Posts by Shades

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

Re: And what about the people ...

"8 thumbs up & 1 thumb down"

Hi Dom.

Re: And what about the people ...

"likely earning crapita (or similar) a fat wad of cash."

For once its not Crapita, but a company called Faculty.

Faculty, formerly ASI Data Science and Advanced Skills Initiative Ltd, was hired to work with Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign and has since, quelle surprise, been awarded at least 7 government contracts in the last 18 months. Want to guess what political party one of its shareholders is associated with?

Further still, Ben Warner, former principle of Faculty and brother of the founder, was hired by Cummings to work at Downing Street, after running the Conservatives private election model and (are you sitting down?) worked closely with Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the work done for Vote Leave and the Conservatives was pro bono.

Reach for the sky: Pixar founders win Turing Award for pioneering 3D animation – and getting rid of jagged edges

As I posted somewhere above, Catmull-Clark subdivision appears to be making its way into games, even on the current gen consoles.

Re: Interesting article, but...

"It's a technique that allows a single polygon to simulate multiple smaller polygons with a smooth gradation between the joins.

This allows a model to appear to be high-polygon when it is in fact relatively simple and low-polygon.

What's more the technique is open and as such is widely used. Blender includes it as a modifier"

Blender may use Catmull-Clark as a method to decide how to subdivide faces but it doesn't "simulate" the additional smaller polygons to make a model "appear" like it has a high polygon count as your post would suggest; Subdivide a simple cube 4 times with Subdivision Surface and you'll end up with a sphere (of sorts) with 1,536 faces. All those extra faces are there as if you manually created them. Catmull-Clark, or at least it implementation in Blender, isn't some visual trickery, like Smooth Shading, to "simulate" the "appearance" of extra detail. The editable verts/edges/faces do become something more akin to "handles" on curves in vector based image editors but you don't get the look of a high polygon model without the extra CPU/GPU overheads that brings.

What I'm more impressed with is it appears that some games are now using live Catmull-Clark subdivision (slightly edited to keep edges without adjoining faces always sharp) on their models in certain circumstances where there is less going on (like in menus or photomodes) and they can afford to significantly bump up the per-model poly count. It wouldn't surprise, on the next gen of consoles, if we start to see live Catmull-Clark subdivision in many more (playable) areas of games since, as well as making lower poly models look better, it also effectively acts as a form of "compression" in a similar way as vector based images do compared to a bitmap based image for certain types of images.

UK plod could lose access to 79 million criminal alerts in event of a no-deal Brexit

Re: Hmm

Oh look, no response... must not have a pre-programmed response to that one. Quelle surprise!

Leaked EU doc plots €100bn fund to protect European firms against international tech giants

"And half billion pound loans to JLR."

To a company that might otherwise have relocated production entirely outside of the EU.

No doubt it would be the EU's fault it they had of relocated production outside of the EU too.

Re: Nothing to see here

If the guys running the EU had any sense at all they'd shower Trump with love and he wouldn't know what to do with it."

And lets just send drug addicts to Columbia to get straight. There's no flaws in that plan either, right?

"Why is a president of a military dictatorship like North Korea politically and diplomatically smarter that the president of the EU?"

1) Kim isn't but he is smarter than Trump, who handed priceless propaganda to Kim on a silver platter. Tell me, how did that all work out? Of course though its entirely possible the entire world collectively imagined Kim, post-Singapore, "destroying" already destroyed weapons facilities; rebuilding weapons facilities; and resuming missile tests.

2) I see you're another one of those "informed" Brexiteers; There is no such thing as "President of the EU". I'm sure that was an innocent mistake though, not born of deceitfulness or ignorance.

"Same thing with the WA backstop. It costs the EU (and by that I include Ireland) absolutely *nothing* to not have it, and it's a massive cost to having it and they refuse to budge on it, it's utterly nutty."

If you don't think the backstop is necessary then you clearly don't get why its an absolute necessity. Next you'll be telling us that there is no way out of the backstop without the EU's permission, and its all a big trick to keep the UK in the EU, won't you? Spoiler Alert: There is, for both the UK and the EU, but you've read the WA and you knew that? You have read the WA, haven't you?

"It boggles my mind this is the system and people that citizens of the EU actually want to be governed by. Simple problems require simple solutions, not pretending they are or actually making them 5000x more complex than they need to be."

I've got some bad news for you; only one type of person see's everything as simple. I'd love to hear your solution for inserting the square peg into the round hole that is the Good Friday Agreement and Brexit (I need a laugh!)

Re: Nothing to see here

"Trump isn't a protectionist - he wants a fair system"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *breathes* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

You keep telling yourself that buddy.

Microsoft Surface users baffled after investing in kit that throttles itself to the point of passing out

Re: FTFY

"their heat & CPU management is good"

They are not without their issues: The Register: Core blimey! Apple macOS update lifts boot from MacBook Pro neck

Re: Built-in GPU

Yes, I know. But the discrete GPU is a separate chip while the built-in GPU is on the same die as the CPU, and, if you look at the task manager screenshot again, something has been pinning the built-in GPU at 100%.

Built-in GPU

Looks like something is absolutely hammering the built-in GPU too. I wonder if the heat from that is causing something to send the signal to the CPU to slowdown? I've never seen an Intel GPU utilisation that high, especially when there is a discrete GPU there to do the real heavy lifting.

Someone's spreading an MBR-trashing copy of the Christchurch killer's 'manifesto' – and we're OK with this, maybe?

FTFY

Consult your operating system's recovery and repair tools to rebuild the MBR psychologist/psychiatrist if for some reason you're hit with this malware.

FTFY

Buffer overflow flaw in British Airways in-flight entertainment systems will affect other airlines, but why try it in the air?

Re: Entertainment system pen testing

"Car radios are linked to the engine management far more than you would think. The CAN bus is everywhere!"

Theres a hidden function (requiring a finger twisting keypress combination) on my radio that can bring up speed in Kmh on its crappy red dot-matrix LCD screen and my car is not all that far off being 20 years old now. I have absolutely no clue what its purpose is for as its not something mentioned in the cars manual and the car has both Mph and Kmh on the dials.

Age checks for online pr0n? I've never heard of it but it sounds like a good idea – survey

"the majority of the 2,000 respondents, some 60 per cent, thought adults should be required to prove their age to see adult content online

Wankers.

Post-Brexit plan for .EU tweaked: No dot-EU web domains for Europeans in UK, no appeals, etc

Re: Didn't the UK create these rules?

Two people don't understand irony and/or troll-face.

Re: STUPID STUPID STUPID

"The notion that because something was legal or allowed it must always remain as such is utterly ridiculous."

And that is what makes me laugh about people* who think that something that has the word "Amendment" in its title is absolutely set in stone.

*Second Amendment nutjobs.

Re: Didn't the UK create these rules?

Gammoaners can't help themselves.

You like JavaScript! You really like it! Scripting lingo tops dev survey of programming languages

Re: It will not last ...

You know this is not your average tech site, right? You know why I'm asking this, right?

Apple: You can't sue us for slowing down your iPhones because you, er, invited us into, uh, your home... we can explain

Re: "Apple had no duty to disclose the facts regarding software capability and battery capacity."

"They are famous for quoting things like engine power as "adequate" rather than giving actual numbers."

Not actual numbers like page 13 of the Wraith brochure?

Or pages 25, 26, 27 of the Phantom brochure?

How about pages 42, 43 and 44 of the Ghost brochure?

Or maybe page 26 of the Dawn brochure?

More nodding dogs green-light terrible UK.gov pr0n age verification plans

Re: Just like buying a magazine.

Its a shame I can't upvote your comment more than once!

Punkt: A minimalist Android for the paranoid

So its a burner phone for 6 times the price? Bargain. Where do I not get one?

'Incommunicado' Assange anoints new WikiLeaks editor in chief

You seem to be implying that is not true?!

Forget dumping games designers for AI – turns out it takes two to tango

Super who?

"Humans partnered up with bots to come up with new levels in Super Mario, a popular Nintendo platform game."

Super Mario is a game? Never heard of it. Is it a popular game on the Nintendo platform or a popular platform game by Nintendo?

Braking bad: Mitsubishi recalls 68k SUVs over buggy software

Dammit! I more or less just posted the same, then, as the page refreshed, your post was literally the first one I saw.

68k

The bigger question is why their SUVs are using such an old processor?

Vodafone sues Ofcom to reclaim 'overpaid' mobe spectrum fees

The Irony...

BBC: Millions overcharged for mobile contracts

"About four million people have been charged for mobile phones they already own, spending £500m extra on contracts, according to Citizens Advice.

Three of Britain's biggest mobile networks, EE, Three and Vodafone, continue to charge for handsets even after the cost has been paid off.

Many customers have no idea they are being charged for phones after their contracts have ended."

I've been telling various people, who don't immediately upgrade and/or go SIM only once their contract has expired, this for years; if your contract costs you (e.g.) £45 p/m and your networks SIM only deal is £20 p/m what do you think the difference in cost is?

V/MNO's have been very sly at convincing people that handsets are "free" if you have them with a contract (I'm sure some even still advertise the phones as such) and take advantage by charging full whack (phone + network allowance/usage), even though the customer has completely paid for the phone once the contract has expired.

V/MNO's should, at the very least, be forced, by law, to explicitly and clearly state in-store/on-screen and in paperwork that the phone is completely paid for by the end of the contract to make people aware that they will be paying over the odds - continually paying for a phone they've already paid for - if they let the "contract" run. Or, preferably, should be forced, by law, upon the expiration of a contract to only charge what they would charge for a SIM only deal.

Microsoft pulls plug on IPv6-only Wi-Fi network over borked VPN fears

Re: Catch 22

"Nobody [...] nobody [...] Nobody [...] nobody"

Nobody? I'm using IPv6. Well, my ISP is on their network side of the router. My side of the router is still IPv4.

UK.gov finally adds Galileo and Copernicus to the Brexit divorce bill

Re: TL;DR

"The United Kingdom has been through far, far worse things than a no deal Brexit and it only made us stronger, true then we wen't filled with limp writsed, soy boy wimps like you in those times but I'm confident our feminists can take your place."

Oh do fuck off.

What are these worse things that only made us stronger? Let me just reach into my bag of "Brexiteer Bollocks", rummage around for a tired old trope, and... Oh, dear God, its not WW2, is it? It is, isn't it?

As for the name calling; that's one reason, of many, why so many of you Brexiteers are regarded with such contempt. It's pathetic. Grow. The. Fuck. Up.

Re: To anyone pro-Brexit

"We agreed that the result would be implemented"

No, we most certainly did not. Unless you think any old shit is now legally binding. Let's put that to the test; Find me something, anything, in our statutes that said the referendum result would be implemented. If you can't, you owe me £5000. If you can, I owe you £5000.

So, purely on the basis I've written that, we agree to that, right? No, I didn't think so.

Re: Remind me...

"Boris Johnson and his banana lies. He got sacked as a journalist for lying. No risk of libel, it's a fact."

Boris Johnson is a massive cunt. No risk of libel, it's a fact.

Brit teen pleads guilty to Minecraft-linked bomb and airline hoaxes

Re: I know they appear to have nothing on there that really needs it but....

"I know they appear to have nothing on there that really needs it "

There's your answer. What does is need to be secure for?

Boffins get fish drunk to prove what any bouncer already knows

Whale?

C-C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

The Register's 2018 homepage redesign: What's going on now?

Nothing that can't be fixed...

...with a few User CSS / Stylish rules....

https://imgur.com/a/StJYqMp

Which? calls for compensation for users hit by Windows 10 woes

Re: If it was only security patches

"smug, arrogant, leftist, millenial 'political correctness' fascist. [...] typical of THE LEFT."

Jesus H f**king Christ on a bicycle at Christmas. When did El Reg start letting MAGA type dickheads sign up? Bring back Matt, all is forgiven!

Swiss cops will 'tolerate' World Cup rabble-rousers – for 60 minutes

Re: Being sensible

"I live next to a church. If I fancy an early night on a Tuesday, it's impossible due to the campanologists practicing, but that is their right and their hobby so I would never dream complain."

I'm going to hazard a guess and say the church was there long before you moved next door? Churches often have bells and bell ringers need to practice. I'd argue that, unless they're practicing every day for hours or at night, you have very little right to complain. I also extend this argument to the cretins who move close to existing nightclubs or live music venues then complain about the noise*.

* I know people who had very successful late night entertainment businesses but had to permanently close them because the idiotic local council gave planning permission for new housing developments nearby and then the equally idiotic new residents complained to the council about the businesses who were then forced to shut. So well done to the residents for denying local job creators their, and their employees, right to earn a living <slow hand clap>.

WannaCry reverse-engineer Marcus Hutchins hit with fresh charges

Re: Who do you trust?

"In civilized countries a charge sheet or its equivalent is handed in COURT. You have to demonstrate to a judge that there is enough material to charge a person and it is the court which hands the charge sheet. This is the case in the UK [...].

In less civilized countries charges are filed by a prosecutor,"

I'm not entirely convinced this is correct; for the UK at least. I could be wrong but If the police feel there is enough evidence that you have committed a crime, particularly in open-and-shut cases (like a positive breathaliser result for instance) or something they have witnessed themselves, they can charge you without consulting any other agency or court. If they are not sure they have enough evidence to charge someone they consult with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) to gauge the chances of a successful prosecution with what evidence they do have. If the CPS feel there is, again, its the police that charge you.

Five actually useful real-world things that came out at Apple's WWDC

Re: Funny Sound Bite on Radio 4 This morning

"As an old parent, with parents now in their early teens"

Does not compute.

New Monty Python movie to turn old jokes into new royalties

Re: Don't forget the other two holy words

Ecky ecky fatang

Twenty years ago today: Windows 98 crashed live on stage with Bill Gates. Let's watch it again...

"Windows 10 can still point the way back to simpler and happier times.

By generating a BSoD when you least expect it."

Apart from a catastrophically dead hard-drive once being the cause I can't remember the last time I saw a BSOD on 10, 8 or XP.

BT pushes ahead with plans to switch off telephone network

Re: Oh well

Have an obligatory downvote for moaning about downvotes.

Does my boom look big in this? New universe measurements bewilder boffins

Re: The edge is nothing more than a ripple in the pond

"Doesn't part of that trip go through Mexico?"

No. We took Interstate 10 from LA to San Antonio which passes through the Mexican border town of El Paso (US side) and then runs south-west parallel with the border (a few miles away from it) for about 60 miles before turning east south-east towards San Antonio.

Re: The edge is nothing more than a ripple in the pond

"It's just so mind-bogglingly far that it's hard to grasp. Think trillions or more of light years away."

As a Brit I couldn't grasp it taking two days to travel from Los Angeles, CA to San Antonio, TX by road. Still, some spectacular views along the way and I saw the Milky Way with my own eyes for the first time.

Chilly willies: Swedish nudie nightclub opens in -11°C to disgust of locals

Re: depression and broken souls

”Once the LGB&Q crowd are involved it's going to be cheap and tacky and about sex.”

Sounds a lot more fun that you do homophobe.

El Reg needs a "wanker" icon.

Cali cops' Clue caper: Apple technicans, in an iPhone repair lab, with the 1,600 silent 911 calls

I once got a call on my mobile out of the blue from the local 999 operator asking me if I was okay. Obviously detecting the slight confusion at my end she asked me if I had a Nokia. Seemed a random thing to ask but as it happened I did have a Nokia (a 3310 to be precise). Apparently the 999 operators used to get a lot of random calls from Nokia phones as, even when locked, all you had to do was hold down the 9 key for a second and it would automatically dial 999 without even needing to press call.

H-1B visa hopefuls, green card holders are feeling the wrath of 'America first' Trump

Bingo!

Why did you stop? I just need Emails, Hillary, and Fake News for a line!

Re: i am wondering about unintended consequences

"Then the remaining two will fuck each other to death."

Where do I sign up?

IBM lobs sueball at travel site Expedia for using some old Prodigy patents

Isn't this...

...pretty much the entire web? Is every website ever supposed to have a licence from International Bullying Machine?

The Quantum of Firefox: Why is this one unlike any other Firefox?

Re: It is faster, yes

Zenmate has recently limited their only free VPN server to one in Germany (removing their US, Singapore and somewhere in Eastern Europe servers). I used it to watch the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight. Useless to me now.

Re: The Quantum of Firefox

"It actually makes things easier for developers to provide add-ons for all browsers."

But I - nor most people I dare say- don't use all browsers. What good is that to me when add-ons that I rely on that can't or won't (because the dev doesn't have the time or resources to start from scratch, or relevant APIs no longer exist) be migrated to the new version?

I can't help but feel the direction browsers are moving in is to specifically prevent us from tailoring our experience of the web, to make it less flexible, to prevent us from sidestepping all the annoying cruft? It wouldn't surprise me if, in a few years, user CSS and anything, like scripts, that can mess with a pages HTML/DOM that hasn't come from the originating server (or other servers designated by the original server) - so things like the GreaseMonkey add-ons and similar - find their necessary APIs dropped?

Soon there's going to be nothing to differentiate any browser, how is that going to encourage ANYBODY to switch to Firefox? Most people won't give a damn about a theoretical 30% speed increase - achieved in a no doubt strictly controlled environment - when what they have still "works".