Posts by the Jim bloke

Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox open to all: Now websites can tap into your habits directly for ads

Re: "Google Privacy Sandbox"

bit tired of "Military Intelligence", its a smart arse soundbyte from before soundbytes were a thing.

If you want something a bit more contemporary,

how about..

Business ethics,

or

Political integrity..

Ads offered 'based on your browsing history'

.. so all the shit I had to fight through to find what I was looking for - is is now being presented to me again

Called a sandbox, because its full of urine, dog turds, and used hypodermic needles.

Obvious, when you think about it.

The Anti Defamation League is Musk's latest excuse for Twitter's tanking ad revenue

We always did..

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

Re: Disposal unit

I think its more an application of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, if you manage to dispose of the idiots you have, they will be replaced by other idiots until an equilibrium is achieved, and the faster and more thoroughly you get rid of them, the worse and more egregious they will turn up.

Re: I have sat on my tinfoil hat and there is a large crease in it

This is an extremely common event, unfortunately most tinfoil hat wearers do not remove their hats before sticking their heads up their ass (American spelling is appropriate)

LG's $1,000 TV-in-a-briefcase is unlikely to travel much further than the garden

13 kg - too heavy

not interested in the stated use-case (car based camping), but am looking for a portable monitor that will be transportable in air plane baggage, and also regularly relocated and stored away. With a 10kg limit for ALL of my stuff for 2 weeks away from home, this is a non-starter.

I would be willing to try the in-room TVs they provide at the accommodation village, except they are fixed just below the ceiling

Western Digital sued over claims of data-trashing SanDisk, My Passport SSDs

Products labelled as 'Extreme'

I know its just marketing BS, but if you pay for a consumer product labelled Extreme - the connotations are on-the-edge, high risk.... not reliability. In other words, they are intended for gullible idiots.

Microsoft may store your conversations with Bing if you're not an enterprise user

Re: Oh noes!

There must be 3 very worried people in the world right now!!..

and they all have upvoted you - I did not think there was that much overlap between Reg readership and bing.. .. .. victims

Hacktivists attack Japanese government over Fukushima wastewater release

Their pet engineer needs to learn why diluting things works

if a supposed professional wont understand how taking something that is already effectively harmless, and dispersing it into even lower concentrations, is a better option than stockpiling and concentrating the problem, he needs to trade in his engineer ticket for a homeopathy doctorate..

Its all media grandstanding and publicity stunts, the same sort of thing PETA and its celebutards are famous for - although not their chosen field of activity, if you did some kind of "think of the dolphins..." campaign (in Japan, maybe not?), someone would probably talk one of their C list actresses into swimming naked through a holding pond.

Just remember, its not the message that's important - its the publicity..

Google's next big idea for browser security looks like another freedom grab to some

Re: The Google devs response

Google already have a code of conduct, and everyone is aware of it.

They have seen your comments, and all the thousands like them, and they stand firmly by their original credo.

Dont.

..

Be Evil..

Microsoft's 10,000 job cuts didn't quite do the trick

Re: Waste money on marketing with one hand, fire engineers with the other.

Rebranding is never pointless.

It demonstrates that the coloured pencil brigade is contributing value to the business, and should be exempt from any downsizing, unlike support, development, or QA, who only cause problems and bad publicity.

BOFH: Cough up half a grand and we'll protect you from AI

Re: Useful for staging accidents

If you really want to mess with rescue comp competitors, get an actual amputee as one of your casualties... was involved in one where we had a guy with a missing leg, and they were using a slab of meat from an animal carcass for the detached bit(s)..

happy memories.

BOFH: Get me a new data file or your manager finds out exactly what you think of him

Re: Oh the pain!

nailing feet to head.. the best of all options.

My preference would be nailing feet to ceiling.

and what do we do this with ?

Toenails...

its been a long day.

BOFH: The Board members are looking very ill these days

Re: Compassion

It tells the story of a boy growing to manhood in the land of Shant, a society composed of many different, and wildly individual cantons,

My recollection was that the main characters canton of origin maintained its population by prostituting its women to travellers, while the local leadership spent all their time wanking themselves silly. Definitely relevant to modern management.

(many years since I read it but I am confident I have the gist right - unlike whatever I was doing last week..)

Surprise! China's top Android phones collect way more info

Re: As an owner of a Xiaomi

Like the mites without an anus, their lifespan is determined by how long it takes them to fill with shit.

Samsung is just making sure the customers have to keep buying new devices.

Its a commercial decision, based on the attitude that customers are prey to be harvested, rather than assets to be looked after, and most businesses dont even see anything wrong with the idea

Nice smart device – how long does it get software updates?

The history of IT and kitchens..

Never understood the appeal of smart kitchen devices

Wasnt the original response when asked what people would use home computers for..

"Well they could store recipes on them?"

Huawei teases bonkers gadget combo

why arent they doing this with phones?

Despite otherwise adequate speaker performance, my last couple of Nokia phones have absolute crap phone volume and quality, requiring external headphones to be usable. Having earbuds handy would be useful for this.

But the aesthetic for phones is they must be skinny, so no extraneous bits...

My next phone wont be a Nokia..

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Re: Don't forget mischief

I consider anybody entering a zone containing active vehicles as having provided consent to being run over, and if they are wearing earphones/buds and/or staring at their hand held device - they are actively requesting to be a target.

Vehicles are less manoeuvrable than humans, so people need to pay attention and act to protect their own health.

They might not be out to get you... but I may be..

.. this is after a career working on foot amongst heavy mobile equipment..

Software company wins $154k for US Navy's licensing breach

Re: Who Dares Win Wins and to the Victor the Spoils and Just Desserts ... when/if Truly Worthy ‽

ahh yes, let a populist demagogue shithead, offering simplistic solutions to real problems, take over the the government, and have rival kleptocracies squabbling over your country for the next several decades.

If only there were some lessons to be learnt out of all that...

Twitter set for more layoffs as Musk mulls next move

Re: Requirements

.. whenever I am fabricating a numeric result, I stick a couple of random insignificant decimals on the end to make it look more realistic...

This doesnt work when people ask how many children I have..

Re: Requirements

This is not to say I'm a fan of trump, as I think a large proportion of what he says is total rubbish

People talking total rubbish is not a problem

Deliberate malicious misrepresentation of reality (as 'facts' and 'truth' have become politicised) in order to advance his own agenda, with no regard to the consequence to others - is a problem.

IT manager's 'think outside the box' edict was, for once, not (only) a revolting cliché

Re: Hide and seek at El Reg

A very left-pondian on call, users reading it on screen will just have to imagine the canned laugh track letting the audience know which bits are funny...

Investor tells Google: Cut costs now and stop paying staff so much

Re: TCI Fund Management

Ah, yes, "activist investors"

a thousand years ago, they were turning up in longships, and sacking monasteries.

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

Judges are hardcore..

Re: Deadwood

, try having 4th rate legal and regulatory compliance people

I thought that was the best they actually reached?

Anyone more competent is off running romance scams from Nigeria etc..

Worried about your datacenter carbon footprint? Why not put it in orbit?

Re: Name a satellite deorbited from

without even bothering to google anything - geo synch orbit is about 4 times further out than most commercial orbits - and they are called commercial orbits because going further doesnt make commercial sense..

Geo synch has its applications, but just like blockchain, its stupid to use it if you dont need to.

BOFH: Don't be nervous, Mr Consultant. Come right this way …

Re: should we call time on the BoFH?

All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

.. due to global supply chain issues, Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated citizens will also need to make an effort..

Amazon reportedly considers laying off 10k employees

Musk said recently Twitter was losing $4 million a day and so needed to make sweeping cost reductions to keep the wolves from the door.

Rather than cutting costs and people- and therefore the ability to deliver your product.. how about improving their quality, so people are actually satisfied with your product, and willing to pay for it?

absolute crazy talk, I know..

especially for something like social media, where you would have to pay me to use it..

KFC bot urges Germans to mark Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

Re: How long ...

... special offers on cheap inter-city flights?

Its not just algorithms that pull these stunts

Several years back one of the 2 major supermarket chains in Australia decided to try and monetise Anzac day - our national day for remembering our war dead.

I havent shopped with them since...

Open source's totally non-secret weapon big tech dares not use: Staying relevant

Re: The burden of untold riches

Could it be that the time has come to separate the Goo from the Gle (and the You from the Tube), the Me from the Ta and the Ama from the Zon.

Can we use an Axe?

..

or a chainsaw? or blowtorch!

Bonus points for using explosives...

Elon Musk jettisons Twitter leadership, says takeover was 'to try to help humanity'

Re: "the bird is free"

The worst part of Free Bird, is waiting through 5 minutes of whiny self-indulgent drivel for the singer to shut up, and get on with the music

Re: The taste of schadenfreude

I "listened". Then I *DISAGREED*,

In Australia, we generally use the response, "Yeah, Nah".

.. I heard you - but you're wrong..

Its also useful whenever you want to agree to a negative

Re: The taste of schadenfreude

.. the extremists and ideologists. Ask them why they and their answers are likely to be very revealing ..

WRONG !!!

Do NOT engage - at all - with anyone displaying moral certainty to the exclusion of other peoples existence. Dont give them airtime, walk away when they try to talk at you ( it wont be 'with' you ), dont 'like', 'click', or 'follow'. Leave them alone to either grow up, or implode.

Your covertly harvested browsing history, attention and time is apparently quite valuable to somebody, so dont waste it on self-promoting media whores..

Why I love my Chromebook: Reason 1, it's a Linux desktop

Re: Set my mother in law up on a chromebox

Chrome is a really good option for challenged users.

Thats poaching on Apples turf..

To make this computer work, users had to press a button. Why didn't it work? Guess

Re: Manual is optional,

Videos, audiobooks and podcasts are generally a terrible way to impart information, with some specific exceptions such as if is useful to have a visual example. Personally, I read faster than people speak, and if I missed something its just a matter of looking back up the page.

If it matters - put it in writing. Anything else isnt even piss in the wind.

Some people may struggle with written comprehension - they will be struggling anyway, and eliminating accents makes understanding simpler even for non native users.

Soaring costs, inflation nurturing generation of 'quiet quitters' among under-30s

Re: You get paid what you're worth

Go on Linkedin

..

WHY?

..

WTF is there on linkedin that has any relevance to the real world??

Its a circle-jerk for recruitment consultants, and thats the nicest thing I can say about it..

Re: I had a different comment written, but....

Then why is knowledge and experience being lost?

because they are hanging onto the managers, and sacrificing the workers.

I blame the rise of the MBA illuminat.

Microsoft and Meta promise facehugger PCs piping cloud desktops into VR headsets

Oh joy, immersive spreadsheets.

It will be just like being there in person.

Oz Apple Store staff vote to strike for better pay, settled rosters, clean shirts

One of the key distinguishing features of the original Reg

.. was that Apple was not on speaking terms with them.

Binance robbed of $600 million in crypto-tokens

Re: Binance’s CEO, reiterated the apology and claimed everyone's money is OK

The "money" is fine...

it just doesnt live here anymore...

Mozilla drags Microsoft, Google, Apple for obliterating any form of browser choice

Re: The real problem is that there are only 2 mobile OSes.

Apple retains mass market appeal.

The secret to appealing to the masses, is to pander to pretentious wankers.

One of the android phone manufacturers - probably samsung, ran a campaign a few years back touting their latest toy... and the skinny, hipster bearded young man wails "I cant use that - I'm creative!", and the pretty young slightly non anglo saxon, woman responds "You're a barista".

The walled garden exists because everyone inside is disdained (polite version) by the people outside.

You dont choose an iPhone for your parents because of their competence with technology...

Behold this drone-dropping rifle with two-mile range

Re: what I don't understand

Courtesy, common sense, and communication..

Communication.

Firstly - you tell your drone people you have anti-drone equipment active, and your anti-drone guys that you have drone operations on, If you arent communicating, you arent an army, you are just a mob.

Courtesy

Drone guys avoid harrassing your own troops, anti-drone guys dont fire on targets without reasonable suspicion - Both should escalate any sightings up the chain of command.

Common sense

If it looks at you funny -Kill it immediately.

Actual real-life hoverbike makes US debut at Detroit Auto Show

Re: What is “internal combustion with batteries “?

So how would you go about making a fire-fighting rocket?

China's single aisle passenger jet – the C919 – likely to be certified next week

Re: That's how Airbus started

We are still flying around in Fokker F-100s, and I have more faith in them than the current crapcrop from Boeing.

This sounds like its the same size/role, so if Qantas wants to replace its 30+ year-old work horses with something presumably more economical to run...

Re: Jesus

Not as many as the martians landed on Britain..

I read it in a book..

Re: Jesus

China has one of the best aviation saftey records on the planet

.. it also has one of the best Covid 19 health records on the planet.

..

because 'the record' is just whats written down.

Between the orange idiot and pooh bear each trying to score political points, real facts had a higher mortality rate than slum dwellers in Brazil or India during the Delta wave.

Former Microsoft UX boss doesn't like the Windows 11 Start menu either

Re: Windows 11 UI ist just like what happened in 2012 with Windows 8.0.

They are learning from past mistakes. They find the things people hate, and elevate them. they find the bits people find useful, and remove them.

Each iteration is even worse than the previous..

"How can they achieve such greatness ? Because they are standing on the shoulders of giants...

California to phase out internal combustion vehicles by 2035

Re: Not going to happen

If Nevada were smart,...

.. they'd have to call it something else,

sorry, couldnt resist.