can't have had easily restorable, TESTED backups. Yes, this guy was a tit & deserves jail time, but FFS in this age where we read a new breach every few days, aren't Cisco meant to be both providing solutions & advising how to secure networks???

From WordPad to WordAds: Microsoft caught sneaking nagging Office promos into venerable text editor beta

A free OS riddled with ads is fine with me. A free application like wordpad which I choose to download, being riddled with ads is also ok to me.

MS adding ads to the start menu, search etc. into an OS I've paid for, or bundling up adware apps into their paid OS is bullshit & such practices have steered even me, a former fanboy to linux & OSS.

Since they're promoting only their own software, shirley its time for another antitrust or class action trials here

Tea tipplers are more likely to live longer, healthier lives than you triple venti pumpkin-syrup soy-milk latte-swilling fiends

missing details

loose-leaf vs bags vs powdered? What hidden association to the chinese green tea production organisations did the researchers have (as is typical in such studies)...

Apple's latest keyboard travels back in time to when they weren't crap

wait, so no 'we asked Apple for comment...'

Boffins don bad 1980s fashion to avoid being detected by object-recognizing AI cameras

Bit surprised it takes the middle bit into consideration so much - it looks as though holding a crate of fruit & veg, obscuring the torso might have the same effect then...

Google claims web search will be 10% better for English speakers – with the help of AI

I'm failing here to see how, in any outcome "2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa" could be taken as to mean a serch term "from usa" or "to brazil"

Fancy yourself as a bit of a Ramblin' Man or Woman? Maybe brush up on your cartography

cost cutting

Nothing inherantly wrong with agile, devops or any of these modern styles... to me this reeks of poor business/demand analysis (always connected, really??) and a piss-poor view of said process budgeting on 1 tester per 20 devs when testing should (1) have a near equal amount of people (2) have a near equal amount of time anf (3) have similarly trained knowledgeable staff + processes as any other development effort (CI, version control, code reviews etc.). IMO, they're getting the feedback they deserved due to these. MS take note!

Brit Police Federation cops to ransomware attack on HQ systems

wow, cop a load of that

McAfee – the completely sane guy, not the biz – told to fork out $25m over 'torture, murder' of his Belize neighbor

I don't get it... why if he's guilty isn't there jail time but just a fine? :cS

Let's face it. We need to face up to facing off with face-recog tech, say US senators: Bipartisan AI privacy law proposed

@David 45... "While those who declined to be scanned were not necessarily viewed as suspicious, officers used their judgement to identify any potential suspicious behaviour"... made me think of constable savage reading that! XcD

In general though, I thought Facebook, Google etc. owned the senate so was surprised to read this one getting even considered!

What do sexy selfies, search warrants, tax files have in common? They've all been found on resold USB sticks

Not just ebay... I volenteer at a charity shop where I try to salvage IT kit - test it, wipe it & pop it in the shop for reselling.

Never really been sure which is the best sort of military grade etc. disk wiping tool I could use - any suggestions please (ideally open source/free)?

Microsoft 'welcomes dialog' over HoloLens use by the military, but doesn't have to listen

primary purpose of using technology in a military context is (or should be) to enhance one's capability to kill the enemy before they kill you... this is the US we're talking about., so the primary purpose is taking oil money!

Furious Apple revokes Facebook's enty app cert after Zuck's crew abused it to slurp private data

Re: In other news

Too many payments* for FB, Google etc. to ever be held to accountable & sheeple never vote with their feet in droves** US culture means this will just continue get worse & more underhanded until their laws sre chanded to allow this evildoing.

* I would say maffia style or backhanders, but it's so commonplace the term 'lobbying' is used.

** Sadly this is why EA continues to exist.

Spending watchdog points finger at Capita for 1,300 shortfall in British Army rookies

No one knows if recruitment system will be usable once contract ends in 2022...

Employee contract writers and archictects with a proven track record... (a proven good one) & base them on performance-related wages with no automatic golden parachutes or peerages.

Get rid of the huge parasite companies like Crapita & divide the services/modules/areas to different small companies, with penalties and no get out clause massive payments.

A Christmas classic: Cloudera founder asks staff to stay another day

If the top brass at the places I 'd worked for tried that, it'd piss me off enough that I'd search for new employment right away whether approached or not.

Guarantee my damn job, or shut your trap as my next move is none of your damn business until I tell you about it. Everyone needs to look out for themselves/#1, just as that moronic, slimy turd speaking is!

Razer offers freebies to gamers who descend into its coin mine

I would rather use mine to some good like the protien folding apps if anything.

Britain may not be able to fend off a determined cyber-attack, MPs warn

I wonder if any government or company wcpuld truely cope with that one

Oracle's JEDI mind-meld doesn't work on Uncle Sam's auditors: These are not the govt droids you are looking for

"allegations regarding conflicts of interest do not provide a basis for sustaining Oracle’s protest". Can anyone fluent in legal jargon please confirm - this to me doesn't sound anything like the 'stronly deny all allegations' usual statements, so other vendors DID help write the contract?

Alexa, cough up those always-on Echo audio recordings, says double-murder trial judge

of course amazon will refuse. There is no wake word, everything is transmitted back to the server & used for future ad revenue. Anyone dumb enough to believe otherwise... I've a range of great bridges to sell you! Mind you, we'll never know the truth here - how hard is it to just filter recordings where the word WAS used prior?

Microsoft lobs Windows 10, Server Oct 2018 update at world (minus file-nuking 'feature') after actually doing some testing

@gerritv: testing pro replying here too (& a former MS fanboy might I add). This is a company with an awful track record of quality, which produces a full testing software suite & advises testing practices to others & who fird so many of their testing team! Serves them tight & this should be a lesson to all companies & project managers wanting to skimp on testing - that plan to 'save money' NEVER works out well!

Palliative care for Windows 10 Mobile like a Crimean field hospital, but with even less effort

what an insult to all actual lean startups though

Microsoft returns to Valley of Death? Cheap Surface threatens the hardware show

Never again

Bought the surface 1 pro and 4. Like much of Ms' hardware + software bundles... disappoinment & bugs all round. For me, I've lernt my lesson & will never buy these lines in future

$14bn tax hit, Surface Pro screens keep dying – but it's not all good news at Microsoft

Caught out plenty of times here - xbox 360, plenty of arc mice & surface 4. MS can't make hardware full stop &I won't be buying their kit in future. Sad really -so many oppurtunities they've blown

Cloud-building alien space rays altered Earth's climate – boffins

No such thing as climate change. none. This is fake news.

* The term "climate" was made up by the Obama administration to move attention away from <topic of the day here>. Fact.

Londoners: Ready to swap your GP for an NHS vid doc app?

Re: Can't come soon enough

I’m all for progressive change. If this was solely in-house I’d think it’s an interrsting additional offering for the 21st century.... but by any company affiliated in the slightest way with google & they can fuck.right.off!!!!

Re: What exactly is this supposed to save?

building assets. Then later via offshoring, labour costs too?

Go on IBMers, tell us what you really think

Outsourced, has-been

Dell makes $1bn bet that IoT at the edge can kill cloud computing takeover

Great, ok thank you all :cD I'll go back to my road crossing chickens paradigm then... nothing new to see here after all

Can someone wiser than me please enlighten on what on Earth the deer analogy means & why that's chosen as the great selling point?

Surely the connect-to-cloud-gather data-perform calculation-hopefully stop in time is obviously a dumb idea, the alternative is to have the decision process on board the car. What benefit does IoT or any car Internet connection offer - just periodical updates to the decision algorithm (which, in a life & death situation shouldn't EVER be incorrect or fail)? is that it or am I missing something here please?

Forget the 'simulated universe', say boffins, no simulator could hit the required scale

Re: "To model just a few hundred electrons needs a computer bigger than the universe"

That, and the title bug me... there's no need for the comma before the AND

Lord Sugar phubbed in peers' debate on 'digital understanding'

Amazon delivery drivers... with no breaks

The tax avoidance & paying of under minimum wage was bad enough but this is just cruel!

Verizon kicks out hot new Unlimited* plans

Can't grumble with the "verizon reasons" & "verizon contends" bits. Having a corrupt FCC not doing their job & allowing the lie of the term 'unlimited' I take issue with though...

Comp sci world shock: Bonn boffin proposes P≠NP proof, preps for prestige, plump prize

-- Excluded students rule for media only. No business logic need because £££

SELECT TOP 100 FROM students ORDER BY InfluentialFriendRelationWeight, FamilyWealth DESC

That's my go at a real-world-based solution. With all this N, P theoretic stuff, the 1st comment already answered that too. Next challenge?

EDIT: Drat beaten to it but nice to see a similar way of thinking!

Don't buy Microsoft Surface gear: 25% will break after 2 years, says Consumer Reports

I've had the surface 1 since it's arrival. It's needed 2x Win-restores & 4 hard resets. Damn annoying but I had backups & didn't need to hand it into MS support.

The surface 4 dock displayport support was released/sold in stores broken & after 1 year I now need to hand the whole machine back as the display's nuked. From my experince as a home user at least, the build quality and testing have sharply gone down.

I'm as happy with MS kit as the stuff from Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo. Fujitsu & HP at the bottom too - they're all average/ not particularly great or long lasting IMO. I'm likely to try Apple next.

I would nominate the arc mouse from MS as the worst built computer tech. 4 of 4 failed within 6-12 months at the most here!

Microsoft releases firmware fix for faulty Surface Pro 3 batteries

Next up they need to fix the bloomin' hibernate & sleep issues which have plagued all surfaces then, including their latest 4 models....

Patriotic Brits rush into streets to celebrate… National Cream Tea Day

Re: An issue that bitterly divides the countries

No clotted cream stuff here in Finland either but popping a single or double cream in an oven tray overnight on a low oven temp works wonders!

GM crops are good for you and the planet, reckon boffins

No way I'm trusting any opinions coming from this lot when the FDA are made of pepsi, monsanto, kraft etc. directors & the senate all take backhanders.

MSG, high fructose corn syrup, MRM - it's time we admitted we don't know what the f*** we're doing buggering about with food & left it in it's natural state. The entire population shouldn't be f****ing guinea pigs held to ransom. I'd love to see all of this lot strung up by the b****cks asap.

What's that, Microsoft? Yep, a Lumia and Surface SALES BOOM

I'm happy with the surface

I'm still using the surface1 (maybe the only person to buy one of them here?) as both a main laptop and tablet at home & am pretty happy with it.

It has fast boot times, runs full office & Visual Studio & a handful of games. I've only been able to nuke it from a dodgy Windows update or trying to use Bitlocker (which blatantly wasn't tested & doesn't work with it).

All in all not a bad little product, if a little expensive.

Durham police demonstrate DNA will stuff you

Allow me to correct that one:

"Employment checks are not linked to the DNA database and employers cannot check if a potential employee is on the DNA database."

... they will have to wait a few days until we lose the next set of backups into the public realm to know just like everyone else!

Parcelforce fails to deliver for Windows 7 lovers

Maybe it does recognise Win 7 alright...

... it says there "XP (SP1 or better)" so I guess they've recognised the OS & just class both Vista & Win 7 far worse...

Fring brings Skype to the iPhone

Bill Ray - a closet Jedi?

"But annoy Apple this surely will" - I couldn't help think of Yoda when I read that!

If Bill's been in contact with him that much as to pickup his speech patterns then I for one AM afraid of Bill Ray!!!! :c0

Green alien for obvious reasons, even though the pointy ears are missing...

Acer trumped Dell in Q4 07 world laptop sales

Fantastic machines, Acers

I second that, I've had a couple of Acer machines (PC's) over the years and they are fantastically built - over Dell machines I'd say they have more room for expansion within their desktop PC ranges and they tend to break less so I for one am glad to see them doing well.

Dell are an ok manaufacturer too but I find all laptop manufacturers bundle bloatware on their default laptop builds nowadays unfortunately (and I'm not going to make any comparison or quips about MS OSs...)

Channel 4 music video provider goes titsup

"Musicbrigade has ceased to exist"

... It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late website! It's a stiff! Bereft of life...

Firefox 3 beta is live

Wow, a load of comments on this one!

@Simon Preston: quite right, thanks for correcting me, I should've quoted "not ready for casual users".

@Dr. Mouse: "or maybe that you are just sick and tired of these dimwits praising Open Source without the fundamental intelligence to understand the arguments" - Spot on. My current role is as a software test manager & I understand the concept of a beta test, this was the point I was getting at.

@Michael Warburton: Thanks for clearing up the anti-virus checking note.

@ all the Vista-haters: Whilst I've grown accustomed to, and would go as far as to say I now even like Vista, I do completely side with the comments on the fact that it's a bloated, style-over-substance product which was never in a fit state to be released when it was. Fair & justified points on the SP being for a non-free software that should have worked the 1st time round.

I was merely trying to pick up on the fact that quite a few people on this site were too quick to post "Vista, beta service pack? No bloody way - test it first properly yourselves then release it to us" a few months back. These comments showed a complete lack of understanding about what a beta test phase is, but were placed upon the Vista SP release article by (and this is an assumption), open source fanatics who read "MS released something" and automatically thought "I need to rubbish this something being released as it's from MS". Now we have the same situation - another company (this time an open source product creator) releasing a beta test software update and I was reflecting on the fact these people's posts are nowhere to be seen (suprise, suprise).

@AC posted on 13th Feb. at 12:57: Thank you for pointing that out. I have just checked on Wikipedia, Microsoft's and Mozilla's websites and it appears you're correct; Vista is an OS and Firefox is an application (who'd have thought it, eh)? I am now wanting to withdraw all my comments and am considering looking at alterative employment outside of the I.T industry as I find mysefl unfit to work within it any longer, having not known this… By the way AC, for the record - this is a sarcastic comment ;c)

RE: Not available to casual users

When Vista's service pack was released in a test mode so scores of users could test the company's product rather than them elongating a release date or spending extra cash employing more professional software testers there was uproar!

Where are all the open source fanatics now - not posting the same remarks just because this story isn't on an MS product??

Apple sets its sights on video consoles

Ohh great :c(

Lets hope it is just an application which they'll keep on their own products.

You had me worried with the console title, I imagined them taking on Nintendo & MS with a console which would force people into only using a console based iTunes rip off to download only Apple games and which forced you to buy your electricity from 1 provider just so your home could run the bloody thing...